Qualcomm funds startup to use Bitcoin for Internet of Things

[ElectricMucus]

Also it's Bitcoin ASICs get over it.

[inca]

Also it's Bitcoin ASICs get over it.

Source? Or just doing your usual trick of presenting opinion as fact?

[brg444]

it'll be a chip. for crypto identity, hardware wallet with supporting nodes and private, priority mining.

to be installed in Samsung phones 2016

 

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Now some people imagine this as heaven for the rich, like if for example a rich driver could flip all the red lights green. How sucky would that be if you had to wait at extra-long reds? But no. You had already preset the amount you were willing to pay in bidding for the traffic light to change, and it was far less...but more importantly you get paid for your waiting time. If it's not worth your while to wait and get paid today, just set your asking price higher (a dial just for this purpose is on your dashboard). You only wait if the other driver is offering enough to make you interested in waiting.

...so long as the guy in front of you isn't blocking your paid for fast lane.

In practice you'd probably have to pay off everyone in line, if there were that many people, which would be expensive but some would likely do it. My guess is all vehicles would be in some kind of OpenBazaar-style web of trust anyway, and that would likely smooth out a lot of the edge cases.

[ElectricMucus]

21’s lead investors include U.S. venture-capital heavyweights Andreessen Horowitz and RRE Ventures, along with Chinese private-equity firm Yuan Capital, with a strategic stake going to chipmaker Qualcomm Inc.QCOM -1.13% through its venture-capital unit.

https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/qualcomm-ventures

2015-03-10   21 Inc   Series A - II   $111M   Andreessen Horowitz, Dara Khosrowshahi, Data Collective, Drew Houston, Jeff Skoll, Khosla Ventures, Mark Pincus, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, RRE Ventures, and Yuan Capital

They are funding it (21 Inc, whatever the will be doing), not taking an active part in it, so no (insert buzzword salad) inside qualcomm chips.

Also that (insert buzzword salad) 21 inc would be doing looks to be probably mining:
https://www.cbinsights.com/company/21e6

21 Inc, formerly 21e6, is a stealth company that aims to manufacture Bitcoin ASIC. Company (Alive / Active)

I hate having to quote myself but here you go, inca.

e: wtf, it was in this very thread

[HarmonLi]

Also it's Bitcoin ASICs get over it.

Mining on a smartphone scale just doesn't make any sense at all. It'll degrade the user experience by a ton (battery), also it doesn't make sense to implement a hard-wired one-purpose mining chip in a phone.

[RodeoX]

Also it's Bitcoin ASICs get over it.

Mining on a smartphone scale just doesn't make any sense at all. It'll degrade the user experience by a ton (battery), also it doesn't make sense to implement a hard-wired one-purpose mining chip in a phone.

Agreed. Phone mining is an absolute non-starter. My guess is hardware wallet chips for phones and other wired devices. In the future perhaps your TV will auto-pay when you select a movie from a streaming service. But to mine from a phone you are going to have to back to the past. Back to 2009.

[ElectricMucus]

Also it's Bitcoin ASICs get over it.

Mining on a smartphone scale just doesn't make any sense at all. It'll degrade the user experience by a ton (battery), also it doesn't make sense to implement a hard-wired one-purpose mining chip in a phone.

Agreed. Phone mining is an absolute non-starter. My guess is hardware wallet chips for phones and other wired devices. In the future perhaps your TV will auto-pay when you select a movie from a streaming service. But to mine from a phone you are going to have to back to the past. Back to 2009.

Baking that into an ASIC would be nonsense since all that can be done easily on the phones cpu. Why am I even telling you this, do you pretend to be tech illiterate?
Yeah you guessed it too, mining on a phone doesn't make sense either.

proof by reductio ad absurdum: It's a Bitcoin mining ASIC company, just like the others we've seen.
And why the long faces? Perhaps you get double the power efficiency or something.

[RodeoX]

Also it's Bitcoin ASICs get over it.

Mining on a smartphone scale just doesn't make any sense at all. It'll degrade the user experience by a ton (battery), also it doesn't make sense to implement a hard-wired one-purpose mining chip in a phone.

Agreed. Phone mining is an absolute non-starter. My guess is hardware wallet chips for phones and other wired devices. In the future perhaps your TV will auto-pay when you select a movie from a streaming service. But to mine from a phone you are going to have to back to the past. Back to 2009.

Baking that into an ASIC would be nonsense since all that can be done easily on the phones cpu. Why am I even telling you this, do you pretend to be tech illiterate?
Yeah you guessed it too, mining on a phone doesn't make sense either.

proof by reductio ad absurdum: It's a Bitcoin mining ASIC company, just like the others we've seen.
And why the long faces? Perhaps you get double the power efficiency or something.

Maybe they are entering the ASIC market but that seems risky and short sighted. If I were them I would leverage my power to open new markets with hardware wallets and integration. Even a better ASIC is only a short term money maker.
Since they are playing this close, we might not know until they make an announcement.

[vm_mpn]

Here is another thought on the subject (Reddit) : http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/336f1w/its_not_about_21_inc_its_all_about_qualcomm/

[ensurance982]

Here is another thought on the subject (Reddit) : http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/336f1w/its_not_about_21_inc_its_all_about_qualcomm/

Again, this may be *the* killer app in the making. The thing we've been waiting for for years now. They wouldn't have invested that kind of VC money if there was no plan ready to put into action!

[Alley]

Any guesses on when the first product or service will be released by 21 inc?

[ensurance982]

Any guesses on when the first product or service will be released by 21 inc?

Well they're still doing mostly very basic research, I believe... But if I'd have to guess....? Maybe late 2016? Definitely not this year. These things could be still quite far down the road from here. You have to think of it as something that may impact Bitcoin in a very slow but big way (if it works out), rather than a slow pump that's over before the daily candle closes!

[mcplums]

I'm more interested to know when 21 will actually reveal what exactly they are doing? Anyone have any idea on this?

Also, why the secrecy in the first place, what's the purpose?

[freedomno1]

I'm more interested to know when 21 will actually reveal what exactly they are doing? Anyone have any idea on this?

Also, why the secrecy in the first place, what's the purpose?

Well secrecy is usually kept just in case someone else tries to imitate them
That and if they will take a year or two they probably don't have all the specifics yet

[minerpumpkin]

I agree, this is long-term material. If this really materialises in some sort and becomes successful, this may prove to be beneficial to Bitcoin in maybe 3 years or so. I don't know their exact business model, but if they really invested this ton of money they better have a really really decent plan in place!

[ensurance982]

I'm more interested to know when 21 will actually reveal what exactly they are doing? Anyone have any idea on this?

Also, why the secrecy in the first place, what's the purpose?

Well secrecy is usually kept just in case someone else tries to imitate them
That and if they will take a year or two they probably don't have all the specifics yet

Yup, this will still take quite some time. But there have to be people who know something. Otherwise this is just some guys throwing an incredible amount of money onto a company they don't even understand correctly,.... wait a minute... never mind.

[RodeoX]

Another theory about what they are doing in not specifically bitcoin related. There are ways of using a blockchain to verify identity and perhaps do away with the need for sim cards. Getting rid of those sim cards is a desire of the phone industry.

 

[ensurance982]

Another theory about what they are doing in not specifically bitcoin related. There are ways of using a blockchain to verify identity and perhaps do away with the need for sim cards. Getting rid of those sim cards is a desire of the phone industry.

 

But why using the block chain? I don't think that this makes any sense, cell phone providers don't need to store identities in a decentralized manner. I mean, it would be great if someone could described a very useful use case for this but I don't see one at the moment. Also, that's quite some money for a record keeping technology.

[RodeoX]

Another theory about what they are doing in not specifically bitcoin related. There are ways of using a blockchain to verify identity and perhaps do away with the need for sim cards. Getting rid of those sim cards is a desire of the phone industry.

 

But why using the block chain? I don't think that this makes any sense, cell phone providers don't need to store identities in a decentralized manner. I mean, it would be great if someone could described a very useful use case for this but I don't see one at the moment. Also, that's quite some money for a record keeping technology.

I really don't know how this system works. But I have heard people argue that blockchain technology (not the bitcoin blockchain specifically) can be used to handle cell phone identity in a way that would not require sim cards. Apparently sim cards are not liked by cell providers because they require a complex distribution. The cards must be shipped and stocked at stores then sold and reconciled online. The holy grail is a system that can all be done from the phone, one that cuts out the store and sends all profits to the provider. But I am not sure how this happens using a blockchain.