Lifeboat Foundation

But now much of the coast is covered in heaps of rotting seaweed, contributing to an economic and ecological crisis.

The issue has been caused by an enormous bloom of sargassum algae, which washed ashore from the nearby Sargasso Sea. There has long been sargassum in that part of the ocean. But the rate of its growth has increased rapidly in recent years – so much so that in 2018 its summer bloom almost spanned the Atlantic from West Africa to the Caribbean.

And things are set to get even worse.

This update is an adaptation of my recent answer to a Quora reader who was in a panic. She asked:

“What can I do after a hard drive crash?
How can I recover my cryptocurrency?”

In the past, I would address the immediate problem of course. (My answer is below). But to prepare for the next unfortunate event, I recommended a wallet type based on a user’s unique experience, expertise and comfort zone. I guided the reader to weigh trade-offs of important criteria: Security, portability, convenience, and quick access to assets).

I had believed that some types of wallets were better for some individuals, but that they required a background in cryptography—or at least a discipline for meticulous practices. As CEO of the Cryptocurrency Standards Association, I had also believed that simple, unified, and popular standards would emerge very soon. I figured that this would enable users to practice safe-wallet maintenance in their own homes.

Continue reading “Lack of standards leads to new Bitcoin wallet advice” »

As with other recent articles, this one was originally published as an answer to a member of Quora, a Q&A site in which I am a cryptocurrency columnist. And just like the previous one in this Lifeboat series (also posted today), this is a Q&A exchange with a newbie—a bitcoin beginner.

The question is simply: “How can Bitcoin be divided into units smaller than one?” While the answer may seem obvious to someone versed in math, statistics or economics, I see this question a lot—or something very similar.

I can explain by asking a nearly identical question; one that the enquirer can probably answer easily. The goal is to provide the tools to answer the question—and in a manner that helps the reader recall and make use of the answer in the future. This is how I approached an answer…

Puzzle me this: Can you divide 100 into smaller pieces? Of course you can! You just divvy it up. After all, it’s just a number.

Continue reading “How can Bitcoin be divided into small units?” »

This article was originally an answer to a member of Quora, a Q&A site in which I am a cryptocurrency columnist. The reader is a “Bitcoin beginner”. If you understand the nature and purpose of a blockchain, the political leanings of Satoshi or the economics of a capped cryptocurrency, then this reviews things that you already know. But sometimes, a recap can be fun. It helps ensure that we are all on the same page…

In a previous post, we have already addressed a fundamental question:

• Why is Bitcoin Capped at 21M units?

It has nothing to do with how many individuals can own bitcoin or its useful applications. It simply means that—if widely adopted as a payment instrument or as cash itself—the number of total units is capped at 21 million. But each unit can subdivided into very tiny pieces, and we can even give the tiny pieces a new name (like femto-btc or Satoshis). It is only the originally named unit (the BTC) that is capped.

But, this article addresses a more primitive question. (Actually, it is a naïve question, but this adjective has a negative connotation, which is not intended). I interpret the question to be: What prevents me from creating, earning or being awarded an amount that brings the total circulation above 21 million BTC?

Continue reading “Why is it impossible to create more Bitcoin?” »

A new section: Bitcoin ATM business model
has been added. Jump to “2019 Update”

The good news is that building a Bitcoin ATM is easy and less expensive than you might expect. But, offering or operating them engulfs the assembler in a regulatory minefield! It might just be worth sticking to selling bitcoin on PayPal (visit this website for more information on that). You might also wish to rethink your business model —especially user-demand. That’s the topic of our 2019 update at the bottom of this article.

A photo of various Bitcoin ATMs appears at the bottom of this article. My employer, Cryptocurrency Standards Association, shared start-up space at a New York incubator with the maker of a small, wall mounted ATM, like the models shown at top left.

What is Inside a Cryptocurrency ATM?

Continue reading “Update: Building (and placing!) a Bitcoin ATM” »

Once a booming industry that offered dream jobs to China’s young talents, China’s tech sector is now waking up to the sobering reality. Experts say it is time to focus on profitability, rather than the wild expansion of previous years, as China’s economic growth slows and the trade war with the United States hits sentiment and investment.

First published in 2016, predictors of chronological and biological age developed using deep learning (DL) are rapidly gaining popularity in the aging research community.

These deep aging clocks can be used in a broad range of applications in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning target identification, drug discovery, data economics, and synthetic patient data generation. We provide here a brief overview of recent advances in this important subset, or perhaps superset, of aging clocks that have been developed using artificial intelligence (AI).

Eleven million people had renewable energy jobs in 2018, according to the latest analysis from IRENA. New data shows that the diversification of the renewable energy supply chain is changing the sector’s geographic footprint, and more countries are tapping into the socio-economic gains of the energy transition. https://bit.ly/2XFScWF

Seemingly “intelligent” devices like self-driving trucks aren’t actually all that intelligent. In order to avoid plowing into other cars or making illegal lane changes, they need a lot of help.

In China, that help is increasingly coming from rooms full of college students.

Continue reading “China’s Big AI Advantage: Humans” »