This week on Startup Street, the technology backbone of the world's favourite cryptocurrency gets an upgrade as a much-anticipated software by a California startup goes live. A U.K.-based startup has plans to solve the fake news problem. And Bihar gets its first ever startup hub. Here's what went on:
Serelay Has A Solution For Fake News
As fake news, both through text and images, is rampant around the globe, Serelay has come out with a fix.
Its ‘trusted media technology' can tell whether an image has been doctored even minutely, in real time, according to London, Oxford-based startup's website. Such a technology, if integrated with social media platforms, could help curb misinformation.
Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have been facing a lot of pressure from governments and users to take measures against curbing fake news. While they have considered and tested a number of methods, they haven't found a long-term solution yet.
Also Read: Fake News: France's Proposed Law Won't Work
That's where Serelay says its trusted media comes in. In a mock-up Twitter page, the startup's technology will show a red icon below any image that has been doctored. Authentic images will show a green icon.
Here's an example.
The image above has been doctored, as indicated by the red Serelay icon under the tweet. For the picture below, while the image is not doctored, time and location were manipulated.
“We are working towards this by establishing the industry standard for trusted media capture, and making our technology easily accessible to both end users and any digital platform—whether it is a media outlets, a social network, a sharing economy marketplace, an eCommerce websites, or anyone else looking to add transparency and credibility to their ecosystem,” the company says on its website.
Technology That Aims To Make Bitcoin Trading Faster, Cheaper Goes Live
Lightning Labs launched the Lightning Network for the Bitcoin blockchain, a technology that will make payments using the world's most popular cryptocurrency faster and cheaper.
The release of the beta version is a “big step” and will “help make Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies simpler, faster, safer, and more ubiquitous”, California-based Lightning Labs said in a blog post on Thursday. The startup announced that it raised $2.5 million from investors including Twitter's chief Jack Dorsey, head of Square Capital Jacqueline Reses and Tesla Inc. investor Bill Lee.
Bitcoin prices skyrocketed in 2017 but the digital gold started to lose its sheen as transaction costs soared to as high as $50, making the cryptocurrency unattractive to most. Even confirmation times took as long as a week at their peak. Transaction costs have moderated again, partly due to the introduction of another technology called Segregated Witness, that attempts to reduce charges and time taken by splitting the transaction in two segments.
With the Lightning Network, theoretically, an infinite number of transactions per second are possible. It works by opening a payment channel between users who want to exchange digital currencies. The parties then conduct as many transactions as they want without recording them on the blockchain, which avoids delays and cuts down the costs. As soon as the channel is closed, the resulting balances are recorded on the blockchain and then the corresponding Bitcoin fee is paid to the miner.
It is essentially a layer of software that can be implemented on top of a blockchain. It also features a peer-to-peer system for making micropayments through Bitcoin. Enthusiasts on Twitter speculate that the introduction of the Lightning Network has the potential to trigger another bull run for Bitcoin.
Online businesses will be the most likely users due to high volume of payments and near-zero transaction fees for micropayments, Elizabeth Stark, founder and chief of Lightning Labs, told Bloomberg. Cryptocurrency exchanges could also use the software to accelerate deposit and withdrawal of funds, she said.
Bihar's First Startup Hub
पटना के बिस्कोमान भवन में सूचना प्रावैधिकी विभाग, बिहार सरकार द्वारा बनाये गए स्टार्ट अप हब का आज उद्घाटन किया गया। pic.twitter.com/Sb66KeETjb
India's third most populous state finally has its own startup hub in Patna, a step towards increasing entrepreneurship and employment in the region.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi inaugurated the state's first startup hub on March 16, calling the youth to “come forward in setting startups”, according to a PTI report.
“They should take risks and try to do something different. The state government is committed to provide necessary assistance in the field,” Modi, who is also an information technology minister, said. Another central cause is to promote IT-enabled services and electronic system design and manufacturing in the state, he said.
The state has already started work on an IT tower in Patna while another has been proposed in IT city at Rajgir.
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