Wednesday 30 August 2017

ICO Oversight? Israeli Regulators Form Token Sale Study Committee


Regulators in Israel have formed a new committee to study the applicability of domestic securities laws to initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Announced today, the development sees the Israeli Securities Authority panel putting together recommendations for potentially regulating ICOs. A report containing those recommendations sometime before the end of December. Officials working on the committee will also look into the approaches taken by other regulators worldwide, as well as the “the enforceability of securities laws in this area,” among other subjects.

With the move, Israel’s securities watchdog becomes the latest regulator of its kind to wade into the murky question of regulating ICOs.

Just last week, regulators in Canada released a staff noticing outlining how that, under its view, some blockchain-based tokens count as securities. At the same time, the Canada Securities Administrators (CSA) struck a proactive note and encouraged companies planning an ICO to reach out to the body.

Other regulators, including those in Singapore and the US, have also revealed their plans for regulating ICOs. Like Canada, their general stance is that while some token sales qualify as securities offerings, others – particularly tokens that have some kind of independent utility – do not.

It’s a noteworthy development as well given that the country plays home to several startups that have pursued or are planning to raise funds through the model. Perhaps most notable among those is Bancor, which raised more than $150 million through a token sale in June.

To date, nearly $2 billion has been raised through ICOs, according to data from CoinDesk’s ICO Tracker.

Hat tip: Udi Wertheimer

Israel flag image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [email protected].



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/ico-oversight-israeli-regulators-form-token-sale-study-committee/

Saturday 19 August 2017

Indonesian Workers Using Bitcoin for Liquid Wage Transfers


A recent Twitter post from Tuur Demester, the Editor-in-Chief at Adamant Research, indicates the increasingly widespread use of Bitcoin for its liquidity.

The post comes from a follower who commented on an interview between Demester and Kraken CEO Jesse Powell.

Liquid and safe

The comment by Demester on his Twitter post, ‘More liquid than gold,’ represents a fundamental shift in the public perception and awareness of Bitcoin.

Liquidity is traditionally a currency principle, but it limits stability. Stability is generally an asset principle (like gold for example) but limits liquidity. Bitcoin unites these two principles into a single asset/currency that is both stable and liquid.

 As Bitcoin use cases proliferate, and liquidity increases, the safe haven properties and the currency properties of Bitcoin will continue to mesh.

Metcalfe’s law

Tommy Lee recently indicated a $6,000 projection for Bitcoin’s price based on Metcalfe’s Law – that the value of a network is proportional to the the square of its number of users. As Bitcoin continues to gain adherents, like this Indonesian town, the value of the network can only increase, in spite of temporary pull-backs.



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/indonesian-workers-using-bitcoin-for-liquid-wage-transfers/

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Scott Voelker generate $300K in revenue in his first 12 months


Summary

Scott Voelker created a Successful Amazon Private Label company in only 12 months. He made 300K$ during his very first 12 months in business. Everything Scott touch seems to turn into gold, so what is his secret sauce?

Items mention during the show

The Amazing Seller

Freedom Fast Lane

Pat Flynn

John Lee Dumas

Gary Vaynerchuck

Jaime Masters

upfuel.com

Kate Erickson

4 hour work week

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to get out of your daily grind and build a 6 figure a year business
  • Why building a business is always about people
  • Why you don’t need any special power to become successful
  • Why private labeling is the best way to make money with Amazon
  • how to drive traffic to your amazon product



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/scott-voelker-generate-300k-in-revenue-in-his-first-12-months/

How To Save Money With Shopping Bots, Assistants, Add-Ons

Do you frequently shop online? If yes, you might be aware about how overwhelming it can be to select your favourite product at the lowest price. Most of the times it is almost impossible to keep up through diverse online deals, coupons, and promotions available all over the Web. What adds up to the difficulty is the price comparison among the numerous online retailers out there! Well, in today’s busy schedule doing this hectic research is truly time-consuming. So, how about purchasing products in a smart and an intelligent way?

Shopping tools like the shopping bots, the online associate or Add-ons do all of the work for you.

India’s online trading market, according to rough estimates, is 60-70 million strong, and is expected to go up to 100 million in the next few years. Around 10 million people use price comparison websites each year because they’re quick, convenient and save us a lot of time buying products around.

What Are Actually These Bots & Add-Ons?

Shopping bots, short for “shopping robots,” is an online price comparison software tool that searches for relevant goods from a variety of stores online. It automatically locates the most affordable rates for customers. Generally, these add-ons rank items by price. They let buyers link directly to the website of an online merchant site to actually buy the product.

They also help to find the most excellent online deals for a product, including films, household items, smartphones, books, video games, etc. Using shopping bots, a purchaser can instantly get quotes from multiple retailers for the same merchandise without spending hours on particular shopping site. You may simply call these add-ons as your “online shopping assistants”.

Benefits of Online Assistants and Shopping Bots!

The popularity of price comparison websites/ shopping bots/add-ons isn’t just a trend. It’s now fast becoming a way of life for people to shop. Comparison websites helps the buyers to procure huge benefits whenever they make purchases online. They aid in viewing the latest prices offered by various e-retailers along with discounts or money-saving deals. In addition to price comparison, customers can easily access online coupons, discounts across all the e-retailers that offer the product they wish to buy.

In a nut shell, price comparison add-ons are just like pieces of good fortune for shopaholics. These add-ons works like an online shopping assistant by offering hassle free shopping. They simply fetching all the discounts and offers from top e-commerce sites under a single page! Users can evaluate prices online & get the modest price on the go right from the comfort of their browser. So, isn’t that easy. You save money and time without any annoyance!

Conclusion

Whether you’re using Amazon, eBay, Flipkart or any other site – shopping bots make sure you never spend more than you have to. These add-ons will help you shop smarter and help to purchase products when they are at their absolute lowest prices. So, why not take assistance from these bots or install your favourite add-on & Shop like Never Before!!



Source by Ruturaj Kohok



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/how-to-save-money-with-shopping-bots-assistants-add-ons-2/

Why a Bitcoin Fork Is Not a ‘Stock Split’


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If you’ve been following the bitcoin fork drama this week, you may have heard the term “stock split” thrown around in interviews with “experts.”

Before we get to the problems here, it’s true that there are now two publicly traded bitcoin assets, bearing similar names with similar value propositions. They even appear side by side on some major exchanges.

The impulse to use existing terminology as a metaphor to refer to emerging technology is understandable. In fact, it can be incredibly helpful to use existing mental models as a metaphor for things we don’t quite have our heads around just yet.

But this comparison, while well intentioned, is misguided: a blockchain fork isn’t anything like a stock split.

Here’s why:

The drivers

Stock split: The basic motivation behind most stock splits is to lower the price of individual shares of a stock to bring it within the financial reach of retail investors.

One of the best-known examples of a stock split in recent years is the 7-for-1 split of Apple shares in 2014. Prior to the split, when Apple was trading around $700, it was often debated whether the individual stock price was too high. A steep rise in share price in the months that followed seems to have settled the debate. (At least in the case of Apple.)

Bitcoin: The reasons for the split into two cryptocurrencies are complex, but they have nothing to do with ease-of-access for retail investors.

The crux is this: A long-standing debate has divided the bitcoin community on its technical roadmap – specifically, about finding the best way to cope with a growing user base and rising transaction volume.

After the bitcoin fork, bitcoin is still trading at over $2,700, roughly the same price as before. The price of the new asset, Bitcoin Cash, is around $200 to $450 depending on the liquidity of the exchange it’s being traded on. In short, the two assets now have two separate values, each derived from their technical roadmap and supporting communities.

Both could end up expensive for investors, but to the extent that one may end up affordable, it may not make it valuable.

Governance

Stock split: In the broadest sense, stock splits and blockchain splits share one thing in common: they must be approved by someone. So who approves them?

Publicly traded companies are owned by their shareholders. Those shareholders then elect a board of directors to act as their proxies in corporate governance issues. The board of directors hires managers to run the company. The board of directors and management, which often overlap, make decisions about matters that are crucial to the functioning of the company. (In theory, this permits companies to behave as rational actors; in practice, less so.)

One of the most important decisions that management and boards of directors make about the public companies they run concerns the makeup of the capital structure, which is the category into which share structure falls.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a shared account of value without centralized authority or control. There is no single third party that verifies the accuracy of the value accounted for in the ledger. There is no central governing authority; instead, decisions are made by consensus based on miners (or nodes) signaling their approval for proposals, based on predetermined thresholds for passage that are embedded in the code.

In the event of a split, every actor gets to make decisions in their best interest.

Right now, some exchanges aren’t listing Bitcoin Cash, some are. Some miners aren’t mining the new blockchain, some are. And some users are trading both, in that both are now digital assets that can be sent seamlessly around the world. Where they go from there will take coordination, but for now, decision-making is isolated and dedicated by self-interest.

Final takeaway

Stock split: A stock split is a corporate action that divides existing shares into more shares without changing the underlying claims on assets that those shares represent. If you double the amount of something, but cut its value in half, you haven’t effectively changed the underlying economics at all. (Which is worth more to you: a $20 bill or two $10 bills?)

But here’s what really matters about a stock split: no new entity of any kind is created. The same corporate entity that existed before the split still exists afterward.

From an operational standpoint, nothing has been added and nothing has been taken away.

Bitcoin: When Bitcoin Cash split off from the bitcoin blockchain it created an entirely new blockchain unique to Bitcoin Cash. From this point forward, the two currencies will trade under separate symbols. And they will each have their own transaction history after the time of the split, and develop unique values.

Both may fail, both may thrive. That’s up to individual actors in the marketplace.

And the ongoing popularity of ethereum and ethereum classic shows just how long it can take for the market to decide – if it will pick one winner at all.

Ripped dollar image via Shutterstock

Source: Coindesk









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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/why-a-bitcoin-fork-is-not-a-stock-split/

Iconomi: The Easiest Way to Invest in Cryptocurrency?

How Beneficial Is A Payday Loan?

When you are in a difficult financial situation, you might not have the time to approach your financial institution and have a loan processed as fast as you need the money. If you are the type that does not like to bother other people with your problems, you might also not find borrowing the money you need from friends and family. A payday loan can be your ultimate solution in such situations.

The payday loans are short terms small loans that are processed fast to cover your emergencies and then you get to repay them as soon as your salary reflects. They save the day when you need money and your paycheck is still days or weeks away. The loans are very popular and they come with a number of reasons that makes them beneficial in those financial situations that really cannot wait till your next pay.

1. A payday loan is beneficial in the sense that it is very easy to apply and have a list of requirements for you to qualify. The only thing you might meet need to show is proof of income so that the lender is sure you will manage to repay as agreed.

2. The loan is super fast in terms of processing compared to applying for a bank loan and waiting for processing. As soon as you fill out the needed application, you get the cash advance that you have applied for in a matter of seconds. Most lenders will never go past an hour after your application is approved. This means that you can even take care of emergency situations within no time at all when you choose a payday loan.

3. A payday loan offers you payment flexibility, making it possible for you to settle it as soon as you get paid. You do not have to keep up with loans that take longer to repay and attract interest rates over that repayment period they stretch over.

4. With a direct payday loan, you are less likely to default. This is because you get the amount that is sufficient enough for your income to cater for. A cycle of debt is eliminated by the payday loan since you are sure that the amount you expect from your next check will actually cover the loan you have received. It is a fact that protects you from debt and keeps your lender protected as well.

5. A payday loan can be termed as convenient considering that most lenders work outside the regular banking hours. It means that you can obtain the emergency cash that you need at any time or immediately the financial situation arises. Most of the lenders actually make it even more convenient for you by offering online services where you can apply and have your small loan processed without moving an inch from where you are.

6. A payday loan is very discreet making it very good for you if you do not want to let anyone know about your financial woes. The fact that it is processed fast makes it possible for you to avoid borrowing from people you would rather not let know that you have some financial issues such as family members and friends. The loan allows you to handle your issues personally and in total discretion if this is the route you find most appropriate for you and your finances.

A payday loan can save you not only in emergency situations, but also in paying up your fees and bills when there are risks that could end up hurting credit ratings. It can save the day for you thanks to the fast processing.



Source by Jovia D’Souza



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/how-beneficial-is-a-payday-loan/

How Airbitz Hopes to Keep Bitcoin Decentralized on Mobile Wallets


Airbitz is one of the more popular mobile bitcoin wallets among those who believe in the digital asset’s core tenet of decentralization. Recently, Bitcoin Magazine caught up with Airbitz CEO Paul Puey to get his thoughts on preserving Bitcoin’s decentralization in a smartphone environment.

“Decentralization has always been a key goal of our wallet, but of course balanced with usability,” Puey told Bitcoin Magazine. “While we present a login interface that mirrors a centralized, hosted solution, our wallet can still function even if Airbitz servers are 100% down. This is a unique proposition that is non-existent in the cryptocurrency or legacy technology space.”

Recently, Airbitz have added two features that point to the bitcoin wallet’s commitment to a decentralized economy: LibertyX integration and the ability to point one’s mobile wallet to a specific full node. Puey discussed these two features with Bitcoin Magazine, in addition to what Airbitz will be working on in the future.

LibertyX Integration

Earlier this year, a LibertyX plugin was added to the Airbitz wallet. This allows Airbitz users to find stores where they can buy bitcoin for cash from within their mobile wallet.

LibertyX is a service that allows people to purchase bitcoin with cash from a local store. A map of participating stores is available on their website, and amounts of up to $1000 worth of bitcoin can be purchased at these locations per day.

When purchasing $200 worth of bitcoin or less from LibertyX, a verified phone number is all that is needed to make a purchase. Amounts above $200 require further ID verification.

LibertyX users are able to receive their bitcoin after giving a cashier cash and a code generated from the LibertyX app on their phone in some locations, while other stores require that the user enter a PIN code found on their receipt on the LibertyX app after making a cash payment.

When asked if Airbitz may eventually roll out an integration with some form of P2P bitcoin exchange in a manner similar to Mycelium’s Local Trader functionality, Puey responded, ”At this point, we will continue to promote our integration with LibertyX. We believe they provide a great user experience and price for those looking to acquire bitcoin for cash, and it requires significantly less engineering to implement than a local trader type feature.”

Point to Your Own Full Node

Another feature that was recently added to Airbitz is the ability to point the bitcoin wallet to a full node of a user’s choice. Puey explained the importance of this feature to Bitcoin Magazine.

“Bitcoin democratizes access to financial services, but part of that democratization is choice — choice [as to] what services you use and support. The ability to choose your own node gives users the choice to connect to a node that implements the protocol they prefer, helping them put their vote on how they would like to define the future of Bitcoin.”

If a bitcoin user is not operating their own full node, then they are trusting someone else to make sure the rules of the network are being properly followed. By allowing users to choose a specific full node, Airbitz is making sure their users can choose who they trust with the job of the enforcement of Bitcoin’s consensus rules. Of course, users can also point their Airbitz wallets to their own full nodes.

The ability to choose a full node is also important when it comes to hard forks, as those who are not operating their own full nodes do not get a say in potential changes to the protocol rules.

What Else Is on the Way?

For now, Airbitz is mostly focused on their Edge Login SDK, which allows their Edge Security platform to be used for applications other than Bitcoin.

“You’ll see features and functionality really geared towards our Edge Login SDK and supporting our decentralized app partnerships like Augur and Wings,” said Puey. “We aim to significantly grow the list of partners utilizing Edge Login, and you’ll soon see new functionality that will help drive that effort.”

Puey added that Airbitz will continue to focus on the aspects of decentralization that they believe will extract the biggest value out of bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

“The concepts of decentralized ownership of value, decentralized private key security, decentralized access to the blockchain, and even decentralized development of the core protocol have been well promoted and supported by Airbitz,” said Puey.



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/how-airbitz-hopes-to-keep-bitcoin-decentralized-on-mobile-wallets/

Robots and Robot Kits in Our Lives

We all saw robots in movies. In the beginning, bots were just metal things that looked funny. As the time passed, movies became more advanced, movie robots had more functions and they acted like humans more often. Great examples were 3CPO and R2D2 from Star wars and finally Data from Star trek. OK, those shows were science fiction and today's robots still are not that advanced.

Neverheless, modern bots have great roll in our lives. Robotics is advocating pretty fast. It is because electronics and mechanics are the areas that advances fast too. One more area that is directly affecting robotics is IT. Software development made possible to program the robot for doing complicated tasks. First programmable robots had software in VAL language. After that, there were Roboforth, RoboLogix, URBI etc. Nowadays there were software with GIs and user friendly interfaces that allow easy programming of some robot kits. Now everyone can program robot kits, not just IT geeks.

Because of that, there are all kinds of robot kits on market. You can find basic kits for a few bucks and expert ones that can mimic human movements and do complicated tasks. Depending on your budget, you can get all sorts of interesting robots, program them and have fun. Scare your dog or cat for example. Robotics became a great hobby for every generation. Most famous area is Robot wars. People build bots and attach deadly weapons on them (deadly to other robots of course). There are communities that organizes robot battles and tournaments. Winners get very profitable prices.

Beside hobby robot kits, there are robots that help handicap people, build cars and computers, help in the farms, help collecting data for astronauts and every other area that you can think of. There is no product on the market that is designed or developed without help of robot. People do not have to do hard work and being in hazardous conditions any more. There are robots that help to find survivors and are great addition to rescue squads like Gemini Scout. Most affordable ones are robot vacuum cleaners. They certainly help in houses and save your time.

In one sentence, robots became irreplaceable devices in our lives. We do not notice that, but if all the robots suddenly stop working, we would have a big problems. Who knows what brings the future. All we know, robots will be more and more advanced, and it will affect us even more. Let's just hope that Terminator Scenario will not happen.



Source by Mable Ladetnine



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/robots-and-robot-kits-in-our-lives-2/

What are the popular CD-DVD Standard Formats?

The first format that was created for CDs was the audio CD. It was meant to succeed the vinyl record as a method for storing and playing music and was called the Compacy Disc Digital Audio. Cassettes and records were the primary methods of carrying audio, but they had problems that were addressed with the help of CDs. The quality of the vinyl on the record could degrade as you kept playing it back, which could lead to lower sound quality, which CDs fixed.

The "Red Book," so named because of the color that the cover sports, shows that the medium standard for your typical Compact Disc is meant to carry a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz, and two channel 16-bit PCM encoding is used to Convey the audio, giving it a high standard for quality. While cassette tapes or records typically have monaural records, you could not do that with CDs, so mono tracks were just presented as two channels that sounded identical.

Although the Red Book Standard claims that you can use four channel sound, commercial CDs have not used this; Instead DVD audio is usually the standard for that particular format. When CDs first came into prominence, they were resonated at first by music aficionados that touted the superior sound quality of vinyl, which is something that some people still hold to today. The origin of this belief stems from the fact that early CDs used the cost cutting measure of having 14-bit digital-to-analog converters in lieu of the usual 16-bit ones, but that is in the past. Although technology has kept up, the discussion still rages as to which is better, vinyl or CD.

Compact Discs

A CD is a format that uses an optical disc to carry data in a digital format. Sony and Philips created this particular format together in 1980; It was meant to replace the vinyl record and provide a more secure method of carrying data. As they first looked into creating this design, they wanted to look at a 60 minute playing time for that format. Norio Oga, the vice president of Sony at the time, thought about that particular time limit so it would fit the 1951 recording of Beethoven's Symphony # 9. In later years, 80 minutes became the new time limit.

As the time passed, the format would expand and further itself, with CD-ROMS that could carry computer data to VCDs and SVCDs, which are video compact disks that could hold interactive media and photos as well, providing new ways to use the medium. Although the CD has been around for more than two decades, it is still the primary media for audio files.

CD-i

Interactive media uses this type of CD. This had audio on it, but the first track instead held extra information which would not have been displayed on the table of contents for the CD. So when it was placed in a regular CD player, it would not play that track.

Although CD-i did not last long, it was used mostly for children's games and interactive coloring books.

CD-Text

The Red Book Standard also talks about CD-Text, which is a format that includes the audio tracks, along with text that provides the artist, track and album names. Although this feature is typical in most CDs now, there are some disks or hardware that does not use this. More and more new cars are including this feature in order to show data about your CDs. CD + Graphics (CD + G) and CD + Extended Graphics (CD + EG / CD + XG)

These formats have data on the audio, both in text format and in picture format, so you have more data on your tracks. While they operate normally in regular CD players, if you have a unique player you will be able to see added graphical information. For the most part, karaoke machines use these formats to display the lyrics so you can follow along.

CD-ROM

When the CD first came out, audio playback was its only purpose. However, five years after its release, Philips and Sony thought they could use the same medium to display computer information. If you had a CD-ROM drive on your computer, you could play DVD-ROM disks.

Video CD (VCD) and Super Video CD (SVCD)

When the VCD and SVCD came out, they were the primary method of viewing video from a CD, and both DVD players and VCD players could use them. With VCDs, you could get VHS-level quality on the video, with improved visuals on the SVCD.

Picture and Photo CDs

Kodak developed the CD for use as a data storage medium to put your photos on, calling them Picture and Photo CDs. While they sound similar, there are significant differences in these two formats. With the Photo CD, you can hold 100 images of high quality images; The Picture CD, however, you can place far more images on them, but they are compressed JPEGs.

SACD (Super Audio CD)

This format is like the regular CD-DA, but the audio is at a much higher resolution, making the sound far better than a typical CD. With the advent of DVD-Audio, SACDs were created in order to combat its popularity, although the fact remains that DVD Audio did not catch on very well.

With an SACD, you will also be able to have a hybrid disc that includes both regular CD and SACD audio, giving you two options for quality on your tracks. That feature also permits you to play these SACDs in regular CD players and still hear the tracks.

CD-R (CD Recordable)

CD-Rs are CDs that have a photosensitive dye that the data spiral receives in the manufacturing process. The CD burner will then use a laser to alter the dye's color, imparting the information and giving it the ability to be played in a regular CD player, so its read laser can interpret the information.

While CD-R burns are intended to put the information on the disk forever, there is research that indicates, that the media will be unreadable over time. Although a physical CD can end up for a century, you might not have the same time frame with the information placed on it, due to the quality of the disk, how you store it, or how well the drive works. There are even tests that indicate an 18 month shelf life for burned CDs, especially if you do not take good enough care of your CDs.

CD-RW (CD Rewritable)

Compared to colored dyes in CD-R, CD-RWs use metallic allow to carry their information. When the write laser is used in the burner, the alloy is heated up in order to make the allow reflect the information on the disc. In this manner, it is converted into a typical CD and it can store the data.

Enhanced CDs

Enhanced CDs were used to put extra computer-related information onto an audio CD, thereby increasing the value of their music discs. If you had a CD-ROM drive, you could access unique features and data on your computer.

Once computers started to get more prevalent in the late 90s, more Enhanced CDs were created. Once Iron Maiden started to remaster their albums, they made their rereleases Enhanced CDs.

CD Recording

If you want to put data of your own onto a CD, there are many ways in which you can do it. There are CD-R, which necessitate making a permanent copy of your data, or CD-RWs, which allow you to rewrite and overwrite as you see fit.

DVDs

Much like a CD, a DVD, or Digital Versatile Disc, is a format intended to store digital data. It can store both video and audio, as well as normal computer information. Although DVDs and CDs may look almost identical on the surface, DVDs have a much greater storage capacity. While CDs were expanded to provide a plethora of formats used for different purposes, DVDs only have yielded DVD Video and DVD Audio .

DVD-RAM

DVD-Random Access Memory is used mainly to back up data for computers in the event of an emergency. Compared to DVD writable and rewritable formats, DVD-RAM is far more efficient and durable due to the defect management capabilities and error control integrated into the medium. What's more, data can last much longer on a DVD-RAM, and has a greater capacity of being rewritten than RW disks on the whole. If you want to store data for a long time, this is the preferred method.

DVD-R and DVD + R

Both of these formats are quite similar in their purpose, but they do the same job in fairly different ways, making them quite dissimilar. They work not like recordable CDs in that dyes are used to store the information. Whatever the format, you are meant to put video or data onto the disk using these dyes; Although they both do the same thing, they do so in technically different ways, though this is inconsequential to the typical consumer due to the compatibility of the formats.

Due to this lack of real difference between consumers, there is no clear winner on the market, so both formats are here to stay for right now, as the public has not decided on one or the other.

DVD-RW and DVD + RW

Users can rewrite data onto a DVD disc using one of these formats, which both perform the same function They act just like CD-RWs in that metallic alloys are the secret to recording this overwritable data to a DVD; Also, just like with DVD-R and DVD + R formats, both formats are equally preferred and fairly identical, so there is no winner on that format. Since they are both compatible with burners and players of DVDs, no single format will win out.

DVD Audio

DVD-As or DVD Audio, is a method of fitting a DVD with high quality audio tracks. While this is a form of DVD, it is not meant to carry video, and carries few similarities. DVD-As do, however, allow you to have your music in a variety of formats from uncompressed mono to compressed 5.1 digital surround sound.

The year 2000 saw the release of DVD-As, where it started to compete with SACDs. In the end, both formats lost out to the disturbing impact of the CD.

DVD Recording

You can also record with DVDs, much like you could with audio CDs; There are recordable formats that you can use to put your own data onto a DVD, such as DVD-R and DVD + R where you can write it once to a disc, or DVD-RW and DVD + RW where you can keep rewriting, Not to mention DVD-RAM.

DVD Video

In this day and age, most people get their digital video media in the form of DVD. Japan bought this product in 1996, and it started to dethrone VHS very quickly. While Blu-ray format is newer, it is still too expensive and not widespread enough to beat DVDs except in Japan.

With a DVD Video, you get MPEG-2 files that are compressed to fit a movie or television show, but the video quality is much better than a VHS. There are even features such as menus, chapters, subtitles and even featurettes and extra audio tracks you can add on.



Source by Keith A Gilbert



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/what-are-the-popular-cd-dvd-standard-formats-5/

Russian developers will participate in the blockchain meetup in Washington

Your Home Is Not Safe For Your Children!

More and more children in Queensland are being injured in the home and yet what is amazing is that the rooms most parents think are benign are some of the most dangerous areas for children. In this article we are going to look at some of the danger areas parents need to look at when making their house safe.

For 20 years, both the state and national governments in Austraila have run safety campaigns for parents on the home yet there are some really basic areas that are being missed. Most people know that the key danger areas in the home are the bathroom, kitchen and garage.

First Aid Organizations like Lifesaving Australia and my own company, One-on-One Professional Business Training will tell you that the bathroom is an incredibly dangerous area in the home for drowning. More children under 5 die due to drowning in the home than any other way in Queensland. The key facts are that you only need about 2 to 5 cm of water for a child to drown in, so here is the scary aspect. Most parents neglect another key area … the toilet.

Whilst researching this article, I was reviewing statistics from around the world on how children actually drown and there is a trend for children under 5, in the western world actually drowning in the toilet. A common thread was that the young child would try to climb onto the toilet to use it and whilst doing so fall in and not be able to get out. Many of the American style toilets with a larger style bowl and higher water were most dangerous. It was easier for kids to fall in and a larger amount of water to drown in.

The key issue for parents to be aware is that they need to ensure they use child restraint locks on the toilet lids so that the child needs to come and get you if they want to use the toilet or parents need to install child seat in which the Child can not lift the large toilet seat. At least this way, having to deal with possibly a mess is better than a child drowning.

We know that kitchens are dangerous but did you know that the lounge or family area can also be very dangerous as well. In the 21st century we all love our LCD Screens however their stability can easily be upset by a 3 year old pushing on the screen. Many family rooms have their 50 "LCD screens sitting on a coffee table which is great for the adults but extremely dangerous for children.

I was watching a video on YouTube a few days ago where a 2 year old ran up to kiss the screen and she did it with that much force the television fell over on top of her. If you are going to purchase a large LCD screen most child safety experts now recommend that you have the LCD Screen mounted onto the wall to remove the chance of the television being dropped over.

The laundry is once again another danger area where children can be injured. We have seen over the last few years a transition where many homes are converting their washing machines from being top loaded to being front loaded washing machines. This is another area where parents are neglecting in the area of ​​child safety.

I have read about a number of case studies in which children have been playing hide and go seek and a small 2 or 3 year old has traditionally opened the washing machine, climbed inside to play, only to die from suffocation. There have been other cases where parents have part filled the washing machine, not realized their child have climbed into the machine and they have turned the machine on.

I know when I first heard about these cases, I honestly thought they were made up or the parents were just despots, but having now seen the evidence on places like YouTube and other video posting sites, these are definitely issues that parents need to be aware Of.

My greatest advice to any parent is this, accidents will happen in the home and that is a reality that all parents need to accept. The only thing you can do is to make sure you have the skills to deal with any emergency that comes up, so that is why I recommend that both parents do a regular first aid course so that you know how to save your child's life. It could be the difference between life and death!



Source by Chris Le Roy



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/your-home-is-not-safe-for-your-children/

KEVM Wins IC3-Ethereum Crypto Boot Camp 2017 Competition

Safe Use of Sack Trucks

The simple sack truck is a good addition to any workplace that involves the carrying or moving of boxes or items. This will help to reduce the risk of injury to your workforce from manual handling as well as improve productivity.

Manual Handling Injuries

More than a third of injuries reported every year are the result of manual handling, i.e. the supporting or transporting of loads by bodily force or by hand.

Hit By Moving Vehicle – 2%

Falls – 4%

Hit By Falling Objects – 13%

Other – 20%

Trips – 23%

Handling – 38%

Check List

Before using a sack truck or any other type of handling aid please check the following points: Is the equipment the correct type for the job?

  • Check to see if the wheels run freely.
  • Is the device well maintained? (The law requires that equipment is well maintained)
  • Is the wheel type suitable for the floor surface, ie Wheel diameter, Tyre type (solid or pneumatic).
  • Are the hand grips comfortable and in good order?
  • Are the handles between waist and shoulder height?
  • If the truck is fitted with brakes, do they work?
  • Is the recommended load capacity suitable for the load to be moved?
  • Is the load unstable or heavy? Use a load strap to secure the item.

Force Required

The amount of bodily force that is required to move an object over a level flat surface using a well maintained sack truck or similar handling aid is approximately 2% of the load weight. Example: If the weight of a load is 400kg then the force required to move it will be 8kg. If the conditions are not perfect such as the device being in poor working order or the wheels not being in the correct position then the required force may be much larger. Remember that an operator must always try and push rather than pull the load providing that they have clear line of sight over it and can also control the stopping and steering of the truck.

Moving Items On Slopes

When trying to negotiate a ramp or slope with a load the employee should always try to enlist the help of another worker whenever necessary as the pulling or pushing force required can be very high. Example: If the same 400kg load used in the previous example was to be moved up a slope of 1 in 12 (5°), then the force required increases to around 30kg even in perfect conditions, i.e. smooth surface and good wheels. This is above the recommended guideline for men and well above the weight guideline for women.

Soft or Uneven Surfaces

When using a hand truck or similar handling aid on soft or uneven surfaces then the force required is much higher. On an uneven surface this force increase could be as high as 10% of the load weight, although using larger wheels may offset this to some extent. The force required for soft ground may be even worse than that of uneven ground.

Stance and Speed of Pace

Operators should always go no faster than walking speed and keep their feet well away from the load carried. This will make it easier to push and stop them becoming tired too quickly.

Force Guidelines for Pushing and Pulling

Force to stop or start a load. Men – 20kg Women – 15kg

Constant force required to keep load in motion. Men – 10kg Women – 7kg

General Precautions

Operators should minimize and be aware of the following hazards

  • When moving loads on dock platforms, dock plates/bridges, inclines or uneven surfaces please ensure the running wheels of the truck are away from the edges.
  • Be aware of other tucks, obstacles and obstructions to prevent the possibility of collision.
  • Try to purchase or fit trucks with knuckle guards on the hand grips to reduce the risk of trapping the operator’s hands between the truck and other objects.
  • Keep the loads centre of gravity as low as possible.
  • When moving multiple objects or boxes. Place the lighter objects above the heavier objects.
  • Ensure that the load is balanced so that the weight is taken on the axel and not the handles.
  • Restrict the height of the load to allow for a clear view ahead of you.
  • Use trucks designed for the purpose at hand, i.e. curved back trucks for carrying drums or cylinders, high back straight back sack trucks for white goods etc.
  • Let the truck take the weight of the load as the operator should only push and balance the truck.



Source by Fred Doherty



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/safe-use-of-sack-trucks-2/

The Story So Far – The Merkle


The past 24 hours have been pretty interesting for the Bitcoin ecosystem, to say the least. Bitcoin Cash’s fork has gone off without too many problems, which is good to see. There have been no major network issues so far, and the BCH price across exchanges more than doubled from a low of US$216 prior to the fork to its current US$443. Things are looking quite positive for this altcoin; that much is evident. The bigger question is whether or not its momentum can be maintained.

Bitcoin Cash Launch Is a Moderate Success

A lot of people had been doubting whether the Bitcoin Cash launch would be successful or not. After all, a fork of an existing blockchain is always cause for some concern. So far, though, none of the expected problems have occurred, even though the fork may have happened a bit earlier than originally anticipated. It seems all timers keeping track of the developments were off by a bit, but it did not impact either blockchain in a negative manner whatsoever.

Moreover, it seems most users have received their BCH as expected. We now have an official number of coins in circulation, which is not identical to the number of BTC currently available to users. The current supply is 16,482,113 BCH, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has a circulating supply of 16,483,425.

This small discrepancy is nothing to worry about, as it appears the Bitcoin Cash blockchain is also slightly behind the core blockchain. Multiplying the number of “missing” blocks by the expected block reward produces the difference in supply.  This delay in block heights is to be expected, as Bitcoin Cash enjoys a lot less mining support right now as compared to the original chain.

To be more specific, ViaBTC is only finding 25% of the Bitcoin Cash network blocks right now. That is somewhat strange, as it would seem that one individual miner is responsible for all other network blocks. A total of 13 blocks have been discovered since the fork took place, which is surprisingly low. Until more miners switch over to BCH, though, not much will change in this regard. There are multiple mining pools that support BCH right now, yet miners themselves aren’t too keen on switching over just yet.

The aspect of Bitcoin Cash that interests the most people is whether or not its price will hold up. It is evident there has been an initial market dump, although no one expected anything else. Most people saw BCH as “free money” and planned on selling at whatever price they could. In a lot of cases, that was around 0.05 Bitcoin per BCH. Right now, one BCH token is valued at 0.16 Bitcoin, which means people could have gotten three times as much money for their tokens by just waiting a few hours. Bittrex is the market leader in both volume and price right now, followed by Kraken and ViaBTC.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this story is how Bitcoin Cash is currently the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. We expected BCH to become one of the larger currencies when everything was said and done, but a top three spot had not exactly been anticipated. With a current market cap of US$7.2B, Bitcoin Cash is on track to remain well ahead of Ripple for now. Whether or not it can overtake Ethereum remains to be seen, as that gap is still quite large. It is impossible to tell what the future holds for BCH, but for now, things are looking pretty good.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/the-story-so-far-the-merkle/

Altcoin Prices Surge As Bitcoin Undergoes Hard Fork

What is a Facebook Poke?

Have you ever been poked on Facebook and wondered exactly what it meant? Well, in this article, we will take a look at the meaning of a Facebook poke. It might just mean much more than you think.

Whenever I go on Facebook, I see a little portion of the screen saying that people have poked me. Facebook claims that a poke can be used “to say hello” to your friends. Thus, I see this poke feature on Facebook as a way that my friends are saying, “Hello, I am thinking about you and I miss you.”

Thus, I think a poke feels pretty good.

After you receive a poke, you then have the option of poking back. This could be translated as a way of saying, “Thanks for thinking of me. I feel the same way.”

However, this is just the surface meaning of a poke on Facebook, but if we dig deeper, we may find that a Facebook poke means much more.

Such was the case with my friend Bob.

Bob recently asked me, “Richard, what does a Facebook poke mean to you?”

I said, “It’s an acknowledgment, a friend saying hello.”

He claimed that sometimes it can mean much more and proceeded to tell me a story.

Long ago, Bob had been good friends with a girl named Alexandra. Alexandra and Bob often took their relationship passed the friendship level but it never changed into a full blown relationship. Thus, after some time, Alexandra met someone and ended up marrying this man and invited Bob to the wedding.

As it happens when people lead different lives, Bob and Alexandra stopped communicating with each other on a regular basis pretty quickly and then not at all. In fact, they went five years without really talking to one another at all.

And then, Bob received a Facebook poke from Alexandra out of the blue. After not communicating for five years, Alexandra suddenly initiated communication.

Bob wondered about this sudden Facebook poke. Was this just an acknowledgment or was there something more to the story?

Well, it turns out, after Bob checked Alexandra’s Facebook profile, she was single again. Bob decided to poke her back and see where things led.

In the end, Bob and Alexandra began dating and now they have plans to marry each other.

Thus, while a Facebook poke is often just an acknowledgment, it can sometimes say a whole lot more!



Source by Richard Mas



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/what-is-a-facebook-poke-2/

Cash Volatility Continues While Bitcoin Price Remains Stable


As a forked Bitcoin heads into its second day of trading, users are rushing to secure profits as the debate rages about each version’s legitimacy.

According to data from the Chinese exchange ViaBTC, the newly-created Bitcoin Cash continues to see heavy volatility.

The Blockchain fork, known variously as BCC and BCH, has gone from 0.08 to 0.16 BTC per unit over the past 24 hours.

Before its creation Aug. 1, futures prices traded within in a similar range, but time is rapidly showing the fork itself could be more volatile still.

ViaBTC’s BCC/BTC trade pair saw the equivalent of 18,000 BTC traded in the 24 hours to press time.

Meanwhile, the mixed reactions to the fork from wallet providers are seeing strategic moves from BTC holders aiming to unlock BCC funds in order to trade them.

Certain wallets have taken a hands-off approach to BCC, with users storing funds able to access the equivalent in BCC by exporting their wallet’s private keys and importing them into a service which has decided to support both versions of Bitcoin.

Cointelegraph continues to report on the progress of both Bitcoin chains following the fork. Tuesday has been notable for Bitcoin’s price stability throughout the process, shrugging off concerns of dramatic rises or falls to continue trading between $2,700 and $2,800.



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/cash-volatility-continues-while-bitcoin-price-remains-stable/

Divorce and Annulment – What Is The Difference?

As we discussed earlier that the bond of marital relationship weakens as there is any unhealthy act or misconduct by the either spouses that might be in terms of poor communication, lack of commitments, children support, money, affair, adultery and so on. And thus the relationship can be practically smoothen and aromatized by up rooting its evils. Otherwise a meaningful disassociation (divorce) could be a productive termination to such unpleasant marital relationship.

For married couples getting apart is in fact not an advisable way out by most of the experts but appropriately said it is better be in hell once than be every other instance.

In United States of America, there are two ways a marital relationship can be ended lawfully and that’s through annulment and divorce.

Although the annulment of void marriages is controlled by statute but, in most of the American States, there aren’t found proper defined annulment law and of that exists has been mingled taking a flavored shape of divorce consequently. The main reason of this disregard and problem is that every one today tries and wishes to end up the marital relationship by filing and annulment case. He comes forward, spends a lot of money, and at the end of the days he is asked to file for divorce as his case doesn’t qualify for the annulment proceedings. But we still find people committing the same mistake and asking this ill-famed question: can I get annulment?

Annulment is a legal procedure which terminates a marriage between a man and a woman. Annulment erases the complete existence of the marriage legally and it declares that the marriage never technically existed and was never valid whereas divorce, or legal dissolution of a marriage, is the termination of a valid marriage between a man and a woman. After divorce both the parties can regain their single status and can legally remarry.

Each individual state has defined its own set of laws regarding the grounds for an annulment or for a divorce with certain difference in requirements nationwide.

The annulment process can be initiated by either the husband or the wife in the marriage but the grounds for the annulment must also be proven and if so happens, the marriage will be considered null and void by the court. However there are some situations which meet the criteria and you can file for annulment but is not necessarily true always. Some of the commonly known grounds for the annulment are:

-Bigamy

-Fraud

-Marriage that is declared prohibited by law

-Mental incapacity

-Inability to consummate marriage

-Underage marriage

There are found some similarities in annulment and divorce process i.e. the division of property in-spite of which there are no proper annulment laws in most of the states.

Annulment is filed as a regular lawsuit; there is a petition for annulment and a law written order. If the other party counterclaim as divorce in answering your annulment petition, your case will be dealt as divorce subsequently.

On the other hand divorce, a second way of legal termination of marriage, can be both easy as well as complex depending on the state of residence and meeting of further requirements required. Sometimes divorce can be much more complicated than an annulment. Each state has its own set of laws regarding divorce. In most divorce cases, marital assets are divided and debts are settled. In case the marriage has produced children, issues like children custody, visitation rights and spousal and child support issues must also be settled.

A divorce may be filed as either a “no-fault” or a “fault” divorce. In conservative states a divorce is only granted on the basis of fault grounds for divorce whereas in the liberal ones both “no fault” and “fault” are observed.

Recently most of the states now offer the “no-fault” divorce option, in which a petition for divorce is because of neither party’s blame for the termination of marital relationship. In case the other party wishes to assign blame, the traditional fault divorce is pursued. A “fault” divorce is one when one spouse can establish sufficient grounds. The major grounds for divorce other than drugs, alcohol or gambling, incurable mental illness, and conviction of a crime are:

-Adultery

-Desertion

-Physical/Emotional abuse

In short the best way to know whether you qualify for annulment or divorce according to your particular situation is to become more familiar and aware of your state laws and read up on the state statutes so that fluid your case with enough resources. In this way you will become aware of your rights and can reach to a hustle free conclusion.



Source by Ismail Ahmed Alhashmi



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/divorce-and-annulment-what-is-the-difference/

The Psychology of Innovation

On the practical applications of innovative ideas and the creation of value… and why the 21st century is the century of innovation

Innovation is not just creating something completely new, but creating a product that will be of value, especially commercial, economic, practical or social value. Thus creativity when associated with value and enterprise is innovation and an innovative product is “useful to others”. Innovation could lead to enterprise and commercialization as innovative products are commercially viable. Whereas an invention is creation of something new, innovation is the creation of a product or service that is valuable and useful to consumers. New and innovative products are sometimes radical and revolutionary, although there is incremental innovation that improves systems or products that already exist. Innovation helps in creation of commercial, practical or social value by implementing new ideas.

Innovation is applied invention and helps to create a new product to fill the unmet user needs in the market. An invention is a new product but could be a valued solution to a problem and only by becoming commercially, socially or practically valuable, an invention is transformed to innovation.

This discussion is based on the psychological basis of innovation and although innovation would be associated with creativity, creativity is a trait in humans and innovation is ‘what you do’. Thus innovation is a form of action that requires creativity, enterprise and radical thinking. Thus innovation being focused on creation of a product is action-oriented whereas creativity is thought-oriented. Enterprise is necessary to turn a creative idea into an innovative product that will have significant value in the short or long term. The psychological process of turning an idea into an innovation goes beyond the creative process and involves practical planning of designing and marketing the product to make it commercially viable.

Innovation involves the stages of brainstorming of a creative idea, problem solving, processing or developing it to come up with something radical and different and then developing a business model to help meet market and user needs. Creativity as a thought process is the first step of innovation. Innovation usually involves a new idea, method or product and either the art, technology or business of introducing something new. When ideas are translated to innovation, value is created and this forms the potential for business. Innovation is creation of a product with inherent value and this is done by considering what product will be of value to the user or will be successful in the market. It could be argued that even creativity is responsible for creation of products with aesthetic value or artistic value. Well, that is true but the value created by innovation is probably more objective, because innovation creates economic, commercial and social value.

The psychological processes in innovation differ from creativity as the action-oriented nature of innovation will have to be directed towards fulfilling a user or market or product need. In creativity, the only goal seems to be the creation of the product, although creative products like books can also be market directed. Innovation is specifically focused on meeting user needs, it is action-oriented, so it is based on applications or practical purposes. Whereas creativity being thought-oriented, primarily fulfills the needs of the creative artist and is directed internally, innovation is about the world and fulfills the needs of the user and market and is thus directed externally. Creativity also does not involve a focus on commercialization whereas innovation is about developing the commercial value of a product.

Creativity is the basis of art, architecture, poetry and any artistic or scientific activity for the matter. Innovation is invention with added value, is based on action and is thus more practical in its applications and tangible in its usability. Creativity and creative products are more abstract and not too well defined or tangible as far as their applications are concerned. The only application of creativity seems to be aesthetic pleasure and creativity is the basis of the aesthetic value of any product, including an innovative product. It is when creativity helps make products that are significantly useful to the market that it evolves to an innovation. Thus creativity is the foundation of all innovation, however creativity is not based on innovation. Creativity is the first step towards innovation and innovation is focused on delivering exceptional product or service to the value chain. In innovation, value is added for both user and developer.

The different components of innovation are creativity, radical thinking, business model, user needs, market, design and practical applications. Any new product will have to be well planned in terms of design and application and the business model guides the innovation to market launch and profitability. Thus the ultimate goal of creativity is providing aesthetic pleasure to the users or perceivers and the ultimate goal of innovation is meeting user needs and deriving profitability through commercialization.

Innovation could be about a radically new product or an incremental improvement, so innovation is about improvement whereas creativity is focused on originality. However the most original products are also considered as the most innovative. For example Apple Inc.’s design of iPhones and iPads are among the most original and that is why the most innovative. Thus originality is a common factor in both creativity and innovation and it is the basis of self-expression in creativity and the basis of a business model in innovation.

Innovation is frequently about revolutionizing drastically what already exists. The most innovative products bring about a paradigm shift in technology, or other market and sometimes ‘create’ market needs, rather than simply follow or meet the needs. Apple successfully created market needs for new technology and new design by integrating user expectations. Thus innovation not only meets market needs but can create new market needs and change market dynamics. Innovation is a commercial and business process, whereas creativity is more of a personal process and creativity itself cannot change the market, whereas innovation can change market dynamics significantly and can in fact change the world. Innovation is about evolution and progress of an industry, whereas creativity is more of about the evolution and progress of a creator’s mind.

Innovation is necessary in technology and in every industry to keep the pace of progress in human civilization. Innovation is usually preceded by an invention, whereas creativity is preceded by incubation and organizing the thought processes. Innovation is capable of revolutionizing the market, any industry and set the direction for future technologies and products. Let’s talk about search engine technologies by Google. That’s an innovative technology which brought about considerable profits to Google and thus transformed from a mere technology invention to innovation. So success of an invention defines an innovation. Innovation is used not just in technology but in architecture, automobile industry, engineering, and in all other fields and the primary goal of innovation is progress and also profitability by meeting or creating market and user needs.

The most successful companies thrive on innovation and cannot survive in the market without innovation. Today’s market is an innovative market and the focus is on competition in innovation. Whether it’s Samsung and Apple competing for the most innovative product in the market or two lesser known advertising companies competing for the most innovative advertising campaigns, innovation is the pulse of modern businesses. Even in the 20th century, innovation was not so important and the focus of businesses was on growth, strategy and advertising with emphasis on quality of products.

Quality management is what drove the 20th century businesses. This has changed significantly as businesses have now realized that to reach to the top and to become a powerful force in the market, quality and strategy are not enough. The 21st century will truly be the century of innovation.

This is part of a psychology series archived by a University and copyrighted.



Source by Saberi Roy



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/the-psychology-of-innovation/

D10e Startup Societies Summit: A Conversation With Organizer Matt McKibbin

Deep Seating Wood – A Great Addition To Any Patio Or Deck

Deep seating wood is essential when considering those that seek not only luxury, but that for the indoor and outdoor setting. Made available, regardless of what type of furniture you might be searching for, deep seating wood, you can be sure, will always compliment, as well as accentuate, any sunroom, garden patio, or poolside, bringing that indoor sophistication to any outdoor appeal .

It's been, and will continue to be, the construction of the deep seating wood, that makes it the most noticeable piece of furniture in your ensemble. Manufactured by one of the most popular woods, teak, rest assured that regardless of the many weather conditions that your furniture can, and will face, during the many seasons made available, without recommendation, your furniture will have the longevity of that of the mighty Petrified pine, found in California!

Unlike many of the outdoor furniture we can choose from, deep seating wood comes equipped with the most comfortable of cushions to be made available on the market. Mostly, made of "Sunbrella" material, you can be sure that, not only will you have at least two feet of comfort ability offered you, but will, again, have that assurance of a material that will withstand the harshest of weather conditions that Can be thrown at us, or our furniture, per se. You can be set at comfort knowing that you will not have to race around searching for cushions in order to make your ensemble complete.

When considering what might be the best functionoted in this type of furniture, is the variety in which it comes. For the "helpless romantic," be assured that you can find the loveseat of your choice at your disposal. For those that enjoy the personal seating arrangement while sharing the company that prefers the same, there are the single chairs made available, as well. For those that wish to bring the environment of the comfortable indoors outdoors, there are plenty of deep seating wood sofas, as well, to accentuate the perfect company, or family, setting. Save the amazement after noticing the arrangements that are made available to suit, not only yours, but everyone's preference and preference, when considering the deep seating wood furniture made available to you.

Deep seating wood is renown for it splendor, and top-shelf comfort-ability. These types of furniture can do nothing less than offer you, not only a conversation piece, but also the hours of comfort-ability necessary to talk about such a wise purchase. It has not only been proven that the deep seating wood furniture is actually good for your pains and aches that come with everyday activities, but it, too, has been noted that there is not any better way to establish an alternative to an indoor setting , But you also will not have to relinquish anything from your indoor fashion etiquette.

If style is what you're looking for, then you might as well end your search here. If it's the comfort, and longevity that you're searching for, then it's safe to say, your quest stops here. You could not possibly find another piece of furniture that will roll all these things into one, sort of like a pizza with everything on it would do, if that's what you desire.



Source by Jennifer Akre



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/deep-seating-wood-a-great-addition-to-any-patio-or-deck/

Bittrex Takes the Lead in Bitcoin Cash Trading Volume – The Merkle


The great Bitcoin fork has just happened and things are going smoothly so far, there have been no blockchain reorganizations and no further sub forks. Currently Bitcoin Cash’s blockchain is 50 blocks behind the main chain, putting it roughly 8 hours behind. The reason for this lag is because it took miners quite a while to find the first block, some people panicked when a block couldn’t be found, but eventually one was found by ViaBTC.

Before the fork, only 3 exchanges traded BCH. Specifically, ViaBTC, HitBTC, and Kraken were the only platforms supporting the coin, with the asset trading at more than double the price on HitBTC providing an insane opportunity for arbitrage.

As the fork commenced, nearly half a dozen exchanges added Bitcoin Cash trading pairs. According to Coinmarketcap, Bittrex has taken the lead with 30% trading volume.

Source: Coinmarketcap

 

Bittrex is one of the largest crypto to crypto exchanges in the industry, and it is no surprise that most traders are flocking to that platform to take advantage of the incoming volatility.

What is interesting is how exchanges are at a disagreement when it comes to the naming convention of the token. It seems there is a 50:50 split between using BCC or BCH. While the exact name of the coin is up for debate, some argue that using the name BCC creates ambiguity. There is already a cryptocurrency called BitConnectCoin using the acronym BCC. Thus, exchanges supporting both cryptocurrencies would have to differentiate between the two if Bitcoin Cash is traded as BCC.

Furthermore, BitConnectCoin is not just another altcoin that can be buried in the ground. It boasts a market cap of over $300 million and trades at $54 per coin. Using BCC for both Bitcoin Cash and Bitconnect creates unnecessary compatibility issues if an exchange chooses to support both trading pairs.

Speaking of unnecessary issues, if Bitcoin Cash keeps trading at the current $200-300 range, Coinbase might find itself in quite a predicament. Their controversial decision to not support BCC tokens, and complications and delays with withdrawals might hold them liable for the losses each of their users incurred by not being able to either move their coins off of the exchange, or not being able to receive their share of BCC.

After all, it is the largest Bitcoin exchange with the most users, imagine owing $200 for every Bitcoin in the company’s possession, that would be a legal and a financial nightmare. Hindsight is 20/20, but Coinbase should have supported and issued BCC tokens. The bad PR, combined with disgruntled users was not worth the political statement.



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/bittrex-takes-the-lead-in-bitcoin-cash-trading-volume-the-merkle/

The Sports and Hobbies of Mozambique

Mozambicans are quite passionate about their sports; with a firm focus on soccer and to a lesser extent other sports. There are lots of opportunities for hobbies and recreational activities, but as these can be quite costly at times you will find most Mozambican’s aren’t able to partake. As with most other facets of this beautiful country, the lack infrastructure combined with the poverty levels have had a profound effect on the development of sports and hobbies through the entire land.


As a result of this, many of the most popular sports are those that don’t require much money to play.

Soccer

Soccer, sometimes known as football due to the Portuguese influence, is hugely popular in Mozambique as in other African nations. You will often come across both children and adults having an informal game whenever possible, especially on weekends. The structure for proper club soccer is not as good as in other countries due to infrastructure challenges, but there are still some professional clubs about. There is a lot of exchange between Portugal and Mozambique in soccer terms, with players and teams from each country regularly playing with and against each other.

Athletics

Athletics is a sport that is not a widely practiced as it should be, given the relative ease of getting involved. Mozambican does at times punch above its weight in this field of sport, having won a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics proving that they can compete at the highest level.

Basketball

Unlike most other southern African nations, Basketball is a very popular sport in Mozambique. While being internationally recognized since 1978, the Mozambican national team has yet to win any notable championships. This of course hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm for the sport and it is still quite widespread.

Capoeira

The martial art sport of Capoeira is starting to take off in Mozambique, with the popularity growing at a rapid pace.

Stadiums

Stadiums and sporting facilities in Mozambique are in short supply, with some world class facilities recently being constructed with foreign investment. The outlying areas tend to have little to no facilities, while the soccer clubs seem to attract all the investment. The newest and best stadium is the Estadio do Zimpeto which was opened in 2011 and is able to seat up to 42,000 people. While being touted as a multi-use stadium, it is almost exclusively used for soccer matches.

Hobbies

The types of hobbies available in Mozambique are generally all of the physical, outdoor variety. The more popular hobbies include:

  • Fishing: With a substantial coast line, Mozambique is well known for fishing. This takes the form of both subsistence and recreational fishing. The country is well known for game fishing and is largely unspoiled, making it a firm favorite with both local and international visitors.
  • Watersports: Any sort of sport involving the water, whether it is sailing, diving or even just swimming, is quite popular due to the warm weather and water.
  • Sand boarding: Being quite an easy sport to learn and not always needing lots of equipment, sand boarding is a relatively new hobby that is starting to become quite popular.



Source by James E Harrison



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/the-sports-and-hobbies-of-mozambique/

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Blockstack Summit Tackles the Future of Decentralization


Following a week of bombshell developments in the industry, from the SEC classifying the DAO Tokens as securities to the arrest of Alexander Vinnik for allegedly laundering 4 billion dollars through BTC-E, the inaugural Blockstack Summit kicked off on the morning of July 27th with an eye toward innovative layered protocols that can exist on top of existing blockchains.

Hosted at the Computer Science Museum in Mountain View, CA, the conference began with a discussion of transitions between the “terminal model” of computing and the personal computer over the course of digital history. In their talk, Blockstack co-founders Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea discussed how recent moves toward cloud computing and storage take away the data privacy and security guarantees long afforded by personal computing. In response to this problem, Blockstack and other decentralized applications built on top of various blockchains aim to give consumers the ability to control, manage and streamline their own digital lives.

Elizabeth Stark, co-founder and CEO of Lightning Network, then discussed recent technical developments that allow for both higher transaction volumes through specialized off-chain payment channels and transactions between two different types of cryptocurrencies. These developments are saving both parties transaction fees in the long run and helping alleviate some of the scaling issues that bitcoin and other currencies have been facing in recent years.


Learn more about Lightning Networks in our three-part series, Understanding the Lightning Network.


Bram Cohen, BitTorrent creator, took the stage later with Blockstack’s Ali to discuss developments in the space. When asked about the scaling debate and recent implementation of SegWit, Cohen drew chuckles from the crowd with an adamant declaration that “SegWit solved a bug that should have been solved when Bitcoin was created.”

Cohen also endorsed Bitcoin Core and shared his doubts regarding the technical competency of the teams behind some of the more recent ICOs of ERC20 tokens built on top of the Ethereum blockchain: “As a general rule, if you don’t have the skills to build your own token from scratch, you shouldn’t run an ICO.”

Nick Szabo, computer scientist and legal scholar, then discussed the origins of contract law, the historical implementation of smart contracts and the next steps the industry needs to take to implement smart contracts in a variety of commercial transactions, both between consumers and companies and between companies themselves.

Drawing on his studies at George Washington University Law School, Szabo advocated for the integration of smart contracts into traditional contract and property law frameworks. Instead of attempting to rebuild legal theory from scratch, developers should work with existing frameworks that have already been debugged for centuries.

Szabo explained a dichotomy of contract law: “dry code,” where an entire agreement can be interpreted and executed by computers based on a number of digital inputs; and “wet code,” or traditional law, where the agreements are interpreted by individual parties based on their own definitions of words and phrasing.

Many industries exist today to help quantify and define examples of “wet code” in the world. Insurance claim adjusters analyze accident reports and eyewitness testimony in order to correctly pay out claims based on fault and the monetary value of the actual damages suffered by each party, for example.

Translating poorly organized data from real-world situations into a series of executable actions based on the terms of an agreement is a valuable service. Rather than call for an abolishment of these systems, Szabo argued that the future of decentralized smart contracts will exist in tandem with the best parts of more traditional finance industries in the coming future. Over the coming years, larger portions of traditional data analysis will become obsolete, performed digitally by more powerful and intelligent computers.

This is not the first time Szabo has spoken on the subject: As early as 2008, Szabo broke down the differences between wet and dry code on his blog, Unenumerated.

Next, Balaji Srinivasan, founder of 21.co and a16z Board Partner, introduced the Nakamoto coefficient, a metric inspired by the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient to quantify the relative decentralization of different types of cryptocurrencies. By looking at the distribution of power in six subsects of individual cryptocurrencies, Srinivasan was able to compare the relative strengths of different blockchains and networks against attacks that require a majority or supermajority of the power in a system to be compromised.

Srinivasan started by organizing the six essential subsystems of both Bitcoin and Ethereum:

  • mining, where power is equal to who receives mining rewards;

  • clients, where power is equal to the number of users;

  • developers, where power is relatively equal to the number of commits;

  • exchanges, where power is equal to trading volume;

  • nodes, where power is measured by the distribution of nodes around the world; and

  • coin ownership, where power is measured by how much coin each wallet address contains.

After calculating the amount of power owned by each entity in the six subsystems, Srinivasan was able to calculate a Gini coefficient (dubbed the “Nakamoto coefficient”) based on the relative power concentrations for each subsystem. For instance, if every miner has the same amount of hashpower and receives the same reward, the subsystem would receive a value of 0. If a single miner receives all of the rewards, then the subsystem would receive a value of 1.

Srinivasan’s Nakamoto coefficient calculations for Bitcoin and Ethereum

Despite a myriad of differences, both Bitcoin and Ethereum have nearly identical Nakamoto coefficients of ≈0.91, indicating that at least one subsystem in each ecosystem is highly centralized. However, based on Srinivasan’s calculations, it’s clear that Bitcoin is either slightly (client, exchanges, nodes and owners) or drastically (mining and developers) more decentralized than Ethereum. Most surprisingly, Bitcoin’s mining network is far more decentralized than Ethereum’s (0.4 vs. 0.82).

This is the first time Srinivasan has discussed a metric for decentralization of cryptocurrency markets. He has since published his findings, with links to the underlying datasets, on his company’s blog.

After a panel discussing specific use cases for cryptocurrency payments, Wealth and Poverty author George Gilder led a rousing endorsement of a tokenized, decentralized web and its ability to destroy “silos” of the internet created both by countries and companies alike.

Citing the vast amounts of data companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon save and measure about their users’ digital lives, Gilder spoke of a future where individuals can explicitly control the flow of their data, secured by decentralized protocols and powered by tokens.

It was fitting that Blockstack Summit was held in the Computer History Museum, an ode to the stories and artifacts of the information age and its impact on society. With fully restored IBM mainframes, an Apple I and the source codes of dozens of impactful softwares like MS-DOS, Photoshop and Word, the museum served as a backdrop for discussions that look to an open, free and uncensored society of the future.



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source http://bitcoinswiz.com/blockstack-summit-tackles-the-future-of-decentralization/

How the US Federal Reserve Lost Control of Mortgage Rates

Despite the United States Federal Reserve Board's diligent attempts to stimulate the economy throughout the year of 2008 by repeatedly reducing the Federal Funds rate, the typically correlating thirty-year average mortgage rate stubbornly remained unchanged through the first quarter of 2009 as if mortgage rates had intentally Ignored Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's seemingly regular rate cut announcements. The unanticipated loss of the Federal Reserve Board's control over mortgage rates hamped its ability to stimulate home sales and stabilizeize decreasing housing values ​​that became the impetus of the nation's troubled economic condition. To fully comprehend how mortgage rates managed to slip out of Mr. Bernanke's leash, it is necessary to first grasp the characteristics and interrelationships of the rates and securities vehicles involved.

The overnight lending rate that the Federal Treasury charges banks for funds is the interest rate that the Federal Reserve Board continues to lower until it is ultimately rested at a rate of .25% by the first quarter of the year 2009. Once upon a time when this rate Was lowered one could reliably wager that the thirty-year average mortgage rate would follow suit. It was logical that if a bank borrowed from the government at a lower rate, it could provide mortgage financing to borrowers at discounted rates. However, the mortgage rate is not quite so directly manipulated by the puppet strings of the Federal Reserve Board. Instead, the thirty-year mortgage rate is predominately influenced by fluctuations in the ten-year Treasury bond rate. Because most thirty-year mortgages are paid off by borrowers during the first ten years of their loans, conservative securities investors choose between purchasing the relatively safe ten-year Treasury bond and the once slightly more risky mortgage-backed securities that consist of many thirty- Year mortgages pooled together. It is this very competition between the price of Treasury bonds and mortgages on the securities markets that most impacts the thirty-year mortgage rate.

Although Treasury bonds typically provide a relatively low rate of return, they represent a very low-risk investment because they are backed by the United States Treasury. Mortgage-backed securities have generally produced a certain higher yield than treasury bonds, yet were considered to be narrowly riskier investments since they are secured by real estate. Consequently, the "spread" between Treasury bond and mortgage-backed security yields has historically been around 75%, with mortgage-backed securities representing the higher end of the spread due to the additional risk attributed to them.

When real estate values ​​significantly declined from 2006 to 2008, the risk associated with purchasing and holding mortgage-backed securities became significantly enhanced. To counter this perception of increased risk, sellers of mortgage-backed securities were forced to offer mortgage-backed securities at higher yields so that they would continue to be attractive to investors. By the first quarter of 2009, the spread between Treasury bonds and thirty-year mortgages reached an unprecedented 3.00%. As a result, banks were forced to offer mortgages to borrowers at higher rates to compensate for the higher yields they had to provide to investors on the secondary loan and securities markets.

So please all of the Federal Reserve Board's efforts in reducing overnight lending rates to banks in 2008, thirty-year mortgage rates remained relatively unchanged by early 2009. The Federal Reserve had lost all ability to influence mortgage rates. In turn, this forced the federal government's hand to look to other means of simulating the housing and financial industries, such as purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities from financial institutions itself. This extreme government action has often been labeled a "bank bailout" since the government reluctantly purchased "toxic assets" that investors were otherwise unwilling to purchase on the open securities market.

Whatever the government's investment in these securities amounts to a success or a failure still remains to be seen. If housing values ​​once again appreciate before too many more borrowers default on their mortgages, the government may be able to sell these mortgage-backed securities for handsome returns to investors in the future. However, if increased foreclosures continue to flood the housing market with excessive supply, the federal government may eventually learn how great a price it actually paid for its investment. If these potential losses losses, coupled with further anticipated economic stimulus spending, are ever adjusted to an inability or unwillingness on the part of the federal government to meet its obligations, even Treasury bonds may begin to look like a risky proposition.



Source by Brian Icenhower



source http://bitcoinswiz.com/how-the-us-federal-reserve-lost-control-of-mortgage-rates/