Tag: Blockchain

5 ways blockchain can save the environment

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Blockchain, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Blockchain technology is primarily associated with cryptocurrency, smart contracts, fintech and so on, but there are ways in which this new technology can solve environmental problems, and could potentially reverse climate change.

Blockchains they are particularly interesting for environmental causes, because they make it possible to track and verify transactions and interactions without a centralised authority. We can use this to increase transparency, accountability, and efficiency of environmental projects.

Here are five examples of how it could be used.

  1. Recycling

People are often not incentivised to participate in recycling. And, as most cities are responsible for their own recycling programmes, there is no way to compare their effectiveness. A recycling program on the blockchain could encourage participation by giving a financial reward in the form of a cryptographic token in exchange for depositing recyclables like plastic containers, cans, or bottles. These schemes already exist in some parts of Europe.

  1. Energy

Traditional power grids are centralised, which can create inefficiencies in energy distribution, like having unused surplus. A peer-to-peer blockchain based energy system would reduce the need to transmit electricity over long distances, and thus reduce loss and energy storage requirements. It could also encourage companies and people to get returns from investing in renewable energy.

  1. Environmental charities

It can be difficult to track how money donated to a charity is spent. Blockchain technology can ensure that money intended to be used as a reward for conservation, or a payment to a specific cause, does not disappear into the wrong places.

  1. Carbon footprint tax

Currently, the environmental impact of each product is difficult to determine, and its carbon footprint is not factored into the price. Consumers are given little price incentive to buy products with a low carbon footprint. A blockchain-based reputation system could give each company and product a score based on the carbon footprint of the products they sell.

  1. Consumer incentives

It can be difficult for individuals or companies to see the direct effects of their actions. Therefore, the incentives for acting in an environmentally sustainable way aren’t always clear, especially in the short term. Blockchain technology can be used to track data, such as carbon footprints and incentives created that encourage people and companies to act in a sustainable way through tokenised rewards for specific actions.

 

Is the blockchain the new home for messaging apps?

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn BlockchainLeave a comment

Which messaging app do you use? It’s most likely that you use one, whether it is Whatsapp or Facebook messenger, which dominate in Europe, and there are many others geared up to suit other regions of the world. Most of them use the Internet to send messages via smartphones. However, a new breed of messaging app is emerging and these use the blockchain as the their platform.

For example, Origin Protocol is a newcomer in this space and it has launched a peer-to-peer messaging application built on top of ethereum. You can read all about the product here in the statement blog from Origin.

Its aim is to build a decentralised marketplace where participants can communicate with each other. As Origin says: “One of the core features of any marketplace is the ability for participants to communicate with one another. Whether a buyer has questions about a product before committing to a purchase, or a host is delivering sensitive instructions to a home sharing guest, messaging is critical component necessary to facilitate meaningful transactions.”

The Origin Protocol will use users’ ethereum addresses as a public ID for sending and receiving text messages, while the content itself is encrypted via users’ private keys. But, because the data is not being broadcast to the ethereum network, there won’t be any ‘gas’ fees for sending messages. It’s not like making an ethereum transaction.

Origin Protocol also has a dispute resolution mechanism in place to handle any problems between buyers and sellers. To do this it has adopted the ERC-725 standard, which “links identity to a specific ethereum address and also allows a third-party arbitrator to audit conversation histories once granted permission by one of the participants,” as described by Coindesk.

The key characteristics of Origin are that it is open-source, secure (everything is encrypted end-to-end), decentralised (it is built on top of OrbitDB which is a serverless, distributed, peer-to-peer database) and it is fast, auditable, and free. An Origin user will be responsible for keeping only one secret: his or her Ethereum private key.

Origin hopes its messaging protocol will be adopted by other projects and it is entirely possible that in the not too distant future we will see other messaging services use Origin’s standard or yet another new development. It certainly brings more choice to the ‘messaging’ marketplace.

Why you need a decentralised identity

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Bitcoin, BlockchainLeave a comment

We have all been warned about identity theft. Even the big banks like Barclays are running TV ad campaigns showing customers how a phone call that seems to legitimately come from your bank can be used to steal your online banking pin number. There is plenty of information out there about how to keep your details safe, but no matter what precautions we take, there are always bad actors out there (this is now a ‘polite’ way of referring to people who are nothing more than criminals) who are relentless in their search for new ways to access our private information.

Tomislav Markovski, writing on Medium tells a story about how he nearly became the victim of bank fraud when he rented a property. After providing every possible kind of document to the real estate agent, including bank statements and investment portfolio details, he received a call from his bank a few days after he had moved in saying that someone wanted to cash a large check drawn on his account. Markovski knew he didn’t have that much money in is account, but the bank then told him that “he” had made a transfer from his savings account by phone. Of course, he’d made no such call, and thanks to his bank calling when they did, the theft was stopped. But, as he says, it was a “masterfully crafted plan that involved just four key steps”

1. Call the bank pretending to be Markovski

2. Change his phone number (to confirm large withdrawal)

3. Transfer all his savings into his current account

4. Have a fake cheque made and present it to the bank for withdrawal

They were able to do this because they had access to all the necessary information on him, including his social security number. They couldn’t catch the scammer, but it made Markovski think about why so much information was required to rent an apartment and why are we still relying on physical documents.

Blockchain has a solution — decentralised identity

Blockchain technology is opening up a range of possibilities to prevent this kind of crime and decentralised identity could be the way forward. As Markovski says, decentralised identity is “publicly discoverable identity information.” It uses blockchain technology to provide tamper-evident information about an entity or a subject and “allows a model of truth to be established between parties that rely on communication and exchange of data.”

There are already a few platforms working on this, including Civic, uPort and Sovrin. As Markovski says: “Decentralized identity platforms will change the current broken identity system that relies on numerous online services requiring us to remember passwords for each of them. They can help us protect our personal information and allow us to control how this data is shared.”

Until these platforms gain mass adoption — be careful out there!

Is U.S. Congress clueless about crypto?

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Bitcoin, Blockchain, EthereumLeave a comment

Last week the folks on Capitol Hill made a few headlines and stirred up a Twitter storm. Well, at least Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California did that with his statement that all crypto and mining should be banned, thus provoking the crypto community into meeting his remark with total outrage online. This was a unique event in itself as the crypto sphere is known for its sniping and clashes. However, Sherman brought them all together.

Whilst Brad Sherman’s message tended to dominate the press reports, for obvious reasons as it makes a good story, other headlines didn’t do much to instil any sense that Congress has finally understood what cryptocurrency and the blockchain world is all about. In fact, to some onlookers it appears as to be the case that Congress is more hostile to crypto now than it was five years ago. For

example, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said cryptocurrencies are “great if you’re trying to hide or launder money,” at a separate hearing on the same day Sherman made his astonishing statement. Perhaps he didn’t notice that the FBI had indicted 12 Russians for trying to tamper with the U.S. elections and that the FBI achieved this by tracing the conspirators bitcoin transactions. So much for that argument Mr Powell!

Were things better in 2013?

Let’s remember that when Congress discussed crypto towards the end of 2013, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, then-director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), told bitcoin exchanges and wallets to register with FinCEN and people took this a positive sign. In fact, as Coindesk points out, Calvery’s invitation boosted bitcoin’s price in December 2013 to just over $1,100.

Beyond the big headlines

Of course there is danger in focusing too much on big headlines from the Congress hearings and not looking into the progress that has been made. For instance, regulatory understanding has moved forward even if it hasn’t arrived at an end point that everyone is happy with. Law firms are heavily engaged with it and some staff at the SEC, the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission and other agencies are much more comfortable with the crypto industry than five years ago. In a massive bureaucracy things were never going to move at lightning speed.

And things will keep moving forward. Why? Because there are too many people and too much money engaged and invested in this industry for anyone in politics and policymaking to ignore it completely. In the end those who understand crypto and its potential will outnumber people like Sherman and Powell and we’ll have a Congress that isn’t so clueless.