“We know from years of research that people will always use technologies in ways that their creators did not intend. In other sectors and industries, governments and governance bodies create rules, laws, and regulations to constrain and limit malicious or dangerous uses of potentially harmful products. But advances in artificial intelligence and algorithmic, data-centric technologies have slipped the leash and operate largely outside of those kinds of assessments and controls.”
– Janet Haven, Predictions for Journalism 2023 (Nieman Lab)
TRUST
Predictions for Journalism
The above quote is from a series of articles published by Nieman Lab. Each year Nieman asks journalists about their predictions for the year. Below are links to some additional quotes and predictions relevant to the cross-section of trust/content/blockchain.
Prediction:
“The activist, scholar, and poet Maya Angelou famously said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“This new type of app isn’t a platform itself but instead pulls together various platform and content streams to offer a single, seamless networked experience.”
Interview: Open AI founder Sam Altman talks about future products, risks for society, possible video platform
Sam Altman, the founder and CEO of Open AI, said that the current license with Microsoft is not exclusive. Last week Microsoft announced the intention to use ChatGPT, a text-generating platform released by Open AI, to create better answers on Bing in the future. Microsoft is a significant shareholder after $1 billion in the AI company last year.
The interview included questions about safety and whether new AI tools will disrupt societies – such as in education or office work. Altman said: “There are societal changes that ChatGPT is going to cause or is causing. A big one going on now is about its impact on education and academic integrity, all of that.”
In addition, Altman said that reactions are negative and positive, sometimes from the same group of people: “We hear from teachers who are understandably very nervous about the impact of this on homework. We also hear a lot from teachers like, ‘Wow, this is an unbelievable personal tutor for each kid'”.
Getty Images announces lawsuit against Stability AI over copyright infringement
Getty Images, a global provider of licensed photos, announced a lawsuit against the company behind the popular generative AI tool Stable Diffusion. The stock image company argues that the AI company processed millions of images without training the AI software without a license. The suit has been filed in London, meaning that the verdict will be made outside of the US, potentially influencing future regulation of visual and text AI tools.
The myriad of published texts, photos and videos available online opens the door for a new form of intelligence: OSINT stands for “Open Source Intelligence”.
It is an umbrella term for various techniques to find evidence on digital platforms. The methods are used by intelligence units as well as investigative journalists.
A typical application is to geo-locate a picture or a video. Or use small segments of such material to collect evidence of what happened in the Ukraine war in a specific town. One well-known group using OSINT is “Bellingcat“, located in the UK. The techniques can be learned. The link below leads to a four-hour, free training for the basics of OSINT.
UNHCR uses a blockchain payment platform to help Ukraine war refugees
What would be a modern way to efficiently and with accountability distribute financial aid to people displaced through war? The UNHCR uses a blockchain payment platform for this. Launched in December 2022, the solution is currently used in Ukraine.
From an article published by UNHCR: “The pilot phase of the project is designed specifically for Ukraine but can be adapted worldwide.”
The current solution uses the Stellar blockchain and distributes funds as a stablecoin equal to one US Dollar. Recipients can receive funds after installing an app on their smartphone. Cash conversion is possible in 4,500 MoneyGram locations in Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe. The statement did not say what commissions would be charged for such transactions.
Non-Crypto Applications of Blockchain discussed in Davos
Experts, politicians and top managers are talking about blockchain as a technology at this year’s gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Despite the crypto crash, there are some positive views where blockchain technology is performing well.
Quote: “Despite the crypto crash, “the underlying tech has performed perfectly,” Schulman said. “The promise of a distributed ledger is that it can be faster and cheaper to settle transactions simultaneously with no middlemen. That’s an important thing.”
Others are far more critical and do not believe in any value from the blockchain for crypto or other use cases. One example is economist Nouriel Roubini, who has voiced his concerns over a blockchain. In Davos 2023, he said blockchain is a “fad” and “no more than a glorified database”. Roubini does not believe that blockchain entries can create trust without an institution verifying that the information is correct – for example, in food logistics.
“Online publishing platform Medium, originally created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, announcedtoday that it’s embracing the open source Mastodon platform by creating its own instance to support its authors and their publications. The company said it’s launching me.dm, a Mastodon community that will offer reliable infrastructure, moderation and a short domain name to make it easier for authors to share their usernames, among other things.”
Microsoft recently announced a new AI service called VALL-E, which is focused on creating synthetic voices. Using the system, even a short recording of an original voice is sufficient to create an artificial voice which sounds almost like the original.
“… it maintains tone, timbre, a semblance of accent and even the ‘acoustic environment’, (for instance, a voice compressed into a cell phone call).”
The human ear is not easy to deceive. But with the newest services, we might see a surge in deceiving phone calls or audio recordings, opening a new field of work for dis- and misinformation investigations.
Chat GPT poses a problem for schools: What if pupils write a prompt, get a decent answer and hand in the result as their work? Would it be cheating? Kevin Roose (@kevinroose), writing for the New York Times, suggest this:
“Instead, I believe schools should thoughtfully embrace ChatGPT as a teaching aid — one that could unlock student creativity, offer personalized tutoring, and better prepare students to work alongside A.I. systems as adults. Here’s why: The first reason not to ban ChatGPT in schools is that to be blunt, it’s not going to work. Sure, a school can block the ChatGPT website on school networks and school-owned devices. But students have phones, laptops and any number of other ways of accessing it outside of class. (Just for kicks, I asked ChatGPT how a student who was intent on using the app might evade a schoolwide ban. It came up with five answers, all totally plausible, including using a VPN to disguise the student’s web traffic.)”
Would you like to learn what ChatGPT is or get some advice on how to use the (currently free) platform? Here is a link to an excellent video to get started.
The use cases are almost without limits. This one does not create videos directly but uses ChatGPT to write scripts for videos very quickly, including a demonstration of extending initial answers through additions towards facts, etc. There is some product placement here (for a video maker), but the case is interesting.
One legal fight between crypto companies draws a lot of attention right now, specifically as it became more complicated today.
It is the one between Gemini and Genesis.
Summary: The two companies started a project called “Gemini Earn”. Users of Gemini could hold their crypto assets on Genesis and receive interest. Such lending projects worked as long as crypto was on the way up. But since last year, they have come under pressure when the value of crypto holdings fell. In the case of Genesis, the company started blocking any funds withdrawals in November last year. This resulted in angry demands from Gemini to give back the assets.
This week the case became much more complicated: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged both companies with offering an unregistered financial service. As Genesis is now busing sued along with Gemini, this will block any payback of the crypto assets to the original owners for a long time.
The world is facing an unprecedented rise in food waste over the past years. While yields from farming have increased the competition in the food market is one reason for high amounts of food which is never consumed.
The UN Environment Programme Food Waste Index revealed that 17% of the food available to consumers is never eaten but thrown away. In total, 900 million tonnes of food are thrown away, according to a 2021 global report. This includes supermarkets, households and restaurants. 60% of the food waste occurs in households. Numbers for the EU estimate on a per capita base Europeans waste up to 127 KG of food every year.
To combat this pervasive problem, an early-stage project called TRUFLE has emerged. TRUFLE leverages blockchain and deep learning technologies to provide a revolutionary solution for food waste reduction. The early-stage project was started by an innovative European SME called INLECOM. The company has offices in Brussels, London, Athens and Dublin.
Introduction to TRUFLE and its revolutionary food waste reduction solution
TRUFLE aims to provide full auditability, trust and transparency of information reported by retailers, food service providers and consumers about their discarded food and is linked to existing solutions, reliably classifying and quantifying the quantity of food waste with the scope of incentivized food-waste reporting. The solution is expected to pave the way for incentivised food reporting mechanisms to trust information from users and link trusted data to food waste reporting incentives.
The predictive capability enables TRUFLE to provide real-time insights and data to food suppliers and distributors about their products. By leveraging the power of blockchain and deep learning, TRUFLE can reduce food waste and increase the trust and exchange of information among its partners.
The TRUFLE platform is designed to be a fully-integrated supply chain solution. It comprises two main components: a blockchain-based ledger and a deep learning algorithm. The blockchain-based ledger securely stores and manages data about product supply and demand, allowing for accurate and secure data sharing between partners.
The project recently published a short descriptive video on how the solution works.
Benefits of TRUFLE’s blockchain and deep learning technologies
TRUFLE’s blockchain and deep learning technologies provide a range of benefits to food suppliers and distributors. By leveraging the power of blockchain, TRUFLE can ensure that all data is securely stored and protected. This makes it easier for food suppliers and distributors to share information and data, reducing the risk of data loss or theft.
The deep learning algorithm also enables TRUFLE to forecast demand for certain food items accurately. This predictive capability can help food suppliers and distributors avoid overproduction and reduce food waste. By leveraging the power of deep learning, TRUFLE can also identify patterns and trends in food demand, enabling food suppliers and distributors to optimize their production processes.
How TRUFLE’s technology works
TRUFLE’s technology is based on a combination of blockchain and deep learning algorithms. The blockchain-based ledger securely stores data about cases of food waste, allowing for accurate and secure data sharing between partners. This data is then used by the deep learning algorithm to accurately forecast demand for certain food items.
The deep learning algorithm is powered by a neural network that uses a range of data points, such as past sales and weather patterns, to create accurate predictions. This predictive capability enables TRUFLE to identify and reduce food waste in real time. The platform also includes various features, such as automated order processing and tracking, that make it easier for food suppliers and distributors to manage their supply chains.
TRUFLE’s impact on food waste reduction
TRUFLE’s technology has the potential to revolutionize the way food suppliers and distributors manage their supply chains. By leveraging the power of blockchain and deep learning, TRUFLE can enable food suppliers and distributors to accurately predict demand for certain food items and reduce food waste. This predictive capability can also help food suppliers and distributors optimize production processes and reduce operational costs.
The use of blockchain and deep learning technologies also has the potential to increase trust and exchange of information among food suppliers and distributors. By securely storing and managing data about product supply and demand, TRUFLE can help food suppliers and distributors share information and data securely and efficiently. This can help increase transparency in the food supply chain and reduce the risk of data loss or theft.
How TRUFLE’s technology can increase trust and exchange of information
TRUFLE’s technology can increase trust and exchange of information among food suppliers and distributors. By leveraging the power of blockchain, TRUFLE can ensure that all data is securely stored and protected. This makes it easier for food suppliers and distributors to share information and data, reducing the risk of data loss or theft.
Deep learning algorithms also enable TRUFLE to accurately forecast demand for certain food items. This predictive capability can help food suppliers, and distributors better plan their production processes and reduce the risk of overproduction. By providing real-time insights and data about product supply and demand, TRUFLE can help increase trust and exchange of information among its partners.
Examples of TRUFLE’s implementation in food waste reduction
A key goal of the project is to provide a simple and reliable way to report on food waste, where the people involved are motivated to provide data for better food management.
Food manufacturers, supermarkets and other members of the food chain will be able to uwe TRUFLE to optimize their production processes and reduce operational costs. By leveraging the power of deep learning, TRUFLE can accurately forecast demand for certain food items and help food manufacturers avoid overproduction and reduce their costs.
Challenges faced by TRUFLE
Despite its many benefits, TRUFLE’s technology is not without its challenges. One of the main challenges is data accuracy and consistency. A key challenge is to motivate people who are part of the food process chain to report food waste when it happens.
This might sound counterintuitive. But a future goal here could be to reduce the amount of food waste from around 17% too much less – which would help everyone involved to save costs and avoid losses from food which has never been consumed.
Another challenge is scalability. As the number of users increases, TRUFLE’s technology must be able to scale up to meet demand. This requires the platform to process large amounts of data quickly and accurately.
Solutions for overcoming the challenges
To overcome the challenges faced by TRUFLE, the platform must prioritize data security, data trustability and scalability. To ensure data privacy, TRUFLE must use cutting-edge encryption technology to ensure that all data is securely stored and protected. To address scalability, the platform must process large amounts of data quickly and accurately.
TRUFLE must also ensure that its deep learning algorithms are accurate and current. By leveraging the latest deep learning algorithms, TRUFLE can ensure that its predictive capabilities are accurate and reliable. This will help the platform accurately forecast demand for certain items and reduce food waste.
Conclusion
TRUFLE is a revolutionary technology transforming how food suppliers and distributors manage their supply chains. By leveraging the power of blockchain and deep learning, the platform can accurately predict demand for certain nutritional items and reduce food waste. TRUFLE’s technology can also increase trust and exchange of information among food suppliers and distributors, enabling them to share data securely and efficiently.
Since the beginning of the SportChain project, when it all started as an idea, huge progress has been made. This progress consists of several individual milestones that have been achieved and are further explained below. SportChain is a two-phase project and is currently approaching the end of phase one.
Market Research
At the beginning of the project, we started with market research to determine the issues and needs of the sports and related industries to figure out where to place SportChain within this landscape. In this market research, the sports and associated industries, such as the betting and insurance companies, were involved.
Identified Business Opportunities
Through our market research and its results, we identified business opportunities. These opportunities supported us when designing the architecture and where the focus of SportChain should be directed.
Designed an Architecture
We have designed a SportChain architecture that drastically enhances the state-of-the-art digital processes within the sports industry. Also, we added features to increase data security, privacy, and trust in the sports data. The figure below shows the high-level architecture.
Figure 1: SportChain high-level architectural view including actors, components and main interaction flows
Implemented a Proof-of-Concept
Part of phase one was also the implementation of a proof-of-concept of the SportChain design. The most relevant parts are the SportChain portal, the integration with VIDwallet, and the integration with VIDcredentials studio.
SportChain Portal
The SportChain portal is the heart of SportChain. It offers the user interface between the users and the SportChain services. For instance, this portal will use team managers, league officials, notaries, and data reputation and analytics consumers. SportChain portal allows team managers to manage the team credentials, such as creating, issuing, or revoking player credentials. League officials use the SportChain portal to manage the league by issuing credentials for team managers and notaries and are also able to create matches and enter sports data that are being notarized by a dedicated notary afterwards. Last but not least, the portal offers a data catalogue that data consumers can use to search for data sets and statistical operations that will be performed on notarized data.
Figure 2: SportChain portal’s landing page with the different login options
VIDwallet Integration
VIDwallet is an SSI identity wallet developed by Validated ID. This identity wallet has been integrated into SportChain so that the actors can identify and authenticate themselves towards SportChain and also store and manage their digital identity data within their domain to ensure data security and privacy.
VIDcredentials Studio integration
VIDcredentials studio is a tool for credential issuers that provides a rich user interface with an advanced user experience. This tool is developed by Validated ID and has been adopted and integrated into SportChain, adding additional functionality to SpotChain. For instance, player credentials, special achievement credentials, or role credentials such as notaries or team managers can be issued and managed through this integrated tool.
Outlook
So far, exciting results have been achieved, but the journey for SportChain does not end here. Instead, the SportChain team is planning further to develop the platform, not only the basic functionality but also by implementing new exciting features. These planned features are detailed below in a short outlook.
Notarization Data Anchored on Blockchain
As data notarization is the process defined where a trustworthy party with special permissions, a so-called notary, verifies data and notarizes that these data are correct. This process can be performed in analogue and also in a digital way.
SportChain enables the data notarization of sports data, which have been entered by a league official. The notary verifies these data and confirms their correctness. In SportChain, the notarization process is based on hashing the data set that is being notarized, followed by timestamping and electronically signing these notarization data. This way, a verifier can verify if a specific data set has been notarized and also when this notarization was performed. As a new feature, SportChain plans to anchor these notarization data on a blockchain, in particular, on the Alastria blockchain. The benefit of having these data on the blockchain follows the general benefits of blockchains, such as transparency, immutability, decentralized and improved security. This new and exciting feature is planned to be implemented in phase two of SportChain.
Data Analytics Based on Notarized Data
Data analytics, reputation systems and forecasting systems (also known as Artificial Intelligence) have been hyped in recent years. This is because these methods offer enormous potential when applied correctly.
SportChain offers a data catalogue consisting of available data sets and data processing methods such as data analytics, data reputations and forecasting. All of these data processing methods use as input data only the notarized sports data. This way, the authenticity and integrity of these data are ensured, which elevates the trust in the calculated results. SportChain plans to implement data analytics such as various statistics and a basic reputation system that utilizes notarized input data stored on the Alastria blockchain. The reputation data could be used by a recruiting team to support their decision-making process. The benefit is the increased trust based on the ensured
properties data authenticity and integrity. This feature is planned to be released in phase two.
Contact
Contact SportChain: Please click on this link to the project page, including an overview of the team members.
Welcome to a new edition of the TruBlo newsletter. The big news this past week was the successful merge of Ethereum. Our main question for selecting information and links: How is the field of blockchain, content and trust evolving?
TruBlo: Full list of 45 funded early-stage projects
We funded 45 early-stage projects, with €75K each. Selected projects will have the chance to get a second round of funding with an additional €100K. You can scroll through all projects on the website; each has a short profile.
This was a huge step for the platform. The new approach of proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work will sharply reduce energy needs. How the change will affect the future of Ethereum remains to be seen. This week the cryptocurrency is down about 10%.
“The metaphor that I use is this idea of switching out an engine from a running car,” said Justin Drake, a researcher at the non-profit Ethereum Foundation who spoke to CoinDesk before the Merge happened.”
The Economist: “The future of Crypto is at stake in Ethereum’s switch”
“Proof-of-stake will require 99.9% less energy to maintain. The effect on emissions will be as though, overnight, the Netherlands had been switched off.”
The Economist ($, free registration possible to read article)
A larger number of crypto start-ups at YCombinator’s current batch
Despite the recent downturn, the newest YCombinator cohort of start-ups has 30 crypto teams. YCombinator is the top incubator program for new tech companies, with an impressive track record of large firms which started there.
Microsoft Teams popularity results in new cybersecurity challenges
“…according to research released by Vectra yesterday, versions of Teams for Windows, Mac and Linux are storing authentication tokens in plain text on the underlying device. This is significant because it means attackers can gain access to authentication tokens and other information if they hack a system where Teams is installed. This vulnerability highlights that enterprises can’t afford to rely on the security of consumer-grade, public-grade communication platforms when they’re communicating sensitive information, IPs and other data.”
Open source AI software: Stable Diffusion released
You might have heard of Dalle-E. Now there is another software able to generate images from text, and it is open source.
A week or so ago, Stable Diffusion was released, and the world went crazy, and for good reason. Stable Diffusion, if you haven’t heard, is a new AI that generates realistic images from a text prompt. You basically give it a description of the image you want, and it generates it.
Apple gradually takes a larger slice of global advertising revenues; the number of people working in that area at the company has by now doubled. This is not without potential controversy because Apple had introduced privacy rules reducing the ability to track users for companies like Facebook.
In discussions in Europe and the US, the goal is to have less “chaos” with charging ports. But not everyone agrees. If companies are forced to use a specific system, what happens to innovation in the long term? Quote from John Gruber, writing on Daring Fireball:
“Proponents of the EU’s USB-C charging port mandate speak as though bringing order out of chaos is still a problem to be solved in the mobile phone world, like it was 15 years ago. It’s not. Market forces generally work, and in the case of charging ports, they have: there are only two meaningful phone charging ports today, USB-C and Lightning. There is no chaos. There are good arguments for Apple to switch the iPhone to USB-C (high-speed data transfer, particularly for the 4K video footage iPhones have long been capable of, being at the top of the list), and good arguments against (zillions of iPhone owners with zillions of existing Lightning cables). But that should be for Apple to decide.” (Daring Fireball)
Instagram fined 400 million for child privacy violations
“The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta, the owner of the social network Instagram, EUR405M for what it labeled a violation of child privacy statutes under the GDPR. DPC mentioned three issues with Instagram’s privacy settings that led to the penalty:
Users under 17 can open business accounts.
Business accounts for minors still display user contact information.
France: Journalists sign charter towards better climate change reporting
Journalists and media professionals in France signed a charter defining guidelines for climate change reporting. This includes revisiting growth models for the media companies themselves. One of the goals is to investigate and report on real solutions.
Binance to end support for stablecoins offers users to switch to their own
“Binance claims the move is to “enhance liquidity and capital-efficiency for users”, but the conversion and Binance’s related decision to stop trading on spot pairs involving those same stablecoins seems like an attempt to increase the status of its own stablecoin against that of rivals.” (Source: Web3isgoinggreat)
Several leading financial institutions in the US, including Fidelity, Schwab and Citadel, are behind a new crypto exchange called EDXM. Observers are unsure whether this is a sign of more profound interest or a delayed project coming out in crypto winter.
African Start-up “Metaverse Magna” receives funding for decentralised gaming
This February, Africa and emerging market-focused Nestcoin raised a pre-seed round to build, operate and invest in its web3 applications, including crypto content platform Breach Club and gaming guild Metaverse Magna (MVM). Nine months after its launch last December, the latter has completed a seed sale token round of $3.2 million at a $30M fully diluted valuation.
UK Treasury mandates that crypto exchanges report breaches or pay fines
New rules are applied in the UK in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The goal is to cover all valuable digital assets, which results in crypto assets being part of the sanctions list. If platforms do not report breaches quickly, they face fines for such delays.
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