TechCrunch Disrupt SF gave us a gift to share with you

August 23, 2018

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Before there were tech conferences, there was Disrupt.

Blockchain Brew is proud to present TechCrunch Disrupt SF, the world's biggest and most impactful tech startup conference. Taking place at the Moscone Center this year from September 5th-7th in San Francisco, the stages and legendary Startup Alley will feature more speakers and startups than ever before. And we have a special 15% discount code on tickets to share with our Blockchain Brew readers.

Fresh off the heels of TechCrunch's one day blockchain event in Zurich last month; TC Sessions Blockchain, Disrupt SF will have a major focus on all things blockchain.

What can you expect to see at Disrupt?

• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and XRP Capital founder (and TechCrunch founder) Michael Arrington will discuss all things money, and how the notion of a unifying ledger has transformed Ripple into a full-fledged company and more.
  
  
• Jina Choi director of the San Francisco SEC, will explore what it takes to regulate, manage, and grow the financial world in a place where the rules change every minute.
  
  
• Goldman Sachs' CFO Marty Chavez will talk about Silicon Valley, and how Goldman is taking over the tech world through engineering.
  
  
• Avichal Garg (Electric Capital), Arianna Simpson (Autonomous Partners) and Valerie Szczepanik (SEC) will discuss the pros and cons of an ICO.
  
  
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will explore what Coinbase has done to keep its focus on providing cryptocurrency services through recent booms, and busts.
  
  
• What about Ethereum? Hear directly from Joseph Lubin, Sam Cassatt and Amanda Gutterman - the executive team at ConsenSys; a powerful force shaping the commercial future of Ethereum-powered startups.

In addition...

Disrupt attendees will also get to hear candid in-depth conversations from innovators like: Priscilla Chan, Steve Case, Whitney Wolfe Herd, JD Vance and Ashton Kutcher, just to name a few.

Don't forget about TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Alley, featuring groundbreaking blockchain startups. A few of our favorites include:

• Airfox: Offers a free Android app to extend critical financial services to billions of unbanked and underbanked people in emerging markets around the globe.
  
  
• Zeehaus: Real estate marketplace with equity sharing fractional ownership.
  
  
• Omega Grid: A peer-to-peer blockchain energy platform for utilities.
  
  
• Humaniq: A London-based fintech firm that provides next-generation financial services using its blockchain-based mobile application.
  
  
• LifeBank Technology and Logistics Services: A platform that makes blood available when and where it is needed in Nigeria to save lives.
  
  

See the full lineup of Disrupt SF events here.

TechCrunch Disrupt is the place to be for any aspiring entrepreneur, blockchain aficionado and all-around tech enthusiast. It's the only place where you'll find the renowned Startup Battlefield competition, a virtual Hackathon, hundreds of startups in Startup Alley, workshops and legendary networking - all in San Francisco, right where startup dreams begin.

To get your exclusive discount for 15% off on Disrupt SF tickets, click the button below.

1317 8th Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

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Copyright © 2018 Blockchain Brew, All rights reserved.

#81: This company thinks it can help solve Bitcoin's energy problem

Runnin' against the wind

Chain Letter Blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and why they matter 08.23: Runnin' against the wind Welcome to Chain Letter! Great to have you. On Thursdays we take a closer look at one key concept in the world of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Feel free to suggest topics you think we should discuss in the future. It’s undeniable: Bitcoin’s energy guzzling is a growing environmental problem. It’s been estimated that the network uses nearly as much electricity as all of Ireland, raising alarms about its carbon footprint. In theory, though, it doesn’t have to be guzzling nearly as much fossil fuel-based power as it does today—and a new renewable energy company has an ambitious plan to prove it. The firm, called Soluna, has acquired a 37,000-acre wind farm site in Morocco, which it says has the potential to host up to 900 megawatts of power generating capacity. (A recent estimate (PDF) suggests that the Bitcoin network requires 2.55 gigawatts.) Development of the site began nine years ago, but progress stalled under its previous owners. Soluna, which has teamed with the German wind power developer ALTUS AG, aims to build at least 36 megawatts of capacity by 2020, and complete the entire 900 megawatts in five years. The wind power will then supply cheap electricity to a high-density computing center for “mining” Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Soluna will use the money it makes from mining to further develop the wind farm, says CEO John Belizaire, who adds that it will also be able to make money selling power to the Moroccan grid. He believes Soluna’s “vertically integrated” mining model represents not only a cleaner way to maintain Bitcoin’s and other blockchain networks, but also a new way to fund renewable energy resource development. Mining—the algorithmic process by which the network’s participants agree that new Bitcoin transactions are valid—is what makes the network so energy-intensive. Miners compete to add sets of new transactions, called blocks, to the accounting ledger. This requires performing a complex calculation many times repeatedly in attempt to guess a unique number that cryptographically links the new block to the previous one. The process stores the data in a way that makes it extremely difficult—and expensive—to tamper with, since changing data in one block requires changing all of the previous ones as well. (see “How secure is blockchain, really?”) Electricity is the largest variable cost to miners, who can profit as long as that cost is smaller than the value of the bitcoins they mint as reward for maintaining the ledger. That’s a big reason why so many mining operations are based in China, where in some regions it is possible to purchase extremely cheap coal-fired power—as low as $0.03 per kilowatt-hour. (For comparison, the average residential rate in the US in May of this year was just over $0.13 per kilowatt-hour.) Soluna projects (PDF) that it will be able to generate power at its Moroccan wind farm that is as cheap as the cheapest Chinese coal power. Belizaire believes his company is the first one aiming to develop and use its own energy resource for crypto-mining. “Assuming you can develop the power at the lowest cost, you by definition will always have the lowest cost because no one is going to change your power price,” he says. The company “anticipates that it can profitably mine in almost any foreseeable cryptocurrency price environment,” according to a whitepaper (PDF). Belizaire says it will also be possible to take this business model to other parts of the world, where Soluna can use it to develop “similarly rich” clean power resources. The company has, in effect, taken a long position on blockchain technology. The bet is that blockchain technology is in its “early early days,” and is poised, Belizaire says, to usher in “a new internet, if you will”—one based on distributed computing. Even if more energy-efficient consensus mechanisms emerge to replace Bitcoin’s mining process, such a global “blockchain ecosystem” will still require lots of energy—and it ought to be supplied by renewable resources, he says. The Ethics of Gene Sequencing With the rise of at-home DNA testing kits, genetic data is now more accessible than ever. Join us at EmTech MIT where we will examine this issue and so many more. Purchase your ticket today! Loose Change Fill your pockets with these newsy tidbits. • The SEC has rejected nine more Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds. (Reuters) • Blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused accounts in China have been banned on WeChat. (CoinDesk) • US Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat from Hawaii, has disclosed that she bought between $1,001 and $15,000 of Ether and Litecoin in December of 2017. (Bloomberg) • High-profile decentralized applications like Cryptokitties and Augur are struggling to keep users engaged. (Fortune) • The World Bank has priced its first blockchain-based bond at $73 million; the two-year bond will yield 2.25 percent. (Reuters) The Money Quote “It may be a stunt, but a stunt that is working.’” —Dickie Armour from the ICO consultancy Corre Innovation, on Venezuela’s supposed new cryptocurrency, the Petro. The problem is that it’s not clear who it is working for, other than President Nicolás Maduro “and his cohorts,” Armour told Wired. We hope you enjoyed today's tour of what's new in the world of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Send us some feedback, or follow me @mike_orcutt.  Top image by Ms Tech. Know someone who might enjoy reading Chain Letter? Was this forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Discover the emerging tech that will change the world. Attend EmTech 2018 September 11-14, MIT Media Lab Cambridge, MA View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed with the email address: contacto1745.send-mail@blogger.com edit preferences   |   unsubscribe   |   follow us      MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

ETF Rejection / Bitcoin Holds / Kryptovault / Blackmail

Subscribe | View in browser Here are today's ten most important Bitcoin stories, efficiently ranked & summarized by smart humans, not algorithms: $BTC (1:44 p.m. EST): $6,484.56 (0.36%) // 90-day high: $8,362.59 // 90-day low: $5,755.25/ / More… $BCH (1:44 p.m. EST): $528.48 (0.22%) // 90-day high: $1,663.91// 90-day low: $513.11 // More… $ETH (1:45 p.m. EST): $278.82 (0.73%) // 90-day high: $790.72 // 90-day low: $242.75 // More… $LTC (1:45 p.m. EST): $56.39 (1.96%) // 90-day high: $162.87 // 90-day low: $52.78 // More… $XRP (1:45 p.m. EST): $0.32 (-0.48%) // 90-day high: $0.86 // 90-day low: $0.22 // More… Here are the 10 most important stories about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies today       1. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected nine bitcoin-related ETFs. The SEC rejected two ETF proposals from a joint proposal from ProShares and the New York Stock Exchange ETF exchange, NYSE Arca. The SEC also rejected five ETFs submitted by Direxions, and two proposals from GraniteShares. In its rejection, the SEC stated the proposals failed to meet the agency's rules to prevent "fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices." –COIN TELEGRAPH       Lucyd Launches First Eyewear Store that Accepts Crypto Can your glasses take calls, play music, and catch a ride? Lucyd Loud can and it starts at just $99! Lucyd Loud is the first Bluetooth "soundglass" that you can order in your prescription. We even take Bitcoin & Ether! Get 500 free LCD tokens with your first purchase. Click here to learn more For an ad-free experience, upgrade to Inside Premium       2. Bitcoin prices held firm Thursday despite the SEC's rejection of nine ETFs. The rejection was not a large surprise for investors as they were based on future contracts or the spot bitcoin price. Instead, the industry will wait for the SEC to make decisions on proposals from Bitwise Asset Management, and the VanEck and SolidX joint proposal. Those decisions are due on or before September 30. –MARKET WATCH       3. A Norwegian cryptocurrency mine may be closed by local authorities. Residents of Honefoss, 14,000-person town northwest of Oslo have complained that Kryptovault's 9,500 mining rigs generate to much noise. As a result, government leaders have threatened to shut down the operation unless it can reduce its current noise-pollution levels from the current 60 decibels to under 45 decibels. The potential closure comes a little more than a week after Kryptovault received a bomb threat. -CCN       4. The US Federal Trade Commission's Division of Consumer and Business Education issued a warning of a potential bitcoin blackmail scam. The FTC said scammers have sent letters to men, demanding bitcoin payments in exchange for keeping quiet about alleged affairs. The scammers also explain how to make a payment using bitcoin. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs recently published a report according to which cybercriminals stole over $2.3 million via crypto scams last quarter. –COIN TELEGRAPH       5. Ethereum tokens are on track to see all-time low prices against both bitcoin and the US dollar. While the price of bitcoin has fallen more than 70 percent this year, ethereum tokens have fallen much more. Some ethereum tokens have fallen more than 200 percent against bitcoin. This comes as some tokens see their price take large falls following a bitcoin price drop, but do not see the same gains. –NEWS BTC       6. DPW Holdings, a California-based bitcoin mining company, plans to use a New York-based dam to power its mining facility. The company plans to build a mining facility attached to the dam in Valatie Falls later this year. DPW's farm will meanwhile employ its own mining hardware, the AntEater, which it developed in conjunction with Samsung in January. –COIN TELEGRAPH       7. It turns out that banks consume more energy than bitcoin. A new study argues that if bitcoin technology were to mature by more than 100 times its current market size, it would still only equal two percent of all energy consumption. -BITCOINIST 8. A California teenager allegedly swapped out SIM cards in an effort to steal bitcoin. The teenager used the cards to steal $1 million in bitcoin, which he used to buy luxury cars. -VICE 9. Here is an explainer on blockchain's scaling problem. The page highlights the problem along with possible solutions. –COIN TELEGRAPH 10. The World Bank plans to settle a $73 million blockchain bond next week. The bond is designed to improve the efficiency of automated financing for countries with extreme poverty. -CCN       From the Forums Tron is in trouble. Talking about the SEC's decision. A new member of the BCH gang.       Written and curated by David Stegon. He has been a reporter for 15 years, the past 10 focused on technology. Follow him @davidstegon. Editing team: Lon Harris (editor-in-chief at Inside.com, game-master at Screen Junkies), Krystle Vermes (Breaking news editor at Inside, B2B marketing news reporter, host of the "All Day Paranormal" podcast), and Susmita Baral (editor at Inside, recent bylines in NatGeo, Teen Vogue, and Quartz. Runs the biggest mac and cheese account on Instagram).

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