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China Prioritizes 3 Strategic Technologies in Its Great Power … – The Diplomat

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

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China recently reconstituted its Ministry of Science and Technology and created a powerful Central Science and Technology Commission in order to ensure that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has more direct oversight over the ministry. This change, which was recommended by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, recognizes that technology competition with the United States requires direct supervision from the highest level of the party.

This reorganization was carried out during the Two Sessions, annual meetings of National Peoples Congress (NPC) and Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held in Beijing in March of this year. This is where policy direction of the CCP becomes clear as thousands of delegates ratify institutional and personnel changes, legislate, and endorse government budgets in rather ceremonial but important meetings. Dissent is hardly allowed.

The result of endorsing the dominant role of the CCP over Chinas technology development in these sessions implies the importance Chinas leaders place on the sector. During the Two Sessions, Xi indicated that enhancing integrated national strategies and strategic capabilities is key to Chinas aim of becoming a global power. In this, the development of key strategic technologies plays a vital and consequent role.

By 2049, China aims to emerge as a global leader in three strategic technologies, identified by President Xi Jinping as critical for Chinas national rejuvenation: space, AI, and quantum communications and computing.

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In 2019, a white paper on defense, titled Chinas National Defense in the New Era, issued by the State Council, highlighted the critical importance of competing in key strategic technologies to emerge as a great power. Since then, these technologies have been described as Chinas new infrastructure or critical infrastructure, to ensure China continues its national rejuvenation and adds to its great power advantage vis--vis the United States.

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This is not entirely new; science and technology development was identified as key for China to emerge as a great power as per the Comprehensive National Power (CNP) concept developed under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. As Michael Pillsbury noted back in 2000, CNP (zonghe guoli) refers to the combined overall conditions and strengths of a country in numerous areas, of which science and technology are perhaps amongst the top.

Given the international environment framed by the State Council as competitive, assuming leadership in these key strategic technologies has been identified as vital. Various strategies have been developed to advance Chinas progress, including Chinas innovation strategy, as well as Made in China 2025 strategy. To support the development of strategic technologies, China made important changes to its Politburo and Central Committee during the 20th Party Congress last year as I have argued previously.

So where is China today in terms of these three key strategic technologies?

Space

China is a great power in space with its civilian programs. The countrys ambitious goals reflect this: China aims to establish a permanent base on the Moon by 2036, demonstrate a gigawatt-level power generation capability via its space-based solar power project by 2050, conduct a human Mars mission between 2033-2049, and an asteroid exploration mission by 2025.

China is also the only nation with its own independent Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space station, the Tiangong. Recently, China announced that they had successfully tested a 100 percent regeneration of oxygen supplies onboard the Tiangong space station. Bian Qiang, the director of the environmental control and life-support engineering office under the Astronaut Center of China, explained its significance, as paraphrased by China Daily: the development reflects a fundamental transformation of the environmental control and life-support system for Chinas manned spacecraft from replenishment to regeneration. More importantly, the system was able to regenerate 95 percent of its own water as well, which meant resupply to the space station from the ground via Chinas Tianzhou cargo spacecraft would be reduced by 6 tonnes a year.

This development will also help China understand better how to develop a regenerative system for the Moon, since they have plans for a crewed mission to the Moon after 2036 and are looking to extract resources on the Moon like Helium 3 and water-ice.

China has its own independent BeiDou navigation system comprising 35 satellites; nearly 250 military satellites for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; as well as both kinetic and non-kinetic ASAT capabilities.

In Chinas 2021 white paper on its space activities, planetary defense was identified as a key mission. Chinas planetary defense mission also includes the tracking of asteroids and meteorites and developing deflection technologies. Consequently, China has identified asteroid2019 VL5, which is about 108 feet (33 meters)in diameter andorbits the Sun every 365 days, as the destination of a planetary defense mission, wherein China will launch both an observer and an impactor spacecraft in 2025. While one spacecraft will study the asteroid, the other spacecraft will collide with the asteroid to deflect it.

Wu Weiren, one of the chief scientists and architects of Chinas space program, to include its lunar mission, explained that the impactor spacecraft will aim to deflect the asteroid 1 or 2 inches, which might increase to a distance of 620 miles in three months. The dual nature application is rather obvious; used for military purposes, the same technology can crash into satellites and deflect them.

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China is constructing a deep-space observation facility in southwest Chinas Chongqing Municipality, which includes 25 radars with a 30-meter aperture, to detect asteroids over 10 million kilometers away. Called China Fuyan, this far-reaching radar system will build Chinas planetary defense as well as space traffic management capabilities.

Artificial Intelligence

In 2021, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology issued a white paper on Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, which highlights the development of AI as a critical enabler of economic development. Envisioned AI-powered technologies include a social credit system, facial recognition tech, self-driving cars, autonomous drones and airplanes, additive manufacturing, and even orbital platforms in space that can make decisions on who is an adversary based on highly intelligent generative AI. China is projected to spend around $14.7 billion in AI this year, about 10 percent of the global investment. By 2026, that figure estimated to reach about $26 billion.

The combination of AI with military technologies can add a lethal edge to China. Two examples stand out; one in space and the other underwater.

China recently announced the development of AI-enabled satellites that can avoid space debris. Called the New Generation of Artificial Intelligence 2022 Major Program, supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, this project was launched by the State Key Laboratory of Astronautic Dynamics (ADL), affiliated with the Xian Satellite Control Center in Northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province.

According to Li Hengnian, director of the ADL, We will take the implementation of the project as an opportunity to actively align national strategic needs and cooperate with domestic competitive units to provide strong technical support for strengthening the nations space traffic management and contributing to Chinas building of a space power. The framing is important to notice here: Space traffic management is viewed from a space-power perspective.

Another project that China is working on that is enabled by AI is an orbital platform consisting of CubeSats. This platform, which will be enabled by AI decision making, can be utilized to defend against attacks on Chinese space assets. Besides defense, such a platform can be used for in orbit refueling and maintenance as well. AI can be utilized to direct mission planning, timing, and the release of CubeSats that could have non-kinetic ASAT technologies.

By 2025, China plans to develop a Jilin-1 constellation of 130 satellites that will be AI enabled to deflect U.S. ASAT capabilities. The Jilin-1 project is being developed by ChineseAcademy of Sciences (CAS) State Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics as part of China Geospatial-Intelligence Satellite Telescope (CGST) developed with a funding of $375 million. Chinese company Head Aerospace is involved with the project. Seventy of the 138 satellites are already in orbit. With help from the Peoples Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (PLASSF), the Jilin satellites are enabled by AI to accurately track down moving objects that can be utilized for precision intelligence gathering and targeting. It covers certain areas of Earth between 17 and 20 times each day. AI is being used to monitor and precisely guess where a target is, in case a target becomes inaccessible.

AI is also enabling unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) built by China that can identify and target adversary submarines. Exercises conducted by China in the Taiwan Strait saw the utilization of UUVs 30 feet undersea that changed course, maneuvered and attacked a dummy submarine by utilizing AI decision cycles. Onboard sonars and sensors collected data that was then utilized by AI to make a decision to attack. A strategic mapping of these technologies becomes vital amid conflict escalation in the Taiwan Strait.

Recently, Chinas newly re-constituted Ministry for Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China established the Artificial Intelligence for Science project amid given the competition with the United States for leadership in these technologies. The idea is to utilize AI for a cumulative integration strategy as is witnessed in the additive power of AI in space and underwater, and thereby build CNP.

AI has been identified as a key technology and industry in Chinas Made in China 2025 and innovation strategy. China aims to become the global leader in AI by 2030, seven years from the reconstitution of its science and technology institutional structure.

As per reports, China is edging ahead of the United States in AI technology thanks to these efforts. China already publishes the world largest number of peer reviewed papers in AI that result in patents.

Quantum Communications and Computing

China showcased to the world its lead in quantum communications in 2017, when Chinese scientists beamed entangled photons from the worlds first quantum communication satellite, Micius, that was launched in 2016.

In June 2020, in a paper published in Nature, Pan Jianwei, member of the National Committee of the CPPCC, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and executive vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China, showcased a secure method of quantum messaging by utilizing Micius, which moved China closer to the goal of unhackable communication capability.

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There are plans afoot to develop a quantum communication network, as per Pan. This network will utilize encryption methods and ground stations, supported by quantum computing. Pan stated, We are cooperating with the National Space Science Center to develop a medium-high orbit satellite. In the future, the combination of high-orbit satellites and low-orbit satellites will build a wide-area quantum communication network.

It was Pans team that launched the first quantum satellite for China in 2016. Pan gives China about 15 years (2038) to realize fully functional quantum computing and communications, which will depend on quantum error correction. Given that quantum communication and computing has been recognized as key critical infrastructure by China, the likelihood of realizing this is high.

The combination of space, AI, and quantum computing and communications is developing China into a great technology power. Xi, at the 20th Party Congress, stated that the development of key strategic technologies will help China emerge as the leading nation in international relations in the 21st century and will foster new growth engines. This is a continuation in the grand strategic thinking of the studies on CNP commissioned by Deng Xiaoping, which identified the development of science and technology as a key factor in Chinas emergence as a great power, and superseding the United States by the 2020s.

A competition is underway for relative power, if not absolute power, between a rising China and a declining United States. This will have direct strategic implications for how the international order is constituted in the long run. Chinas progress in the three strategic technologies of space, AI, and quantum makes it evident that they are on the path to global preeminence.

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Investing in Bitcoin – Cryptocurrency – Analytics Insight

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

You would have to live under a rock to have never heard of Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency giant is the unquestioned leader in an industry that has grown to unthought of popularity and financial viability. It has led to millions already invested with millions more hoping to do the same.

Tracking the price of Bitcoin can be simple with the help of Bitcoin live chart, it helps to know how to get started. Before long, you can start following trends and put yourself in the best position to rise along with the price of Bitcoin.

Before you can begin investing in Bitcoin, it first helps to know about what you are getting involved in. Bitcoin is the godfather of cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto (though that identity has never been confirmed thanks to the anonymity of the blockchain technology). The goal became to create a decentralized banking method where users could conduct transactions securely and without the need for central banking or governments.

Since its creation, it has also become one of the most volatile investment avenues there is. In November 2021, the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $64,000 but has since come back to earth, trading at roughly half that price now ($30,135).

Before you begin investing, it is important to know just what you are stepping into. We have all heard about people getting rich on Bitcoin but that is the anomaly. The reality is closer to that of the great crashes that Bitcoin has had in the past where many lost thousands.

It is one of the most volatile investments there is. For those who dont enjoy getting into the riskier areas of investment, cryptocurrency in general is probably not the best option. Be prepared for price swings and have a long-term strategy before getting involved.

Since cryptocurrencies are digital assets, you need to have a place where you can safely store them. It is important that any option you choose has an encryption to keep your coins protected. There are two main ways to do that: the hot or cold storage wallet.

Hot wallets mean that they are online at all times. These are generally available from software providers and crypto exchanges. These provide greater convenience when it comes to buying, selling, or trading your cryptocurrencies. That said, if the software or exchange is compromised, your information and coins could be compromised as well.

Cold wallets, meanwhile, are totally offline. While it may be a bit more difficult to make transactions using your coins, you can ensure that they are a lot safer. They stay out of the reach of hackers but beware, physically losing them can prove catastrophic.

Approaching cryptocurrency investing depends on what your goals are. Do you want to make a little money in the short-term or hope for bigger growth in the long-term? That strategy can be a difference-maker when it comes to investing in not only Bitcoin but cryptocurrencies in general.

Crypto has shown a penchant for rising and falling. If you have skill and experience as a day-trader, it may be possible to ride those waves and make some money in the short-term. The preferred method is to hold in the long-term and identify a time to sell while things are on the higher end of the spectrum.

With a sound strategy and the utmost patience, you too can get involved in the world of cryptocurrency. Know your risk level and have a plan and you can avoid the pitfalls of fly-by-night investors.

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Bitcoin supply is dwindling, yet volatility will be the biggest benefactor – CoinJournal

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

Key Takeaways

A lot is made of the demand for Bitcoin. Are institutions giving up on it following a disastrous 2022 that saw the entire crypto sector go up in flames? Is the market moving back in now that interest rate forecasts have softened following the relentless rate hikes over the past year?

But rather than the demand, it is the supply of Bitcoin that is often the more intriguing to look at. Famously sporting a fixed cap of 21 million coins, Bitcoins supply schedule is coded into the underlying blockchain. This quality has given rise to a million different theories around the future place and price of Bitcoin in the world.

But there is another interesting analytical angle to Bitcoin: before the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin in 2009, the world never had an asset that provided so much visibility over the supply distribution. The nature of the blockchain is that, while the individual holders are anonymous, the distribution of all coins is available for the world to see at all times. So, lets have a look.

Central to many Bitcoin bulls long-term thesis is the idea that long-term holders will suck up supply, leading to an inexorable price rise.

Looking at current holdings, two-thirds of the supply has not moved in a year. That is certainly a large number, and we will get into what that means in the next paragraph. Pushing the timeline further out, over half the supply (53.6%) has been stagnant for over two years, 39.7% has not moved in 3+ years, and 28.6% has been idle for 5 years or longer.

These are large numbers by any stretch. It is impossible to compare them to other asset classes, given that none are trackable on a ledger like the blockchain. Perhaps only commodities such as precious metals can compete with the above numbers, yet that is only speculation.

But what does it mean? Is this a bullish sign? Well, yes and no. The immediate conclusion is that less supply means less demand is needed to push the price up, and the cap at 21 million Bitcoins certainly means if that demand keeps rising, the price has nowhere to go but up.

However, there are mitigating factors here. The first is the reality that some of the above long-term holders are in fact just lost coins, be it through people who have passed away, forgotten about their coins or lost access to their wallets.

Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto is one of those, the mysterious enigma holding approximately 1.1 million bitcoins, equivalent to a mammoth 5.2% of the supply. None of his/her/their coins have moved since they were mined back in the first eighteen months of Bitcoins existence.

Not to get too tangential, but below is the value of Nakamotos holdings over the last 13 years, assuming a stash of 1.1 million Bitcoin from mid-2010. That is a lotof capital that holders must surely hope never floods the market.

Regarding the impact of these large stashes of Bitcoin which are removed from circulation, the greatest impact for now, at least may be on the volatility rather than price.

In the following chart, I have plotted the amount of Bitcoin sitting on exchanges, currently at a 5-year low.

Not only is the amount of Bitcoin on exchanges dwindling, but stablecoins are doing the same. Over half of the balance of stablecoins have flooded out of exchanges since December.

This means liquidity on both the demand and supply side of Bitcoin is thin and the same conclusion will be reached if an order book is downloaded from an exchange. Liquidity has dried up hugely, especially since FTX went under in November.

This lack of liquidity only serves to jack up the already sky-high volatility in the Bitcoin market, exacerbating moves to both the upside and the downside. This is part of the reason why volatility recently spiked to its highest level since mid-2022, and also a factor in Bitcoins massive run-up this year.

By definition, it takes less to move a thin market, and with forecasts around the future path of monetary policy shifting to a more optimistic stance in recent months, Bitcoin has moved up with minimal resistance in its path.

While the supply-side dry-up is intriguing in the long-term, looking into that with regard to Bitcoins future performance is a different discussion entirely. In the short-term, capital has fled crypto markets at an unprecedented pace, and we are now in a spot where the market is primed for violent moves in either direction. Like always in crypto, the short-term is difficult to predict, however, and the risk remains extreme perhaps even more so currently than normal.

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Smart Contracts Market to Surpass USD 1077.7 Million by 2030 … – GlobeNewswire

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

Pune, April 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Smart Contracts Market was assessed to be worth USD 190.34 million in 2022, and it is projected to expand to USD 1077.7 million by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.2% during the forecast period of 2023-2030, as reported by SNS Insider.

Market Overview

Smart contracts are self-executing digital contracts that allow two or more parties to transact with each other without the need for intermediaries like banks or other financial institutions. These contracts are built on blockchain technology, which provides a secure and decentralized platform for their execution. One of the key benefits of smart contracts is that they can help to automate complex business processes, thereby reducing costs and increasing efficiency. They can also help to ensure the integrity and transparency of transactions, as all parties can view the terms of the contract and track its execution on the blockchain.

Market Analysis

The global smart contracts market is experiencing significant growth, primarily due to the increasing adoption of smart contracts in various industries such as supply chain, banking, government, insurance, and real estate. Smart contracts offer a secure and transparent way to execute and manage contracts between parties, without the need for intermediaries. One of the main drivers of this growth is the growing popularity of Blockchain technology. Smart contracts are built on top of blockchain technology, which provides a decentralized and secure platform for executing and managing contracts. As more businesses and industries recognize the potential of blockchain and smart contracts, the demand for these technologies is increasing rapidly.

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Key Company Profiles Listed in this Report Are:

Impact of Russia-Ukraine Conflicts

While the conflict may create some short-term challenges for the smart contracts market, it could also create opportunities for the use of smart contracts as a means to address some of the challenges created by the conflict. Ultimately, the long-term impact of the conflict on the market will depend on a range of factors, including the duration and severity of the conflict, as well as broader geopolitical and economic developments.

Smart Contracts Market Report Scope:

Key Regional Developments

The smart contracts market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, with North America and Europe projected to maintain their key positions in the market. These regions have been at the forefront of adopting smart contract technology and leveraging blockchain technology to drive innovation and growth in various industries. The region has a robust technology infrastructure and a highly skilled workforce, which has allowed businesses to adopt and integrate smart contract technology into their operations.

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Key Takeaway from Smart Contracts Market Study

Recent Developments Related to Smart Contracts Market

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

3. Market Dynamics

4. Impact Analysis

5. Value Chain Analysis

6. Porters 5 forces model

7. PEST Analysis

8. Smart ContractsMarket Segmentation, by Blockchain Platform

9.Smart ContractsMarket Segmentation, by Technology

10.Smart Contracts MarketSegmentation, by End-User

11. Regional Analysis

12. Company Profiles

13. Competitive Landscape

14. Conclusion

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SNS Insider is one of the leading market research and consulting agencies that dominate the market research industry globally. Our company's aim is to give clients the knowledge they require in order to function in changing circumstances. In order to give you current, accurate market data, consumer insights, and opinions so that you can make decisions with confidence, we employ a variety of techniques, including surveys, video talks, and focus groups around the world.

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Smart contracts, blockchain and decentralized computing – TheServerSide.com

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

Decentralized networks are becoming commonplace on today's technical landscape, as enterprises seek to write custom applications that solve business problems. Increasingly these are based on smart contracts -- structured programming logic that executes on a blockchain running on a decentralized network. Smart contracts and blockchain are applicable to a wide variety of commercial sectors including agriculture, finance, real estate and industrial manufacturing.

This article covers the basic principle of decentralization: what it is, how it works and how it's used to manage applications such as blockchain-based smart contracts.

Let's start with understanding the difference between centralization and decentralization.

In a centralized network, a central authority decides what data can be stored on the network and grants varying levels of access to that data.

An easy way to conceptualize a centralized network is to envision a bank that keeps all its applications and data on a private network. Customers who open accounts at a bank provide a username and password pair, along with personal information. The bank stores all of that in a database hosted on its private network.

The bank implements many restrictions to access the applications and data on its network. Customers provide their username and password to access and work with applications and data, but they can only access what the bank has granted permissions for. They cannot view the data of other customers, nor access applications or data reserved for bank personnel, such as for loan processing. No bank allows just anybody audit its books; auditors must be authorized by someone in charge. However, banks might allow the general public to access and view certain data, such as information applicable to advertising or for support purposes.

Everything is subject to the bank's central authority, which decides what data can be stored on the network and grants a certain degree of trust and permission to a given user.

Decentralized computing is an architectural style in which there is no central point of authority to control access to data or logic that resides within a network. Instead, authority is determined according to algorithms shared by all computers, or nodes, that are part of the network.

Decentralized networks work on a peer-to-peer basis. Each computer or node on the network has an exact copy of all of the network's data and applications, and if one receives additional data, it passes that data on to the other nodes on the network.

Imagine a network of computers, each of which has only a particular text editor and a collection of the same text documents. Anybody could use any computer on that network and have the same computing experience, meaning that they can read any text document in the collection using the installed text editor.

Let's say someone using one of those computers creates a new document with the installed text editor and saves it to the local disk. Then the computer sends the saved document to all the other computers on the network. Furthermore, when a computer on the network receives a new document, it does two things:

The result is that all computers on the network are in the same state in terms of applications (the text editor) and data (the collection of documents), unless and until a new document is introduced to the network.

This is essentially how decentralization works. There is no single central authority that decides what data can be stored on the network and that grants access to applications and data on the network. Instead, all the computers on the network have the same data and applications, and their data and application configurations are identical. Anybody can audit the data on the network.

Decentralization is the principle that makes blockchain and smart contracts work.

As its name implies, blockchain stores data in immutable blocks that are chained together in sequence. Each additional block in the chain is represented by a hash that describes the content in the current block under construction, as well as all of the content in every preceding block in the chain. This process ensures that data is correct throughout the chain, with each additional block, and preserves the blockchain's data integrity.

Blockchains treat each new block the same, much like the text editor/document scenario described above. New blocks are sent to all other computers on the network, which add the new block to their instance of the blockchain. Every computer on the blockchain network has an identical copy of the blockchain data. Thus, the blockchain network is decentralized. If one computer on the network stops working, it doesn't matter because other computers on the network have the same data and the same computing algorithms.

Industrial-strength decentralized networks first emerged with cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are not operated by any single entity; no central bank creates the money. Probably the most well-known cryptocurrency around is Bitcoin, created in 2009, which uses blockchain technology as its data storage mechanism.

Tools such as Blockchain Explorer let you see the movement of Bitcoin from one account to another through its decentralized network, as well as view the transaction behavior on other cryptocurrency networks. The private banking industry has no analogous tool to provide such visibility -- nor would it ever publish one.

There are a lot more details in decentralization architecture that sync the blockchain among all the computers on the network and also make it difficult for nefarious actors to counterfeit cryptocurrency or steal cryptocurrency from user accounts. The important thing to understand about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that they operate on decentralized networks. No one computer or agent is in charge of the blockchain.

Despite recent turmoil -- the failure of the FTX exchange and the sagging value of popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, for example -- conservative estimates indicate the overall cryptocurrency market is around $1 trillion. Even if half of that money disappeared tomorrow, what remains would still exceed the GDP of Austria. Cryptocurrency is here to stay, and it has proven the value of decentralization.

A major consideration with decentralized networks is security, particularly around user identity. Centralized control means a single security authority, but decentralization throws that model out the window. Companies that rely on smart contracts need to trust in the legitimacy of the blockchain. Those that support cryptocurrencies don't want to be put in a position where they support criminal activities such as money laundering.

A user is typically represented in a cryptocurrency network by an account identifier -- i.e., a unique value expressed as an alphanumeric string.

An account identifier is bound to a digital component called a wallet. Information about the holder of the wallet, such as name, email and other access credentials, is private to the wallet. All user information in a wallet is stored on a local machine, not in a private network or somewhere in the cloud. A wallet might be bound to a variety of cryptocurrency networks, but that information is private to the user, as is their identity information.

However, there are situations that require more information known about a user beyond the account identifier. The decentralized identity model, also known as self-sovereign identity, is sponsored by the World Wide Web Consortium to address sharing personal information in a decentralized manner. Under decentralized identity, users own their identity information and share portions or all of it. No central authority grants access to a user's information, such as how Google's sign-in provides user verification via OAuth. Instead, users store their identity information in a decentralized, encrypted manner, and when an identity must be verified, the user decides which piece of information to share with a particular network.

Programs such as the decentralized identity model are still evolving. The important thing to understand is that decentralization and private identity management are crucial to run decentralized networks.

When the internet first appeared on desktop computers, many viewed it as merely a better way to send email and a novel way to view cat pictures. Today, the internet is at the center of all social and commercial activity.

The potential of decentralized networking and blockchain technology -- as represented in various initiatives deemed Web3 -- have the same potential. As more companies adopt smart contracts and support cryptocurrencies in their day-to-day activities, they will explore new novel ways to use these technologies.

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What Are Smart Accounts on Ethereum? – Coinspeaker

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

Lets get to know more about one of the developments iterated to enhance the usability of the Ethereum network and foster its wider adoption Smart Accounts on Ethereum.

Ethereum (ETH) is a decentralized blockchain network that has undergone significant changes over time, such as the switch from proof of work to proof of stake consensus mechanism. The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is a major milestone in this transition, but it is still a work in progress. Despite this, other important improvements have been made, with the potential to enhance the usability of the network and drive user adoption.

One such improvement is the deployment of smart accounts on the Ethereum blockchain. Smart accounts are a type of accounts that can be controlled by programmable smart contracts rather than private keys, allowing for more advanced functionality and automated management of assets and transactions. This can include multi-signature authorization, time-based unlocking, and threshold-based transaction limits, as well as the implementation of complex business logic and security measures.

As said above, smart accounts are a type of account on the Ethereum blockchain that can be controlled by programmable smart contracts rather than private keys. This means that the functionality of the account can be customized and automated using code, rather than relying solely on manual intervention from the account holder.

Smart accounts offer a range of advanced features, such as multi-signature authorization, time-based unlocking, and threshold-based transaction limits. They also enable the implementation of more complex business logic and security measures, such as payment plans and revenue-sharing arrangements that can be enforced automatically without the need for third-party intermediaries.

Account abstraction is an emerging standard in the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem that allows the transformation of a regular wallet into a smart contract account. It was previously known as ERC-4337, but the standard was not officially adopted. The feature has already been deployed on a smart contract, and it is expected to be supported by several Ethereum infrastructure providers in the future.

Account abstraction is a significant development that could greatly enhance the usability of wallets and improve the security of user accounts. By transforming a wallet into a smart contract account, the feature provides more advanced functionality, including multi-signature authorization and time-based unlocking, which can help prevent the loss of private keys and secure user accounts.

Another important aspect of account abstraction is its compatibility with other EVM-compatible blockchains, including Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon (MATIC), and Avalanche (AVAX). This means that the feature can be used across multiple blockchain networks, enabling greater interoperability and flexibility for users.

While it was initially expected to take until 2024 for account abstraction to be deployed, the feature has already undergone a full security audit and is now available for use. It may take some more time for the feature to become widely adopted, but its potential impact on improving the security and usability of wallets makes it an exciting development for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Smart accounts were not launched as a single event, but rather as a gradual evolution of the capabilities of the Ethereum blockchain. As the Ethereum ecosystem has grown and matured, developers and businesses have increasingly turned to smart contracts to create more sophisticated and secure financial applications on the blockchain.

While smart accounts are not a distinct product or service that can be launched, several developments have contributed to their emergence as a powerful tool for creating more advanced financial applications on the Ethereum blockchain. These include the introduction of the ERC-20 standard for creating fungible tokens, the development of more advanced programming languages such as Solidity and Vyper for writing smart contracts, and the emergence of infrastructure providers and tooling to support the development of decentralized applications on the Ethereum network.

Moreover, the emergence of account abstraction that allows wallets to be transformed into smart contract accounts, has further expanded the capabilities of smart accounts and enhanced their usability and security. This development enables the implementation of more advanced functionality, such as multi-signature authorization and time-based unlocking, and allows for more complex business logic and security measures to be enforced automatically without the need for third-party intermediaries.

The majority of accounts created on the Ethereum blockchain and other EVM networks are known as externally owned accounts or EOAs. EOAs use traditional key pairs, meaning they consist of a single private key that is used to sign messages and make transactions. However, this also means that if someone gains access to your private key, they have full control over your account and funds.

Popular wallets like Metamask and imToken, as well as hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano and Trezor, are all examples of EOAs. Despite their popularity, EOAs are susceptible to security risks since the private key is a single point of failure. If your private key is lost or stolen, you could lose access to your funds.

To address this issue, account abstraction was developed as a new standard for Ethereum, with the goal of allowing wallets to become smart contract accounts. Smart accounts leverage the added security and functionality of smart contracts to enable features like multi-signature authorization and time-based unlocking. By doing so, smart accounts aim to provide users with a more secure and flexible option for managing their funds on the Ethereum network.

A contract account (CA) is a unique type of account on the Ethereum blockchain that is owned and managed by a smart contract, rather than an individual or entity. This means that the smart contract code determines how the Ether within the account is managed and utilized.

Notably, contract accounts provide a powerful tool for developers and businesses to create more sophisticated and automated financial applications on the Ethereum blockchain. By allowing for more complex functionality and automation, contract accounts can enhance the efficiency and security of financial transactions and other applications built on the Ethereum platform.

However, its important to note that contract accounts still require an externally owned account (EOA) to deploy and execute their functions. The EOA is responsible for initiating transactions and interacting with the smart contract code, which then determines how the Ether within the CA is utilized.

Externally owned accounts and smart accounts are both types of accounts in the Ethereum blockchain, but they have different characteristics and purposes.

EOAs are the most basic type of Ethereum account. They are controlled by private keys, and transactions can be initiated only by the account owner. EOAs are used mainly for holding ether and sending transactions to other accounts, including smart contracts.

Smart accounts, on the other hand, are more complex and have more functionality than EOAs. Smart accounts are smart contracts that have been deployed to the blockchain and have their own Ethereum address.

Smart contracts are self-executing programs that can be programmed to perform specific actions when certain conditions are met. Smart accounts can interact with other smart contracts and can also execute code automatically based on predefined rules and conditions.

The key difference between EOAs and smart accounts is that smart accounts are programmable and can execute code, while EOAs are simply accounts that hold ether and can send transactions. Smart accounts can be used for a variety of purposes, including decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, voting systems, and supply chain management, among others.

In some cases, smart contracts may be owned by EOAs. For example, an individual may deploy a smart contract to the Ethereum network and own it through their EOA. In this case, the EOA would control the smart contract and be able to perform actions such as updating its code or interacting with other smart contracts.

The use of smart accounts on the Ethereum network provides users with the following benefits.

Smart accounts on Ethereum have revolutionized the way agreements and transactions are conducted, enabling automated and trustless execution of contracts without the need for intermediaries. Smart contracts can be used for a wide range of applications, including financial instruments, insurance policies, supply chain management, and more.

While smart accounts on Ethereum offer a wide range of benefits, they are still a relatively new technology and may present some challenges, including the need for careful and secure programming to prevent vulnerabilities and the possibility of unforeseen consequences due to complex interactions between multiple smart contracts.

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Pepe Coins Mega Rise Pinned To This Smart Contract Fix – NewsBTC

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

Pepe Coin (PEPE) is soaring and has become one of the most popular meme coins behind Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

However, this wouldnt have been the case if the Pepe Coin smart contract deployer had not chosen to do what was good for the project and, by extension, the community. The team renounced the deployer contract, sending it to a null address.

Doing this meant no one could tamper with the smart contract and effect changes that could destroy the meme coins credibility.

According to curious onlinesleuths, the deployer of Pepe Coin smart contracts had god-like powers before changes were made.

For example, the team could limit the number of token transactions, modify the maximum token trading amount, the maximum position a trader can initiate, or even suspend trading of a given address. Moreover, the smart contract included a black listing function. Subsequently, this effectively empowered the team to bar certain addresses from holding and trading the token.

With this, observers noted that Pepe Coin, though popular, wasnt decentralized as many thought and project owners could, at any time, rug pull investors.

A rug pull is a common scam in decentralized finance (DeFi) where a team builds a project, in this case, Pepe Coin, convinces users to supply liquidity and buy the token. Afterward, the team leaves the project and sells their portion forcing prices lower and leaving investors holding mud.

The possibility of the team pulling out a rug pull was plugged when the deploying smart contract was sentto a null address on April 14.

Pepe Coin is a meme coin that has no utility. Instead, the team behind the project aimed to ride on Pepe the Frog, created in 2005 by Matt Furie.The meme coin project has no connection to Furie.

Pepe Coin was launched in mid-March and with little fanfare. There was no presale, and the total supply was 420.69 trillion.Days after launching, Pepe Coin exploded to be one of the most popular meme coins.

The token has surged to command a market cap of over $105 million. It has a slot in the top 300 projects by market capitalization, according to the coin tracker,CoinGecko.

At the same time, 93.1% of all PEPE in circulation weresent to a liquidity pool in Uniswap, and liquidity provider (LP) tokens were burnt. The remainder is reserved for centralized exchange listing and other initiatives.

Uniswap is one of the worlds largest decentralized exchanges facilitating the trading of tokens like PEPE, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum and layer-2 protocols like Arbitrum.

Feature Image From Canva, Chart From TradingView

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Space and Time launches data warehouse to revolutionize … – Finbold – Finance in Bold

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

As artificial intelligence (AI) grows more pervasive in todays corporate applications and processes, the decentralized data pioneer Space and Time seeks to guarantee that AI models are educated with trustworthy information.

In fact, the decentralized data leader, which allows blockchain developers to run decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts, and verifiable AI models using proven computing on on-chain and off-chain data, announced the release of the beta version of their data warehouse and developer suite on April 26 as per the information shared with Finbold.

In order to support both low-latency transactional queries and scalable analytics in the same cluster, Space and Time is a distributed hybrid (HTAP) data warehouse. Proof of SQL, created by Space and Time, is an innovative zero-knowledge proof that cryptographically verifies the verifiability of the query and the data and verifies that the computation was performed appropriately.

We are thrilled to open the Space and Time data warehouse and suite of data services to developers everywhere. Space and Time is enabling a new era of data verifiability. As smart contracts and AI are increasingly integrated into business processes, Space and Time aims to ensure that theyre connected to and trained on verifiable data and computation, Nate Holiday, CEO and Co-founder of Space and Time stated.

Data from the major blockchains has been indexed, decrypted, and made available for free inside Space and Time. In addition to a Tamperproof Python service for simply extracting, processing, and loading data or conducting sophisticated calculations, the data warehouse has pre-built APIs for SQL operations, blockchain data, Kafka streaming, and security.

The Space and Time dApp offers an intuitive interface for dealing with both blockchain-based and traditional data sources. The dApp is OpenAI-enabled, so programmers may quickly and simply build various types of code based on simple, natural-language inputs, including but not limited to SQL queries, Python scripts, streams, oracle tasks, smart contracts, and dashboards.

Finally, at the Consensus conference on April 26,Space and Time will host an exclusive event called Product Day, which HashKey Capital will present. This event will showcase the most cutting-edge technologies in data warehousing and Web3, and it will be followed by an open Space and Time Ecosystem Night, which Chainlink will present.

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TransUnion is partnering with Spring Labs and Quadrata to bring … – Fortune

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

This past week, major credit reporting bureau TransUnion announced a partnership with Spring Labs and Quadrata to bring credit scoring to blockchain and make it easier for lenders to make more informed decisions about lending applications.

But what exactly is blockchain and how does this key credit information change how blockchain-based apps do business?

In short, a blockchain is a digital ledger that is shared across a network of computers. Its made up of a series of blocks that contain data and are distributed throughout that networkmaking it difficult for hackers to alter or tamper with the data that these blocks contain. Blockchain is decentralizedmeaning that the information contained within a chain is not controlled by a single company, bank, or organization.

One of the key features of blockchain is its ability to preserve anonymity while maintaining a sense of transparency. The information stored in each block is encrypted and can only be accessed with a special key. Unlike at centralized financial institutions, transactions are not tracked and stored by one primary entity.

Many decentralized finance (DeFi) applications use blockchain technology to provide financial services like lending, trading, investing in cryptocurrencies, and more.

A DeFi App is different from other apps as it operates and is accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime through the basic use of an internet connection and without intermediation by traditional financial institutions, says Gabby Kusz, CEO of the Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association.

Maintaining that sense of privacy is important to most users on DeFi apps. However, this level of privacy can pose issues as it relates to lending. Many lenders rely on your credit score and credit report as the basis for their decisions on whether to take you on as a borrower, and blockchain technology makes it impossible to access this kind of information.

Unlike the process of filling out a loan application and submitting it to your bank, borrowing from a blockchain-based app or platform works a little differently.

DeFi lending works on the basis of smart contracts, and users can lend their cryptocurrency to a lending pool which is controlled by the smart contract. The borrower can then access the pool and borrow cryptocurrency against their collateral. The terms of the loan, including the interest rate, collateral requirements, and repayment schedule, are set in the smart contract, says Shant Kevonian, CEO and Founder of EtherMail, a Web3 email solution for anonymous and encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication.

On the privacy front, DeFi lending platforms typically dont require users to disclose personal information, such as their identity or credit score, as the loan is secured by collateral held in the smart contract. This allows users to maintain their privacy while still accessing the benefits of decentralized lending.

So how is Transunion shaking things up? Its giving DeFi platforms a closer, more accurate look at your financial stats without compromising your privacy.

TransUnion has partnered with Spring Labs and Quadrata to deliver off-chain credit scoring to DeFi and Web3 applications (internet applications based on public blockchains) for the first time. The credit data will be provided to these apps at the request of the consumer and will enable the delivery of the credit scoring data while maintaining the privacy of the consumers identity on blockchain.

With this information in hand, DeFi apps will be able to better assess the risk theyre taking on by lending to certain consumers, and potentially give consumers more favorable terms when they opt to borrow via a blockchain-based platform.

As more consumers and lenders move to blockchain to conduct business, its important to ensure that the balance is struck between the information that lenders need to assess risk and the privacy and anonymity expected by users of the technology, said John Sun, chief executive officer of Spring Labs, in a statement. This new product featuring TransUnions identity and credit data at its core is a big step toward achieving that balance and allowing more lending opportunities on blockchain while minimizing risk.

TransUnion is currently the first credit reporting agency to make this move, but it could signal a broader acceptance of decentralized platforms and lead more consumers to consider DeFi apps as a viable option for lending solutions.

We see credit information on-chain as a key element for consumers to access more capital-efficient solutions in Web3, said Lisa Fridman, president at Quadrata, in a statement. Its an important step to leveraging blockchain technology for essential financial use cases in the future.

Blockchain technology is still a fairly new concept and can be difficult to grasp for many consumers. But as many major companies and financial agencies start to embrace blockchain, its important to know how it works and how it could potentially impact you and your personal finances.

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How AI Is Revolutionizing Cryptocurrency Trading: An Overview of … – The Motley Fool

April 26, 2023 | Author: admin

Ever since its launch back in November 2022, ChatGPT has created a wave of hype and speculation about the various ways artificial intelligence (AI) might be used to revolutionize cryptocurrency trading. That led to the huge boom in AI crypto tokens in early 2023, as well as the search for possible integrations with ChatGPT for crypto traders.

Here is an overview of the latest tools and techniques. These can be divided into the following three categories: crypto trading bots, decentralized finance (DeFi) bots, and AI bot marketplaces.

Since automated trading bots are already popular with stock market investors, it's perhaps no surprise that the same tools and techniques are now being adapted for crypto trading. There are now crypto trading bots powered by ChatGPT, crypto investment portfolios designed by ChatGPT, and even ChatGPT crypto market prediction contests. Across social media, it's not uncommon to find influencers and YouTube creators touting all the ways that ChatGPT is helping to generate "insane" and "crazy" portfolio returns.

Image source: Getty Images.

It's now surprisingly easy to generate your own crypto trading bot using ChatGPT, even if you have no prior coding experience. ChatGPT is capable of generating computer code based on a simple natural language prompt.

For example, if you want a Bitcoin (BTC 0.00%) trading strategy focused on long-term returns, you can ask ChatGPT something like, "Give me the computer code for a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) Bitcoin strategy," and voil! You will have the computer code available in seconds. ChatGPT will even tell you which parameters you will need to adjust (e.g., the "buy frequency" and the "buy amount"), as well as from where it is pulling its Bitcoin price data.

AI also has the potential to disrupt the world of decentralized finance.After all, smart contracts used in decentralized finance are just small pieces of self-executable code. If ChatGPT is capable of generating the computer code for a crypto trading bot, shouldn't ChatGPT also be capable of writing smart contracts?

I experimented with a simple prompt ("Give me the computer code for an NFT smart contract that pays royalties with every NFT sale"), and again, ChatGPT immediately delivered the code. Moreover, ChatGPT knew that I was probably going to mint these NFTs on the Ethereum (ETH -0.00%) blockchain, so it wrote the code in Solidity, which is the programming language of choice for Ethereum.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg of what's possible with DeFi. For example, Omni is a new crypto bot for the Solana (SOL -0.00%) blockchain that will soon enable you to participate in passive income strategies such as crypto staking. This bot has been trained on data from Solana and is an expert on DeFi.

These types of DeFi bots go well beyond just chatting about DeFi -- they will soon be capable of moving funds between different crypto wallets and connecting to different DeFi protocols.

Not all ChatGPT-powered bots have to be used for trading, however. You can also use ChatGPT for risk management.

For example, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global (COIN 3.17%) is now using ChatGPT for token risk analysis.Before adding a new digital asset to its trading platform, Coinbase is now screening it with the help of ChatGPT.

If Coinbase can use ChatGPT in this regard, why can't individual investors? One day soon, you might be able to enter the following prompt into ChatGPT: "I'm 40 years old and currently saving for retirement. Is this crypto token too risky to add to my portfolio?" -- and get a rapid risk assessment.

The place to find these bots will be on open-source code repositories such as GitHub, directly on the sites of major cryptocurrency exchanges, or on brand-new AI bot marketplaces where it will be easy to "hire" bots to accomplish certain financial tasks. Too tired to rebalance or optimize your portfolio? Just hire an AI bot to take care of that for you.

SingularityNET (AGIX), for example, offers an expanding array of AI bots for hire on its marketplace. Right now, many of these bots focus on tasks like speech and image recognition (which AI is very good at now), but there are also some bots that claim to be very good at market and data analysis.

Just be aware that almost everything associated with ChatGPT is still very much in "beta" test mode. We don't really know how generative AI models such as ChatGPT will perform over the long term, and ChatGPT readily admits that it has not been trained on any data after 2021.

Moreover, researchers have already proven that ChatGPT often "hallucinates." In short, ChatGPT often gives a completely wrong or fanciful answer to a question without realizing it.The last thing you probably want as an investor is a chatbot that is hallucinating as it trades crypto for you.

But the really exciting thing is that every new iteration of ChatGPT (we're now at version 4) seems to get exponentially more powerful. Crypto trading bots are just the beginning. The AI cryptocurrency trading revolution is just getting started.

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