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In this article, I will delve into whether artificial intelligence (AI), particularly the emergence of tools like generative AI (GenAI), will replace classical software outsourcing as we know it.

AI vs software outsourcing: An opportunity or a threat?

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OnePlus

It seems like the OnePlus Open will ship with OxygenOS 13.2 based on Android 13. So, the company won’t rebrand the name of its UI for its first foldable, for better or worse. This version will ...

OnePlus Open software version & new app dock revealed

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TRIPS is an important treaty under the WTO. The TRIPS Agreement represented a major expansion in the scope of copyright protection for computer software. TRIPS brought software under the purview of the Berne Convention by defining it as a literary work.

Preserving national integrity: Shunning software piracy

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday software deals can get you big savings on top PC productivity and Internet safety programs. That’s especially true when getting top deals from a trusted seller, like Mr Key Shop. While traditionally the discount period is ...

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Vision Software

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Our team of computer vision developers develops custom image and video analysis software for machine vision and computer vision systems. We build computer vision software that can perform multiple tasks, including face analysis, real-time gesture and ...

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Bethel University

Project management

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Get the most recent info and news about Enigma.io on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Enigma builds world-class data infrastructure, developer-friendly APIs, and intelligent tools to automate trusted decisions about every business. We're focused on making B2B risk frictionless so that our customers can focus on growing their businesses and radically improving their products and experiences. Founded in 2011, Enigma has raised $130M of capital from major venture capital firms such as NEA, Comcast Ventures, and Third Point, as well as global financial companies such as BB&T, Two Sigma, and Capital One.

Enigma.io

Don’t you manage your affairs, both business and personal, via emails and messengers? Sure, you do. It’s convenient and saves tons of time. Colleagues need email to send reports, entrepreneurs to exchange ideas, journalists to send confidential articles for publication, and so on. But there is one issue we all face - a data breach. People aware of this problem and have already found a solution - encrypted email. There is my explanation of what it means and the selection of 9 services which I consider the best ones. Encrypted email: What does it mean? It is an email service that applies encryption in order to preserve the content of the email from surveillance. Once encrypted, emails are sent to the receiver and can be decrypted only by him/her. Even in the case of message interception, the content of the emails remains to be secured. We need it to protect confidential info shared privately, to keep your identity to yourself, to make business risk-free, and back-up safe. What is the best secure email? I’ve picked up 6 best secure email services and 3 ones which are close to it, it’s up to you to decide what you will choose. Proton Mail The project has been working since 2013. From 2013 to 2014 it was in the testing phase. The devs are the workers of the European Organization for Nuclear Research; that’s why the app is called that way. All its offices and servers are located in Geneva. This mail is loved by millions of users, thanks to the facility of encrypting an email before users address them. All the information is collected on its servers. If to believe the devs, they will not be able to decrypt a user's messages even upon the request of a court. There is a possibility to use 2 passwords, which improves mail security. This mail uses a combination of two encryption solutions: RSA and AES. 1st RSA - to identify a user. The 2nd one is for decrypting info held on the server. That provides a really high rate of safety. The first user password is held on servers (the person can change it at any time), while the second one is known only to the sender himself. Besides, it provides the possibility to set the expiration date for the storage of emails, after which all the messages will be self-destructing. There are both free, and several paid versions with a broad set of functionality, but all of them provide the same rate of protection. I would like to note that payment does not affect the level of security, but only  adds extra features. Utopia It's a relatively new project. Utopia email is the secure mailing service that is a part of the enclosed Utopia P2P ecosystem. All the emails are encrypted by default as well as all the files attached. Utopia applies combined encryption methods - 256-bit AES and Elliptic Curves to guarantee the most secured communication for its users. Together with the decentralized peer-to-peer architecture, Utopia becomes one of the coolest alternatives to traditional mailing tools, which excludes the possibility of surveillance, data theft, and other cyber tracking. The total anonymity is provided by the type of registration, not requiring any personal info - phone numbers, real names, and email addresses. On top of all, Utopia users can enjoy the vast feature and function set of the ecosystem: for secure communication and files exchange, which allows sending 	all types of encrypted messages and create public channels. instant messenger for anonymous surfing the resources within the network. All web-resources (sites, e-shops, forums, etc.) can be created inside the ecosystem thanks to the API, Utopia NS, and packet forwarding function. browser Idyll for anonymous transactions conducting. All the payments are made in Crypton - own cryptocurrency, which can be easily mined right there. wallet and other tools like games and managers Mailfence Mailfence, like many others, was launched after the shocking  Snowden-story back in 2013. It encrypts emails based on Open PGP. Thus, you can be unalarmed about your chats' safety. All users can enter a mailbox employing SMTP / IMAP as an email client. Besides, 2FA is applied here. Mailfence offers SPF (Thanks to it, you can check if the sender’s domain has been tampered with.), DKIM (The method allows the recipient to verify that the letter was indeed sent from the declared domain), anti-spam and  blacklists. Moreover, it offers an integrated Keystore. And there are no ads, which is a huge plus. Posteo It is another cool open-source mail service, which I like, it’s Germany based. It utilizes E2EE (PGP / GPG). Several packages are offered. 1€ for the basic package per month - covers some of the essential features of the app, such as support for POP3 and IMAP. Furthermore, you do not need to provide your private info while registering. It enhances the level of privacy and users’ security. Further features which should be taken into account: No adverts; You are provided with 2 GB memory, which is quite enough, but you can enlarge the number.; You can attach files up to 50 MB, so forget about long videos exchange. Tutanota It also came from Germany. Tutanota presents an open-source E2EE email, which is intended to guard user mails content. It encrypts all information that you transfer or receive from others. Encryption and decryption occur at the time of identification (authorization) of a particular user. For this, the user’s personal password is used, which is why if you suddenly forgot it, then everything is lost and cannot be restored. All your correspondence is encrypted locally first and then stored on the servers, which means that even the owners of Tutanota can't read it if they want. It is curious that not only the content of all messages is encrypted, but also the subject, as well as attachments. This is the main fundamental difference between Tutanota and other services. Besides, at the time of sending an email, the program automatically deletes the IP address, making you an anonymous user. It offers both free and paid packages (including for Android and iOS.) Counter mail It's another tool using which you won't feel uneasy about confidentiality issues. It is a well-known Swiss service that provides E2EE, making it can’t be done for bad guys to scan your emails. It has over 4 thousand types of encryption keys, which is great. Besides, it does not collect your data on some central servers or 3-rd party storages. This means that nobody will have a chance to view your emails, so there is no risk of data leakage. There is one more advantage. The service’s devs also promise protection from data surveillance from the authorities' side. Besides, you can talk with any other OpenPGP-compatible email user around the globe. Android and iOS versions are provided. Extra features of CounterMail: USB key option. Protection from a MITM attack. What else to consider? There are 3 services which are worth mentioning, but I didn’t include them in Top 6. For certain reasons. VauletMail desktop It's an underestimated tool, to mi mind. First, it encrypts user emails. Second, you can send self-destructing messages and do it from anonymous addresses. But the fact that it’s a desktop version, people may consider it not so safe as others. However, it’s quite good. Hushmail It is one of the most curious email providers. Your communication data is stored in encrypted form and can be decrypted only when you enter the password while logging in to your acc. A mail transmitted between Hushmail users is automatically encrypted and decrypted.  To make it even safer, you can add a secret question to which the receiver must give an answer in order to decrypt your mail. Your receiver will get an email and a link which he/she should follow. This link will lead them to the Hushmail site, where a user will have to answer a question to view encrypted email. Enigmail I bet you've heard about this one. It is an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird. It's not new but still good. To use Enigmail, you need to install both the Enigmail extension for Thunderbird and the GNU Privacy Guard software for your operating system. It's free. Following that, a new OpenPGP menu will appear in Thunderbird with a setup assistant. The assistant will guide you step by step through the setup process, which includes creating or importing public and private key pair. Emails are signed digitally by default. That’s what allows recipients to know that the message has been sent from you. You must select “Encrypt This Message” in the S / MIME drop-down list in the message creation window to make the chatting secure. You may think that the setup process is a bit complicated, but it’s normal. The advantage is that you can use Enigmail with an existing mail provider, such as Gmail. Though these three services have its drawbacks, they still guarantee all-round security of online conversations for you. While choosing a particular app, think of what qualities you are looking for in a mailing service. Maybe, interface for you is no less important. But remember, safety first!

The Best Secure Email Provider To Choose

Updated - 01/13/20 The universal access to the Internet and advancements in technology lead to the necessity of the reinterpretation of such notions as privacy and personal data. The government's attempts to regulate and take control of the "network" life in all its manifestations, even with good intentions, turn out to be ineffective, ill-conceived and somewhat inadequate, which causes extremely negative reactions from the public and even resistance. That's why we can find so many products that offer a solution for those who tend to preserve their rights for anonymity. This article aims to provide you with an analysis of 10 best Internet privacy tools existing thus far: private Web browsers, messengers with encrypted file storages, DNS, and Emails. What are the best Internet privacy tools? 1. Utopia p2p Utopia p2p is an ecosystem developed right for the sake of total security and anonymity on the Web. It includes browser Idyll, uMail, instant messenger, uMaps, a wallet and own digital currency Crypton and other builts-in. It is a decentralized peer-to-peer network. It means that there is no single data warehouse for users’ data storage. Now, each client is a peer. The ecosystem creates his personal server for data storage. Access to it opens a personal key that is generated during the anonymous registration. Each user participates in the transmission of data, but only the recipient has a key to decrypt and see the content of the message. Also, Utopia applies the most advanced and multilevel encryption method, including a high-speed Elliptic Curve25519 and 256-bit AES. Such a method allows protecting and saving all confidential data of the users. Utopia p2p is a multifunctional ecosystem where the registration, communication, files transfer are anonymous and highly protected. API allows automating financial transactions, invoicing, receiving payment, transfer, receiving, and sending order information to their customers. That's especially beneficial for businesses. I consider it to be anew level of privacy and convenience. Besides, the ecosystem is available for free, there are no functional errors and it is famous for its stability of using. 2. Tor Tor browser is a modified version of Mozilla Firefox. Using this web browser allows you to hide your location, IP address, and other identifying information from regular websites. Earlier, in order to connect to Tor, you needed special knowledge that the average computer user did not have. Now, the situation has changed. Tor Browser simplifies the process of protecting personal data, but at the cost of reduced performance. The browser works according to the principal of the Onion Router.The data is encrypted several times with the transmission from server to server (3 randomly chosen servers of Tor network) and then transferred through the virtual channel. The decryption is processed the same way. Traffic between the Tor network and the target resource is not encrypted. Therefore, if the user wants to transmit sensitive information over the Internet, you still need to take care of confidentiality through the use of https or another pass-through encryption protocol, as well as authentication mechanisms. In addition, when using the Tor network, the user still has the opportunity to visit blocked sites. 3. Wire The former Skype vice president left the company when Microsoft bought it and decided to develop another one. This is how Wire appeared. It is a messenger with end-to-end encryption for making calls, exchanging images, videos, documents, GIFs, and so on. Wire promises not to publish or send your information to anyone and doesn't contain ads. That's great. The registration is anonymous, you just need to provide your username. The messenger is available on three platforms and is equipped with a message synchronization system. Wire is great for private and secure group conversations with up to 128 people. 3. ProtonMail ProtonMail is an email with encryption and setting message lifetime. The service quickly encrypts mail between ProtonMail users. You can send encrypted messages to users of other mail systems. Moreover, you can specify the lifetime of the message (after which the letter will be automatically deleted). ProtonMail claims that the devs do not have access to your messages due to end-to-end encryption. When registering, you do not need to indicate your real first and last name. However, during the registration, a "check for bots" is performed: you will have to specify an email or phone number. Thus, the condition of anonymity is not fulfilled. At the same time, the service rejects some of the entered email addresses, which is also disappointing sometimes. 4. Tails Tails is a Debian-based distribution for Linux that ships with Tor anonymizer, encryption and security software. The Tails system can be downloaded to any computer from a regular flash drive or SD card, which makes it convenient to use for safe Internet surfing. All Internet connections are made via TOR, and messages are encrypted with modern cryptographic means. Tails does not save any traces of your Internet activity. Tails also has support for the anonymous I2P network, which provides anonymous use of applications. The network is based on IP-style messaging, but there is also a library for creating reliable TCP-style streaming connections. Tails supports the mode of saving user data between downloads; a separate encrypted partition is created to store data on a USB drive, TrueCrypt is used for encryption. Tails also provides protection against the analysis of amnesic in the computer's memory, in the process of shutting down and removing the media, all RAM is automatically cleared. 5. Brave browser Brave browser is Firefox's child. It is an open-source product based on Chromium. Its distinguishing feature is a high level of visualization of effects from the use of security mechanisms. Brave's home page displays visual statistics in the form of special counters for blocked trackers, ad modules, redirects from http to https, as well as time saved as a result (the creators of Brave promise to load web pages 2 to 8 times faster than Chrome and Safari). Regarding the collection of personal data, Brave implements Anonize technology, which allows transactions based on the principle of "anonymous accounting." To apply this technology, cryptographic methods of evidence with zero disclosure are used. Moreover, the browser is free. 6. Signal Signal Private Messenger is Edward Snowden's favorite messenger with not so bright reputation. It gives users the ability to exchange messages and files, make calls. All transmitted messages, files, and calls are protected by end-to-end encryption, and the messages can be stored only on the user's device if he/she decides to make a copy. As for metadata, this is the only thing that service owners can know - the date when a particular user was online. But as it turned out, there are situations when all efforts to encrypt Signal information are in vain. During the process of migrating from the Chrome extension to a full-fledged desktop client Signal exports user messages to unencrypted text files. 7. Threema Threema is also secure services because it performs E2EE of all the data exchanged by the users, whether it is messages, chats, media files, etc. Threema uses an open-source cryptographic NaCl library for encryption. The keys are created and stored in protected folders on users' devices. It excludes private data access or copying. In addition, you do not need a phone number or email address to use the app. This allows you to use Threema entirely anonymously. In terms of functionality, Threema is in no way inferior to the market leaders. The messenger can send text messages, photos, and short videos, share its location, record voice messages. In addition to individual communication, group chats with several contacts are allowed. The main disadvantage of it is it's a commercial product, and you have to pay for the usage - $3.07. 8. MailVelope Mailvelope is a free browser add-on which uses the OpenPGP standard and is designed for webmail. No additional programs are required to download or install. With Mailvelope, you can Create encryption key pairs, export your public key (then you can share it with others), import other people's public keys. You can create, encrypt and sign emails, decrypt and verify letters, encrypt and decrypt attachments. Your interlocutors do not need to install Mailvelope. Any OpenPGP-compliant program is enough. Unfortunately, Mailvelope lacks many of the features Thunderbird, Enigmail, and GnuPG have, but today this is probably the easiest way for a webmail user to start using E2EE. Conclusion Each of these services serves the noble aim - your security and anonymity on the Web. Whatever tool you would choose, use it right - not for the sake of suspicious and illegal activity. I hope this article helped you to clarify the situation on the market of Internet privacy tools. Stay safe!

Internet Privacy Tools for 2019

There are plenty of operating systems aimed at achieving online anonymity. But how many of them are really good? I think that not many. Below I want to suggest several Linux distributions that can help to solve numerous privacy\anonymity issues. Let’s go! Tails OS Tails is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed to provide privacy and anonymity. All outgoing connections are routed through the Tor network, and all non-anonymous connections are blocked. The system is designed to boot from Live CD or Live USB and leaves no traces on the machine on which it was used. The Tor project is the main sponsor of Tails. This operating system is recommended for use by the and was also used by Edward Snowden to expose . Freedom of the Press Foundation PRISM In order to evaluate all the pros and cons of Tails, it is necessary to have a strong understanding what purposes this OS was created for and how it should be used. This operating system can launch very quickly. After creating a flash drive, it will take 1–2 minutes to access the Internet (in case you have good hardware). However, you should not expect much functionality from Tails. It allows you to quickly connect to the Tor network, use messengers and connect via a secure channel, generate and save passwords, and clear metadata files. At the heart of Tails lies the task of ensuring the anonymity and safety of the user on the network, while at the same time preserving the convenience and ease of use. And it does it quite well. The whole system works in Live mode uploaded into RAM. Tails is not installed onto SSD or HDD. After the session is over, it is impossible to determine what the user was doing on the computer, even if somebody will get full access to the device. This OS is not recommended to be used as a permanent operating system. After shutting down or restarting the system, all downloaded files, browser history, etc. — are deleted. You can create a Persistent encrypted partition and store passwords and files of various types on it, but these files should be not very sensitive. To run Tails, you need a device with at least 1GB of RAM and an antediluvian processor. Optimal device specifications for Tails: 8GB RAM and a 2-core processor. Installation of third-party programs is not the strong side of this OS. Installing applications onto Tails is not the most pleasant thing. There are often unforeseen errors, even if everything is done correctly. It may happen that after several reboots your installed software may simply disappear. If you need to systematically work with third-party software, the best option is to create your own distribution that will fit your needs. The goal of Tails is to leave no traces, anything more than accessing the Tor network and storing files can be a problem. It is best to use Tails for getting quick access to the network, connecting to a remote web resource, working with documents, communicating over an encrypted channel, sending\receiving cryptocurrencies. Tails pros: • Quick access to the network (Tor, instant messengers, online crypto-wallets). • Built-in tool for cleaning metadata. • Built-in instant messengers. • Generation/storage of passwords. • Works with almost any hardware. Tails cons: • Difficult installation. • Problems with the installation of third-party software. • Not suitable as a permanent OS. • Not suitable for storing highly sensitive\private files. Tails is a good system. It has its drawbacks, but again, it is simply tailored to specific tasks that do not always work for all users. Tails is more concerned with the issue of anonymity, but not security. Of course, this is an anonymous and quite good secure system, but there are other distributions that are much more advanced. Tails is well-known thanks to Snowden and gets advertised by many communities due to its simplicity. Whonix Whonix is a Debian-based Linux distribution, formerly known as TorBOX. Designed to ensure anonymity by means of VirtualBox and Tor. Neither malware nor compromised superuser account can lead to IP and DNS leaks. All software bundled with this OS is pre-configured to work with maximum security settings. Whonix OS consists of two virtual machines: Whonix Gateway and Whonix Workstation, connected through an isolated network. Gateway works exclusively through Tor and acts as a gateway to the network, Workstation works in a completely isolated network. All network connections are possible only via Tor. The only network access for the workstation is the gateway. All traffic, all applications, and processes will go through Tor. Applications cannot access the Internet bypassing Tor. Applications can only see the local IP address. The time zone cannot be traced, the clock is set to UTC, and Timestamp HTTP headers get sent to randomly selected web servers. The possibility to implement different sequences of Tor + VPN is a great advantage of this OS. You can configure the system so that first all the traffic goes through the VPN, after that through Tor, and then again through the VPN. Whonix is ​​a system with wide possibilities of customization and configuration that sometimes cannot be done in Tails. There are many programs and settings that allow you to build your own anonymity/security system, remove traces of using files, use instant messengers, work with different file types, etc. Whonix is ​​definitely a good system for anonymous Internet access but using it on an ongoing basis will be quite problematic. Since Whonix is ​​built around virtualization, this may cause some problems. For example, you can face difficulties while working with external media. If you need to connect a USB flash drive, it will first go through the main OS, for example, Windows, then go through the VirtualBox and finally reach the Whonix system, and this is not the safest way. Whonix pros: • High degree of anonymity. • A large number of software tools to work with. • Wide fine-tuning possibilities. Whonix cons: • Not portable. • Requires powerful hardware. • Tied to VirtualBox, which brings big risks in case of hacking the OS on which VirtualBox is installed. • Not quick, requires more time to access the network than other operating systems (you need to start VirtualBox, Gateway, Workstation). Whonix is good as a secondary (additional) system because it is not portable. Portability is one of the most important criteria in this segment. It is also tied to VirtualBox, and since this is not a live system, it will be quite easy to detect the presence of Whonix if you do not use cryptography methods. Whonix should be used only in special cases. I put it on my list because it is very flexible in terms of settings. Kodachi Linux Kodachi is based on Debian too. The goal of Kodachi is to provide the most anonymous and secure access to the network and protect the system itself. All traffic is running through a VPN, then through the Tor network with DNS encryption. is already pre-configured. Free VPN Kodachi is positioned as an anti-forensic OS that makes forensic analysis of drives and RAM really difficult. was chosen as the desktop environment for Kodachi, the system design is very similar to MacOS. System and network parameters are shown in real time on the desktop, which allows you to monitor the system and also monitor the operation of the Tor and VPN networks. XFCE Kodachi supports DNScrypt, a protocol, and utility that encrypts requests to OpenDNS servers using elliptical cryptography. It eliminates a number of typical problems, such as DNS leaks and leaving traces of network activity on the provider’s servers. If you need to hide an IP address in P2P networks, you can use PeerGuardian. If you need to work with suspicious processes, they can be easily isolated using the built-in sandbox called Firejail. A nice option is the ability to quickly change the Tor exit nodes with the option to select a specific country using Multi Tor.  Kodachi has a decent amount of pre-installed software for solving any tasks, for example, to encrypt information (VeraCrypt, TrueCrypt), to send confidential messages (GnuPG, Seahorse, Enigmail, GNU Privacy Guard Assistant) for hiding traces (MAT, Nautilus-wipe, Nepomuk Cleaner, BleachBit). In addition, Kodachi has its own browser based on the Tor Browser, where its developers cut out some problematic Tor modules. Kodachi is a well-balanced system, it is a powerful tool for building anonymity and security systems in all understandings. This OS is best used in conjunction with encrypted media on which highly sensitive information can be stored. In my opinion, Kodachi is the best system at the moment, it allows you to solve plenty of tasks. Kodachi pros: • Quick start (i.e. fast network access like Tails). • Many pre-installed programs. • Not very demanding in terms of hardware. There are actually no cons but they may appear with some narrowly focused tasks\needs. There are some other quite good operating systems built for anonymity such as Subgraph and Qubes. Qubes Qubes OS uses an interesting principle to launch applications. Each app runs on a separate virtual machine. Apps are divided into classes depending on the level of importance. The browser runs on one virtual machine, the messenger runs on the other virtual machine. For the user, both programs seem to be running on the same workspace. Isolating applications means that if malware gets inside, personal files will not be compromised. Qubes OS works only after installation on the internal drive, it does not have a live mode. Subgraph The key idea behind ​​Subgraph OS is running custom applications on isolated sandboxes. To do this, the subsystem Oz is used. Oz consists of a daemon (system service) that receives requests to create sandboxes, an Xpra X-server, and a set of special utilities. Subgraph OS is a bit raw tool. Only the alpha version is available right now. Subgraph and Qubes are not bad, but they are not good enough to put them among leaders. Subgraph OS is too raw, Qubes is too confusing in terms of settings.

Best Operating Systems for Anonymity: Comparing Titans

Los mejores sistemas operativos para el anonimato: comparando titanes

If you’re worried about government spying on you, or if it is your hawk-eyed company is too interested in your mailbox, or if you’re fed up of targeted advertisements, or if you want to communicate privately with your love interest, or to manage sensitive documents like identity cards, bank statements, passwords— keeping conversations encrypted using PGP is worth doing. What is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)? I’m not going to go into the nuances of PGP because of complex cryptography used under the hood. Essentially, PGP garbles up the email making it look like random letters and numbers. This encryption happens using sender’s public key. So if you wish to send anyone an email securely, all you need is their public key. It’s a trend these days to put up PGP public key as Twitter bio. https://darkwebnews.com/pgp-guide/ When this message is downloaded on the recipient’s side, it is decrypted using a receiver’s private key. So if anyone is spying on your mailbox, all they’d see is garbled text! Make sure you never ever share your private key with anyone. Step-by-step guide to set up PGP 1. Download and install Mozilla Thunderbird Thunderbird is a free email application that’s easy to set up and customize. Go to and download thunderbird for whichever OS you’re on. https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/all/ This is what my application console looks like — Set up your existing account on thunderbird. This may take up 5 to 10 minutes depending upon how many emails you have. 2. Download and install GNU Privacy guard GnuPG is a complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard as defined by (also known as ). GnuPG allows you to encrypt and sign your data and communications; it features a versatile key management system, along with access modules for all kinds of public key directories. RFC4880 PGP Go to to download it. https://gnupg.org/download/index.html 3. Download Enigmail Enigmail is a simple interface for OpenPGP email security. Go to to download it. https://www.enigmail.net/index.php/en/download To install Enigmail on Thunderbird, use to save the extension locally. Then navigate to the Thunderbird menu Tools > Addons right click “Save Link as …” Choose Enigmail and add it. 4. Get your keys Go to thunderbird and then go to Enigmail/p=p menu > Select Key Management This is your public key. This is what trendy cool people put in their twitter bio. Now let’s test it by sending an email. You encrypt your email using your private key and the receiver will decrypt the mail using your public key (fingerprint). TESTING TIME! I sent the email using thunderbird and opened the email using gmail and this is what I get. I actually wrote: Thunderbird will automatically decrypt the email given that your thunderbird account has sender’s public key (fingerprint). And that’s how it is done!

Secure Your Emails in 5 Minutes Using PGP 

Innovative technologies are implemented into our daily lives on a regular basis and their evolution processes are constantly accelerating. Just think about the speedy growth process that the mobile phone industry went through. A few years ago, they were merely being used to make phone calls or send a text, and look at us now; they have transformed to ‘smartphones’ that seem to be attached to our hands. Every spare moment is being utilized to catch up on taking snapshots, reading news items, interacting on social media, checking our email or playing a game. Similar to the mobile phone industry, look at the internet, the monetary system, artificial intelligence and the evolution they went through. Technology is making great advancements, for instance the implementation and developments in augmented reality (AR), robotics, FinTech and blockchain technology, that have been the topic of many media news stories. What does the future looks like? With all these developments what can we expect in the future? Well you might be surprised to know some of the things developers and companies are currently working on. Houses will be built with the help of a 3D-printer, just take a look at this first commercial housing project built with 3D-concrete printing technology, called . are working alongside real-life police officers in fighting crime around the world. The working environment in the future will drastically change as the majority of people work remote and on a freelance basis. and companion robots function as caretakers of elderly people and save societies a lot of money on health-care. The sharing economy has managed to become one of the worlds’ biggest industries and it has taken a real stance at reducing consumer consumption. has transformed our global transportation possibilities and will take us from city-to-city in seconds. Milestone Robocops Robotic telepresence A hyperloop system Decentralization A common denominator in these futuristic projects is the worldwide implementation of decentralized platforms, services and perhaps even entire nations. Blockchain is connected to decentralization because of the fact that transactions on the blockchain are verified and executed in a decentralized way, meaning no individual third party is involved in the transaction verification process. The blockchain technology will disrupt a lot of industries. Jobs will be available on a decentralized work platform through a smart contract, with payment in major digital currencies. In a few years the television will be overtaken by streaming service providers like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. YouTube will be outpaced by decentralized platforms like or . Dtube Steemit We won’t be driving cars anymore, because cars are driving us in an autonomous way. We enter our route in the system and the car takes us to our destination. Uber is out, the is in. decentralized Air Taxi Education will be offered through a decentralized entity. Two professors of renowned UK university Oxford, are creating the worlds’ first decentralized blockchain University, called . Woolf University is creating crypto-anchor chips, implemented with blockchain technology, to track the entire supply-chain process to verify its legitimacy and make sure no one tampered with the products. The chips are no bigger than a grain of salt and are cost efficient at 10 cents a piece. IBM Healthcare can also benefit greatly from blockchain applications and devices. Recently blockchain 4.0 project Seele has it will be revealing more details on its apparent groundbreaking solution to treat cerebrovascular diseases. announced It’s hard to envision a future without blockchain’s distributed ledger technology. Trust is one of the most time-consuming things for businesses to acquire, because previously it needed to be reached organically and thus it could take a long time for consumers to fully trust the businesses they are dealing with. By using blockchain technology, trust can be reached instantly through the open, transparent distributed ledger infrastructure. Comparing blockchain with the traditional financial system, there are more advantages to blockchain than there are on the traditional financial system, that’s why you see banks and other institutions slowly testing the blockchain infrastructure. The truth is that by using blockchain technology, institutions can save a lot of money as human interference is no longer necessary. Blockchain technology is less vulnerable to hacks and transactions can be executed really fast, especially when new technologies that solve the scalability issue, like the Lightning Network and Plasma will be fully functional. The time is come to adapt, or else you will stand a chance to be left behind. So, try to reserve some of your precious time to focus on reading up on new technologies or promising developments in innovations. is one of the projects that has caught my attention. How can Enigma help with enabling a decentralized society? Enigma Picture credits to @MackanSz How does Enigma fit into a fully functional, decentralized futuristic society? While starting the project back in 2015, has been building a decentralized supercomputer on the blockchain that enables for dApps to be deployed on the network, all while users are getting rewarded in native ENG tokens for interacting with the platform. Enigma aims to create real, usable and groundbreaking solutions that solve real-world problems. Enigma In 1996, even before Bitcoin was officially introduced by ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’, Nick Szabo wrote a research paper called: Smart Contracts: Building blocks for digital markets, in which he laid down the ground rules for an implementation of into the technological innovation of blockchain. Smart contracts as we know them today, are an important part of blockchain infrastructure platforms. Smart Contracts During his research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Guy Zyskind, founder and CEO of blockchain protocol project Enigma, discovered a way to improve upon existing smart contract technology by making them private. These ‘secret contracts’, as they are called, are powering the Enigma protocol. Without the ability to send sensitive data privately through a smart contract, the use of smart contracts will be compromised. Imagine sending sensitive personal information about someone’s health, personal data, finances or lending contracts, without a build in safety mechanism that prevents malicious actors to steal that data. Enigma is solving this privacy issue head-on by implementing privacy guaranteed smart contracts, called ‘secret contracts’. To make it easier on developers to build onto the Enigma platform, the team decided to keep it completely Ethereum compliant. The specific details of the ‘secret contracts’ will be announced in the release of DISCOVERY, that is projected to come out somewhere in the second half of 2018. After the DISCOVERY release other releases will follow that improve upon privacy, build and ultimately release its own native blockchain with the goal of being non-reliant on other solutions. After initially minting and releasing Ethereum based ERC-20 tokens, Enigma tokens will be swapped for ENG native tokens after their main net launch in 2020. My personal beliefs I truly believe we will succeed in creating a fully decentralized social society, somewhere in the future. Decentralization gives back the power to individuals, instead of making big companies even bigger, which allows them to have too much power and control over humanity. However, we do have some bumps in the road to decentralization that need to be addressed first in order for us to move forward. After solving the scalability and security issues, Enigma and the countless real-world solutions they can provide, will create a new ecosystem in which people take back control over their personal data, personal financial information and fundamental rights, without the interference of unreliable, untrusted, easy to be manipulated third party, centralized institutions. What do you think? Will we see a decentralized future? If you would like to know more about the Enigma project, you can check out their official channels: Website: https://enigma.co/ Telegram: https://t.me/EnigmaProject Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/EnigmaProject/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnigmaMPC Full disclosure : This article is not intended as investment advice. It is just my personal opinion about the future of decentralization and how the Enigma project can play a role in it. This article is written for the Enigma Community Writing Contest #WhyEnigma. The Enigma team might reward me for writing this article. I want to express that everything I write is based on my own opinion and interests and before investing you should always do your own research and never invest more than you can afford to lose. Subscribe to my channels , and if you like my articles and would like to be informed about Blockchain, cryptocurrency projects and news. You can also read my articles on .  If you have any questions about this article, please comment in the comment section below. Thank you!  LindaCrypto Steemit Medium Twitter LinkedIn

What to expect in a Decentralized Futuristic World?

I want people to and see there is more than just ICOs and classic blockchains. in different kind of ways. Let’s explore the most innovative things out there. open their eyes A lot of cool projects are pushing the boundaries of distributed ledger technology 1. Cosmos — Multi-asset Distributed Ledger Cosmos is a novel answer to “sidechains,” which aims to enable users to traverse a galaxy of blockchains with ease. Cosmos wants to offer multiple parallel blockchains to interoperate while retaining their security properties. Cosmos is focussed on interoperability between blockchains and a low-energy consuming version of a blockchain with great scaling flexibility. Source: https://medium.com/@ashhan8904/tendermint-and-cosmos-hub-506ebd232d31 Cosmos makes use of a hub that connects different zones. A hosts a multi-asset distributed ledger, where tokens can be held by both users or zones. The cool thing here is that it’s possible to move tokens from one zone to one another. This is again accomplished through IBC communication of a coin packet. Basically, the Hub is as well a routing mechanism. A is an independent blockchain that is capable of exchanging these IBC (inter blockchain communication) messages with the corresponding Hub. Hub Zone 2. Komodo — Atomic Swap Atomic swaps, or atomic cross-chain trading, is the exchange of one cryptocurrency to another cryptocurrency, without the need to trust a third-party. A relatively new piece of technology, atomic cross-chain trading is looking to revolutionize the way in which users transact with each other. For example, if Alice owned 5 Bitcoins but instead wanted 100 Litecoins, she would have to go through an exchange, i.e. a third-party. However, with atomic swaps, if Bob owned 100 Litecoins but instead wanted 5 Bitcoins, then Bob and Alice could make a trade. — Source: cryptocompare.com Komodo has already accomplished some successful atomic swaps between several currencies. Atomic swap technology is for the moment only possible between blockchains that implement the same hashing algorithm, although, the real challenge is to perform an atomic swap between different algorithms. 3. Waves-NG — Clever Selection Algorithm For Fastest DEX Waves-NG is simply a clever selection algorithm. Think about submitting a transaction to the Bitcoin network. Generally, it takes up to 10 minutes before a miner is elected to mine the next block including new transactions. In case of a large backlog, not all pending transactions fit into the ready-to-mine block. That means you have to wait for another 10 minutes and hope your transaction gets included in the next block. Waves-NG optimizes this process by selecting a miner in advance so that transactions can be added to the next block more or less instantly. Using Waves-NG, the only, minimal, delay a transaction may experience is the time it takes for the transaction to be broadcast across the network. Higher volumes are now possible with the Waves-NG consensus mechanism for the Waves DEX. This new consensus mechanism is capable of reaching a throughput of around , rather than bitcoin’s 5–7 TPS. Source: 6,000 transactions per minute or 100 transactions per second cryptopotato.com 4. iOlite offers a platform to create smart contracts using any language, programming or natural. iOlite They are satisfying the public demand for an easy solution to bridge gaps between the blockchain and other programmable environments. iOlite is developing an engine which can quickly translate any language into a smart contract. is using a Fast Adaptation Engine (FAE), derived from the Stanford NLP engine, which is focussed on machine training by a community of experts. Solidity experts can natural language structures and attach them to Solidity code. It’s a fully community-driven approach combined with the power of natural language processing and machine training making the engine smarter so it can understand more complex language for generating contracts. iOlite Let’s go through an easy example to show the strength of the engine: We tell it we are writing in English, and we want a Solidity smart contract as the output. If you wanted to sell your house, all you have to do is write: “I want to transfer my house to a new owner when this person offers an amount of $330,000 or more. Sign the document with my signature or private key and request a signature from the buyer. When the buyer signs the agreement, transfer the property rights and register this transfer. Done!” Requesting a smart contract is free, however, the contributors are rewarded with iOlite tokens (iLT) for each time a piece of code they wrote is used. Source: iolite.io 5. NuCypher — The TLS/SSL of the decentralized internet In a decentralized world, traditional encryption and access control won’t be enough. Today, internet security is architected around a trusted central server and multiple clients connecting to it. The server encrypts everything it sends to the clients with session keys and enforces access controls. But in a decentralized world, there is no central server you can trust! Privacy, and the storing, sharing, and manipulating of private data in public consensus networks like Ethereum has proven a significant challenge. They’ve architected and designed the NuCypher Network to solve this problem. Using proxy re-encryption, NuCypher provides decentralized key management, secrets management, and cryptographic access control. More information: nucypher.com 6. Hashgraph — Gossip about Gossip & Virtual Voting Hashgraph is a blockchain-alternative that achieves high scalability without sacrificing security. It has been proven to handle in a single network and is expected to do millions of tx/s with sharding. Hashgraph makes use of “Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)”. A very secure version of BFT. hundreds of thousands of tx/s Hashgraph uses two unique techniques and to achieve a fast, secure, and fair consensus. ‘Gossip about Gossip’ ‘Virtual Voting’ ‘Gossip’ is a commonly used term in computer science, which can be defined as calling any random node and telling that node everything you know, that it doesn’t already know. For example, node A gossips event A to node B. Next, node B gossips event A from node A but also an additional event created by himself. So, we are actually broadcasting the gossip history as well, which is referred to as ‘gossip about gossip’. Source: steemit.com - @tommytwohats Once this gossiping processing has finished, every node knows what information each node has because of this gossip history which enables them to perform ‘virtual voting’ where nothing is broadcasted. This low bandwidth usage allows Hashgraph to reach very high transaction throughput. Read more / source: cointelligence.com 7. Enigma — Secret Contracts Blockchain technology has the power to disrupt the future of technology, but not at its current state. A blockchain exposes all data to anyone. Privacy is much needed if we want blockchain to be widely adopted. Guy Zyskind, CEO of Enigma, saw this problem as an opportunity. He wrote a groundbreaking titled . The Enigma project solves blockchain’s scalability and privacy issues from the protocol level by creating a second-layer, off-chain network using “secret contracts,” allowing data to be processed by nodes while being kept private. — Source: MIT thesis ‘Efficient secure computation enabled by blockchain technology’ cointelligence.com Source: enigma.co 8. DAG (Tangle) — IOTA, Nano, and Byteball A directed acyclic graph (DAG) or Tangle doesn’t use the principle of linking bulky blocks to each other. Instead, a tangle builds a graph of transactions which reference older transactions and therefore can confirm transactions immediately as they are received by a node, instead of having to wait for the next block. In theory, this enables parallel verification of transactions. DAG is a very promising technology which is useful for Distributed Ledger Technology, but as well an old one that is used in many use cases you can find on . — Source: Wikipedia cointelligence.com Source: bitcoin.stackexchange.com 9. Tendermint To simply put is a software which can be used to achieve Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) in any distributed computing platforms. BFT is not a new technology, however, Tendermint is focussed on blockchain related features. Tendermint Tendermint consists of two main components: an Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI) and a blockchain consensus engine, called Tendermint Core. Tendermint Core ensures all transactions are recorded in the exact same way on every node in the network. The ABCI enables developers to process transactions using their desired programming language and acts as a gateway to Tendermint Core. A socket protocol is used to enable the Tendermint Core to manage . multiple application’s states In short, Tendermint is responsible for: Maintaining the world state of your blockchain. Validating of transaction signatures. Preventing malicious transactions by implementing 2/3rd voting consensus for each transaction. Allowing clients to query against the world state. Blockchains like Bitcoin are not designed to make querying possible. Providing a simple to use API for developers to access Tendermint. Note: Projects like BigchainDB and Cosmos have implemented Tendermint.Source: blockgeeks.com 10. Off-Chain Scaling — Lightning Network, … Off-chain scaling is invented to reduce the stress on blockchains. Lightning Network came with a proposal for Bitcoin to implement a second layer for off-chain scaling. It uses payment channels that facilitate lots of transactions off-chain, thereafter uploading them all at once at a chosen or specified time. In this way, the amount of transactions is drastically reduced. However, it provides only vertical scaling, where we actually need more horizontal scaling. Still, this is an amazing accomplishment where security is not compromised. Extra information on off-chain scaling using payment channels can be found . here Zap Wallet for Lightning Network — Sorurce: https://zap.jackmallers.com/ Extra: Too much to talk about Many other great technologies are being developed to improve our blockchain space. I think we can all agree we need more scalable solutions which provide security as well. Here is a list of other interesting and cool stuff you should be aware of: Delegate Proof of Stake (Lisk uses this) BigchainDB: Decentralized asset storage (Big data database with added blockchain characteristics for obtaining higher scalability). Interledger protocol (Packages info to be sent from one ledger to another) Zero Knowledge Proofs (on-chain scaling and confidential transactions) Bulletproofs Free to use stock image. gratisography

Builders of the Decentralized Web: 10 Of The Most Innovative Technologies

ICO is becoming a mainstream with the dawn of blockchain and cryptocurrency networks. More and more people are investing in ICOs which in the result is increasing the competition. In this competition planning and studying the platforms to invest in is very important. Here are some of the best ICO to invest in for 2018. 1. Assetereum is an ERC20 Token backed by real assets to give it an intrinsic value. There are 5 types of assets: Real Estate, Crypto-mining, Crypto-trading, Commercial Energy brokering, online shopping platform and Investing with social enterprise start up. Assetereum We are now sponsoring The World Seniors Snooker Championship and it will be the first time a cryptocurrency is being awarded as prize money in a major sporting event. As a result, 2 of the major players are now ambassadors for Assetereum. Buy Tokens: https://www.assetereum.com/ 2. Treon Treon (TXO) is an Ethereum blockchain-based utility token and e-wallet for paying utility bills using a robust technology in a completely decentralised and secure fashion. The utilities sector has had intermittent customer-centric innovations over the years. Disruptive blockchain technology utilised by the TXO e-wallet offers vast opportunities for utility providers to drive cost-efficiency and increase profitability while giving consumers greater control over their usage and wider financial inclusion and convenience. With Treon, we will make your utility bill payments a convenient one-click experience — anytime, anywhere. Treon (TXO) is focused on providing an exciting value-added service that will simplify the utility management and payment process like never before: consumers will effect their payments instantly using a simple consolidated dashboard. Buy Tokens: https://www.treon.io/ 3. Omega One Omega one is a new token that is going to be launched in the final phases of the year 2017 or start of 2018. Omega one is going to be the latest and cheapest way of trading cryptocurrency and tokens. It is a platform, which is going to solve the problem of illiquidity and hacking. It will provide users with a decentralized execution platform that will trade across every cryptocurrency exchange.Omega one will be the new evolution in the ICO world because it would provide increased liquidity and upgraded trade intelligence. The fees on Omega One would be reinvested in the project to make it more reliable for users. Buy Tokens: https://omega.one/ 4. Trade.io Trade.io is the latest trading and brokerage industry revolution, which allow users to profit in the process of providing services. The concept of trade.io is to provide a decentralized platform in which brokerage services can occur smoothly. It is providing its services in classic trading markets, crypto coins, and virtual products. Users will be getting 50% of all the brokerage-generated profits. Buy Tokens: https://trade.io/ 5. Kyber Network Kyber network a project led by smart security and distributed consensus algorithms specialist is a decentralized exchange that provides crypto-assets conversion. It was one of the best ICO networks in 2017 with a rising of $48 Millions USD. It took the number 10 spot in ICO statistics list. Currently, it is going through a testnet phase and plans are in progress to launch it in Q1 2018 and by early 2019.Once the cyber network is released in the market with all of its functions, it is going to take the market by storm because cyber network is going to evolve the blockchain network by providing better security and other decentralization benefits. It would allow users to make proxy payments and cross-chain payment platform. Buy Tokens: https://kyber.network/ 6. NAU NAU takes advantage of the use of mobile phones and geolocation data.NAU works on a system of connecting retailers with their customers with coupons. They are going to be the future of advertisements. They are low in cost compared to traditional advertisement. NAU has the potential of changing the advertisement world completely by giving local business access to social referral through a user affiliate program.”This is the perfect implementation of the social/local/mobile approach to connecting businesses with their customers,” explains founder and CEO Yaroslav Shakula. Buy Tokens: https://tokensale.nau.io/ 7. Giftz Giftz is a platform, which gives users access to an ability to provide a way for any business to tokenize their goods and services. This is going to be a revolution in the business world. It is a good idea when we think of how good it would be if we could use our ICO tokens and use them to buy products from different parts of the world. Giftz works on this idea, which will take the world by storm. It would eliminate the worry of taking cash to stores to buy products or thinking of having nickels to save forgetting something. If you are using ICO platform and have tokens in your wallet, you can simply use Giftz to get your desired products. Buy Tokens: https://www.giftz.io/ 8. Enigma ICO Eigma ICO was released on 11th September 2017. It is a platform, which gives everyone an ability to build his or her own crypto hedge fund. It provides users to engage in the fast-paced transaction through the system while maintaining full custody of their assets. It provides the latest research tools for quantitative traders to build, test and master investment strategies. This is a new ICO platform, which is going to provide users with new tools. It is going to sky rocket in 2018 due to its limited amount of tokens released an increase in demand due to awareness in people once it is fully functional. Buy Tokens: https://enigma.co/ 9. UnikoinGold UnikoinGold has a token designed for legal and licensed betting on esports matches and tournaments. The UnikoinGold crowdsale preregistration ended on 15th August 2017. The presale will be held from 8th to 18th September 2017 and the official crowdsale dates are yet to be announced. The crowdsale will see 20% of the 1 Billion tokens up for sale. Unikoin has previously raised $10 million from investors including Ashton Kutcher, Mark Cuban, Shari Redstone, Elisabeth Murdoch, and others.UnikoiGold has big money attached to it which is going to help in developing it to the utmost ultimate ICO in 2018. Buy Tokens: https://unikoingold.com/ 10. Nagaico Nagaico is going to change how we invest in our economic system. It is an ICO which is revolutionizing the cryptocurrencies and digital products. This ICO is going to make investment affordable to around 2 billion people. It would allow people to invest as much as they like to which means people from 3rd world countries are going to be able to buy shares in a company like Google by buying one tenth or one-hundredth of one Google share through CFD contract. Naga will handle all the clearance of trades, which would allow small investors to get access to the world’s most influential and largest financial markets. Buy Tokens: https://www.thenagacoin.com/ For More Info: https://www.assetereum.com/ Source: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@fatos/top-10-ico-s-for-investment-in-2018

Top 10 ICO for Investment in 2018

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A SECOND ENIGMA here CHAPTER XVII. A SECOND ENIGMA Upon re-embarking, the bewildered explorers began to discuss the question whether it would not now be desirable to make their way back to Gourbi Island, which was apparently the only spot in their new world from which they could hope to derive their future sustenance. Captain Servadac tried to console himself with the reflection that Gourbi Island was, after all, a fragment of a French colony, and as such almost like a bit of his dear France; and the plan of returning thither was on the point of being adopted, when Lieutenant Procope remarked that they ought to remember that they had not hitherto made an entire circuit of the new shores of the sea on which they were sailing. “We have,” he said, “neither investigated the northern shore from the site of Cape Antibes to the strait that brought us to Gibraltar, nor have we followed the southern shore that stretches from the strait to the Gulf of Cabes. It is the old coast, and not the new, that we have been tracing; as yet, we cannot say positively that there is no outlet to the south; as yet, we cannot assert that no oasis of the African desert has escaped the catastrophe. Perhaps, even here in the north, we may find that Italy and Sicily and the larger islands of the Mediterranean may still maintain their existence.” “I entirely concur with you,” said Count Timascheff. “I quite think we ought to make our survey of the confines of this new basin as complete as possible before we withdraw.” Servadac, although he acknowledged the justness of these observations, could not help pleading that the explorations might be deferred until after a visit had been paid to Gourbi Island. “Depend upon it, captain, you are mistaken,” replied the lieutenant; “the right thing to do is to use the while she is available.” Dobryna “Available! What do you mean?” asked the count, somewhat taken by surprise. “I mean,” said Procope, “that the farther this Gallia of ours recedes from the sun, the lower the temperature will fall. It is likely enough, I think, that before long the sea will be frozen over, and navigation will be impossible. Already you have learned something of the difficulties of traversing a field of ice, and I am sure, therefore, you will acquiesce in my wish to continue our explorations while the water is still open.” “No doubt you are right, lieutenant,” said the count. “We will continue our search while we can for some remaining fragment of Europe. Who shall tell whether we may not meet with some more survivors from the catastrophe, to whom it might be in our power to afford assistance, before we go into our winter quarters?” Generous and altogether unselfish as this sentiment really was, it was obviously to the general interest that they should become acquainted, and if possible establish friendly relations, with any human inhabitant who might be sharing their own strange destiny in being rolled away upon a new planet into the infinitude of space. All difference of race, all distinction of nationality, must be merged into the one thought that, few as they were, they were the sole surviving representatives of a world which it seemed exceedingly improbable that they would ever see again; and common sense dictated that they were bound to direct all their energies to insure that their asteroid should at least have a united and sympathizing population. It was on the 25th of February that the yacht left the little creek in which she had taken refuge, and setting off at full steam eastwards, she continued her way along the northern shore. A brisk breeze tended to increase the keenness of the temperature, the thermometer being, on an average, about two degrees below zero. Salt water freezes only at a lower temperature than fresh; the course of the was therefore unimpeded by ice, but it could not be concealed that there was the greatest necessity to maintain the utmost possible speed. Dobryna The nights continued lovely; the chilled condition of the atmosphere prevented the formation of clouds; the constellations gleamed forth with unsullied luster; and, much as Lieutenant Procope, from nautical considerations, might regret the absence of the moon, he could not do otherwise than own that the magnificent nights of Gallia were such as must awaken the enthusiasm of an astronomer. And, as if to compensate for the loss of the moonlight, the heavens were illuminated by a superb shower of falling stars, far exceeding, both in number and in brilliancy, the phenomena which are commonly distinguished as the August and November meteors; in fact, Gallia was passing through that meteoric ring which is known to lie exterior to the earth’s orbit, but almost concentric with it. The rocky coast, its metallic surface reflecting the glow of the dazzling luminaries, appeared literally stippled with light, whilst the sea, as though spattered with burning hailstones, shone with a phosphorescence that was perfectly splendid. So great, however, was the speed at which Gallia was receding from the sun, that this meteoric storm lasted scarcely more than four and twenty hours. Next day the direct progress of the was arrested by a long projection of land, which obliged her to turn southwards, until she reached what formerly would have been the southern extremity of Corsica. Of this, however, there was now no trace; the Strait of Bonifacio had been replaced by a vast expanse of water, which had at first all the appearance of being utterly desert; but on the following morning the explorers unexpectedly sighted a little island, which, unless it should prove, as was only too likely, to be of recent origin they concluded, from its situation, must be a portion of the northernmost territory of Sardinia. Dobryna The approached the land as nearly as was prudent, the boat was lowered, and in a few minutes the count and Servadac had landed upon the islet, which was a mere plot of meadow land, not much more than two acres in extent, dotted here and there with a few myrtle-bushes and lentisks, interspersed with some ancient olives. Having ascertained, as they imagined, that the spot was devoid of living creature, they were on the point of returning to their boat, when their attention was arrested by a faint bleating, and immediately afterwards a solitary she-goat came bounding towards the shore. The creature had dark, almost black hair, and small curved horns, and was a specimen of that domestic breed which, with considerable justice, has gained for itself the title of “the poor man’s cow.” So far from being alarmed at the presence of strangers, the goat ran nimbly towards them, and then, by its movements and plaintive cries, seemed to be enticing them to follow it. Dobryna “Come,” said Servadac; “let us see where it will lead us; it is more than probable it is not alone.” The count agreed; and the animal, as if comprehending what was said, trotted on gently for about a hundred paces, and stopped in front of a kind of cave or burrow that was half concealed by a grove of lentisks. Here a little girl, seven or eight years of age, with rich brown hair and lustrous dark eyes, beautiful as one of Murillo’s angels, was peeping shyly through the branches. Apparently discovering nothing in the aspect of the strangers to excite her apprehensions, the child suddenly gained confidence, darted forwards with outstretched hands, and in a voice, soft and melodious as the language which she spoke, said in Italian: “I like you; you will not hurt me, will you?” “Hurt you, my child?” answered Servadac. “No, indeed; we will be your friends; we will take care of you.” And after a few moments’ scrutiny of the pretty maiden, he added: “Tell us your name, little one.” “Nina!” was the child’s reply. “Well, then, Nina, can you tell us where we are?” “At Madalena, I think,” said the little girl; “at least, I know I was there when that dreadful shock came and altered everything.” The count knew that Madalena was close to Caprera, to the north of Sardinia, which had entirely disappeared in the disaster. By dint of a series of questions, he gained from the child a very intelligent account of her experiences. She told him that she had no parents, and had been employed in taking care of a flock of goats belonging to one of the landowners, when one day, all of a sudden, everything around her, except this little piece of land, had been swallowed up, and that she and Marzy, her pet goat, had been left quite alone. She went on to say that at first she had been very frightened; but when she found that the earth did not shake any more, she had thanked the great God, and had soon made herself very happy living with Marzy. She had enough food, she said, and had been waiting for a boat to fetch her, and now a boat had come and she was quite ready to go away; only they must let her goat go with her: they would both like so much to get back to the old farm. “Here, at least, is one nice little inhabitant of Gallia,” said Captain Servadac, as he caressed the child and conducted her to the boat. Half an hour later, both Nina and Marzy were safely quartered on board the yacht. It is needless to say that they received the heartiest of welcomes. The Russian sailors, ever superstitious, seemed almost to regard the coming of the child as the appearance of an angel; and, incredible as it may seem, more than one of them wondered whether she had wings, and amongst themselves they commonly referred to her as “the little Madonna.” Soon out of sight of Madalena, the for some hours held a southeasterly course along the shore, which here was fifty leagues in advance of the former coast-line of Italy, demonstrating that a new continent must have been formed, substituted as it were for the old peninsula, of which not a vestige could be identified. At a latitude corresponding with the latitude of Rome, the sea took the form of a deep gulf, extending back far beyond the site of the Eternal City; the coast making a wide sweep round to the former position of Calabria, and jutting far beyond the outline of “the boot,” which Italy resembles. But the beacon of Messina was not to be discerned; no trace, indeed, survived of any portion of Sicily; the very peak of Etna, 11,000 feet as it had reared itself above the level of the sea, had vanished utterly. Dobryna Another sixty leagues to the south, and the sighted the entrance of the strait which had afforded her so providential a refuge from the tempest, and had conducted her to the fragmentary relic of Gibraltar. Hence to the Gulf of Cabes had been already explored, and as it was universally allowed that it was unnecessary to renew the search in that direction, the lieutenant started off in a transverse course, towards a point hitherto uninvestigated. That point was reached on the 3rd of March, and thence the coast was continuously followed, as it led through what had been Tunis, across the province of Constantine, away to the oasis of Ziban; where, taking a sharp turn, it first reached a latitude of 32 degrees, and then returned again, thus forming a sort of irregular gulf, enclosed by the same unvarying border of mineral concrete. This colossal boundary then stretched away for nearly 150 leagues over the Sahara desert, and, extending to the south of Gourbi Island, occupied what, if Morocco had still existed, would have been its natural frontier. Dobryna Adapting her course to these deviations of the coastline, the was steering northwards, and had barely reached the limit of the bay, when the attention of all on board was arrested by the phenomenon of a volcano, at least 3,000 feet high, its crater crowned with smoke, which occasionally was streaked by tongues of flame. Dobryna “A burning mountain!” they exclaimed. “Gallia, then, has some internal heat,” said Servadac. “And why not, captain?” rejoined the lieutenant. “If our asteroid has carried with it a portion of the old earth’s atmosphere, why should it not likewise retain something of its central fire?” “Ah, well!” said the captain, shrugging his shoulders, “I dare say there is caloric enough in our little world to supply the wants of its population.” Count Timascheff interrupted the silence that followed this conversation by saying, “And now, gentlemen, as our course has brought us on our way once more towards Gibraltar, what do you say to our renewing our acquaintance with the Englishmen? They will be interested in the result of our voyage.” “For my part,” said Servadac, “I have no desire that way. They know where to find Gourbi Island; they can betake themselves thither just when they please. They have plenty of provisions. If the water freezes, 120 leagues is no very great distance. The reception they gave us was not so cordial that we need put ourselves out of the way to repeat our visit.” “What you say is too true,” replied the count. “I hope we shall show them better manners when they condescend to visit us.” “Ay,” said Servadac, “we must remember that we are all one people now; no longer Russian, French, or English. Nationality is extinct.” “I am sadly afraid, however,” continued the count, “that an Englishman will be an Englishman ever.” “Yes,” said the captain, “that is always their failing.” And thus all further thought of making their way again to the little garrison of Gibraltar was abandoned. But even if their spirit of courtesy had disposed them to renew their acquaintance with the British officers, there were two circumstances that just then would have rendered such a proposal very unadvisable. In the first place, Lieutenant Procope was convinced that it could not be much longer now before the sea would be entirely frozen; and, besides this, the consumption of their coal, through the speed they had maintained, had been so great that there was only too much reason to fear that fuel would fail them. Anyhow, the strictest economy was necessary, and it was accordingly resolved that the voyage should not be much prolonged. Beyond the volcanic peak, moreover, the waters seemed to expand into a boundless ocean, and it might be a thing full of risk to be frozen up while the yacht was so inadequately provisioned. Taking all these things into account, it was agreed that further investigations should be deferred to a more favorable season, and that, without delay, the should return to Gourbi Island. Dobryna This decision was especially welcome to Hector Servadac, who, throughout the whole of the last five weeks, had been agitated by much anxious thought on account of the faithful servant he had left behind. The transit from the volcano to the island was not long, and was marked by only one noticeable incident. This was the finding of a second mysterious document, in character precisely similar to what they had found before. The writer of it was evidently engaged upon a calculation, probably continued from day to day, as to the motions of the planet Gallia upon its orbit, and committing the results of his reckonings to the waves as the channel of communication. Instead of being enclosed in a telescope-case, it was this time secured in a preserved-meat tin, hermetically sealed, and stamped with the same initials on the wax that fastened it. The greatest care was used in opening it, and it was found to contain the following message: “Gallia Ab sole, au 1 mars, dist. 78,000,000 l.! Chemin parcouru de fev. a mars: 59,000,000 1.! Va bene! All right! Nil desperandum! “Enchante!” “Another enigma!” exclaimed Servadac; “and still no intelligible signature, and no address. No clearing up of the mystery!” “I have no doubt, in my own mind,” said the count, “that it is one of a series. It seems to me probable that they are being sent broadcast upon the sea.” “I wonder where the hare-brained that writes them can be living?” observed Servadac. savant “Very likely he may have met with the fate of AEsop’s abstracted astronomer, who found himself at the bottom of a well.” “Ay; but where that well?” demanded the captain. is This was a question which the count was incapable of settling; and they could only speculate afresh as to whether the author of the riddles was dwelling upon some solitary island, or, like themselves, was navigating the waters of the new Mediterranean. But they could detect nothing to guide them to a definite decision. After thoughtfully regarding the document for some time. Lieutenant Procope proceeded to observe that he believed the paper might be considered as genuine, and accordingly, taking its statements as reliable, he deduced two important conclusions: first, that whereas, in the month of January, the distance traveled by the planet (hypothetically called Gallia) had been recorded as 82,000,000 leagues, the distance traveled in February was only 59,000,000 leagues—a difference of 23,000,000 leagues in one month; secondly, that the distance of the planet from the sun, which on the 15th of February had been 59,000,000 leagues, was on the 1st of March 78,000,000 leagues—an increase of 19,000,000 leagues in a fortnight. Thus, in proportion as Gallia receded from the sun, so did the rate of speed diminish by which she traveled along her orbit; facts to be observed in perfect conformity with the known laws of celestial mechanism. “And your inference?” asked the count. “My inference,” replied the lieutenant, “is a confirmation of my surmise that we are following an orbit decidedly elliptical, although we have not yet the material to determine its eccentricity.” “As the writer adheres to the appellation of Gallia, do you not think,” asked the count, “that we might call these new waters the Gallian Sea?” “There can be no reason to the contrary, count,” replied the lieutenant; “and as such I will insert it upon my new chart.” “Our friend,” said Servadac, “seems to be more and more gratified with the condition of things; not only has he adopted our motto, ‘ ’ but see how enthusiastically he has wound up with his ‘ ’” Nil desperandum! Enchante! The conversation dropped. A few hours later the man on watch announced that Gourbi Island was in sight. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

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