Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:00 PM on Sunday, March 24th, 2019
The KABN Network is an integrated suite of financial services that includes:
1. The Pegasus Flyte Visa Card, an approved crypto-linked prepaid Visa card and mobile integrated multi-currency banking wallet;
2. KABN KASH, a robust loyalty and engagement program and
3. KABN ID (The network anchor), a patent pending,
Always On, GDPR complaint, blockchain and biometrically based, identity
verification and validation platform. KABN ID is a free to use service
for consumers that provides continuous monitoring and proof of identity
online and in conventional marketplaces.
THE PROBLEM KABN SOLVES
As cryptocurrencies and other digital currencies grow globally, there
is an ever-increasing need to convert them into traditional currencies
(i.e. USD and Euros) for use in traditional spending.
KABN’s integrated suite of products, which has received approval by
Visa, solves this major challenge by empowering digital currency holders
to spend in-store and online, as well as, access ATMs globally wherever
Visa is accepted.
HOW BIG IS THE PROBLEM KABN IS SOLVING?
In the US alone, this type of card volume is expected to grow to over
$396B by 2022. Worldwide volume will follow the same trajectory and
expected growth is exponential.
KABN’s integrated suite of products consists of:
KABN’s Pegasus Flyte Visa card offers an “on/off ramp†for
cryptocurrency conversion to traditional currencies (e.g., USD, Euros
and British Pounds, etc.)
*Pre-production cart art subject to network approval
A mobile banking wallet that manages multiple traditional currencies and digital currencies via links to crypto partners and exchanges as well as offering other financial features and services
A robust loyalty and engagement platform, providing Customers with additional value-added services.
KABN’s anchor product, KABN ID, is a patent-pending, GDPR compliant, Blockchain and biometrically-based, “Always On†ID validation and verification platform.
The KABN ID proprietary process allows for efficient and frictionless onboarding, allowing Customer’s to control the use of their verified identification without having to provide confidential documentation to unknown 3rd parties.
FULL DISCLOSURE: KABN is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:00 PM on Sunday, March 24th, 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.
——————-
Blockchain Adoption Keeps Booming: China’s Alibaba Serious Partnership To Promote Blockchain Development
Chinese internet conglomerate Alibaba has signed a strategic with software development company Aerospace Information Co. to collaborate and leverage their expertise in cloud computing, smart industries, blockchain and more.
The 2 parties will be cooperating in several different ways.
China’s Securities Daily
publication notes how the two will work on such things as taxes and
finances for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and government
integration for innovative solutions for authorities:
In the field of fiscal and taxation,
the two sides will expand the application scenarios and explore and
develop innovative products for SMEs. In the field of government
affairs, we explore the integration and innovation of government
solutions around the “Internet + government servicesâ€. In the field of
blockchain, we will jointly provide cloud solutions to promote the
development of the blockchain industry. In the field of enterprise
market services, we will coordinate the implementation of credit
reporting services and smart mobile office services.
It’s clear that both companies are
focused on the long-term development of blockchain and its applications
in a a variety of industries.
The internet giant has an Alibaba Cloud Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)
service which lets businesses build their own blockchain-based
platforms and manage deployment, maintenance and operation conveniently.
The service is based on Hyperledger Fabric.
The company has also made several other moves to promote blockchain technology, financing a variety show in which the use cases of blockchain technology were showcased.
China is very keen on digitizing its economy and building the smart cities of the future. The VeChain project has been associated with the Chinese nation to help in achieving this goal. Waltonchain has also partnered with Chinese entities with the intention of using blockchain technology to develop cleaner cities.
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 10:00 AM on Wednesday, March 20th, 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.
——————-
Follow The Money – Why Investment In Blockchain Has Never Been Higher
Fortune 1000 companies are not the only ones taking advantage of
savvy data deployment. Small businesses are also using databases to
manage inventory and cash flow, market to customers, and carry out
countless other tasks.
With most businesses reliant on databases, staying ahead of the
data-technology curve has become a central issue for executives.
According to the New Vantage study, almost 80% of executives surveyed
expressed concern about disruption or displacement from competitors due
to data-technology advantages. And well over half identified inability
to compete on data, lack of agility, and data-driven competitors as the
primary data-related threats to their organization.
The promise of blockchain
Most people don’t think of data management when they hear the word
“blockchain.†The word tends to evoke cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin’s
attention-grabbing price swings. However, blockchain technology is
currently being adopted at all levels of the business environment.
That’s why investment in the field is still at an all-time high by
private investment funds like the New Global Capital Investor Fund,
founded in 2017 and still one of the largest institutional investors of
blockchain technologies. They have been a key contributor to a number of
leading projects including Zilliqa, Ontology, NKN, Oasis, Mainframe,
Certik, Bluzelle, and Iotex.
Roger Lim, Founding Partner at NGC said, “We’ve been concentrating on
low hanging fruits in blockchain for a while, anyone who can
potentially solve a problem. But now we’re interested to hear from good
projects where the total metrics make sense, the team makes sense and
they have a great strategy.â€
Right now, forty per cent of investment in blockchain by NGC is
heading to Greater China where blockchain is booming, but they are still
open to all with a good idea. Open to lending from as little as
$200,000 to $10million, the company wants to spread the word that there
are still great funding opportunities out there. Lim added, “We go off
to where the talent is, not just because it’s in Silicon Valley, we
don’t portion off our funds. We look globally and we go after the
talent.â€
Profile rising fast, but not enough
Despite the interest of investors, blockchain is still relatively
young in the mainstream market and actual deployment of blockchain
solutions is not yet widespread. This relatively young technology has
come a long way since its inception in 2008, but only about a quarter of
the companies PwC surveyed had up-and-running blockchain projects.
Though blockchain’s profile is rising fast, the technical expertise
needed to create blockchain platforms and smart contracts is still hard
to come by in enterprise business settings. Travis Reeder, CTO of
blockchain firm GoChain, sees this lack of expertise as a significant
obstacle.
He said, “If you’re an IBM or a JP Morgan, you might have the
resources to develop the kind of in-house expertise needed to compete
with the startups going after your industry in Silicon Valley. But
there’s a huge group of companies who can’t just set up a dedicated
blockchain division. These businesses understand what blockchain could
do for them, but don’t have access to the tools and knowledge they need
to build actual solutions. A lot of companies encounter the related
problem that there are many options to choose from, but they don’t know
which to choose or where to start.â€
Now Reeder hopes to remove obstacles to participation in the
blockchain revolution by investing in widespread knowledge. They offer
partner companies blockchain-based training, workshops, platform design,
and other services. Their aim is to provide the human capital that is
as essential to the technology’s success as the technical
infrastructure. These cost-effective consulting services are popular for
companies to develop and maintain tailor-made blockchain business
strategies and tools. With their own public blockchain that anyone can
use to build smart contracts and applications, as well as GoChain
private installation, it allows for all possibilities.
Still, a few common concerns when it comes to blockchain are slow
transactions and vast amounts of energy needed, but with 1300
transactions per second GoChain is certainly holding its own against the
big guns. It’s 100 times faster than Ethereum for example.
A market for loans
And while the money is flowing freely into the blockchain, there are
also possibilities to dole it out from firms such as Forest Park
Advisors. They are creating the first tradeable syndicated loan market
via security token issuances. The firm is the brainchild of Steve Shaw,
investment manager at Clear Harbor Asset Management, who was previously a
managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston, co-heading the firm’s
trading and distribution franchise. Steve originated some of the
earliest Credit Default Swaps at Credit Suisse product prior to the
recession. Combined with the rest of the team, Forest Park Advisors has
over 60 years of Wall Street experience and are intent on using their
decades of experience to issue the first generation of real estate
backed structured debt security tokens. With up to $200million for a
single loan, this is a wealthy market.
If the public could be convinced, then there are plenty of opportunities to spread the wealth.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:00 PM on Thursday, March 14th, 2019
SPONSOR: Esports Entertainment
$GMBL Esports audience is 350M, growing to 590M, Esports wagering is
projected at $23 BILLION by 2020. The company has launched VIE.gg
esports betting platform and has accelerated affiliate marketing
agreements with 190 Esports teams. Click here for more information
GMBL: OTCQB
———————–
Ripple (XRP) and Forte Launch $100M Fund to Integrate Blockchain With the Gaming Industry
Ripple has announced that it will launch a $100 million fund in collaboration with Forte,
San Francisco-based startup that is aiming to leverage the economic models of blockchain systems to build better economies and marketplaces in the gaming industry.
Ripple has announced that it will launch a $100 million fund in collaboration with Forte,
a San Francisco-based startup that is aiming to leverage the economic
models of blockchain systems to build better economies and marketplaces
in the gaming industry.
Forte will oversee the fund that will be allocated towards the integration of blockchain technology
with in-game markets that will allow players to make transactions with
each other more conveniently. In the past, users have often moved to
third-party platforms to sell in-game items.
Speaking to Fortune, Ethan Beard, a senior executive at Ripple’s development division Xpring, is hopeful about blockchain making gaming economies more equitable:
Video games have long been quick to
adopt new technology, from console to the PC to mobile. Now, blockchain
will help game designers who’ve had a hard time facilitating an economy
that can serve all types of players.
As the Fortune article notes, this is an expansion for Ripple, which have previously made a lot of progress in the cross-border payments niche. Should game developers get on board, the use of Ripple’s Interledger Protocol and the XRP token would give Ripple an enormous amount of exposure.
Forte was founded by Kevin Chou,
an entrepreneur with experience in the gaming space. Chou was the Chief
Executive Officer of mobile-focused Kabam and esports company Gen.G.
Forte is backed by the likes of Andreesen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures
and Battery Ventures.
In Chou’s announcement post, he said of the direct interactions between stakeholders in the system:
I envision a future where players can
transact with each other directly instead of only with the developer. A
future where developers don’t need to figure out the maximum value they
can extract from their player base, but instead are creatively and
economically motivated to foster new types of peer-to-peer gameplay.
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 9:55 AM on Monday, March 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.
——————-
Kakao Corp raises $90M for its blockchain platform
Raised $90 million in a private coin offering for its upcoming blockchain platform, as reported by Bloomberg.
The company is planning to have another round, similar in size, in March
Kakao Corp., the parent company of a South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk, raised $90 million in a private coin offering for its upcoming blockchain platform, as reported by Bloomberg. The company is planning to have another round, similar in size, in March. IDG Capital, Crescendo Equity Partners and Translink Capital participated in the round, per Bloomberg.
The blockchain platform dubbed Klaytn, which is planned to launch in
June, will start with popular third-party services such as games and
travel apps but eventually could support some messaging features
of KakaoTalk. Klaytn already has 26 partnerships lined up with apps that
already have millions of daily active users. The platform aspires to
attract a user base of 10 million accounts within the first year.
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 10:58 AM on Friday, March 1st, 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.
——————-
10 Major Blockchain Trends in 2019
While cryptocurrencies took a hammering, 2018 was huge for Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and a myriad of other coins.
Blockchain has plenty of use cases outside of the cryptocurrency space with IBM, Oracle, and Amazon and other multi-billion dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology.
Now, it’s time to find out what major Blockchain trends will define the current year.  Â
By: Alex Morris Â
From the Internet-of-Things (IoT) convergence to startups for the unbanked — find out what to expect from Blockchain in 2019
While cryptocurrencies took a hammering, 2018 was huge for Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and a myriad of other coins. Blockchain has plenty of use cases outside of the cryptocurrency space with IBM, Oracle, and Amazon and other multi-billion dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology. Now, it’s time to find out what major Blockchain trends will define the current year.  Â
STOs replacing ICOs
Security tokens (STOs)
have been a hot topic in the crypto space, and it looks like they will
continue to be hot now that Overstock’s tZERO announced the launch of
the new STO platform on Jan. 21. The Blockchain-powered platform will
provide any company with the opportunity to raise funds by launching its
own STOs. Prior to that, the startup made an announcement about the
completion of its utility token distribution.
STOs, which combine the best features of the stock market and
cryptocurrencies, arose as a fully regulated alternative to ICOs, which
turned out to be the passing fad of 2017.
Tokenization creating more investment opportunities
The launch of the Estonia-based DEX,
which buys the shares of the biggest companies in the world in the form
of ERC20 tokens, proved that 2019 is all about tokenization. The
Ethereum-powered startup will allow non-US investors to engage in the US
stock market without any limitations pertaining to their location or
investment amount.
Crypto startup Zilliqa also recently introduced Hg Exchange, a fully regulated exchange that allows accredited investors to buy US stocks.
Tokenization already became a pervasive trend in 2018, going far
beyond the stock market, but this is the year when pretty much
everything will be tokenized – art, wine, real estate, etc.
Blockchain and IoT forming an alliance
Back in January, leading digital security company Gemalto released a report
that states that 23 percent of responders think that Blockchain
technology could be a boon for securing IoT-powered devices. Meanwhile,
almost 91 percent of businesses who do not utilize Blockchain consider
making use of the technology in the future.
The number of IoT-powered devices is expected
to reach 26.66 bln in 2019, but less than half of all businesses can
detect whether their device experienced a security breach.
IBM also illustrated the benefits for this convergence with the help of
their game-changing platform Watson IoT. Apart from bringing more
security to the table, Blockchain significantly simplifies the task of
managing different devices and increases the efficiency of the
transaction.
Wall Street transitioning from dabbling to actions
The fact that cryptocurrency prices took a nosedive in 2018 doesn’t
mean that the global financial industry is going to suddenly give up on
Blockchain. As U.Today reported earlier, Bakkt,
the ICE-backed exchange, was supposed to go live in January, but its
launch was eventually delayed due to the longest government shutdown in
history. Speaking of other ‘big-fish’ players, NASDAQ and the NYSE
plan to launch Bitcoin futures while also being keen on Blockchain.
Since the crypto hub died down, there is a good reason to believe that
2019 will be the year of exciting developments in the Blockchain space.
More decentralized exchanges appearing on the horizon
Decentralized exchanges, while actually living up to Satoshi’s
vision, have numerous usability issues that take a toll on their
popularity. There is no centralized authority that manages the users’
funds, but it’s also a double-edged sword problem – there is no way to
revert a certain transaction if private keys are stolen or lost. Keep in
mind that there are certain degrees of centralization. Case in point:
the Bancor DEX, which suffered from a $13.5 mln hack, though Charlie Lee later claimed that no decentralized exchange can lose its funds.
With that being said, major crypto startups – from Binance to Tron – have launched their own DEXs in order to spearhead the shift towards decentralization in the crypto world.
Governments will continue looking into Blockchain
The wide variety of Blockchain applications are being explored by
governments across the globe (even those ones who are openly hawkish
towards cryptocurrencies). China cracked down on Bitcoin, but this
country is hell-bent on becoming the leader in the Blockchain race.
Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major cities are all supporting Blockchain
developments. As reported by U.Today, the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology (MIIT) launched
an initiative to incentivize business who are working with the DLT
technology. Moreover, there are specific Blockchain guides in China for
educating government officials.
Estonia is yet another country
that is focused on the e-Estonia program that will digitize the
government. Meanwhile, Dubai could become the very first government that
is powered by Blockchain. The implementation of Blockchain could help Dubai save up to $1.5 bln per year by cutting the red herring and creating a fully paperless government.
Blockchain-powered startups banking the unbanked
Africa, where a substantial part of the population remains unbaked,
represents a breeding ground for different startups that utilize
Blockchain technology in order to increase economic inclusiveness. The Rohingya Project
went even further by using Blockchain to restore the identity of
stateless Rohingyas and give them access to banking services.
Real-word use cases beyond fintech
It is worth noting that Blockchain is the most disruptive technology
of the last decade, but it remains unknown to the general public. Yes,
along with Bitcoin, Blockchain was one of the buzzwords in the tech
space, but it’s all about real-world adoption. According to PwC research,
84 percent of companies have dipped their toes into Blockchain, but
they are not ready to embrace it due to numerous ‘trust issues.’ Those
who will be able to integrate Blockchain into their businesses will turn
out to be the true winners of 2019.
Scalability becoming one of the main issues
Without a doubt, scalability is one of the major bottlenecks of
Blockchain, which poses a major hindrance to mainstream adoption. That
became very evident when CryptoKitties, one of the best-known dApps,
created congestion on the Ethereum network. Bitcoin and Ethereum are
only able to handle seven and 25 TPS (this level of scalability doesn’t
hold a candle to mainstream payment processors in the likes of VISA).
Hence, many promising solutions, such as sharding and sidechains, are expected to be implemented in 2019. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN),
for example, is witnessing growing popularity with major industry
players, with an eye-popping 830 percent surge in half a year. LN will
significantly boost Bitcoin adoption while solving scalability pain
points.
Blockchain jobs will become more common
Despite Bitcoin, the major use case of Blockchain, taking a hammering
in 2018, the number of Blockchain-related jobs continued to grow
throughout the year. Moreover, as reported by CNBC,
the salaries of Blockchain engineers skyrocketed to $175,000 per year,
which means that they receive the highest salaries in the software
development niche on par with AI specialists. According to Hired CEO
Mehul Patel, ‘there’s a ton of demand for Blockchain.’ On top of that,
Upwork, the leading freelance platform, had a 35,000 percent uptick in
the number of Blockchain freelancers (it’s the fastest-growing freelance
sector).
However, earning a six-figure salary is not an easy feat. Blockchain developers
have to code in numerous languages, including Go and Solidity. As
mentioned above, major companies do not want to miss the boat on
Blockchain, so they are striving to hire talented programmers.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:38 AM on Thursday, February 28th, 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.
——————-
A blockchain-based home equity loan platform, Figure, has raised $65 million from various major financial and venture capital firms, tech news site TechCrunch reports on Feb. 27.
The firm, which was founded by SoFi founder and former CEO Mike Cagney, reportedly raised the funds from such majors as Morgan Creek, DST Global, DCM, Ribbit Capital and Nimble Ventures. The recent investment bumps the total funds raised by the firm up to $120 million, according to TechCrunch.
Cagney’s new firm, which reportedly has issued over 1,500 equity
lines, is purportedly targeting older clients who are “cash light and
rich in equity†or “CLAREs.†The company is currently lending $1.5
million per day, a figure which Cagney expects to double every few
months, reports American Banker.
The founder told American Banker, “At the end of 2019, Figure should
look like a robust financial platform that can meet the needs of our
customers.” Cagney also added that Figure is moving into other areas
like wealth management, checking accounts, and unsecured consumer loans.
Cagney’s former company SoFi is partnering with major United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase
to roll out crypto trading support. The partnership with Coinbase will
purportedly allow SoFi to launch crypto services by the second quarter
of this year. CEO Anthony Noto said in an interview:
“Our target audience wants to see what the price of cryptocurrency
is, and to buy it. They have a desire to do that and in many cases they
already are.â€
Noto assumed the role of SoFi CEO after Cagney stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations in 2017. Cagney told American Banker:
“One of the biggest takeaways is that at SoFi, we grew so fast and we
never really understood what we were going to grow into, and culture
never took a front seat. [At Figure] we have a very clear adherence to a
‘no-asshole’ policy.”
