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IBM and HPE’s Server Businesses Aren’t Just Pressured By the Cloud Anymore – TheStreet.com

Following a long string of quarters in which the server sales of enterprise IT firms such as IBM Corp. (IBM) , HP Enterprise Co. (HPE) , Lenovo and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) have felt the ill effects of public cloud infrastructure adoption, it's generally well-understood how the preference of companies likes Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) , Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) , Facebook Inc. (FB) and (increasingly) Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to design their own servers and have them supplied by Asian contract manufacturers (ODMs) has become a headwind for the old guard. Especially as more and more business software workloads are either migrated to a public cloud, or built from the start to be run on one.

What might not be as well-appreciated yet, and which is driven home by some estimates and sales figures released this week, is how the IT giants are also now pressured by the aggressive efforts of one of their peers to take share. Namely, Dell Technologies Inc. (DVMT) , which is making full use of the expanded resources it has as its disposal after merging with storage giant EMC last year.

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On Tuesday, June 6, IDC estimated global server revenue fell 4.6% annually in Q1 to $11.8 billion. The next day, Gartner estimated Q1 server sales fell 4.5% to $12.5 billion (a slightly different methodology appears to be responsible for a higher revenue estimate). Neither number was all that surprising, given the firms respectively estimated 4.6% and 1.9% declines for Q4.

It also wasn't too surprising that sales of servers designed by cloud giants and supplied by ODMs grew strongly following a Q4 lull, as the likes of Amazon and Facebook continued spending heavily on capex. IDC estimated sales of such servers, which it refers to as ODM Direct, grew 41.8% to $1.2 billion (10.4% of industry revenue). It added one unnamed cloud firm single-handedly accounted for over 10% of the 2.21 million servers shipped during the quarter.

What was, surprising, though is that both firms reported Dell, the world's second-biggest server vendor, saw meaningful sales growth in spite of the headwinds faced by peers. IDC estimated Dell's server sales grew 4.7% to $2.37 billion, leading its market share to rise to 20.1% from 18.3% a year ago. By contrast, the firm had estimated Dell's server sales were roughly flat in Q4. Gartner gave Dell a 19% Q1 share, up from 17.3%.

Dell confirmed its share gains on June 8 when the company reported its server and networking revenue grew 5% in the April quarter to $3.2 billion. The company added sales of its mainstay PowerEdge enterprise servers, which run on Intel Corp. (INTC) and (to a lesser degree) AMD Inc.'s (AMD) x86 CPUs, grew by double digits. That offset lower "high-volume cloud" server sales.

IDC thinks HPE's Q1 server share fell to 24.2% from 27.5% (still good for first place), with revenue dropping 15.8% to $2.86 billion. The company announced last week its server revenue fell 14% in its April quarter. Like Dell, HPE's cloud sales have been falling, as a major client (believed to be Microsoft) relies more on internal and open-source designs. Both Dell and HPE have also noted their cloud server sales tend to carry lower margins; the latter suggested on its earnings call it might pare its investments in this space to focus on higher-margin opportunities.

IBM had an even tougher time in Q1. IDC thinks Big Blue's server sales, hurt not only by cloud adoption and Dell but also by mainframe cyclicality and share losses for its Power server line relative to x86 servers, fell 34.7% to $745 million, with its share dropping to 6.3% to 9.2%.

That allowed Cisco to grab third place from IBM. IDC estimates the networking giant's server share grew fractionally to 7%, in spite of a 3% decline in revenue to $825 million. Cisco has blamed recent pressures for the business on an industry shift towards rack servers relative to blade servers, while insisting it's making efforts to the ship.

Lenovo, which bought IBM's x86 server unit in 2014, rounded out the top-5. The Chinese tech giant was granted a 6.2% share, down from 7% a year ago, with revenue estimated to drop 16.5% to $727 million.

Overall, HPE, IBM, Cisco and Lenovo saw their server share fall 690 basis points in Q1 to 43.7%. That's easily worse than their performance in Q4, when IDC estimated their combined server share fell 490 basis points to 48.7%.

Clearly, Dell's rejuvenation is making a bad situation worse. Since closing the EMC merger last September, the company has been pitching enterprises on an end-to-end IT lineup that pairs Dell's servers and networking hardware with EMC's storage hardware and software, as well as the virtualization and infrastructure management software provided by EMC's VMware (VMW) unit. The company has also moved to integrate Dell and EMC's salesforces and reseller partner efforts. In addition, some Dell and EMC resellers have felt pressured to boost to their sales to remain one of the merged company's preferred partners.

All of these efforts are certainly paying off in the server market. Going forward, the launch of Dell's 14th-generation PowerEdge servers (announced in May) could provide a fresh boost. They promise improved hardware and software-based security features, better high-speed flash storage support and revamped management software tools and tech support services. This week, HPE countered by unveiling x86 servers promised to have an unmatched ability to protect a server's firmware, as well as greater support for "persistent memory" modules that combine DRAM with flash storage.

Along with Dell, HPE, Cisco and Lenovo will likely get a server sales boost from Intel's anticipated mid-summer launch of Xeon CPUs based on the company's Skylake architecture. IBM, which no longer sells x86 servers, won't be so lucky. But either way, the server businesses of all four companies have to contend with major challenges that a chip refresh can only provide temporary relief for.

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Managed Services and Cloud Hosting: What the Leading Cloud Hosts Offer – Data Center Knowledge

Brought to you by MSPmentor

From Rackspace to AWS to Azure, theres no shortage of cloud hosting platforms available today.

One thing that sets them apart is the degree of managed services available from each cloud host.

This is a key differentiator that MSPs need to understand when building a managed service offering.

All of the major cloud-hosting platforms provide the same basic thing: Cloud-based infrastructure that organizations can use to run physical and/or virtual servers that host their workloads.

The details of the hosting plans, prices and features of each platform vary, but thats fodder for a separate article.

This articles goal is to compare the extent to which managed services are built into each major cloud platform, how easy it is to obtain third-party managed services and which cloud platforms are most in need of additional managed-service help.

Toward that end, heres how cloud hosts stack up on the managed services front:

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS is probably the best known cloud host in the market today.

It has a built-in Managed Services feature, but what AWS calls Managed Services is actually just an automation tool.

That said, because AWS has been around for so long, the actual managed services market around AWS is already very crowded.

AWS is an important cloud platform to support if you want to build a comprehensive MSP business that covers all cloud vendors.

But if youre trying to build a niche MSP offering based on cloud hosting, AWS isnt a good place to start.

The AWS managed services market is already saturated.

Microsoft Azure

Azure is also a well-established cloud-hosting platform.

Its features and functionality mirror those of AWS, to a large extent.

Azure doesnt have any built-in managed services offering, and its somewhat harder to find Azure third-party managed services support for Azure than it is for AWS.

Still, the Azure managed services market is pretty mature.

Rackspace

Rackspace, which began as a cloud infrastructure company, has shifted gears and now focuses heavily on managed services.

Its most recent move in this vein was itsrecent TriCore acquisition.

As a result, Rackspace is not a good cloud host to focus on if you want to build an MSP offering.

Rackspace already provides managed support for its infrastructure.

Indeed, Rackspace even offers managed services for other clouds, including AWS and Azure.

This means Rackspace is now a competitor with MSPs in all areas of the cloud.

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean, which markets itself as a cloud-hosting platform for developers, is not as big a cloud host as AWS or Azure, but it ranks on any shortlist of major cloud providers.

DigitalOcean doesnt offer managed services for its infrastructure, although third-party companies do.

Because DigitalOcean managed services is a smaller market, it is easier for new MSPs to enter.

Linode

Linode is another cloud host that pitches itself as a platform for developers.

It provides hosting on high-performance Linux servers.

Like Rackspace, Linode has expanded its managed service offerings in recent years.

Linodes managed services arent totally comprehensive, but the company offers backups, incident management and other types of professional services.

There is some opportunity for third-party vendors to add extra managed services around the Linode platform that are not offered by Linode itself.

Vultr

Vultr is a cloud host that focuses on high-performance virtual servers.

The company doesnt offer managed services itself, but it partners with Cloudways to provide professional services.

Still, there is room in the Vultr managed services market for other MSPs.

This article originally appeared on MSPmentor.

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The use of cloud computing in the federal government services – Born2Invest

Traditional IT can call for large data centers and server farms which are a serious investment and require 24/7 IT oversight and energy to power and cool the servers.

Computers and software are now part of everyday life. We constantly use emails and set up websites. Some of us even run our own businesses. We are able to use these services without having to host our own massive IT infrastructure, hiring tons of staff to operate it, spending a lot of money and getting mired in lengthy and complicated procurement processes.

If you can do this easily, why cant the government?

The federalgovernment has an extensive infrastructure, a broad user base in agencies with a variety of missions, and complex suites of applications. To address these challenges, the Federal CIO Council has charged the government to leverage cloud computing services.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cloud computing provides scalable IT capabilities that are offered as a service over the Internet to multiple users. Many users share pooled IT resources, reducing costs and resulting in greater computing efficiency. The federal government is focusing on security, privacy, and procurement as it moves towards cloud computing.

The Federal Government has an extensive infrastructure, a broad user base in agencies with a variety of missions, and complex suites of applications. (Source)

Traditional IT can call for large data centers and server farms which are a serious investment and require 24/7 IT oversight and energy to power and cool the servers. The federal government has hundreds of these centers around the country that often perform similar tasks, such as providing email or web hosting, and are generally used at a fraction of their capability. They typically have large carbon footprints due to their enormous energy consumption and have to comply with strict environmental controls.

SEE ALSO Dubai introduced its first Android police force

Cloud computing can be viewed as the green computing option, as it promotes sustainability and has a much smaller carbon footprint by limiting duplicated efforts and utilizing computing power more efficiently.

Cloud computing also offers scalability, meaning you can scale capacity and processing power on-demand. It is always evolving and it is not an immediate solution for all government computing needs, but it can give the federalgovernment the same opportunity the private sector enjoys to reduce spending while making better use of staff and resources with a more forward-thinking, environmentally sensitive approach.

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Global Internet Security Market to Grow at a CAGR of 9.5% by 2025 – Driven by Recent Technological Advancements in … – PR Newswire (press release)

The Global Internet Security Market is poised to grow at a CAGR of around 9.5% over the next decade to reach approximately $66.18 billion by 2025.

This industry report analyzes the market estimates and forecasts of all the given segments on global as well as regional levels presented in the research scope. The study provides historical market data for 2014, 2015 revenue estimations are presented for 2016 and forecasts from 2017 till 2025.

The study focuses on market trends, leading players, supply chain trends, technological innovations, key developments, and future strategies. With comprehensive market assessment across the major geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and Rest of the world the report is a valuable asset for the existing players, new entrants and the future investors.

Current Market Trends:

Report Highlights:

Companies Mentioned

Key Topics Covered:

1 Market Outline

2 Executive Summary

3 Market Overview

4 Internet Security Market, By Component

5 Internet Security Market, By Technology

6 Internet Security Market, By Application

7 Internet Security Market, By Geography

8 Key Player Activities

9 Leading Companies

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/crsjxp/global_internet

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-internet-security-market-to-grow-at-a-cagr-of-95-by-2025---driven-by-recent-technological-advancements-in-internet-security---research-and-markets-300472438.html

SOURCE Research and Markets

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

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Lawmakers voice fears over security of internet devices – The Hill

House lawmakers on Tuesday voiced fears about cyber threats to mobile and internet-connected devices, soliciting feedback from authorities in the private sector about how to ensure their security.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, members of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee heard from a panel of cybersecurity experts about the compounding threats to smartphones as well as the expanding attack surface resulting from the rapid growth of what's commonly referred to as the "Internet of Things" (IoT), the ecosystem of everyday appliances and devices that are connected to the internet.

Its a powerful, connected, handheld computer, Bill Wright, government affairs and senior policy counsel at Symantec, said of smartphones. We need to start viewing these as computers and we need to protect them as computers.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) specifically raised concerns about the threat of ransomware to smartphones, given that the devices have become a home for personal and financial information.

Its happening now and in the near future. People are going to be locked out of their phones, Dingell said. Were going to see this high level and weve got to pay attention to it.

The hearing explored cyber risks to wireless networks and covered a number of topics including the state of the cyber workforce and risks to the U.S. power grid but homed in on threats to smartphones and what the proliferation of internet-connected devices means for the security of the cyber ecosystem.

There has been heightened concern about the vulnerability of IoT devices to hacking in the wake of the distributed denial-of-service attack against web service provider Dyn last October that leveraged thousands of infected internet-connected devices.

The attack surface will continue to grow, experts said Tuesday, as billions more internet-connected devices are brought into the market.

It is essential that this vulnerability be addressed, said Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), vice chairman of the subcommittee.

Charles Clancy, a professor of national security and technology at Virginia Tech, explained that the challenges of securing IoT are manifold because of the range of technologies and the risk of less expensive technologies particularly those from overseas being produced without security protections built in.

The threats to an internet-connected home appliance are very different than the threats to an internet-connected nuclear reactor and the technologies are very different, Clancy said.

Those testifying signaled that the federal government and private sector should work together on developing recommendations for IoT security and said that the optional cybersecurity framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would present a good starting point for the conversation.

I think the NIST cybersecurity framework is probably the best place to begin the dialogue around Internet-of-things security, said Amit Yoran, chairman and CEO of Tenable Network Security. At the end of the day, we have to take a holistic approach.

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Five Eyes nations stare menacingly at tech biz and its encryption – The Register

Officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will discuss next month plans to force tech companies to break encryption on their products.

The so-called Five Eyes nations have a long-standing agreement to gather and share intelligence from across the globe. They will meet in Canada with a focus on how to prevent "terrorists and organized criminals" from "operating with impunity ungoverned digital spaces online," according to Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

In the most forthright call yet from a national leader to break encryption, Turnbull told Parliament: "The privacy of a terrorist can never be more important than public safety never."

Turnbull's comments reflect a more vague but similar response from UK prime minister Theresa May earlier this week in which she said she was focused on "giving the police and the authorities the powers they need to keep our country safe." And the UK authorities have already put in a legislative placeholder for breaking encryption into Blighty's Investigatory Powers Act. Australia's administration is rather enamored with that new UK law, and hopes to implement it Down Under.

The United States meanwhile has been having a long debate on the issue of encryption, with tech firms battling it out with law enforcement in both public and private.

It is in the United States where the issue will ultimately be decided however, since the most widely used encrypted services ranging from Apple's iPhone to Facebook's WhatsApp messaging are developed and run by US companies.

Even the UK's heavily criticized anti-encryption law recognizes that it may be powerless to enforce encryption breaking on products and services that come from overseas and online that geographic boundary doesn't exist.

The Five Eyes group is also going to have to decide how to deal with the mathematical realities of encryption. If companies are forced to insert a backdoor into their encryption products in order to make their contents accessible, there is nothing to stop a malicious third party from doing the same: you cannot wall off a vulnerability.

Security experts have called the argument put forward by law enforcement and politicians that they want access but don't want the bad guys to be able to do the same "magical thinking." The Five Eyes group needs to reach a decision on how to answer the inherent conundrum of magical thinking. Europe, which has been making its own noises about anti-encryption legislation, needs to do the same.

It is also possible of course that the vast and massively powerful spying machinery owned and run by the Five Eyes could be focused on cracking encryption. To isolate specific messages of concern and then throw all computing resources at them.

Or, a third way could be for the security services from the five nations to oblige tech companies to develop a way to undermine specific devices ie, create a piece of software that could be sent to an individual's phone that would allow spies direct access to the device and so enable them to bypass encryption protection.

America's National Security Agency is already known to have developed software that uses undiscovered vulnerabilities in software to give itself access to people's phones. If you have full access to someone's phone (or other device), all the encryption in the world won't make a difference.

Although some tech companies have been public in their determination not to introduce backdoors such as Apple and its feud with the FBI, and Facebook's fight with the Brazilian authorities it is notable that others have been silent or have called for compromise. Google, for example, has stayed out of the fray, while Microsoft has repeatedly implied it is open to a shared solution.

Where exactly the decision comes down will be hard to say not least because the security services will want the details to be as secret as possible. Next month in Canada, they will likely emerge with a plan.

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BlackBerry touts encryption-busting WhatsApp tech to banks – Financial News (subscription)


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BlackBerry touts encryption-busting WhatsApp tech to banks
Financial News (subscription)
BlackBerry is planning to promote new surveillance tech that can sidestep message encryption alongside sales of its smartphones and comms software, allowing banks to keep tabs on traders' calls, texts, and use of Whatsapp and WeChat. The phonemaker ...

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Labor is likely to support Turnbull’s encryption fight – iTnews

Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has indicated his party is likely to support the government's push to force technology companies to be able to decrypt user communications.

Over the weekend the government revealed its plans to follow the United Kingdom and introduce new requirements on operators of end-to-end encrypted communications services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and Apple's iMessage.

The UK's so-called "technology capability notices" force communications operators to ensure they are technically able to hand over decrypted data in "near real time" to law enforcementfollowing the issuance of a warrant.

Critics of the scheme in the UK and now Australia say these noticesleave communications operators no choice but to build backdoors into their products.

The UK and Australian governments have both denied they are asking for backdoors, but neither have provided any detail on how they expect operators to meet the requirements of the technical capability notices.

The Australian government intends to discuss the issue with its Five Eyes partners at a conference in Canada in a fortnight.

Speaking to parliament today, opposition leader Bill Shorten said "big internet companies" needed to be "part of our society in the sense of working with us as well as taking from us".

"They need to see this fight as their fight, not just our fight, not just a fight wherethey help when asked, but a fight in which they come to us with ideas," Shorten said.

"We need them to be proactive, not reactive. Terrorism does not self-police, so we cannot rely on a self-policingsystem."

He said terrorists were hiding behind encryption technologies, Bitcoin, andthe so-called dark web to "stay in the shadows" and obscure their activities.

"We must target this threat head-on. As terrorists adapt their methods and seek to hide online, we must ensure our agencies have the tools, resources and technology so terrorism has no place to hide," Shorten said.

"We can allow them no sanctuary, no place torest - we must dislodge them from wherever they hide.

"In doing this, though, we must always be mindful of the rule of law and the properprotections of our citizens. [But] we cannot sit back when our enemies have access to a worldwide system to educate and fund extremists."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said while encryption was a "vital piece of security" for everything from communication to shopping and banking,"the privacy of a terrorist can never be more important than public safety".

He denied the campaign was about creating backdoors, but did not detail how operators were expected to decrypt communications they do not hold the keys to.

"It is about collaboration with and assistance from industry in the pursuit of public safety," he said.

Turnbull said the government would 'balance the priority of community safety with individual liberties'.

"An online civil society is as achievable as an offline one, and the rights and protections of the vast, overwhelming majority ofAustralians, must outweigh the rights of those who will do them harm,"he told parliament.

"My government is committed to this. We will not take an 'if it ain't broke, we won't fixit' mentality.The government does not set and forget."

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Bitcoin needs government regulation to rise further, Morgan Stanley says – MarketWatch

Proponents of the digital currency bitcoin frequently cite its decentralized nature as one of the primary attributes that excites them about the technology. Meanwhile, bitcoin investors are no doubt thrilled with its rapid price appreciation, which has seen it nearly triple in 2017 alone.

According to Morgan Stanley, however, the latter group may not be able to see further gains unless the former gives up some of its autonomy.

The investment bank noted that the rapid appreciation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, like ethereum, had elicited many inbound phone calls to both our banks and tech teams as the gains entice prospective investors and adopters. However, it added, governmental acceptance would be required for this to further accelerate, the price of which is regulation.

Cryptocurrencies as a category recently topped $100 billion in combined market capitalization, thanks to blindingly fast surges by bitcoin and ethereum, the two largest digital currencies.

Bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.37% rose 2.4% to $2,746.83 on Tuesday; recently, it hit an all-time high above $3,000. Ethereum fell 1.7% on Tuesday, but has seen an even bigger year-to-date rise than bitcoin. Both have seen spikes in trading volume.

Both the size and speed of bitcoins recent rally, as well as the recent pullback, has some investors wondering whether a longer-term downtrend is in store, even though one metrica kind of modified P/E ratio that has been developed by analystssuggests its valuation isnt currently at an extreme.

It is not clear why cryptocurrencies are appreciating so rapidly (apart from the appreciation itself drawing in more speculation against a potentially inefficient ability to sell), Morgan Stanley wrote, though it was skeptical that further gains could continue in the current regulatory environment.

Read: Bitcoin is up over 400% in the past yearwhats stopping it from going mainstream?

The investment bank didnt specify what types of regulation might be necessary to further push bitcoin higher, noting that the specific changes needed may be different for different cryptocurrencies, all of which use blockchain technology, the centralized ledger that records all such transactions. For blockchain overall, regulators are involved and watching closely, Morgan Stanley wrote. Some have suggested privacy could be improved. Regulators are looking to have a master key so all transactions are visible to them.

Blockchains are peer-to-peer networks that record and verify transactions, and while they were designed to be openmeaning anyone could see the history of various tradessome institutions have created private blockchains that arent publicly accessible.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. BK, +0.96% for example, developed a blockchain-based platform for U.S. Treasury bond settlement that has been running internally since March 2016. The bank was unlikely to have involved regulators given [the] internal nature of the transaction, Morgan Stanley wrote. Bank of New York Mellon is planning to roll this service out to clients, but it will have to engage in dialogues [with regulators] if moving to commercial applications.

Bank of New York Mellon didnt immediately return requests for a comment.

Talk of regulation in bitcoin comes months after the SEC back in March rejected a proposal that would have led to the creation of bitcoin-focused exchange-traded funds, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, citing a lack of. The SEC has since said they would review that decision. Meanwhile, a separate proposal Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchanges ETF platform is still under review. Both events might provide the regulatory underpinning that could further legitimize the digital currency in the eyes of investors, as well as increase its liquidity.

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Ray Kurzweil Says He Wouldn’t Put His Money in Bitcoin but Doesn’t Dismiss Blockchain – Futurism

In Brief Renowned author, futurist, inventor and Google's head of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, spoke on his reticence to embrace bitcoin. He is not the only expert to have their qualms about the burgeoning digital currency.

Ray Kurzweil, a leading futurist, author, inventor, and the head of Googles engineering lab, has made some impressively accuratepredictions about the future. However, this may not be the best news for the burgeoning cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Kurzweil spoke at the Exponential Finance Summit in New York City late last week and he had some less than flattering things to say about the currency. While he may see the value in the decentralizationof currency, he doesntfeel like Bitcoin is the way forward.

He explained:

Currencies like the dollar have provided reasonable stability. Bitcoin has not. And its not clear to me that the whole mining paradigm can provide that type of stability Weve seen tremendous instability with bitcoin, so I wouldnt put my money into it. I certainly do think there could be alternatives to national currencies emerging in the future. Algorithmic ones are a possibility, I just dont think weve arrived at the right algorithm yet.

Kurzweil is not the only high-profileBitcoin skeptic or opponent. Billionaire investor Mark Cubanspoke out about Bitcoin last week, denouncing it as a currency and discussing it as a bubble. Kurzweils comments echo these sentiments, especially with his view of the cryptocurrencys instability. However, Daniel Roberts from Yahoo! Financesees Kurzweils view of that instability as an oversimplification. When looked at in the long term, Bitcoin is showing steady gains.

Bitcoin has enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent weeks as prices have surpassed $3,000 (albeit briefly). In the first moments of 2017, Bitcoin could barely reach the $1,000 mark. As of today, the cryptocurrency stands at more than $2,550.

Bitcoin is powered by blockchain technology. A blockchain is a decentralized ledger that allows for complete anonymity, security, and transparencyfor all transactions taking place on the ledger. Kurzweil is more optimistic about blockchain, saying, I think once we can demonstrate confidence, then yes, a blockchain currency makes sense, and being able to document transactions securely, but theres a lot to work out.

In an effort to work out those kinks, many companies and even some countries are adopting blockchain technology. Some countries are even exploring switching their national currencies over to cryptocurrencies. We are in the early stages of its development, but this could go down as one of the few predictions Kurzweil gets wrong.

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