Estonia’s e-residency head plans the country’s own cryptocurrency

Estonia might be the first country to offer cryptocurrency as a way to reward its e-residents. “Estcoin” could be used to reward e-residents (people who set up a business online in the country), verify someone’s identity online or be used for payment attached to the euro, according to Reuters. But it isn’t a government initiative. Instead, it’s a scheme dreamed up by the country’s “digital residency” mastermind Kaspar Korjus. While he might have some support from the private sector, he hasn’t gotten the necessary government backing fo it.

Korjus penned a lengthy Medium post extolling the virtues of estcoin, saying that e-residents have already brought €1.4. million ($1,653,876) into the country. The independent report compiled by accounting firm Deloitte predicts that by 2025, that reinvestment will rise to €1.8 billion ($2,127,060,000) in eight years.

“The purpose of estcoin is to accelerate this, while also providing additional funds and interest for the development of our digital nation,” he writes. “By not embracing crypto, governments are failing to unlock a powerful driver of economic growth and risk losing relevance entirely.”

One of the problems is that Estonia’s entire e-residency for businesses could be a way to eventually enable these companies to avoid paying taxes. Which, you know, is how governments pay for things like road repairs, infrastructure, police, etc..

The idea behind identity verification is to ensure you don’t lose access to your wallet. Your private cryptocurrency key would be tied to your government-issued digital ID.

Sounds good, right? Well, there’s a snag: Despite what Korjus says about not needing the European Central Bank’s involvement, the financial institution said it hadn’t been contacted about the program. The ECB still recognizes the euro as its lone form of currency.

“We would never provide an alternative currency to the euro, but it’s possible that we could combine some of the decentralized advantages of crypto with the stability and trust of fiat currency and then limit its use within the e-resident community,” Korjus says.

That may run afoul of the ECB. Reuters says that if estcoin was widely adopted and started interfering with the euro zone economy, the bank could step in.

This could be seen as another way that Estonia is throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks. Cryptocurrency is the topic du-jour so, naturally, after the country’s technological dark age it’s going to be attracted to it. Earlier this year, the country set up a “digital embassy” of sorts to store its data in a server room in Luxembourg. Other countries have flirted with cryptocurrencies (like Venezuela and Sweden), but so far nothing has really hit, or replaced traditional legal tender.

Source: Reuters, Medium

The Void’s large-scale VR gaming is coming to Las Vegas

The Void’s room-sized, immersive VR gaming is only available in a handful of locations right now, so even a modest expansion is important… it’s big deal, then, that the company just added two new venues. The entertainment startup has has unveiled plans to open Void Experience Centers in Las Vegas’ The Venetian/The Palazzo hotel (specifically, the Grand Canal Shoppes) and the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, California. Both new locations will showcase Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, an experience where you go undercover as a Stormtrooper.

The Vegas and Glendale locations open in early 2018, and tickets for both should go on sale soon.

The Void still isn’t going to be a common sighting, and VR arcades as a whole are still quite rare. The new locations could go some ways toward making this kind of grand-scale VR more accessible, though. You can give it a try on a Vegas vacation, and Glendale Galleria is one of the larger and more popular malls in southern California.

Source: Business Wire

Apple to Open New Flagship Store in Melbourne, Australia

Apple is planning to open a new flagship retail location in Melbourne, Australia, at Federation Square, a shopping center, public square, and mixed-use space located in the heart of the city.

The Federation Square website says the new location will be an “Apple Global Flagship Store” that will open up in 2020. It will be Apple’s most significant store in the Southern Hemisphere, with workshops, classes, and live music events.

Apple’s Melbourne store will create 500 square meters of new public space, connecting Federation Square with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr. Apple will construct a new building to replace an existing Yarra building, and based on renderings shared by Federation Square, the store will have multiple levels with glass walls and a viewing deck that overlooks the Yarra River.

Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts told The Australian that the store will feature a “bespoke design concept” and “extensive landscaping.”

“Apple Federation Square respects the original vision for the plaza, with a bespoke design concept and extensive landscaping bringing increased opportunities for the community to enjoy this renowned cultural hub.”

“We’re thrilled to move forward in the planning process for our new home in Melbourne’s Federation Square and would be honoured to call the world-class galleries and museums of Melbourne our neighbours,” Ms Ahrendts said.

Construction on the new store, which will “enhance Federation Square’s world renowned architecture,” will start in mid-2019.

Related Roundup: Apple StoresTag: Australia
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Proposed net neutrality bill would ban blocking and throttling

Last week, the FCC repealed net neutrality protections put in place in 2015 and returned broadband to a Title I classification. There were many voices expressing concern over the proposal and frustration once the FCC voted to enact it and a few members of Congress on both sides of the aisle stated that legislation, which would be more permanent than an FCC ruling, would ultimately be the best way forward when it comes to net neutrality. Now, less than a week after the FCC’s vote, Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn has introduced a net neutrality bill.

Blackburn is saying this legislation will “settle the net neutrality debate” and that she’s hopeful about its prospects in Congress. “Let’s stop the ping-ponging from one FCC commission to another,” Blackburn told Variety. “This is something where the Congress should act.”

The bill, however, varies little from the FCC’s order. It would still classify broadband as a Title I service and it would still allow for internet service providers to practice paid prioritization. It would also keep in place the 2010 transparency rules reinstituted last week. Pretty much the only difference is that it would ban blocking and throttling. “A lot of our innovators are saying, ‘Let’s go with things we have agreement on, and other things can be addressed later,’” Blackburn told Variety.

Some have already spoken out against Blackburn’s bill. Craig Aaron, president of the Free Press Action Fund called it “fake net neutrality” and said in a statement, “This cynical attempt to offer something the tiniest bit better than what the FCC did and pretend it’s a compromise is an insult to the millions who are calling on Congress to restore real net neutrality.” On the other hand, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who voted in favor of repealing net neutrality protections last week, has voice support for it.

Looks like Republican FCC commissioner @mikeofcc is a fan of @MarshaBlackburn’s new #netneutrality bill. pic.twitter.com/ZQYyfNwXAd

— Brendan Bordelon (@BrendanBordelon) December 19, 2017

The Internet Association, which asked the FCC to delay its vote earlier this month, released a statement saying, “The internet industry supports a lasting solution that enshrines strong, enforceable net neutrality protections for consumers into law. While Chairman Blackburn’s bill in its current form isn’t that solution, she should be commended for moving this conversation forward.” It also said that the proposed legislation did not meet the criteria for basic net neutrality protections.

Following last week’s vote, Democratic Representative Mike Doyle said he would be working on legislation himself. “I will introduce legislation under the Congressional Review Act to overturn today’s order and restore net neutrality,” he said in a statement.

You can read Blackburn’s proposed legislation here.

Via: TechFreedom

Source: Open Internet Preservation Act

Ingenious wound-scanning tool makes infectious bacteria glow in the dark

Harmful bacteria in wounds is bad news for both patients and the physicians who are treating them. Fortunately, a breakthrough handheld “wound intelligence” device promises to make checking wounds for difficult-to-spot bacteria a whole lot easier. Called the MolecuLight i:X, the handheld device is a smart imaging tool which can both document wounds and also play a key part in their treatment.

To begin with, users of the MolecuLight i:X snap a close-up image of the wound under normal light conditions. This image doesn’t show the location of bacteria, although it can be a useful reference guide to show doctors how a wound is healing up. The real brilliance starts when the lights are turned off, and the MolecuLight i:X is used to take another image, this time using safe violet light which causes bacteria to glow in the dark. The bacterial fluorescence signals detected by the device can be used by healthcare professionals to indicate the presence of bacteria, its bacterial load, and its location within and around wounds in real time. That gives doctors some additional tools in their arsenal, such as the ability to immediately spot the border of wounds or to carry out instant precise wound measurements.

According to the makers of MolecuLight, the results are 54 percent more accurate than swabbing. A clinical trial carried out in Toronto suggests that using the device can also lead to nine times faster healing for wounds, compared to the healing which takes place under standard treatments.

This isn’t the only smart use bacteria-tracking device currently making waves. Recently, we covered a smart microscope developed by Harvard University researchers, which uses machine learning technology to spot and identify bacterial infections, thereby allowing patients to get treatment more speedily. What makes the MolecuLight i:X so nifty, however, is its portability, which helps make it the perfect diagnostic tool for a doctor on either a busy ward or even out in the field — provided they’re able to get the requisite darkness for it to operate under.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to access it in the United States for the time being. That’s because it is currently approved for use in Canada and the European Union only, although hopefully, that will change in the near future.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Bacteria’s at the core of this 3D-printed living ink that could become your skin
• Flow tracks pollutant levels in the air to help you breathe easier
• This sweat-powered, stretchable battery could revolutionize wearables
• Researchers are measuring ocean health with drones, A.I., and whale snot
• New microscope uses A.I. smarts to diagnose deadly blood infections

Report shows many web surfers are still using ‘123456’ as their password

For some reason, many web surfers accessing the internet don’t appear to be listening. Despite warnings by experts and countless reports of hacking, identity theft, online fraud, and more, there are people still using “123456” as a password. That simple sequence of numbers reigns king on the new top 100 worst passwords list of 2017.

According to numbers provided by SplashData, the use of “123456” as the No. 1 bad password hasn’t changed in years. The firm provides its list of the top 100 worst passwords each year, and shows that “123456” officially unseated “password” from the top spot in 2013. Since then, 123456 remains at the top of the list followed by “password” and several other common words and numbers.

California-based SplashData provides security applications and services, including its SplashID Personal Password Manager, and its TeamsID Business Password Manager. The firm releases its annual list to encourage internet surfers to use stronger passwords. The firm’s data supposedly derives from millions of leaked passwords discovered throughout the year.

Here are the top 10 worst passwords used on the internet starting from SplashData’s very first report in 2011:

2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
1
password
password
123456
123456
123456
123456
123456
2
123456
123456
password
password
password
password
password
3
12345678
12345678
12345678
12345
12345678
12345
12345678
4
qwerty
abc123
qwerty
12345678
qwerty
12345678
qwerty
5
abc123
qwerty
abc123
qwerty
12345
football
12345
6
monkey
monkey
123456789
123456789
123456789
qwerty
123456789
7
1234567
letmein
111111
1234
football
1234567890
letmein
8
letmein
dragon
1234567
baseball
1234
1234567
1234567
9
trustnot
111111
Iloveyou
dragon
1234567
princess
football
10
dragon
baseball
adobe123
football
baseball
1234
iloveyou

As the chart shows, “password” and “123456” are locked in a heated battle for the top spot. “12345” and “12345678” fight for third place while “qwerty” and “12345678” battle for the fourth position. One of the troubling factors is that the top 10 consist of similar words and strings of numbers over the last seven years, including “football,” “baseball,” dragon,” and “iloveyou.”

But SplashData’s annual reports don’t mean everyone on the planet is using these passwords. The company is merely pointing out bad password use in hopes that future lists will eventually wither and die. But given that these words and number strings are pulled from millions of leaked passwords each year, you can see why hackers are having a field day breaking into online accounts.

Most major websites now demand passwords consisting of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols of a specific length (character count). They even offer two-step authentication that requires a mobile device to authorize logins. But as the lists shown above illustrate, the top bad passwords consist of all letters or all numbers.

Moreover, security experts will warn that you shouldn’t use passwords that are directly related to your life, such as using your birthday, favorite movie, child’s name, and so on. Passwords should essentially be phrases that mean absolutely nothing, but can be easily remembered. “Sciss0rzCutzCh1ck0nz” could be a tough nut to crack.

Of course, using a password manager like LastPass or 1Password to handle all your accounts and passwords is an ideal security strategy as well. These services are subscription-based but eliminate the need to manage multiple passwords for multiple accounts.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Google estimates 1.9 billion usernames are available on the black market
• How to reset your Apple ID password and gain control of your account
• Password manager face off – LastPass vs 1Password, who you got?
• Here’s how to password protect a folder on Windows and MacOS
• Popular VPN provider TunnelBear jumps into password management with RememBear

Honor 7X vs. Nokia 6: Can Honor beat the Finnish veteran?

Not every phone has to cost $1,000 — the Honor 7X is the latest phone to redefine our expectations for budget handsets, and it does so while being powerful, running smoothly, and looking oh so good. But there are other phones that also represent great value for money, and the Nokia 6 is one of them. Which phone wins when these two budget queens clash? We took a look to find out.

Specs

Honor 7X

Nokia 6

Size
156.5 x 75.3 x 7.6mm (6.18 x 2.96 x 0.30 inches)
154 x 75.8 x 7.9mm (6.06 x 2.98 x 0.31 inches)
Weight
165 grams (5.82 ounces)
169 grams (5.96 ounces)
Screen
5.93-inch IPS LCD display
5.5-inch IPS LCD display
Resolution
2160 x 1080 pixels (407ppi)
1920 x 1080 pixels (403ppi)
OS
EMUI 5.1 (over Android 7.0 Nougat)
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
Storage
32GB for U.S., 64GB for international
32GB, 64GB
MicroSD card slot
Yes, up to 256GB
Yes, up to 256GB
NFC support
No
Yes
Processor
HiSilicon Kirin 659
Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
RAM
3GB for U.S., 4GB for international
3GB, 4GB
Connectivity
GSM / HSPA / LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
GSM / HSPA / LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Camera
Dual sensor 16MP & 2MP rear, 8MP front
16MP rear, 8MP front
Video
1080p @ 30 fps
1080p @ 30 fps
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 4.1
Bluetooth 4.1
Audio
Headphone jack
Headphone jack
Fingerprint sensor
Yes
Yes
Other sensors
Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Water resistant
No
No
Battery
3,340mAh
3,000mAh
Charging port
Micro USB
Micro USB
Marketplace
Google Play Store
Google Play Store
Colors
Black, Blue, Gold, Red
Arte Black, Matte Black, Tempered Blue, Silver, Copper
Availability
HiHonor

Amazon, B&H, Best Buy

Price
$200
$230
DT review
4 out of 5 stars
Hands-on review

The Nokia 6 is a solid performer, and the Snapdragon 430 does a good job of keeping the phone snappy and responsive. However, in this fight it’s up against the Kirin 659 — one of Huawei’s proprietary chips. In the Honor 7X, that processor does amazing work that puts the Honor phone alongside the Moto G5S Plus — and it utterly obliterates the Moto E4 Plus‘s Snapdragon 427. In processing power, it’s pretty obvious Honor has the edge.

Thankfully for the Finns, the Nokia 6 claws some points back with the memory options. The Honor 7X comes with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM in the U.S. (the 64GB/4GB model is only available internationally), while the Nokia 6 has two models available in the U.S.; a 32GB/3GB model, and a 64GB/4GB model. It’s not too much of a victory though, since both phones allow for up to 256GB of extra storage with a MicroSD card, and the difference between 3GB and 4GB of RAM is arguable.

Other than that, it’s fairly equal here. Both phones are rocking Bluetooth 4.1, and the lack of Bluetooth 5.0 is acceptable in a budget handset. They have resisted the flagship trend of cutting features as well — both the Nokia and the Honor phone have a headphone jack. If you’ve got your heart set on Android Pay, then the Nokia 6 has NFC for your needs. No chance of that on the Honor 7X though.

It’s a varied bag of strengths and weaknesses here, and it makes picking a winner tough. But for our money, extra processing power trumps extra onboard storage and NFC. The Honor 7X wins.

Winner: Honor 7X

Design and display

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

If you’re hoping for an up-to-date design on the Nokia 6 then you’re likely to be slightly disappointed. That’s not to say the Nokia 6 is a bad looking phone – it’s certainly better looking than some of its rivals, like the Moto G5, and the phone feels more premium, thanks to the body being made from a single block of aluminum. Hard edges give it its own style, and the Arte Black color is a fancy touch you don’t often see in budget phones.

However, it struggles to match the minimal bezels on the Honor 7X. Honor has brought the trend for massive screens on smaller bodies to the budget market with the Honor 7X, and the mismatch is easy to see. The Honor 7X’s sleek design leaves the Nokia 6 in the dust. And it seems Nokia agrees — rumors are hinting 2018’s Nokia 6 will also follow the bezel-less trend.

Those minimal bezels on the Honor 7X continue over to the display. The Nokia 6’s 5.5-inch IPS display is bright and clear, but it’s up against an 18:9 aspect ratio, 2160 x 1080-pixel resolution running on a massive 5.93-inch screen. Even if you’re not a fan of the bezel-less design on the whole, you have to admit a larger screen is usually better — especially when the Honor 7X is only 2mm taller than the Nokia 6.

In terms of durability neither phone is anything special. There’s no water-resistance, and each phone is made from metal, so there’s no need to worry about breaking a glass back. The Honor 7X does have an innovative feature here though — little air-bags in each corner of the phone help lessen the impact from drops. It’s not fully shockproof, but we saw an Honor spokesperson drop the phone multiple times with no damage.

The Nokia 6 can’t stand against the shifting sands of time — its aging design is trumped by the bezel-less looks and enormous screen of the Honor 7X.

Winner: Honor 7X

Camera

The Nokia 6 comes equipped with a 16-megapixel camera mounted on the back, and an 8-megapixel selfie-snapper around the front. The rear camera is good, and it’ll produce some good shots in the right lighting. The front-facing camera is similar, and you’ll get Instagram-worthy selfies out of it. But there’s nothing special here, and it’s clear the camera wasn’t an especially strong focus for Nokia.

The same can’t be said for the Honor 7X. The dual sensor, rear-mounted camera pairs a 16-megapixel and a 2-megapixel lens, with the 2-megapixel lens providing the professional-looking “bokeh” effect we’ve come to expect from dual-sensor phone cameras. It would be classed as a good camera in a midrange phone, and so it’s pretty amazing Honor put something this good into a $200 phone. Honor is using Huawei’s software, and it’s been tweaked to improve focusing speed and low-light. The front-facing 8-megapixel camera is similarly good, and borrows many features from the rear camera, including a Portrait Mode, and the “bokeh” effect.

If the camera is important to you, then there’s only one choice here.

Winner: Honor 7X

Battery life and charging

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Having good battery life can mean the difference between a lift home at the end of the night, or walking home in the rain. To that end, both of these handsets come with large batteries that start at 3,000mAh. We haven’t had a chance to fully test the Nokia 6’s 3,000mAh battery, but based on what little testing we have done, it’s able to last the day, though it may struggle to do so with heavier usage. The Honor 7X’s 3,340mAh battery takes advantage of the extra battery capacity, and should make it the full day on most days — but like the Nokia it may struggle with heavy usage.

So the clincher comes down to charging speed. Unfortunately, neither phone comes with any specific type of fast charging, so you’re likely to be tethered to a cable for a while if you do get caught out. It might be worth investing in a good power bank when it comes to these phones. You won’t find wireless charging on either device — though that certainly shouldn’t be expected on phones at this price range.

This is another close one. We’re giving it to the Honor 7X based purely on the slightly larger battery capacity, and the fact it did ever-so-slightly better in our tests.

Winner: Honor 7X

Software

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

You’d be hard pressed to find two Android phones with more different software if you tried. The Nokia 6 is running a stock version of Android 7.1.1 Nougat. That’s no additional bloatware, no heavy-handed UI reskins, just pure Android, as Google intended. It’s swift and snappy, but it can get bogged down in more demanding apps and games. But that’s part and parcel of having a budget phone, so you should be able to let that slide. It’s a shame not to see Android 8.0 Oreo on here yet, and though Nokia has promised it in 2018, we don’t have a real timetable yet.

Contrastingly, the Honor 7X runs Huawei’s proprietary Emotion UI (EMUI), an extensive re-skin of Android. It’s EMUI 5.0, running over Android 7.1.1 Nougat, so, like the Nokia 6, it’s not the latest software. It has some neat tricks and additions, but if you’re a fan of stock Android then this definitely isn’t the phone for you. Still, we’ve grown to enjoy using it, and although it can be confusing at times, gesture support, multi-screen apps, and the extensive power-saving options make EMUI a good OS for your phone.

Again, it’s too tough to pick between the two. We’ve got a soft spot for the stock Android experience, but the extra fun jammed into EMUI deserves your attention too. It’s a tie.

Winner: Tie

Price and availability

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The Nokia 6 is currently available with prices usually starting from $230 for the handset. If you’re an Amazon Prime member you can pick one up for a massive discount, but do remember that comes with on-screen ads and offers from Amazon. It also doesn’t fully support AT&T, and you won’t be able to use it on Sprint or Verizon either — though T-Mobile users will have no issues.

The Honor 7X is also available, with prices starting from $200. Like the Nokia phone, it won’t work on Verizon or Sprint, thanks to the lack of a CDMA band. At the moment, you can only grab it from the HiHonor store.

It’s not difficult to score this round. The Honor 7X is cheaper (excluding Amazon Prime member deals), is more powerful, has a better camera, a huge screen … the list goes on. Honor’s budget phone represents pure value for money.

Winner: Honor 7X

Overall winner: Honor 7X

Ouch. It’s a whitewash. The Nokia 6 doesn’t deserve this, and it paints a terrible picture, but the Nokia 6 is a good budget phone with good specs that makes a good showing for itself. It’s just the Honor 7X is so far ahead of most of the competition it’s almost unfair. There are some reasons to get the Nokia 6 over the Honor 7X, but they’re few and far between. NFC is the only really notable one.

If you’re looking to buy a budget phone right now, you should be picking the Honor 7X over the Nokia 6, every time.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Honor 7X vs. Honor 6X: New school versus old school
• Honor 7X review
• Honor 7X vs. Moto E4 Plus: Big-screen budget battle
• Honor 7X vs. Moto G5 Plus: Which cheap phone gets the most bang for your buck?
• Honor View 10 vs. OnePlus 5T: Which midranger reigns supreme?

Government requests for your Facebook data continues to grow, report says

Seventy-eight thousand, eight hundred and ninety — that is the number of times Facebook received government requests to access user data worldwide, and in over half of the cases from the U.S., non-disclosure prevented the user from even knowing about the access. The numbers come from Facebook’s Transparency Report (previously called the Government Requests Report) covering the first six months of 2017. The report, released on Monday, December 18, also tallies the numbers of requests for potential intellectual property violation, such as stolen copyrighted images and counterfeit products, for both Facebook and Instagram.

The government requests for data from Facebook increased by 21 percent from the previous six months, jumping up from 64,279. The U.S. was responsible for more than 32,000 of those requests, with about 85 percent of them resulting in providing some level of data. Facebook says that, in the U.S., 57 percent of those requests included a non-disclosure clause, which meant that Facebook could not alert the user to the government’s request for access.

The jump in content restrictions or requests to remove content saw an even larger jump, but one particular incident drove those numbers up higher than normal. Facebook says that a video of a school shooting in Monterrey, Mexico was removed 20,506 times. That incident alone accounts for most but not all of the increase in content restrictions from the previous report, with those numbers jumping up to 28,036 compared to 6,944.

When the transparency report first launched in 2013, the number of requests for data was only about 25,000 worldwide. Since then, Facebook’s user count has nearly doubled, however, up from 1.15 billion to 2 billion users active every month.

While Facebook reveals this data every six months, the social media platform is now expanding the report to also include requests for intellectual property violations. Users reported copyright violations some 224,464 times, while trademark violations were 41,854. The report also includes reports for counterfeits, which hit 14,279. Instagram, meanwhile, had about 70,000 reports for copyright, around 16,500 for trademark and about 10,000 for counterfeits.

As the first time the company has reported on intellectual property, there is no data to compare the numbers to, but in all three categories, for both Facebook and Instagram, the number of reports was higher in June than January, suggesting an increase in the number of reports from the start of the year.

“We believe that sharing information about IP reports we receive from rights holders is an important step toward being more open and clear about how we protect the people and businesses that use our services,” wrote Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s deputy general counsel. “Our Transparency Report describes these policies and procedures in more detail, along with the steps we’ve taken to safeguard the people who use Facebook and keep them informed about IP.”

Both the government requests and the IP reports can be accessed from Facebook’s transparency webpage.

Editors’ Recommendations

• In 2017, Apple has seen an increase in national security requests from the government
• The option to post Instagram Stories to Facebook is now rolling out in the U.S.
• Facebook applies new authenticity tools and expose Russian-controlled pages
• Get ready for reindeer selfies — Facebook is launching its holiday features
• Facebook will soon make it easier to see who paid for political ads

Go ahead, pass laws. Governments can’t kill bitcoin, even if they try

Bitcoin is a famously dececentralized cryptocurrency, a system of storing value, and a somewhat less-effective transaction medium. It allows near-instantaneous transfers all over the world without a middle man or regulatory body giving it the go-ahead. Fans of cryptocurrency fear government regulation could ruin it, but they shouldn’t be concerned. Any attempt control bitcoin simply won’t work.

Beyond the difficulties presented by the decentralization of bitcoin itself, governments and regulatory bodies have shown they lack understanding of technological topics, and bitcoin is one of the most complex. As governments struggle to ban technologies like Tor and encryption, it seems impossible to imagine them gaining the ability to truly impact bitcoin – and its alt-coin contemporaries – in a way that could impede its progress.

Historical precedent

The oversight jitters are understandable. There have been some attempts at regulation over the years, and now that bitcoin’s value has spiked to unprecedented new heights, there is greater discussion than ever from governments around the world. Perhaps it’s no wonder that half of those surveyed in a recent report of bitcoin owners claimed they didn’t want any regulation of cryptocurrency in the coming years.

The blockchain it’s built upon does not require an institution to operate it.

In December 2013, the Chinese government banned financial institutions from using bitcoin, causing a downturn in the cryptocurrency’s value that would set a precedent for its worth over the coming years. Less than a year later, in April 2014, several Chinese bitcoin exchanges had their bank accounts closed. That spurred concern that government oversight limiting access to fiat currency (traditional, ‘real world’ currency) could be lead a wave of future regulations to curtail bitcoin’s growth. Yet loopholes in the crackdown meant many exchanges stayed in business, and bitcoin’s price rose some 25 percent in the 10 days that followed.

The U.S. has made localized attempts to regulate specific aspects of bitcoin. New York State requires a “BitLicense” for bitcoin related businesses, with specific rules for employee vetting and identification. Just last month, the IRS won a landmark ruling to gain access to information about 14,000 historic Coinbase accounts, in an attempt to gather back taxes from owners.

While some of those instances are more concerning than others, none of it has stopped bitcoin’s growth. That reveals the flaws of any future attempts to crack down on bitcoin’s use.

Bitcoin’s intrinsic impossible oversight

There are several key components to bitcoin, and its fellow cryptocurrencies, which make them successful as methods of transaction, and stores of value. They’re easy to transfer, no middle-man is required, and they can’t be linked to owners who don’t want to be identified. These are all big problems for any government wanting to have a greater say in how they operate.

Jaap Arriens/Getty Images

Anthony WallaceAFP/Getty Images

Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Bitcoin is not linked to any territory or financial institution. There are tens of popular exchanges, and even if there weren’t, all you need are wallets and a network connection to be able to conduct bitcoin transactions. The blockchain it’s built upon does not require any one institution to operate it, and indeed is the complete antithesis of such an idea, operating as a public ledger rather than a private one.

Without that central location to shut down, any meaningful crackdown would have to be a global endeavor. Even if a country was to somehow prevent bitcoin transactions from taking place within their borders, a simple VPN or Proxy system would let users operate internationally with little issue.

The question is not whether #bitcoin should be regulated, but whether it *can* be regulated. The reality is "No". The rest is nostalgia.

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) December 31, 2016

If governments could effectively stop a peer to peer network, they would’ve shut down the illegal practices of torrent websites over a decade ago. Even the success of the hydra-like torrent sites isn’t a perfect analogy for bitcoin, though, because cryptocurreny’s legal status is far easy to debate.

A fairer comparison would be the so-called dark web. Although individual sites, servers and people involved with various activities on there may occasionally be arrested for illegal activities, it would be ridiculous to think any government could regulate the entire network. Trying to ban bitcoin or regulate it in a manner that allows actual oversight would be much the same. It’s impossible on a technical level.

Even tracking individual people who own specific wallets is difficult. While the public blockchain might allow governments or law enforcement to track down certain bitcoins, tying them to a real-world person is very difficult. An owner can hide his or her identity with a VPN, Tor, or even physically move a wallet into cold storage (offline) form, making it invisible to the world.

Is there any wonder that bitcoin is being used for money laundering, ransomware and other organized crime tactics? Take the additional step to throw your bitcoins through a tumbler that jumbles up your bitcoins with many others, and then spits them out into another wallet not linked with the original, and the trail quickly goes cold.

The caveats

The most serious impact regulation could have on bitcoin, is in limiting the ability to “cash out,” converting the cryptocurrency into more traditional, fiet currencies like U.S. Dollars. Making that difficult could cause problems in the short term, though it would need to be a strategy that was enacted all over the world. Almost all global currencies can be traded online without difficulty, so if even one territory still facilitated a trade in cryptocurrency into local denominations, those could then be traded for and cashed out in turn.

If Bitcoin itself was regulated against, then users could simply trade it for another currency.

If bitcoin itself was regulated against, users could simply trade it for another cryptocurrency, and then cash that one out instead. With hundreds of cryptocurrencies now in existence and more emerging all the time, it would be nigh on impossible to stop unless all currencies were barred.

As regulation in other industries has shown, sweeping legislation is incredibly complicated to implement and even more difficult to enforce.

The effectiveness of any such regulation also assumes the need to cash out. Many people see cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as an evolution of existing currency. If we were to reach a point where bitcoin could purchase services and goods of all sorts, why would you need to cash out at all?

If that seems farfetched, just consider the fact that hard cash is uncommon in many countries. Digital transactions online and in person preclude the typical need for real-world money. Cryptocurrencies could be the next part of that evolution.

If you can’t beat’em

Ultimately, the best response to bitcoin is not to limit it, but to embrace the technology and try and work with it.

It certainly won’t be easy, as bitcoin doesn’t operate in a manner that makes integrating it with existing financial models easy. As we discussed in a recent piece on Digital Trends, it’s more like a new version of gold than it is Paypal. Yet it could be both, at some point in the future.

Governments like Japan, which now grants bitcoin legal tender status, or Saudi Arabia, which is working on its own cross-border cryptocurrencies, clearly see the writing on the wall. Bitcoin and its contemporaries are not going anywhere, and any attempt to stop them would be futile.

Helping to create the future of cryptocurrencies with the users and developers would be a much smarter and more effective stance for governments and regulatory bodies to take. Here’s hoping they do.

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Zach Braff reprises his ‘Scrubs’ character to read a script written by an A.I.

What would it take to get actor Zach Braff to revive his lovable Scrubs character J.D. for the first time since the show’s conclusion in 2010? The perfect script … written by an artificial intelligence, apparently.

This week, certified geek Braff took to Twitter to record himself reading a version of one of the show’s closing monologues, only created by a generative bot trained on real Scrubs scripts. According to its creators, Botnik Studios, the ensuing offbeat A.I. masterpiece can be summed up as, “the exact average episode of Scrubs.” Well, kind of.

In which I perform the final monologue of a Scrubs script written by a computer. Happy Holidays. pic.twitter.com/49ftogeB05

— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) December 18, 2017

“The truth is, every patient suffers from dementia,” Braff reads. “I’m not gonna change all of that, after all — the right thing is not always the best thing to do. You’d know that if you ever worked in a hospital.”

That may sound pretty average, but the script then veers into oddball territory when we hear that, “A hospital is a lot like a high school: The most amazing man is dying, and you are the only one who wants to steal stuff from his dad.” He also informs us that, “Being in a hospital is a lot like being in a sorority. You have greasers and surgeons and even though it sucks about Dr. Tapioca, I’m not even that sad.” The final stage direction of the script? “He exits, smugly echoing.”

If this all reads like a predictive text message gone wrong, you’re actually halfway accurate. As with Botnik’s recent Harry Potter story-generating bot, the Scrubs script was created through a custom keyboard which predicts which phrases should come next, much like the keyboard on your smartphone can do. In this case, however, the fact that it was trained on frequent recurrent word pairings and sentences from Scrubs means that the results sound oddly like they could have come from the show itself.

Best I could do pic.twitter.com/m0HVEHFGNm

— Joel Kelly (@JoelKellyDesign) December 18, 2017

Braff was seemingly so taken by the Botnik-written script that he actually reached out to the other former cast members of Scrubs to try and get them to join in the fun. Sadly, there’s been no response thus far.

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