Defining Zero Knowledge Proofs

Relatively short, definitional and largely non technical definition of zero-knowledge proofs.  Previously covered here, and under examination.  Useful for any kind of transaction.

Hacker Lexicon: What Are Zero-Knowledge Proofs?

How do you make blockchain and other transactions truly private? With mathematical models known as zero-knowledge proofs.

In digital security, the less stray information floating around the better. The fewer companies storing your financial records, the less likely they'll be exposed in a breach. But though there are lots of ways to cut down on data sharing and retention, there are some things services just need to know, right? Thanks to the cryptographic method known as “zero-knowledge proofs” that’s not always the case.  ... "  

And here, related, pointer to a paper, and considerably more technical piece:

You Can Now Prove a Whole Blockchain With One Math Problem – Really   By William Foxley in Coindesk

The Electric Coin Company (ECC) says it discovered a new way to scale blockchains with “recursive proof composition,” a proof to verify the entirety of a blockchain in one function. For the ECC and zcash, the new project, Halo, may hold the key to privacy at scale.

A privacy coin based on zero-knowledge proofs, referred to as zk-SNARKs, zcash’s current underlying protocol relies on “trusted setups.” These mathematical parameters were used twice in zcash’s short history: upon its launch in 2016 and first large protocol change, Sapling, in 2018. ... " 

Buying By Voice Hard Sell for Consumers?

Thoughtful piece.   Yes, it does create a nervousness about making a mistake.  But if enough capabilities are included to attest to the credibility of a request, say with a pin number, and clear repetition of the proposed purchase, and a easy way to revoke the purchase are included in the interaction, people do get used to it.    Voice use in business is also increasing, making people yet more comfortable with the idea.

Shopping by Voice a Hard Sell for Consumers  in Strategy-Business

By Denise Dahlhoff, research director of the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. ... 

AI-based voice communication has finally caught on, seven years after Apple’s Siri launch marked the first major step toward making it part of our daily lives. The recent introduction of Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition was the signal for me that voice technology is here to stay. Children are growing up talking to humanized devices as if it’s the most normal thing. My nieces matter-of-factly interact with Amazon’s Alexa all the time, getting “her” to play songs for their kitchen dance shows, checking math homework solutions, and asking Alexa fun questions. (“Are you a girl? Are you bold?”) When the 7-year-old learned that Alexa can shop, she jokingly said, “Alexa, buy me a TV.”

The idea of actually using Alexa to buy something is an unusual concept to her, which seems to be the case with much of the adult population, too. As of now, voice assistants are mainly used to access news, weather updates, and other information, and to play music and podcasts. But voice shopping hasn’t taken off. It is like a magic carpet with the potential to transport us instantly and conveniently to any shopping destination we can imagine, but part of the carpet is still stuck to the ground. The infrastructure of devices that support voice-assisted shopping has greatly expanded, but software components are underdeveloped. .... " 

Linking Ads in Search to Offline Purchase

Quite a revolutionary thing happening this week, Google indicates that it can link an advertisement in their systems directly to off-line purchases.   Enabled by transaction analysis.   Leading to better measurement of success and more accurate pricing of ads.   Well described in the WaPo: 

" .... Google has begun using billions of credit-card transaction records to prove that its online ads are prompting people to make purchases – even when they happen offline in brick-and-mortar stores, the company said Tuesday.

The advance allows Google to determine how many sales have been generated by digital ad campaigns, a goal that industry insiders have long described as “the holy grail” of online advertising. But the announcement also renewed long-standing privacy complaints about how the company uses personal information.  .... " 

HBR also discusses. 

What's a Blockchain?

In Computerworld, a good, nontechnical view of Blockchains, what they are, their expected  business value, and examples of the companies using and developing them.  This has been covered here for years,  but its always good to have improved non-technical definitions and status views.  

Digital Defining the Shopping Experience

Discussion of interest regarding a Deloitte study.  In RetailWire:

Is digital defining the shopping experience?   by Tom Ryan

According to a new Deloitte study, digital platforms such as Facebook and Google “are operating at such scale now that they are shaping customers’ definitions of what a great customer experience is.”

The study, “The New Digital Divide: The future of digital influence in retail,” pointed to the limitations of a single retailer creating a “meaningfully personalized experience” with its customers. They estimated that the customer likely interacts with a retailer six to eight times per year and mostly in a transactional manner.  .... " 

Retailers Struggling with Big Data

In Retailwire: 

When RSR recently asked retailers about the status of capabilities related to capturing and analyzing Big Data, we found that no capability was reported to have been “implemented” by up to 50 percent of retailers and less than a quarter claimed to be “satisfied” with what they had implemented.

The industry has a “half empty or half full” problem. The optimistic view is we’re in the very early days when it comes to truly leveraging non-transactional data. The pessimistic view is that retailers are just too slow to change.  ....  "

May also depend on your definition of big data.   Operational data based on the stream created by costs, sales and ongoing decisions may make much more sense.

I see our colleague Peter Fader at Wharton commented on this:

" .. it’s simple: retailers are obsessed with one and only one thing — operational efficiency. Big Data can be somewhat helpful in this regard but the real payoff from it, as noted in Brian’s introductory comments, is in different kinds of personalization/customization. Retailers are notoriously bad at doing this (because these activities go against the grain of operational efficiency).

Until retailers are willing/able to change their core strategies in a fundamental manner, they will never reap the rewards of Big Data. ..." 

Scalable Database Design

Had not heard of the specific concept, but make sense.  ....

What Makes a Scalable Database?
Database scalability is a concept in database design that emphasizes on the capability of a database to handle growth in the amount of data and users. In the modern applications sphere two types of workloads have emerged – namely analytical and transactional workloads. Planning for workload growth must take into account operating system, database design and hardware design decisions. ... " 

Designing Happiness

In FastCoDesign:     Good thoughts on the topic.    " ... Designing Happiness  ... The Secret to Customer Loyalty?  It's less about the moment of interaction and more about what comes before and after.  .... To devise innovations that make customers feel differently, we need to broaden the lens beyond the operational and transactional to focus more on the behavioral and emotional—what we at Lippincott are starting to call "the happiness halo."  ... ' 

We Need to Control Our Data

Artificial Intelligence Is Doomed if We Don't Control Our Data
This model is why the discussion about individuals selling their personal data is missing the point: ‘How much money is your data worth?' ‘Are you just like any data broker if you whore your information to the highest bidder?' These are questions asked within the existing paradigm of Internet advertising, where we're simply tools to generate data versus individuals in control of our identities. Artificial Intelligence in this context makes perfect sense. Our lives in code are transactional versus transformational. Why bother getting humans in the mix when invisible tracking ostensibly knows us better than we know ourselves? ... " 

CPG and Location Based Advertising

In Mediapost: Mostly about food, but good statistics about CPG and location based mobile advertising.  " ... By targeting custom audiences based on location, traffic patterns and habits, along with demographic and transactional information from matching mobile devices to household-level data, CPG ads generated a 74% increase in foot traffic and 56% lift in visit frequency via location-powered media for retailers. ... "  

Big Data and Food and Beverage Retail

A Podcast of interest. 
" .... Nearly every company wants to acquire more customers and keep them longer. Yet in some ways, that’s more challenging now than ever with so many options available to consumers. But there is also tremendous opportunity for companies that are using data and analytics in creative and innovative ways. Michael Haydock, IBM Fellow, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Scientist of the Business Analytics and Optimization group, described how one popular food & beverage retailer is marrying billions of transactional records with weather and social media data to create highly personalized promotions. ... "  

ZoomData

Real time data visualization on the iPad:  Press release.   " ... Zoomdata makes it easy for data administrators to quickly connect its stream-processing engine to a wide variety of real-time data feeds and historical data sources. Once connected, a real time data feed is instantly available, allowing users to visualize and analyze trends within its most critical data, whether it arises from social networks, IT operations, trading data, transactional systems, or virtually any enterprise or cloud-based application.. ... " 

Securing the Internet of Things

In Wired:  We are looking forward to leveraging the data generated by the internet of things.  New trasparency in supply chain analysis, social behavior and transactional interaction.  But what are the security implications for everything being tagged and communicating?   Good Wired piece.