Lifeboat Foundation

Not shocking to see; wonder how long this fact finally came out; as when you review much of the research and application of blockchaining that it is not hard to figure out that as more and more QC goes online; we would need a way to bridge block chaining environments to QC.

Quantum mechanics have ignited a transformational change in the way we envision the world and utilize technology. Economics is one of the prominent fields throughout which Quantum mechanics can be deployed. Quantum mechanics can be utilized to create a novel class of blockchains. A new paper has just been published exploring the possibilities of building blockchains on the basis of Quantum mechanics. It discusses how Quantum mechanics can be ideally deployed to build a new class of blockchains.

Quantum based blockchains, known as K-Chains, have a group of advantages over classical blockchains including communication of transactions at a Faster-Than-Light (FTL) speed, unlimited capacity of the network and an innovative offline blockchain that needn’t be connected to the internet for transactions to be executed. Extrapolation of these possibilities can lead to the creation of Quantum Turing Machines that rely on the Quantum Blockchain (K-Chain) technology. Real time data and communication protocols that span across distances of “light years” will be possible.

Continue reading “K-Chains – Blockchain Protocols Based On Quantum Mechanics” »

At the heart of Bitcoin or any Blockchain ledger is a distributed consensus mechanism. It’s a lot like voting. A large and diverse deliberative community validates each, individual user transaction, ownership stake or vote.

But a distributed consensus mechanism is only effective and faithful if the community is impartial. To be impartial, voters must be fairly separated. That is, there must be no collusion enabled by concentration or hidden collaboration. They must be separated from the buyer and seller; they must be separated from the big stakeholders; and they must be separated from each other. Without believable and measurable separation, all sorts of problems ensue. One problem that has made news in the Bitcoin word is the geographical concentration of miners and mining pools.

A distributed or decentralized transaction validation is typically achieved based on Proof-of-Work (POW) or Proof-of-Stake (POS). [explain]. But in practice, these methodologies exhibit subtle problems…

The problem is that Proof-of-Work can waste an enormous amount of energy and both techniques result in a concentration of power (either by geography or by special interest) — rather than a fair, distributed consensus.

Continue reading “Distributed Objective Consensus: Beyond POW & POS” »

Research can seem bland to us laypersons. But, Marko Vukolić shares many of my research interests and he exceeds my academic credentials (with just enough overlap for me to understand his work). So, in my opinion, his writing is anything but bland…

Vukolić started his career as a post-doc intern at IBM in Zurich Switzerland. After a teaching stint as assistant professor at Eurecom and visiting professor at ETH Zurich, he rejoined the IBM research staff in both cloud computing infrastructure and the Blockchain Group.*

As a researcher and academic, Vukolić is a rising star in consensus-based mechanisms and low latency replicated state machines. At Institut Mines-Télécom in Paris, he wrote papers and participated in research projects on fault tolerance, scalability, cloud computing and distributed trust mechanisms.

Now, at IBM Zurich, Vukolić has published a superior analysis addressing the first and biggest elephant in the Bitcoin ballroom, Each elephant addresses an urgent need:

Continue reading “Blockchain Scalability: Proof-of-Work vs BFT Replication” »

Glad I wasn’t on TOR for a while.

Visitors to more than 10,000 Tor-based websites were met with an alarming announcement this morning: “Hello, Freedom Hosting II, you have been hacked.” A group affiliating itself with Anonymous had compromised servers at Freedom Hosting II, a popular service for hosting websites accessible only through Tor. Roughly six hours after the initial announcement, all the sites hosted by the service are still offline.

In the message, the group offers to sell the compromised data back to Freedom Hosting II in exchange for 0.1 bitcoin, or just over $100, although it is unclear whether the offer is in earnest.

Continue reading “An Anonymous group just took down a fifth of the dark web” »

There are at least four ways to acquire Bitcoin and three ways to store it…

Acquire Bitcoin: You can trade Bitcoin in person, accept it as a vendor, mine it, or buy on an exchange.

Store Bitcoin: You can keep your Bitcoin in an online/cloud service (typically, one that is connected to your exchange account), keep it on your own PC or phone, or even print it out and store it on a piece of paper. Like a physical coin, the piece of paper has value. It can be placed in your lock box or under your mattress.

Let’s look at the market for Bitcoin Wallets (all of these are free), and then we shall talk about Bitcoin exchange services. This includes my personal recommendation for the typical consumer or coin enthusiast…

Continue reading “Getting your First Bitcoin; Choosing a Wallet” »

Ledger’s new hardware wallet is the most costly on the market. Does it have the features to justify the expense? BitGo’s Jameson Lopp investigates.

Nice try; no faith it will succeed long term with QC.

Singapore-based Quantum Foundation announced that it is working on a new project called Qtum, which combines the technology of both bitcoin and ethereum to facilitate blockchain technology adoption for corporations. Qtum is an open-source blockchain project that aims to build smart contract functionalities that can be implemented at an enterprise level.

The initial financial backing of $1 million by several industry leaders is a testament to the validity of the technology that the Qtum project is creating but also demonstrates full faith in its team of developers. Early-stage angel investors in the project include ethereum co-founder Anthony Di Iorio, Fenbushi partner Bo Shen, and OKCoin CEO Star Xu, among others. The Qtum project also intends to launch its native cryptocurrency to support the project through a crowd sale to raise further funds.

Continue reading “Quantum Foundation Combines Bitcoin and Ethereum to Create Qtum” »

Pathetic. This is truly a new low for Ransomware hackers.

MUNCIE — An Indiana cancer services agency says it will replace and rebuild its data after a computer hack demanding a ransom.

Cancer Services of East Central Indiana-Little Red Door in Muncie says it was hacked Jan. 11 and the hackers demanded a ransom of 50 bitcoins, or about $43,000, for access to its data.

Continue reading “Cancer agency hacked for data won’t pay ransom” »

The answer may be counter-intuitive: Not only can Bitcoin be widely adopted under a supply cap, its trust and integrity are a direct result of a provably limited supply. As a result, it will flourish because it is capped.

Everyone Can Own and Trade a Limited Commodity, IF…

…if it is both measurable and divisible. Bitcoin has a capped supply just as gold has a capped supply. Although both assets will be mined for some time into the future, there is only so much that will ever be uncovered. Thereafter, the total pie cannot grow.

But the transaction units will continue to grow as needed, because the pie is divisible into very, very tiny units:

Continue reading “Can Bitcoin Flourish with a Capped Supply?” »