This is How SOX Compliance will Look like in the [Future]

Formally known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” in the US Senate and as the “Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act” in the House of Representatives, Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) is a landmark legislation that the American Congress passed in 2002. Named for the sponsors of this Bill, senators Paul Sarbanes and Mike Oxley, it was passed in the wake of the financial scandals of huge American corporations that rocked the American economy, such as Tyco, Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen and Global Crossing among others that shook investor confidence.

Effective from 2006, what SOX does is to mandate laws for strict accountability from firms that do business in the US. This included not only American, but foreign firms as well. The aim of SOX was to stipulate a broad and strong accounting framework for all companies that do business in the US. SOX consists of eleven sections. Among its most important provisions are the establishment of a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) under the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the designation of civil and criminal penalties for companies that are found to be noncompliant and violative of the provisions.

Making companies more accountable financially

The crux of the requirement is for companies to establish a framework for financial accounting which will enable them to generate thoroughly verifiable financial reports whose data source should be traceable. The data should also have electronic information of all details of access, such as who accessed what data, when it was done, what was done during the access, and what action was carried out.

Since SOX compliance is mandatory for most companies, how does it feel to comply with the provisions of this Act? If we are asked to speculate what SOX compliance will look like in the future, we need to look at it from the standpoint of technology. This is because technology is inseparable from accounting. Most transactions are electronic in nature. Technology has taken us to a point where manual recordkeeping and accounting are almost totally obsolete.

This is how SOX compliance will look like in the future

In this backdrop, prognosticating how SOX compliance will look like in the future is tentative. This is because of the changing nature of technology. Technology, as we are aware, keeps changing by the minute. As more technological advances are made, it is only natural to expect them to be incorporate into technology-dependent and technology-propelled activities that SOX requires. It is a lot easier to trace transactions today than they were a decade ago.

Technology, as we are all aware, is totally unpredictable. Even as SOX-compliant systems start getting used to a technology, updates and developments into it could trigger the need for more amendments. An unexpected development can throw the whole adaption process asunder.

Uniqueness which could make it the ultimate technology https://goo.gl/kNBRGA

Exploring the Fundamentals of [Blockchain]

While the concepts of cryptocurrency and blockchain have been around for years, it wasn’t until Bitcoin’s recent and dramatic explosion in value that these terms became mainstream. Once the digital currency peaked at nearly $20,000 in early 2018, the market was primed for an influx of other cryptocurrency, blockchain, and microtransaction organizations looking to cash in on this new marketplace.

In this article, we are going to dive into what blockchain is, the concept of triple-entry accounting, how this impacts the world of money and finance, IoT and microtransactions, and lastly, some important forces that are driving blockchain expansion and adoption.

Blockchain Overview

First off, what is blockchain? Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin and it was invented for Bitcoin in order to create the first truly online virtual currency. At its core, it’s a data storage mechanism that’s implemented by a basket of technologies including distributed computers — so, the blockchain really exists all over the world without a centralized authority. In this model, those computers are working together to create a consensus to securely verify every transaction. By having a consensus mechanism, the blockchain is protected from having any one actor, good or bad, affecting it.

Because of the way these technologies work together, blockchain has certain useful characteristics. First, the blockchain is immutable, which means it’s unchanging. Once a transaction is appended or recorded on the blockchain, it’s impossible for it to be changed. Cryptography and the novel ‘proof of work’ algorithm at the heart of blockchain mean it is safe and that transactions recorded on it can’t be changed.

Another characteristic is that it is “trustless.” Like every transaction that occurs on the internet, the parties don’t really need to know each other or be in physical proximity to one another for the transaction occur. But unlike other types of transactions, say a credit card transaction, there’s no central authority required — the blockchain is the authority. That consensus mechanism and those computers working together are what creates that environment where two parties can transact with each other. No centralized authority or middle-man (nor their fees) is required.

Bitcoin uses the blockchain to create “money” on the internet and allow money to change hands. But once that blockchain is in place, it can be used for things other than money changing hands and any kind of contract or transaction might be recorded on the blockchain. The blockchain is ideally suited for these sorts of interactions because it’s distributed, has a consensus mechanism in place, is immutable, and is secure. These other transactions are referred to as ‘Smart Contracts.’

Blockchain expansion and adoption https://goo.gl/WfG536

1st Decentralized Video Search Engine Aivon Launches [Blockchain]

Metadata is the Achilles heel of video. These shorthand textual descriptions can be employed for more detailed searching, classification or other organizing, but, when scale is required, machine-generated metadata has accuracy issues.

On the other hand, the huge volume of video on the web makes human validation prohibitively expensive, so much video searching misses a lot of what’s visually there.

To solve this issue, a Singapore-based organization called Aivon has now launched a blockchain-based open protocol that combines AI with human crowdsourcing to support the creation and validation of text and metadata for what it describes as the first decentralized video search engine, as well as translation, transcription and brand-safety applications.

Aivon, founder and CEO Rex Wong told me, springs out of his current company, iVideoSmart, which provides white-label video and ad tech platforms for apps like VLC Player, telcos like Hutchison and media companies like Taiwan Television.

Through these clients, he says, iVideoSmart has a global, addressable user base of about 500 million. Currently, he says, about 300 of those customers are validating the metadata and other textual descriptions generated by AI for translating, transcribing and ensuring the brand safety of videos.

Those current human workers, Wong said, are being paid for their work, but they can’t scale for large applications, such as a video search engine that would need to generate accurate metadata for millions of videos. To accomplish that, Aivon is announcing that it is creating a blockchain-based ecosystem with tokens that can be used to incentivize users.

The Aivon tokens, generated via the Ethereum blockchain protocol and available in October, can be redeemed on open token exchanges or used to buy content or other products offered in the iVideoSmart platform or by Aivon community members. They can also be earned and used by content providers, advertisers, AI providers and others in the ecosystem.

Governed by a non-profit

When the tokens are added this fall, Wong said, a video search engine powered by the quality of the videos’ metadata will also be launched. AI will take a first stab at textually describing the videos, and then humans will validate or modify AI’s work.

Token-incentivized humans will also validate the existing brand safety, translation and transcription applications at a larger scale than currently. These textual descriptors are intended to provide much more detail — and therefore more value for such things as real-time product placement insertions — than conventional metatags.

This Open Community Video Search Engine, Wong said, will be governed by a non-profit foundation controlled by voting members of the Aivon community. Advertising applications using this protocol will be for-profit.

Who validate AI-generated metadata https://goo.gl/Z33UJJ