Science&Technology – BartonHeyman

Nigeria Update: Swift2pay launches online payment

Barton Heyman — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 13:17:22 +0000

Swift2pay, Mr. Amadi said, is an innovation that enables Nigerians to move around with a smart wallet that has an additional feature of the ATM card. Literally, the product enlarges the coast for the cashless society.
Consumers can tap into the boom by registering on the web app to complete their transactions.

He promised that the Swift2pay App would soon be on-boarded into Google Play Store and the Apple Store to enable consumers to fund their wallet through a transfer.

Nigerians can truly save time – cut off the waiting game at the bank, at the electricity office where sometimes the queue stretches on to 100 meters, or even the drive around in search of recharge cards.

The cumulative effect is increased productivity on both the individual, corporate and national levels.

Swift2pay was initially launched as a payment platform embedded in the CarXie e hailing Cab App in July 2018.

A good number of banks and financial institutions have bought into and are doing business successfully with Swift2pay.

The Dukan Group is a beehive of digitally innovative apps including Vino Facility for estate management, Vino Biz for start-ups, Vino Medicals, Vino Academy, Vino Tech Solutions, etc

The DuKan Group Operations director seized the opportunity to acknowledge and commend the contributions of Konga to the current culture of enterprise, confidence and trust in the online market.

Amadi listed some of the novel inputs as including the omni-channel model adopted by Konga that will ultimately grow the online market while diminishing the traditional through the availability of lower priced smart phones; the re-introduction of the payment on delivery mode; and the imparting of knowledge, skills and competencies through massive deployment of technology, interaction of hundreds of staff from diverse backgrounds, international and local partners, and a fertile pedigree of hard work and integrity.

World Update: Facebook, Twitter doing too little against disinformation: EU

Barton Heyman — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 11:54:47 +0000

Facebook and Twitter are doing too little to scrutinise advertising placements on their sites in the runup to European Union elections in May, despite their pledges to fight disinformation, EU officials said Thursday.

In a second monthly report, officials at the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said the US internet giants did not show what they had done in January to scrutinise such ad placements.

They said Google offered data on actions taken in January to better study ad placements but did not clarify the extent to which they tackled disinformation or another problems, such as misleading advertising.

“We urge Facebook, Google and Twitter to do more across all member states to help ensure the integrity of the European Parliament elections in May 2019,” said a statement by Vice President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip and other officials.

“We also encourage platforms to strengthen their cooperation with fact-checkers and academic researchers to detect disinformation campaigns and make fact-checked content more visible and widespread,” they added.

In January, the commission started producing monthly reports on what the internet players have done to meet pledges made late last year in a “code of practice” to fight disinformation.

As in the first report, Facebook on Thursday topped the list for criticism.

Not only did Facebook not report the results of activities in January to inspect ad placements, it did not report on the number of fake accounts removed for malicious actions targeting the EU.

The social network has in the past been accused of being used as a platform to spread divisive or misleading information, most notably during the 2016 election that put US President Donald Trump in the White House.

Facebook ads have also been at the centre of the FBI investigation over Russia’s alleged meddling in that election and suspicions are rife that the Kremlin has interfered in votes across Europe.

Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of hacking and meddling in foreign elections through disinformation over recent years.

Analysts warn that populist parties opposed to founding EU democratic values could do well in the May 23-26 elections by playing on anti-immigration sentiment.

Such parties have already done well in national elections, including coming to power in Italy.

Article Update: ‘Reason cyber hackers pursue financial data of banks’

Barton Heyman — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 08:05:15 +0000

The Managing Director and CEO of Arit of Africa, an information communications and technology (ICT) firms in Nigeria, Ronke Okeremi, has advanced reasons why financial data of banks is the most prone to cyber-attacks in the world.

She said financial data is the most attractive and hence financial institutions are more likely to be attacked. She therefore asked business owners to execute regular vulnerability assessment to determine areas of threat.

Okeremi implored managers of financial and non-financial organisations to improve the levels of cyber security awareness as any organisation can be attacked at some point in time.

While describing cyberattack as any risk of financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of an organisation that may arise from some failures of its information technology systems, she said that identity theft has become rampant, as such, she warned financial institutions and banks to be watchful.

She implored organizations to be aware of real and perceived cyber threats and that financial institutions should put in place measures that would allow them to swiftly deal with all or any potential attacks.

“There are solutions that offer early warning threat signals which aims to provide alerts on incoming threats, shutdown and remediate for prevention. These solutions come at a cost to implement but would however prevent firms to a large extent from cyber-attacks.”

She added that the importance of information security is to protect the companies’ ability to function, enable the safe operation of applications implemented on the organisation’s IT systems, protect the data that establishments’ collect and use, and to safeguard the technology assets in the organisation.

“Information security is crucial to all organizations as it will protect their information and assist them to adequately conduct their businesses. Information security is defined as the protection of information and the system as well as hardware that use, store and transmit that information.

“Businesses should carry out frequent and proactive vulnerability assessment on their infrastructure in order to determine threat areas. There are solutions that offer early warning threat signals which aims to provide alerts on incoming threats, shutdown and remediate for prevention. These come at a cost to implement but would however prevent organisations to a large extent from cyber-attacks.

“It is important for businesses to safeguard sensitive financial information, services and products. This further protects their internal and third-party customers from theft, email-borne viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, malware and phishing attacks”, she advised.

World Update: How digital financial services lift banks performance, by Microsoft

Barton Heyman — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 10:38:16 +0000

The rising domination of the financial service sector by digital technologies such as the cloud technology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), is pointing at a brighter future for the banks, and boosting customers’ confidence in service delivery.

The Regional General Manager, North, West, East, Central Africa, Levant & Pakistan, Microsoft, Ibrahim Youssry, in a statement, was quoted as saying that many players in the financial service industry (FSI) have started embracing cloud technology and AI to improve their agility, array of service offerings, and customer experiences.

Also, the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) report on New Physics of Financial Services (NPFS), stated that approximately 40 per cent of African bank customers prefer to use digital channels for transactions, to using branch channels.Speaking on how AI has impacted the FSI and why it should be embraced, Youssry said the long-term impacts are radical and transformative, and have put the FSI ecosystem into reorganisation.

According to him, Africa’s objective within the next decade should be to ensure that the next 100 million Africans are financially included, noting that this could be achieved by the FSI using available new technologies like cloud computing and AI.He said the ongoing digital transformation is remaking the world using AI as a frontrunner, noting that although the digital journey will leave no industry untouched, the FSI is currently witnessing its fastest and most fundamental effects.

According to Youssry, large and established corporations, often with extensive heritage and market dominance, have traditionally dominated the FSI, which have made many FSI companies to enjoy relatively low competition for customers, and have been slow to innovate and change with the times.He maintained that by entering the levelling power of the cloud, accessible analytics and machine learning, any scrappy, determined Financial Technology (Fintech) startup could disrupt a whole market or sector.

He said: “Many of these startups offer alternatives for banking, payments, transfers, payroll, credit, and other financial services and these digital-first businesses are highly agile, and are creating a whole new customer base that was underserved by established FSI companies, putting the pressure on older firms.

“As a result of this, many FSIs have started embracing cloud technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their own agility, their array of service offerings, and their customer experiences.“The added competition is good for the industry, as customers will benefit from new and improved technologies that change the way the industry interacts with them and meets their expectations.”

Speaking further, Youssry noted that AI lies in the heart of things like Chatbots, advanced customer credit assessment; relationship management, security, anti-money laundering; and fraud detection which help FSI serve their customers better.

He argued that Chatbots, which are customer-facing AI, draws from big data and machine learning to respond to customer queries, streamline customer support on routine services, makes product recommendations and helps FSI companies be ever-present for their clients, while reducing the resources required to do so.

“For fraud detection, AI-powered technology enables computers to mimic, extend and amplify the thought process of a human analyst, at a pace and scale unmatched by humans. It can review trillions of transactions in every possible portfolio in an organisation.“Because of this, banks, Fintechs and payment facilitators are able to detect and be alerted to potential fraud by receiving fast, efficient and accurate alerts of the likelihood of an individual’s card or account being compromised,” he added.

Blockchain News: Guardian Circle featured in blockchain documentary, Trust Machine

Barton Heyman — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 14:27:59 +0000

Guardian Circle and its CEO Mark Jeffrey were recently featured in Trust Machine, a full-length documentary feature about blockchain and the technology’s global impact. Guardian Circle is a decentralized personal safety network that alerts friends, family, and local responders if an individual signals an alert for help. The platform will allow users to stake native GUARD tokens to make alerts, which will be used to reward responders for answering calls for assistance.

Trust Machine premiered in theaters on Friday, November 16th.

On its IMDB page, Trust Machine claims to be the “first blockchain-funded, blockchain-distributed, and blockchain-focused documentary,” brought to life by SingularDTV and Futurism Studios.

The film provides an overview of blockchain and a historical context for the need for distributed ledger technology, frequently citing deceased internet activist Aaron Schwartz’s concerns with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its impact on privacy on the internet. Camera crews also follow hacker and activist Lauri Love, detailing his extensive court battle over extradition with the US government. Lastly, the film highlights blockchain projects that are “already using the technology to change the world’ fighting income inequality, the refugee crisis and world hunger.”

In the movie, Jeffrey provided insight about the broader history of Bitcoin and blockchain, discussed his NEO-based project Guardian Circle, and the NEP-5 token sale in February of 2018 was chronicled by the film crew.

Other protagonists in the film include system architects, blockchain journalists, venture capitalist investors, musicians, and a quantum physicist.

More information about the film can be found at the link below:

https://trustmachinefilm.com/

Blockchain News: NSE To Start E-Voting Test On Blockchain To Enhance Compliance

Barton Heyman — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 13:29:37 +0000

The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) announced its plans to use Blockchain technology in e-voting with some companies on the platform built by Elemential labs. This Mumbai based startup plans to ensure improved compliance as well as corporate violence.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Today – BTC / USD

Name	Price	24H (%)
Bitcoin (BTC)	$6,476.99	-0.29%

What it involves

As reported by Inc42, the pilot will include setting up a Blockchain platform which connects the company with the regulators as well as the register and transfer agent during the voting process. This pilot will be evaluated on the auditability and the ease of running the entire process on the Blockchain.

The projects CTO of the NSE, Sankarson Banerjee said, “The immutable nature of blockchain will ensure that every action taken by a network participant is transparent to the regulator. Additionally, the smart contract framework enables synchronisation of the vote count process between the company and the regulator in real time.”

Dell EMC to introduce AI, Blockchain-Compliant Servers To India

The US-based tech company, Dell EMC announces its plans to bring artificial intelligence servers to India. The senior group director, Manish Gupta said,

“The clients that we work with are looking to tap these technologies, which is why we are bringing in servers that allow them to optimise on traditional workloads as well as invest into new age workloads such as cloud, artificial intelligence, analytics and blockchain,”

Gupta believes that the demands are coming from industry verticals like IT-enabled services, information technology, banking, insurance and financial services as well as the government who now use modern architecture.

RBI says no unit has been formed to track AI, Blockchain or crypto

The reserve bank of India clarifies its stance by saying that it didn’t formally create a unit to track crypto and Blockchain as well as artificial intelligence.

Other anonymous sources have stated that the regulator has a unit on the ground to research, draft rules and also supervise the emerging technologies.

Blockchain News: NSE To Start E-Voting Test On Blockchain To Enhance Compliance

Barton Heyman — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 09:51:34 +0000

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Today – BTC / USD

Name	Price	24H (%)
Bitcoin (BTC)	$6,476.99	-0.29%

What it involves

Dell EMC to introduce AI, Blockchain-Compliant Servers To India

The US-based tech company, Dell EMC announces its plans to bring artificial intelligence servers to India. The senior group director, Manish Gupta said,

RBI says no unit has been formed to track AI, Blockchain or crypto

The reserve bank of India clarifies its stance by saying that it didn’t formally create a unit to track crypto and Blockchain as well as artificial intelligence.

Other anonymous sources have stated that the regulator has a unit on the ground to research, draft rules and also supervise the emerging technologies.

World Update: Twitter tops earnings estimates, lifting shares

Barton Heyman — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 07:00:26 +0000

Twitter reported Thursday stronger-than-expected profits and revenues in the third quarter, igniting a strong rally in shares of the key social network.

The San Francisco group delivered a $789 million profit, including one-time gains, compared to a net loss of $21 million in the previous year, as revenues grew 29 percent to $758 million.

Twitter shares rallied 13.6 percent in premarket trade following the results, as the markets overlooked a dip in the number of users of the short-messaging service.

Average monthly active users totalled 326 million, down from 335 million in the previous quarter. The company said the drop came from efforts to weed out fake and inauthentic accounts. The recently enacted privacy rules in the European Union also had an effect.

The record profit included one-time gains from tax and asset valuation adjustments. Excluding those items, profits amounted to $163 million.

Twitter said the drop in its user count was a direct result of efforts to improve the “health” of its platform by removing fake and abusive accounts.

“We’re achieving meaningful progress in our efforts to make Twitter a healthier and valuable everyday service,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey.

“We’re doing a better job detecting and removing spammy and suspicious accounts at sign-up… This quarter’s strong results prove we can prioritize the long-term health of Twitter while growing the number of people who participate in public conversation.”

Twitter has managed to swing into profit over the past few quarters after years of losses, but it has struggled to grow its user base beyond a core of celebrities, journalists and political figures.

But it has sought to expand its appeal with new services including live video.

Twitter claims its estimate of daily users, which it says reflects engagement, was up nine percent in the past quarter but offers no specific numbers.

Advertising, which makes up the bulk of Twitter revenues, grew 29 percent over the past year to $650 million, according to the earnings report.

Twitter said it had 67 monthly active users in the US in the quarter, and 259 million internationally.

Despite its unique offering of near real-time information, Twitter has lagged behind other social networks such as Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Twitter’s share of worldwide social network users is expected to drop slightly from 10 percent in 2018 to nine percent in 2022.

In 2018, Twitter will take a 1.8 percent share of display ad revenue worldwide.

World Update: NYSE Owner’s Bitcoin Futures Market Will Open in Mid-December

Barton Heyman — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 11:49:49 +0000

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), will list its highly-anticipated bitcoin futures contract in less than two months, on December 12.

Known as a physically-settled daily futures contract, the contracts will be backed by actual bitcoins held in ICE’s Digital Asset Warehouse. According to a press release, each futures contract will be validated through ICE Clear U.S., the firm’s clearing venue.

The press release states in part:

“Each futures contract calls for delivery of one bitcoin held in the Bakkt Digital Asset Warehouse and will trade in U.S. dollars and others. One daily contract will be listed for trading each Exchange Business Day.”

Launched in a partnership between ICE — the operator of 23 leading global stock exchange, including the NYSE — and other household names including Starbucks and Microsoft, the Bakkt venture aims to create an open, compliant ecosystem for digital assets.

Bakkt was created to be a “regulated ecosystem” that provides protection for institutional investors who want to get exposure to cryptocurrency. At the time of the announcement in September, Bakkt had said the physical bitcoin futures would be traded against the U.S. dollar, British pound sterling, and euro.

“A critical element to price discovery is physical delivery. Specifically, with our solution, the buying and selling of bitcoin is fully collateralized or pre-funded. As such, our new daily bitcoin contract will not be traded on margin, use leverage, or serve to create a paper claim on a real asset,” Bakkt had said at the time, responding to criticisms that the contracts could mask “hidden leverage.”

For every one purchase of a USD/BTC futures contract, there will be a delivery of one bitcoin into the owner’s account at settlement. That contrasts with the bitcoin futures markets on CBOE and CME, which are cash-settled, meaning that no actual cryptocurrency assets exchange hands at expiration.

Investors in Bakkt’s platform include Mike Novogratz‘s Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, and others.

Article Update: ‘Government must leverage blockchain technology to curb financial recklessness in the public sector’’

Barton Heyman — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 08:23:35 +0000

Chimezie Chuta is a Tech innovation professional, an Author, a Drupal Web Application Developer, and a Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Educator. He is the founder Blockchain Nigeria User Group, and, StartupBits.fund, among several other entrepreneurial initiatives in the Blockchain Tech industry. In this interview with SODIQ OMOLAOYE, he argued that Cryptocurrencies powered by the Blockchain Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would provoke disruptive innovative thinking in the traditional banking system and ensure transparency in the administration of public funds.

Can you give an insight into Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain technology is an addition on top of the existing internet. The evolution of the Internet brought about sharing of information and ideas simultaneously. However, there is a challenge with that system and that challenge was the fact that we could not transact value safely over the internet.

The presence of middlemen in the Internet transaction like the banks, clearing houses and interbank agencies come with a lot of transaction fees. The world had watched that industry in pain until someone came out and figured a way of sharing value without a third party. That is what is called peer-to-peer cash (P2P) and Bitcoin is one of them.

The technology that made this possible is blockchain because it has to do with each person participating in the network hosting a node of the network.

It can also be used for identity management and record keeping without a third party.

The technology also ensures transparency that is non-existent in the current system.

A system like blockchain makes transactions public and verifiable. This means when we have this kind of technology, we would be able to monitor government transaction.

How secure and reliable is the system?

Cryptocurrency has been on since 2011 and it is a blockchain network. There has not been any successful hack on the network.

It is more secure than the traditional system. Where you usually have challenges is on the user side – the carelessness of people who are involved.

For instance, being careless with one password. There are sensitive information about one’s account that nobody should know.

The fact that someone lost money shouldn’t be the reason we will all run away from the system.

The Central Bank had cautioned Nigerians to be wary of investments in Cryptocurrencies. Do you think it was a good decision?

I actually understand the reason why the Central Bank of Nigeria made such statement. The apex bank is there to protect people and their resources.

CBN concern is that digital currencies and assets that are currently finding inroad into the populace are not regulated, unlike the traditional investment instruments that are issued and regulated by the government.

I appreciate that standpoint, but I believe that if government acquires robust knowledge on how the technology works, they will have a different opinion.

Most government agencies do not have proper understanding of the technology and it may be difficult to regulate what you don’t understand.

People who are already used to a certain way of life would have it difficult getting involved in new things especially when it has to do with money.

Everybody wants to be sure that he is not the one causing panic in the financial industry or economy by permitting what he does not understand.

Most developed countries have also shown scepticism in recognising digital currencies as legal tender or means of exchange. What do you think went wrong?

Every government in the world is looking at this technology and they are all trying to understand it.

As a first response to the emerging technology, what they tell citizens is to be wary of the technology because they don’t know who is issuing it and they cannot control it.

That is what most governments do first. But they are good news coming from different parts of the world where they began to define and regulate the technology.

There is no hurry because when you hurry you may make mistake. That is the reason the Nigerian government is taking its time to study the new technology.

Last year, CBN did a lot of brainstorming on the industry of which our group also participated and made presentation.

Also, I think government agencies are also looking at how other countries are dealing with the issue.

In a country like Malta, they have legalized the technology and digital assets including cryptocurrency.

South Africa has also defined the technology as a commodity. In different part of the world, they have different definitions of cryptocurrency.

It may be called- Security, Commodity, Property or Currency.

In Nigeria, when you name it a ‘currency’, it will come under the supervision of CBN because constitutionally they are the one that possesses the exclusive right to control currency in the country.

Considering the fear the government already created in the environment, what measures can be taken to restore investors’ confidence in Cryptocurrency?

Primarily, most Nigerians got to know about cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin through the infamous MMM pyramid scheme.

It never occurred to Nigerians that MMM scheme only took advantage of an existing system to run itself.

What we have been trying to do is to convince Nigerians that MMM is different from Bitcoin trading, but a lot of people because of the pain of the losses, they find it difficult to take in such new information.

However, my group and other blockchain technology groups are working to restore public confidence in the system. We report scams and also give out information on how people can avoid being scammed.

There are big players in the traditional banking system that are afraid of the emerging digital currencies, what do you think could be their fears?
Well, the truth is the entire system of finance all over the world is controlled by people.

Governments came into it at some point. In today’s world, the government issues monies and it is back up by trust people have in the government.

Now, when you talk about cutting away the middlemen which is what the technology does, you are talking about cutting away the source of income of these big players.

However, because this is a revolution of the people, you cannot stop it because the Internet is already present.

Cryptocurrency is not something anyone can destroy or stop people from participating in because it is decentralised. Everybody knows the pain of centralisation.

The blockchain technology does not only solve the problem of capital control, but it also solves the problem of single point of failure that comes with centralisation.

If you have multiple databases distributed across the world, one failing does not mean that the entire system has failed.

You are looking at “Blockchain and AI (Artificial Intelligence) as focus for your upcoming conference, what informed this topic and what should be expected thereafter?

Previously, we have been having conferences around blockchain and cryptocurrency, but this time around we decided to do something different because there is a lot Artificial Intelligence has to offer in economic development.

There is a need for government and its agencies to have reliable data. Data is a major instrument for growth and development.

Most of the data the country has don’t have integrity. They are prone to manipulation.

Lack of reliable data is an issue and that is one of the issues blockchain is going to solve because data can be gathered through Artificial intelligence easily and reliably and it can be stored and secured using the blockchain technology.

So this conference is about exploring the opportunities and intersection of these two technologies. Aside the roundtable talks, we will have a lot of speakers coming from different parts of the world.

The essence is to discuss the issues with the regulatory agencies and we can make these agencies to make the environment more favourable for the players in it.

Also, we want to look at how entrepreneurs can take advantage of the low hanging fruits of these two technologies.

We believe that after the brainstorming, there would be clear-cut policies from government and its agencies that would help players in the industry to actually articulate and do things the way they should with the confidence that is required.

How do you think the government can support the industry?

We are aware that government is doing it best. But we want them to do is that they should speed up the process of creating the right environment for the blockchain industry to thrive.

We don’t have eternity for them to understand how the industry works. They need to graduate from studying to defining what cryptocurrency means to them.

The government also needs to set up the framework to allow the blockchain technology take of fully.

We must not allow foreign companies come into our ecosystem because that may lead to capital flight.

Government agencies also have to embrace this technology for transparency purpose. This would further allow citizens monitor how public office holders spend public funds.