Here’s What You Should Know About Cryptocurrency

The city that supplies 80% of the country’s mined opal can be found in the Flinders Ranges. The town is called Coober Pedy – the opal capital of the world. It is 846 km north of Adelaide and home to 3,500 residents of various ethnicities. Accordingly, the site had few inhabitants before the discovery of opal. Despite the increasingly hot temperatures, the city’s migrants have held on to their Flinders Ranges residences in hopes of finding fortune in the opal mines. Excavations began as early as 1915 when a four-year-old boy found an opal in the area. Today, opal mining is still ongoing and old mining sites are given great importance. Three pioneer mining sites can be found, The Old Timer’s Mine, Fayre’s Underground Home and Opal Mine, and the Umuna Opal Mine and Museum.

Old Timers Mine was founded in 1916. It is one of the attractions of the Flinders Ranges which has become one of the top tourist attractions in South Australia. The museum tells a lot about the early mining area of ​​the place. It displays the miners’ underground houses, information gallery and collection of opal jewelry. Galleries show how pioneer miners struggled to drill down for opal. There were sculptures of pioneer miners doing specific tasks. Among the old miners sculpted are Jim O’Neill, George Burford, Ben Mohr, Mick O’Reilly, Bob Trow, Carl Wills, Ron Gough and Minnie Berrington. The place houses the gallery of Ron Goff who gave birth to opal mining in the town. A variety of opal mined from the site appears such as seam gray opal, horizontal pockets of crystal opal, pockets of rot and color left by old miners, and opalized sea shells. One can also see hand-dug walls using hand-made shafts, old digging tools, dirt or rubble, and backfilled shafts. The museum also houses the ancient tools that were used in mining such as bull buckets, mine ventilation windsocks and windlass. The museum also has an opal shop for tourists who want to buy souvenirs.

Adjacent to Old Timers Mine is Faye’s Underground Home and Opal Mine. Initially, it was a small hole resulting from an excavation for an opal mine. It later became a room for mail truck drivers. In 1961, a woman named Faye Nailer who had moved to town as a cook bought the place. He then built the house with the help of two other women. Three women used shovels and chose to expand the house to three bedrooms, kitchen, wine cellar and swimming pool. The room is well ventilated with shafts. There is no need to use air conditioners during the day and heaters during the night as the underground house provides a constant heat of 20-25 degrees. The house is currently run by Colin McClean and his wife. The McCleans open the room to guests.

On Coober Pedy’s main road you’ll find the Umunna Opal Mine and Museum. It showcases opal cutting and polishing, actual underground rooms, fossils from South Australia, a wide range of opal jewelery for sale, postcards and souvenirs. The spot also features a 20-minute documentary on the history of opal mining. Houses dug underground by hand and by machinery are also displayed Also on display are historical photographs of the area. There is also an exhibition of authentic old paintings and artworks by locals.

Be part of Coober Pedy’s opal mining history. Visit the underground museums of the city’s historic opal mining sites. Plus, discover how residents live underground by staying in one of the Flinders Rangers residences built underground.

social media

Social media is a combination of online communication channels committed to group-based input, communication, information sharing, and relationships. A variety of applications and websites dedicated to social networks, blogging, forums, wikis, and social bookmarking constitute different types of social media. The most common types are Facebook, YouTube, Google+, WhatsApp, Twitter, QQ, WeChat, Qzone, OLX, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Skype, Viber, Snapchat, Pinterest, MySpace, Meetme, Meetup, Mixi, Tout, Douban, Flickr, Social websites Buzznet, Wehearit, and Friendster have an estimated 100,000,000 registered users. Although there are many different types of social media, they share many common features such as consumers creating service-based profiles for websites and applications that are designed and supported by the association. Sharing of user generated material, such as digital images, posts, videos, comments and data through online interfaces. All forms of social media are interactive Internet applications that enable the growth of online social networks by linking user profiles to other individuals or groups.

Users typically interact with social media facilities through web-based tools on computers, or by downloading services from Internet applications to their cell phones. Through these services, users can create highly collaborative platforms through which individuals, groups, and organizations can share, co-create Can, dispute, and modify user-generated data or pre-made content displayed online. They represent substantial and prevalent changes in communication between businesses, organizations, societies and individuals. It has changed the communication between individuals and large organizations. Researchers study these changes and new technologies are introduced as a result of these changes. It differs from conventional print and electronic media in various aspects such as perception, customer, value, reach, incidence, interaction, consumption, proximity and sustainability. Its channels operate in a dialogic mode of transmission whereas old-style media uses a monologic mode of transmission.

Facebook is widely used in all countries, with 84 percent of young Americans using it. About 60 percent of teenagers have social media profiles, most people spend at least two hours a day on social networking sites, and the time spent on these sites is more than the time spent on other types of sites. The total time spent on social sites in the US was 66 billion minutes in 2012 and now it has reached 121 billion minutes. It has become a source of professional potential and financial gain.

Social media has many good and bad effects. It offers an opportunity to connect with real or virtual groups and is a real promotional tool for businesses, financiers, charities as well as support groups, politicians and administrations. Its substantial use has also been proven to cause grief, cyberbullying, online harassment and stalking.

We can’t define social media by its ability to bring people together, this description can be like telegraph and telephone, in fact social media is commonly used to refer to social networking sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and WeChat. Their private profiles allow them to share ideas, pictures, videos, talk to each other and update each other with new things, events and happenings while going about their daily tasks and routines.

The specialty of social media is that content spreads like a virus

Sometimes content posted on social sites has the potential to spread like a virus on social networks. Users will reshare content posted by other users on their social networks, which will result in more shares. Posts like North Korea’s nuclear bomb explosion, fast-breaking news like the news of Michelle Jackson’s death crash Internet servers because the news is quickly shared and re-shared by people using social networking sites. It is the concept of spreading a viral disease from one infected person to another. Some individuals, groups and organizations use this viral spreading of a news story as an effective means of promotion.

Use of cellular applications

The use of mobile phones to access sites is a major reason for the popularity of these sites, now it is easier, more private and cheaper than ever to use social media, smartphones have made the internet a very “handy” thing to use by the younger generation. Now the youth spend more time interacting on social media sites than watching TV. Every type of site can be accessed easily with smartphones, adding content, sharing, sending, receiving, status updates, voice and video calls can be done more easily without using a desktop computer or laptop. The use of Wi-Fi technology has enabled the use of an Internet connection by the entire members of a family. All family members can use the Internet sites according to their own preferences, flexibility of time and privacy. Mobile applications like WhatsApp, Skype are widely used for making video calls, YouTube is used to watch videos, Facebook is used by mobile users to share videos, images, texts and status updates. Mobile social media refers to media consumption on mobile phone sets such as smartphones. Mobile applications allow the creation, exchange and dissemination of user-generated content. Location and time sensitivity are important factors for accessing social media via mobile devices.

Business perspective

Location and time sensitivity have given mobile devices an edge over desktop computers to help companies expand their business with marketing and advertising. Mobile containers can be used for inquiries, communications, sales promotions or discounts, and affiliate growth programs.

E-commerce

Social sites use social plans, creating stages that are equally helpful for users, industries and nets with e-commerce or online consumption. Users post comments about a company’s products or services with their online friends and associates. The company gains because it gains awareness of how its product or service is perceived by customers. Apps like Amazon.com and Pinterest influence a mounting trend in the acceptance and accessibility of e-commerce or online consumption.

Being involved with technology solutions professionals see things that could be a real threat to you, your staff or even your business; while the internet can be seen as a wonderful tool (cloud based communications and solutions for example) and all of the other great achievements that the internet has created there is a far darker side to it all; of that there is no doubt and it can be a real threat.

And factually you have in your business nowhere to run or nowhere to hide; sooner or later it becomes a high odd’s bet that employee, you or your company will suffer and in severe cases the effects could even close your company overnight.

Don’t believe this? Read on where examples of actual major threats are shown below. Not worried? You should be!

It’s so dangerous that Deloitte opened a cyber threat hunting service!

But on an everyday level to ordinary SME’s just like your business there really is no amount of anti virus this or anti malware that available that is really going to help; the examples below show you exactly why; things these days have moved on exponentially to levels that you may not believe, but some are revealed that are actual examples highlighting just how bad these threats have become. There will be casualties no doubt but you don’t want to be one of them!

Email has been a driving force that has moved forward communications between every aspect of business that anyone could imagine, from sales, customers, support, management, publicity and many more important areas; but it’s obvious that the underlying technology of email servers are flawed and because it’s now a worldwide transport for communications that’s hard to fix; these communications channels have to be compatible with every other email server in the world and that creates massive inherent vulnerabilities.

In almost every town, city or country, government bodies are working towards combating fraud and other nasty things from many areas, but email is one of the most widely abused platforms there is because of the ease of abuse by non-experts. And if you’re not an expert it does not take long to learn how to be one!

One organisation in the UK is Action Fraud operated by the police and while they handle other areas of fraud, email scams are very high on their list.

But here’s where things start to get nasty. Since the advent of cryptocurrency worldwide fraud has increased exponentially. And in the USA SEC Rejects Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund because they are very concerned about investor losses in Bitcoin.

However, this article is specific; Bitcoin is being used fraudulently and in both of the cases shown below Bitcoin is clearly involved in the transportation of monies to the perpetrators of these illegal demands on you, your staff or even your business. It’s no joke and anyone ignoring these really bad potential harms to their organisation will sooner or later come unstuck in maybe a really big way. The results could be catostrophic.

The first example shown below included personal details of the recipient that have been removed for security reasons. But this email (that passed every check through a company’s infrastructure) is threatening the life of an employee and should never be ignored.

Note that bitcoin and email addresses are edited for security purposes throughout this article.

HERE IS EXAMPLE ONE VERBATIM:

“From: kristin*********

Sent: ******

To: *********

Subject: How to save themself

Read this warn carefully, since it can be the last in your life.

People are by nature envious. Given the fact of successful development of your business, people (your contestant ) paid me 30,000 Pound Sterling for your head on a stick.

It’s not the first time I’ve done this kind of work, but I’m already tired of these envious bastards and your life will be the last one I’ll take or will not do, it’s up to you.

Under normal circumstances, I would just do the work for which I was paid without going into the details, but I’m going to get away from it and go on a long-awaited vacation.

You have 2 versions for deciding this problem.

Adopt my proposal or refuse.

You pay me 5 thousand GBP for safe your life and you receive all the information about the customer with whom you apply to the police and thus you save your life and the lives of your relatives.

The second option is you ignore my proposal and turn to the police, but by the same token you will only postpone your judgment day, even if I can not do the work, then somebody else will do it, not within a week and say in a month or half a year, but order for your head will be fulfilled sooner or later.

Thus, you will be afraid of every rustle, walk around looking and thinking that you are being persecuted.

If you want such a life, your choice, but if I were you, I would think very well.

Tickets to England have been taken for July **, and you have exactly 3 days to transfer money to an anonymous account bitcoin 1QJNjRmon3iD3RwdjaGomFLHs25B******.

I can check the last time receipt of money before the flight to you, on the **th

In the event of receiving a reward, I will not come to take your life, but will also pass all the information about your customer (Let the bastards get what they deserve) and you can protect yourself, otherwise you know the consequences.

The well-being of the future life depends on your choice.

Think about your life, you family.

on all will of Allah”

END OF EMAIL MESSAGE ONE

The above email is unedited except for recipients details and Bitcoin account numbers. It can be clearly seen in this email that there is a threat on the life of the recipient. While some recipients would simply brush this type of email off, others become extremely concerned; it’s easy to see exactly why. Indeed some recipients will go and pay the demanded money and not think twice. Imagine that a key employee received this email and they completely believed its contents? The resultant downfall of the employee could be extreme. This email threatens the recipients life and mentions their family etc.

Notice that the spelling is incorrect for English on this example (undisclosed but its in the content) and somehow the writer suggests that the email is the ‘will of Allah’. Probably not. But the user identified the recipient was in ‘England’ likely from the email address so the recipient could believe some of the contents.

The above email passed numerous checks throughout the receiving companies infrastructure. Now it’s easy to see if you are tech savvy, but most email users are not. And if you’re a small SME then things could happen that could literally create very serious effects on your business even though the email targeted an employee. But if you’re not tech savvy and a company owner, would you believe the above? and send money? Many will have and that ‘feeds’ the criminals for millions of pounds or in this case $US.

Bitcoin in the above example is used because Bitcoin CANNOT be traced to the ultimate recipient of the payment. This is a major flaw in crypto currency and one reason (irrespective of some suggesting it’s an easy way to make money) you really should have nothing to do with it. Criminals use Bitcoin all the time.

As suggested, you just might not believe the above email if you received it, but there is no doubt that you might well believe the next example because it has information in it that is only known by you!

HERE IS EXAMPLE TWO VERBATIM:

From: “Gloriana Feany”

To: *********************

Date: *********

Subject: (HERE WAS THE USERS NAME AND THEIR PASSWORD)

I know ****** is your password. Lets get right to the purpose. You may not know me and you are most likely thinking why you are getting this email? Nobody has paid me to check you.

actually, I actually setup a malware on the X videos (porn material) web site and you know what, you visited this site to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were viewing videos, your web browser initiated operating as a RDP that has a key logger which gave me access to your display and webcam. Immediately after that, my software program gathered every one of your contacts from your Messenger, social networks, and emailaccount. And then I created a video. First part displays the video you were watching (you’ve got a fine taste hehe), and 2nd part displays the recording of your web camera, yea it is u.

There are two different possibilities. Let us take a look at each one of these options in details:

1st alternative is to skip this message. In this case, I most certainly will send your very own video clip to all your your contacts and visualize concerning the humiliation you will see. Moreover if you happen to be in a committed relationship, how it will affect?

Next choice should be to give me $3000. We are going to call it a donation. In this scenario, I most certainly will quickly remove your videotape. You will continue your way of life like this never took place and you will never hear back again from me.

You will make the payment through Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search for “how to buy bitcoin” in Google search engine).

BTC Address: 18PvdmxemjDkNxHF3p3Fu9wkaAZ********

[CASE sensitive, copy & paste it]

In case you are thinking about going to the law enforcement officials, very well, this e-mail can not be traced back to me. I have covered my actions. I am also not trying to charge you a lot, I simply want to be rewarded. I’ve a unique pixel in this e-mail, and at this moment I know that you have read through this email message. You have one day in order to pay. If I don’t get the BitCoins, I will certainly send your video to all of your contacts including family members, colleagues, etc. Having said that, if I receive the payment, I’ll erase the recording right away. If you really want evidence, reply Yup! then I will send out your video to your 7 friends. This is the non-negotiable offer, and thus please do not waste my personal time & yours by responding to this e mail.

END OF EXAMPLE TWO EMAIL:

This is an entirely different threat. The recipient picked this email up because of a multitude of reasons that were simply incorrect and not representative of their actions on the internet; however, the stated password was about 80% shown (and it would be reasonable to assume the perpetrator knew the rest of the password). This could be seen by many as a factual document and it’s credibility is created in the recipients mind by the inclusion of the password in to the threat.

Imagine owning a SME business that might indeed be a larger business, the threat demanded much more money and the recipient had viewed what was suggested in the email? People do. It could be seen as likely or at;east a possibility that the recipient might well pay the money to the perpetrator through Bitcoin. And again Bitcoin rears its ugly head.

Again in this second email instance shown the email passed all checks and tests in the company where the email was received. So these are real threats to individuals or business.

But consider this; how did the perpetrator get the recipients password? (it was an old password but nevertheless was mostly valid). The perpetrator suggested key logging on a site known for pornographic video and images. But that is most likely not where the perp got the details from.

When reading about companies like Facebook, TalkTalk, Dixons Carphone Warehouse, Equifax, Adobe, AOL, Apple, AT&T, British Airways, Mastercard and Visa, Compass Bank, Dominos Pizza, DVLA UK, Dropbox, Kmart, Hewlett Packard, eBay, Experian, Trump Hotels, Gmail, Vodaphone, Walmart, Morgan Stanley, NHS, Ofcom, SnapChat, Adidas, Macys, Sony Pictures (and the list goes on) is it really no wonder that most personal details of importance (even financially) of individuals and businesses are all over the internet. There is a Wikipedia about these breaches of data that is extremely concerning reading as these breaches involve all kinds of information that will no doubt be available to buy on the internet. With the incredible reductions in share prices at Facebook maybe that might be the start of a mass exodus from those sort of ‘social media’ sites; but of course Facebook is merely one of the very long list of companies that have let you down through not protecting your data properly as the list above clearly demonstrates.

Its easy to see why GDPR has become law and countries will continue to pass GDPR legislation accordingly. Thank all of the companies mentioned above and many more for allowing this ridiculous situation that could be the start of the downfall of the internet as it is known today.

But is it time to go back and retrospectively fine each and every company involved in the dispersal of personal details? Are those companies any less ‘guilty’ now? It seems for many companies that the only thing they understand is when they are faced with very large fines; and even the fines might be irrelevant to organisations like Facebook and Google because large fines seem to be ‘petty cash’ to some of those companies. But shere price reduction wakes them up.

If anyone is concerned about a ‘key logger’ from the above email example getting your information Kaspersky latest offering of internet security includes software that stops key loggers from logging your information as you type.

A third example of fraud covered in this article relates to a company that received an email pro-forma invoice to pay from one of its regular suppliers. One day the finance department received a pro-forma invoice that needed to be paid immediately. The email address and the invoice itself looked entirely unremarkable. The sending company advised the finance department that they had recently changed banks and that the new details were on the invoice attached. Finance paid the £60,000+ ( $US 80,000) invoice.

The only problem was, that the invoice was completely fraudulent, the email address did read correctly unless you looked close (instead of wonderful.com it was wonderfull.com (just made up example to illustrate the methodology used) and the recipient in the finance department saw and read what they were used to seeing. The real question is, how did the perpetrators get all that information about what an invoice should be like, the real suppliers details, etc., their website and email addresses and more; it’s food for thought and make no mistake it can be so easy to allow one of these scams through your business; the chances are pretty high and the consequences could be dire and even bankrupt your business if taken to the extreme.

There is no doubt that the underlying email systems are no longer fit for purpose in general and have not been for some time. Notice that in the first example the scammer sent mail from ‘mail.bg’ and the second one (even more concerning) was from ‘outlook.com’. While the sending email addresses can be ‘replaced’ with any email address upon examination those two shown emails seemed to be real; indeed one of the perps even used Google to advise how to use Bitcoin for payment. But there are multiples of very large companies that every day offer a service but allow their email servers and systems to send out such threatening emails to users. Maybe it’s time to pressure these organisations (outlook.com, gmail.com and there are multiples of others) to actually filter their emails properly as well as the sendersbefore these sort of threats go out and create serious harm that these sort of messages could easily do.

Of course there are millions of other examples of fraud through an outdated abused email system (and other related internet technologies) that could be shown here, but the aim of this article is to educate readers so that they don’t fall foul to these sort of appalling scams.

One company, Network Systems has seen many of these sort of internet related issues and offers a cybercrime service to SME’s to help to create a safe environment for empolyees and business as they work on the internet today.

Hopefully this article will at least make the reader think very hard about how they are going to ensure protection of employees and their company and if nothing else that is a wothwhile objective. Using specialist companies will always help more than by just trying to put solutions in place created by someone without experience in this area and could actually save your company.

What is crypto?

If you’ve tried diving into this mysterious thing called blockchain, you’d be forgiven for recoiling in awe at the sheer obscurity of the technical jargon often used to frame it. So before we get into what cryptocurrency is and how blockchain technology can change the world, let’s discuss what blockchain actually is.

Simply put, a blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions, not unlike what we’ve been using to record sales and purchases for hundreds of years. The functionality of this digital ledger is, in fact, almost identical to a traditional ledger in that it records debits and credits between people. This is the basic idea behind blockchain; The difference is who keeps the books and who verifies the transactions.

With traditional transactions, payments from one person to another involve some sort of intermediary to facilitate the transaction. Let’s say Rob wants to transfer £20 to Melanie. He can either give her cash in the form of a £20 note, or he can use some sort of banking app to transfer the money directly to her bank account. In both cases, a bank is the intermediary to verify the transaction: Rob’s funds are verified when he withdraws money from a cash machine, or they are verified through the app when he makes a digital transfer. The bank decides whether to proceed with the transaction. The bank also has a record of all transactions made by Rob and is solely responsible for updating it whenever Rob pays someone or receives money in his account. In other words, the bank holds and controls the ledger and everything flows through the bank.

That’s a lot of responsibility, so it’s important that Rob feels he can trust his bank otherwise he won’t be risking his money with them. He needs to feel confident that the bank will not cheat him, lose his money, rob him and disappear overnight. This need for trust has largely influenced every major behavior and aspect of the monopolistic financial industry, even when it was discovered that banks were irresponsible with our money during the 2008 financial crisis, the government (another intermediary) chose to destroy the last shreds of trust by collapsing them. Bail them out rather than risk.

Blockchains work differently in one key respect: they are completely decentralized. There is no central clearing house like a bank, and no central ledger held by an entity. Instead, the ledger is distributed across a vast network of computers, called nodes, each of which holds a copy of the entire ledger on their respective hard drives. These nodes are connected to each other through a piece of software called a peer-to-peer (P2P) client, which synchronizes data across the network of nodes and ensures that everyone has the same version of the ledger at any given time. .

When a new transaction is entered into a blockchain, it is first encrypted using sophisticated cryptographic technology. Once encrypted, the transaction is converted into something called a block, which is basically a term used for an encrypted group of new transactions. That block is then sent (or broadcast) to the network of computer nodes, where it is verified by the nodes and, once verified, passed through the network so that the block can be added to the end of the ledger on everyone’s computer, under the list of all previous blocks. This is called a chain, hence the technology is referred to as blockchain.

Once approved and recorded in the ledger, the transaction can be completed. This is how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work.

Removal of accountability and trust

What are the advantages of this system compared to a banking or central clearing system? Why would Rob use Bitcoin instead of normal currency?

The answer is faith. As mentioned earlier, with the banking system it is important that Rob trusts his bank to protect and manage his money properly. To ensure this, extensive regulatory mechanisms exist to scrutinize the operations of banks and ensure they are fit for purpose. The government then controls regulators, creating a sort of tiered system of checks whose sole purpose is to help prevent wrongdoing and bad behavior. In other words, bodies like the Financial Services Authority exist precisely because banks cannot be trusted on their own. And banks often make mistakes and misbehave, as we’ve seen so many times. When you have a single source of authority, abuse or misuse of power tends to happen. The trust relationship between people and banks is awkward and uncertain: we don’t really trust them but we don’t think there’s much choice.

Blockchain systems, on the other hand, don’t need to trust them. All transactions (or blocks) in a blockchain are verified by nodes in the network before being added to the ledger, meaning there is no single point of failure and no single approval channel. If a hacker wanted to successfully tamper with the ledger on a blockchain, they would have to hack millions of computers simultaneously, which is nearly impossible. A hacker would also be largely unable to bring down a blockchain network, because again, they would need to be able to shut down every computer in a network of computers distributed around the world.

The encryption process itself is a key factor. Blockchains like Bitcoin use deliberately difficult mechanisms for their verification methods. In the case of Bitcoin, blocks are verified by nodes performing an intentionally processor- and time-intensive series of calculations, often in the form of puzzles or complex mathematical problems, which means that verification is neither instantaneous nor accessible. Nodes that commit resources to the verification of blocks are rewarded with a transaction fee and a grant of new bitcoins. Both have the task of incentivizing people to become nodes (since processing such blocks requires quite powerful computers and a lot of electricity), while also managing the process of creating – or minting – currency units. This is referred to as mining, because it involves a considerable amount of effort (by a computer, in this case) to produce a new product. This means that transactions are verified in the most independent way possible, rather than by government-controlled bodies such as the FSA.

This decentralized, democratic and highly secure nature of blockchains means that they can operate without the need for regulation (they are self-regulating), governments or other opaque intermediaries. They work not because people trust each other, but in spite of it.

Let that significance sink in for a while and begin to understand the excitement around blockchain.

Smart contract

This is where blockchain’s applications get really interesting outside of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. As one of the underlying principles of blockchain systems is the secure, independent verification of a transaction, it is easy to imagine other ways in which such a process could be valuable. Surprisingly, many such applications are already in use or in development. Some of the best are:

• Smart Contracts (Ethereum): Perhaps the most exciting blockchain development after Bitcoin, smart contracts are blocks that contain code that must be executed to fulfill the contract. The code can be anything, as long as a computer can execute it, but in simple terms this means that you can use blockchain technology (with its independent verification, trustless architecture and security) to create a kind of escrow system for any type of transaction. . For example, if you’re a web designer, you can create a contract that checks whether a new client’s website is up and running, and then automatically releases the funds to you when it does. No more chasing or running. Smart contracts are also being used to prove ownership of assets such as property or industry. The potential to reduce fraud is enormous with this approach.
• Cloud Storage (Storz): Cloud computing has revolutionized the web and ushered in the emergence of Big Data, leading to a new AI revolution. But most cloud-based systems run on servers stored in single-location server farms, owned by a single entity (Amazon, Rackspace, Google, etc.). This presents the same problems as the banking system, in that your data is controlled by a single, opaque organization that represents a single point of failure. Distributing data on the blockchain completely removes the trust issue and promises to increase reliability as the blockchain network is much harder to bring down.
• Digital Identification (ShoCard): Two of the biggest issues of our time are identity theft and data security. With vastly centralized services like Facebook containing so much data about us, and efforts by various developed-world governments to store digital information about their citizens in a central database, the potential for misuse of our personal data is terrifying. Blockchain technology offers a possible solution to this by wrapping your key data in an encrypted block that can be verified by the blockchain network whenever you need to prove your identity. Applications range from obvious replacements for passports and ID cards to other areas such as password replacement. It can be huge.
• Digital Voting: Highly relevant given the investigation into Russian influence in the recent US election, digital voting is suspected to be both unreliable and highly vulnerable to tampering. Blockchain technology offers a way to verify that a voter’s vote has been successfully cast while keeping their identity private. It promises to not only reduce election fraud but also increase general voter turnout as people will be able to vote on their mobile phones.

Blockchain technology is still in its infancy and most applications are far from common use. Even Bitcoin, the most established blockchain platform, is subject to massive volatility indicative of its relative novice status. However, the problems we face today in solving some of the major potential problems with blockchain make it an incredibly exciting and enticing technology to pursue. I will definitely keep an eye out.

Going paperless is a dream for many busy real estate agents, but until recently it was a scary prospect. However, new digital laws and creative real estate technology companies are helping to make the switch less scary, and realtors who have been preparing for years can now leave affordable paper. Without stacks of documents to move from place to place, real estate transactions are much faster and more economical. Many agents and investors working paperless can close more deals because they have more time—such advancements are good for the industry as a whole.

The road to a paperless real estate industry in the United States began in 2000 with the legalization of electronic signatures. Although most real estate agencies, government departments, and investors lacked the technology to digitally sign things at the time, it was important legal hurdles that enabled many industries to look to paperless transaction methods. By the end of 2005, more than 60 counties across the country (the primary storage point for real estate records) had developed electronic records management systems, and that number continues to grow. Other government moves toward paperless real estate include the Uniform Real Property Electronic Act, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, and the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.

Mortgage companies have also played a role in the shift to paperless real estate. In recent years the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has implemented many standards for electronic mortgages, which are followed by lenders across the country.

Laying these two foundations has enabled the paperless real estate industry to grow freely. Real estate title companies that have existed for decades are now offering paperless closing services that are attracting thousands of new clients each year. All a realtor needs to do to initiate a paperless transaction is to fax or scan an original document and send it to the paperless transaction company. Once the paper is digitized (usually on a secure website), paperless management companies enable both agents and investors to access the document and make changes as closing approaches.

It may be easier than you think to free yourself from paper and free up more time for your real estate business.

In this article I have briefly looked at how the Operating System(OS) deals with files.

definition

It is a collection of data that is usually stored on a secondary storage device such as a hard disk or floppy diskette.

They are operated on

An OS must provide a number of functions associated with files so that users can safely store and retrieve data.

Normal operation is

open

off

the creation

copy

Change the name

list

Additionally, operations on single data elements within a file are supported

read on

write down

search

File control block

A file control block (FCB), sometimes referred to as a file descriptor, is a data structure that holds information about a file. When an OS needs to access a file, it creates an associated file control block to manage the file.

The structure of file control blocks varies between operating systems, but most file control blocks include the following parts

name

Location of secondary storage

length

Date and time or creation or last access

nomenclature

Each OS uses a specific convention or convention for naming them.

MS-DOS uses eight character names, a period, followed by a three-character extension that indicates the file type. File names are not case-sensitive

UNIX file names can be up to 254 characters long and are case-sensitive.

Windows filenames can be up to 255 characters long and are not case-sensitive.

types

Types refer to the classification of file content such as a program, text, executable program, or data.

In the Windows operating system, the type file name is derived from the extension. Common types and their extensions are:

extension

Type

.bas

Basic source program

.c

c source program

.dll

system library

.doc

Word document

.exe

Executable program

.txt

the text

Windows applications (programs) associate with specific types. For example, the default application that opens to process a type.txt is the Notepad editor.

How an operating system keeps track of files

A hard disk has a large number of sequentially numbered sectors. As the file is created, free sectors are allocated to hold its contents and are marked as allocated.

To keep track of sectors and whether they are allocated or free and which files they belong to, the OS maintains several tables.

Andoot file system

When the OS is first installed, it creates a root file system on the disk that specifies how many sectors are available and how they will be allocated.

The root file system is a table of entries like a directory. In general, this is a fixed size, and once full, no more entries can be added. Each entry can be a file or another directory table.

The Andoot file system entry

This is highly operating system specific, but an entry might look like this,

name

Starting cluster number

length in bytes

Type

Date of creation and last modified rights

Permissions (an access control list)

Nowadays, technology is scaling to new heights of success at an incredibly fast pace. One of the latest victories in this direction is the evolution of blockchain technology. New technologies have greatly impacted the financial sector. In fact, it was originally created for Bitcoin – the digital currency. But now, it finds its application in many other fields as well.

This was probably the easiest to come across. But, what is blockchain yet to know?

A distributed database

Imagine an electronic spreadsheet, which has been copied countless times across a computer network. Now, imagine that the computer network is so smartly designed that it regularly updates the spreadsheet on its own. This is a broad overview of blockchain. Blockchain holds information as a shared database. Moreover, this database is continuously matched.

This approach has its own advantages. It does not allow storing the database in any single location. The records in it have true public attributes and can be easily verified. As there is no centralized version of the records, there is no way for unauthorized users to manipulate and destroy the data. Blockchain distributed databases are hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, making data easily accessible to almost anyone across the virtual web.

To make the concept or technology clearer, it’s a good idea to discuss the analogy in Google Docs.

Analogy to Google Docs for Blockchain

After the advent of email, the common way to share documents was to send a Microsoft Word doc as an attachment to a recipient or recipients. Recipients will take their sweet time going through the revised copy before sending it back. In this method, one has to wait till receiving the return copy to see the changes made in the document. This happens because the sender is locked out from making edits until the recipient completes the edits and sends the document back. Concurrent databases do not allow two owners to access the same record at the same time. This is how banks maintain the balance of their clients or account holders.

Unlike set practices, Google Docs allows both parties to access the same document at the same time. Moreover, it allows viewing a single version of both documents simultaneously. Like Shared Ledger, Google Docs also works as a shared document. The distributed part becomes relevant only when the sharing involves multiple users. Blockchain technology is an extension of this concept. However, it is important to note here that blockchain is not for document sharing. Rather, this is just an analogy, which will help to get a clear idea about this cutting-edge technology.

Notable Blockchain Features

Blockchain stores blocks of information across the network, which are identical. Because of this feature:

• Data or information cannot be controlled by a single, specific entity.
• There can be no single point of failure.
• The data is kept on a public network, which ensures absolute transparency in the overall process.
• The data stored in it cannot be destroyed.

Demands of Blockchain Developers

As mentioned earlier, blockchain technology has a very high application in the world of finance and banking. According to the World Bank, more than USD 430 billion in remittances were sent through it in 2015 alone. Thus, blockchain developers are in significant demand in the market.

Blockchain eliminates the middleman’s salary in such financial transactions. It was the invention of GUI (Graphical User Interface), which helped common people to access computers in desktop form. Likewise, wallet applications are the most common GUI for blockchain technology. Users use the wallet to buy things of their choice using Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

Since virtual currencies have a unique nature, they offer many advantages over traditional currencies. In the past few years, the world of digital currencies has been undergoing many positive changes. There are many cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin is one of the most popular. In this article, we are going to look at some of the significant benefits of paying with Bitcoin. Read on to know more.

1. User Autonomy

For many users, digital currency gives them much more freedom than traditional currencies. People can have better control over how they spend their money. The good thing is that they don’t have to deal with intermediaries like the government or banks.

2. Prudence

Another advantage is that things bought with Bitcoin are different. Only users can publish their bitcoin transactions. Also, they don’t have their names next to the transaction. Besides, these transactions are almost impossible to trace.

In fact, each transaction has a different Bitcoin address. But that doesn’t mean these transactions are impossible to trace. So, if you don’t want others to know where you spent your money, you can use cryptocurrency to make payments.

3. Peer-to-peer focus

Another major advantage of the Bitcoin payment system is that it is peer-to-peer based. In other words, users can receive and send payments without any authority approval. Payments can be made in seconds as long as the user is connected to the Internet.

4. No banking fees

Unlike conventional fiat currencies, Bitcoin comes with no deposit fees, overdraft charges or minimum balance fees. Hence, you don’t have to worry about your account maintenance or balance fees.

5. Low transaction fees

Generally, foreign purchases and regular wire transfers come with exchange costs and fees. Since cryptocurrencies do not require the participation of governments or any intermediary institutions, transaction costs are quite low. If you are a traveler, this can be a great advantage for you. Additionally, Bitcoin transfers are very fast, eliminating the need for authorization and long waiting times.

6. Mobile Payments

As with any online payment system, cryptocurrency users can make payments through their mobile phones as long as they are connected to the Internet. Hence, they don’t need to go to the bank to make purchases. Moreover, you don’t need to show your personal identity to complete the transaction.

7. Accessibility

Sincere users can receive and send bitcoins using their computers or smartphones, without the need to involve a traditional bank or other authority. Also, users don’t have to use their credit cards to make payments. So, Bitcoin allows more accessibility than other options you can try.

Long story short, these are some of the major benefits of paying with Bitcoin instead of using traditional payment methods. Hopefully, this article will help you understand cryptocurrency better.

Almost everyone stumbles upon terms like ICO, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency every now and then. What most of them do is stay away from these dreaded terms, do some research and study them carefully. It is easy to expect difference but challenging to study for the same. For those studio readers who want to carefully evaluate and choose what to look for in an ICO, we present a list of questions to ask before launching/investing in any ICO.

Here is the ultimate ICO checklist designed specifically for evaluating an ICO project with the why, what, when, how, if and BUT:

ICOs:

Is the project explainable in less than 60 seconds?

Have you set the ICO start and end date? How many coins will be sold at this stage?

Are the instructions clear for new investors to participate in ICOs?

Do you offer any discounts or incentives to early offer grabbers?

What are the minimum and maximum times of the pre-sale/ICO cap set?

What is your estimated conversion rate?

Is the project open source? Where to find the source code?

What is your token type and what will be the sole purpose of launching a thorough crowdsale?

Marketing:

Who are your competitors? Where are they located and what is their target market?

What is your competitive advantage and how do you get ahead at the same time?

How long will it take to launch and implement marketing strategies?

In how many languages ​​will you deliver your white papers and advertising initiatives?

What is your total addressable market (TAM) and what is your estimated impact on share?

How many exchange platforms do you plan to be listed on?

Expert Guide:

Who are the founders and what is their background?

Who is included in your list of advisors and backend team? Are their public track records and credentials available?

Who are the existing and potential partners?

Is there a clear roadmap available for investors, partners and advisors?

Will you be conducting an event, seminar, webinar or giving away an award?

Do you provide any expert guidance on free chat or skype calls?

Meaning:

Are there any other limitations or hidden costs?

How much are your employees and bounty hunters paid?

How will you use the money raised?

Would you pay someone in tokens? If so, how will they sell tokens on the market?

What do you do with unsold tokens?

What kind of costs do you expect?

Code of Conduct:

Is your project corporate or non-corporate entity?

Do you agree with your country’s respective securities and exchange board?

What are the social media links to your official accounts?

Have you provided your web address and your contact details?

These are some suggestions for ICO evaluation and ICO research, as many have googled. Investors can refer to these tips before investing in ICOs and companies will definitely find this checklist useful to implement.

To conclude, ICO success rate depends on a wide range of factors ranging from proper planning, end-to-end ICO management, pitch-perfect marketing and advertising strategy, etc.

Thank you for showing interest until the end of the article.

Bitcoin is the new cryptocurrency designed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2007 and brought into existence in the business world in 2009, widely accepted by a large number of investors as it promises higher returns on their investments. Bitcoin is used as an alternative currency in many countries. Many Bitcoin companies have been established expanding their customer base in different countries by offering profitable returns and easy changeable policies. A bitcoin generator is becoming a new trend that gives double or triple the amount invested.

Companies are giving their investors security base yet it is affected by market fluctuations, and the most modern software and hardware solutions make it understandable to common people. .

How To Use Bitcoin Generator

To learn how to use a free bitcoin generator, first open the bitcoin software on your desktop screen. Now connect it to your internet server, since it is secure and anonymous you can easily create or duplicate your problem without any hassle. So the main step to double your bitcoins is to deposit the sum first. To deposit money, you need to enter your bitcoin wallet address in the deposit bar. Now your wallet window is opened, from there transfer your money to deposit bar. For this purpose, click on send button and paste your bitcoin deposit address to send money to bitcoin software to double your amount. You will see a notification of successful money transfer in your Bitcoin software window. Now, this bitcoin currency will be converted into software currency, the amount will automatically double after few minutes. Now click on the deposit button, to see the deposited amount and double the money. Then click the refresh button to get the complete summary of your transaction, for example, if you deposit 0.10 bitcoins then your wallet will double amount to 0.20 bitcoins. Now to withdraw your bitcoin money, you need to go to your bitcoin wallet, from there click on receive button and copy the address displayed in your window. The next step is to paste the address in the Withdraw Bitcoin bar and click the Withdraw button. The whole process will take some time, but after completion, you will see a notification on your screen stating “Bitcoin Received” and Bitcoin will appear in your wallet.

A bitcoin generator is an easy way to make easy money. Bitcoin works based on cryptographic protocols. Bitcoin is the currency symbol through which users transact by sending and receiving money in bitcoins instead of real money. Bitcoin generator is a programming software that doubles or triples your bitcoins in 5 to 10 minutes with minimum balance in your bitcoin wallet. Many companies offer free bitcoin generators, but do thorough research before investing as many of them are scams. Bitcoin is the new currency for the new generation and has huge opportunities in the coming future.