Sharding: What it is and why many blockchain protocols rely on it

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 03:00:00 -0800

As blockchains are being rolled out in an increasing number of pilot programs for everything from cross-border financial transactions to supply chain management, one persistent issue remains: a lack of scalability.

As more computers join the peer-to-peer network, the efficiency of the whole system typically degrades.

Scalability has already been identified as an issue with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum’s Ether. If a distributed ledger is to achieve adoption by financial technology (FinTech) companies and compete with payment networks hundreds of times faster, it must find a way to boost scalability and throughput and address latency problems.

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Blockchain: What’s it good for? Absolutely nothing, report finds

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2018 03:01:00 -0800

In a joint report for the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Technology conference this fall, researchers who studied 43 blockchain use cases came to the conclusion that all underdelivered on claims.

And, when they reached out to several blockchain providers about project results, the silence was deafening. “Not one was willing to share data,” the researchers said in their blog post.

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Economist Nouriel Roubini: Blockchain and bitcoin are the world’s biggest scams

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2018 13:52:00 -0700

New York University professor and global economist Nouriel Roubini testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking last week, saying cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are the mother of all scams and bubbles.

He followed that assertion up by calling blockchain, the technology unpinning bitcoin, “the most over-hyped — and least useful — technology in human history.”

Today, Roubini doubled down on his claims in a column published on CNBC.com in which he said blockchain has promised to cure the world’s ills through decentralization but is “just a ruse to separate retail investors from their hard-earned real money.”

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China once again cracks down on cryptocurrencies, news outlets

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:06:00 -0700

In an ongoing campaign to tamp down the growth of once-flourishing cryptocurrencies it sees as a threat, the Chinese government has ordered more than a half dozen online news outlets to shut down and banned physical venues from hosting crypto-related events.

On Tuesday, eight blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused media outlets were banned on WeChat, China’s most influential instant communication and mobile payment app, for allegedly violating new government regulations forbidding the publishing of information related to initial coin offerings (ICOs) or cryptocurrency trading speculation.

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Here come the first blockchain smartphones: What you need to know

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 03:12:00 -0700

After months of speculation, Taiwanese electronics company Huawei Technologies Ltd. (HTC) has confirmed it will be releasing a blockchain-enabled smartphone this year that will allow users to securely store cryptocurrency offline and act as a compute node in a blockchain network.

“We want to double and triple the number of nodes of Ethereum and Bitcoin,” HTC said in its marketing material for the device. The new smartphone is expected to be able to work with multiple blockchain protocols allowing for interoperability between them.

In addition, the HTC Exodus blockchain-enabled smartphone will allow owners to play CryptoKitties, a decentralized app (Dapp) game. Dapps are applications that run across multiple nodes on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

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Will blockchain run afoul of GDPR? (Yes and no)

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 07 May 2018 03:02:00 -0700

As the EU prepares to roll out new data protection regulations this month, concerns are emerging that they could dissuade businesses from rolling out blockchain-based projects because the online transaction technology might innately break the new rules.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) targets citizens’ personally identifiable information (PII), providing transparency around its use and giving people the right to restrict its use or request it be deleted all together.

While GDPR never mentions PII, the new rules describing “personal data” are synonymous with it: “Any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual. Different pieces of information, which collected together can lead to the identification of a particular person, also constitute personal data.” In short, it means any data that can be tied back to person’s identity.

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N.Y. AG's scrutiny of cryptocurrencies unlikely to stymie a thriving industry

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:30:00 -0700

States and the federal government are increasing their scrutiny of cryptocurrencies in an attempt to bring more transparency to a market where buyers and sellers are anonymous and regulatory oversight is light.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, LiteCoin, and Ripple skyrocketed in value last year as investors sought to get in on what many see as the future of global currency – one that for trade and commerce knows no borders. Bitcoin generated massive hype among investors as its value surged more than 1,900% to nearly $20,000 last year, before tumbling back down below $11,000.

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