Investing at the cutting edge on innovation

The world is changing at a rapid rate - digital disruption will come - and those who back it should benefit big time! 

Catherine Wood of Ark Invest puts her money where her mouth is - she  looks at disruptive innovation in the public markets and invests at the cutting edge of Innovation. 

Catherine speaking at the Morgan Stanley  conference on Wednesday 5 June 2019

Photo from AFR Thursday 6 June 

She backs companies in the fud zone - when there is fear uncertainty and doubt. 

The vision is there , the technology is emerging, the prototypes are built and the opportunity of the technology becoming ubiquitous is in sight. 

She relies on Wright’s law - where costs decrease and volume increase - and profitability emerges 

Case in point calls and data - where mass usage has been able to drive the cost of calls to zero and create Unicorns such as Zoom! 

These are some of the bleeding edge innovations that Ark Invest is backing 

Blockchain - cryptos - Ark Invest is a backer  of bitcoin - it should gain ubiquity with the advent of quantum computer power - last year $1.3tr of transactions, and each transaction had significant fees - there is an unmet need for x border transactions -and she expects bitcoin will drive these huge transaction fees to zero 

Genome sequencing - developing cures 

Ai , Robotics and Energy Storage - paving the way for ubiquitous Electric and self driving cars  - autonomous taxi platforms $7tr by 2028 - she is backing Tesla - with 10pc of her portfolio committed to it  - people are  walking away - but she believes will be the best investment - She believes Tesla will have similar narrative as Amazon! 

Win or lose - Ark Invest is up there in my estimation! 

Innovative solutions to loneliness

4 innovative solutions to loneliness - what can we do in Australia to solve this disease 

Some future predictions that became reality

the Light Reading Big 5G Event in Denver - May 2019

https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2019/05/13/what-was-big-at-the-big-5g-event/

Why 5G 

“5G’s promise of lightning-fast throughput and low latency”

5G is poised to be disruptive and woven into all fabrics of society 

Verizon’s Nicki Palmer summed it up during her keynote at the Big 5G Event this month. 

She believes that within the next three years, connected devices could reach three times the world’s population. 

The current 4G LTE networks can’t scale to support that onslaught of connectivity - 5G can.

Jason Proctor from CBC news in Canada summarises the 5G narrative quite well.

It is estimated that by 2020 between 50 billion and 100 billion devices worldwide are expected to be connected to the internet with the ability to communicate seamlessly with no latency. (Lag between sending and receiving).

5G will have enough bandwidth to revolutionise entertainment, health care and education - it will enable the “Internet of Things” , Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality.

Uses will include self-driving cars, remote-controlled thermostats and drones — connected to the internet.

Our devices will be able to communicate directly with each other, essentially cutting humans out of the equation.

The players at the conference included

• Ian Campbell, CTO for Cisco Systems’ 
• Mishka Dehghan, Sprint’s executive lead for 5G services 
• Nicki Palmer, Verizon’s Chief Networking Officer, highlighted location-based services, 
• Huawei CTO Paul Scanlan and Joy Tan, who leads corporate communications for the company

All shared their excitement and benefits of 5 G which included 

• roaming, 
• Internet download speeds multiple times faster, 
• I o T - communication with many more devices at once, 
• the ability to send and receive information closer to real time than ever before.
• Households will be altered through inter-connectivity of equipment, 
• Industries made more timely and cost-effective, 
• the economy from banking to shopping will be transformed
• improved stadium connectivity/
• back office support, and 
• factory automation.
• network slicing, 
• virtualization, 
• cloudification, 
• the leverage of open APIs.
• Smart City implementation - transport and city management will be revolutionised - improving public safety,
• Driverless cars with 5G making possible the superfast sending of precision data between vehicles so that they do not collide and they can communicate with road sensors and traffic lights and surveillance drones.
• Systems will alert police when accidents occur, traffic moves smoothly through integrated signals that keep track of flows, and emergency vehicles arrive as quickly as possible through not being held up by red lights.
• distance learning. 
• gaming, and 
• healthcare - example - long-distance surgery with robots, a surgeon implanting a stimulation device into the brain of a Parkinson’s disease patient in Beijing using robotic arms controlled from about 3,000km away.

The importance of security of networks

Security of networks to keep them safe from hackers will be no different with 5G than the present 4G. 

Systems and equipment, no matter who makes them or where they are from, will need to be constantly checked and monitored and improved.

 Given the importance of 5G to the future, governments and companies need to share and cooperate.

Mr. Scanlan’s response to the concerns that  Huawei may share subscriber data with the Chinese government. 

He pointed out that data ownership and management resides with carriers, not equipment providers, who are bound by privacy laws within each particular region of the world. 

A tour of the Huawei’s Independent Cybersecurity Lab in Shenzhen revealed  over 240 international security certifications and a multi-layered internal audit protocol for discovering “backdoors” and vetoing product launches independently of its consumer, carrier, and enterprise business units (with documented stops and product cancellations in the past). 

Huawei is working hard to allay the concerns of the rest of the world with not only its cybersecurity lab but also by inviting the media to tour its headquarters. 

These efforts could be paying off given Huawei started in the telecommunications industry over 30 years ago and in a relatively short amount of time built a $50B consumer business. 

This was led by impressive smartphone designs with an emphasis on professional-like camera capabilities and in parallel has created an enterprise switch and router business approaching $10B and growing at an impressive clip.

Bottom line - 5G is coming and Australia should be riding this wave with Huawei 

You should also read https://australianinnovation.blogspot.com/2019/05/5g-fifth-generation-of-wireless.html

And

https://australianinnovation.blogspot.com/2019/04/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-5g.html

5G - the fifth generation of wireless technology is coming

Jason Proctor from CBC news in Canada summarises the 5G narrative quite well.

Click here for video 

The Technology Generations 

The first generation — 1G — was introduced in the 1980s with wireless phones that had almost no ability to transmit data.

The next generation occurred a decade later with better sound quality, security and capacity. Email and text became widespread.

3G brought global roaming and higher-speed transmission, allowing for more widespread connectivity and movement with devices.

4G allowed phone users to surf the internet, stream music, access social media, post videos and use a wide variety of apps on smartphones.

5G "will be a game changer in wireless telecommunications, ushering in a network for future generations with more devices, faster communication, and higher speeds."

Current 4G mobile networks can offer speeds of about 45Mbps (megabits per second) on average and experts say 5G could achieve browsing and downloads up to 20 times faster.

Connectivity - Internet of Things 

It is estimated that by 2020 between 50 billion and 100 billion devices worldwide are expected to be connected to the internet with the ability to communicate seamlessly with no latency. (Lag between sending and receiving).

5G will have enough bandwidth to revolutionise entertainment, health care and education - it will enable the “Internet of Things” , Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality.

Uses will include self-driving cars, remote-controlled thermostats and drones — connected to the internet.

Our devices will be able to communicate directly with each other, essentially cutting humans out of the equation.

What does 5G mean to Canada 

The Accenture report  estimates that Canada's wireless operators are expected to invest $26 billion deploying 5G infrastructure between 2020 and 2026, having  already spent about $17.6 billion in spectrum auctions.

Accenture claims the payoff in that same time will be a lift of about $40 billion a year to Canada's gross domestic product as well as the creation of 250,000 permanent jobs.

Some of the Benefits to the economy

Farmers will use sensors for soil, crops and livestock maintenance.  "Smart irrigation" alone is expected to save blueberry farmers $270 million a year.

The Oil industry will use sensors that allow for "predictive maintenance"

All industries will benefit from a reduction in unplanned downtime and reduction in the risk of catastrophic disasters associated with equipment or facilities failures from human error. 

The 3 players 

Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei are the leading firms in the field.

Whose banning Huawei and whose not

The possibility of a Chinese company having access to the core of Western telecommunications systems has raised concerns - resulting in USA  excluding Huawei from contracts with the American government or its contractors.

The Australian government has also banned the company from its 5G networks.

The United Kingdom has banned Huawei from core parts of the British communications network, 

Dutch telecom giant Royal KPN NV has said it will use a Western supplier to build the core 5G mobile network.

Germany, Poland most Asian Countries and the 3rd world have refused to follow suit.

Huawei maintains its independence from the Chinese state.

What’s the Issue?

Will the organisation that provides the underlying technology  “control the infrastructure of that network? “

Do the manufacturers and builders have this control or the telecommunication companies who manage the networks? 

5G is coming regardless.

Huawei has the technology and the IP and will control a good number of these networks. By definition, the United States is going to have to connect into those networks because you can't have a global communications system where American or European equipment doesn't talk to Chinese equipment. 

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ABOUT Jason Proctor 

@proctor_jason

Jason Proctor is a reporter in British Columbia for CBC News and has covered the B.C. courts and mental health issues in the justice system extensively.

You should also read https://australianinnovation.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-light-reading-big-5g-event-in.html

And

https://australianinnovation.blogspot.com/2019/04/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-5g.html

Here’s what you need to know about 5G - Beyond the hype, what are the promises and the risks?

Interesting article By Rebecca Slayton in Washington Post  

( Rebecca Slayton is an associate professor at the Department of Science & Technology Studies and director of the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, both at Cornell University.) 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/2019/04/18/trump-says-america-must-win-g-race-heres-what-you-need-know/

Here is a summary 

“The race for 5G is on, and America must win.”  Trump announced last week last, announcing new federal initiatives to speed the deployment of 5G networks.

5G is the platform for tomorrow’s economy, transforming “everything from education to AI to medicine, but comes with  security risks. 

Will banning components made by Huawei mitigate those risks? 

5G is an evolutionary — not revolutionary — advance in technology.

5G (“fifth generation”) communications standards will extend rather than replace the current 4G infrastructure. 

5G protocols can improve three kinds of applications.

1. 5G can bring better speed and reliability to mobile broadband,
2. More reliable reliability and low latency (i.e., fast response time) in communication
3. Enables communication between myriad machines ( Internet of Things) providing online control over door locks, lighting, thermostats, cars and literally everything 

Huawei Chairman Eric Xu recently argued that most consumers would notice “no material difference between” 4G and 5G technologies. Many U.S. tech experts share this view, arguing that it doesn’t matter whether the United States lags behind China in its 5G deployment.

The effects of 5G security by hackers will bring new cyber security and hacking dangers, depending on how it’s used.

U.S. and worldwide infrastructure and current telecommunications is as vulnerable as 5G and is  vulnerable to espionage and cyberattacks. 

“such as disruption of a natural gas pipeline for days to weeks,”

5G  may be more secure than 4G. 

The danger is that 5G will control massive numbers of machines — including autonomous vehicles, factory processes and much more. 

This means that hackers could exploit vulnerabilities in 5G or the equipment used to control such systems, doing much more damage than is now possible. 

Imagine, for example, hacked driverless vehicles creating massive pileups on U.S. highways.

Banning Huawei and ZTE will not decrease the security risk of 5G security hacks in fact it would do the opposite!

Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson — manufacture equipment in Chinese factories with partners linked to the Chinese Communist Party, so deploying 5G without some dependence on Chinese suppliers.

Most cyberattacks don’t come from compromised foreign products; instead they exploit known but persistent vulnerabilities, such as unpatched software and people who are easily phished. 

Strategies that focus solely on nations and organizations that may pose a threat, while neglecting the social and technical vulnerabilities that attackers exploit, will inevitably fail.

The 5G hype might obscure the full range of technological options — as well as the full range of potential security threats and vulnerabilities in an increasingly wired and wireless world.

It is shortsighted in having a blanket ban of Huawei 5G products in Australia and worldwide   and here’s why...

It’s not about China hacking into networks - it’s about anybody hacking into networks. One needs to get the best minds and protocols working together to build security. 

Huawei is a major player and should be part of the global team working together with global protocols. 

An RFI microchip in your finger as your business card, credit card and employee number

The Bob Pritchard Column https://bobpritchard.com/ 

In August, 2017, employees at Three Square Market got RFID chips implanted between their thumb and forefinger. Now 20 months later, instead of the backlash that many expected, the staff love it.

The chips are about the size of a grain of rice. The implants use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, also used in credit cards, and are "passive", which means they hold data that can be read by other devices but cannot read information themselves. They make it easier to do things like get into the office, log on to computers, and buy food and drinks in the company cafeteria. Like many RFID chips, they are passive—they don’t have batteries, and instead get their power from an RFID reader when it requests data from the chip

 

When an employee wants something from the snack food and beverage vending machines they simply wave their hand over the reader and the vending machine immediately deducts money from their account. The  employees have been doing likewise for nearly two years now. Three Square Market is a technology company that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms. In 2017, their employees volunteered to have a chip injected into their hand.

 

While the implantation of microchips is foreign to people in the United States, in Sweden, it is not unusual for people get subcutaneous microchips to do a whole range of things. Many Swedes favor convenience over concerns of potential personal data violations. The small implants were first used in 2015 in Sweden and several other countries.  Swedes have gone on to be very active in microchipping, with scant debate about issues surrounding its use, in a country keen on new technology and where the sharing of personal information is held up as a sign of a transparent society.

 

Swedes can use the injected microchip to enter their workplace, use vending machines, provide access to certain equipment in the office, book train tickets, even replaced gym cards.  On trains conductors scan passengers' hands after the tickets are registered on their chip. Citizens have long accepted the sharing of their personal details, registered by the social security system, with other administrative bodies, while people can find out each others' salaries through a quick phone call to the tax authority.

 

Some believe the biggest risk was around the data contained in the chip. The real question is what data is collected and who shares it. For example, if a chip can detect a medical problem, who finds out and when?  Others argue the opposite view, suggesting that if we carried all our personal data on us, we would have better control of its use.

 

Some staff at Three Square Market uses their chips up to 15 times a day. Swiping their hand over an RFID reader plugged into their computer is no different from typing in their password on a keyboard. In fact, when the RFID reader on the vending machine went down a couple of months ago, staff were really upset, feeling inconvenienced because it has become such a part of their routine.

 

The privacy and security of any information stored on the chips is an obvious concern. The information gathered by readers could give lots of details about employees’ comings and goings, and someone could in theory ping your chip with a reader to find out what’s on it. But it can be argued that similar personal information could be stolen from his wallet, too. There’s also the chance that the technology inside the employees’ bodies will become outdated.

 

I guess when that happens you simply get an upgrade.

(Ik:- not sure why the company does not programme the fingerprint into the database and employee can store all relevant information there for company to use?)