bello

The tale of the Trojan Horse first told in Homer’s Odyssey, explains how the Greeks were able to defeat the armies of Troy through a simple trick.


Having failed to conquer the walls of Troy through a 10-year siege, Odysseus decides to build a giant wooden horse as a tribute to the goddess Athena, fill it with soldiers in secret and pretend to leave.


The Trojans think they have won the war and bring the horse inside, only to be defeated in the night by the hidden soldiers.The story has come to represent anything that allows entry by strategy or cunning.


Similarly, Blockchain has been waging war with mainstream adoption on the Internet of Things(IoT) for years. Use cases abound, but real adoption has remained low. Blockchain technology needs its own Trojan Horse, of sorts.

Disrupting electricity

Grid+, a spinoff from ConsenSys, aims to leverage the decentralizing power of Blockchain technology in order to allow consumers to access wholesale electricity markets.


The goal for the company is to decrease costs, increase efficiency in markets and reduces pollutants caused during surge electrical use times.Currently, consumers buy electricity from electricity retailers (a.k.a. utilities), and as much as 50 percent of the end user’s energy bill goes toward covering the retailer’s marketing, admin and bad debt costs.


Grid+ has developed and tested a hardware device dubbed a “smart energy agent” that automates much of this work, allowing consumers to buy and sell energy at near wholesale cost.


The system would allow users the ability to monetize their wholesale electricity from external sources like solar panels, while at the same time, purchasing power from third party sources as well. Together, the overall savings would be substantial. However, electrical autonomy is just the first step in a larger plan.

Electrical horses

The Grid+ system is simple and user-friendly with an attractive and easy to use hardware component. Users will be able to use and store Blockchain assets including cryptocurrencies without ever knowing that Blockchain technology is at the root of the system.


Users will not need to know or keep track of their private keys since Grid+ is using a novel system called 2-of-3 Blind-Key Multi-signature Security.Like the Odysseus’ ancient wooden horse, the Grid+ platform acts as a simple and easy access point for Blockchain technology to find its way into consumers homes.ConsenSys Enterprise Managing Partner Mark D’Agostino says:

“The Grid+ Agent is a cryptocurrency enabled general-purpose IoT device.  We are using it in the electricity markets first, but as we move forward it has many potential applications in IoT as well as in distributed ledger systems.  Electricity is really just the first application that will enable use to bring Blockchain to the masses.”

The Grid+ client can provide access for users to a potentially huge number of other applications and passive income streams by having the smart energy agent act as a Blockchain enabled IoT device. 


Some of the near-term non-electricity use cases of the Grid+ smart energy agent include secure in-home crypto banking and running nodes for other Blockchain services such as IPFS or INFURA.


Once the Grid+ smart energy agent is inside millions of customer homes, Blockchain technology can reshape the way consumers think about and exchange value.

Join the Greeks

The Greeks under Odysseus’ leadership ultimately won the war. The same will be true of Blockchain technology. Eventually, the better system will prevail.


A huge number of users have been interested in joining the winning side and participating in the Blockchain revolution - so much so, that the Grid+ token sale has already sold more than $31 mln in tokens. The sale is continuing for those interested in tasting victory.

For even more reports like this, Cointelegraph is a great resource of crypto news and blockchain. Discover them here: https://cointelegraph.com/news/decentralized-electricity-could-be-blockchains-trojan-horse

BY JOHN RAMPTON2 HOURS AGO


In recent years, the way work gets done has begun to shift. Our future world is being built by an army of independent consultants and freelancers who allow businesses and employees to enjoy more freedom.

Freelancers now make up more than 35% of the American workforce and are responsible for a significant amount of the U.S. GDP.Blockchain is a unique technology, capable of decentralizing networks and allowing people to connect.

This decentralization is likely to spur a wave of disruption through its ability to create distributed digital ledgers that act as transparent and living “records of transactions.

”These records are accessible by anyone within the system, and are verifiable by empirical data. With blockchains in place across a variety of industries and niches, we can eradicate many of the frictions that currently exist in financial and business markets.

Since blockchains are still (relatively) new pieces of technology, we are not exactly sure which decentralized applications will survive long term. The only certainty is that with advancement comes disruption, and we are likely to see fundamental shifts in the way many common markets work.

One of the more exciting ways in which blockchain is affecting an industry is in the independent freelancers’ space. Freelancers and independent contractors make up a sizable chunk of the U.S. population: there are currently over 55 million domestic freelancers.

Though this group has been growing significantly over the past several years, they are still plagued with annoying transaction costs and plenty of competition.Blockchains, in theory, will open up new doors for freelancers across the globe. Let’s take a look at a few ways in which this technology might change the future of the freelancer industry.

1. An investment orientationFreelancers are already starting to opt into getting paid with cryptocurrencies. People’s familiarity with and confidence in cryptocurrencies have empowered them to receive payment with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

As cryptocurrencies near mass-market penetration, freelancers are becoming more willing to think about investments rather than a typical focus on salary.

This “investment mentality” is a completely new way for creators to think about their income streams. There will be many fresh opportunities for investment managers and advisors to help these freelancers with their newfound willingness to take risks and focus on letting their wealth grow itself.

2. Data monetizationCompanies like Datum, a marketplace for data built on top of the Ethereum chain, use trust graphs to allow users to store data in a decentralized database and later monetize the information. While the back end of this technology is highly complex, trust graphs use blockchains to create secure, trusted networks for storing data.

Everyday contractors passively collect enormous amounts of personal and professional data. From Upwork reputations to Github statistics, the data that freelancers collect can be put into Datum and made queryable in a blockchain database. All of this data is then stored and made available to anyone who is interested in purchasing it.

Big players, including actor William Shatner, have endorsed Datum as a way for people to take control of their data. This impacts freelancers in a number of ways. First, it allows employers to make more informed decisions about who to hire. Second, all of the data stored in the database will be verified by third-party APIs, meaning it will be impossible for freelancers to gamify reviews and cheat the system.

Finally, freelancers can now earn about $2,000 per year via monetization of their data. This is even how I raised enough money for my latest project Calendar.

3. Verifiable historyOne of the biggest problems facing the freelance industry today is spam and fake reviews.

Smart contracts (a key component of blockchain technology) are stored directly in a trust network, meaning they cannot be changed or hacked without the rest of the network knowing.In this way, blockchains will enable freelancers to worry less about promoting themselves and more about maximizing metrics for clients. Furthermore, companies can rest easier now, knowing that freelancers are not able to tamper with information online.

4. New opportunities to specializeWith any new piece of technology comes an opportunity for freelancers to dig into a new niche and specialize in a field. Future companies are going to need blockchain experts and specialiststo help them set up smart contracts and efficient blockchain systems.

Right now, there are not nearly enough specialists in this space to support any type of expansion in demand on the consumer side.As demand continues to exceed supply, being a blockchain expert will be highly lucrative. For at least the next 10 years, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for anyone who knows how to build digital contract systems.





John Rampton is a serial entrepreneur who now focuses on helping people to build amazing products and services that scale. He is founder of the online payments company Due.


You can discover even more articles like this on Mashable here: http://mashable.com/2017/11/06/blockchain-freelancers/#LLcWmhKJQGqG

Where the last wave of technological innovation was characterised by digital socialisation and e-commerce, the fourth industrial revolution will be founded on interconnected networks that diminish the need for broker activity by digitising the process



Industry 4.0 is the next step in a perpetual chain of technological improvement. Decentralised autonomous networks are set to streamline our lives, reducing wasted time and money


The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is the logical extension to a series of technological innovations dating back to the 19th century, that have evolved to improve the ways in which we live and work.

Where the third industrial revolution brought us the internet, social networking and e-commerce, Industry 4.0 will be characterised by artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnologies, biotechnologies and blockchain.


One of the greatest changes that Industry 4.0 will bring is that simple processes that are currently carried out manually will be undertaken by digital, autonomous systems, underpinned by blockchain technologies.In terms of IoT, this will mean that connected networks of devices will diminish the need for manual involvement, i.e. your central heating will come on as your car tells it that you are nearly home.>

See also: Blockchain’s future outside financial services

On a larger scale, these systems will reduce the need for broker activity across all sectors that are currently reliant on broker services, such as insurance, real estate, paralegal, recruitment, and so on.

Blockchain is a vast, decentralised ledger that is both interoperable and immutable. As such, it is a trusted and safe way to store, and then verify, any type of information that is normally handled by brokers.

Its disruptive capacities have been well documented already within the financial sector, where broker activity is being challenged by blockchain platforms that can verify information quickly and safely without manual involvement.

Blockchain will streamline procedures across many industries, reducing monetary and temporal costs, and as such, will become a foundational and fundamental pillar of Industry 4.0.In light of blockchains potential for vast and pervasive reach, start-ups delivering blockchain enabled platforms have experienced a recent rush in investment.

In the last year alone more than $2 billion in capital has seen its way to blockchain projects via Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) or Token Sales.Initially, investment has been directed towards businesses and projects that offer platforms specifically for financial services but as blockchains potential for ubiquitous market disruption has become apparent, start-ups in many sectors have seen a flurry of investment.

Hotly contested markets have been particularly receptive to blockchain start-ups, as leading firms look for innovative ways to give themselves a competitive edge.

>See also: Why CFOs should take notice of blockchain

For example, APPII, which offers blockchain-verified CVs, recently received investment from Technojobs, a traditional and long-standing IT recruitment job board.Blockchain start-ups are using capital raised through ICOs to change the way that value is exchanged within the sector they are trying to disrupt.

Aside from helping raise capital, and creating a way to transfer value within the platform, the wider goal of these ICOs is to introduce a token model economy.

In the recruitment sector, for example, there is potential for tokens to be used to incentivise organisations to verify information on CVs, or to reward candidates when their profile has been viewed.Where companies normally give our data away largely for free, the token model economy will flip this on its head.

By incentivising legitimate and genuine data with tokens, a wider and more comprehensive network of verified individuals and organisations is likely to develop.

The token model economy is a fundamental shift from the traditional means of exchanging value that is seen today, and democratises the distribution of incentives in business models where benefits are usually reaped by a few, central parties.

Blockchain platforms, and the native platform tokens being used as the main means of exchanging value on platform, have become an attractive investment prospect.

>See also: Blockchain: Helping secure digital identities 

Comparisons of investment prospects in Industry 4.0 businesses are being made to those that were early investors in businesses that have emerged from the third industrial revolution such as Facebook and Google.

Of course, sceptics have been quick to point out the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and overlook the transformative capabilities of blockchain technology.

Although the cryptocurrency market has been prone to short-term fluctuations and spikes, those investing in blockchain platforms see their investments as a long-term project that will help drive Industry 4.0.Industry 4.0 is the next step in a perpetual chain of technological improvement. Decentralised autonomous networks are set to streamline our lives, reducing wasted time and money.

These technologies are intrinsically dependent on blockchain, and the cryptocurrencies that it supports. In many sectors, these platforms already exist and are attracting plenty of investment attention which seems to be a great indicator that Industry 4.0 is well underway. Sourced by Gary McKay, CEO and founder of APPII


Discover even more reports on Information Age here: http://www.information-age.com/blockchain-funding-fourth-industrial-revolution-123469365/

Ethereum classic rose to eight-week high today – its highest level since Sep. 9.At press time, the fork of the etheruem blockchain is trading at around $15.00. As per CoinMarketCap, the ninth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has gained 16.90 percent in the last 24 hours.

Week-on-week, ETC is up 38.88 percent, while on a monthly basis, it is carrying 21.68 percent gains.Volume figures show the rally has been in part fueled by Korean exchanges offering trading in ethereum classic to South Korean won (ETC/KRW) pairs.

As per CoinMarketCap, trading volumes on Bithumb, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, have jumped by 53.52 percent over the last 24 hours.


Elsewhere, the investor community is associating the price rally with the listing of ETC and ETH futures on OKEX, a digital asset trading platform launched by China-based exchange OKCoin.


Whatever the reason for the recent gains, the rally looks solid on the technical charts. Price action analysis indicates that the cryptocurrency could rally to $17.88 levels.

Ethereum classic chart

The above chart shows:

• Consolidation (sideways channel) has ended with a bullish breakout.
• The relative strength index (RSI) is overbought.

View

• Bullish break has opened doors for a rally to $17.88 levels (target as per the measured height method, i.e. difference between the channel high/low added to the channel resistance).
• The RSI is overbought, hence a short-term consolidation in the range of $13.50-$15.00 cannot be ruled out, before prices rally to $17.88 levels.
• On the downside, a sustained move below today's low of $12.91 would abort the bullish view.

Coindesk publishes several articles and reports everyday. Discover them here: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-classic-snaps-slump-as-price-hits-eight-week-high/

Business schools are getting pressure from two sides: growing student population interest in cryptocurrencies, and successful companies, looking to hire graduates with practical knowledge in the technology (tech) undergirding the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin.Also read: Over One Million People Enroll in Online Crypto Class

Bitcoin Tech Accepted at Ivy League Schools

“We believe it will have the biggest impact on contracting, logistics and supply chains, healthcare, public administration, assets clearing, property, transactions,” Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley lecturer Greg LaBlanc told Agence France Presse, speaking about technology undergirding bitcoin, the blockchain.

“When people think about blockchain they think about cryptocurrencies,” Mr. LaBlanc continued. “Pretty much every function of businesses are going to be affected by this.”Next semester, Haas School of Business  “will offer its first ever course in blockchain software,” AFP’s Luc Olinga writes.

The school “will handpick 60 students from the departments of business, engineering and law and split them into groups of six to explore possible applications of the technology.”Haas is ranked in the top ten business schools, seventh to be exact, according to US News & World Report.

Cliche as a Way to Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain, for whatever reason, is the most-oft put cliche in crypto circles. It’s almost a watchword when deciding how new someone is: the more they pepper sentences with phrases such as “blockchain technology,” the more keen listeners understand they’re probably lacking in real-world bitcoin knowledge.

Precisely because its been picked up by corporate business types, ironically, it has become a way for that community to embrace cryptocurrencies … which carry stigmas of unofficial or the anarchic (or can).



“It was originally developed as the accounting method for bitcoin,” Mr. Olinga explains. “But while that cryptocurrency remains controversial with some players in finance, bankers increasingly see exposure to blockchain as a must.”

Yale, Wharton, Oh My!

It’s a new world for business students, and a great deal of that change is due to bitcoin. As AFP notes, students “who wish to work in trading must learn how to code, while bankers need to understand algorithms and big data to be able to attract new clients and devise strategies for fast-changing markets.”“At Yale, about 20 percent of 2016 graduates found jobs in finance,” according to AFP.





Yale School of ManagementYale School of Management’s Stephen Daffron puts a finer point on it, saying if students “don’t understand how to evaluate a company that tries to employs blockchain, then they won’t probably be a good fit for us. ” .The Wharton School’s Barbara Hewitt explains,

“I increasingly see students opting to explore technical minors, such as in computer science, to be well prepared for the growing use of technology in many fields.”

Discover more stories on Bitcoin.com here: https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-ivy-league-yale-wharton-haas-offer-courses-on-blockchain-tech/