Branden Roane

Blockchain technology exploded on the scene with the introduction of cryptocurrency, and that’s where it remains within the public conversation.  There is not much understanding, especially within the Black community, of the underlying technology and its usage outside of finance. Blockchain technology is a list of records linked through cryptography. It is managed by multiple machines on a peer-to-peer network. Although it cannot be edited, it is verifiable because, in order to change the blockchain, it has to be confirmed by the majority of the network. It makes sense for this technology to be used in finance, but what about other uses and those that apply to our neighborhoods? Direct Payments Since blockchain technology is a destabilized system, it negates the need for processing fees for sending money. In areas where people have no access to banks or financial institutions, this allows a person to send money directly to another person. The ride-sharing app ArcadeCity takes this...

This article was originally published on 05/10/2019 The rising popularity of gaming has attracted onlookers as well as participants – giving way to esports and streaming as a platform. Platforms like Twitch, Mixer and YoutubeGaming allow visitors to watch streamers play through their favorite games. Players balance playing the game with hosting the room’s visitors, talking with them in chats and inviting engagement, follows, or subscriptions. Twitch, the OG on the block, currently boasts 2.2 million streamers on its platform. Why are so many people playing video games for people to watch? Because there’s a market for it. Streamers can earn revenue from viewers watching ads on their channel, through subscriptions and donations.  Ninja (the streamer who shot to fame playing Fortnite with Drake, Travis Scott and JuJu Smith-Schuster last spring) reportedly makes up to $500,000 a month from streaming alone. The Fortnite session with Drizzy netted Ninja the record for highest stream views...

This article was originally published on 05/08/2019 The film Minority Report showed us a future where technology can be used to prevent crimes before they occur. The 2002 thriller starring Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell imagined Washington, D.C. in 2054 with a 0 percent murder rate due to the fictional PreCrime program. However, it was not without its failings. It’s been widely known that artificial intelligence is subject to the complicit biases of the programmers who give it life. Much like a child learns from a parent, machine learning is the concept that machines can learn context from simply combing through information. When the machine starts to see a word’s association with a concept over and over, a connection is born. Anyone who has spent enough time on the internet knows that this is a dangerous game. As evidenced by the Microsoft/TayTweets incident in 2016 , a machine can be swayed by deviant minds from the internet’s darkest corners. The bot was created to engage with...