Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium pilots successful blockchain solution
**Blockchain could save millions when implemented, says OOC chairman**
The OOC (Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium) has announced that it has successfully completed testing blockchain distributed ledger software that will allow for the automation of waterflow payments, as well as reducing the time taken for the process from 90-120 days to less than a week. The promising results of the pilot were announced this morning, adding the oil and gas industry to the list of sectors that have developed an interest in blockchain-based solutions. https://www.ledgerinsights.com/us-oil-gas-blockchain-consortium-completes-pilot/
The pilot was conducted at the Bakken shale field in North Dakota by the OOC and Texas-based blockchain-as-a-service company, Data Gumbo, in partnership with water disposal company Nuverra Environmental Solutions. The OOC consists of ten crucial players in the oil and gas industry, including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon Oil, Noble Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources, Shell and Repsol. The project involved five Equinor wells and the involvement of a water logistics and transportation company and a midstream disposal firm.
The process of oilfield water handling requires managing huge amounts of water that is extracted or injected in the process of oil and gas extraction. The blockchain solution implemented during the test eliminated nine steps in the workflow, and significantly reduced the time taken to complete the process.
The group also mentioned that the blockchain-based network automatically validated 85% of all volume measurements and triggered smart contracts for invoice transactions that allowed the release of payment as the work was completed. Additionally, it was also successful in freeing up 25 – 30% of resources for the operator and trucking company.
Rebecca Hofmann, Chairman of the Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium said that “The results of this pilot prove that non-manned volume validations can trigger automated payments to vendors, and showcase the opportunities that exist for blockchain to reduce costs, increase efficiency, provide transparency and eliminate disputes in the oil and gas industry.”
She added that the process to move forward with the technology is being accelerated due to the crash in oil prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic. She further hinted that the adoption may occur by the end of the year, and explained that the solution could save millions of dollars for the industry. “Equinor and others in the consortium are seeing the value and investigating how this can be implemented to bring much-needed cost savings back into their companies,” she concludes.
The solution not only enhanced collaboration between a diverse set of service providers, but also proved itself to be cost-effective for all. Further, it has enabled all stakeholders to proceed with transparency and eliminated any needs for reconciling. After the success of this project, it is reported that the OOC plans to expand the use of blockchain technology to create solutions in other commodities and services as well.
Good news for you
*_Acts 26:18 (WEB)_*
*To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.*
Your greatest discovery on earth is to identify purpose in God. The zenith of this discovery is that, it positions you to receive the eternal inheritance specially endorsed for you in Christ. God is calling you today to be an heir in His eternal Kingdom. He has predestined you to an incorruptible, undefiled and evergreen inheritance of the divine life and nature. In the abundance of His grace, God has freely given-out His glorious nature of love, holiness and righteousness, to supplant man's nature of sin and corruption through the substitutional death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Christ, God calls everyone by His grace into the inheritance of His glory and Kingdom. He gives to everyone who responds to this call, victory over sin and death. In this complete heritage, He reconciles you unto Himself, justifies and glorifies you by the indwelling of the long promised Holy Spirit. _“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NKJV)._ Have you received the Holy Spirit? Then you are the glorified of God. God has exalted you to a place of honour and dignity in His Kingdom. You are no more ordinary. You are not of the common seed of man; you now belong to the divine seed. He’s made you royalty to be the expression of His excellences to the world. You are now in joint-heirship with Christ Jesus; the Son of His inheritance. Hallelujah!
Faith is the means of receiving salvation and enjoying the divine inheritance. It brings you into fellowship with God. In this package, God by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ remits all sins, leaving no record of it; past, present and future. You become totally free from sin to live a perfect life on earth. How new and complete you become by exercising faith in Christ! This is the sublime experience in Christianity. You are God's ultimate focus in the gospel of Christ. Have you responded to Him yet? Respond by believing and confessing Jesus as Lord and you shall be saved.
*PRAYER*
Dear God, I believe you sent Jesus to die for my salvation and you raised him again from death for my righteousness. Jesus is my Lord. I receive the gift of eternal life into my heart. I receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in me. Hallelujah!
*FURTHER STUDY*
*Ephesians 2:8*
_For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God._
*Hebrews 9:13-15*
_For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Be Fervent in your Display of Love
*_1 Peter 1:22 (KJV)_*
*Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.*
Throughout the Bible, you would discover the display of God’s love towards His creation. However, to understand the immensity of God’s love, you would have to turn to the pages of the New Testament. There, God hanged on a rugged cross as a man crying out ‘it is finished’. And truly all that was required for the redemption of the fallen creation; man, was finished. As incredible as that may sound, God demonstrated His love through Jesus for your salvation and for that of everyone in the world. By this love, you have been called into fellowship with God as His beloved child. You have been made just as He is to love just as He does.
1 John 4:11-12 says: _“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at anytime. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”._ Are you born of God? Do you acknowledge God as your Father? God is love, and the proof that we are born of Him and have become as Him is our walk in love. You must be fervent in your display of love at all times. The reason you cannot but walk in love is because you are born of God’s nature of love and His seed remains in you. The ability to love is in you and you can love every man in your world fervently irrespective of the prevailing situation or happenstance.
Decide to love everyone perfectly always and resolve that you will not have anyone you do not love (or like) in your world. Regardless of how people decide to treat you, decide never to get offended but to always love them. I made a decision long ago never to be offended. It does not matter who does what, I have resolve to respond always in love. That is the life of excellence and perfection. It is the Christ-life; the life of real victory and dominion where nothing gets overwhelming in your walk of love. Our theme scripture establishes that because you have God’s seed of love in you, you can love everyone purely and fervently always. You are an icon of love, let your world see God in you.
*DECLARATION*
I am a son of perfection. I am fervent in my display of love. I act right and respond in love to everyone no matter the situation. I love always. Glory to the Lord Jesus!
*FURTHER STUDY*
*1 John 4:7*
_Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God._
*1 John 3:16*
_For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life._
*Romans 5:5*
_And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Inside One of the World's Most Powerful Bitcoin Mines
One of the stumbling blocks to profitable mining is getting the massive scale needed for economy, whilst also making sure hardware is efficient as possible, keeping power bills low enough to make it worthwhile. Kncminer is using natural resources to power its massive farms of machines, including its cloud mining services. The name of its cloud mine, Clear Sky, refers to the fact that the doors are always open – literally!
The Node Pole
Kncminer's 28nm facility. Image courtesy of Kncminer.com
KnCMiner has its own processing facility located in Boden, northern Sweden where it runs its Clear Sky farms. The property used to be a military base for air transport, and the vast indoor hangars makes an ideal home for tens of thousands of bitcoin mining machines, clustered into huge racks. The site is based in the Node Pole region, a network of data centres available for rent close to the polar region. http://thenodepole.com/data-center-sites/helicopter-air-base/
Tech companies are increasingly placing their facilities in cold climates to drive down the cost of cooling the hardware. Google famously took over a paper mill in Hamina, Finland and converted it into a data centre. It says that it has invested €350 million in the plant so far. Facebook is investing in a data centre in Lulea, facilitated by the Node Pole. http://www.google.co.uk/about/datacenters/inside/locations/hamina/
Likewise, the Node Pole facility is set up close to the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can drop below -50 degrees Celsius, and rarely climb over 10 degrees. The Node Pole sites have not reached 30 degree temperatures for more than 40 years. Opening the hangar doors lets cold air circulate freely among the racks, doing away with the need for air conditioning and helping the machines hash faster. http://thenodepole.com/regional-qualities/climate-cooling/
Powering The Farms
Hydropower plant courtesy of shutterstock.com
Being in the Arctic is not just about low temperatures. Hydropower is also essential to reduce energy and cut costs, and the location of their facility – close to a hydropower plant - is a clear sign of intent. KnCMiner’s building uses energy generated entirely from streams and rivers, and this system provides 45 megawatts, soon to be increased to 165MW with addition of a second energy source.
Security
All good data centres have multiple layers of security and KnCMiner’s is no different: it’s guarded and monitored round the clock to ensure that those huge, open doors don’t let in any unwanted visitors. The perimeter is locked down with huge metal fences and barbed wire, and inside, guards keep a close eye on the farms. KnC Miner says that the building is located close to the neighbourhood police station for a little extra peace of mind
Future Developments
In the future, KnC says it will process payments and run new applications based on blockchain processing, and it will increase speed even further when it deploys its new 16nm "Solar" technology early in 2015. https://coinjournal.net/kncminer-announce-16nm-technology-2015-release/
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops For The First Time In 2 Years
Bitcoin is unlike any currency, with no central figure as well as having digital scarcity. Its distribution model is unique as well, with the majority of Bitcoins entering circulation in the first couple of years, with the last Bitcoins not being mined until around the year 2110 – 2140.
This distribution model, more commonly known as mining, which once was feasible on any computer, is now dominated by machines running ASIC chips, specially designed to run the SHA-256 algorithm which secures the Bitcoin network.
To make sure that a Bitcoin block was released every 10 minutes such as Satoshi initially intended it to be, a factor called difficulty comes into play. Without getting too technical, mining is when a nonce (number used only once) is found that satisfies the problem of the block.
Difficulty increases or decreases every 2016 blocks (around two weeks) based on how fast or slow the blocks are being solved. For example, if the average block time is 8 minutes, the difficulty will increase in an attempt to achieve the planned 10-minute block time.
If the opposite were to occur and say the average block time was 12 minutes, difficulty would decrease. In the end, the adjusting of difficulty is all in an attempt to achieve equilibrium.
As you can see from the chart which has recorded the Bitcoin network difficulty of the last several months, difficulty increased
Difficulty Decrease
around on average 15% every 2016 blocks. October 9th should be especially noted with a 0.58% difficulty increase. While a small rise, an increase nonetheless. December 2nd is the first time the difficulty has decreased, which is significant for several reasons.
Why Is Difficulty Dropping ?
One of the most important reasons that should be taken into consideration first is that at the moment there are no huge technological leaps from hardware companies. The product cycle of 28nm technology is coming to the end and long gone are the massive increases seen from technology moving from 55nm to 40 nm, or more recently 40 to 28 nm.
Most of the leading software companies are now deep into development for their next generation of hardware with most boasting 16nm technology.
If there’s one thing you take away from this, it should be the Bitcoin network is growing up. Now that Bitcoin difficulty has stagnated, it may be possible once again for hobby miners to enter the mining space as a stable difficulty should make predicting ROI more accurate, however this will likely be short lived. The race for 16nm technology is on and likely only months away, with delivery of these products we'll likely see huge jumps once again!
Uruguay to launch the world's first blockchain network to track medicinal cannabis
**A medical cannabis company will roll out an app to giving purchasers an in-depth look into the origin of the product**
Blockchain is revolutionising how we do business. There is an intensified requirement for transparency and trust in today’s supply chains. To adhere to these needs of transparency and allow complete traceability, a company in Uruguay has decided to launch the world’s first blockchain-based app to allow the tracking of medical cannabis.
Uruguay Can is a leading cannabis producer that works on agro-industrial integration projects for medicinal and recreational cannabis. The company’s new platform is built on æternity, a decentralized and scalable blockchain protocol and is set to be put into operation next June and July, just in time for the planting season.
The platform aims to document every phase of the process of cultivation, from sprouting to the packaging of cannabis. With a combination of the technology of IoT (Internet of Things) and blockchain, every piece of this information will be traceable and immutable. This will not only heighten security standards in the process of production, but it will also increase the credibility of the final product’s quality and make it more valuable for export.
Uruguay was the first country to legalise the growing, sale and consumption of marijuana in December 2013.
æternity Americas’ CEO, Pablo Coirolo, stated that “The ability to trace the source and the way cannabis is produced is beneficial for both the cannabis and pharmaceutical industry as well as its consumers and end-users, who should feel more secure about the product that they are consuming.”
He added that the mechanism will improve the cannabis production process and ensure that consumer safety regulations are adhered to.
Uruguay Can CEO Eduardo Blasina views this partnership as a significant milestone for the cannabis industry. “We are proud to be the first company in Uruguay that can guarantee the quality of our products in a transparent and verifiable way,” said Blasina. He emphasised that the platform will allow consumers to make informed choices and allow for expansion of the product portfolio.
This is not the first time that the blockchain technology has been used to improve traceability and increase transparency in consumer-oriented industries. Recently, IBM announced the launch of an app named “Thank my farmer” that allows users to track their coffee beans. In an effort to encourage consumers to make informed choices and increase credibility, the blockchain-based app lets users trace the journey of their coffee beans through an interactive map. As more and more businesses realise the benefits of blockchain, it looks like we can finally say that blockchain is not synonymous with cryptocurrency.
A drop in oil prices will benefit crypto miners in the US and China
**The Bitcoin educator discussed the impact of the drop in oil prices on electricity costs and the competitive advantage it gives US miners**
Tech entrepreneur and Bitcoin proponent, Andreas Antonopoulos, addressed the impact of falling oil prices on Bitcoin mining in a recent video on his YouTube channel. Calling it a net positive for Bitcoin miners worldwide, Antonopoulos stated that the recent downturn of oil prices will benefit crypto-miners by providing cheaper electricity. The video titled “Down the Rabbit Hole”, posted on his channel May 27, explained that miners from the United States and China will reap most of the rewards from the drop in oil. https://coinjournal.net/cryptocurrency-guides/beginners-guide-bitcoin/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALqW0x9CT-w
The Coronavirus global pandemic immensely affected oil prices as it had a domino effect on world economies. Most countries across the world were either in lockdown or practised social distancing. This led to reduced travel, the shutting-down of factories and an overall reduction in oil demand. Oil production, however, continued at previously determined levels. This gap between the demand and supply forces led to a never seen before price drops, as futures, including the WTI, traded at a negative. Although the oil market has now recovered, oil prices are still low on a macro scale.
Antonopoulos explained that the competition between buyers was not determined by modern mining rigs anymore. Instead, it was based on “the unit cost of electricity, which is dominated in some places by the cost of oil.” Thus, this global fall in oil prices will benefit miners by providing cheaper electricity worldwide, however, this benefit will not be distributed “equally worldwide.”
The US gets 36% of its energy from petroleum (also known as petrol or gas and is the largest producer of oil in the world. Thus, Antonopoulos believes there may be great opportunities for cheap power, which will be a potentially huge advantage for US-based crypto miners. The situation “would suddenly make U.S.-based miners much, much more competitive and profitable,” Antonopoulos stated in the video.
China’s influence on Bitcoin mining cannot be undermined. According to a report by Coin Telegraph, Chinese miners constitute 66% of the 2019 global hash rate. Antonopoulos said that most Chinese crypto mining is completed with a coal-powered hash. However, falling oil prices would still give a financial advantage to Chinese miners. https://cointelegraph.com/news/study-chinas-btc-miners-control-66-of-global-hash-rate
*“Because energy and electricity is a fungible commodity if you are connected to a coal-fired power plant and somewhere else, a gas-fired or oil-fired power plant has half the cost of energy because its oil is much cheaper, it’s going to cost less to get electricity from your coal plant…, “* He explained.
The downturn of oil prices will lead to the drop in the price of electricity worldwide but it is going to be the crypto miners of the United States, especially in the mining operation in Texas, and China that stand to gain.
The future of Cryptocurrency
A **cryptocurrency** is a digital currency that is created and managed through the use of advanced encryption techniques known as cryptography. Cryptocurrency made the leap from being an academic concept to (virtual) reality with the creation of **Bitcoin** in 2009.1 While Bitcoin attracted a growing following in subsequent years, it captured significant investor and media attention in April 2013 when it peaked at a record $266 per bitcoin after surging 10-fold in the preceding two months. Bitcoin sported a market value of over $2 billion at its peak, but a 50% plunge shortly thereafter **sparked** a raging debate about the future of cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin in particular.2 So, will these alternative currencies eventually supplant conventional currencies and become as ubiquitous as dollars and euros someday? Or are cryptocurrencies a passing fad that will flame out before long? The answer lies with Bitcoin. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bitcoin.asp https://www.forbes.com/sites/kitconews/2013/12/10/2013-year-of-the-bitcoin/#73794446303c
The Future of Cryptocurrency
Some economic analysts predict a big change in crypto is forthcoming as institutional money enters the market.3 Moreover, there is the possibility that crypto will be floated on the Nasdaq, which would further add credibility to blockchain and its uses as an alternative to conventional currencies.4 Some predict that all that crypto needs is a **verified exchange traded fund** (ETF).5 An ETF would definitely make it easier for people to invest in Bitcoin, but there still needs to be the demand to want to invest in crypto, which might not automatically be generated with a fund. https://www.investopedia.com/tech/what-are-legal-risks-cryptocurrency-investors/
Cryptocurrency
The volatility surrounding the cryptocurrency markets can be attributed to a number of factors. Hacked exchanges, bad reviews, missteps in the rollout of new features—all can affect the values. Another factor is investor insecurity stemming from the absence of governmental regulations. Investors and enthusiasts don’t know if authorities at some point are going to come out in favor or against digital currency, and this is worrisome to a large portion of the community. Perhaps—only perhaps—this will change somewhat in June, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning on holding an investor conference at Georgia State University
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