Blockchain is helpful for more than just managing digital currency. Decentralized applications, or smart contracts, also depend on distributed ledgers. In this article, data-driven investor Daniel Calugar outlines what blockchain is and how it can help your business.

A discussion about decentralized applications (dapps) should start with a primer about blockchain. With many innovative and disruptive technologies – AI, for example – the early stages of general adoption bring a flood of misinformation. Unfortunately, it is often promulgated by well-meaning marketing folks that lack more than a surface-level understanding of the topic; inaccurate descriptions and conflated terms muddy the waters.

Blockchain is based on the idea of a distributed ledger – a digital system that records transactions. The details of a transaction are simultaneously recorded at numerous places. There is no central data storage. Instead, the database exists among many participants across different geographical locations.

One of the most misunderstood aspects of the blockchain is its relationship to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Many people appear to see blockchain and cryptocurrency as the same thing. They are not.

One of the best ways to understand, or help others understand, the relationship between blockchain and cryptocurrency is to apply the parallels between a computer operating system and a piece of computer software. Blockchain is the technology that makes cryptocurrency possible, just like your computer’s OS makes running MS Word possible, but you wouldn’t say that running MS Word is the only thing your computer can do – let’s hope.

Dapps (sometimes called smart contracts) are digital applications or programs made feasible by blockchain technology. Dapps run on a distributed computing system; that’s not new technology. What makes dapps unique is they run on a blockchain network in a public open-source, decentralized environment. Thus, they are free from control and interference by any single authority.

The smart contract moniker for a dapp comes from the idea that these programs can prevent a transaction from being fully executed until both parties have agreed to the terms and conditions – thus, they offer more protection than a simple digital transaction.

You might say that dapps and cryptocurrency are cousins. This kinship is because they both require the decentralized and autonomous aspects of blockchain’s distributed ledger to work securely and effectively. In the case of Ether, the digital currency of the Ethereum community, this relationship is even closer and interdependent.

Ethereum is the community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH). ETH is a tradable digital token, global money, and the currency of Ethereum dapps. ETH is similar to Bitcoin in that you can invest in it, trade it, and buy stuff with it. Still, more than that, you can store computer code that you can use to power tamper-proof decentralized financial contracts and applications – dapps that run without any downtime, fraud, control, or interference from a third party.

While they are both digital currencies, Bitcoin was created as an alternative to national currencies and aspires to be a medium of exchange and a store of value. Ethereum, on the other hand, is intended as a platform to facilitate permanent, programmatic contracts and applications using ETH.

The number of ETH-powered smart contracts that businesses can use is growing every day. They fall mainly into the categories of finance, art and collectibles, gaming, and technology. Popular dapps for business include services such as lending, borrowing, earning interest, and facilitating payments with no personal data required.

About Daniel Calugar

Daniel Calugar is a versatile and experienced investor with a background in computer science, business, and law. He developed a passion for investing while working as a pension lawyer and leveraged his technical capabilities to write computer programs that helped him identify more profitable investment strategies. When Dan Calugar is not working, he enjoys spending time working out, being with friends and family, and volunteering with Angel Flight.

Since the popularity of real-world games like the Pokemon GO, Google launched its Google Maps Platform for some limited game developers. These limited developers were to create real-world games using the Unity Software Development Kit (SDK). This was over two years ago. Since that time ten games that use the Google Maps Platform garner more than 11 million players monthly. So now, Google has created a “scalable infrastructure” that extends access to the Google Maps Platform to anyone looking to develop their own real-world games.

The announcement came from the Mountain View-based tech giant via an official blog post. According to Google, this move will allow game developers “to sign up and quickly get started online” to develop some epic real-world mobile games.

So, if you are a developer, you can now get access to Google’s Semantic Tile API and Playable Locations API to develop your own location-based mobile game. Now, to start off your project, go to this link to first create a billing account and get started with Google Cloud Project. Then you have to download the Google Maps SDK. Once you download the Maps SDK, both of the APIs will be enabled automatically. Then you can follow this quick-start guide to start building your game.

Now, following the launch of this new Maps SDK, Google added two new features to help developers enhance their games. These two features include Mixed Zoom and Pathfinding.

The Mixed Zoom feature essentially helps developers to generate bigger playable maps while using less processing power. This is possible because the feature renders a high level of detail for areas that are close to the players. While the locations that are far away from the players renders in progressively lower quality. And the Pathfinding feature lets the developers create much more advanced in-game characters.

So, this move by Google could lead to more location-based games in the market. And this means Pokemon GO will soon have a lot of competitors to beat.

With the announcement of Google Stadia, the Mountain View-based tech giant made some heavy claims concerning the platform. Over time, the company added several games, like PUBG and Doom 64, and new features to the platform. One of the features that Google announced with the cloud-based gaming platform was “State Share”. And the first game to use this feature will be a multiplayer-game called “Crayta”.

The “State Share” is a unique feature for the Stadia players that allows them to “jump” into a friend’s multiplayer games via links that can be shared. With this feature integrated into games, players can generate a unique link and share it with friends, fans, or anyone who can use it to join the player’s game instantly.

Now, “Crayta” is essentially a Minecraft-like world-building multiplayer game that was announced as a “Stadia exclusive”. This means that the game will be available on Stadia and no other platform for a while. It is finally launching on July 1 and will be the first game to bring the “State Share” feature with it.

Now as Stadia is a cloud-based gaming platform, Google will be allowing players to easily generate and share a link with friends or other players to allow them to join their game with just a click. Chris Swan, the Publishing Director of “Crayta” explained how they are using the feature, which is still in beta, with their own game-sharing feature, “Share Codes”.

The links that the game will generate using the “State Share” feature will be of different types. This means, there will be different links for different purposes. For instance, if the player wants his/her friends to join them in “Play Mode”, there will be a certain link. And if he/she wants them to join in the “Create Mode”, there will be a different link. You can check out the chart below to check out the different links.

So, the “State Share” feature is a pretty cool feature for a collaborative gaming experience. And the integration of it in “Crayta” will open a whole lot of opportunities for Stadia players. The game will be free for Stadia Pro subscribers. For non-Stadia Pro players, it will cost $40 (~Rs 3040).

When we think of gaming laptops, we think of those bulky, heavy-duty laptops like the Acer Predator series laptops or the HP Omen series laptops. However, the new “GPD Win Max” changed my entire perspective about gaming laptops. It is a portable gaming console that actually is the world’s smallest gaming laptop.

Manufactured by Shenzhen-based GamePad Digital (GPD) Technology Co. Ltd., the GPD Win Max is their latest iteration of the GPD-series hand-held devices. The company makes some unique portable laptops that users can easily hold in their hands and take it anywhere they want.

The World’s Smallest Gaming Laptop

Now, the GPD Win Max, according to the company, is the only hand-held gaming console that can run AAA titles like the upcoming Spider-man: Miles Morales at 60Hz in medium settings. Well, I say that the company is lying. This device, by no means, is a gaming “console”. Although it is a hand-held device, the GPD Win Max is really a gaming laptop that comes with an integrated controller along with a full-fledged keyboard and a trackpad.

As the device is focused on portable gaming, the company made the GPD Win Max tough and durable with an aluminum cover and an aviation-grade anti-shock ABS synthetic resin. GPD also took thermal management seriously by giving the laptop dual desktop-grade cooling fans along with two cooling pipes.

It comes with the 10nm Intel 10-gen Ice Lake-U CPU with the Intel 11th-gen Iris Plus 940 GPU. The device features a 512GB SSD and has an array of ports to connect external displays and other peripherals. It has an 8-inch H-IPS display with a 180-degree hinge design for convenient hand-held gaming on the device.

Comes With an Integrated Controller Setup

Speaking of hand-held gaming, remember the gaming controller set up I mentioned earlier? Well, that is present on each of the upper corners of the device. On the upper right corner, you will get the standard ABXY buttons along with an analog thumbstick and on the upper left corner, there is a 4-way D-Pad with another analog stick. Apart from the standard thumbsticks and buttons, the laptop also has the L1-L2 and R1-R2 trigger buttons on both the upper edges.

So, users can use this integrated controller setup to easily play games without the need for a gaming mouse, a gaming mouse mat, or a fancy RGB keyboard.

Now, the GPD Win Max is currently on the crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo. However, it won’t be there for long as the campaign is about to end in 3-4 days. So, if you want the world’s smallest gaming laptop, you can get one for a price of 6038 HKD (~Rs 58,941) and it will reach you by next month.

And if you love this device, you know who to thank in the comments section below.

Following a ton of speculations over the past weeks, PUBG Mobile announced Thursday that its all-new map is called ‘Livik’. The company, however, didn’t reveal any further info on the subject alongside the announcement. Thankfully, a PUBG Mobile producer has now revealed key details about the new battlefield. In an interview to The Verge, Rick Li said that Livik will only support a maximum of up to 40 players simultaneously. It is noteworthy, however, that the map supports 50 players currently in the beta version of PUBG Mobile.

According to Li, the new map will help “more people to enjoy PUBG Mobile”. It is aimed at gamers who have very little time on their hands, but want to squeeze in a quick match whenever they had the time, he said. According to him, “The initiative for this map is bringing more flexibility to those players who have tighter schedules and circumstances to accommodate for”. Livik is the smallest map in the game, measuring two kilometers by two kilometers. It is also the only map designed exclusively for the mobile version of the game.

Livik, however, isn’t just about a small map with something in it for everybody. According to Li, it also has a number of interactive elements that would lead to faster-paced matches. The map is based on Nordic terrain and, comes with a whole host of interesting topographic features, including a volcano, hot spring, waterfalls, snow-covered peaks and sandy deserts. It is exclusively designed for mobiles, with no word on whether it will ever make it to PC and consoles.

Livik is expected to be released with the 0.19.0 update, but there’s no ETA for that just yet. Rumors suggest that it might go live in the second week of July. However, PUBG Mobile is yet to confirm that officially.