When a company is formulating a blockchain solution to fill its supply chain needs, inevitably the decision must be made as to what type of blockchain is best suited for the project.  Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the options available for  blockchain structures.  Not all types of blockchains are appropriate for supply chain information management.
Permissionless vs. Permissioned Blockchains
All types of blockchains can be characterized as permissionless, permissioned, or both.   Permissionless blockchains allow any user to  pseudo-anonymously join the blockchain network (that is, to become " nodes" of the network) and do not restrict the rights of the nodes on the blockchain network.
Conversely,  permissioned blockchains restrict access to the network to certain nodes and may also restrict the rights of those nodes on that network.  The identities of the users of a permissioned blockchain are known to the other users of that permissioned blockchain.
Permissionless blockchains tend to be more secure than permissioned blockchains, because there are many nodes to  validate transactions, and it would be difficult for bad actors to collude on the network.  However, permissionless blockchains also tend to have long transaction processing times due to the large number of nodes and the large size of the transactions. 
On the other hand, permissioned blockchains tend to be more efficient.  Because access to the network is restricted, there are fewer nodes on the blockchain, resulting in less processing time per transaction. 
Like so many things, pros come with cons, and the reduced processing time in permissioned blockchains is no exception: the  centralization of permissioned blockchains to some  central authority (be it a government, a company, a trade group, or some other entity or group that is granting the permission to nodes and creating the restrictions of the blockchain) makes it a less secure system that is more prone to traditional hacking vulnerabilities.  The fewer nodes there are on a blockchain, the easier it is for bad actors to collude, so private blockchain administrators must ensure nodes adding and verifying  blocks are highly trusted.
Types of Blockchains
There are four types of blockchain structures:

1. Public Blockchains
   [/LIST=1]
   Public blockchains are permissionless in nature, allow anyone to join, and are completely  decentralized.  Public blockchains allow all nodes of the blockchain to have equal rights to access the blockchain, create new blocks of data, and validate blocks of data. 
   To date, public blockchains are primarily used for exchanging and mining  cryptocurrency.  You may have heard of popular public blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.  On these public blockchains, the nodes "mine" for cryptocurrency by creating blocks for the transactions requested on the network by solving cryptographic equations.  In return for this hard work, the miner nodes earn a small amount of cryptocurrency. The  miners essentially act as new era bank tellers that formulate a transaction and receive (or "mine") a fee for their efforts.
   1. Private (or Managed) Blockchains
      [/LIST=1]
      Private blockchains, which may also be referred to as managed blockchains, are permissioned blockchains controlled by a single organization. In a private blockchain, the central authority determines who can be a node.  The central authority also does not necessarily grant each node with equal rights to perform functions.  Private blockchains are only partially decentralized because public access to these blockchains is restricted.  Some examples of private blockchains are the business-to-business virtual currency exchange network Ripple and Hyperledger, an umbrella project of open-source blockchain applications.
      Both private and public blockchains have drawbacks - public blockchains tend to have longer validation times for new data than private blockchains, and private blockchains are more vulnerable to fraud and bad actors. To address these drawbacks,  consortium and  hybrid blockchains were developed. 
      Continue reading: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/fin-tech/1103736/types-of-blockchain-public-private-or-something-in-between

Blockchain is a type of database composed of a growing list of records, individually known as blocks, that are chained together through computer cryptography. The goal of blockchain is to allow for the recording and distribution of digital information that is unable to be tampered with.
Unlike a typical database where data is electronically stored in a “table” format, data within a blockchain is stored within its connected blocks, with each block containing information about the block that came before it. It is this characteristic that creates a resistance to modification of a blockchain’s data, because a change to one block’s information would require the alteration of all subsequent blocks created. And although blockchains are not entirely unalterable, as a collectively agreed-upon update to the network may be known as a “fork,” blockchains are designed to be foundationally secure.
Blockchains are typically managed through a peer-to-peer network of computers working together to serve as a publicly distributed ledger of data (or transactions). Every node in the network follows a specific protocol which the entire blockchain adheres to in order to validate new blocks and communicate with each other.
What does blockchain have to do with cryptocurrencies?
Although blockchain comes up in nearly every conversation involving cryptocurrencies, the two terms cannot be used interchangeably. Rather, blockchain is the network and platform through which cryptocurrency is transacted and generated. For example, the ether (ETH-USD) cryptocurrency operates through the ethereum blockchain.
Blockchain technology had been discussed in scientific literature for nearly two decades before the advent of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether — the two largest by market cap — with cryptocurrencies becoming one of the first and most widely known applications of blockchain. In 2009, an individual or group of individuals using the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” invented the first cryptocurrency through the bitcoin blockchain to serve as a public ledger for transactions of bitcoin.
One of the most significant solutions that a digital currency through blockchain technology provides is an answer to the double-spending problem. In addition, it provides this solution along with all of its functionality without the need for a trusted central authority or server. As mentioned previously, because a blockchain network consists of computer nodes which can be located anywhere in the world, blockchains, and therefore cryptocurrencies, operate as completely decentralized platforms.
Continue reading: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blockchain-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-crypto-171503722.html

Watts Innovations has turned to a development made in Zurich for its new heavy lift drones by the name of PRISM Sky. According to a press release, the drones are connected to the open source software developed by Auterion.
With the integration of the Auterion Suite, users can monitor the status of their fleet in real time. For example, they are provided with predictive maintenance recommendations based on flight data. Overall, the software helps to minimize risks and increase efficiency.
Introducing PRISM Sky & KONTACT: an NDAA Compliant Drone Solution. Powered by Auterion
Watts Innovations is based in Baltimore, Maryland, and specializes in the development and production of industrial drones. According to the press release, the company’s new heavy lift drone is versatile and can be deployed in a variety of scenarios across a wide range of industries.  It will be launched on the market at the end of 2021.
Auterion, which is a spin off from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), has already impressed major companies such as Amazon and DHL with its open source platform. In addition, the US Department of Defense also uses the software developed by the start-up.
Read more: https://www.greaterzuricharea.com/en/news/us-heavy-lift-drones-take-skies-auterion

If you don’t like the current BVLOS rules, you’re not alone. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson doesn’t like them either.
Dickson led a keynote speech on Tuesday at Day 1 of the AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2021 conference in Atlanta, Georgia. His speech was named “Policy Leading to Trusted Integration,” and while the tone was largely hopeful, Dickson took a bit to acknowledge that the current BVLOS rules are far from ideal in enabling the drone industry to prosper.
“They’re not up to the task,” Dickson said in his speech in reference to current BVLOS rules. “For one thing, approving operations on a case-by-case basis is not a feasible or efficient way forward. It’s not feasible or efficient for the agency. It’s not efficient for manufacturers. And it doesn’t give us the kind of certainty that we really need to scale operations around the national airspace.”
Dickson also acknowledged that regulation is often seen as a “drag” on the drone industry’s momentum.
But for what it’s worth, he gave some reason to why things might feel slow for what is otherwise a fast-moving industry: safety. Safety has always been at the forefront of the FAA. And Dickson said that in order to enable the drone industry to advance, the public must trust the drone industry, which requires no safety mishaps. He said in his speech that — since taking the reigns at the FAA back in 2019 — he’s “become a firm believer that smart and fair regulation” will aid in the safe integration of drones into the airspace. And with that, attention to safety can never be relaxed, he said.
“The public fully expects all aspects of aviation to be as safe as commercial airlines,” Dickson said. “Businesses and operators who don’t understand that reality are not going to be in business for long.”
Luckily, drones have had few mishaps that could potentially erode the general public’s trust. And while COVID-19 was certainly brutal for the drone industry, in some ways its contactless, inherently-social-distanced setup helped improve its position in the eyes of the public. Companies like Zipline used drones to distribute medications and PPE between hospitals. Walmart, Quest Diagnostics and drone delivery company DroneUp teamed up to send COVID-19 at-home self-collection testing kits to homes in Las Vegas. Even something as simple as Google-sister company Wing’s coffee deliveries could make someone’s day if they can’t leave their home.
“With that backdrop, we’ve now built a solid foundation for what I think are some amazing things to come,” Dickson said. “We’ll be working on rules for BVLOS, beyond visual line of sight, and that’s really the holy grail of scalable drone operations.”
FAA chief Dickson came by way of a leadership role at Delta Air Lines, where he had spent the past nearly three decades. He graduated from the Class of 1979 at the United States Air Force Academy as well as Georgia State University College of Law. While on active duty, he flew the T-38 Talon supersonic jet trainer and F-15 Eagle fighter jet.
Continue reading: https://www.thedronegirl.com/2021/08/20/faa-chief-current-bvlos-rules/

Let me admit that I’m not sure what to make of Apple’s new patent filing (number 20210259045) for “authorization revocation for unmanned aerial vehicles.” I THINK it involves the ability to keep drones from flying over your property and/or accessing your Wi-Fi or cellular network. Read on and see what you think.
BACKGROUND OF THE PATENT FILING
According to techniques described in the patent filing, an unmanned aerial system traffic controller deployed in a cellular network may receive an request from a third party. That requests may be to revoke authorization for a currently registered and authorized wireless device that’s part of an unmanned aerial system connected with the cellular network. 
Based on the request, the cellular network may revoke authorization for the wireless device. The wireless device in the unmanned aerial system could be an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) or an unmanned aerial controller. In the case of an unmanned aerial vehicle, the wireless device may be aerial or may be grounded when its authorization is revoked. 
If the wireless device is aerial, or possibly even if grounded, the unmanned aerial system traffic management function may navigate the wireless device to a desired location. This command could also include landing the wireless device. This may be accomplished by providing command and control messages from the unmanned aerial system traffic management function to the wireless device.
Continue reading: https://appleworld.today/2021/08/19/apple-patent-seems-to-involve-the-ability-to-boot-drones-from-your-property-or-network/

Every time you search for something in Google, artificial intelligence is working behind the scenes to generate responses to your query.
A deep learning system called RankBrain has changed the way the search engine functions. In many cases, RankBrain handles search queries better than traditional algorithmic rules that were hand-coded by human engineers, and Google realized a long time ago that AI is the future of their search platform. AI will try to understand exactly what we are searching for and then deliver personalized results to us, based on what it knows about us.
You may not realize it, but AI is already deeply integrated into many of the Google products you are using today. Here are a few examples:
“Hey, Google…”
Google Assistant is an AI-powered voice assistant for smartphones, smart home devices, cars, televisions, and wearables. Just like other virtual assistants, Google Assistant can manage your calendar, check the weather, play your favorite music, and find nearby restaurants to satisfy your culinary cravings.
So much of virtual assistant technology hinges on the assistant being able to understand what you’re saying, so Google is using machine learning to reduce language hiccups that can be frustrating for users.
For instance, your Google Assistant can learn how to accurately pronounce your contacts’ names without needing to record your voice. AI also helps Assistant understand context and process words in relation to all the other words in a sentence, so it can respond with almost 100% accuracy to things like alarm and timer commands.
AI and machine learning are also helping Google improve the quality of your conversations you can have with your trusted sidekick. Google Assistant uses your previous interactions to understand context and respond with appropriate follow-up questions, so you can have more natural, back-and-forth conversations.
Finding Your Way with Artificial Intelligence
Navigation has also been transformed by artificial intelligence. Using historic location data and recent search queries, Google Maps’s Driving Mode already anticipates your destination and helps you navigate there using the quickest route possible.
Continue reading: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-does-google-use-artificial-intelligence-ai-bernard-marr/

Elon Musk wants Tesla to be seen as “much more than an electric car company.” On Thursday’s Tesla AI Day, the CEO described Tesla as a company with “deep AI activity in hardware on the inference level and on the training level” that can be used down the line for applications beyond self-driving cars, including a humanoid robot that Tesla is apparently building.
Tesla AI Day, which started after a rousing 45 minutes of industrial music pulled straight from “The Matrix” soundtrack, featured a series of Tesla engineers explaining various Tesla tech with the clear goal of recruiting the best and brightest to join Tesla’s vision and AI team and help the company go to autonomy and beyond.
“There’s a tremendous amount of work to make it work and that’s why we need talented people to join and solve the problem,” said Musk.
Like both “Battery Day” and “Autonomy Day,” the event on Thursday was streamed live on Tesla’s YouTube channel. There was a lot of super technical jargon, but here are the top four highlights of the day.
Tesla Bot: A definitely real humanoid robot
This bit of news was the last update to come out of AI Day before audience questions began, but it’s certainly the most interesting. After the Tesla engineers and executives talked about computer vision, the Dojo supercomputer and the Tesla chip (all of which we’ll get to in a moment), there was a brief interlude where what appeared to be an alien go-go dancer appeared on the stage, dressed in a white body suit with a shiny black mask as a face. Turns out, this wasn’t just a Tesla stunt, but rather an intro to the Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot that Tesla is actually building.
Continue reading: https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/top-five-highlights-of-elon-musks-tesla-ai-day/

Any time you turn on a light at home or in the office, you are expending energy. But what if flipping the light switch meant producing energy too?
We usually think of solar, or photovoltaic (PV), cells fixed to roofs, converting sunlight into electricity, but bringing that technology indoors could further boost the energy efficiency of buildings and energize swaths of wireless smart technologies such as smoke alarms, cameras and temperature sensors, also called Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Now, a study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests that a straightforward approach for capturing light indoors may be within reach. NIST researchers tested the indoor charging ability of small modular PV devices made of different materials and then hooked up the lowest efficiency module -- composed of silicon -- to a wireless temperature sensor.
The team's results, published in the journal Energy Science & Engineering, demonstrate that the silicon module, absorbing only light from an LED, supplied more power than the sensor consumed in operation. This outcome suggests that the device could run continuously while lights remain on, which would do away with the need for someone to manually exchange or recharge the battery.
"People in the field have assumed it's possible to power IoT devices with PV modules in the long term, but we haven't really seen the data to support that before now, so this is kind of a first step to say that we can pull it off," said Andrew Shore, a NIST mechanical engineer and lead author of the study.
Continue reading: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210819102700.htm

Executive Chairman of IoT Africa, Lare Ayoola, has said that the number of companies across different sectors of the Nigerian economy adopting emerging technologies like the internet of things (IoT) will continue to grow due to the immense capabilities the technology bring into business operations.
Ayoola said that many business executives and managers have assessed and accepted the increased awareness IoT create to the security and efficient running of their businesses. The industries keen on the adoption of IoT, according to him, include agriculture, logistics, power, manufacturing, financial services, health and safety industry, real estate, as well as the oil and gas industry.
He said the growing adoption has seen IoT Africa sign mega-deals with operators in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, mainly because the downstream oil industry is plagued with losses, risks, and theft which needed IoT to save at least 30-40 percent of those losses.
Internet of things refers to interconnection of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data, through the internet.
Continue reading: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/08/why-adoption-of-iot-technology-rises-in-nigeria/

Blockchain captures the spotlight in this week’s B2B Payment Rail Innovation roundup, with community banks in the U.S. embracing the technology to fuel small business payments innovation. Meanwhile, one FinTech touts the progress it’s already made wielding blockchain for B2B transactions.
Paystand Marks B2B Payments Volume On Blockchain
Paystand is touting a new milestone of B2B payments volume on its network as a demonstration of the capabilities for blockchain to enable more efficient transacting. The company recently announced that its blockchain payments network has now seen more than $2 billion in payment volume.
“There’s no question that blockchain is the unstoppable future for every essential business function, and Paystand has been pioneering blockchain applications for enterprise since 2013,” said Jeremy Almond, Paystand’s co-founder and CEO. “In the same way that the birth of the internet led to a universal shift in the way we produce and consume information, blockchain has the ability to transform every aspect of how we do business. We’re excited to make that transformation a reality in the realm of B2B payments.”
Continue reading: https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2021/payment-rails-blockchain-paystand-national-bank/

One of the biggest concerns of humanity is the future development of artificial intelligence (AI). Real artificial intelligence improves the speed, precision and effectiveness of human efforts.
What is Wrong with Artificial Intelligence?
According to Bernard Marr, since artificial intelligence algorithms are built by humans, they can have built-in bias by those who either intentionally or inadvertently introduce them into the algorithm. 
The stimulation of human intellect in digital computers and controlled robotic machines that learn from big data (experiences) and are encoded to think like humans to solve human problems in a range of different frameworks and environments is a significant threat to humankind.
Such a human-like AI is fast emerging as narrow-minded automated “superintelligences” outperforming humans in any narrow cognitive tasks. 
Never Has Human Life Been So Senseless, “Hopeless, Desperate and Insignificant”
Learned helplessness is a socially massive phenomenon today, as "real or perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation".
Technology is faster, stronger, and smarter every day, thus diminishing human value, relationships, deeds, and legacy.
Machines as computers and computerized equipment, like robots, programmed to learn, like humans, come with better, more efficient, cost-effective solutions.
Today robots read the entire internet, run a factory, play games, translate languages, compose music, paint pictures, clean houses, drive our vehicles, disable bombs, provide prosthetic limbs, spot cancer, support surgical procedures, manufacture products, entertain, teach and train us.
Factory floors deploy robots that are increasingly driven by machine learning algorithms such that they can replace costly human labor, making it easier, faster, and less expensive to create, deliver, and capture value for the companies that employ the machines.
Humans, in Amazon’s trade mega-factory, having more than 480,000,000 items on its “shelves”, do the picking and packing of goods while 100,000 robots move orders around the giant warehouses.
AI, robots will replace humans for most jobs, just as innovative farming equipment replaced humans and horses during the industrial revolution.
The only hope is that an increase in overall productivity might create more consumer demand, which has created more jobs.
Still, AI and robotics and automation are also finding that the best, most efficient, cost-effective solutions include humans and machines working together, but as a GLOBAL HUMAN AI PLATFORM: A Digital SuperMind of Human Minds and Machine Intelligence
The Real-World AI vs. Anthropomorphic and Anthropocentric AI (AAAI)
The whole idea of Anthropomorphic and Anthropocentric AI (AAAI) as the narrow or general ones, aimed at simulating human intelligence, cognitive skills, capacities, capabilities, and functions, as well as intelligent behavior and actions in computing machines is raising a number of undecidable social, moral, ethical and legal dilemmas.
It (sic) consequences could be much worse than human cloning, which is prohibited in most countries, and massive technological unemployment without any compensation effects is just the beginning of the end.
Continue reading: https://www.bbntimes.com/technology/the-real-world-ai-why-we-need-it-now-more-than-before?fbclid=IwAR2vJQknoFdXDoKU7B1gY25BhrBzvm1x_v3UaDNd_ioPEPv1eZVzr_RYyw4

One of the most potent, but often unseen, hurdles to effective product design is under-representation, which can lead to inherent bias.  
Consider the automated dispenser that doles out liquid cleanser for white hands but doesn’t respond consistently to those with darker hands. How about the airbags that are now a staple on every modern vehicle? It turns out that even with the safety gear, women are 80% more likely than men to suffer crash injuries during accidents. 
Beyond the ethics of debating gender or racial bias, there are serious ramifications for these and many other product design decisions. In the case of airbags and seat belts, according to the blog post from Expedia linked above, “As recently as 2011, vehicle safety ratings were based solely on how they performed in crashes with male test dummies.” Given that women, on average, differ from average men in both height and weight, it’s no wonder the standard design and test procedures produced dramatically flawed results.  
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/17/stopping-ai-bias-starts-with-diverse-product-teams/?sh=24959f7b5e57

Now that Gavriella Schuster has exited Microsoft after 25 years, she is revealing the next step in her career. Schuster is joining several boards and will advise various companies on bringing gender equity to their respective organizations and ecosystems.
The former Microsoft channel chief, who stepped down in March, recently confirmed that she is leaving the company this month. Schuster has indicated that she would continue to focus on gender equality, but until now, has refrained from disclosing specifics. Schuster is making her plans official on Wednesday in a post on her website.
Schuster plans to become an adviser to various organizations, IT solution providers and other businesses. In her roles, Schuster will help organizations advance their respective efforts to achieve equity and inclusion and in their ecosystems.
Among the boards of several prominent associations Schuster is joining are Women in Cloud, Women in Technology Network (WIT), International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP), the SHE community and the Women’s Business Collaborative.
Also, Schuster will sit on the board of Corent Technologies, a company that provides automation software for MSPs and ISVs. Schuster will also become chairman of the advisory board of Artificial Solutions, a provider of conversational AI software. And she is joining the advisory board and becoming a strategic adviser to private equity firm Berkshire Partners. At Berkshire, Schuster said she plans to focus on bringing more diversity, equity and inclusion into the tech industry.
Continue reading: https://www.channelfutures.com/diversity-inclusion/gavriella-schuster-to-focus-on-enabling-diversity-gender-equity-in-it

Entrepreneur Dora Palfi discusses the work that still needs to be done for women in STEM and how her edtech company ImagiLabs came about.
The challenge around diversity and inclusion in tech often requires solutions from multiple sides of the problem.
Companies and industries as a whole need to do more to ensure the sector is as inclusive as possible and that it is successfully attracting and retaining diverse talent.
But there is also the question around education, particularly when it comes to women in STEM. There are many people advocating for education systems to encourage more young women and girls into science and tech disciplines, one of whom is Dora Palfi.
Palfi is the co-founder and CEO of ImagiLabs, a Sweden-based edtech company making products that empower girls with the skills and community to create with technology.
She also has a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience with a minor in computer science from New York University Abu Dhabi and has studied human-computer interaction at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Continue reading: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/people/women-in-stem-dora-palfi

African girl coders are taking the lead in ensuring gender equity and balance in technology on the continent, a field majorly dominated by their male counterparts.
Through Connected African Girls Coding Camp initiative, a joint program of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with UN Women and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), young girls are applying their coding skills that include Animation, Gaming, Turtles stitch, artificial intelligence, robotics and internet of things they acquire through the program training. 
The initiative has held training camps for African girls from across the continent in Ethiopia and Cameroon. The aim is to bridge the 23% digital divide between men and women on the continent.
Theresa John, 21, a university student from Tanzania is a beneficiary of the coding camps. With the skills she acquired on animation, she said she is creating awareness and encouraging girls in her community to pursue technology.
“Whenever I am working on an animation a project, I have to involve the girls from my village so that they can see what I am doing and the results of it. This way they get interested in technology and see that it can be done,” said Theresa.
Continue reading: https://guardian.ng/apo-press-releases/empowering-young-africa-girls-through-technology/

Decentralization has become all the rage in recent years. It started with Bitcoin’s elegant distributed ledger. This spawned a myriad of clones but also some highly innovative rivals. Enter Ethereum a few years later, which allowed decentralized applications to be built on top of the base consensus mechanism. 
Companies could theoretically build decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, prediction markets and much more. These would allow users to access many of the services of the traditional financial world but in an entirely permissionless way. However, my time as a financial data provider has shown me there are a few roadblocks in the way.
The Oracle Problem
Exuberant smart contract developers quickly ran up against an obstacle, also known as the oracle problem. They discovered that achieving decentralization in complex smart contracts was far more challenging than in a single-use case like bitcoin.
Continue reading: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/08/19/traditional-financial-data-and-the-blockchain-economy/?sh=413ebc347fe2

Bitcoin was introduced to the world under a cloud of mystery in January 2009. A white paper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, published in 2008 under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, outlined the concept; to date, the authorship of the paper remains unknown. What is known is that the underlining technology, the blockchain, has implications for the accounting profession. Many are still wondering what blockchain means for the accounting profession more than 10 years after its introduction.
Brief History
It is worth noting that Bitcoin was not the first, nor the last, attempt at developing a digital currency (also referred to as cryptocurrency) and the blockchain. Several attempts existed in some form in the early 1980s and continue to evolve today:

• 1983: e-Cash concept proposed by David Chaum, a computer scientist.
• 1990: DigiCash, founded by David Chaum, attempted to operationalize the e-Cash concept. Bankruptcy followed in 1998.
• 1997: Hashcash invented by Adam Back, a computer scientist. It is similar to the underlining technology Bitcoin uses but less secure.
• 1998: B-money and Bit Gold proposals created by Wei Dai, a computer engineer, and Nick Szabo, a computer scientist and legal scholar, respectively. The proposals have not been operationalized.

Presently, over 1,600 digital currencies using blockchain are in circulation. Some critics see these virtual currencies as speculative assets, while others suggest they are good investments. Regardless, the underlying technology—the blockchain—is relevant to accountants and auditors alike.
Continue reading: https://www.cpajournal.com/2021/08/18/an-introduction-to-blockchain/

(1) Wendy (Korn) Howard | LinkedIn
Hi there! Feel free to connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-howard

Four million miles of roadways, 600,000 bridges and 350 tunnels. Two million one-hundred thousand farms. More than 4,000 U.S. public safety agencies fielding drone programs. Damage estimates for insurance companies and safeguarding against school shooters. UAS are an intrinsic part of supporting and protecting critical infrastructure in America.
Take, for example, the unmanned systems that came to the rescue when an aging dam in Florida, the only barrier holding back lead and nickel-poisoned water from flooding a nearby town, required inspection. Sending divers into toxic water was not an option. Draining the dam would have been prohibitively expensive. Triad Drones, a Safety Harbor, Florida-based company making waves in the dam sector, used its unique unmanned and networked air, ground and subsurface vehicles, with multibeam sonar, to provide predictive structural integrity and volume analysis.
This is but one of hundreds of similar drones-in-infrastructure stories increasingly happening across the country on a daily basis. (By the way, the inspection proved the dam was good to go for a few more years).
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) outlines 16 sectors with assets, systems and networks it considers vital. Drones support nearly all of them (the possible exception is the cyber-based information technology sector). Inspections dominate drone services, but drones also assist with disaster response, construction monitoring, facility disinfecting, marketing and more.
Because drones have proven efficient, effective and economically sound, various models have arisen that allow UAS pilots to plug into these business opportunities, now and in the future. This article reviews the critical infrastructure (CI) sectors (a few are combined) and highlights drone applications in them. A “Remote Pilot Roundup” chart provides a tabular roadmap for these RPs to plug into this lucrative market.
Food and Agriculture
Almost 100% civilian-owned, the entities in this category includes an estimated 2.1 million farms, 935,000 restaurants and more than 200,000 registered food manufacturing, processing and storage facilities. This sector accounts for roughly one-fifth of the nation’s economic activity.
Using GPS technology with GIS (geographic information system) tools, the worldwide precision agriculture market is estimated to reach $4.34 billion by 2025. Augmented by drones, this market will almost double, to the tune of $8.2 billion by 2026, according to one market research report.
Contracted remote pilots that work with Utah-based company DroneHive are flying more than 100,000 acres of farmland during 2021 in support of virtual agronomy, CEO Paul Huish said. “Data collection is the end product we provide to farm managers, who do the analytics, reporting and processing,” Huish said. “Precision agriculture use of drones has significantly expanded. Farmers are scaling and producing in large volumes. This drives an increased demand for crop data.”
Energy
Including both fossil and renewable fuels, the 80% private-owned energy sector is also massive. The electricity segment alone includes more than 6,413 power plants.
Energy companies commonly use drones for GIS data collection. Bill Swope, geospatial and survey business development manager for Halff Associates, Inc. in Richardson, Texas, leads the company’s drone team in inspecting energy, transportation and water sector facilities. Oil and gas companies traditionally gathered data from the ground; his team collects geospatial data using drones for aerial shots and combines that data with mobile LiDAR from sensors on vehicles and terrestrial scans from a tripod.
Continue reading: https://insideunmannedsystems.com/opportunity-spotlight-drones-are-critical-to-infrastructure/

While the development of advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft like drones and air taxis is being pitched as an advancement of logistical support to move cargo and people, a project from university researchers and NASA could allow these aircraft to create more accurate weather predictions. 
The University of Oklahoma is part of a team of universities to receive $5.2 million over four years to improve real-time weather forecasting of low-level winds and turbulence in rural and urban environments. 
“The real focus here is that in an urban environment, you can think about microclimates particularly when it relates to wind,” Dr. Jamey Jacob, director of Oklahoma State University’s Unmanned Systems Research Institute, told Avionics International. 
This would essentially create PIREPs or Pilot Reports for drones, Jacob said. 
The aircraft would carry sensors to take measurements of the surrounding conditions and then report them back to a traffic management system to provide drone and air taxi operators with weather data. This data could also be reported into a forecasting system to provide micro weather forecasts so that even parts of the population who are not using AAM vehicles can take advantage of it. 
“As drones are flying, they're able to take measurements of these conditions and report them back to the unmanned traffic management network,” Jacob said. “But simultaneously, they can take this data and then report it back to a real-time forecasting system, and that real-time forecasting system can provide micro weather forecasts and updates about what you would expect to see for both urban air taxis and for drones flying in urban environments.” 
The thermodynamic sensors on the aircraft would measure pressure, temperature, and humidity. 
“Those are the three important things for the weather forecasting piece and then other sensors that measure wind,” Jacob said. “Those can be integrated sensors in the vehicle or those can actually be derived from the inertial measurement unit that you have onboard the aircraft as well.” 
This kind of weather forecasting would be helpful because current modeling is two-dimensional and not much weather forecasting is happening in these areas. 
“Our weather observations right now are very 2D,” Jacob said. “We take measurements on the ground, we fly weather balloons but they're very limited in terms of what they see and how often they fly, and do we have radars that look down kind of projected on a plane. So we don't really do three-dimensional weather observations, and both drones and urban air taxis really really open that up for us.” 
Continue reading: https://www.aviationtoday.com/2021/08/18/drones-air-taxis-help-weather-predictions/

A remote attacker could exploit a critical vulnerability to eavesdrop on live audio & video or take control. The bug is in ThroughTek’s Kalay network, used in 83m devices.
Security researchers have discovered a critical flaw that affects tens of millions of internet-of-things (IoT) devices – one that exposes live video and audio streams to eavesdropping threat actors and which could enable attackers to take over control of devices, including security webcams and connected baby monitors.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-28372 and FEYE-2021-0020 and assigned a critical CVSS3.1 base score of 9.6, was found in devices connected via ThroughTek’s Kalay IoT cloud platform.
The alarm was sounded on Tuesday by Mandiant, in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and ThroughTek. Mandiant’s Red Team discovered the vulnerability in late 2020.
“CVE-2021-28372 poses a huge risk to an end user’s security and privacy and should be mitigated appropriately,” according to Mandiant’s post. “Unprotected devices, such as IoT cameras, can be compromised remotely with access to a UID and further attacks are possible depending on the functionality exposed by a device.”
The world has already been inundated with tales of what can happen when these kind of devices are misconfigured or riddled with vulnerabilities, and this just adds to the growing pile of scary headlines. For example, in February, a vulnerability affecting multiple baby monitors was found to expose hundreds of thousands of live devices, potentially allowing someone to drop in and view a camera’s video stream.
As Mandiant explained, the flaw would enable adversaries “to remotely compromise victim IoT devices, resulting in the ability to listen to live audio, watch real time video data, and compromise device credentials for further attacks based on exposed device functionality. These further attacks could include actions that would allow an adversary to remotely control affected devices.”
In a Tuesday post, researchers Jake Valletta, Erik Barzdukas and Dillon Franke – who discovered the bug – explained that it’s impossible to compile a comprehensive list of companies and products affected, given how the Kalay protocol is integrated by manufacturers and resellers before devices reach consumers. Though they couldn’t come up with a definitive list of affected companies and products that implement the Kalay platform, they strongly advised users of IoT devices “to keep device software and applications up to date and use complex, unique passwords for any accounts associated with these devices.”
Mandiant also recommends that device owners avoid connecting to affected devices from untrusted networks, such as public Wi-Fi: a recommendation that’s already part of wireless best practices, as the National Security Agency (NSA) recently advised in a public service announcement (PDF).
Continue reading: https://threatpost.com/bug-iot-millions-devices-attackers-eavesdrop/168729/

The Internet of Things (IoT) creates new business ecosystems while simultaneously streamlining business operations. At scale, the technology can go further than enhancing the operations of one business, it can significantly improve the productivity of an entire industry.
Madison Technologies recently introduced the Captis range from mIoT into its product portfolio – giving customers in industrial sectors easy access to asset-to-asset Cat-M1 and NB-IoT compatible communication capabilities. Here, mIoT CEO Paul Calabro, talks about the opportunities in IoT, this new partnership, and how the range provides a holistic solution for customers.
IOT is an emerging technology – how is it transforming the way companies do business?
Australia is really leading the IoT charge and adopting the technology quite rapidly. Further benefits and support for critical safety information that has previously been unable to attain through lack of capable technology or expense, has seen a number of customers adopt IIoT to transform their important safety KPIs, save on wastage, and improve assets or mobility.
Captis is a proven technology and we’ve been operating successfully in this sphere for the last four years. Our range of devices were the first certified to operate on Telstra’s IoT networks.
So while IoT is an emerging technology specifically gaining momentum in the mass-scale deployment of battery operated devices, many of our customers are early adopters and have been reaping the rewards for quite some time.
Madison technologies has recently become a reseller of the captis range – what will this partnership bring?
Captis is a complete IoT stack incorporating field-based devices capable of monitoring and measuring environment requirements, connectivity capability over a multi-mode operation, platform layer insights, and APIs that allow data to be directed to an end client’s solution.
We have had great success over the last few years with our range of Captis data loggers, and are looking to offer a holistic solution to customers: device, cloud and connectivity.
It was an organic next step to appoint Madison Technologies as a value-added reseller for Captis. We are proud to join an impressive portfolio of communications and network technology vendors, and excited to provide a complete IIoT solution to customers.
Building on our work with industry leaders over the last few years, we are keen to expand our reach within the mining, utilities, rail, telco and manufacturing sectors.
The captis range was recently certified Australian made – why was this important?
Our team of expert engineers have been developing Captis firmware in-house since inception, and we have always strived to source components locally for the hardware.
We are proud to officially wear that badge now, particularly in 2021, when it represents so much more than a manufacturing standard.
Australian Made means supporting local jobs and helping to rebuild the economy in the wake of a pandemic.
Continue reading: https://infrastructuremagazine.com.au/2021/08/19/holistic-iot-monitoring-and-measurement/

Four Steps to Increase Returns on Your Digital Investments
A major utility was preparing to capitalize on emerging trends in smart home technology, electric mobility, and sustainability—with the goal of increasing customer satisfaction through personalization and user-friendly interfaces. This transformation included developing new business models and product offerings. EY worked with the utility to develop a digital strategy, capabilities, and a multiyear transformation roadmap—all while communicating across the organization to ensure digital adoption and new ways of working. The result: the company is receiving top rankings for customer and employee satisfaction and is on track to improve efficiency by 5% to 15% while also increasing earnings per share.
Clearly, organizations that get their digital transformation efforts right are reaping significant rewards. Companies worldwide are expected to invest $6.8 trillion in digital transformation between 2020 and 2023.https://hbr.org/sponsored/2021/08/four-steps-to-increase-returns-on-your-digital-investments#_edn1 However, despite significant investments, many executives are not seeing their investments pay off—and the pressure to show results is mounting. So why are so many companies failing to produce much-promised results?
What Digital Performance Leaders Are Doing Right
A recent EY Digital Investment Index study of more than a thousand respondents identified 9% as digital leaders—companies that achieved both roughly six percentage points more return on digital investments than others surveyed and stronger revenue growth.
Leaders clearly see mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as well as partnerships and alliances with tech natives as a critical lever for a successful digital investment strategy. Nearly three-quarters of executives say they are shifting to M&A and partnerships to accelerate digital initiatives.
The survey results also show that leaders:

• Have a clearly defined strategy and accountability for digital
• Prioritize digital initiatives with high cash returns while systematically and quickly discontinuing unnecessary initiatives
• Dedicate funds to accelerate new digital products, services, and business models
• Invest in emerging technologies and capabilities to execute on that strategy

In addition, the technology mix leaders use is likely to include investments in the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced cyber defense.
The chart below illustrates that higher investment levels in startup deals and organic development of digital solutions such as patents tend to produce higher share returns. Startup M&As are highly beneficial if the acquiring company has the proper digital foundation and capabilities. Pure inorganic investments without the internal digital foundation seem to decrease value.

 
Continue reading: https://hbr.org/sponsored/2021/08/four-steps-to-increase-returns-on-your-digital-investments

As technology has proliferated, a permanent technological evolution has become inevitable. There is a growing demand for organizations to generate and implement innovative solutions that allow them to compete and stay at the forefront of their industries. This trend has led to increasingly specialized companies that focus on providing strategic services based on the latest technological trends.
Nowadays, it is common to hear company leadership say, “We are a transformative company,” or “Digital innovation is a reality in my business.” However, I ask myself: Are the leaders ready to receive that transformation? Are we prepared to lead challenges that we must face during the next decade?
According to survey findings from Boston Consulting Group, over 80 percent of business leaders surveyed said they planned to accelerate their digital transformations. As leaders, we will face different challenges during our digital transformations, so we have to reinvent ourselves, our businesses and continue our commitment to meeting the expectations of consumers, clients, team members and other stakeholders.
With this in mind, there are four principles I believe all business leaders should adopt to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies:
1. Define your purpose.
You need to be flexible when faced with challenges in order to become a transformational leader, which involves observing new facts and seeking new ways of generating vision and purpose. Being a purpose-driven business is about creating an emotional connection with all stakeholders. Having a clear purpose and goal during changing times is essential if you want your business to be adaptable and generate a positive impact on the world. Purpose-driven businesses are more successful in many areas, but as leaders, we have to work on this daily. Having a corporate purpose and not implementing it within the organization is the equivalent of purchasing a ticket to your dream destination but never getting on the plane.
2. Be humble.
Humble leaders need to be conscious that not all information or new technology may be easy to learn or even be accessible; it’s a long learning process. Leaders have to create awareness of the advances in technology within the business and look for new alternatives to leverage the internet of things, business intelligence, machine learning and big data. Being humble is essential for technological advancement — as a leader, you have to accept new technologies, embrace digital challenges and be open to adopting strategic technological developments that contribute to the company’s productivity.
Continue reading: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/articles/strategies-business-leaders-relevant-technologies-1210840/

In many countries, the shopping experience has largely become an online experience in the past year-plus. But as conditions start to return to normal, the supply, demand, and other links of the retail supply chain are still being challenged by what can seem like insurmountable odds.
That situation appeared to have been highlighted during last year’s Black Friday sale period. Back in 2018, 70% of consumers made their holiday purchases at a physical store. This trend was reversed in PYMNTS’ Black Friday 2020 Report, when 74% did their holiday shopping online while just 48% bought from brick-and-mortar outlets as lockdowns raged.
More people bought items online during Black Friday last year than ever before. The steady migration to adopting e-commerce has clearly shown that consumers today are expecting a more seamless, upmarket experience when shopping from brands – particularly when making purchases online.
But the sudden shift in consumer retail behavior could have far-reaching implications for various participants of the supply chain. Ensuring availability of ready stock, for instance, is a common issue for e-commerce stores as they purchase minimal stock to avoid incurring losses – but might have been left stranded when sales demand shot up more than expected over the last year.
Continue reading: https://techhq.com/2021/08/magnifying-retail-supply-chain-visibility-with-the-internet-of-things/