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Eight Ways #Blockchain Will Impact The World Beyond #Cryptocurrency $SX $SX.ca $SXOOF $IDK.ca #Blockstation

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:29 PM on Friday, March 9th, 2018
  • From banking and secure communications to healthcare and ride-sharing, blockchain will have a huge impact on our future
  • Of course, to understand how blockchain will change the world, you first need to understand how it works

Kage Spatz is a Strategist, Entrepreneur & CEO at Spacetwin — an innovative digital marketing and monetization agency.

From banking and secure communications to healthcare and ride-sharing, blockchain will have a huge impact on our future. Of course, to understand how blockchain will change the world, you first need to understand how it works.

Have you ever purchased coffee or produce that is labeled as a fair trade product? How can you trust that information? What about when you meet someone on a dating website? How do you know they’re really the 35-year-old startup founder and wakeboarder that they say they are?

Society today is filled with uncertainty and trust issues — and with valid reason. To be sure your purchase is really helping a coffee bean farmer in Ethiopia or that your date is actually who they say they are, you’d need a system with strong security where records are stored and facts are verified by many witnesses so that no one could cheat it.

Blockchain: Simplified

This type of system is called blockchain. No central person or company owns it. Rather, information is stored across a system of many personal computers so that there is no middleman. It’s decentralized and distributed so that no one person can take it down or corrupt it. However, anyone can use the system and help run it, as information is protected through cryptography.

It’s essentially an ever-growing list of transactions (listed in blocks) that are verified, permanently recorded and linked in chronological order. For most users, the beauty of blockchain will be in the unknown. Just as most of us are unaware of how 4G technology works or how silicon is processed to produce central processing units, we continue to use our smartphones on a daily basis. Similarly, blockchain will be a perfect “backstage” to many changing technologies and will impact the way we educate, manage, consume, govern and communicate.

How Blockchain Will Change the World

• Banking and Payments: Not only does blockchain allow anyone to exchange money faster, more efficiently and more securely (see bitcoin currency), but many banks are already working on adopting blockchain technology to improve their transactions.

• Cybersecurity: All data is verified and encrypted in blockchain using advanced cryptography, making it resistant to unauthorized changes and hacks. Centralized servers can be very susceptible to data loss, corruption, human error and hacking. Just look at the many hacks we’ve seen in the past few years with Target, Verizon, Deloitte and Equifax. Using a blockchain decentralized, distributed system would allow data storage in the cloud to be more robust and protected against attacks.

• Internet of Things: Today the Internet of Things (IoT) includes cars, buildings, doorbells and even refrigerators that are embedded with software, network connectivity and sensors. However, because these devices operate from a central location that handles communications, hackers can gain access to the car you’re driving or to your home. According to Kamil Przeorski, an expert in Bitcoin and Ethereum capabilities, Blockchain has the potential to address these critical security concerns because it decentralizes all of the information and data. This is increasingly more important as IoT capabilities increase.

• Unified Communications: Blockchains can enable faster, safer and more reliable automated communication. Automated or digital communication based on pre-built algorithms is already occurring at scale in some industries. Examples of this include emails, system alerts and call notifications. Matt Peterson, co-founder of Jive Communications and an early adopter and miner of Bitcoin told me that while a lot of communication is currently automated, this type of communication is generally non-critical and asynchronous. He said that “Blockchains can shift the playing field to allow authorized, bi-directional communications and transactions that occur more freely in an automated environment and produce an immutable record of communication.” This will greatly enhance the safety and reliability of our communications.

• Government: If corrupt politicians and long lines at the DMV give you a headache, you’re not alone. With blockchain, we could reduce bureaucracy and increase security, efficiency and transparency. Welfare and unemployment benefits could also be more easily verified and distributed and votes could be counted and verified for legitimacy.

• Crowdfunding and Donating to Charities: Donating to a worthy cause is never a bad idea. But what percentage of your donation is actually being given to those it’s meant for? Blockchains can help ensure that your money gets exactly where you need it to go. Bitcoin-based charities are already creating trust through smart contracts and online reputation systems and allowing donors to see where their donations go through a secure and transparent ledger. The United Nations’ World Food Programme is currently implementing blockchain technology to allow refugees to purchase food by using Iris scans instead of vouchers, cash or credit cards.

• Healthcare: Wouldn’t it be great if doctors did not have to “fax over referrals” anymore? Why can’t all of our medical information be stored in a central database? The centralization of such sensitive information makes it very vulnerable. With all of the private patient data that hospitals collect, a secure platform is necessary. With the advent of blockchain, hospitals and other healthcare organizations could create a centralized and secure database, store medical records and share them strictly with authorized doctors and patients.

• Rentals and Ride-sharing: Uber and Airbnb may seem like decentralized networks, but the platform owners are in complete control of the network and naturally take a fee for their service. Blockchain can create decentralized peer-to-peer ride-sharing apps and can allow car owners to auto pay for things like parking, tolls and fuel.

While blockchain is still relatively new and many experiments will fail before they succeed, the possibilities for innovation are endless. Along with the eight points listed, it will affect retail, energy management, online music, supply chain management, forecasting, consulting, real estate, insurance and much more. Let’s prepare ourselves for a future where distributed, autonomous solutions will have a huge role — both in our personal lives and in business.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/03/09/eight-ways-blockchain-will-impact-the-world-beyond-cryptocurrency/2/#311824a1300b

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#Crypto exchanges, raking in billions, emerge as kings of #coins #Bitcoin #Ether #Blockstation

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:55 PM on Monday, March 5th, 2018
  • Digital-asset exchanges are emerging as one of the biggest winners of the cryptocurrency boom
  • Top 10 are generating at least $40-million daily in fees and as much as $350-million
  • Fees in the lowest range of the exchanges’ scale were used for the calculations

Ahn Young-joon/AP

Camila Russo
Bloomberg News
Published 2 hours ago Updated March 5, 2018

Digital-asset exchanges are emerging as one of the biggest winners of the cryptocurrency boom.

The top 10 are generating at least $40-million daily in fees and as much as $350-million, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg using trading volume reported on data tracker CoinMarketCap.com and fee information on the exchanges’ websites. Fees in the lowest range of the exchanges’ scale were used for the calculations.

The projections are a rough estimate as it’s near impossible to know what exactly the closely held firms are charging, including discounts for their most active traders. Based on daily trading volume and fees listed, annual revenue for the top 10 goes into the billions of dollars. While the numbers aren’t exact, the order of magnitude shows the boom in virtual currencies is generating some very real cash.

“The exchanges and transaction processors are the biggest winners in the space because they’re allowing people to transact and participate in this burgeoning sector,” said Gil Luria, an equity analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co, who reviewed the methodology for the revenue estimates. “There’s a big business there and it would not surprise me if they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and possibly even billions a year.”

Tokyo-based Binance and Hong Kong-based OKEx are handling the largest volume of trading, equal to about $1.7-billion daily. Based on fees of 0.2 percentage point, which are higher than OKEx’s 0.07 percentage point for the most active traders, Binance is likely bringing in the most cash per day.

Huobi, Bitfinex, Upbit and Bithumb, which are all based in Asia, come next in the ranking. They process between $600-million and $1.4-billion of trading volume and charge fees of 0.3 percentage point on average. More than half of the crypto currency trading happens in Asia-based exchanges, according to data compiled by smart contract platform Aelf.

Asia’s influence in crypto trading can be explained by a concentration of cryptocurrency mining in the region from Bitcoin’s early days, as miners took advantage of cheaper electricity costs, said Aelf co-founder Zhuling Chen. Other reasons include the region’s young population, which adopts new technology quickly, consumers that are comfortable with mobile payments, and even a strong gaming culture, which incentivizes virtual transactions, said Chen. Tightening regulation in the region, with China and South Korea restricting trading and initial coin offerings, also means that Asian firms have been forced to become global, he said.

Binance’s prominence is notable considering the firm started operating in July. It shifted headquarters to Japan from Shanghai after the Chinese government tightened its grasp on the industry late last year. The firm can process 1.4 million orders per second, which it says makes it one of the fastest exchanges in the market.

Its loose customer accreditation process may also explain its growth, said Chris Slaughter, co-founder of crypto investment platform Samsa. It’s also very reliable, he said.

“They don’t make users go through the know-your-customer process until withdrawal,” Slaughter said. “It’s a complicated process. You can lose customers in the two or four hours that it takes. In Binance, you can go from not having an account to having funds on an account in less than 20 minutes.”

South Korean exchange Upbit, which is among the top five in trading volume, only started operating in October. It’s controlled by Dunamu Inc., which also owns Kakao Talk, the most popular messaging app in Korea. Upbit is integrated in Kakao Talk and lists over 120 cryptocurrencies, thanks to a partnership with the U.S.-based exchange Bittrex.

All of the exchanges are privately held and only a few years old, which often means it’s difficult to find financial information or details on management. HitBTC, the 10th largest, doesn’t provide any information on who runs it or where the firm is based, even as customers asked these questions on the exchange’s forum. Bit-Z, WEX and EXX, among the 20 biggest by trading volume, are some of the others that don’t provide those details either.

Bitfinex, among the five biggest, has come under heavier scrutiny as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent subpoenas to the company in December.

Potential competition from public companies and traditional financial firms may push crypto exchanges to be more transparent and even reduce costs, said Slaughter.

“More conventional businesses like banks and funds are likely to acquire crypto platforms at some point to make sure they have a strategic foothold in the market,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer. Financial services is where all the real business revenue in crypto is.”

Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/crypto-exchanges-raking-in-billions-emerge-as-kings-of-coins/article38209941/

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St-Georges Eco-Mining $SX $SX.ca $SXOOF Subsidiary #ZeU #Crypto Signs Definitive Agreement with Tiande $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:01 PM on Monday, February 26th, 2018

Sx large

  • Wholly owned subsidiary ZeU Crypto Networks signed a definitive asset purchase agreement dated February 23, 2018 with Qingdao Tiande Technologies Limited and Beijing Tiande Technologies Limited with the intervention of Guiyang Tiande Technologies Limited
  • ZeU will acquire the Vendor’s intellectual property
  • Purchase price for the Acquisition shall be up to 150,000,000 common shares of ZeU and 150,000,000 Share purchase warrants

Montreal / February 26, 2018 – St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE: SX) (OTC: SXOOF) (FSE: 85G1) announces that, further to its January 15 and February 8, 2018 press releases, its wholly owned subsidiary ZeU Crypto Networks Inc. has signed a definitive asset purchase agreement dated February 23, 2018 with Qingdao Tiande Technologies Limited and Beijing Tiande Technologies Limited with the intervention of Guiyang Tiande Technologies Limited to purchase substantially all the intellectual property of the Vendors.

The following are the material terms of the agreement:

  • – ZeU will acquire the Vendor’s intellectual property (including without limitation, all intellectual property and patent applications directly or indirectly related to the Blockchain and smart contract technologies of the Vendors (the “Blockchain Technology”), including without limitation, BigData, IoB, Sandbox) (the “IP”)
  • – the Vendors will complete: (i) the transfer and successful employment by ZeU of all key employees; (ii) the transfer and assignment of all the IP to ZeU; (iii) the obtaining of all regulatory approvals should they be required; and (iv) the obtaining of all required consents including all consents from clients and collaborators pursuant to the existing contracts of the Vendors (the “Milestone Conditions”)
  • – ZeU, the Vendors and key collaborators will enter into a license agreement and non-competition covenant which will provide, among other things, that ZeU shall irrevocably grant a perpetual , exclusive, transferable and sub-licensable license to the Vendors for use of the Blockchain Technology in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
  • – ZeU will have completed or caused to be completed prior to the Closing Date a debenture financing of not less than $10,000,000 and up to $30,000,000 (the “Concurrent Financing”)

The purchase price for the Acquisition shall be up to 150,000,000 common shares of ZeU (each a “Share” and 150,000,000 Share purchase warrants (each a “Warrant”) to the Vendors, satisfied by (i) the delivery of a total of 65,000,000 Shares and 75,000,000 Warrants on the closing date of the Acquisition (the “Closing Date”), (ii) to the extent and only if all of the Milestone Conditions (as defined hereinabove) are satisfied, the delivery of an additional 75,000,000 Shares, within 3 Business Days following the satisfaction of the Milestone Conditions or the Closing Date (whichever is later) and (iii) to the extent and only if twenty (20) new patents pertaining to the Blockchain Technology are issued (the “Patent Condition”), the delivery of an additional 75,000,000 Shares, within 3 Business Days following the satisfaction of the Patent Condition.

Each Warrant will be exercisable at a price equal to the conversion price pursuant to the Concurrent Financing for a period of three (3) years following the date ZeU completes a transaction pursuant to which its Shares will either be listed on a recognized stock exchange in North America, or will be exchanged for common shares of a reporting issuer listed on a recognized stock exchange in North America.

The agreement was negotiated at arm’s length, and contains customary representations, warranties and closing conditions.

On closing of the Acquisition, Dr. Wei Tek Tsai is to join ZeU’s management as Chief Technology Officer.

The Acquisition remains subject to requisite regulatory approval and satisfaction of closing conditions contained in the agreement.

The Acquisition remains subject to a number of conditions as set forth in the agreement, including (without limitation), the completion of the Concurrent Financing (as defined hereinabove), the receipt of all requisite regulatory approvals and satisfaction of closing conditions contained in the agreement.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

“Frank Dumas”

FRANK DUMAS, PRESIDENT & CEO

About St-Georges

St-Georges is developing new technologies to solve the some of the most common environmental problems in the mining industry.

The Company controls directly or indirectly, through rights of first refusal, all of the active mineral tenures in Iceland. It also explores for nickel on the Julie Nickel Project & for industrial minerals on Quebec’s North Shore and for lithium and rare metals in Northern Quebec and in the Abitibi region. Headquartered in Montreal, St-Georges’ stock is listed on the CSE under the symbol SX, on the US OTC under the Symbol SXOOF and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 85G1.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release.

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INTERVIEW: Augusta Industries $AAO.ca With Real #Blockchain In A Real Company With Real Data and Real Revenues $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca $BLOC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:35 AM on Friday, February 16th, 2018

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DC #Blockchain Hearing Sees Call for Congressional Commission $SX $SX.ca $IDK.ca $AAO.ca #Blockstation

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:03 AM on Thursday, February 15th, 2018
  • Members of the U.S. House of Representatives got a crash course on blockchain today, with subcommittees of the Science, Space and Technology Committee meeting to hear testimony on the tech
  • During the “Beyond Bitcoin: Emerging Applications for Blockchain Technology” hearing, the House Subcommittee on Research and Technology and the Subcommittee on Oversight asked a range of questions, primarily aimed at getting a sense of which use cases have attracted the most attention today – and could, in theory, wind up being used by the U.S. government itself.
Feb 14, 2018 at 21:20 UTC  |  Updated  Feb 14, 2018 at 21:25 UTC

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives got a crash course on blockchain today, with subcommittees of the Science, Space and Technology Committee meeting to hear testimony on the tech.

During the “Beyond Bitcoin: Emerging Applications for Blockchain Technology” hearing, the House Subcommittee on Research and Technology and the Subcommittee on Oversight asked a range of questions, primarily aimed at getting a sense of which use cases have attracted the most attention today – and could, in theory, wind up being used by the U.S. government itself.

Ultimately, the witnesses would recommend that Congress set up a legal framework which would encourage and, perhaps, even fund research into uses of the technology within the public sphere.

“I would encourage Congress to commission a blockchain advisory group,” said Aaron Wright, an associate clinical professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and co-director of its Blockchain Project.

He later elaborated:

“So the idea with the blockchain commission would be to provide a degree of uniformity and a unified approach to the numerous regulatory decisions. Some issues raised by the witnesses today – there’s privacy issue, identity issues, consumer protection, commodities laws, and there’s competing interpretations that have been issued already by federal agencies, so the thought would be to standardize that.”

Applications, not regulations

The hearing pointedly sought to avoid a topic that has been a hot one, both in and outside of Washington, D.C.: regulation. While it was a subject that came up through witness testimony, chair Ralph Abraham (R-LA) said he wanted to focus on what he described as a potentially “transformative” technology.

To that end, the hearing called for examples of how the technology can be used, both in the private sector and by the federal government.

Representative Barbara Comstock (R.-VA) started listing use cases by noting that her personal information was likely stolen or compromised by a data breach at the Office of Personnel Management. As a result, she said she was “pleased” to hear about efforts to create more secure identity management platforms that uses blockchain as a means to encrypt data.

One notable topic of exploration came through Chris Jaikaran, a cybersecurity analyst from the Congressional Research Office, who discussed the tech’s use for underpinning voting systems.

“The blockchain doesn’t record the vote, it records the person, the identity, the voting. The vote itself is stored on another secure system,” he explained.

Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety, Walmart Inc., detailed his company’s work with blockchain to the subcommittee members, explaining how the retail giant is using the tech to track food shipments.

Yiannas spoke on the pilot projects the retail giant had concluded already, explaining that blockchain has already seen success in helping track food supply chains.

He explained:

“In 2017, Walmart and IBM decided to trial a blockchain to track mangos from source to store … at the end of the trial, we proved we could cut down the time to trace food from seven days to 2.2 seconds. That’s food traceability at the speed of thought.”

Security concerns

While committee members seemed enthused on the idea of private-sector blockchains helping businesses solve problems, they shared concerns about using similar platforms to share government-related information. Representatives Clay Higgins (R-LA) and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) in particular asked for clarification on how distributed ledgers would be secured from potential attackers.

Charles Romine, director of the Information Technology Lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), noted that 51 percent attacks and compromised computers could both disrupt a blockchain, but that these types of attacks would be less dangerous for large – and therefore powerful – networks.

One particular area that was honed in on is quantum computing, which some have warned could undermine the security of blockchain systems.

These concerns are being considered but are at least 15 to 30 years away from becoming a reality, Romine explained.

“If there is a concerted effort to develop quantum computing, I believe we have a number of years before it reaches maturity – what we refer to as being cryptographically relevant.”

Looking ahead

As with any hearing before Congress, the natural question becomes: what comes next?

Prior to the hearing, aides to the committee downplayed the prospects of immediate action, though they floated the idea that the testimony on Wednesday could form the basis of work toward some kind of legislation around blockchain.

IBM’s Jerry Cuomo prepared a list of potential actions Congress could take in order to provide more support for blockchain research. First and foremost, he recommended that the government should encourage projects which can directly impact the U.S.

Cuomo argued in favor of a “thoughtful” approach to legislation.

“Perhaps most importantly, [Congress should] recognize the difference between blockchain’s use in new forms of currency from broader uses of blockchain when considering regulatory policy. Carefully evaluate policies established regarding cryptocurrencies to ensure that there will not be unintended consequences that stymie the innovation and development surrounding blockchain.”

Ultimately, it’s tough to say whether Congress will move on such legislation anytime soon – especially considering the current political climate in the U.S. today – but the process likely moved one step closer through today’s testimony.

Panel image via YouTube

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/dc-blockchain-hearing-sees-call-for-congressional-commission/

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St-Georges Eco-Mining $SX.ca $SXOOF Announces Amendment to the Letter of Intent Between its Subsidiary #ZeU Crypto Networks Inc. and Tiande $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:17 AM on Thursday, February 8th, 2018

  • Letter of intent dated January 12, 2018 relating to an asset acquisition between SX’s subsidiary, ZeU CLrypto Networks Inc. and Qingdao Tiande Blockchain Information Technology Co. Ltd. has been amended
  • Proposed acquisition is subject to a number of terms and conditions, including but not limited to, the completion of a concurrent financing not less than $10,000,000 and up to $30,000,000 that can be done in tranches and the receipt of all necessary regulatory, corporate and third party approvals

Montreal, February 8, 2018 / St-Georges Eco-Mining Corp. (CSE: SX) (OTC: SXOOF) (FSE: 85G1) announced today that its previously announced letter of intent dated January 12, 2018 relating to an asset acquisition between SX’s subsidiary, ZeU Crypto Networks Inc. and Qingdao Tiande Blockchain Information Technology Co. Ltd. has been amended. The general terms of the LOI, which referred to Qingdao Tiande Technologies Limited instead of Qingdao, were previously announced by press release dated January 14, 2018.

ZeU, Qingdao and Beijing Tiande Technologies Inc. (“Beijing” and collectively with Qingdao, “Tiande”) entered into the amendment to the LOI (the “Amendment”), which has extended the date by which the parties will conclude the execution of a definitive agreement on or around February 19, 2018 or such later date as may be mutually agreed upon by the parties. The proposed acquisition is subject to a number of terms and conditions, including but not limited to, the completion of a concurrent financing not less than $10,000,000 and up to $30,000,000 that can be done in tranches and the receipt of all necessary regulatory, corporate and third party approvals.

The Amendment also revised the consideration structure, such that the proposed Acquisition will now be settled through the issuance of 75,000,000 common shares of ZeU (each a “Share”) and 75,000,000 Share purchase warrants (each a “Warrant”) on Closing and an additional 75,000,000 Shares after the issuance of the 20th patent derived from the intellectual property and patent application acquired from Tiande. Each Warrant will be exercisable at a price of CND$1.00 for a period of three (3) years following the date ZeU completes a transaction pursuant to which its Shares will either be listed on a recognized stock exchange in North America, or will be exchanged for common shares of a reporting issuer listed on a recognized stock exchange in North America.

Frank Dumas, President & CEO of St-Georges and of ZeU Crypto Networks commented: “The Acquisition required an extensive due diligence effort and has its own particular challenges. We are happy with the current progress and we can now see the finish line ahead of us. Some elements that are ‘sensitive’ to third party sovereign entities increased the expected workload. The current proposal should allow Tiande to operate in China as an exclusive partner to ZeU, giving ZeU the exclusive ownership and right to develop and commercialize the technologies outside of China and would also call for the establishment of a “Canadian Intellectual Property (IP) Container” and a “Chinese Intellectual Property (IP) Container” allowing for a “Chinese Source Code” to be exclusively used in China without any possibility for North American oversight. In order to facilitate the due diligence requirement, Tiande is giving access to its Sandbox installation to third parties interested in running live tests with the ZeU protocol. Institutions that are considering subscribing to the current financing effort are welcome to use the Sandbox platform.”

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

“Frank Dumas”

FRANK DUMAS, PRESIDENT & CEO

About St-Georges

St-Georges is developing new technologies to solve the some of the most common environmental problems in the mining industry.

The Company controls directly or indirectly, through rights of first refusal, all of the active mineral tenures in Iceland. It also explores for nickel on the Julie Nickel Project & for industrial minerals on Quebec’s North Shore and for lithium and rare metals in Northern Quebec and in the Abitibi region. Headquartered in Montreal, St-Georges’ stock is listed on the CSE under the symbol SX, on the US OTC under the Symbol SXOOF and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 85G1.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this release.

Compliance and medias contact: 514.295.9878

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5 #Blockchain Opportunities No Company Can Afford To Miss $SX $SX.ca $IDK.ca $AAO.ca #Blockstation

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:56 PM on Wednesday, February 7th, 2018
  • blockchain phenomenon appears to be gathering pace as we head into 2018
  • With big announcements from the likes of Kodak and Microsoft, it’s clear that there are opportunities beyond finance where it has already taken a foothold

Bernard Marr , Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

The blockchain phenomenon appears to be gathering pace as we head into 2018. With big announcements from the likes of Kodak and Microsoft, it’s clear that there are opportunities beyond finance where it has already taken a foothold.

But what are the opportunities for your business? To help start to answer that question I have come up with five areas of activity where a move to distributed, encrypted record keeping could provide a competitive edge.

Reducing costs

Banks and other financial institutions such as insurers have already moved to investigate and adopt blockchain technology. Of course for them it may be a case of survival as the concept is so disruptive to their traditional business model, the danger is that if they don’t act, someone else will.

Banks and credit card companies charge around $2 trillion a year for providing middle-man services such as clearing payments and fraud-checking. Moving to blockchain systems can effectively automate much of this, bringing down costs.

But the characteristics of blockchain which make it so transformative in finance – the transparency, reduced need for trust, and robust, immutable structure of data – can help reduce financial burdens involved with making and recording transactions in many other industries, too.

If centralized, unwieldy and unsecure ledgering and inventory systems can be replaced with a streamlined, distributed blockchain system for record keeping, then there will be reduced need for middle-man functions such as administration and compliance-checking of those records.

Storing data on a blockchain also means it is more reliable. If this data is then being used in your business analytics (e.g. machine data) it is more likely to be accurate and yield insights which will align with real-world objectives.

Increasing traceability

In the food industry there is a huge demand for provenance. Demonstrating that safety and welfare standards have been met at every point of the supply chain is hugely important, for legal and business reasons.

Blockchain has been given rise to the potential of every individual ingredient or product effectively receiving its own “digital passport”, meaning its origin and journey can be traced at any stage of the process.

Traditionally these records will have been kept by a number of different organizations – from growers to pickers, packagers, retailers and deliverer – in a centralized fashion. This leaves multiple points of potential failure, such as data loss, and possibly invites fraudulent activity.

Blockchain has also been enthusiastically adopted by the diamond industry – where provenance is also paramount. UK-based Everledger has recorded details of more than 1.6 million of them on a blockchain, storing data such as their size, color and certificate number. High resolution imagery is used which means diamonds can still be matched to their “digital twins” on the blockchain, even if the unique identifying numbers which are invisibly etched into the stones are removed. It plans to begin doing the same with vintage wine in the near future.

Improving customer experience

Loyalty and reward programs encourage repeat custom and also give access to invaluable insights into buying habits and trends. Traditionally the data from these programs is collated centrally rewards are issued in arrears, after administration and processing.

Moving to a blockchain based system enables reward points to be calculated and issued at the point they are earned. This not only speeds things up, it potentially lets customers use the value in their purchases to receive immediate discounts.

Several startups, such as Qiibee and Loyall, have brought blockchain-based loyalty cards to the market, with the idea that it will make it easier for customers to transfer and trade the value in their freebie vouchers across different retailers.  This could lead to reward and loyalty exchanges, where customers can choose to invest their earned value in what they need right now, rather than what they have previously spent money on. Overall this will lead to happier and more satisfied customers.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/02/07/5-blockchain-opportunities-no-company-can-afford-to-miss/#178c47b71a83

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Startup Raises $20 Million to Build ‘#YouTube on the #Blockchain’ $SX $SX.ca $IDK.ca #AAO.ca #Blockstation

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:12 AM on Tuesday, February 6th, 2018
  • Silicon Valley startup Lino is preparing to take on YouTube with a decentralized, collectively-owned video content distribution system
  • Purports to cut out the middleman to more fairly compensate content creators
Feb 6, 2018 at 02:00 UTC

NEWS

Silicon Valley startup Lino is preparing to take on YouTube with a decentralized, collectively-owned video content distribution system that purports to cut out the middleman to more fairly compensate content creators.

The company, which faces competition from Streamspace, Flixxo, Viuly and Stream, all of which are developing similar concepts, received a $20 million vote of confidence from prominent Chinese seed investor Zhenfund during a private token sale, it announced today.

Explaining the company’s mission, its website says that YouTube holds “enormous power” over creators and focuses on maximizing profit, which can bring it into conflict with its actual creators.

The site continues:

“The solution is to create a collectively owned, decentralized means of distribution, which ensures all content value is directly distributed to content creators and affiliated contributors without going through a privately owned entity as a middleman.”

The company’s LINO tokens will operate as the system’s currency and will be earned by creating and sharing content, as well as from the development of infrastructure and applications on top of the Lino blockchain. In other words, users who run nodes to host content will earn tokens, as will the content creators, according to a Medium post by the group.

“We believe in decentralized, peer-to-peer [content delivery networks (CDN)], but current projects seem not ready for stability and costs,” Lino’s website states.

Instead, it seeks to provide a decentralized CDN through an auction system, which the founders believe will maintain a high standard of work on the platform, according to TechCrunch.

The value of the content will be determined by human engagement with it, which Lino argues will prevent fraud and bots from manipulating the system. Transactions will be free of charge. The “auction system” is a reflection of that engagement – users with more interesting or novel content will receive more of a reward than those who produce less interesting content.

Lino chief executive Wilson Wei told TechCrunch that he expected content creators to garner three to five times the profits they make on YouTube or its competitor site, Twitch.

While the outcome of Lino’s project remains to be seen – the product will launch later this year – Wei expressed confidence in its underlying design. He told TechCrunch:

“The whole content economy is huge, but we believe in the decentralized organization concept. Why don’t we do it and starting the whole revolution starting with video content?”

Image via Shutterstock

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/lino-raises-20-million-youtube-fight/

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Posted in All Recent Posts, Augusta Industries, Blockchain stocks, Blockstation, Canadian Blockchain Stocks, Smallcap Blockchain stocks, St Georges Eco-Mining Technologies, ThreeD Capital | Comments Off on Startup Raises $20 Million to Build ‘#YouTube on the #Blockchain’ $SX $SX.ca $IDK.ca #AAO.ca #Blockstation

#Blockchain Could Revolutionize the World of Supply Chain Management $SX $SX.ca $IDK.ca $AAO.ca #Blockstation

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:58 PM on Thursday, February 1st, 2018
By: Brewster Smith, principal, Tompkins International
02.01.2018
  • Blockchain is not theoretical.
  • Companies are currently piloting the technology and getting ready for deployment

Blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin, has some challenges to overcome. But the potential applications are so compelling, supply chain managers should quickly learn more about it and begin to conceptualize how it can be applied to their businesses.

I was recently at a Detroit Tigers game with my friend George. I met him in graduate school where it quickly became apparent that he was much smarter than me. Ever since, I have been looking over his shoulder, literally and figuratively, to learn something new. This night in Detroit was no different. George was glued to what appeared to be a stock price chart on his iPhone. “What are you looking at?” I asked. “Have you heard of bitcoin? I bought one and I am looking at its price history.” George then attempted to explain to me what bitcoin is. “It’s a digitally enabled cryptocurrency that gives people the ability to exchange anything of value.” Trying to hide my blank stare of confusion, I replied, “Oh, so how are your wife and kids?” Nevertheless, bitcoin was now on my radar.

After listening to people talk about the topic on NPR and CNBC, the one conclusion I came to is that no one really understands bitcoin or it’s potential. Then I watched an interview with the CEO of a company called Ethereum, who said, “Bitcoin will not be the big game changer to our economy. It is the underlying technology [blockchain] that will really change how commerce is done.” When asked which industry sectors could benefit the most from blockchain, the CEO responded, “supply chain management.” Now I was really paying attention.

What is Blockchain?

Twenty years ago, people had to manually balance their checkbooks. Yes, I’m middle-aged, but stay with me. We recorded debits and credits of money coming in and going out of our checking accounts to calculate our available cash balance. Our checkbooks were our personal financial ledgers. Then there was the advent of online banking through which my wife and I could have a joint checking account. My personal financial ledger, once exclusive to me, had now become a distributed ledger made accessible to two people. We both had the ability to view and manage each other’s financial activity with full transparency and accountability, for better or worse. Blockchain is a joint checking account on anabolic steroids. It is a digital distributed ledger that can be used by multiple business parties to conduct financial transactions, trace product movement, record business activities and/or process legal documentation in a secure and recordable environment.

According to The Economist magazine, the first distributed blockchain was developed by an anonymous person or group referred to as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. It was implemented the following year as the underlying technology for the digital currency bitcoin, where it functions as a public ledger for all transactions. The technology has a strange history and somewhat esoteric application, so let’s look at a more practical example to understand how it works.

How Does Blockchain Work?

The process for shipping a 40-foot container of sneakers from Shanghai to Seattle is not much different than it was 50 years ago. It is a complex endeavor that involves importers, exporters, freight forwarders, clearing agents, shipping lines, haulage companies, intermodal operators, surveyors, banks and insurance brokers. These stakeholders are collectively responsible for processing roughly 55 documents such as commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin, shipping instructions, bills of lading, cargo inspection certificates, customs clearance documents and freight invoices. The process is manual, paper-based and siloed within each stakeholder organization, resulting in hundreds of communication events for a single container.

Using blockchain technology, the previously mentioned stakeholders can now create their own digital ledger and greatly reduce the amount of time and labor to process container shipments. For example, the sneaker manufacturer, a pre-verified participant or signatory in the digital ledger, uploads the packing list, commercial invoice and certificate of origin. That transaction is encrypted with a unique 60 character alpha-numeric code, effectively fingerprinting the transaction, which is then time-stamped. This is referred to as a “block.”  Next, Chinese customs (also a pre-verified participant) provides export approval on the documentation, which is posted as a separate transaction or block, with its own 60-character encryption, then time-stamped and linked to the exporter’s document upload. The blockchain begins to form. Simultaneously, the importer will upload their import license, delivery instructions and necessary clearances activating another block that is encrypted, time-stamped and linked to the other transactions. When the freight forwarder uploads the House Bill of Lading (HBL), marine insurance and cargo inspection certificates, there is full visibility to the other documents already uploaded, the entities that authorized them and when those authorizations took place. Clearing agents, shipping lines, haulers, intermodal operators and surveyors all submit their documentation and approvals through the same process. The end results are 1) a secure, centralized record of trust, which provides end-to-end visibility of the container’s journey 2) demonstrable costs savings through the elimination of manual processing, duplicative communication and organizational delays.

Smart Contracts

The example provided above would involve the use of “smart contracts,” a technology feature enabled by a blockchain. Smart contracts provide an automated escrow environment in which they can be executed without human interaction. However, since they are not widely used, their legal adoption is still in question.

Who is Using Blockchain?

Blockchain is not theoretical. Companies are currently piloting the technology and getting ready for deployment. Forbes recently reported on the best known blockchain pilot program conducted by Maersk and IBM. The program focused on creating a distributed ledger to create a single electronic environment where all the documentation related to a shipment could be stored. Much like the example earlier described. The Wall Street Journal recently reported a pilot program conducted by Cargill, the agricultural conglomerate, which used blockchain to track individual turkeys from four farms in Texas to Cargill’s processing lines and eventually to grocery stores. The Harvard Business Review reported that Walmart has a pilot program to track the movement of pork in China using blockchain technology. Mining giant BHP Billiton is also using the technology to track mineral analysis done by outside vendors. Everledger, a company that helps companies track the provenance of diamonds, is building blockchain applications to track the movement of diamonds from mines to jewelry stores.

Challenges of Blockchain

Despite the bullish sentiment regarding the potential benefits of blockchain, the technology has some big obstacles to overcome. For starters, how will the technology be governed? In a perfect world, there would be a public blockchain, that no governing body controls, in which corporate transactions would be recorded in one distributed ledger and protected through encryption. This is probably not realistic. Michael J. Casey, a senior advisor from MIT stated, “Inevitably, private closed ledgers run by a consortium of companies will also arise, as their members seek to protect market share and profits.” Currently, there are over 20 alternative blockchains, distributed ledgers and/or blockchain-inspired software products being developed and marketed.

Casey also added that another potential impediment is international law. Moving a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Seattle is not only a complex endeavor from an administrative and logistical perspective, it involves a myriad of regulatory and legal hurdles, which dictate responsibility for freight moving through various jurisdictions. Revising the historical laws and unifying the stakeholder organizations governed by those laws through a distributed ledger technology such as blockchain will be monumental. Consequently, some type of global administrator will have to be appointed to govern the adoption of this technology if it is to take hold in a manner comparable to the internet.

Next Steps for Supply Chain Managers

Technology moves fast and slow at the same time. When the internet was becoming popular in the early 1990’s, we had more search engine options than we could handle with Alta Vista, Yahoo, Netscape, AOL, Google and The Big Hub. It was not until the early 2000’s that Google was becoming the clear front runner. During this same time frame, companies such as SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft and Siebel were introducing enterprise resource planning systems. Moreover, Red Prairie, i2 Technologies, Manhattan Associates and Manugistics were introducing warehouse management and transportation management systems. Seventeen years later companies are still sunsetting legacy systems and adopting these technologies for the first time. As a result, it is tempting to take a “wait and see” approach for blockchain adoption. However, the potential applications for the technology are so compelling, supply chain managers should be quick to learn more about it and begin to conceptualize how it can be applied to their businesses. For example, if you are an international importer or exporter, the distributed ledger and smart contract technologies are immediate opportunity areas. Pick a [low complexity] product category and map out the end-to-end supply chain from a physical, IT, financial and administrative perspective. Include your trading partners to participate in the process. Reach out to organizations that are building blockchains for commercial use, such as Ethereum, Chain.com, Intel and Monax, and begin to conceptualize the construct of a pilot program. This is an exciting technology for the supply chain and I encourage you to be on the forefront of realizing the benefits.

Resource Link:
Tompkins International

 

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Posted in All Recent Posts, Augusta Industries, Blockchain stocks, Blockstation, Canadian Blockchain Stocks, Smallcap Blockchain stocks, St Georges Eco-Mining Technologies, ThreeD Capital | Comments Off on #Blockchain Could Revolutionize the World of Supply Chain Management $SX $SX.ca $IDK.ca $AAO.ca #Blockstation

ThreeD Capital $IDK.ca Adds Dr. Eric Ting-Kuei Chou To Advisory Board $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca $BLOC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:52 AM on Thursday, February 1st, 2018

Threed capital

  • Announced today the addition of Dr. Eric Ting-Kuei Chou to its Advisory Board.
  • Dr. Chou is a Vice-President and the Head of Research and Development at Goldspot Discoveries Inc.

TORONTO, Feb. 01, 2018 — ThreeD Capital Inc. (the “Company”) (CSE:IDK), a Canadian-based venture capital firm focused on investments in promising, early stage companies and ICOs with disruptive capabilities, is pleased to announce today the addition of Dr. Eric Ting-Kuei Chou to its Advisory Board.

Dr. Chou is a Vice-President and the Head of Research and Development at Goldspot Discoveries Inc., a technology/investment company that focuses on improving mineral exploration targeting through machine learning/AI.  He specializes in the field of applied geophysics, computational science, data science, and machine learning.  Dr. Chou received his PhD in Mineral Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montreal and holds a Master’s in Applied Science from the same engineering school.

Dr. Chou possesses over 6 years of university teaching experience at the rank of a lecturer in the field of mathematics and applied geophysics. Dr. Chou obtained his B.Sc. in Physics from McGill University. Dr. Chou has accumulated over 7 years of experience working with public and private sectors analyzing data sets associated with industrial activities. Prior to joining Goldspot, he was a research associate working on various cutting-edge technology projects and he has also served in the Canadian Army Reserve as a Signal Officer.

About ThreeD Capital Inc.

ThreeD is a publicly-traded Canadian-based venture capital firm focused on opportunistic investments in companies in the Junior Resources, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain sectors.  ThreeD seeks to invest in early stage, promising companies and ICOs where it may be the lead investor and can additionally provide investees with advisory services, mentoring and access to the Company’s ecosystem.

For further information:
Gerry Feldman, CPA, CA
Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary
[email protected]
Phone: 416-606-7655

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Posted in All Recent Posts, Blockchain stocks, Canadian Blockchain Stocks, Smallcap Blockchain stocks, ThreeD, ThreeD Capital | Comments Off on ThreeD Capital $IDK.ca Adds Dr. Eric Ting-Kuei Chou To Advisory Board $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca $BLOC.ca

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