Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:21 AM on Tuesday, February 5th, 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.
Facebook’s latest move proves it’s betting big on blockchain tech
The next major objective on Facebook’s roadmap seems to be the blockchain.
Over the years, Mark Zuckerberg has made a number of smart moves that
only helped him expand the reach of Facebook and improve the outlook of
the business going forward. Purchases including WhatsApp, Instagram,
and Oculus allowed Facebook to grow its customer base and monetize even
more user data via ads, compete better against other image and
video-based social networks, and develop new hardware and software
experiences targeting VR users. The next major objective on Facebook’s
roadmap seems to be the blockchain. The company has already confirmed its working on blockchain technology, and reports said Facebook will release its own cryptocurrency in the future,
in the form of a stable coin that will be pegged against the dollar.
It’s unclear when that will happen, but Facebook just made a significant
move that further proves it’s serious about the blockchain.
No matter where the Bitcoin price will go next,
blockchain technology is here to stay, as it offers a number of
advantages for payments and other applications. Facebook’s team is led
by former PayPal president David Marcus, who’s been working on Messenger
before that. And Facebook’s blockchain team has just gotten
significantly bigger, as the company acqui-hired the team behind
Chainspace.
The startup was founded by researchers from University College London, according to Cheddar, and was working on “smart contracts†technology that would leverage blockchain tech for payments and other services.
Four of the five researchers behind Chainspace’s white paper are
joining the Facebook blockchain group, people familiar with the matter
said. Two of them, including Alberto Sonnino and George Danezis, already
list Facebook as their employer. Chainspace’s website was also updated
to note that the team is “moving on to something new.â€
Facebook confirmed that it hired employees from Chainspace without disclosing any other details about the move.
Following Cheddar, Mashable also reported
that Facebook acquired four key people behind the Chainspace tech. That
tech, however, isn’t the scope of Facebook’s purchase, as the company
only acquired the researchers behind it.
“Chainspace code and documentation will still be open source, and all
previously published academic work remains available,†the note on the startup’s website says.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 3:52 PM on Monday, February 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.
——————-
States Dipping Toes Into Crypto, Blockchain
One month into the new year, state legislatures are dipping their toes into crypto and blockchain.
Many of the bills introduced on the issues in 17 states so far call for legislative task forces and joint business-government study groups.
One month into the new year, state legislatures are dipping their toes into crypto and blockchain.
Many of the bills introduced on the issues in 17 states so far call
for legislative task forces and joint business-government study groups.
Legislators appear to show they want their state governments to learn
the ins and outs of fintech before they allow crypto and blockchain to
live in the everyday regulatory climate as other ways of conducting
business.
Chamber of Digital Commerce Chief Policy Officer Amy Davine Kim said she sees momentum.
“Legislators want to show they’re open for blockchain businesses to
come in. They want to know what the industry wants. They want to be
supportive,†said the digital commerce trade group executive.
She said efforts to advance blockchain and crypto in the State Houses have a non-partisan flavor.
“People on both sides of the aisle have an interest on this,†said Kim.
A toolkit devised for state legislators by the Digital Chamber boasts
blockchain has the promise to create extraordinary economic growth and
cost efficiencies.
Mary Pfaff, who keeps tabs on the legislative activity for the
Conference of State Bank Supervisors, said she has seen a lot of bills
to permit the payment of taxes with crypto and to broaden the use of
digital currency.
Wyoming legislators have steered their state to the head of the pack.
“They are trying to make Wyoming the center for innovators in the blockchain and crypto space, said the CSBS’s Pfaff.
Last year, they changed the tax code and other Wyoming laws to encourage fintech companies to come in.
This year, there is legislation to place Wyoming as the first state
after Arizona to have a light regulatory system in place for fintech
startups.
One bill would establish a special bank where blockchain companies could do transactions with digital currency,
National Conference of State Legislatures analyst Heather Morton said
there are more bills now than there were this time last year to allow
campaign contributions with digital currencies.
She added legislation has also been introduced toauthorize blockchain for corporate records.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:15 AM on Thursday, January 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.
——————-
Blockchain Technologists And Finance Veterans Collaborate To Bring Blockchain To Capital Market
Bridging old-world and new-world finance is something that blockchain technology has aimed to achieve since bitcoin was first released in January 2009.
Ten years later, this is coming to fruition as blockchain-based solutions designed to enable faster, more transparent, peer-to-peer financial transactions are coming to market.
According to Sam Tabar, co-founder of Fluidity, in order for capital markets to evolve, industry veterans need to join forces with blockchain technologists to truly bring blockchain’s fundamental technology to today’s financial markets. Â
“If you look at the industry
landscape, to date there has not been a comprehensive platform built by
blockchain technology professionals and structured finance veterans,â€
says Tabar.
In order to bridge this gap, Fluidity,
a company that provides technology services to registered
broker-dealers, issuers and financial institutions for tokenized
securities, has joined forces with Propellr,
an end-to-end solution for creating, managing, and servicing digitally
held assets with an integrated FINRA-registered broker dealer.
Announced today, Propellr and Fluidity have created “Fluidity Factora,â€
a new, out-of-stealth company that takes complex financial assets,
breaks them down into their basic factors, and encodes them to a
blockchain. This enables standardization, transparency, and liquidity,
making markets more efficient, while reducing the need for middlemen.
The company is unique because it was
built by finance and blockchain technology professionals with extensive
expertise in their respective fields. The joint team previously
published the Two Token Waterfall whitepaper, a liquidity optimized framework for private placement securities.
Propellr is a team of structured finance experts that continues to
create institutional grade deals. Factora and AirSwap are an excellent
complement of independent platforms, and are uniquely positioned as a
full-stack solution to tokenize and trade real-world assets,†says
Michael Oved, co-founder of AirSwap. “We’re excited to help push the
blockchain world into this forefront: using the fundamental technology
of blockchain to revolutionize the industries that need it.â€
Simply put, this team takes a new approach to blockchain, mainly by uniting it with structured finance.
Blockchain gives us a tremendous
opportunity to make financial information standardized, normalized, and
transparent across capital markets,†says Todd Lippiatt, Propellr’s
founder and CEO, and co-founder of Fluidity Factora. “We are not trying
to become capital raisers, but are focused on building technology with
institutional partners in order to establish easily adoptable
infrastructure. We’re thrilled to join forces with the minds behind
Fluidity.â€
Bringing Blockchain Technology With Traditional Capital Markets
In addition to the unique team behind Fluidity Factora, the company’s initial offerings are focused on tokenizing real estate assets. As regulated institutions increasingly move into the blockchain space, tokenizing digital assets is predicted to be a major trend for 2019.
“Tokenizing assets creates a clear,
instant, and elegant solution, simplifying complicated industries. Smart
contracts lower friction for investors and issuers, making everything
replicable and scalable, all while enabling a fluid digital
marketplace,†says venture capitalist Bill Tai.
Furthermore, tokenizing assets, such as real estate, could also help solve the problem of illiquidity.
“The private securities market is
historically opaque and illiquid; it is on the investor to vet the
quality of an investment vehicle, and once committed she/he holds it for
the life of the investment. With Factora, incorporating blockchain
technology presents the industry with an opportunity to take a
significant step forward,†says Lippiatt.
Additionally, trade settlement and
servicing are generally bespoke in nature. A blockchain-based solution
helps standardize these constructs, ensuring confidence in symmetrical
information and transparency.
“The infrastructure behind privately
placed securities has barely evolved in 25 years, which is staggering
for a constantly evolving market. This team is upgrading the
infrastructure in accordance with best practices from both the
blockchain and financial industries to create one cohesive framework,â€
says Donna Redel of the World Economic Forum.
Ultimately, blockchain technology
could push forward an industry that has not evolved in a generation,
finally creating a true bridge between traditional and new world
finance.
Subject to regulatory approval, Propellr is becoming Fluidity Factora.
You can follow Rachel Wolfson onTwitter andLinkedInto stay up to date on the latest cryptocurrency happenings.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 8:51 AM on Monday, January 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.
————————
Many big players including IBM and Walmart are continuing to push ahead, confident it can provide real value for organizations in need of innovative solutions around record keeping and secure recording of transactions.
Blockchain traveled a rocky road in 2018 but is still hotly tipped as
a technology with huge potential for transforming business and
day-to-day life.
The past year saw huge drops in value for its flagship use case –
cryptocurrency Bitcoin – and reports that many pilot programs are
failing to show true value. However, many big players including IBM and
Walmart are continuing to push ahead, confident it can provide real
value for organizations in need of innovative solutions around record
keeping and secure recording of transactions.
5 Blockchain Trends Everyone Should Know About
So, here are my five predictions for how we’re likely to see blockchain use growing and continuing to make headlines – although they may be slightly less hyperbolic – in 2019.
Less Hype and Scams, More Substance
Any new technology has the potential to attract snake-oil salesman,
and perhaps blockchain attracted more than most. This meant that 2018
saw regulators
stepping in, meaning that those offering “miracle solutions†and
get-rich-quick schemes built (or not built) on blockchain should be far
less visible in the next 12 months.
What we should see instead is results of more considered, mature
endeavors in the blockchain arena. Businesses such as Walmart that is
investing in solutions designed to shore up food safety standards in the
wake of crises such as 2018’s E.coli outbreak. Walmart’s solution
means anyone involved in the supply of certain products will be able to
trace individual items back to the farm where they were grown, using a
tamper-proof distributed database.
Amazon is also announcing
blockchain projects for this year – with two blockchain initiatives
aiming to enable its AWS customers to take advantage of distributed
ledger technology in their own projects.
With big players like those two (and others) entering the game, it
seems certain that blockchain will start to demonstrate that it can
bring real value during 2019.
The Blockchain and Internet of Things Convergence Continues to Gather Pace
According to one report, the use of blockchain technology to secure data and devices in the internet of things (IoT)
doubled during 2018. This trend is likely to continue next year and
beyond, as more organizations wake up to the potential of distributed,
encrypted ledger technology in this field. The powerful encryption used
to secure blockchains means that attackers need a vast amount of
computing power to brute-force their way into just one node.
Additionally, their decentralized nature means attackers can’t bypass
security by disabling a single-point-of-failure with, for example, a
denial-of-service attack.
As well as security, blockchain offers utility benefits in the IoT
field, too. With the number of connected devices predicted to top 26 billion during 2019,
vast amounts of machine-to-machine communication will be taking place,
at far too high a speed for humans to keep up manually. Experts predict
that blockchains will increasingly be used to log and monitor these
communications and transactions, and although this convergence is at a
very early stage, 2019 will see an explosion in its use.
More Blockchain Offerings from the Financial Services Industry
Cryptocurrency values may have taken a hammering during 2018, due in
no small part to a bursting of the speculative bubble built up around
the arrival of such potentially transformative technology.
But the mainstream financial services industry was undoubtedly shaken
by the emergence of this tech and the potential it has to disrupt their
businesses. So much so that it seems likely they will be at the
forefront of the next wave, when it comes crashing in. One example is
Bakkt, the Bitcoin-based futures trading platform planned by ICE, the
operator the New York Stock Exchange.
In developing markets particularly, where much of the population is
labeled “unbankable†due to institutions’ inability or unwillingness to
connect them to its services, start-ups are likely to lead the way with
innovative services built around blockchains and digital,
fraud-resistant currencies, storage, and transfer mechanisms.
More Investment Opportunities
Not just in quirky, unknown cryptocurrencies with unproven use cases –
blockchain technology makes it possible to offer and track investments
in a whole range of asset classes that traditionally have been the
preserve of institutional investors and the wealthy.
For example, tokenization lowers the bar to entry for investment in
property, potentially allowing more liquid trading of high-value assets
and allowing more of us a slice of the pie of the growth (or losses)
they can generate. Regulation will be needed before these investment
opportunities will be considered safe enough for everyday investors to
take part, and as we’ve seen over the last year, this certainly seems to
be on its way.
Art, fine wines and property are all examples of investment assets
that traditionally were only an option for well-off investors with the
luxury of being able to put capital in up-front and be in no hurry for
their investment to pay off. With regulation in place, everyday
investors can purchase digitally-backed “shares†in these asset classes
and sell them off when they need to liquidate their funds.
Additionally, blockchain-based “smart contracts”
are designed to reduce the reliance on middlemen such as brokers and
lawyers when establishing these transactions, further lowering the costs
and barriers to entry.
Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) will still be big business
I’m not going to be stupid or irresponsible enough to predict that
the value of cryptocurrencies is going to shoot into the stratosphere
(again) in 2019. As I’ve said before, speculating on the value of these
digital assets isn’t my business, and if the tumultuous volatility of
recent years proves anything, it’s that no one can accurately predict
what will happen next.
One thing that is clear, though, is that cryptocurrencies are far
from dead. Using the Bitcoin price as a benchmark, prices are still some
ten times higher than they were two years ago, and trading volumes on
exchanges show there is still a healthy appetite for speculative
investment.
And that’s before we even start to consider the possible future of
alternative cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Ripple and Tether, that
all promise to improve on Bitcoin in some way – offering more utility,
security or speed.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:51 PM on Wednesday, January 23rd, 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.
—————————-
Nasdaq Leads $20 Million Investment in Enterprise Blockchain Startup Symbiont
Nasdaq today made its largest investment in enterprise blockchain, leading a $20 million Series B in Symbiont,
a startup working to bring new kinds of assets that are custodied by blockchain to mainstream adoption.
The investment, which also includes Citi Ventures, Galaxy Digital,
and Raptor Group, marks the latest escalation in an arms race among
traditional exchanges looking to capitalize on the technology that was
once thought of as an existential threat.
Instead of being disintermediated by blockchain technology, which
like bitcoin offers the potential for counterparties to move value
without a trusted third party, exchanges like Nasdaq and others are
partnering with those companies to study the technology and,
increasingly, to use it.
As part of today’s investment, Nasdaq is also announcing a commercial
integration that could see the company, which runs 26 exchanges for
equities, options, bonds, derivatives and commodities in the United
States, Scandinavia, the Baltic region, Armenia, and others, expand
into new areas.
“We see this huge opportunity to be able to go all over the globe
with Nasdaq,†said Symbiont cofounder and CEO Mark Smith. “And use this
marketplace solution from origination to finality, including ways you
can buy and transact new types of instruments backed by our
smart-contract technology.â€
The Series B investment brings the total amount raised by Symbiont to
$36 million, with previous investors including Fenbushi Capital and
Medici Ventures, Overstock.com’s blockchain investment arm. This is the
first time investing in Symbiont for each of the Series B investors. The
terms of the investment are not being disclosed.
The investment comes at a time when leading cryptocurrency startups are cutting back on staff after last year’s catastrophic drop in prices.
Smith says most of the money will be spent to move out of the WeWork
offices in front of the famous Wall Street bull statue that have served
as the company’s home for the past five years, and to hire new
blockchain engineers. Symbiont has grown quickly recently, doubling its
staff to 30 employees in 2017 and doubling aging in 2018. While Smith
doesn’t expect that rate of growth to continue, he says most of the
recent investment will be spent on new hires.
“The overwhelming place we’ll be spending that money is continuing to grow our team,” he added.
Unlike public blockchains such as bitcoin and ethereum that anyone
can build on, and permissioned blockchains developed by IBM, R3 and
others and given away to the open source community, Symbiont’s
blockchain and smart-contract solution, Assembly, was built for
permissioned use from the beginning.
Assembly lets users originate and issue traditional securities, what
Smith calls “smart instruments,†and acts as the sole custodian of the
assets. By integrating with the Nasdaq Financial Framework (NFF) for
building financial applications, Smith says, Assembly will help the
exchange streamline the process for finding, executing and settling
liquidity.
Startups and larger clients of Nasdaq—and Symbiont’s other
partners—can then use Assembly to build solutions for a wide range of
marketplaces, including tokenized ownership of real-estate and artwork,
both of which would be new lines of business for Nasdaq. Importantly,
the commercial integration between Symbiont’s Assembly and NFF is not
exclusive. Both companies are free to work with competitors.
Symbiont’s existing customers include investing management giant
Vanguard, financial data provider Ipreo, purchased by IHS Markit in
2018, and Lewis Ranieri, an early proponent of mortgage-backed
securities. Symbiont also played a pivotal role in helping the state of
Delaware pass a number of new measures designed to give companies
confidence that shares they issue on a blockchain will be legally
recognized.
While Delaware’s new administration has largely pivoted from its
original plan and is now working with IBM on an alternative, Smith
revealed today that former Delaware governor Jack Markell now serves on
Symbiont’s board of directors. “The new administration took a
wait-and-see approach,” said Smith, alluding to the potential impact
blockchain could have on Delaware’s existing business model. “They
wanted to see how it would affect their constituents.”
Nasdaq and Citi had already invested in blockchain startup Chain, a
potential Symbiont competitor that was acquired by the Stellar
Development Foundation, the organization behind the Lumen (XLM)
cryptocurrency, currently valued at $2 billion. In turn, Chain helped
Nasdaq and Citi build Linq, an early end-to-end solution for instantly
settling private securities, first tested in 2015. Other Nasdaq
blockchain investments include Paris-based Stratumn, which builds
enterprise blockchain applications, and CFTC-regulation cryptocurrency
trading platform, ErisX, which recently added ethereum cofounder Joe Lubin to its board of directors.
Showing a possible path forward for Nasdaq, which has 3,400 companies
listed on its exchanges, one of its biggest competitors, the
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), recently announced it was opening its
own cryptocurrency exchange, Bakkt, later this month, after making its own batch of exploratory blockchain investments.
“We are committed to discovering and investing in innovative
technologies to help build our future market infrastructure,†said Gary
Offner, head of Nasdaq Ventures, in a statement. “We are pleased to
support this important, growing area for creating unique institutional
applications of blockchain technology.â€
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:13 AM on Tuesday, January 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.
————————
MIT Professor: Blockchain Can Allow for More Inclusive, Borderless Economy
“Only a true decentralized system, where the power is really so spread that is going to be essentially practically impossible to attack them all and when you don’t need to trust this or that particular node, is going to bring actually the security we really need and deserve.â€
Blockchain can allow for the creation of a borderless economy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Silvio Micali claimed in a interview on Bloomberg’s Daybreak Asia, Jan. 21.
Speaking on the show, Micali outlined three major properties of
blockchain systems that must function simultaneously to enable a more
inclusive and borderless economy — security, decentralization and scalability.
According to MIT’s Ford Professor of Engineering, until recently, only
two of those three basic properties could have been achieved
simultaneously at any time.
When asked about scalability in particular, Micali stressed that a
decentralized system really needs superior technology to provide the
same level of participation and confidence that is enjoyed by
centralized systems.
When asked about security breaches in blockchain systems, Micali stated that centralized systems are far more vulnerable to hacking attempts, pointing to the frequency of security and privacy breaches that repeatedly take place among centralized institution of various sorts.
The professor expressed optimism about blockchain in terms of
security, noting the level of security built into the concept of a
trustless system:
“Only a true decentralized system, where the power is really so
spread that is going to be essentially practically impossible to attack
them all and when you don’t need to trust this or that particular node,
is going to bring actually the security we really need and deserve.â€
Recently, a group of major United States universities, including MIT, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, announced the launch of Unit-e, a cryptocurrency project touted as a “globally scalable decentralized payments network.â€
Earlier in January, MIT Technology Review issued an article claiming that 2019 will become the year when blockchain technology finally becomes normalized.
Inxeption, which began operations in 2017, aims to use blockchain
technology to improve various processes for businesses, including
product design, manufacturing and supply chain management.
Neither party has revealed the scope of the deal, which will
reportedly see Inxeption and the UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund work in
tandem in future to develop new features for Inxeption’s platform.
“Business customers need secure platforms that protect their customer
data and proprietary information, while making it easy for them to
interact and even collaborate more effectively with their customers,â€
Inxeption CEO and co-founder Farzad Dibachi commented in the press
release.
Describing its product as an e-commerce platform for the B2B market,
Inxeption joins a steadily increasing pool of blockchain initiatives
focused on using distributed technology to make complex corporate
systems more transparent.
UPS CMO Kevin Warren stated in the press release that “Inxeption’s
technology is attractive to UPS because it helps unlock new efficiencies
for customers using B2B e-commerce platforms.â€
Supply chains have proved a particular area of interest amongst firms developing blockchain solutions in 2019. Several blockchain-based supply chain projects have been announced in the past week alone, as diverse as cobalt supplies and food for the upcoming World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
The Inxeption partnership reveals UPS’ belief in blockchain’s
potential, despite cautionary words from a senior executive last month
that forecast little impact from the technology in 2019.
“We have a small team looking at blockchain, but we are still
searching for the killer use case,†the company’s executive vice
president of technology and chief digital officer Linda Jojo told mainstream media in December.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 2:03 PM on Thursday, January 10th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————————
The $100B Blockchain Proof Of Concept Hiding In Plain Sight
Last year, perceptions of blockchain technology were caught in the crossfire of both cryptocurrency’s swift peak and dramatic plunge.
It’s not surprising: cryptocurrency is the first and most visible application of blockchains, and many people think they are one and the same.
Last year, perceptions of blockchain technology were caught in the
crossfire of both cryptocurrency’s swift peak and dramatic plunge. It’s
not surprising: cryptocurrency is the first and most visible application
of blockchains, and many people think they are one and the same. It may
be convenient and easy to use price or market cap to summarize the
industry narrative. But it’s incorrect. The blockchain space is vast,
spanning industries, each with different adoption curves and
opportunities—and the nuanced value of the nascent technology isn’t
reflected in these numbers. In fact, focusing on these metrics obscures
what is really happening inside the space, putting execs at risk of
developing blind spots that hide potentially disruptive development as
it gathers steam.
But as billions poured into cryptocurrency in 2018, we did we learn
something meaningful. The world got a high-stakes proof of concept
exploring if blockchains could really be a way to safely
transfer digital value from one party to another. Even as large-scale
hacks of companies with poor custody practices filled the news, millions
of people around the world contributed to a global battle test to see
if the technology could safely hold or transfer, at times, well over a
hundred billion dollars of digital value in the form of
blockchain-driven cryptocurrency. This revealed challenges ahead (the
need to evolve consensus and governance mechanisms, improve user
experience, and get to regulatory clarity, to name just a few). But it
also showed us that yes, blockchains can safely transfer digital value.
So how are businesses reacting? Corporations are paying attention,
working hard to understand how this functionality translates to their
industry, and how it shapes potential disruption. Here are several
insider perspectives on where we are today, and where companies are
investing in the technology as we go into 2019:
Jessica Groopman, Industry Analyst and Founding Partner, Kaleido Insights:
The market seems to be entering a winter, as AI did two or three
times before its commercial boom. These kinds of shakeouts are
ultimately a good thing because they help distinguish fact from fantasy.
There are signals that suggest this will be a mild winter, rather than a
full hibernation. First, several adjacent spaces that will influence
adoption are growing, like AI, encryption techniques, and digital
identity management. Second, we see some steps towards mainstreaming,
with regulatory actions, consolidation in crypto-exchanges like
Coinbase, and virtually all of the world’s largest technology companies
building dedicated blockchain-based teams and products. Third,
investment is moving away from speculation, such as in ICOs, and towards practical investmentslike
smart contracts platforms, data exchanges, and prime use cases. One of
most powerful things blockchain has done for business is teach us to think blockchain, i.e. to question the efficacy of centralized processes and think about value chains more strategically.
Brian Lio, CEO of research and advisory firm Smith + Crown:
The current markets are a poor reflection of the actual pace and type
of development that is going on right now. We are seeing increasingly
large brands and sophisticated multi-national organizations realize this
technology has the potential for both disruption and opportunity. They
are starting to perceive there is risk in leaving it up to others to
figure out first. More and more companies are understanding they need to
build their front lines, to understand the power this technology offers
so they can start to prepare for or even take a lead in building what a
blockchain-influenced future looks like for their particular industry.
It’s happening across quite a few industries. Companies are becoming
more public about their exploration, but we are also seeing thoughtful,
innovative foundational work being done behind the scenes as well.
David Post, Managing Director, IBM Blockchain Ventures
We have a high degree of confidence that 2019 will be the year that
enterprise blockchain networks—especially those addressing strategic
industry use cases—will begin to emerge at scale. Blockchain business
models will continue to mature, with both companies and the venture
community helping to shape how these blockchain networks evolve. A
variety of compelling concepts are emerging in financial services,
supply chain, and media and entertainment. And we will see strategically
important networks move to production, as companies partner with
startups to solve complex challenges via the improved trust and
transparency delivered by blockchains.
Linda Pawczuk, principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP
As we head into 2019, supply chain continues to be one of the largest enterprise applications for the technology—in a recent survey
we found 53% of the execs surveyed stated they have ongoing supply
chain use cases for blockchain. We’re seeing pharmaceutical companies,
logistics providers, retailers, government agencies, and technology
firms all working to enhance logistics network visibility via blockchain
technology. We’re also seeing increased investment in digital
recordation, digital identity and IoT from corporates. In the same
survey, greater than 44% claimed to be working on an active use case
using blockchain in at least one of these spaces.
Lou Kerner, Founding Partner of venture firm and advisory CryptoOracle:
Shakeouts are a natural part of our economic system. Economies with
no shakeouts are the unhealthy ones. We’re still in the infrastructure
phase of investing, building the rails that the industry will use to
grow applications and services, and companies like R3 (enterprise
blockchain), Coinbase (trading platform), Circle (finance company), and
Ledger (wallet) are still attracting investment. The crypto bulls, like
myself, believe crypto is a thing. The question is less ‘if’, than
‘when’. The companies getting the most funding today either have
rapidly growing user bases or have great teams going after large
opportunities, like stablecoins.
These insiders paint a measured counterpoint to the gloom and doom of
headlines focused on crypto markets. However, “crypto winter†has
certainly impacted blockchain entrepreneurs, with the price drop
triggering sometimes fatal collateral damage to young businesses. Smith +
Crown’s ICO Tracker shows the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market chilled from 113 in December 2017 to just three in December 2018
. Poor treasury management practices created cash crises for upstart
companies that kept funds in cryptocurrency after an ICO. Consensys and
Steemit, two well-known firms in the space, reported layoffs in December
while many smaller companies are quietly shutting down.
But as the market plunged, it released another kind of pressure. The
misperception of cryptocurrency price as an indicator of blockchain
potential had triggered overinflated expectations of blockchain
technology. In the (relative) quiet after the fall, blockchain
entrepreneurs now have the space in which to explore how to build on
last year’s work to create something truly meaningful. From the outside,
and next to 2018’s drama, measured but steady progress may feel almost
boring. But inside the community, something very exciting continues to
brew. It just requires more nuanced perception to see it.
I am the founder and CEO of Unblocked Future, a consultancy that
helps executives to drive adoption at the forefront of emerging tech. We
help companies communicate their vision, resonate with stakeholders,
and activate communities for change. I’m also the author of ‘Unblock…
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:06 AM on Thursday, December 27th, 2018
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
———————
Blockchain has already started to level the playing field by disrupting correspondent banking and democratizing payments.
In 2019, blockchain will start to move beyond payments and will begin to unbundle securities, loans and other derivative financial products. Companies like Securitize*, Dharma, Dydx, Compound Finance and The Ocean are all interesting companies working on the next phase of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
Asheesh Birla is senior vice president of product at Ripple.
The following is an exclusive contribution to CoinDesk’s 2018 Year in Review.
Industries across the board – from cable companies to grocery stores –
are desperately trying to hold on to their most prized possession: the
bundle. The conventional wisdom goes “if you control access and
distribution then consumers have little choice to go anywhere else.â€
Unfortunately for sleepy incumbent bundlers, we’ve seen companies
like Netflix and Amazon unbundle nearly every part of our lives. The
same is now underway in crypto and finance, where some of the largest
financial institutions are seeing their bundles face serious headwinds.
As the unbundling picks up in 2019, I expect it create opportunities
for smart blockchain companies that can find their niche and be
successful. But with that opportunity also comes great risk. If
entrepreneurs and builders get over their skis or promise too much –
like many did in early 2018 – they risk losing credibility and giving
away their first-mover advantage.
Asia Leads the Way
For decades, the largest global financial institutions controlled much of the financial system underpinning the global economy.
Blockchain has already started to level the playing field by
disrupting correspondent banking and democratizing payments. In 2019,
blockchain will start to move beyond payments and will begin to unbundle
securities, loans and other derivative financial products. Companies
like Securitize*, Dharma, Dydx, Compound Finance and The Ocean are all
interesting companies working on the next phase of Decentralized Finance
(DeFi).
Over the last several years, mobile app companies like Grab, Gojek
and Paytm have expanded their offerings to include payments,
investments, remittances, loans and insurance. They are rapidly
capturing newly banked consumers as many Asian economies move from cash
to digital.
Regulators in Asia are providing clearer guidelines on blockchain and
crypto projects, partially because they consider blockchain a catalyst
for economic growth.
Additionally, over 80 percent of all cryptocurrency trading volume is
based out of Asia, so there is strong appetite to build out a workable
infrastructure. If Grab, Gojek, and Paytm can control distribution to a
newly banked set of consumers, they’ll then start to look towards
blockchain to source a better experience for payments, loans and other
derivative financial products.
Back to basics
Over the last few years, the crypto space deviated from the original
vision of financial access, which was well articulated in Satoshi
Nakamoto’s bitcoin white paper. Similar to the internet boom and bust,
nearly every imaginable use case from tracking flower freshness to
Kodakcoin used blockchain as a buzzword to gain influence and attract
eyeballs.
However, just like the early internet, use cases have to match where the technology is in its development stage.
For example, Netflix wouldn’t have been successful streaming TV shows
in the year 2000 when fewer than one percent of people had access to
broadband. In the last few years, it’s become clear that payments are
the one use case where blockchain works today.
In 2019, blockchain will build on this momentum and branch into
decentralized finance applications such as loans and insurance products
that leverage blockchain-based smart contract platforms.
I’ve always found that some of the best building happens in down
markets. As long as builders can stay focused on solving very specific
use cases, we will see more competition, innovation and a much-needed
unbundling.
That’s a great thing for the entire industry.
Disclosure: Ripple’s Xpring is an investor in Securitize.
Have an opinionated take on 2018? CoinDesk is seeking submissions for our 2018 in Review. Email news [at] coindesk.com to learn how to get involved.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:37 AM on Friday, December 21st, 2018
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
—————–
I am sticking to my original prediction – Bitcoin will hit 250k by 2022.†– Tim Draper, American Venture Capitalist, Author, Founder of Draper Associates, DFJ and Draper University
Following the ICO boom in 2017, along with Bitcoin’s all time high of
nearly $20k last December, the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry
has gone down a rocky road. As the crypto world is full of surprises,
it’s difficult to predict what’s in store for the future. Yet it’s
interesting to hear what industry insiders and some of the biggest
influencers in the space have to say about their expectations for the
crypto and blockchain industry over the next 12 months and beyond.
Cryptocurrency:
I am sticking to my original prediction – Bitcoin will hit 250k by 2022.†– Tim Draper, American Venture Capitalist, Author, Founder of Draper Associates, DFJ and Draper University
As one of the leading cryptocurrencies, Ether will see its price
reach the $500 mark by mid 2019. The fact still remains that most
blockchain projects across the world are being done in Ethereum. As its
use cases increase and improve globally, we’ll see it continuing to gain
more solid ground as a smart contract protocol.” – David Drake, Founder and Chairman of LDJ Capital
2019 will be an exciting year. We will see several great products
shipped to market, especially from our Binance Labs incubation program,
now taking place on five continents. The projects and teams who are
focused on building and achieving product-market fit will bring more
real use cases to our lives. This will open the gateway to the mass
adoption of crypto.” – Ella Zhang, Head of Binance Labs
The first legitimate national cryptocurrency will be launched, linked
to a fiat currency from a G-20 nation. This digital asset will be in
high demand for combining the benefits of a digital asset with the
stability of a government-backed currency. Mark Zuckerberg’s 2018 New
Year’s resolution to “study cryptocurrencies” will result in one being
integrated into Facebook for payments. The only question is whether they
will use an existing cryptocurrency or a new one created by Facebook.†–
Mitch Liu, Theta Labs CEO
Blockchain:
2018 was a tough year, but we have a longer term outlook for our
industry. The builders have been building in 2018, so for 2019, I think
we will see a lot of real products and real applications coming into the
market.†– Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Binance CEO and Founder
I have been involved in the blockchain space since 2013, actively
developing with Ethereum since January 2015. During this time I have
experienced many ups and downs. Many times I heard how “Blockchain is
over.†However, the fact is that the underlying technological innovation
continues to evolve and to get better. We have more tools today,
documentation, tutorials, and users than ever before and this will
continue to grow as the user interfaces become better and more seamless.
In 2019 we will continue to live the aftermath of 2017. ICOs have been
in winter sleep for most of 2018, following the ICO madness we
experienced, which was initiated by my ERC-20 standard. Nevertheless,
this doesn’t change the fact that ICO’s are a great fundraising
mechanism, for those projects in which a coin offering makes sense.
However, many past token projects were only using ICOs as an opportunity
to collect money without a truly decentralized and functioning token
economy in the background. We need to regain the trust that was lost,
and proposals like my Reversible ICO shows how technology can be the
transaction mechanism and the regulator at the same time. – Fabian Vogelsteller, LUKSO CEO and Ethereum developer responsible for co-creating the ERC-20 Token Standard
You’ll see blockchain companies with differentiated business models
separating themselves from the pack. For the industry to mature and gain
legitimacy, the 2018 shakeout had to happen. As you’ve seen with the
rise of the internet, e-commerce and just about every other big-thought
thing that’s happened in the last 50 years, the gold rush days come to
an end, rules get created and people settle down to do real business.
That’s why we’ve kept our focus, powered forward and invested in
building our vision for the next iteration of the web. For TRON, 2019
will be a year of many innovations. We’re the largest decentralized
content ecosystem in the world, and 2019 will be about showing people
what that means. We’re beginning the year with our first summit, in San
Francisco, where we’ll reveal big details about how we plan to integrate
blockchain with BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer technology. And we’ll follow
that by offering our 100 million monthly BitTorrent users incentives to
create and share more freely and often, delivering an economy of goods
and services within the network.†– Justin Sun, TRON CEO and Founder
2019 will be a historic year for the Blockchain industry. Malta will
issue the first license for operators in this sphere to be able to
operate in a regulated environment. Thus, 2019 will see the
materialization of The Blockchain Island, firmly putting Malta at the
epicenter of this industry. We are aware where the compass is pointing,
which is why blockchain technology will be incorporated into our
ecosystem. In turn, we will soon start witnessing change in the
landscape of how sectors as we know today operate. In fact, as a
Government, we’re looking at using blockchain technology in the public
sector to better the experience of our citizens. 2019 will be an even
more exciting year for Malta. The smallest EU member state will be
amongst the top 10 nations with a National Strategy for Artificial
Intelligence. This will open doors for the exploration of new economic
niches such as esports, gaming and Fintech. Malta’s agility and flexible
approach will ensure that we will remain innovators in the digital
economy.†– The Honorable Silvio Schembri, Malta’s Junior Minister for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation
We hope to see some more progress happening towards the setting up of
a true interoperability standard for optimal communication between
different types of blockchain networks. We believe that there will be
some more hybrid deployments involving the joint use of permissionless
and permissioned blockchain networks, with a focus on real world use
cases where the use of blockchain technology can truly move the needle
forward.†– Nimit Sawheny, Voatz CEO
Blockchain communities and open source communities will see their
lines blurred, as the two become synonymous with one another. Open
source has traditionally been on the cutting edge of innovation and has
garnered massive interest because of its ability to deliver security
through transparency. Decentralization is the latest cutting-edge
technology and it shares that same foundational principle of
transparency. A platform cannot be decentralized if it is proprietary,
as the organization that owns the software code ultimately becomes the
central point of failure.†– Ben Golub, Storj Interim CEO and Executive Chairman
Tokenization:
A quadrillion dollar market is unfolding, driven by the emergence of
security tokens. As currencies are tokenized, as bonds are tokenized, as
equities are tokenized, as currencies and real estate and energy are
tokenized — We are watching the birth of a quadrillion-dollar market.
Also, Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) are going to deliver over $100B
of capital into places where economic stimulus is needed in the U.S. We
are also going to see the first Dapps (decentralized applications) that
hit a million users a day sometime next year. Because we’ve now had our
“Netscape†moment, we now have scalable blockchains that have no
friction (meaning anyone can access it without having tokens) low
latency (meaning it’s fast and scalable and can be by many people) with
EOS as the first general protocol with many to come. It’s the equivalent
of when the first IPhone launched in the App Store.†– Brock Pierce, American Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of EOS Alliance
I think that the main trend will be securities tokens. The
combination of the power of a distributed ledger with more standardized
securities will open lots of doors in capital creation. Privacy will
continue to be important. There will be an increasing gap between those
with solid technology and those with weak, captive networks.†– Bruce Fenton,
Founder and Managing Director of Atlantic Financial, Board member of
the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of the Bitcoin Association
The ability to fractionalize illiquid assets will allow institutions
to offer unique portfolio positioning that suit the preferences of the
investor. Given the transparency involved in a correctly-designed token,
there will be new ways to visualize risk and returns. This will unleash
a new wave of investing that has been bottled up because of asymmetry
of information. Ultimately, tokenization will greatly flatten that
asymmetry, which is what this is all about.” – Sam Tabar, Fluidity Co-Founder
Venture Capital:
2019 is going to be another year of building. We’re squarely in the
phase in which the crypto space is developing the companies, products,
and infrastructure to support the wild valuations we saw in 2017. I
expect we’ll see more consolidation, as both companies and funds
struggle to raise capital. While this might sound gloomy, I think it’s
actually quite healthy. As technology and valuations start to converge
at rational levels again, the stage will be set for the industry to
enter the next phase of maturity.†– Arianna Simpson, Venture Capitalist and Managing Director at Autonomous Partners
We should not forget that token issuers are startups and they have an
even higher burn rate than that of traditional startups. With over $10
billion raised by those crypto startups in 2017-2018, the conversion to
fiat currencies is inevitable. In addition, all the crypto services and
talent have been twice as expensive as for traditional startups. Once
billions of dollars are liquidated to pay bills, it is normal for the
prices of the major crypto currencies to drop. This of course had a
snowball effect: the panic starts and hundreds of entrepreneurs need to
sell crypto to secure capital for product development. Even cryptofunds
whose market capitalization is $10 billion tend to have focused on
equity deals recently. They’ve liquidated part of their crypto portfolio
and hold fiat. In addition, we shouldn’t forget that the main reason
the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks exists are because of the miners.
Miners had to sell as well to maintain their facilities. They’ve
overmined Bitcoin in 2017, assuming the price would keep going up.†– Natalia Karayaneva, Propy CEO and Founder
