Cryptocurrency created quite the buzz this past year. Although the technology has been around for a few years, 2017 was the year it really took off. Bitcoin, the first application of cryptocurrency technology, hit $20,000 a coin, while coins like Ethereum also saw their prices increase. However, the technology behind these tokens, blockchain, has far more applications than just cryptocurrencies.

Through a network of smart contracts that operate utilizing decentralized information on a ledger, blockchain is able to provide unmatched security and speed for data transfers. This means that blockchain technology has an application in nearly every industry where value is exchanged.

For this reason, many startups have started to explore how this technology can change the way the world works. Here are twelve of those startups, each of which are utilizing blockchain technology in new ways.

1. Fr8
Fr8's blockchain network facilitates the digitization of record-keeping related to the trade of assets, even in scenarios where intermediaries and brokers are incentivized to resist change. Last year, trucks drove 29 billion empty miles in the U.S. alone. By applying blockchain, Fr8 helps to streamline and organize the industry in a trustworthy manner.

2. IOST
The internet of Services (IOST) is a new cryptocurrency that is attempting to solve scalability problems. A technological descendant of Ethereum, IOST is a blockchain with the purpose of serving as infrastructure for developers to create decentralized applications. Building on top of a blockchain allows businesses to cut out intermediaries, and also gives them peace of mind in terms of data safety, as blockchain networks are notoriously secure.

3. ImpactPPA
ImpactPPA is creating the SmartPPA (PPA stands for power purchase agreement), a platform that connects the blockchain community with environmentally concerned and socially impactful projects that fuel the development of sustainable solutions. The platform is designed to manage renewable energy resources from generation to distribution to payment. Its aim is solving the globe's most pressing environmental and humanitarian issues.

4. ShipChain
ShipChain is a freight and logistics platform built on blockchain. The platform focuses on an end-to-end track and trace, which allows for unification across the entire supply chain, among all carriers. ShipChain is member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) alongside Microsoft, and the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), alongside UPS and DHL. The company recently announced a pilot program with Perdue Farms.

5. Nano Vision
Nano Vision is empowering global citizens to step up and lend their efforts to furthering disease-prevention research and development. Through blockchain's inherently decentralized solution, anyone, whether they are scientists, doctors or simply engaged civilians, will have access to the data that has been collected and the research that has been recorded on Nano Vision's platform. The initiative anticipates that this will fuel new steps in the research process, thus sparking faster innovation.

6. Inveniam
Inveniam is the first organization to successfully structure and tokenize a debt instrument that is capable of being listed on a public market. Equipped with a working product, Inveniam uses Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT) and "regulated" contracts and tokens to transform structuring, clearing, custody and settlement of fixed-income instruments. This "regulated" token acts as the passkey for all of the underlying documentation associated with the debt, which trades with the token for the life of the instrument.

7. BuzzShow
BuzzShow is a platform that incorporates proof of contribution to reward online video users. It focuses on creating a decentralized social video ecosystem with a full economic cycle and rewards for creating, curating, viewing and sharing videos. Users retain full privacy and control over their video within the social media space. The platform currently has over 15,000 users.

8. Patron
Patron is a global influencer marketing platform built with blockchain technology. Started by Atsushi Hisatsumi, a Japanese influencer and entrepreneur, the company seeks to connect global influencers with brands in a secure and transparent ecosystem. Benefits of the platform include the elimination of most common intermediary fees, incentivization and voting using tokens to match parties. The company has raised over $10 million to date.

9. Photochain
Photochain is a decentralized stock photography platform built on the blockchain. Using the Photochain marketplace, photographers can retain up to 95 percent of their potential earnings, while ensuring all copyrights and protections are in place using the company's Digital Copyright Chain (DCC) solution. The marketplace will also connect buyers for a fair and seamless experience, eliminating most of the fees and copyright problems currently found in the stock photography market.

10. ODEM
ODEM is the world's first decentralized on-demand education marketplace. Using the power of blockchain technology and its smart contract-based payment platform, ODEM will enable students and professors to interact directly and participate in the exchange of education and learning, without the involvement of intermediaries. This means greater access to quality education at a lower cost, helping bridge the educational gap for millions of students globally.

11. MEvU
MEvU is a decentralized P2P (peer-to-peer) betting application that allows people to bet on anything, at any time and against anyone. MEvU uses smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to store players' funds and information, providing players with confidence that their wagers will be executed securely and quickly. The goal is to reduce black market gaming, while promoting fun and transparent gaming between parties.

12. Boon Tech
Boon Tech is an artificial intelligence-powered micro-job platform on blockchain. With a technology developed to eliminate cryptocurrency volatility in their platform, Boon Tech has the potential to revolutionize the freelance economy. As an IBM business partner, Boon Tech uses IBM's Watson AI algorithms in its ranking and review systems available on the platform.

Latin American Women Win Top Science Award

Ecuador's Silvia Gonzalez and Guyana's Dawn Iona Fox have been awarded the Elsevier Awards for early-career female scientists in the developing world for their contributions in the field of chemistry.

Other awardees in the 2018 edition of the annual Elsevier Award were Hasibun Naher (Bangladesh), Germanie Djuidje (Cameroon), and Witri Wahyu (Indonesia).

Nominations are accepted from early career scientists (within ten years of graduating with a Ph.D. degree) from the 81 countries with low scientific output as defined by the World Academy of Science and reviewed by the president of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. 

The winners receive each a cash award of US$5,000 and all-expenses-paid attendance at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Silvia Gonzalez was recognized for her achievements in molecular modelling of new sustainable materials, Hasibun Naher for her work on computer simulation of tsunamis, Djuidje Kenmoe for the study of molecular friction-and-wear to improve energy efficiency, Wahyu for her research on the synthesis of metal-organic frameworks for various applications in medicine or environmental protection, and Fox for her work on converting waste into materials with added value.

This year’s awardees, who also mentor young scientists in their countries and improve the lives and livelihoods of their communities, were honored in a ceremony on Feb. 17.

The award seeks to encourage women scientists in, particularly challenging conditions.

According to 2015 report compiled by UNESCO and reported on by SciDev: "women in much of the world face social, political and economic barriers to dedicating their working life to science — but those who live in developing countries can face additional, different obstacles.#

They explained women “face social, political and economic barriers to dedicating their working life to science... but those who live in developing countries can face additional, different obstacles,” such as poverty and cultural barriers.

According to the UNESCO, poverty plays an important role in keeping girls out of school because families opt for sending their sons to school and keep their girls at home.

OWSD president, Jennifer Thomson, said the women, who received this year´s award, “show that, if they have the opportunities and support, women in the developing world can become leaders in their fields.”

Essential Phone Price Just Dropped Again

Over at Amazon the price of the Essential Phone PH-1 just dropped once again. While the original price of the Essential Phone was a whopping $700 USD, the device now costs closer to $435 – with free shipping, to boot. This is not the first time the price of this device has dropped – the company’s experienced some early roadblocks on their way to any sort of major unit sales of this device. The fact that this device is on even FURTHER sale now suggests that we may well be headed toward a second gen device that’s sold by Essential completely on its own.

When I reviewed the Essential Phone PH-1, I suggested that the original price was not correct for the phone. I also said that the reduced price – closer to $500 – was far better. Users able to attain this device for $435 are getting a gosh-darned bargain if I do say so myself. That’s a judgement of mine, mind you, not necessarily of every writer here at SlashGear.

The device suffers from some less-than-even public image problems, not least of all because no two technology publications can agree completely on what they see in Essential’s future. The phone here, as it stands today, is a highly decent piece of hardware. The company that sells it will need to become a bit more seasoned before they’re in a position to out-sell the bigger brands in mobile device manufacturing.

The Essential Phone you see here on Amazon is unlocked and comes in white. Users will have a cool 128GB of internal storage available, and they’ll have options to use most any carrier they like. That includes AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and others. Check with your carrier before buying the phone – but chances are good you’ll be ready to roll if you’ve already got a SIM card in the phone you’re currently using.

OF NOTE: The link above is NOT an affiliate link, and SlashGear does not earn cash for clicks or sales or anything such as that. This article should serve as another traffic sign on the road Essential is traveling into the future. Expect this article to pop up on timelines aplenty well into the future.

Open Accessibility To The Internet Vital To Development Of Technology

This week, tens of thousands of innovators, engineers, policymakers, and thought leaders from around the globe have descended on Las Vegas to meet at CES and share what is new and next in our digital world.

It’s an exciting gathering at an important time. That’s because the future is coming at us faster than ever. Smart transportation systems, including connected vehicles, are poised to change how we drive, reducing traffic congestion and accidents. Drones that deliver medical equipment can change how we respond to emergencies. The ability to send photos and videos directly from devices to first responders can radically improve public safety response.

But with these incredible new innovations and opportunities, new challenges also arise — from supporting cybersecurity to ensuring that gatekeepers don’t get in the way of our internet experience. It’s critical to ask questions now, at the get-go, so that the opportunities stemming from these new technologies are as inclusive as possible — and can improve the lives of everyone. In that spirit, here are a few questions we hope spark conversation during this time in Las Vegas and beyond:

How do we ensure an internet that is open to future innovation?

We believe that it is vital to protect our freedom online to go where we want and do what we want without our broadband provider getting in the way.

However, just a few weeks ago the FCC rolled back its net neutrality rules. As a result, our broadband providers now have the legal right to block content, throttle speeds and engage in pay-for-play prioritization deals that can change our experience online.

This is troubling. Because while we don’t know what the next game-changing inventions will be, you can bet they involve the internet. It’s important to ensure that connecting to our online world remains open and fair to everyone who creates and consumes online. The fight for this openness is not over. Expect action in court and in Congress. We will not give up — and we hope you won’t, either.

How do we increase diversity in science, technology, engineering and math?

Right now, women hold almost half of the jobs in our economy, but only 24 percent of the jobs in STEM fields. This math needs to change. Because STEM jobs are growing at six times the rate of other occupations and STEM workers earn 29 percent more than their non-STEM counterparts, the diversity of these new opportunities should reflect the full diversity of our country.

It’s time to use clubs, classes and apprenticeships to build a more diverse STEM pipeline. It’s also important to support legislative efforts with an eye to the same — like the Code Like a Girl Act.

Plus, we can take note of initiatives like the one at UNR, where an effort is underway to increase the participation of low-income first-generation students from underrepresented communities to pursue careers in the life sciences.

How do we guarantee a fair shot at digital age success for every American, including the next generation?

Already, there is no part of our lives that are untouched by the internet. Everything from starting a business to applying for jobs to doing homework now requires online access. But it’s especially cruel that 12 million kids nationwide are regularly assigned homework that requires internet access but they lack broadband at home.

This is known as the Homework Gap. Too many of our students are falling into this gap and at a moment when digital skills are essential for future success find themselves consigned to the wrong side of the digital divide. It’s a problem that our communities, states and nation need to fix. If we do, the next generation of digital creators coming to Las Vegas to gather will be even bolder and bigger than the community gathering here this week.

These questions may not have easy answers. But it’s time to get going and resolve them.

Because if we get them right, the digital future will be more powerful, more potent, more exciting and more beneficial — for all of us. And we think that’s a future worth fighting for.

Big Tech Makes Vast Gains At Our Expense

Pressure has been growing in the past few weeks for politicians and regulators to clamp down on the monopoly power of Big Tech. In a speech given in Washington DC on September 12, Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission in the US, tried to pour cold water on the idea. “Given the clear consumer benefits of technology-driven innovation,” she said. “I am concerned about the push to adopt an approach that will disregard consumer benefits in the pursuit of other, perhaps even conflicting, goals.”

Her words echo US antitrust policy of the past 40 years: if companies bring down prices for consumers, they can be as big and as powerful, economically and politically, as they want to be. This hugely favours companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, which offer up services and products, from search results to self-publishing platforms, that are not just cheap, but free.

Yet Ms Ohlhausen is overlooking a key point: free is not free when you consider that we are not paying for these services in dollars, but in data, including everything from our credit card numbers to shopping records, to political choices and medical histories. How valuable is that personal data?

It is a question of growing interest to everyone from economists to artists. For example, at Datenmarkt, an art installation cum grocery store set up in Hamburg in 2014, a can of fruit sold for five Facebook photos; a pack of toast for eight “likes” and so on.

The bottom line is that it is almost impossible to put an exact price on personal data, in part because people have widely varying behaviours and ideas about how likely they are to part with it, depending on how offers are posed. In one recent study, when consumers were asked straight out whether they would consent to being tracked by a brand name digital media firm in exchange for being targeted with more “useful” advertising, four-fifths said no. Yet another study published this year by researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University shows how pathetically little incentive is required to convince people to give up their entire email contact list. Students in the study were far more likely to do it if offered a free pizza.

One might argue that this is simply the market working as it should. Consumers were given a choice, and they made it. And whether or not it was a bad one is not for us to judge.

But as the latter study also showed, companies can nudge users to part with data more freely by telling them it will be protected by technology designed to “keep the prying eyes of everyone from governments to internet service providers . . . from seeing the content of messages”. In fact, the encryption technology in question could not guarantee this.

The bottom line is that big data tilts the playing field decisively in favour of the largest digital players themselves. They can extract information and plant suggestions there that will lead us to entirely different decisions, which results in ever more profit for them.

Not only is that too much power for any one company to have, it is anti-competitive and market-distorting in the sense that the basic rules of capitalism as we know it are being overturned. There is no equal access to market information in this scenario. There is certainly no price transparency.

The personal data we give away so freely are being lavishly monetised by the richest companies on the planet (Facebook’s second-quarter operating margin, for example, was 47.2 per cent). They get their raw material (our data) more or less for free, then charge retailers and advertisers for it, who then pass those costs on to us in one form or another — a dollar more for that glass of wine at the bistro you found via a search, say. They have a licence to print money, without many of the restrictions, in terms of all sorts of corporate liability, that other industries have to grapple with.

These companies are not so much innovators as “attention merchants”, to borrow a phrase from Columbia University law school professor Tim Wu. Economists have yet to put good figures on their net effect on productivity and gross domestic product growth. Surely it is high. Yet any tally would also have to include the competition costs as these firms devour competitors and reshape the 21st-century economy to suit themselves.

Whatever the FTC might say now, there are a growing number of legal cases that could change the ground rules for Big Tech. While American antitrust law has been based on very literal interpretations of the 1890 Sherman Act, lawmakers in Europe take a broader approach. They are trying to gauge how multiple players in the economic ecosystem are being affected by the digital giants.

I am beginning to wonder if we should not all have a more explicit right not only to control how our data are used, but to any economic value created from them. When wealth lives mainly in intellectual property, it is hard to imagine how else the maths will work. We are living in a brave new world, with an entirely new currency. It will require creative thinking — economically, legally and politically — to ensure it does not become a winner-takes-all society.

Space Weather May Be Killing Sperm Whales

The same phenomenon that creates the Northern Lights might also be confusing male sperm whales. In case you’ve forgotten already (really, how could you?), early 2016 brought a veritable tidal wave of beached spermaceti in the North Sea. No one could figure out why at the time, but thanks to a study in the International Journal of Astrobiology, we now have a working hypothesis: it was those gosh darned solar storms at it again.

So...what’s a solar storm?

Charged particles from the Sun are constantly flying towards the Earth and getting all mixed up in our magnetosphere, which is the magnetic field surrounding our planet. They mostly impact at the poles, where the magnetosphere has its poles and is therefore most susceptible to disruption. The collisions between particles give us an aurora (a.k.a. The Northern Lights). Sometimes the Sun spews more particles than normal during what’s called a coronal mass ejection, and when that cloud hits us, it creates a solar storm. They don’t just happen at the poles, though they are more frequent in those areas. And they happen on other planets, too.

What does this have to do with whales?

Solar storms can knock out systems that rely on the magnetic field, like GPS units and electricity grids. They can also knock out birds. Not literally—the birds stay airborne. But because some of our avian friends navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field, the disruptions caused by solar storms can pull them off-course.
Whales are similar to birds, at least in this respect. The going theory is that some species use the magnetosphere to navigate over long distances in much the same way that migrating avians do, since whales also travel quite far on a regular basis. It’s not the only way they navigate. Sperm whales use a lot of echolocation both to find their prey and to, you know, not crash into things.

Disruptions in the magnetosphere mess with that navigation system. Migratory birds seem to change altitudes in magnetically abnormal areas, and homing pigeons have more trouble finding their way. If whales use the same kind of internal navigation, they too might be running off course.

Sperm whales especially are used to quiet magnetic fields, because they live in warmer waters where the magnetosphere is calmer. The females and calves tend to stay in those climes, but young males leave their families to form bachelor pods. They travel north together, many of them bound for the Norwegian sea, where there are squids a-plenty—a delicacy in sperm whale cuisine. That area, along with the North sea, is far shallower than their normal feeding grounds, and dotted with many more land masses. It’s possible that if their internal navigation is out of whack, they could get disoriented and accidentally swim towards a shore. This wouldn’t be a problem in the open ocean, but in coastal regions it spells a beaching.

Do we know that this is how those sperm whales died?

Unfortunately, we don’t. These researchers have identified two solar storms that would align well, timing-wise, with the mass beachings we saw in 2016. But they couldn’t say for sure that this was the cause. Whale autopsies showed that the spermaceti were perfectly healthy and had recently been chowing on some squid, which implies that they were traveling south from their annual feeding fest when they got lost. Beyond that, we may never know for sure what happened.

It’s worth noting that past studies have found an association between solar storms and whale beachings, so this theory isn’t totally out of the blue.

It’s also worth noting, just as a fun fact, that sperm whales aren’t so-named because of their resemblance with sperm (though honestly, there is one). Back when the oil industry was pretty much just whaling, sailors would go out in search of sperm whales to gather the waxy oil that they store in their giant, square heads. The whales themselves seem to use their spermaceti oil to create loud clicks for use in echolocation and communication. Humans liked it because the purified oil could be burned and stayed liquid even in very cold weather. So sailors would kill a sperm whale, hack off its head, and pull it on board. There they would crack open the head to reveal the spermaceti, which with its whitish hue and semi-liquid appearance, looked to seamen like semen. So they called it spermaceti: “sperma” meaning semen in Latin, and “ceti” meaning whale. Why the sailors thought a whale’s semen was stored in its head is still a mystery.

The Lifeline For The Socially Isolated

With every week that passes I grow increasingly upset with the world, so trying to change it for the better simply makes sense. The idea of somebody suffering in solitude, lacking meaningful connections in their life, is something I cannot abide. People need to be social. We are fundamentally dependent on others, and social interaction should not be reserved for those that fit perfectly into the ‘norm’.

Whether it’s a day out enjoying nature with friends, a trip to the cinema to see the latest blockbuster, or dining out with family, there are many ways in which we interact socially with others. Though the unfortunate truth is, whether due to long-term illness or other factors, not everyone has the capability or opportunity to foster these connections, which can be extremely damaging to their social development. Technology can change this.

Social connectedness is a known protector against loneliness, and technology can play a key role in addressing this by enabling people to stay connected and empowered. The advance in technology is often blamed for the decline in real, face-to-face socialising, but for those unable to, these platforms can offer a much needed lifeline.

While the development of social networks, such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, have completely changed the ways in which we communicate and allow us to maintain more relationships than ever, it is argued that this form of communication is less meaningful, and lacks the genuine intimacy humans crave. However,  John Cacioppo, the world’s leading expert on loneliness, suggests that although online contact can sometimes increase loneliness, these sites can be valuable tools if they are used to develop offline social connections:

“If you use Facebook to increase face-to-face contact, it increases social capital.”

It may be unhealthy to turn to social media as a substitute for actual encounters, but if internet sites are used to organise a football game, a community meet up, or a conversation, they can be a healthy way to maintain and build social ties. For those with long-term illness, technology can offer a vital solution to isolation by overcoming barriers to social connection.

For children and adolescents who are unable to physically engage with their peers, be it at school or during extracurricular activities, technology can help to advance both their social and educational development by allowing them to maintain a presence even when absent. We started working within this market before we had any idea exactly what product we were going to create. The hospitals, schools, parents, and children told us first-hand that this was the main challenge they faced, and we thought of a way of solving this problem.

The technology to tackle social isolation, and enable educational and social development, has always been there - someone simply needed to utilise it. Personally, I couldn’t understand why something like No Isolation’s AV1, a telepresence robot to help children with long-term illness, wasn’t on the market already. Sadly, there are a lot of engineers who don’t want to make something useful, they want to make something cool, but the tech that really helps people is the most practical, and is therefore without doubt the most essential.