105 projects were selected for the development of the first map that displays the Latin American blockchain industry, and of course we are in the Consulting and Services category!!
Shared here is the report created by
Next Friday, May 24th at 3 p.m., Bitcoinday will arrive to Montevideo; an event aimed at the general public, dedicated to provide from basic concepts regarding main cryptocurrencies, to specific information about their sale, investment, business uses and benefits for entrepreneurs and companies who want to get in the revolution that is Internet of Value (IoV).
The gathering will take place in the Mario Benedetti room of Auditorio Antel and will feature the participation of prominent personalities, Blockchain pioneers from Latin America and the world, among them: Franco Amati (Co-founder of Signatura and NGO Bitcoin IberoamĂ©rica), Carlos MaslatĂłn ( Head of Treasury at XAPO), Manuel Beaudroit (Co-founder and CMO at Bitex.la), Pablo Magro (Latam Business Development at OKCoin), Dr. Sandra GarĂn (specialist in cryptocurrency regulations), Leandro Elduayen (Co- founder and COO at Koibanx), Rocelo LĂłpes (Founder and CEO at Stratum Brasil) and Adrián Eidelman (Co-founder and CTO at RSK Rootstock), Guido Quaranta (CEO and Founder at investoland / Sesocio.com), Elian Huesca (Latam Ambassador en Decred) and other spokespeople of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Uruguay and the world.
Likewise, the day before the event, Thursday May 23rd, a series of workshops will take place at the Zonamérica Campus. They are designed for developers and business people who intend to enter the world of smart contracts and blockchain application in business, logistics and regulations. They are led by professionals from companies such as RSK, Keoken, dexFreight, Bitex.la, Koibanx, among others.
On Friday we will offer a workshop on How to develop Smart Contracts on RSK, led by Alejandro Narancio.
Get your ticket with a 50% discount by using the code: infuybitday
Reading Time: < 1 minuteJoin the blockchain revolution!
We have created this initiative for the development of pilot projects in blockchain to allow organizations and/or companies to join the disruption!
Requirements to apply:
What you will get:
You can apply at http://blockchain.infuy.com/
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Reading Time: 2 minutesWhat is cold storage? In the world of Bitcoin, cold storage is nothing more than a wallet where your private key is offline. Ideally, this private key was generated by some offline procedure and has never been used.
These are some frequently asked questions regarding this type of wallet:
To provide greater security for some of our bitcoins
This purpose of this wallet is similar to that of a safe or chest. The amount depends on each person, but we should store in this wallet, bitcoins which are not to be transacted daily, that is, we do not want to use regularly. The analogy is comparable to what we already do with fiat money. We don’t keep all of our money in the wallet that we carry in our pocket, since if we did and then we lose it (or it is stolen), we would lose all of our money. This is why we generally choose to carry a small amount of money on a regular basis and the rest we keep in a safe place. The same thing can be done with bitcoin. It is not sensible to store everything in a single wallet, and it makes more sense to have one wallet (or several) to transact and another (or several others) to store most of our funds.
No, when we have our bitcoins in an exchange we do not own the keys to our wallet. This is why we are at the mercy of the exchange being ethical and honestly handling our funds. If something happens to the exchange (a hack, site shutdown, etc.), we run the risk of losing all our bitcoins.
Not necessarily, although it is safer to have a cold storage whose privates keys have never been used
Not at all! The only thing we must protect tooth and nail is our private key.
Wherever we can trust, be it printed on paper, encrypted inside a pendrive, stored in a safe, or even a mixture of these.
To see the full article you please visit: https://medium.com/@anarancio/bitcoin-como-crear-un-cold-storage-dac4d7456277
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Digitized governments, smart insurance, and more private medical records. What are the Uruguayan government and companies planning for this new way of sharing information? In parallel, the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) is advancing with its project to start issuing digital banknotes.
If the world of technology can boast of one thing with its incessant rhythm, it is to make the new look old, even long before we get used to it. And Bitcoin, the now famous cryptocurrency that does not stop beating historic prices, is no exception. As hundreds of curious investors turn to digital currency to find out how to get their share, some are already looking beyond it. Or rather, behind it.
In 2008, when Bitcoin was created by the mythical Satoshi Nakamoto (whose true identity remains unknown), it did not come into the world alone. Behind the idea of creating a currency whose issuance and exchange are not controlled by any entity, was another way of transmitting and recording information, which would soon prove to have even more potential than the currency itself. It was about blockchain, a technology with as many applications as followers, including several companies and state agencies in Uruguay.
But how does it work and what are its advantages? On the one hand, it is a system that continuously records information in units called “blocks” (hence its name), which are linked together like the wagons of a freight train, offering great traceability. On the other hand, and unlike the classic internet architecture, which stores information on centralized servers, this technology houses it on thousands of computers throughout the network. This way, it is virtually impossible for a single person to alter the data stored in a block, allowing it to be stored in a transparent, verifiable and permanent way.
While this technology is the cornerstone of Bitcoin and one of the reasons that maintain trust in the currency, transacting is not the only thing that can be done with it. According to Carlos Alba, director of Strategic Planning of the Agency for Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (Agesic), “blockchain is applicable to all sectors and industries, and its benefits include improvements in security, privacy, efficiency, veracity of the information and its registration over time ”.
As an advisory body on information and communication technologies (ICT), Agesic is in charge of studying its benefits and evaluating its potential to improve the services provided by the State. Worldwide, the use of blockchain in the public sphere is innovative, but far from being a pioneer: in India it is used to register land ownership and in the European Union it has been discussed as an alternative implementation for the civic registry of refugees.
Alba clarifies that in Uruguay the idea is still “in the research and feasibility analysis phase”; However, this discussion will be part of the agenda of the 2020 Digital Government Plan, which includes objectives such as the digitization of procedures, the release of public data and the increase of the security of state systems. In addition, according to Alba, the first tests will be carried out at the end of this year, and a concrete implementation will begin in 2018.
But the State’s commitment to blockchain is not limited to applying the technology to its organizations but also to investing in it. The director of the National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII), Fernando Brum, says that they have already received proposals related to this technology. One was Thales Labs, a funder and startup accelerator that has specialized in this technology since 2016. According to Sylvia Chebi, its director, the agreement with ANII will target promising companies in the sector. “We expect projects in the areas of finance, insurance, medicine and in any industry in which contracts are made between parties that require their mutual trust”, she explains.
ANII already has a history financing blockchain projects. In 2016, it granted the company ZirconTech 2.2 million pesos to develop Seguros 2020, a platform that will allow auto insurers to offer packages whose policies are reduced in order to reward good driving habits. “Drivers will report data on their driving style through an application that will record parameters such as location, speed and acceleration, and will detect everything from sudden braking to rush hour trips”, says Alejandro Narancio, the company’s head of Technology. With that information, he adds, a series of smart contracts will be executed, computer programs that work on blockchain and that will automatically calculate a management score to assign a reward.
He also points out, ttha the platform will be launched on the market at the end of this year and its implementation is already being negotiated with several companies in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. In any case, the project is far from being its first encounter with blockchain, a technology with which he has been conducting pilot tests since almost two years ago. “The most interesting area was in healthcare, where we created a system of medical records that allowed patients to have control over their data, and they were the ones who authorized doctors to see it”, he explains.
In the private sector, not only startups experiment with these new systems. Mauro Flores, manager of Security Services and technical leader of blockchain for Latin America at Deloitte, says that he already works with several companies to identify the benefits of this technology. “The use of blockchain is very recent, but it is expected that in 2018 the real solutions will start to go into production”, he adds. The president of the FinTech Chamber of Uruguay, Sebastián Olivera, believes that blockchain has high potential in finance, medicine, insurance, energy and agriculture, and that the talent and installed infrastructure of Uruguay position it to become a regional benchmark. One sign: the good attendance of the Montevideo FinTech Forum, which organized its chamber in June and was attended by officials from ANII, AGESIC, the National Development Agency, the ministries of Industry and Economy, and the Central Bank.
Reading Time: < 1 minuteHe is 35 years old and was born in Montevideo. 10 years ago he co-founded Infuy, a software and consulting company, whose principle is “solving problems using technology”.
He is in charge of a software and consulting company whose main goal is to provide technological solutions according to each client.
This year, together with three partners, he created a Infuy spinoff, Zircontech, almost 100% oriented to blockchain and Smart Contracts, with whom he is developing an car insurance product.
Narancio is a systems engineer and entrepreneur, and his hobbies are art and carpentry.
Interview with Alejandro Narancio about Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies.
Unalterable, decentralized and transparent, this tool promises to revolutionize several business industries; In Uruguay, some companies are beginning to develop products and explore niches.
When in 2008 Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto (whose whereabouts and true identity are unknown) some people came to a very important detail: the blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency.
Now the “chain of blocks” seems to be fashionable and it is not for less. Its technology may revolutionize the way companies and governments are managed. The key lies in the security provided by its information storage system.
The technology is similar to a database shared by many computers (nodes) around the world, which works as a ledger of operations or transactions (blocks) that are recorded chronologically with a code (hash). The only ones who can make changes are the “miners” (people behind the computers), who register and broadcast the blocks on the network so that the nodes verify their validity and update the status of the chain.
However it was Vitalik Buterin, a young man of Russian origin, who helped make the technology open to all areas. In 2014, he built the Ethereum blockchain technology in order to create his own cryptocurrency, Ether. What it spawned was even broader: a system that allows any element that is programmable to be transacted, with anyone, without the need for a central authority.
In Uruguay, several players have begun to research, test and even develop specific products based on this technology. Mauro Flores, manager of security services and technical leader of blockchain for Latin America at Deloitte understands that there is great potential in the financial and public sector and his consultancy is already working on solutions for these sectors.
«We are in the process of identifying, within the reality of each organization or company, where they could achieve significant benefits. It is like legos, they are constructive foundations, but what can be built varies a lot according to the needs of each business», he said. In his opinion, one of the aspects where it can impact the most is in the companies’ internal processes. «Internally, in organizations, in processes with complicated logistics such as the flow of internal approvals, internal contracts, contracting of internal services between areas; it can help improve management», he noted.
It can even reduce conflicts. For example, if a company must handle a very large stock and move it, traceability can be made more efficient with blockchain; to know if a merchandise was received or not, if it was moved, etc.
Sergio Fogel, co-founder of Astropay, indicated that his company began to experiment with blockchain (Ethereum). «We set up a laboratory to experiment with technology in various aspects», he asserted.
IIBM already works with this technology globally based on Hyperlegder (a closed blockchain system where few actors have access) since several years ago. It has also begun exploring the local market in areas of government, the financial sector, distribution, health and regulatory, said Gonzalo Boix, leader of blockchain initiatives of the technology giant for Uruguay and Paraguay. «There are many sensible cases in Uruguay, but we want to be sure to apply this with a return on investment for the companies or the ecosystem where it is applied. For example, its use in the management of medical history is very interesting, because it empowers the patient», he noted.
Alejandro Narancio, CEO of Infuy,also invested in blockchain and this year he launched ZirconTech, a spinoff dedicated to exploring this technology. «Since March we have been exploring our first product, a usage-based car insurance tool. Through an app or device, the driver’s information is ‘tracked’, which is sent to the blockchain for scoring calculations to be made. Everything is recorded and is immutable. The plan is to launch at the end of 2018. Now we are carrying out pilot plans with companies in Uruguay and Argentina and we have advanced negotiations with companies in Chile», he stated.
Another player that entered the market is the technology company Inmind, which began pilot tests of its first product, a “medical ledger”, two months ago. «Through a mobile application, patients access their medical history and are the only ones who can allow access to doctors. In this way, the patients, if they decide to change hospital or doctor, do not depend on communication between clinics to share the information. Likewise, patients will be able to use the application to obtain prescribed medications in the pharmacies as they will appear in their history», he explained. «One of the values of applying it in medical records is that it guarantees absolute and unchangeable traceability. If a doctor enters data incorrectly, it cannot be edited, a new record must be added to ‘correct’ the previous one. This provides transparency and guarantees when evaluating a treatment’s performance», he remarked.
Despite the “benefits” of the new platform, adoption is still slow. «It is a technology that changes the rules of the game, changes the scenarios and, for example, you have to be more collaborative», said Flores, expert from Deloitte . Perhaps this is where the chain has its weakest link.
Reference interview: http://www.elpais.com.uy/el-empresario/blockchain-tecnologia-bitcoin-cambia-paradigmas.html
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The agenda had two main topics
Regarding the project that is being developed at Infuy.  If you want to know more about ZirconTech’s project, you can read one of his co-founders articles in  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zircon-tech-demo-usage-based-insurance-hyperledger-andres-zunino
As we said in the previous posts, more meetups are planned, and will address topics like blockchain and the internet of things, Solidity (the most popular language for writing smart contracts in Ethereum), Hyperledger and blockchain based architectures.
After the meeting the crowd again enjoyed pizzas, crafted beers and cupcakes. Thanks to Infuy who sponsored the event.
Here you can find some links from the talks (this was the first time that we had done this so sorry if the audio or image does not accomplish the quality of the talks) 🙂
Reading Time: < 1 minuteFrom the past years we have been working with Bitcoins, Blockchains and WordPress, so we have come up with an idea of creating a widget plugin for WordPress in order to allow the people of donating Altcoins without problems.
This is a simple plugin and does not do all the process of the real wallets. With that said this will allow to publish your Wallet address (on a QR) in order that can be scanned and can donate how many Altcoins do you like.
You can visit the plugin here and post reviews or comments.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”1″ gal_title=”Wordpress Altcoin donate”]
