The world is chasing the incredible speed of technological emergence. The super-fast technical growth is a troubleshooter of immense challenges that we once believed to be impossible. Humans thought to invent the technology that can alter the approaches of life, but mankind is witnessing the very prodigious aspect of every technology changing human life. The countless illustration of science has bound the world and is affecting the social, economic and cultural outlooks of the wellbeing existence. The scientific temperament is ideal encouraged by most of the corners of the world, but the ample accumulation of science can knock out the equity of their discovery.

When the world unfiltered into the boomerang of digital technology, the speed of the evolution doubled, and the intensity of the technological experience revived. The digital footprint of supersonic technological resurrection has initiated the genesis of Artificial Intelligence, IoT, big data and Cryptography. The Blockchain is the brainchild of cryptography. It has continued to contribute to the experiments of digitization in all-new ways. Strike this linkwww.instacoins.com to fetch in-depth information about making money through crypto trading.

This article parades the future applications of the Blockchain

Blockchain is an online system of digital trading of currencies. It is a platform for the cryptocurrencies, a digital form of money used for online transactions, trading or marketing. The cryptocurrencies are the new age money that is saved in your digital wallet and is utilized just like your traditional money.

Say Hi to the Stablecoins

The Stablecoins are the great innovational wonder of the coming generation. It will witness the invention transforming to the next level. The immense manifestation of cryptography is exhibited through channelizing the Blockchain and financial market. The Stablecoins connect every tradable means of assets into the financial market in an unpredictable way. Stablecoins are the cryptocurrencies whose face value matches the value of the real-world assets. Many technological thinkers assume that these cryptocurrencies are the future of the digital world because of the stability, efficiency and durability. These cryptocurrencies are robust in nature and uphold the legacy of metamorphosis.

The retailers enjoy more privileges through these cryptocurrencies because it flaunts ease of transactions and user-friendly features of trading. The Stablecoins are incredibly effective with the government-run markets, intercontinental and global trading. Stablecoins re in the urge to replace all the traditional cryptocurrencies.

Paramount transparency

The Blockchain is the very popular technology which is built over a strong system called distributed ledger. This ledger accounts for the complete security, privacy and control over the data generated by the cryptocurrency users. The Blockchain is a system where the user can view all the transaction of other users in order to keep the network ensuing transparent. The transparency of the technology is the hot topic of debates by the critics of the technology. But transparency is the crucial character of this system that makes it unique and robust in nature. This feature can help track the hacking spots and keep the system away from invaders. The white-collar and the black collar hacker can view the spots, but it is highly secure and difficult to break the technology. The Blockchain is designed in such a way that, the high version of mathematical problems and tremendous programs makes it complex to under and duplicate.

Blockchain a symbol of strength

Blockchain is a technology that supports not just the cryptocurrencies but starches a great extent of supports to various other digital systems. The working of the Blockchain is highlighted because of its momentum and maturity. The intensity of technology is very deep and complex. This makes the Blockchain to exhibit verities of advantages over other technologies. The Blockchain is already altering global economics with great potentials. The society is already setting up ways to embrace the efficiency of the technology. The digital transition has embossed the fields of business in an unconditional way. The surface starching hunt for dwelling into this pool of digital trade has begun and is a crusade of the millennium.

Collaboration

The collaboration is the richest facet in the blockchain technology; it can comprehend a multitude of cryptocurrencies. It is inevitable that most of the features of the Blockchain is to fulfill specific business purposes, the genuine demands of the customers or dictating enterprises. Blockchain furnishes transactional integrity and preventing tampering.

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Blockchain and the Future - Explosion

The federal government is seeking public input on updating its cyber security strategy. However, the parameters it is using to frame the discussion ignore the detrimental impact on infosec from legislation that has enjoyed bipartisan support, according to a prominent cryptographer.

A discussion paper released as part of the governments public consultation on cyber security strategy is infused with the unshakeable belief that more active government involvement must be a good thing for cyber security, according to Vanessa Teague.

The government in September released the paper as it prepares to issue the 2020 update to its cyber security strategy.

Teague, a high-profile security researcher and associate professor at the University of Melbournes School of Computing and Information Systems, noted that a key theme was the governments role in addressing cybercrime.

The paper asks, for example, whether the government could do more to confront cybercrime and protect the networks that underpin our way of life, or whether you think the current arrangements are right.

Now, whether you agree with my perspective on this issue or not, just as a matter of pure logic... weve been given two options here, Teague said during a panel at NetThing, an Internet governance conference held last week in Sydney.

Number one government should take a more active role in our cyber security and the networks and computers, or the current balance is about right. Now, can anybody think of a third option that might be worth considering at this point?

Teague said that for many years a key characteristic of Australian cyber security policy has been bipartisan support for a series of very bad policies. One example the Defence Trade Controls Act which made it a crime to export new cryptographic ideas or cryptographic software without permission from the military. The Melbourne Uni academic has previously criticised elements of Australias defence exports regime because of its impact on collaborative cryptography research.

Teague told NetThing: We all know about the TOLA Act, otherwise known as the bill that makes it compulsory to assist in undermining the security of your own system if you are able to re-engineer your system to extract more data.

The TOLA Act Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act is legislation that introduced a new legal framework for law enforcement to compel cooperation from online service providers, including in some circumstances introducing new capabilities into their systems to facilitate investigations.

I think were not just looking at a government that is, you know, well-intentioned but a little bit ineffectual, Teague said. Were actually looking at a series of policies that have actively done damage.

I don't think theyre deliberately doing damage, she added. I think theyre pursuing an agenda oriented around surveillance and control, which inevitably has a by-product of damaging our cyber security.

The government has pursued a national insecurity agenda, Teague said.

If it's undermining our technology industry... if it's causing companies to move offshore that would otherwise have built been building secure products here and training people in cyber security here, then its actually... not just neutral, its actually making it harder for us to do a good job of defending ourselves, she told NetThing.

She said its unlikely that there would ever be specific evidence that a particular cyber attack was a direct consequence of the TOLA Act. Instead Australia is likely to suffer a gradual failure... to grow in the cyber security space, and were going to be more vulnerable over the long term.

We're probably not going to be able to point to direct evidence that some particular data breach or some particular failure of security was a direct result of some company that moved away or some person who didn't have the skills to defend it, Teague said. But that doesn't mean that the consequences aren't real, just because they're not explicit and easily pointed to.

She also questioned the effectiveness of ongoing engagement with the Department of Home Affairs. Civil liberties organisations, the local ICT industry, security pros, and major international tech companies including Apple, Google and Amazon expressed major objections to the TOLA Act in the lead-up to it being waved through parliament on the final sitting day of 2018.

The government, however, has rejected claims that the legislation could have a detrimental impact on cyber security in Australia (although Home Affairs has acknowledged there has been some impact on the tech sector, but argued that is the fault of misconceptions about the legislation rather than the TOLA regime itself).

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The government wants to talk cyber security, but does it want to listen? - Computerworld Australia

A firm called Vault12 launched its new passkey security solution for cryptocurrency assets. Vault12 is an application that allows people to enlist their trusted friends and family members to help safeguard their assets. According to the projects creators, the new application leverages the cryptographic algorithm Shamirs Secret Sharing which allows keys to be split in a distributed fashion.

Also Read: French Ministry of Education Publishes Bitcoin Resource Guide for Educators

Vault12 believes theres a dire need to safeguard crypto assets as the onset of blockchain-powered innovation continues to grow exponentially. Since the birth of Bitcoin and a slew of other digital currencies, various applications and devices like hardware wallets have been created to protect cryptos. Vault12s new product allows individuals to take advantage of trusted family members and friends who are willing to help them secure digital currencies. Moreover, guardians are rewarded with ethereum (ETH) to protect the assets as well, giving the trusted network of friends incentive to be a safe keeper. The project officially launched at the San Francisco Blockchain Week and the company is backed by investors like Naval Ravikant, True Ventures, Data Collective, and Winklevoss Capital.

The Vault12 white paper explains when it comes to precious digital assets, there is an unprecedented threat level looming for people in need of a strong security solution. To protect these assets, we need a new cryptographic security platform one that does not leave security centralized in a single place, with a single person, on a single device or in a single organization, the research paper details. In order to bolster the security of digital currencies even more, the firm created a decentralized storage system for digital assets via a hierarchical Shamirs Secret Sharing (SSS) system. The SSS infrastructure is a well known algorithm in cryptography designed by the cryptographer and mathematician Adi Shamir. Essentially the secret (passkey) is shared in the distributed Vault12 system between 3-5 trusted contacts giving each participant its own unique part.

Vault12 allows any owner to set up a vault with friends and family. Custodians can always be recruited from the owners personal network at any time. But high-net-worth individuals who need added security can opt for a professional custodian service (PCS). However, the registration for this service requires far more effort and additional safeguards like verifying the owners identity with a government-issued ID. One of the unresolved challenges for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency and the blockchain economy is the continued challenge and burden associated with securing crypto assets, said Max Skibinksy, cofounder and CEO of Vault12. Skibinksy further added:

Previously, to keep our digital money safe, we had to keep our extremely valuable cryptographic backups on pieces of paper and store them in traditional banks. It was ironic. We built Vault12 to be an innovative, convenient solution that replaced this cumbersome process.

Setting up the Vault12 application is a fairly simple process, but you need to decide on 3-5 trusted individuals to help secure your assets. That part of the process may take longer, but setting up the vault after this decision is made doesnt take too long. The app works for Android and iOS devices and when opened, it immediately asks you if you want to set up a vault and then asks permission to access your phones contacts. The company claims the information is not held on the companys server and you can skip this part and manually add each contact individually as well. After deciding on sharing your contacts with the application, the platform asks you for your name so you can be identified by your guardians helping you protect your vault.

The platform then requires you to choose the number of guardians between 3-5 contacts and the more custodians you use, the more secure the vault will be. Once you save the security level (number of guardians), you cannot change it unless you start a whole new vault. If you opted to manually add contacts, you can send them an invitation or scan their device if they already have Vault12 installed. To add digital assets to the vault you simply upload a picture of the seed phrase or use a file containing the seed. The application will inform you of how many people are guarding the seed held within the Vault12 system.

Overall the Vault12 method is an interesting, novel method of safekeeping digital assets but people may have a hard time with a few requirements such as sharing their name, phone number, and contacts. People also may not trust the upload part where the user is required to upload a file or an image that contains a seed phrase protecting digital assets. However, the projects key elements are open source and Vault12 users can take a look at the ZAX relay network infrastructure and the distribution of how the shards work. In the future, other elements of the platform will be released as open-source libraries, Vault12s website notes.

What do you think about the Vault12 digital currency storage system? Would you use an application like this or are there concepts about the security approach that you dont like? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Walkthrough editorials are intended for informational purposes only. There are multiple security risks and methods that are ultimately made by the decisions of the user. There are various steps mentioned in reviews and guides and some of them are optional. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses, mistakes, skipped steps or security measures not taken, as the ultimate decision-making process to do any of these things is solely the readers responsibility. This editorial is not a recommendation or endorsement by Bitcoin.com or the author of any products, applications, software, services, or companies mentioned in this article.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Vault12, and Pixabay.

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Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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Trusted Friends Can Become Crypto Custodians With the Vault12 Platform - Bitcoin News

AZTEC Protocol, a smart contract-backed privacy solution for Ethereum, has officially kicked off its 30-day Ignition Ceremony, a trusted setup process that will successfully underpin AZTECs privacy features if even one of the efforts 260-plus participants partakes in the ceremony honestly.

Launched on October 25th, the Ignition event now puts AZTEC on course for becoming the inaugural privacy network activated on Ethereum.

As the projects chief executive officer Thomas Pocock explained last month, the randomization ceremony can be generally likened to the shuffling of playing cards:

A good analogy is a group of people shuffling a deck of cards. Each person shuffles the deck (in AZTECs ceremony, thats the process of adding randomness into the transcript), and then hands on the pack to the next participant.

Once the shuffling is finished in a months time, the ensuing randomness will support the zero-knowledge proofs, or zk-SNARKs, that power the projects lone smart contract, the so-called AZTEC Cryptography Engine (ACE). The ceremony is akin to the Powers of Tau event the Zcash privacy coin project completed last year.

Once ACE is live, the system will allow users to make private Ethereum transactions in two distinct ways: one involves the direct creation of Aztec tokens that can be used anonymously, and the other involves wrapping, which will entail using ACE to peg private tokens to other assets like ether (ETH) or ERC20 tokens.

A new kind of privacy solution has appeared in the cryptoverse, and AZTEC team member Zachary Williamson had a hand in bringing it to reality.

Dubbed PLONK, Williamson and other researchers released a paper this fall that illustrated how the new zk-SNARK construction which requires only a single trusted setup could work.

Why is it notable? Precisely because it only needs one updateable setup ceremony in perpetuity instead of requiring a trusted setup for every project that is built atop it, like other systems have in the past.

As Ethereum creator and co-founder Vitalik Buterin explained of PLONKs last month:

[I]nstead of there being one separate trusted setup for every program you want to prove things about, there is one single trusted setup for the whole scheme after which you can use the scheme with any program (up to some maximum size chosen when making the setup).

The innovation could be a game changer in the cryptography ecosystem going forward, and the AZTEC team helped make it a reality.

The rise of AZTEC and PLONKs are just the latest privacy developments to hit the scene in whats already proven to be an action-packed year for Ethereum on the privacy front.

One of the firsts to make waves in 2019 was the Zether project, which like AZTEC also relies on smart contract tech.

We describe Zether as a smart contract that can be executed either individually or by other smart contracts to exchange confidential amounts of a token, denoted by ZTH, the solutions builders explained at the time.

American banking giant JP Morgan followed up Zethers arrival with its own Anonymous Zether project, which was designed to facilitate private enterprise transactions on the banks permissioned Ethereum fork, Quorum.

Other notable Ethereum privacy solutions that have materialized in the past few months include Nightfall created by none other than Big Four accounting firm EY andEthereum 9, a proof of concept that can conceal token transfers.

Theres also been advances when it comes to mixers. Heiswap and Tornado.cash launched this year, and a new crypto primitive in Mixicles that was developed by researchers with the decentralized oracle project Chainlink.

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Better Ethereum Privacy: Advent of the Aztec Protocol Is Coming - Blockonomi

In recent weeks, weve been exploring the themes laid out in the first-ever Periodic Table of Email Optimization and Deliverability. After Permission, and inextricably tied to it, is the concept of trust.

Gaining permission from a recipient to send them email sets the stage for building trust. This includes both the trust of the recipient and the trust of their ISP, which ultimately controls which emails are delivered, which go into the spam folder and which are blocked entirely.

A number of technical measures, designed to verify the sender of an email, fall under the blanket of Authentication (Au) and represent the basic requirements that mass-senders must fulfill to gain the trust of inbox providers.

Domain Key Identified Mail (Dk), also known as DKIM, refers to mail that uses a public/private cryptography key set to verify the identity of the sender. Sender Policy Framework (Sp), or SPF, is a different authentication standard that specifies which IP addresses are authorized to send mail for a given domain. Domain-based Message Authentication and Conformance (Dc), or DMARC, aims to help brands prevent their domains from being used by other entities for malicious purposes.

Maintaining that trust also means including the Physical Address (Ph) of the entity sending the email which, according to CAN-SPAM regulation, must appear in the body of the email. A sender can also gain credibility by being placed on an inbox providers Whitelist (Wi), a list of IP addresses and/or domains that are permitted into a particular network, allowing emails to bypass typical checks designed to quarantine emails.

Finally, the Sender Domain (Od) and Sender Reputation (Sr) elements refer to the fact that marketers need to own the domain from which they are sending emails, and that they need to develop and cultivate a good reputation with inbox providers, since that reputation for abiding by responsible practices will affect how the senders emails are placed in the inbox or in the spam folder going forward.

Download the newest Periodic Table nowand ensure your email marketings on the right track.

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Email marketing: Harnessing the trust factor - Marketing Land

In 1936, Alan Turing proposed the Turing machine, which became the foundational reference point for theories about computing and computers. Around the same time, Konrad Zuse invented the Z1 computer, considered to be the first electromagnetic binary computer.

What happened next is history, and in our world today, computers are everywhere. Our lives are dramatically different from how they were even at the end of the 20th century, and our mobile phones have far more powerful CPUs than desktop computers did only few years ago. The advent of the Internet of Things brings computer power into every minute detail of our lives. The world wide web has had such a transformative effect on society that many people can't even remember a life before they were online.

The major catalyst behind this transformation was the discovery of silicon, and its use in the production of good transistors. This occurred over a period of more than 100 years, dating from when Michael Faraday first recorded the semiconductor effect in 1833, via Morris Tanenbaum, who built the first silicon transistor at Bell Labs in 1954, to the first integrated circuit in 1960.

We are about to embark on a similar journey in our quest for building the next-generation computer. Quantum physics, which emerged in the early 20th century, is so powerful and yet so unlike anything known before that even the inventors had a hard time understanding it in detail.

In the early 1980s, Richard Feynman, Paul Benioff and Yuri Manin provided the groundwork for a completely new paradigm of quantum computing, introducing the idea that quantum computing had the potential to solve problems that classical computing could not. And so quantum computing came into its own.

Peter Shor published an algorithm in 1994 capable of efficiently solving problems in cryptography that are hard to solve for classical computers that is, the vast majority of computers used today. In fact, Shor's algorithm continues to threaten the fundaments of most encryption deployed across the globe.

The problem was that, in 1994, there was no quantum computer in sight. In 1997, the first tiny quantum computer was built, but the field really took off only when the Canadian startup D-Wave revealed its 28-qubit quantum computer in 2007.

Similar to the trajectory of non-quantum communication, which took more than 100 years from discovery to mass use, quantum computers are now maturing very quickly. Today, many players are engaged in a battle over who can build the first powerful quantum computer. These include commercial entities such as IonQ, Rigetti, IBM, Google, Alibaba, Microsoft and Intel, while virtually all major nation states are spending billions of dollars on quantum computing development and research.

Quantum computers are powerful yet so difficult to build that whoever can crack the code will have a lasting powerful advantage. This cannot be understated. Heres a striking example of the power of quantum computing.

Quantum leaps: growth over the years

Image: Statista

To break a widely used RSA 2048-bit encryption, a classical computer with one trillion operations per second would need around 300 trillion years. This is such a long time that we all feel very safe.

A quantum computer using Shor's algorithm could achieve the same feat in just 10 seconds, with a modest 1 million operations per second. That's the power of quantum computers: 300 trillion years versus 10 seconds.

Another reason why nation states pour so much money into the field is precisely because, with it being so difficult, any achievement will directly yield a lasting advantage.

So where are quantum computers today, and where are they headed?

Considering the immense challenges to building quantum computers, I'd say we are roughly where we were in around 1970 with classical computers. We have some quantum computers, but they are still pretty unreliable compared to today's standard. We call them NISQ devices - Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices. Noisy because they are pretty bad, and intermediate-scale because of their small qubit number. But they work. There are a few public quantum computers available for anyone to programme on. IBM, Rigetti, Google and IonQ all provide public access with open-source tools to real quantum computing hardware. IBM even sells a quantum computer that you can put in your own data centre (the IBM Q System One).

But these are not yet powerful enough to break RSA 2048-bit keys, and probably won't be for another 10 to 20 years.

The comparison date of 1970 works from another angle, too. In October 1969, researchers sent the first message over the internet (it was called ARPANET then). When they tried to send the one word "login", the system crashed after sending "l" and "o". It later recovered and the message was successfully sent.

Today, we are also building a quantum communication system that doesn't communicate bits and bytes, but quantum states that quantum computers can understand. This is important so that we can build up a quantum version of the internet.

D-Wave, NASA, Google and the Universities Space Research Association created the D-Wave 1,097-qubit quantum computer.

Image: Reuters/Stephen Lam

It is also important as a way of encrypting communication, since the quantum channel provides some inherent physical guarantees about a transmission. Without going into too much detail, there is a fundamental property whereby the simple act of wiretapping or listening into a communication will be made detectable to the parties communicating. Not because they have a fancy system setup, but because of fundamental properties of the quantum channel.

But quantum computers are not just useful for cryptography applications and communication. One of the most immediate applications is in machine-learning, where we are already today on the cusp of a quantum advantage meaning that the quantum algorithm will outperform any classical algorithm. It is believed that quantum advantage for machine-learning can be achieved within the next 6-12 months. The near-term applications for quantum computing are endless: cryptography, machine-learning, chemistry, optimization, communication and many more. And this is just the start, with research increasingly extending to other areas.

Google and NASA have just announced that they have achieved 'quantum supremacy'. That is the ability of quantum computers to perform certain tasks that a classical computer simply cannot do in a reasonable timeframe. Their quantum computer solved a problem in 200 seconds that would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.

The problem that was solved is without any practical merits or implications, yet it demonstrates the huge potential quantum computers have and the ability to unlock that potential in the coming years.

This opens up a completely new era where we can now focus on building quantum computers with practical benefits and while this will still be many years away, it will be the new frontier in computation.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Written by

Andreas Baumhof, Vice President Quantum Technologies, QuintessenceLabs

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Quantum computers: why Google, NASA and others are putting their chips on these dream machines - World Economic Forum

Chinese President Xi Jinpings announcement that the country would invest heavily in blockchain technology coupled with a sweeping move to remove online posts suggesting such technology is a scam has nourished optimism long-held by crypto advocates. Of course, the reality is that Chinas marked shift towards pro-blockchain policies is part of a much wider trend which has seen Asian multinationals and governments embrace the considerable potential of distributed ledger technologies.

Also read: China Ranks 35 Crypto Projects as President Xi Pushes Blockchain

President Xis announcement centered on the creation of a state-backed digital currency (a stablecoin tied to the renminbi), an idea which has been gestating since the countrys central bank started exploring the possibility as far back as 2014. With the dawn of a new decade, a law will come into effect on January 1 with the aim of facilitating the development of the cryptography business and ensuring the security of cyberspace and information.

It is predicted that the currency in question will launch soon after, although perhaps the possibility of blockchain technologies powering the continued transformation of Chinas vast industries is of greater significance. Xi specifically mentioned that the technology could be applied to realms including finance, public services, employment, education and infrastructure management. Its all a far cry from 2017, when the government imposed a general ban on all crypto businesses and exchanges. From deep suspicion, to a state-supervised (albeit heavily surveilled) cryptocurrency, in just two years is quite a turnaround.

Soon after the announcement was made, the local government of Guangzhou announced a $150 million fund for outstanding blockchain projects, with more initiatives expected in the near future.

Needless to say, the news which provoked a huge spike in search traffic for terms like blockchain and bitcoin hasnt harmed the prospects of Asian crypto projects in general, with stocks of various blockchain companies in the region soaring. On the markets, some of this weeks biggest beneficiaries have been Chinese blockchains, even if theres nothing to suggest theyre due to receive an influx of fresh business from government enterprises. In fact, six of the seven best-performing crypto assets in the top 50 this week have Chinese origins. Bitcoin cash, up 38% in the past seven days, is the only outlier.

Other companies seem to be riding the wave or at least benefiting in a roundabout way from the prevailing mood music: South Korean conglomerate Samsung has just announced the integration of Tron (TRX) with the Blockchain Keystore found on the Galaxy S10. As well as facilitating the creation of decentralized applications (dapps) running on the Tron ecosystem, the Keystore will let users access and trade TRX directly from the wallet on their handset. Perhaps coincidentally, industry sources are mulling over rumours that Samsung is outsourcing a part of its smartphone manufacturing to China.

Samsung has been experimenting with blockchain technologies for some time now, and with their growing dapp arsenal, their long-term strategy seems positively crypto-centric. It isnt the only smartphone company testing the blockchain waters either; Taiwanese electronics giant HTC has also invested heavily in decentralized services and a blockchain-powered handset, the Exodus 1, and its successor, the 1s, which can run a full Bitcoin node.

The long-term effect of Chinas increasingly pro-blockchain outlook remains to be seen, and until its state cryptocurrency is hatched and various policies put into action, we wont be able to quantify the consequences for blockchain technology and digital currencies more generally. That said, interest in the region is largely unrelated to the Presidents ringing endorsement; according to a report by the Financial Times, Chinese companies have filed more patents on blockchain than companies from any other region in the world. A significant percentage of bitcoin mining is concentrated in the region, and many of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges are either based or were founded in the Asian continent, from Beijing and Singapore to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Regardless of its real ramifications, Asian crypto companies were never going to let President Xis decree go to waste.

Do you think Chinas pro-blockchain legislation will benefit Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Coincodex.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He's previously written whitepapers for blockchain startups and is especially interested in P2P exchanges and DNMs.

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The Xi Effect Chinese Government to Fund Blockchain Projects - Bitcoin News

FRIDAY PUZZLE A puzzle by Robyn Weintraub that fought me, then yielded to me. I know I had a good time, because my cheeks hurt from all the smiling I did.

That is really what I remember from this solve. The process was as follows: Read clue, think about answer, receive a whammy of an Aha! moment, smile.

You cant ask for better than that on a Friday.

One of the things I really liked about Ms. Weintraubs puzzle is that while the puzzle contains only 70 words (as opposed to the maximum 78 for a puzzle that runs earlier in the week), it felt much more open than that. There are some fantastic long entries (LICKETY SPLIT, TIME IS MONEY, DIRECTORS CUT, RICE COOKER, ACT YOUR AGE, MINOR CHORD and DECODER RING stood out to me) and the rest of the fill is not only entertaining, its very clean. The cluing is fun and challenging too.

6A: Yes, I fell into the ALTO trap, too. I tentatively filled in AL-, which were correct. Then I entered the T and that was incorrect (I solve using Autocheck to keep me moving at file five columns a week speed). The role of LIESL, the Von Trapp daughter at 1A, actually calls for a mezzo soprano. So we know that the clue Range for 1-Across is not referring to her vocal range. The range in the clue is the ALPS, the mountains she and her family crossed to escape from the Nazis.

17A: You might be tempted to think about a steam engine for the clue Steam-powered device? but its really a hint at one of my favorite home appliances, the RICE COOKER, which also makes its debut today. You know what also fits in that slot? Instant Pot. But that is not the correct answer for this puzzle.

34A: I admit that I had to run the alphabet on this one. I had CRE_ _, and the pepper herb is CRESS.

38A: I got this from the crossings. ASLOPE is one of those words that you rarely use outside of crosswords, and On the up and up? is an interesting misdirection.

39A: In this puzzle, a Leasing unit is not a room, but a MONTH, because you can lease an apartment month to month.

4D: My nomination for Clue of the Year. There is an art to taking an extremely common word like SHE and figuring out how to dress it up with a clever clue. In this puzzle, we are asked to figure out the subject of the clue Marine mollusk exoskeleton vendor, in a tongue twister?

The trick is not to allow the first four, somewhat complex words in the clue to shut down your brain. First look at the tail end of the clue: in a tongue twister? There are only so many tongue twisters, which immediately narrows down the possibilities.

Now look at those four words at the beginning: How many tongue twisters do you know that revolve around someone selling marine mollusk exoskeletons? Thats right, the tongue twister is SHE sells seashells by the seashore.

10D: Another great clue, to go with an entry that is a lot of fun. The clue asks us for a Useful cryptography tool to have on hand? The key phrase is on hand. A cryptography tools helps people decode messages, and having one nearby or on hand is very convenient. But thats not where this clue is going. It wants us to think about a tool that you would actually have on your hand: a DECODER RING.

24D: Hand up if you entered TAO for the clue The way. I did too. Heres the thing: If we stayed with that answer, then 23A would begin with the letters CT, which is unlikely; 27A would be SHARES, which is not a good answer for Props (up); and 29A would be SHOOERCAP instead of SHOWERCAP. Thats just silly.

So instead, the answer is HOW, as in Show me HOW/Show me the way. Peter Frampton knew that all along.

26D: The Ones turning up the volume are not rock bands. They are LIBRARIANS, who help readers find books (also known as volumes).

29D: [Sound of a record needle being dragged across vinyl] Hold up. I need to climb up on my soapbox for this. Monty Pythons Flying Circus is not what I would call a SLAPSTICK troupe. Sure, they did a few SLAPSTICK things, like pies in the face, being knocked into a canal during the Fish-Slapping Dance and maybe the Ministry of Silly Walks if you really want to count that, but their genre is really satire and surreal sketch comedy. Also, they are brilliant and I love them.

31D: Great misdirection. Winter setting in Tinseltown" sounds like a snowy paradise, doesnt it, with tinseled Christmas trees and snow white expanses as far as the eye can see but its not. Tinseltown is a nickname for Hollywood, Calif. and the time setting on the West Coast is Pacific Standard Time, or PST.

I was very pleased with myself for my clever clue for DECODER RING: Handy cryptography tool? If only Id been able to take it a step further to the absolutely perfect upgrade that appears today: Useful cryptography tool to have on hand. To have on hand! I was so close.

Some of my favorite clues today: This might sound sad for MINOR CHORD, Shopping destination that sounds risqu for STRIP MALL and Marine mollusk exoskeleton vendor, in a tongue twister as a twist on an old clue for SHE.

I was 99.9 percent certain that my original ART HISTORY clue wouldnt make the cut: Major for those who want to learn Manet things?, but I just thought it was so stupidly adorable that I submitted it anyway (does this qualify as a bad DAD(S) joke?). At least I got to share it here.

Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? Weve got you covered.

Warning: There be spoilers ahead, but subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.

Trying to get back to the puzzle page? Right here.

Your thoughts?

See the article here:
The Value of Working Expeditiously - The New York Times

Bitcoin had a wild week which started with its 4th best daily performance and a price surge of over 42%; this was followed by sharp retreat as traders came to realize that comments made by Chinese President Xi in regards to blockchain technology did not mean that China is endorsing Bitcoin. On the contrary, China is pushing blockchain minus Bitcoin and is likely to roll out it national digital currency as early as 2020; the passing of a new cryptography law may have laid the groundwork for it. Cryptography should not be confused with cryptocurrency and BTC/USD has reversed sharply after reaching its resistance zone and once clarity set in. You can read more about a resistance zone here.

The Force Index, a next generation technical indicator, points towards the sharp loss in bullish momentum after the price spike briefly took it above its ascending support level before plunging below its horizontal support level and turning it into resistance. A steep descending resistance level emerged and while a minor sideways trend allowed the Force Index to pass above it as marked by the green rectangle, more downside is expected to follow. This could allow the BTC/USD to descend into its short-term support zone from where a breakdown could further extend a sell-off in this cryptocurrency pair.

While the aggressive rally took price action from its long-term support zone through its short-term resistance zone, which has been converted to support, and into its long-term resistance zone, a breakdown is expected to reverse BTC/USD. The increase in breakdown pressures could lead to a move below its short-term support zone, located between 8,738.63 and 8,951.00 as marked by the grey rectangle. As the entire Fibonacci Retracement Fan sequence has already moved below the short-term support zone, breakdown pressures have increased further. You can learn more about the Fibonacci Retracement Fan here.

Traders should monitor the intra-day low of 8,951.00 which marks the current low of the price action reversal as well as the top range of its short-term support zone; a move below it will mark another bearish development could initiate a breakdown sequence which will take BTC/USD down to its descending 38.2 Fibonacci Retracement Fan Support Level. The long-term support, located between 7,254.10 and 7,656.79, is situated just below it and the 38.2 Fibonacci Retracement Fan Support Level may lead price action into it.

Volatility in the cryptocurrency market is a staple and a breakout in the Force Index above its horizontal resistance level may allow BTC/USD to ascend back into its resistance zone; this zone is located between 9,621.71 and 9,907.79 as marked by the red rectangle. A reversal from current levels could also provide enough bullish momentum for a breakout above its resistance zone, the next major to monitor is located between 10,601.89 and 10,891.60; this would take out the key psychological 10K resistance level.

Long Entry @ 9,575.00

Take Profit @ 10,650.00

Stop Loss @ 9,150.00

Upside Potential: 107,500 pips

Downside Risk: 42,500 pips

Risk/Reward Ratio: 2.53

Read the original here:
BTC/USD: Breakdown Pressures Are on the Rise - DailyForex.com

2019 Government Innovation Awards

Barry McIntosh, a cybersecurity expert at the Energy Departments Savannah River Site, is acutely aware of the challenges the government faces in recruiting and retaining cyber talent. So he seized an opportunity to develop a local pipeline for such workers by creating a cybersecurity program at nearby University of South Carolina Aiken.

University officials sought out McIntosh for his subject-matter expertise and knowledge of the governments cyber needs. With the encouragement of his employer, he spent several months working with the executive vice chancellor and the dean of the College of Sciences and Engineering to develop a curriculum for the program.

Cyber is now a concentration in the universitys applied computer science degree, with specializations offered in network security, cryptography, ethical hacking, cyber defense, digital forensics and cyber ethics.

McIntosh said the goal is to attract students interested in cybersecurity and offer potential employment opportunities at the Savannah River Site. The Armys Information Assurance Training Center is located nearby, he added, while the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command also need cybersecurity specialists in the Central Savannah River Area.

That concentration of government operations is drawing private-sector employers that are also looking to hire. Growing the talent pool is the only way the Savannah River Site can hope to refresh an aging workforce and find the cyber workers it needs.

Those efforts need to go beyond a single program, McIntosh said, adding that SRS, the Army and NSA are all working with local colleges, high schools and even grade schools to develop academic programs that can supply a human talent chain that can support the ongoing missions of this local cyber industry.

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Link:
Filling the cyber talent pipeline - GCN.com