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 A new raft of crypto and blockchain analytics tools has just been launched by search giant Google. They will provide deep data sets for the top cryptocurrencies and aim to revolutionize blockchain search as the company did for information on the internet.

Six New Blockchain Datasets Added
Over the past year Google Cloud has released blockchain transaction history datasets for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Yesterday the company announced the release of six more datasets in addition to a deeper set of queries that enables multi-chain meta-analyses and integration with conventional financial record processing systems.

The six new blockchain datasets just released are Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Zcash. Google Cloud developer Allen Day told Forbes;

“I’m very interested to quantify what’s happening so that we can see where the real legitimate use cases are for blockchain. So people can acknowledge that and then we can move to the next use case and develop out what these technologies are really appropriate for.”

The company blog went on to explain that five of these particular crypto assets (BCH, LTC, DASH, ZEC and DOGE) have been chosen ‘because they all have similar implementations, i.e., their source code is derived from Bitcoin’s.

’ The sixth one, ETC, is based on Ethereum – or as many will correct – is the original Ethereum blockchain. All datasets will update every 24 hours via a common codebase, the Blockchain ETL  (extract, transform, load) ingestion framework, which will enable real time streaming transactions for all blockchains by implementing a low-latency loading solution.

Google’s BigQuery data analytics platform started off with Bitcoin and Ethereum last year. During the period developers have been monitoring usage of the software in order to create the next six datasets.

The search giant also has a machine learning (ML) tool which searches for patterns in transaction flows so it can provide basic information on how a crypto address is used.

In what has been termed as a ‘unified schema’ the data has been structured in a easy to access method maintaining consistency across datasets.

This will enable easier and smarter blockchain data comparisons for data scientists and researchers. The blog post highlights a number of example queries and applications for the data extracted.

The first terabyte for these datasets will be free each month according to the report with costs charged per byte following for heavy users.

Rival tech and retail giants Microsoft and Amazon have also entered into the cloud and blockchain space last year as the competition heats up. Google has been the leader in big data for several years at it clearly aims to remain there for the nascent crypto industry.

“This is not some kind of dependency on government agency reporting,” Day added, “We have all the data, and we can pull metrics and and look at them and reason about them over time.”

Canada has a rich history of innovation, but in the next few decades, powerful technological forces will transform the global economy. Large multinational companies have jumped out to a headstart in the race to succeed, and Canada runs the risk of falling behind.

At stake is nothing less than our prosperity and economic well-being. The Financial Post set out explore what is needed for businesses to flourish and grow. You can find all of our coverage here.

The outcry over Cambridge Analytica’s access to Facebook user data last year, followed by the U.S. Senate’s questions to Mark Zuckerberg on Capitol Hill, revealed a general lack of understanding of how the Internet works and how enterprise makes money on it. It boils down to this: If you’re not paying for a product on the Internet, you’re the product.

That’s a truism many critics of Quayside, a real estate project developed by Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto, have taken to heart. The project plan calls for a digital platform designed “into the physical environment from the start” in order to collect urban data “in a single place.

” The end goal is to “enable a seamless interface between residents and service delivery.” In other words, a physical manifestation of what Alphabet’s Google does in cyberspace — which is extracting value from huge sets of user data.



Done right, this “smart city” could provide valuable insight into our public services, energy grids and municipal infrastructure and improve quality of life for citizens. It could also put yet another aspect of our privacy at risk. Privacy advocates have argued for government regulation of the use of our data.

But regulation has yet to prevent hackers from cracking the central databases of Equifax Canada or Nissan Canada Finance, to name just two examples. Let’s face it: any centralized system is vulnerable to attack. There is no reason for corporations or governments to store, let alone own or control, our personal information.

• Read the full Innovation Nation series here
• Innovation Nation: How smart cities may be too smart for their own good
• IP and the Blockchain revolution

Fortunately, there is a third option, enabled by blockchain, the innovation underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The same code that identifies each bitcoin as unique and secures the vast Bitcoin network (worth more than $85 billion) against hacking, could do the same for every person. It starts with a digital ID unique to each person, secured cryptographically with a private key pair, and comprised of multiple factors or data points.

The more factors, the harder the identity is to fake or hack. Such an ID enables individuals to create and manage their own “digital black box” of private data.A distributed ledger, accessible through a virtual black box, brings transformative self-sovereignty.

Realizing this “Virtual You” through blockchain technologies could not only preserve our right to privacy and personal security but also restore our control over the data we create. In the case of Sidewalk Labs, for example, it would give Torontonians the power to decide who can use their data and how: They could volunteer or license its usage, or refuse to share it altogether.




As the Toronto-born co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of Consensus Systems Joseph Lubin has put it, “we should be establishing our own identities and bootstrapping ourselves into economic enfranchisement!”How would such a system work? 

A number of startups already offer digital IDs through blockchain apps. uPort, for example, assigns each user a 20-byte hexadecimal string to serve as the address of a proxy contract, a piece of special purpose code that executes a complex set of instructions involving identity on the blockchain.

The proxy contract is the ultimate mechanism through which a user can digitally sign and verify a transaction, an action, or a claim; manage cryptocurrencies or other digitized assets; link to a user’s off-chain data; and grant others temporary permission to read or write specific data files in exchange for value.




Such a system must be distributed among and maintained by the same people whose identities it protects — an identity commons not owned or controlled by any one company but accessible to anyone — so that users’ incentives align, and there are clear rights for them to steward their own identities, access (and allow others to access) and monetize their data, and participate in rule-making around the preservation and usage of the commons.

An identity commons would naturally need to exist independently from corporate, government or other institutions. It would need to outlive individual users so that it could enforce their right to be forgotten, to delete data. And it would need to employ distributed file storage systems that are censorship-resistant.

“Decentralization is important,” says Joseph Weinberg, a Toronto-based entrepreneur and chair of the Shyft Network, which is building a data transport protocol to give citizens more control over personal information. “If you get hacked, there’s a lot less to steal.”The transition to secure digital IDs will take time. 

But if we reclaim the most fundamental human asset — our identities — we can begin monetizing our private data anywhere in the world. Though we can’t close the Pandora’s box of personal data that we’ve shared so far, we can build a future where individuals have greater control and economy agency over their data.

This new framework should complement innovation, along with progressive policies that allow for companies big and small, foreign and domestic, to push boundaries. Sidewalk Labs should be a welcome addition to Toronto — but let’s be smart about how we innovate.

If private companies are going to have a say in public life and public infrastructure, they should abide by a new social contract for the digital age: one that affirms that the best guardians of privacy are not government or businesses but citizens themselves.

Alex Tapscott is co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute and co-author of Blockchain Revolution, now translated into 15 languages. He is also an active investor in blockchain companies and projects.

Blockchain technology that was developed to reinforce digital currency bitcoin,  is picking up pace in India. A recent effort in this area is the setting up of The Blockchain Foundation of India (BFI) is a community effort to promote the growth of blockchain-based initiatives in India.


While relatively nascent in India, it is considered the most efficient technology against cyber fraud that allows financial transactions to be verified electronically over a network of computers.


BFI was launched formally on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 in New Delhi, India. The aim of BFI is to connect all blockchain-based startups and their CXOs, government bodies, blockchain enthusiasts at one single platform to inspire, participate and collaborate in each other’s success in this growing industry.


The executive members of BFI are Velix.ID, a blockchain startup working with the mission to build a global platform for frictionless identity verification, CoinSecure, a leading Bitcoin exchange in Indiaand OneCo.


Work, a startup working to promote startup culture in India by solving basic startup problems.Manav Singhal from Velix.ID  said, “Blockchain is the future of technology itself. We have a lot of talent working with blockchain in India; what we truly needed was a platform to collaborate and encourage.


Through the BFI platform, we will be able to accelerate the growth of blockchain technology in India remarkably. ”Already several banks in India have started experimenting with the new tech. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, YES Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank are using it in areas such as international trade finance and vendor financing.


In India, 56 percent of companies surveyed by research firm PwC said blockchain is part of innovation strategy, though not many may have implemented it. The PwC Survey counts the most common uses as those for fund transfers, digital identity and payments infrastructure.


The Mission of BFI is to spread awareness in the technology and related practices. Even though blockchain technology has been around for a while globally, the technology has not quite caught up in India.


One of the goals of BFI is to dispense information about the blockchain technology in a more Indian context.Secondly, this can help in building a Community: At present, the Blockchain Community in India is divided into motley groups with no uniformity.


By bringing the community together, BFI aims to advocate for improved blockchain reception in India.


BFI is also expected to accelerate Blockchain Growth. Blockchain, as a technology, is still in its nascent stage in India.


There is a remarkable leeway to make innovations in the blockchain sphere; by promoting promising startups, BFI shall help accelerate the growth of the technology.