Tech giants explore new OpenAI opportunities as ChatGPT, the latest chatbot launched

  OpenAI, which Elon Musk helped to co-found back in 2015, is the San Francisco-based startup that created ChatGPT. The company opened ChatGPT up for public testing in November 2022. In under a week, the artificial intelligence model amassed over a million users, according to OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. By the end of January, ChatGPT was averaging about 13 million visitors per day. Users have had ChatGPT write everything from essays, to lyrics and even correct computer code. ChatGPT is part of a growing field of AI known as generative AI, which allows users to create brand new content including videos, music and text. But generative AI still faces a number of challenges, such as developing content that is inaccurate, biased or inappropriate. Now enterprises and the public are wondering what wide access to AI will mean for businesses and society.

 Chapters: 00:00 — Intro 01:36 — Chatting with ChatGPT 03:03 — Understanding ChatGPT 06:39 — Use cases and limitations 10:09 — Future implications

10X Your Excel Skills with ChatGPT 

 In this step-by-step tutorial, learn how you can exponentially improve your Excel skills using OpenAI's ChatGPT artificial intelligence. Write nested functions with ease, calculate the number of unique text values in a list, write a basic invoicing macro, and more, all with just a few clicks and a few basic refinements.

ChatGPT Beginner's Guide

 今天一起來看看ChatGPT使用教學 文案 報告 論文 作業 文章 作文按這邊訂閱我的頻道：https://bit.ly/applemeisubscribe

 

7个用ChatGPT賺錢的方法 如何用OpenAI人工智能赚钱机会

Driving innovation: Nigerian artist Malik Afegbua creates hyper-realistic pictures of African people using artificial intelligence at his home in Lagos. China leads the world in this technology, as well as in the number of AI journals and related publications. — Reuters

SHANGHAI: Chinese tech companies are upping the ante in the fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content sector as ChatGPT, the latest chatbot launched by US-based artificial intelligence research company OpenAI, gains wide popularity since its November debut and revolutionises the field due to its advanced conversational capabilities.

Leveraging machine learning algorithms, ChatGPT is able to mimic humanlike responses with AI-generated content (AIGC) and assist people with tasks such as writing essays and scripts, making business proposals and even checking programme bugs, which it does within seconds.

AIGC-related stocks continued to rally in the A-share market, with Chinese AI companies, such as Cloudwalk Technology and Speechocean, seeing their shares surge by the daily limit of 20% on the science and technology innovation board on Monday.

Experts said that AIGC is likely to become a new engine driving innovation in digital content production and freeing human creators from tedious tasks, with a wide range of commercial applications in fields such as culture, media, entertainment and education.

Chinese tech heavyweight Baidu Inc announced yesterday that it will complete internal testing of its AI chatbot service, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, called “Ernie Bot” in March.

The Beijing-based company has invested large sums of money in developing its Ernie system, a large-scale machine-learning model that has been trained on massive data over several years and possesses in-depth semantic comprehension and generation capabilities.

Robin Li, co-founder and chief executive officer of Baidu, said in January that AIGC will subvert existing content production models in the next decade, and AI has the potential to meet massive demand for content at a 10th of the cost and a hundred or thousand times faster.

Jianying, an AI-powered short-video editing app launched by Chinese tech company Byte-Dance, allows users to generate creative videos by simply putting in a few keywords or a paragraph of text.

Online gaming company Net-Ease has released its AI music creation platform, Tianyin, where users can customise a song by entering lyrics.

Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Centre at Zhejiang University’s International Business School, said that ChatGPT, as a milestone in AIGC-related technologies, uses reinforcement learning from human feedback to train the data model, with significant enhancements in natural language processing capacities that improve the logic of responses.

Chinese enterprises should step up efforts to roll out indigenous versions of the AI-powered chatbot and increase investments to improve related algorithms and computing power, Pan said.

Chen Jia, an independent strategy analyst, said: “Chinese tech enterprises have unique advantages in expanding AI application scenarios globally.”

China has made significant progress in developing the AI industry.

A Stanford University report showed that China filed more than half the world’s AI patent applications in 2021 and continued to lead the world in the number of AI journals, conference papers and related publications.

Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba have invested heavily in promoting the commercial use of AI, and some Chinese AI unicorns have grown rapidly in recent years, Chen said.

But he noted that Chinese tech companies lag behind top-notch foreign competitors in fundamental research and development input and comprehensive innovation abilities.

“AIGC is in the initial stage of development, and there is still a long way to go to realise large-scale commercialisation, as the application scenarios and related laws and regulations are far from mature,” said Guo Tao, deputy head of the China Electronic Commerce Expert Service Centre.

Meanwhile, the use of AIGC-related technologies raises concerns about ethics, copyright protection and privacy, he added.— China Daily/ANN 

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Learn to invest in stocks properly

 

Self-made millionaire Ng will teach you how to  generate safe returns

PETALING JAYA: Money games, GameStop frenzy, the constant rise and fall of crypto, to the untrained eye, these seem like the way to “invest”.

Adrenaline-pumping with a false promise of insane returns by the very next day as well as the constant monitoring of charts and graphs, it’s not for the faint-hearted and certainly not for everyone.

Amid all these fleeting trends, investment scams and market noise, millennial investor, Alex Ng, goes about his daily life calmly, collecting passive income and watching his investment double or triple in value.

But he wasn’t always like this.

He started dabbling in the stock market at 19. He got sucked into trends, chased short-term profits and bought whatever stocks his broker recommended.

And by 21, he had lost two-thirds of his parents’ retirement fund from investing haphazardly.

“It was a huge wake up call for me. It made me realise that what I was doing wasn’t investing. I was gambling in the stock market. Higher stakes and worse damages than if I would have gambled in the casino,” he said.

However, his saving grace was his fortitude.

He knew the importance of investing, if done properly. Growing up in a middle-class household, that was his ticket to afford himself and his family a good life.

“With just RM3,000 of my own savings, I found some mentors and learned the proper way to invest,” said Ng, who was a self-made millionaire by the age of 29.

Having been through that harrowing experience and turning his life around, he wants to make sure that no one makes the same mistakes he did.

He’s now a master trainer and speaker at VI College, the region’s leading financial education provider, helping aspiring and uninformed investors to develop the proper skills, knowledge and strategy.

The safe and consistent way of investing gets easily drowned out and might seem boring in contrast to the stock bros’ mantra of “high risk, high return” or the excitement and overinflated egos in the likes of The Wolf of Wall Street.

“Investing safely and consistently doesn’t mean you can’t get handsome returns. It just means that even if you start small, with consistent effort, your returns will multiply and compound,” he said.

In VI College, Ng and his peers have designed the programmes with beginners in mind. After VI College’s five-day bootcamp, even those who come in with zero knowledge can venture into their investment journey with confidence.

“In fact, many of my students with prior investing experience also saw the programme as a total eye-opening experience,” said Ng.

Students are added into the VI Community after the programme with support and guidance from trainers, coaches and peers.

VI College has also developed its own stock analysis tool, VI App, to make investing smarter, faster and easier.

“With VI App, you can easily check the risk rating, the overall health and performance of the company in just a few seconds,” he explained.

8BIT, the FinTech entity behind VI App, is licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s central bank.

Check out VI App at www.vi.app.

“At the end of the day, we want to empower as many people as possible with financial literacy.

“That’s why our programme and tools like VI App are all designed to make it simple for everyone to start investing,” he said.

Join Ng to discover the right and safe way to invest in the “Discover Secret Stock Investing Techniques Webinar” on June 19.

Organised by Star Media Group together with VI College as the Education Partner, this free two-hour masterclass is designed to teach individuals across all age groups to generate safe and consistent returns from local and the US stock market.

To register, please click into http://bit.ly/stockinvestment2021

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Many investors suffered huge losses when they sold off their stock holdings at low prices at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Alex Ng, master trainer and speaker at VI College, shares how he weathered the market turmoil.

The key to surviving and even thriving during an unprecedented crisis is simple, he says:

"Stay invested, but do not be fully invested at all times."

Thank you The Edge Malaysia for the news feature!  

 

theedgemarkets.com

Investing: Keeping 40% cash at all times

Many investors suffered huge losses when they sold off their stock hol

Be the bull in a bear market – stop procrastination

https://youtu.be/UzoZxKmLOAI

We’re almost well into the third quarter of 2020 – have you made headway in any of this year’s financial priorities and goals? Or perhaps you have been thrown off guard by the state of affairs in by the Covid-19? In a challenging environment like now, it is even more crucial to sit down and do a critical review of your latest financial status.

TIME flies by quickly when you’re going about your daily grind. We’re almost well into the third quarter of 2020 – have you made headway in any of this year’s financial priorities and goals?

Or perhaps you have been thrown off guard by the state of affairs in by the Covid-19? In a challenging environment like now, it is even more crucial to sit down and do a critical review of your latest financial status.

Loss of livelihood, pay cuts, unemployment, business closures, and a looming global recession – this is the trail of devastation left by a virus which has played havoc around the globe.

Interesting enough, if this health crisis is not enough to shake you into action to take charge of your finances, then what will?

According to the Oxford English dictionary, procrastination is defined as a postponement, “often with the sense of deferring though indecision, when early action would have been preferable, ” or as “defer[ing] action, especially without good reason.”

Throughout my experience as a licensed financial advisor, I have met many people who procrastinated over reviewing their financial status, let alone in growing their wealth. There are many reasons for this. Some lack the knowledge on where to begin, while others may cite the poor state of economy or our poor tax regime. However, the bigger reason usually lies in our tendency to procrastinate.

Procrastination is one of mankind’s biggest weaknesses – we have all procrastinated doing something important at some point. But in the world of finance, procrastination can result in an opportunity loss to mitigate risk and in growing wealth – sometimes an opportunity which can never be recovered. After all, it takes time for any investment to compound into a significant figure.

Yap ming HuiYap ming Hui

In this article, I’m going to highlight some of the common reasons people use to put off taking actions on their financial matters.

> “I don’t have enough time to plan and invest”

This is a common reason people often say, when putting off investing. In today’s economy, most households require both spouses to work full-time jobs in order to afford the lifestyle that they desire. In the office, you’re stressing about deadlines, projects to complete, and deadlines to meet.

At home you’re likely seeing to your family, social life, and chores, and any leftover time is probably spent away vacationing to rejuvenate so you can rinse and repeat. Add kids to the equation, and you’ll barely have any time left to breathe.

Who really has the time to spend to research, plan and invest? After all, you still have 20 years headstart till your retirement, you should be able to put it off for later, right?

Wrong. Pushing things for later is comfortable, as you convince yourself that it will get done eventually. However, as most of us know by now, later is a concept that is never ending. There is always a “later” to convince yourself about. Before you know it, too much time would have passed and you’ll have too little time to play catch up to achieve the financial goals you could have well achieved if you started earlier.

What you need to do: Set a date and time and clear your schedule. If being at home is too much of a distraction with the family present, then find a place where you can be isolated to focus on your financial planning. Alternatively, outsource these efforts to an independent financial advisor who can review your financial status and manage the wealth for you.

> “I don’t have enough money to plan and invest”

Most people don’t realise it, but having enough money is a matter of perspective. If you don’t have enough money to invest when you’re earning RM5,000 a month, do you think you will have enough to invest when you’re earning RM50,000 a month? Believe it or not, I have met several people earning around RM50,000 or more per month and still lament about not having enough to save and invest.

We always think along the lines of “if only we make more money”, but once we actually start making more money, our expenses and lifestyle will also go up a notch.

The famous Parkinson’s Law coined by C. Northcote Parkinson in his book The Law and The Profits illustrates this concept best. The law says that work expands to fill the time that is allocated to complete it. In other words, if given a 24-hour deadline, a 20-minute job will take a day to complete.

He goes on to say that individual expenditure does not only rise to meet income but it tends to surpass it, and probably always will. So, if you’re waiting for a time when you feel you have enough money to save and invest, that time will never come.

What you need to do: Take a long hard look at your expenses. This is critical since we are now in challenging economic times. Mindfully track your spending habits for a month and cut back on luxuries that you can live without. If it helps, set up a standing instruction with your bank to automatically transfer a portion of your salary into another bank account. Use that to start investing. Every small portion helps, so don’t think that cutting back on a small luxury is insignificant.

> “I don’t really need to invest”

People won’t admit to thinking this, but they do. This fallacy of not needing to invest stems from the fact that when they retire someday, they will have their EPF savings to rely on. Technically, if you are earning a comfortable amount and do not make any EPF withdrawals before you retire, you may be right in thinking this.

However, this is hardly the case. EPF has reported that more than two-thirds (68%) of EPF members aged 54 had less than RM50,000 in EPF savings, while only 18% of its members had the minimum savings target of RM240,000 in their account by 55. This amounts to a monthly withdrawal of RM1,000 to cover basic needs for 20 years – sufficient if you want to live a basic retirement lifestyle, but nowhere near what is needed for a comfortable retirement in a middle-class lifestyle.

So if you’re thinking of relying mainly on your EPF savings, think again. Your EPF should act as an additional retirement fund on top of your other retirement savings, instead of being the only pillar in your retirement plan.

What you need to do: Start planning now for additional retirement savings. Before you invest, determine the lifestyle that you want to live when you’re retired and calculate how much you’d roughly need over the span of your retirement. Don’t know where to start?

Use a holistic financial planning app, like iWealth, to do a comprehensive calculation on your retirement and other major financial goals. Remember to factor in inflation.

While half of the year has flown by just like that, it’s never too late to examine your financial health and take the necessary steps to protect and grow your wealth.

Over the years I’ve shared many articles to inspire middle class folk like yourselves to take control of your financial destiny.

I certainly hope this knowledge has proven useful and relevant to your personal circumstances.

However, I also hope that you have begun putting into place some of these practices. Today, you may have gotten a better idea of what has been stopping you from investing properly.

Procrastination is a very human trait – but if you’re able to identify what’s been holding you back and take the necessary measures to monitor yourself and counter this, you’ll already have the upper hand on your future.

Remember, true power comes from knowledge. But knowledge without action, is useless.

During good times, there may not be an urgency to act. But we have now arrived at an unprecedented juncture where there will be a cost or consequence to our inaction. If this is not the time to take the bull by the horns, then when?

By Yap Ming Hui

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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Bitcoin must not in your retirement financial planning portfolio

Bitcoin investments have undeniably become a trend among savvy investors in search of the golden goose, but one financial planner is against the use of it as part of the financial planning portfolio for retirement.

Max Growth Wealth Education Sdn Bhd managing director Nicholas Chu said one should not use bitcoin as part of the retirement portfolio and the public must be well aware of the risk in bitcoin trading before getting in.

“It is not asset-backed, it is very unsecure. It is, basically, you want to participate in the future changes. It’s not a proper financial planning way. It is just an experimental thing that you want to go through in this era, but it is not a proper investment product,” he told SunBiz.

“I definitely don’t agree if they use this for their financial planning. But for those who are able to try new ventures, they can go ahead provided they have extra money. If this doesn’t affect their existing financial planning, then I’ll leave it to them. We need to tell them the pros and cons of this investment. It’s up to the clients to do the final decision,” he said.

Chu cautioned on the uncertainties of bitcoin trading, which is driven by market forces. “It is beyond anybody’s control, all the participants contribute to the bitcoin value. From that, I can say that there are a lot of uncertainties in the future,” he said.

Nonetheless, with the setting up of a few bitcoin exchanges, Chu noted that there will be demand and supply with tradeable markets available.

Bitcoin was the best-performing currency in 2015 and 2016, with a rise of 35.8% and 126.2% respectively.

Year to date, bitcoin prices have leaped more than three times. It stood at US$2,840 (RM12,140) as at 5pm last Friday.

Bitcoins are by the far the most popular cryptocurrency, which exists almost wholly in the digital realm and has no asset backing it. Bitcoin generation, known as mining, while open to anyone with a “mining application” on their computer, needs a great deal of computing power to solve complex algorithms which are later verified with the entire bitcoin network.

Colbert Low, founder of bitcoinmalaysia.com, said the recent spike in bitcoin prices could be partly due to the legalisation of bitcoin by the Japanese government.

He is unsure if the sharp rise in bitcoin prices will create a price bubble, but stressed that one cannot judge its price movement based on the “old economic theory”.

“This is a new economy based on a different model. It’s very hard to say,” Low opined, noting that there has been a growing number of retail outlets that accept bitcoin.

He foresees the usage of bitcoin propagating, especially in different types of payment methods.

However, Low opined that there will not be any “big movement” in the local market if the regulators do not regulate bitcoin.

“Our new Bank Negara governor is forward thinking and he is very much into fintech, technology and innovation. So there would definitely be improvement,” Low said.

The positive development of blockchain will be a catalyst for the growth of bitcoin, he added.

“Blockchain is a real thing that will change the way the IP system is architectured. We need to go down to a deeper level to see how blockchain can change the current problem and solve it.

“There are a lot of projects right now, over 500 companies are looking at this (blockchain) right now. Even IBM, HP and Microsoft are looking at it.”

Blockchain refers to distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, secure from tampering and revision. Bitcoin is just an application or software that runs on blockchain technology.

“If you look at blockchain technology, government agencies like the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are looking at it. This is the best way to secure your data,” Low said, noting that the usage of bitcoin will help reduce operating cost.

Currently, there are about 16 million bitcoins in the market and the number is capped at 21 million.

Bank Negara has said that it does not regulate the cryptocurrency and advised the public to be cautious of the risks associated with the usage of such digital currency.

Source: By Lee Weng Khuen sunbiz@thesundaily.com

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  Millennials Will Destroy Bitcoin

What is a BitCoin? Explained - Tech Tip Irrational exuberance is alive and well. A textbook bubble in Bitcoin prices is developing... 

Millennials Will Destroy Bitcoin

What is a BitCoin? Explained - Tech Tip

Irrational exuberance is alive and well.

A textbook bubble in Bitcoin prices is developing right now.

And it has everything to do with Bitcoin's investors.

I'm probably not going to gain any friends with this perspective. But there are inarguable factors that suggest Bitcoin's own buyers are irrationally driving up prices. And their exuberance is setting the market up for a crash.

The Secret Gold Market They're NOT Telling You About This hidden playground is completely OFF LIMITS to retail investors... But it holds a secret that can help you predict spikes in gold with mysteriously uncanny accuracy... Here's how you can piggyback off it for gains of 468%, 935%, 1,657%, and more... Click here now for full details.

Let me clear one thing up about Bitcoin before I explain why I think prices are eventually headed for a crash...

As I argued before, Bitcoin is a legitimate form of money. But for the time being, it's being treated as a speculative investment.

Money is typically used in exchange. And while Bitcoin can be used in exchange, it's largely not. Gary Schneider, Professor of Accounting at California State University, says only about 10% of Bitcoin is held by people who use it as currency. The large majority are speculators hoping to sell at higher prices.

The fact that the market is dominated by speculators is not necessarily the problem for Bitcoin. And here's where I'm sure to piss some people off... The problem for Bitcoin is its buyers.

Who are they?

Well, according to a recent survey, approximately 60% of Bitcoin owners are under 35 years old.

In short, most Bitcoin buyers are millennials. And that's all we need to know about them to make an inarguable point (told you I wouldn't be making any friends here).

The fact is this: A 35-year-old speculator intrinsically has much less experience in risk management than a 60-year-old. And remember, most Bitcoin owners are mostly speculators, as opposed to users of the product.

AND remember they're speculating on a currency, which is among the most volatile of financial instruments.

AND remember they're speculating on what essentially amounts to a new, experimental currency.

All this considered, Bitcoin looks to me as one of the (if not the) most speculative financial instruments available...

Expect for Bitcoin's derivatives, of course.

Yes, believe it or not, Bitcoin has a futures market. And there are products that offer even more risk. On its Perpetual Bitcoin/USD Swap Contracts, BitMEX offers up to 100x leverage!

But to really understand why I think Bitcoin is eventually headed for a crash, let's consider the most famous market bubble in history...

Dutch Tulip Mania

In the 17th century, formal futures markets developed in the Dutch Republic, providing the infrastructure for a massive bubble in the price of tulip bulbs.

The tulip first became fashionable in France, where early modern ladies of the aristocracy began sporting the flower on their dresses. From there, the tulip became the flower to show off social status and wealth. The demand for bulbs subsequently skyrocketed, and prices immediately followed.

At the peak of Tulip Mania in 1637, a single tulip bulb could cost as much as 10,000 gilders, the price of a nice middle-class townhouse in Amsterdam. According to one author, 12 acres of land was once offered for one rare bulb. For a flower bulb!

The Semper Augustus was the most coveted of all Dutch tulips.

Of course, the bubble eventually burst. The price of tulip bulbs collapsed, and fortunes in perceived value disappeared over night.

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Here's what I really want you to take away from this story...

If we consider whom the people were who took part in Dutch Tulip Mania and compare them to the majority of Bitcoin owners, it seems both groups share the same shortcomings.

First, we know both groups are speculators betting on the hot new product. But I think we can also make good assumptions to compare the investment sophistication of the Dutch tulip investors and today's Bitcoin buyers.

Because formal futures markets were only recently developed, the Dutch tulip buyers were inherently unsophisticated investors. All of them. They simply didn't have the experience.

The majority of today's Bitcoin buyers are generally younger, so they share the same inexperience. For many Bitcoin buyers, I imagine it represents their first real investment. They simply don't have experience in risk management. And I think that's pretty clear considering some are buying products with 100x leverage!

Bitcoin could be the tulip of the 21st century with the development of a textbook bubble. And I think could be setting itself up for an eventual crash.

Now, even though I've been talking about a crash in Bitcoin prices, there's an epilogue to the Dutch tulip story that's often overlooked... and that actually provides a bullish outlook for the technology.

Truth is, the Dutch tulip bubble never really ended... it evolved. The price of tulip bulbs collapsed in the 17th century. But the flower industry at large eventually recovered and has never been bigger. Global floral production value is currently estimated at $55 billion.

People still pay thousands for rare flowers. In fact, an anonymous buyer paid over $200,000 for a rare orchid in 2005. And that's not even considered the most expensive flower in the world. Rose breeder David Austin spent 15 years and $5 million to develop Juliet rose.

My point is, the tulip as an individual product lost favor. But the collapse of the tulip market didn't completely kill the flower market. In the same way, I don't expect a collapse of Bitcoin prices to completely kill the blockchain-based currency market.

Bitcoin is simply one product of many blockchain-based currencies. A crash in Bitcoin would throw a wrench in the blockchain-based revolution. But there is little doubt that blockchain technologies are the future.

As we speak, every major central bank and large financial institution is researching how to implement blockchain into its own systems. It has already been proven to eliminate verification redundancies and improve security, and new applications are being tested every day.

So while I think Bitcoin itself could eventually be headed for a crash, the blockchain technologies that are supporting all these digital currencies seem set for unprecedented growth.

Until next time,

Luke Burgess

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Digital currencies rally, but caution prevails 

While investing in the future is the way to go, it comes with risks and rewards. The best strategy would be to not be in a rush. Do your homework.

THIS week, the rally in crypto currencies is at its all-time high.

Bitcoin, the pioneer in digital currency, surged to over US$1,700 per coin in anticipation of a reversal in United States financial regulators’ ruling to allow for an exchange-traded fund for Bitcoin and other factors.

Bitcoin was trading at US$935 on March 24. It rose 82%, pushing its market capitalisation to over US$28bil.

Ether, another such currency, surged from US$8 on Jan 1 to US$90 this week, gaining 1,125% in five months.

The market capitalisation of the 700-over currencies is over US$50bil. The promoters believe it is the currency of the future, hence the rise, but the naysayers believe it is entering a speculative bubble.

But there are some who are ditching gold to mine Bitcoins.

It is a fact that crypto currencies are gaining traction from their inception in 2009. Now, at least 150 organisations including Apple, Walmart, Sears, eBay, Overstock.com, Microsoft, Steam, Expedia and even Subway accept them in exchange for goods.

So, what is Bitcoin then?

It is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically, not blocked by any nation or government, not printed like dollars and ringgit but produced by people. Crypto currencies are digital currencies that use encryption to secure transactions and control how new coins are made.

You and I can get Bitcoins by “mining” computers that validate blocks of transactions using software to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. If you solve it first, you are rewarded with new Bitcoins.

Bitcoin is the mother of all crypto currencies – also known as virtual currencies, digital currencies and private currencies.

Other than Bitcoin and Ether, there is also Dogecoin, Augur, Chinacoin, Litecon, Dash, Waves and Zcash. There are over 40 exchanges globally to trade in Bitcoins.

All this came about because of fintech, the financial services technology that is disrupting the financial services sector with faster, cheaper and so-called “reliable” transactions for money transfers, bank exchange rates and other money-related transactions. The average clearance is a 12-hour period, which apparently the banks cannot match.

In Brazil, people use Zcash to pay for their taxes, electricity bills and purchases.

This week, Australia said there would be no double taxation for crypto currencies and to treat it just like other currencies from July 1, paving the way for greater usage.

Many are betting on crypto currencies because of the lure that they are the currency of the future. Would you?

Since 2009, there have been gainers and losers, so you decide.

All these digital currencies came about because of the Internet and data. The value of data and digital services is becoming more apparent, and in the digital era, data is the new currency.

Amid all this is blockchain, which is simply a digital ledger that keeps track of Bitcoin transactions and transfers it globally. It boasts of instantaneous transactions, transparent and cheaper than the traditional ways. This is why banks are hurriedly getting their acts together in the area of fintech so as to not miss the boat.

There is a growing number of mergers and acquisitions and crowdfunding for blockchains. Last month, music-podcast-video streaming service Spotify bought over blockchain technology company Mediachain Labs to help reward online content owners with royalty payments.

Other telcos and IT firms are getting into blockchain because they don’t want to miss out on anything. Other payment companies are getting into the act too. There is just too much interest in this new wave of doing things.

The journey of crypto currencies, however, is not without hurdles, and there are plenty out there that cannot be ignored. Even blockchain’s growth cannot be ignored, especially since it is being positioned by those championing it as the de facto technology of the future.

But will it really be all that or will it just add another layer to the overall cost?

All these transfers do not need regulation as yet, something that central bankers don’t like. In fact, Bank Negara is already in the thick of things where fintech is concerned.

While investing in the future is the way to go, it comes with risks and rewards. The best strategy would be to not be in a rush. Do your homework, as there is also the other side of Bitcoin – fake websites, fake online gaming sites, trading, etc.

I bet you would know of someone who has lost money mining Bitcoin or Ether. You honestly wouldn’t want to be put in a spot like those caught up in the recent forex scam and the earlier gold scam.

It would be good too to bear in mind that the sweet spot of crypto currencies has been linked to terrorism financing, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud.

Trust and transparency have been the bedrock of financial institutions all these years. Ensure your bedrock is solid, but at the same time, remember what the former US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke had said in a letter to US senators about virtual currencies, that they “may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure, and more efficient payment system”.

Do you think blockchain will bring trust and transparency to the world of crypto currency? Share your thoughts with me at bksidhu@thestar

Source: The Star by b.k. sidhu

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Property in a digital era

WITH digital technology all the rage and taking the world by storm, we look at how science and automation has managed to change and revolutionise the way we do things, in this section, property.

While the internet has changed the way we receive information and connect with others and the smart phone transformed the whole concept of a phone, we now look at the evolution of finance and how purchasing items, including a house, is going through reform with the introduction of bitcoin.

Introducing bitcoin

When people hear terms like "bitcoin" and "blockchain", many are vague while some may not even be familiar with these words. But for the technology industry adept, bitcoin and blockchain is common as these new-age technology concepts and modus operandi have been around, perhaps less widely known in Southeast Asia as it is in the West and China.

For the uninformed and in the dark, bitcoin is a technology that has established a new electronic payment method using "digitised money" made with digital cryptography, otherwise known as cryptocurrency.

This system of payment is carried out when a user uses "bitcoin currency" (or cryptocurrency) to pay for goods by transferring the currency to another user (seller) within the bitcoin community.

Each transaction is recorded in a public data ledger known as "blockchain" and it is here where all the transactions that have taken place within the bitcoin community are stored.

The amazing thing about this system is that anyone in the bitcoin community is able to validate transactions that take place without the need of an intermediary.

Sound too good to be true and a little risky? Well, the reason there is no intermediate party necessary is due to the network bitcoin technology is regulated on.

Modus operandi and more

The bitcoin network is founded on a "peer-to-peer network system (P2P network)" which is explained as "a network of computers/ mobile configured to allow certain files and folders to be shared with everyone or with selected users".

As a result, the "participants" are in control of their transactions, making everyone equal within the bitcoin community, which is also transparent.

It is said that bitcoin technology was first created in 2008 by a person or a group of persons under the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto" in a research paper. The research stated that there was need for a new electronic payment method, one using digitised money. The analysis also included the future of bitcoin, its benefits, capabilities and potential.

The system was implemented on Jan 3, 2009. And after just a few years, bitcoin grew to become a whopping US$12 billion (RM52.7 billion) globalised economy.

Bitcoin attributes

While not much has been said about bitcoin in this part of the region, the system has been around, slowly developing and growing. Like many things that are cloudy and not often talked about, people are weary hence, there will be sceptics who dissuade others about the system they themselves are unclear about.

With that, theSun's Brian Chung shares what he learnt of this new method of transaction and currency when he attended a talk by renowned entrepreneur, author and expert on bitcoin Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

Below, Antonopolous shares important information on bitcoin.

1) Bitcoin is an open system of payment: It is a system that anyone can access, participate and innovate, and does not require permission. Bitcoin allows anyone to join in and use the system, validate the transaction and create different kinds of cryptocurrency.

2) Bitcoin is borderless: Like the internet, bitcoin is not restricted to a country's rules and regulations as it has its own protocol with no distinction across countries.

3) Bitcoin is neutral: Bitcoin does not take the identity of the participant into any consideration. It only validates the transaction that takes place between participants. This attribute also allows participants to remain anonymous.

4) Bitcoin is censorship resistant: Every transaction in the bitcoin network cannot be frozen, censored or canceled. Like the internet, the bitcoin system is a global digital economy with one currency.

5) Bitcoin is a decentralised system: The bitcoin network has no central institution or centre point of control. This trait ensures that there is no one major target for hackers to concentrate their attacks on. Instead, hackers have to create attacks on every single participant's software with different forms of virus and codes to hack into one computer.

6) Bitcoin is scarce and limited: Bitcoin is a system of value like gold but in digital form. This makes it a system that is not based on credit and debit. It also makes bitcoin a singular global currency with no exchange rate between countries.

7) Every bitcoin transaction is permanent and immutable: The transaction of everyone in the community is verified by everyone in the system. Once it is verified, the transaction will be permanently recorded in the blockchain.

8) Bitcoin is a constantly innovative technology: The open source nature of the bitcoin technology allows other people to further improve on it. There are many other cryptocurrencies based on the bitcoin technology. Moreover, the bitcoin technology is dependent on the internet, which makes improvement and innovation necessary.

Bitcoin transactions can be done via smart phones and computers by downloading the application and software. Users do not need to register themselves to be part of the bitcoin network as all "participants" are referred to by codes and "signature of one's device".

However, iPhone users need to remember their iTunes password to download the application. In addition, the device that one has downloaded the bitcoin software on must remain connected to the internet in order for one to use the bitcoin method of payment.

Follow our column next week on the application of bitcoin in property.

[Note: All charts courtesy of Bitcoin Malaysia.]

The application of bitcoin in property

WHILE last week, we introduced the term bitcoin to those oblivious of this new age cryptocurrency and system of payment, this week, we share bitcoin whiz Andreas M. Antonopoulus' insights on how this technology is applied in property. Here is what he had to say:

Permanent records

"One very common application is the registration of assets or ownership of tangible and non-tangible things like the registration of title over land and the ownership of assets like homes.

When you record something on blockchain, it cannot be modified ... it is immutable. Once recorded on the blockchain, the system of trust prevents anyone from reversing or overwriting it. That makes a record on blockchain permanent, an immutable record which is really important in real estate transaction as it allows one to pass the title of a piece of land from person to person independently with no one being able to falsify the record or steal land through paper," Antonopoulos said.

Moreover, he mentioned that this technology can benefit the industry tremendously as it is able to resolve a huge problem in real estate and property transactions – the falsification of strata titles and property documents.

His view is further enhanced with the emergence of another bitcoin-based system, ethereum. Like bitcoin, ethereum has its own cryptocurrency known as ether. However, ethereum adopts a different technology that is based on the blockchain public ledger system known as Smart Contract.

According to Antonopoulos, a smart contract is an electronic contract with all the contractual obligations of the buyer and seller. The contract is written and coded into an application, which will ensure both parties fulfill their obligations.

Like blockchain technology that is built on trust and verification, these contracts are encoded in a public ledger in the ethereum community. If anyone tries to forge the contract, the ledger will reject it. As such, this smart contract cannot be rewritten and altered as it is a permanent and immutable contract.

Direct transactions

Besides the use of a contract, the technology will make transactions direct, fast and secure.

Antonopoulos also shared about the removal of third parties and its altered role. He said, "Another example relevant to real estate application is the function of escrow. In order to do make transactions for real estate today, people have to use a third party agent, an escrow agent. This escrow agent charges a significant amount of money in most countries. During the process, that agent holds custody of the entire fund, which is dangerous. This means that the escrow agent has to be carefully vetted and have foresight.

Bitcoin can replace all of this by using multi-signature, which allows the seller and buyer to transact escrow programmatically, with the third party acting as mediator only in the case of a dispute.

Buyer and seller will be able to execute a transaction on their own without the need of an escrow agent and without any of the parties having custody of the entire fund. Through bitcoin, you do not need to spend that additional one percent of the sale of the house – the escrow agent is no longer necessary.

It can also change the speed of escrow by doing it in hours instead of a month and changes the security because no one of the three parties can run away with the money. It is faster, cheaper and secure. It can be done in other industries related to real estates like purchasing assets, corporation, mergers and acquisitions.

International property purchase

With the use of decentralised digital currency, one can assume that purchasing items and properties is a little easier, and it is.

The chance of purchasing international property is further reinforced by the fact that bitcoin is not controlled by anyone, not even political and banking institutions. This attribute of bitcoin makes it easier for people buying property from another country. Although each country has its regulations, the use of bitcoin to purchase property abroad saves time and money as one does not need to change currency.

The Australia Real Estate website has stated that there are properties in the United States and Latin America being sold using bitcoin. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article in 2014 regarding a Lake Tahoe property, which was sold for US$1 million in bitcoin.

Follow our column next week for more interesting information on bitcoin, its challenges and how stable a cryptocurrency it is.

By rian Chung

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