New material bismuthene could boost spintronics information technology

Why it matters to you

One day electronics will not be able to be made smaller, but sprintronics opens up a way for our devices to continue to become faster and more compact.

Researchers have developed a new material called bismuthene, which could make the concept of spintronic information transmission far more viable, as it can operate effectively at room temperature. Said to possess similar properties to the wonder material that is graphene, bismuthene is created through a combination of bismuth atoms and a silicon carbide substrate.

Spintronics, or spin transport electronics, is a long-studied but still-emerging field of nanoscale electronics that manipulates the spin of electrons, rather than their charge, to transmit information. It has huge potential to revolutionize various aspects of electronics and computing, by offering lower-power operation, faster data transfer, and perhaps more crucially, four states compared to traditional computing’s two.

This manipulation of quantum states could translate to much, much faster computational devices in the future and move us beyond the difficulties faced by sub-10nm semiconductor fabrication. However, the traditional materials used in spintronics have been very temperature dependent, commonly requiring cooling to as low as minus 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

But bismuthene doesn’t have that problem. Developed by a team of researchers from the University of Wurzburg, Germany, it combines a single-atom-thick layer of bismuth built atop a silicon carbide substrate. This causes the bismuth atoms to form a honeycomb design, very similar to graphene.

Better than graphene though, this substance, dubbed bismuthene for its similarities, forms a chemical bond with its substrate that keeps the surface conductive while maintaining the insulative qualities of its center.

This is crucial, since for spintronics to work, there must be no short circuiting through the inside of the material or substrate, and bismuthene solves both those problems. Better yet, it does so at room temperature and above, potentially opening up the door to new spintronic hardware in the future (thanks ScienceDaily).

Although this is still early days, the team of researchers at Wurzburg have tested and proven the results in their own experiments. They expect this development to lead to great advances in information transmission in the future.

Even if this advance proves as successful as the researchers claim, it will still be some time before we see it applied to commercial devices, but it holds exciting potential for spintronic hardware and could help take us beyond our current horizons.

New material bismuthene could boost spintronics information technology

Why it matters to you

One day electronics will not be able to be made smaller, but sprintronics opens up a way for our devices to continue to become faster and more compact.

Researchers have developed a new material called bismuthene, which could make the concept of spintronic information transmission far more viable, as it can operate effectively at room temperature. Said to possess similar properties to the wonder material that is graphene, bismuthene is created through a combination of bismuth atoms and a silicon carbide substrate.

Spintronics, or spin transport electronics, is a long-studied but still-emerging field of nanoscale electronics that manipulates the spin of electrons, rather than their charge, to transmit information. It has huge potential to revolutionize various aspects of electronics and computing, by offering lower-power operation, faster data transfer, and perhaps more crucially, four states compared to traditional computing’s two.

This manipulation of quantum states could translate to much, much faster computational devices in the future and move us beyond the difficulties faced by sub-10nm semiconductor fabrication. However, the traditional materials used in spintronics have been very temperature dependent, commonly requiring cooling to as low as minus 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

But bismuthene doesn’t have that problem. Developed by a team of researchers from the University of Wurzburg, Germany, it combines a single-atom-thick layer of bismuth built atop a silicon carbide substrate. This causes the bismuth atoms to form a honeycomb design, very similar to graphene.

Better than graphene though, this substance, dubbed bismuthene for its similarities, forms a chemical bond with its substrate that keeps the surface conductive while maintaining the insulative qualities of its center.

This is crucial, since for spintronics to work, there must be no short circuiting through the inside of the material or substrate, and bismuthene solves both those problems. Better yet, it does so at room temperature and above, potentially opening up the door to new spintronic hardware in the future (thanks ScienceDaily).

Although this is still early days, the team of researchers at Wurzburg have tested and proven the results in their own experiments. They expect this development to lead to great advances in information transmission in the future.

Even if this advance proves as successful as the researchers claim, it will still be some time before we see it applied to commercial devices, but it holds exciting potential for spintronic hardware and could help take us beyond our current horizons.

The BrewArt system is now available on Kickstarter for just under $1,200

Why it matters to you

This clever brewing system brings automation to the game, allowing you to brew with your phone.

Be it a high-quality cup of coffee, a refreshing glass of carbonated soda, or a nice cold mug of freshly brewed beer, homeowners all over the country have more access to on-demand beverage devices than ever before. Now, a team of craft beer aficionados from Australia’s Coopers Brewery has decided to elbow into this crowded industry with a device it’s dubbing the BrewArt (not to be confused with the ArtBrew). Armed with an idea culled from quality coffee brewers like Keurig and Nespresso, BrewArt hopes to revolutionize the on-demand beer market by allowing owners to replicate their favorite beers from the comfort of their own home.

Comprising two parts — the Beerdroid brews the beer while the Brewflo stores and pours the chilled beer — BrewArt is the culmination of an eight-year pet project. While other automated home brew systems exist, the partners behind BrewArt believe their device is different (i.e., serves a better purpose) due in part to its Wi-Fi-compatible smartphone integration. Essentially, owners of the machine not only get to recreate their favorite IPAs, but get to do so by executing a few simple commands on an iPhone or Android.

“We wanted to make something that gave people a good brewing experience,” co-founder Scott Harris told Australia’s The Advertiser. “The ability to control the temperature also allows people to create beers that have been hard to make in the past, like a nice, clear lager for example. [We made it] as simple as possible, without taking the science out of it. You can control the whole process through the app.”

BrewArt

While brewing a particular batch of beer, BrewArt’s companion application sends messages updating users of its progress, alerting them of any milestones reached and percentage of brew cycle completed. Additionally, if owners prefer to stop the brew cycle for any amount of time, the application lets them remotely put the batch to sleep which would then chill the device to 4 degrees before scheduling another time to begin the process. Once completed, the brewed beer is transferred to the Brewflo canister and set to a specific beer’s ideal cooling temperature.

BrewArt’s application sends messages updating users of its progress.

“You have this culture that’s emerged in the last few years of people making their own cheese, smoking their own meats,” Harris added. “At the same time, there has been this explosion in craft beer and all the different flavors. This allows people to combine those two movements.”

So how much will the BrewArt Beerdroid set you back? More than a year after the home brewing concept was announced, the system is now coming to Kickstarter with hopes of coming to the masses. If you pledge $495 to its new campaign, you can be one of the first to own a Beerdroid when it begins shipping in September. But in order to actually enjoy your beer, of course, you’ll also need the Brewflo, which will set you back an additional $695. That brings the total cost of the system to just under $1,200.

Update: Added news of the BrewArt’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

The Voyager Smart wallet won’t let you leave it, or your phone, behind

Why it matters to you

There are a few things more frustrating than forgetting your wallet, but the Voyager Smart Wallet will alert you before you’ve gone too far.

Your wallet may contain your most important possessions, but alas, it is just so easy to forget. After all, who hasn’t left a wallet in a car, at a restaurant, or at home before a business trip or a busy day? But one company is hoping to address our forgetfulness — or at least, make it less problematic. Meet the Voyager Smart Wallet, a new connected wallet that is linked to your smartphone so that you never leave it behind.

The latest product from Cuir Ally, this wallet is said to be constructed with fine-grain premium leather and combines form with function. The Voyager Smart comes complete with a pen, which fits along the inner fold of the wallet, as well as a space for your passport, your boarding passes, and plenty of credit cards and cash. But even if you are filling the wallet to its brim, Cuir Ally promises that it will maintain its sleek and slim design.

As for the tech aspect of the Voyager Smart, the wallet comes with an embedded smart chip, which uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone. Simply download the companion Chipolo app, available on both Android and iOS, and monitor your wallet’s activity. If you forget your wallet, the app will send you a notification to let you know that you and the Voyager Smart are no longer in the vicinity of one another. If you simply can’t find your wallet, press a button in the app and the Voyager Smart will start ringing.

But this also works in the other direction — if you have your wallet but cannot find your phone, simply double tap the chip in the Voyager Smart, and you will set off an alarm on your phone (even if it is on silent). The app also remembers your wallet’s last known location, so if you ever need to do some sleuthing work, you will have the resources you need.

The wallet is currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter for $116, with an estimated delivery date of December. Backers will be able to choose from brown, black, or blue when it comes to the leather’s color.

The Voyager Smart wallet won’t let you leave it, or your phone, behind

Why it matters to you

There are a few things more frustrating than forgetting your wallet, but the Voyager Smart Wallet will alert you before you’ve gone too far.

Your wallet may contain your most important possessions, but alas, it is just so easy to forget. After all, who hasn’t left a wallet in a car, at a restaurant, or at home before a business trip or a busy day? But one company is hoping to address our forgetfulness — or at least, make it less problematic. Meet the Voyager Smart Wallet, a new connected wallet that is linked to your smartphone so that you never leave it behind.

The latest product from Cuir Ally, this wallet is said to be constructed with fine-grain premium leather and combines form with function. The Voyager Smart comes complete with a pen, which fits along the inner fold of the wallet, as well as a space for your passport, your boarding passes, and plenty of credit cards and cash. But even if you are filling the wallet to its brim, Cuir Ally promises that it will maintain its sleek and slim design.

As for the tech aspect of the Voyager Smart, the wallet comes with an embedded smart chip, which uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone. Simply download the companion Chipolo app, available on both Android and iOS, and monitor your wallet’s activity. If you forget your wallet, the app will send you a notification to let you know that you and the Voyager Smart are no longer in the vicinity of one another. If you simply can’t find your wallet, press a button in the app and the Voyager Smart will start ringing.

But this also works in the other direction — if you have your wallet but cannot find your phone, simply double tap the chip in the Voyager Smart, and you will set off an alarm on your phone (even if it is on silent). The app also remembers your wallet’s last known location, so if you ever need to do some sleuthing work, you will have the resources you need.

The wallet is currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter for $116, with an estimated delivery date of December. Backers will be able to choose from brown, black, or blue when it comes to the leather’s color.

Chinese authorities move to curtail use of VPNs on mobile carriers

Why it matters to you

An increasingly isolationist China is targeting services that skirt its internet restrictions, which could prove problematic for the country’s multinationals.

VPNs, or virtual private networks that route traffic to servers in other countries, enjoy outsize popularity in China, where tens of millions of people use them to skirt the country’s internet restrictions. But on Monday, July 10, the government took steps to curtail the use of VPNs among the country’s smartphone users by instructing mobile carriers to block access to private networks by February 1.

This move is in keeping with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “cyber sovereignty” campaign, a 14-month effort to clamp down on loopholes around China’s internet restrictions. Earlier this year, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pledged to step up enforcement against unauthorized VPNs, and forced at least one popular company, GreenVPN, to halt service in mainland China.

Even before the crackdown, VPNs were subject to increased government scrutiny. In March 2016, law enforcement targeted private networks during a session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, reports SCMP. But Chinese officials characterized the new rules and regulations as a “clean-up” of the country’s internet connections.

They’re purposefully vague, according to Bloomberg, which gives the government wide berth in interpreting the rules. And they appear to target companies who provide VPN services to individual citizens, rather than international corporations operating within the country. VPNs are crucial to companies trying to access global services outside of China, and efforts to cut off internal networks could be enough to make them consider closing or reducing operations in China.

Already, multinationals face a challenging climate in an increasingly isolationist China. The country blocks 135 out of 1,000 of the world’s top websites, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, according to GreatFire.org, which monitors online censorship on the mainland. And China’s new Cybersecurity Law, which went into effect earlier this year, requires companies to store data in mainland China, undergo security review processes for key hardware and software, and assist authorities conducting security investigations.

The protectionist policies have proven unpopular with businesses, which see them as a threat to international trade. More than 50 associations and chambers of commerce signed a letter in May to the government seeking a delay, arguing the Cybersecurity Law could impact billions of dollars in cross-border trade and lock out foreign companies because of limits on how they operate in the country.

“These measures will add costly burdens, restrict competition, and may decrease the security of products and jeopardize the privacy of Chinese citizens,” according to the letter from bodies representing businesses based in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, and elsewhere.

The Ministry argues that an increasingly unregulated Chinese internet poses a security risk. “China’s internet connection service market […] has signs of disordered development that require urgent regulation and governance,” an official said. “[The rules] strengthen cyberspace information security management.”

Architect creates artsy drones that will spray-paint our cities prettier

Why it matters to you

As drones become more common, they may help beautify our cities, one construction site at a time.

Massive spray-painted murals are being planned for Berlin, Germany, and Turin, Italy. Rather than employ human interns to do the dirty work, it will be created by drones.

The aptly named Paint By Drone is the brainchild of Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Laboratory and founder of the Carlo Ratti Associati an innovation and design studio leading the project.

“Drones are becoming an increasingly common part of our everyday life,” Ratti told Digital Trends. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration estimates that 1.3 million quadcopters will by in the skies by 2020. “Given this evolving scenario, the idea of employing drones in different contexts is something that has accompanied us in several projects,” he added.

At the MIT Senseable City Laboratory, Ratti lead a project called Skycall, which developed drones as tour guides around the university campus.

“With Skycall, we investigated two main development paths of UAV technology,” Ratti said, “a drone’s capacity to autonomously sense and perceive its environment, and its ability to interface and interact with people. Paint By Drone project represents a step forward in this research path.”

With Paint By Drone, Ratti hopes to take that research one step forward by bringing the UAVs into our public space, where humans can engage with them directly and the drones can hopefully beautify our surroundings.

Each drone will be equipped with CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key) paints and spray as directed by digital submissions from an app.

“The great thing about this project is that the size of the canvas is not fixed,” Ratti said. “The city itself can be the canvas! For the first installations, we are focusing on using Paint By Drone for building sites and scaffold sheeting. However, over the next few months we are planning to develop a plug-and-play system that will allow the technology to be deployed in the blink of an eye on virtually any vertical surface.”

Ratti suggested that such measures could make it easier and safer to create public art. (To avoid accidents, a net will hang between the drones and the crowd.)

Of course, not everyone sees graffiti as a good thing so there will no doubt be backlash should Ratti try to roll out his idea on a citywide scale. But he’s nonetheless enthusiastic about the potential to engage the public.

“Paint By Drone offers a new perspective on street art and shows a new way to engage with the built environment,” he said. “What we call ‘phygital graffiti’ is the idea of leveraging drones and, more in general, digital technologies to create participatory works of public art.”

Here’s a list of the best Google Assistant commands for iOS and Android

Google Assistant, Google’s eponymous personal assistant, is one of the most capable digital clerks out there. It can point you in the direction of delicious grub, or serve up reminders about upcoming appointments and errands, links to highly-rated movies, or your inbox’s most urgent messages. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to recent third-party integrations, the best Google Assistant commands can summon taxis, order food from Grubhub, and much, much more.

The virtual assistant is good for more than just productivity, though. Google’s language-powered Assistant has a playful side, too, albeit one you won’t see if you don’t know the magic phrases. But not to worry — we’ve done the work for you. Here’s a list of some of the more useful Google Assistant commands, including Easter eggs, games, and activities, for both iOS and Android devices. If you use Apple’s virtual assistant in any capacity — if you own a Mac in addition to your Android device, for instance — check out our list of the best Siri commands.

Play “I’m Feeling Lucky” trivia

Google is one of the internet’s most comprehensive sources for both factoids and current events, and Google Assistant puts this fact to good use with Lucky Trivia. Say, “OK Google, I’m feeling lucky,” and you’ll get a prompt to start Google’s interactive game show, which pits up to four contestants against the search giant’s encyclopedic knowledge engine. Just like QuizUp, Trivia Crack, and other classics, I’m Feeling Lucky tasks you with answering five random questions about people, places, and things in a given amount of time. It’s made all the more entertaining by theme music, audience reactions, a buzzer, and an announcer who assigns players nicknames such as “Bubbles” and “Cupcake.”

Peer into a crystal ball

If you’re feeling indecisive about something, Google Assistant can help you suss out an answer with the help of a crystal ball. Say, “OK Google, ask the crystal ball,” and the virtual assistant will provide you with its best impression of a creepy fortune teller. “OK, let me find an appropriately weird tablecloth,” it’ll say. “If you can, get closer. Closer. Yes. YES.” Afterward, it’ll prompt you to let it in on your deepest, darkest secret. After a few seconds, you’ll get a “Yes” or “No” answer to the question you asked.

If you’re feeling impatient, Google Assistant also offers similarly randomized answers in the form of a coin flip. Say, “OK Google, flip a coin,” and Google’s personal assistant will toss as much digital pocket change as your heart desires.

Play Mad Libs, tic-tac-toe, and other games

With Google Assistant, you never have to worry about becoming bored on your next road trip.

Feel confident about your creative writing skills? Try Mad Libs, the Google-powered, fill-in-the-blank game that tasks you with coming up with nouns, adjectives, and verbs to complete unfinished sentences. Google Assistant grabs descriptions from Google searches and pulls out words at random, prompting you to supply the replacements. Once you’ve finished filling in the blanks, it reads back the (often) hilarious results.

If Mad Libs isn’t your style, there’s more in tow with Google Assistant. It also knows a selection of doodle games (say, “OK Google, let’s play the doodle game,”), Solitaire (“OK Google, play Solitaire”), and Tic-Tac-Toe (“OK Google, play Tic-Tac-Toe”). Moreover, it’s learning more games every day.

Learn facts, hear jokes, watch videos, and more

If you’d rather kick back and relax than play a game with Google Assistant, try saying, “OK Google, tell me a fact about cats,” or “OK Google, show me a funny video.” Google’s AI can serve up info on just about any subject, or supply you with jokes, riddles, videos (from YouTube), and music. It’ll also highlight movies and events nearby (try, “OK Google, show me events,” or, “OK Google, what movies are playing nearby”), and even recite poems, quotes, and proverbs. Out of ideas? Say, “OK Google, I’m bored,” and let Google Assistant entertain you.

See the latest sports scores

If you’re wondering about the latest sports scores, Google Assistant can show stats on command. Once you specify your favorite teams by saying, “OK Google, remember that I like [insert team name here],” it will give you personalized results next time you ask about sports news (“OK Google, what’s the latest sports news”), rosters, and schedules (“OK Google, show me the team’s schedule”).

Check out old photos

Wondering what you, your friends, your family, and pets were up to this time last summer? Thanks to Google Assistant, you don’t have to rack your brain. If you uploaded your pics and videos to Google Photos, Google’s cloud-based storage app, try asking, “OK Google, show me my photos from New York City last August,” or, “OK Google, show me my pictures of beaches from 2016.” You’ll get a full collection of relevant photos and albums, replete with suggestions. Google Assistant is even smart enough to recognize people. If you’ve helped Photos to pick out friends and family members in the Google Photos app, you can say things like, “OK Google, show me pictures of Dad mowing the lawn.”

Translate words and convert units

There’s nothing more intimidating than traveling through a country where you don’t know the language — or the units of measurement, for that matter. Thanks to Google Assistant, though, those problems are a thing of the past.

Ask, “OK Google, how do you say ‘hello’ in [language of your choice]” and Google will transcribe the text in real time. It can handle phrases and sentences, too, and recognize any of the more than 100 languages supported by Google Translate — Google’s machine learning-powered translation engine — including Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, and Hindi.

Google Assistant handles unit conversions just as easily. If you’re traveling in a metric-centric country, try saying, “OK Google, change the default unit to Celsius.” The next time you ask about the current temperature, you’ll get an answer in degrees centigrade rather than Fahrenheit. And don’t worry if you’d rather not change Google Assistant’s default settings — the AI is just as good when it comes to handling one-off conversions. Try saying, “OK Google, convert meters to feet,” or, “OK Google, how many centimeters are in a kilometer?”

Turn on a flashlight, toggle Bluetooth, or take a selfie

Google Assistant can do a lot more than flip coins and play games. If you’re using an Android phone, it can toggle Bluetooth, camera LEDs, and other phone hardware on command — a feature that comes in handy when you don’t have fingers to spare. Take a hands-free selfie by saying, “OK Google, take a selfie,” or toggle Bluetooth by telling Google Assistant, “OK Google, turn on Bluetooth.” The virtual assistant can also turn on Wi-Fi (“OK Google, turn on Wi-Fi”) and airplane mode (“OK Google, turn on airplane mode”), and even mute your phone (“OK Google, mute my phone”).

Specify a nickname

If you’d rather Google Assistant called you by a nickname rather than your given name, rest assured it can be done. Say, “OK Google, call me [your nickname],” and the assistant will refer to you by your chosen title from there on out. Want it to call you Batman? Don’t worry — Google Assistant won’t judge.

Other in-jokes and Easter eggs

Google Assistant is filled with a melange of quips and Easter eggs, but you’ll need to do a little digging to find them.

Here are some of our favorites so far:

• “OK Google, will you marry me?”
• “OK Google, are you afraid of the dark?”
• “OK Google, what is love?”
• “OK Google, do you like iPhones?”
• “OK Google, what have I got in my pocket?”
• “OK Google, are you friends with Siri?”
• “OK Google, what’s the best pickup line?”
• “OK Google, who let the dogs out?”
• “OK Google, why did the chicken cross the road?”
• “OK Google, what’s the answer to life, the universe, and everything?”
• “OK Google, have you been outside?”

Windows 10 to simplify resetting your password in Fall Creators Update

Why it matters to you

Resetting your Microsoft Account password will be a lot easier in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Few things in computing are more frustrating than forgetting a password. Usually, your mind blanks out right when you need to log into a system the most, causing some serious consternation and requiring you to jump through some inconvenient and time-consuming hoops — and nowhere is that truer than in Windows 10.

So far, if you’ve forgotten your Microsoft Account password and don’t have the luxury of using Windows Hello password-less login, then you’ve been stuck with running through the entire recovery process on another device and retrieving or changing your credentials. That’s a real pain, and Microsoft is finally doing something about it in the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

As MSPU has discovered, the next major update will now allow users to recover the Microsoft Account used to log into Windows 10 right from the login screen. The new functionality shows up in the latest Windows Insider preview build, 16237, and it looks like it’s easy enough to leverage whether you’re using just a password or also via Windows Hello.

Mehedi Hassan/MSPU

The process is simple enough. You just select the “I forgot my password” option below the login prompt. You’ll need to first identify the relevant Microsoft account, and then choose one of the options for verifying your identity. Yes, this does require a smartphone or other device to verify via email, text, or an app, but the process remains more straightforward than the current system.

Mehedi Hassan/MSPU

If you’re using Windows Hello, then you need to choose “other options” in order to access the new password reset procedure. That’s a bit less helpful given that Windows 10 already lets you log into your system where you can reset your password via the web, but it still saves a step or two.

Once you have verified that you are who you say you are, then you’re able to reset your password. Obviously, you’ll want to record this one in a safe place — meaning some kind of encrypted solution and not a piece of paper taped underneath your keyboard — so that you don’t have to go through this process all over again.

Overall, Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is looking like a small but still meaningful update, and this is just one of the new features that will make Windows 10 a little more pleasant to use.

Reader poll: Ready to try your hand at cryptocurrency mining?

As the price for Bitcoin rises and falls dramatically, more users are wondering how they can get in on the action — and for good reason. Earning a few Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or any of the other cryptocurrency, could mean thousands of dollars in profit, and your home gaming machine may be able to churn them out using some simple software. Have you tried to mine bitcoin? Are you thinking about setting up a mining rig? Are you already swimming in a Scrooge McDuck-style room full of them? Let us know in this week’s reader poll.

How interested are you in #cryptocurrency? We'll be discussing results on the Close to the Metal podcast tomorrow. https://t.co/tmZvPewZcx

— Digital Trends (@DigitalTrends) July 10, 2017

Mining cryptocurrency is surprisingly easy, assuming you have the proper hardware. Our handy guide to mining will walk you through all the steps necessary to start making money, if you’re so inclined. Just make sure to take into account the increase in your power bill that comes along with it.

You should know, however, that cryptocurrency is a volatile market, and not just in the sense that the value can change overnight. Without much regulation, sites that act as wallets may be shut down by hackers or those interested in taking the coins for themselves, or the site’s proprietors may shut it down and disappear in the night with your hard-earned cash. There are ways around this, and they involve keeping codes locally stored, or even using a physical coin wallet that keeps your money safely stored away from the prying eyes of the Internet.

It isn’t just Bitcoin that’s causing quite a stir over the last few weeks. Another cryptocurrency, Ethereum, has begun to take hold thanks to some innovative new practices and support from the tech community. It’s just one of many cryptocurrency options out there, and like any of them, hype and user interest will drive its success.

Join us at 10:00 AM PST on Tuesday, July 11th as we discuss the implications of the newfound vigor for cryptocurrency, as the Bitcoin price skyrockets into thousands of dollars each. We’ll also talk hardware pricing, and try to explain the sharp rise in price on mid-range cards like the RX 480 and RX 580 on the secondary market.