Tag: Blockchain

Blockchains

ARE BLOCKCHAINS AND CHARITIES A PERFECT MATCH?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, comes from Lisa in Naperville, and she wants to know if blockchain technology and charity are a perfect match?

Lisa, you came to the right place.  Prior to your question, I hadn’t considered a possible marriage between blockchain technology and charity work.  That’s my fault.  The answer is … read this article and decide for yourself!

In traditional charity, benefactors expect their donations will be accepted and deployed congruent with their intent by the charity administrator.  In other words, based on trusting intermediaries.  What if there was a technology that would remove the need for trusted intermediaries? Suppose that technology allowed a peer-to-peer exchange of value, without permission, and need for trust because all transactions are subject to verification on a digital distributed ledger for anyone to confirm, at any time, from anywhere?  That would be incredible! Breaking news, the technology exist–its blockchain combined with crypto currency!  Holy obvious, Batman! Hold on, the tsunami of reasons for pairing blockchain with charity are only beginning to flood in. 

Blockchain technology removes unnecessary intermediaries, making the donation process faster.  For example, donations can be sent and received directly on-chain, making transactions quick.  What perhaps previously took 8 steps, and several middlemen, can be reduced to maybe 4 using blockchain technology.  However, this pairing goes beyond the removal of intermediaries.

With blockchain technology benefactors can verify transactions independently.   In other words, matching blockchain and charity flows beyond eliminating middlemen.  The point is there is no need to trust because the proof is in the blockchain.  Sweet! 

A third reason is efficiency.  Charities that utilize smart contracts, via blockchains, have a tremendous advantage over their competitors.  With smart contracts, charities can automate transactions when predetermined criteria are satisfied.  Thus far we have faster, more efficient, and trustless reasons.  Let’s talk about international charities. 

Speaking from personal experience, sending money overseas is expen$$$ive and s-l-o-w—but not with blockchain technology.  With a couple of mouse clicks money is sent instantly and for just pennies.  Moreover, with blockchain and smart contracts the potential pool of donors is worldwide, making it reason number five!  You are on a roll now Batman, please mention NFTs.

Charities need to raise awareness to succeed and issuing NFTs could be a means to draw attention.  NFT stands for non-fungible token, therefore each NFT is unique.  A charity could raise funds by selling a series of NFTs or an NFT collection set in a raffle, for example.  Holy storytelling, Batman! 

Using blockchain technology for charitable purposes is not worry free.  For example, crypto currencies fluctuate in value; hence, a benefactor may exceed their intended donation, or under deliver.  Either way, it complicates budgeting for the charity.  Sending stable coins is a possible solution because they are pegged to specific assets, i.e., U.S. Dollar, Euro, Yen, etc. but that too could be a hurdle. 

What hurdle?  The challenge of the digital divide.  Not every charity organization has the technical skills to handle crypto currencies.  Cyber security may be a challenge.  For instance, transactions can be hacked or compromised.  Send out the Bat signal! 

Government regulations are always a consideration.  Some nations permit charities to accept crypto donations; others might incarcerate in the BIG house for doing so! 

I end with this Panamanian proverb: If you want no disappointments, don’t indulge in illusion

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Blockchains, China, cryptography, Patents, Yogi Nelson

WHY ALL THE FUSS ABOUT 3924 3924, 3924, 3924, 3924, 3924, 3924

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, submitted by Albert from Iowa and his question is, why the number 3924?

Albert, you came to the right place.  Let’s talk about this number, 3,924.  According to the Blockchain Global Patent Authorization, as of December 2020, there were 3,924 patents granted for blockchain technology worldwide.  For a new technology, 3,924 is a staggering number and as I said previously the number reflects 2020 statistics.  Holy worldwide adoption, Batman!

This naturally leads to the next question.  What countries lead in blockchain patents?  According to Lexology, U.S. companies accounted for 39% of all patents granted, South Korea comes in second with 21%, and China was a close third at 19%.  In other words, the US, South Korea, and China accounted for 79% of all blockchain patents globally up to year 2020.  But that is backward looking data.  If we want to understand the next wave, we must examine pending patent applications as that tells a forward-looking story. Okay, let’s do it.

In Digital Finance by Baxter Hines, he cites The Block as the source for pending patents.  According to that source, Chinese companies should dominate the next wave of blockchain patents.  In fact, the top five companies with blockchain patents pending are all Chinese.  Tencent, Alibaba, and Ant Financial alone have 1,263 patents pending whereas the top three American companies (Walmart, IBM, and Microsoft) have only 123.  Is there more to the story?  I think so.  Read on. 

Let’s go back to 2019.  In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping identified the advancement of blockchain technology as a national priority and declared China will “lead the next wave of digital transformation” and called for greater study, investment, and regulation.  What happened next?

Well, in typical top-down authoritarian fashion, more than 35,000 firms responded to Xi’s appeal by registering their companies as “blockchain related” and expanding the use of blockchain technology into their businesses’ operations.  Holy jumping right on the task, Batman! But hold on there is more to the story.

Of the 35,000 that responded only 730 qualified for the Chinese government’s blockchain certification (2%).  Nevertheless, more than 10,000 blockchain patent applications were filed!  But quantity and quality are not always synonymous, and the Chinese government approved only a small fraction of the applications.  Perhaps, Xi needed to be more explicit in his order.  I suggest he try this next time: “Listen up comrades.  We need lots of high-quality world class blockchain patents.”  Lol!

Research and development into blockchain technology is big business.  There is a battle for blockchain technology supremacy between the US and China, with South Korea in the hunt also.  The winner of this battle will have an advantage across many developing technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI).  Many technology analysts are forecasting a fuse of blockchain, AI, and the internet of things (IOT) converging into a tsunami of tech advancements in the next decade.  Hold on to your safety belts, Batman!

I close today with a proverb from Denmark, where people say:  Never advise anyone to go to war or to marry.  Wise words indeed!

Until next time.

Yogi Nelson

Artificial Intelligence, Blockchains, cryptography, Yogi Nelson

WHAT IS CRYPTOGRAPHY?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, was submitted by William from La Puente, CA and he wants to know what is cryptography?

William, you came to the right place.  William the only reasonable place to start is with a definition.  Let me answer by referring to an awesome movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  In the movie the father of the bride would constantly say, “… the Greeks invented that, the Greeks did that first, etc.”  Well perhaps the old man had a point because in the case of cryptography the word comes from the Greeks.  Kryptos means hidden and graphein is to write; hence, cryptograph is to write in a hidden manner.  Holy hidden message, Batman!

Okay the word has its origin in Greece, but what does cryptography do?  Essentially, cryptography provides information protection/security.  Using cryptography, data can be transformed by substitution.  For example, an early and primitive form of substitution cryptography was to shift every letter three spots.   A sentence that would normally read like this: “Encrypted using Caesar cipher” becomes Hqfubswhg xvlqj Fdhvdu fiskhu.  The other method, known as transposition, involves moving the order of characters of words by a pre-determined agreement.  No, it’s not pig Latin!  Lol.

Cryptography concepts are likely foreign; hence, we should start slowly. I’ll cover just three topics today and save the rest for later.  Let’s start with the security services of cryptography, there are four. 

First is authentication.  By authentication I mean the assurance the communicating entity is legitimate.  Second, data confidentiality.  In other words, the protection from unauthorized disclosure.  The third is data integrity.  In this context I mean the data has not been altered; it was received exactly as sent.  Last, comes non-reputation.  Non-reputation refers to the notion that the receiver can prove the alleged sender sent the message.  Impressive!

We are off to a fast start.  Let’s try two more topics beginning with cryptographic keys. 

In cryptography there are two types of key systems–symmetric and asymmetric.  Symmetric is where one key is used to encrypt and decrypt messages.  The keys are essentially shared by the two parties and the data is transferred via a secure network.  However, authentication nor non-reputation is provided, and the origin of the message cannot be determined.  Let’s compare that to asymmetric cryptography. 

In asymmetric there are public and private keys.  The public key is derived from the private.  As you can guess, asymmetric was developed due to the problems with symmetric cryptography.  Asymmetric wins the crypto security battle handily.  However, if you lose your private key there is no way to access the data, value, or information that was sent!  You best hold on tight!

Hashing is an ideal spot to end the lesson.  Hashing, (I don’t mean potatoes, although I love hash browns) in cryptography is the process of transforming data or a string of characters into a short and fixed length value.  The value produced is unique; no other record has it.  Hashing algorithms are used to perform the hashing process in three steps:  1) data input; 2) hashing function #; and 3) hash output (of a fixed length). By the way, blockchains make extensive use of hashing.  More on that later.

There is more to say but for now I’ll stop with a proverb from our friends in Tajikistan, where they say:  In every drop of water, there is a grain of gold.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Blockchains

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL FINANCE ADOPTION ACCORDING TO MOODY’S?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Today’s question, comes from Oswaldo, in New York, and he wants to know what does Moody’s Investor Service (Moody’s) forecast for digital finance adoption in 2024 and beyond?

Oswaldo, you came to the right place.  On December 14, the Decentralized Finance office of Moody’s released a report, titled: 2024 Outlook: Digital Finance Slowly, Steadily Moves Towards Interoperability and Standardization.  The research was led by Christiano Ventricelli; here is the link:  https://www.moodys.com/research/Decentralized-Finance-and-Digital-Assets-Global-2024-Outlook-Digital-finance-Outlook–PBC_1386273?cid=web-ntrnlbnnr-16640  Before jumping into their forecast, first let’s understand who is Moody’s?

Moody’s has been around since 1908 and it offers credit ratings, macro-economic forecasting, and several other services, including Investor Service.   Moody’s produces research papers across numerous financial topics, including digital finance.  With that short introduction, let’s examine Moody’s four findings.

Mass Adoption Will Need More Interoperability and Standardization.  According to Moody’s, blockchain technology has numerous potential benefits, including greater efficiency and potential cost savings.  Blockchain enthusiasts agree.  I concur with Moody’s that until and unless blockchains reach interoperability the benefits of blockchain may not materialize.  What Moody’s did not say, but I will, is blockchains need a “Wi-Fi moment”.  Imagine if Wi-Fi was not seamless and users had to switch constantly to maintain a connection?  What a mess!  This is the state of public blockchains today. There are bridges under construction to connect blockchains, but most are too tiny, weak, and not suitable at enterprise scale.

Asset tokenization will keep growing, but reliable digital cash options remain elusive. Yes, asset tokenization will result in convergence between traditional and digital finance.  Agreed. And, yes, it’s true there are tech and regulatory risk considerations.  However, I part ways with Moody’s regarding digital cash adoption options.  Moody’s believes Central Bank Digital Currencies are better positioned to be a secure form of digital cash over stable coins.  In the USA probably true. However, across the globe government creditability on matters of monetary policy is at rock-bottom; hence, let’s withhold judgment.

Cryptocurrency market’s revival hinges on monetary policy and service operators’ regulatory compliance. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of industries whose viability hinge on monetary policy.  Cheap money is positive for crypto, and all assets. What drives crypto goes beyond interest rates and monetary policy.  Crypto is also an ideological movement.  Crypto enthusiasts want a new monetary policy–an alternative that Jerome can’t control.  Hence, suggesting the crypto market hinges on traditional finance is missing the point. 

As former federal bank regulatory compliance officer, I am unaware of any industry that can operate at scale outside regulatory compliance other than organized crime!  Holy criminal enterprise, Batman! Hence, the findings are not surprising.  And yes, crypto needs clarity.  Is it a security?  Is it a commodity?  Etc.

Digital asset regulatory frameworks advance, though regional differences will persist. Bingo, Moody’s is on target.  Europe, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates are all establishing regulatory clarity.  Therefore, regional differences will arise in crypto as they do in traditional securities regulations.  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF soon.  An Ethereum spot EFT is on the horizon. The SEC recently sued Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the USA, for selling unregistered securities.  Between the Coinbase case, and the 2024 Presidential Election, clarity maybe on the horizon.

I close with a proverb from Moldova: Wine is a traitor.  It starts as a friend and ends as an enemy.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

Artificial Intelligence, Yogi Nelson

IS BULGARIA A LEADER IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EDUCATION?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question, comes from Fernie, in Las Vegas, and he wants to know if Bulgaria is a leader in artificial intelligence education and research?

Fernie, you came to the right place. Rather than answer directly, I will share information about a certain institute located in Sofia, Bulgaria, and let you decide. Let’s jump right into it by shouting out the Institute for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Technology, INSAIT.
https://insait.ai/

INSAIT is a mere toddler; it was founded in April 2022. INSAIT is the first university in Eastern Europe dedicated exclusively to computer science and AI technology education. INSAIT is part of Sofia University, but functions autonomously. Holy independence, Batman!

INSAIT is backed by technology elites, including two of Switzerland’s most prestigious universities and global technology behemoths, i.e., Google, DeepMind, and VMware, etc. INSAIT says its sole focus is on scientific excellence, conducting world-class research, attracting outstanding international scientist, and training the next generation of technology leaders. Let’s peruse their course offerings, beginning with machine learning.

Machine Learning. INSAIT defines machine learning as the area of computer science that focuses on extracting knowledge from large data sets and using this knowledge for making predictions and decision making. INSAIT believes the combination of colossal data sets and increasing access to powerful computation means there are exciting opportunities for data-driven algorithms.

Computer Vision. According to INSAIT, computer vision is an interdisciplinary field that studies algorithms through which computers can comprehend images at a high level. INSAIT says, and with good reason, there are numerous applications for computer vision, including autonomous driving, robotics, object recognition, gesture analysis, tracking, scene understanding, medical images, and embodied AI. Will AI be peeking through my window? LOL.

Quantum Computing (QC). Quantum computing is hyper computing. QC can leverage the properties of quantum states. Look out!!! QC is revolutionary and will make what is now impossible or impractical, possible in seconds. Holy no speed limits, Batman! INSAIT is focused on the software side of QC, including programming languages, optimization, verification, and algorithms.

Cyber Security. INSAIT intends to become a cyber security tour-de-force. INSAIT says it will focus on cryptography and developing new security protocols, including communication systems. Holy bat shield, Batman!

Automated Reasoning. Reasoning is what makes human intelligence and allows us to draw conclusions based on logic, says INSAIT. Not surprisingly, INSAIT has a focus on automated reasoning related to fundamental math and logic questions. Their automated reasoning program examines decision making under uncertain conditions. Fabulous! All of life works under uncertain conditions! LOL!

Natural Language Processing. Speech perception is central to human language. According INSAIT, natural language process is the study of computational techniques for automated processing and analysis of speech and text. INSAIT aims to develop principled algorithms for processing massive amounts of text and speech data and insights based on linguistics. INSAIT keep in mind, the spoken word is only half of all communication!

INSAIT also supports graduate studies in data management, algorithms, and computer programming languages. A complete buffet of AI graduate education for the amazing price of $36,000 per year, including room and board. If I were 22 again I would … but I’m closer to 122 LOL.

Time to end with a proverb from Bulgaria, where they say, “A slip of the foot is not nearly as dangerous as a slip of the tongue.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson