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5 Traits of a Good Delivery Pipeline
Continuous Delivery provides great benefits not only for the team developing the software, by increasing their confidence, but also for the product team, since the delivery of new features becomes a pure business decision.
At the center of it all is the delivery pipeline. It shows how the team delivers changes to production and also provides a one stop shop for project quality.
Good pipelines have some key traits that every pipeline should aim to achieve; in this article I'll talk about five that I've observed. It's not an extensive list and of course, every project has its own context that must be respected, but in projects I've worked on, when one of these traits was absent, it has caused the team trouble.
1. Builds Quality into the Product
Most pipelines have verifications that range from code linting to full UI based tests. There is no rule to define what goes into a pipeline, but I believe that if it provides useful feedback about quality, it should be in the pipeline.
However, there are some verifications that teams don't always remember, like the cross-functional tests. These tests are usually about performance, but can test the load the application can take or even look for security breaches.
To ensure the team gets feedback on every change, these tests should be automated as much as possible and should also be a part of the pipeline. Even if the company has a big event to load test all products and ensure the various parts of the product can handle the traffic, a team should still run small load tests as part of the pipeline.
Cross-functional tests usually receive a special treatment in the pipeline. If one of them fails, they don't always need to stop the whole suite. Let's say the performance of the application has dropped below a specified threshold. Does it mean it won't work? Not necessarily.
Instead of failing the build, cross-functional checks should provide actions for the team. This implies that what is measured is also actionable; so the team must consider the context of the project in order to decide what cross-functional tests will be in place and how they'll work.
Going back to the performance drop example, the team should, ideally, be able to track down exactly which part of the app got slower since the last check-in and to investigate possible causes, which leads us to the second trait.
2. Provide Quick and Effective Feedback
Having quality checks built into the pipeline is great, but the team also needs to receive feedback upon every check in, and it should be fast!
When thinking about providing fast feedback, we must follow the idea of failing as soon as possible. Faster tasks, like code lint or unit tests, should be among the first to run, whereas manual test or performance checks should only happen after we are sure that the code is sound.
Running tasks in parallel is also a great idea to reduce the feedback cycle. For example, let's say that as part of your pipeline you have code lint (which takes 2 minutes), unit tests (another 2 minutes) and integration tests (which take a little longer, 5 minutes). Considering the worst case scenario, where a commit breaks all three jobs, it would take 24 minutes just to get a green build in the sequential pipeline.
Now, if we setup our tasks to run in parallel, and if a code breaks each job, it would only take five minutes for your team to get feedback and another five to get a green build.
Manual steps, like exploratory and usability testing, have a long feedback cycle—because they depend on humans to poke around the system—and will usually be one of the latest steps executed, but should still be part of the feedback cycle!
For automated steps, we can also check which ones take longer and find a way to improve them.
Another key factor here is to also provide effective feedback. A pipeline job that does a lot of things makes it hard for the team to identify what failed and may hide information. Having small steps, with clear error messages, increases the team's effectiveness when debugging a failure and avoids losing confidence in the pipeline - a.k.a. just re-run the build - it should go green.
3. Requires Minimal Manual Interaction
As much as we like automation, there is still a need for human interaction in the process of delivering software. But we can work to make this interaction minimal and more effective.
Before any manual testing, it's best to ensure that all automated stages have passed the build in an environment that is as similar to production as your project can afford. This way, not only will the application be tested, but also the configuration in which it will run. Doing that, you can save people's time by avoiding running into environment issues.
Most of the situations where manual testing takes a really long time—like days, weeks or even months—happen because there is little or no interaction at all between the people who run tests and the rest of the team who developed the product. Usually when all deploys need to go through a completely silo-ed QMO (Quality Management Office) first, a lot of time in the team's feedback cycle is consumed.
This doesn't mean that manual tests should be a second class citizen, it just means that people should collaborate to make it more effective—as suggested by the 'Amigos' strategy.
Having functional teams usually leads to a scenario where no one knows about what the other team is doing, so everyone wants to make sure they are doing the best they can. Thus, every piece of functionality is tested through all levels, leading to wasted efforts as described in the testing cupcake anti-pattern.
To achieve minimal manual interaction in the pipeline, leverage the fact that everyone in the team is a human being (yes, that's true!) and just talk to each other.
4. Uses the Same Process and Binaries
Whenever an application has to go live, no matter how much the team has tested it before, everybody gets (at least) a bit worried. How can we improve the confidence of what we are deploying? The CD (Continuous Delivery) answer is to make sure you exercise the same process with the same binaries all along the way to production.
A binary in this context is the actual artifact that gets deployed in a server. This may be a system package, the actual source code in a specific tag, a docker image etc. Regardless of what it is, a good pipeline will use the exact same binaries to deploy in all environments, be it the super powerful Stage environment that is used to simulate production or the simple QA that is used for exploration tests.
Another key part is to also use the same process to deploy the binaries. If you have automated scripts to deploy to the QA environment, you should use it to deploy to production - as well as any other environments. If the deploy to production is manual, there is a high chance of human error, ranging from a simple typo to forgetting an important step before turning the servers back up.
Whatever varies from one environment to another should be extracted to configuration files that will serve as input to the automated deploy script. This way, you ensure that the process itself will work when it hits production, although configuration mistakes may still happen.
Automating the deployment process is a good way to kick-start Continuous Delivery in your team/organization. If you can convince people to use automated scripts to deploy all environments, the benefits of CD will start to show up and will get their attention. But keep in mind that automated deploys are just a starting point!
5. Delivers (almost) Any Version Any Time
The nirvana of Continuous Delivery is not having daily deploys, or putting every commit in production automatically. It's actually enabling the business to decide when to go live with a feature, without having to ask for permission from the team developing the software. If it makes sense to deploy daily, hourly or monthly, it is up to the product team to decide.
To achieve this, the pipeline must provide an easy way to deploy any version of the application, at any given time. Of course, maintaining a rollback strategy that allows this might be a nightmare, so again the team needs to understand the context of the project and make the best decision. Maybe it makes sense to keep a rollback just for one or two minor versions.
The key point here is to make sure that you can roll forward (deploy a newer version) as easily as you can roll back (deploy an older version), just in case there is a major issue. Ideally, you could always roll forward and disable a broken feature with a feature toggle. I recommend these two articles if you want to know more about the usage of feature toggles: Enabling Trunk Based Development with Deployment Pipelines and On DVCS, continuous integration, and feature branches.
One of the biggest problems when rolling back is to ensure data integrity. Ideally, the team should be able to avoid destructive changes and keep the system compatible with previous versions of the schema. In some scenarios, a database backup might be doable, but the data that is saved during the roll back time will be lost. The book Refactoring Databases, by Scott Ambler and Pramod Sadalage, might be a useful resource.
Making the deployment of any version easy can be a very hard task, but it has benefits not only to the product team, but also for the development team. Imagine something falls apart in production and you receive a call in the middle of the night. You log in and poke around, but can't find anything useful. While you could waste the rest of your night chasing bugs, and potentially ruin the next day as well, a much better option is to say "okay, let's just rollback for now and investigate deeper tomorrow".
I hope this article is useful for you and your team and can help you improve your pipeline even more. Again, this is not an extensive list of what a good pipeline should look like. To have a more comprehensive perspective, don't forget to check the other articles linked here.
Do you feel like something was left out? Do you agree or disagree with this list? Do you have your own set of traits of a good pipeline? Leave a comment here or reach me on twitter @marcosbrizeno.
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.


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Congressman Michael Grimm Indicted For Mail, Wire And Health Care Fraud, Filing False Tax Returns, Perjury, Obstruction Of An Official Proceeding, Hiring And Employing Unauthorized Aliens And Related Charges, In Connection With A Manhattan Restaurant He
A 20-count indictment was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn charging Michael Grimm with five counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, three counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal tax returns, one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, one count of impeding the Internal Revenue Service, one count of health care fraud, one count of engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring and continuing to employ unauthorized aliens, two counts of perjury and one count of obstructing an official proceeding.1 Since 2011, Grimm has served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 11th Congressional District, which includes the borough of Staten Island and parts of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. Grimm will be arraigned later today before United States Magistrate Judge James Orenstein at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York.
The indictment was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Richard Weber, Chief, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
"In 2007, Michael Grimm, former Marine, former FBI agent, accountant and attorney, was poised for success as a small business owner. Instead, as alleged, Grimm made the choice to go from upholding the law to breaking it. In so doing he turned his back on every oath he had ever taken. Even after his return to public service, when called to account for his actions and questioned under oath Grimm went for the cover up, and lied about his role in his own business," stated United States Attorney Lynch. "The obligation to deal honestly and testify truthfully is shared by everyone in our society. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to enforce our laws across the board."
"As a former FBI agent, Representative Grimm should understand the motto: fidelity, bravery, and integrity. Yet he broke our credo at nearly every turn. In this twenty-count indictment, Representative Grimm lived by a new motto: fraud, perjury, and obstruction. We demand the best from our political leaders. Yet today, we again find ourselves expecting and rightfully wanting more. And as citizens of this great nation we rightfully demand it," stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Venizelos.
"While occupying a position of trust in the community, Mr. Grimm is alleged to have committed a multitude of criminal violations," said Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation Weber. "No matter your political position, how much power you have, how much money you make, or who you know, IRS-CI investigates all allegations of tax fraud. The American public expects and deserves the equitable enforcement of our tax laws."
I. Background
As alleged in the indictment, Grimm was one of the owners and the managing member of "Healthalicious," a fast food restaurant located in Manhattan. From 2007 through 2010, Grimm oversaw the day-to-day operations of the restaurant, which included the reporting and distribution of the restaurant's payroll. Specifically, Grimm set the employees' rates of pay, reported their pay-rates and hours worked to the companies that Healthalicious retained to manage its payroll and withhold taxes due and owing to the federal and New York State governments (the "Payroll Processing Companies"), and distributed wages to employees. When Grimm was not present at the restaurant to perform these tasks himself, he delegated those responsibilities to managers under his supervision and control.
Grimm is charged with engaging in schemes to fraudulently under-report the wages he paid his workers – many of whom did not have legal status in the United States – and fraudulently under-report the true amount of money the restaurant earned to both federal and New York State tax and insurance authorities. Specifically, Grimm paid a large portion of Healthalicious' employees' wages in cash and did not report those cash wages to federal and state authorities, thereby lowering the restaurant's payroll tax costs. Grimm also under-reported the true amount of Healthalicious' payroll to the New York State Insurance Fund ("NYSIF"), allowing him to receive lower monthly workers' compensation premiums. In addition, Grimm substantially under-reported the amount of gross receipts Healthalicious earned to both the federal and New York State governments, thereby dramatically lowering the federal and state tax the restaurant owed and paid. In total, Grimm concealed over $1 million in Healthalicious sales and wages, fraudulently depriving the federal and state governments of sales, income, and payroll taxes. Further, when Grimm was deposed by an attorney representing a former Healthalicious employee in 2013 as part of a federal lawsuit, Grimm lied under oath about his business practices, including falsely denying that he paid workers cash wages.
II. The Scheme to Fraudulently Under-Report Healthalicious' Payroll
As alleged in the indictment, Grimm paid a significant portion of Healthalicious' employees' wages in cash. Many employees received approximately half of their weekly pay in cash and the other half by check or through direct deposit into a bank account, while others received their entire weekly pay in cash. Grimm handed out cash payments to his employees on numerous occasions, and those cash payments were taken from the daily cash receipts of Healthalicious. Further, Grimm hired and continued to employ workers who did not have legal status and accordingly did not have valid authorization to work inside the United States.
To execute his scheme, Grimm lied, or directed others to lie, to the Payroll Processing Companies by concealing the cash wages paid to the Healthalicious employees. The Payroll Processing Companies had no record of those employees who received the entirety of their pay in cash, or the amounts of pay those employees had received. By under-reporting employee hours and concealing the existence of some employees, Grimm ensured that the Payroll Processing Companies – which were responsible for filing numerous state and federal tax returns on behalf of the restaurant – calculated and then reported less than half of the wages actually paid to the employees. To further his scheme, Grimm maintained electronic spreadsheets detailing the true payroll information pertaining to Healthalicious, which included cash wages paid to Healthalicious employees, and concealed them from the Payroll Processing Companies, among others.
By concealing the off-the-books wages from the Payroll Processing Companies and from an accountant Grimm retained to file other state and federal tax returns for the restaurant (the "Healthalicious Accountant"), Grimm caused a number of false filings to occur, resulting the in underpayment of state and federal taxes as well as an artificially-reduced monthly workers' compensation insurance premium. Those false filings and misrepresentations included:
1) Federal quarterly payroll tax returns that did not report the true wages Healthalicious employees earned and that did not withhold the proper amount of Federal Insurance Contributions Act ("FICA") taxes due and owing to the federal government;
2) Federal partnership tax returns filed with the IRS for tax years 2008, 2009, and 2010 that did not accurately report the correct total wages Grimm paid his employees; and
3) False payroll statements submitted to NYSIF by the Payroll Processing Companies and the Healthalicious Accountant during audits conducted by NYSIF that fraudulently lowered the monthly workers' compensation premiums paid by Healthalicious.
III. The Scheme to Fraudulently Under-Report Healthalicious' Gross Sales
Grimm also fraudulently concealed from the Healthalicious Accountant a significant amount of the cash sales that the restaurant generated from April 2007 through August 2010. As a result, Grimm filed numerous false tax returns with the federal government and the State of New York through the Healthalicious Accountant. These false filings, among other things, concealed over $1 million of income that Healthalicious earned but did not report to New York State, causing a substantial sales tax loss to the state.
Specifically, those false tax returns included:
1) New York State Form ST-100 quarterly sales tax returns filed with the New York State Tax Department from June 2007 through August 2010; and
2) Federal partnership tax returns for Healthalicious for tax years 2008, 2009, and 2010. Each false return did not report the true amount of Healthalicious' gross receipts for each tax year. As a result of Grimm's fraudulent concealment of the restaurant's income, Healthalicious' true earnings were not reported on those tax returns. Consequently, those earnings did not flow through to the partners of the business and were not reflected on the personal income tax returns of the partners, including Grimm.
IV. Perjury and Obstruction of Justice
Two former Healthalicious employees filed a federal civil lawsuit against Grimm in the Southern District of New York, alleging that he did not pay them the minimum wage or overtime pay pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Laws. In January 2013, an attorney representing a plaintiff deposed Grimm, who answered questions under oath relating to his ownership and operation of the restaurant. Specifically, during the deposition, Grimm was questioned concerning his ownership of Healthalicious, what duties he performed there, how he paid and set the hours and rates of pay for his employees, and whether he maintained emails or other records pertaining to those issues, among other things. To conceal his illegal actions, Grimm allegedly lied about several material matters in connection with the lawsuit such as: (a) whether he paid his employees in cash; (b) whether he had interacted with the Payroll Processing Companies; (c) whether he corresponded regarding Healthalicious business through email; and (d) whether he still had access to such an email account.
If convicted, Grimm faces a term of imprisonment of up to 20 years for each mail and wire fraud charge and for the obstruction charge, up to 10 years of imprisonment for the health care fraud charge, and up to five years of imprisonment for the charge of conspiring to defraud the United States and for each perjury charge. Grimm further faces a term of imprisonment of up to three years for each charge of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false and fraudulent tax return and for the charge of obstructing and impeding the due administration of the Internal Revenue Laws. Finally, Grimm faces up to six months of imprisonment for engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring and continuing to employ unauthorized aliens, as well as forfeiture, restitution, and fines.
Ms. Lynch expressed her appreciation to the Public Integrity Section of Department of Justice, the Northern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division of the Department of Justice, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, New York State Insurance Fund and the New York State Department of Labor, for their assistance in the investigation.
The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Anthony M. Capozzolo, Todd D. Kaminsky, and Nathan Reilly.
The Defendant:
Age: 44
Staten Island, New York
E.D.N.Y. Criminal Docket No. 14-248
1 The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rouge Rockefeller is a burgundy red creme nail polish. Our creme polishes feature a smooth, high quality formula for ease of use and long lasting wear.
Shake well before use as particle settlement may occur. For best results, apply base coat, 2-3 thin coats of nail polish then finish with top coat. Use in conjunction with our Looking Glass Top Coat and Get Ready Base Coat for the ultimate long-lasting manicure.
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"Mary Lovell is the real thing: a biographer passionately interested in her subjects. She realises her material and retells with tremendous verve all the best stories." The Times.
About Mary S. Lovell
Mary S. Lovell has written acclaimed biographies of Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, Jane Digby, Sir Richard Burton, Betty "Cynthia" Pack, the Mitford Girls, Bess of Hardwick and the Churchill family.
Mary was an accountant and company director for 20 years before becoming a writer. She wrote her first book in 1981 at the age of 40, while recovering from a broken back which was the result of a riding accident. She returned to accountancy but during the following 5 years she also published two further non-fiction books that were written in her spare time.
Her interest in aviation began in the late 'fifties and over the next decade she and her first husband, Cliff Lovell, established and flew a collection of rare vintage aircraft. It was through one of these airplanes, a De Havilland Gypsy Moth used in the film Out of Africa, that she first heard of the famous aviatrix, Beryl Markham.
After a subsequent meeting Mary decided to write Markham's biography and this book, Straight on Till Morning, researched and written in under a year, became an immediate international bestseller. Mary decided to retire from accountancy at this point to write full time, beginning with her best-selling biography of Amelia Earhart, entitled Amelia Earhart - The Sound of Wings, which is now the subject of a major motion picture.
Most of the books she has written since then have made the non-fiction best-seller lists, and The Mitford Girls (titled The Sisters in the USA) a biography of the celebrated Mitford sisters, first published in September 2001 (paperback August 2002) has been another international best-seller. She followed that with Bess of Hardwick, in 2005, yet another hugely successful book, set in the turbulent years of Tudor England and like The Mitford Girls, this is still selling well in paperback. In her latest book, The Churchills (hardback, April 2011), Mary returns to the 19th and 20th centuries to chart a saga of one of Englands most prominent families. Four of her books are optioned for films.
Mary is particularly noted for her intensive research methods and all her non-fiction books are extensively annotated. She feels strongly that "biography is history" and deplores biographies in which contentious statements are made about a subject without any verifiable attribution. She also dislikes the increasing trend for biographies which set out to destroy reputations. She regards herself a storyteller, rather than a literary writer: "Everybody enjoys a good fast-paced story and that is what I try to write, only my stories are fact, not fiction. For me there is always an added frisson of enjoyment when I know that what I'm reading about actually occurred, and is not simply a figment of someone's imagination."
She has lectured on her writing in many countries as well as appearing at literary festivals such as Cheltenham and Adelaide among others. She enjoys aviation, sailing, all equestrian sports, travel - especially in the deserts of the Middle East - and books. She lives in the New Forest in Hampshire, England.
Mary photographed near her home at Brockenhurst in the New Forest, May 2011. (Copyright: Phil Yeomans)
Contact Details:
By email:
Readers can email Mary S. Lovell by going to the Contact Mary page.
By letter:
Letters regarding the content of books, or enquiries concerning photos permissions and personal queries may be directed to the author c/o the publishers address given in each book.
Mary S. Lovell will eventually answer all letters, but regrets that sometimes there will be unavoidable long delays when she is away from home researching, on vacation, or just too busy working to a deadline to deal with correspondence.


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Sam Duckworth is hardly the first musician to flirt with a change of direction, three albums into his career. And that's not to say he's completely rejecting the indie-folk he's best known for with his self-titled new record. Recent single 'Collapsing Cities' is representative of an album that feels a little stuck in between his past and his possible future.
The track is described as a collaboration with Shy FX, but it feels more like a B-side remix of the pop song hidden within it. A catchy trumpet hook is the main focal point, but for some reason it's been buried low in the mix. It's wrestling beneath over-complicated jungle drumming and far too many vocal overdubs, making it less catchy and memorable than it could be. The song itself has a lot in common with early tracks like 'Call Me Ishmael', and is as good as anything Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly has done. But a good pop song doesn't need studio trickery like this.
A lot of the arrangements on Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly feel gimmicky in the same way: the Stevie Wonder-style piano and Baaba Maal's African vocals on 'All Of This Is Yours', the ELO vibe of 'Nightlife', the industrial/ballad mash-up on 'All Falls Down'. None of these elements are intrinsic to the songwriting, so it's hard to understand how and why many aesthetic decisions were made.
Listening to 'Stitch By Stitch' makes you wish Duckworth had thrust himself far less ambiguously in his 'new direction'. It's a track with a gothic beat that's more experimental than most, in that it's almost entirely synthesised and heavily processed. There isn't much musical continuity – a lot of ideas and motifs come and go quite quickly without being developed – but at least, here, Duckworth is committing to a new way of working instead of just bashing his old songs into new shapes.
But given that this track is fairly unique, the remaining highlights use a more traditional Get Cape formula. 'Queen For A Day' has an angry, driven verse, in a style that Frank Turner does best. Opening track 'Hand Me Downs', on the other hand, is a simple guitar/vocal track with pretty arpeggios and reminiscing lyrics.
It's 'The Uprising' that takes Duckworth back to his emo roots. And as you can probably tell from the title, yes, this is the anthem. The chorus is stuffed with "woah"s, with real adrenaline running through it. The track goes on to a closing section which, if it was distorted and transposed to a minor key, could be a Senses Fail song.
In general though, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly struggles under the weight of Duckworth's new interest in electronic beats. Admittedly this influence was always there from the off, when Duckworth started out making his music on a laptop, but it was never the focus of the music, at the expense of songwriting. On a song like 'Where Will You Stand' though, it feels like too much attention has been paid to getting the right sound instead of making the song work.
This same problem makes the musicians sound more like a session band than a band with genuine artistic involvement in the creative process. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly is a professional album by a maturing songwriter who has written some very good tracks. He just needs to remember that if a song works in its own right, then the song can be enough on its own, without the bells and whistles. Progression like this, seemingly for the sake of it, isn't really progression at all.
6Robert Cooke's Score


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From 6 April 2016 there are a lot of changes to the way in which benefits and expenses are reported to HMRC.
HMRC have set out the maximum tax and NICs free allowances that can be paid by employers to employees for subsistence. Subject to qualifying conditions, the amounts are set out below:
Minimum journey time | Maximum amount of meal allowance |
5 hours | £5 |
10 hours | £10 |
15 hours | £25 |
Where a meal allowance of £5 or £10 is paid and the qualifying journey in respect of which it is paid lasts beyond 8pm a supplementary rate of £10 can be paid.
Employers may choose to reimburse employees for the actual costs incurred. However where employers wish to use bespoke rates other than those set out above, they will need to apply for approval from HMRC for bespoke rates.
HMRC have issued an online application form to allow employers to request approval for these bespoke amounts. This should state the rate that the employer wishes to pay and also needs to demonstrate that the amount is a reasonable estimate of the amount of expenses actually incurred by the employees.
To establish these amounts, HMRC have confirmed that the employer should carry out a sampling exercise to verify the actual expenses incurred by employees. We would be happy to advise you on the sampling which would need to be carried out for your business.
In addition, employers will need to have a checking system in place which ensures that the payments or reimbursements are only make on occasions where the employee would be entitled to a deduction from their earnings and that the employees have actually incurred and paid the amounts.
Once approval has been given by HMRC, they will issue an approval notice which sets out the date from which the approval is given and what expenses are covered. It will also state the date when the approval notice ends which will be no later than five years from the start date.
Please do get in touch if you would like help with benefits and expense reporting or agreeing Bespoke rates.
Internet links:


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Book flights to Sohar
Plan a trip to Sohar and explore a city believed to be the home of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor. With a long and complex history, Sohar is a major international port and Oman's largest city. It is a bold, vibrant, and colourful destination with deep roots in history.
Check the price of flights to Sohar further below and book Economy or Premium Class flights with Qatar Airways to explore one of the Middle East's hidden gems.
Sohar travel highlights
Relax on any of Sohar's sandy beaches or revel in the city's archaeological wonders.
Tourist attractions
One of the biggest attractions is Sohar Castle, which sits proudly above the city and was built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the 'Emirs of Hormuz'. The Portuguese used the castle as one of their main fortifications during their occupation of the region, but today it houses a museum that charts the history of the city. You'll also find a 10km tunnel that was supposed to be used as an escape route if the fort ever came under siege, and the tomb of one of the 19th century's rulers, Sayyid Thuwaini bin Sultan al Busiad.
Sohar has always had a strong connection to the sea, and one of its most famous sons was the sailor Ahmed bin Majid. Today, the seafront at Sohar is pretty and well-kept, making it a popular place to take a lazy stroll during the afternoon, especially given the cooling sea breeze. It is also the city's main development area, with glittering 5-star hotels and huge shopping malls.
Next to Sohar's beautiful beach (an unexpected pleasure in the heart of such a busy city), is the Municipal park. This elegant park also has a serious ecological side, as its habitat is home to the Minotaur beetle, the largest in Arabia.
Leisure activities
Close to the city is Sawadi Island, one of the main tourist spots on the North Shore. The extensive beach is covered with colourful shells, which often find their way into local handicrafts. This is one of the top spots in Oman for snorkelling, diving and kite boarding, making it particularly popular with water sports enthusiasts. Pick up a boat out to the Damaniyat islands, widely regarded as the best diving spot in the country.
If you fancy a day out with the family during your travels to Sohar, then hire a car, pack a picnic, and travel to the village of Heebi, some 63km away. Here you'll find Wadi Heebi, a tranquil spot and perfect for a picnic. Close by you can explore the ancient dwellings of Heebi village itself, or take a 15-minute detour to the ancient village of Al Ghudafary with its fields of papaya and date palms.
Food lovers will find a wide range of cuisine on offer that ranges from falafel carts through to cordon bleu restaurants offering the very best in Arabian/European fusion dishes. The proximity of the harbour means that fish and shellfish feature highly on the menu, and you'll find a number of influences from India, China and around the world. If you want authentic local food then look for the Omani coffee shops that serve local dishes such as Shawarma, delicious, slow cooked meats often served with taboon bread, tomatoes and cucumbers, and flavoured with hummus or tahini sauce.
Despite its location in a modern complex, the traditional handicraft souq is a great spot to head to for local crafts such as mat weaving; there is even a traditional apothecary selling 'bukhorr hassad' said to ward off "the evil eye."
From luxury goods to everyday essentials, Sohar's malls have it all. The malls are modern and extensive, with plenty to offer shoppers looking for good-quality products at a reasonable price. For high-end brands and designer accessories, check out the Safeer Mall.
Flight FAQ
To get the best price on your {Destination} flights, it is recommended that you book well in advance of your departure date, as booking early means you are likely to secure the flight you want with your preferred departure and arrival times.
From the moment you step on board until you reach {Destination}, the award-winning cabin crew will take care of your every need. Prepare to enjoy renowned hospitality as you relax in a spacious seat, and keep warm with a cosy blanket for the ultimate comfort. Explore local and international flavours when you indulge in fine cuisine prepared with only the freshest ingredients. Explore up to 6,000 entertainment options on Oryx One, including the latest movie releases, TV series, music and games.


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There's a funny print cartoon that shows a man and woman sitting on the couch staring at a TV screen, and the caption reads, "It's 12 o'clock, do you know where your mind is?"
As time goes on and we grow from children to adolescents to adults, for many of us, somewhere along the way life begins to become routine. Day in and day out, whether we're walking, driving, talking, eating, going to the grocery store, or spending time with our families, our minds get kicked into autopilot and continue to develop their habitual ways of thinking, interpreting, expecting, and relating to other people.
However, these habits also include habits of the mind that can keep us stuck in stress, anxiety, depression, or even addictive behaviors. Here are a few habits of the mind and a mindfulness practice to help you break out of autopilot and gain more control over your life.
Three Common Habits That Sink Happiness:
- Catastrophizing — If you're prone to stress and anxiety, you may recognize this habitual mind trap. This is where the mind interprets an event as the worst case scenario. If your heart is beating fast, you may think you're having a heart attack. If your boss didn't look at you while walking down the hall, you think you're going to get fired. You get the picture. This style of thinking will support increased stress, anxiety, and even panic.
- Discounting the positive and exaggerating the negative — The news is wonderful at supporting us with this one. This is where we habitually reject or minimize any positive feedback and magnify the negative. The glass is always half empty. If you catch yourself saying something positive and then saying "but" followed by a negative, you are practicing this. "I got a 95% on this test, but I didn't get a 100%." Without awareness, this style of thinking will likely land you in a depressed state.
- Blaming — Be careful of this one. We all do it, pointing the finger at someone else for our woes or point the finger at ourselves for others' woes. "If my boss wasn't so hard on me at work, I wouldn't be so anxious" or "It's my fault my parents got divorced." Just check in with yourself after noticing this style of thinking. It doesn't cultivate any solutions, and just makes you feel stuck, anxious, or depressed.
Cultivating the ability to be more aware of these mind traps will help you break free from them and shift your attention to more effective ways of interacting with life.
For example, if you notice catastrophizing, actually say to yourself "catastrophizing is happening right now," then bring your attention to your breath for a moment to steady your mind. Next, ask yourself, "what are some other possible reasons why my heart is racing (e.g., I just ran upstairs, I'm nervous)?"
If discounting the positive, come back to the breath, and then switch the "but" to an "and" so at least the positive statement get its equal weight, being more realistic and balanced. If blaming, call it out, say to yourself, "blaming is happening." Remind yourself that blaming simply isn't effective for anyone and then come back to your breath to steady your mind and return to the task you were just doing.
This is not an easy process, yet an important one for regaining control from the ineffective thought habits we develop. If we're not mindful in our daily lives, our minds could just fall into their habitual states to the point we're on our deathbeds asking, "where did it all go?"
Just check in with yourself during the day, look at the clock and say, "It's X o'clock, do I know where my mind is?" You may catch yourself in some mind traps and if not, just notice whatever you are doing in the moment. Continue if you still want to be doing that or change if you'd rather be doing something else.
Try to be patient through this process and not judge yourself if you find mind traps arising. Judging yourself as bad or wrong is another mind trap that keeps you stuck. Breathe in, breathe out, and just redirect your focus.


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Third Reich: The Rise and Fall
For the second half of the twentieth century, the Third Reich has been deliberated and dissected.
Now, as the Greatest Generation fades into history, the image of 40,000 uniformed Nazis goose-stepping in perfect synchronization represents all most Americans know about history's most dangerously successful totalitarian government.
Dig deep beneath the surface of our collective understanding of the Third Reich as History unearths what we don't know about the individuals who comprised one of the most fascinating and complex regimes of recent history.
Third Reich: The Rise and Fall uncovers familiar anecdotes and fascinating details about the people who comprised the Nazi Party, and raids the treasure trove of archives the Nazis left behind, including rarely seen German newsreel recordings along with other unique footage carried home by Russian troops.


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Saturday night entertainment
This year we thought we'd try something different. We're having the big PyConIE Quiz! Please sign up individually or as a team using the form.
It should kick off around 8PM but that may change. There will be a supply of beverages available and we've got some pizzas organised also!
There will be prizes available for the winners as well as the best team name.
A big thank you to Betbright who are sponsoring this event.
There is a hard limit of 40 teams of 5


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Planet of the Apes: Alan Verdon Brown Vest Retro for 8" Action Figure
Retro part for 8" Action Figure POTA. Made of material same as from the 1970's.
Disclaimer: World's Greatest Superheroes is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by Mego or by any other brand. All product and company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.


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Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz Bust a Rhyme for Chelsea Handler
To celebrate Chelsea Handler's move to a new studio, her friends got together and made her a little video. But she's famous, so her friends are Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Here they are rapping a NSFW and mildly insulting rap in honor of Handler. She was probably so proud of her friends. If they had been drunk it would have been the ultimate tribute.


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Historic Ordnance Survey Map of Haverfordwest, 1887 - 1888
Taken from original individual sheets and digitally stitched together to form a single seamless layer, this fascinating Historic Ordnance Survey map of Albert Town, Dyfed is available in a wide range of products, including prints, canvas prints, jigsaws, mugs, tea towels etc.
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- Original scale: 1:10560
- Year drawn: 1887
- Series: Ordnance Survey County Series
- Series survey years: 1841-1938
- Map reference: hosm34611
- Learn about County Series maps
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Explore the County Series Maps
Surveyed 1791-1874, published 1805-1874. Scale is 1:10,000.
The origins of the six-inch to the mile maps (1:10,560) date back to 1824 when this scale was adopted for a survey of Ireland. By 1840 it had been decided to extend the project to Great Britain. To conduct a survey at such a scale, every corner of the country, including private property, would need to be visited. The following year, the Survey Act was passed which gave surveyors the right to enter any land for the purposes of carrying out their duties. It also specified the types of boundaries that the new maps were to display (down to parish level).
Work began in Lancashire and Yorkshire in 1841 and in Scotland in 1843 with the first sheet appearing in 1846. It was not until 1890 that maps covering the whole country had been published, the first generation of what later became known as the County Series.
By that time revisions to the earlier sheets were already underway, a rolling process that continued until the last County Series sheets were superseded by the 1:10,000 National Grid Edition in the 1980s. Each sheet appeared in up to six editions, displaying various evolutions of detail, format and reproduction technology. For over a century, the Ordnance Survey's County Series maps have revealed the changing face of Britain in compelling and painstaking detail and now provide immaculate records for 21st-century researchers and historians.
The County Series maps most areas of England and Wales. This involves combining more than one original sheet to give an appropriate area of coverage. In the process, the maps have been digitally enhanced and enlarged slightly to 1:10,000 to bring them into line with more recent maps at this metric scale.


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The newest iPhone app, released by iJihad, al-Qaeda's software development team, has caused a stir in the Middle East. Now with the touch of a few buttons, a would-be shoe bomber can now send any modern airliner hurtling out of the air. The app, known as "Allah Akbar" is so popular among terrorists that downloads have temporarily overwhelmed iJihad software servers.
"Jihad has always been a struggle, but thanks to the efforts of our programmers, one tech-savvy Mujaheddin can do the work of 9 highly trained box cutter wielding psychos. With their own device, we will undo the fabric of Western society and replace it with the will of Allah."
Allah Akbar features incognito "behind the scenes" operation to elude detection, a direct touch-screen firing capability, and an MP3 file that will automate the final cry of victory, "Allah Akbar!" But this is not all that makes iJihad's Allah Akbar controversial. It is the program's deliberate marketing to young Muslims in poor Middle Eastern villages.
"They are selling this app to idealistic young men who will probably never see an airplane unless it's dropping bombs on them from 30,000 feet. It's not fair that they should be spending their hard earned opium farming money on worthless apps that make them 'feel' more like a terrorist. These young men need AK47s and ammo, not iPhones and apps that do all the terrorizing for them."
Early skepticism is normal in the technophobic Middle East, but results are expected soon. Younger radicals have expressed overwhelming support for further development of even more dangerous versions of the same software.
"I hope that in the future iJihad can create an app that will be able to one day hijack an airplane and crash it into monuments at the touch of a button, Allah willing."
An inordinate amount of airliners have begun to fall all over the Middle East, causing untold damage to already bombed-out cities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Israel.
One Pakistani reviewer said of Allah Akbar's main feature, "While I was at work, a 747 crashed into my house, causing untold loss, including our family dog and my youngest wife. After suffering a most collapsing grief, I stopped, dried my eyes and thought, 'Finally, an iPhone that does something useful!' They should start calling this thing the iPwn."


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Andy Warhol, Sleep (1963).
Labor Day is supposed to be a day that honors those of us who work for a living with an extra day of rest. I'm writing this on Labor Day, at home on my own laptop, avoiding a long list of other tasks I need to attend to in order to keep my work, and my life, manageable. That work happens all the time and increasingly also at the worker's own expense isn't news, but it helps bring into sharp, urgent focus the arguments in Jonathan Crary's terse, polemical new book, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep.
Instead of focusing on labor, Crary takes sleep as a lens through which to consider economic and social transformations wrought by late 20th and early 21st century techno-global capitalism. Offering a genealogical account of the reformatting of time from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the present, 24/7 is relentlessly negative: sleep is the last unleveraged form of human activity and it is violently threatened by a world in which the divisions between night and day, between rest and work, are disappearing due to mutations in the experience of time produced by unceasing digital networks, new metrics for productivity, and ever-expanding forms of control and surveillance.
Opening with chilling descriptions of contemporary military-industrial research on how soldiers might function without sleep and torture techniques based on sleep deprivation, the book quickly establishes sleep as an activity that is constitutive of human life at a basic level.[i] That sleep is threatened not just in extreme situations but in the realm of everyday existence has to do with what Crary describes as "a generalized inscription of human life into duration without breaks, defined by a principle of continuous functioning. It is a time that no longer passes, beyond clock time." As he elaborates the specific textures (or lack thereof) of this new temporality, signaled with the shorthand 24/7, Crary ties the disruption of sleep to an emerging and intensifying set of demands around our productivity as workers. More than simply an elaboration of Marxist theories of modernity that hinge on new concepts of space and time (think of the work of Fredric Jameson, Ernst Mandel, E.P. Thompson, among others), 24/7 seeks to specify how an increasingly homogenous construction of time reorients human activities and experience, and is thus transforming us from the inside out.
GIF by Zoe Burnett.
In part, this new uninflected temporality is tied to the constant illumination of screens through which we are connected, regardless of what we are actually doing, to mechanisms of surveillance and algorithms that continually serve us more of what we have revealed that we "like." For anyone familiar with Crary's work on vision and attention in modern culture, this argument comes as no surprise. But 24/7 has a broader scope, arguing that visual experience and its function within digital culture are far overshadowed by other kinds of sensations and activities. Key concepts here are self-management—the way that we willingly, even eagerly participate in producing profits for multinational corporations and in state surveillance via products like Facebook and Gmail—and a continual cycle of consumption as production—in which our productivity as workers relies on our consumption of commodities from smartphones to streaming movies to (mostly useless) information itself.
The smartphone in particular exemplifies Crary's understanding of the economic and social reorganization that has taken place over the past three decades, often referred to as neoliberalism. It represents two seemingly opposed tendencies: on the one hand, there is the standardization of experience and mass synchronization, and on the other, "the parcellization and fragmentation of shared zones of experience into fabricated microworlds of affects and symbols." This apparent contradiction is key for understanding the particular impossibility of the current state of technological experience: we might all be doing the same thing (looking at our own individual screens, typing and swiping), but the effect is increasing separation and irreversible damage to any kind of collective experience.
Zoe Burnett, Life. Animated GIF.
It is worth attending to how carefully Crary demarcates this contemporary regime of experience. Nearly twenty-five years ago, in his first book Techniques of the Observer, he argued that with industrial reorganization and scientific studies of perception in the middle of the 19th century, the camera obscura, which had functioned as a model for human vision for centuries, was surpassed by a new regime of vision based on the perceptual apparatus of the human body itself. Now he eschews such epistemic breaks based in scientific and technological discourse, positing instead that we need to focus on paradigms of experience and perception.
[I]t must be emphasized that we are not… simply passing from one dominant arrangement of machinic and discursive systems to another. That books and essays written on 'new media' only five years ago are already outdated is particularly telling, and anything written with the same goal today will become dated in far less time. At present, the particular operation and effects of specific new machines or networks are less important than how the rhythms, speeds, and formats of accelerated and intensified consumption are reshaping experience and perception."
There is a challenge here (of no small relevance to Rhizome itself) to theories of "new media" that focus on technical or aesthetic mutations rather than addressing the modes of attention and cognition demanded by digital devices and formats in general. By turning exclusively to a theory of the user and leaving behind a certain materialist inquiry, Crary never explicitly considers those affected by contemporary technology who aren't its intended consumers, such as victims of drone strikes, soldiers fighting to control the supply of coltan, or workers in smartphone sweatshops, implying simply that indifference and lack of attention to these positions is yet another effect of the dull sameness of 24/7 time. Still, Crary's provocation is certainly a useful reminder of the fact that perceptual paradigms extend well beyond any specific technology.
In particular, this argument is useful in articulating the possibilities of resistance for those embedded in the 24/7 experiential regime. As in his other work as art historian, Crary develops such arguments through a rigorous mix of Marxist analysis, Foucauldian histories of power and institutions, and a commitment to a Situationist tactics and aesthetics. A kernel of 24/7 appears in Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture (1999), where he argues that in the late 19th century,
…spectacular culture is not founded on the necessity of making a subject see, but rather on strategies in which individuals are isolated, separated, and inhabit time as disempowered. Likewise, counter-forms of attention are neither exclusively nor essentially visual but rather constituted as other temporalities and cognitive states, such as those in trance or reverie.
Now, more than a decade later, Crary laments the disappearance of many of these "counter-strategies" found in seemingly non-attentive states (i.e. dreams and sleep) with the intensification of spectacular culture wrought by digital technologies, such as the personal computer and the Internet.
Cory Arcangel and Paul B. Davis (Beige). Naptime (2003). GIF extract of bootleg YouTube video. Credit information via New Museum.
Although Crary concludes with sleep as a site of potential collective resistance (one that, it should be said, may have already become impossible) his initial interest in sleep as a basic requirement of human life is suggestive of other potential political and social connections. By focusing his concerns in 24/7 not only on new modes of production (i.e. new technologies and the kinds of labor they solicit from users), but also on reproduction (i.e. sleep as a necessary rest and resetting of the body), Crary approaches a particular strain of Marxist feminist thinking that emerged in the 1970s and has recently become celebrated in the theoretical discussions surrounding Occupy Wall Street and activist challenges to contemporary capitalism. The economics of social reproduction have been a central concern of thinkers like the Italian Silvia Federici and the American Nancy Fraser, among others. Although he does not cite or acknowledge these thinkers or their arguments, Crary's concern with the obliteration of affective dimensions of human life – not just sleep and reverie, but also questions of care and empathy that once grounded collective social welfare – by techno-capitalism has everything to with the fact that, as Federici articulates, affective labor has been generally excluded from the market because it has been feminized and thus undervalued or simply appropriated. The dream states championed by Crary should be considered part of this broader category of affective labor. This categorization is partly biological—while one sleeps and dreams, the body and mind are recharged—but it is also social—think of the sleepless state of new parents as they adjust their own cycles of waking to care for an infant before soothing the child back to sleep.
Seen in this light, the penetration of capitalism into the realm of sleep is one aspect of a broader issue. Just as there is no longer a separation between work and leisure and between night and day, there is no longer a separation between wage-earning work (traditionally marked as male) and work traditionally coded as female, such as caring for loved ones. Nancy Fraser characterizes this as a new emphasis on the "family wage," in which women's paid and unpaid labor are both necessary to basic survival in post-welfare state economies. Crary is right to be anxious about the rise of 24/7 culture and the loss of sleeping and dream life, but his exclusive emphasis on individualized forms of perception and experience can too easily exclude other new mutations in capitalism's ongoing colonization of human life.
Drop City.
It is perhaps telling that Crary devotes a great deal of space in 24/7 to the argument that 1960s counterculture posed such a significant threat to capitalism that 1980s neoliberalism was an aggressive and successful attempt to quash it. The experience of living in utopian countercultural communities, such as Drop City, was not liberatory for many women, who found themselves tasked with the work of cooking and childcare, to say nothing of dealing with the welfare office, while their male counterparts made art. Instead of continuing to mourn the losses of the 1960s, isn't it time for new strategies? How might we think about living through this period of capitalism such that the value of all forms of affective labor is not only understood, but preserved (or salvaged) from the assignment of a dollar value by the market? In part, this requires that we attend more carefully to how neoliberalism has been exploiting differences, not simply making us all more the same.
[i] In a more banal example of the contemporary state of sleep, the Well blog on the New York Times recently published an article about new studies showing that people have less self control and tended to eat more and unhealthier foods when they are sleep deprived. "The relationship between sleep loss and weight gain is a strong one, borne out in a variety of studies over the years," the author announces, citing statistics and experts, but particularly the most recent research in which the effects of sleep deprivation were measured through brain activity. The conclusion: sleep "[is] the single most effective thing people can do every day to reset their brain and body health." This conclusion is hardly shocking, but it becomes interesting in contrast to the Times recent attention to the increasingly brutal schedules of the working poor and its rather banal coverage of middle class families learning to turn off their smartphones before dinner. All of which begs an important question: How are our biological rhythms being disrupted and reset by new economic and social imperatives for increasing productivity and the technologies that aid and abet these demands? And how might the correlation between sleep deprivation and mindless consumption play out in other areas of contemporary life?


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Product Description
- Range: Something in the Air
- Size: W11cm x H7cm
- Quantity: 10
$13.90 $11.12 (tax incl.)
10 beautiful butterfly place cards. One half has an elegant laser cut design and the other is left blank to write the name of your guest.
Pop onto a glass for the perfect finishing touch at a place setting.
Also available in other colours.
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Written by: Tiffany Wan & Max Hoblitzell
Published: 26 June, 2014
Despite an explosion in media coverage, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin are misunderstood. Every day, news articles describe exchange meltdowns, price volatility, and government crackdowns. This focus on Bitcoin as a volatile and even renegade currency may be distracting governments and businesses from its potential long-term significance as a disruptive new money technology.
Bitcoin is more than just a new way to make purchases. It is a protocol for exchanging value over the Internet without an intermediary. Much has been written about the payment applications of Bitcoin, including remittances, micropayments, and donations. However, Bitcoin could soon disrupt other systems that rely on intermediaries, including transfer of property, execution of contracts, and identity management.
As the Bitcoin ecosystem evolves and use cases emerge, the public and private sectors will face new challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities. Government may discover new methods for executing its mission as a regulator and law enforcer, while corporations may build upon Bitcoin technology to create innovative products and services. In the future, Bitcoin may even revolutionize the way we conduct business and think about work. The sooner the public and private sectors understand the potential of this new technology, the better prepared they will be to mitigate its challenges and realize the benefits of Bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies.
This report explains the technology underlying Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, identifies new applications, and explores the impact of potential future scenarios. If Bitcoin's short history is an indicator, the future of this technology will be an exciting ride.
Bitcoin overview
Bitcoin is best thought of as a natural next step in the evolution of money. Throughout history, many items have been used as a store of value and medium of exchange, such as cowrie shells, clay tablets, coins, and now paper money. Starting in the 18th century, nation-states increasingly used precious metals such as gold and silver to back their paper money, creating a monetary system called the gold standard. The gold standard required governments to hold enough precious metal reserves to support their currency. As the global economy became more complex in the second half of the 20th century, most nations eventually moved away from the gold standard, creating fiat currencies built on laws and trust in government.
As our understanding of money as a store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account has matured, so have the methods and modes for exchanging it. In this sense, the exchange of money has always been a function of the technology available. We moved from precious metal coins to paper money before inventing checks, then credit cards. Yet credit cards weren't created for the Internet era. They've simply been adapted to meet the needs of consumers operating in a networked and digital world. With the consumer-accessible Internet now 20 years old, the question is not why a currency specifically designed for the Internet has emerged, but what took it so long.
Bitcoin is one of the first currencies born on the Internet to be used in the real economy. It can be used to make purchases of goods like smartphones, hotel stays, pizza, and coffee. Other virtual currencies have since been created from the same open source code as Bitcoin, including Litecoin and Dogecoin, the virtual currency based on the Doge meme.1 More are popping up every day. Some of these currencies aim to improve upon Bitcoin's technical or operational difficulties, such as transaction speed and security. However, Bitcoin so far has sustained its first-mover advantage. It is the most popular and has the highest value in circulation. As of June 4, 2014, there are 12.85 million bitcoins in circulation with a total market capitalization of $8.3 billion.2
How does Bitcoin work?
Bitcoin is a protocol for exchanging value over the Internet without an intermediary (figure 1). It's based on a public ledger system, known as the block chain, that uses cryptography to validate transactions. Bitcoin users gain access to their balance through a password known as a private key. Transactions are validated by a network of users called miners, who donate their computer power in exchange for the chance to gain additional bitcoins. There is a fixed supply of 21 million bitcoins that will be gradually released over time at a publicly known rate. There is no monetary authority that creates bitcoins. The capped supply of 21 million is known to all, and the rate of supply diminishes over time in a predictable way. As a store of value, this means that bitcoins are inherently deflationary. It also means that there is no government or central entity to make discretionary decisions about how much currency to create or attempt to defend it through monetary policy actions.3
In order to process a bitcoin-denominated transaction, Bitcoin verifies two facts addressed by current payment systems like PayPal or Visa. The first is that when user A transfers a bitcoin to user B, user A has a bitcoin to spend (that is, prevention of counterfeiting). The second is that when user A transfers a bitcoin to user B, user A is not trying to transfer the same bitcoin to another user, user C, simultaneously (that is, prevention of double spending).
As Bitcoin matures, an ecosystem of companies is emerging to support consumers and retailers in storing, exchanging, and accepting bitcoins for goods and services:
- Banks and wallets store bitcoins for users either online or on storage devices not connected to the Internet, known as "cold storage."
- Exchanges provide access to the Bitcoin protocol by exchanging traditional currencies for bitcoins and vice versa.
- Payment processers support merchants in accepting bitcoins for goods and services.
- Financial service providers support Bitcoin through insurance or Bitcoin-inspired financial instruments.
What are the qualities of Bitcoin as a technology system?
Bitcoin has three qualities that differentiate it from other currencies and payment systems.
First, Bitcoin is peer to peer, transferring value directly over the Internet through a decentralized network without an intermediary. Current payment systems, like credit cards and PayPal, require an intermediary to validate transactions; Bitcoin does not. As a result, Bitcoin has been referred to as "Internet cash," as it can be exchanged from person to person much like paper currency today.
Second, Bitcoin is open, yet securely authenticated. Traditional payment systems rely on the privacy of transaction information to maintain security. For example, the compromise of a credit card transaction can result in the release of valuable information that can be used to conduct future transactions. In comparison, Bitcoin relies on cryptography. As every transaction is validated with cryptography by the network of miners, Bitcoin functions because of its openness, not despite it.
Third, Bitcoin is self-propelling. Bitcoin uses its own product, bitcoins, to reward or "pay" miners who are providing the computing power that serves as the engine of the transaction verification system. As a result, the system does not require the same type of overhead that traditional payment systems might require. In this sense, Bitcoin functions because of those participating in the system.
These three aspects are part of what drives Bitcoin's success, enabling a nearly frictionless global payment system. However, these same factors have also created challenges.
Miners are individuals that provide the computing power for Bitcoin's validation process in exchange for the opportunity to gain new bitcoins. Together, miners make up Bitcoin's distributed network. Miners use their computing power to validate transactions by solving a cryptographic problem, called a hash function. By using their computing power for this work, miners are rewarded with bitcoins. This is how new bitcoins enter the money supply. Because the money supply is capped and the rate of supply diminishes over time, the difficulty of creating a block increases and the actual amount rewarded for each new block created decreases.
Mining has been the subject of significant media coverage, as an arms race has grown around hardware designed to perform highly specialized computations to mine bitcoins. In the early days of Bitcoin, miners were mainly hobbyists using personal computers to solve relatively simple cryptographic problems. Now, miners are raising investor dollars to construct server farms optimized for bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin caveats: Speculation, regulation, and whatever
In order to achieve wider adoption as a currency, Bitcoin needs to address significant questions around volatility, regulatory uncertainty, exchange security, ease of use, and transaction volume.
Bitcoin speculators have driven significant price volatility, reducing Bitcoin's utility as a medium of exchange. People may be reluctant to use Bitcoin to make large future commitments of value, or even buy a cup of coffee, when the price can change by 30 percent overnight. Unless Bitcoin's volatility settles, it will be used less as a currency and more as a vehicle for speculation and "get rich quick" schemes, much like a penny stock.
The global regulatory environment around Bitcoin remains uncertain. Any news of new government scrutiny or rumors of a policy change can significantly affect Bitcoin prices, reducing its stability as a currency. At the same time, businesses are unwilling to engage in the Bitcoin economy, while governments treat it as a fringe movement that is the purview of black-market operators and drug dealers, such as Silk Road. As governments begin to issue consistent guidance on Bitcoin, businesses may become more willing to accept it as a form of payment.
Security problems, punctuated by highly publicized exchange meltdowns, may prevent mainstream usage of bitcoins as a currency. Many exchanges that have suffered—including Mt. Gox, which experienced the most notorious exchange collapse—were built on unstable platforms with little security, due to their having been created when bitcoin trading was small and nascent. Mt. Gox was like a bank storing valuables in the lobby entrance. To mature, exchange security needs to be as strong as at traditional banks.
The requirements necessary to safely store bitcoins have created ease-of-use problems. Though digital wallets have worked to solve some of these problems, best practices for storing bitcoins include locking flash drives in a bank vault. Really? Mainstream consumers are unlikely to use Bitcoin until wallet services develop more user-friendly and secure storage techniques.
One of the first major online retailers to accept bitcoins, Overstock.com, made more than $124,000 in bitcoin sales on January 10, 2014, its first day of accepting the currency.
Validating transactions requires significant electricity, bandwidth, and data storage. The resources required to support Bitcoin's relatively small volume of transactions are already being pushed to their limits. Currently, Bitcoin averages about 60,000 transactions per day.4 VisaNet, the electronic payment processing network used by Visa, handles more than 150 million transactions daily from 2.1 billion Visa cards and over 2 million ATMs.5 It can do this because it charges fees for the resources required to operate its servers. In order to support mainstream transaction volumes, the Bitcoin system for validating transactions will likely have to change how it uses electricity, bandwidth, and data storage.
Despite these obstacles, mainstream merchants are beginning to explore Bitcoin. One of the first major online retailers to accept bitcoins, Overstock.com, made more than $124,000 in bitcoin sales on January 10, 2014, its first day of accepting the currency. By March 2014, Overstock.com had topped $1 million in bitcoin purchases. The company has revised its bitcoin revenue projection for 2014 from an initial $3 to 5 million to $20 million.6 According to Overstock.com, Bitcoin's popularity and its low fee structure drove new consumers to its marketplace. More large-scale merchants and mainstream actors in the global economy are following suit. SecondMarket, an online marketplace for buying and selling illiquid assets such as venture-backed private-company stock, is opening a Bitcoin trading platform for institutional investors.
Bitcoin: Beyond money
Bitcoin is more than a new currency. Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are creating a new architecture for exchanging information over the Internet that is peer to peer, open yet secure, and nearly frictionless. Imagine how other systems that rely on intermediaries, such as property transfer, contract execution, and identity management, could be disrupted by a similarly open peer-to-peer system.
System of payment
Bitcoin reduces friction in payments. Currently, when an individual transfers funds, he or she must work with a third party. This intermediary, such as a credit card or payments company, often exacts high fees. For example, for remittances, there is an average fee of 9 percent, with some banks charging an additional fee of up to 5 percent for turning the remittance into cash.7
Bitcoin allows for a direct payment to anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time (figure 2). With Bitcoin, an individual could transfer value to his or her cousin in India without paying a fee to a global money transmitter or a bank for the wire transfer. Though most uses of Bitcoin to make payments will rely on third parties, like Coinbase, Bitcoin may allow these companies to charge lower fees than they do today. This could disrupt the global remittance market, valued at $514 billion in 2012, by providing a less expensive method for direct transfers globally.8 Current providers may be forced to lower fees or be replaced by entrants like BitPesa, a mobile payment application for Bitcoin in the developing world.
In the same way that Bitcoin lowers transaction costs for remittances, it could also lower transaction costs for everyday purchases of low-margin items. Today, if someone buys a donut with a credit card, the merchant pays an interchange fee to the credit card issuer. This interchange fee is usually a small flat amount (10-20 cents) plus a percentage of 1-3 percent.9 For a low-margin good like a donut, a 10- to 20-cent flat fee can approach 100 percent of the cost of goods. This interchange fee is often passed on to the customer. Using Bitcoin, the transaction fee could be lowered to as little as 1 percent.10 This could ultimately evolve into a new payment system for credit card companies and banks.
Transfer of property
The Bitcoin protocol could simplify complex asset transfers, revolutionizing the services that support this industry (figure 3). Currently, the transfer of large assets requires significant time and resources. For example, in order to purchase a car from an individual seller, one has to engage a third party to transfer the title. Additionally, one has to use services to learn about the car's accident and inspection history. And who doesn't like to spend a Saturday at the Department of Motor Vehicles updating a car registration?
The block chain, Bitcoin's public ledger, could change all of this. Bitcoins can be qualified in such a way that they represent real-world assets. Bitcoin entrepreneurs at companies like Colored Coin are already working on ways to use small portions of Bitcoin to denote physical property. A fraction of a Bitcoin would publicly identify who currently owns that property, and could include a record of both past ownership and other history about the property. When purchasing a car, one would be able to verify all accidents and inspections over the block chain and transfer the title on site. Similarly, real estate and financial instrument transactions could all be executed over Bitcoin or a similar protocol.
This could soon create efficiencies and reduce friction by allowing individuals to directly transfer property without the use of a broker, lawyer, or notary to sign off on the transfer.
Execution of contracts
Bitcoin could similarly be used to structure contracts, bringing new efficiency and transparency to the process (figure 4). Contracts are typically developed by lawyers on a case-by-case basis, with significant time and resources devoted to negotiation, development, and enforcement. Additionally, markets based on contracts, including certain financial derivatives markets, lack transparency, which complicates regulation.
Traditional contracts could be replaced by code that self-executes when a triggering event occurs. In a simple example, a financial instrument, like an option, could be developed and executed over the block chain. In addition to reducing legal fees, this could bring new transparency to financial markets, as regulators could use the public ledger to understand the market without forcing individual actors to reveal their specific positions. It is possible that new crypto-currencies will emerge to serve these niche purposes.
New ventures, like Ethereum, are creating these capabilities today. Ethereum is developing a network to serve as both the registry and escrow to execute the conditions of a contract automatically through rules that can be checked by others.
Identity management
Bitcoin's cryptography and block chain could also transform identity management. Much of identity management, including passports, still operates on a paper-based system. These documents are frequently forged and stolen. Interpol's database currently lists 39 million stolen travel documents. But what if there was a way to create a unique, verifiable key that was impossible to forge?
A cryptographic network similar to but separate from Bitcoin could be used to verify individuals' identities and monitor movement across borders (figure 5). When a person travels through a checkpoint at a border crossing, instead of showing and scanning a paper passport, he or she could present his or her Bitcoin key. A network privately maintained by the government, a contractor, or other entity could verify the key and register the entry into the ledger. This system, based on cryptography instead of paper documents, would simultaneously increase mobility and security. If Bitcoin can be used for travel documents, it could also be used for other forms of identity management like social security numbers, tax identification numbers, or even driver's licenses.
Property, contracts, and identity management are only a few examples of how a peer-to-peer, open, and frictionless system could change business in the future. In order to achieve this wider adoption, Bitcoin will need to address significant questions around trust, ease of use, and operability. To date, the Bitcoin community has shown remarkable adaptability and it is already working to mitigate these problems. In the next decade, we can expect significant innovation around the Bitcoin network. Though much of that will revolve around payments, particularly early on, the evolution of Bitcoin could take several diverging paths.
Additional use cases for Bitcoin in the payment space include:
Banking services in developing countries
Developing countries with appropriate mobile phone infrastructure may be able to leapfrog the developed world in the maturation of mobile finance. As a form of electronic banking, Bitcoin could be an avenue for financial inclusion in emerging markets.
A micropayment is a very small financial transaction that occurs online. Practical systems to allow for the transfer of $1 or less online with a credit card do not exist. Bitcoin could facilitate the direct payment to musicians for individual songs or the ability to "tip" individuals on Twitter, Reddit, or other social media platforms. It could also be used for newspapers and other content producers looking for new revenue models.
Future of Bitcoin
Many factors will influence Bitcoin's evolution, including regulation, technological innovation, and economic conditions. Predicting the future of Bitcoin today resembles what it must have been like to try to comprehend the significance of the Internet in the 1990s. Some experts, such as Ray Kurzweil in his book The Age of Intelligent Machines, first published in the late 1980s, got it spectacularly right. But others, like Paul Krugman, who in 1998 predicted that the Internet's impact on the economy would be no greater than the fax machine's, were dead wrong, though for understandable reasons.11 Timelines for the adoption and extension of new technologies are inherently unpredictable, primarily because their ultimate impact will be a result of how humans interact with them.
Bitcoin's future can best be understood by considering four scenarios that represent a range of possible outcomes.
"Life on the fringe"
"Investors flee Bitcoin as another exchange collapse sends bitcoin prices plummeting"
Bitcoin, the currency, never solves its trust and security problems, reinforcing price volatility and skepticism. It remains an arena for illegal activity and speculation. As a result, companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem are unable to enter into mainstream commerce. Exchange collapses and sales of illicit goods and services continue to occur. The majority of bitcoins are held by speculators, crowding out users who want to use the protocol to make legitimate purchases. Bitcoin and its imitators resemble penny stocks instead of a payment system. In short, the focus on bitcoin's obstacles as a currency prevent the benefits of the technology from being fully realized.
How you can tell if this scenario is happening:
- Another exchange meltdown, security breach, or operational failure occurs
- Volatility continues to be 10 to 15 times higher than traditional assets such as gold 12
- Bitcoin suffers a flash crash
Why this scenario might not happen:
- The Bitcoin community solves the trust and security problems related to bitcoin as currency
- Bitcoin as technology overwhelms the reservations about bitcoin as currency by creating new offerings and markets
What government's role could be:
- Issue guidance and regulations on Bitcoin as a currency and as a technology, signaling that both aspects can be taken seriously
- Focus on enforcement for illicit activity, like money laundering
- Create safeguards to protect mainstream consumers from being victimized by Bitcoin wallet and exchange scams
"Payment card companies compete to offer low-fee Bitcoin-based payment options"
Payment and technology companies incorporate the Bitcoin protocol into their payment systems. These companies build proprietary payment platforms using cryptography for security and the block chain for transaction validation. Bitcoin moves to the back office and becomes invisible to the consumer in the same way that different Internet protocols are invisible to most web users. As a result, payments occur across the Bitcoin protocol, but consumers are not required to hold bitcoins. This drives down fees for payment cards and eliminates exchange risk. In short, the Bitcoin protocol grows as a money technology, is adopted by mainstream institutions, and begins to serve as the backbone of many Internet transactions.
How you can tell if this scenario is happening:
- Services offered by traditional payment solutions, like credit and fraud protection, are provided around Bitcoin
- A new wallet technology is introduced in the form of a Bitcoin payment card
Why this scenario might not happen:
- Large payment companies lower fees to match Bitcoin without adopting its protocol
- Corporations continue to distrust open-source technology
What government's role could be:
- Enable companies to use Bitcoin as a payment mechanism through tax and financial crimes enforcement guidance
- Encourage payment companies to use the Bitcoin protocol to offer low-fee solutions for underbanked populations
"Satoshi for all"
"Regulators rescue Wall Street after block chain exposes new market risk"
Bitcoin becomes the protocol for all transfers of value, creating new visibility into financial markets and transforming the services around these functions. Exchanges of value and information, such as property transfer, contract execution, and identity management, are all performed on the block chain. As a result, the services that support these functions are revolutionized. Professionals like traders and lawyers focus on writing code and maintaining the block chain. The process of regulation is changed as well. Regulators download the ledger for a market, such as commodities, every day. Bitcoin's pseudonymity allows regulators to understand the risk of entire markets, while still maintaining the privacy of individual actors. The government creates the Block Chain Administration to oversee cryptographic exchanges and provide consumer protection. In short, all transfers of value are executed in a peer-to-peer and open, yet secure way, reducing fees and increasing transparency.
How you can tell if this scenario is happening:
- A piece of physical property is exchanged over the block chain
- Financial instruments, such as options, are created and traded over the block chain
- A Bitcoin-based central clearinghouse is launched
Why this scenario might not happen:
- Economic path dependence on current systems prevents such significant disruption
- Stakeholder interests challenge adoption
- A Bitcoin programming skills gap expands as the demand for programmers increases
What government's role could be:
- Provide consumer protection and education
- Regulate block chain-based transfers, providing standardization, security, and enforcement
"New networks"
"Number of individuals working 15 or more jobs reaches 10 percent of US population"
Two key attributes of Bitcoin enable a transition to a new model of work and employment. First, Bitcoin's utility in facilitating micropayments allows people to more easily receive compensation for the many tasks they perform as part of a digital network. Second, and perhaps even more important, is that Bitcoin is a self-propelling, decentralized, peer-to-peer network that allows its members to derive both income and utility from their participation. Today's technology services, like email and social media networks, provide utility to users free of charge and generate income for owners. But as the saying goes, if you're getting something for free, you aren't the customer, you're the product. In a Bitcoin world, users are both the customer and the product, because individuals participate in the Bitcoin network by both exchanging the currency and validating the transactions. Currently, at the average day job, a person may spend eight hours at her desk and be paid an income for that one role. In addition, he or she is tweeting, reading news articles, and checking out blogs, generating valuable data throughout the entire day. In the future, we could engage in these same activities and get paid for all of them as Bitcoin enables payment for the myriad activities individuals perform as part of a networked economy.
How you can tell if this scenario is happening:
- Mainstream online media sites reward commenters for input
- A public technology company accounts for user income on its 10-K
Why this scenario might not happen:
- This is a major departure from our current employment model
- Achieving this scenario requires technological savvy on a larger scale than exists today
What government's role could be:
- Adjust definition of employment to include this new type of work
- Refocus taxation and other policies to stimulate this new type of work
- Tap into the new labor pool created by this employment model
These scenarios lie within the realm of the possible. Though the first scenario is closest to the status quo, current trends may indicate that the second scenario is possible in the near term, which may lay the groundwork for the seemingly more distant scenarios. Certainly, some skeptics argue that Bitcoin will be the Esperanto of finance.13 But, others are intrigued by Bitcoin's potentially more revolutionary impact. As Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired, writes in his latest book New Rules for the New Economy, "The great benefits reaped by the new economy in the coming decades will be due in large part to exploring and exploiting the power of decentralized and autonomous networks."14 Bitcoin is an early example of this future.
Given the spectrum of possible scenarios, the range of actions available to governments and businesses is broad. Some foreign governments have tried to ban Bitcoin by making the exchange of cash for bitcoins illegal. Others have taken a "wait and see" approach, allowing the ecosystem around Bitcoin to develop while closely monitoring it. In the United States, government agencies have begun to issue taxation and other guidance, paving the way for entrepreneurs to create a new wave of Bitcoin-related companies and large corporations to engage in the Bitcoin economy.
Bitcoin is yet another example of how new technologies and trends can pop up seemingly out of nowhere, creating problems and opportunities for government as it sorts out how to respond. Most governments chose a hands-off approach to the Internet when it emerged in the 1980s. But the lessons of the Internet should be fair warning that these new technologies can come out of nowhere and change everything. Bitcoin's direct relevance to traditional government domains, such as currency and taxes, merits specific consideration. Given its broad potential impact on activities from contracts to identity management, agencies tasked with diverse operations, from financial markets oversight to border patrol, need to monitor Bitcoin's evolution. Governments need to understand how Bitcoin will evolve in the short term. But even more importantly, they need to explore how the concepts underlying this new technology could intersect with their mission in the future.15
About The Authors
Max Hoblitzell
Max Hoblitzell is a former GovLab Fellow and Strategy & Operations consultant with Deloitte Consulting LLP's Federal practice. His areas of interest include emerging financial technology, health care, and data analytics. His previous GovLab research focuses on how government can improve the use of challenge prizes to solve big problems.
You can reach him on Twitter at @maxhoblitzell and by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.