Day: March 4, 2022

Posted on

Why Ethereum is switching to proof of stake and how it will work

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/04/1046636/ethereum-blockchain-proof-of-stake/

The market for NFTs—tokens that represent digital art, music, videos, and the like—soared last year to $44 billion. This brought a lot of attention to Ethereum, the blockchain network where most NFTs are bought and sold. It also brought a lot of attention to something else: the massive energy wastefulness of cryptocurrency mining. 

Blockchains don’t have a central gatekeeper, like a bank, to verify transactions. Instead, both Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies, rely on a consensus mechanism called “proof of work” to maintain a time-ordered ledger of transactions. Crypto miners are at the core of that process.

Decentralization comes at a hefty cost. In the case of proof of work, that cost is computing power. Proof of work pits miners against each other, as they compete to solve a difficult math problem. Any miner who solves the problem first, updates the ledger by appending a new block to the chain, and gets newly minted coins in return. This requires an enormous amount of computing power and, thus, electricity.

Ethereum uses 113 terawatt-hours per year—as much power as the Netherlands, according to Digiconomist. A single Ethereum transaction can consume as much power as an average US household uses in more than a week. Bitcoin’s energy consumption is even worse.

Right now the world is facing a power crunch, which is partly why China banned crypto mining last year, and why countries like Kosovo and Kazakhstan, where the miners scattered off to, are pushing miners out and cutting off their electricity. These countries need the power to keep their businesses running and their homes warm.

Not only does proof of work waste electricity, it generates electronic waste as well. Specialized computer servers used for crypto mining often become obsolete in 1.5 years, and they end up in landfills.

Ethereum’s mechanism has other drawbacks—it’s tediously slow, averaging 15 transactions per minute. And it doesn’t scale. CryptoKitties, a game where players breed and trade cartoon cats, caused a transaction pileup on the network in 2017.

With all the money venture capital firms are shoveling into Web3—a futuristic model where apps will all run on decentralized blockchains, much of it powered by Ethereum itself—now is a good time for Ethereum to disassociate from proof-of-work mining. And that’s the game plan.

To support MIT Technology Review’s journalism, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Sometime in the first half of 2022, in a dramatic event termed “The Merge,” Ethereum plans to transition its entire network to a different consensus mechanism: proof of stake, which it promises will use 99% less energy, allow the network to scale, and process 1,000 transactions per minute.

Of course, Ethereum’s move to proof of stake has been six months away for years now. “[We thought] it would take one year to [implement] POS … but it actually [has] taken around six years,” Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, told Fortune in May 2021. That’s because building such a model is complex.

What is proof of work? 

Bitcoin was the first blockchain. Its creator wanted to do away with the control that third parties, often big banks or states, exerted over financial systems.

In a blockchain where participants maintain a shared ledger, Bitcoin’s creator needed to find a way to keep people from trying to game the system and spend the same coins twice. Proof of work was a clever kludge—it wasn’t perfect, but it worked well enough.

By demanding a significant upfront investment, “proof of something” keeps bad actors from setting up large numbers of seemingly independent virtual nodes and using them to gain influence over the network. Essentially, you have to pay to play.

In Bitcoin’s proof of work, that investment is hardware. Roughly every 10 minutes, Bitcoin miners compete to solve a puzzle. The winner appends the next block to the chain and claims new bitcoins in the form of the block reward. But finding the solution is like trying to win a lottery. You have to guess over and over until you get lucky. The more powerful the computer, the more guesses you can make.

Sprawling server farms around the globe are dedicated entirely to just that, throwing out trillions of guesses a second. And the larger the mining operation, the larger their cost savings, and thus, the greater their market share. This works against the concept of decentralization. Any system that uses proof of work will naturally re-centralize.

In the case of Bitcoin, this ended up putting a handful of big companies in control of the network.

Since early on in Bitcoin’s history, though, crypto enthusiasts have searched for other consensus mechanisms that can preserve some degree of decentralization—and aren’t as wasteful and destructive to the planet as proof of work.

How proof of stake works

Proof of stake, first proposed on an online forum called BitcoinTalk on July 11,  2011, has been one of the more popular alternatives. In fact, it was supposed to be the mechanism securing Ethereum from the start, according to the white paper that initially described the new blockchain in 2013. But as Buterin noted in 2014, developing such a system was “so non-trivial that some even consider it impossible.” So Ethereum launched with a proof-of-work model instead, and set to work developing a proof-of-stake algorithm.

Proof of stake does away with miners and replaces them with “validators.” Instead of investing in energy-intensive computer farms, you invest in the native coins of the system. To become a validator and to win the block rewards, you lock up—or stake—your tokens in a smart contract, a bit of computer code that runs on the blockchain. When you send cryptocurrency to the smart contract’s wallet address, the contract holds that currency, sort of like depositing money in a vault.

In the proof-of-stake system Ethereum is slowly moving to, you put up 32 ether—currently worth $100,000—to become a validator. If you don’t have that kind of spare change on hand, and not many people do, you can join a staking service where participants serve as validators jointly.

An algorithm selects from a pool of validators based on the amount of funds they have locked up. The more you stake, the greater your chance of “winning the lottery.” If you’re chosen and your block is accepted by a committee of “attestors”—a group of validators randomly chosen by an algorithm—you are awarded newly minted ether.

Ethereum’s proponents claim that a key advantage proof of stake offers over proof of work is an economic incentive to play by the rules. If a node validates bad transactions or blocks, the validators face “slashing,” which means all their ether are “burned.” (When coins are burned, they are sent to an unusable wallet address where nobody has access to the key, rendering them effectively useless forever.)

Proponents also claim that proof of stake is more secure than proof of work. To attack a proof-of-work chain, you must have more than half the computing power in the network. In contrast, with proof of stake, you must control more than half the coins in the system. As with proof of work, this is difficult but not impossible to achieve.

Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system is already being tested on the Beacon Chain, launched on December 1, 2020. So far 9,500,000 ETH ($37 billion, in current value) has been staked there. The plan is to merge it with the main Ethereum chain in the next few months.

Other upgrades will follow. After the blockchains merge, Ethereum will introduce sharding, a method of breaking down the single Ethereum blockchain into 64 separate chains, which will all be coordinated by the Beacon Chain.

Shard chains will allow for parallel processing, so the network can scale and support many more users than it currently does. Many see the inclusion of shard chains as the official completion of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, but it’s not scheduled to happen until 2023.

Later on, a technique called “rollups” will speed transactions by executing them off chain and sending the data back to the main Ethereum network.

A risky move

None of this comes without risks. Ethereum’s switch to proof of stake is an enormous undertaking. Thousands of existing smart contracts operate on the Ethereum chain, with billions of dollars in assets at stake.

And though staking is not as directly damaging to the planet as warehouses full of computer systems, critics point out that proof of stake is no more effective than proof of work at maintaining decentralization. Those who stake the most money make the most money.

Proof of stake also hasn’t been proven on the scale that proof-of-work platforms have. Bitcoin has been around for over a decade. Several other chains use proof of stake—Algorand, Cardano, Tezos—but these are tiny projects compared with Ethereum. So new vulnerabilities could surface once the new system is in wide release.

As Ethereum transitions to its new protocol, another risk is that a group of disgruntled miners could decide to create a competing chain. All of the smart contracts, coins, and NFTs that exist on the current chain would be automatically duplicated on the forked, or copied chain.

Something similar happened in 2016, after Ethereum developers rolled back the blockchain to erase a massive hack. Some community members were so upset they kept mining the original chain, resulting in two Ethereums—Ethereum Classic and what we have today. If it happens again, the success (and mining power) behind any competing version of Ethereum will depend on the value of its coin in the open markets.

Ethereum needs to move to proof of stake so it doesn’t further exacerbate the environmental horrors of Bitcoin. The question is, will its new system fulfill all the promises made for proof of stake? And how decentralized will it really be? If a public blockchain isn’t decentralized, what is the point of proof of anything? You end up doing all that work—consuming vast amounts of energy or staking all those coins—for nothing other than maintaining an illusion.

via Technology Review Feed – Tech Review Top Stories https://ift.tt/JHLxNni

March 4, 2022 at 04:11AM

Posted on

Verizon’s +play is a Hub for All Those Damn Streaming Services of Yours

https://www.droid-life.com/2022/03/03/verizon-play-netflix-disney-streaming-deals/

There was a shift a few years back to a world of streaming, where many decided that cutting off overpriced cable was a smart move and that subscribing to select services that you actually use was worthwhile. I’m not so sure the cost-cutting is there any longer, but we’re all streaming more than ever. Verizon knows this and announced +play, a hub for its customers to manage all of the streaming services they subscribe to.

As a part of Verizon’s investor day, where the company explains in precise terms to investors how they’ll make them even more money – after another year of printing money – by getting customers to pay for more shit or a more expensive plan, Verizon described +play as a “groundbreaking platform that allows users to discover, purchase and manage some of their favorite subscriptions across entertainment, audio, gaming, fitness, music, lifestyle and more.” They also said that it will most definitely “generate significant new revenues from subscription purchases.”

This hub will expand on the services Verizon currently offers, making it a one-stop-shop for your streaming needs if you are a Verizon customer. This will, of course, allow you to subscribe from within your Verizon account and help keep you as a paying customer, because that’s the other goal of +play –  to “increase customer loyalty and improve [Verizon’s] market-leading retention rates.”

But enough of me ranting about mega-corps finding ways to make even more money while the country (and world) worry about unnecessary rising costs.

+play will launch this month in a limited rollout to select customers and with select partners. Verizon will then push the platform out to a wider audience at some point later in the year.

For services, +play will expand Verizon’s line-up in a big way by adding Netflix, Peloton, Veeps concert livestreams, WW International, A+E Networks (Lifetime Movie Club, HISTORY Vault, and A&E Crime Central), The Athletic, Calm, Duolingo, and TelevisaUnivision’s Vix+. Right now, Verizon gives customers subscriptions or deals on Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Discovery, and AMC+.

The +play service will be free to customers, in case that wasn’t clear. It will give you exclusive offers to use for many of the services as well. We aren’t sure yet how you’ll access +play, but my guess is that it’ll be baked into the My Verizon app.

Read the original post: Verizon’s +play is a Hub for All Those Damn Streaming Services of Yours

via Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog https://ift.tt/CIyEPdH

March 3, 2022 at 03:35PM

Posted on

Deer Likely Transmitted Coronavirus to a Human

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/deer-likely-transmitted-coronavirus-to-a-human


Researchers studying SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans) in white-tailed deer in Ontario, Canada, recently discovered the animals likely passed the infection on to a human.

The findings confirm suspicions that SARS-CoV-2 is being transmitted between animals and humans and show that changing human behavior alone will not stop COVID-19 from spreading, say researchers. Spillback from animals to humans also increases the transmission of the virus and chance of a new variant emerging.

“This study reinforces the need to further understand the possibility of spread in animal reservoirs and then back to humans,” says Jennifer Guthrie, microbiology professor at Western University and one of the pre-print’s lead authors.  

SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to infect non-human mammals, but evidence is mostly in farmed or domestic populations. Denmark, Netherlands and Spain culled millions of mink in 2020 to prevent them from producing a new coronavirus variant.

The Ties that Bind

Deer were the first wild animals found to have high coronavirus infection rates, most likely because they share receptors similar to humans that allow the virus to bind them.

Of 2,000 wild deer studied in the United States, 1,200 were found to have been infected, according to a paper published in February. The virus mostly likely was passed to the deer from humans, possibly through direct contact, wastewater or food, say the study’s authors. But they only found evidence of human to deer transmission, not the other way around.

Read More: Deer Can Carry the Coronavirus

After studying samples of 300 deer hunted in Ontario, researchers believe they have identified the first instance of animal to human transmission. 

Six percent of deer were infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the time and they carried a highly mutated and previously undetected lineage of the virus. That same new lineage was detected in a person who was in close contact with the deer at the same time and in the same region. It is highly likely the virus was passed from the deer to that person, say the study’s authors and Canada’s National Microbiology Lab. The coronavirus was likely originally passed on to the deer from humans or another intermediary species.

The findings aren’t surprising, Guthrie says. “SARS-CoV-2 originates in animals and it has been found in animals, obviously coming from humans, so the jump between different species is clear.” 

How Likely is a Deer-Transmitted Variant?

Coronaviruses have long been known to have large animal reservoirs, particularly in bats.

Scientists are using artificial intelligence to find which species are more likely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 and future viruses that may emerge.

The spread of SARS-CoV-2 in animals, who are not monitored for the virus nor affected by public health measures, means the virus could spread more easily before passing back to humans. A lack of knowledge about how prevalent COVID-19 is in animals and where — a key metric that helps limit its spread in human populations — could also facilitate transmission.

Mutations of the virus in animals, combined with the evolutionary pressure as it jumps to humans, increase the likelihood of another variant emerging that could spread more easily or cause more severe disease, Guthrie says. The virus that had been found in the deer was highly distinguished from the original lineage, with 49 mutations. 

A key takeaway from the finding is “that there was no chance of global eradication once the virus was well established in different reservoirs,” says Stefan Baral an epidemiologist and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Understanding these animal reservoirs is key, Baral says. They could reveal that vaccinating domestic pets lowers the risk of virus transmission or mutation, or that hunting wild animals increases the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.

Better understanding of coronavirus transmission between humans and animals is needed, say Baral and Guthrie, who cautioned against an overreaction to the finding. 

For example, mass culls would be ineffective, they say. Though deer populations are large, with around 25 million in the U.S., humans — the main vector of SARS-CoV-2 — number 330 million.

And unlike a single, controlled farm population, such as the mink culled earlier in the pandemic, deer do not respect borders.

“Unless you have really good information to know exactly where to target, I think you are probably going to have little impact,” Guthrie says.

Deer to human transmission could also be rare. Guthrie says she would have expected more cases to have been found if it were common, though the end of hunting season prevented further investigation of the white-tail deer.

She called for better understanding of zoonotic transmission through collaboration between ecologists, virologists, wildlife biologists and public health.

Until then, basic precautions should be followed to prevent more spillover between animals and deer — particularly for hunters, who come into close contact with the animals.

“We recommend safe practices when dressing the deer, especially around any sort of respiratory regions, and then good hand hygiene. All that kind of stuff,” Guthrie says.

via Discover Main Feed https://ift.tt/sXbq0ni

March 4, 2022 at 04:18PM

Posted on

Kia plans 14 all-electric models by 2027 — including two EV pickups

https://www.autoblog.com/2022/03/03/kia-2030-ev-roadmap/


Kia’s updated roadmap for the remainder of the decade outlines its massive push into what the company calls “eco-friendly” models, encompassing all forms of electrification from basic hybrids all the way to dedicated battery-electric models — of which the company plans to offer 14 by 2027. These goals are part of a comprehensive plan to improve global sales volume to 4 million units annually by the end of the decade. 

“The roadmap builds on Kia’s successful ‘Plan S’ strategy first announced in 2020 and reveals further details on how the company will achieve its vision to become a Sustainable Mobility Solutions Provider,” the company said in its announcement. “During the two years since first revealing its Plan S strategy, Kia has developed into a leading global electric vehicle (EV) brand while recording its highest ever gross revenue and operating profit in 2021. Kia aims to continue this positive momentum to create further value in both qualitative and quantitative aspects from 2022 onwards,” Kia said. 

Kia will prioritize the development of so-called “eco-friendly” models — pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) — in pursuit of that goal, aiming for a total volume of 1.2 million electrified variants and 14 distinct BEV model lines by 2030. This will require a cadence of two BEV launches per year starting in 2023 with the launch of the flagship EV9 SUV.

Kia also confirmed that it will introduce two battery-electric pickups before the end of the decade. One of them will be “a strategic model for emerging markets,” which is PR speak for “forget about that little thing; it ain’t coming here.” The second was simply described as a “dedicated electric pickup truck.” 

“The company will make the sales of these vehicles the focus of future business growth. Kia will expand the proportion of eco-friendly cars from 17% of global sales in 2022 to 52% in 2030,” Kia said. “In major markets with strong environmental regulations and a growing demand for EVs, such as Korea, North America, Europe and China, Kia plans to increase its proportion of eco-friendly car sales by up to 78% by 2030,” it said. 

Kia’s plans also include a new dedicated, entry-level BEV and a pledge to make 100% of its new vehicle introductions fully connected (capable of over-the-air updates, etc.) starting from 2025. By 2026, Kia says all of its new vehicles will be available with autonomous driving tech, likely under the banner of its new semi-self driving suite dubbed “AutoMode.”

Related video:

via Autoblog https://ift.tt/jRyr5VZ

March 3, 2022 at 10:35AM