Blockchain’s Mainstream Entrance, Samsung’s Folding Flop, and Amazon’s $0 Tax Return
Is Blockchain Preparing for Blockbuster Success?
Blockchain technology, for those of you wondering, is still very much alive. And, looking at recent signs, it’s doing better than ever. While the idea of the value of blockchain is still more interesting to most businesses than its reality, more and more are starting to realize that, yes, getting it to be adopted into mainstream society isn’t just possible - it’s probable.
More major players are greeting blockchain potential with widespread enthusiasm, including influential business leaders. Of course, there are still very valid obstacles standing in the way of immediate adoption. But, even with those considered, there is no denying the momentum that blockchain is generating.
Below are five signs recently published in an article on entrepreneur.com that prove that blockchain is prepared to explode into our daily lives…
IBM researchers tested an application running on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform that achieved a throughput of 3,500 transactions per second with sub-second latency.
The Enterprise Ethereum blockchain consortium unveiled an open-source, cross-platform, standards-based framework.
Over the past two years, major technology vendors—including five of the world’s biggest cloud companies—have introduced blockchain-as-a-service.
State legislatures have taken action on dozens of blockchain-related bills so far this year, and at least eight US states have already passed laws pertaining to blockchain.
The number of active blockchain consortia across industries has rapidly increased from 28 in 2017 to more than 60.
Samsung’s Folding Phones Flopping with Reviewers
For a moment, it looked like folding phones (an apparent direct descendant of the flip phones we all remember fumbling for in our back pockets) were back. Samsung, having announced its latest product, a “mainstream foldable-screen device”, is now, however, needing to reevaluate its design.
Or, at least, that’s what the reviewers who had the phone break are hoping they will do.
With multiple tech reviewers reporting major problems, the anticipation around the new product is dwindling or, at the very least, has been enshrouded in the dark cloud of negative online buzz.
Officially available in the United States on April 26, Samsung fans, or those eager to have a phone that can fold again (screen and all), will have to hope that the top layer doesn’t peel off on their $2,000 investment. And, if the top layer stays intact, other reported reviewer issues will hopefully be avoided, including angry hinges and frustratingly flickery screens.
As the world’s largest smartphone maker, Samsung is needing a win in order to “re-energize its sales”. Without major advances in hardware or software, the smartphone industry as a whole is hoping to be given a breath of fresh air, whether from Samsung’s folding phone or not. In fact, 2018 was the first annual decline in global smartphone sales since their birth.
How Amazon is Paying $0 in Federal Taxes this Year
One of the main reasons so many people claim to want to avoid making money is the belief that, when they do, they’ll end up paying loads of it back in taxes. Why go to all of the effort if you’re really not going to get to keep that much of it?
Well, Amazon, along with many other behemoth businesses, seems to have figured out the way to get around that long-held belief - for better or for worse.
According to recent news reports, Amazon has used an intelligent mix of tax breaks and credits in order to “claim a $129 million rebate on $11 billion in profits last year”. And, having doubled its profits from 2017 to 2018, the lack of taxes needing to be paid on such a huge amount of money comes as a bit of a surprise to most.
In one report, this finding can be explained with “the fine print of Amazon’s income tax disclosure”. Apparently, thanks to various (and unspecified) tax credits and a “tax break for executive stock options”, Amazon is proving that, when you know the rules (fair or not), making a lot of money doesn’t necessarily mean paying a lot of it back.
In fact, this looks to be the second year in a row that Amazon has managed to avoid paying anything in federal taxes. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the company pays nothing in the form of taxes. According to another report, in 2017 “the company paid a combined total of $412 million in federal, state, local and foreign taxes”.