Data Is The New Oil, Blockchain Company Sets Up AI To Analyze Data

Data Is The New Oil

Blockchain startup Bitfury, the company which has recently hit a valuation of more than 1 billion dollars, launched an artificial intelligence unit (AI) to dig deeper and investigate data.

Blockchain, the decentralised digital ledger, became so important as the application it put up, the virtual currency Bitcoin rose to fame with massive adoption. The technology, that further developed in to the public and private sectors, has attracted worldwide attention for its ability to permanently register and track assets or transactions in all industries. Artificial intelligence is one of the technology sectors that attracted large funds to the technology this year.

The European blockchain company, The Bitfury Group, is setting up its artificial intelligence division (IS), the company’s chief executive officer told Reuters in a recent interview. Data is becoming the next oil, says Valery Vavilov, co-founder and CEO of the firm. He added that the company collected so much information that only 2% of this data could be analyzed so far; 98% is still awaiting analysis.

According to reports, the unit of artificial intelligence is still exploring the range of products it offers, and more details are expected by the end of this year or early next year.

Bitfury is supported by significant investors, who collected $ 80 million from risk firms such as Digital Galaxy, Macquarie Capital and Dentsu. The blockchain company was also exploring the making of an initial public offer or IPO last year, possibly in Amsterdam, London or Hong Kong.

Broader Adoption Of Bitcoin: Dutch Man Sells House For 30 BTC

Crypto Payments in the Real World: Can You Pay for Coffee With Bitcoin?

A broader adoption of Bitcoin on the way: a Dutch man sells a house for 30 Bitcoin. A Brabant man sells his house for bitcoin, while someone from Arnhem makes his purchases with the largest cryptocurrency. Tim Hanekamp of Eindhoven sells his house for bitcoin (BTC). He tells the Dagblad Brabants about his motives: “I don’t know anyone in Brabant who has done this. But I believe in technology. You don’t have to go to a bank, mortgage advisor or notary.”

The house is for sale for a price between € 250,000 and € 300,000. But Hanekamp prefers to receive hard bitcoins for his house. Hanekamp: “It’s useful because I don’t have to change. There’s a lot involved. You have to go to a mortgage advisor, you have to deal with the interests again.” According to De Brabander, a transaction with bitcoin means that it will mainly have fewer administrative problems. When Hanekamp has sold his house, he goes on a trip to the motor home: “The value could well be one million per coin, so I buy a much nicer house.”

Therefore, Bitcoin is particularly useful in this situation to avoid several intermediaries. Bitcoin is a payment method, but it is by no means suitable for all situations. That does not prevent an Arnhemmer from shopping with BTC. A Redditor proudly shows the receipt of your purchases. The sumBTC user has paid very well through the Bitcoin Lightning Network for, among other things, some nuts and fish sticks.

It is an official payment method in the corresponding supermarket. In many places on the Internet you can already pay with bitcoin, but physical stores do not yet support it. If you still want to pay with bitcoin or other crypto currencies, it depends, for example, on a debit card like Coinbase. In this specific store there is a way to pay directly with bitcoin and the second fast layer called Lightning Network. A scan of the QR code and it’s ready.

Study Says Only 2% Of Bitcoin Transactions Relate To Anything Illegal

Elliptic, a research firm in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), investigated more than 200,000 transactions in the Bitcoin network for their connection with criminal activity.

In order to sort out 203,769 transactions for a total of $ 6 billion, the research team used a machine-learning algorithm. The results were highly controversial: 77% of transactions were not classified at all, 21% were recognized as full and only 2% were illegal. And yet, researchers confidently state that artificial intelligence can significantly increase the effectiveness of anti-money laundering procedures.

Less than month ago, a similar study was conducted by Chainalysis and, according to its data, the share of transactions in the Bitcoin network related to criminal activity in 2019 is estimated at about 1%. That is, in general, the data from Elliptic analysts are almost no different from the results of a study conducted by Chainalysis. Note that in 2012 this figure was 7%.

Law enforcement agencies often turn to Elliptic for help, especially when it is necessary to identify cases of illegal use of cryptocurrencies. Algorithms developed by the company help determine whether Bitcoin is used for legitimate purposes, for example, by people who do not have access to banking services, or if unknown attackers try to use cryptocurrency for illegal activities.

“Despite the high performance indicators of our algorithms, their use is still fraught with some problems, the largest of which is false positives. The main objective of this study was to reduce the number of such responses. However, the key conclusion is that such machine-learning algorithms are very effective at detecting illegal transactions, ”said Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson.

Robinson also noted that in some cases, the system detected patterns for which it is difficult to find a description, but they corresponded to confirmed cases of illegal activities related to darknet markets, attacks by ransomware and other criminal activity.