In-brief: DHS’s S&T Directorate on Friday announced that it awarded $199,000 to Factom Inc., an Austin, Texas firm to fund a project titled “Blockchain Software to Prove Integrity of Captured Data From Border Devices.”
virtual currency
Bitcoin Blockchain: A New Foundation for Online Trust?| NYTimes
The New York Times has a really interesting story on the rise of Bitcoin’s “blockchain” technology as the foundation of a whole new wave of start-ups and applications – some of which could have big implications for Internet of Things. From the article: “As Bitcoin’s price has declined over the last year, critics have been quick to declare the virtual currency dead. Bitcoin’s true value, though, might be not in the currency itself but in the engine that makes it possible. Underlying Bitcoin — created as a way to make payments directly, anonymously and outside government control — is the block chain, a decentralized database that is driven by cryptography.” While the future of Bitcoin as a form of digital “cash” is uncertain, block chain is turning out to be a very useful technology for a variety of purposes – from streamlining financial transactions online to vouching for the authenticity of […]
BitCoin’s Popularity Is Undermining Promises of Anonymity
The virtual currency Bitcoin has soared in value against the U.S. dollar in recent months, topping out a staggering $913 USD to 1 Bitcoin (or BTC) as of late Tuesday. The currency had many ups and downs since it was launched in January 2009. But its main attraction, all along, has been anonymity. Unlike any other online payment system, Bitcoin transactions – like cash transactions – cannot be traced back to specific individuals. Also like cash, they cannot be reversed. Both those factors give Bitcoin users the confidence that their online purchasing activity – whether computer hardware or contraband will remain private. But a group of researchers at two U.S. universities have released a paper that suggests reports of Bitcoin’s anonymity may (to paraphrase Twain) “be greatly exaggerated.” Specifically: the researchers found that, by culling a variety of open source data using public data from the Bitcoin Peer to Peer network and from […]
