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ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #MIT Technology Review: #Blockchain Will Become Normalized in 2019 $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:09 AM on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

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  • Even as the hype surrounding blockchain reportedly subsides, it argues that their offerings of regulator-approved infrastructure for crypto are a major watershed in the sector becoming mainstream.
  • A further example, the Review continues, is the improvement in smart contract technology that will enable its use in multiple legal contexts — making the crypto adage “code is law” one step closer to becoming an accepted reality.

News

MIT Technology Review has published an article today, Jan. 2, arguing that 2019 is the year in which blockchain will become mundane. The Review is a magazine that is independent but wholly-owned by the United States Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The article gives a laconic overview of its take on the recent history of blockchain, claiming that the technology was “a revolution that was supposed to disrupt the global financial system” in 2017, but that it was a disappointment in 2018 — in light of the significant decline in the valuations of virtually all blockchain-based crypto assets and currencies.

Nonetheless, the Review argues, on the cusp of the new year, many “innovative-sounding projects are still alive and even close to bearing fruit.” Together with several large corporations’ plans to launch major blockchain-based projects this year, 2019 is thus reportedly set to be “the year that blockchain technology finally becomes normal.”

As an example of the impending transformation of the sector, the Review cites the forthcoming entries of stalwart Wall Street players such as New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and investment giant Fidelity into the cryptocurrency business.

Even as the hype surrounding blockchain reportedly subsides, it argues that their offerings of regulator-approved infrastructure for crypto are a major watershed in the sector becoming mainstream.

A further example, the Review continues, is the improvement in smart contract technology that will enable its use in multiple legal contexts — making the crypto adage “code is law” one step closer to becoming an accepted reality.

The article’s final argument is that this normalization of the technology and the sector will entail a significant reshaping of the ideology that gave cryptocurrencies and blockchain their first impetus. Crypto’s roots as an anti-government movement is being upended, the article claims, by the advent of national cryptocurrencies — whether they be Venezuela’s already-launched controversial oil-backed cryptocurrency the Petro, or other states’ plans for their own state-backed coins.

A further example given is the endorsement of exploring the case for central bank-backed cryptocurrencies (CBDCs) by International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Christine Lagarde this fall.

Almost one year ago, in mid-January 2018, Cointelegraph published an analysis of the heat surrounding the blockchain revolution — encapsulated by the lucrative possibilities of businesses using the tech as a buzzword in their name to cash in on the over-hyped market.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/mit-technology-review-blockchain-will-become-normalized-in-2019

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #SaaS In #Blockchain $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:27 AM on Friday, December 28th, 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.

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  • Do you know that Gartner has predicted that “Blockchain’s business value-add will grow to slightly over $360 billion by 2026, then surge to more than $3.1 trillion by 2030”?

Neeraj Sabharwal

Technologist at Xavient and hands-on leader with cloud and big data expertise. Exploring blockchain solutions.

I know that most of you have probably heard initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies. But what about enterprise blockchain?

ICOs have made a significant impact — both in a positive sense and in a negative one — across several industries thanks to blockchain. The positive impact comes in the form of raising awareness about blockchain technology, and the negative side of things stems from the misguided conflation of blockchain and cryptocurrency. 

Do you know that Gartner has predicted that “Blockchain’s business value-add will grow to slightly over $360 billion by 2026, then surge to more than $3.1 trillion by 2030”?

In a sense, we as technologists are betting on the future, and based on my experience in the blockchain industry, there is a need for a product or software to help businesses to get ready for a better future by increasing revenue on their investments and reducing cost to deploy smart contracts.

We are almost to 2019, and what’s the story now?

According to Accenture research, 2015 was the year of blockchain exploration and investment, which led to early adopters embracing the technology in 2016 and 2017.

Accenture’s prediction is that from 2018 to 2024, there will be significant growth, as we will see more validated information from lessons learned and new use cases, better software, service providers and accurate clarity on all the hype of cryptocurrency. Maturity in regard to blockchain adoption will kick in by 2025.

There is a need of simplicity when it comes to any new technology, and I believe that once we have a simpler approach to deploy smart contract and blockchain then it can open the door to more opportunities.

It’s also why I believe one of the top trends in 2019 to watch for is blockchain as a service. Companies like Amazon, IBM and Microsoft stand to benefit from the potential widespread adoption of blockchain, indicating that big players are likely working on figuring out the true implementation of blockchain as an enterprise solution.

Also, there are lots of companies, particularly in the financial sector, that have already either created their own blockchain projects or are invested in blockchain startups. Visa, for example, released its B2B Connect platform earlier this year to facilitate cross-border business-to-business (B2B) payments via blockchain. And Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are among a group of companies that have invested $32 million in enterprise blockchain startup Axoni.

So what exactly is blockchain as a service?

It’s a platform that comprises multiple blockchain technologies and enables developers to write and execute smart contracts without spending time on deploying and managing the blockchain. To understand this in detail, let me draw a picture for all of you to understand how blockchain as a service and smart contract as a service can enable businesses to use blockchain.

Let’s look at health care as an example, where you may just want to share patient information between various health care providers. So, let’s say in this context your application is based on exchanging patient information between hospitals, insurance companies and pharmacies. Your traditional application connects to software that provides a blockchain-based gateway that lets you store and process information from blockchain in the form of blockchain as a service, which can then lead to the idea of smart contract templates. I won’t go into the details of the smart contract, but just to provide some background: A smart contract is a piece of code that runs on blockchain and executes various business rules and logic to make sure that only relevant information is being processed and exchanged. Also, if there is a need of any checks or validations on the information before it’s being published, then smart contract provides that, too.

There are a couple of options to get started with BaaS and SCaaS. You can either build a blockchain team or center of excellence and create your own BaaS or you can leverage cloud-based solutions, such as Microsft Azure, AWS or IBM. As of writing this article, Google is a little behind with its own offerings, but nevertheless, it too has its own blockchain initiative.

There are also various startups that are based on their own version of blockchain as a service that use technologies covered either by the above-listed cloud vendors or uses open source technologies.

While blockchain is still a nascent technology, that doesn’t mean enterprises aren’t looking for ways to put it to good use. I think you can expect to see more blockchain-as-a-service offerings in 2019.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/12/28/saas-in-blockchain/#10ba1f2d2e1f

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – 2019: The Year Blockchain Begins Finance’s Great Unbundling $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

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.

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  • 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 Dec 27, 2018 at 10:00 UTC

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.”

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.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/2019-the-year-blockchain-begins-finances-great-unbundling

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – #Blockchain And #Crypto Leaders Share Their 2019 Industry Predictions $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

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.

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  • 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

Rachel Wolfson Contributor 

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

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwolfson/2018/12/20/blockchain-and-crypto-leaders-share-their-2019-industry-predictions/#486a7ad2155e

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Top 5 #blockchain predictions for 2019 $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:01 AM on Wednesday, December 12th, 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.

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– Decentralization of apps, not just of the ledger

– Off-chain components are important for enterprise class apps

– Recognizing the importance of non-technology issues

December 12, 2018 Emmanuel Thiriez

2018 has certainly been a year. As the days grow shorter, we can’t help but look forward to a brand new 2019 and all the amazing tech trends in store for us. Today. we’re kicking off a week of predictions for next year. First up: blockchain! Emmanuel Thiriez explains five of his predictions for distributed ledger tech for the new year.

Blockchain is an increasingly key technology for enterprises that require trustless transactions and secure record keeping. Enterprises can track transactions with greater confidence and security, and blockchain adoption – completely distinct from the cryptocurrency hype or doom – is steadily gaining in enterprise environments.

However, while the technical benefits of the blockchain technology are widely acknowledged, enterprises looking to make budget decisions and start test projects or full implementations should know where this technology is headed, what tools are needed and what challenges can be expected. I talked with Emmanuel Thiriez, founder of Amalto and Platform 6, with over 15 years of implementation and operation of enterprise applications for clients in various industries, to find out what someone “in the trenches” is seeing. Thiriez’s company has an impressive list of clients (Chevron, GE, Iron Mountain, Suez, Superior Propane, Thales) with B2B applications powered by Platform 6, a blockchain development platform.

Thiriez cautioned against overestimating the impact of blockchain in your organization “immediately,” but he is extremely bullish on the mid- and long-term prospects.

Overall, there’s every indication that enterprise adoption will continue to grow in 2019. According to Thiriez, the following 5 trends are key to blockchain success. He also brought up one highly visible blockchain project in 2019 to follow.

1. Decentralization of apps, not just of the ledger

Implementing blockchain to ensure the trustability and immutability of records is only part of the story. 2019 will see more decentralization of apps themselves. Too many applications using a blockchain ledger rely on a centralized application that represents a single point of failure and also a vulnerability that could allow tampering with the data – before it gets written to the ledger.

The same approach needs to be applied to the application’s logic, which must be decentralized with no single point of control. Each trading partner or member of the ecosystem runs their own app. Building such applications is no easy feat, but it is a required step to ensure wide blockchain adoption for business usage.

2. Off-chain components are important for enterprise class apps

Building enterprise apps is a complex project. Enterprise apps are often designed to operate in a global business or government environment, and need to display, manipulate, and store large amounts of complex data and to support automation of business processes with that data.

Applying blockchain technology is important. However, the blockchain ledger is only a small part of the overall enterprise app. Many off-chain components are also needed – user management, workflows, systems integration, user interface, APIs, security, event mediation, and many more.

In 2019, more and more only applications that are designed and architected beyond the blockchain ledger and its smart contracts will make the cut.

3. Recognizing the importance of non-technology issues

As is often the case with bleeding edge technologies, there are many non-technology issues to deal with. Ecosystem management, industry-specific practices, legal issues that have little to do with blockchain per se but everything to do with whether a blockchain implementation is successful or not.

This issue is highlighted by Forrester Principal analyst Martha Bennett, who states in her “Predictions 2019” blog post:

I often use the phrase, “blockchains are 80% business, 20% technology.” If anything, that 80% is on the low side, and we’ll continue to see projects held up or even fail because companies’ focus is on the 20%.

When implementing blockchain projects, companies that pay attention to these non-technology issues in 2019 will have greater success rates.

4. Blockchain and the Internet of Things

The convergence between blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) is picking up steam. IoT adoption is significantly increasing the number of devices and sensors that gather data, and many parties are typically involved in a business transaction based on that data.

Blockchain enables safe record-keeping through an immutable ledger, and permits decentralized operations and transactions while preserving trust between all players in the value chain. Look for the intersection of these two technologies to speed up implementation of both.

5. An evolving ecosystem

The blockchain ecosystem is continuing to evolve quickly. This past year saw the dominance of Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and R3’s Corda as the major platforms in blockchain. It is clear that new platforms will continue to emerge with different strengths, and this will mean popularity of platforms will rise and fall. Having the ability to develop for different platforms, prototyping new ones as needed, will be a strength for enterprises. In other words, when evaluating blockchain technologies, there will be no one-size-fits-all in 2019, and companies have to be prepared to jump from one technology to the other.

Major projects will raise visibility for blockchain

Several prominent blockchain projects in 2019 will influence interest in the technology. A key one to watch is Walmart. To better ensure food safety, Walmart and Sam’s Club are requiring produce suppliers to trace their products using blockchain technology.

Can Walmart and its suppliers make sure that all the different complicated steps from farm-to-table are accurately and safely completed? If blockchain delivers as promised, this will significantly raise visibility.

Suppliers still have some time for implementation but the system outlined by Walmart is scheduled to be in place by the end of 2019.

Summary

Blockchain is evolving rapidly. 2019 will see new projects and new platforms continue to emerge. A key trend is more decentralization of apps themselves. Currently, too many apps using a blockchain ledger rely on a centralized application. Understanding of this issue is increasing. In a similar vein, paying attention to off-chain components as a key part of your blockchain project and being flexible in evaluating your blockchain platform will continue to be key pieces of success in the coming year.     Source: https://jaxenter.com/top-5-blockchain-predictions-2019-152880.html

ThreeD Capital $IDK.ca – Report: Blockchain Deployment Could Add $3 Trillion in International Trade by 2030 $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:41 PM on Wednesday, November 28th, 2018

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD Capital is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click here for more information

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  • The World Trade Organization (WTO) released a report on blockchain technology’s effect on international trade today, Nov. 27.
  • Per the study, blockchain’s economic value-add on a global scale could reach almost $3 trillion by 2030.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) released a report on blockchain technology’s effect on international trade today, Nov. 27. Per the study, blockchain’s economic value-add on a global scale could reach almost $3 trillion by 2030.

“Blockchain and International Trade: Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications for International Trade Cooperation” analyzes blockchain applications and challenges that must be considered before the technology’s deployment in various sectors. The study considers the technology’s effect on industries such as trade finance, customs clearance, logistics and transportation.

Blockchain Business Value Forecast. Source: WTO

The study estimates that blockchain has the potential to significantly cut trade costs by increasing transparency and facilitating processes automation, including financial intermediation, exchange rate costs, coordination, and other aspects. “The removal of barriers due to blockchain could result in more than $ 1 trillion of new trade in the next decade,” the report reads.

Blockchain is expected to help administer intellectual property rights across multiple jurisdictions by delivering more transparency and efficiency, and enhance government procurement processes, including fighting fraud and managing public contracts.

Blockchain purportedly could improve supply chains, allowing for the tracking of shipments and proving their authenticity. Additionally, the technology could open new opportunities to micro, small and medium-sized companies.

Conversely, the study warns about challenges that must be addressed before deploying blockchain, as well as its impact on international trade. The researchers point out limited scalability of blockchains due to the predetermined size of blocks, in addition to energy consumption and security issues.

Although “blockchains are highly resilient compared to traditional databases due to their decentralized and distributed nature and the use of cryptographic techniques, they are not completely immune from traditional security challenges,” the study states.

The report stresses the importance of developing a multi-stakeholder approach in order to find appropriate use cases in cross-border trade. According to the WTO, blockchain requires frameworks that ensure the interoperability of networks and provide clear legal status for blockchain transactions across jurisdictions. The report concludes:

“Blockchain could make international trade smarter, but smart trade requires smart standardization — and smart standardization can only happen through cooperation. If we succeed in creating an ecosystem conducive to the wider development of blockchain, international trade could well look radically different in ten to 15 years.”

Earlier this week, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin said that the misapplication of blockchain technology in some industries leads to “wasted time.” Buterin argued that although there are a number of companies that try to establish higher standards by using blockchain technology, he does not think the technology is applicable in every industry.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/report-blockchain-deployment-could-add-3-trillion-in-international-trade-by-2030

 

Stock exchanges find novel uses for #blockchain $IDK.ca $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:05 AM on Friday, November 16th, 2018

  • Although stock trades are often made in milliseconds by algorithms, completing them involves co-ordinating payment and delivery among a mess of databases and then reconciling the records
  • In big financial centres trades take two full days to settle. Some stock exchanges wonder whether blockchain’s distributed, tamper-proof ledgers and immutable and transparent transaction records could speed up and simplify the process

BLOCKCHAIN, THE technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, was designed with an ideological aim: to sidestep central authorities and governments. But many people have become intrigued by its practical uses, such as updating back-office processes. And few institutions have shown more interest in such applications than financial exchanges.

Although stock trades are often made in milliseconds by algorithms, completing them involves co-ordinating payment and delivery among a mess of databases and then reconciling the records. In big financial centres trades take two full days to settle. Some stock exchanges wonder whether blockchain’s distributed, tamper-proof ledgers and immutable and transparent transaction records could speed up and simplify the process.

Exchanges from America and Australia to Switzerland and Singapore are studying the concept. Australia’s stock exchange, the ASX, has moved furthest towards using blockchain to replace its main clearing and settlement platform. It has been testing technology from Digital Asset, an American firm, and will go live in mid-2021. And on November 11th SGX, Singapore’s stock exchange, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), its central bank, announced a prototype using blockchain for delivery, payment and settlement of assets.

These projects are strikingly unlike the vision of blockchain enthusiasts. ASX’s, for example, uses ledgers but remains quite centralised. A single counterparty, ASX itself, must approve participants (which removes the need for energy-intensive verification and updating of records, as with bitcoin). Though open to all, only some banks and brokers will opt for direct access. Everyone else must trade through them. In contrast to the complete transparency of the bitcoin ledger, market participants will not have access to the whole dataset (for legal reasons, but also so they do not have to give away their positions). And settlement will not be in real time.

Why, then, bother? Kelly Mathieson of Digital Asset says her firm’s purpose-built programming language, DAML, which enables financial contracts to be automated, will make further innovation easy. The tedious processes of reconciliation, she says, will be drastically simplified.

As soon as next year investors will be able to see the result of another, smaller experiment. SIX, the owner of the Swiss stock exchange, will launch a separate digital platform for trading assets, such as stocks and bonds, in “tokenised” form—that is, in a format blockchain can handle. Tokenising will eliminate minimum trade sizes, says Thomas Zeeb of SIX. It will also make a much wider range of assets tradable. Mr Zeeb has already been approached by a museum that wants to tokenise its art collection, as a novel source of funding. Investors would gain exposure to the value of the art going up or down through such tokens, which they could trade.

All these projects have, or plan to obtain, official blessing; after all, exchanges are highly regulated. But the Singaporean project shows the value of seeking more than a nod of approval. MAS’s involvement meant the prototype did not limit itself to stock trading or settlement, but also looked at digital currency issued by the central bank. Quite a turnaround for a technology designed to circumvent governments.

Source: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/11/17/stock-exchanges-find-novel-uses-for-blockchain

Three Ways #Blockchain Technology Will Revolutionize Real Estate in 2019 $IDK.ca $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:27 AM on Thursday, November 15th, 2018
  • Blockchain is poised to redefine how we make transactions in the same way that the internet has redefined how we communicate and share information
  • It was originally created a decade ago to support the cryptocurrency bitcoin, but has grown to be so much more. Blockchain has lead to the creation (and loss) of millions of fortunes, the launch of hundreds of new companies, billions of dollars in investor funding and, most commonly for the non-technical, a lot of confusion around its true benefits.

Hunter Perry

Senior Manager of Strategic Growth at Compass. Pairing the real estate industry’s top talent with best in class technology coast to coast.

Blockchain is poised to redefine how we make transactions in the same way that the internet has redefined how we communicate and share information.

It was originally created a decade ago to support the cryptocurrency bitcoin, but has grown to be so much more. Blockchain has lead to the creation (and loss) of millions of fortunes, the launch of hundreds of new companies, billions of dollars in investor funding and, most commonly for the non-technical, a lot of confusion around its true benefits.

In its most basic form, blockchain makes it possible for the first time ever for people and companies to make major transactions without going through an intermediary. Intermediaries like credit card service companies, stock exchanges, banks and governments can make transactions expensive, slow and illiquid and may open opportunities for fraud or crime.

Access to deals, the amount of time it takes to close, property title mistakes, high fees and fraud bog down the real estate industry. It is the largest asset class in the world and has had minimal innovation in the way of increased efficiency during transactions. Blockchain poses major opportunities for innovation in real estate. Here are three innovations that will change how real estate is done for the better in 2019.

Tokenization

Historically, owning the most lucrative hard assets required investors to already be wealthy and have the luxury of being able to wait years to liquidate. That changes with tokenization.

Tokenization democratizes ownership of assets by using cryptocurrency to split assets into tokens that are stored on the blockchain. Someone who wants to invest in a trophy real estate project now has the luxury of being able to resell their share on the open market through secondary trading. Also, people in different geographies and tax brackets now have access to attractive investment opportunities that they previously would not. Landlords now have the ability to sell off just a portion of their property to the crowd. In 2019, I believe we will see a major migration of real estate ownership moving to the blockchain.

One of the pioneers in the space is Templum Markets, the first federally regulated marketplace for the primary issuance and secondary trading of security tokens. It recently closed what is thought to be the first digital security tokenization of a trophy real estate asset: Investors had the opportunity to invest as little as $10,000 in the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen. Unlike with most major real estate investments, owners are not locked in until the building is sold. They will be able to sell their portion on the secondary market.

Smart Contracts

The current state of property agreements have a lot of moving parts and middlemen. A transaction using a smart contract is completed entirely between the buyer and the seller (or renter and landlord) and has no human interaction.

Transactions can be done in far less time with far less chance of fraud. The seller includes all of the details of the property and the buyer puts all of their necessary information on a 100% encrypted and secure block. Computer protocols check the legitimacy of the transaction and no agreement can be completed until all of the terms are met.

Propy is one of the most well-known incumbents in the space. It has built technology for buyers, sellers, brokers, title agents and notaries to come together through a suite of smart contracts on blockchain to facilitate transactions.

Real estate purchasing can be a very emotional decision for people. I believe that middlemen such as brokers and attorneys earn their commissions for people making potentially the largest financial decision of their lives. While smart contracts are currently being built to replace middlemen, I believe this technology will ultimately be utilized to make advisers in this space more efficient.

Property Title

Title insurance has grown to be a $15 billion revenue per year industry by ensuring buyers that their property is clear of old liens and debts. Every municipality has their own way of storing property data. Some cities and towns have put records online while others still use printed paper. If all property title was decentralized on the blockchain, an immense amount of time and money would be saved and, potentially, it could eliminate the need for title insurance altogether. It could also be possible to add information about construction, damages and improvements to the title, almost like Carfax for homes. This will help make it so that people truly know what they are buying.

Unfortunately, while having all title on the blockchain would be great for property buyers, inputting this amount of data from every municipality is an extremely laborious and expensive undertaking. There are a few exciting technology companies in the space, like State Title and Jetclosing, but it is unclear if they are up for the task. It will be interesting to see whether governments, corporations or a combination of both cough up the dollars to enhance the data quality for where we live, work and play.

The coming year will be an inflection point for blockchain usage in real estate. Private investment has been flowing in real estate technology, cryptocurrency wealth is massive, real estate professionals are being increasingly aware of blockchain and the underlying technology is improving. When it comes to the potential growth and adoption of blockchain technology, we are in the first inning. Similar to using the internet, blockchain usage may soon be so common that you forget you’re even using it.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesrealestatecouncil/2018/11/15/three-ways-blockchain-technology-will-revolutionize-real-estate-in-2019/#1cebb0c06d20

#Blockchain momentum is growing across Europe $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:16 AM on Wednesday, November 14th, 2018

Telefonica, Central Bank of Azerbaijan and others demonstrate that the blockchain momentum is growing across multiple industries in Europe

  • According to the IDC, “blockchain spending in Europe is now growing faster than anywhere else.”
  • Leading European companies are continuing to innovate with blockchain technology, progressing projects from proof of concept to production environments. And many, have selected IBM Blockchain as their partner of choice.

Blockchain in the enterprise

The attributes of blockchain technology are ideally suited to large networks of disparate partners. As such, it represents an attractive technology for large corporations and start-ups alike, with assets spread across the world in various forms.

The blockchain is a distributed ledger technology, which establishes a shared, immutable record of all the transactions that take place within a network. It then enables permissioned parties access to trusted data in real time.

‘By applying the technology to a variety of business processes, a new form of command and consent can be introduced into the flow of information, empowering multiple partners to collaborate and establishing a single shared view of a transaction without compromising details, privacy or confidentiality,’ according to an announcement released today by IBM.

IBM Blockchain

‘The hallmark of IBM’s blockchain business has been the ability to convene broad groups of network participants to embrace a collaborative platform approach to blockchain adoption,’ reads the announcement.

‘These clients are capitalising on the opportunity for greater trust and transparency using blockchain across a variety of industries, for example to better manage the reconciliation of international mobile phone roaming charges, securing digital identity for citizens, and complying with new European banking directives on customer communications.’

IBM has more than 500 blockchain projects globally, and is engaged across all industries. The company notes that European projects, in particular, are on the rise. According to the IDC, “blockchain spending in Europe is now growing faster than anywhere else”.

“From large enterprises to startups, across multiple industries, businesses across Europe are selecting IBM Blockchain,” said Andrew Darley, IBM Blockchain Platform Leader, Europe. “Clients are attracted by the production-readiness of the IBM Blockchain Platform, allowing them to run highly secure networks in any environment of their choosing, on premise, via IBM Cloud, or an increasing number of other industry cloud providers.”

Use cases

European clients are working with IBM to drive blockchain innovation in their industries:

Telefónica and IBM are collaborating in the development of a proof of concept based on IBM blockchain technology to help solve one of the major challenges of operators, the management of international mobile phone call traffic.

The project resolves in real time the veracity and traceability of the information generated by the different networks of the operators when they route an international call thanks to a decentralized platform to which all the operators that intervene in the process have access. As a consequence, fraudulent behaviors and discrepancies between the information recorded by each operator are significantly reduced.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan and IBM are developing a Digital Identification System based on Hyperledger Fabric for individuals and legal entities, to verify the reliability of the documents related to them, when individuals or legal entities turn to banks, credit providers and other organizations. The new system will simplify and automate the ‘Know Your Customer’ validation process, and will be used by both clients and credit organisations serving citizens of Azerbaijan.

Finnish retail cooperative S-Group is testing their Pike-perch radar solution, which is based on IBM Blockchain technology, as part of the retail group’s strategy to improve customer experience. Customers in Finland can trace a fillet of pike or perch freshwater fish back to its home waters using the QR Code on the package of “Kotimaista-kuhafile” fish, or by logging in to a tracking website.

PKO Bank Polski, together with KIR (Krajowa Izba Rozliczeniowa S.A. – Polish automated clearing house) and in partnership with IBM and Accenture, is using blockchain to help the bank achieve compliance with the European Union Payment Services Directive related to customer communication. Now the client documents and communications sent digitally to more than 5 million customers of the bank will be held in a highly secure blockchain-based repository.

The Central Securities Depository of Poland (Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartościowych, KDPW) has implemented their e-Voting solution in production, designed to encourage greater retail shareholder participation in company AGMs, and ensure transparency to regulators on the history of AGM agendas, and voting results.

Startup software developer Comgo.io, with support from IBM, is digitising the entire donation and spend process for NGOs using Hyperledger Fabric, a Linux Foundation project. NGO donors can see in real time what money has already been spent and the activities supported.

For example, when charity workers in India purchase hygiene products for the street children they support, the payment is tracked on a mobile phone, and written to the blockchain, allowing the approved people to see the transactions, and triggering the NGO responsible to verify that the children did actually receive the products.

The application enhances transparency to build a deeper connection between the donors and the charity, and helps donors to understand more about the work of the NGO. Comgo.io is implementing the application with 7 NGOs: Fundación Recover; Orden de Malta; Fundación Exit; Farmacéuticos sin Fronteras; KUBUKA; Itwillbe, and homelessentrepreneur.

Blockchain momentum

IBM attributes this blockchain momentum to the ease of use of the IBM Blockchain Platform and the open nature of the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework, coupled with the deep industry expertise of the organisation.

Another factor is the availability of services and developer resources on the ground in Europe, supporting clients, according to IBM: IBM Client Centres and Blockchain Garages in London and Böblingen; IBM Client Innovation Centres in Paris, Nice and Gronningen; an Industry Solution Centre in Montpellier; IBM Food Trust operational in Frankfurt; IBM Research centers in Zurich and Dublin, focused on cryptography, innovations in AI and optical imaging to help prove the identity and authenticity of objects, detect anomalies and support preventative maintenance in industrial environments; and at the Watson IoT Center in Munich, clients are engaged on projects to explore the convergence of IoT and blockchain, and how clients can automate business processes, gain competitive advantage, and create new business models, by embedding end point and sensor data into blockchain networks, to trigger smart contracts.

IBM’s Blockchain Starter Plan on IBM Cloud is also helping developers, startups and enterprises build blockchain proof-of-concepts quickly and affordably with an end-to-end blockchain development experience: a secure test environment, suite of education tools and modules and one-click network provisioning.

Source: https://www.information-age.com/blockchain-momentum-europe-123476474/

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca Acquires Securities of Imagination Park Entertainment Inc. $IP.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:16 PM on Friday, November 9th, 2018

Idk large

  • Acquired ownership and control of an aggregate of  4,750,000 common shares  and 4,750,000 common share purchase warrants  of Imagination Park Entertainment Inc.
  • Subject Units represented approximately 4.7% of all issued and outstanding common shares of the Company as of November 9, 2018 immediately following the transaction described above (or approximately 8.9% on a partially diluted basis, assuming exercise of the Subject Warrants only)

TORONTO, Nov. 09, 2018 — ThreeD Capital Inc. (“ThreeD” or “the Acquirer”) (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 that it has acquired ownership and control of an aggregate of  4,750,000 common shares (the “Subject Shares”) and 4,750,000 common share purchase warrants (the “Subject Warrants” and together with the Subject Shares, the “Subject Units”) of Imagination Park Entertainment Inc. (the “Company”) on November 9, 2018.  The Subject Units represented approximately 4.7% of all issued and outstanding common shares of the Company as of November 9, 2018 immediately following the transaction described above (or approximately 8.9% on a partially diluted basis, assuming exercise of the Subject Warrants only), resulting in a corresponding increase in the percentage of shares held by the Joint Actors as a result of the transaction.

Immediately before the transaction described above, the Acquirer held an aggregate of 900,000 common shares of the Company (the “Pre-Shares”), and convertible securities entitling the Acquirer to acquire an additional 2,400,000 common shares of the Company (the “Pre-Convertible Securities”) representing approximately 1.2% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company (or approximately 4.2% on a partially diluted basis, assuming exercise of the Pre-Convertible Securities only).

Immediately following the transaction described above, the Acquirer held an aggregate of 5,650,000 common shares (the “Post-Shares”) and convertible securities entitling the Acquirer to acquire an additional 7,150,000 common shares of the Company (the “Post-Convertible Securities”), representing approximately 5.6% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company (or approximately 11.8% assuming exercise of such Post-Convertible Securities only).

The Subject Units were acquired in a private placement and not through the facilities of any stock exchange.  The holdings of securities of the Company by Inwentash and the Joint Actors are managed for investment purposes, and Inwentash and the Joint Actors could increase or decrease their investments in the Company at any time, or continue to maintain their current investment position, depending on market conditions or any other relevant factor. The aggregate consideration payable for the Subject Units was $570,000, or $0.12 per Subject Unit.

The trade was effected in reliance upon the exemption contained in Section 2.3 of National Instrument 45-106 on the basis that ThreeD is an “accredited investor” as defined herein.

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: 416-941-8900 ext 106