Archive for the ‘Smart Contracts’ Category

10 Technologies Your Boss Thinks Will Shape the Future – Dice Insights

If you work in tech, you know that keeping an eye on emerging technologies is vital to your job. Which technologies will go mainstream over the next few years, and which will fade away? The answer to that question can have a sizable impact on your long-term career.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Gallup recently polled 3,000 U.S. workers and 1,170 employers about digital skills training. As part of that survey, the company and the research firm asked employers about the technologies they thought would become a standard part of doing business in the future. Heres what those employers said:

For starters, 5G seems like a no-brainer, given how eventually all mobile devices will end up on that standard. The rise of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning also seems inevitable, especially since many organizations are already figuring out how to best deploy A.I.-powered chatbots like ChatGPT. Given companies need to crunch massive amounts of data and accelerate their digital processes, edge computing will only become more mainstream, too.

Beyond that, the fate of some of these technologies is anyones guess. While quantum computing is indeed promising, its very much in the experimental stage; incredible advances could ensure companies are relying on quantum computing as a service by the end of the decade, but theres also every chance the technology remains highly specialized for the foreseeable future. While blockchain is popular in the context of cryptocurrency, many companies dont yet rely on the technology for smart contracts and other proposed usesbut that could easily change.

Can virtual and augmented reality, coupled with the metaverse (which is ultimately Metas attempt at creating a buzzword for an AR/VR ecosystem), become as ubiquitous to businesses as laptops and phones? Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook hope so, but AR and VR currently remain a niche product targeted mostly at gamers. The tech industry will need to prove the business use-case for AR/VR headsets if it wants to see widespread adoption.

With tech, its impossible to predict what will come next. Nobody in 2005 could have told you that a mobile phone from Apple would create a huge, burgeoning market for apps and services by 2008. If youre a tech professional, that uncertainty is a bit frustrating, because you dont want to waste time and energy learning technologies that will only fade away. That being said, its always worth keeping an eye on tech that business leaders think will become huge over the next several years, and at least taking the time to learn about them in a very top-level way.

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10 Technologies Your Boss Thinks Will Shape the Future - Dice Insights

Unique Crypto Projects Offering Real Utility – Finbold – Finance in Bold

Utility tokens are paving the way for an exciting new era in the world of digital assets. They open up a world of possibilities by harnessing the potential of blockchain technology, providing access to specialized products and services within decentralized networks. By embracing utility tokens, traders and investors can tap into unexplored markets and establish innovative revenue channels.

These tokens fuel progress and boost efficiency across various industries, reshaping our understanding of digital assets. For those seeking to invest in the promising future of the crypto landscape, utility tokens present an optimistic and essential opportunity for any well-rounded portfolio.

Utility tokens are leading the charge in the exciting world of digital assets, opening up a realm of opportunities by leveraging the power of blockchain technology. They provide value by enabling access to premium dApps, incentivizing usage, reducing transaction costs, enhancing security, and enabling programmable transactions. These tokens have the potential to transform various industries, offering benefits for numerous use cases, such as payments, supply chain management, data storage, and even quality management.

By embracing utility tokens, traders and investors can tap into unexplored markets and establish innovative revenue channels while gaining access to cutting-edge products and services. In addition, supporting utility tokens that offer tangible value helps drive innovation and promotes the widespread adoption of blockchain technology.

For those seeking to invest in the promising future of the crypto landscape, utility tokens present an optimistic and essential opportunity for any well-rounded portfolio. Their transformative nature and ability to fuel progress across various sectors make them an intriguing and valuable addition to those looking to participate in the ongoing evolution of the digital asset space.

Naplozz stands out as a new & undervalued utility project due to its innovative approach to transforming quality management and compliance across various industries. The platform streamlines complex regulatory processes, making them more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly for both organizations and their employees. There are several key reasons why Naplozz is an attractive investment opportunity:

The $NAP Token lies at the heart of the ecosystem, facilitating advanced features and incentivizing employees through the Perform to Earn reward framework. This innovative use of tokens helps organizations motivate their workforce, leading to increased employee performance and engagement.

Overall, Naplozzs unique combination of user-first design, comprehensive ecosystem, token-based incentives, and blockchain integration make it a groundbreaking utility project worth considering for investors and organizations alike. By participating in the upcoming Naplozz Token presale, investors have the opportunity to support a cutting-edge project that promises to shape the future of compliance and quality management across multiple industries.

The potential of smart contracts is widely recognized among cryptocurrency advocates as a key long-term application for this technology. However, a significant challenge arises when blockchain-based smart contracts require access to external data. This is where Chainlink comes into play as an essential solution.

Chainlink functions as an oracle, connecting blockchains to the external world by acting as an intermediary layer between smart-contract platforms, such as Ethereum, and external data sources. In doing so, it provides trustworthy, real-time data, including stock prices, commodities, currency rates, or even weather information.

The importance of this capability becomes evident as DeFi expands. Ensuring access to reliable price information on various assets is crucial for the proper execution of smart contracts related to futures and other financial instruments. As more capital flows into smart-contract platforms, the need for dependable and secure data sources will only grow. Platforms like Aave, Fantom, and Sushi already utilize data feeds from Chainlink.

As global adoption of blockchain technology increases, providing trustworthy data to these networks, such as weather conditions or Internet-of-Things-enabled device data, will become even more essential. This can help improve various aspects of the world, such as combatting climate change. The World Economic Forum highlights oracles like Chainlink as a valuable tool in this regard, for instance, using smart contracts and satellite data to reward regenerative farming practices.

Having established collaborations with prominent companies like Google, Oracle, and SWIFT, Chainlink has emerged as a top Oracle provider in the blockchain industry. Its native token, $LINK, plays a crucial role in the network, facilitating transactions such as compensating node operators.

Filecoin is a groundbreaking blockchain initiative focused on creating a decentralized storage network. Engineered to integrate seamlessly with Web3 and DeFi protocols, Filecoin enables fully decentralized and permanent data storage. The network offers organizations and projects a secure, decentralized, and cost-effective data storage solution supported by a diverse range of storage providers and developers.

Built on the foundational technology of its parent project, IPFS, Filecoins blockchain employs a decentralized peer-to-peer file storage system that allows users to operate their own nodes and store files anonymously. Furthermore, by contributing additional storage to the Filecoin network, users can earn more tokens and enjoy transaction fee reductions.

Filecoin has the potential to benefit millions seeking decentralized digital storage options. Previously, there was no incentive for individual IPFS nodes to share their storage with others. This project leverages the transparency and open market enabled by blockchain technology a stark contrast to the closed nature of centralized entities.

In 2023, identifying high-potential cryptocurrencies involves strategically buying during bear market dips, investigating small-cap projects with high return prospects, and participating in presales for early access to promising ventures. However, exercising caution and conducting extensive research when investing is important.

Notably, Naplozz is currently in its private sale phase, offering a potential opportunity for investors to be a part of its robust ecosystem. Find out more about the project.

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Unique Crypto Projects Offering Real Utility - Finbold - Finance in Bold

Bitcoin up on bank jitters, price forecasts; Ether dips, U.S. equity futures flat – Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin edged up on Monday morning in Asia on the first trading day of May to hold above the US$29,000 mark as worries about the U.S. banking system resurfaced and amid bullish price forecasts for the token. Ether dipped below US$1,900, paring its 5% gain in April. Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded lower, though Binances BNB gained after the worlds biggest crypto exchange added the Sui blockchain to its Launchpool. Litecoin led the losers. U.S. equity futures traded flat to lower in Asia ahead of the Fed interest rate decision this week. All three major U.S. stock indexes logged gains for April.

See related article: Weekly Market Wrap: Bitcoin flirts with US$30,000, Ether regains US$1,900

Image: Envato Elements

Bitcoin inched up 0.48% to US$29,309 in the 24 hours to 09:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap data, holding a weekly gain of 5.32%, after rising to as high as US$29,952 on Sunday.

The worlds largest cryptocurrency tested the lower US$27,000 line multiple times in April, but gained more than 4% for the month for the longest streak of monthly gains since March 2021. This could foreshadow a surge in 2023 that could send Bitcoin to US$105,000, according to a Bloomberg analyst report on Sunday.

Bitcoin could attract investment from global bond investors due to negative real rates and real returns, according to Jamie Coutts, a senior market structure analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Ether dipped 0.81% to US$1,884, but was trading 0.34% higher for the week. The worlds second largest cryptocurrency gained over 5% for the month of April.

Binances BNB jumped 5.56% to US$339.09, logging a weekly gain of 2.05%. Binance introduced Sui blockchains SUI token to its Launchpool on Monday, allowing Binance users to stake their BNB and TrueUSD (TUSD) to farm the recently launched SUI, whose price jumped over 20% in the past 24 hours.

BNB also received a boost from Binances return to Japan. Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a regulated crypto exchange platform in Japan that was acquired by Binance in November 2022, will end its domestic services by the end of May and start a new service under the name Binance Japan from June 2023, according to a notice by SEBC on Friday.

Story continues

Litecoin led the losers, falling 2.33% to US$88.67 but adding 1.56% for the week.

The total crypto market capitalization edged up 0.09% in the past 24 hours to US$1.20 trillion. The total trading volume over the last 24 hours rose 33.36% to US$32.79 billion.

The indexes are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. They are managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

In the non-fungible token (NFT) market, the Forkast 500 NFT index edged up 0.37% to 3,757.67 in the 24 hours to 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, but remained 0.55% lower for the week. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts. It is managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

Mad Lads, a Solana-based NFT first minted on April 21, logged the largest seven-day sales volume across the market of over US$7.63 million, beating Bored Ape Yacht Clubs (BAYC) US$7.04 million, according to data from CryptoSlam. The floor price of the NFT was 63.75 SOL as of 09:30 a.m. in Hong Kong, almost 10 times higher than the first token minted at 6.9 SOL.

BAYC, one of the biggest NFT collections by market cap, also saw a surge in sales volume in the past 24 hours, jumping 170.22% to US$1.05 million, the largest volume across the NFT market.

Image: Getty Images

U.S. stock futures traded flat to lower as of 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures inched down 0.03%. The S&P 500 futures and the Nasdaq Composite Index both dipped 0.04%.

The three indexes closed higher last Friday on strong earnings from Intel Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., and logged gains for both the week and the month of April, according to Reuters on Saturday.

However, the stock market gains last week were overshadowed by worries about the banking industry. The share price of U.S.-based First Republic Bank plunged 43.20% on Friday after the lender reported a 40.8% drop in deposits, or around US$100 billion, since the start of the year. Regulators are preparing to take over and sell the embattled bank, with multiple large financial institutions having submitted bids, according to the Wall Street Journal on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile in China, the worlds second-largest economy, the purchasing managers manufacturing index for April unexpectedly fell to 49.2 on month, missing expectations of a 51.4 gain, pointing to slower growth in the country, according to Reuters on Monday.

The Federal Reserves next move on interest rates is due on May 3. The Fed has repeatedly raised rates over the past year to bring inflation down to its target range of 2%. With U.S. inflation still trending at around 5%, analysts at the CME Group now expect an 85.5% chance the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points this week.

U.S. interest rates are currently between 4.75% to 5%, the highest since June 2006.

See related article: Coinbase says SECs legal threats punish transparency, undermine public listing process

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Bitcoin up on bank jitters, price forecasts; Ether dips, U.S. equity futures flat - Yahoo Finance

Coinbase exec uses ChatGPT to get odds on wild crypto scenarios – The Coin Republic

Coinbase executives unlock new levels in the Artificial Intelligence tool, ChatGPT. The executives claim to discover the Jailbreak in the AI tool ChatGPT which enables them to calculate the probability of future price scenarios of bizarre cryptos.

The tool is so helpful and estimated quite a few scenarios of future listing the prices of some famous cryptos. Conor Grogan, the crypto exchanges head of business operations at Coinbase is a big fan of ChatGPT and is a frequent user.

In his recent tweet on April 30, he shared the screenshot where ChatGPT predicts that there is a 15% chance that Bitcoin will go irrelevant with its price getting reduced by 99.99% by 2035. He also shared a screenshot of a 20% chance that Ether will become irrelevant with the price nearly getting zero by 2035predicted by the ChatGPT. ChatGPT also predicted 35% and 45% chances of Litecoin and Dogecoin prices to be nearly zero in the coming future.

He stated in his tweet that he ran this prompt about 100 times on GPT 3.5 and GPT 4, which is an advanced version of the GPT, and the AI bot gave significant numbers each time with a standard deviation of less than 10% and results were extremely consistent.

He stated in his tweet that he found a jailbreak in ChatGPT and named it JAMES. He said that it could predict the future of any given topic and can also predict when a person is to die based on its training.

Before asking the cryptocurrencies life questions, Grogan asked some political leaders predictions about their work and their ranking according to the work they did during their terms etc. The political leaders included Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Barack Obama etc.

There were other predictions as well that included predictions of humanity, AI, religion, superficial activities, aliens etc. One of the prediction also said that aliens have visited Earth and the news and the whole incident is covered up by the government.

Grogan shared the screenshot of all the percentages and confidence Chat GPT showed while asking him about the best president of the 21st century. He also mentioned in a tweet that this AI bot can help to boost confidence in Quantitative abilities and may help researchers also.

He was very sure about all the predictions Chat GPT gave, as he tried them over 100 times. He also said that Chat GPT normally favours Bitcoin and is sceptical about the altcoins.

This is not the first time when Grogan experimented with crypto-related issues with Chat GPT. He did the same couple of months ago also and found that Chat GPT can find the faults in the security of the Ethereum smart contracts and provided ways too to fix them. The expert team behind this open-AI system also said that Chat GPT can pass school tests and law exams with marks in the 90 percentile.

Amidst all this, Italy which banned this AI tool for over a month regarding some privacy concerns, had lifted the ban and using AI tools in Italy is now legal.

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing

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Coinbase exec uses ChatGPT to get odds on wild crypto scenarios - The Coin Republic

5 Real-World Use Cases of Smart Contracts – MUO – MakeUseOf

A smart contract is a code-based agreement between two parties deployed on a blockchain with pre-defined terms. Although many associate smart contracts with cryptocurrency, numerous real-life applications exist outside the crypto sphere.

However, figuring out where a smart contract is used isn't easy. So, let's explore five real-world examples of smart contracts in action and how they revolutionize traditional practices across different sectors.

Smart contracts are extensively used in cryptocurrencies, making them a valuable asset for the finance sector. The emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) with smart contracts has provided a highly efficient alternative to traditional financing systems, offering immutable and trustless systems that ensure transaction transparency.

The DeFi market currently has a total value locked (TVL) of around $54 billion, highlighting its vast potential. DeFi not only facilitates peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, but it also offers lending and borrowing services. But this market can be risky, and it is advisable to stay cautious of liquidity crunches and scams.

In addition to DeFi, smart contracts are finding their way into traditional finance. They can automate trades at both P2P and enterprise levels and are widely used in insurance services. For example, Insurwave caters to insurance companies with smart contract-based solutions. It offers a platform where insurance companies can create and manage their portfolio, leveraging blockchain technology to improve execution time and make insurance secure for both parties.

Smart contracts have the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by bringing transparency and efficiency to data recording. In addition, smart contracts can benefit hospital databases, laboratories, and health-related research.

Smart contracts can support clinical trials by ensuring data authenticity and allowing hospitals to keep a transparent record of patients' data and manage appointments efficiently. Encrypgen is one example of smart contract use cases in healthcare, using the blockchain and smart contracts for DNA data transfer. The Gene chain project detaches users' personal details from their DNA data to limit the selling of DNA data to large enterprises and give users more control over their data.

Blockchain and smart contracts in gaming have transformed the industry. It has introduced a new genre known as play-to-earn blockchain games that allow players to make money while playing games. In addition, these games have introduced cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the games that give financial benefits to gamers.

Post 2020, P2E games became quite popular with the rise of numerous titles like The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and others. You can play these P2E games to earn rewards in their native tokens like MANA, SAND, or AXS. The crypto coins these games offer can be used for purchasing in-game items and liquidated to get real-life items.

Furthermore, smart contracts are also used in fantasy sports, which are rapidly gaining popularity. According to Strait Research, the fantasy sports market will be worth around $78.5 billion by 2030. With smart contract technology, fans can participate in decision-making processes for their favorite sports clubs, further leveraging blockchain's potential.

Smart contracts have the potential to revolutionize the real estate industry. Whether you want to buy a property or rent it out, smart contract-based agreements can offer you a safe and reliable way to do so. This trustless technology allows you to write codes for the automatic transfer of property ownership or rent agreements, making real estate dealings much safer by ensuring that both parties follow the agreed terms.

By eliminating intermediaries, such as lawyers or brokers, smart contracts can reduce the overall cost of registration and legal consultation and offer transparency throughout the process. Several companies in the real estate industry, such as Propy, SMARTRealty, Rent Peacefully, PropertyClub, and Vairt, have already adopted smart contracts to enhance their services.

Propy, founded in 2017, offers a platform for selling and purchasing properties based on smart contracts and is among the first Web3 real estate service providers. SMARTRealty also offers blockchain rental solutions and facilitates buyers and sellers by offering smart contracts for rental agreements, mortgages, and property ownership transfers.

The legal industry is another domain where smart contracts can thrive. It can be used for binding legal contracts for both business and social arrangements. In addition, smart contracts may work as e-signatures for agreements between different parties and mitigate the need for lawyers.

In some parts of North America, the government has even permitted using smart contracts for digital agreements. For instance, according to CoinDesk, marriage and birth certificates in California can be issued through blockchain using smart contracts.

Furthermore, paper or digital documents can be forged or lost at any moment, which makes them not entirely secure. Smart contract security audits can solve this issue by verifying documents on an immutable distributed ledger.

One platform that implements this technology in legal documents is Certoshi. It is a certificate issuance and verification system that works on Ethereum smart contracts to cryptographically secure documents.

Smart contracts are commonly associated with cryptocurrencies but offer numerous other use cases. It is a promising technology that has been adopted in various industries, including legal, finance, healthcare, and more. For example, smart contracts can automate complex money transfers such as insurance or facilitate clinical trials.

This article has explored five industries that have implemented smart contracts. However, smart contracts are not limited to these industries alone. They can also be utilized in supply chains, voting systems, and even the music industry. The technology can potentially enter and revolutionize any domain where virtual agreements are required. We expect this technology to play a critical role in shaping the future of various industries in the years to come.

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5 Real-World Use Cases of Smart Contracts - MUO - MakeUseOf