Technology

The World Bank has launched the first bond on a blockchain with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

The A$110 million ($87 million) bond-i (blockchain operated new debt instrument) — so named, I&m assuming, because of Australiafamed Bondi Beach (bankers have the funnies!) — is the first bond to be created, allocated, transferred and managed using distributed ledger technology.

The investment is one small step for Australian finance and one giant leap for blockchains in the world (or not).

Investors in the blockchain bond include CBA, First State Super, NSW Treasury Corporation, Northern Trust, QBE, SAFA and Treasury Corporation of Victoria. Ita smorgasbord of Australian state financial institutions and makes a ton of sense, because the Australian fintech community is one thatstrong, and blockchain is something that these institutions are definitely interested in exploring.

According to a statement from the World Bank, this will be one of many experiments that the global financial organization will make into blockchain research. Last June, the World Bank launched a Blockchain Innovation Lab to play around with the technology.

&We are particularly impressed with the breath [sic] of interest from official institutions, fund managers, government institutions and banks. We were no doubt successful in moving from concept to reality because these high-quality investors understood the value of leveraging technology for innovation in capital markets,& said World Bank Treasurer Arunma Oteh.

Itnot just parents who are worrying about their childrendevice usage. According to a new study released by Pew Research Center this week, U.S. teens are now taking steps to limit themselves from overuse of their phone and its addictive apps, like social media. A majority, 54% of teens, said they spend too much time on their phone, and nearly that many & 52% & said they are trying to limit their phone use in various ways.

In addition, 57% say they&re trying to limit social media usage and 58% are trying to limit video games.

The fact that older children haven&t gotten a good handle on balanced smartphone usage points to a failure on both parents& parts and the responsibilities of technology companies to address the addictive nature of our devices.

For years, instead of encouraging more moderate use of smartphones, as the tools they&re meant to be, app makers took full advantage of smartphones& always-on nature to continually send streams of interruptive notifications that pushed users to constantly check in. Tech companies even leveraged psychological tricks to reward us each time we launched their app, with dopamine hits that keep users engaged.

Device makers loved this addiction because they financially benefited from app sales and in-app purchases, in addition to device sales. So they built ever more tools to give apps access to users& attention, instead of lessening it.

For addicted teens, parents were of little help as they themselves wereoften victims of this system, too.

Today, tech companies are finally waking up to the problem. Google and Apple have now both built in screen time monitoring and control tools into their mobile operating systems, and even dopamine drug dealers like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have begun to add screen time reminders and other &time well spent& features.

But these tools have come too late to prevent U.S. children from developing bad habits with potentially harmful side effects.

Pew says that 72% of teens are reaching for their phones as soon as they wake up; four-in-ten feel anxious without their phone; 56% report that not have their phone with them can make them feel lonely, upset or anxious; 51% feel their parents are distracted by phones during conversations (72% of parents say this is true, too, when trying to talk to teens); and 31% say phones distract them in class.

The problems are compounded by the fact that smartphones aren&t a luxury any longer & they&re in the hands of nearly all U.S. teens, 45% of whom are almost constantly online.

The only good news is that todayteens seem to be more aware of the problem, even if their parents failed to teach balanced use of devices in their own home.

Nine-in-ten teens believe that spending too much time online is a problem, and 60% say ita major problem. 41% say they spend too much time on social media.

In addition, some parents are starting to take aim at the problem, as well, with 57% reporting they&ve set some screen time restrictions for their teens.

Todayinternet can be a toxic place, and not one where people should spend large amounts of time.

Social networking one the top activities taking place on smartphones, reports show.

But many of these networks were built by young men who couldn&t conceive of all the ways things could go wrong. They failed to build in robust controls from day one to prevent things like bullying, harassment, threats, misinformation, and other issues.

Instead, these protections have been added on after the fact & after the problems became severe. And, some could argue, that was too late. Social media is something thatnow associated with online abuse and disinformation, with comment thread fights and trolling, and with consequences that range from teen suicides to genocide.

If we are unable to give up our smartphones and social media for the benefits they do offer, at the very least we should be monitoring and moderating our use of them at this point.

Thankfully, as this study shows, theregrowing awareness of this among younger users, and maybe, some of them will even do something about it in the future & when they&re the bosses, the parents, and the engineers, they can craft new work/life policies, make new house rules, and write better code.

Cyber security has never gone away as a hot topic in the technology sphere and in 2018 it remains an enormous issue. As the next 3 billion or so of the planetpeople come online, itnever been more important to secure their safety, their privacy and the security of their personal data. As the same time we are already in the process of building the infrastructure of the future. The smart cities and the autonomous cars-to-come will all have to be secure from cyber attack, from private or state actors.

Ittherefore salient that TechCrunch Disrupt feature the work of two of the key players in this space.

Machine learning can help companies better protect their networks, but it also provides attackers with new tools. DiDi Labs Security VP Fengmin Gong and Mike Hanley of Duo are both are the forefront of this sector. On stage at Disrupt they will discuss how their companies use these new technologies to keep hackers at bay and how others can do the same to keep their systems secure.

Hanley leads all security research, development and operations functions at Duo. Prior to Duo, he was a senior member of the technical staff at CERT/CC, working on applied R-D programs for the US Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.

Hanley recently pointed out that ita a myth that most hackers are using sophisticated tactics to access data.

Ithis view that the vast majority of cyber security attacks start with phishing & where people respond to fraudulent emails and reveal their own personal information.

The problem is, he thinks, is that the security industry has been slow to offer simple, efficient solutions to protect companies& and individuals& digital information. He thinks the industry is too focused &on complexity and not necessarily effectiveness& and that &complexity really does breed insecurity.&

He&ll be joined on stage by Fengmin Gong of DiDi Labs, part of the Chinese ride-hailing startup.

Gong is a well-respected cybersecurity technologist with more than 30 years of industry experience. As head of DiDi Labs, Dr. Gong currently drives R-D innovation and strategy for safety, security and user experience on DiDi platforms, and works on developing the next generation of security tools

Gong has held chief scientist and R-D VP roles in a variety of large security corporations, including McAfee and Symantec JV, and served as chief security content strategy officer for FireEye, where he led the development and management of the companysecurity initiatives. He is also a serial entrepreneur, having founded several leading security companies, including Palo Alto Networks and Cyphort Inc., and is an angel investor in more than half a dozen startups.

Didi was recently given the go-ahead to start testing self-driving cars in California, as it looks to catch up with its Silicon Valley rivals& earlier start in autonomous systems.

Check out the full agenda here. Tickets are still available even though the show is less than two weeks away. Grab one here.