Meme Collectors Are Using the Blockchain to Keep Rare Pepes Rare

Image: Artwork from a Rare Pepe card by Bench/shitco.in

The problem with Rare Pepes, a casual observer will note, is that these days they’re far from rare. The internet is awash with the pictures of the goggly-eyed frog and has been for years: as far back as 2015, after a user dumped over a thousand Pepes into a single vertiginous Imgur album, the community opined that the meme was mainstream, over, dead.

Of course, Pepe has now had a bizarre resurgence as a white supremacist symbol, which was even displayed on the lapel of Richard Spencer as he received the now notorious and heavily meme-ified punch. So is there any way to separate good Pepes from bad, common from rare, dank from deplorable?

That’s where the Rare Pepe Directory comes in. It’s a list of Rare Pepe images—most in the form of trading cards—that are represented as digital assets on the bitcoin blockchain, making use of the same cryptographic properties that mean you can’t spend the same coin twice. And tied to the directory is the Rare Pepe Wallet, an online storehouse that collectors can use to keep, trade and sell the Pepe cards.

A selection of artwork from the Rare Pepe Directory

To be included in the directory, Rare Pepes are created using Counterparty, a platform which lets users issue digital tokens with a fixed circulation—like a mini currency—and release them in such a way that they can be exchanged between users over the bitcoin network.

The newfound uniqueness of the certified rares has led to a subculture of Rare Pepe traders which has coalesced around a Telegram group. I joined it to chat to some of the traders, who were pretty quick to oblige by sending me my first Pepes and talking about the project with me.

One user, Sipher, told me in a chat:

I collected hockey cards and comics as a kid. I have the biggest collection of anyone I know, which are all basically worthless now because of overprinting and counterfeiting. These cards are providing a real proof of concept for establishing a trackable asset attached to a "collectible item”. You can’t counterfeit assets on the chain, either you own it or you don’t.

Strangely enough, there really is something satisfying and about seeing the ranks of your wallet slowly fill up with the cards. In an afternoon hanging out on the channel I accumulated 15 different cards, the rarest of which was PWA—Pepes With Attitude—with a circulation of 187 (geddit?). But this is nothing compared to the rarest Pepe of all, ONLYONEPEPE, of which understandably there is only one, or close second WINKELPEPE (named after the Winklevii) with a circulation of two.

Regarding the frog’s alt right links, the traders were also quick to distance themselves from his new incarnation, pointing out that people were banned from the group for abusive behaviour and that no offensive Pepes would be certified. (“Best just to ignore those extremists and Be rare, Be Pepe”, one user told me sagely.)

Cards in my own Rare Pepe Wallet

Though the cards may be trivial in nature, genuine scarcity plus a desire to collect translates into real world value. Built into the wallet is a mechanism for placing buy/sell orders, fulfilled through XCP or Pepecash (the "currency of the Pepesphere"), both cryptocurrencies which can be traded on exchanges for bitcoins or dollars.

The upshot of this is that these Rare Pepes really do change hands for money: for the most part a negligible amount, but sometimes ten, twenty, or—in the highest recorded trade—the equivalent of close to $500 at time of press.

It’s a surprisingly functional ecosystem, with the lulzy in-jokes underpinned by sophisticated back end technology. And despite its frivolous nature, Trevor Altpeter, Director of the Counterparty Foundation, says that rare Pepe trading is a welcome test of the capabilities of the protocol.

“The Rare Pepe phenomenon is demonstrating the features of Counterparty, most importantly the ability to enforce digital scarcity for the first time,” Altpeter said via chat. “Its value as a test case is evident in the rising number of Counterparty transactions related to it, and the people building around these cards all over the world.”

Feels good, man.

from Meme Collectors Are Using the Blockchain to Keep Rare Pepes Rare

Drivers Use Tesla Autopilot at Their Own Risk, Investigators Conclude

After a six month long inquest, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today closed its investigation into a fatal accident involving a Tesla vehicle in autopilot mode with the conclusion that no design error occurred, precluding the need for a product recall and clearing Tesla of fault in the incident.

The fatal collision occurred on May 7th, 2016, when 40-year-old Joshua Brown’s Tesla Model S hit an 18-wheel truck and trailer that was turning left at an intersection. A statement from Tesla at the time said that an exceptional set of circumstances - an unusually tall white trailer against a bright sky - meant that the vehicle’s computer vision system did not detect the crossing truck, and the car passed under the trailer at full speed, tearing the roof off.

According to the report, the examination:

“[D]id not identify any defects in the design or performance of the AEB or Autopilot systems of the subject vehicles… The Autopilot system is an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that requires the continual and full attention of the driver to monitor the traffic environment and be prepared to take action to avoid crashes.”

The truck driver’s testimony from the crash suggested that Brown may have been watching a DVD at the time, ignoring Tesla’s instructions that drivers should remain attentive and keep hands on the wheel when autopilot mode is engaged. (Tesla’s own press kit describes the autopilot function as “a hands-on experience to give drivers more confidence behind the wheel.”)

Joshua Brown had an active YouTube page showing off Tesla's Autopilot feature.

According to Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington specializing in robotics law, the NHTSA’s decision reflects the principle of ‘assumption of risk’: that the affected party knowingly accepted the dangers of the activity concerned, meaning that the manufacturer was not at fault.

“I think the really difficult case is going to be a case in which some third party is hurt,” said Calo. “If someone has a Tesla on autopilot, is not paying attention and runs into a third party, Tesla is not going to be able to argue assumption of risk in that instance … so that will pose a very difficult legal problem for Tesla in my opinion.”

In the case of such an incident, Calo suggested, courts would not be bound by any precedent from today’s findings.

In a tweet, Elon Musk described the report’s finding as “very positive”, later quoting figures from the report that showed a significant reduction in crash rate of Tesla vehicles after the Autosteer feature was released.

Report highlight: “The data show that the Tesla vehicles crash rate dropped by almost 40 percent after Autosteer installation.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2017

Tragic accidents notwithstanding, polls suggest that overall the American public is slowly becoming more accepting of self-driving vehicles: a recent survey found that 23 percent of adults said they would ride in an autonomous vehicle now, with 42 percent saying they would consider doing so in future.

from Drivers Use Tesla Autopilot at Their Own Risk, Investigators Conclude

Google Squashed a Chrome Extension that Flooded Ad Networks With Disinformation

What happens when one of the giants of the modern internet decides that your product affects its business model? The debate came to the fore again last week when Google removed AdNauseam, an anti-tracking browser extension, from the Chrome Web Store.

AdNauseam is built on the principles that Helen Nissenbaum, professor of Media, Culture and Communication and Computer Science at NYU and a co-creator of the extension, detailed in her book Obfuscation: in addition to hiding ads from the user, it also clicks every ad link in the background, creating a fog of fake data which confuses attempts to build a profile of the user’s habits. Released in 2014, the extension was fully operational until the end of 2016, but according to AdNauseam has been unavailable for download from the Chrome Web Store since the start of 2017, with previously installed copies automatically deactivated in the Chrome browser.

AdNauseam (picture here in Firefox) sends ad networks junk data by randomly "clicking" ads. Image: Screenshot/AdNauseam

With Chrome accounting for 54 percent share of the desktop browser market as of late 2016, Google controls the channel through which the majority of global desktop internet users access the web, which is why its stance on users’ right to opt out of tracking has such large implications. In a Skype call, Nissenbaum said:

“What many people don’t understand is that companies like Google and Apple—who are really gatekeepers to an enormous amount of cultural and political activity—may be reasonably benevolent at the moment... but because of how our system of regulation is set up, they still have complete freedom about who they decide to let on or kick off their respective platforms.”

In the desktop market, it should be noted that internet users do have a greater ability to move outside of the Google/Apple stack—browsers like Firefox or Brave also ad blocking and anti-tracking functionality—although where smartphones are concerned, it’s harder to download software outside of the official app stores.

As far as ad blockers go, tension with Google isn’t new: in early 2013 the company removed several ad blocking apps from the Play Store for Android (Adblock Plus returned two years later in the form of a dedicated web browser). But where Chrome for the desktop is concerned, hugely popular extensions like AdBlock, Adblock Plus, and uBlock Origin (which AdNauseam is based upon) remain readily available, raising questions over why AdNauseam’s tactics have left it specifically targeted for removal—a point which Google has been less than clear about. An email from the Web Store, forwarded by Nissenbaum to Motherboard, gives a stock response:

Your item did not comply with the following section of our policy: An extension should have a single purpose that is clear to users. Do not create an extension that requires users to accept bundles of unrelated functionality, such as an email notifier and a news headline aggregator.

Google did not reply to Motherboard's request for comment on the removal of AdNauseam.

The real issue, many would argue, is a conflict of interest: Google wants to be responsive to the requests of its users by giving them the functionality they want—here, a web browser with the ability to install a variety of extensions—, up until the point that these functions begin to impact its profit margin. And since developers don’t have any specific right to have these products hosted on Google’s platform, once the decision to block an app or extension is made it can be difficult to appeal.

"Today it’s your art/privacy tool, tomorrow it’s your photo collection, or maybe your password manager,” said AdNauseam’s designer Mushon Zer-Aviv in an email. “Google should be frank about its policy, that browsing the web through Chrome is browsing the web under Google's corporate interest censorship."

With Google yet to offer a response, the exact reason for AdNauseam’s removal can’t be confirmed. At present though, Chrome users can still run the AdNauseam extension by manually installing a zip file in developer mode, or switch to another browser instead. It remains to be seen whether Google will reverse the decision and reinstate it to the Web Store, but in the meantime, as the developers point out, it still works great in Firefox.

from Google Squashed a Chrome Extension that Flooded Ad Networks With Disinformation

The Mine of the Future Is Run by Drones

Like the famous canaries that were first brought into coal mines from the early 1900s to detect carbon monoxide, creative solutions have long been used to mitigate some of the risk inherent in mining. Even so, human bodies have long borne the brunt of this cramped and strenuous occupation, from the creeping 'black lung' of coal miners to blasting injuries from explosive flyrock. So it’s good news that the new frontier in mining is to remove them from proximity to physical danger as much as possible, perhaps one day entirely.

That’s why automation is a big deal in heavy industries like mining and construction. Leading names of the industry, like British-Australian firms Rio Tinto and BHP and Canada’s Barrick Gold, are all investing large sums of money in automating more and more of the process of mining, including an increasing use of driverless vehicles. But you can dispel images of retrofitted Teslas from your mind: these vehicles are seven metre high (23ft) giants that can move at 40mph and carry a 230 ton payload.

According to Rio Tinto, these vehicles can boost productivity while helping to improve mine safety at the same time. In the company’s Australian mines, for example, many first generation driverless vehicles are actually operated remotely by crew hundreds of kilometers away, taking drivers away from the punishing summer heat (sometimes in excess of 110° F in summer) and cutting down the risk of errors induced by fatigue or environmental stress.

These remotely operated vehicles are already a boon to the industry, but the latest generation of driverless mining vehicles remove the need for a human operator entirely. Made by Komatsu, a Japanese construction equipment company (and in fact the second largest manufacturer of mining equipment in the world behind Caterpillar), the new line of unmanned haulage vehicles was unveiled at MINExpo 2016, the industry’s flagship equipment show, where they made waves with a completely cabless design.

Komatsu autonomous truck: Image: Komatsu

But even with all of the sensors we already associate with autonomous vehicles—stereo cameras, GPS, LiDAR, etc.—automation challenges faced by mining machinery are different from those experienced by, say, self-driving cars cruising down Main Street. Mining involves a different level of interaction with raw materials like stone or sand, along with the need to work collaboratively with other humans and machines, all while navigating irregular and uneven paths or confined spaces. In order to do this, accurate modelling of the physical environment is key—and that’s where the drones come in.

In the past few years Komatsu has developed a system called Smart Construction, a project that makes use of services from Skycatch, a San Francisco-based startup which specializes in providing enterprise customers with super accurate data collection and analysis using drone photography. Essentially, in the Smart Construction process a small drone flies over a target area in a pre-programmed pattern, taking a series of photos of the ground below. The drone then uploads the photographs to another piece of software, developed by Skycatch, which processes the data to produce a 3D rendered topographical model of the area in centimeter-level detail; with this complete, a foreman can use a computer system to direct robotic vehicles around the site.

3D model made by a Skycatch drone. Image: Skycatch

Although this software can be used with many different camera/drone combinations, for precision operations Skycatch sells its own drones to clients, which come with a custom made RTK antenna system built into industry leading DJI drone hardware. The precise combination of photography and geospatial data is what allows for the real technical wizardry, as Skycatch founder and CEO Chris Sanz explained.

“The drone automatically connects to an RTK antenna to triangulate the location of the drone itself when taking the photo,” said Sanz in a Skype call. “Microsecond synchronisation of where you are in space where the photo is taken is what gives us the data we can use to make a centimeter accurate point-cloud... With the point-cloud you can then make measurements, put it into your AutoCAD or design tools, or you can load it into a bulldozer and automate the movement.”

Compared to traditional surveying techniques, drone photogrammetry reduces the time taken to make a comprehensive model of a work site from a matter of weeks to just a few hours. The ability to get an up-to-date snapshot of the site so quickly also makes a new automation workflow possible – which if the promotional video is to be believed, looks a bit like a deploying units on a Command & Conquer game:

As this trend towards automation continues there will almost certainly come a point where humans no longer need to be present in mining areas at all. In the interim period, mines will increasingly see a mixture of autonomous and human-operated machinery, which brings its own challenges. For example, although autonomous vehicles are working according to logical rules, these may not always be apparent to human workers: in one accident recorded in an Australian mine, the route pre-programmed into an autonomous truck had not been physically signposted in the mine, leading to a serious collision when the automated vehicle unexpectedly cut across the path of a vehicle with a human driver. (On some levels this is still a case of human error, but an error that would have been apparent had both vehicles been manned.)

However, setbacks notwithstanding, the path is laid out toward a new paradigm for mining, and one that has implications beyond the extractive industries as automation and robotics start to play a greater role in modern life. Mines are far from the only places that can benefit from the kind of rich data gathered by drones, as Skycatch’s Chris Sanz explained.

“We’re becoming a platform that allows enterprise companies to have accurate access to the physical world in real time,” he said. “One day this is going to change so many different industries that we can’t even imagine.”

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from The Mine of the Future Is Run by Drones