Why blockchain technology may be the next big thinghttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/tech/software/why-blockchain-technology-may-be-the-next-big-thing/articleshow/58553522.cmsFor a private dairy operator in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, reconciling payments to and from various vendors usually takes up to a fortnight. To try to bring this down to no more than a couple of hours, the company is finalising a plan to use a new technology idea to speed things up. Rather than overhauling its backbone and hastening the process by buying new computers and servers, the dairy is instead turning to blockchain, a decade-old technology (most famously or infamously associated with the bitcoin cryptocurrency), to solve its problems.
By leveraging the benefits of blockchain, a distributed digital ledger, this dairy now wants payments to be reconciled in a matter of hours. It can perhaps learn from Bajaj Electricals, the 79-yearold provider of electrical gear. Last year it unveiled a solution for vendor payments, which shrank processing time from weeks to a matter of hours. Other companies across industries such as manufacturing, logistics and automobiles are in various stages of testing this relatively old record-keeping platform for new requirement.
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Bitcoin explained: The rising cryptocurrency and what it is used forhttp://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/bitcoin-explained-the-rising-cryptocurrency-and-what-it-is-used-for-375224.htmlBitcoin is, more often than not, in the news for all the wrong reasons. Cybercriminals and hackers have taken a liking to the cryptocurrency because of the ease with which the it can cross borders, the lack of regulation and the anonymity offered by the transactions. Bitcoin is demanded as the form of payment for attacks using ransomware — wherein malicious software is used to encrypt the files of users on a system. The attackers then demand a financial transaction before they provide the details necessary for decryption, to allow the owners to access their own data, stored on their own machines, but encrypted with a key that is in the possession of the hackers.
In a recent case in Bengaluru, the entire Wipro campus was held for ransom. Hackers threatened to mail in a dangerous biochemical powder — Ricin — to the Wipro campus, unless the company paid up a Rs 500 crore ransom in Bitcoin. Wipro responded by beefing up security on campus.
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After bitcoin ransom mail, Wipro beefs up security at all its officeshttp://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/after-bitcoin-ransom-mail-wipro-beefs-up-security-at-all-its-offices-117050600785_1.htmlSoftware major Wipro stepped up security at all its offices following an e-mail threat to send a toxic drug to its campus here, the company said on Saturday.
"We have augmented security measures at all office locations, though there is no impact on our operations," said the city-based IT firm in a statement.
Confirming receipt of a threatening letter, the outsourcing firm lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police in the city earlier in the day.
"We confirm filing a complaint with the local law enforcement authorities after receiving a threatening letter from an unidentified source," read the statement
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US student visa, bitcoins, darknet: Here’s how 5 men fooled airport scanners, smuggled LSD worth ₹70 lakh into Mumbai
http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/us-student-visa-bitcoins-darknet-here-s-how-5-men-fooled-airport-scanners-smuggled-lsd-worth-70-lakh-into-mumbai/story-EOUqreSsqOjW7EX6p1VVVI.html
A US student visa, some bitcoins and the darknet — a combination of these helped five men smuggle lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) drug worth Rs70 lakh into India from Europe multiple times, said officials from the anti-narcotics cell (ANC).
In March, police arrested Arbaaz Taj Mohammad Khan, 20; Farhan Ali Khan, 26; Admay Samir Modi, 22; Chirag Jain, 24; and Laxman alias Nikhil Rajan, 24, for supplying LSD to college students at pubs and rave parties. Acting on a tip-off, the ANC’s Kandivli unit nabbed the five near Infinity Mall in Malad (East). Police found 1,400 LSD blot papers, each costing Rs5,000, in their pockets. They were held under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
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Can blockchain, today's buzziest new tech tool, be controlled? http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/can-blockchain-today-s-buzziest-new-tech-tool-be-controlled-117050500413_1.html
The headlong pace of technological change produces giant leaps forward in knowledge, innovation, new possibilities and, almost inevitably, legal problems. That’s now the case with blockchain, today’s buzziest new tech tool. The Conversation
Introduced in 2008 as the technology underpinning Bitcoin, a digital currency that is created and held electronically without any central authority, blockchain is a secure digital ledger for any kind of data. It simplifies record keeping and reduces transaction costs.
Its range of applications in commerce, finance and potentially politics continues to widen, and that has triggered a debate around how to regulate the tool.
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MPS Infotecnics enters into MoU with QzIP Blockchain Technologyhttp://www.business-standard.com/article/news-cm/mps-infotecnics-enters-into-mou-with-qzip-blockchain-technology-117050500893_1.html
MPS Infotecnics announced that the Company has entered into MOU with QzIP Blockchain Technology LLP (Qzip.in) (hereinafter referred to as QzIP), whereby QzIP will proivde the knowhow and the requisite software artictural elements for Blockchaim Technology integeration, into the MPA e-commerce platform upon a commercial basis.
Further, the company is creating a white labelled e-commerce platform which can be used by retailers for hosting their business e-commerce sites, under their respective branding. Also the company will be the first company in India which will be providing e-commerce platform based on Blockchain Technology.
The MoU is for a period of 12 months from the effective date i.e. 04 May 2017 untill & unless extended for a further period based on mutual terms.
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The day I wished I had bought more bitshttp://www.livemint.com/Money/g5s4t0BJ4wUgmPPYF8mOsO/The-day-I-wished-I-had-bought-more-bits.htmlOn Friday morning, a notification bleeped on my smartphone. It read: “Bitcoin at Rs100,647.”
For those who’re still living in caves, bitcoin is a crypto-currency created through encryption techniques.
The value of a bitcoin has breached the Rs 1 lakh mark, making me wish I had bought more bits—or fragments of a bitcoin that one can buy and sell. One million bits make a bitcoin.
I bought one lakh bits in September 2016, and these have given me a 142% point-to-point return.
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Wipro joins Enterprise Ethereum Alliance as founding memberhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/wipro-joins-enterprise-ethereum-alliance-as-founding-member/articleshow/58517217.cms
Wipro Limited on Thursday announced that it has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) as a founding member.
EEA is a collaboration of enterprises to promote, develop and implement enterprise grade Ethereum-based blockchain applications across industries for specific business use cases.
Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform, featuring smart contract functionality. The EEA seeks to augment Ethereum adoption as an enterprise-grade technology, with research and development focused on privacy, confidentiality, scalability and security.
Wipro has been actively working on Ethereum to develop enterprise blockchain-based industry solutions and assets on a number of industry use cases. These solutions include Delivery versus Payments (DvP) settlement for securities and capital markets, skip-trace consortia for banking, peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance for the sharing economy, anti-counterfeit solution for supply chain traceability and many more.
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Swift starts testing viability of blockchain for international interbank financial transactionshttp://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/swift-starts-testing-viability-of-blockchain-for-international-interbank-financial-transactions-373753.htmlSociety for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) has announced that it is developing a proof of concept (PoC) application in collaboration with banks around the world. The PoC is evaluating the effectiveness of Distributed Ledger Technology, or blockchain, in improving the real time reconciliation of accounts by banks held in foreign currency, known as nostro accounts. The exercise is an effort to optimise the global financial liquidity.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, RBC Royal Bank and Wells Fargo are some of the banks participating in the pilot phase of the introduction of blockchain technologies for nostro accounts. An additional 20 banks are expected to join the tests. During the course of the test, challenges will be identified, specifications will be decided, and the application will be improved based on feedback. The PoC is meant to make cross border financial transactions more efficient.
Wim Raymaekers, Head of Banking Markets and Swift gpi at Swift says “The nostro DLT proof of concept is deeply embedded in the SWIFT gpi story of streamlining the cross-border payments system. It allows us to explore how this maturing technology can provide a collaborative solution to what our gpi member banks have identified as a significant pain point – nostro accounts reconciliation.”
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Unocoin, PayUbiz join hands to simplify buying Bitcoins via net banking http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/unocoin-payubiz-join-hands-to-simplify-buying-bitcoins-via-net-banking-117042600636_1.htmlIndia's leading Bitcoin and Blockchain company Unocoin on Wednesday announced taking a step closer towards a frictionless experience in buying Bitcoin for Indians.
Unocoin announced its partnership with PayUbiz, a leading payment gateway, to facilitate Unocoin users in buying Bitcoin using the net banking feature. Set to simplify the entire process of buying Bitcoin, the feature is live on Unocoin.
"With an increasing interest in Bitcoin, this integration will enable Unocoin customer to buy Bitcoin even on a weekend while the manual payment processing is not functional," said CEO and co-founder Unocoin, Sathvik Vishwananth.
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Bitcoins feeding online crime wave: F-Secure Cyber Security 2017 report
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/bitcoins-feeding-online-crime-wave-f-secure-cyber-security-2017-report/articleshow/58378636.cmsThe availability of Bitcoin, the open-source virtual currency, has made crypto-ransomware’s business model viable and profitable, feeding an online crime wave that has seen new extortion-enabling malware families at least double each year since 2012. There was one known ransomware family variant in 2012, according to F-Secure’s State of Cyber Security 2017 report. By 2015, there were 35, which went up to 193 in 2016.
Unless governments disregard previous concerns about shutting down the anonymous funding source, F-Secure Labs warns, this exponential growth is likely to only be limited by the ability of consumers to purchase Bitcoin.
“Bitcoin survived and thrived during the last U.S. presidential administration,” says Sean Sullivan, Security Advisor at F-Secure. “However, the new administration has indicated that it’s eager to reinvigorate the ‘the drug war’ by even cracking down on the sale of marijuana, which new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said is just ‘slightly less awful ‘than heroin. If the U.S. pursues all the forms of potentially illegal payments, ransomware’s growth could be abated. Otherwise, we expect to see the new ransomware families we discovered in 2017 at least double.”
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U.S. investment firm launches $10 mln ethereum classic private fundhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/u-s-investment-firm-launches-10-mln-ethereum-classic-private-fund/articleshow/58384918.cmsU.S. investment firm Grayscale Investments has launched the first private fund focused on ethereum classic, a blockchain platform, with a seed capital of $10 million, Barry Silbert, founder of the company's parent, Digital Currency Group (DCG), said on Wednesday.
The fund is called Ethereum Classic Investment Trust, with the initial capital provided by Silbert, DCG and Glenn Hutchins, co-founder of private investment company Silver Lake.
The new fund will track the price of ethereum classic, the sixth-largest digital currency in terms of market capitalization, totaling $419.1 million.
The coin powers a decentralized blockchain network in which developers can create different applications that can facilitate or enhance the transfer and sharing of information and value.
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Blockchain startup Gnosis to freeze tokens after strong salehttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/blockchain-startup-gnosis-to-freeze-tokens-after-strong-sale/articleshow/58369977.cms
After an initial digital currency sale that raised $12.5 million in just 12 minutes, blockchain startup Gnosis has decided to leave most of its remaining currency untouched for at least a year, co-founder Martin Koppelmann told Reuters on Tuesday.
Gnosis, a Gibraltar-registered company, sold 5 percent of its 10 million so-called GNO tokens to investors on Monday for $30 each, making it the most expensive digital currency ever offered in an initial sale, Koppelmann said.
Despite the steep price, the offering was oversubscribed, with the company turning away $3 million in additional bids, Koppelmann said.
"It wasn't ethically responsible to accept those additional bids because we had already reached our capital target," the Gnosis founder said.
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Hackers siphon off funds from BoM to invest in Bitcoinhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/hackers-siphon-off-funds-from-bom-to-invest-in-bitcoin/articleshow/58356718.cms
In an unprecedented case of hacking and money- laundering, four persons in just 49 days hacked the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) to siphon off Rs 6.14 crore from several accounts of 23 branches in Pune district, for investment in cryptocurrency Bitcoin through three companies in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Police have frozen all three accounts of the companies which were involved in the transactions of Bitcoin, a virtual currency legalised in few countries but yet to get the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nod. The cybercrime cell of Pune police recovered Rs 4.58 crore from the accused, which involved Bitcoin of Rs 1 crore.
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Blockchain could be relevant in mobile payments system, services relying on Aadhaar and more
http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/blockchain-could-be-relevant-in-mobile-payments-system-or-373010.html
If you have been following the news since the last couple of years, you must have noticed that there are two terms that have become part of daily tech parlance. Bitcoins and Blockchain. While the bitcoin pertains to crypto currency, it is the underlying technology driving it — Blockchain — which has potential to be used in various applications.
Blockchain is simply a peer to peer software technology that stores information across a network of computers. Blockchain is a distributed network, so there isn’t one central authority (such as banks) managing the transactions. This is done so as to prevent any one entity from taking down the entire network, in case it is corrupted. Blockchain uses cryptography to ensure that records cannot be duplicated or interchanged. There is an online system-wide account book called the distributed ledger which records every transaction happening between two entities and that record is stored chronologically and added to the blockchain. All parties in a secure network receive copies of the records of financial transactions. This means that the transactions do not have to be independently verified by third parties. To put it in perspective, blockchain has a record of anyone who has ever owned a bitcoin, since its inception.
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On of my friend has got the below message which says - Due to the uncertainty in India and elsewhere (Bitcoin Hard fork), customers are advised not to deposit BTC and INR till further notification. Inconvenience is duly regretted. Withdrawals will be processed as scheduled.
And as a precautionary measure I think they have stopped it till the time it gets clear if the ban is coming or not. And then they may think and resume back accordingly.
The committee has got 3 months to submit its report on virtual currencies. You can't hold a business in limbo for 3 months. Customers will just move elsewhere. |
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Blockchain startups welcome govt move to constitute committee on virtual currencieshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/blockchain-startups-welcome-govt-move-to-constitute-committee-on-virtual-currencies/articleshow/58167997.cms
The central government’s move to constitute a committee to look at the framework around virtual currencies has been welcomed by bitcoin and blockchain startups, especially as it proposes to understand the global trends around cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The finance ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs has constituted an interdisciplinary committee chaired by the special secretary of economic affairs and comprising representatives from the ministries of home affairs, and electronics and IT, the Reserve Bank of India, NITI Aayog and the State Bank of India, the government announced on Wednesday.
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PE firm acquires the company behind bitcoin's self proclaimed creatorhttp://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/technology/pe-firm-acquires-the-company-behind-bitcoins-self-proclaimed-creator/58182301A company built around the research of Craig Wright, who has claimed to have invented the bitcoin cryptocurrency, has been sold to a private equity firm in a deal the company says is the biggest to date involving bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology.
The deal swings the spotlight once again on to Wright, a 46-year-old computer scientist who is the cryptocurrency's most controversial figure. He hopes to remain central to the technology's future, telling Reuters the goal is to build bitcoin into a global "system with no ruler, no king."
"We will scale and grow bitcoin to become what it was envisioned to be," he said. "All I do is to help grow the use of bitcoin, and I want to see it in daily use by at least a billion people on-chain. We have the funds, the people and the technology to do this."
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