French Company Creates Blockchain Derived Angel Funding Platform With Secondary Market

A subsidiary of BNP Paribas Group has announced a partnership that will find it leveraging blockchain technology to enable private companies to issue securities.

Revealed today, the partnership finds BNP Paribas Securities Services, its asset services division, working with investment platform SmartAngels on a pilot the firms said would be launched in the second half of 2016, pending regulatory approval.

In statements, BNP lauded the effort as a "major step" in advancing crowdfunding. The project will see BNP Paribas developing and managing a registry for shares in private companies using the blockchain that in turn will automatically register securities issued by SmartAngels.

Smart Angels will serve as a secondary market for shares registered on the BNP platform, a move the partners said would make it easier for startups and small businesses to access financing.

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Perhaps Misreading the Tea Leaves?

For the last three years, the Berkeley, California-based startup delivered a rotating selection of carb-heavy comfort foods to your door in under 15 minutes. That speed couldn't save it. The company on Tuesday said it's closing up shop. Too much competition and too little cash made it impossible to keep going.

Goodbye, $8 pulled-pork smoked Gouda mac 'n cheese, a recurring customer favorite. I'll miss you.

Brazilian-based iFood reportedly bought SpoonRocket for its delivery tech. The company didn't respond to a request to confirm the acquisition.

SpoonRocket is only the latest on-demand startup to fall on hard times. Earlier this month, Instacart said that it's slashing the pay of people who deliver store-bought groceries to customers. In February, on-demand parking valet Zirx closed its doors, while food delivery startup DoorDash had to lower its own value to raise more funds.

On-demand companies have defined this decade's tech boom. Ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft and delivery apps like Instacart have made patience an overrated virtue. They've also caught the attention of venture capitalists, who have poured more than $9 billion into those three companies alone.

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This is being taken out of context, IMO.  This is the culling of the startups that have not made the grade as much as anything, to be sure, but its timing is interesting.  The VCs are pulling in their horns.  Silicon Valley workers are reportedly rather nervous.  Others are stating they are expecting an economic down turn.  The business cycle might be turning, guys.  No 'boom' goes on forever.

Synthetic Biology Faces Difficult Regulatory Environment for Startups

The pathway to market for new products utilizing synthetic biology can be difficult to navigate, posing a challenge for companies in their efforts to commercialize new ideas, while the novelty posed by some of these products can make it difficult for regulatory agencies to evaluate risks, according to a new report from the Synthetic Biology Project.

The report, The DNA of the U.S. Regulatory System: Are We Getting It Right for Synthetic Biology?, explores current government oversight of synthetic biology in the United States by examining the regulatory pathways of different products and applications. The case studies in the report include synthetic organisms, synthetic chemicals, biopesticides, biomining products, and genetically modified plants, which are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This regulatory environment can be particularly challenging for startups in the biotechnology space. While larger companies may have the resources to navigate the various laws, it can be difficult for smaller companies to know which agency to approach and even which laws may apply to particular applications.

"Based on this report, it appears the U.S. regulatory system may need its own genetic engineering," says Dr. Todd Kuiken, senior program associate with the Synthetic Biology Project. "The system is not flexible enough to address rapidly evolving technologies like synthetic biology. This could make it difficult for agencies to properly evaluate the potential risks of these products, as well making it difficult for products to move to the market."

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Robopocalypse Report #15: 3d Printing the drones to scout for the self driving cars

Welcome to the latest Robopocalypse Report!  News has been light this past week and change, so this report has been compiled over time and once it reaches a threshold, will get published.  As with most times, we lead with the drones!  

Duke Energy has started using drones for power line and other inspections.  Elsewhere drones are being used to inspect oil rigs.

Scientific American discusses the problems with rogue drones.  The incidences of drones getting in the way of important operations or in restricted airspace has increased 3 fold in the past year.  This is a growing problem.  What is to be done?  E Fencing?  GPS delineated no fly zones?  Or...?  And this is NOT just an American problem!

An American small arms ammo maker has started advertising anti drone shotgun rounds. That's one way to deal with the problem drones.

The FAA prefers to ban their flight if necessary, like say the Pope's visit to Philadelphia. 

Apple has stolen Telsa's lead for self driving car tech.  Project Titan is the rumored name for Apple's car.

Consumer WatchDog is calling for amending the DMV regulations for self driving car accidents.  Currently, they must be reported to the DMV, but not investigated by the police.  the consumer group wants them all investigated.

Some are wondering if the self driving car will be the doom of the insurance companies.

Some are stating self driving cars will save you money.

3d Printing is a topic I only rarely touch on here for the Robopocalypse Reports.  This is mainly because while it is a disruptive technology, its so full of niche spaces its hard to discern what is really being that impactful.  When its about 3d printing houses, definitely.  A new material...not so sure.  That said!

CNET looks at the 3d Printing startup culture in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

GLASS from Mediated Matter Group on Vimeo.

MIT has figured out how to 3d print glass.  Here is a pop sci write up and here in the paper.

China confirms a torpedo-like UUV caught in a fisherman's net a few years ago off of Hainan is an intelligence device.

In more general robotics, we have the return of the Makr Shakr robobar.

The review of Buddy the robot from Blue Frog Robotics is pretty down.

Popular Science profiles the delivery bots for hotels of Savioke.  I wonder if the PopMech aerospace curse will hold true for PopSci and robotics.

Fanuc, a major industrial robotics company in Japan, has taken a stake in Preferred Networks as a follow-up to its earlier cooperation agreement.  The intent is to make more flexible, even self repairing robots.

Robohub takes a look at the robotics market in China.  China seems to be embracing the robopocalypse in manufacturing at least, being the largest market for robotics in the world now.

Financial Times claims the problems of robotics and their impact on jobs is a myth.

Does Silicon Valley Only Exist Because of the 'Big Lie'

A startup is hemorrhaging cash, and the VCs have yet to agree on terms for a capital infusion. The clock is ticking until deadpool, first weeks away then days. The founders, stress levels increasing to stratospheric levels, continue to sell their company to everyone, whether investors, employees, potential employees, or clients.

They have little choice. Funding is contingent on growth, but that growth can only happen if no one really understands the funding situation. Founders have to tell the lie – that everything is fine, that a feature is going to launch even though the engineer for that feature hasn’t been hired yet, that payroll will run even though the VC dollars are still nowhere on the horizon.

Lying is a requisite and daily part of being a founder, the grease that keeps the startup flywheel running. No one likes to put it that way of course. Instead, we use phrases like “hustling” and “fake it until you make it” to make the idea of lying more palatable. “Information control” is among the most important skills a founder has traditionally needed for success, and these euphemisms change nothing of the daily behavior.

But times are changing, and everyone is getting more sophisticated about startups. People know what questions to ask, and are not afraid to aggressively probe to get the answers they seek. That means that some of the key myths about success in Silicon Valley are at risk. We need a new transparent approach toward information, but we also need to understand that startups are inherently risky – and accept the lies as they come.

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What is Fusion Energy Startup Tri Alpha Doing?

Of the handful of startup companies trying to achieve fusion energy via nontraditional methods, Tri Alpha Energy Inc. has always been the enigma. Publishing little and with no website, but apparently sitting on a cash pile in the hundreds of millions, the Foothill Ranch, California–based company has been the subject of intense curiosity and speculation. But last month Tri Alpha lifted the veil slightly with two papers revealing that its device, dubbed the colliding beam fusion reactor, has shown a 10-fold improvement in its ability to contain the hot particles needed for fusion over earlier devices at U.S. universities and national labs.

“They’ve improved things greatly and are moving in a direction that is quite promising,” says plasma physicist John Santarius of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Fusion energy seeks to replicate the power source of the sun and stars: heating atoms to enormous temperatures so that their nuclei slam together with enough force to overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse, releasing energy. The challenge on Earth is to confine plasma—an ionized gas, with electrons and nuclei separated—at high temperatures (greater than 150 million degrees Celsius) long enough for fusion reactions to occur. Most effort over the past 60 years of fusion research has focused on tokamaks—huge doughnut-shaped vessels that confine plasma with powerful magnets—and laser fusion, which uses high-energy laser pulses to squeeze tiny capsules of fuel. But between these low-density and high-density extremes there is a range of other approaches that have received little government funding. Now, startup companies are moving into that vacuum.

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San Francisco Open Exchange Intends to be Kayak for Bitcoin Exchanges

One of the remarkable – and perhaps most confusing – aspects of bitcoin is the fact that every bitcoin exchange seems to have a different price for the cryptocurrency.

Of course, no two exchanges are ever alike because they all serve different markets. When it comes to how much it costs to buy or sell bitcoin, this is especially true.

The reasoning for this has to do with bitcoin being a global and largely unregulated market. Because it is bought and sold all over the world, there are numerous prices for it – with no centralization dictating any one.

A new startup called San Francisco Open Exchange aims to fix that. Or, at the very least, its platform will allow users an opportunity to potentially capitalize on the spread across different bitcoin exchange markets.

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Libra Tax: a Bitcoin Tax Startup

“Accountants are going to want a very accurate transaction history and value of Bitcoin at the time it was purchased and used or sold,” says Jake Benson, 25. At least one Bitcoin tax service — Bitcointaxes.info — invites users to manually enter their Bitcoin trades to calculate taxes, or to import it their trading activity from their chosen wallet service, such as Coinbase, Bitstamp or (eek) Mt. Gox. Founder Colin Mackie, a Seattle-based software engineer, started the service after he realized he needed it himself. “I was trying to calculate my own taxes [this Christmas], opened up Excel, and realized that was going to be impossible,” he says via chat. “So I started writing something.”

He says that approximately 400 people have used the site since it launched in February. That was before the guidance from the IRS came out; now he plans to update the service to incorporate the self-employment tax that Bitcoin “miners” are expected to pay, per the new guidance. Mackie says that 4,000 people visited his site the day the guidance came out, which is a “lot more” than usual.

But Benson says tracking Bitcoin trades could be even more automated. He launched Libra Tax in December, incorporated it weeks ago, and says he found an angel investor (today coincidentally). A responsible taxpayer would simply plug his or her Bitcoin wallet addresses into his service. Because Bitcoin is one huge public ledger, the service could pull data about all the Bitcoin that moved in and out of the wallet, automatically compute the value of the Bitcoin at the time, and calculate the tax burden. Users will be able to decide which exchanges they want to use to value the Bitcoin (Mt. Gox or Bitstamp or BTC-E…) and whether they want to “cash in” the first bitcoins they bought (the ones from years ago purchased for $2) or the last ones in (in case they want to claim capital losses for those purchased in November for $1,100).

Sounds great! Unfortunately, it’s not built yet.

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Sunnyvale Startup Building Dalek-like Patrol Bot

A California start-up is turning out capsule-shaped robots that it says could serve as the eyes and ears of base police units.

Knightscope officials envision its K5 system playing a role in community policing, though it’s not hard to imagine a military application – especially at a time when the Pentagon is eyeing reductions in manpower.

“Knightscope’s autonomous technology platform is a fusion of robotics, predictive analytics and collaborative social engagement utilized to predict and prevent crime,” the company states on its website. That means that in addition to sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the K5 is equipped with analytics enabling it to detect threats to people or property and summon police.

According to a recent report in USA today, the Sunnyvale-based company made its first K5 public in December. The prototype, it said, was able to scan an area in 270-degree sweeps to photographically map it. Four mid-mounted cameras can scan up to 1,500 license plates per minute, according to the report.

Some have likened the 5-foot high, 300-lb, dome-topped K5 to the mascot-like R2D2 android of Star Wars, but with a little up-armoring the “patrol-bot” would more resemble your much less warm and fuzzy Dalek of Doctor Who fame. The Predator started out as a purely ISR platform, as well.

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Future is Edging Closer: Startup Wants a Flying Near-Car for the US Military

When someone mentions flying cars it conjures up images of a sporty little number that takes to the air like something out of the Jetsons. But what about one that’s a cross between a 4x4, an octocopter, and a blackhawk helicopter? That’s what Advanced Tactics of El Segundo, California is seeing with its ambitions to produce a roadable VTOL aircraft capable of unmanned autonomous operations as a more flexible way to recover casualties, move supplies, and support special forces.

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The Singularity Is Nigh: Robots Make Gourmet Hamburgers Faster, Better than Fast Food Joints

First link.

 Company website.


DOOMDOOMDOOM!