New Ethereum Network Uses Authority Test

Maria Rodríguez
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New Ethereum Network Uses Authority Test

The objective is to solve the availability and reliability problems on existing test networks

A team of developers use the nodes ability to demonstrate their identity in the network. They implemented a new protocol to validate blocks in the Ethereum chain. The new test network considers validators’ reputation and its name is Görli Testnet, an idea which was proposed during the ETHBerlin hackathon, last September.

Ethereum test networks have been characterized by having several types of problems, most developments have their pros and cons. Lane McShardface, referring to the work of the Gorli team in the ETHBerlin hackathon, talked about this situation. There, he mentioned that the testnet scenario is very messy, and that could be the reason or the cause of problems. He specifically mentioned Ropsten, which is often attacked and “has been continuously plagued by stability problems”.

The information about the new Ethereum network was published on November 19th on the ETHnews portal. It explained the project, which is a universal network for Ethereum developers, based on an authority test algorithm (PoA). It has been called the new consensus method. The network is currently in its pre-tesnet phase and there are still errors to be solved, so “it could fail at any time”.

Afri Schoedon, Parity’s client launch Director for Ethereum, affirms the motivation to work in this plan is to overcome the problem of a widely usable network non-existence, which also be robust enough to guarantee constant availability and high reliability.

The developer, who worked at the ETHBerlin hackathon together with a ChainSafe System team, talked about the experiences with different Ethereum test networks, such as Olimpyc, Morden, Ropsten, Kovan and Rinkeby. He added that Olimpyc, Ropsten and Morden have been abandoned because of their limitations, like stability problems. For those reasons, Schoedon believes that Görli could be the next-generation public test network of Etereum.

This platform could currently be used with Geth clients and the team’s plans include consolidating the implementation in other Ethereum clients. They also hope to launch two PoA test networks for Ethereum clients, in order to cover a broad spectrum of experimentation with PoA, a model that is not based on the number of cryptoactives, but in the ability of a given node guarantee its identity on the network.

“Gorli is the first authority test network that works on different clients written in different languages ​​by different developers. Therefore, every problem we discover helps to improve the client’s engines and the Clique POA protocol”, Afri Schoedon said.

The expert gave more information about Görli’s progress on his social networks, where he detailed that the network is not yet in its testing phase, but in pre-tesnet. He highlighted that the problems are “those that help make improvements”. Schoedon’s followers on Twitter commented their opinions and left their questions about the topic that raised all the attention in just a few minutes.

Although the problems that should be solved, it remains to be seen the possible advances on the network and also in the way in which the team will try to solve the faults.

By María Rodríguez

EU Blockchain Platform Secures the Participation of BBVA and Banco Santander

Andres Chavez
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EU Blockchain Platform Secures the Participation of BBVA and Banco Santander

The applications of blockchain technology in the financial world are a subject that has occupied investors, bank owners and officials, governments, clients, and potential customers. In the past few hours, another alliance has been formed to look for innovative solutions and keep up with modern times.

BBVA and Banco Santander, two of the biggest financial institutions in Spain, will join a European Union joint blockchain platform that is scheduled to be launched next year, according to reports from a Spanish economic publication called Expansion.

Meet IATBA, the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications

The E.U. project is called the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (IATBA.) Mariya Gabriel, who is the commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, and Roberto Viola, currently functioning as the Chief of the E.U. Department of Communications Networks, Content and Technology, were the hosts of a recent roundtable discussion in Belgium, and officials from the two Spanish banks accepted an invitation.

The IATBA will see the daylight in 2019’s Q1, and Expansion did not provide a precise date. After the meeting in Brussels, details were provided about the joint project: it has, as a primary goal, to come up with E.U. blockchain regulation and set the table for the launch of E.U. wide blockchain applications.

The IATBA is a project that intends to host more financial institutions in addition to BBVA and Banco Santander. In fact, the two Spanish multinational enterprises are among the first five banks to receive an invitation to join the association, with the other three names not yet public.

The European Blockchain Partnership is the organization promoting IATBA. The former represents a strategic pact in which 27 nations of the European Union currently participate. Some of them are the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and France.

Developing a European Blockchain Services Infrastructure

The main objective of the European Blockchain Partnership is to develop “a European–Blockchain-Services Infrastructure that will support the delivery of cross-border digital public services, with the highest standards of security and privacy.”

BBVA, through its CEO, has previously stated that there are some notorious challenges and limitations in the use of blockchain technology, but that has not stopped the company from taking part of the IATBA initiative or from testing out several blockchain solutions in recent times. For example, BBVA formed a partnership with Repsol, an energy firm also hailing from Spain, in their quest to develop blockchain-based products such as Ethereum and Hyperledger.

BBVA also provided a $150 million loan to a private blockchain network through three funding financial institutions, joining and Japanese Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and French BNP Paribas.

Not to be left behind, Santander has also shown marked interest in the blockchain and decentralized technologies and platforms. In the month of July, the international bank was one of five financial institutions to join IBM’s blockchain platform, also putting together a research team that intended to determine the possible applications of the model in trading securities.

By Andres Chavez

Blockchain Will Guarantee the Quality of Food Products like Chicken

Maria Rodríguez
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Blockchain Will Guarantee the Quality of Food Products like Chicken

Carrefour launches the first “food blockchain” in Spain. The chicken reared without the use of antibiotics is one of the first items that will be monitored

Blockchain, the technology of storage and transmission of information that increasingly reaches more markets, will now be used to track the evolution of products such as chicken reared without antibiotics. This is possible thanks to the characteristics of this platform, which works to follow the trace of an item in all its stages of production, transformation, and distribution.

The objective of the project promoted by the French distribution chain Carrefour is to maximize the levels of food security for Spain citizens. Countries such as Taiwan and the United States have also conducted tests of this type in companies such as Walmart, which in 2016 started a meat traceability system from China.

Carrefour is a founding member of the IBM Food Trust platform. This company reported, through a press release, that it has the services of IBM and with the “collaboration” of a Galician company called Coren.

Jorge Ybarra, Carrefour Spain’s commercial Chief of Food, comments: “Becoming the leader in the food transition for all is the ambition of Carrefour, and the use of blockchain technology allows us to advance in the realization of this objective, since it responds a priority of the group: to guarantee consumers the traceability of our products with total transparency”.

The blockchain technology offers the possibility of accessing a secure database distributed in blocks which contain the historical record of all the actors involved in the chain of distribution, as well as their exchanges during the creation and distribution of a product. This particularity allows the information to be managed in a transparent and inviolable way when working with independent data.

In the specific case of the chicken camper, on its label, a QR code is included. It could be scanned through a smartphone. In this way, the consumer is able to know all the information related to the product, such as the chicken’s date of birth, the breeding mode, the location of the farm, the food received by the chicken, the packaging process or the date on which it has reached the Carrefour stores.

“It’s excellent for consumers because it responds to the need to offer them greater visibility on food safety, trust and health guarantee. The advantages over the product are the immediate accessibility to information, control, and efficiency. Finally, it’s good for suppliers, since it allows them to have a 360º view of the entire distribution process and to value the quality of the product”, says a part of the statement issued on Tuesday, November 20th.

The IBM Food Trust’s main objective is to implement a global food traceability standard in all links of the supply chains. The commitment of Carrefour in favor of the “food blockchain” will increase during the coming months because the company wants to apply this technique to other products to ensure its quality and origin, so the citizens’ food would be more careful and healthier.

By María Rodríguez

Two Swiss Companies use Blockchain Technology to Market Agricultural Products

Maria Rodríguez
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Two Swiss Companies use Blockchain Technology to Market Agricultural Products

Smart contracts allow streamlining the purchase-sale processes by guaranteeing backup, security and that all the parties involved are satisfied with the negotiation conditions

Payments for the shipment and purchase of essential products such as wheat flour and vegetable oil are made in Switzerland thanks to the use of blockchain technology. According to those who participate in this operation, it is the first business in the grain industry which is made on blockchain technology.

Transoil International and Solaris Commodities, two Swiss companies, made an experimental transaction using this technology to channel the settlements. The financial terms and the details inherent to the exchange have not been disclosed publicly, but it was known that this transaction was made on November 12th.

The pilot test was conducted in a decentralized platform, created by the Swiss startup Cerealia, exclusively for the payment of agricultural products. To make real the business, the companies agreed to send 25,000 tons of wheat that would leave from the port of Novorossiysk in Russia to the northern coast of the Black Sea, in a FOB port.

Smart contracts are the fundamental characteristic of blockchain technology that attracts more and more different types of companies or any type of entrepreneurs interested in establishing their agreements electronically, safely and ensuring that the established terms will be conducted.

In the case of the transaction between these two Swiss companies, an independent auditor was responsible for confirming the validity of the smart contract that was obtained as a result.

In addition, this person was responsible for verifying the digital signatures. The objective was to make sure that the information was encrypted and that it could not be decoded by a third actor, which is one of the characteristics of blockchain technology: the backup and security of the information stored in the nodes or encrypted blocks.

According to Cerealia workers, this blockchain platform allows minimizing possible risks and conflicts that arise during the operation, in order to achieve better results. For this, distributed accounting technology (DLT) helps control the different phases of the operation efficiency, as well as disputes that may appear along the way.

With this background, agricultural producers and sellers are increasingly interested in using blockchain technology to ensure the safety of their operations. In this way, any member of the transaction has access to the information.

In other regions of the world blockchain technology is attracting the attention of buyers and sellers of different items. Four of the largest agricultural companies in the world, known in this field as ABCD, decided to work together, in order to use blockchain technology, or artificial intelligence (AI), in the purchase and sale of cereals.

The chain of blocks and the AI will be used initially to automate the post-negotiation processes of grains and oilseeds, which are a manual and a very expensive part of the supply chain. However, in September, Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, revealed that it is using blockchain to make its orange juice production more transparent.

Also a national milk marketing cooperative in the United States, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), partnered with Fintech alimentary company to launch a pilot project driven by a chain of blocks that also aimed to improve the food supply chain.

The Department of Foreign Affairs of the United States said its intention is to investigate other forms of using blockchain technology to get benefit from its use.

By María Rodríguez

 

 

Bitcoin Experienced a Worse Sell-Off than the Current One in 2015

Andres Chavez
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Bitcoin Experienced a Worse Sell-Off than the Current One in 2015

Following the Bitcoin Cash hard fork that took place on November 15th, the crypto market began a downward trend that is still taking place at the moment of writing this piece. Bitcoin, the world’s premier digital asset, has experienced a notorious decline in value: it was hovering around $6,500 about a week ago, but last Wednesday, the collapse began.

Today, the cryptocurrency is trading at $4.521.41, which represents a 4.97 percent decline in the last 24 hours. However, the day was not kind for BTC holders, as it reached a low of $4,272.11 at 16:00 UTC. What does the future hold? Will it keep sliding? Will it be worth less than $4,000 this week?

If we take the value of all cryptocurrencies and compare it with what it was like a week ago, it is worth $60 billion less. After reaching an all-time high of over $19,000 in January, BTC has declined more than 75 percent to this point. However, the bearish market will most likely reach its end once investors refuse to cede more ground and pounce at the opportunity to acquire BTC at very low price.

The Meaning of ‘Capitulation’

For that to happen, numerous people around the industry think that there needs to be a capitulation, which would represent the final phase in a bear market. Investopedia defines capitulation as the moment in which investors give up previous gains and sell their positions during a decline period. It is known in the securities field as “surrendering” or selling assets out of panic.

When the “bottom” is reached (which is impossible to know,) investors will pounce on the depreciated assets as they are too cheap to pass up, and they will not let it fall any further. In any case, we have some precedent about previous Bitcoin sell-offs, and there is light at the end of the tunnel: the current crash does not quite measure up to what happened in 2015.

Consider this: between 2013 and 2015, the market experience a similar behavior than what we are currently living: in the month of November 2013, the value of each BTC reached an all-time high of $1,163, but it bottomed out at $152 in January 2015, a span of 14 months. That represented an 86 percent decline, more than the 75 percent that BTC has shed since January 2018 until today.

Past Experiences

The most important takeaway is that, after that day in which BTC reached $152, it began to rise and did not collapse to those levels ever again. The data was provided by the Bitstamp crypto exchange.

In 2015, the BTC sell-off started at the beginning of January but did not really hit its stride until a couple of weeks later. To achieve capitulation, according to Coindesk, the most important factors are volume climaxes and rapid, steep declines.

In that dreaded January 15th, 2015, the price of Bitcoin collapsed a staggering 30 percent in a four-hour span, and it was fueled by the highest sell volume in months. It was the perfect example of an extreme selling event that originated a volume climax, the phase that comes before the so-called market bottom.

By Andres Chavez

Basketball Star Kobe Bryant to Speak at January’s niTRON Summit

Andres Chavez
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Basketball Star Kobe Bryant to Speak at January’s niTRON Summit

The crypto market may not be showing its best face in recent weeks, but one thing is certain: the potential for a quick turnaround exists and has been proven time and time again. That is why Bitcoin and the most prominent altcoins are keeping a busy agenda for the upcoming weeks and months in their quest for more involved people and mainstream adoption.

We have the case of TRON, for example. The cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $960.579.622 and 65.748.111.645 TRX, wants to keep pushing for future growth, and it has a very important event scheduled for next January.

The niTRON Summit 2019

The niTRON Summit 2019 will take place on January 17th and 18th  in San Francisco, California, and it will have a special guest: Kobe Bryant, the retired basketball superstar that won multiple NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, will not only attend the conference but will also serve as a speaker to the audience.

The summit will host opinion leaders discussing technical issues related to the research and development of the blockchain, decentralized applications (dApp,) the development of smart contracts, the construction of decentralized exchanges and other themes.

The information was revealed today as part of a press release by TRON. The niTRON Summit 2019 is a blockchain event that intends to bring together industry leaders to look for solutions built on TRON.

The presence of Kobe Bryant will help TRON attract a whole different audience to an already enticing project. Bryant, after all, is a worldwide known figure in American sports. According to the press release, the retired athlete was invited to the conference not only because its achievements on the court, in which he had an illustrious-20-year career, but also for his “investment genius.” Bryant also won an Academy Award for his role in the short feature “Dear Basketball.”

His fund, Bryant Stibel, was founded in 2013 to offer strategic, financial, and operational support to businesses with a focus across technology, media, and data. It has invested in 15 businesses around those fields, with some of them achieving impressive returns.

TRON’s leader Justin Sun said that “it’s my great honor to have Kobe as our special guest for the niTROn Summit. We look forward to hearing his great speeches.”

Kobe Bryant: A Basketball Ambassador

Bryant, born in 1978 in the United States, is an accomplished basketball player that was in the NBA from 1996 to 2016 with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won five NBA titles (2000–2002, 2009, 2010,) two NBA Finals MVP (2009, 2010,) and one NBA Most Valuable Player award (2008.)

He was an 18-time NBA All Star, in 1998 and from 2000 to 2016, a four-time NBA All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011,) an 11-time All-NBA First Team (2002–2004, 2006–2013,) and two-time NBA scoring champion (2006, 2007.)

TRON’s Current Situation

TRON is currently the eleventh cryptocurrency by market cap, and like all the coins in the top 20, it suffered a slow, sustained collapse from January until last week, and a marked one from last Wednesday until today. It is currently trading at $0.01461, which represents a 4.69 percent growth in the last 24 hours after days of being in red.

By Andres Chavez

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