Bitcoin Plaza

Monday, November 10, 2014

Top 10 Risks Associated with Bitcoin Presented by Finance Professor at World Bank Forum

Mark Thomas Williams, a faculty member in the Finance and Economics Department at Boston University, presented his top-10 most significant risks associated with Bitcoin at World Bank forum.

Genecoin: DNA for the Blockchain

While it’s a common refrain in the Bitcoin universe that the Blockchain will have countless uses for the storage and management of scarcity in our lives, it’s still a field that’s just starting to deliver on this promise. Enter Genecoin, a newcomer in the Bitcoin space that seeks to fulfill an unlikely spot in our Blockchain future: the encoding and storage of who we are. Despite its name, Genecoin is not a crypto currency or a counterparty asset. Genecoin is the name of a nascent company run by a group of anonymous bitcoiners based in a undisclosed location in the United States’ northeast coast. The members of Genecoin are offering a simple proposition to the Bitcoin universe: to populate the Bitcoin Blockchain with the sequenced DNA of its customers.

Genecoin is still in its earliest stages of existence, and is not bashful about letting its audience know that the company is just in its beginning stages. The price list is still open ended, and the web site is quick to note that “We’re Gauging Market Interest.” However, the principles have clearly received a lot of attention in a very short time, and seem committed to the goal of servicing their first customers. For potential customers, the Genecoin process will start by connecting a client with a gene sequencing lab. This lab will send a saliva collection kit via the US mail, along with instructions to the user on how to collect their saliva using the provided hardware. Once collected, the user sends the sample back to the lab, via the postal service, where the sample is processed and sequenced. After sequencing, the results will be sent to Genecoin, where they are then to be persisted onto the Bitcoin Blockchain. Though there are many companies offering their customers gene sequencing services, it’s the Blockchain persistence that separates Genecoin from the competition.

Amongst the many technical challenges that Genecoin is openly addressing is just how to store this DNA data using Bitcoin. Given that your typical human’s unencrypted DNA takes up approximately 750 MiB of data, storage of this data in full, on the Blockchain, would be significantly cost prohibitive. However, Genecoin is quick to point out that much of this data is redundant between humans, and that this size can be drastically reduced by merely encoding the ‘differences’ amongst a single human’s DNA from those of a reference model. Such an encoding would require off-chain data be used for reference, and Genecoin is exploring various ways of referencing this data in a decentralized capacity. In addition to the considerations surrounding space efficiency, Genecoin is actively exploring mechanisms to encrypt the storage of one’s DNA on the Blockchain as well. After all, just because one wants their data to persist forever, doesn’t mean they want everyone privy to it. Options for latter decryption would include time-lock, and oracle-based decryption schemes.

So, why would anyone want to encode their DNA on the Blockchain? Like much in the crypto space, some projects are a solution in search of a problem. However, one easy reason to use the blockchain to store DNA would be as a replacement for a traditional ‘Birth Certificate.’ Notarization has long been a function provided by the Bitcoin Blockchain, so to ‘notarize’ the existence of a person’s DNA could attest to the existence of an identity, and its age. This attestation would thereafter function in the much the same way as does our current oracle-based (hospital-centric) system. Additionally, for those thinking of the far off future, another fanciful notion might be to encode one’s DNA for the purposes of cloning by a future generation. If that sounds a bit too far-fetched, well, just remember that decentralized currencies were once a far-fetched idea as well.

Regardless of where Genecoin and the DNA sequencing market goes from here, there’s a number of wonderful questions being asked and answered around the Genecoin project. Does the Blockchain have value? What’s the best way to store data so that it will survive the eons? How will the Blockchain find a use outside of the traditional confines of the financial space? These questions will be answered in enough time, but one answer that’s immediately obvious for many in the Bitcoin community, and hopefully to be obvious for others in the biology community: the Blockchain has many uses above and beyond just the storage of balances on a ledger.

The Face of Bitcoin Documentary

The Bitcoin community has been rapidly growing since its creation.

What was believed to be just a group of geeks and anarchists has transformed into an extremely diverse and passionate community.

I’ve come to realize that much of the bitcoin community is represented by avatars and usernames on the Internet. There is a shortage of physical human representation. For any grassroots movement to acquire legitimacy, people need to see real people.

EasyBitz, a payment network powered by crypto-currency, has begun an initiative to film the real faces of the bitcoin community.

They need your face.

They are compiling videos of a diverse group of bitcoiners speaking about their involvement with it, and making one great documentary out of it.

They have already shot a trailer, which is here:

Ray Yusef, CEO of Easy Bitz, tells how this idea came to life:

“We saw a documentary called the Rise and Rise of Bitcoin and thought it was absolutely masterful,” says Ray. “It taught us a lot that we didn’t know about bitcoin’s history and colorful characters, most of them archetypal techies and early adopters. Then we realized that many of the bitcoiners we knew were very different from the people in the film, the community is rapidly evolving. We knew we had to help tell this chapter of the story. We want bitcoiners to know just how diverse, cool and accomplished this movement is and how much it has grown. We’re in New York City and dealing with retail merchants has introduced us to such an eclectic slice of the world. Artists, musicians, Wall Street types, chefs, models and even the elderly. Some were already into bitcoin and others we introduced to bitcoin. Each of them has a story worth of its own film and together they make for a rich emerging culture.”

Ray goes on to add:

“Much as how we don’t have a bird’s eye of view of our own movement, we don’t see how others outside of the movement see us. If we did we’d realize that most people see us three ways.

Hackers and anarchists: The media has done a real job convincing the world that bitcoin is inseparable from Silk Road and that the community itself is a shadowy den of bitcoin craving hackers and Illuminati-fearing conspiracists. If they saw the face of bitcoin in its wholeness they would smile and want to give bitcoin a hug.

Corporate cultists: Ignorance of bitcoin’s nature as a decentralized protocol is the primary reason why most people roll their eyes or smirk when you tell them you are into bitcoin. They think bitcoin is a single corporation staffed by weird zealots hungary for market share. They don’t realize that bitcoin is like email, a protocol than anyone can use or build a service on top of. If they did they’d already be thinking of an idea in the Bitcoin space.

Zombies: Talking with merchants for over nine months has taught us that 90% of them think that bitcoin died with Mt. Gox in Japan. They think bitcoin is dead and whatever remains are vestiges of a failed experiment. If they understood just how alive and vibrant the bitcoin community was on every level they wouldn’t hesitate to become one of us.”

When this project is finished, a candid look in to the eyes of the many humans rallying behind the hope brought by the creation of the blockchain will be given to viewers, and will change the way they look at this new Internet phenomenon.

The EasyBitz team has focused on the work of connecting people, and has encouraged all others involved in Bitcoin to do the same. They’ve started Bitcoin Happy Hour meetups in New York City.

Ray believes that this documentary will also change the community’s conception of itself, and spur more innovation.

“Even more important than how the world sees us is how we see ourselves. A morale boost never hurts when you are trying to change the world and a morale boost is exactly what we will get once we see how amazingly awesome and cool this community has grown to be.”

To submit your video, jump to this link: http://ift.tt/1224LhZ

Also, check out the EasyBitz NYC Happy Hour meetup: http://ift.tt/ZZk6Ox

BitLicence Creator Benjamin Lawsky “To Step Down in Early 2015”

Embattled New York superintendent of financial services Benjamin Lawsky is rumored to be stepping down from his post in 2015.

Inside Bitcoins Paris Unveils Full Agenda, Speakers

With the recent successes in London, Las Vegas and Tel Aviv, Inside Bitcoins Conference and Expo, has proven to be one of the leading trade shows for the fast-growing Bitcoin and related cryptocurrenc

Interview with Andy Schroder, Creator of the Bitcoin Fluid Dispenser

The Bitcoin Fluid Dispenser is true to its name. The device accepts Bitcoin and could potentially be used to spew any of a range of fluids, like gas, fuel, H2O, and alcohol. The possibilities are vast