Satellite launch kick starts Elon Musk’s quest to connect everyone on Earth
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over 3.5 billion people on the planet aren’t connected to the internet, for better or worse, and space internet is here to change that. They’ve finally done it – for years I’ve been talking about how a raft of companies were planning on launching...
Russia announces plans to temporarily disconnect itself from the global internet
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF People think of the internet as one, global network, but it’s being nationalised and splintering. Many people think that the internet is one thing, one “amorphous system” that crosses borders, and is, in essence, the digital fabric that unites the world. But, as China...
Ownerless companies on the rise as startups experiment with new business models
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Blockchain will let us build new types of companies in new ways, including ownerless companies where funds and profits are divided automatically between individuals. Slowly, very slowly, we’re seeing the emergence of the world’s first fully autonomous companies, from small hedge funds in Hong...
Government can’t do it alone any more, says Apple’s CEO
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As individuals and organisations start becoming more powerful than many governments, people are wondering if private companies can solve humanity’s problems faster. As I travel around the world, from America to Africa, Europe to the Middle East, and Japan to Singapore, talking to people...
Just as 5G starts rolling out 6G is in the already in the works
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The march of technology never stops, and as users celebrate Gigabit mobile speeds Terabit mobile speeds are already on the drawing board. While countries around the world are just beginning to roll out their first 5G networks that operate at Gigabbit speeds, technologists at...
FCC opens up new spectrum for 6G, 7G and “whatever’s next”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As mobile communications become more important to businesses and governments the US wants to encourage innovation. Commercial 5G networks are barely operational in the US right now, but that hasn’t stopped engineers from thinking ahead to 6G, which is already on the drawing board...
Department of Defense warns the US is falling behind China on 5G
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New 5G mobile networks will unleash a torrent of new innovation, and the US DOD fears that the country will be left behind if it doesn’t release new spectrum. The US led the charge on 4G LTE, which gave US companies significant power in...
Qualcomm releases its first WiGig chipsets to push WiFi to gigabit speeds
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The combination of Gigabit WiFi and 5G now mean it’s possible to ditch your traditional fiber based broadband provider, and cut another chord. Earlier this month, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that the next generation of Wi-Fi devices will be called “Wi-Fi 6,” all but...
JP Morgan becomes the first major US bank to roll its own crypto coins
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bitcoin may have its critics, but noone can argue the impact that cryptocurrencies have had on the world, and now one of the US’ biggest banks is jumping on the bandwagon. With talks of China creating the first blockchain based national cryptocurrency and Ohio...
SpaceX seeks FCC approval to bring space based internet to the entire US
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Laying down hundreds of thousands of miles of fibre optic cable has had its day as space based internet platforms compete with established telcos. Private spaceflight firm SpaceX has been publicly planning to deploy a network of “Starlink” satellites to offer broadband internet for several years...
Beyond 5G, China eyes dominance in 6G networks by 2030
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As countries vie for leadership in 5G some countries are already eyeing leadership in 6G. The race for leadership in the 5G world might still be in its early stages but China, alongside the UK who started work on a new 6G standard back in 2015,...
US military identifies virtual nations as a potential security threat to US sovereignty
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The internet means citizens can now become part of large, virtual collectives, or nations, and there are fears these nations, with their own rules, welfare and support systems, could threaten the power and influence of sovereign nations. When is a nation not a nation?...
Ohio becomes first US state to let people pay business taxes in Bitcoin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many investors have said Bitcoin will take off when you can pay your taxes with it, well that time might be getting closer. There’s a lot of legal uncertainty in the US surrounding cryptocurrencies, and many other investors, like Kevin O’Leary ABC show Shark Tank fame,...
Decentralised hedge funds take aim at Wall Street elite
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Services and industries are increasingly becoming decentralised, and the financial services industry is no exception. A little while ago I discussed how one hedge fund, Aidyia, is now fully autonomous, a decentralised autonomous organisation run by an AI without humans, and how another, Numerai,...
Bangkok residents cut out the energy companies and trade energy over the blockchain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the number of small renewable energy installations around the world grow individual communities are increasingly cutting out the energy companies and trading energy directly with one another. Residents in a Bangkok neighbourhood in Thailand are trying out a new blockchain based peer to...
Singapore, the world leader in education, bans all student rankings
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Education that prepares children for the changes in the decades to come is vital, and Singapore have one of the most ambitious education visions of any country. By whatever yard stick you care to measure it by Singapore has one of the highest achieving...
Apple’s eSIM plans would be a death blow to the carriers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Carriers all around the world rely on physical SIMs to keep their customers locked into contracts and make it difficult to change, apple wants to change that. Each new iPhone is usually good news for mobile network operators. The latest Apple device always comes with...
The web is broken so it’s founder is re-inventing it
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The internet was supposed to empower people, but so far most of that power is being concentrated in big centralised platform companies instead. The founder of the World Wide Web thinks it’s broken and has a plan to fix it. Tim Berners-Lee, the British...
IBM breakthrough uses AI to make blockchain more energy efficient
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Mining blockchain uses up an extraordinary amount of electricity, equivalent to an entire country, so companies are trying to fix the issue. Proof of Work (PoW), the common consensus mechanism that secures Bitcoin and numerous other cryptocurrency blockchains, has given the technology a reputation for...
The internet is splintering in two, one led by the US the other led by China
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As individual nation states look to assert their dominance on the global stage we are witnessing the early stages of a splintered internet with multiple standards. The internet is disappearing, being replaced instead by a fabric of connected devices, like wearables and sensor systems,...
