Progress update #3–19.04.2018
Catch up with our progress over the last two weeks
It’s been an awesome fortnight since our last report. We have made significant progress in product development and have also taken another important step towards securing a partnership with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

Read on to find out what we’ve been up to…
https://medium.com/babb/progress-update-3-19-04-2018-719075708234

Towards a New Transparency:
https://medium.com/@dragonchain/towards-a-new-transparency-1573b9d117fc

Can Blockchain Solve the “Facebook Problem”?
Recent public revelations about Facebook’s handling of its private user information, dramatically culminating in Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before congress last week, are just the latest demonstrations of inadequacy in third party handling of personal data online. Blockchain’s core transparent decentralization, combined with Dragonchain’s hybrid public-private approach to secure scalability, offer new solutions for transparency and accountability in data networks.

It’s no secret that as the fabric of everyday life becomes ever more entwined with digital networks, the stakes on personal data are growing too. The advent of social networks and other evolving forms of mass communication/commerce have increased both the volume and sensitivity of such data exponentially, Trafficking in it has become big business for ad supported platforms like Facebook — offering a level of targeted hyper-specificity for advertisers (or other interested parties) previously impossible to imagine.

But this increasing weight raises complicated new questions about the ownership of such data, both in terms of privacy and compensation. Just who “owns” a person’s digital details and footprints, and the limits on their use, is still unclear and the subject of much debate.

One of the latest solutions gaining traction (or at least offering some political cover) is the Honest Ads Act, which targets political advertising ala players like Russia and Cambridge Analytica. What remains clear, is that though the issue is multifaceted, encompassing elements of economics, regulation and philosophy — transparency and accountability will be at the heart of any meaningful solution.

Trust and Transparency
Fundamentally, in a centralized platform like Facebook’s, users entrust their private data to a third party. Sure, everyone clicks the box agreeing to terms of use. And, yes, levels of privacy may be accessible to the user. In practice though, that data is in the hands of the platform, and users must trust that platform to keep it secure from hacking/misuse, as well as be straightforward in their explanation of how it is used.

It is exactly this third-party trust at the crux of current Facebook revelations. As they’ve been quick to point out, Facebook has always offered privacy controls, and mechanisms for disclosure and consent in personal profiles. Still, in practice, users have been mostly uninformed about the dynamics of Facebook’s use of their private data.

Who Sees My Photo? If Facebook Was a Blockchain
Let’s take an example. As the first graphic illustrates, in exchange for taking part in a viral and innocuous quiz, a user might consent to an advertiser accessing their “profile data,” thinking that means their name, picture and location. But users don’t normally think about their “profile” encompassing every friend, like and comment they’ve ever had, nor might they realize the ways in which that information might be used.

Conversely, as described by the second graphic, blockchain eliminates the need for such third party trust, creating trustless networks through the use of smart contracts. Rather than a vaguely defined “profile access,” which might encompass many different digital assets/actions past, present and future, in a blockchain model, access is granted via a smart contract, with explicit terms tied directly to the asset. That smart contract is both public and immutable, providing full transparency of the interaction from the outset. The question, “Who saw my photo?” is one that need never be asked.

Dragonchain For Enterprises
Dragonchain’s hybrid public-private blockchain extends this same utility even further, by providing a means to seamlessly connect public blockchains with private blockchains. In practice, this means greater transparency and accountability across networked resources, from internal enterprise networks to wide ranging public communication platforms.

Europecoin Hardware Manager Interview. Interview with our Europecooin Financecloud API manager Olöaf Breuer, who visited us from Portugal, to make our device ready for production
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9capIiR1R8&feature=youtu.be

Is Bridge Protocol decentralized, why or why not? https://medium.com/@shyduchak/is-bridge-protocol-decentralized-why-or-why-not-f0fc2b14dca6



The question we seem to get almost everyday is regarding decentralization. This definition is blurry in the blockchain space since the most popular networks still have governing figures that are authorized to make protocol changes. But, the answer for Bridge is yes and no; Bridge aims to be the best of both worlds.

The Bridge blockchain is being designed with the key characteristics of blockchain in mind — immutability, trust layers and transparency. Our design goals will allow businesses like banks, financial institutions, etc to run federated nodes to manage a network of data, only the data they need for a common benefit. The direct use-case ties directly to Bridge and identity management. New FinCen and GDPR compliance concerns are raising large concerns for businesses.

A prime example is for banks and money laundering regulations. A new FinCen rule states that transaction records must now be held for five years, re-certify customers for fraud and each bank must comply starting in May 2018. We found a lot of these customer checks are redundant, costly and time consuming for their enterprises. Bridge will aim to connect banks to their branches and other non-branches for the common purpose to trust and design a real-live database that helps them stay compliant. Wouldn’t it be better if companies could check an identity through a public address and search these records without compromising security of their customer?

One of the most exciting projects that the Bridge team is researching is BigChainDB. Their framework can help us design systems that can cross reference data sources to detect fraud. Bridge becomes a transparent shared ledger; an immutable system for record-keeping where transactions can be ordered and grouped into blocks. Timestamps and multiple parties can query the database to get whatever data they want, wherever it might happen to be stored and agree on the truth.

Identity management is the primary focus for now, but many industries can benefit from a permission-able system that can be assigned roles of authority. If blockchains are going to be utilized by big business, then this is the right first step.

How do I buy Insureum? https://medium.com/@insureum_zikto/how-do-i-buy-insureum-14f77c93a071

For first-time token buyers, the process might seem a little complicated. After all, you can’t just walk down to the corner store and get them off the shelf. But fear not, we’ve prepared a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to participate. It’s actually quite easy.

Aphelion NEO Desktop Wallet Demo
Walk through demo of the Aphelion NEO Desktop Wallet available for release on April 20th 2018 on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIlS55vte8

End of First Round of LanceChain’s Bounty Program
https://medium.com/@lancechain/end-of-first-round-of-lancechains-bounty-program-9e2a61907c54

Here is a much awaited update coming from LanceChain — the first 0% commission freelance platform in the world.

We, the LanceChain Team, would like to express our gratitude to all of the community members who embraced our project. Herewith, we would like to announce the end of the first round of our bounty program. It was a huge success and stakes are being calculated, so we ask for a little bit of patience from all the participants. What is more important, we sincerely thank you for spreading the word about our project and supporting us faithfully within these 8 weeks. We saw great traction and fruitful cooperation being established between us and the community and cannot be more satisfied with it.

We want to use the opportunity to announce that there will be a second round of bounty program before our actual ICO starts. Dates will be announced together with the ICO sales rounds announcement which is due in the following weeks. The bounty will be managed by the same team and we can ensure the participants will be treated in the same supreme manner.

Why do we need two rounds?

We are delaying the ICO start date because of the current market crash and mutual insecurity. We, at LanceChain, believe crypto is the future and we are sure the market will be back to normal, but we follow the trends and see that it will take time. On top, we are actively working on our prototype, ensuring that investors will have a tangible MVP securing their funds. These is a crucial milestone for all of us and we will make sure we deliver a top class product.

Exciting news! Buff88.com is on Bitcointalk — join discussions there as well!

Working on our mission to deliver eGold projects’ goals, we are happy to announce another step forward.

Buff88.com is on Bitcointalk and ready to get the talk going with you.
Discover all the great opportunities you can experience on Buff88.com — the perfect place for crypto betting online, unrivaled eSports coverage and bonuses you can’t afford to miss.

https://medium.com/@eGoldgg/exciting-news-buff88-com-is-on-bitcointalk-join-discussions-there-as-well-c4dd1ebd5d85

Ivan on Tech Livestream interview with our CEO Serafin & CTO Daniel + 1 BTC giveaway

Live interview with Ivan on Tech
We’re happy to share with you that tomorrow (Friday 13th of April) at 11am PST / 6pm GMT our CEO Serafin Engel and our CTO Daniel Hawthorne will be interviewed live by Ivan on Tech. We will share the live link with you via our channels shortly before the interview will take place. We’re excited about the opportunity to share more about Datawallet and what we’re working on.

1 BTC giveaway as part of the Draper University Block Party (EXTENDED)
Due to the success of our 1 BTC giveaway contest we have decided to EXTENT it until the 13th of April 11am PST / 6pm GMT so more people have the chance to join the raffle. You will have the chance to win 1 BTC — as part of the Draper University Block(chain) Party. Anyone who joins the official Datawallet Telegram channel in that time period will have a chance to win. If you are already a member you can also participate: If you refer someone to join our channel and they post a little welcome message thanking you for referring them (e.g. “Thanks @username for inviting me!”) we will enter both into the giveaway. Good luck!

https://medium.com/datawallet-blog/ivan-on-tech-livestream-interview-with-our-ceo-serafin-cto-daniel-1-btc-giveaway-8b749eaeaaf8

BitNautic Decentralized Shipping Platform Token Pre-Sale start May 1, 2018. In FinTech news this week BitNautic Decentralized Shipping Platform is having a token sale with a pre-sale starting in the coming days.
BitNautic is a decentralized shipping and cargo platform based on Blockchain technology. BitNautic has some distinctive features including an advanced artificial intelligence based booking system, real-time tracking of ships, and an e-commerce marketplace to act as a clearing house and exchange for goods and commodities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZjKqkH0gtM

Request Network Partners with Digix to Allow Invoicing in Gold



At the Request Network Foundation we are very glad to announce a partnership with Digix, an asset tokenisation company that aims to bring real gold onto the Ethereum blockchain in a fully transparent and secure manner. Due to this partnership we will see the gold-backed Digix gold (DGX) tokens available as an option for invoicing on the Request Network. This allows anyone in the world to digitally send and receive invoices which can be paid with gold.

Soon all users of the Request Network will be able to request an invoice to be paid in DGX tokens, which are backed by 99.99% gold cast bars from London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)-approved refiners on a 1:1 basis, where 1 token is backed by 1 gram of gold. Having gold-backed tokens available as an invoicing option allows users to receive and send payments in a stablecoin, whose value is not subject to the high volatility of the cryptocurrency market or to foreign exchange fluctuations.

While the financial services industry continues to witness interest in blockchain technology, asset-backed tokens such as the DGX token are a good way for users who want to hedge against any volatility through a safe haven asset.

Digix is an asset tokenisation company with an aim of tokenising real world assets through several proprietary technologies, such as the Proof of Provenance (PoP) protocol which ensures the legitimacy and transparency of the process through which gold bullion is represented as digital assets.

DGX 2.0 has just launched on April 8 and is now available for purchase on the Digix marketplace. Users can register for an account and purchase DGX 2.0 tokens once they have submitted their KYC information and have their Ethereum address approved.

https://blog.request.network/request-network-partners-with-digix-to-allow-invoicing-in-gold-39417eeb74c5

Weekly report 04/10
https://medium.com/@VladimirTikhomirov/weekly-report-04-10-37772e114c0a

Development

Main commitments: BTC (RSK) in April, NEO in May.

Now MyWish supports the Ethereum Test Net (Ropsten). So, the user who creates the contract on MyWish can test it for free in the Ethereum Test Net. It gives him the opportunity to try out his creations for free before taking them into production.

Exchanges

KuCoin — negotiations are ongoing: our representative had an in-person meeting with KuCoin representative last week.

Marketing

Despite the fact that social networks and search engines prohibit advertising associated with blockchain and crypto-currencies, we manage to bypass their connections. Thus, the number of followers on Facebook has reached to 9 394 due to an advertising campaign. Also, for the period from 03/16 to 04/6 due to the paid advertising we attracted 3 007 people who learned about MyWish and 508 new users who just tried it, which proves the campaign is effective and we are on our way.

We continue the campaign with promo codes. As a result, we have already received 650 requests for a personal promo code. If you have not yet joined our promo & bounty campaign, just do it: https://goo.gl/H6ZUvu!

We hired the company that helps us with PR and spreading information about MyWish at the blockchain forums. With PR department we are looking for the events where we could take part and are preparing press releases. In particular, we write the news about integration with RSK and discuss with organizers of Blockchain Summit the opportunity of MyWish participation. With another department, we have the aim to track every mention of smart contracts on the Internet and post comments with a link to MyWish.

During our advertising campaign, we have come to recognize the fact that new users like our site http://mywish.io/. However we should update it with the information required for the user: about the most popular contracts: Crowdsale & Token, some facts about MyWish and remove the data about our ICO from home page. These are the plans for the next 2 weeks.

NeuroNuggets: Style Transfer

In the fourth installment of the NeuroNuggets series, we continue our study of basic problems in computer vision. We remind that in the NeuroNuggets series, we discuss the demos available on the recently released NeuroPlatform, concentrating not so much on the demos themselves but rather on the ideas behind each deep learning model.

In the first installment, we talked about the age and gender detection model, which is basically image classification. In the second, we presented object detection, a more complex computer vision problem where you also have to find where an object is located. In the third, we continued this with segmentation and Mask R-CNN model. Today, we turn to something even more exciting. We will consider a popular and very beautiful application of deep learning: style transfer. We will see how to make a model that can draw your portrait in the style of Monet — or Yves Klein if you’re not careful with training! I am also very happy to present the co-author of this post, one of our lead researchers Kyryl Truskovskyi
https://medium.com/neuromation-io-blog/neuronuggets-style-transfer-ea2b2fbb00ed

CoinPoker is excited for the upcoming Asian Poker Tour Main Event in Macau on April 28th. So excited that we’re launching our “Make it Rain in Macau” satellite series, giving you a chance to play at one of Asia’s premier poker events for as little as 0CHP!

Well, nowadays we might not have any real-life moths stuck in our computers (or software, to be more precise) but software bugs need to be zapped as well. We hope you can join us in doing so.

PolicyPal Network Logo Contest!
https://medium.com/@policypalnet/policypal-network-logo-contest-482f3f7832ee



Are you a creative? And an ardent fan of our vision and project? You now have the opportunity to COMPLETELY revamp the logo of PolicyPal Network!

Feel free to check out Further Reading at the bottom of this post to understand and illustrate the vision of PolicyPal Network in your logo design.

Creativity is strongly encouraged!

OmiseGO and MakerDAO are forming an alliance in our crusade for decentralized finance.

OMG’s currency-agnostic decentralized exchange will allow users the freedom to exchange and manage any digitized asset. However, the volatility of many cryptocurrencies makes them less than ideal as a medium for everyday transactions, in which users want to know that the money they are sending will be worth the same amount when it arrives at its destination.

Stablecoins provide a relatively static benchmark (as static as the currency to which they are pegged) within the volatility of the crypto market. But most stablecoins are centralized, backed by reserves held by private entities whose self-assessment of their own trustworthiness often leaves much to be desired.

Dai, on the other hand, is decentralized, its issuance and value transparently linked to assets held in smart contracts — a system that is better aligned with OMG both philosophically and functionally.
https://blog.omisego.network/dai-and-omg-uniting-for-a-more-decentralized-tomorrow-eb7daf81ba7

Hey everyone! As we approach the start of our Pre-Sale on 05.01.18, we thought it would be good to share some tips with you on how to better secure your wallet:

*Never click on suspicious links or download apps from unknown developers. They can log your private keys and other information
  from your device.

*Always be sure to back-up your wallet. Wallets usually with have an X-phrase mnemonic in case you lose your device. Write this
  phrase down and store in a very secure place.

*If you are using a wallet software, always have a password for it.

*If you are using a browser for a cloud wallet such as MEW, always check to make sure you are at the correct URL address.

*Using a localized, hardware wallet such as a Trezor or a Ledger wallet can help you secure your wallet in “cold storage”. This will
  help prevent your wallet from being hacked into as it will be in an offline setting.

*While on social media or forums, do not mention what cryptocurrency exchange or wallet you use.

*Do not ever share your private key for your wallet.

*If you have an online wallet, be wary of accessing your wallet on a public Wi-Fi connection as this poses a security risk.

Disclaimer: While these are some helpful tips for securing one’s wallet, there are still risks that exist and funds can be lost and or stolen. TraXion claims no responsibility for the possibility of these events occurring and this article is meant as advice. Each user should do their own research and take necessary steps for the security of their wallet.

In a recent study, it was found that more than 70% of over 3,500 hospitals surveyed in America could not interact with other medical systems when it came to finding a patient’s records, sending them electronically and securely to another medical institution, receiving new patient data, and integrating that information back into the patient’s electronic record.

In the UK a 2017 report from the N.A.O. stated that integration between NHS systems and other related social healthcare systems was far from ideal. It revealed tracking patients through different care settings and updating their information was a large barrier to running efficient cross-care systems and was one of the biggest barriers for meeting their targets.

Modern healthcare providers cannot cope with the complexities of sharing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) from different health care organizations across disparate systems. These systems were never designed to work together and this leads to delays receiving results, potentially serious patient data errors, lost records, and poses problems for patients that need to view their own data and reports. This situation has developed because over time, providers have created their own technology and systems, separate from one another and thus have limited their wider application. These disparate systems would better function and have wider application if they were networked together so they could share their data and functions. This exchange of data across different systems is called interoperability.
https://medium.com/@theblocknetchannel/healthcare-and-the-blocknet-the-challenge-of-interoperability-5c61dcb738e1