Will the Blockchain be crushed by data law?

For those have not been into Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, the "blockchain" is essentially a distributed ledger of all (in the case of Bitcoin) Bitcoin transactions. So when Bob send Bitcoins to Fred, there is a record, and this record is recorded on servers (or nodes) all around the world.

There is also a very clever mechanism, mining, which verifies all these transactions, so Bob cant send the same bitcoins to Fred and John at the same time.

It is a work of genius.

However, the system lends itself to money laundering. Although there is complete transparency around all the transactions, Bob and Fred are just anonymous entities, they could be anyone (or anything) located anywhere in the world. Changing identities is as simple as pushing a button. There are also no limits on the size of any transaction, whereas banking systems look closely at transactions greater than $20 million.

To put some scale on money laundering, annual estimates conclude it is in the vicinity of 2-5% of the global GDP, or about $1 trillion a year. The entire bitcoin valuation is only $4 billion, so you can easily imagine that so far bitcoin has been merely used as an occasional laundering experiment, some playful R&D. This is why folk such as Putin aren't really batting an eye.

To counter this system of anonymous financial transactions, early adopters are suggesting that to bring Bitcoin and the Blockchain mainstream, we need its users to be validated and authenticated. 

I am not sure exactly how this could work, as no one would want their personal details (name and location) visible in the Blockchain. There would need to be some sort of authentication agency set up like ICANN to manage and assign ID's, with only the new ICANN able to map the ID back to its authenticated user. I think several global banks are interested in assuming this role, but they will fail (Citibank), like the Telco's did in coming up with something before Apple Pay launched.

However, with governments around the world (most recently Russia) starting to kickback on having data stored about their citizens on servers residing on foreign soil, how could a globally distributed Blockchain work?

Suddenly this ICANN like body, becomes the gatekeeper of all global transactions and to function would required the buy in of almost all of the worlds economies.

The politics involved, in running this type of body beggars belief. An International Monetary Fund, in charge of a global unified digital currency. Some people's worse fear I suspect.

The opposite view, is that yes, global data laws are likely to crush the Blockchain for good. 

Search Patterns on Google Glass

I've been wearing Google Glass around home (and once in a mall) for a few weeks.

The browser is kind of cool - but I have noticed in terms of searching for some music - my search patterns have changed.

The reason - is that while voice recognition is great... its accuracy is not currently excellent.

So (re music)- often I find myself searching for:

• Relaxing Music,
• Relaxing classical music,
• Latest MTV charts

etc...

More generic search terms in other words.

MTV is excellent in the way - it does actually package up the charts - the short snippets work perfectly on Google Glass.

Google Glass also integrates with Shazam... I've tested it... it works... but more of an out an about feature.

There is Glassware that integrates with your Google Play music collection - which I have not tested.. as I don't use Google Play!

Video that explains the working of Bitcoin Currency

Wikileaks Assange and Spying and Big Data

Wikileaks and Julian Assange are difficult subjects.

I read articles by Russell Brand and Alex Baldwin - the gist - once in a while we need a whistle blower to reveal the truth about the environment in which we live.

No-one likes a whistle blower.

A whistle-blower disturbs the peace - they rock the boat - often everyone... already knows.. they just don't want to know - especially those that are comfortable enough - to want the status-quo to continue.

The initial reaction to a whistle blower - is to try and grab that dam whistle and shut it up.

The problem is that - with the internet - there is no real way to totally shut up the whistle blower. Documents are spread virally - recreated - turned into Meme's - into twitter posts - into Facebook groups.

Assange has been trapped in an embassy for over a year now... the leaker Manning is in prison and has essentially be dealt with by Obama's "Ministry of Love" - Snowden - essentially awaits a similarly grim fate.

In terms of results - we have had Arab Spring's - probably the destruction of Stratfor (I mean who's going to want to do business with them now!). We know that essentially all communications are monitored/keyworded/assessed/ etc.... that social media is not secure in the least.... (or indeed internet traffic full stop).

I don't think this has changed much - the move of world power to China and to Mega-Cities has been the dominant force - almost drowning out all other noise.

In a way - Wikileaks was a great early promoter of Bitcoin - so was Silk Road.

Perhaps whistle-blowers and black markets (the type where you can hire a contract killer) have a lot in common?

I wonder if Assange will ever face his charges - will he die in the Ecuadorian Embassy - will the UK say dammit we can't afford to keep a watch on him anymore - what would Dick Cheney think?

.London and the Dawn of the Megacity

So there will be a .London (spring I think) - domain followed by .nyc (New York) - Paris (.rude) and other mega-cities to follow.

I wonder - will Mumbai be cool and either go for  a:

• .bombay or a;
• .bollywood

Anyway there is a lot of interest in the .London domain. London is a global finance hub - a travel hub - a yummy sweets hub - a city where property - is a traded commodity like diamonds.

I want david.london myself - I don't fancy my chances.

Apart from pointing to a future - where opportunities are going to be few (outside of mega-cities) - it is also refreshing that the real buzz... is city brands - and not global brands (though the Spain might one day be renamed to Vodafone).

People associate with and are proud of being part of London (the same with New York).... I see the domainname as being very popular - not just for business - but for you and me...

As for the rest of England?

.envious I think.

A subliminal Mechanical Turk: Renting your spare mental capacity

The term "mechanical turk" came from a fake 18th century chess machine. Rather than being a precursor to IBM's " Deep Blue" - a chess master was hiding in the machine.. pulling various levers.

Now the term "mechanical turk" largely points to Amazon's cloud crowd service.

The premise is simple - you upload basic tasks like "tell me when there is a human in a photograph" and I will pay you a few cents. If you process enough photos - you could achieve $6.01 an hour.

From research I have seen most "turkers" earn pocket money.... its something to do while watching the tedious X-Factor for instance.

Turkers are increasingly seen as a "big data" tool - helping to classify data - which computers still struggle with:

• Complex image classification;
• Audio Transcription etc....

It is all reasonably primitive - but also very helpful!

Companies like Google or Twitter make extensive use of the Turk - to help code real-time event - to improve search... and to train machines.

Anyway - back to my premise...

Currently a turker logs in - and processes tasks when they are chilling out (in fact I have classified quite a bit of seafloor as a turker http://www.seafloorexplorer.org/#!/classify/ground-cover) - it was kind of fun - however they never acknowledged my help (I was just expecting a bit of gamification was all!) - so I gave up.

It did make me wonder though... what if like SETI (you lend spare computer time) - we simply gave spare mental capacity.

So when faced with an important life decision - we could look to the crowd for advice...... for instance 9/10 turkers recommend you buy that new car!

Facebook Third Party Authentication essentially a fail?

Most websites - that require authentication these days - lean on plugins from twitter or facebook.

It makes sense - especially on Mobile - why fill in a form - when you can login via facebook - with the Click of a button.

Ok so - what should authentication be concerned with:

• A safe and secure way of logging into a site!

So what has it become:

• You can login to our site - nice an easily - BUT if you take this easy path - we also want to data-mine your profile - for all you contacts - and all your posts.

Sort of sucks as an authentication method - sure you can login to our site - but we also want to spy on your completely non-related facebook profile/activity.