Nvidia Announces GeForce Gaming Celebration Event; Possible New GPU Launch

Nvidia is apparently holding an event on 20 August 2018, which is dubbed “GeForce Gaming Celebration.” Interestingly, this event takes place just one day before the official start of the annual Gamescom 2018 showcase. For those who may remember, we wrote an article a few weeks ago regarding rumours that Nvidia is planning to launch its new gaming-oriented graphics cards around the same time as Gamescom 2018.

Nvidia described the event as being loaded with “new, exclusive, hands-on demos of the hottest upcoming games, stage presentations from the world’s biggest game developers, and some spectacular surprises.” Judging from the rumours floating around in recent weeks, the “spectacular surprises” bit may be hinting to a possible unveiling of the green company’s next generation graphics card lineup.

It’s still not known, however, whether Nvidia’s future graphics cards will use the “GTX 11” series nomenclature – although many expect the company to use it. Adding to the curiosity, Nvidia has oddly not specify the exact location of where the event will be held, although logically it will most probably take place around the vicinity of Gamescom 2018 (Cologne, Germany).

It’ll be interesting to see whether Nvidia will indeed launch the its new GeForce graphics cards during its upcoming event (hopefully the finally do) and to see what those cards are capable of. Speaking of which, with all these rumours regarding Nvidia’s new graphics cards, we can’t help but wonder why there has been little to no news mentioning Radeon’s future offerings.

(Source: VideoCardz, TechPowerUp, Overclock3D)

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HP Envy x360 13 With AMD Ryzen Now Available In Malaysia; Retails For RM3207

Back in May 2018, HP announced that it would be bringing in the Envy x360 13, a variant of its Envy X360 convertible notebook fitted with and AMD Ryzen APU. While HP didn’t provide an official launch date, we’ve noticed that HP has begun officially selling the notebook in Malaysia.

The device was highlighted on AMD Malaysia’s official Facebook page since a few weeks ago, and it had also popped up on the HP Malaysia’s official product page. The Envy x360 13 is unique in that it is the only x360 convertible notebook that is fitted with AMD’s Ryzen 3 2300U APU, which also comes with a Radeon Vega 3 integrated GPU.

Other specifications include 8GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, a 256GB SSD, a 13.3-inch Full HD IP BrightView Display, 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2 support, and 4-cell Li-Ion battery.

The HP Envy x360 13 is currently retailing for RM3207. You can purchase the notebook via its official product page or through authorised HP resellers.

(Source: AMD via Facebook, HP)

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Check Which Coins You Can Spend With Debit Cards and Why This New Project Chooses BCH

Recently, we covered some of the most popular debit cards used for crypto payments and we’d like to tell you more about the cryptocurrencies they support. Most of these cards are issued by well-known names in the space, but a new project is now offering you fast and cheap transactions with BCH – a feature that makes the use of crypto cards much more attractive.

Also read: Bitcoin (Almost) Everywhere: Bitcoin Debit Cards Worth Checking Out

Fuzex Chooses BCH as Base Currency

Let’s start with the news in the sector: Fuzex, a global cryptocurrency payment card project, has just announced it’s adding bitcoin cash (BCH) to its card. The decision comes after evaluating the strong features of the BCH network: fast transaction speeds and low fees. Fast, cheap and reliable payments is exactly what makes Bitcoin Cash popular with online merchants and payment processors. The Fuzex team is introducing BCH after signing a partnership agreement with Bitcoin.com. Bitcoin cash (BCH) is replacing bitcoin core (BTC) as the base currency on the Fuzex platform. The company explained:

By aiming to boost the applicability of cryptocurrencies in real transactions, BCH was naturally selected to be among the first cryptocurrencies supported on the Fuzex card. The fairly low BCH’s average withdrawal fee, combined with the fact that the cryptocurrency is currently one of the major coins, convinced us to support BCH and to replace BTC with BCH as a default cryptocurrency in the Fuzex card.

Fuzex notes that BCH addresses two major issues that can have a negative impact on Fuzex cardholders: high transaction fees and slow transfer times. “Given that, the team has considered that BCH would be a more appropriate default coin for Fuzex card at launch,” the company added.

The new card will also support the Fuzex token (FXT) and ethereum (ETH). FXT is the platform’s own token around which the payment ecosystem will be structured. It will offer users a new and convenient payment channel with low fees. It comes with increased daily usage limits and reduced ATM withdrawal fees. The third supported crypto, ethereum (ETH), has been chosen as it is one of the most frequently used cryptocurrencies that also has a lower combined network fee than BTC. Fuzex hopes to add other coins in the future compatible with its platform and philosophy.

The Fuzex card, which offers users the opportunity to check their balance in real-time, will be released in the third quarter of this year. The plastic is NFC payments enabled and comes with an EMV chip, barcode display, and a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 30 days on a single charge. It can hold various type of cards – credit, debit, and prepaid – as well as store membership cards with QR code and barcode. The platform offers a Fuzex Wallet that can be installed on a mobile device and used to add and manage payment cards. It comes with some useful security features like 2FA and a tracking function for locating lost or stolen cards. The physical card can be acquired with FXT tokens, already available at Hitbtc, Cobinhood, Coss.io, and livecoin.net.

“Fuzex offers a cryptocurrency payment solution that provides a smarter way to pay. Our project aim is to make paying with cryptocurrency easier, faster and more convenient at any retail stores without changing any infrastructures,” Alex David, Overseas Business Development Manager at Fuzex, told news.Bitcoin.com. “With the advanced technology of the Fuzex card, cardholders can check the balance and exchange rate of their cryptocurrencies and select the cryptocurrency to be used for the payment through the e-paper display. Through the Fuzex card, we want to generalize the use of cryptocurrencies by making their use convenient in the real life,” Mr. David emphasized.

Wirex Adds XRP, Supports Deposits in 50 Coins

A popular choice for bitcoiners in Europe is the payment card offered by Wirex. The company was the first to reintroduce crypto debit cards on the Old Continent after they were suspended by Visa last year. Wirex started shipping its plastic cards to customers in the UK and Europe in May. The plastic cards come with a chip and support bitcoin core (BTC), litecoin (LTC) and instant currency exchange with GBP, USD, and EUR. The virtual Visas offer the opportunity to make deposits in over 50 digital coins through the Wirex wallet.

This month, Wirex announced it’s adding support for ripple (XRP). Customers can now buy, sell, exchange and deposit the altcoin using the Wirex wallet. That means they can also spend ripple both in stores and online. The company said it registered over $2 million worth of XRP deposited into the wallet which is connected to its Visa cards in just 12 hours. Wirex has also reported having 1.5 million users and announced a transaction volume of approximately $1.7 billion USD.

A nice feature of the Wirex cards is the Cryptoback rewards program. Under its terms, users earn back 0.5% of their transactions in bitcoin (BTC) any time they use the payment card in-store by swipe, chip and pin or tap and go. This crypto cashback is accrued in a separate Wirex wallet within the app and can be instantly redeemed for GBP, EUR or USD.

Spend Both BCH and BTC with Bitpay

Bitpay is a leading crypto debit card provider across the pond. Currently, it allows users to spend bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC). Although issued only to US residents, the Bitpay card is accepted online and by all Visa merchants and Visa compatible ATMs around the world.

Bitpay added bitcoin cash (BCH) support to its Checkout point-of-sale (POS) mobile app in April. This allowed retail stores using Bitpay to enable payments from clients to generate BCH payment codes on the spot using a phone or a tablet.

Other Popular Alternatives

Shift, branded as “The First U.S. Bitcoin Debit Card”, allows users to connect to their Coinbase accounts. Its availability depends on the availability of the services offered by the US-based crypto exchange, which currently includes 32 countries. Shift offers a Visa card which works everywhere Visas are accepted, offline, online, and internationally. It allows for cash withdrawals at ATMs as well. Coinbase currently supports bitcoin core (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC), and ethereum (ETH), with plans to introduce support for ethereum classic (ETC). Recently, the trading platform announced it is “exploring the addition of several new assets”: cardano (ADA), basic attention token (BAT), stellar lumens (XLM), zcash (ZEC), and 0x (ZRX).

The prepaid Cryptopay card is available for free worldwide delivery and comes in both plastic with chip and pin and virtual variants. The platform accepts bitcoin core (BTC) along with several fiat options – British pounds, US dollars, euros, and offers a BTC wallet. The card should be accepted anywhere major cards are, and it works online, offline and internationally.

Revolut offers another option for residents of the European Economic Area and Switzerland. The digital bank works with a number of crypto exchanges and initially offered support for BTC, ETH and LTC through its prepaid debit card. In May, the UK-based company added bitcoin cash (BCH) and ripple (XRP) providing a simple explanation for the decision – their popularity with the Revolut community.

Which debit card do you use and what cryptocurrency do you prefer to spend? Tell us in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Fuzex, Wirex, Bitpay, Shift.

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AMD Officially Launches The B450 Chipset

It looks like the wait is finally over. AMD has just announced its new mid to low-end chipset called the “B450.” This motherboard chipset is, of course, a direct successor to the older but popular B350 chipset. AMD’s B450 chipset is made to cater for AMD’s second generation Ryzen processors. Prior to this, the only “new” chipset that was released to support AMD’s new CPUs is the X470 chipset, which isn’t exactly affordable for some.

With the release of AMD’s B450 chipset, consumers can expect companies like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and etc to be releasing more affordable motherboards in the coming weeks; which is great news for consumers who are on a tight budget. It’s worth noting however, that second generation Ryzen processors are still compatible with AMD’s B350-based motherboards – a point worth considering before deciding to buy a new B450 mainboard.

 

Those aside, when it comes to specifications, AMD’s B450 chipset support two USB 3.1 Gen2 and USB 3.1 Gen1 ports each along with up to six USB 2.0 ports. In addition, the chipset is also compatible with up to two SATA 3.0 ports. Other notable features of the B450 chipset is that it supports up to six PCIe Gen 2 slots and one PCIe x16 slot.

What makes AMD’s newest chipset even more interesting is the fact that it comes with support for Precision Boost Overdrive and StoreMI technologies, both of which will aid towards better overclocking of the CPU as well as to combine both traditional HDDs and faster SSDs into single volumes respectively.

It’s not known when we’ll be able to see B450-based motherboards locally, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated should there be any announcements from the local distributors.

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Markets Update: Cryptocurrency Price Trends Turn from Bullish to Bearish

On Tuesday, July 31 a great majority of cryptocurrency prices dropped in value with many coins losing anywhere between 3-10 percent during the last 24-hours. Currently, with the sudden cryptocurrency market turbulence, bears have taken control of the exhausted bulls. In one intra-day of trading, the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization of all 1,600+ coins ($270Bn USD) has lost roughly $25Bn in value.

Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Fans Celebrate Independence Day One Year Later

Digital Asset Prices Turn Bearish as the Entire Cryptocurrency Economy Loses $25 Billion USD

Bearish sentiment is starting to haunt cryptocurrency markets once again as many digital assets saw prices tumble today. Bitcoin Core (BTC) prices dropped to a low of $7,503 on July 31 as the currency’s trade volume had started to drift a bit lower after the price hovered around $8,125 the day prior. A large portion of other cryptocurrency markets followed suit with BTC as the top ten virtual currencies are seeing losses across the board of course except for tether (USDT).

Ethereum (ETH) continues to hold the second highest market valuation with a market capitalization that’s around $42.28Bn. One ETH is being traded for $418 and the market is down 7.6 percent today. ETH markets are followed by ripple (XRP) which is down 2.8 percent over the last 24-hours as one XRP is trading for $0.42 cents. Lastly, the fifth highest market capitalization held by EOS is also down 6.6 percent and the currency is trading at $7.13 per coin.

Bitcoin Cash Market Action

This Tuesday bitcoin cash (BCH) markets are seeing losses as well as BCH is down 8 percent over the last 24-hours. Bitcoin cash markets are also down 13.2 percent for the last seven days. One BCH is trading for $741, and the decentralized cryptocurrency has a market valuation of around $12.8Bn. The last 24 hours show BCH trade volumes are around $432Mn at the time of publication. The top exchanges swapping the most BCH today include Coinex ($106.53Mn), Huobi Pro ($69.38Mn), Okex ($64.81Mn), Binance ($46.80Mn) and Hitbtc ($34.79Mn).

The top currency traded with BCH on July 31 is tether (USDT) with 55.2 percent of swaps. This is followed by BTC (28.5%), USD (7.6%), QC (2.8), ETH (2.4%) and the KRW (1.2%). Bitcoin cash holds the fifth highest volume over the past 24-hours among all 1,600+ other cryptocurrencies.

BCH/USD Technical Indicators

Looking at the daily and 4-hour charts on Bitfinex and Bitstamp shows bears have grabbed the reins and still have a good portion of control. RSI levels are screaming oversold conditions (33), while the MACd has swooped down to -85. The SMA 100 is far higher now above the longer-term 200 SMA trendline which means BCH bulls may lose a bit more grip over the short term. Many traders can see looking at charts that the price was rolling sideways for close to three days and many were convinced of a bull flag after the inverse head & shoulders. But just before the dip sell orders on popular exchanges worldwide began stacking up. Looking at order books from the current vantage point BCH bulls have some high walls up until $775 but if they can manage to break that resistance we could return to previous levels. On the back side there’s solid support between now and $710 but unfortunately, books are thinner until $650.

   The Verdict: Flat Volumes and Bearish Sentiment Brings Market Skepticism

Overall skeptics and bearish cheerleaders are hoping for some stronger dips and they just may get them. Volumes across the board for many cryptocurrencies has been getting flatter as each day passes. Traders and enthusiasts are now unsure the upcoming ETF decision will pull prices up until then for two reasons: One the Winklevoss Twins fund was denied again, putting a black cloud over positive vibes toward the Cboe ETF, and secondly everyone is unsure exactly when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will make their ultimate decision. This week the current market sentiment, and our price verdict, point to far more skepticism and shade towards bullish prices returning soon.

Where do you see the price of BCH and other coins headed from here? Let us know in the comment section below.

Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

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Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse.

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Future Apple iPhones Could Get Dual SIM Support

Rumours of Apple finally adopting dual SIM card support for its iPhone have been floating around for a while. However, evidence found within iOS 12 developer beta 5 suggests that the feature might be coming to future iPhone models.

According to 9to5Mac, the discovery was made in a diagnostics reports. The report makes two references to the existence of a second SIM card tray as “second SIM status” and “second SIM tray status”. The report of the second SIM tray does seem to still be on a software level for now, but there’s no denying the fact that Apple is clearly getting ready to jump on to the dual SIM bandwagon for future iPhones.

Having an iPhone with the Dual SIM card feature would also help Apple boost its sales in countries within Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where non-iOS devices with the dual SIM feature are exceedingly popular among smartphone users.

There’s no word as to when Apple may want to make this feature available, but seeing how Apple’s annual iPhone event just a month away, there’s a possibility that we could hear more about the feature then. Who knows, it could even make its way into the rumoured 6.5-inch “iPhone X Plus”.

(Source: 9to5Mac, The Verge)

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Security Researchers Attack McAfee-Backed Wallet for “Unhackable” Claims

With the vast amounts of money going around, it’s no surprise that the greater Bitcoin ecosystem is rife with scams, hacks and cyber attacks of all kinds. Operating in such an environment, cautious users are always mindful of their security and learn to avoid outrageous claims that are sometimes nothing more than just that. A recently released wallet was said to be “unhackable” by its promoters, including John McAfee, and this has naturally triggered security researchers.

Also Read: Football Team in Gibraltar to Pay Its Players in Cryptocurrency

“Unhackable” Bifti Wallet

When the Bitfi hardware wallet was unveiled in June, its official promotional material called it the “first truly unhackable” wallet, promising “impenetrable security” and an operation “without any risk of loss”. It was also said to offer more security than any other type of storage, including cold storage.

Vouching for the device being indeed “unhackable”, which Bitfi acknowledged is an extremely bold claim, was John McAfee. “Of all today’s elaborate and sophisticated methods for making wallets secure and easy to use, surely none is as epic as that of the new Bitfi wallet. Several of my competitors have pioneered innovative methods to protect private keys, but Bitfi pulled out all the stops to ensure that the private key can never be obtained by illicit means. No other hardware wallet has ever been built to this level of sophistication,” McAfee is quoted as saying.

This level of sophisticated security was supposedly achieved primarily by utilizing a proprietary open-source algorithm that calculates the private key from a user’s own unique secret phrase. “The private key only exists for a fraction of a second, just long enough to approve the transaction and is never stored anywhere.” And the developers added that: “Unlike other wallets, the Bitfi wallet cannot be tampered with. If it is ever lost, stolen, taken apart and forensically analyzed, the private keys cannot be retrieved, making the wallet safe to purchase from anyone within the network of authorized distribution dealers.”

Checking Under the Hood

Initial reviews were very unkind to Bitfi, with one security researcher stating: “my conclusion is that their product is most charitably described as a ‘footgun’,” meaning a device designed for shooting yourself in the foot. McAfee, which is known for being a shill in the crypto community but has credibility to lose in the cyber security space as an anti-virus pioneer, shoot back by labeling critics as “haters” and negative reviews as “fake” because they were based on Bitfi documentation rather than examining the actual device. Moreover, he challenged anyone to hack the wallet and receive a $100,000 bounty.

Everyone tells me https://t.co/VJ7qrOxQqL is hackable. Then register as a hacker and do it. We send you the device pre-loaded with $50 in BTC. If you get the BTC we send you $100,000. You will eventually give up. When you do we send you the pass phrase to recover your $50. Do it.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) July 28, 2018

So security researchers have now gotten their hands on the device and are tearing it apart trying to answer the hacking challenge. And they already discovered a few interesting things. According to their collaborative efforts, it seems that the hardware of the wallet is basically that of a Chinese mobile phone (Mediatek MT6580) minus the camera and SIM card. And the firmware includes a Baidu GPS/WIFI tracker, a malware suite (Adups FOTA), and a tracker capable of logging all activity on the device.

But it does have this eMMC flash chip on it. pic.twitter.com/tUnCG3xKF6

— Ask Cybergibbons! (@cybergibbons) July 30, 2018

Can any system claim to be truly “Unhackable”? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bifti.

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Blockstream Buys Mining Equipment From Chinese Manufacturer Innosilicon

Blockstream, one of the largest Bitcoin Core funding contributors, has evidently bought a lot of cryptocurrency mining equipment from the Chinese electronics hardware manufacturer Innosilicon. Does this mean that the company is setting up its own mining center?

Also Read: Thomson Reuters Eikon to Display Data on 50 Cryptocurrencies From Cryptocompare

Blockstream Buys Mining Equipment

Publicly available international shipping data (a bill of lading) reveals that a large amount of Innosilicon mining rigs has been imported from China to the US by Blockstream, the Bitcoin Core company focused on developing sidechains. Four containers holding 62 pallets marked as “TI” were sent from Hong Kong and arrived on July 26, 2018 at the port of New York/Newark, New Jersey.

“TI” is very likely referring to Terminator by Innosilicon, the ASIC manufacturer’s SHA256 miner whose latest version units are sold for $1118 USD each. And with each pallet possibly holding up to 72 units, this would mean that Blockstream could have bought about 4650 Terminators for a total value of almost $5.2 million. The company has not announced it is opening a new mining center as of yet, but such a large order would definitely suggest that is an imminent possibility. The typical hash rate of a Terminator unit reaches 17.2TH/s, giving such a center almost 80PH/s.

Background Information

Blockstream was co-founded by Adam Back, Gregory Maxwell, Pieter Wuille and others back in 2014, and is still headed by Adam Back, the CEO. It is now mainly known for developing implementation prototypes for the lightning network. If you are not familiar with the company and want to get more background information about it, David Shares recently published an Op-Ed about why is Blockstream working with former spies.

Innosilicon is a design company offering low cost, high-performance, cross-foundry, fully customizable solutions. It produces devices in areas such as tablets, cell phones, TVs, cameras, networking equipment and more. When Halong Mining launched its Dragonmint rigs earlier this year there were speculations that the machines were just rebranded Innosilicon Terminators.

Halong Mining is a scam. They sold re-badged Innosilicon BTC miners obtained through dubious means, and sold fake non-existent miners for other algorithms (customers *still* waiting for these to ship). They are huge scammers.

— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) April 6, 2018

What could Blockstream be doing with this much Innosilicon equipment other than set up its own mining center? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Blockstream, Innosilicon.

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CanCon Podcast Ep. 124: The tech scooter bubble is coming to Canada

Most tech trends, one way or another, eventually make their way to Canada. The latest, if recent investments by Uber and Google Ventures are any indication, is in electric scooter rentals – a craze currently sweeping across SF like a virus in an anti-vaxxer (the social antibodies are doing their best, however).

What’s the reason? Is it a deep-seeded hunger for “new modalities” covering that “last mile” of transportation? The continued embracing of trends led by Chinese entrepreneurs? Maybe it’s something more simple than that.

Take the ‘transit pod’, for example. It’s a new product in development by Lime – an enclosed, electric vehicle that would drive on city streets at up to 64 kilometres an hour. When is a car not a car? When it’s built to skirt a city’s laws, regulations, and good sense. True disruption!

Speaking of disruption, Dell (CanCon’s presenting sponsor!) recently hosted its annual DWEN conference in Canada for the first time. Along with it came a new report outlining how Toronto can disrupt the status quo and better support women entrepreneurs. Sarah Stockdale joins the CanCon crew to explain why We Need to Talk About This.

Subscribe via: RSS, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play

CanCon Podcast Episode 124

Get your scooter off my lawn!
Uber’s next big thing is Lime scooters to get around town
Controversial scooter service LimeBike looks for a lane in Toronto
Scooter company Lime is planning to deploy ‘transit pods’
The Growing Scooter Graveyard
The Bike-Share Oversupply in China: Huge Piles of Abandoned and Broken Bicycles
Swagtron Swagger 5 Scooter Review: Dreams come back alive

DWEN comes to Canada
New report outlines how Toronto can improve support for women entrepreneurs
New report indicates just 14 percent of Canadian VCs are women

Canadian Content music clip (under fair dealing): “Know Yourself” by Drake
Ad music: “Dreams” by Joakim Karud

This story was originally published on BetaKit.

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Student Faces Charges for Stealing $5 Million in Crypto via “SIM Jacking”

Motherboard has reportedly obtained court documents pertaining to the arrest of Joel Ortiz, a 20-year-old from Boston, who is accused of stealing $5 million USD in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Mr. Ortiz and his currently unidentified accomplices stole crypto from roughly 40 victims through a hacking technique known as “SIM jacking.”

Also Read: Archaeologists Argue Micronesian Stone Money Comprises Bitcoin Predecessor

20-Year-Old Arrested For Part in Theft of $5 Million in Crypto

It has been reported that on the 12th of July, Californian police arrested a college student accused of being part of a group of criminals responsible for the theft of more than $5 million in cryptocurrencies.

Mr. Ortiz was reportedly arrested at Los Angeles International Airport whilst on his way to Europe donning a Gucci bag presumed to have been paid for with stolen money. The 20-year-old now faces 28 charges, including 13 counts of hacking, 13 counts of identity theft, and 2 counts of grand theft.

Ortiz is currently in jail awaiting his plea hearing on August 9th. His bail was set at $1 million.

First Reported Instance of Crypto Stolen Through ‘SIM Jacking’

Motherboard has claimed that the case comprises the first reported instance in which the increasingly prevalent technique of “SIM jacking” has been used to steal virtual currency.

According to the publication, “SIM swapping consists of tricking a provider like AT&T or T-Mobile into transferring the target’s phone number to a SIM card controlled by the criminal. Once they get the phone number, fraudsters can leverage it to reset the victims’ passwords and break into their online accounts (cryptocurrency accounts are common targets.) In some cases, this works even if the accounts are protected by two-factor authentication.”

Hackers Target Consensus Conference in May

Several of Mr. Ortiz and his yet-to-be-identified accomplices’ victims included attendees of the Consensus conference in New York City in May. One conference attendee who wishes to remain anonymous lost more than $1.5 million from one individual – nearly $1 million of which had been raised through initial coin offering.

“I looked at my phone and it was dead,” the individual told Motherboard. “We were having a meeting and all of a sudden he says ‘Fuck my phone just stopped working.'” The individual added that his friend later texted him: “My fucking SIM got hacked.”

Motherboard reported that “According to court documents, Ortiz took control of the entrepreneur’s cell phone number, reset his Gmail password and then gained access to his cryptocurrency accounts. The entrepreneur ran to the AT&T store to get his number back, but it was too late.”

What is your response to the arrest of Joel Ortiz? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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Canadian live trivia game Showdown lets players make their own quizzes

Toronto-based virtual events agency Eventstream is launching a live streaming trivia app for iOS and Android.

The app, called Showdown Live, lets players join or create their own live trivia games. Players can pick their own category, and create six or 12 question games, with whoever has the fastest answer winning the round.

The app also offers a community aspect. Players can subscribe to quiz creators they like. Additionally, they’re able to discuss trivia and quizzes in the comments throughout the app.

“We’re huge champions of the new mobile game show trend, but we were frustrated by the restrictive game times and lack of choices for the hosts and topics,” said Michael Dawson, president of Eventstream.

“We really want to let our users choose which hosts they want to follow and which trivia categories they want to compete in. On the flip side, hosts not only get to entertain viewers in subjects they’re passionate about, but also build a loyal fan base and earn rewards while doing it.”

Showdown Live also offers rewards, regardless if you win or lose. Users who play games, win games, create games or more receive digital coins. They can redeem coins for gift cards from Amazon, Apple, Walmart or Best Buy. Additionally, there’s no restriction on how many coins users can earn or how many gift cards they can get.

The app is certainly an interesting take on the live trivia space. While Dawson did take some shots at other trivia apps, his points are valid. Personally, I played HQ Trivia for some time, but when they stopped doing the 3pm games I stopped. Now that HQ has brought back the 3pm games, I still don’t really play.

The option to play when I want and also the choice to pick my quiz is appealing. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s enough to draw players away from other games.

You can download the app on iOS and Android.

Source: Evenstream

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Netflix is partnering with Sony to offer enhanced colour calibration on select TVs

Netflix is launching a new calibration mode exclusively for Sony televisions.

The new feature, called ‘Calibrated Mode,’ was developed by Sony’s picture quality and device experts in a collaboration with Netflix’s colour scientists.

It adds an extra layer of processing to content that’s played on select TVs from the Sony Bravia Master Series line. The new process configures the TV to match the display settings that content creators use when editing videos in post-production.

This above video does a good job of explaining the feature, but since it’s unlikely you’re watching it on a professionally calibrated display, it can’t truly show what the new technology looks like.

Netflix claims this feature works with all videos on the platform, including 4K and HDR content. The goal of the process is to remove what’s commonly known as the ‘soap opera effect’ and replace it with accurate colours, true motion and accurate contrast, according to Netflix.

This feature is interesting, but it will be worthwhile to see if it’s actually able to improve every show and movie on the service. How will Netflix be able to apply this tech to 90s shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, especially when compared to the fidelity featured in content natively shot in 4K with HDR?

The feature is slated to launch later this year, but so far it’s only available on Sony’s new OLED Master Series A9F and LECD-based Z9F.

Source: Netflix

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Paul Krugman is Wrong Again

Paul Krugman, the famed economist who’s made a career out of being wrong about things, is wrong again. That in itself is no more surprising than the fact that his latest op-ed takes aim at his favorite bête noire – bitcoin. The surprising part is that Krugman has resorted to the same hackneyed arguments he always uses to attack cryptocurrency. It’s an odd decision from such a learned scholar when there are far more lethal lines of attack for a crypto sceptic to take.

Also read: Japanese Bitcoin Exchanges Planning Several Trading Restrictions: Report

Krugman Swings and Misses

In 1998 Paul Krugman famously predicted: “By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” On the rise of communication networks (read social media) he said they’ll fail because: “most people have nothing to say to each other”. Now he is at it again, but with Bitcoin.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster,” Nietzsche warned, “for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Bitcoin is Paul Krugman’s monster, and despite having swung at it repeatedly over the years, he’s yet to strike a meaningful blow. In an op-ed published in the NYT today, Krugman outlines, for the umpteenth time, why he’s a crypto cynic.

Cynics, for all their doom and gloom, are a welcome antidote to the mindless euphoria, shilling, and moon predictions that pervade the crypto space. Paul Krugman, therefore, is perfectly entitled to take issue with bitcoin. But why has he chosen to attack the very things that make bitcoin so appealing? It’s astonishing how many times someone can be wrong in the course of a single article – and one penned by a Distinguished Professor of Economics, no less. Either Paul Krugman is the world’s subtlest troll or he’s the world’s most benighted professor of economics.

Paul Krugman vs Reality

Here’s a sample of what Paul Krugman has to say during the course of his NYT op-ed:

PK: “Instead of near-frictionless transactions [with fiat], we have high costs of doing business, because transferring a Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency unit requires providing a complete history of past transactions.”

Reality: Er…no it doesn’t. If anyone cares to look up past transactions using a blockchain explorer they’re welcome to, but that has no bearing on doing business with bitcoin, and has zero correlation with the cost of sending bitcoin.

PK: “You’re supposed to be sure that a Bitcoin is real without knowing who issued it, so you need the digital equivalent of biting a gold coin to be sure it’s the real deal.”

Reality: The same could be said of everything digital. Have you ever seen a Facebook in real life? Or squeezed a YouTube video to see if it was ripe? Have you ever fondled a tweet in the palm of your hand or tripped over a computer virus on the way down the stairs? And as for knowing who issued a bitcoin, that is no more relevant than knowing who printed those benjamins in your wallet or that diamond around your beloved’s ring finger. Or, if you want to get really meta, we still don’t know who issued planet earth and all life upon it, and yet here we are, muddling along just fine.

PK: “If speculators were to have a collective moment of doubt, suddenly fearing that Bitcoins were worthless, well, Bitcoins would become worthless.”

Reality: The same argument can be applied to such incongruous things as ancient fossils; Renaissance art; peace treaties; and the earning power of celebrities. In other words, the market pays what the market is willing to pay for an asset, be it a product endorsement from Kim Kardashian or one unit of magical internet money.

If You’re Gonna Pick a Fight with Bitcoin, Go for the Achilles

Time will tell whether Paul Krugman’s position on cryptocurrencies – that they will ultimately collapse and go to zero – is vindicated. In the meantime, if he wants to be taken seriously and to land some painful blows on bitcoin, he would do well to rein in the cheap shots and aim for bitcoin’s achilles instead. There are plenty of criticisms that could be made against crypto; the way it’s primarily benefited the privileged rather than the impoverished; the internal in-fighting over block sizes and arcane politics; the lack of privacy by default with bitcoin transactions; the fact that cryptocurrency is still somewhat unsuited to the tech illiterate. While none of these weaknesses constitutes a fatal flaw in bitcoin’s design, they are all reasonable grounds for attack.

A man of Paul Krugman’s wisdom and reputation ought to be capable of launching much more erudite attacks on bitcoin, but instead he resorts to recycling the same old cliches, while completely missing the astonishing properties that bitcoin provides over regular money, like the ability to transact with anyone without seeking permission from some higher power, and the ability to retain full custody of your wealth, with 100% uptime and 0% asset freezing. Krugman could pen another 100 salty op-eds about bitcoin (and he probably will), but no matter how wrong he’s shown to be, and no matter how high bitcoin climbs, his failure to recognize the second greatest invention of the 21st century won’t be his epitaph. Instead, his obituary shall be determined by his inability to recognize the first:

“By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” – Paul Krugman.

What do you make of Paul Krugman’s latest pronouncement on bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Telus brings cellular coverage to British Columbia’s Highway #3

Telus has activated cellular coverage between Hope and Princeton on British Columbia’s Highway #3.

Residents have been calling for cellular coverage in this area for well over a year now. Without the ability to call for help, highway travellers involved in accidents have frequently had to hope that strangers passing by would be able to assist them. In fact, one driver died in March 2017 after being trapped in his overturned truck on a steep embankment below the highway for two days.

The Manning Park Resort, which is located along the highway and says it frequently helps in nearby accidents, says it’s happy about the added cellular service. “We are supportive of bringing cell service along the highway, as many people have safety concerns about driving Highway #3,” said Vern Schram, general manager of Manning Park Resort. “We are hoping that this will alleviate apprehensions about driving it.”

Schram estimates that the coverage will reach about 500 metres on either side of the highway around his resort. However, coverage is not expected to reach beyond the highway corridor. Therefore, travellers are advised to remain cautious when travelling in the backcountry of E.C. Manning Park.

It’s also important to note that recent re-paving efforts from Sumallo Flats to Allison Pass on Highway #3 are also nearing completion.

Source: Manning Park Resort Via: iPhone in Canada

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Sony’s ‘Double Discounts’ sale offers extra savings for PS Plus members

Sony’s ‘Double Discounts’ sale offers PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR titles up to 80 percent off, if you have a PS Plus membership.

Like many PlayStation sales, Sony offers customers an additional discount if they have a PS Plus membership. This time around, however, the additional discount doubles the original deal, so if something is 40 percent of for non-PS Plus members, it’s 80 percent off for a PS Plus member.

The sale is only available until August 7th at 11:00am ET.

Here’s a list of some of the more notable titles on sale in Canadian prices.

• Detroit: Become Human: – $52.79 PS Plus – $66.99 w/o PS Plus (originally $79.99)
• DiRT 4: $22.39 PS Plus – $51.19 w/o PS Plus (originally $79.99)
• Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen: $23.99 PS Plus – $31.99 w/o PS Plus (originally $39.99)
• FIFA 18: $23.99 PS Plus – $51.99 w/0 PS Plus (originally $79.99)
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice: $23.99 PS Plus – $31.99 w/o PS Plus (originally $39.99)
• Hitman – Game of the Year Edition: $39.99 PS Plus – $59.99 w/o PS Plus (originally $79.99)
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm Deluxe Edition: $16.73 PS Plus – $25.11 w/o PS Plus (originally $33.49)
• Lost Sphear: $34.99 PS Plus – $52.49 w/o PS Plus (originally $69.99)
• Unravel Two: $20.24 – $23.75 w/o PS Plus (originally $26.99)
• Watch Dogs 2: $26.39 PS Plus – $53.59 w/o PS Plus (originally $79.99)
• Wizard of Legend:  $17.19 PS Plus – $19.34 w/o PS Plus (originally $21.49)

There are plenty of more games on sale, so to check them out, click here. To get the double discount, make sure you’re logged into your PSN account with PS Plus activated.

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New Sidewalk Toronto plan sets aside $3.47 million for data privacy and digital governance

The Toronto-based organization responsible for administering the Toronto waterfront’s revitalization efforts has released the Plan Development Agreement (PDA) recently approved by its board of directors and signed by Alphabet urban development subsidiary Sidewalk Labs.

The 58-page Plan Development Agreement is a comprehensive document aimed at establishing the principles that will eventually lead to the creation of a Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP).

The MIDP will serve as the formal backbone for the Sidewalk Toronto project once development begins.

In addition to outlining the project’s developmental guidelines, the PDA also establishes a budget that estimates how much it will cost to put together the MIDP.

An estimated $40 million USD (roughly $52.05 million CAD) will be used in the production of the MIDP, with $2,664,000 USD (approximately $3.47 million CAD) set aside for legal, regulatory and policy issues, including data privacy and digital governance.

According to the PDA document, the overall goal is to “ensure that digital innovations and solutions protect personal privacy and civil liberties while providing shared benefits, including as an economic catalyst for open innovation, and to inform the broader public policy dialogue on digital technology and data.”

It’s important to note that the PDA doesn’t specifically stipulate anything specific when it comes to where information will be stored, how it will be stored, or how Sidewalk Labs will facilitate the transmission of information between the Sidewalk Toronto project and its Alphabet parent company.

However, the PDA promises that concerns about surveillance will be addressed in the MIDP, while concerns about the misuse of data will also be addressed.

The PDA also promises “granular policies regarding data sovereignty and routing that are informed by legislative requirements, global best practices and project objectives.”

Source: Waterfront Toronto

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Bitcoin Cash Fans Celebrate Independence Day One Year Later

Today is the one-year anniversary of the ‘Bitcoin Independence Day’ that took place on August 1 2017. Since that day the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network and community have had a very productive year as the decentralized cryptocurrency has celebrated a ton of milestones including successful network upgrades, massive merchant adoption, and a wide variety of applications built using the BCH chain.

Also Read: Interest in Philippines Economic Zone Crypto License Spikes – 17 Firms Paid in Full

August 1 2017, Bitcoin Independence Day

A year ago today Bitcoin proponents celebrated independence from the scaling debate stagnation that took place within the Bitcoin community for far too long. On August 1, 2017, after block 478,558 was found, the Bitcoin blockchain effectively split as miners began processing blocks from two protocols — Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Core (BTC). While many Bitcoin Core supporters didn’t think BCH would survive after the split, the BCH network proved them wrong by continuing to grow stronger every day that followed the event on August 1. During the first week of August, the BCH chain’s hashpower steadily grew more powerful and the currency’s value went through a small period of price discovery.

Bitcoin Cash Gains 145% in One Year

On August 13, 2017 the Bitcoin Cash spot price closed the day at $310 USD per BCH and the currency is today priced at $760 per coin which represents a solid gain of +145.16 percent since last year. Additionally, much like many of the other digital assets that touched all-time highs (ATH) this past December, bitcoin cash prices reached an ATH of $3,000 per BCH and even $4,000 per BCH on a few international exchanges. Because of the growing demand and high prices, BCH proponents often laugh at Bitfury’s George Kikvadze who sold his bitcoin cash at $668 per coin and thanked all the “fools” who purchased them.

November’s Successful DAA Upgrade

During its first few months, the BCH network and its participants gathered lots of support from infrastructure services like wallets and exchanges, while at the same time BCH accumulated a massive amount of merchants. A few months later on November 13, 2017 the decentralized protocol completed a successful upgrade which saw the BCH network’s Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA) change to a more stable system of operation. That day, at approximately 4 pm EDT, at block height 504031 the consensus rules upgraded the DAA and mining profitability between both the BTC and BCH chains has remained consistent ever since the fork.

Exponential Hashrate Growth and Remarkable Commitment to Innovation

Since August 1, BCH miners have processed close to 63,000 blocks and the network is over 6,800 blocks ahead of BTC. On August 4, 2017, the BCH network’s absolute hashrate was 339 Petahash per second. Now, thanks to the past year of growth, the BCH hashrate has gradually increased to 4-5.5 Exahash per second. At the moment there are eight known miners who process BCH blocks, and three unknown mining pools as well. Known BCH miners include Coingeek, Bitcoin.com, Viabtc, BTC.com, Antpool, SBI Crypto, Rawpool, and BTC.top. One of the mining pool operators, Alejandro de la Torre from BTC.com, a pool that typically commands 12-14 percent of the BCH hashrate, thinks the Bitcoin Cash network has had an amazing year so far.

“Bitcoin Cash has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to innovate upon community engagement with applications like on-chain social network — Memo, and a smart contract protocol layer called Wormhole that is built using Omni Layer, the token-issuance protocol that is the same technical basis for tether (USDT),” Alejandro details. “We think these community-driven networks can be very effective at moving the needle in the adoption of Bitcoin Cash as a medium-of-exchange, which is the primary reason it was forked and developed.”

One year after its creation, BCH has continued to expand onto 19 different services, e.g. Bitpay, Coingate, Viabtc, Coinpayments, Coindance. Bitcoin Cash is also involved in fourteen different projects, e.g., Openbazaar, Joystream, and Counterparty, and tradable on 41 different exchanges. Now entering its second year, BTC.com is poised to help the Bitcoin Cash community shift focus from investment, thinking only in terms of storing of value, to cash, thinking as a medium of exchange for merchants and consumers.

A Fourfold Block Size Increase, and Re-enabled Satoshi Opcodes

After the successful upgrade in November that fixed the protocol’s DAA, the BCH network upgraded once again a few months later on May 15, 2018. The Bitcoin Cash protocol extended the 8MB block size fourfold to a 32MB block size cap. The consensus change was one of the largest block size increases in the history of blockchain and the upgrade also re-enabled a few old Satoshi OP_Codes and increased the network’s data carrier size. The data carrier size upgrade and the OP_Codes unleashed a plethora of innovation from developers building social media apps, trustless betting protocols, and tokenization and smart contract mechanisms.

Transactions & Merchant Adoption

In just one year, the BCH protocol and its network participants have been able to push adoption, create a wide variety of applications, and do all of these feats in the face of trolling, skepticism, and negative criticism. Every aspect of the protocol has seen exceptional increases including price, hashrate, merchant adoption, daily transactions, and new applications. Over time, BCH on-chain transactions continue to grow despite the opinion of naysayers. For instance, from August 1 to October 22, 2017, Bitcoin Cash transactions (tx) averaged between 6,000-12,000 tx per day. From October 22, 2017 to February 7, 2018, BCH transactions averaged 20,000 to 60,000 tx per day. From February 7 until June 30, 2018, BCH transactions averaged 20,000 tx per day. The recent stress test has increased daily BCH transaction volume to 25,000 to 85,000 tx per day.

Moreover, as far as merchant adoption, BCH has gathered nearly every merchant that the BTC chain has and no other cryptocurrency in existence has experienced such a rapid network effect. This includes merchant acceptance from Bitpay and Purse.io, and the wide variety of stores that accept BCH that can be found on the Accept Bitcoin Cash initiative and Marco Coino.  

Bitcoin Cash fans have a lot to celebrate this year and the next 12 months should be just as exciting as proponents look forward to everything that lies ahead.

What do you think about the Bitcoin Cash one-year anniversary? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Images via Shutterstock, Coindance, Bitinfocharts, Pixabay, and Satoshi Pulse.

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