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$BITCF’s COINQX is the First Cryptocurrency Exchange to Offer Speculation in 6 Possible Outcomes of the Bitcoin Hard … – Yahoo Finance

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2017 / CoinQx Exchange LIMITED, a wholly owned subsidiary of FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP (OTC PINK: BITCF or "Company") and the world's dominate issuer of cryptographic, indicative tokens is pleased to announce the launching of 5 additional altcoins that allow speculation on the potential outcomes of the moves to hard fork from the Bitcoin Core.

Other exchanges are now preparing for the highly anticipated hard fork of Bitcoin into two coins, with the original to remain named as Bitcoin (symbol BTC) and the forked coin as an altcoin to be named Bitcoin Unlimited, symbol BTU based on utilizing "Segregated Witness" (SegWit). Unlike those competing exchanges, COINQX is anticipating 6 possible outcomes, e.g. Bitcoin Unlimited, BCOIN, Bitcoin Plasma, Bitcoin Purse, Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin XT.

Many Bitcoin traders are anxious to begin trading in the outcome of the hard fork. As a means to capitalize on pent up anticipation, and allow a mechanism to predict the future values of these potentialities, CONQX freshly minted on the Bitcoin Blockchain not only 9,000,000 tokens known as "Bitcoin Unlimited Futures" symbols XBU and XB, but also 5 newer issues. When/if any of these 6 potential outcomes convert into actualities, they will not be convertible or equal to BTC or the hard forked altcoin(s), however, once any of these outcomes and the "futures" coins created by COINQX are trading on COINQX they will be exchangeable by willing participants based on customers' matching bids and asks.

The five additional "futures" have been launched on the Bitcoin Blockchain using the same Omni Layer Protocol as XBU and have been named:

BCOIN FUTURES (BCN)

BITCOIN PLASMA FUTURES (BPL)

BITCOIN PURSE FUTURES (BPU)

BITCOIN CLASSIC FUTURES (XBC)

and BITCOIN XT FUTURES (BXT).

None of these "futures" tokens are backed by BTC nor are they securities, derivatives or futures contracts, yet, they are rather mere fiat cryptocurrencies designed to predict the future from their present popularity (and/or lack thereof).

In order to predict the outcome of the recent American elections, COINQX gave speculators several options including President Clinton (HILL) and President Trump (PRES). The markets in these coins accurately predicted that Clinton would lose the election as that altcoin descended towards one Satoshi while PRES held stronger as the November 8, 2016 electoral voting approached. The day the election was decided, HILL lost the most support and hit 1 Satoshi while PRES rose in BTC value. In addition to serving speculators and observers as indicators of future events, these altcoins also were designed to become the crypto equivalent of memorabilia with the intention that they would achieve a long lasting secondary life in the cryptocurrency markets. They continue to trade to this day with $PRES trading on 4 exchanges.

After the hard fork is complete, XBU and these new additional 5 futures-indicator-altcoin-competitors should also continue to trade -with the intention for those to survive as additional options to Bitcoin and the hard fork outcome as well as serving as independent altcoins and crypto collectors' memorabilia.

While these newly issued altcoins are not directly related to the original Bitcoin or its potential hard fork(s), it is indirectly related by the fact that they were all issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain similar to the top 10 cryptocurrency, MaidSafeCoin. As a consequence, these 5 "futures" are already exchangeable on the OMNIDEX against other similarly generated tokens and currencies such as $OMNI, $USDT, $PRES, $TESLA, $GARY, $BURN, $HILL, $MAID, $ALT, $XBU, $BOND via http://omnichest.info/mdexmarket.aspx?market=1 and will soon be tradable against additional currencies at http://www.coinqx.com

First Bitcoin Capital also plans to allow its clients to offer actual Bitcoin Unlimited (Futures) under symbol BTU and Bitcoin Core (Futures) under symbol BCC in competition with the Bitfinex and HitBTC exchanges through a process that will freeze in cold storage our participating clients' BTC against future delivery of BTU. Once actual BTU is delivered to BTC owners, the BTC will be unfrozen in order to make actual delivery to the futures buyers. Another way to unfreeze and have their BTC returned before the hard fork would be to buy back the same amount of BTU and BCC sold and then take their BTU and BCC derivatives off the market. Further details of the procedure will soon be announced via coinqx.com

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The Company continues to actively offer AltCoin (ALT), its first ICO via http://www.altcoinmarketcap.com and is in the process of becoming the world's first ICO (Initial Coin Offering) underwriter for a third party cryptocurrency issuers.

Some of the background that led to COINQX releasing these indicative altcoins is quoted below from the article published recently by @AlyssaHertig

http://www.coindesk.com/big-block-bitcoin-movement-embracing-bcoin/

Over the course of bitcoin's two-year scaling debate, a few major alternatives have grown to challenge the network's most popular and longest-running software, Bitcoin Core.

Among the more notable efforts have been Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Classic, which prioritized support larger block sizes as a method to support more transactions. However, a side effect of their ambitious aims was that network users would need switch implementations to enact the changes, and not everyone has wanted to do so.

The development exposes one of the more curious aspects of the scaling debate, as alternative solutions have needed to propose both a technical change - and build their own developer team - as part of their bids to put forth differing ideas.

One of the main criticisms of Bitcoin Unlimited, one recently popular alternative that allows miners and users to flag support for the block size they want, is that the code is buggy - or, at least, not yet mature. For example, in March, attackers were able to exploit two such bugs, causing most of the network nodes running the software to temporarily shut down each time.

In this light, the emergence of an implementation called 'Bcoin' (built by bitcoin startup Purse) to the debate could be a notable development in the scaling saga.

The software project got a recent boost this week when it introduced its own take on an old scaling idea, 'extension blocks' (or 'e-blocks'), which the company painted as a way for getting around today's block-size standstill.

The idea is controversial, as evidenced by complex technical discussion following the announcement, with some developers arguing that e-blocks would be an insecure addition.

Still, e-blocks have still seen a strong showing of support, in large part due to the perceived proficiency of its team. And, notably, Bitcoin Unlimited supporters have so far had favorable things to say about the project.

Haipo Yang, Chief Executive of mining firm ViaBTC, for instance, told CoinDesk that he supports Purse's concept and the Bcoin team.

Yang said:

"I think that extension blocks will be the solution that moves forward."

'Promising' option

Overall, the argument is developing that Bcoin, an alternative Node.js implementation that launched in September, boasts a stronger technical team than that of Bitcoin Unlimited and other so-called 'big block' teams.

Purse CTO and Bcoin developer Christopher Jeffrey, for example, has been praised for architecting the software, as well as an in-progress Lightning implementation called Plasma that could be layered on top.

Meanwhile, Joseph Poon, Lightning Network co-creator, helped author the specification for the Bcoin implementation's recently introduced flagship tech.

One example of trust in the competence of the team, supporters argue, is that mining pool BTC.com has already mined one block while running the software in March - allegedly a first for a client not based on bitcoin's original code implementation.

Purse has released a specification draft and reference implementation code that implements extension blocks on top of Bcoin.

That's not to say that Bcoin wants to offer a replacement for Bitcoin Core, as has been suggested for other implementations. When first introduced, it was described by the company as a bitcoin alternative with cleaner code that could co-exist alongside other software versions.

Divisions remain

Despite Yang's confidence, however, not all Bitcoin Unlimited supporters are going all in on extension blocks.

Former Bitcoin Foundation board member Olivier Janssens, for example, criticized the solution for its complexities, telling CoinDesk Bcoin's idea was 'way too complicated'.

"People need to get over their fear of hard forks," he said.

Still, many are saying positive things about the solution, even if they're possibly more focused on other scaling options.

"I like extension blocks, but I think there is almost no risk from making the actual blocks bigger, too," bitcoin investor and Bitcoin.com operator Roger Ver, one of the most vocal advocates for Bitcoin Core alternatives, told CoinDesk.

Bitcoin Unlimited developer David Jerry Chan went so far as to compare the tech favourably to other available solutions.

"I see the proposal as a reasonable and better alternative than SegWit," he said.

Chan went on to say that Bitcoin Unlimited developers are still discussing the proposal, and there's no 'official opinion' from the team as yet.

As far as potential setbacks go, however, one of the criticisms of Bcoin is that it needs time to review, no matter the merits of its team. (SegWit, for example, was reviewed and tested for roughly a year before release.)

On the other hand, Purse CEO Andrew Lee has argued that the Bcoin code is already live, so it could take less time to review.

Indeed, according to the technology announcement, the next steps are to deploy it on the bitcoin test network, get further review, and wrap up the specification.

Yang agreed, concluding:

"We have already waited more than one year. We can wait three months."

About the company:

First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- http://www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets.

http://www.CoinQX.com cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN.

http://www.iCoiNEWS.com real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site.

http://www.BITminer.cc providing mining pool management services.

http://www.2016coin.org online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins.

http://www.bitcannpay.com Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries.

http://www.strain.ID cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain.

List of Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain owned by the Company: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at http://www.OTCMarkets.com.

Contact us via: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com or visit http://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com

SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp.

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$BITCF's COINQX is the First Cryptocurrency Exchange to Offer Speculation in 6 Possible Outcomes of the Bitcoin Hard ... - Yahoo Finance

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3 Top Cloud-Computing Stocks to Buy in 2017 – Motley Fool

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

Cloud computing is already a huge, vibrant market -- and it's only getting bigger. According to a recent IDC report, worldwide spending on public cloud services should top $122 billion this year and grow to $203 billion in 2020. That's a compound annual growth rate of 21.5%, or triple the estimated growth of overall spending on information technology.

How can investors tap into this exceptional growth market? Here are three great cloud-computing options for your consideration: Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Red Hat (NYSE:RHT), and OpenText (NASDAQ:OTEX).

Image source: Amazon AWS.

This one's a report straight from Captain Obvious.

Amazon not only helped define and develop the early concepts of cloud computing, but it also remains a leader in the industry today. Amazon Web Services platform (AWS) now accounts for 9% of the company's total sales. It's also Amazon's most profitable segment thanks to roomy operating margins, topping 25% in 2016.

Oh, and AWS alone is on track for at least 11% of all global cloud-computing revenue this year. This is the silverback gorilla in the room, folks.

But the AWS operation is still young and growing. Revenue increased 70% year over year in 2015 and another 55% in 2016, as Amazon's sophisticated portfolio of cloud-based services continued to evolve. If Amazon spun out AWS as a standalone company, analysts at Trefis would expect it to have a market value of at least $120 billion.

You can bet that Amazon will continue to invest in this cash-printing profit machine for years to come, leveraging this early market lead at every turn. It's true that an investment in Amazon won't be a pure play on cloud computing, because you'll also have to buy in to the company's large presence in online retailing. That's another industry-defining disruptor, so no problem there.

Image source: Red Hat.

Like Amazon, Red Hat isn't chiefly known as a cloud-computing specialist. Also like Amazon, that's changing in a hurry.

The vendor of Red Hat Linux and related open-source software tools has made sure to make its products available on every cloud platform that matters. Red Hat has even taken the next logical step by becoming a preferred vendor of cloud-computing development platform OpenStack, which in turn has emerged as a favorite solution for quick, secure, and easily manageable cloud development.

Red Hat didn't invent OpenStack but has shouldered a large part of the responsibility for keeping this multi-layered software package up to par.

CEO Jim Whitehurst sees it as an important growth driver going forward. The direct revenue impact from OpenStack is not significant today but is growing very fast and establishing Red Hat as a leader in the field.

"These are things that take a while. There's a real S-curve and we're still in the growing part of the S-curve," Whitehurst said in Red Hat's latest earnings call. "Importantly, we believe that Red Hat OSP [OpenStack platform] is increasingly being recognized as the gold standard for large-scale production OpenStack deployments."

So Red Hat is looking forward to great OpenStack growth over the next couple of years, which should serve as the foundation of an even bigger long-term growth story. In the meantime, Red Hat Enterprise Linux already powers a lot of the cloud-computing resources you see online today.

OpenText CEO Mark Barrenechea. Image source: OpenText.

Finally, OpenText attacks the cloud-computing opportunity from a completely different angle. Amazon and Red Hat supply the broader platforms on which cloud-computing tools can run, while OpenText explicitly builds those customer-facing tools. Back-end versus front-end, if you will.

Granted, OpenText's target demographic isn't exactly Joe Consumer. Instead, the company builds advanced data-management tools to help large corporations keep their information organized. Other OpenText products can run on top of those data collections to analyze data patterns and tease out actionable information. Cloud-based systems have become an increasingly important part of the company's operations in recent years, a fact that's often presented as a major selling point.

Some of OpenText's cloud products are sold as self-hosted packages, to be installed on the client's own systems or AWS-style platforms. Others are pre-packaged solutions with full-featured OpenText support and management services. Cloud sales now account for 33% of the company's total revenues, up from 11% three years ago.

Cloud computing has helped OpenText kick new life into a stalling revenue growth engine, and that story should continue for many years.

Anders Bylund owns shares of Amazon and Red Hat. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Open Text. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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3 Top Cloud-Computing Stocks to Buy in 2017 - Motley Fool

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The true definition of cloud computing is still lost on some IT pros – TechTarget

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

In almost any enterprise IT shop, you are likely to see at least one laptop sticker that says, "There is no cloud. It's just someone else's computer." I understand that the saying is good for a laugh, but aside from that, it could not be further from the truth.

If we stick to the definition of cloud computing outlined by the U.S. government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the cloud has five attributes: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service. Do you notice anything on that list about location?

Cloud computing, in all its various deployment models, has fundamentally changed how computing works. It is not a place, but rather a way of managing IT resources.

If we dig deeper into the NIST definition of cloud computing, we can see it has three common service models:

Software as a service is a software deployment model where an application is delivered over the internet.

Platform as a service is a platform for the deployment of an application with the underlying infrastructure completely abstracted.

Infrastructure as a service is a model that allows for the deployment of typical infrastructure components, such as servers and storage, for running arbitrary workloads.

It is easy to understand why people think and often act like the cloud is a place.

Again, we have nothing about the location of the resources on this list. That is because the cloud is not a place.

To understand the confusion around the technology, it helps to think about the average consumer. To the average non-IT person, the cloud is a place to store documents, pictures and file backups. It could be iCloud, Dropbox or other consumer-centric services. We saw the term cloud work its way into the lexicon of the masses around the time of the emergence of the smartphone. For IT professionals, cloud computing means something entirely different. It has evolved from a place to store and access documents into a new way of thinking about IT services.

Simply put, cloud computing is a flexible and agile way of designing IT services, allowing resources to be fluid and elastic. It can be anywhere -- a data center, Amazon, Azure, a local colocation facility or a mix of locations. Cloud is a method to describe how IT happens and not where IT happens. It is about building infrastructure in a way that can scale easily and be consumed by the applications in a predictable way via an API. Cloud is also about building applications that scale when needed and that can run on any infrastructure, regardless of location.

It is easy to understand why people think and often act like the cloud is a place. Marketing departments misuse the word so often that the result is rampant confusion. When I see an IT engineer with a sticker proclaiming that the cloud is "just somebody else's computer," I usually presume that either this person simply does not understand the true definition of cloud computing and why it is a good thing for everyone or that he or she understands but distrusts it because it is such a signignifcant shift in thinking.

Cloud is about rethinking and redesigning IT services. To overcome this idea that it is just a bunch of computers running somewhere else, vendors, integrators and IT departments need to stop using the term incorrectly.

Find out more about the true meaning of hybrid cloud

Follow these tips to migrate to cloud

Choose between cloud and on premises

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Next-Generation Personal Music Server – BRIO by OraStream – PR Newswire (press release)

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

SINGAPORE, April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OraStream Private Limited has launchedBRIO by OraStream ("BRIO"), a next-generation consumer music server.BRIO is a novel personal music server for consumers to stream music at native resolution. It lets users stream 16bit/44kHz up to 24bit/192kHz resolution audio, whichdeliversall the digital information to bring true musical reproduction.

Consumers can choose from three levels of service:

BRIO streams the best possible music fidelity at any given time and place by means of OraStream's patented quality-adaptive streaming technology. OraStream will also power Xstream, Neil Young's streaming music service.

Celebrated singer-songwriter Neil Young, who has passionately pursued the goal of musical fidelity for many years, says, "OraStream's technology delivers the best fidelity one would ever hear with digital music streaming today. As bandwidth increases, the music will increase in quality to the highest level possible, subject only to the quality of the original music source."

OraStreamCEOFrankie Tansays, "There are many solutions available to stream consumers' music library in-home. What's unique in BRIO is the ability to stream consumers' music library remotely'on-the-go' or 'in-car'. It offers the freedom to listen to one'smusic library at native resolution anywhere with an internet connection."

About OraStream Private Limited

The company's mission is to reshape mobile cloud music. Its adaptive streamingplatform powers next-generation music streaming based on 16/24-bit resolution lossless audio.OraStream Connect is a digital supply chain to deliver music streaming at the best possible musical fidelity to consumers. BRIO by OraStream is a music library-player and streaming server to stream personal music and connected cloud-music services at native resolution.

For more information, visit http://www.orastream.com/brio or emailfrankie@orastream.com

Related Files

BRIO by OraStream Release FAQ 12 April 2017.docx

BRIO by OraStream - Product Brief.pdf

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This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/next-generation-personal-music-server---brio-by-orastream-300438264.html

SOURCE OraStream Private Limited

http://www.orastream.com/brio

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Businesses Take a Strategic Turn Toward Encryption – Security Intelligence (blog)

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

Today, more organizations are taking a strategic stance to encryption, and they are deploying a range of technologies and techniques to combat external threats.

Businesses have responded to the increased use of the cloud with a commensurate adoption of encryption, the Ponemon Institute and Thales outlined in the 2017 Global Encryption Trends Study. As many as 41 percent of respondents believed their organization had a strategy that was applied consistently across the enterprise.

The research highlighted how the growing use of on-demand systems and services means line-of-businesses executives are taking a comprehensive approach to data security. Additionally, they are, in many cases, helping to dictate how information is used and protected.

Businesses are aware of both the potential risk of cyberattacks and of the requirement to protect sensitive data, said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, in the reports press release. He added that smart executives understand they must replace reactive approaches with a sophisticated data protection strategy. Business leaders have a higher influence over this aspect of a security strategy than IT operations for the first time in the studys 12-year history.

Infosecurity Magazine noted compliance is the top driver for encryption, according to 55 percent of respondents. It was followed closely by protecting enterprise intellectual property (51 percent), customer information protection (49 percent) and protection from external threats (49 percent).

About two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents take one of two routes to securing data at rest in the cloud: They either encrypt data on-premises prior to transmitting it to the cloud, or they encrypt it on-demand using keys they generate and manage on their own site.

But 31 percent of firms are using or plan to use hardware security modules (HSMs) with bring-your-own-key deployments. As many as 38 percent of firms now use HSMs, which represents a new industry high. Almost half of those businesses own and operate HSMs on-site to support cloud-based apps.

More than two-thirds (37 percent) said their organizations turn over complete control of keys and encryption processes to cloud providers. Another 20 percent are using or plan to deploy cloud access security brokers (CASBs). Overall use of HSMs with CASBs is expected to double during the next year from 12 percent to 24 percent, Infosecurity Magazine reported.

Organizations are adopting encryption at a rapid and increasingly urgent pace. The move is largely because the technology helps enterprises support dynamic industry regulations while also protecting sensitive data in the cloud.

Yet the shift towards stronger data security should not be taken for granted. Thales and 451 Research stated 93 percent of firms will use sensitive data in an advanced technology environment, such as the cloud, this year. However, 63 percent also believed they were deploying these technologies without appropriate data security systems in place.

Business and security leaders should ensure their on-demand IT approach is matched with a strong security strategy. The deployment of service-based security tool sets, the classification of sensitive data within the cloud, and the use of information security across all advanced technology platforms are potential solutions for securing enterprise data.

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Businesses increasing encryption efforts | ITProPortal – ITProPortal

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

Businesses are increasingly adopting encryption strategies, according to a new report by Thales. More than four in ten (41 per cent) of respondents in the report said their organisation has an encryption strategy that is applied consistently, across the enterprise.

Whats also interesting as that for the first time since Thales started making these reports (12 years), business unit leaders have more influence on these things than IT operations.

Looking at the figures, the report states that two thirds (67 per cent) use one of two routes: They either perform on-premise encryption, or send the data into the cloud, where its encrypted using on-premise generated keys.

Almost four in ten (37 per cent) said their businesses turn over complete control of keys and encryption processes to cloud providers.

The accelerated growth of encryption strategies in business underscores the proliferation of mega breaches and cyberattacks, as well as the need to protect a broadening range of sensitive data types, commented Dr Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute.

Simply put, the stakes are too high for organizations to stand by and wait for an attack to happen to them before introducing a sophisticated data protection strategy. Encryption and key management continue to play critical roles in these strategies.

Its also interesting to learn that a third (31 per cent) are either using, or plan on using HSMs (Hardware Security Modules), together with the BYOK deployments (Bring Your Own Key). A fifth (20 per cent) said the same for CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) deployments. Both HSM and CASB usage is expected to double in the next year, up from 12 to 24 per cent.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock

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Cryptocurrency 4Thought Studios Medium

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

cryptocurrency /kriptkrns/ noun noun: cryptocurrency; plural noun: cryptocurrencies; noun: crypto-currency; plural noun: crypto-currencies 1. a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a centralbank.

This is the answer Google will give when asked What is cryptocurrency? While this answer/definition is absolutely correct; it reads like an excerpt from a complex finance document or engineering patent. Suffice it to say that this definition may not explain much to the average person with little to no experience with the professional field of information and technology.

As the computer person of my family, I often find myself explaining technical concepts to individuals with less exposure than myself. Sometimes these concepts are simple enough to use a real-world concept that more people are familiar with for direct comparison (look for my post on how to explain how the internet really works to anyone); but occasionally I need to explain a difficult to grasp concept that is comprised and built from equally difficult to grasp concepts. The difficulty in understanding computers is generally not the actual concepts themselves but in the true understanding of the processes. You can be a veritable genius at arithmetic; but if you are given a word problem to solve that is written in a language you cannot read; your amazing analytical skills are for naught (at least in this particular case analytical skills tend to never be completely useless).

This blog post is my attempt to quickly and succinctly explain the somewhat mysterious concept of cryptocurrency to anyone. This concept has managed to elude even some of us who are technically inclined, so this may be a bit of a challenge. There are many types of cryptocurrencies that exist but almost all of them are based on the original: bitcoin. For the sake of simplicity, this article will focus on bitcoin.

The IRS considers Bitcoin as property. Taxable property. To the average person this means that owning and trading bitcoin is basically the same as owning and trading gold. Boom. This is understandable. Bitcoin is a (digital) commodity that we can use for trade. True to its name, cryptocurrency is digital money. One of the biggest arguments against the feasibility of digital money is the fear that if a person is clever enough they could copy existing digital money like a file a give themselves infinite money. Cue the maniacal mad scientist laughter. This problem actually has a name; Double-spending. The inventors of bitcoin created a way to solve this problem. The solution is built into the way bitcoins are created, which leads us to the question, So where exactly does one get these bitcoins of which I speak?

Bitcoins are produced by bitcoin miners. Yes, just like a gold miner. No, not at all like someone too young to see an R-rated movie. The bitcoin mining process is similar to the way real life mining works. Bitcoins are generated by solving an increasingly-complex computational problem. Were not talking long division here. Think more along the lines of counting the grains of sand on a beach in a thunderstorm levels of difficulty, and the storm only gets worse. This complex problem is the mud or rock wall that gold is buried in. Once the problem is solved, the miner who solved the problem is rewarded with a mining fee (paid in bitcoin) and actual bitcoins the same way the gold miner is rewarded with gold after working through the mud or rock.

When bitcoin was first introduced in 2008 there were not a lot of bitcoin miners. The powerful computers required to solve the problems quickly became cost prohibitive to the average person. This trend has only increased as the popularity has grown and now it is common for miners to work together as a group. Think of several gold miners partnering together and buying a dump truck and other heavy duty equipment to sift through the mud and rock for gold. They will have to share the profits with each other but they will find more gold and find gold faster than they did as individual miners. This practice is called forming a mining pool and is one of the more popular ways to start producing bitcoin.

When bitcoins are collected via mining or a transaction they are stored in a digital wallet. The digital wallet keeps track of how many bitcoins a person has and is used to send or receive bitcoins for transactions. Digital wallets are provided by online services but the data they contain can also be stored offline on USB keys for safety.

In my opinion, one of the most interesting concepts about bitcoin is the inherent security built into the way all bitcoin data is stored. Every bitcoin creation and transaction since the cryptocurrencys introduction is stored in a publicly available ledger called a blockchain. Think of the blockchain as an extremely long receipt of every single bitcoin transaction that has ever taken place. When a transaction occurs using bitcoin, the transaction needs to be verified and recorded which adds the transaction to the blockchain. That complex and forever growing grains of sand problem is how these transactions are verified and recorded. Miners competitively work to verify pending transactions and whoever solves the problem first successfully adds the transaction (which includes the debit of bitcoin from one wallet and the addition of bitcoin to another) to the blockchain and collects the reward; creating new bitcoins in the process. This process inherently prevents the duplication of any bitcoin as each newly generated coin is composed of parts of the transactions that have happened before it.

Bitcoin is used in the same manner as online payment services and more and more vendors are starting to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. One of the benefits bitcoin payments provide is the low to nonexistent overhead charges associated with online, debit and credit card transactions. The fees associated with the common online payment services are bypassed when using bitcoin because of the peer-to-peer nature of the transaction process. This is for the people, by the people at its finest. The minimal transaction fees are much lower than the typical 1%-3% charged with other transaction methods.

Watch for a future post where we dive deeper into the shadowy world of the crypto in cryptocurrency.

https://www.bitcoinmining.com/

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What is cloud computing? A beginners guide | Microsoft Azure

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (Saas). These are sometimes called the cloud computing stack, because they build on top of one another. Knowing what they are and how theyre different makes it easier to accomplish your business goals.

The most basic category of cloud computing services. With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructureservers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systemsfrom a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis. To learn more, see What is IaaS?

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications. PaaS is designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying about setting up or managing the underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network, and databases needed for development. To learn more, see What is PaaS?

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet, on demand and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure, and handle any maintenance, like software upgrades and security patching. Users connect to the application over the Internet, usually with a web browser on their phone, tablet, or PC. To learn more, see What is SaaS?

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CLOUD COMPUTING Oracle Buys Moat Cloud for Marketing Data and Analytics – CIO Today

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

Tech giant Oracle is aiming to build a moat between itself and its marketing cloud competitors with its latest acquisition. The company announced late yesterday that it has agreed to buy digital ad measurement cloud company Moat for an undisclosed sum.

Moat will become a subsidiary of Oracle, operating within the auspices of its Oracle Cloud Data division, although the company was careful to mention that the acquired company will continue to operate independently.

"Moat has grown its attention analytics business by over 100 [percent] in the past year, providing actionable insights around viewability, brand safety, non-human traffic, and ad creative to over 600 publisher, brand and agency clients," said Eric Roza, SVP and GM of Oracle Data Cloud, in a statement. "With the Moat acquisition, Oracle Data Cloud now offers brands and publishers a full suite of targeting and measurement solutions to improve the outcome of virtually every type of digital advertising campaign."

Attention Analytics

New York-based Moat provides ad measuring analytics to digital platforms, such as Facebook, Google, and Pinterest, that depend on advertising for their business models. According to Oracle, Moat's existing enterprise client base will help complement its own, while the new technologies it brings to the table will allow Oracle to provide companies with a full suite of ad targeting and measurement solutions.

In particular, acquiring Moat will give Oracle access to something called attention analytics" that typically refers to the tools that help Web sites see which parts of their pages visitors focus on most. That information can then be used to create advertising pricing based on which parts of the screen are most viewed by visitors. Oracle specifically noted that Moats tools could be used with video and display advertising.

The addition of Moat's clients brings the number of Oracle's clients to more than 600, including 97 of the top 100 U.S. advertisers. Oracle claimed the combination of services resulting from the merger will represent the most comprehensive cloud platform for marketing data and analytics in the world, allowing it to provide tools for virtually every type of digital advertising campaign.

Digital Advertising Faces Growing Pains

Oracle has been pursuing an aggressive growth strategy for its Oracle Data Cloud division over the past several years. The company has expanded the unit through several acquisitions, including Datalogix and BlueKai, as it looks to compete with other major tech providers in the sector such as Adobe, Salesforce , IBM, and Nielsen.

The market for digital advertising has skyrocketed in recent years, with advertisers expecting to spend more than $100 billion on digital ads by 2019. But despite the rapid growth, the sector has recently run into a number of problems ranging from ads appearing alongside videos or other content that the advertiser may not wish to be associated with to users skipping past or otherwise avoiding ads that automatically appear alongside other content.

Those problems have lead to the recent development of companies like Moat and its competitors that claim to improve the effectiveness of digital campaigns through the use of their analytics tools.

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CLOUD COMPUTING Oracle Buys Moat Cloud for Marketing Data and Analytics - CIO Today

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IBM’s Cloud Computing Holds Major Potential: Should You Buy? – Yahoo Finance

April 21, 2017 | Author: admin

International Business Machines Corp.s IBM investor briefing last month reflected its continuing focus on being a cloud-first company. In 2016, cloud revenues grew 35% to $13.7 billion, while the annual exit run rate for cloud-as-a-service revenue increased 53% on a year-over-year basis to $8.6 billion.

In its latest quarterly earnings report, the tech giant reported cloud segmental revenue growth of 45% from the prior-year period. Additionally, IBM has over 50 cloud centers globally, and its Bluemix platform was one of the largest open public cloud deployments worldwide at the end of 2016.

IBMs Watson on Cloud is also a key growth driver for the company. The company expects Watson to reach over 1 billion people by the end of 2017, and IBM estimates the market for Watson on Cloud as a decision-making support system to be worth nearly $2 trillion by 2025.

Cloud Computing: Robust Growth Expectations

IBMs growth expectations from cloud computing remain positive in the long haul. Management anticipates market opportunity in enterprise cloud to be greater than $800 billion by 2020. Moreover, the company expects more than 85% of enterprises to commit to multi-cloud architectures by 2018, which is positive for its hybrid cloud offerings.

The overall growth expectation for the public cloud computing services market is very bullish. According to Gartner, the worldwide public cloud services market was projected to grow 18% through 2016 to $246.8 billion in 2017. This figure will increase to $383.3 billion by 2020.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is projected to be the highest growth service driven by improvement in platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and massive adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT). IaaS is projected to grow from $25.29 billion in 2016 to $71.55 billion in 2020.

IBM Lags Behind in the Cloud

Despite impressive growth figures and bullish sentiments, IBM lags behind the likes of Amazon AMZN and Microsoft MSFT in the public PaaS and IaaS cloud computing markets. According to Synergy Researchs latest report, Amazon Web Services (AWS) maintained its dominant position in the market followed by Microsofts Azure, Alphabets GOOGL Google, and IBM at the end of fourth-quarter 2016.

The research firm noted that these three have gained market share in the last one year at the expense of smaller players, as well as strong growth from both Microsoft and Google. However, their combined market share of 23% lags compared with Amazons 40%.

We believe that IBMs hybrid approach has yet to find many takers in both the public and private cloud markets. Despite significant investments first on acquiring SoftLayer for $2 billion and then spending more than $1 billion on data centers its client list is not as impressive as Amazons or Microsofts.

China: IBMs Savior?

Per Gartner, China has become a significant IaaS cloud market. The research firm noted that While China's cloud service market is nascent and several years behind the U.S. and European markets, it is expected to maintain high levels of growth as digital transformation becomes more mainstream over the next five years.

IBM is now planning to tap into Chinas fast-growing cloud computing market through a new company formed in collaboration with Wanda Internet Technology Group. The new company will offer IaaS and PaaS to Chinese businesses. Reportedly, IBM will have a share in revenues.

Moreover, as a part of the deal, the company will launch Watson services to China. IBM is expected to offer Watson Conversation services, which will allow developers to add natural language interactions between clients and applications.

Bottom Line

In its Q1 earnings report, IBM reported a bigger-than-expected drop in revenue, marking the 20th consecutive quarterly sales decline. Demand for its legacy hardware and software businesses is stagnating, but IBM has been slowly shifting towards cloud-based areas over the years.

Despite lagging behind in comparison to its competition, IBM is developing a niche for its hybrid cloud services, along with Strategic Imperatives like cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. And with Watson, IBM is advancing in vital areas like Internet of Things, healthcare, and financial services end-markets that will support growth in the long run.

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IBM's Cloud Computing Holds Major Potential: Should You Buy? - Yahoo Finance

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