#64: Bitcoins for Christmas!

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Dec 22 2017

#64: Bitcoins for Christmas!

Hola! The holiday season is here and people are rethinking their conventional thoughts about gifts and look to the digital world. It might pay off your tuition 20 years later.

Tech Tales

Google just recently published its Year in Search report, highlighting the most popular search queries in 2017.

Any guesses on what was the most popular “how to…” query?

- How to buy bitcoin
- How to sell bitcoin

Ironic, isn’t it?

Growth of AI

Amazon is exception to nearly every rule in the business out there. Tearing down on their strategy, data kings at CB Insights reveal how Amazon is heavily focusing on AI-as-a-service (Alexa) and cloud infrastructure (AWS) as core pillars of its business.

The human/artificial intelligence (AI) relationship is just heating up. So when is AI going to get better at predicting outcomes than humans? Apparently, AI developed by Carnegie Mellon’s CS department recently managed to beat top poker professionals at the game of no-limit Texas Hold’em.

What more, even some European VCs have started using AI to ferret out prospective investments.

Of course, the chances that computer intelligence could someday make humans into a second-class species are greater than zero!

Blockchain!

Here’s an article on Bitcoin that delves into the intellectual, philosophical, and political aspect of this new vehicle of value, and the tech behind it.

We all know The Problem with Muzak and how much streaming services like Spotify are harming musicians. Sadly, these have now become the norm for consumers to consume music. Blockchain to the rescue! It allows musicians to put their music on the blockchain enclosed in a smart contract, and allows the money to directly flow from you to them. A British singer and songwriter has caught the wind — Imogen Heap has released one of her songs on a blockchain-based website!

Crosstalk

It’s interesting how we talk about the buzzing startup ecosystem in India all the time. According to a recent report, our trade deficit against China has crossed $50B with big Chinese conglomerates like Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, WeChat and Xiaomi crushing it — growing from zero to billions of dollars within a few years.

On the contrary, Indian startup sector has yet to show similar scale and success.

Disappointing, isn’t it?

ज्ञान

Going into 2018, everything doesn't seem too merry. Here are countries expected to fare miserably in the coming year owing to economic, political or social turmoils.

On top of that, supposedly we are also grossly unprepared for what's yet to come our way. We are at the apex of the most incredible nest of financial bubbles in all of human history.

A FOUR FOOT WAVE!

NONE OF THE ABOVE

BJP didn’t lose a single election in 2017 but Indian voters are sending a subtle message to their leaders time & again.

Closing room for complacency, are we?

Meanwhile, meet the man who made a spreadsheet that can solve NYC transit problem. The ‘Balanced Transportation Analyzer’ is a comprehensive accounting of how a congestion charge in Manhattan would affect New York City — resulting in a net benefit of $2.64 billion per year in the form of increased revenue, public transportation improvements, healthier environment, and saved time!

WHAT'S UP AT INVESTOPAD

We've added a new member to our team! Karan joined us last week and will be looking after Operations at Investopad. You could follow him at @callmebhatia

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