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Unblocked I felt completely comfortable learning about Bitcoin.




Wednesday 21 November 2018























Bitcoin has now died 319 times according to Bitcoin Obituaries, but like a B-movie zombie it just won’t stay down. To date, no one has succeeded in administering the fatal double tap, and not for lack of trying. Nine years on, bitcoin is stronger and healthier than ever, with a thriving ecosystem of projects under development, from sidechains to custodial and layer two scaling solutions. Only the brave or the foolish would write off bitcoin in 2018, and yet that’s exactly what so-called experts keep doing. “I thought we’d finally get rid of bitcoin,” grumbled John Crudele in the New York Post. He’s been banging the same drum for four years. “But the fake “currency,” which I like to call bitcon, just won’t fade away…Even at $6,600, bitcoin is still worth 70 percent less than it was at the beginning of the year.” He finished: I use the term “worth” cautiously because bitcoin is really worth nothing, since it’s backed by nothing or no one. It’s a confidence game that has value only because people are convincing other people that it’s worth something. Got it! Ponzi scheme. Confidence game. Fraud. Anyway, bitcoin is headed for a value of zilch. It’s only a matter of when. bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance finance business business business business business business business business business business business business business business business business Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Community sites Predicting Bitcoin to Go to Zero Will Send Your Reputation to Zero The Lost Art of Googling Bitcoin isn’t complicated. Merkle roots and block header pruning and UTXOs, sure, that stuff’s too complicated for your average MSM journo. But understanding bitcoin at its most basic level requires nothing more than an ability to Google. Another serving of FUD this week came from a research paper that the Bank of Finland released. The Great Illusion of Cryptocurrencies includes such observations as “cryptocurrencies are not real currencies but instead accounting systems for non-existent assets” and “For all intents and purposes, that ledger is a centralised ledger. The fact that there are multiple synchronised copies of it, distributed across a network, is irrelevant, as each one has the same data.” Predicting Bitcoin to Go to Zero Will Send Your Reputation to Zero The UK Media Weigh In Around the same time that the New York Post’s Crudele was foaming over his laptop, British tabloid The Sun was also doling out misinformation. “BUBBLE TROUBLE How Bitcoin bubble burst as cryptocurrency loses 70% value and 800 digital currencies now defunct” screeched the headline. “FEARS are growing that the cyptocurrency [sic] bubble is about to burst after it emerged more than 800 digital coins are now defunct,” read the article, conflating dead shitcoins with BTC for no apparent reason. The Independent is meant to be more reputable than The Sun, but the British media outlet also took aim at bitcoin this week. Like The Sun, its analysis was hopelessly off the mark. “Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest point since November and will probably be totally wiped out” ran the headline by associate editor Hamish McRae, “one of the country’s most respected financial journalists and commentators”. Evidently in the mood for serving some WTF with his FUD, McRae’s byline read: “Will investors’ support for bitcoin continue? The trouble is that we don’t know who owns it. A huge amount of energy has gone into uncovering ownership but most names remain concealed.” Somewhere in the midst of the rambling screed, the journalist then floated the idea that “By looking at IP addresses, it is clear that [bitcoin] ownership is very concentrated.” Predicting Bitcoin to Go to Zero Will Send Your Reputation to Zero The Independent’s financial expert ended: “The BIS [Bank for International Settlements] thinks that the decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies is a weakness rather than a strength.” Well fancy that. “My instinct is that these cryptocurrencies will disappear in a puff of smoke. I just hope too many people are not too damaged when it happens.” The thing about predicting bitcoin to go to zero is you can never be proven wrong. You can also never be taken seriously again.

Sunday 1 January 2017

Blockchain Project

Global Charity Oxfam Launches Blockchain Project For Cambodian Rice Farmers

Global charity organization Oxfam has launched a blockchain technology platform aimed toward enhancing the transparency and traceability of the rice provide chain in Cambodia.
Known as BlocRice, the app uses distributed ledger technology to implement sensible contracts wherever details such as the farm gate price of organic rice, trade volume and methodology of transportation are recorded, according to the Khmer Times.
The project which will initially work with 50 rice farmers in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province throughout the first year is anticipated to boost the bargaining power of the participants in negotiations with the buyers of their produce potentially netting them higher costs.
“The application of blockchain technology is anticipated to enhance the negotiation power of small-scale farmers in their rice value chains, who are sometimes poor primary producers,” the country director of Oxfam in Cambodia, Solinn Lim, said.
Additionally, the BlocRice app can connect all the various actors on the supply chain – the farmers, Cambodian rice exporters and Dutch importers – right from the planting season.
“All actors, from the agricultural cooperatives up to [Dutch rice manufacturer] SanoRice, can have a shared, digital contract,” Solinn said. “During the method, from planting to the producing of rice crackers, the chain actors will share information with one another through their shared database powered by blockchain.”
Cashless Payments
During the pilot phase of the project, cashless payments to the farmers also will be introduced and this can be expedited by Cambodia’s biggest local commercial bank in terms of client numbers and assets, Acleda Bank. The participating farmers have already opened accounts with the leading financial institution.
Currently, it's calculable that around 60th of Cambodia’s labor force works in the agricultural sector. Enhancing transparency particularly with regards to prices is thus expected to empower an oversized section of the Cambodian society and improve livelihoods.
While the blockchain pilot is presently restricted to organic rice, in future it might be expanded to different Cambodian agricultural products like cashew nuts, pepper and cassava. Oxfam also expects to expand the amount of farmers signed up to BlocRice from 1,000 by 2020 and 5,000 by 2022.
The Rice Capital of the World?
With Southeast Asia being a significant rice producer, Cambodia isn't the only country that's exploring blockchain technology with a view of benefiting farmers. As reported by CCN last month, Thailand’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) has also indicated that it'll unveil blockchain projects meant to, among different things, increase efficiency in the rice export sector.
“Using blockchain for the process might reduce processing time to less than 3 days, improving transparency and increasing confidence and trust for exporters and foreign importers, benefiting Thai farmers,” the director of TPSO, Pimchanok Vonkorpon, was quoted as saying in October.

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