If you are interested in Blockstack and are in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam during the month of August, please reach out to the group and signup for the meetup taking place on 8.12.2018 between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Please find below some helpful links and information about Blockstack Vietnam for your review.  I am sure if you are in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and interested in Blockstack, the members of Blockstack Vietnam would welcome your participation.

Founded: March 23, 2018

Organizer: Nguyen Loc and a Blockstack Evangelist

• website
• Twitter (@_nguyenloc)
• Other info about Nguyen Loc

Website: Blockstack Vietnam

So, if you are interested in learning more about Blockstack and you are in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, please reach out to Blockstack Vietnam and join the group. Thanks again, and go Blockstack!

And, another great place to find information about these Blockstack Meetups is by visiting the Blockstack site and clicking on the meetup link at the bottom of the page (middle column, line 4) and/or going directly to the Meetups Blockstack site.

The Blockstack Meetup meetings are happening in various locations, both in the U.S. and other countries.

For more on the Blockstack Meetups, please visit this link here.

Other helpful links for more information on Blockstack include:

Blockstack – the new decentralized application platform and ecosystem for the decentralized/re-decentralized internet (dApp, dApps, and Web 3.0)

Blockstack’s Forum

@Blockstack

Blockstack Meetups

Blockstack Vietnam

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any dApp built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., building a new internet, a decentralized internet, distributed, blockchain, bitcoin, re-decentralizing the internet) you need to use the Blockstack browser).

For more on All things Developer^TM, see this link here. Blockstack makes the internet you use better!^TM

Please help us put out the word on Web^3.0 by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM. A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

The post Blockstack Vietnam is preparing for another meetup On August 12, 2018, in Vietnam appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

Well, Blockstack Portland is busy preparing for its next Meetup on July 25, 2018.  The guest speaker is Thomas Cox.  Mr. Cox is a blockchain governance expert active in the EOS ecosystem. He worked previously for Oracle Corporation and IBM and lives in Beaverton, Oregon.

Per Blockstack Portland, the meetup will discuss:  “Somewhere between the Law of the Jungle of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the King’s Castle of a Hyperledger style private blockchain, lies the Swiss Village model of a blockchain governed by the consent of the members. Why will this blockchain approach be the friendliest for businesses, and how might it work? How can you tell if your business should be on a Governed Blockchain?” 

Looks very interesting and appears that the Team at Blockstack Portland is working together to bring this to the Blockstack ecosystem.

Blockstack Meetups Portland:  Please find below some helpful links and information about Blockstack Portland for your review. I am sure if you are in Portland, Oregon and interested in Blockstack, the members of Blockstack Portland would welcome your participation.

Organizer: Dan Trevino

• @dantrevino

Location: Portland, Oregon

So, if you are interested in learning more about Blockstack and the The Governed Blockchain: The New Paradigm in Decentralized Applications meetup, and you are in Portland, Oregon, please reach out to Blockstack Portland and join the group.

And, another great place to find information about these Blockstack Meetups is by visiting the Blockstack site and clicking on the meetup link at the bottom of the page (middle column, line 4) and/or going directly to the Meetups Blockstack site. The Blockstack Meetup meetings are happening in various locations, both in the U.S. and other countries.

For more on the Blockstack Meetups, please visit this link here.

Other helpful links for more information on Blockstack include:

Blockstack – the new decentralized application platform and ecosystem for the decentralized/re-decentralized internet (dApp, dApps, blockchain, bitcoin, distributed and Web 3.0)

Blockstack’s Forum

@Blockstack

Blockstack Meetups

• Portland

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any dApp built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., building a new internet, a decentralized internet, distributed, blockchain, bitcoin, decentralized, re-decentralizing the internet) you need to use the Blockstack browser).

For more on All things Developer^TM, see this link here. For more on the engineering meeting at Blockstack, please visit the forum. Blockstack makes the internet you use better!^TM

Please help us put out the word on Web^{3.0 TM} by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  We are not affiliated with any of the above. We hope this information is helpful.

Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.  Web^{3.0 TM} makes the internet you use better! ^TM

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again, The Stack Cafe.

The post Blockstack Portland is hosting another Meetup on July 25, 2018 – The Governed Blockchain: The New Paradigm in Decentralized Applications appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

In the Enigma’s own words:

“Enigma is using groundbreaking privacy technologies to build the first platform for scalable, end-to-end decentralized applications.”  

“A peer-to-peer network, enabling different parties to jointly store and run computations on data while keeping the data completely private.”

Key contact points for Enigma:

• Enigma
• @EnigmaMPC
• Enigma Protocol
• Enigma Test-net
• Enigma blog
• Research Papers
  • Decentralizing Privacy: Using Blockchain to Protect Personal Data
  • Enigma: Decentralized Computation Platform with Guaranteed Privacy
• Catalyst – Catalyst is the world’s leading platform for data-driven cryptoasset trading and investment.

Some of the key components that Enigma is offering:

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Please help us put out the word on Web^3.0 and the blockchain stack by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.

The post Enigma is presenting a permission-less peer-to-peer network that provides a smart-contract platform appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

In the Oasis Labs own words:

Oasis is “building a new computing platform that enables cloud-scale, real-world applications with decentralized trust and privacy protection…”

Key contact points for Oasis Labs (including Keystone and RISC-V):

• Oasis Labs
• @OasisLabs
• Ekiden paper (blockchain platform)
• Keystone
• RISC-V
  • @risc_v

Some of the key components that Oasis Labs is offering:

• Privacy-preserving smart contracts (security and privacy)
• High-performance for real-world complex applications
• Rich programming framework support such as privacy-preserving machine learning within smart contracts on our platform

Oasis Labs new blockchain platform is called Ekiden.  Ekiden is a platform/system that can use any desired underlying blockchain system (permissioned or permissionless) with TEE (trusted execution environment) based execution (See Keystone and RISC-V below for enhanced open source options on TEE based execution and open source) which is anchored cryptographically.  Eikden also appears to be agnostic to consensus layer mechanics (only need blockchain compute nodes) and can scale consensus and compute nodes independently based on the need (performance & security).

As touched on above, Oasis Labs has structured its platform so it is not locked into the use of proprietary hardware (e.g., TEE like Intel SGX).  Apparently, Oasis Labs Ekiden platform is exploring some open source projects to use in its product (the trusted hardware and attestation aspects e.g. trusted execution environment hardware like Intel SGX).  The open source projects mentioned in the Ekiden platform and most likely might be available to use with Ekiden are called Keystone and RISC-V.  

Keystone is an open-source project for building trusted execution environments (TEE) with secure hardware enclaves, based on the RISC-V architecture. Our goal is to build a secure and trustworthy open-source secure hardware enclave, accessible to everyone in industry and academia.

RISC-V is an open instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computing (RISC) principles.

In other words, instead of only being able to use Intel SGX (tee architecture), Oasis Labs does state that any comparable TEE with attestation capabilities could be used e.g., Keystone, RISC-V.  By using Open source projects and potential incorporation into Ekiden, Oasis Labs has opened the door to a more robust and resilient architecture for its blockchain stack.

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Please help us put out the word on Web^3.0 and the blockchain stack by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.

The post Oasis Labs is an interesting new project in the blockchain stack.   appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

FreedomBox, a personal server that appears to be built to securely host all of your data and protects against data mining, surveillance, and cyberattacks.  This looks like a very interesting project and we are going to take a deeper look.  As we explore more about FreedomBox, we hope to provide updates as appropriate.

FreedomBox lays it out this way: “FreedomBox is designed to be your own inexpensive server at home. It runs free software and offers an increasing number of services ranging from a calendar or jabber server to a wiki or VPN. Our web interface allows you to easily install and configure your apps. Be your own host!”

FreedomBox

• free open source software coupled with a single board computer, virtual machines, Debian…)
  
• is a collaborative effort 
• to help regain control and privacy in the digital world
  
• the vision is to use free software running on cheap hardware to replace services that are not under our control
• today’s cost of CPU power and network bandwidth make hosting your own services affordable
• built on top of Debian GNU/Linux
• the easy to use administration tool
• is a simple system that installs onto your single-board computer
  • plug it into your home network
  • A web interface acts as the central hub
    • offering one-click installs and simple configuration of apps and services
    • it functions as a Wi-Fi access point
      • FreedomBox also comes with numerous apps and services built-in
        • an anonymity network (e.g., believe this is the Tor network)
          
        • encrypted messaging
        • voice calls
        • a privacy-defending VPN
        • an ad-blocker
        • an address book
        • calendering
        • a blogging platform
        • decentralized application for chat

As a private server, FreedomBox securely hosts all of your data and protects against data mining, surveillance, and cyberattacks.

FreedomBox – some highlighted features

FreedomBox video setup

FreedomBox Debian and features, system and applications

We have not tried out the FreedomBox but we are going to give it a go.  Perhaps, it might be a complement to some other platforms of the decentralized world e.g, ethereum, ipfs, blockstack or others… Once we have a FreedomBox up and running, we will try and give some more insight about the same.

Caveat: Blockstack Tor integration – It does appear that Blockstack engineer, Mr. Jude Nelson, has done some coding in connection with integrating Tor and Blockstack.  Perhaps this software might be used in connection with FreedomBox (uses an anonymity network (e.g., believe this is the Tor network)).  The best links for these repositories are here and here.  We hope to follow-up with some more information on how this might work with the FreedomBox, if at all.

FreedomBox was brought to us by many open source contributors.  But, the seed for the idea is brought to us by Eben Moglen.  Mr. Moglen is a Professor of Law, Columbia Law School and Founding Director, Software Freedom Law Center.  He is a crusader of open source, privacy and security concerns for activists, journalists, businesses, and even ordinary people worldwide.  Thanks Mr. Moglen.

Resources for FreedomBox

• Freedom Box
• Debian and Freedom Box
  • FAQ
  • Features
  • Support

Please help us put out the word on Web^{3.0 TM} by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  We are not affiliated with any of the above. We hope this information is helpful.

Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.  Web^{3.0 TM} makes the internet you use better! ^TM

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again, The Stack Cafe.

The post FreedomBox – the Personal Server that protects your privacy with free open source software appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

Well, Blockstack Portland is busy preparing for its next Meetup tonight – May 16, 2018.  And, tonight will feature an upcoming platform being built for Blockstack – Superchain. 

Per Blockstack Portland, “Superchain is a Blockchain platform that aims to fuse Blockchain with Cloud Computing. With Superchain, you get a interface similar to AWS or Google Cloud: a cli, web console, services like identity, storage, functions, pubsub, etc.” 

Looks very interesting and appears that the Team at Blockstack Portland is working together to bring this to the Blockstack ecosystem.

Blockstack Meetups Portland:  Please find below some helpful links and information about Blockstack Portland for your review. I am sure if you are in Portland, Oregon and interested in Blockstack, the members of Blockstack Portland would welcome your participation.

Organizer: Dan Trevino

• @dantrevino

Location: Portland, Oregon

So, if you are interested in learning more about Blockstack and the Superchain platform, and you are in Portland, Oregon, please reach out to Blockstack Portland and join the group. Thanks again, and go Blockstack!

And, another great place to find information about these Blockstack Meetups is by visiting the Blockstack site and clicking on the meetup link at the bottom of the page (middle column, line 4) and/or going directly to the Meetups Blockstack site. The Blockstack Meetup meetings are happening in various locations, both in the U.S. and other countries.

For more on the Blockstack Meetups, please visit this link here.

Other helpful links for more information on Blockstack include:

Blockstack – the new decentralized application platform and ecosystem for the decentralized/re-decentralized internet (dApp, dApps, blockchain, bitcoin, distributed and Web 3.0)

Blockstack’s Forum

@Blockstack

Blockstack Meetups

• Portland

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any dApp built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., building a new internet, a decentralized internet, distributed, blockchain, bitcoin, decentralized, re-decentralizing the internet) you need to use the Blockstack browser).

For more on All things Developer^TM, see this link here. For more on the engineering meeting at Blockstack, please visit the forum. Blockstack makes the internet you use better!^TM

Please help us put out the word on Web^{3.0 TM} by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  We are not affiliated with any of the above. We hope this information is helpful.

Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.  Web^{3.0 TM} makes the internet you use better! ^TM

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again, The Stack Cafe.

The post Blockstack Portland is hosting another Meetup on May 16, 2018 – Superchain appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

In an earlier post, we wrote about the resources from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and many other organization (e.g., Princeton, Stanford, Ghostery, Mozilla and others) that you may find useful in helping to protect your online privacy when you use the internet.

In the internet of today, online privacy and the control of identity, security and privacy are hard to come by. Some solutions to the online privacy problems are taking shape today.

And, it does not hurt to also use some of the resources shown below to further help you protect your online privacy. Remember, if you do not like the online privacy practices of the company, service or application you are using, you can always stop using it.

We are currently trying out some these tools (look at the top right corner of the screenshots and you can see some of the icons in use – e.g. ghostery…) and have enjoyed using them and the information each provides. The more information we can obtain (and control) on what is going on behind the scenes with the websites we visit and the information each is trying to get from us, the better off we think we are.

One of the tools from EFF – Surveillance Self-Defense – is highlighted below with a screenshot and a brief overview for your review.  We hope you find this information helpful.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

• Website
• Twitter

EFF – Surveillance Self-Defense: Tools, Tips and To-dos for safer online communications

The guide is to be used to help you protect yourself from online spying.  We have provided some additional screenshots from the SSD guide for your review.  We hope you find this information helpful.

Who is the guide for?

What is this guide meant to do?

Popular guides

Index to SSD – many other tools and articles from encryption, phishing, passwords and many other resources from EFF.  To learn more about protecting yourself while online, go check out some of these resources from EFF.

Please help us put out the word on Web^{3.0 TM} by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).  We are not affiliated with any of the above. We hope this information is helpful.

Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.  Web^{3.0 TM} makes the internet you use better! ^TM

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again, The Stack Cafe.

The post Online Privacy: Website Tools That May Help Protect You While You Use the Internet – Surveillance Self Defense. appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

As we mentioned in an earlier post here, the Blockstack Community Rewards Program is a way to reward community members for the value they bring to the ecosystem.

It looks like the ways to contribute has grown and the list of contributors and rewards has grown too.  Let’s take a look at what is new to the world of Blockstack contributions and stacks rewards.

For example, it appears that Blockstack PBC has upped the ante and is offering a $1,000,000 in grants of $100,000 each to ten teams to create a new Social Network.  Blockstack PBC puts it this way:

“No single entity should have unilateral say over how 2 billion people connect and communicate. The current centralized model of social networking has created a stranglehold on our collective consciousness, communication, and friend network. But we’re at an inflection point — a moment where people can reclaim control of the way they network.”

Blockstack PBC will even award stacks to the person that pushes out a tweet or post about the same initiative – Request for a Social Network” –

“Sometimes the best founders can be hidden, that’s why we want your help in getting the message out to extraordinary founders looking to build decentralized social networks using Blockstack.  Click ahead to learn more!”

The initiative promoted by Blockstack PBC for the $1,000,000 grants for a new social network can be found here.

So, if you are up to the task or have the team up to the task, follow the links above and build the social network for the decentralized internet on Blockstack.

Some of the other tasks that one might be able to contribute to include feedback on tutorials, writing a blog post, signing up for Blockstack, unit testing, de-lint(ing), and many others.

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any namespace (name/domain name) or dApp built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., building a new internet, a decentralized internet, re-decentralizing the internet, that is distributed via the blockchain, bitcoin), you must use the Blockstack browser).

Download the Blockstack Browser

For help on installing and using the Blockstack Browser, please visit this link Getting started with the Blockstack Browser.

For a more in depth look into the Blockstack Browser, please visit these links – Inside the Blockstack Browser and Blockstack Browser: It does that?

Resources re: Blockstack and dApps

• Blockstack
• @blockstack
  • @blockstackapps
• Developers
  • Introduction
    • • Papers
      • Videos
    • Tutorials
      • (e.g., todo and multi-player storage)
    • Installation
    • Github
      • Javascript
      • Core API
• Blog
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Blockstack Meetups
• Earn Rewards in Stacks – Community Contribution to Blockstack

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Please help us put out the word on Web^{3.0 TM} by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).

Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.  Web^{3.0 TM} makes the internet you use better! ^TM

The post Blockstack: UPDATE to the Blockstack Community Rewards Program – Join in, contribute to Blockstack and receive rewards for your contribution. appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

Well, Blockstack is holding an event – Community Meetup – for Consensus 2018 event in New York City this week.  It appears that Team Blockstack will be ready to mingle and engage in conversation for all things blockstack and blockchain on Monday, May 14, 2018.  

The Blockstack Community Meetup event is a great opportunity to meet the people behind Blockstack and kickoff the week for Consensus 2018 in New York City.

A little bit about Blockstack from Blockstack:

Blockstack is a new internet for decentralized apps that you access through the Blockstack Browser. With Blockstack, there is a new world of apps that let you own your data and maintain your privacy, security and freedom.

For more on our posts about the Blockstack Browser, please visit this link here.

A little bit about Consensus 2018 from Consenus (Coindesk): 

CoinDesk is proud to present our 4th annual blockchain technology summit, May 14-16, 2018 at the New York Hilton Midtown. Consensus 2018 will feature 250+ speakers and 4,000+ attendees from the leading industry startups, investors, financial institutions, enterprise tech leaders, and academic and policy groups who are building the foundations of the blockchain and digital currency economy.

So, if you are interested in learning more about Consensus 2018, blockchain, digital economy, Blockstack and more… Go check out the Blockstack community meetup tomorrow at Houston Hall at 6:30 p.m.  Meet Team Blockstack and learn about the decentralized ecosystem being built by the same.

If you are in New York City this next week, and are interested in anything to do with blockchain, bitcoin, Blockstack or more, Consensus 2018 may be a good place to visit.  And, at a minimum, if you want to talk to the Team Blockstack, about Blockstack and what it is building, go to the meetup on Monday, May 14, 2018.

Other helpful links for more information on Blockstack include:

Blockstack – the new decentralized application platform and ecosystem for the decentralized/re-decentralized internet (dApp, dApps, blockchain, bitcoin, distributed and Web 3.0)

Blockstack’s Forum

@Blockstack

Blockstack community Meetup for Consensus 2018

Blockstack Meetups

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any dApp built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., building a new internet, a decentralized internet, distributed, blockchain, bitcoin, decentralized, re-decentralizing the internet) you need to use the Blockstack browser).

Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

Please help us put out the word on Web^{3.0 TM} by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar).

Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM.  A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.  Web^{3.0 TM} makes the internet you use better! ^TM

The post Blockstack Community Meetup for Consensus 2018 in NYC on Monday, May 14, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.

• atomic swaps
• support for light clients
• novel mining mechanism
• Application rewards  to application developers
• User-rewards
• Investors
• Protocol developers
• other

For a more definitive view/review/explanation of the stacks token, please visit this link here

A step forward for Blockstack and the ecosystem in general.  Go check it out and let Blockstack know if you run into any issues here or here.

Other helpful links for more information on Blockstack include:

Blockstack – the new decentralized application platform and ecosystem for the decentralized/re-decentralized internet (dApp, dApps, blockchain, bitcoin, distributed and Web 3.0)

Blockstack’s Forum

• Evangelists Toolkit

@Blockstack

Blockstack Meetups

Blockstack Community, Evangelist and …

Note: If you do not have the Blockstack browser, please see this link (note – to enable the full functionality of any dApp (decentralized application) built for the Blockstack ecosystem (e.g., decentralized, building a new internet, a decentralized internet, distributed, blockchain, re-decentralizing the internet, bitcoin) you need to use the Blockstack browser).

Please help us put out the word on Web^3.0 – the new internet, a decentralized internet – by posting a comment below and signing up for e-mail notifications for future updates (right side-bar). Let’s help build the new internet | The Decentralized Way^TM. A decentralized internet | The Way The Future^TM.

We hope that you find this information helpful. Thanks again for visiting The Stack Cafe^TM and we look forward to hearing from you.

The post Blockstack: Stacks – The Token for use on the Blockstack Ecosystem has gone “live” with a testnet appeared first on The Stack Cafe™.