From the permissioned blockchain networks of IBM to the newly introduced Hashgraph technology, some of the largest technology and financial conglomerates have been testing the applicability and potential of blockchain with the Internet of Things (IoT) market since the beginning of 2016. Yet, with nearly $4 billion invested in blockchain research and development, not a single company has been able to demonstrate the successful integration of blockchain technology with IoT. In order to integrate with IoT, blockchain developers must treat each device as a unique user of the blockchain; as such, every piece of data transmitted from the IoT device is processed by the blockchain network as a transaction.
The Lightning Network might still be in its infancy stages, but it already has more active nodes running than Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Statistics show that the Lightning Network has taken a slight lead over BCH when it comes to the total number of nodes running on their networks. The data shows there are currently 1,347 Lightning nodes compared to Bitcoin Cash’s 1,286.
In July last year, Chinese phone company Doogee released the Mix — an intriguing, if not flawed, stab at a bezelless smartphone. Not long after, it released its successor, the Mix 2. This handset feels vastly more premium than its predecessor, and it does this while improving on many of the flaws of the original. I got the opportunity to spend a few weeks playing around with it, and quickly became a fan. Design Over the past year, every phone manufacturer (and their aunt) has jumped onto the bezelless bandwagon, and Doogee is no exception. As mentioned, early in 2017 it released the original Doogee Mix, which offered an almost borderless experience by making some pretty drastic compromises (namely placing the front-facing camera at the bottom of the screen, thereby forcing you to rotate your phone every time you take a selfie).
The blockchain space is truly full of surprises. It appears that Roberto Escobar, the biological brother of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, has launched his own cryptocurrency: Diet Bitcoin (DDX). A hard fork of the Bitcoin network, the new currency promises to offer a faster and lighter alternative to Bitcoin. Roberto’s eponymous venture investment firm, Escobar Inc, is currently running an initial coin offering (ICO), where users can buy the token at a 96-percent discount: down to $2 from $50. A spokesperson for Escobar Inc has since exclusively confirmed Roberto’s involvement in the project in an email to TNW.
You might have missed a one-off opportunity to become a cryptocurrency multi-billionaire. It appears popular exchange desk Coinbase suffered from a flaw in its Ethereum smart contract setup, which made it possible to reward yourself with a virtually infinite sum of ETH, according to newly surfaced vulnerability report. The jarring vulnerability was discovered by Dutch fintech firm VI Company, which reported the issue to Coinbase back in late December last year. The exchange desk fixed the issue a month later in January and has since rewarded the Dutch company with a $10,000 bounty. “By using a smart contract to distribute [ETH] over a set of wallets you can manipulate the account balance of your Coinbase account,” the researchers wrote in a HackerOnereport submitted to the exchange desk.
Virtual Boxing League (VBL) is a VR game that lets you throw real punches at virtual people. Soon players will even get to throw virtual punches at real people in PVP bouts, but that feature isn’t implemented just yet. It’s not just a fun boxing game; VBL is my new favorite cardio workout. The game is available on Steam and supports both HTC’s Vive and The Oculus Rift. I tested it on Vive because I don’t have a third Oculus sensor, which is necessary for full 360 degree hand-tracking.
Chinese gadget titan Xiaomi recently released its Mi Robot Builder toy set to the US market on Amazon. If you or your kids are the kind of techie that can’t help but take things apart to see how they work: I’ve found the toy for you. Mi Robot Builder is a brick-building toy like Legos or K’NEX, but with more horsepower: once built, your creations can be remotely controlled or programmed to perform movement routines on their own. It features a self-balancing system powered by machine learning, brushless motors, and three different modes of control.
Samsung set out to have the best camera on a smartphone with the S9. It may have done just that by one important metric: DxOMark. For those not familiar, DxOMark is arguably the most well-regarded photography scoring standard. It’s not the end-all be-all, but it’s a useful reference on camera quality. The smaller S9 hasn’t been scored, but the S9+ received an overall score of 99, beating the Pixel 2’s 98 point and the iPhone X’s 97. It’s most immediate predecessor, the Note 8, scored a 94. But that score combines photo and video; perhaps more impressive is the photography subscore where the S9+ scored a 104.
Slack has rolled out its revamped emoji, and they are absolutely terrible. But the good thing is that you can still swap them out for the old ones – that is if you use the web-based version of the app. The obnoxious new emoticons are yet to make their way to Mac and Linux, but Slack has already updated its versions for Windows and mobile with the redesigned set. In comparison with the old emoji, the new ones appear flatter and have a somewhat ugly border around them. You can check out some of the new icons in the screenshots below:
