Week 18: April 30, 2018 - May 6, 2018
Cambridge Analytica is hiding
After the scandal that the company harvested information about 87 million users on Facebook, Cambridge Analytica announced that it is shutting down. This includes the immediate closure and liquidation of the whole company.
It appears though that the closure is just a way to get away from the toxic name the company has now. Listings show that a company named Emerdata Limited will be in the same place as the offices of Cambridge Analytica was and it surprisingly is a "data processing" company too. What a coincidence!!!
One more ban for Telegram
Iran join Russian in the countries that want to ban the use of the encrypted messaging app, Telegram. Iran claims that the app is used by pornographers and terrorists and prompts users to switch to Soroush, a government developed and promoted alternative messaging app.
The "safe" app also includes sticker packs such as the one above that reads, "Death to America," "Death to Freemasons," and "Let's go pray."
Xiaomi to come to more EU countries and have a huge IPO
Xiaomi is expanding its products to the UK via a Hong Kong telecom subsidiary, Three UK. Xiaomi already have official stores and support in many smaller countries in the EU such as Greece and Spain. No news yet about the US expansion but Xiaomi is taking small steps and expanding little by little.
It is also expected to launch the largest IPO in recent years after the Alibaba group IPO back in 2014 ($25 billion).
Sources say it is expected to raise at least $10 billion and may see a valuation as high as $100 billion. Xiaomi has thing profit margins from the phones they sell but they also make money from other products and services. In March Xiaomi reported 190 million active monthly users!
Telegram cancels its public ICO
After raising $1.7 billion from private investors it seems like Telegram is pleased with having the biggest ICO in history and doesn't want to raise more though a public coin offering. There are also tighter and stricter regulation to ICOs after the Telegram ICO, and Telegram doesn't need to raise more and possibly regulated even more.
The Telegram Open Network is a project that aims to develop payment option though the messaging service and replace Visa and Mastercard payment. It goals are to be speedy and scalable to process millions of transactions per second from users and application built on the network.
Ethiopia practical use of blockchain
The nation of Ethiopia in an effort to track coffee shipments, is partnering with the development company IOHK to develop a blockchain application. The company will be collaborating closely with the Ministry of Science and Technology, enterpreneurs and startups.
In this effort the company will train local blockchain developers and even hire many of them.
Art for Bitcoins
Not actually a news story but in another use of Bitcoin for donations, an artist used his QRcode for his wallet to let users donate for his street art.
The artist so far have a good number of donations: https://blockchain.info/address/1KKFT9Q9BWWMFtrDnfKuaDp32CZQ9Jd7Fg
Lets hope no vandals on this QRcode!
That is all for this week's Bits in Technology. Feel free to comment any of the news in the comments. See you all next week.
Have a great week! - Chris Myll
