IT Giant Oracle Confirms General Release of Its Blockchain Cloud Service

US computer technology multinational @Oracle confirmed the general release of its blockchain platform in an official press release July 16. The launch follows a series of trials with banking, business and government clients. Oracle Blockchain Cloud Service (OBCS) focuses on transaction efficiency and supply chain authentication, using Hyperledger Fabric as its basis. Existing users of a pre-release version of the product include Arab Jordan Investment Bank (AJIB), Indian Oil and Nigeria Customs, according to the press release. “Blockchain promises to be one of the most transformative technologies of our generation,” Oracle Cloud Platform executive vice president Amit Zavery said. “...With Oracle’s platform, enterprises can enhance their business, eliminate unnecessary processes, and transact with their distributed networks more easily, transparently and securely than ever before.” Oracle is not alone in its endeavors to leverage blockchain for supply chain and transaction streamlining. As Cointelegraph reported Monday, Accenture is in the midst of a concerted push to deliver similar results targeting the aerospace industry, also with Hyperledger Fabric. Among banks, current perceptions of blockchain are mixed, with some institutions questioning the true value of the technology for the banking sector. For transactions, others meanwhile appear positive, AJIB praising Oracle after using the pre-release version of the cloud platform. “Oracle’s blockchain platform has helped us minimize the complexity of electronic fund transfers by reducing cost, increasing efficiency and security levels, and ultimately improving the overall customer experience,” the company’s deputy general manager of information technology and security Ayman Qadoumi said.

https://cointelegraph-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/cointelegraph.com/news/it-giant-oracle-confirms-general-release-of-its-blockchain-cloud-service/amp?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fcointelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Fit-giant-oracle-confirms-general-release-of-its-blockchain-cloud-service

ICO to Build Next Generation AI Raises $36 Million in 60 Seconds

@SingularityNET raised $36 mln in one minute, completely selling out of its native #AGI tokens. While this is an enormous amount of money to raise in an incredibly short period of time, it’s somewhat unsurprising considering demand. The company asserts that the issue was massively oversubscribed, with 20,000 people registered to participate, seeking to buy $361 mln worth of tokens. The company reduced the number to a more manageable level, according to its press release, by: “[Screening] all applicants using layers of algorithms, in addition to manual review, to comply with global KYC/AML regulations. This reduced the pool of contributors to 5,000, but also set a new standard for fundraising via $Blockchain with respect to global legislation.” Artificial general intelligence SingularityNET aims to create a decentralized marketplace of AIs, where each AI can interact with one another (and pay one another) as needed to solve customers’ problems. Founder Ben Goertzel gave an example: “If you need a document summarized, as a user you can put a request into SingularityNet... You may get bids from twenty different document summary nodes...and you may choose one with the right balance of reputation and price. But now that document summary node if it hits something in the document it can’t deal with, it can outsource that...if the document summary node that you’re paying...hits an embedded video it can outsource that to a video summarizing node and it can then pay it some fraction of the money it was paid. Or, if it sees a quote in Russian...it can outsource that ...to a Russian to English translation node that can do that translation, then send it back to the document summary node.” Popular field Artificial intelligence and machine learning are hot trends in computing these days, but are largely controlled by massive corporations. These corporate titans develop their own proprietary systems and software and keep it in-house. SingularityNET intends to decentralize this heavily centralized field, allowing developers of AI tools to monetize them and non-corporate users to benefit from them. As with any new venture, it remains to be seen whether this is even possible, or whether behemoths like Google will forever dominate the field of AI. One thing is certain - there is plenty of interest in decentralized AI systems. SingularityNET’s token sale could not make that any more clear. Just like the Nicholas Cage movie, these tokens were “gone in sixty seconds.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ico-to-build-next-generation-ai-raises-36-million-in-60-seconds

Cisco, Dell, 451 Research and Industry Peers to Present at First Multi-Day Event for Fog Computing & Networking

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 17, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fog World Congress, the first multi-day conference and exhibit on fog computing and networking, announced highlight conference speakers, including industry leaders from Cisco, Dell, and 451 Research. These companies will join innovative technology leaders, esteemed research institutions and academia—Stanford, Princeton, Purdue, University of California and more—to collaborate on key challenges and opportunities in the development and deployment of fog computing and networking. This caliber of speakers is indicative of the growing significance of fog computing, and the crucial role it plays in enabling key technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G mobile systems, embedded artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. Fog computing and networking provides the critical infrastructure needed to drive emerging technologies forward and support complex systems in an ever-evolving market landscape. “Fog computing and networking will be an integral part of the Internet of Things and 5G,” said Christian Renaud, research director for IoT, 451 Research. “In order for these applications to be successful, a coordinated, distributed analytics system that spans from the device to the cloud will be critical. Fog World Congress gives us the most thorough look into the work of those leading the charge into the fog.” Fog World Congress will take place on Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at the Santa Clara Marriott. The event features more than 75 speakers, 50 sessions, hackathon, social impact workshop, plus an exhibit area to showcase fog-centric technologies, applications and research enabling new business models. Among the highlighted sessions will be the Fog Tank, where four prominent venture capitalists will take on the hottest startups in fog computing. Additional featured presentations and speakers include: Autonomous Vehicles—Driving Through the Fog: Transforming Transportation Through Autonomous Vehicles: Seval Oz, Aurima Inc. Fog & Networking—Fog Computing & Networking: The Multi-Billion $ Opportunity Before Us: Christian Renaud, 451 Research Edge—Fog and Edge: A Panel Discussion: MEC ETSI, EdgeX Foundry, OpenFog Consortium and IEEE Carrier’s Viewpoint—What's in it for us? A Carrier's Perspective of Edge Computing: Alicia Abella, AT&T IoT and Fog—Advancing IoT Through Fog Computing, Hilton Romanski, Cisco Building Fog Systems—Building a Fog System: Challenges, Opportunities and Standards: Dale Seed, InterDigital and Matt Vasey, Microsoft Privacy Issues in the New Digital Era: Akyut Dengi, Arizona State University; Bert Kaminski, GE Digital; Mitchell Golner, IoT Nation; May Wang, ZingBox Public Safety—How Fog Can Enhance Public Safety Through Video Analytics and Other Approaches: Aakanksha Chowdhery, Princeton University and Eileen Healy, Healy & Co Fog & IIoT—Fog Computing: Keystone of Industry 4.0: Don Banks, ARM; Sam Bhattarai, Toshiba; Flavio Bonomi, Nebbiolo Technologies; Andy Chang, KUKA Robotics and Wilfried Steiner, TTTech Healthcare—Fog Computing, Health Care and Life Sciences: Patricia Florissi, Dell/EMC Blockchain—Using Blockchain In Fog To Secure Industrial Workloads and Decentralized Deployments: Susanto Irwan, Sensify Security and Ruchir Tewari, Nebbiolo Technologies

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/17/1148633/0/en/Cisco-Dell-451-Research-and-Industry-Peers-to-Present-at-First-Multi-Day-Event-for-Fog-Computing-Networking.html