Would You Take a College Class on Cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin?

by Robert Montenegro

From inauspicious beginnings to its current notoriety, Bitcoin has revolutionized the way we use and perceive money. Some see Bitcoin as the best kind of currency ever created; others warn that it's unsustainable and dangerously unregulated. Some of those arguments hold more water than others, but regardless of which side you take it's hard to argue against the opinion that Bitcoin and the other 700+ cryptocurrencies out there have plenty of room to improve.

We're also seeing academic efforts made to improve security as a whole as everyone comes to terms with the fact that cryptocurrency isn't going to be a temporary fad.

That's where academia comes in. Marked by the launch of Ledger, the first cryptocurrency research journal, we're seeing a big push toward the academic study and improvement of digital currency. Cornell University, for example, launched its Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) in July. The goal for these and other research efforts is to explore the inner workings of cryptocurrency systems in order to shape the future of money in the digital future.

Below, Singularity University's Brad Templeton gives a crash course on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency:

As Andy Extance notes in Nature, academics and entrepreneurs are placing a particularly keen eye on Bitcoin's innovative online ledger -- the block chain -- which could serve as a model for developments toward e-contracts and secure voting systems. Everyone from economists to computer programmers to mathematicians are fascinated by the incorporation of game theory into Bitcoin's fundamental structure. We're also seeing academic efforts made to improve security as a whole as everyone comes to terms with the fact that cryptocurrency isn't going to be a temporary fad.

If anything, this shift just cements Bitcoin and similar currencies as a sure-thing for the foreseeable future.

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Robert Montenegro is a writer, playwright, and dramaturg who lives in Washington DC. His beats include the following: tech, history, sports, geography, culture, and whatever Elon Musk has said on Twitter over the past couple days. He is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.You can follow him on Twitter at @Monteneggroll and visit his po'dunk website at robertmontenegro.com.

Read more at Nature

Caption: GENT, BELGIUM - 2015/03/29: Bitcoin allows you to send and receive payments at very low cost. Except for special cases like very small payments, there is no enforced fee.Bitcoin on mobiles allows you to pay with a simple two step scan-and-pay. No need to sign up, swipe your card, type a PIN, or sign anything. All you need to receive Bitcoin payments is to display the QR code in your Bitcoin wallet app. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Elon Musk is the Concerned Dad in Every Car Commercial

by Natalie Shoemaker

Elon Musk wants to make sure humanity lives and lives better. His whole legacy is built around the idea of making the world a better place. His mission to convert every home to solar and colonize Mars are a testament to his dedication. Musk has taken another step to preserve human life: Meet Model X, a Tesla SUV vehicle built to defend its passengers from a biological attack.

Inside the car is a bio-weapon defense button in the dash display, which Musk says “gives you hospital level air quality” when the mode is activated. It pumps up the Model X’s HEPA air filter to maximum, which Musk says is strong enough to rid any toxins from a bio-weapon.

The Model X not only protects your loved ones against biological incidents, it's also able to protect against the standard car crash. Musk boasted in the announcement that the Model X has a 5 star crash test rating... if there was a 6 star, the Model X would get it.

When it comes to front-end crashes, it's simple calculation of force over distance. The Model X has no engine, which in standard cars gets pushed into the passenger cabin. The Model X, therefore, has a higher “crumple zone” to absorb and distribute the force of the impact. “It's the difference between jumping into a pool or a pool with a rock in it, so...” Musk joked.

When it came to the side pole impact test, the same results held true, beating (what was) the highest-rated SUV.

See the results for yourself:



Likewise, probability of rollover is reduced, probability of death is reduced from crashes and from inhaling toxic emissions.

Check out the full announcement here.

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Natalie has been writing professionally for about 6 years. After graduating from Ithaca College with a degree in Feature Writing, she snagged a job at PCMag.com where she had the opportunity to review all the latest consumer gadgets. Since then she has become a writer for hire, freelancing for various websites. In her spare time, you may find her riding her motorcycle, reading YA novels, hiking, or playing video games. Follow her on Twitter: @nat_schumaker

Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Staff

Entrepreneur, You Need a Manifesto | Makerbot's Bre Pettis

by DSN Editors

 

"The decisions made when you’re making a company are hard. And it’s much easier to live with them if you’ve made your own spiritual guidelines for how you’re going to live your company."- Bre Pettis, Makerbot

Bre Pettis, founder of MakerBot, a pioneer in consumer 3D printing, is interested in everything. He sees the world as an endless series of problems begging for creative solutions. Over the course of his career thus far, his curious brain has led him to puppetry, teaching, and ultimately to tech entrepreneurship. 

Entrepreneurs as a class tend to be creative and multivalent. In other words: all over the place. In order to harness their energies and accomplish something great, Pettis argues (from his own experience), they need to bound themselves and their companies within a specific set of rules. Early on, Pettis’ guiding manifesto for himself and MakerBot was what he called “The Cult of Done,” the principle of seeing each project through to successful completion before moving onto the next. Sound obvious? Core values often sound deceptively simple, but they reign in tendencies (like leaving a trail of half-finished, abandoned initiatives) that over time can drag a business (and its founder) down.

Eric Paley, a Managing Partner of Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund, spends his professional life evaluating promising entrepreneurs and their companies. Founder Collective has an impressive track record of picking winners.

Here are his thoughts on what make Bre Pettis and his company extraordinary: 

The Visionaries series is brought to you by DSN in collaboration with Founder Collective. In it, we profile remarkable entrepreneurs and the ideas and practices that make them great. 

Image Credit: Thos Robinson/Getty Images