Robotics and AI are creating a paradigm shift in how companies conduct business today. Why hire additional human labor when a robot can do the job with fewer errors and work 24/7 without the need for breaks or time off? It may sound like fiction, but that reality is already happening.
Blendid is a new startup using automation robotics and AI to transform the way food is prepared and served to meet the health and taste preferences for consumers.
Blendid offers autonomous, food robotics kiosks that use advanced technology – including robotics, machine vision, and artificial intelligence – to prepare and serve healthy, fresh, and delicious smoothies, known as Blends. Fruit blends are customized and made-to-order based on an individual’s preferences, using only fresh fruit and vegetables.
Imagine getting a notification on your phone that a delivery has just arrived at your front door. You come outside and pick up a package, not from a human carrier—but from a fully autonomous six-wheeled robot.
Meet the Amazon Scout.
This is Amazon’s latest technological innovation, designed to improve the “last mile” segment of package delivery.
The Scout’s delivery method is more time efficient than a human carrier, because its done by a mathematical algorithm. Plus, multiple robots can cover more ground in a shorter period of time than one person.
Right now the Scout is limited to smooth surfaced sidewalks, but eventually the goal is that it will navigate stairs, complex obstacles, and various rough terrain.
Amazon claims that these devices were “created by Amazon” but it should be noted that the original design of this robot was created by Starship Technologies. Also, this same device was previously tested by companies such as Dominos Pizza, DoorDash and Pepsi.
Hitting the streets
Amazon has already begun testing it with just six Amazon Scout devices, delivering packages during daylight hours in the neighborhoods of Snohomish County, WA.
Trying to deliver perishable food (that needs to stay warm/fresh) may not turn out as well as delivering packages, especially if this robot moves at the speed of a human walking. But the cost savings alone is a huge benefit of using this device for a job that hasn’t changed much in centuries. It’s a remarkable technological improvement over relying upon human labor.
However, reactions from consumers indicate that many people are skeptical that such a device could survive out in public.
@saracsalinas How will Amazon Scout survive in bad neighborhoods and neighborhoods bordering bad ones. We live in a world where people feel it’s OK to steal packages.
Sara Salinas via Twitter
Google has made no official comments regarding this, but these devices come equipped with multiple cameras all around, so they can “see” what you do to them, they have an internal GPS tracker, and the “hood” will remain locked unless someone with the (Amazon) app approaches to unlock it.
So unless someone forgets to properly close the hood so that it locks, the chances of theft are VERY unlikely. In fact, someone already tried.
Huge cost savings
Any company that can successfully achieve automation by this means could potentially save themselves billions of dollars each year.
A standard delivery driver might earn a salary of around $40k to $50k/year. But these robots cost just a one-time price of $5,000 and of course, as the technology improves that price is getting cheaper.
In Washington D.C these robots are not just surviving, they are thriving. As the D.C. Council just recently passed legislation to permit the large-scale deployment of delivery robots across the city. So you might see them popping up soon in a neighborhood near you.
Bitcoin is the worlds first decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency. What this means is that for the first time in history, people have the ability to transfer money from one person directly to another person without going through a central hub, like a Bank.
The original creator of Bitcoin (a person or group who used the pseudonym ‘Satoshi Nakamoto‘) chose to remain anonymous and then disappeared after unleashing this highly disruptive technology to the world in 2009.
A superior computer network
Bitcoin is made up of a global network of computers which all run the same software. It’s based upon a mathematical formula that nobody owns. There is no company that owns it, no central server, and no CEO in charge. The power of the network is delegated out to the end users of the network. This is what we mean when we say its “decentralized.”
The image shows a depiction of centralized systems (like Facebook) which have a single point of failure; as opposed to decentralized systems, made up of nodes and masternodes. In this model, there is no center to the network.
All nodes contain a complete copy of the entire digital ledger, and the nodes individually verify the transactions in the ledger based upon a complex consensus algorithm. Nodes can join and leave the network at any time, but when they rejoin they must “catch up” to the other nodes by re-downloading all of the transactions so their copy of the entire ledger is also complete.
Each node needs a complete copy of the digital ledger (or blockchain) before they can have a share in the process of verifying transactions. This verification process is called mining, but we will discuss that another day.
Fake copycats
There is only ONE true Bitcoin, and it looks like this.
But as with any kind of valuable asset, there will always be cheap imitations that are made by others who try to either mirror, improve upon, or steal money from uninformed investors who think they are buying the real thing, and Bitcoin is no exception, there are dozens of fake Bitcoin look-alikes but there is only one true Bitcoin.
Here are a few examples of fake copycats:
Bitcoin SV (BSV), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Interest (BCI), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), First Bitcoin (BIT), BitcoinX (BCX), Bitcoin Atom (BCA), Bitcoin Private (BTCP), Bitcoin Fast (BTCF), BitcoinZ (BTCZ), Super Bitcoin (SBTC), Lightning Bitcoin (LBTC), eBitcoin (EBTC), Bitcoin Red (BTCRED) and the list just goes on and on and on. If you put your money into buying any of these, you might as well just take that money and fling it out into the street.
What about hackers?
If one node contains a falsely injected transaction from an external attacker, the other nodes will not reach consensus and they will all reject that malicious transaction, therefore effectively killing that transaction from ever happening.
The larger the bitcoin network grows, the more resistant it becomes to attack. Because the larger the network is, the more computer processing power is needed to bring it down. To even try a 51% attack on Bitcoin today would cost somewhere around $60 billion dollars, so its just not feasible for most hackers.
Even though the amounts that are transacted can be publicly seen, the identities of the buyers and sellers are hidden, and all public and private keys are encrypted. All instances where people lost money was due to introducing a centralized 3rd party, or from using unsecured digital wallets.
But so far, the Bitcoin network has been running for 10 years without a single successful attack. Many have tried, but all have failed.
Why its groundbreaking
Bitcoin doesn’t close on weekends. It doesn’t care what country you live in and it knows no borders. You can send $10 dollars or $10 million dollars. For countries where the national currency is worth less than USD, Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal places, so you can send micro payments (smaller than a penny.)
You can do all of this instantly, without anyone’s permission, from anywhere in the world, day or night, and the network fee is only pennies.
This image is a deep fake, but it makes a point – literally anyone can buy bitcoin.
Bitcoin is also non-custodial, meaning that your Bitcoin can be stored in a digital wallet that no one else can access except for you. Therefore, many banks view Bitcoin to be a threat to their existence. The idea of someone else holding your money (and charging a fee for this service) seems obsolete.
Some say that Bitcoin is a the dawn of a whole new age of money. Where the value of everything is tokenized into digital currencies and trust in banks is no longer needed. But whether or not Bitcoin really does lead to the end of centrally-controlled fiat currency, remains to be seen.
Disclaimer: This article was written for educational and entertainment purposes only. This is NOT financial advice. Always do your own research and please consult with a licensed attorney before making any serious investment. We are not responsible for any investment decisions that you choose to make.
