Top Searches from IEEE Xplore - 28th July 2023

 

Hygge Energy Employs Blockchain to Aid EV Charging

Hygge Energy, pronounced as ‘Hoo-gah Energy’, is a blockchain energy start-up that aims to change electricity generation and distribution. In a conversation with EFY’s Sharad Bhowmick, the founder and CEO of Hygge Energy, Prateek Saxena emphasized the importance of local generation and absorption of clean energy to boost the EV charging infrastructure in developing countries. Here are some excerpts from the interview…

Read the full interview at: https://www.electronicsforu.com/market-verticals/power-electronics/henergy-blockchain-to-aid-ev-charging

Quiz 1: Post Assessment Quiz on Blockchain and AI

 

As crypto booms, exchanges need a variety of engineers

 As crypto booms, exchanges need a variety of engineers

TNN | Oct 6, 2021, 08.04 AM IST

The world is still divided on whether cryptocurrencies will survive. But for now, there’s intense action in the field. Including in India.
Market research firms have put Indians among the biggest users and holders of cryptocurrency. Several cryptocurrency exchanges – which allow you to trade in cryptocurrency, and even use them to purchase goods & services – have emerged in India, and most are doing phenomenal business. Coin-DCX became India’s first cryptocurrency unicorn in August when the exchange raised $90 million from investors. Coinswitch Kuber hit 10 million registered users in September, just 15 months from launch, making it perhaps the biggest exchange in India.

Building these exchanges requires a lot of software and engineering talent. Staffing firm Xpheno estimates there are more than 10,000 active job openings currently in the cryptocurrency segment in India. Even global exchanges are coming to India for talent. Nasdaq-listed Coinbase is establishing a technology facility in Hyderabad. Pankaj Gupta, Coinbase’s VP engineering and site lead for India, blogged in July about how India is seeing a boom in crypto-native talent. He said the company is hiring frontend engineers, data and machine learning engineers, product designers and many more. “These teams in India will be led by local engineering directors, who will have large, independent and autonomous charters. They are being intentionally set up for local decision-making to optimize for impact and velocity,” he wrote.

Exchanges need talent to build, maintain and improve multiple components. They need user-interface designers and front-end engineers to build a visually appealing application that is also simple and seamless to use, more so since users are new to crypto. They need engineers to build a trading engine that can quickly match buyers and sellers, and enable immediate transactions. They need to provide a variety of ways for people to use their cryptocurrency – not just as investment, but also for, say, payments (Unocoin allows users to recharge their Fastag, make bill payments). This requires building those interconnections.

They need to enable wallets for users to keep their cryptocurrency. They need to provide extremely high levels of security. The whole transaction system is typically built on a blockchain network, and while that provides for a lot of trust and security, blockchains have been hacked.
Exchange responsibilities

Avinash Shekhar, co-CEO of Zeb-Pay, says the talent around crypto deposit infrastructure is turning out to be a key requirement. “The exchanges have three responsibilities. One, if you are depositing Bitcoin from somewhere, we should have an automated system that takes this into account. The transaction typically happens on blockchain infrastructure. Two, as exchanges can be hacked, you need infrastructure to keep it safe. Three, when you place a withdrawal request, it needs to be processed in an automated manner – again using a blockchain infrastructure that is secure enough. Crypto engineers need to understand every block in the chain and how the data moves. There’s great demand for a blockchain engineer with an understanding of blockchain security, platforms, architecture, and standards.,” he said.

Ashish Singhal, founder of Coinswitch Kuber, says they look for skills in problem solving, product development, data, engineering, and security. The blockchain industry, he says, is putting a new face to security, but blockchain security talent has not evolved in India. “We had to go to Israel and the US for security experts,” he says.

Another major evolving area is smart contracts, built on the Ethereum blockchain network. These are collections of code that carry out a set of instructions when certain pre-stated conditions are met. These contracts, which make tampering of transactions impossible, are powering decentralised applications. Ethereum is also what has enabled the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which are digital assets designed to represent ownership of unique virtual items.

Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO & co-founder of Unocoin, says smart contracts allow users to create decentralised financing protocols, create NFTs, create automatically executing escrow contracts.

Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX, says smart contracts have created good demand for developers specialising in Solidity, the programming language preferred for smart contracts. He says developers familiar with Python will find it easy to learn Solidity as they have similar syntax.

Almost every company in the business is expanding. ZebPay’s head of HR, Geetika Mehta, says they plan to raise headcount from 220 now – of which 30% are engineers – to 400-450 in 6-9 months. WazirX had 35 employees in January; it’s now 300.

Coinswitch Kuber’s Singhal said they have grown to 350 people, from 20 last year, and they expect to be a 1,500-strong team by the end of the 2021-22 financial year. “A third of the talent will be engineers, specialising in data, security, and solving complex engineering problems,” he says.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/cryptocurrency/as-crypto-booms-exchanges-need-a-variety-of-engineers/articleshowprint/86799920.cms

Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak Opens Blockchain Firm

 Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak moves into blockchain with a token named after him.

WOZX went on sale on HBTC; Bithumb Global is next.

His company, Efforce, focuses on energy efficiency.

Read the full article at: https://beincrypto.com/apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-opens-blockchain-firm/

Blockchain (Accenture)

It’s changing the future as we speak—but where do you start? Harness Blockchain with real-world applications from the leaders in distributed ledger technologies.

To read the full article, visit:
https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/services/blockchain-index (Accessed on April 5, 2019)

Will Blockchain Replace EDI? Yes And No

The first version of the GS1 EPCIS standard was drafted in 2007 by GS1 and GS1 US. GS1 is a nonprofit organization that creates and maintains standards for business communications and GS1 US is a member of GS1. The standard enables organizations to create and share visibility event data, both within and across organizations. The standardized data (the payload) was intended to be exchanged as XML files. Little could anyone have foreseen the standard using blockchain as a transmission medium.

To read the full article, please visit:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/04/03/will-blockchain-replace-edi-yes-and-no/#2ccced9847d7 (Accessed on April 5, 2019)

Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2019: Entrepreneurs leveraging blockchain in business

An increasing number of enterprises have been exploring blockchain applications to make work flows more efficient and transparent. Commonly known to be the technology underlying cryptocurrencies, blockchain has proven its use case when applied in financial services, supply chain management, digital identification, among many others. A number of this year’s 30 Under 30 Asia list entrepreneurs have harnessed the power of blockchain in scaling businesses and growing investments.

To read the full article, please visit:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamelaambler/2019/04/01/forbes-30-under-30-asia-2019-entrepreneurs-leveraging-blockchain-in-business/#79b8ed822835 (Accessed on April 1, 2019)

Indian IT Giant TCS Developing Multiple Blockchain Platforms

India’s largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), is actively working on a number of decentralized projects leveraging R3’s blockchain platform and Microsoft Azure blockchain workbench. Per the company, the blockchain venture was initiated to accelerate the adoption of distributed ledger technology across a wide range of industries.

TCS Delves Deep Into Blockchain

As reported by ANI, IT giant TCS is developing five blockchain architectures, each offering a different solution ranging from digital identity to tokenization. The platforms will also facilitate solutions such as track-and-trace, asset monetization, and assets in common.

The Indian IT heavyweight divulged that the platforms will leverage R3’s blockchain platform, Codra Enterprise, and be hosted on Microsoft Azure cloud.

TCS, the world’s ninth-largest IT company by market cap, intends to develop advanced cross-industry blockchain platforms that would make it easy to deploy scalable solutions on the platform. Apart from developing shared ledgers, TCS will develop a number of solutions built on these decentralized architectures.

Global head of blockchain services at TCS, Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasan, stated:

“Some of the anchor solutions that we are building on these platforms include skills marketplace, anti-counterfeiting of luxury goods, affordable mobility, shared telecom infrastructure for 5G and loyalty and rewards programmes.”

While the plan seems ambitious, the company has not announced any timeline to launch of these enterprise-level blockchain platforms. However, TCS hopes that the cross-industry blockchain platforms will increase adoption of the technology.

Race to Become Blockchain Platform Leaders

With this latest development, TCS plans to work on a market position in the blockchain space. On that front, software powerhouse TCS has successfully been offering its blockchain solution dubbed Quartz. The Quartz blockchain solution allows enterprises in the financial ecosystem to use distributed ledger tech to significantly cut transaction processing cost.   

Earlier in January, Srinivasan stated that distributed ledger technology, along with artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT), can lead to new income opportunities.

“The combinatorial effect of blockchain with other next-gen technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and virtual reality, cannot only drive hyper productivity and business transformation, but also open up new revenue streams through disruptive innovation.”

While TCS is aggressively pursuing blockchain, other Indian software firms are not behind the curve.

One such company is Tech Mahindra, which has been very bullish on distributed ledger technology. In the past, Tech Mahindra revealed plans to use DLT to register vehicle numbers. Apart from that, the IT heavyweight also signed an MoU with the state government of Telangana to build a blockchain district that will foster startups working in the space.  

Moreover, Tech Mahindra also partnered with Microsoft to develop a blockchain-powered platform that would regulate unsolicited telecom communications.

Similarly, last year India’s second-biggest software firm Infosys developed a tailor-made blockchain trade finance network. The blockchain-powered platform is aimed to eliminate any opportunities for fraud in the Indian banking system.

Source: https://bitsonline.com/indian-tcs-blockchain-platform/(Accessed on 18 March, 2019)

How Does the Blockchain Work? Blockchain technology explained in simple words

Blockchain technology is probably the best invention since the internet itself. It allows value exchange without the need for trust or a central authority. Imagine you and I bet $50 on tomorrow’s weather in San Francisco. I bet it will be sunny, you that it will rain. Today we have three options to manage this transaction:

1. We can trust each other. Rainy or sunny, the loser will give $50 to the winner. If we are friends, this could be a good way of managing it. However, friends or strangers, one can easily not pay the other.

1. We can turn the bet into a contract. With a contract in place both parties will be more prone to pay. However, should either of the two decide not to pay, the winner will have to pay additional money to cover legal expenses and the court case might take a long time. Especially for a small amount of cash, this doesn’t seem like the optimal way to manage the transaction.

1. We can involve a neutral third party. Each of us gives $50 to a third party, who will give the total amount to the winner. But hey, she could also run away with all our money. So we end up with one of the first two options:trust or contract.

Neither trust nor contract is an optimal solution: We can’t trust strangers, and enforcing a contract requires time and money. The blockchain technology is interesting because it offers us a third option which is secure, quick, and cheap.

To read the full article, please visit:

https://medium.com/s/story/how-does-the-blockchain-work-98c8cd01d2ae (Accessed on March 5, 2019)

Good Reads: January 19, 2019

GOOD READS

Article / Infographic	Gist	URL / Source	Accessed On
How Technology Incumbents Can Realize Their Cloud Growth Ambitions	Cloud services and related software and hardware accounted for the majority of IT growth in 2013–17.	https://www.bain.com/insights/how-technology-incumbents-can-realize-their-cloud-growth-ambitions/	January 19, 2019
Top 5 Industries Blockchain is Likely to Disrupt [Infographic]	5 Industries Blockchain is Slated to Disrupt in The Coming Years	https://medium.com/data-tech/top-5-industries-blockchain-is-likely-to-disrupt-infographic-615fa03b9ebf	January 19, 2019
Three Ways AI is Impacting Logistics and Supply Chain	Transportation, logistics and supply chain processes are going through intense transformation. We have identified three ways AI can revolutionize supply chain management and logistics.	https://www.ssidecisions.com/blog/	January 19, 2019
Blockchain for Internet of Things	IoT solutions using blockchain can be built to maintain a continuously growing list of cryptographically secured data records protected against altering and updates. Such distributed systems will make our planet smarter, more productive, and open up a colossal scope of opportunities.	https://www.tcs.com/blockchain-for-iot	January 19, 2019
TCS a Leader in Blockchain Services: Everest Group	Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting, and business solutions organization, has been recognized as a Leader in the Everest Group PEAK Matrix™ for Blockchain Services[1].	https://www.tcs.com/tcs-leader-blockchain-services-everest-group	January 19, 2019
TCS Research and Innovation (Video)	MIT's Daniela Rus talks to TCS EVP and CTO K Ananth Krishnan on emerging applications of AI and robotics	https://www.tcs.com/tcs-cto-talks-to-mit-daniela-rus	January 19, 2019
Around the World: Latest Trends and Innovations	In this article, we take a look at the various technology trends and interesting solutions we came across while visiting different parts of the globe throughout the year	Electronics For You Volume 51, No. 1 January 2019 Page 54
The future of Present Technologies	Technology runs our lives these days. This article provides a quick look at the scope of the present technologies a few years down the line	Electronics For You Volume 51, No. 1 January 2019 Page 56
The latest in AI and its applications	AI is becoming a disruptive force that is redefining the modern industry. This article features some exciting applications of AI, along with a glimpse into the future, illustrating how AI will continue to transform industries and our lives	Electronics For You Volume 51, No. 1 January 2019 Page 34
How the IoT has evolved from M2M communication	The IoT is a network of devices connected to ISPs or WAN/MAN through an M2M gateway	Electronics For You Volume 51, No. 1 January 2019 Page 61
The Industries of tomorrow will be run by the IIOT	The Industrial Internet of Things enhances manufacturing and industrial processes.	Electronics For You Volume 51, No. 1 January 2019 Page 64
How the Blockchain can add transparency to Healthcare	Ever since the price of bitcoin went sky rocketing, the computer world has been excited about the blockchain. Everyday, new applications of the blockchain are being thought up and the focus has shifted to using it in every conceivable human activity. This article explains how blockchain technology can be used in healthcare	Open Source For You Volume 07, Issue 04 January 2019 Page 30
Potential Risks of Artificial Intelligence	Artificial Intelligence (AI) is benefiting society in about every way possible. AI-driven devices are becoming cognitive enough to aid people in times of need. However, AI can be a great risk to society if it ends up in the wrong hands.	Open Source For You Volume 07, Issue 04 January 2019 Page 40
OpenIoT: Enabling the Convergence of IoT and Cloud Computing	OpenIoT is a simple-to-use open source application, which connects all the sensors that use cloud technologies to make them an extension of your IoT application	Open Source For You Volume 07, Issue 04 January 2019 Page 100

IBM Earns Over 800 Patents In 2018; India 2nd Highest Contributor

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IBM inventors from India earned over 800 patents – the second highest contributor to the company’s global record of 9,100 patents in the US in 2018 – with nearly half in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, cyber security, blockchain and quantum computing.

One of the patents filed from India went to IBM inventors Shivali Agarwal, Gaargi B Dasgupta, Shripad J Nadgowda and Tapan K Nayak, the company has said in a statement. They developed an AI-based approach for structured representation and classification of noisy and unstructured data in tickets used in service delivery.

Ticket analysis helps create problem diagnostics, prediction of outages and prevention of issues in service delivery, for example for help desks.

“IBM is committed to leading the way on the technologies that change the way the world works – and solving problems many people have not even thought of yet,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO.

Among more than 1,600 AI patents included “Project Debater” that, with the use of Machine Learning, can debate humans on complex topics — identifying evidence such as relevant text segments in unstructured text data, which supports or opposes a claim or topic under consideration.

IBM inventors received more than 2,000 cloud computing and over 1,600 AI patents.

The new patents were granted to a diverse group of more than 8,500 IBM inventors in 47 US states and 48 countries.

Source: https://www.expresscomputer.in/artificial-intelligence-ai/ibm-earns-over-800-patents-in-2018-india-2nd-highest-contributor/31472/ (Accessed on January 16, 2019)