Sunday, August 16, 2015
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Saturday, August 15, 2015
Crucial Bitcoin Scalability Topics to be Discussed at New Scientific & Academic Workshops
“This is going to be the most important Bitcoin conference of the year,” said Warren Togami, Technical Project Manager of Blockstream and Scaling Bitcoin committee member. Judging by the scope and focus of these ambitious workshops, he might not be exaggerating.
The timing of the announcement could not be more apt. On the same day, core developer Mike Hearn announced the launch of the Bitcoin XT hard fork, in a Medium blog post. In his post, Hearn asks, “Why can this dispute not be resolved in some more civilised manner than an outright split?” His conclusion? “Put simply, the decision making process in Bitcoin Core has broken.” The Scaling Bitcoin workshops appear to be poised to address this specific dilemma.
On September 12 and 13, the first of two Bitcoin scalability workshops will be held in Montreal, Canada. Hosted by CryptoMechanics, sponsored by about a dozen companies, and underwritten by Blockstream, Chaincode Labs, MIT Digital Currency Initiative and Chain, this first phase of proposals and presentations will focus on setting the stage for further discussions in phase two, which will be held in Hong Kong at a later date.
Billed as an inclusive and transparent forum for Bitcoin’s engineering and academic community — “No exhibit booths. No distractions.” — the workshops hope to “aid the technical consensus-building process,” removed from the emotional vitriol that has come to characterize much of the debate surrounding scalability and the future of Bitcoin.
“We have to take the politics and drama out of what needs to be a highly technical discussion,” says Togami. “We’re looking for science-based ideas with simulations and testing on how to improve scalability as a whole.”
Planning Committee Chair Pindar Wong of VeriFi (Hong Kong) Ltd., in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, emphasized the need for “transparent, reproducible data — not opinion.” As such, the workshop committee is asking for presentation proposals. The goal is to allow for the consideration of a diversity of points of view, studies, simulations and proposals from around the world. These proposals will be presented using an academic structure.
“A lot of people are talking about scalability, and a lot of material is being produced,” said committee member Jeremy Rubin of MIT. “It’s hard for anyone to read everything and stay on top of all the ideas out there. This will give people an opportunity to be heard in an open and respectful environment.”
Togami agreed with Rubin, adding, “The issues are complex. Even experts can’t synthesize everything they hear in one day.”
This need for sober reflection and consideration is also the reason why the organizers insist that there will be no debates, and no decisions or pronouncements on scalability will be made during the workshops.In fact, the first workshop in Montreal will not be hosting sessions on the topic of any specific proposals involving changes to the Bitcoin protocol. It is intended to set the stage for phase two in Hong Kong where participants will share results from experiments performed as a result of phase 1 and discuss new developments.
The Bitcoin Scalability workshops’ commitment to openness, inclusion and transparency is evident in their attendance models. Early bird tickets are priced at $150 USD until September 3, but interested participants who are unable to travel to Montreal are invited to watch the livestream via IRC. Presenters also have the option of applying for a limited number of travel subsidies.
“This is not a bunch of people at a closed door meeting,” Rubin emphasised. He acknowledged that while in-person, face-to-face conversation is the most effective way to share information, it’s not always practicable. But organizers are trying to remove as many barriers to participation and inclusion as possible.
While there are opportunities to support the workshop through sponsorship or by becoming an event underwriter, Togami stressed another vital way that companies can support the workshops’ aims: “Send us your best engineers.”
Proposals for presentations can be submitted until September 12, 2015. The committee encourages prospective participants to post a paper, simulation results and source code or “whatever other type of research material” they have. However, they point out that publishing a paper is not required, provided there is an adequate presentation plan and summary. Their main goal is to ensure that all good ideas are given consideration.
“In the end,” said Wong, “everyone wants Bitcoin to scale and to succeed.”
For more information about attending a Scaling Bitcoin workshop or submitting a presentation proposal, visit the Scaling Bitcoin website.
Photo Robert Scoble / Flickr (CC)
This post has been updated to add information about Mike Hearn’s BitcoinXT proposal.
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Friday, August 14, 2015
Digital Currency Startups Prosper in Berlin’s Vibrant Bitcoin Community
This is a guest post by Chris Grundy, a Berlin-based Bitcoin enthusiast who works at Bitbond.
Despite Germany’s recent negative press over the Greek bailout, Berlin remains one of the world’s greatest cities for Bitcoin lovers. Whether it’s the plethora of innovative bitcoin startups springing up all over the city, the widespread adoption of the cryptocurrency along Berlin’s high streets, or the vast amount of investment flooding into the German capital, Berlin’s relationship with Bitcoin will be instrumental in shaping its future.
Berlin startups have been enjoying an unprecedented level of investment. Indeed, “Die Welt” reported that Berlin overtook London in terms of Venture Capital Investment in 2014.
According to this report, the German capital enjoyed $2.2 billion in investment compared to London’s $1.5 billion, highlighting Berlin’s increasing suitability for promising startups to gain the funding they need to change the face of Bitcoin.
Recent political developments in Westminster might further add to Berlin’s appeal, as UK Prime Minister David Cameron “would like to see a ban on certain applications that allow users to send end-to-end encrypted messages to each other over the internet.” With catastrophic regulation potentially imminent in London, and New York’s BitLicence scaring off more and more Bitcoin companies, Berlin has a great opportunity to establish itself as the Bitcoin epicenter.
Berlin’s Bitcoin startups cover a wide range of specialities ranging from the use of blockchain to protect creative ownership online, to global P2P lending, to bitcoin mining supercomputers. Companies like ascribe.io, Bitbond, SatoshiPay and Coyno are using bitcoin technology to find game-changing solutions to traditional problems, while BitcoinBrothers and All4btc are improving bitcoins availability and usability on a global scale.
Drawing its philosophical roots from Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank, Bitbond enables people from around the world to access business funding through the use of Bitcoin technology. With 800,000 EUR in funding, its P2P lending and investment model cuts out the banks, allowing investors to fund promising businesses on the other side of the globe at no cost. The need for bankless investing and lending is thrown into sharp relief in light of the 2 billion adults lacking access to banks, as recently reported by CNBC. Disintermediation allows access to working capital in the world’s financially underserved region, making lending and borrowing globally accessible. Recently, another Berlin-based startup, ascribe.io, has been garnering a lot of media attention, along with $2 million USD in seed funding from investors like Earlybird, Digital Currency Group and Freelands Ventures. CEO and Co-founder, Bruce Pon, describes ascribe as “a service for creators to protect their ideas and define how they want their ideas to spread.” With this inventive use of blockchain technology, creators can register, transfer and track their valuable digital creations, allowing them to discover where their work is being used.
Since the funding round, ascribe has been enjoying a growth rate of 10% per week. Its team of 14 is working toward allowing marketplaces to be built on top of their platform.
Also working on innovative blockchain solutions in Berlin are Satoshipay, a micropayment service for publishers, and Coyno, a user-friendly blockchain bookkeeper. Both came through the Axel Springer Plug & Play Accelerator earlier this year.
Like ascribe, Satoshipay’s goal is to help monetize content for its creators. Its prototype, which recently won second prize at the Coinbase BitHack, focuses on micropayments that allow content publishers to charge fractions of a cent. Founded by Meinhard Benn in 2014, the Berlin bitcoin startup envisions a world where content creators can monetise their work using nanopayments without scaring away consumers with cumbersome fees or subscriptions.
Coyno, on the other hand, aims to overcome the implicit tax reporting and bookkeeping difficulties inherent in bitcoin transactions in personal and professional settings. As co-founder Erasmus Hagen says, Coyno provides “a full and secure SaaS Bitcoin bookkeeping solution. Coyno offers easy-to-use wallet analytics and automatic bookkeeping, which enables private Bitcoin users to stay in control of their Bitcoin holdings.”
Bitcoin mining startup BitcoinBrothers, founded in 2013 by the Welle siblings, is building better, faster machines to make bitcoin mining cost-effective again. The Berlin-based startup offers mining services using its MSEM bitcoin mining supercomputers at over 6 petahash per second. BitcoinBrothers represents a fascinating new perspective on the scalability of one of Bitcoin’s most controversial topics.
While Greece’s former Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis has condemned Germany for its “absolutely impossible, totally non-viable and toxic” economic plan for Greece, Berlin-based All4BTC is allowing ordinary Greeks a way out of their fiduciary disaster. Specifically, All4BTC is a personal shopping service, that opens up every online store on the internet to bitcoin. For Greeks who are finding it increasingly difficult to gain access to their savings, All4BTC offers an alternative. Backed by the bitcoin incubator BitcoinsBerlin, the young startup has benefitted from the euro’s recent volatility, as an ever-increasing number of people in eastern and southern Europe turn to bitcoin when they find banks inaccessible.
Berlin’s attractiveness goes beyond the startup scene, government regulations and investment portfolios however. The Federal Association of Bitcoin, with its headquarters in the German capital, represents and fights for the Bitcoin community and Bitcoin businesses in Germany. Beyond that, Bitcoin businesses’ entrepreneurial spirit is merely an expression of the creative influence of the city. As Jason Fell’s insightful remark makes clear: “Berlin’s 3.5 million residents are creating a bright, new history for their city.” Berlin is itself a startup, and its citizens love bitcoin. The truth of this statement can be tasted in the beers of Room 77, heard in the EpicenterBitcoin podcasts, and seen in the eyes of the Bitcoin Meetup members.
Indian Bitcoin Startup Zebpay to Open a Mobile E-Commerce Marketplace
India’s first bitcoin wallet and startup Zebpay has begun offering mobile payment services to its users and has announced its plans to start a mobile e-commerce marketplace.
Zebpay’s newly released mobile payment service enables its users to pay for DTH (direct broadcast satellite), mobile airtime and data card using bitcoin. Additionally, Zebpay users can now purchase prepaid and postpaid plans from India’s major telecom operators, including Vodafone, Airtel, Uninor, Tata Docomo, Reliance, BSNL and MTNL, and DTH of Tata Sky, Reliance, Dish TV, Sun TV and others.
Zebpay’s mobile payment services are already updated and offered to Android users. However, iOS users would have to wait for weeks to use the service, due to the Apple App store’s long process of verification and approval.
“Currently, we pay the companies in rupees after accepting bitcoin from the Zebpay app users,” said Saurabh Agrawal, co-founder, Zebpay.
Zebpay has been operating in India since 2014, as the simplest bitcoin wallet app in the market. It was voted as the best startup to present at the CoinAgenda summit in Las Vegas.
“We aim at enabling people to send and receive Bitcoins just like message transactions,” said Saurabh Agrawal, one of the founding members of Zebpay.
The startup has already initiated a Purse.io like service, in which users can purchase Amazon and FlipKart’s gift cards with bitcoin. FlipKart, with billions of dollars in annual revenue, is the largest e-commerce platform in India.
Coinify Acquires Coinzone in a Deal That Accelerates the Consolidation of European Bitcoin Services
In May Bitcoin Magazine reported on the European expansion initiatives and plans of two European Bitcoin startups, Coinify and Coinzone, respectively based in Denmark and The Netherlands.
“We expect to raise [funds] to make sure that Europe will be playing a leading role in this new payment space,” said Coinify Chief Financial Officer Christian Larson.
“Growing European demand for Bitcoin means more and more consumers want a simple and secure way to transact,” said Coinzone co-founder and CEO Manuel Heilmann. “Our aim is to make it easy for European consumers to do more with bitcoin.”
Both companies expressed the need for Bitcoin solutions tailored to European users. In particular, some aspects of European regulations, both national and European Union (EU) -wide, must be addressed – for example, consumer protection and data privacy regulations.
Now the two startups have decided to join forces. A press release published on the Coinify site announces that Coinify will be taking over the operations of Coinzone. Coinzone will bring development and volume to the table, and this new partnership will result in a number of new opportunities for customers of both platforms.
“We welcome aboard Coinzone’s merchants and partners to Coinify, and will make sure that we continue the good work of Coinzone,” said Coinify CEO Mark Højgaard. “Coinzone has done a remarkable job, especially considering its short time in the market.”
Coinify is no newcomer to acquisitions. In September 2014, after securing a multi-million capital injection by SEED Capital and Accelerace Invest, the company purchased technologies and the customer base from the trade platform Bitcoin Nordic and the merchant services pioneer Bitcoin Internet Payment System. Coinify is now preparing for a new series A investment round.
“We reached out to Coinify as we believed that we could strengthen the position of a European-based Bitcoin provider,” said Heilmann on the Coinzone side. “Coinify has a strong financial management team, supportive investors behind it, and together with the strong position that Coinzone has built over the last few years, we look forward to even more growth with Coinify.”
The acquisition marks an acceleration in the trend toward consolidation of Bitcoin services in Europe and the emergence of a global European operator. Though both companies had a presence in most European countries, Coinzone was stronger in certain countries, which likely is one of the main reasons for the acquisition.
“Coinzone’s established presence in Europe, especially in the most active countries of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Romania, and the recent market entries in the U.K., the Czech Republic and Poland, is 100 percent in line with our strategy to accelerate the expansion in these important markets,” said Coinify CFO and Head of Strategy Christian Visti.
Another reason for the acquisition is likely to be the synergy between the two companies’ focuses. In fact, the move will permit Coinify to offer a solid payment gateway technology to its growing merchant client base.
“Coinify is taking the lead in the current battlefield with a strong belief that Coinify will be among the top players in the world dealing with cryptocurrency infrastructure for online merchants through a PSP tailored solution,” said Richard Breiter for SEED Capital, one of Coinify’s funders. “The Coinify team has done an amazing job, pushing past milestones and achievements beyond our expectations.”
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UBS Launches Future of Finance Challenge for Fintech Entrepreneurs and Startups
In April, Bitcoin Magazine reported that UBS was planning to investigate blockchain technology in a new innovation lab based in London. The innovation lab located in Level39, Europe’s largest technology accelerator space for finance and cyber-securities, focuses on exploring the role of blockchain technology in financial services.
“Our innovation lab at Level39 will provide a unique platform to explore emerging technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and to understand the potential impact for the industry,” said UBS Group CIO Oliver Bussmann.
UBS, a Swiss global financial services company with its headquarters in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, provides investment banking, asset management and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide. Operating in more than 50 countries with about 60,000 employees around the world, UBS is the biggest Swiss bank and is considered as the world’s largest manager of private wealth assets, with more than 2.2 trillion Swiss francs (CHF) in invested assets.
Now UBS has launched a call for ideas to the financial technology community.
”Today is a very exciting day for UBS,” writes Bussmann on Linkedin’s Pulse. “We have launched the UBS Future of Finance Challenge, a competition which is open to entrepreneurs and startups around the world with potentially disruptive technological ideas and solutions to support the transformation of the banking industry.”
Entries can be submitted by entrepreneurs and startups with revenues of less than $3 million USD, which have received less than $10 million USD in funding and were incorporated on or after January 1, 2010. The closing date is September 23, 2015. UBS is offering the regional and global finalists cash prizes and accelerator places worth more than $300,000 USD and more than 300 hours of dedicated coaching from UBS mentors and partners.
“We recognize there is a lot we can learn from entrepreneurs and startups,” says Bussman. “Hence why we were so pleased to be the first global bank to move into Level39 in London. Ultimately our ambition is to help shape a more open and collaborative financial services industry and to jointly develop new solutions for our clients.”
The Future of Finance Challenge is divided in four main categories where technology can transform how the bank works and what it delivers for its clients: Secure Banking, Client Experience, Superior Offering and Banking Efficiency. In order to address these challenges, UBS suggests a long list of innovative approaches and potentially disruptive technologies that might be relevant. The list includes a wide range of currently hot technology buzzwords, including some that are (at this moment) only weakly related to the business of banking, such as immersive virtual reality environments and quantum processing.
Bitcoin Magazine readers and Bitcoin companies interested in participating in the UBS Challenge will be especially interested in these technologies mentioned in the UBS call: blockchain applications, blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, data analytics, digital identification, digital marketplaces, digital vault, distributed ledgers, mobile technology, security and privacy verification and smart contracts. It seems likely that, by leveraging these technologies in combination with the others mentioned in the UBS call, participants will be able to come up with innovative ideas and solutions for UBS and the banking industry.
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