:00:02. > :00:08.that very special day at Broadcasting House. That's it from
:00:08. > :00:11.me, Adnan Nawaz will be here at the top of the hour. But now on BBC
:00:11. > :00:16.News it's time for Click. Which would you rather trust with your
:00:16. > :00:26.life savings? A handful of cash? A handful of banks? Or a handful of
:00:26. > :00:38.
:00:38. > :00:42.This week, Click grabs a fistful of Dollars and turns them into
:00:42. > :00:46.Bitcoins. This strange new currency is controlled by no-one and
:00:46. > :00:51.everyone. We will find out if it's an idea that's worth buying into.
:00:51. > :00:55.He's changed the world once, can he help do it again? We'll sit down
:00:55. > :00:59.with the inventor of the Web to talk about the good causes
:00:59. > :01:03.technology is being aimed at now. That plus the latest Tech News, and
:01:03. > :01:12.a date for your diary in Webscape as we film your schedule with apps
:01:12. > :01:16.to keep you on time -- Phil. Welcome to Click, I'm Spencer Kelly.
:01:16. > :01:20.Welcome to the financial heart of London. That's the Bank of England,
:01:20. > :01:24.the place in charge of this stuff, the UK's finances. Although it's
:01:24. > :01:31.the job of everyone around here to keep things ticking over nicely, of
:01:31. > :01:36.course recently they have had a tougher time than normal. The
:01:36. > :01:41.global economic crisis is hitting some nations really hard. Back in
:01:41. > :01:44.March as Cyprus's economy teetered on the brink its banks closed down
:01:44. > :01:50.for two weeks to prevent anxious savers from pulling out all their
:01:50. > :01:56.cash. But in the last few months, as economies have fallen, a new
:01:56. > :02:01.currency has begun to rise to fame. Bitcoin. It is the world's first
:02:01. > :02:06.digital currency. And what's really unusual about it is that it's not
:02:06. > :02:12.owned or regulated by any bank or any institution. You buy a Bitcoins
:02:12. > :02:17.with real money at online exchanges. Each Bitcoin is a long you need
:02:17. > :02:21.string of digits, which is stored on your computer or your own in a
:02:21. > :02:26.file called a digital wallet. But don't confuse them with things like
:02:26. > :02:29.Microsoft Points of Facebook credits, these are simply online
:02:29. > :02:34.vouchers tied to real world currencies with fixed exchange
:02:34. > :02:38.rates. Bitcoin has its own value. Its own exchange rate, which
:02:39. > :02:42.fluctuates against other currencies. And also, even though it only
:02:42. > :02:47.exists online, it actually behaves a lot more like the physical cash
:02:48. > :02:52.that people trust. A transaction is as simple as me handing you these
:02:52. > :02:57.notes. It's a guaranteed payment. No middleman. As soon as you hand
:02:57. > :03:02.over the money, the deal is done. There's a lot of advantages to
:03:02. > :03:07.taking Bitcoin over the payments, for example PayPal or credit card,
:03:07. > :03:10.or any other form of mechanism short of a bank transfer. Any other
:03:10. > :03:14.payment method can be reversed, if someone comes to your site and uses
:03:14. > :03:17.a stolen credit card, three months down the line after you have
:03:17. > :03:21.shipped the goods, potentially that could be charged back, you have
:03:21. > :03:25.lost your goods, and you have reimbursed the card company. With
:03:25. > :03:30.Bitcoin, all transactions are final. For those whose currencies have
:03:30. > :03:35.been scripted, like Cyprus, or whose currencies are devaluing,
:03:35. > :03:39.like Argentinas, Bitcoins have become a valuable investment. But
:03:39. > :03:44.it isn't risk-free. No-one is controlling the exchange rate, that
:03:44. > :03:48.means it fluctuates wildly. When Cypriots started turning their
:03:48. > :03:55.euros into Bitcoins the value shot up. After a cyber attack designed
:03:55. > :04:03.to manipulate the currency, the value crashed. The story of Bitcoin
:04:03. > :04:07.is a rather mysterious one. In 2009, someone calling themselves Satoshi
:04:07. > :04:12.Nakamoto published a paper online saying they had worked out how to
:04:12. > :04:16.create a digital currency that was completely decentralised. There
:04:16. > :04:20.would be no meant to create the coins. No authority to regulate
:04:20. > :04:25.them. No thanks to store them or check if anyone was forging or
:04:25. > :04:31.copying them. All of this would be done by the computer code which he
:04:31. > :04:36.released on to the internet. But weirdly no-one knows who Satoshi
:04:36. > :04:41.Nakamoto really is. All we know is that so far the theory and the
:04:41. > :04:46.computer code seemed to be working. The way the cryptography has been
:04:46. > :04:53.implemented is very sound. The vision behind it is remarkable. The
:04:53. > :04:58.genius. The mathematics behind it is mind boggling. Security expert
:04:58. > :05:03.Jacques Erasmus is one of those who downloaded the code and became a
:05:03. > :05:08.Bitcoin miner. It is their machines which police the Bitcoin currency
:05:08. > :05:12.by verifying the transactions of others. Their job is to spot and
:05:12. > :05:17.invalidate forged Bitcoin serial numbers and attempts to spend the
:05:17. > :05:21.same Bitcoin twice. For this service the miners get a
:05:22. > :05:28.transaction fee, a small percentage in Bitcoins. But the mining
:05:28. > :05:32.software does a second job. It creates Bitcoins. Creating a new
:05:33. > :05:36.Bitcoin, with a valid ID number, involves trying trillions of
:05:36. > :05:43.combinations of digits in the hope of finding one that fits a certain
:05:43. > :05:47.pattern. It's mathematically very difficult, and intentionally so.
:05:47. > :05:52.Macca moto Pro Plus programme is designed to you so much processing
:05:52. > :05:57.power that all the mining hardware in the world will only create a few
:05:57. > :06:05.Bitcoins between them every hour. This machine has been mining for
:06:05. > :06:15.about four days non-stop flat out. As you can see over here, it's mind
:06:15. > :06:20.0.04 of a Bitcoin. It will take you maybe a month, 40 to 50 days, to
:06:20. > :06:25.mine one Bitcoin. That's not a very good rate of return. There are fast
:06:25. > :06:29.food restaurants that pay less than that. Definitely.In fact, if you
:06:29. > :06:32.really want to mine at a decent rate you need to buy tens of
:06:32. > :06:37.thousands of dollars worth of dedicated hardware. But the fact
:06:37. > :06:43.that Bitcoin behaves a lot like cash does present some problems.
:06:43. > :06:48.For one, the only place you'll Bitcoins are stored is in your
:06:48. > :06:54.digital wallet. How easy is it to steal a wallet from someone else's
:06:54. > :07:00.computer? At the moment it is very easy. That is one of the main
:07:00. > :07:06.weaknesses in the structure at the moment. There's a lot of now wear
:07:06. > :07:12.out their that contains key logging capabilities that are actually
:07:13. > :07:16.purposefully looking for wallets, Bitcoin wallets, and logging their
:07:16. > :07:20.associated passwords that unlock the wallet. So if you have those
:07:20. > :07:26.two pieces, the password and the physical wallet, you can load that
:07:26. > :07:31.won it up in your own software and empty out. The thing it physical
:07:31. > :07:37.cash also has another advantage. It's anonymous. There's no record
:07:37. > :07:44.of who owns what, or who paid to if you don't want there to be. And
:07:44. > :07:48.Bitcoin ticks those boxes as well. And that means is the currency of
:07:48. > :07:54.choice on the black market. This is one of several websites offering
:07:54. > :07:58.drugs and other legal services. You can only access it by using special
:07:58. > :08:03.and on the Mize Inc software, and you can only pay using the equally
:08:03. > :08:09.anonymous B?I ? anonymous Bnd it' association with crime that could
:08:09. > :08:12.be Bitcoin's downfall. One of the reasons people trust state
:08:12. > :08:16.currencies, for example dollars, is that they have some fundamental
:08:16. > :08:20.value. You know at some point in your life you're going to receive a
:08:20. > :08:23.tax bill, and you know the government accepts dollars in tax.
:08:23. > :08:30.That means everyone trusts there going to be able to use the dollar
:08:30. > :08:34.to do something useful. Bitcoin, the problem it faces, lots of its
:08:34. > :08:39.uses are somewhat shady. There is a risk that suddenly trust in the
:08:39. > :08:44.system collapses and the value could quickly go to zero.
:08:44. > :08:49.enough enough for Bitcoin to become a real
:08:49. > :08:57.established currency. Ironically it needs asked to have confidence in
:08:58. > :09:01.it. Confidence which at the moment is hard to earn -- needs us. If you
:09:01. > :09:06.use Bitcoin as we would love to hear from you. If you accept them,
:09:06. > :09:13.treat them, if you've had some stolen, get in touch and share your
:09:13. > :09:17.experiences. -- trade them. Next up, a look at this week's Tech News.
:09:17. > :09:21.Can an ultra book function in the harsh and freezing wastes of
:09:21. > :09:25.Antarctica? Polar explorers Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere
:09:26. > :09:29.will find out when they retrace Captain Scott's ill-fated trek
:09:29. > :09:34.across the southern polar region. They will be equipped with a couple
:09:34. > :09:39.of ultra box powered by Intel's new processes, chips which its makers
:09:39. > :09:42.claim had been designed to offer greatly improved battery life.
:09:42. > :09:48.Freezing temperatures are notoriously battery sapping. To
:09:48. > :09:53.engineers have been freezing it to minus 40 degrees and flooring it
:09:53. > :09:58.out for 70 days. We will find out if the flat tops up to the task in
:09:58. > :10:03.October. Online retail juggernaut Amazon has I opened an online
:10:03. > :10:07.marketplace in India. Indian retail regulators have prevented Amazon
:10:07. > :10:13.from selling its own products, but third parties will be able to sell
:10:13. > :10:18.goods such as physical books, TV shows and movies. India's the
:10:18. > :10:22.retail market is seen as worth $800 million, and that's with just 8% or
:10:22. > :10:26.so of the country online. It does face competition from home-grown
:10:26. > :10:30.company Flipcart, which has been open for several years and is one
:10:31. > :10:34.of India's top 20 websites. Researchers at the University of
:10:34. > :10:40.Washington are working on an algorithm that detects tiny shifts
:10:40. > :10:44.in wifi signals when a user move through it. We seek uses the
:10:44. > :10:48.changes in signals to recognise specific movements, and can control
:10:48. > :10:52.everything from a sound system to a coffee maker even through walls.
:10:52. > :10:55.The system is being designed to work with current Wireless Rigters,
:10:55. > :11:01.but you might want to turn it off before practising those killer
:11:01. > :11:04.dance moves. How about controlling devices without moving at all? 18
:11:04. > :11:09.at Minnesota University have developed a radio-controlled
:11:09. > :11:12.chopper which can be controlled by its pilots thoughts. Wearing an
:11:12. > :11:17.electric covered cap, the university team have created
:11:17. > :11:21.software that allows the software to imagine different movements,
:11:21. > :11:24.thinking about clenching its hand for instance can steered the bird
:11:24. > :11:34.right or left. The team hopes this sort of technology will be adopted
:11:34. > :11:38.
:11:38. > :11:43.by people with movement How do you change the world? One
:11:43. > :11:48.answer is to start a company like Google. Another is to use your
:11:48. > :11:53.corporate muscle to get others to do the same. That is what Google
:11:53. > :12:02.has done. Earlier this year, it launched the global impact
:12:02. > :12:06.challenge. This week, the results came in.
:12:06. > :12:10.Google's mission statement. But that mantra does not always
:12:10. > :12:14.convinced. Just ask British parliamentarians who last month
:12:14. > :12:18.accused the technology giant of shirking its fiscal
:12:18. > :12:26.responsibilities to the UK economy or privacy advocates who say that
:12:26. > :12:31.into our personal lives. However, Google has always placed a high
:12:31. > :12:34.responsibilities. responsibilities. To that end, it
:12:34. > :12:38.launched the global impact challenge, asking British non-
:12:38. > :12:47.profit organisations how they would use technology to change the world.
:12:47. > :12:51.Last month in a teaching session not unlike the X Factor, the
:12:51. > :12:56.applicants were whittled down to some winners. The applicants span
:12:56. > :13:03.the spectrum from a project offering African communities of
:13:03. > :13:13.greed and safe access to solar power. And a mobile tight form was
:13:13. > :13:16.a short -- citizens in war-torn projects. Among the judges was Tim
:13:16. > :13:21.Berners-Lee. He would be a reasonably good person to ask about
:13:21. > :13:27.how other aspirational world -- world changes could do the same.
:13:27. > :13:30.Are NGOs using technology as effectively as they could?
:13:30. > :13:34.reason why this challenge is good is that they are not, typically.
:13:34. > :13:40.Across the board, there are two problems. The first is that there
:13:40. > :13:46.are many NGOs, many of them have been around for quite a while. We
:13:46. > :13:50.addressed this. This is the edge of technology. Show us how you are
:13:50. > :13:55.aware of that. Because it is not clear. Another way, which is
:13:55. > :14:01.perhaps more important, is not just about modernising what you have
:14:01. > :14:07.already been dealing but looking for a new agenda of things that we
:14:07. > :14:12.can do. Looking at things that will bring in money to become the
:14:12. > :14:15.business itself. From the point of view of funders, they are not
:14:15. > :14:18.necessarily looking for money... If the message is that you can put
:14:18. > :14:24.money in for a few years and then create something that will run
:14:24. > :14:28.itself out there and sustain itself, that is often an interesting area.
:14:28. > :14:33.As the inventor of the weather, you have a certain vision as to how it
:14:33. > :14:38.may develop -- inventor of the internet. Has it gone differently
:14:38. > :14:45.to what you imagined? Originally, it was supposed to be very
:14:45. > :14:51.collaborative. The very first browser, that was not just a
:14:51. > :14:56.browser but an editor. If you found something as you were looking at
:14:56. > :15:02.the internet that you could improve upon, you could edit it. And you
:15:02. > :15:06.could save that and think back. The idea was that it would be a
:15:06. > :15:09.collaborative space so that if we were working on a project, the
:15:10. > :15:16.project would be in hyperspace. We would build it together and by
:15:16. > :15:21.showing that project, all of our ideas would be in the space. That
:15:21. > :15:28.and do not happen. In some way, it has still not become that very
:15:28. > :15:33.intuitive or collaborative medium. Is it as open as you would like in
:15:33. > :15:38.terms of the idea of information being freely available across
:15:38. > :15:48.browsers? When you look at the rich media whether to. A world that we
:15:48. > :15:52.
:15:52. > :16:02.inhabit, watching videos and all sorts of Material... -- Web 2.0
:16:02. > :16:02.
:16:02. > :16:05.world we inhabit. With HTML5, we are in a better position. There is
:16:05. > :16:13.certainly constructive tension between every browser manufacturer,
:16:13. > :16:19.trying to make something better and smarter. The major browser
:16:19. > :16:25.manufacturers, the five you have heard of in the West and the five
:16:25. > :16:30.in China are collaborating very fiercely. And we have got that
:16:30. > :16:36.tension between the competition which makes people want to advance
:16:36. > :16:44.and push their own browser head of the other. But you have to have
:16:44. > :16:52.open standards for the internet to work as well. It is like the forces,
:16:52. > :16:57.the pressure on the keel of a boat. When it is white, the vessel goes
:16:57. > :17:02.zooming forward. When it is not right, it goes nowhere. You are not
:17:02. > :17:07.worried about countries like Iran that say that they will... Or other
:17:07. > :17:11.systems that may not be entirely compatible with the internet?
:17:11. > :17:15.not so much the internet but the browsers. The browsers lie on
:17:15. > :17:20.underlying internet connectivity. What many people did not realise
:17:20. > :17:30.until the Mubarak regime turned off the internet in Egypt, that was the
:17:30. > :17:31.
:17:31. > :17:36.first time they realised that it the internet should spend some time
:17:36. > :17:40.worrying about that. Worrying about who could turn off the internet and
:17:40. > :17:46.who is spying on you. In countries where it has not been turned off,
:17:46. > :17:50.someone could be signed when you. A strong government allows people to
:17:50. > :18:00.communicate and sees the state of the world and allows people to have
:18:00. > :18:01.
:18:01. > :18:09.dissenting voices. And we have seen when things take a step backwards,
:18:09. > :18:15.long period of time, I think that openness and democracy are pushing
:18:15. > :18:23.us towards greater openness and so on. I am hopeful. The genie is out
:18:23. > :18:27.of the bottle. Now, I would like to introduce you
:18:27. > :18:31.to my personal assistant. Of course, it is this thing. These days, we
:18:31. > :18:37.trust smartphones to run more and more of our lives. When it comes to
:18:37. > :18:47.keeping a diary, what should you do? Stick with the pre- installed
:18:47. > :18:47.
:18:47. > :18:51.calendar application or go for something third party.
:18:51. > :18:58.I am Ace slave to my diary and have to consult my smartphone before
:18:58. > :19:02.Ribery in to do anything. So, I thought I would give some of the
:19:02. > :19:08.best Callander applications in the world a shot to see if they could
:19:08. > :19:11.simplify my schedule. This is simple to set up and imports data
:19:11. > :19:16.from most popular calendars. It uses colour coding to help organise
:19:16. > :19:22.your life but at $2, I do not think it adds that much to the native
:19:22. > :19:27.iPhone calendar. Fantastical is $4 on iPhone. I like the look of the
:19:27. > :19:32.navigation, something that can be fiddly on a small smartphones rain.
:19:32. > :19:42.You can add defence with context using voice recognition. It will
:19:42. > :19:42.
:19:42. > :19:46.you can add it events. This kind of virtual assistant feature is where
:19:46. > :19:49.the power of third-party applications really is for me. Yes,
:19:50. > :19:58.there are plenty of free options out there but if paying a couple of
:19:58. > :20:03.dollars is going to simplify my life, I am all for it.
:20:03. > :20:06.For Android users, there is nothing to pay for this one. It is clear
:20:06. > :20:09.and simple with no bells or whistles and while it does not do
:20:09. > :20:14.anything particularly ground- breaking, it synchronise as with
:20:14. > :20:20.Google calendar, providing a unified experience at cost desktop
:20:20. > :20:26.and Android devices. If you want to give the native Android calendar a
:20:26. > :20:28.boost, the agenda which it is a nice, customised add-on with free
:20:28. > :20:33.and pay to versions that sit on your home screen, keeping you
:20:33. > :20:40.informed of any schedule entries as well as upcoming birthdays or
:20:40. > :20:47.especially France. -- special events. Smartphones of
:20:48. > :20:52.all flavours come with good native might not have to operate at all
:20:52. > :20:57.assistant assistant features offered by a
:20:57. > :21:03.third party or have paid Apple. If you use Out?I ? you use Out
:21:03. > :21:07.calendar, they have their own apps for a seamless a desktop T-Mobile
:21:07. > :21:11.experience. Windows phone comes with an elegant native calendar but
:21:11. > :21:16.if you want to go for a different look with some additional features,
:21:16. > :21:20.Cronos is a good option for a couple of dollars. It synchronise
:21:20. > :21:30.us seamlessly with your Microsoft account, of course, and lifestyle
:21:30. > :21:35.
:21:35. > :21:40.Tile. That is the calendar sorted out.
:21:40. > :21:47.Now, time to put something in it. This is a great place to find
:21:47. > :21:53.events of interest with a database across the internet in over 230
:21:53. > :22:03.genres from football matches and concerts to all options and crochet
:22:03. > :22:07.
:22:07. > :22:11.is not affiliated with ticket sellers. It does, however, have
:22:11. > :22:16.links to them. It covers US and UK events and the makers are working
:22:16. > :22:26.to expand into other territories as well. You can sign up and run your
:22:26. > :22:26.
:22:26. > :22:34.events calendar from the site. It is the best way of finding out
:22:34. > :22:44.what is going on even in the most Nis of entertainment genres. --
:22:44. > :22:48.niche. Got a large file you want to send it to a Facebook friend? Stuff
:22:48. > :22:53.it down a Pipe. This lets you send files up to one of the delight
:22:53. > :23:03.through a direct link from computer to computer as long as you are both
:23:03. > :23:03.
:23:03. > :23:07.online. -- 1GB. It is as fast as your computers will allow and very
:23:07. > :23:17.private. The iPhone app is in out the testing stage. The Android
:23:17. > :23:26.
:23:27. > :23:36.Android this week. To celebrate, this is a Vine, iPhone of a Vine,
:23:37. > :23:37.
:23:37. > :23:47.Android. Totally meta. If you have any suggestions or comments, please
:23:47. > :23:48.