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Technologies of #Blockchain – Part 1: The Foundations #KoreConX

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:03 PM on Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

Kiran Garimella

Technologies of Blockchain – Part 1: The Foundations

Blockchain is not just a single technology but a package of a number of technologies and techniques. The rich lexicon in the blockchain includes terms such as Merkle trees, sharding, state machine replication, fault tolerance, cryptographic hashing, zero-knowledge proofs, zkSNARKS, and other exotic terms.

In this four-part series, we will provide a very high-level overview of each of the main components of technology. In reality, the number of technologies, variations, configurations, and considerations of trade-offs are numerous. Each piece in this puzzle was motivated by certain business requirements and technical considerations.

In this first part, we look at the origins of the ‘chain’ and the most important technological advancement that makes blockchain (and all e-commerce) possible, i.e., the Internet.

While there have been genuine innovations within the last decade, blockchain’s underlying technologies are mostly quite old (in computer science time scale). Let us unpack a typical blockchain to trace out the origins of the constituent technologies. In this short post, I’ll only point to a very small (some may say, infinitesimally small) subset of the historical origin of technologies that make the modern blockchain possible. I’ll make no attempt to trace the development of these concepts from origin to the present time (that would fill up several books). The fact that blockchain’s technologies have a long and respectable history should help us gain confidence that blockchain, as a technology, is not some fly-by-night, newfangled idea cooked up by the crypto fandom.

What is less certain and much more controversial is the economic justification for blockchain (or at least some types of blockchain), ranging from the unrealistic expectation that it is a panacea for all of humankind’s ills (most optimistically, for social and economic inequities), to the total and premature dismissal of blockchain in its entirety.

The Beginnings

At the conceptual heart of blockchain is the ‘chain’. By definition, the links of the chain are, well, linked. It’s a list of data elements or packets of information (in blockchain, these are called ‘blocks’) that are linked. A blockchain is, therefore, a type of linked list.

The concept of a linked list was defined by pioneers of computer science and artificial intelligence, Alan Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon, way back in 1955-56.

In the early days of computer science, data and processing power lived on individual computers. Soon, people wanted these computers to ‘talk’ to each other. The grand idea of an Intergalactic Computer Network was put forth by J. C. R. Licklider as early as 1963. Unfortunately, even after half a century of rapid development, we have achieved only a planetary-wide Internet so far. An ‘intergalactic’ network is still a few years away!*

These ideas and the need to connect dispersed computers gave rise to wide-scale distributed systems in the 1960s-70s, with the advent of ARPANET and Ethernet. Technically, these linked computers are not necessarily treated in the same way as a traditional linked list that lived on one computer, but the conceptual idea is similar. When data and computational power get dispersed, layers of management, coordination, and security become increasingly important.

Blockchain would not exist without the Internet, which itself would not exist without TCP/IP, developed by Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf in the 1970s and ‘80s. Along the way, some scientists managed to have some fun too. They carried out an April Fools prank in 1990 by issuing an RFC (1149) for IPoAC protocol (IP over Avian Carriers, i.e., carrier pigeons). The punch line was delivered in April 2001 when a Linux user group implemented CPIP (Carrier Pigeon Internet Protocol) by sending nine data packets over three miles using carrier pigeons. They reported packet loss of 55%. A joke that takes a decade to pull off is practically Saturday night live comedy in Internet time scale!

In part 2, we will see how the extension of the concept of linked list on the Internet leads to distributed systems, the attending challenges, and their solutions.

Source: https://www.koreconx.com/2018/11/14/technologies-blockchain-part-1-foundations/

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KoreConX announces its Australian partnership with SME Brokers

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:23 AM on Tuesday, November 13th, 2018

KoreConX announces its Australian partnership with SME Brokers

The company will become part of the KorePartners ecosystem and will be supporting KoreConX security token protocol exclusively 

[New York, NY – November 01, 2018] – KoreConX is proud to announce SME Brokers will now be integrated into the company’s KorePartners ecosystem.

SME Brokers are part of an international group of business advisers currently servicing in excess of 60,000 small to medium-sized enterprises globally. SME Brokers have access to leading-edge management and development programs that are backed by technology solutions designed to improve business performance from startup phase all the way to exit phase.

SME Brokers will now be exclusively using the KoreToken protocol in conjunction with the all-in-one KoreConX platform. SME Brokers achieve best practice methods for its clients through a unique practical methodology developed over many years, working and interacting with businesses around the world.

“As a global platform, it is important for us to demonstrate we have KorePartners who understands our business and supports it 100%.  SME Brokers is just that partner for us at KoreConX. They understand small and medium-sized companies and see the changes in the global marketplace,” said Oscar Jofre, CEO and co-Founder at KoreConX. “This is why they support our security token protocol and platform exclusively in Australia, and we are thrilled to have them part of our family of KorePartners.”

“We always strive to provide the best solutions to our clients. We can rest assured knowing that KoreConX developed a security token protocol and an all-in-one platform that is mainly focused on compliance and follows the regulations in multiple jurisdictions,” said Michel Aliphon, managing director at SME Brokers.

SME Brokers will become part of the KorePartner ecosystem, a group of selected broker-dealers, secondary market platforms, capital markets platforms, lawyers, compliance, investor relations, accounting, and marketing firms that support the KoreConX security token protocol and adhere to KoreConX governance standards. KoreConX’s KorePartners are from around the globe and bring the necessary expertise that a company will need to launch a fully compliant security token in multiple jurisdictions. 

About KoreConX

KoreConX is the world’s first highly-secure permissioned blockchain ecosystem for fully-compliant tokenized securities worldwide.

To ensure compliance with securities regulation and corporate law, the KoreConX all-in-one, AI-based blockchain platform manages the full lifecycle of tokenized securities including the issuance, trading, clearing, settlement, management, reporting, corporate actions, and custodianship. KoreConX connects companies to the capital markets and secondary markets facilitating access to capital and liquidity for private investors.

KoreConX is the first secure, all-in-one platform for private companies to manage their capital market activity and stakeholder communications. Removing the burden of fragmented systems and inefficient tools across multiple vendors, KoreConX offers a single environment to connect companies, investors and broker/dealers. Leveraged for investor relations and fundraising, private companies can share and manage corporate records and investments including portfolio management, capitalization table management, virtual minute book, security registers, transfer agent services and virtual deal rooms for raising capital.

www.KoreConX.io 

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Media Contacts:

KoreConX

Oscar A Jofre

[email protected]

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Capping it all off: After Equity Crowdfunding

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:56 AM on Friday, June 17th, 2016

Every entrepreneur today is thinking of ways to manage their company from a sales and accounting perspective. Of equal importance is corporate recordkeeping, an aspect of business management that’s often overlooked – to a company’s detriment.

One of the crucial corporate records that needs more attention is the capitalization table, or cap table as it’s frequently called. Microsoft Excel has been the leading platform for cap table management for years. However, it’s becoming increasingly evident that old solutions like these are unable to match the pace of modern entrepreneurs and their recordkeeping needs.

What is a cap table?

Simply put, a cap table is a breakdown of a company’s equity ownership among shareholders. It reflects the percentage of equity ownership for founders and investors, as well as changes to equity value and dilution over time.

That’s just the simplified version. A cap table is much more than a list of transactions; it includes legal documents, sales, stock issuances, transfers, debt-to-equity conversions, and many other data. Sometimes, the term is applied broadly, and used to describe all records pertaining to company stakeholders: in other words, a lot of vital information.

How should the contemporary company track all of this crucial data?

How to manage a cap table in the Twenty-First Century

 

As a CFO I’m often responsible for the cap table management of the companies I work with. As a custodian I have a responsibility to make sure the information contained in the cap table is up-to-date, secure, and accessible to relevant parties.

Now, there’s a great tool that not only manages my cap table but also connects me to all the important documents in my company minute book. This tool offers an efficient management system that helps me keep track of all company shareholders in one secure environment. As my company grows, it saves me time and money that I would have wasted filling out paperwork, making hard copies, and sending digital files through unsafe email servers.

KoreConX is a FREE corporate management tool designed to facilitate the process of raising equity capital by bridging the communication gap between businesses and shareholders in a secure and transparent way. With KoreConX, I can release the contents of my cap table to shareholders looking to access their private holdings from investments. I can grant them access to relevant company reports and other information as needed.

The Four Cs

At the heart of it all, a cap table should be clear, comprehensive, current, and compliant. Clear to all those who need it for reference; comprehensive in its contents; current as of the latest development; legally compliant.

The great thing about KoreConX is that it is an all-in-one solution that ensures my cap table checks all the four Cs.

Clear: I can keep everyone on the same page without compromising the integrity of my records. With KoreConX, I can share as little or as much as I like, preventing staff from being bombarded with information not directly relevant to them and restricting access to confidential documents.

Comprehensive: Without a storage limit, I can store all my detailed information with KoreConX and work with collaborators in a secure digital environment.

Current: I can update the cap table virtually without having to make photocopies of the latest version, or without having to send everyone a revised spreadsheet through a risky email system.

Compliant: By law, members of the company’s Board of Directors must be able to access the minute book. KoreConX allows all members of the board to see the contents of the minute book. It also offers integrated tools to schedule meetings and assign tasks. The platform also saves time and money by reducing excess legal fees by taking a proactive approach to record management.

KoreConX is truly a tool for the modern entrepreneur. As companies of all sizes evolve and adapt to the pace of business today, our recordkeeping and information-sharing technologies should always be one step ahead.

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The U.K.’s Mature Financial Disruption: What the Rest of Us can Learn

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:30 PM on Thursday, April 7th, 2016

I’ve spent a lot of time in the UK lately, and it’s been on my mind even more.I was just there for the AltFi Europe Summit, and for the launch of The World’s First Fintech Book (I happen to be one fo the authors), and while I learned plenty, what stick with me now wasn’t something I picked up in a summit or book launch.I think there’s something that we in North American alternative finance and equity crowdfunding fans could learn from UK alternative finance companies, and it’s regarding the degree to which alternative finance is becoming mainstream.

For those of you who have been to London. I hope you have taken the time to ride the “underground” subway system, it’s totally amazing.I do all my travelling in London on the tube, and one thing that really stuck out in my mind while waiting at the stations and on the tube itself the amount of advertising.It’s extensive in any major city’s transportation, but the advertising in the London tube holds a particular place in my fintech-obsessed heart, because of the place of equity and debt portals in daily mainstream advertising.

As I saw the ads on the tube, I would ask people: “do you know what that is?” and 10 out 10 people knew about equity crowdfunding and how it helps start-ups and companies access capital.This was surprising to me, partly because equity crowdfunding isn’t even the dominant sector of alternative finance in the UK, peer-to-peer lending is.

The two most notable brands I saw were Crowdcube and Seedrs.These two platforms clearly understand their role evangelizing equity crowdfunding and helping to grow the sector as a whole.They know that they need to get noticed, be seen and heard over and over again to be successful.

According to the 2015 UK Alternative Finance Industry Report, both the number of funders and fundraisers is increasing year over year.There is no doubt that as an alternative finance market and a market for equity crowdfunding, the UK is far more mature than the US, and competition exists to an extent that the US market has yet to see.Besides working to drive general market awareness, UK equity crowdfunding platforms are pursuing both public and private sector partnerships. They’ve seen increasing involvement from institutional investors, according to the report, but aren’t staying insular, they’re actively pursuing new funders and fundraiser.

By far the UK is much more advanced on adoption. If you’re wondering why, my observations are as follow:

Transparency

They truly practice it.They are visible. They provide market data. Equity crowdfunding portals in the UK are early adopters espousing transparency as a business fundamental.And it goes beyond that.The industry as a whole is testament to the value of transparency, the data it collects and publicizes relating the state of the market, including the successes and failures of the companies it’s helped fund.

Aggressively Seeking Out the Crowd

There’s no “wait and see” approach for UK equity crowdfunding portals and ecosystem members, or even an “if you build it, they will come” mentality.They’re seeking out the crowd, and doing it actively. My own company, KoreConX, recognized a long time ago that if we wanted to be successful as a company, then we needed to help grow the equity crowdfunding ecosystem by seeking a public audience and evangelizing entrepreneurs and potential investors.

The Brand of the Industry

UK-based equity crowdfunding portals understand the importance of stressing success.One of the well-understood industry-wide risks is a loss of investor trust, and counteracting this with stories of success, as well as pursuing rigorous due diligence practices helps safeguard the reputability of the sector as a whole.
The world needs to look at the UK model and how great its working so time is not wasted on re-inventing the wheel.

Crowdfunding is the CROWD.They need to see you the portal, lets not forget how it all works.

Happy Equity Crowdfunding.

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