Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:43 AM on Thursday, March 21st, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————-
Will The Global Blockchain Technology Market Be Worth $20 Billion By 2024?
As per a recent press release by market intelligence and research firm, Transparency Market Research, the global blockchain technology
market could be worth $20 billion by the year 2024. The report also
notes that the global blockchain technology market stood at $315.9
million in 2015.
The idea is, if the blockchain technology market can rise at an
astonishing compound annual growth rate of 58.9% per year, then the
total blockchain technology market will be able to attain a valuation of
US$20 billion by 2024.
The blockchain technology market is very fragmented in nature in the
sense that most of it is still mostly unexploited. This is because of
the presence of what Transparency Market Research explains to be several
new startups as well as well-known heavyweights, in the market.
Companies are pushing time and boundries just to get their hands on as
much share of the market as possible.
Not only has this relatively new and fresh industry, given life to a
multitude of startups, it has also grabbed the attention of global tech
giants like Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and Amazon, just to name a few.
The report further points out that North America will most likely
take the lead in the blockchain market in the coming years. It read,
‘On the basis of geography, North America is expected to lead the
global blockchain technology market in the coming years. This is mainly
because of the presence of several players in the region and rising
adoption of cryptocurrency
in retail and other distribution chain. Based on application, Private
Blockchain technology market is projected to hold maximum share in the
market.’
Recent reports reveal that Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Minority
Leader in the United States House of Representatives, believes that
blockchain can make the U.S. Congress a more efficient and transparent
place. He said,
‘Blockchain is changing and revolutionizing the security of the
financial industry. Why would we wait around and why wouldn’t we
institute blockchain on our own, to be able to check the technology but
also the transparency of our own legislative process?’, he said.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:22 AM on Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————-
Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency Is Almost Here
Investors will soon be able to buy gold and stocks in the form of cryptocurrency, the same way they might buy Bitcoin.
Paxos, a New York-based firm that already offers a dollar-backed cryptocurrency (known as a stablecoin) as well as Bitcoin trading services, plans to introduce digital tokens backed by precious metals and publicly traded stocks sometime in 2019.
The company launched its stablecoin, Paxos Standard,
six months ago by tying cash reserves to a blockchain—a digital ledger
of transactions that is the backbone of any cryptocurrency. Now, it
wants to take “any type of asset and put it into a blockchain,†Paxos
CEO Chad Cascarilla told Fortune’s“Balancing the Ledger.†The goal is to move assets and settle transactions more quickly and securely and with lower fees, he added.
In order to make it work, Paxos has to ensure that it holds the same
amount of inventory—whether that’s dollars, precious metals, or
stocks—in the “real world†as are registered on the blockchain. “How you
do it with a gold token is how much gold you have in a vault equals how
many gold tokens outstanding,†Cascarilla explained. “How do you do it
with stocks? How many stocks do I have sitting in an account, equals how
many stocks in the blockchain.â€
Closest to reality is likely the tokenization of stock market
equities and bonds, assets which Paxos has already successfully tested
in blockchain transactions, Cascarilla said. “We’re getting pretty
close, and I think we’ll see it in 2019.â€
Cascarilla believes Paxos is the only cryptocurrency company with an
account at the Depository Trust Company, which holds the vast majority
of U.S. stocks and bonds, positioning the firm to potentially become the
first to bring stock trading to the blockchain. Still, Paxos, which was
the first virtual currency company to be licensed in New York, needs
additional approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
before it can roll out cryptocurrencies tied to more traditional
securities. It’s currently awaiting that approval—something the lengthy government shutdown did not help speed along.
Putting commodities on the blockchain is also underway, and “gold is
probably the most obvious,†Cascarilla said, adding that it would be
introduced “definitely this year.â€
Tokenizing precious metals opens up new possibilities that are
currently physically difficult—such as dividing up a gold bar into
smaller denominations, transporting heavy quantities more easily, or
lending the assets out more efficiently, Cascarilla explained. “Having
it sit in a vault but also having it be on a blockchain kind of bridges
those two worlds,†he said.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:54 AM on Monday, March 4th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————-
KPMG: Tech Execs See the Future- It’s Blockchain
Almost a full 50% of the executives polled (76% of whom are C-level executives — meaning they have titles like CTO, CEO, COO) firmly believed that blockchain is ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to change the way their company does business — within three years. That is a short time, especially in the business world.
By R.R. Hauxley
Plenty of people love blockchain.
Plenty more hate it. But the biggest chunk of people by far are those
who are neutral about it. They neither love it nor hate it. They’re just
waiting for the world to make up its mind — like when VHS fought
Betamax or Bluray fought HD-DVD. Well, the world is making up its mind
right quick — and the winner is blockchain.
A survey was recently released. A big, meaningful one. It was released by KPMG,
one of the top four auditor agencies in the world. They call it the
Technology Industry Innovation Survey and it polls over 740 gigantic
tech leaders across twelve countries around the world. The results are
fascinating.
Almost a full 50% of the executives polled (76% of whom are C-level
executives — meaning they have titles like CTO, CEO, COO) firmly
believed that blockchain is ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to change the way
their company does business — within three years. That is a short time, especially in the business world.
Taking that one step further, 41% of these higher-ups also believed
that, in these next three short years, the company they direct will, in
fact, implement blockchain tech.
Perhaps the most telling statistic, however, is the change from last
years survey. Despite the crypto bear market, despite hacks and scams,
the executives who were neutral last year are moving bullishly into the
blockchain believer category. Last year a full 42% of respondents were
neutral on all this and 30% even responded that blockchain changing
things would be “very likely.†Today the neutral camp has shrunk to 24%
— with the majority moving camp to the “we will use blockchain†side of
the story.
So you see, the battle between blockchain believers and
doubters is coming to a close. High powered executives running
multi-billion dollar companies (which produce products and services that
we all use) are learning about blockchain, believing in it, and will be
shaping their companies to use it — all in the next three years. It’s
high time, then, that those who are also neutral take a page from the
tech exec playbook and read “An Introduction to Blockchain.â€
These titans of industry are not making their decisions because of
tabloid headlines. They are educating themselves about blockchain with
proper guides. That is the only way to make proper profits. We should
follow such footsteps if we want to profit from blockchain too.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 8:54 AM on Monday, January 21st, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
————————
An early bitcoin mining firm turned global blockchain company based out of London, has announced that it will launch an entertainment division tasked with developing an open-source music platform that runs on blockchain technology.
By CCN.com: The Bitfury Group, an early bitcoin mining firm turned global blockchain company based out of London, has announced that it will launch an entertainment division tasked with developing an open-source music platform that runs on blockchain technology.
From Mining Bitcoin to Tracking Music IP on a Blockchain
Tech companies trying to make waves in the music industry is nothing
new. Bitfury is a significant player in the blockchain industry,
however, which makes this foray particularly interesting. The aim of
decentralizing the music industry has long been a pipedream but could
now be closer to reality.
The open-source platform, labeled SurroundTM, will purportedly
simplify the safe transferal of copyright assets. At the very core of
the project is the creation of an environment that allows musicians to
manage their affairs far more efficiently. This includes monitoring
their output, being able to see what works, and — most importantly —
what doesn’t. According to Bitfury, SurroundTM will lead the way in
promoting innovation within the music industry.
Bitfury wants to be more than just a bitcoin mining company. | Source: Shutterstock
Speaking to Reuters, Bitfury Surround CEO Stefan Schulz commented:
There is a very strong momentum for an open entertainment-related
blockchain where market participants themselves would be participating
in the market venue, not only from a transactional point of view.
The platform itself will look to provide a digital system for both
monetizing and sharing intellectual property. Based out of Europe with a
presence in Amsterdam and Berlin, offices in Tokyo, LA, Moscow, and
Seoul are set to follow. Schulz, a veteran of the entertainment and
music industry, said that although “the actual platform is being put
together and developed as we speak,†it wouldn’t be near completion for
quite a while.
Bitfury isn’t the only major firm to eye blockchain as a solution to copyright management. Via a licensing agreement, Kodak‘s blockchain platform also offers photographers the ability to register their images and secure their intellectual property.
Bitfury Becomes Bitcoin Mining’s Latest Unicorn
Recently valued at $1 billion, The Bitfury Group raised $80 million from investors late last year, including Mike Novogratz-led
merchant bank Galaxy Digital. The former Fortress Investment Group
hedge fund manager’s contribution helped push Bitfury’s valuation into
the “blockchain unicorn†category inhabited by firms such as Bitmain,
Coinbase, and Circle.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:03 PM on Thursday, January 10th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————————
The $100B Blockchain Proof Of Concept Hiding In Plain Sight
Last year, perceptions of blockchain technology were caught in the crossfire of both cryptocurrency’s swift peak and dramatic plunge.
It’s not surprising: cryptocurrency is the first and most visible application of blockchains, and many people think they are one and the same.
Last year, perceptions of blockchain technology were caught in the
crossfire of both cryptocurrency’s swift peak and dramatic plunge. It’s
not surprising: cryptocurrency is the first and most visible application
of blockchains, and many people think they are one and the same. It may
be convenient and easy to use price or market cap to summarize the
industry narrative. But it’s incorrect. The blockchain space is vast,
spanning industries, each with different adoption curves and
opportunities—and the nuanced value of the nascent technology isn’t
reflected in these numbers. In fact, focusing on these metrics obscures
what is really happening inside the space, putting execs at risk of
developing blind spots that hide potentially disruptive development as
it gathers steam.
But as billions poured into cryptocurrency in 2018, we did we learn
something meaningful. The world got a high-stakes proof of concept
exploring if blockchains could really be a way to safely
transfer digital value from one party to another. Even as large-scale
hacks of companies with poor custody practices filled the news, millions
of people around the world contributed to a global battle test to see
if the technology could safely hold or transfer, at times, well over a
hundred billion dollars of digital value in the form of
blockchain-driven cryptocurrency. This revealed challenges ahead (the
need to evolve consensus and governance mechanisms, improve user
experience, and get to regulatory clarity, to name just a few). But it
also showed us that yes, blockchains can safely transfer digital value.
So how are businesses reacting? Corporations are paying attention,
working hard to understand how this functionality translates to their
industry, and how it shapes potential disruption. Here are several
insider perspectives on where we are today, and where companies are
investing in the technology as we go into 2019:
Jessica Groopman, Industry Analyst and Founding Partner, Kaleido Insights:
The market seems to be entering a winter, as AI did two or three
times before its commercial boom. These kinds of shakeouts are
ultimately a good thing because they help distinguish fact from fantasy.
There are signals that suggest this will be a mild winter, rather than a
full hibernation. First, several adjacent spaces that will influence
adoption are growing, like AI, encryption techniques, and digital
identity management. Second, we see some steps towards mainstreaming,
with regulatory actions, consolidation in crypto-exchanges like
Coinbase, and virtually all of the world’s largest technology companies
building dedicated blockchain-based teams and products. Third,
investment is moving away from speculation, such as in ICOs, and towards practical investmentslike
smart contracts platforms, data exchanges, and prime use cases. One of
most powerful things blockchain has done for business is teach us to think blockchain, i.e. to question the efficacy of centralized processes and think about value chains more strategically.
Brian Lio, CEO of research and advisory firm Smith + Crown:
The current markets are a poor reflection of the actual pace and type
of development that is going on right now. We are seeing increasingly
large brands and sophisticated multi-national organizations realize this
technology has the potential for both disruption and opportunity. They
are starting to perceive there is risk in leaving it up to others to
figure out first. More and more companies are understanding they need to
build their front lines, to understand the power this technology offers
so they can start to prepare for or even take a lead in building what a
blockchain-influenced future looks like for their particular industry.
It’s happening across quite a few industries. Companies are becoming
more public about their exploration, but we are also seeing thoughtful,
innovative foundational work being done behind the scenes as well.
David Post, Managing Director, IBM Blockchain Ventures
We have a high degree of confidence that 2019 will be the year that
enterprise blockchain networks—especially those addressing strategic
industry use cases—will begin to emerge at scale. Blockchain business
models will continue to mature, with both companies and the venture
community helping to shape how these blockchain networks evolve. A
variety of compelling concepts are emerging in financial services,
supply chain, and media and entertainment. And we will see strategically
important networks move to production, as companies partner with
startups to solve complex challenges via the improved trust and
transparency delivered by blockchains.
Linda Pawczuk, principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP
As we head into 2019, supply chain continues to be one of the largest enterprise applications for the technology—in a recent survey
we found 53% of the execs surveyed stated they have ongoing supply
chain use cases for blockchain. We’re seeing pharmaceutical companies,
logistics providers, retailers, government agencies, and technology
firms all working to enhance logistics network visibility via blockchain
technology. We’re also seeing increased investment in digital
recordation, digital identity and IoT from corporates. In the same
survey, greater than 44% claimed to be working on an active use case
using blockchain in at least one of these spaces.
Lou Kerner, Founding Partner of venture firm and advisory CryptoOracle:
Shakeouts are a natural part of our economic system. Economies with
no shakeouts are the unhealthy ones. We’re still in the infrastructure
phase of investing, building the rails that the industry will use to
grow applications and services, and companies like R3 (enterprise
blockchain), Coinbase (trading platform), Circle (finance company), and
Ledger (wallet) are still attracting investment. The crypto bulls, like
myself, believe crypto is a thing. The question is less ‘if’, than
‘when’. The companies getting the most funding today either have
rapidly growing user bases or have great teams going after large
opportunities, like stablecoins.
These insiders paint a measured counterpoint to the gloom and doom of
headlines focused on crypto markets. However, “crypto winter†has
certainly impacted blockchain entrepreneurs, with the price drop
triggering sometimes fatal collateral damage to young businesses. Smith +
Crown’s ICO Tracker shows the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market chilled from 113 in December 2017 to just three in December 2018
. Poor treasury management practices created cash crises for upstart
companies that kept funds in cryptocurrency after an ICO. Consensys and
Steemit, two well-known firms in the space, reported layoffs in December
while many smaller companies are quietly shutting down.
But as the market plunged, it released another kind of pressure. The
misperception of cryptocurrency price as an indicator of blockchain
potential had triggered overinflated expectations of blockchain
technology. In the (relative) quiet after the fall, blockchain
entrepreneurs now have the space in which to explore how to build on
last year’s work to create something truly meaningful. From the outside,
and next to 2018’s drama, measured but steady progress may feel almost
boring. But inside the community, something very exciting continues to
brew. It just requires more nuanced perception to see it.
I am the founder and CEO of Unblocked Future, a consultancy that
helps executives to drive adoption at the forefront of emerging tech. We
help companies communicate their vision, resonate with stakeholders,
and activate communities for change. I’m also the author of ‘Unblock…
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:15 AM on Tuesday, January 8th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
———————–
Security tokens — digital versions of financial securities like stocks and bonds — are becoming a new buzzword in crypto.
Analysts and executives in the industry see security tokens as a development that could reinvigorate the cryptocurrency space.
A key difference setting security tokens apart from other cryptocurrencies is that they are asset-backed and fall within regulatory parameters, experts say.
The Apple logo is displayed at the Nasdaq MarketSite just before the opening bell in New York on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011.
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cryptocurrencies had a wild 2018, tumbling well below some of the record highs seen toward the end of 2017.
Bitcoin, once
worth almost $20,000, plunged last year, closing out 2018 at a price
below $4,000. Other major virtual currencies, including XRP and ether, also fell steeply.
Analysts and executives in the industry are increasingly pointing to a
fairly new development that could reinvigorate the space: putting
securities like stocks and bonds on the blockchain.
So-called security tokens are becoming a new buzzword in crypto. The
term is part of a phenomenon in the industry known as “tokenization†—
turning real-world assets into digital tokens.
In the case of security tokens, tradable assets like equity and fixed
income are transformed into digital assets that use blockchain
technology, the virtual ledger of activity that underpins
cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
Security tokens had been talked about for some time, but now one firm is looking to put them to the test.
On Monday, DX.Exchange, an Estonia-based crypto firm, launched a
trading platform that lets investors buy shares of popular Nasdaq-listed
companies, including Apple, Tesla, Facebook and Netflix, indirectly through security tokens.
Each token is backed by one share of the company traders want to invest in and entitles them to the same cash dividends.
“The crypto community has been talking about security tokens for well
over a year now without much progress, so we think the impact will be
huge,†Amedeo Moscato, DX’s chief operating officer, told CNBC by email
over the weekend.
“By tokenizing stocks of some of the biggest publicly-traded companies like Google, Amazon,
Facebook and more, we are opening an untapped market of millions of old
and new traders around the globe cutting out the middleman. â€
watch now
VIDEO02:40
What is a security token?
Investors will be able to trade the digital stocks round-the-clock, even after markets close, DX says.
“The ability to trade around the clock, with a range of currencies,
offers investors both convenience and liquidity,†Dan Doney, co-founder
and chief executive of fintech firm Securrency told CNBC by email over
the weekend.
But Doney questioned whether DX’s exchange was sound on the regulatory front.
“We’re unsure and even skeptical of DX.Exchange’s model because we
don’t think that it’s acceptable to list tokenized shares of a company
without shareholder consent,†he said.
“However, we do think that the model can meet regulatory standards if executed properly.â€
DX stressed that its digital stocks are classed as derivatives — with
the underlying asset being equity of 10 Nasdaq-listed firms — and that
its platform is regulated under the European Union’s Mifid II directive.
Mifid II, a set of reforms to EU investment services regulation, aims
to protect investors and increase transparency and confidence in the
industry post-crisis.
Cyprus-licensed firm MPS MarketPlace Securities is holding the stocks
in a segregated account. DX built the platform on top of Nasdaq’s
Matching Engine technology, which is used across more than 70
international markets.
Experts are pointing to the model as one that could provide a solid
form of investment for traders — versus cryptocurrencies like bitcoin,
which have proven at times to be highly volatile — as well as a new
potential source of fundraising for start-ups and large firms alike.
‘STO’
New security tokens can be issued and sold to investors, similar to
how new digital tokens are sold through a crowdfunding method known as
an initial coin offering (ICO). This is what’s known as a security token
offering (STO).
ICOs were a source of much controversy in the crypto sphere in both
2017 and 2018, with China and South Korea banning the practice and the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rapping a number of ventures and founders over alleged illegal activities.
One supposed cryptocurrency start-up called Giza made off with more than $2 million through a fake ICO scam, a CNBC investigation last year showed.
Dubious as the murky world of ICOs is, the funding method at one point eclipsed early-stage venture capital funding.
ICO projects raked in almost $6.6 billion in 2017 and $21.5 billion in
2018, according to data provided by ICO listing site CoinSchedule.
The difference with STOs, experts say, is that security tokens are asset-backed and fall within regulatory parameters.
“Security tokens use blockchain to allow for efficient transactions
like cryptocurrencies, but are different in all other ways,â€
Securrency’s Doney said.
â€(They) emphasize regulatory compliance, automated regulatory
reporting, and represent share interest in value-producing assets. This
ultimately provides stable value versus the volatility of crypto.â€
Crowdfunding site Indiegogo delved into the world of STOs
last year, hosting a platform that let investors indirectly own shares
of a luxury ski resort by buying security tokens. That token sale
brought in $18 million, according to VentureBeat.
Security tokens and STOs have been compared to “stablecoins,â€
cryptocurrencies pegged 1:1 to government-backed currencies to avoid the
volatility typically seen in the cryptocurrency market. Stablecoins are
seen as another potential area for growth in the crypto industry.
“Cryptocurrencies and STOs will continue to evolve, and digital
stocks are another step in that process,†Daniel Skowronski, DX’s chief
executive, told CNBC by email.
STOs to ‘ramp into the market’ by mid-2019
Advocates also say that security tokens could reduce the cost of
listing a company on the stock market and that they will make it easier
to trade less liquid assets like private equity.
And though it may be early days, one expert thinks the trend of tokenizing securities will become a major theme by mid-2019.
“In terms of timing, we hear that mid-2019 is the time-frame when
most STOs will be able to ramp into the market,†Lex Soklin, partner and
global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research, told CNBC
by email.
“Given a longer regulatory approval process for these assets (rather
than none for ICOs), entrepreneurs have a slower path to market. But
perhaps a more stable one.â€
Some even believe that, eventually, everything from artwork to real estate will be transformed into digital tokens.
“Over the next decade, we could very well see the tokenization of the
entire financial markets,†Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at
eToro, said in a note last week.
“Essentially, anything that has value and can be traded can also be represented as a digital token and traded on a blockchain.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:37 AM on Friday, December 21st, 2018
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
—————–
I am sticking to my original prediction – Bitcoin will hit 250k by 2022.†– Tim Draper, American Venture Capitalist, Author, Founder of Draper Associates, DFJ and Draper University
Following the ICO boom in 2017, along with Bitcoin’s all time high of
nearly $20k last December, the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry
has gone down a rocky road. As the crypto world is full of surprises,
it’s difficult to predict what’s in store for the future. Yet it’s
interesting to hear what industry insiders and some of the biggest
influencers in the space have to say about their expectations for the
crypto and blockchain industry over the next 12 months and beyond.
Cryptocurrency:
I am sticking to my original prediction – Bitcoin will hit 250k by 2022.†– Tim Draper, American Venture Capitalist, Author, Founder of Draper Associates, DFJ and Draper University
As one of the leading cryptocurrencies, Ether will see its price
reach the $500 mark by mid 2019. The fact still remains that most
blockchain projects across the world are being done in Ethereum. As its
use cases increase and improve globally, we’ll see it continuing to gain
more solid ground as a smart contract protocol.” – David Drake, Founder and Chairman of LDJ Capital
2019 will be an exciting year. We will see several great products
shipped to market, especially from our Binance Labs incubation program,
now taking place on five continents. The projects and teams who are
focused on building and achieving product-market fit will bring more
real use cases to our lives. This will open the gateway to the mass
adoption of crypto.” – Ella Zhang, Head of Binance Labs
The first legitimate national cryptocurrency will be launched, linked
to a fiat currency from a G-20 nation. This digital asset will be in
high demand for combining the benefits of a digital asset with the
stability of a government-backed currency. Mark Zuckerberg’s 2018 New
Year’s resolution to “study cryptocurrencies” will result in one being
integrated into Facebook for payments. The only question is whether they
will use an existing cryptocurrency or a new one created by Facebook.†–
Mitch Liu, Theta Labs CEO
Blockchain:
2018 was a tough year, but we have a longer term outlook for our
industry. The builders have been building in 2018, so for 2019, I think
we will see a lot of real products and real applications coming into the
market.†– Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Binance CEO and Founder
I have been involved in the blockchain space since 2013, actively
developing with Ethereum since January 2015. During this time I have
experienced many ups and downs. Many times I heard how “Blockchain is
over.†However, the fact is that the underlying technological innovation
continues to evolve and to get better. We have more tools today,
documentation, tutorials, and users than ever before and this will
continue to grow as the user interfaces become better and more seamless.
In 2019 we will continue to live the aftermath of 2017. ICOs have been
in winter sleep for most of 2018, following the ICO madness we
experienced, which was initiated by my ERC-20 standard. Nevertheless,
this doesn’t change the fact that ICO’s are a great fundraising
mechanism, for those projects in which a coin offering makes sense.
However, many past token projects were only using ICOs as an opportunity
to collect money without a truly decentralized and functioning token
economy in the background. We need to regain the trust that was lost,
and proposals like my Reversible ICO shows how technology can be the
transaction mechanism and the regulator at the same time. – Fabian Vogelsteller, LUKSO CEO and Ethereum developer responsible for co-creating the ERC-20 Token Standard
You’ll see blockchain companies with differentiated business models
separating themselves from the pack. For the industry to mature and gain
legitimacy, the 2018 shakeout had to happen. As you’ve seen with the
rise of the internet, e-commerce and just about every other big-thought
thing that’s happened in the last 50 years, the gold rush days come to
an end, rules get created and people settle down to do real business.
That’s why we’ve kept our focus, powered forward and invested in
building our vision for the next iteration of the web. For TRON, 2019
will be a year of many innovations. We’re the largest decentralized
content ecosystem in the world, and 2019 will be about showing people
what that means. We’re beginning the year with our first summit, in San
Francisco, where we’ll reveal big details about how we plan to integrate
blockchain with BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer technology. And we’ll follow
that by offering our 100 million monthly BitTorrent users incentives to
create and share more freely and often, delivering an economy of goods
and services within the network.†– Justin Sun, TRON CEO and Founder
2019 will be a historic year for the Blockchain industry. Malta will
issue the first license for operators in this sphere to be able to
operate in a regulated environment. Thus, 2019 will see the
materialization of The Blockchain Island, firmly putting Malta at the
epicenter of this industry. We are aware where the compass is pointing,
which is why blockchain technology will be incorporated into our
ecosystem. In turn, we will soon start witnessing change in the
landscape of how sectors as we know today operate. In fact, as a
Government, we’re looking at using blockchain technology in the public
sector to better the experience of our citizens. 2019 will be an even
more exciting year for Malta. The smallest EU member state will be
amongst the top 10 nations with a National Strategy for Artificial
Intelligence. This will open doors for the exploration of new economic
niches such as esports, gaming and Fintech. Malta’s agility and flexible
approach will ensure that we will remain innovators in the digital
economy.†– The Honorable Silvio Schembri, Malta’s Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation
We hope to see some more progress happening towards the setting up of
a true interoperability standard for optimal communication between
different types of blockchain networks. We believe that there will be
some more hybrid deployments involving the joint use of permissionless
and permissioned blockchain networks, with a focus on real world use
cases where the use of blockchain technology can truly move the needle
forward.†– Nimit Sawheny, Voatz CEO
Blockchain communities and open source communities will see their
lines blurred, as the two become synonymous with one another. Open
source has traditionally been on the cutting edge of innovation and has
garnered massive interest because of its ability to deliver security
through transparency. Decentralization is the latest cutting-edge
technology and it shares that same foundational principle of
transparency. A platform cannot be decentralized if it is proprietary,
as the organization that owns the software code ultimately becomes the
central point of failure.†– Ben Golub, Storj Interim CEO and Executive Chairman
Tokenization:
A quadrillion dollar market is unfolding, driven by the emergence of
security tokens. As currencies are tokenized, as bonds are tokenized, as
equities are tokenized, as currencies and real estate and energy are
tokenized — We are watching the birth of a quadrillion-dollar market.
Also, Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) are going to deliver over $100B
of capital into places where economic stimulus is needed in the U.S. We
are also going to see the first Dapps (decentralized applications) that
hit a million users a day sometime next year. Because we’ve now had our
“Netscape†moment, we now have scalable blockchains that have no
friction (meaning anyone can access it without having tokens) low
latency (meaning it’s fast and scalable and can be by many people) with
EOS as the first general protocol with many to come. It’s the equivalent
of when the first IPhone launched in the App Store.†– Brock Pierce, American Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of EOS Alliance
I think that the main trend will be securities tokens. The
combination of the power of a distributed ledger with more standardized
securities will open lots of doors in capital creation. Privacy will
continue to be important. There will be an increasing gap between those
with solid technology and those with weak, captive networks.†– Bruce Fenton,
Founder and Managing Director of Atlantic Financial, Board member of
the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of the Bitcoin Association
The ability to fractionalize illiquid assets will allow institutions
to offer unique portfolio positioning that suit the preferences of the
investor. Given the transparency involved in a correctly-designed token,
there will be new ways to visualize risk and returns. This will unleash
a new wave of investing that has been bottled up because of asymmetry
of information. Ultimately, tokenization will greatly flatten that
asymmetry, which is what this is all about.” – Sam Tabar, Fluidity Co-Founder
Venture Capital:
2019 is going to be another year of building. We’re squarely in the
phase in which the crypto space is developing the companies, products,
and infrastructure to support the wild valuations we saw in 2017. I
expect we’ll see more consolidation, as both companies and funds
struggle to raise capital. While this might sound gloomy, I think it’s
actually quite healthy. As technology and valuations start to converge
at rational levels again, the stage will be set for the industry to
enter the next phase of maturity.†– Arianna Simpson, Venture Capitalist and Managing Director at Autonomous Partners
We should not forget that token issuers are startups and they have an
even higher burn rate than that of traditional startups. With over $10
billion raised by those crypto startups in 2017-2018, the conversion to
fiat currencies is inevitable. In addition, all the crypto services and
talent have been twice as expensive as for traditional startups. Once
billions of dollars are liquidated to pay bills, it is normal for the
prices of the major crypto currencies to drop. This of course had a
snowball effect: the panic starts and hundreds of entrepreneurs need to
sell crypto to secure capital for product development. Even cryptofunds
whose market capitalization is $10 billion tend to have focused on
equity deals recently. They’ve liquidated part of their crypto portfolio
and hold fiat. In addition, we shouldn’t forget that the main reason
the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks exists are because of the miners.
Miners had to sell as well to maintain their facilities. They’ve
overmined Bitcoin in 2017, assuming the price would keep going up.†– Natalia Karayaneva, Propy CEO and Founder
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:57 PM on Wednesday, November 21st, 2018
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On November 13, Amazonwas granted two crypto-related patents. While the American e-commerce pioneer, with a revenue of over $177 billion, has not chosen to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and major altcoins as a payment option despite public interest and competitors’ experience, it has not ignored the subject altogether. In fact, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing arm, has contributed to blockchain adoption.
Amazon and cryptocurrencies: refusal to accept BTC, unfulfilled plans for Amazon Coin
Amazon has a complex relationship with crypto. In April 2014, the e-commerce giant decided not to accept Bitcoin (BTC) citing customer preferences. Amazon payments head Tom Taylor told Recode in an interview:
“Obviously it gets a lot of press and we have considered it, […] but we’re not hearing from customers that it’s right for them and don’t have any plans within Amazon to engage Bitcoin.â€
Curiously, the move came just few months after Overstock.com, one of Amazon’s rivals, became the first major retail company to introduce BTC as a payment option and found initial success, as its CEO Patrick Byrne claimed that Amazon would have to “follow suit.â€
Taylor’s comment could have meant that the e-commerce giant would turn to cryptocurrencies once they see more exposure. However, the 2014 decision stays to date, regardless of the overall improved market capitalization and adoption, public petitions addressed to CEO Jeff Bezos, and some businesses being built around serving as the middlemen for Amazon customers willing to pay with digital currencies.
Nevertheless, Amazon has not distanced itself from engaging with crypto altogether. In May 2014, not long after announcing it had no plans for crypto, Amazon was awarded a Bitcoin-related patent for the use of digital currencies as payment for cloud computing services on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is worth noting, however, that the patent was filed back in March 2012, and crypto was mentioned as only one possible form of payment there.
In November 2017, the e-commerce giant was reported purchasing a number of crypto-related domain names including “amazoncryptocurrencies.com,†“amazoncryptocurrency.com,†and “amazonethereum.com.†It was also noted at the time that “amazonbitcoin.com†redirects to the original Amazon URL.
However, it could have been an attempt to shield the Amazon brand or avoid confusion with Amazon Coin, the company’s digital currency that was introduced in 2013 for Kindle e-book owners. The coin has not seen extensive use despite the documented public interest.
In April 2018, Amazon won a patent for a subscription feed system described as a “streaming data marketplace.†Essentially, the company claimed, it could “identify [Bitcoin] transaction participants†for governments and law enforcement. The document was filled in June 2014 and showed that while the e-commerce giant might accept the idea of dealing with crypto, it put strong emphasis on the Know Your Customer (KYC) side of the business. That, in turn, would neglect a major part of Bitcoin’s ideology and design.
Thus, Amazon has not shown itself to be exactly a pro-Bitcoin company. Nevertheless, its relationship with the underlying technology, blockchain, has proven to be much more fruitful.
Amazon and blockchain: major collaborations, contribution to adoption
On December 5, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a partnership with R3 — a major blockchain consortium of over 200 members — to allow its Corda platform to become one of the first distributed ledger technology solutions (DLT) on the AWS marketplace. Corda is an open-source DLT platform designed to work within finance to operate complex transactions and restrict access to transaction data. Basically, it allowed users to deploy decentralized applications (dApps) onto the AWS platform and to create new apps directly.
The news came as a shock, granted that just a few days before the announcement, AWS CEO Andy Jassy essentially criticized blockchain for not having use cases “beyond the distributed ledger,†noting that even those had very limited capabilities. Moreover, he reiterated the company’s policy not to “build technology because we think it is cool.â€
He did add, however, that AWS was interested in ways that blockchain could benefit their customers:
“We are very intrigued by what customers are ultimately going to do there.â€
Still, there were at least three blockchain-based platforms on the AWS marketplace before Corda’s arrival and Jassy’s speech, which shows that Amazon’s initial interest in blockchain arose earlier in 2017.
On April 19, 2018, AWS’s journey into blockchain continued. The cloud platform introduced its blockchain framework for Ethereum (ETH) and Hyperledger Fabric, allowing users to build and manage their own blockchain-powered DApps. Called AWS CloudFormation Templates, the tool was designed to avoid the time-consuming manual setup of one’s own blockchain network.
Next month, in May, AWS partnered up with ConsenSys, a blockchain incubator started by Ethereum’s co-founder Joseph Lubin. Specifically, the e-commerce company collaborated with Kaleido — a blockchain business cloud that aims to help firms accelerate the “entire journey from experimentation and PoCs [proofs-of-concept] to pilots and production,†and is based on the Ethereum blockchain. Together, they aim to offer simplified blockchain cloud platforms for its clients so that they can “focus on their scenario, [without having] to become PhDs in cryptography,†as Kaleido co-founder Steve Cerveny explained to CNBC.
Kaleido has since expanded to a full-stack platform dubbed “Kaleido Marketplace.†It reportedly “eliminates 80 percent of the custom code†needed to build a given blockchain project by providing an array of tools and protocols that are “plug-and-play,†spanning needs from back-end development to front-end app user interfaces.
Currently, there are around 25 blockchain-oriented platforms hosted on the AWS platform, some of which are also reporting promising results. For instance, in September, a blockchain system developed by Australia’s national science agency (CSIRO) and Sydney University claimed to have set a benchmark of 40,000 transactions per second during a test on Amazon Cloud — for comparison, BTC infrastructure normally scales up to eight transactions per second, while ETH blockchain capability is set at 15 transactions per second.
Amazon’s blockchain experiments have attracted recognition from mainstream players: for example, “Big Four†audit and consulting firm Deloitte has emphasized Amazon’s blockchain-related efforts in its October report, arguing that the e-commerce giant had been helping to stimulate technology adoption and contributing to improving the costs of operations on blockchain. Additionally, Bank of America (BoA) research analyst, Kash Rangan, told CNBC that blockchain is well-suited to some of the world’s largest corporations, noting:
“Amazon will benefit from incremental cloud services demand from blockchain implementation, while improved supply chain tracking should make Amazon’s retail operations more efficient.”
Amazon’s latest advancement: more blockchain patents, crypto-related job ads
While Amazon has been acquiring both cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related patents, it is fair to take them with a grain of salt — as the industry is still young, a lot of players, like the aforementioned Bank of America (BoA), which currently has the most of such patents, are merely trying to mark the field before the others get there. Consequently, not all patents (blockchain-related or not) are going to be put to use any time soon. For instance, in 2016 Amazon was awarded a patent for a system to deliver goods through a chain of underground tunnels, a highly ambitious and costful goal that is probably not the company’s top priority.
On November 13, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published two more Amazon patents related to methods for protecting the integrity of digital signatures and improving distributed data storage, filed in April 2018 and December 2015 respectively.
The first patent document outlines a “signature delegation†method for “protecting the integrity of digital signatures and encrypted communications,†by allowing for the generation, distribution, validation, and revocation of one-time-use cryptographic keys. In the proposed system, these keys are arranged in what is known in cryptography as the so-called “Merkle Tree†structure, which is essentially a binary tree of hashes constructed from the bottom up.
Amazon’s second patent, is related to distributed data storage. The filing proposes a “grid encoding technique,†using groups of collected “shards,†where each shard represents a logical distribution of data items stored in a given grid. The patent filing suggests this method can help minimize storage redundancy.
While Amazon might be having more patents coming, the e-commerce giant is nowhere to be seen in the main part of patents, occupied by the likes of its Chinese counterpart Alibaba and IBM. Nevertheless, Amazon is set to continue its explanation of the technology, as the AWS platform continues hosting blockchain solutions, and the company is looking to expand its staff with more blockchain engineers.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:05 AM on Friday, November 16th, 2018
Although stock trades are often made in milliseconds by algorithms, completing them involves co-ordinating payment and delivery among a mess of databases and then reconciling the records
In big financial centres trades take two full days to settle. Some stock exchanges wonder whether blockchain’s distributed, tamper-proof ledgers and immutable and transparent transaction records could speed up and simplify the process
BLOCKCHAIN, THE technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, was designed with an ideological aim: to sidestep central authorities and governments. But many people have become intrigued by its practical uses, such as updating back-office processes. And few institutions have shown more interest in such applications than financial exchanges.
Although stock trades are often made in milliseconds by algorithms, completing them involves co-ordinating payment and delivery among a mess of databases and then reconciling the records. In big financial centres trades take two full days to settle. Some stock exchanges wonder whether blockchain’s distributed, tamper-proof ledgers and immutable and transparent transaction records could speed up and simplify the process.
Exchanges from America and Australia to Switzerland and Singapore are studying the concept. Australia’s stock exchange, the ASX, has moved furthest towards using blockchain to replace its main clearing and settlement platform. It has been testing technology from Digital Asset, an American firm, and will go live in mid-2021. And on November 11th SGX, Singapore’s stock exchange, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), its central bank, announced a prototype using blockchain for delivery, payment and settlement of assets.
These projects are strikingly unlike the vision of blockchain enthusiasts. ASX’s, for example, uses ledgers but remains quite centralised. A single counterparty, ASX itself, must approve participants (which removes the need for energy-intensive verification and updating of records, as with bitcoin). Though open to all, only some banks and brokers will opt for direct access. Everyone else must trade through them. In contrast to the complete transparency of the bitcoin ledger, market participants will not have access to the whole dataset (for legal reasons, but also so they do not have to give away their positions). And settlement will not be in real time.
Why, then, bother? Kelly Mathieson of Digital Asset says her firm’s purpose-built programming language, DAML, which enables financial contracts to be automated, will make further innovation easy. The tedious processes of reconciliation, she says, will be drastically simplified.
As soon as next year investors will be able to see the result of another, smaller experiment. SIX, the owner of the Swiss stock exchange, will launch a separate digital platform for trading assets, such as stocks and bonds, in “tokenised†form—that is, in a format blockchain can handle. Tokenising will eliminate minimum trade sizes, says Thomas Zeeb of SIX. It will also make a much wider range of assets tradable. Mr Zeeb has already been approached by a museum that wants to tokenise its art collection, as a novel source of funding. Investors would gain exposure to the value of the art going up or down through such tokens, which they could trade.
All these projects have, or plan to obtain, official blessing; after all, exchanges are highly regulated. But the Singaporean project shows the value of seeking more than a nod of approval. MAS’s involvement meant the prototype did not limit itself to stock trading or settlement, but also looked at digital currency issued by the central bank. Quite a turnaround for a technology designed to circumvent governments.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:16 AM on Wednesday, November 14th, 2018
Telefonica, Central Bank of Azerbaijan and others demonstrate that the blockchain momentum is growing across multiple industries in Europe
According to the IDC, “blockchain spending in Europe is now growing faster than anywhere else.”
Leading European companies are continuing to innovate with blockchain technology, progressing projects from proof of concept to production environments. And many, have selected IBM Blockchain as their partner of choice.
Blockchain in the enterprise
The attributes of blockchain technology are ideally suited to large networks of disparate partners. As such, it represents an attractive technology for large corporations and start-ups alike, with assets spread across the world in various forms.
The blockchain is a distributed ledger technology, which establishes a shared, immutable record of all the transactions that take place within a network. It then enables permissioned parties access to trusted data in real time.
‘By applying the technology to a variety of business processes, a new form of command and consent can be introduced into the flow of information, empowering multiple partners to collaborate and establishing a single shared view of a transaction without compromising details, privacy or confidentiality,’ according to an announcement released today by IBM.
IBM Blockchain
‘The hallmark of IBM’s blockchain business has been the ability to convene broad groups of network participants to embrace a collaborative platform approach to blockchain adoption,’ reads the announcement.
‘These clients are capitalising on the opportunity for greater trust and transparency using blockchain across a variety of industries, for example to better manage the reconciliation of international mobile phone roaming charges, securing digital identity for citizens, and complying with new European banking directives on customer communications.’
IBM has more than 500 blockchain projects globally, and is engaged across all industries. The company notes that European projects, in particular, are on the rise. According to the IDC, “blockchain spending in Europe is now growing faster than anywhere elseâ€.
“From large enterprises to startups, across multiple industries, businesses across Europe are selecting IBM Blockchain,†said Andrew Darley, IBM Blockchain Platform Leader, Europe. “Clients are attracted by the production-readiness of the IBM Blockchain Platform, allowing them to run highly secure networks in any environment of their choosing, on premise, via IBM Cloud, or an increasing number of other industry cloud providers.â€
Use cases
European clients are working with IBM to drive blockchain innovation in their industries:
Telefónica and IBM are collaborating in the development of a proof of concept based on IBM blockchain technology to help solve one of the major challenges of operators, the management of international mobile phone call traffic.
The project resolves in real time the veracity and traceability of the information generated by the different networks of the operators when they route an international call thanks to a decentralized platform to which all the operators that intervene in the process have access. As a consequence, fraudulent behaviors and discrepancies between the information recorded by each operator are significantly reduced.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan and IBM are developing a Digital Identification System based on Hyperledger Fabric for individuals and legal entities, to verify the reliability of the documents related to them, when individuals or legal entities turn to banks, credit providers and other organizations. The new system will simplify and automate the ‘Know Your Customer’ validation process, and will be used by both clients and credit organisations serving citizens of Azerbaijan.
Finnish retail cooperative S-Group is testing their Pike-perch radar solution, which is based on IBM Blockchain technology, as part of the retail group’s strategy to improve customer experience. Customers in Finland can trace a fillet of pike or perch freshwater fish back to its home waters using the QR Code on the package of “Kotimaista-kuhafile†fish, or by logging in to a tracking website.
PKO Bank Polski, together with KIR (Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa S.A. – Polish automated clearing house) and in partnership with IBM and Accenture, is using blockchain to help the bank achieve compliance with the European Union Payment Services Directive related to customer communication. Now the client documents and communications sent digitally to more than 5 million customers of the bank will be held in a highly secure blockchain-based repository.
The Central Securities Depository of Poland(Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartościowych, KDPW) has implemented their e-Voting solution in production, designed to encourage greater retail shareholder participation in company AGMs, and ensure transparency to regulators on the history of AGM agendas, and voting results.
Startup software developer Comgo.io, with support from IBM, is digitising the entire donation and spend process for NGOs using Hyperledger Fabric, a Linux Foundation project. NGO donors can see in real time what money has already been spent and the activities supported.
For example, when charity workers in India purchase hygiene products for the street children they support, the payment is tracked on a mobile phone, and written to the blockchain, allowing the approved people to see the transactions, and triggering the NGO responsible to verify that the children did actually receive the products.
IBM attributes this blockchain momentum to the ease of use of the IBM Blockchain Platform and the open nature of the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework, coupled with the deep industry expertise of the organisation.
Another factor is the availability of services and developer resources on the ground in Europe, supporting clients, according to IBM: IBM Client Centres and Blockchain Garages in London and Böblingen; IBM Client Innovation Centres in Paris, Nice and Gronningen; an Industry Solution Centre in Montpellier; IBM Food Trust operational in Frankfurt; IBM Research centers in Zurich and Dublin, focused on cryptography, innovations in AI and optical imaging to help prove the identity and authenticity of objects, detect anomalies and support preventative maintenance in industrial environments; and at the Watson IoT Center in Munich, clients are engaged on projects to explore the convergence of IoT and blockchain, and how clients can automate business processes, gain competitive advantage, and create new business models, by embedding end point and sensor data into blockchain networks, to trigger smart contracts.
IBM’s Blockchain Starter Plan on IBM Cloud is also helping developers, startups and enterprises build blockchain proof-of-concepts quickly and affordably with an end-to-end blockchain development experience: a secure test environment, suite of education tools and modules and one-click network provisioning.
