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ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #Crypto Markets See Second Day of Green, #Bitcoin Above $9,700 $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:05 AM on Wednesday, July 31st, 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.

Crypto Markets See Second Day of Green, Bitcoin Above $9,700

  • crypto markets are seeing widespread green, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking back above $9,700 and many large market cap altcoins seeing solid gains of between 3 and 9% on the day.

Marie Huillet

Market Update

Wednesday, July 31 — crypto markets are seeing widespread green, with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking back above $9,700 and many large market cap altcoins seeing solid gains of between 3 and 9% on the day.

Market visualization. Source: Coin360

Despite trading in a lower price range since dropping back to a four-figure price point in a recent corrections, BTC is today up a solid 2.4%, bringing it to $9,717 by press time. 

This mild uptick nonetheless stops short of bringing the coin back into the green on its 7-day chart, where Bitcoin is still reporting a fractional 0.7% loss. On the month, losses are starker, topping 8%.

Yesterday, Peter Tchir — a former Executive Director at German multinational investment bank Deutsche Bank — argued that Bitcoin is an indicator of hidden geopolitical tensions, pointing to the coin’s momentous performance this May at a time of fraught trade talks between the United States and China.

Also this week, erstwhile Bitcoin bear and CNBC host Joe Kernen predicted that the top coin could hit $55,000 —  a 500%+ price surge — by the time of its next halving in May 2020. 

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Top altcoin Ether (ETH) — which celebrated its fourth birthday yesterday — has posted a 1.9% to trade around $212 by press time. In corrections earlier this week, the coin had circled perilously close to the round $200 mark, but has since recovered ground and is just slightly in the red, at 2.2%, on its 7-day chart. On the month, however, Ether is down over 18%.

Ether 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

XRP is reporting a 2.7% gain on the day, while among the remaining top ten coins several alts are seeing stronger upward momentum: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is posting a 7.5% gain on the day, Litecoin (LTC) is up 3.6% and Binance Coin (BNB) is up 4.1%. 

In the context of top twenty coins, Tezos (XTZ) is outstripping all other assets, seeing a 24% gain on the day following news of the token’s listing on major United States crypto exchange Coinbase. At press time, XTZ is trading at $1.24

Tezos 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Still among the top twenty, strong gains are being reported by Chainlink (LINK) — up over 9% — as well as by NEO (NEO), IOTA (MIOTA) and Cosmos (ATOM), all of which are up by 4-5%.

Total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies is at $261,434,827,781 at press time, according to Coin360 data.

Dominating the crypto headlines this week is the hearing devoted to examining regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and blockchain held at the United States Senate Banking Committee. Cointelegraph reported live on the most important developments during the hearing as it unfolded.

Yesterday’s Committee hearing notably follows upon earlier hearings in mid-July that had examined the regulatory hurdles surrounding Facebook’s Libra.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-markets-see-second-day-of-green-bitcoin-above-9-700

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #Branson – backed #cryptocurrency firm launches a super-fast exchange to take on #Coinbase $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:36 PM on Tuesday, July 30th, 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.

Branson-backed cryptocurrency firm launches a super-fast exchange to take on Coinbase

  • Blockchain’s exchange is the result of work led by a team of former trading industry executives.
  • The exchange can execute orders in a matter of “microseconds,” according to CEO Peter Smith.
  • The firm has raised $70 million from investors including Richard Branson, Alphabet and Lakestar.

Blockchain CEO Peter Smith. Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Blockchain, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency wallet platforms, says it’s launched a digital currency exchange aimed at delivering “lightning-fast” trades.

The company’s exchange, called The PIT, is the result of a behind-the-scenes effort led by a team of former executives from the New York Stock Exchange, TD Ameritrade, Google and Goldman Sachs.

According to Blockchain CEO Peter Smith, the new exchange’s matching engine Mercury can execute buy or sell orders in “40 to 50 microseconds,” an “order of magnitude faster than other market players” like Coinbase and Binance.

Founded in 2011, Blockchain initially started out with what’s known as a block explorer — kind of like an internet browser for cryptocurrency data — and then built digital wallets for users to store and exchange their crypto. It derives its name from the eponymous blockchain network that records bitcoin transactions.

Having enjoyed popularity with bitcoin enthusiasts — Blockchain claims to account for about 25% of daily activity on the bitcoin network — the company is hoping its exchange platform will help lure in the uninitiated.

“There’s a huge audience of people who have not yet placed their first bitcoin trade,” Nicole Sherrod, head of trading products at Blockchain, told CNBC in an interview. Sherrod previously led the active trading product team at online stock broker TD Ameritrade before joining Blockchain.

Sherrod said the new trading platform would give investors a degree of liquidity not seen in competitor exchanges.

“In volatile markets in particular, speed is of utmost importance,” she said. “I would not feel comfortable delivering a platform to retail investors that puts them in a position where they couldn’t get in and out of a trade with lightning-fast speed.”

Blockchain CEO Peter Smith says the cryptocurrency firm’s new exchange can executive order in a matter of “microseconds.” Blockchain

Cryptocurrencies have gained a reputation for their volatile price swings. Bitcoin in late 2017 skyrocketed to a near-$20,000 record high, before plummeting the following year to as low as $3,122. The world’s best-known digital currency has been on the rise this year, however, last trading at $9,502.

Bitcoin’s rise in 2019 was attributed in part to Facebook’s plans to create a cryptocurrency, with analysts saying it brings some much-needed credibility to cryptocurrencies. Facebook’s Libra project has been panned by regulators, however, concerned by the risks it may pose to consumers.

One big hurdle for the industry to overcome is bringing institutional investors with deep pockets on board. That may be slowly starting to happen, with financial services giant Fidelity signaling it’s warming to the space. Sherrod said that Blockchain’s crypto exchange is providing liquidity through “institutional-level market makers.”

Blockchain said its exchange will be available in more than 200 countries, starting with 26 trading pairs. Users will be able to link their bank account with Blockchain and use U.S. dollars, euros and sterling to trade cryptocurrencies.

The company has raised over $70 million from investors including British billionaire Richard Branson, Alphabet venture arm GV and early Spotify backer Lakestar. It has also accrued over 40 million users, Blockchain said, who will be able to transfer crypto from their wallets to the exchange.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/30/bitcoin-blockchain-launches-crypto-exchange-to-take-on-coinbase.html

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #Blockchain is finally becoming the next-gen database of choice $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:49 AM on Monday, July 29th, 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.

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Blockchain is finally becoming the next-gen database of choice

Image Credit: TimeStopper/Getty

  • In short, a blockchain is a server that can’t crash and a database that can’t be corrupted — all in one easy to deploy package.

Will Martino, Kadena@_wjmartino

When I think of why we need a blockchain, I think of one guy. There was a dev we had hired to build a few important parts of our product for us. A few years previously, in another life, he had been hosting his own servers and one of them crashed. He was telling me this with tears in his eyes: The database, a massive mess full of customer data, point-of-sale info, and inventory information had gone up in smoke. The backups were hosed, as well. And there was no way to rewind the data.

He spent almost 24 hours in an air-conditioned server room, a monitor attached to the rack and a keyboard on his knees, trying to resurrect it. He was partially successful, but the real question was whether the data was accurate. Whether the transactions all matched up, whether he would keep his job in the morning.

Everything turned out fine and, since then, it has gotten a lot easier to do his job. Cloud replaced servers while also being cheaper and more reliable. His lingering fear never went away though. Things are better, but he can’t be 100% sure things will never go sideways again. He believes, though, that there’s a stronger safety net available now than we’ve had before: blockchain.

Benefits like disaster recovery, security, availability, and automation are all baked into blockchain. The serverless architecture of public blockchains makes them powerful proofs of how blockchain can deliver on enterprise-grade reliability for business databases. The costs are also not much higher: Blockchain’s ability to instantly replicate may even allow you to safely get away with the same (or even less) redundancy compared to a traditional database.  Perhaps the biggest advantage? Smart contracts will regulate changes, so a new hire can’t throw a wrench into everything — the blockchain will protect you from changes that could compromise data or stability.

In short, a blockchain is a server that can’t crash and a database that can’t be corrupted — all in one easy to deploy package.

To be clear, blockchain isn’t perfectly suited to solve certain data problems, the same way that email isn’t suited for instant messaging. Big data analytics is crazy expensive to replicate, and unless you are directly monetizing the data (like selling ads), it is not worth the cost to shoehorn blockchain into an analytical workload. Blockchains are best for core business transactional data, like your account balance. They are absolutely mission-critical when it comes to account data and ownership records, the loss of which would be an existential threat to a company. A company like Walmart can probably survive the loss of all website traffic data, but it would be very much at risk if it lost its inventory ledger.

Business continuity is a major concern for enterprise players as customers demand nothing less than always-on availability. As businesses grow though, the pains of migrating databases and updating systems can lead to massive fumbles. According to Boston Computing Network’s research, 60 percent of companies that lose their data will shut down within six months of the disaster. There exists an entire industry of SysOps, DevOps, and others who monitor code pushes and database migrations, giving humans plenty of chances to foul up a launch.

So blockchain represents a big opportunity for businesses to move quickly while keeping their operations secure.

Today, it isn’t just about the speed of transactions, it’s also about verifying and securing those transactions. That’s what has always been missing in system management and is something that anyone from our beleaguered dev to the teams that run databases for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are learning.

Blockchain tech is the evolution of the database. Smart contracts enforce business rules, while databases are backed up and verified continuously. All of the infrastructure and computational needs are calculated before deployment, and embedded rules ensure compliance from day one onward.

In fact, it looks a lot like the next generation of what APIs look like. You’re encapsulating processes, tying them together with requests for data, and expecting results. Right now, the business logic is processed on central servers of some kind. What’s innovative with blockchain is that you can take that logic, wrapped as a smart contract, and run it on your own. It still adheres to the rules set by the people who created it, and it must interact as expected.

Now, imagine databases on blockchain using these same robust rules. Robust databases that are unkillable. You don’t have to worry about your main server going down. Replication is built-in. Immutable laws exist that you can’t lose or change. If you’re on a public blockchain, this is as robust as possible, and you don’t have to pay for any servers. With a public blockchain, your data is stored cryptographically by the blockchain’s miners all around the world. If you’re on a private blockchain, you may run several replicated systems. Or, you can own all the nodes. You can also use blockchain on cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The key is that blockchain is built to be replicated, again and again. Traditional databases must be migrated in specific, expensive ways under certain conditions to guard against data loss.

Ultimately, this is where blockchain really proves its worth: combining the basic elements of security, robustness, replication, and business logic all in its “DNA.” Smart contracts are safe, distributed, and secure. Your entire dataset is more secure this way, too. This is why blockchain promises to be the next-generation database.

Will Martino is Founder and CEO of Kadena.

Source: https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/27/blockchain-is-finally-becoming-the-next-gen-database-of-choice/

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – In First, #SEC Clears #Blockchain Gaming Startup to Sell #Ethereum Tokens $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:18 AM on Friday, July 26th, 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.

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In First, SEC Clears Blockchain Gaming Startup to Sell Ethereum Tokens

  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters (PoQ), a gaming startup looking to issue tokens on the ethereum blockchain.
  • PoQ may legally sell its Quarters tokens to consumers without registering them as securities, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance wrote in its second no-action letter to a company seeking to launch a token sale.

Nikhilesh De

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters (PoQ), a gaming startup looking to issue tokens on the ethereum blockchain.

PoQ may legally sell its Quarters tokens to consumers without registering them as securities, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance wrote in its second no-action letter to a company seeking to launch a token sale. (The first was granted in April to TurnKey Jet, a business-travel startup.)

Quarters are built according to the ERC-20 standard – the first such token to receive U.S. regulatory approval.

In the July 25 letter, Jonathan Ingram, chief legal officer for the SEC’s FinHub wing, wrote:

“Based on the facts presented, the Division will not recommend enforcement action to the Commission if, in reliance on your opinion as counsel that the Quarters are not securities, PoQ offers and sells the Quarters without registration under Section 5 of the Securities Act and does not register Quarters as a class of equity securities under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act.”

“The thing that’s notable here, this is the first ERC-20 public blockchain token [approved for a sale],” said Lewis Cohen of DLX Law, which worked with PoQ to secure the letter.

The token is a stablecoin, with PoQ setting the price of the Quarters as the only seller, PoQ CEO George Weiksner said. This is part of the company’s compliance requirement with the SEC. (A smart contract prevents tokens from being sent to unapproved accounts, thereby restricting secondary trading.)

PoQ also raised money through a registered securities sale using an investment token, which will remain separate from the Quarters sale.

The two-token system is meant to ensure that users conduct transactions with Quarters, rather than hold them in the hopes of securing a return, Weiksner explained.

He said he hopes Quarters will improve the gaming experience for players who are tired of spending large sums for different platforms, adding:

“It’s a way to make games better.”

“The most important thing for teenage boys is playing video games and this might be the first financial product that they have and it’ll be a crypto wallet,” said Michael Weiksner, the company’s principal (and George’s father).

PoQ is working with Apple and Google to sell Quarters tokens in the App and Google Play stores, respectively, the elder Weiksner said.

Launch conditions

The no-action letter requires a PoQ to follow a number of commitments, including ensuring that players can’t sell, buy or exchange tokens with each other. Rather, only developer or “influencer” accounts will be able to transact with players.

“Players can never buy or sell or exchange to anyone except for approved developers, and that’s a key component of our … [compliance] strategy,” Michael Weiksner said.

“Accounts are born as regular accounts but they’re restricted, so they can’t exchange,” he said. “The default accounts are restricted and only approved accounts can accept Quarters.”

At present, only PoQ can approve accounts, and there are no concrete plans to grant other entities the ability to do so, he said. PoQ is still looking into whether that’s possible.

Developers and influencers will have to pass know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes before they can get an approved account.

According to the letter, Pocketful of Quarters has fully developed its platform and can go live before any tokens are sold.

Moreover, the Quarters tokens “will be immediately usable for their intended purpose” with PoQ’s gaming platform when the sale begins, and “only developers and influences with approved accounts will be capable of exchanging Quarters for [ether] at pre-determined exchange rates by transferring their Quarters to the Quarters Smart Contract.”

The SEC’s Ingram warned that “any different facts or conditions might require the Division to reach a different conclusion.”

“Further, this response expresses the Division’s position on enforcement action only and does not express any legal conclusion on the question presented or on the applicability of any other laws, including the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering and related frameworks,” he wrote.

Reaching this point took PoQ and DLX the better part of a year, Michael Weiksner said.

Cohen told CoinDesk, “we have long championed the importance of working with, rather than against, regulators, and we believe the outcome today of this … letter, the first-ever ERC-20 that can be sold without being a securities offering, I think it’s an incredibly important point.”

He concluded:

“It required a lot of patience, and it shows that not every ERC-20 token is a securities offering and it is a positive event in working with regulators.”

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/sec-clears-blockchain-gaming-startup-to-sell-quarters-tokens

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – The Future Of #Banking: Is It All #Bitcoin And #Blockchain? #Crypto $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:26 AM on Thursday, July 25th, 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.

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The Future Of Banking: Is It All Bitcoin And Blockchain?

Darryn Pollock Contributor

At the beginning of July, news broke of Deutsche Bank staff being sent home as 18,000 job cuts began unraveling before our very eyes. This news was brought to life with an iconic image of two suited men carrying their possessions past the doors of a Deutsche Bank branch in London along with a bag branded “Bitcoins.”

Unfortunately, that image turned out only to be an incredible piece of timing and coincidence as the men were not now out-of-work bankers hoofing it from their formal institutional workplace brandishing the ‘future of money,’ on their bags, instead they were tailors walking past at the right time. 

Still, that near-perfect latent image of the finance’s future did spark a few questions in my mind, and the minds of others. Just how far are we from a future predicated on Bitcoin and blockchain in banking?

The beginning of the end for banks

To answer this question, I had to look at what is happening in the world of banking that has led to job cuts and the concerns for the traditional way of doing things in finance. Living in the United Kingdom, London is a historical hotspot for banking and the seat of power for some of the world’s biggest banks.

However, beyond the high-rise glass structures in the city center, there are signs – usually in the tube stations and bus stops – of a new way of managing and controlling your money on a day to day basis. No, it is not Bitcoin – yet – it is the challenger banks.

Challenger banks, as defined, are: “Small, recently-created retail banks in the United Kingdom that compete directly with the longer-established banks in the country, sometimes by specializing in areas underserved by the “big four” banks.”

These banks, also called App-banks, are usually highly customer focused and made to be as user-friendly and as easy to operate on a day to day basis as they can. In comparison with traditional banks, challenger banks try and play to general user frustrations from your big institutional banks. Sound familiar?

Challenging the legacy

I spoke with Anne Boden, a banking doyen with 30 years experience in some of the most important financial institutions in the world, and now the founder and CEO of Starling Bank – one such challenger bank in the UK.

Talking to her about the future of banking was fascinating for although Boden is aware of Bitcoin, blockchain, and its potential it has in the banking sector, she believes its time is still far on the horizon.

In her recently released book, “The Money Revolution” Boden states: “[Blockchain] is easily the most revolutionary money change on the horizon and may make a huge difference across the fintech sector.”

BERLIN, GERMANY – NOVEMBER 30: CEO of Starling Bank Anne Boden speaks on stage during TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2018 at Treptow Arena on November 30, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch) Getty Images for TechCrunch

Her thoughts on how traditional banks will need to change and evolve because of several different factors could easily be viewed in the same way, but with blockchain and cryptocurrency-tinted glasses

“I spent 30-odd years in traditional banking, I worked for all the big banks, I worked for Lloyds Bank, Standard Chartered, UBS, Zurich, and RBS. Then I went into AIG, post-financial crisis, to do the turn-around and I came to the conclusion that it was easier to start a new bank than to fix the old,” Boden told me.

Indeed, the banking legacy and way of doing things has become so stagnant that the wants of the banks and the needs of the customers almost do not line up anymore – especially on a day to day basis. Challenger banks are this fresh start customers have been baying for, but in comparison, cryptocurrencies and blockchain could be an entirely fresh system.

“In this era, it is people like Atom, Monzo, and Starling that have come to market, and the ones that have been successful are the ones that have built their own technology,” Boden added. “All these organizations have been called challenger banks, but you can only really disrupt when you have a current account – because people are using that every day – and when you have your own technology.”

Again, Boden is not necessarily referring to that technology as being blockchain; however, one can see how blockchain is a prime example of disruptive technology for the banking sector. The world is changing, and the way people do everything is different, and this is also down to technology.

“Customers have changed. Customers are buying music differently; they are shopping on Amazon; they are doing things very differently,” said Boden. “Technology has changed. Everyone is wandering around with their smartphones, these phones have better penetration than the laptop, and then all the time the regulations are changing as well, and that is a perfect storm to bring something like Starling to the market.”

Starling is one of several challenger banks that are succeeding at disrupting the banking hegemony with their customer focus, their everyday usability, and their own technologies. Their success is indeed a challenge to institutional financial systems, but because this is a fast-moving space, there are already challengers to the challenger banks. 

A new weapon in the arsenal

Challenger banks, App-banks, mobile payment companies, merchant services aggregator, peer-to-peer payments companies, are all financial services that are looking to take a piece of the pie that traditional banks have held for so long – and it is not just a UK phenomenon. 

Circle, Square, and even Revolut, which is coming to the USA are also disruptive forces in the financial space, but what they all have in common is a cryptocurrency offering. Cryptocurrency may be a long way off from being as popular as the Pound or the Dollar in regards to payments, but some of these companies are still offering the chance to use this alternative payment method, should you be so inclined. 

This took me to the offices of two other App-banks in the UK, Wirex, and Zeux. Both companies operate as an alternative banking solution, allowing for payments and money transfers, but they also each have cryptocurrency offerings as well.

These offerings are of course not going to be nearly as popular as the general fiat services of Starling, for example, but they are not supposed to be – as yet. 

“App-banks, or digital banks, are making things more convenient for everyday customers to manage their banking, “Frank Zhou, CEO of Zeux, told me. “There are a lot of needs in the early adopter space who are interested in cryptocurrency, from trading, investing, using it for payments. Those types of customers are easier to reach as they follow the newest developments and are willing to give it a try,” 

Pavel Matveev, one of the founders at Wirex, explained that the use of cryptocurrencies need not only be for experimenting though. There are tangible use-cases within the payment sphere already.

“While App-based and digital banks offer a more convenient means of managing money, they are still largely based on conventional payment infrastructure. This means that cross-border payments still take 3-5 days to settle and command relatively high fees,” said Matveev

“Decentralised digital currencies have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of the payments industry due to their transparency, mobility, and ease-of-use,”  added Dmitry Lazarichev, also of Wirex. “One of the most significant areas is international remittance. Cross-border crypto transactions are significantly faster than conventional methods of transferring money abroad and require very little in the way of fees and charges.”

Different offerings

What Matveev and Lazarichev, as well as Zhou,  had to say about including cryptocurrencies into the new era of banking, reminded me of Boden’s view for the future of the industry. The hopes of the two crypto-offering App-banks is that they can fill small niches for people with this new technology, and for Boden, the view is that traditional banks will face stiff competition in these small niches of finance services. 

“What is going to happen is other things happening in the environment will catch up with the banking industry, they will surprise the banking industry,” said Boden “The combination of 5G internet of things, self-driving cars, AI and machine learning will change the profile of how payments are made.” 

“So I think that the nature of payments will change and you will get new entrants providing some of those new payment mechanisms, and I think in that environment the incumbent banks will find it harder to compete. Some will survive and mutate to something relevant, and many of them will die.”

If cryptocurrency is to become one of those new payment mechanisms, getting an early foot in the door is vital, but even more important is offering a service that is usable. Zeux may see this as using cryptocurrency for general payments, while Wirex could believe remittances are key for the digital currencies; neither is more right than the other and perhaps that is the point – there will be a bevy of offerings in the future. 

“Like previous studies of mass adoption, it happens when the majority can use it as easily as they would use it normally. For example, from cash to PIN card, Pin card to contactless cards, contactless to mobile payment. An easy-to-use experience is key to bringing adoption,” said  Zhou.

“I think the market is ready for crypto mass adoption. But, there needs to be a solution before the mass demand surfaces. Once all the customers know they can spend their cryptos easily everywhere in any shops, it increases their willingness to accept cryptos as payment in the first place. Mass adoption only happens after the solution appears, not before.”

A changing future

The banking world has, for almost the last century, continued in pretty much the same way with little to no threat from alternatives. That is all changing. People would like to believe that the power of blockchain in the financial system, and the option of cryptocurrencies, are about to shake up the entire banking space, but they would be wrong. 

There is little doubt that banking will start to incorporate blockchain, as Boden explains: “I think that blockchain is likely to be used in certain aspects of the banking business, so probably for trade finance where you have lots of parties collaborating on a transaction, but I think you will see blockchain implementation in niche areas of the business, you won’t see it as a wholesale change for the banking platform.”

However, for an entire, legacy-based industry of such a traditional magnitude to overhaul its entire system for a nascent technology is foolhardy.

In saying that, cryptocurrencies will start to gain more mass appeal. This does not mean these two sides of the same industry will be what changes the face of banking. Still, the face of banking is changing, and that is why traditional banks that are oblivious to this are starting to show cracks. 

Everyday usage of money and payments is already on the march, and because of the needs of customers, there is an emerging market of challenger banks, app-banks, financial institutions and payment facilitators in the wings. Some are already offering blockchain and crypto services, some may do so down the line, but to say that the only way to the future of banking is with blockchain and crypto is short-sighted – there are much bigger demands and many more niches to be filled.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrynpollock/2019/07/25/the-future-of-banking-is-it-all-bitcoin-and-blockchain/#3de88cf631eb

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Understanding #blockchain technology and its implications on the future of transactions $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:57 AM on Monday, July 22nd, 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.

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Understanding blockchain technology and its implications on the future of transactions

Blockchain technology will disrupt the way we write and enforce contracts, execute transactions and maintain records.

  • Since blockchain technology is at the heart of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, it can at the very least be expected to power even more consequential mediums of exchange in the future.

Shaan Ray Jul 22, 2019
Blockchain technology is transformative, and several commentators expect that it will have a massive economic impact similar to the one the Internet has had in the past few decades.

Blockchain could be the future of the financial industry.

Since blockchain technology is at the heart of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, it can at the very least be expected to power even more consequential mediums of exchange in the future. However, virtual currencies are merely the first use case of blockchain technology.

Blockchain fundamentals

The blockchain is an open and distributed ledger. It uses an append-only data structure, meaning new transactions and data can be added on to a blockchain, but past data cannot be erased.

This results in a verifiable and permanent record of data and transactions between two or more parties. This has the potential to increase transparency and accountability, and positively enhance our social and economic systems. A blockchain is built by running software and linking several nodes together.

The main chain (black) consists of the longest series of blocks from the genesis block (blue) to
the current block. Orphan blocks (red) exist outside of the main chain.

A blockchain is not one global entity — there are several blockchains. Imagine a network of connected computers inside a highly secure office, which are connected to each other, but not to the internet. A blockchain is similar to this: it can have numerous connected nodes, but remain totally separate and unique from other blockchains.

Institutions and banks can build internal blockchains with their own features for various organizational purposes. A consensus mechanism and a reward system are required to maintain the integrity and functionality of a blockchain.

In the Bitcoin blockchain, consensus is achieved by ‘mining’, and the reward system is a protocol awarding a miner some amount of Bitcoin upon successfully mining a block. Mining is undertaken by powerful computers solving complex mathematical puzzles. Once a transaction is verified and accepted as true by the entire network, miners start working on the next block. Thus, a blockchain keeps growing (linking each new block to the one before it).

Implications for transactions

Blockchain technology will disrupt the way we write and enforce contracts, execute transactions and maintain records. Keeping records of transactions is a core function of all businesses. These records are meant to track past performance and help with forecasting and planning for the future.

Most organizations’ records take a lot of time and effort to create, and often the creation and storage processes are prone to errors. Currently, transactions can be executed immediately, but settlement can take anywhere from several hours to several days. For example, someone selling stock in a corporation on a stock exchange can sell immediately, but settlement can take a few days.

Similarly, a deal to purchase a house or car can be negotiated and signed quickly, but the registration process (verifying and registering the change in property ownership) often takes days and may involve lawyers and government employees. In each of these examples, each party maintains its own ledger, and cannot access the ledgers of the other parties involved. On the blockchain, the process of transaction verification and recording is immediate and permanent.

The ledger is distributed across several nodes, meaning the data is replicated and stored instantaneously on each node across the system. When a transaction is recorded in the blockchain, details of the transaction such as price, asset, and ownership, are recorded, verified and settled within seconds across all nodes. A verified change registered on any one ledger is also simultaneously registered on all other copies of the ledger. Since each transaction is transparently and permanently recorded across all ledgers, open for anyone to see, there is no need for third-party verification.

From virtual currencies to enterprise

Use The blockchain underlying Bitcoin is currently the largest and best-known blockchain. Ethereum is a separate blockchain: while it supports the Ether currency, it also acts as a distributed computing platform that features smart contract functionality. Therefore, despite having a virtual currency element, it has many more uses than Bitcoin. For example, companies in various industries raising funds through ICOs use Ethereum for their projects.

The Hyperledger Project, by the Linux Foundation, aims to bring together a number of independent efforts to develop open protocols and standards in blockchain technology for enterprise use.

Here for the long term

Blockchain technology will disrupt the way we write Blockchain technology, but is still in an early, formative stage, and cryptocurrencies are only its first major use case.

Beyond cryptocurrency, blockchain technology will change how we transact, and how we record and verify transactions. This will revolutionise contracts and reduce friction in the exchange of assets.

Over the next few decades, blockchain technology will percolate through our organizations and institutions, and shape how we transact with one another. Just as the Internet continues to power emergent technologies, we can expect to see new use cases of blockchain technology across all industries.

Shaan Ray (MBA) is the head of Denver Hill, a group that uses emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing and the industrial internet to create new products and processes.

Source: https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/understanding-blockchain-technology-and-its-implications-on-the-future-of-transactions-7033731.html

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – As #Facebook $FB Struggles For #Blockchain Support, A Truly Decentralized Challenger Emerges $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:45 PM on Sunday, July 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.

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As Facebook Struggles For Blockchain Support, A Truly Decentralized Challenger Emerges

  • So, what is Celo? In a similar fashion to Libra, Celo is at its core a stablecoin platform
  • This means that the key value proposition of the assets running on top of the platform is that they are immune to the wide swings in volatility that have plagued leading crypto assets in recent years
  • Creates an opportunity for companies and projects like Celo, which are building pure blockchain-based financial services aimed at linking the nearly 2 billion people in the world that do not have access to bank accounts or the ability to verify their identity

As Facebook Blockchain Lead David Marcus tries to simultaneously use his testimony in front of U.S. lawmakers to restore trust in the company, and convince them that Facebook will not always be the driving force of its Libra project, it is easy to see why some of its key blockchain competitors are enthusiastic about the company’s entrance in the space.

The prevailing belief is that at some point the inherent contractions in Facebook’s blockchain strategy and the Libra project are going to become too much to overcome. Of course, this assumes that the project launches at all, which is not certain given the regulatory scrutiny it faces around the world.

This creates an opportunity for companies and projects like Celo, which are building pure blockchain-based financial services aimed at linking the nearly 2 billion people in the world that do not have access to bank accounts or the ability to verify their identity.

To the point, it is interesting that some of Libra’s first members, including venerated venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and crypto-unicorn Coinbase, have invested in Celo. Some of Celo’s other high-profile investors include LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter/Square CEO Jack Dorsey.

Understanding Celo

So, what is Celo? In a similar fashion to Libra, Celo is at its core a stablecoin platform. This means that the key value proposition of the assets running on top of the platform is that they are immune to the wide swings in volatility that have plagued leading crypto assets in recent years. Many are designed to mirror the price movements of traditional currency, and most have names that reflect their fiat brethren, such as the Gemini Dollar. This is a critical need for the industry, as no asset will be able to serve as a currency if it does not maintain a consistent price.

A man walks past signs advertising money transfer services and loans outside a business in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) ASSOCIATED PRESS

However, rather than being a centralized issuer that supports the price pegs with fiat held in banks, Celo has built a full-stack platform (meaning it developed the underlying blockchain and applications that run on top), that can offer an unlimited number of stablecoins all backed by cryptoassets held in reserve.

Furthermore, Celo is what is known as an algorithmic-based stablecoin provider. This distinction means that rather than being a centralized entity that controls issuances and redemptions, the company employs a smart-contract based stability protocol that automatically expands or contracts the supply of its collateral reserves in a fashion similar to how the Federal Reserve adjusts the U.S. monetary supply. In this vein, Celo co-founder Rene Reinsberg told me that the company actually “Maintains overcollaterization via a multi-asset crypto reserve composed of Celo’s native asset, Celo Gold, and a basket of other crypto assets, such as bitcoin.” This overcollateralization is important, and common in crypto lending and stablecoin platforms, because it serves as a buffer against potential volatility.

Additionally, a key differentiator for Celo from similar projects is that for the first time its blockchain platform allows users to send/receive money to a person’s phone number, IP address, email, as well as other identifiers. This feature will be critical to the long-term success for the network because it eliminates the need for counterparties in a transaction to share their public keys with each other prior to a transaction.

And now today, Celo is open-sourcing its entire codebase and design after two years of development. Additionally, the company is launching the first prototype of its platform, named the Alfajores Testnet, and Celo Wallet, an Android app that will allow users to manage their accounts and send/receive payments on the testnet.

This announcement and product is intended to be just the first of what will be a wide range of financial services applications designed to connect the world.

A Bright Outlook But Significant Question Remain

With all of that said, the company’s near and long-term success will depend on its ability to navigate and address some key hurdles. Three in particular immediately come to mind:

Stability of the Network. There are currently no algorithmic/smart-contract based stablecoins in circulation today that have seen widespread adoption. There are multiple reasons for this. First, it is simpler to issue stablecoins on a 1:1 basis for fiat kept in reserves. Second, it is nearly-impossible to design a complex system that can account for and overcome any threat or challenge. It is likely that at some point the future the network’s governance structure will be challenged or that a critical flaw will be discovered in the underlying code. The platform’s ability to rebound from these challenges without compromising its decentralized nature will be a key determinant of its future.

Ability to Adapt to Highly Volatile Fiat. A key differentiator between Celo and other stablecoin issuers is that anyone that participates in its governance function can propose a new currency. The intention is that the platform will support a wide range of global, national, and local currencies. Given that it is first targeting users in the developing world, where the currencies are notoriously volatile, there is a chance that the system could be strained as it seeks to maintain constant pegs across the network. It is worth noting that the company has given great thought and care to ensure that it is anti-fragile, and part of this strategy involves using a diverse basket of collateral to support all assets on the network.

Regulation. If the Libra hearings in front of Congress proved nothing else, lawmakers are very concerned about crypto being misappropriated for illicit uses. All issuers will need to comply with existing AML/KYC laws. I asked Rene about this challenge and whether or not their ability to comply will be hindered by the firms ability to onboard users with little more than a phone number or some other numerical identifier. His response was, “Yes, we’ve had conversations with regulators both in the US and around the world. We think regulation is critical for this space, particularly when it comes to protecting consumers. We will absolutely comply with US laws and laws around the world. We’re looking forward to sharing more on this at a later stage, closer to mainnet launch”

Conclusion

There is a saying “nothing worth having comes easy”, and that certainly applies to Celo and its diligent approach to development. Additionally, the irony of its launch’s juxtaposition with the Libra hearings underscores the need for a decentralized approach to connecting the world.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2019/07/17/as-facebook-struggles-for-blockchain-support-a-truly-decentralized-challenger-emerges/#3e22e26319eb

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #Bitcoin’s Price Could Rise If #Facebook’s #Crypto Survives Congress Hearings $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:49 AM on Monday, July 15th, 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.

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Bitcoin’s Price Could Rise If Facebook’s Crypto Survives Congress Hearings

  • Facebook’s fiat and government bond backed cryptocurrency Libra is widely considered a net positive for bitcoin, an anti-establishment asset.

By: Omkar Godbole

Bitcoin has come under pressure ahead of the U.S. governmental hearings on Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency on July 16 and 17.

The price of a single bitcoin, which stood near $13,000 five days ago, fell below $10,000 earlier today and tested the 50-day moving average at $9,900 for the first time since February 18.

Facebook’s head of Calibra – one of the entities set up to govern and develop the crypto project – David Marcus is scheduled testify to lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

The upcoming scrutiny of Libra may be weighing over bitcoin. After all, past data shows BTC tends to drop ahead of congressional hearings related to cryptocurrencies and rise on favorable outcomes.

Last year, for instance, BTC fell from $6,820 to $6,070 in five days to July 12, before rallying to $7,400 on July 18 when the House Committee on Financial Services gathered for a hearing on “crypto as a new form of money”.

More importantly, the cryptocurrency remained bid in the following days and rose to a high of $8,500 on July 24 (according to Bitstamp data) because the hearing didn’t take an overly negative tone.

On similar lines, BTC dropped from $12,000 to $6,000 in the 10 days leading up to a congressional hearing on Feb. 6, 2018, where the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman and the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission testified before the Senate Banking Committee. That hearing was also surprisingly positive and BTC rose back to levels above $11,700 by Feb. 20.

Going further back, the price action seen ahead of bitcoin’s first congressional hearing on Nov. 18, 2013, was slightly different in the sense that the cryptocurrency was solidly bid, rising from $85 to $650 in six weeks leading up to the event.

Again the hearing on the growing popularity of virtual currencies wasn’t anti-crypto, allowing BTC to extend the rally to highs above $1,150 on Nov. 30.

Will BTC rise this time round?

Facebook’s fiat and government bond backed cryptocurrency Libra is widely considered a net positive for bitcoin, an anti-establishment asset.

This is evident from the fact that BTC rallied from $9,000 to $13,800 in the eight days following Facebook’s unveiling of Libra’s white paper on June 18.

So, it is hardly surprising that the leading cryptocurrency is feeling the pull of gravity ahead of the congressional hearings on Libra and will likely take a hit if the U.S. lawmakers throw a spanner in the works for Facebook.

It is worth noting that the likes of the Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell have already called for a halt to Facebook’s project until concerns from privacy to money laundering are addressed. President Trump also criticized the project in tweets last week.

BTC, however, may rise well past $13,800 and possibly hit record highs before the end of the third quarter if the hearings are more optimistic.

A far as the technical charts are concerned, the short-term outlook will remain bullish as long as prices hold above $9,614 (July 2 low).

As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $10,300 on Bitstamp, representing 4.86 percent drop on a 24-hour basis.

Daily and 3-day charts

A UTC close below $9,614 would invalidate the bullish higher-lows pattern and confirm a bullish-to-bearish trend change.

That looks likely with the three-day chart reporting a bearish divergence of the relative strength index (RSI). The indicator has also dived out of the ascending trendline, signaling the end of the rally from December lows.

Further, the previous three-candle closed well below the 10-candle moving average, a level which acted as strong support throughout the rise from $3,500 to $13,880, as discussed on Friday.

Weekly chart

The long upper wicks attached to two out of the last three candles indicates bullish exhaustion and so does the bearish divergence of the RSI.

All-in-all, the charts are biased for a drop to $9,097 (May 30 high), unless the congressional hearings are more positive than expected. In that case, prices may rise above $13,800, signaling a continuation of the rally.

Hourly chart

BTC has recovered from lows near $9,850 to $10,300. The bearish lower-highs pattern, however, is still intact. Prices may rise to $11,200 in the next 24 hours if the cryptocurrency invalidates the bearish lower highs pattern with a move above $10,732.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.

U.S. Capitol image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.


This article is intended as a news item to inform our readers of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of the cryptocurrency described above. The information contained herein is not intended to provide, and it does not provide, sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision, and you should not rely on this information for that purpose. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoins-price-could-rise-if-facebooks-crypto-survives-congress-hearings

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #Google Coin Within 2 Years as #FANGs Will Go #Crypto, Say Winklevoss $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:00 PM on Thursday, July 11th, 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.

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‘Google Coin’ Within 2 Years as FANGs Will Go Crypto, Say Winklevoss

ByWilliam Suberg

Digital currency will form part of all four FANG companies’ offerings by 2021, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss told CNBC in a new interview on July 9.

Speaking about Facebook Libra, the twins, who co-founded cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini, said it was only a matter of time before other tech giants followed suit. 

FANG refers to the unofficial “Big Four” of the internet: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.

“Our prediction is every FANG company will have some sort of cryptocurrency project within the next two years,” Tyler told the network. 

Libra as a payment protocol has not yet launched, but regulators have voiced alarm, particularly in the United States, where several sources have demanded developers halt the project. 

Concerns stem from Libra’s potential to bypass the banking system, something cryptocurrency proponents conversely argue makes the banking establishment overly nervous about losing revenue. 

On Thursday, Bitcoin (BTC) itself shed over 10% of its value after a senior U.S. lawmaker delivered fresh concerns about Libra.

For the Winklevosses, however, front-door approaches to regulators is key in getting any disruptive finance offering to market.

Though many say it is not a cryptocurrency at all, the twins even suggested they would facilitate trading of Libra on Gemini, should it be open and not subject to prohibitive restrictions.

“We’ll evaluate Libra in earnest, and it might actually be an asset that is one day listed if it’s an open protocol; that’s possible,” Tyler continued. 

Earlier this week, Tom Lee, a serial Bitcoin advocate, delivered a similar forecast regarding tech giants’ future involvement in the digital currency industry.

“The fact that Facebook and likely other FANG companies are going to create their own digital currencies is validating the idea that digital money is here to stay,” he told CNBC.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-coin-within-2-years-as-fangs-will-go-crypto-say-winklevoss

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Is #Blockchain the New Technology of Trust? $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:22 AM on Wednesday, July 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.

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Is Blockchain the New Technology of Trust?

  • Blockchain continues to be a hot topic across the global start-up ecosystem.
  • And more entrepreneurs are placing huge bets on this technology. Y

Nidhi Singh Former Correspondent, Entrepreneur Asia-Pacific

Blockchain continues to be a hot topic across the global start-up ecosystem. And more entrepreneurs are placing huge bets on this technology. Yet the adoption remains sluggish despite the growing investment by start-ups and potential investors. Main reasons for this are fears over security and regulatory uncertainty. Will mass implementation of blockchain technology remain a distant fantasy?

US-based rating agency Moody’s Investor Service warns about the risks associated with the technology. “New risks with blockchain technology in securitizations may emerge as well as the reinforcement of some already existing ones. Risks include counterparty concentration, IT and operational risks, inappropriate blockchain governance and legal and regulatory issues,” its report says. Another study by auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) states that trust is one of the biggest blockers to the blockchain’s adoption. Concern about trust among respondents in the survey was highest in Singapore (37 per cent) after Hong Kong (35 per cent).

Riding the Wave

Despite issues, companies, especially those in Asia Pacific, are not shying away from the technology. Singapore-based LALA World Chief ExecutiveOfficer and Founder Sankal  Shangari believes blockchain technology is not only bringing in a difference at the consumer level but also posing a threat to the established system of governance, which is obtrusive of financial freedom.

“A lot of myths are floating around the technology. It was dubbed as a dubious technology, which may look promising, but was porous and could be compromised. The reality is far from it, the technology is secure and reliable than any of the other techniques available. But at the same time, it is complex and in a nascent stage just like the web was in the early 1990s and that is what helps the naysayers in spreading heresy about it. The need is to understand its applicability to a particular problem and the impact it has in solving it,” says Shangari.

LALA ID, a product of LALA World, is a comprehensive solution that protects the personal information of users through the immutable blockchain technology. Additionally, the start-up offers features like crypto payments through its application. “The world is going gung-ho about the possibilities of the said technology, which is gradually growing as an infrastructural pillar of economic functionalities, receiving the attention it deserves,” stresses Shangari.

Varied Uses

Mike Davie’s Quadrant Protocol leverages blockchain and smart contracts to track the data’s journey along the data chain—from the originating device to the data scientists that add value to the data—and provide automatic compensation every time the data is purchased. This helps create a more sustainable data economy. The start-up serves as the blueprint that provides an organized system for the utilization of decentralized
data.

“Data quality is vital to the success of artificial intelligence. Algorithms will believe whatever the data tells them to believe, so using poor quality data can result in unintended consequences. Data consumers, therefore, need to know where the data is coming from and be able to trust the source. At the same time, the original providers of the data are rarely compensated fairly. Data consumers like data scientists or AI practitioners can be assured of the quality and provenance of the data being purchased, while providers are compensated fairly. All compensation is paid in Quadrant Protocol tokens, which are recorded on the blockchain,” says Davie.

The company’s primary focus is on location data, which is an essential tool in understanding the behaviour of potential customers. The platform processes over 50 billion records a month, enabling organisations in every industry to obtain data they can use to make business and policy decisions. It is powered by a protocol that uses blockchain technology to authenticate and map this data.

Insurtech company Hearti is serving insurers with their proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain platform. Keith Lim, Chief Executive Officer, Hearti, believes blockchain’s immutable nature can foster trust in the insurance agreements between consumers, insurers and partners.

“Smart contracts are executed based on events that trigger conditions within the agreement (for eg. to pay out claims in the event of a flight delay). When claims data is shared securely on the blockchain, duplicate claims and fraud can be tracked and detected. Such uses of blockchain create huge value for our company’s proposition and put it at the forefront of the industry,” says Lim.

Founded in June 2015, Hearti Lab was born out of the realization that there was a void in the corporate and personal insurance sector: the lack of a low-cost, full-featured AI platform for insurance management. To achieve its vision of developing an integrated insurance platform, the start-up has developed two complementary platforms: BENEFIT.X and SURETY.AI.

In Tech We Trust

For Joseph Lee, Chief Technology Officer, BridgeX Network, blockchain is the “new technology of trust”. BridgeX Network is a financial ecosystem framework, built on a proprietary technology core that bridges the worlds of cryptocurrencies and fiat.

“We are using blockchain technologies to create a platform to allow lenders and borrowers to transact directly in a secure environment. The terms are specified in the blockchain and will be executed automatically without bias. The costs saved from eliminating intermediaries are passed to participants on the platform,” says Lee. “Perhaps due to the newness of the technology, there may still be a trust deficit with the public. But we strongly believe in it.”

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/336480