08/06/2013 Click

that very special day at Broadcasting House. That's it from

me, Adnan Nawaz will be here at the top of the hour. But now on BBC

News it's time for Click. Which would you rather trust with your

life savings? A handful of cash? A handful of banks? Or a handful of

This week, Click grabs a fistful of Dollars and turns them into

Bitcoins. This strange new currency is controlled by no-one and

everyone. We will find out if it's an idea that's worth buying into.

He's changed the world once, can he help do it again? We'll sit down

with the inventor of the Web to talk about the good causes

technology is being aimed at now. That plus the latest Tech News, and

a date for your diary in Webscape as we film your schedule with apps

to keep you on time -- Phil. Welcome to Click, I'm Spencer Kelly.

Welcome to the financial heart of London. That's the Bank of England,

the place in charge of this stuff, the UK's finances. Although it's

the job of everyone around here to keep things ticking over nicely, of

course recently they have had a tougher time than normal. The

global economic crisis is hitting some nations really hard. Back in

March as Cyprus's economy teetered on the brink its banks closed down

for two weeks to prevent anxious savers from pulling out all their

cash. But in the last few months, as economies have fallen, a new

currency has begun to rise to fame. Bitcoin. It is the world's first

digital currency. And what's really unusual about it is that it's not

owned or regulated by any bank or any institution. You buy a Bitcoins

with real money at online exchanges. Each Bitcoin is a long you need

string of digits, which is stored on your computer or your own in a

file called a digital wallet. But don't confuse them with things like

Microsoft Points of Facebook credits, these are simply online

vouchers tied to real world currencies with fixed exchange

rates. Bitcoin has its own value. Its own exchange rate, which

fluctuates against other currencies. And also, even though it only

exists online, it actually behaves a lot more like the physical cash

that people trust. A transaction is as simple as me handing you these

notes. It's a guaranteed payment. No middleman. As soon as you hand

over the money, the deal is done. There's a lot of advantages to

taking Bitcoin over the payments, for example PayPal or credit card,

or any other form of mechanism short of a bank transfer. Any other

payment method can be reversed, if someone comes to your site and uses

a stolen credit card, three months down the line after you have

shipped the goods, potentially that could be charged back, you have

lost your goods, and you have reimbursed the card company. With

Bitcoin, all transactions are final. For those whose currencies have

been scripted, like Cyprus, or whose currencies are devaluing,

like Argentinas, Bitcoins have become a valuable investment. But

it isn't risk-free. No-one is controlling the exchange rate, that

means it fluctuates wildly. When Cypriots started turning their

euros into Bitcoins the value shot up. After a cyber attack designed

to manipulate the currency, the value crashed. The story of Bitcoin

is a rather mysterious one. In 2009, someone calling themselves Satoshi

Nakamoto published a paper online saying they had worked out how to

create a digital currency that was completely decentralised. There

would be no meant to create the coins. No authority to regulate

them. No thanks to store them or check if anyone was forging or

copying them. All of this would be done by the computer code which he

released on to the internet. But weirdly no-one knows who Satoshi

Nakamoto really is. All we know is that so far the theory and the

computer code seemed to be working. The way the cryptography has been

implemented is very sound. The vision behind it is remarkable. The

genius. The mathematics behind it is mind boggling. Security expert

Jacques Erasmus is one of those who downloaded the code and became a

Bitcoin miner. It is their machines which police the Bitcoin currency

by verifying the transactions of others. Their job is to spot and

invalidate forged Bitcoin serial numbers and attempts to spend the

same Bitcoin twice. For this service the miners get a

transaction fee, a small percentage in Bitcoins. But the mining

software does a second job. It creates Bitcoins. Creating a new

Bitcoin, with a valid ID number, involves trying trillions of

combinations of digits in the hope of finding one that fits a certain

pattern. It's mathematically very difficult, and intentionally so.

Macca moto Pro Plus programme is designed to you so much processing

power that all the mining hardware in the world will only create a few

Bitcoins between them every hour. This machine has been mining for

about four days non-stop flat out. As you can see over here, it's mind

0.04 of a Bitcoin. It will take you maybe a month, 40 to 50 days, to

mine one Bitcoin. That's not a very good rate of return. There are fast

food restaurants that pay less than that. Definitely.In fact, if you

really want to mine at a decent rate you need to buy tens of

thousands of dollars worth of dedicated hardware. But the fact

that Bitcoin behaves a lot like cash does present some problems.

For one, the only place you'll Bitcoins are stored is in your

digital wallet. How easy is it to steal a wallet from someone else's

computer? At the moment it is very easy. That is one of the main

weaknesses in the structure at the moment. There's a lot of now wear

out their that contains key logging capabilities that are actually

purposefully looking for wallets, Bitcoin wallets, and logging their

associated passwords that unlock the wallet. So if you have those

two pieces, the password and the physical wallet, you can load that

won it up in your own software and empty out. The thing it physical

cash also has another advantage. It's anonymous. There's no record

of who owns what, or who paid to if you don't want there to be. And

Bitcoin ticks those boxes as well. And that means is the currency of

choice on the black market. This is one of several websites offering

drugs and other legal services. You can only access it by using special

and on the Mize Inc software, and you can only pay using the equally

anonymous B?I ? anonymous Bnd it' association with crime that could

be Bitcoin's downfall. One of the reasons people trust state

currencies, for example dollars, is that they have some fundamental

value. You know at some point in your life you're going to receive a

tax bill, and you know the government accepts dollars in tax.

That means everyone trusts there going to be able to use the dollar

to do something useful. Bitcoin, the problem it faces, lots of its

uses are somewhat shady. There is a risk that suddenly trust in the

system collapses and the value could quickly go to zero.

enough enough for Bitcoin to become a real

established currency. Ironically it needs asked to have confidence in

it. Confidence which at the moment is hard to earn -- needs us. If you

use Bitcoin as we would love to hear from you. If you accept them,

treat them, if you've had some stolen, get in touch and share your

experiences. -- trade them. Next up, a look at this week's Tech News.

Can an ultra book function in the harsh and freezing wastes of

Antarctica? Polar explorers Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere

will find out when they retrace Captain Scott's ill-fated trek

across the southern polar region. They will be equipped with a couple

of ultra box powered by Intel's new processes, chips which its makers

claim had been designed to offer greatly improved battery life.

Freezing temperatures are notoriously battery sapping. To

engineers have been freezing it to minus 40 degrees and flooring it

out for 70 days. We will find out if the flat tops up to the task in

October. Online retail juggernaut Amazon has I opened an online

marketplace in India. Indian retail regulators have prevented Amazon

from selling its own products, but third parties will be able to sell

goods such as physical books, TV shows and movies. India's the

retail market is seen as worth $800 million, and that's with just 8% or

so of the country online. It does face competition from home-grown

company Flipcart, which has been open for several years and is one

of India's top 20 websites. Researchers at the University of

Washington are working on an algorithm that detects tiny shifts

in wifi signals when a user move through it. We seek uses the

changes in signals to recognise specific movements, and can control

everything from a sound system to a coffee maker even through walls.

The system is being designed to work with current Wireless Rigters,

but you might want to turn it off before practising those killer

dance moves. How about controlling devices without moving at all? 18

at Minnesota University have developed a radio-controlled

chopper which can be controlled by its pilots thoughts. Wearing an

electric covered cap, the university team have created

software that allows the software to imagine different movements,

thinking about clenching its hand for instance can steered the bird

right or left. The team hopes this sort of technology will be adopted

by people with movement How do you change the world? One

answer is to start a company like Google. Another is to use your

corporate muscle to get others to do the same. That is what Google

has done. Earlier this year, it launched the global impact

challenge. This week, the results came in.

Google's mission statement. But that mantra does not always

convinced. Just ask British parliamentarians who last month

accused the technology giant of shirking its fiscal

responsibilities to the UK economy or privacy advocates who say that

into our personal lives. However, Google has always placed a high

responsibilities. responsibilities. To that end, it

launched the global impact challenge, asking British non-

profit organisations how they would use technology to change the world.

Last month in a teaching session not unlike the X Factor, the

applicants were whittled down to some winners. The applicants span

the spectrum from a project offering African communities of

greed and safe access to solar power. And a mobile tight form was

a short -- citizens in war-torn projects. Among the judges was Tim

Berners-Lee. He would be a reasonably good person to ask about

how other aspirational world -- world changes could do the same.

Are NGOs using technology as effectively as they could?

reason why this challenge is good is that they are not, typically.

Across the board, there are two problems. The first is that there

are many NGOs, many of them have been around for quite a while. We

addressed this. This is the edge of technology. Show us how you are

aware of that. Because it is not clear. Another way, which is

perhaps more important, is not just about modernising what you have

already been dealing but looking for a new agenda of things that we

can do. Looking at things that will bring in money to become the

business itself. From the point of view of funders, they are not

necessarily looking for money... If the message is that you can put

money in for a few years and then create something that will run

itself out there and sustain itself, that is often an interesting area.

As the inventor of the weather, you have a certain vision as to how it

may develop -- inventor of the internet. Has it gone differently

to what you imagined? Originally, it was supposed to be very

collaborative. The very first browser, that was not just a

browser but an editor. If you found something as you were looking at

the internet that you could improve upon, you could edit it. And you

could save that and think back. The idea was that it would be a

collaborative space so that if we were working on a project, the

project would be in hyperspace. We would build it together and by

showing that project, all of our ideas would be in the space. That

and do not happen. In some way, it has still not become that very

intuitive or collaborative medium. Is it as open as you would like in

terms of the idea of information being freely available across

browsers? When you look at the rich media whether to. A world that we

inhabit, watching videos and all sorts of Material... -- Web 2.0

world we inhabit. With HTML5, we are in a better position. There is

certainly constructive tension between every browser manufacturer,

trying to make something better and smarter. The major browser

manufacturers, the five you have heard of in the West and the five

in China are collaborating very fiercely. And we have got that

tension between the competition which makes people want to advance

and push their own browser head of the other. But you have to have

open standards for the internet to work as well. It is like the forces,

the pressure on the keel of a boat. When it is white, the vessel goes

zooming forward. When it is not right, it goes nowhere. You are not

worried about countries like Iran that say that they will... Or other

systems that may not be entirely compatible with the internet?

not so much the internet but the browsers. The browsers lie on

underlying internet connectivity. What many people did not realise

until the Mubarak regime turned off the internet in Egypt, that was the

first time they realised that it the internet should spend some time

worrying about that. Worrying about who could turn off the internet and

who is spying on you. In countries where it has not been turned off,

someone could be signed when you. A strong government allows people to

communicate and sees the state of the world and allows people to have

dissenting voices. And we have seen when things take a step backwards,

long period of time, I think that openness and democracy are pushing

us towards greater openness and so on. I am hopeful. The genie is out

of the bottle. Now, I would like to introduce you

to my personal assistant. Of course, it is this thing. These days, we

trust smartphones to run more and more of our lives. When it comes to

keeping a diary, what should you do? Stick with the pre- installed

calendar application or go for something third party.

I am Ace slave to my diary and have to consult my smartphone before

Ribery in to do anything. So, I thought I would give some of the

best Callander applications in the world a shot to see if they could

simplify my schedule. This is simple to set up and imports data

from most popular calendars. It uses colour coding to help organise

your life but at $2, I do not think it adds that much to the native

iPhone calendar. Fantastical is $4 on iPhone. I like the look of the

navigation, something that can be fiddly on a small smartphones rain.

You can add defence with context using voice recognition. It will

you can add it events. This kind of virtual assistant feature is where

the power of third-party applications really is for me. Yes,

there are plenty of free options out there but if paying a couple of

dollars is going to simplify my life, I am all for it.

For Android users, there is nothing to pay for this one. It is clear

and simple with no bells or whistles and while it does not do

anything particularly ground- breaking, it synchronise as with

Google calendar, providing a unified experience at cost desktop

and Android devices. If you want to give the native Android calendar a

boost, the agenda which it is a nice, customised add-on with free

and pay to versions that sit on your home screen, keeping you

informed of any schedule entries as well as upcoming birthdays or

especially France. -- special events. Smartphones of

all flavours come with good native might not have to operate at all

assistant assistant features offered by a

third party or have paid Apple. If you use Out?I ? you use Out

calendar, they have their own apps for a seamless a desktop T-Mobile

experience. Windows phone comes with an elegant native calendar but

if you want to go for a different look with some additional features,

Cronos is a good option for a couple of dollars. It synchronise

us seamlessly with your Microsoft account, of course, and lifestyle

Tile. That is the calendar sorted out.

Now, time to put something in it. This is a great place to find

events of interest with a database across the internet in over 230

genres from football matches and concerts to all options and crochet

is not affiliated with ticket sellers. It does, however, have

links to them. It covers US and UK events and the makers are working

to expand into other territories as well. You can sign up and run your

events calendar from the site. It is the best way of finding out

what is going on even in the most Nis of entertainment genres. --

niche. Got a large file you want to send it to a Facebook friend? Stuff

it down a Pipe. This lets you send files up to one of the delight

through a direct link from computer to computer as long as you are both

online. -- 1GB. It is as fast as your computers will allow and very

private. The iPhone app is in out the testing stage. The Android

Android this week. To celebrate, this is a Vine, iPhone of a Vine,

Android. Totally meta. If you have any suggestions or comments, please