COVID-19: The King Of All Pandemics

It’s high time we make life more enjoyable indoors, find the solace in being with the family and aware neighbours about helping the distressed.  

As the 21-day lockdown has brought India to a standstill, the citizens practice social distancing as four walls have become their world with the internet and TV, like window, pass some fresh air to breathe in. 

With panic and rumour doing the rounds in every nook and corner of the nation, people are rushing to stock the daily essentials as long queues have become a common sight. 

Without knowing how lethal and fast-spreading the COVID-19 or coronavirus is, they are taking it very casually and in most cases, indulging in all daily activities like morning walk on roads and parks, taking the family on a long drive, shopping in the crowded market without maintaining the safe distance (3-6 feet).

After a short pause, cases in India is also galloping as the administration is yet to trace the local and foreign attendees of Tablighi Jamat summit in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Over 500 cases and 15 deaths have been reported by states on a single day on Friday—April 3 – as the picture gets grimmer with total 3,082 confirmed COVID-19 cases.  

If people don’t realise the importance of social distancing to contain the spread of this pandemic, it will only lead to jumping of cases day by day. At this critical juncture, staying indoors is the best way not to expose yourself to the lethal grip of COVID-19, and not to become a carrier of the disease to your near and dear ones.

There are myriad ways to get over boredom—from watching web series to reading to spend quality time with your family. This is the best time to let your offspring have the best memories with you and parents have the solace of your round-the-clock availability. This is also the right time to people who mean to you. Think about doing something creative and constructive to nudge the aesthetics in you. 

Modi has asked the citizens to switch off their lights and illuminate candles, lamps or mobile torch for nine minutes on April 5 to help fight together and be united. He said people following lockdown.

But, will lighting diyas be of any help? In such a grim situation, when people around the world are perhaps fighting the greatest and longest battle, the government is just doing childish things like blowing conch, tolling bells and now lighting lamps. Had not it been good if he had come up with better ideas like getting the better infrastructure in hospitals or arranging more masks and sanitisers for the migrant labourers who are taking long marches to their far-flung, nondescript villages as all routes of income have ceased and the government’s paltry Rs-1,000 monthly compensation is way beyond sufficient to feed the family? 

Rather than, doing all such humdrum, it’s high time the government take the issue more seriously and arrange for ration, shelter and check-up centres for those who spend nights under the stars. The base of India has always been the farmers and labour force who are neglected and taken for granted in every aspect of life. Let the poor India, the unfed India, the neglected India, the hated India have the basics. In the words of Swami Vivekananda— They alone live who live for others. The rest are more dead than alive.

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The myriad facades of technology and how it has changed journalism

Technology, as dictionary says, is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purpose, especially in industry. On the other way, technology is comprised of the products and processes created by engineers to meet our needs and wants. It is the study of human made world that deals with what can be.

We can classify technology in ­—Information, communication, bio-related and agriculture, medical, environment, manufacturing & construction, energy and power, nanotechnology.

Information Technology, popular as IT, allows us to send signals around the world, like television, internet, satellite, GPS, cell phones.

Communication technology deals with exchanging information which we see in magazines, DVDs, photography and video games.

Biotechnology transforms living things into products or new forms of life, such as genetic engineering, bionics. Agricultural technology produces plants and animals for food, fiber, and fuel like Irrigation, food preservation, weed and insect control. It is to be mentioned that both deal with living things like Plants, animals, and people.

Laser, prostheses, ultrasounds and medications are contributions of medical technology whereas environmental technology creates tools to minimize the effect of technology on the development of living things, i.e., Hybrid vehicles, conservation, waste management (recycling).

Manufacturing of physical goods on an assembly line and the construction of structures on a job site is the area of production technology and transportation technology provides a way for people, animals, products, and materials to be moved from one place to the next. For example:
Flight – Airplane, rocket, space shuttle.

Land – Train, subway, automobile, bicycle.

Water – Commercial, cruise ships.

Non-vehicle – Conveyor belts, pipelines.

Energy is the ability or capacity to do work and power is the rate at which energy is transformed from one form to another. Nanotechnology is manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular level. Technology in 21^st century has become inextricably woven to our daily life. Starting from morning alarm till dozing off, we can’t stay away from this new entrant even a moment.

Technology is changing the field of journalism rapidly as the digital journalism is being predicted to be the ‘future’ of journalism. One can narrate a story along with many interactive digital tools like voice, video, live graphic etc embedded in it. Accessing information is now just a tap away. With mobile internet and 4G technology, we can access news around the world within a snap.

Real-time news update, short and interactive video elements have made news crispier and reader-friendly. Reporting from anywhere is no more a myth as you can report from hinterland with the help of a smartphone. It has an array apps to make storytelling more attractive. In short, with the advent of technology, journalism has grown manifold and accessing news has become easier than getting water supply from corporation.

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Don’t fall prey to social media, use it cautiously

Social media has penetrated in our lives like no other platforms. From waking up till bedtime, it has gripped us from which it’s almost difficult to come out. It has entangled us so deeply that we take it to social media first to complain about any products or daily consumables before lodging a complaint with the company’s grievance cell.

From writing feedback, review, usability of products, our first destination is social media.

By this, manufactures can get a precise  idea about the consumers’ preference, what type of products they actually want from the manufactures. Here the manufacturers get a golden opportunity to rework on the product for making it a consumers’ choice.

Nowadays people even describe on social media how the product should be looking like, whether it has to be lightweight, how quickly it works etc.  In this process, both manufactures and consumers forge a virtual relationship to understand each other in a much better way and helping each other in producing a perfect product.

So social media is immensely helpful for manufactures to harness a clear insight of their consumers. There has been many instances where a dissatisfied consumer has taken to the social media expressing his disliking about a product he purchased and subsequently the respective manufacture reaches to this person with a perfect solution of his inconvenience. Sometimes, the product is replaced immediately, if not, a technician visit is arranged as quickly as possible.

So, here the consumers is getting priority from the manufacture as spreading of the news will lead to harming reputation of the company and that’s the quickness of social media which has made the grievance redressal faster.

But there is another side of the story. Taking it to social media may not always be a great experience as consumers can become vulnerable to manipulation.

The bad side of social media is buyers are often misled with the product description how genuine the product is. There many third-party products carrying the label of famous brands and lookalike the original product.

Take the example of the most expensive phone on the earth —- iPhone.  It’s has become almost impossible to distinguish between the original and copy iPhones as it’s not possible for us to check each and every hardware while buying the product. Commoners just go by the Apple logo and blindly shell out a large amount of money on a fake product which doesn’t bear a single genuine parts from Apple.

Nowadays, sale of refurbished iPhones has hit a record high as it’s has always been the choice of middle class Indians to avail an iPhone at the cheapest price available. In that way, consumers can be easily duped and once bought, they have no option but to repent as, even after running pillar to the post, they can’t get the original product. So buyers need to be more cautious while purchasing a product online even after checking all the descriptions. As every platform has its good and bad sides, social media is not out of them. Consumers need to be more careful about whether money is spent and it’s worthiness. It’s the responsibility of the manufactures to guide a buyers through all fake products and help in pocketing the right one.

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Black Insurance: A blockchain-based marketplace for new age insurance brokers and investors

The current investment market is faces problems of product design and attracting more customers. Several parties are involved in creation of a particular product by the insurance companies, which results in high costs and lot of bureaucracy that hinders innovation. It usually takes years for markets to stabilize. As few big players control and consolidate the insurance sector, it becomes difficult for anyone to become investor or launch new products.  Digital insurance company Black Insurance is aiming a centralized insurance market, dedicated to crowdfunding, where agents, brokers and others will get insurance capacity to float their own digital companies.

“Black will be a licensed insurance company that provides insurance capacity to Agents, Brokers and MGAs (hereinafter “Brokers”) enabling them to launch their own virtual insurance companies. Our capacity comes without the traditional overheads of insurance company while using blockchain as main platform to get rid of centralized insurance companies.  We connect the idea to the capital directly, replacing the parties that are not needed in the value chain with technology,” the company said in its  whitepaper.

Explaining the crowdfunding and inclusion of smaller of smaller investor, it said,

We will do this through crowdfunding, also giving smaller investors a way in. This leaner model gives more responsibilities to insurance brokers and control over the products they are selling. Insurers as we know them today are simply a trusted third party – blockchain gives us an alternative to that and the need for insurers disappears.

The $5 million Initial Coin Offering [ICO]

After a successful round led by VC and angel investors from insurance domain, Black Insurance started ICO with hard capital of $5 million. The main purpose is to develop and distribute its blockchain technology. All transactions in the platform will be performed with utility tokens which will support the governance system as well. This is the first known example of insurance done on the blockchain technology.

Black Insurance has divided its ICO capital in five sections — 35 percent for IT & Development, 20 percent for Marketing and Sales, 15 percent for Administration an Operation, 10 percent for Legal and remaining 20 percent for Reserve and Unexpected expenditures.

The sale of 80,000,000 tokens has started on November 1 and will continue for a month. So far, 25,000,000 BLCK tokens have been sold with per unit valued at $0.2. The minimum purchase should be pf $100 and one can only use Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to purchase BLCK token.

The funds will be used mainly for technology development and alongside on distribution, marketing, legal and admin costs to enter the European market.

Blockchain and Tokenization

Investors gets exposed to first-of-a-kind investment opportunities to investment in stable insurance portfolio for long-term financial profit in crowdfunded capital. Black Insurance have shared the strategy with insurance companies and re-insurers. With integration of blockchain and tokenization, the process will help the company distribute securities in a novel way.

The Duo Tokens

Two types of tokens—Black Platform Token (BLCK) and Black Syndicate Token (BST)— will be offered by Black Insurance. Initially BLCK token will be issued and BST token will be put into use once the insurance platform is ready.

BLCK will support the infrastructure and provide access to the main platform. It will also conduct voting on the system update to the platform, thereby acting as a utility token.The users will use BLCK Token to manage insurance on the Black platform. The company believes demand for BLCK token will grow with processing of more insurance business on the platform.

On the other hand, BLT will be used for investment in insurance capital and each syndicate will have a specific BLT, designed for the platform.

Supporting Startups and Lowering Cost

The platform aims to connect brokers on the capital to help them set up individual companies within few months. “We believe that insurance should function in fact the opposite way round that it is currently, giving more power to brokers and removing un-innovative, slow and ex- pensive insurers from the value chain. This helps great ideas get to the market faster, reduce costs and help innovation,” the company said.

This will help shedding admin costs doubly as most of the insurance procedures will become automated with the introduction of smart contracts, which will create a savings of $600 billion globally.

Partner Companies

Black has partnered large insurance players and venture capitals like Concentric, BlackPearls, Fineqia, and Siena have committed $800,000 in the digital insurance platform. Angel investors in insurance domain like Risto Rossar and Bundeep Rangar etc have also made significant investments in Black to work on a pilot project to be launched next year.

“Initially we were aiming to raise $45 million already with the first ICO but as the ICO and crypto market are not in best state today as well as while working on the Black project we realised that it is very very reasonable to progress with stages, so we decided to adjust our short-term goals,” Risto Rossar, CEO and Founder of Black, said.

“We will do an additional round of funding in 2019-2020 once initial milestones have been achieved, to fund becoming a licensed insurer and expand to new markets.” he added.

The Popularity and Higher Subscription

The platform has already been subscribed by 57 insurance brokers, collectively earning yearly revenue of $350 million. Operating through Black by offering insurance on the blockchain would mean a direct saving of $45 million on average per year for the total brokers signed up compared to admin costs in underwriting today.

Grooming the New Age Entrepreneurs

Unlike the traditional industry, Black Insurance welcomes and encourages new entrepreneurs with innovative ideas who often finds it difficult to float their own insurance products. Crowdfunding of the capitals gives the retail investors an opportunity to invest in stable insurance portfolios. The process will be tokenized therefore allowing the cryptocurrency market will be able to participate. The advisors team of Black Insurance comprises of seasoned insurance and technology executives, ready to offer the most attractive and profitable strategy to the neophyte investors.

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Dataeum: The blockchain-based platform for gathering physical data from anywhere

Data has always remained the most valuable and secret aspect of every company and individual. The current estimate of data market is somewhere around $3 trillion. Oblivious of the valuation, human beings become instrumental in collecting data in various ways — through actions, movements and behaviors and creating value for others.  Blockchain-based platform Dataeum aims to store 100 percent global physical data of stores, gas stations, traffic signs with the help of crowdfunding. The collection method is 100 percent accurate and a distributed workforce of collectors, incentivized in XCD tokens to submit physical data, is used to process the collection through a mobile app.

The whitepaper of the company says: As the amount of data available keeps increasing, Dataeum tackles the challenges of data ownership and data reliability. Data needs to be decentralized, disintermediated, and incentivized. Rising collaborative solutions using the Blockchain and Smart Contracts now make it possible.  Using crowdsourcing, Dataeum will offer the first collaborative and decentralized platform for data generation. Any individual will now be able to collect a high quantity of physical data through a mobile application and get rewarded in Tokens. This innovative solution will make it possible to gather 100% of the real world’s data with 100% accuracy.

The Initial Coin Offerings [ICO]

Dataeum has developed 1,000,000,000 XDT tokens for the purpose of ICO and 500,000,000 tokens have been issued so far. The Dataeum token (XDT) is is based on the decentralized Ethereum market standard Smart Contract ERC20 token. The XDT tokens have indefinite validity as they are formed within the blockchain and subject for automatic execution upon the occurrence of pre-defined criteria and events and subject to certain condition.

Explaining the features, Dataeum said,

The Dataeum token (XDT) is a utility token that enables its holder with the ability to use the specific functionalities of the Dataeum platform. The XDT Tokens are not securities, are not registered with any government entity as a security, and shall not in any case be considered as such. The Dataeum tokens (XDT) are not intended to be a digital currency, commodity or any other kind of financial instrument, do not represent any share, stake or security or equivalent rights, including, but not limited to, any right to receive future revenue shares and intellectual property rights, and do not represent any ownership right.

A number of XDT, equivalent to the Purchase Amount, will be will be allocated under the provision of Token Sale Agreement and other Accompanying Documents.

The pre-sale of the XDT Tokens is scheduled to start from January 21 to February 24, 2019 while the public sale will go live from March 4 to April 7 of the next year.

The data collection company has planned to issue and sale 50% of the XDT Tokens during the Token Generation Process (TGE), reserve 30 percent tokens in order to finance the collectors and boost future services and remaining 20 percent XDT Tokens will be redistributed among the different partners, team members, advisors and bounty program.

Dataeum has planned to spend 45% of the raised funds from the ICO on platform development, 25 percent on operational development and data collection financing, 20% on marketing and communication and the remaining 10% will be kept aside for OPEX and other expenses.

The New Oil

Almost 90 percent of the data production was achieved in the last two years and it is expected to grow tenfold by 2025, data is being deemed as the new oil. Companies like Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, Microsoft, etc., that have based their business around data have overthrown the oil and gas companies by acquiring the highest market capitalization.

Data has entered in our daily lives and is considered a gold mine for private firms as well as governments. Through data, giant firms like Google can explore more about its desire, Facebook and Uber about their needs and movements, Amazon and Netflix to influence their buying behavior or preference. In a way, data can be called the source of value creation. But the quality of data is gradually becoming poor with the rise in production. US spends around $3.1 million on bad data quality every year. So, a collaborative collection, offered by Dataeum, can answer all the questions that arise from the aforementioned issues.

Putting individuals at the center of data

Dataeum aims to position individuals at the center of data generation as at the end of the, humans are always far better than any machine. So, the human beings are the most efficient method for gathering physical data and the roots of generating data as well. Everything has origin to us and our interactions.

“People have become very generous with their lives in the digital domain, this demonstrates the level of trust we have developed for the digital world. This is where we find the real genius of Dataeum. The company has achieved a situation where it can help maintain that trust but adds a new dimension, an opportunity for people to be at the roots of data generation and its efficiency. Dataeum has over the last two years been giving people a greater awareness of the value of their data, and a transparent hassle-free way to access that value,” Ericsson VP and allcoinWiki founder Jokiam Holmer was quoted in a report.

The Technology Layers

For efficiency, security and flexibility of data collection, Dataeum will be using many technological layers to build its platform layers. The challenges are: speed (ability to respond in real time to multiple read/write requests), scalability (ability to adapt to an increasing load and to a constantly evolving number of recorded data), flexibility (the structure of the recorded data could evolve with the proposed service),  accessibility (data should be able to be stored as structured data and retrieved via advanced queries), cost control (the high demand for reading/writing should not lead to excessive costs), immutability (data cannot be modified or deleted in order to guarantee its integrity).

“Dataeum’s platform is based on technology layers to ensure efficiency, security and flexibility from the data collection to its availability on the marketplace. BigchainDB is used as a storage solution for the collected data. Its immutability ensures a transparent process of data verification and update. The data validation triggers the collectors’ remuneration using a Smart Contract on the Ethereum blockchain. IPFS is used for any image linked to the visual element of the collection. This real-time process ensures a high scalability of the system. It guarantees the collectors’ reward transparency, and ensures a real-time interaction for the token holders within the marketplace,” the company mentioned in its website.

Generation of Data via Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing isn’t given much importance for data generation. But very few know it is the only way to access physical data from anywhere with unprecedented coverage. Dataeum collects data through its mobile app that’s used by a community collectors who are rewarded for this job. The reward is calculated according to the price of ‘collection value’ (CV).

“The CV is applied to each physical data and calculated using an algorithm that takes into account several criteria like  Gross domestic product (GDP) and hourly average wage in the area concerned,  Demand and rarity, Online availability and accessibility, Data licensing market value, Hourly average wage in the area,” Dataeum explained.

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GEMERA: Delivering innovative and modern investment opportunity

Investing in precious stones and jewelry without the adequate knowledge and information about them is a real head-scratcher and definitely involves financial risks. Funneling down to investing in emeralds, can be a lot more intricate as it involves extensive process in which the gemstone goes through the value chain from its discovery in the mines in Columbia till it goes to the final owner. GEMERA has a unique solution for all such issues.

Crypto Token Backed by Colombian Emeralds

GEMERA ßToken is, by far, the only token to be backed by 100 percent Columbian emerald, famous for its quality. GEMERA project offers an innovative and modern investment opportunity that is more profitable, accessible and transparent. It connects producers and investors through the advantages of blockchain technology, which in turn, makes a win-win benefits for these two actors.

“GEMERA’s purpose is to create an innovative and modern investment opportunity that at the same time solves problems in the Colombian emerald’s value chain, through the creation of crypto-tokens 100% backed by this asset, that can be redeemed for the very gemstones they represent, and even used as a store of value or as a trading token,” the company said in the whitepaper.

 

The blockchain-based platform

GEMERA’s blockchain-powered platform allows investors to redeem GEMERA tokens for physical emerald. Moreover, it completely wipes out the middleman, thus making the process hassle free.

“GEMERA provides a blockchain based platform where the tokens can be redeemed for physical emeralds, and enables anyone to invest in Colombian emeralds by connecting producers and investors, without an intermediary, in a more democratic, accessible, fast and transparent manner,” the company said in Medium.

Eliminating third party involvement

As the GEMERA token is wholly backed by the Columbian emeralds, the company is offering a modern and innovative investment opportunity which solves the issue with the value chain of emerald. GEMERA believes the issue needs to be addressed as the intermediaries cause high cost for the investors which results in less income for the producers. To fix it, GEMERA eliminates the role of the middlemen in the emerald business altogether, which creates an array of for investors and producers.

Explaining why there is zero requirement of any intermediary, the company mentioned, the company said,

By holding GEMERA tokens, investors hold at the same time the value of the emeralds that come directly from Colombian emerald producers and are stored in secure vaults. In that way, no intermediaries are needed, which translates into benefits for both, investor and producer: the first one gets incentives of around 20% of bonuses during the Token Generation Events (TGE), available also for small investments, and the producer receives up to 15% more, based on the retail price.

Benefits in the offing

Apart from the middlemen, GEMERA offers other advantages like Trusted records using decentralized technologies, incentives for small investments, excellent store of value (crisis-proof), partial investments, tradeable in real time, borderless, and being an emerald connoisseur is not necessary.

Many emerald producers based in Columbia, who supply the certified gemstones which are stored in Malca-Amit facilities in Hong Kong, have teamed up with GEMERA.

“As GEMERA works hand in hand with emerald producers, it is also part of its politics to partner only with companies with good environmental practices in the extraction of gemstones and with corporate social responsibility standards that seek for the integrity of their workers and the communities nearby, helping them and other stakeholders to improve their quality of life and to open their path towards sustainable development. The project uses part of the project funds to achieve this purpose,” GEMERA noted.

The business strategy

GEMERA has divided its revenue sources into two parts to make the project a sustainable and profitable one. Token Generation Event (TGE) is the primary source of revenue while the second one is the redemption process.

Colombian emerald producers, the founders and angel investors are sponsoring the early stage of the project, from the conception of the idea to the first TGE. Currently, there is a batch of emeralds stored in Hong Kong, with a value of around one million USD in the retail price. The producers have supplied the stock to initiate the project. The founders and angel investors contributed $500.000 to carry out the first stage of the project like software development, legal advice, company incorporation, team salary and marketing strategy to launch the first TGE.

The investor’s interest

The tokenization of Colombian emerald will enable GEMERA to assist the emerald market in expanding significantly. It is expected to increase the worldwide demand by making it more transparent investment which, easily accessible to the investors. But the lack of supply in emerald may result in price hike. GEMERA has plans for some social and environmental initiatives with part of the project funds where investors can indirectly contribute towards the sustainable development of the communities living near the emerald mines.

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Dash boasts on PrivateSend, transaction speed to expand in new arenas

As the number of malicious attacks in cryptocurrency exchanges cyber frauds are growing rapidly, crypto enthusiasts and investors have become more cautious about the privacy and security features of the altcoins. The vulnerability of cryptocurrencies towards fraudulent activities has been a drawback to the adoption and expansion of the virtual currencies.

As a solution to the aforementioned issues and to attract more investors in its network, altcoin Dash has implemented an optional privacy feature called PrivateSend. This feature enables users keep their balance private as Dash regards privacy “as immensely important as a user’s safety can be compromised when it becomes easy to track their wallet balances, or spy on their transactions”.

The other key features Dash boasts about is the transaction speed. Dash transactions happen with such velocity that they are viable even at the point of sale (PoS) machines.

Blockchain for everyday purposes

The company thinks creating new ways to use Dash for businesses as well as consumers is an important aspect for growth and has partnered FuzeX, an all-new blockchain service that seeks to deploy altcoins for everyday purposes. FuzeX enables users to spend Dash anywhere virtually which, the company thinks, is incredibly useful to the ecosystem.

Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash core group, said,

By leveraging the FuzeX service, our users will be able to spend Dash virtually anywhere, so it adds incredible usefulness to the Dash ecosystem. We are constantly working on ways that users can interface with businesses and legacy financial systems to make their lives easier, and FuzeX fills a key role in making sure users can spend their Dash easily.

The Venezuelan Saga

The Venezuelan economic crisis helped Dash gain popularity. As the inflation was bleeding the financial health of Venezuela, more people were desperately searching out for an alternative and faster way to carry out daily transactions and Dash was a perfect match for it. It became so popular in a short span of time that the company started viewing Venezuela as second the second largest market with an astounding user base and over 1,500 merchants accepting payments in Dash.  The company has partnered handset maker Kriptomobile, serving in Latin American markets. The collaboration will see shipments of over 10,000 handsets per month, pre-loaded with Dash ecosystem applications, to make a stronger user base in Venezuela.

Presenting a vivid picture of Dash adoption by Venezuelans and the popularity of the altcoin, Taylor said,

At this point, Dash is the most usable cryptocurrency in the country. The Dash community is very proud of the adoption taking place there, and it demonstrates that mass adoption can happen in the right environment with the right support. I believe that once people experience the benefits of Dash, with cheap instant payments, we will likely become a permanent part of the financial lives of consumers in Venezuela.

The turbulent time

The recent allegation of market disruption against Dash CEO Ryan Taylor for not keeping promises and missing the proposed deadline may be attributed as the most turbulent time the company had to wade through. The allegations had surfaced from a proposal to the Dash network, where anyone can freely submit his/her proposal, to replace Taylor.

But ‘as a stroke of fortune’, the proposal was voted out by the widest margin in the history of proposal system including some exposed scams.

Taylor was overwhelmed by the confidence the members bestowed on him. “It was very heartening to witness this level of support and I take the trust the network expressed very seriously in everything that I do,” he said.

Made for swift payment

What makes Dash stand out from other altcoins is its unparalleled payment feature. Taylor says, Dash has been shaped for payments and the popularity of the altcoin lies in the speed at which the transactions are processed that fits perfectly with the point of sale (PoS).  Dash has attracted an ecosystem of various services on its network for a wider and easier integration of businesses.

The company will be rolling out new features to make Dash easier to use like Venmo (a mobile payment service platform). The features will include usernames, contact lists, and payment history in a user interface familiar to consumers.

Decongestion of the cryptographic addresses is another purpose the new feature will serve. The address will be moved to the background so that they don’t confuse the users anymore. “We’re really excited about the potential to make cryptocurrency easier to use,” Taylor said.

PrivateSend: Betting on privacy

Privacy remains at the heart of Dash and it has always tried to keep the user’s safety on top of everything. Taking it a step forward, Dash has enabled an optional feature called PrivateSend that will enable users keep their balance private.  Dash transactions are transparent, therefore auditable, much different from the other privacy coins. The transactions, sending and receiving address and the amount can easily be viewed by the observers.  The feature erases history and origin of the coins. Moreover, nobody can see the remaining balances in the user’s wallet during transaction.

Taylor stress on user safety which is of utmost important to the company. “We think privacy is important because a user’s safety can be compromised when it becomes easy to track their wallet balances, or spy on their transactions,” he said.

In most cases, crypto users who maintain significant balance in their wallet often targeted by cybercriminals and Dash wants to make sure user safety and rights to privacy is paramount.

Finding place in multi-currency wallets

Wallets offering various features always attract more number of consumers as they have more choices to weigh. Dash is one among the cryptocurrencies added to a handful of cryptocurrency exchanges.

“We’ve seen Dash added to quite a few multi-currency wallets, and we welcome those users that use multiple cryptocurrencies. Every multi-currency wallet offers a unique set of features and combination of supported coins, so having this additional option will better serve the needs of some of our users, and it’s great to have them supporting Dash,” Taylor noted.

To a simpler transaction

As Dash has always aimed to offer a simplified transaction and this time it’s taking another step to offer ‘much more’ than just simpler transactions.  “We’re working on a set of features that enables Dash to power a variety of applications and interface with common protocols through a decentralized API,” the CEO said.

With this feature, consumers as well as businesses will find new ways of interfacing with the network and building apps that leverage Dash’s features.

“I’m really excited to see how developers will leverage these capabilities and make using cryptocurrency easier than ever,” Taylor concluded.

Regaining market position

In terms of market valuation, Dash had slipped from 11^th position in the first quarter to 14^th in the second quarter of 2018, as per the listings by Coinmarketcap, a website for tracking capitalization of various cryptocurrencies. But, shedding its downward trend, Dash has regained its earlier position of 11^th in the third quarter with a market valuation of $1, 707, 845, 268.

In the words of Taylor,

It is always difficult to say what drives the market and it would be pure speculation on my part to opine on that.

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Arrinera: Shaping the dream of hypercars with blockchain as its soul

Arrinera’s blockchain will offer numerous services like adapting to the driver’s choice, keeping a record of car services history for every car

Blockchain is no more bound to the realm of cryptocurrency as its being adopted by other industries. Currently, it is getting significantly embraced in the automobile sector. A recent survey by Frost and Sullivan revealed that 10–15 percent of commercial vehicle transactions are expected to be on blockchain by 2025. A commercial vehicle is any form of vehicle used for the purpose of carrying goods or ferrying passengers. The technology has brought revolutionary changes in the multi-model transport platforms, peer-to-peer sharing Economy, smart contracts, digital payments, automotive security and privacy, streamlined supply chains, etc. Global automobile majors like BMW, Ford, Renault, and General Motors have joined a Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative that aims to speed up the adoption of the same technology that underpins Bitcoin, with use cases ranging from autonomous payments to ride-sharing. Other leading automobile moguls like Toyota and ZF, have also injected blockchain in their works. Joining the list of the global automobile pioneers in their blockchain works, Arrinera started its hypercar venture in hands with blockchain; implementing the technology to record the history of each hypercar that includes production, mileage, spare parts exchange, ownership, service, and several others.

The dream of supercar

In 2008, Łukasz and Marek Tomkiewicz— two Polish brothers, passionate about automobiles instituted Arrinera in 2008. Arrinera comes from the Basque Arintzea (streamline) and Italian Vero (truly), making it “truly streamline”. The duo brothers conceptualized a supercar that would see rear-drive and mid-engine layout and unveiled its first prototype in 2011.

The racing version, Arrinera GT, was brought to the public at the Autosport International, Birmingham in January 2016 and in the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS), held in June of the same year. In 2017, the company announced its road car prototype that will be running on petrol. Co-founder Arek Kuich believes that blockchain is what the major car manufacturers are zeroing in on to incorporate in their cars and Arrinera has the chances to be a leader in this arena. He says the company is now pivoting to electric cars as all the prototypes run on petrol.

The technology and benefits

Elaborating on the advantages the company will get after including the powerful electric drivetrain in the products, Kuich said,

Combination of Arrinera GT3 race technology and the Arrinera road version design with a powerful electric drivetrain including give us extremely big advantages.

He added,

Our Arrinera GT car was tested on many racing tracks in the UK: Brooklands, Snetterton, Donington Park, famous Silverstone, and in German’s Hockenheim Ring.

He attributed the success of Arrinera at Goodwood FoS, where it bagged the top prize in the GT class with competitors like Porsche 911 GT3, McLaren 570S GT4 and Aston Martin Vantage GTE, to the team for their unbelievable effort to bring out such a racing car in less than two years.

The design and features

Kuich talks about the interior design which will feature a scanner that can scan the owner’s physique and adapt the interior ergonomics to his/her personal choices. Apart from this novel technology, the car will come in a full carbon body and will be featuring 700KW powertrain technology, carbon fiber monocoque with integrated battery pack, active aerodynamics, four-wheel drive with advanced torque vectoring, in-built information system with Arrinera’s own hardware and software.

On how the things progressed so far, the Arrinera co-founder said,

We have started working on our brand just 10 years ago, but we have managed to develop a beautiful and prestigious car design, and work out the petrol engine technology of racing car.

Capital Raise

In terms of capital raise, it has the most reasonable valuation compared to other electric car makers like Tesla and Ferrari with a capitalization of $56 billion and $30 billion respectively. Explaining another significant venture by the management, Kuich said,

It might be also interesting that the management of Arrinera is now in the process of Management Buy Out. It means that we are ready to negotiate very good terms of investing in Arrinera project, as well as buy the whole company at the very good price.

The magic called Blockchain

Keeping a record of the history of every car, the new technology will keep a tab on the manufacturing process comprehensively – internal car electronic system, online monitoring of the vehicle, service history, etc. These things are immensely important for the second-hand buyers, who can be fully assured of the background procedures of the cars they are planning to take home. Kuich says it becomes more important

when cars similar to Arrinera are not “just cars” but assets rather, so their value increases within years.

The car manufacturer thinks blockchain has the potential to push it to the accurate level of making genuine spare parts keeping with the standards of Arrinera.

The Strategical Shift

Arrinera is rethinking on the point of whether to call the cars as hypercars or not. After several discussions, the company has finally decided to call its products supercars. First, limited editions of a maximum of 500 cars with price starting from $400,000 will be rolled out.

“It will mean that we are not going to compete with Tesla Roadster, but still provide our customers with the most exclusive and eye-catching car with growing popularity. Arrinera Electric will be the most exclusive car on the market within this price range,” the co-founder added.

A first: Carbon Fiber monocoque and drive-by-wire technology

The final car will see the development and application of carbon fiber monocoque into it, which will reduce the chassis weight and will provide higher stiffness.

The team behind Arrinera has already designed and developed the complete management system of electrics and electronics that include Battery Control Management (BCM) and Human Machine Interface (HMI), which includes touchscreen LCD and a thermal imaging camera that helps to recognize people at night.

Using electronic controls, the drive-by-wire technology activates the brakes, controls the steering and other operating systems. This new technology breaks away from traditional mechanical controls like “cables, hydraulic pressure, and other ways of providing a driver with direct, physical control over the speed or direction of a vehicle”.

Self-drive or driverless car technology can get a major boost from drive-by-wire technology as it can be easily integrated with the former one to allow vehicles to be remotely operated by computers. The electromechanical actuators, used by current driverless car projects to control steering, brake, and accelerator, can be simplified by directly connecting the drive-by-wire technology.

The 3D printed front lamp and night vision technology

The 3D printing method has revolutionized in the lighting system and it will be one of several dozen elements that Arrinera is going to be introduced in cars. 3D printing can be done from various materials according to the need and advanced machines can perform titanium printing with much precision. The technology can bring optimal solutions to the elements with complex geometry that doesn’t need large scale production. 

The ARRI coin

Arrinera had announced its ARRI coin project in March this year with the aim of attracting crypto investors from across the world to get funds for the research and development (R&D) of the electric vehicles, production of which was planned to start within the next three years.

Kuich said,

I must admit that ARRI coin is the only one coin for real car on the crypto market, making our project different from 99.9% of ICO projects, so it takes big notice of the worldwide crypto investors.

The electric car manufacturer is now concentrating on the Security Token Offering (STO), instead of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which is expected to start in early 2019.  For that purpose, Kuich said,

We are going to call participants of our crowdsale “investors”, and provide them offer with the revenue sharing model. The STO will be run fully compliant with KYC and AML procedures, but thanks to this all investors will be safe from legal point of view.

What’s next?

After a successful STO, Arrinera will dedicate itself to the manufacturing of electric supercars for the next three years. The R&D, Kuich said,

will be supported by a world class British engineering network, as the functional prototype will be manufactured at the end of concept phase, and we are going to do it in cooperation with partners working on the daily basis for such the companies as Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and some other.

Arrinera will be working towards building brand awareness simultaneously.

“In my dream, I also see starting in Le Mans 24h race within the next 5 years,” Kuich says.

He leaves a question for the readers and car enthusiasts to speculate: And in the future why we should not be planning to be listed on the stock exchange in the USA or Europe becoming the unicorn…?

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Revolutionizing Energy With Blockchain-Backed Solar Power

The world is heading towards a grim future with the carbon emissions going through the roof causing irreparable damages to the environment and gradual erosion of the Ozone layer. The need for alternative sources of energy has gained momentum from almost every developed and developing nations.

While most of the countries are holding several brainstorming sessions with leading scientists and environmentalists to explore ways of reducing carbon footprints and protect the future generation from catastrophe, most of the suggestions are pointed towards an immediate shift from the traditional methods to the ones that are safer and reliable.

Focusing on solar power as the most reliable source of renewable energy, Power Ledger is in constant process to make it accessible to the masses by removing dependencies on the centralized and traditional ‘dirty powers’ (present form of power mainly thermal power) with the power of Blockchain.

It has been the company’s long endeavor to help the developing nations cut down their investments on power infrastructure that’s difficult to afford and have a catastrophic impact on climate. With the widespread availability of solar panels, more households are switching to this/a system (newer source of energy like solar, hydraulic etc) that help them becoming more energy-efficient. Rising costs of electricity, blackouts & no access to power, the devastating effect of burning coal, and gas are some of the key issues that helped Power Ledger to concentrate on renewable energy.

Power Ledger sees more consumers are taking control of their energy requirements by installing solar panels and that’s what makes the company taking its renewable energy initiative to broad markets. But the company is concerned about the affordability of solar PV or battery which might result in people spending more on their electricity bills and that’s unsustainable. (paying more on electricity might lead to unsustainable in future).

Power Ledger owns dual layers of blockchain— public and private. The Public Layer (has a mechanism that helps interface and transact with the consortium of blockchains and applications) provides a mechanism for interfacing and transacting with the consortium blockchain and applications through the use of POWR tokens. The private blockchain, known as EcoChain, is a Proof of Stake low-power blockchain built in house. EcoChain, which has been stress tested in high-volume situations, has offered valuable insights into blockchain functionality and compatibility with energy data collection and settlement.

In an exclusive interview of Co-founder and Chairman of Power Ledger Dr. Jemma Green spoke about the recently held renewable energy trial in Bangkok, the future paths that Power Ledger will be treading in and what POWR Token will fetch the company in future.

Excerpts from the interview:

• Power Ledger has recently conducted a renewable energy trading trial in association with BCPG in Bangkok. Share the details of the event. Did it meet the ends that it was designed for?

Our T77 project with BCPG is ongoing, the official launch was earlier this month. We’re very excited about this project in Bangkok because it’s the first across-the-meter energy trading project of its kind within the ASEAN region, and we believe the world.

Thai utility Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) allowed access to its network for the physical transaction of energy between participants for the trial which validates our business model to work within the existing infrastructure.

• How do you see the future of solar power and its trading among entities?

There are a few key issues at play. Rising electricity costs, blackouts or no access to power and the potentially devastating toll on the planet the burning of coal, oil, and gas can have on the Earth’s atmosphere are all adding to the increased use of solar power. With the uptake in renewable energy resources, more consumers are taking control of their own energy requirements by installing solar panels as a source of electricity.

As solar panels become more widespread, more households are becoming energy self-sufficient. Although this is beneficial for them, in leaving the grid it makes it more expensive for remaining customers. It means people who can’t afford to install their own solar PV or battery are left footing higher bills, which is not sustainable.

Our technology aims to make renewable accessible to all, remove reliance on centralized dirty power, and prevent developing nations having to invest in infrastructure that is unaffordable and catastrophic from a climate point of view.

• According to CoinMarketCap, Power Ledger, which is currently standing at $56,947,975, has been recently seeing a major fluctuation in its market cap. In the last one month, the company saw its market cap touching a value as high as $79,083,704 and also reached its lowest of $50,732,437 (in the last month). Can you please explain the scenario? Why and how did it have the drastic drop and how is it again regaining its momentum? (All the mentioned values, are values at the time of writing)

Our focus is not on price and speculation but rather on driving the underlying value in our products. POWR is a utility token, it has a role in the adoption of our technology. The better we do as a business and the more partners we onboard, the more fundamental value the token will accrue.

Our token model means uptake in platform use will equal uptake in POWR use. The more people on the platform, the more utility the token has. The best thing we can do for token holders is to keep delivering on projects and on-boarding more clients

The team is very focused on the product, the platform, and our partners. And we’re working incredibly hard behind the scenes and on the projects, we’ve already announced. We’re building a new market and it’s just the beginning.

• Finder reported Power Ledger (POWR) was recently listed in homegrown BTC Markets as its eighth token. What is your outlook on the same?

Being listed on BTC Markets was very exciting for us. In August, POWR became the first Australian ERC20 token to be listed. The listing was in response to market demand for Power Ledger, which shows just how much support we have in our home country. We’re thrilled that it’ll allow platform users and Application Hosts to easily acquire POWR for use within our platforms with it’s AUD pairing.

BTC Markets hosts around 250,000 registered users, which is approximately four-fifths of the Australian crypto markets, according to the latest Accenture research.

• For the readers’ understanding, briefly explain the mechanism behind Power Ledger.

Power Ledger’s platform enables consumers to buy and sell renewable energy directly between one another, also known as peer-to-peer trading. In order to do this, we use world-leading blockchain technology that integrates with pre-existing infrastructure to enable consumers to get a better return on investment on their renewable energy assets, such as solar panels.

• There are two blockchain layers in Power Ledger system. Could you explain the utility of having the two layers of blockchain?

The two layers include the public and private blockchain layers. The public layer utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and is where POWR interfaces with third-party token exchanges, such as BTC Markets, which we mentioned earlier. The Public Layer provides a mechanism for interfacing and transacting with the consortium blockchain and applications through the use of POWR tokens.

Power Ledger’s industry-specific consortium blockchain is called EcoChain. It’s a private Proof of Stake (PoS), low-power blockchain developed in-house and live tested in the energy markets during trials in 2016 and 2017. EcoChain has been stress tested in high-load environments and has provided valuable insights into blockchain functionality and compatibility with energy data collection and settlement.

Our technology is blockchain agnostic, meaning its benchmarked against the latest blockchain technology while retaining 2016’s active settlement layers. This ensures the tech is open to future Ethereum development and proposed Casper POS implementation.

It’s also worth mentioning here that we have a two-token structure. POWR and Sparkz are the two tokens in the Power Ledger ecosystem. POWR is the cryptocurrency required for application hosts to access and use all products in the Power Ledger ecosystem, similar to a limited software licensing permission, which is purchased via public exchanges. Sparkz is tokenized credits that represent the value of the energy being traded, similar to phone minutes. They’re linked to fiat currency and are provided to end-users in order to trade energy. Application Hosts need to purchase and escrow POWR in order to access Sparkz to use the platform.

The two-token structure serves a lot of purposes, including global interoperability across jurisdictions while also ensuring Sparkz doesn’t fluctuate with the crypto markets.

• What is the prospect of POWR in the current market? Any speed breakers in the market that you want to discuss?

If we have to answer this: From our standpoint speculating on price isn’t constructive. As I mentioned earlier, POWR is a utility token — the better we do as a business and the more partners we onboard, the more the token-economy will the value of POWR. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the market will do, but what we can control and focus on is how well we deliver on our projects and how we run the business.

• What Power Ledger is planning to cater to its users in the future in terms of its technological expansions? Is there any geographical expansion on the cards?

We’re expanding faster than we could have imagined. To date, we’ve got projects in Thailand, Japan, North America, India, Australia, and more. We recently announced a trial with Vicinity Shopping Centres in Australia as part of their $75 million industry-leading solar programs, which will enable Vicinity’s shopping centers to supply energy to neighboring communities who connect to its power network — which is a first in terms of use case.

We’re constantly finding new use-cases for our platform, and new jurisdictions it could benefit. For us to have the scale we want, we’re growing platform awareness and developing key strategic relationships globally, with key stakeholders. Similar to the arrangement we have with BCPG — we now have multiple projects in Thailand with them because of the strength of that strategic relationship.

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Shedding some personal choices can make the city traffic healthier

The solution to the nightmarish traffic situation of Bengaluru has been debated over many times and suggestions poured in. Starting from taking Namma Metro to taking app-based taxi services and choosing bicycle, nothing has worked out. Frustrated with the situation, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has requested Bengalureans not to buy cars from now on as the Garden City lacks in parking zones.

Starting from Outer Ring Road, KR Puram, Doddanekunde to Silk Board, the commuters’ grudges are mounting day by day. Techies heading to Electronic City have nothing more to add in their list of traffic grievances. Leaving as early as two-three hours is no more safe nowadays as you never know where and for how long you’ll be stuck testing your patience. The traffic condition even becomes pathetic during rains which is synonymous to Bengaluru.

I think using app-based cab is a viable alternative to make the traffic health better as it lessens number of personal vehicles on the road and make the vehicular movement faster.

Although in first phase, the Namma Metro has been able to prove it as a counter to traffic mess and a means to faster transit.

Reports say it has ferried over 12 crore passengers within a years of its commencement. That’s shows how it’s rapidly becoming the first choice of daily commuters and with the completion of its Phase II it will become the sole way of fastest connectivity.

The bicycle sharing option is another way out for covering short distances. People staying within five to ten kms radius of their respective offices can easily make it to their respective destinations without much hassle and tension of finding plausible excuses to avert boss’ ire.

Using e-scooters instead of hitting the roads with hatchback or sedans can keep the vehicular movement going at a certain speed and by this process we can reduce carbon footprints and make the Garden City more breathable.

As part of austerity measures, the Chief Ministers’ call to his ministers not to purchase any cars for official purpose is a welcome move as it will not only save the exchequer a minimum Rs 7 crore as each minister is entitled to purchase a car worth a maximum Rs 21 lakh, but also will free the city roads to make space for more faster transit.

Along with this, enforcement of strict parking law is much needed as most of the important roads often get narrowed by parking in either side making it near impossible for vehicles and pedestrians to move hassle-free and which often compels bikers to ride on pavements making it more risky and fatal for pedestrians.

Although it was not a success for Delhi, the Karnataka government can try it as pilot to see whether it’s helping in decongesting the traffic or not as Bengaluru hasn’t piped Delhi in number of vehicles yet.

In a recently publish report on solutions to the traffic woes on Outer Ring Road in TOI, experts have suggested the government to improve the service roads, which lead to bottlenecks along the entire stretch, creating pileups not only on the road but also in business parks. The report says, “The service roads are made worse by the Ola and Uber cabs parked along them, and the shanties that have come up in front of the business park gates serving food and beverage. ORRCA says it ran a major drive some time ago to remove illegal encroachments with the help of the BBMP and traffic police. The next focus will be on the cabs and there are plans to have a towing vehicle running 24/7.”

So, party its citizens and mostly the government have to chalk out the solutions to this civic woe in Asia’s Silicon Valley. With more number of people pouring in and mushrooming of skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city, commuting has become more challenging with number of vehicles rising in manifold placing Bengaluru the second city with highest number of vehicles next to the Delhi. And, the only solution of a problem is to face it, not escaping it, they say.

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