__A lot is happening around all the time and I put some real effort to read and stay up to date with the important stuff. Hopefully you'll pick up a lot to learn from today's curation.__

# Daniel Larimer and UBI
https://youtu.be/-aj8mz3S1xI

__Personally I'm not a fan of a central UBI system at the current state of the world. There are contexts where UBI could work amazingly well. But I don't think the average human is ready for that. Surely they'll want it and love it. But just imagine a world where everyone is given a free iPhone every 2 years. I don't have many positive things to say about it.  I might make a larger post on this topic. I support decentralized community centered UBI system just as I would support mobile phones given by a company. UBI can help to make the world a better place in a sustainable way if it happens in a way much closer to a charity project or how some efficient governments like Singapore distribute budget surplus among citizens.__

# [Alibaba Filed for More than 10 Percent of Blockchain-Based Patents in 2018 ](http://newsaltcoins.com/blockchain/research-alibaba-filed-for-more-than-10-percent-of-blockchain-based-patents-in-2018-btcmanager)

http://cnafinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Alibaba-Group-Stock-News.jpg
<sub>[Source](http://cnafinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Alibaba-Group-Stock-News.jpg)</sub>

__Unlike the regulated to death USSA, China is taking a more state capitalist route and the government is supportive of blockchain project as long as they are not a currency. The one party government understands that blockchain is the future and they plan to take the spot of USA as the #1 global superpower.__

>It’s no surprise that China has filed more patent applications than any other country in the world. According to data collected by Thomsons Reuters, in 2017, large technology companies in China like Tencent Holdings and Baidu lodged more than 56 percent of the worldwide total of 406 blockchain-related patents. In 2017, Alibaba filed 43 blockchain-related patents. Some are still currently awaiting approval.

>“Blockchain is a new technological landscape where it could be very profitable for Chinese companies to grab significant territory in their patent claim language,” said John Eastwood, a partner at Eiger Law. “Holding several patents helps to give an aura of legitimacy that helps many companies in the blockchain field to attract investors or acquirers.”

__Let's just hope that the best talents would focus on more decentralized blockchain projects.__

# [Blockchain and Elections](http://newsaltcoins.com/crypto/blockchain-and-elections-the-japanese-swiss-and-american-experience)
http://newsaltcoins.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ccryptafoto740_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS9zdG9yYWdlL3VwbG9hZHMvdmlldy8wN2I3MDNiNTExOTQ1NzdiNjYxODVhNjE0OTllY2Y3NC5qcGc.jpg
<sub>[Source](http://newsaltcoins.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ccryptafoto740_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS9zdG9yYWdlL3VwbG9hZHMvdmlldy8wN2I3MDNiNTExOTQ1NzdiNjYxODVhNjE0OTllY2Y3NC5qcGc.jpg)</sub>

__This article explores multiple attempts at blockchain based voting systems. The overwhelming consensus is that the best foolproof method is using paper. But paper isn't that efficient or easy to scale. Personally I'd like to see some hybrid approach for larger scale important decisions.__

__There is also a lot of skepticism from the legacy systems when it comes to blockchain based internet voting. But many don't think much about the problems with the existing voting mechanisms.__

>Schneier believes that past efforts to automate the voting system bear a message about the potential dangers of such a transformation. In 2007, the states of California and Ohio carried out comprehensive audits of their electronic voting machines. The outcome was far from positive. The review found that vulnerabilities were endemic throughout almost all components:

>This is not the only instance where electronic voting machines have been compromised. In 2017, the Defcon hackers’ conference collected 25 pieces of equipment and challenged the attendees to compromise them. By the time the weekend was over, the participants had loaded malicious software onto devices, anonymously compromised vote counts and caused the devices to crash. “These were bored hackers,” writes Schneier, “with no experience with voting machines, playing around between parties one weekend.”

# Usernames Are Coming To Dash

https://www.dashforcenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/dash-dip-5.jpg

__To my knowledge DPoS Blockchains were the only ones with Usernames. Some projects like NEM, PIVX etc had address book feature and [Byteball](https://steemit.com/research/@vimukthi/why-i-stopped-mining-and-started-earning-byteball-passive-income-by-helping-medical-research-at-world-renowned-wcg) is an amazing project that allow you to link your Byteball wallet with your STEEM Username. Now Dash will soon be part of the club along with the Evolution upgrade. You can cheack out the GitHub repository here: https://github.com/dashpay/dips/blob/master/dip-0005.md#subscription-username__

### The Problem With STEEM/EOS Usernames
__Everything is on the blockchain linked to a single account. You really aren't going to have any decent amount of privacy. Even chains like Bitcoin can be less private than credit cards because any third party can datamine the blockchain. That's when Dash comes to the rescue.__

>To register a blockchain user, a Register SubTx (SubTxRegister) is submitted to the network. The SubTxRegister must contain a valid, unregistered username along with a public key. The username must comply with the criteria described in the Subscription Username Constraints section. The public key is used for authentication and signing purposes to prove ownership of the username.

__Here are few things you should know:__

- __Minimum length: 3 characters__
- __Maximum length: 24 characters__
- **Acceptable characters: A-Z (case insensitive); 0-9; underscore _; period**
- __Note: Usernames are validated as all lowercase characters regardless of the case in the SubTxRegister__
- __Unique across the Dash blockchain and current mempool__
- __Immutable – the username of a Blockchain User cannot be changed__

>In addition, BUs must “maintain a balance of value used to pay fees related to Evolution actions they perform on the network”. However, these fees will be “created by converting Dash into “credits” at a 1:1 ratio when a Blockchain User is registered and then consumed via DAP State Transitions (modifying the user’s per-DAP data)”. Joshua described this process over the video chat as a signup process in credits (that are created from Dash, but are still transferable), since the credits can only be used to signup to the Dash network and used on the Evolution platform; credits are almost like a referral code/voucher. However, when these credits are spent, they are processed by miners and converted back into Dash. This system will allow Dash signups without having to directly hand out Dash that might be spent once and the new user never again integrates into the Dash network.

__There is also an account reset function that can be greatly helpful.__

>Also significant, closing the BUs account is possible via the most recent private key or if it is a recently update public key via SubTxResetKey then the account can be closed via previously used private keys [“<= ~90 days old (51840 blocks)”]. This is a safeguard in case an “attacker obtains a Blockchain User’s private key [and] then changes the public key via ResetKey”, then this allows “the legitimate user [to] still close the account with their old key”.

__You can use Dash as a privacy currency which has yet to e broken battle tested privacy which is supposed to get eve more improvements in the future. It's a little bit of work, but you have no need to make any compromises on the privacy of your assets and incredible ease of use much similar to PayPal but far better in terms of technology and security.__