Bitcoin

Rights-tech Startups Driving Blockchain Investment

The data-visualization folks at Quid have been crunching some numbers on investment in  blockchain applications and they’ve come up with some interesting charts.

The researchers identified 450 venture-backed companies using some form of blockchain technology. And as you would expect, the biggest recipients of VC money to date have been Bitcoin miners, cryptocurrency exchanges, and companies involved in financial services of one sort or another.

But when Quid stripped out the fin-tech firms a very different picture emerged. Four of the top 10 recipients are rights-tech companies, including ascribe, artCOA, Monegraph, and Revelator.

The scale of the investments in non-finance related startups is far smaller than in fin-tech firms, of course. The top rights-tech company on the list, ascribe, has raised about $6 million to date, compared to more than $130 million for 21 Inc., which sells Bitcoin mining computers. But as Quid notes, its analysis “suggests that blockchain has big potential to transform a variety of industries, particularly those that rely heavily on data authentication and verification, including healthcare and digital media.”

 

The blockchain future is here. And it needs a few good names

Although the term blockchain might sound like a torture device, you might know it from another source: Bitcoin. Blockchain technology is the foundation and principal innovation of bitcoin, the dark web’s infamous cryptocurrency. Blockchain is also the foundation of Ethereum, which some see as a successor to bitcoin.

So this quick decoding not only reveals that The DAO is a venture capital fund that tracks its money via a blockchain technology — a database — named Ethereum. It also shows how the meanings of these three names are at best confounding and at worst unnerving, evoking big government, immateriality and darkness both individually and as a group.

Source: The blockchain future is here. And it needs a few good names. – Recode

AVC: The Golden Age Of Open Protocols

screen-shot-2016-02-24-at-10-42-13-am-728x369Open protocols are at the heart of many of the most important systems that we have. The Internet works because of TCP/IP. The web works because of HTTP. Email works because of SMTP. These are open systems that developers can build applications on top of. There are plenty of proprietary protocols out there too. But proprietary protocols tend to lock in users and drive value to the owners of the proprietary protocol, like Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.

One of the problems we have had in tech is that there aren’t large monetary incentives to create and sustain open protocols. If they are open they cannot be easily monetized by traditional means. However, that is changing with the emergence of blockchain technology and crypto-tokens.

Source: The Golden Age Of Open Protocols – AVC

Bitcoin ‘not real money’ says Miami judge in closely watched ruling 

A Miami court judge has sent ripples through the cryptocurrency community in a ruling in which she said bitcoin was not real money.

Defendant Michel Espinoza was on trial for illegally transmitting and laundering $1,500 worth of bitcoins to undercover agents who intended to use them to purchase stolen credit cards. His attorney argued that the charges should be dismissed because, under Florida state law, the cyber-currency could not be considered money. After extended deliberation, Judge Teresa Mary Pooler agreed in a ruling issued on Monday.

Source: Bitcoin ‘not real money’ says Miami judge in closely watched ruling | Technology | The Guardian

OPINION: Blockchain really only does one thing well

No new technology since the dawn of the internet has captured the imagination like blockchain. Designed to run unregulated electronic currency, the blockchain is promoted by many as having far broader potential in government, identity, voting, corporate administration and healthcare, to name just some of the proposed use cases. But these grand designs misunderstand what blockchain actually does.

Blockchain is certainly important and valuable, as an inspiration for brand new internet protocols and infrastructure. But it’s a lot like the Wright Brothers’ Flyer, the first powered aeroplane. It’s wondrous but impractical.

Source: OPINION: Blockchain really only does one thing well

Steemit May Become Killer App As It Looks to Draw 1 Mln Bitcoin Users Yearly

The exponential rate at which Steem grows may put on fast track a solution to the scaling issue that the Bitcoin community faces.

Steem is a digital currency behind Steemit, a decentralized social media platform which rewards posters and voters online. Scaling Bitcoin has become a hot button issue in the community. This is the process to increase block size from its current form in which the network can only support up to seven transactions per second to process more like Paypal achieves with about 100 transactions per second, and as Visa does with about 4,000 per second.

Source: Steemit May Become Killer App As It Looks to Draw 1 Mln Bitcoin Users Yearly

The Uncanny Mind That Built Ethereum

Over the last two years, as Ethereum has evolved from concept to code, so too has the mystery surrounding Buterin. The resounding chorus of the people working on Ethereum is that he is to be admired and adored, and they are more than willing to contribute to Buterin’s colorful, often hilarious hagiography. I’ve been told by various people that Buterin learned to speak fluent Mandarin in just a few months, that he’s an autistic wunderkind, that all of his worldly possessions fit into one suitcase, that he once ate an entire lemon without removing the rind, that he’s an android powered by the Ethereum network.

Even those who have worked closely with Buterin seem mystified by him, as though this person is meant to be observed but not really understood.

Source: The Uncanny Mind That Built Ethereum — Backchannel

Bitcoin, Blockchain and Copyright 

A slew of new companies are betting on a new way to verify ownership of online content: Blockchain. In short, they are using the technology behind Bitcoin to protect and monitor content rather than currency and transactions.

But will this technology really work and will it motivate creators to sign on? The answer is unclear but what is obvious is that, while Blockchain-based solutions do have new capabilities to bring to the table, they also face many of the same challenges as their more centralized counterparts.

Source: Bitcoin, Blockchain and Copyright – Plagiarism Today

Spanish Police Seize 6 Bitcoin Mines in Crackdown on Stolen TV Content 

An investigation by Spanish authorities into the illegal distribution of paid television content has resulted in the seizure and destruction of six bitcoin mines used to launder proceeds from the alleged scheme.

European law enforcement agency Europol, which took part in the investigation, said today that 30 individuals had been arrested during an operation on 18th May. Thirty-eight homes across seven Spanish cities, including Madrid, were searched during the event, according to the agency.

Source: Spanish Police Seize 6 Bitcoin Mines in Crackdown on Stolen TV Content – CoinDesk

Bitcoin exchange Coinbase to add ether currency to trading platform | Reuters

The addition of ether comes given the surge in interest in the digital asset among major financial institutions such as Barclays and UBS as well as other enterprises worldwide like IBM, which are trying to explore the Ethereum network.

Ether is the digital currency for the Ethereum platform, a blockchain, or public ledger that can create decentralized applications. Ethereum, which uses ether to execute peer-to-peer contracts automatically without the need for intermediaries, was co-founded and invented by 22-year old Russian Canadian programer Vitalik Buterin.

Source: Bitcoin exchange Coinbase to add ether currency to trading platform | Reuters

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