Telecoms Giant NTT’s Thai Unit Plans to Launch Blockchain, AI, IOT Innovation Lab
giant NTT Corporation’s subsidiary plans to launch a major innovation lab focused on , artificial intelligence and technology. Thai English-language newspaper the Bangkok Post on the development on April 23.
NTT Communications (NTT Com) Thailand is the local operating unit of NTT Com Group, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation — largest telecoms firm and the world’s third-largest telecoms firm by revenue.
According to the Bangkok Post, the new lab is slated for launch in the second quarter of 2019, and comes in addition to NTT Com Thailand’s existing 500 million baht ($15.6 million) investment to secure additional space for data centers at its Amata Industrial Estate. The company’s president, Manabu Kahara, is quoted as saying that:
“The NTT innovation lab will introduce a playground for and partners to do proof-of-concept, development for disruptive technologies such as , IoT, AI, hybrid cloud and software-defined networks.”
The report notes that NTT Com Thailand is planning to use its innovation lab to develop solutions for the financial and insurance sectors, as well as to “serve as preventive maintenance for smart factories.”
The Bangkok Post reports on further details of NTT Com Thailand’s expansion plans and projects to meet the growing demands of cloud service operators, financial institutions, cybersecurity service providers and other enterprises, with an overall ambition to grow its business by 30% by 2021.
As earlier this month, worldwide applications in the telecoms sector are forecast to generate $1.37 billion in revenue by 2024, according to a recent analysis from global market research Research and Markets.
Also in April, KT Corporation — telecoms firm — its -powered network brand, which aims to boost the of internet of things devices.
bitcoin can lower barriers to financial services by enabling low-cost, borderless transactions. It offers access to value storage and payments in regions underserved by banks.
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These companies are in favor of SegWit via a User Activated Sof Fork (UASF). No company has opposed it so far.
Who Supports UASF
Lately, there has been a lot of talk regarding the possible activation of a in order to implement the proposal without the need to reach miner consensus. An early look at the that have so far taken a stand in regards to the UASF reveals that nine companies support the SegWit UASF, while two others are ready for it. The list is as follows:
So far, no company has opposed the User Activated Soft Fork, although most companies have yet to input their stance regarding the subject. BitPay, for example, is not included and they have already announced their support for the UASF. During an episode of Bitpay CEO Stephen Pair stated:
The most important thing, I think, are the users; I really like the idea of a user-activated soft fork followed by a miner activation.
It is likely that most companies that support the SegWit soft fork or that are ready for it will take the same stance regarding the UASF since it seems to be the only plausible method of activating SegWit.
With large mining pools like Bitmain supporting , it is highly unlikely that SegWit will ever reach the required 95% miner approval threshold unless these pools change their mind on the update. And If the latest accusations regarding the Bitmain’s are true, it is unlikely that they’ll even change their stance on SegWit.
What is a UASF?
A is a soft fork that does not require miner approval but counts instead on the nodes (users) to activate the soft fork themselves. This is done by releasing a new version of a bitcoin Client, in this case, Core. The client gives a block height limit in which the upgrade will become active.
Once the predetermined block height is reached, the nodes that have updated to the new client will stop accepting blocks that don’t support SegWit. Given that SegWit is a soft fork, the nodes that don’t upgrade to the new version of the bitcoin Core client (with UASF) will still count SegWit blocks as valid.
This method makes SegWit much more likely to be adopted when you consider that, currently, more than 83% (5774) of all are running the bitcoin Core client.
If all of these nodes update to the new UASF client, miners will have no choice but to start mining blocks that support SegWit as these will be accepted by all the nodes, rather than only the ones that haven’t updated to the new bitcoin Core client.
UASF Risks
Although the UASF seems like a more effective strategy on paper, it comes with some risks for the community. For example, if the majority of miners don’t start mining SegWit blocks after the UASF is activated, a chain split will take place.
Different nodes will see different blockchains, according to the client they are running. Nodes that have not upgraded to the newest bitcoin Core client will see the blockchain without SegWit and the upgraded nodes will see the blockchain that supports SegWit.
This scenario is problematic for bitcoin Core, which has gone a long way to ensuring that SegWit could be introduced via soft fork. It would also mean that the blockchain with the majority of users (nodes) would be the most vulnerable one due to the lack of miners.
Another issue with the UASF is that the cost of setting up nodes is not nearly as good of an anti-Sybil system as bitcoin’s Proof of Work is, meaning that certain members of the community could start hosting nodes in order to support a UASF or to offer resistance to it. To some degree, this brings back the issue of economic power centralization that has been with regards to bitcoin Unlimited.
Will the UASF be successful, bringing SegWit to bitcoin once and for all? Or will something else get in the way once more? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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