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Just as blockchain technology is being aligned with the Internet of Things (IoT), it is also increasingly being mentioned by those involved in advancing artificial intelligence (AI).


Indeed, some - including legacy institutions like IBM and SAP - see a future involving the convergence of all of these technologies.A (Relatively) Established TechnologyUnlike blockchain technology and IoT, AI - which, in one sense, is about creating computer applications that act as smart as humans - is not a new concept.


Research began in academia in the 1950s, and the subject was popularized in the 1968 science fiction movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," featuring the humanlike HAL 9000 computer. Usable computing systems running AI programs emerged in the 1980s, in the form of expert systems that were able to apply pre-programmed knowledge and make rules-based business decisions. In 1997, an IBM AI system called "Deep Blue" beat reigning world champion Gary Kasparov at chess. 


Today, AI - and a related focus on machine learning (allowing computers to learn based on supplied data) - is rapidly evolving due to the development of high-performance microprocessors that are able to work quickly with very large amounts of in-memory data.Data is a key ingredient of approaches to developing AI and machine learning, which are now being applied to a wide variety of uses, from stock trading to chatbots to self-driving cars. There is barely a business or human activity that is not considered as a target for AI in future years and decades. 

This is where blockchain technology comes in, which has its own role to play in the world of data. While work on aligning blockchain and AI technology is still emerging, a few development threads now exist and 2018 looks to be a year when progress toward convergence will accelerate.Enter Blockchains 

Blockchain technology's ability to guarantee the accuracy of data makes it useful for a number of AI applications, both for feeding data into AI systems and for recording results from them. 

For example, CognitiveScale, an AI startup that's backed by IBM, Intel, Microsoft and USAA, among others, is leveraging blockchain technology to securely store the results of an AI application that it built for regulatory compliance in the financial markets world .


That's an industry with a lot of regulatory scrutiny, so being able to store AI-derived decisions securely helps market participants stay on top of onerous reporting requirements.IBM is marrying both its blockchain offering (based on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric codebase) and its Watson AI platform for a range of industries.


One early project involves Everledger, which is applying blockchain technology to track the provenance of luxury items, including diamonds. 

Leveraging Everledger's data store of individual diamond characteristics (more than a million of them, secured by IBM's blockchain), Watson is applying knowledge of thousands of regulations to ensure that diamonds comply with United Nations edicts preventing the sale of conflict minerals. 


Some see certain implementations of blockchain technology as benefiting the development of AI applications, which improve as more data is made available to them for training the machine-learning models upon which they are built.


The Importance of Data 

In a lengthy blog post , Trent McConaghy, founder and CTO of BigchainDB, set out his reasoning for why blockchain-enabled, decentralized networks encourage the creation of available data - essentially because individual data silos are replaced by a shared and accurate ledger - which can be leveraged to train better AI models.


For example, a consortium of banks sharing credit card usage data via a shared ledger might be expected to lead to improved, faster and more accurate fraud detection.


BigchainDB is currently rolling out a database that combines the capacity and performance of NoSQL database technology with the immutability and consensus of blockchain approaches. Already, the company is working on enterprise implementations in partnership with the likes of Capgemini, Daimler, Porsche and Toyota. 

Moreover, the company is also deploying its technology to underpin the Interplanetary Database(IPDB), a publicly owned and governed database network that it sees as becoming the database for a "decentralized world computer," much like the platform the Ethereum community is creating.

Most recently, BigchainDB began to evangelize the open Ocean Protocol , designed to facilitate data exchange as an enabler for AI applications. Core software that supports the protocol leverages the IPDB. A test network for the protocol should be launched by the middle of 2018. 



Other recent initiatives to develop transactional interoperability between blockchains should also feed into the availability of shared data to drive better AI applications.


Last month, the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance announced its formation with a mission to connect blockchain networks being created by Aion, ICON and Wanchain.


The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

See more on blockchain and cryptocurrencies from NASDAQ here: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/analysis-what-blockchain-technology-means-for-artificial-intelligence-...

Blockchain technology is now used in many industries for data verification and storage but the next wave of working with data will almost certainly center on the combination of blockchain technology and Big Data, combined with better methods of data interpretation.


This will allow us to bring Big Data tools in line with contextual understanding and to help individuals and companies make decisions which will drive the new paradigm in development.

Digital Services for Personal Development are Prevailing over Traditional Ones

Traditional consultants such as life coaches who help people to make right decisions are expensive and no-one can make sure whether the method a particular consultant practices is valid or not. Unlike consultants, applications generated and deployed on the blockchain will be continuously checked on the decentralized network.


Consumers of these services will be able to use the application in any place and consultants will be able to develop projects, digitize them, and get access to a larger audience on the basis of ecosystem.

The Problems of Modern-Day Development Apps

Today, there are a lot of apps centered around analyzing one’s personal data according to several methods (personal data interpretation tests). For example, an app like Remente asks you to fill in a questionnaire to assess personal development. Upon completion, the system analyzes the data and provides users with recommendations on strengths and weaknesses found by the algorithm.


The first problem with these apps is that they are nonsystematic and each of them gives different answers to particular questions. The second problem is that it’s difficult to improve methods on the basis of how differing apps interpret dat, because data collected is not stored in one place.


Much could be improved by harnessing the collective power of these apps and synergizing data inputs and outputs.Personal data interpretation methods help to understand personal traits; what motivates people, their likes and dislikes, and more. In the mass market, methods such as IQ tests, Myers-Briggs, and Astrology tests are commonly used.


At the same time, there have been huge advances in knowledge, resulting from studies about the brain. What’s interesting about that is that they can offer us much deeper personal analysis when applied to our pre-existing knowledge on personal characteristics and brain chemistry.

The World is Lacking the Combination of Blockchain and Big Data

In spite of the fact that blockchain was created as a system for serving the financial sector, its scope oversteps these bounds. There are even apps using a technology blockchain in a healthcare and science setting.Their creators believe that opportunities of a blockchain data storage will improve people’s life.


Experts agree that combining Blockchain Technology and Big Data is a global challenge for the world, and will need innovative decisions to be implemented effectively. In the future, the scenario of personal problems and limitations on development will be prevented with the use of technology.


Needless to say, this doesn’t mean it will be possible to fully predict the way human brain works, but Big Data tools and Blockchain based on the methods of personal analysis will be a breakthrough in our attempt to remedy this.


Due to decentralization, it will be possible to collect large scores of data regarding human behavior, and keep methods potentially forever using the Blockchain. With the help of these tools it will soon be possible to provide people with smart digital consultancy based on complex methods and verify these absolutely.

Creating Scientific Opportunities through the Blockchain

Creating blockchain networks focused on interpreting such data methods and storing the collected data in a decentralized way is a major issue, of course. The storage of personal data should be approached in a way that’s both impersonal and accessible so as to be useful to the scientific community.


One such company aiming to solve these issues is the Human Discovery Platform, a blockchain startup based in Moscow who wish to create a network that encompasses all of the above. The idea is that scientists who work through the service will be able to work within the same ecosystem, adding their research blocks as one.

By incorporating knowledge in an open and accessible style the same way that Wikipedia and other Open-Source projects do, the platform will attract more users. The more people that get involved in the production of data and services – the faster the economy of the project will accelerate.” says CEO of Human Discovery Platform Timur Karimbaev.

It is clear that the introduction of Blockchain Technologies and the realization of the power of Big Data will do much to improve the impact of personal improvement.

Where will this new age of ergonomic excellence take us? Only time will tell. This post is part of our contributor series.


The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.

Discover more from TNW here: https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/11/24/greater-good-blockchain-technology-will-new-way-accel...

Sindhu Hariharan


You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks bitcoin is a “fraud,” business magnate Warren Buffett remains skeptical of cryptocurrency (He has reportedly said:


“You can’t value bitcoin because it’s not a value-producing asset.”), and Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam says bitcoin is “the very definition of a bubble.” If these statements are any indication, there is a lot of skepticism in the world today about bitcoin, but it’s interesting to note that the technology behind it –i.e. blockchain- has been marked out as the next big thing in the digital landscape.


After all, blockchain is much more than just a platform hosting the polarizing cryptocurrency. As an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions, blockchain is emerging as a new type of internet innovation that enables distribution of digital information without being copied.


Take a look at ethereum, for instance, which is an open-source blockchain-based computing platform. Invented by programmer Vitalik Buterin, ethereum is a decentralized platform with capabilities to run smart contracts- in essence, contracts that can be executed exactly as programmed without possibility of fraud or third-party interference.


Among the few startups that are working on ethereum-focused blockchain systems is ConsenSys, a New York-headquartered venture studio that offers tools for developers to build decentralized applications -otherwise called as Dapps (pronounced “dee-apps”)- on ethereum.


The company was founded by Joseph Lubin, who today functions as its CEO- it’s interesting to note here that Lubin was one of the seven co-founders who helped Buterin write up the code for the ethereum platform.


With years of experience in the corporate world (including Goldman Sachs), and stints at a few high-tech startups after graduating from Princeton, Lubin got enamored by the blockchain concept, and thus became a banker who defected to “the other side.


” After getting the ethereum project off the ground, Lubin experimented with its various uses, and that led to the birth of Consensys in 2014. Growing exponentially since then, ConsenSys is today a leading name in the blockchain space, with around 450 employees across the globe.



Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO, ConsenSys. Image credit: ConsenSys.Acting as a “hub” that nurtures various blockchain applications, the company and its founder are betting on ethereum’s potential to reshape global economic transactions.


While all this may seem like an indulgence of the developed world with emerging markets merely on the sidelines, the Arab world should be glad to know that ConsenSys was in fact lured to set up a presence right here in Dubai, a city that’s fast turning into a key global center to realize blockchain’s mainstream applications.


ConsenSys is, in fact, the Blockchain City Advisor of Dubai under the Dubai Blockchain Strategy announced by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, in October 2016.



“Early on, we were happy to speak about blockchain to anybody interested to listen,” Lubin remembers. “Now, we are quite overwhelmed with all the people who want to hear about blockchain. When you are building a company in an ecosystem that doesn’t exist yet, you have to do a lot of different things.


You have to do education, a lot of hand holding in the form of consulting. So, we started getting calls pretty early on from companies and other entities, who wanted to learn about the technology.


” This was over a year ago, when ConsenSys was invited to be a part of the Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA), given their status as global blockchain experts, and the company has now established itself firmly in the city and the wider region as well.


“A significant amount of our work has been done with Smart Dubai Office, where we have been helping a number of government entities understand how blockchain can help create exponential change making government services more effective and efficient, and enabling them to provide highest-quality services to citizens,” Lubin says.


“We have also completed a proof of concept for a land registry, and are highly engaged with the startup community here. We are excited to see that in the region, there are a lot of people passionate about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.


”The relationship has led to ConsenSys working on other projects with the Emirate, many of which aren’t public information yet, says Lubin. “We are [in the process of] building out our new d3- based office in Dubai, in two months or so.


We’ve maintained a presence of around 15 to 20 people [in Dubai], and our roadmap is to get to around 40 people, within, say, nine months.” A few minutes into my conversation with Lubin, and it’s easy to see that the entrepreneur truly believes that blockchain is going to change the world as we know it.


“Our thesis is that this trusted infrastructure, which enables cooperating and competing actors like companies to share nonredundant infrastructure, enables governments to provide much more fluid, efficient, and transparent services.


” He notes that “very few states around the world are moving their infrastructure from frictional technologies (essentially pieces of paper and rubber stamps and ink), to native digital constructs,” and one such nation with a head start is the UAE.


“[UAE] is at the forefront because of a royal edict, delivered in the form of a tweet over a year ago, specifying the Emirate’s intentions to bring all governmental transactions on the blockchain platform by 2020,” Lubin notes.




Joesph Lubin with Wesam Lootah, CEO, Smart Dubai Government. Image credit: ConsenSys.

While setting tangible goals is a great starting point, I ask Lubin his opinion on the UAE’s progress in this regard. “We are working with the Smart Dubai Office for different agencies- writing RFPs, responding to RFPs, etc. There’s a blockchain infrastructure that’s being built for the nation, which will involve an ethereum platform, and an IBM hyperledger platform.


So, yes, it [Dubai’s 2020 blockchain target] is definitely happening,” he replies. This steers our conversation to ConsenSys’ role in creating a global blockchain ecosystem, which, Lubin says, remains the company’s key focus. “It is challenging to scale our business fast enough to keep up with the demand, which is why we are so focused on training the next generation of leaders in the blockchain space,” he says.


Besides undertaking this through their consulting arm, ConsenSys also launched the ConsenSys Academy, an initiative to bridge the ethereum knowledge gap. “There is a tremendous shortage of blockchain developers on the planet, and we figured why not grow our own pool. So, we basically take very strong software engineers and turn them into blockchain engineers,” says Lubin.


Having launched quietly, without much fanfare, the program still managed to receive over 1,300 applications for its first batch. This list was narrowed down to 133 applicants; and around 120 of these engineers graduated in October.


And what’s worth highlighting is that around 25 of the inaugural graduating class were UAE-based. Indeed, the graduation ceremony for the inaugural batch took place in Dubai with the presence of delegates including H.E. Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of Smart Dubai Office, Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai Government Establishment, and other executives.


“We were very interested [to have Middle East and UAE participation] in this first cohort,” Lubin says. “We’ve got a lot of projects going on here [in the UAE], and are doing our best to spin up technologists here- both local and native- and also bring people here.”




The 2017 Graduating Class of the ConsenSys Developer Program. Image credit: ConsenSys.

But the Academy is not ConsenSys’ only way of strengthening the ecosystem. While nurturing the ideas of blockchain developers through their own studio, ConsenSys realized that there were projects “implementing adjacent and complementary tech,” that did not fit entirely into their scheme, but still needed to be enabled.


Thus was born ConsenSys Ventures, a US$50 million venture capital fund from ConsenSys that aims to provide preseed and seed capital to blockchain tech startups. ConsenSys Ventures backs startups that both “do and don’t plan to eventually offer digital tokens,” and Lubin adds that Kavita Gupta (the Founding Managing Partner) has looked at a “shocking number of projects” since launch three months ago.


“We’ve just made our first investment, and owing to conflict issues, I wouldn’t like to say anything publicly about that yet,” he adds. Whether it’s the technical prowess of the team, or Lubin’s own formidable experience in the world of ethereum, it’s safe to say that ConsenSys has now become a magnet of sorts when it comes to attracting talent, and this is despite the fact that they didn’t recruit for a long time.


“We literally had people show up in our office and say they loved what we are doing; lot of people joined us in such a way,” says Lubin. “As blockchain developers in legacy organizations, it can get a bit frustrating, so we are getting access to such people, as we started recruiting recently,” he says.


According to a recent Quartz report, three executives, (from BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, and PWC) undertaking blockchain work at their respective firms, are now either directly employed at ConsenSys, or will work on their own projects with ConsenSys funding. “As we scale, we are hiring the best and the brightest experts in entrepreneurship, finance, enterprise delivery, cryptography, blockchain development, game theory, and more from all over the world.


Our only bottleneck is the supply of experts in blockchain compared to the much higher demand, in all parts of our business, which is why we started the educational hub ConsenSys Academy.”As ConsenSys strives to promote the potential of decentralizing technologies by building developer tools and solutions for governments and enterprises, it’s likely that Dubai, as a city with access to tap this knowledge, will also inch closer to its blockchain goals. Lubin shares the sentiment.


“From what we’ve seen, it’s a very exciting time for a technologist to be here. It’s kind of astonishing how focused [UAE is], compared to the rest of the world on being cutting-edge, and [how it] has a strong focus on creating a context in which the population can be better served and happier,” he says.


“For a [blockchain] entrepreneur, especially developers, it’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime situation, where the kind of growth we’d see is going to create a shocking amount of value,” he says, to entrepreneurs fascinated by the mysterious growing tech, urging them to reach out to ConsenSys for “developer tools, resources, and funding [you] need to build decentralized applications that will transform the world’s economic, social and political systems.


” In fact, ethereum advocates envision the creation of an Internet 2.0 that hosts “decentralized app stores,” where anyone can publish their Dapps that connect users and providers directly.


And given Lubin’s sentiment, it does make one feel that the day is not far when we move on from saying “there’s an app for that” to “there’s a DApp for that” for all that we need to doit’s only a matter of time.

Discover even more from Entrepreneur here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/305701

The average citizen in many Latin American countries has turned to Bitcoin in order to survive, and now many wealthy families are becoming a believer in the cryptocurrency and are buying as much as they can.


The economic situation in many Latin American countries is extremely dire. Hyperinflation has hit Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil, with some countries in worse shape than others (Venezuela). Many normal residents began to turn to Bitcoin when the economic situation began to hit rock bottom.

Now it seems that the upper echelons of Latin American society have taken note as many wealthy families are now diving enthusiastically into Bitcoin.

A LAND OF UPHEAVAL

Venezuela has served as ground zero for the economic crisis in Latin America. The situation is so desperate that many turned to crypto mining in order to buy the basic necessities, such as food and medicine. A shocking stat is that a full 3/4th of the country lost weight last year due to food shortages.


Despite government crackdowns, the local population continues to actively trade in cryptocurrency, with Localbitcoins serving as the main hub.The elites of Latin America have not proven immune to the economic situation. Wealthy families are now buying big into Bitcoin as a means to protect their assets from currency controls and rising consumer prices.


Several cryptocurrency funds have opened up in 2017 to provide service to this elite clientele.One of these funds is Solidus Capital, founded by Carlos Mosquera Benatuil, who fled to Rome from Venezuela to open the business. He says that family offices make up most of the funds, who are looking to turn around their fortunes. He says:

Latin America is very volatile. Cryptos are turning into a new haven for these families.

BITCOIN OFFERS HOPE

Whether rich or poor, the skyrocketing inflation has eaten into everybody’s savings and spending power. Compounding the issue is strict government controls, especially the Venezuelan government cutting off access to US dollars.


Bitcoin offers a refuge from these problems.To show how much Bitcoin and other digital currencies have exploded in Latin America due to the ongoing economic crisis, the number of cryptocurrency transactions in Venezuela alone have tripled since the start of 2017. Demand in Argentina spiked in June when former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose policies put the country into a recession, announced that she was running again for political office.

Interesting post on /r/Bitcoin from a Redditor who compares the different options for storing value in Venezuela.“I know a lot of people who sold everything they could to leave the country and took their money to bitcoins through @LocalBitcoins.”
https://t.co/dvmxu4ozhV pic.twitter.com/R3egCdmoLa— Kyle Torpey (@kyletorpey) December 1, 2017

People in Latin America are turning to Bitcoin as it offers immediate payment without the need for a bank. Even professionals are now demanding to be paid in digital currencies. For family members who live abroad, Bitcoin is a lifesaver as they can send money in an instant back home without the onerous fees charged by groups like Western Union.


The fact that anybody with a smart phone can now begin trading Bitcoin has led the way. The chief executive of the Panama-based Cryptobuyer digital currency exchange, Jorge Farias, says:

There are countries today without potable water where everyone has a cellphone. Anyone who has a smartphone can have a bitcoin account, which is something that couldn’t happen before. So its niche really is the whole world.

While many governments in Latin America continue to hamstring their economies, their citizens are increasingly turning to Bitcoin in order to survive or protect what they have left. It’s amazing that the situation is so bad that even the rich are now turning to the cryptocurrency to stave off the current economic effects.

More from Inside Bitcoin here: http://insidebitcoins.com/news/wealthy-families-in-latin-america-snapping-up-bitcoin/89797