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$VALE completes first sale of iron ore using #blockchain technology with Nanjing Iron & Steel – SPONSOR: Blockchain Foundry $BCFN.ca $HUT.ca $BITF.ca $GLXY.ca $HIVE.ca $VYGR.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:33 PM on Friday, October 30th, 2020

SPONSOR POST:

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BCFN:CSE

  • A leading North American blockchain development firm
  • 2020 H1 Revenue Of ~$900,000
    • 187% Year Over Year Growth
    • Positive Net Income
  • Self sustaining consulting practice with growing pipeline and potential upside from product development and commercialization
  • Partnered with Binance, the largest digital asset trading platform in the world, to leverage the Syscoin platform.
  • A Blockchain company with Real Products, Real Customers, Real Revenues and Real Income
  • Blockchain Foundry is a “Blockchain 2.0” company that has survived and will thrive  

Hub On AGORACOM / Corporate Profile

Vale completes first sale of iron ore using blockchain technology with Nanjing Iron & Steel

  • Vale, one of the world’s largest mining companies, completed its first sale of iron ore using blockchain technology with Nanjing Iron & Steel Group International Trade Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Nanjing Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (NISCO) for a cargo of 176,000 tons of Brazilian Blend Fines (BRBF) from Teluk Rubiah Maritime Terminal, in Malaysia, to China.
  • Vale said this transaction is aligned with its strategy of becoming a more innovative and customer-centered company through greater integration with clients and partnering for the development of new solutions.

Vale also called it an important milestone towards the digitalization of the sales and trade process, bringing innovation to the traditional paper-intensive trade transactions and offering a better service to the clients as well as predictability in the steel value chain.

The Letter of Credit (LC) was issued through the Contour blockchain platform while the shipping documents and the electronic Bill of Lading were handled via essDOCS’ CargoDocs solution—with all actions carried out through a single, interfaced platform consolidated in Contour. The transaction also had the support from DBS Bank Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad.

The integrated transaction enabled end-to-end security and transparency with real time visibility of the documentation to all stakeholders, drastically reducing the amount of emails and paperwork exchanged among the parties and providing enhanced user experience through access to a single solution to execute the trade.

Source: https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/10/20201030-valeblockchain.html

#Blockchain platform verifies health for 17M Chinese tourists in 1 month – SPONSOR: Blockchain Foundry $BCFN.ca $HUT.ca $BITF.ca $GLXY.ca $HIVE.ca $VYGR.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:03 PM on Monday, October 26th, 2020

SPONSOR POST:

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BCFN:CSE

  • A leading North American blockchain development firm
  • 2020 H1 Revenue Of ~$900,000
    • 187% Year Over Year Growth
    • Positive Net Income
  • Self sustaining consulting practice with growing pipeline and potential upside from product development and commercialization
  • Partnered with Binance, the largest digital asset trading platform in the world, to leverage the Syscoin platform.
  • A Blockchain company with Real Products, Real Customers, Real Revenues and Real Income
  • Blockchain Foundry is a “Blockchain 2.0” company that has survived and will thrive  

Hub On AGORACOM / Corporate Profile

Blockchain platform verifies health for 17M Chinese tourists in 1 month

  • A blockchain-based health records system is gradually making it possible for mainland China to resume cross-border tourism to Macao
  • The platform makes it easy and fast for tourists from mainland China to verify their health status when entering Macao, taking just 3 seconds
  • While it has only been in use for one month, it has processed health data for 17 million people

By: Steve Kaaru

The Macao blockchain health code launched in May 2020, relying on the technology to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It serves as an electronic pass for residents to access public places. A few months later, Macao expanded it to add the mutual recognition mechanism with the health code system in Guangdong province in China.

The health code is built on China’s open-source blockchain platform FISCO BCOS. In a press release, the nonprofit revealed the impact the platform has had, including reviving tourism between mainland China and Macao. The latter had suspended tourist visa application in January this year in light of the pandemic.

According to the organization, since its launch on September 23, more than 17 million people have used it to clear customs between Chinese mainland and Macao.

It further revealed, “The average time of receiving, transforming, and generating the health code for the first time is only 100 seconds. And it will only take less than 3 seconds to complete the procedure when traveler clears customs again.”

The blockchain platform has solved a critical challenge—the privacy protection regulations in China and Macao. While health officials need to verify health information for those crossing the border, they must not exchange data directly with each other. Blockchain allows the authorities to encrypt the personal health data and record it securely. Once a user shares this data at the border, the health official can verify the integrity of the data by comparing with the corresponding digital credentials on the blockchain.

“In addition, the mutual recognition mechanism enables the seamless conversion of health codes for the users without the need to fill in personal information repeatedly on different platforms, offering great convenience and ease of use for cross-border travelers,” the organization added.

China has continued to adopt blockchain aggressively in recent years, both at a state and national level. As CoinGeek reported, Shenzhen city recently gave away $1.5 million in digital yuan to boost its adoption. The CBDC has now been used in over 3 million transactions, with 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) exchanging hands.

Source: https://coingeek.com/blockchain-platform-verifies-health-for-17m-chinese-tourists-in-1-month/

#Ethereum set to become first #blockchain to settle $1 trillion in one year SPONSOR: Blockchain Foundry $BCFN.ca $HUT.ca $BITF.ca $GLXY.ca $HIVE.ca $VYGR.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:18 PM on Friday, October 23rd, 2020

SPONSOR POST:

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BCFN:CSE

  • A leading North American blockchain development firm
  • 2020 H1 Revenue Of ~$900,000
    • 187% Year Over Year Growth
    • Positive Net Income
  • Self sustaining consulting practice with growing pipeline and potential upside from product development and commercialization
  • Partnered with Binance, the largest digital asset trading platform in the world, to leverage the Syscoin platform.
  • A Blockchain company with Real Products, Real Customers, Real Revenues and Real Income
  • Blockchain Foundry is a “Blockchain 2.0” company that has survived and will thrive  

Hub On AGORACOM / Corporate Profile

Ethereum set to become first blockchain to settle $1 trillion in one year

  • According to crypto market data aggregator Messari, the 30-day rolling daily average for Ethereum transaction volume is currently $7 billion, with Bitcoin processing less than $3 billion.
  • If the current trend continues, Messari predicts Ethereum will become the first public blockchain to settle $1 trillion in transfers over a calendar year.

By: Samuel Haig

The third-quarter decentralized finance boom has resulted in the Ethereum (ETH) network processing more than twice the daily transaction volume of Bitcoin (BTC).

According to crypto market data aggregator Messari, the 30-day rolling daily average for Ethereum transaction volume is currently $7 billion, with Bitcoin processing less than $3 billion.

If the current trend continues, Messari predicts Ethereum will become the first public blockchain to settle $1 trillion in transfers over a calendar year.

Ethereum’s previous strongest calendar year relative to Bitcoin was 2018, when it processed half a billion in volume, which was 59% as much as Bitcoin’s $849 million that year.

Bitcoin is on-track for its second-strongest year behind 2018, projected to process $800 million. Yearly transaction value for Bitcoin and Ethereum: Messari

It’s not a straightforward comparison between the two blockchains, however. With the DeFi bubble largely taking place on top of Ethereum-powered smart contracts, the Ethereum network now processes the volume of an entire sector, while Bitcoin largely represents transfers of value denominated in BTC.

Messari’s Ryan Watkins attributes much of Ethereum’s volume spike to increased ERC-20 stablecoin volumes, with the majority of Tether (USDT) transactions now taking place on Ethereum and yield farming-driven demand pushing supply growth of more than 600% for MakerDAO’s Dai stablecoin.

Watkins also notes booming on-chain liquidity from decentralized exchanges, with Uniswap and Curve generating more than $20 billion in volume combined during September. DEXs now represent more than 13.6% of total exchange volumes.

However, Messari predicts “the next twelve months could come to define the platform wars” in crypto, noting Ethereum’s ongoing high fees as a problem that rival blockchains will seek to solve, alongside “the rise of parallel DeFi ecosystems.”

“Look for all would-be ETH Killers to continue to empty out their treasuries to build a parallel DeFi sector throughout the end of 2020 and beyond.”

In August, Chris Burniske, a partner at PlaceHolder Capital, asserted that Ethereum and Bitcoin are racing each other to reach the first $1 trillion market cap in crypto.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-set-to-become-first-blockchain-to-settle-1-trillion-in-one-year

AGORACOM Welcomes Blockchain Foundry $BCFN.ca A Leading North American, Revenue Generating Blockchain Development Firm $HUT.ca $BITF.ca $GLXY.ca $HIVE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:47 AM on Tuesday, October 20th, 2020
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WHY BLOCKCHAIN?

Should you be investing in blockchain technology? We all remember the crash of “blockchain” stocks a couple of years back, which was actually a crash of blockchain pretenders who used the term to build stock promotions, as opposed to building actual blockchains.

Like the dot-com crash of 2000, which bankrupted “dot-com” companies but gave birth to the likes of Google, Amazon, Linkedin because they built actual utility and value, the same can be expected of the blockchain crash and its’ resurgence.

But don’t take our word for it.  The quotes above came from some of the brightest minds on the planet: 

  • Jack Ma (Founder of Ali Baba –  Alibaba is the world’s largest retailer and e-commerce company)
  • Vitalik Buterin (Founder of Ethereum – 2nd largest digital currency on open source blockchain)
  • Jamie Dimon (CEO Of JP Morgan and the most forward thinking banker with respect to blockchain)

WHY BLOCKCHAIN FOUNDRY? THE “BLOCKCHAIN 2.0 COMPANY

  •  A leading North American blockchain development firm
  • 2020 H1 Revenue Of ~$900,000
    • 187% Year Over Year Growth
    • Positive Net Income
  • Self sustaining consulting practice with growing pipeline and potential upside from product development and commercialization
    • Development agreement with blockchain-based precious metal project (LODE Community) which has been consistently renewed since February 2019 at ~$60K per month
    • Completed development agreement with a large Canadian financial institution valued at approximately C$400,000; subsequently conducted an architectural project with the intention of providing advisory and/or development work for potential new deliverables related to the project.
  • Partnered with Binance, the largest digital asset trading platform in the world, to leverage the Syscoin platform.
  • A Blockchain company with Real Products, Real Customers, Real Revenues and Real Income
  • Blockchain Foundry is a “Blockchain 2.0” company that has survived and will thrive  

WHAT ARE BLOCKCHAIN FOUNDRY PARTNERS SAYING?

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies. Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume.bcfn-7

Hub On AGORACOM / Corporate Profile / Read Release

Blockchain Foundry $BCFN.ca Announces $4 Million Equity Facility with Alumina Partners $HUT.ca $BITF.ca $GLXY.ca $HIVE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:45 AM on Tuesday, October 6th, 2020
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  • Entered into an agreement for a drawdown equity financing facility of up to C$4 million over a 24-month period with Alumina Partners (Ontario) Ltd. (“Alumina”), a subsidiary of Alumina Partners LLC, a New York-based private equity firm
  • Investment Agreement provides BCF with fast and flexible access to capital as required. Under the Investment Agreement, the Company has the right to draw down on the facility, at its sole discretion, through tranches of equity private placements of up to C$250,000 each

TORONTO, Oct. 06, 2020 — Blockchain Foundry Inc. (“BCF” or the “Company”) (CSE:BCFN), a leading North American blockchain development firm, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement (the “Investment Agreement”) for a drawdown equity financing facility of up to C$4 million over a 24-month period with Alumina Partners (Ontario) Ltd. (“Alumina”), a subsidiary of Alumina Partners LLC, a New York-based private equity firm.

The Investment Agreement provides BCF with fast and flexible access to capital as required. Under the Investment Agreement, the Company has the right to draw down on the facility, at its sole discretion, through tranches of equity private placements of up to C$250,000 each. Each tranche will consist of units (each, a “Unit”), with each Unit comprised of one common share of BCF (each, a “Share”) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole common share purchase warrant, a “Warrant” and collectively, the “Warrants”). The Units will be priced at a discount of 15% to 25% from the then most recent closing price of the Shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange at the time of the applicable Company drawdown notice to Alumina. The exercise price of the Warrants will be set at a 30% premium to the market price of the Shares and will have a term of three years from the date of issuance. Should the 10-day volume weighted average price of the Shares be greater than or equal to 100% of the exercise price of the Warrants, the Company may accelerate the expiry date by providing at least 30 days’ notice to Alumina. There are no standby charges or other upfront fees associated with the Investment Agreement.

A first tranche drawdown of $100,000 was completed concurrent with the execution of the Investment Agreement. The Company issued 952,381 Units at a price of $0.105 per Unit for gross proceeds of $100,000. Each Warrant in this tranche is exercisable into one additional common share at a price of $0.182.

The proceeds from the first drawdown will be used to add development and project management resources at the Company and for general corporate purposes.

“This Investment Agreement provides BCF with additional capital to accelerate our growth strategy and focus on commercialization of our blockchain-related IP. We have an exciting product roadmap and this capital will help us accelerate the timeline to commercialization,” said Dan Wasyluk, CEO of BCF.

“We are excited to support Blockchain Foundry as they advance the development of their product portfolio,” said Adi Nahmani, Alumina’s Managing Member. “Offerings like the Syscoin Ethereum bridge reduce the real cost of iterated transactions. Reducing transaction cost is critical to increasing scalability and encouraging the broader adoption of distributed ledger platforms. The Blockchain Foundry team combines technical expertise with a proven track record of collaborating with effective partners in the space, and we look forward to seeing them continue to transform academic whitepapers into practical, monetizable solutions.”

About Blockchain Foundry Inc.

Blockchain Foundry develops and commercializes blockchain-based business solutions and provides consulting services to corporate clients seeking to incorporate blockchain technology into their businesses.

Blockchain Foundry Contact Information:

Chris Marsh
President
[email protected]
(647) 330-4572

Forward-Looking Information

Certain portions of this press release contain “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, which is also referred to as “forward-looking statements”, which may not be based on historical fact, including, but not limited to, BCF completing any drawdowns on the equity facility and the terms of each drawdown. Wherever possible, words such as “will”, “plans,” “expects,” “targets,” “continues”, “estimates,” “scheduled,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “may,” “could,” “would” or might, and the negative of such expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results “may,” “could,” “would,” “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved, have been used to identify forward-looking information.

Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future events, future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indicators of the times at, or by which, such events, performance or results will be achieved, if achieved at all. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, as they reflect management’s current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by BCF are inherently subject to significant business, economic, regulatory, competitive, political and social uncertainties, and contingencies, including, but not limited to, the ability of BCF to complete any drawdowns on the terms described herein or at all. Many factors could cause BCF’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”), or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the “United States”, as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – 10 Major #Blockchain Trends in 2019 $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:58 AM on Friday, March 1st, 2019

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

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10 Major Blockchain Trends in 2019

  • While cryptocurrencies took a hammering, 2018 was huge for Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and a myriad of other coins.
  • Blockchain has plenty of use cases outside of the cryptocurrency space with IBM, Oracle, and Amazon and other multi-billion dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology.
  • Now, it’s time to find out what major Blockchain trends will define the current year.   

By: Alex Morris  

From the Internet-of-Things (IoT) convergence to startups for the unbanked — find out what to expect from Blockchain in 2019

While cryptocurrencies took a hammering, 2018 was huge for Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and a myriad of other coins. Blockchain has plenty of use cases outside of the cryptocurrency space with IBM, Oracle, and Amazon and other multi-billion dollar companies trying to capitalize on the disruptive technology. Now, it’s time to find out what major Blockchain trends will define the current year.   

STOs replacing ICOs

Security tokens (STOs) have been a hot topic in the crypto space, and it looks like they will continue to be hot now that Overstock’s tZERO announced the launch of the new STO platform on Jan. 21. The Blockchain-powered platform will provide any company with the opportunity to raise funds by launching its own STOs. Prior to that, the startup made an announcement about the completion of its utility token distribution.

STOs, which combine the best features of the stock market and cryptocurrencies, arose as a fully regulated alternative to ICOs, which turned out to be the passing fad of 2017.   

Tokenization creating more investment opportunities

The launch of the Estonia-based DEX, which buys the shares of the biggest companies in the world in the form of ERC20 tokens, proved that 2019 is all about tokenization. The Ethereum-powered startup will allow non-US investors to engage in the US stock market without any limitations pertaining to their location or investment amount.  

Crypto startup Zilliqa also recently introduced Hg Exchange, a fully regulated exchange that allows accredited investors to buy US stocks.   

Tokenization already became a pervasive trend in 2018, going far beyond the stock market, but this is the year when pretty much everything will be tokenized – art, wine, real estate, etc.

Blockchain and IoT forming an alliance

Back in January, leading digital security company Gemalto released a report that states that 23 percent of responders think that Blockchain technology could be a boon for securing IoT-powered devices. Meanwhile, almost 91 percent of businesses who do not utilize Blockchain consider making use of the technology in the future.

The number of IoT-powered devices is expected to reach 26.66 bln in 2019, but less than half of all businesses can detect whether their device experienced a security breach.   

IBM also illustrated the benefits for this convergence with the help of their game-changing platform Watson IoT. Apart from bringing more security to the table, Blockchain significantly simplifies the task of managing different devices and increases the efficiency of the transaction.

Wall Street transitioning from dabbling to actions

The fact that cryptocurrency prices took a nosedive in 2018 doesn’t mean that the global financial industry is going to suddenly give up on Blockchain. As U.Today reported earlier, Bakkt, the ICE-backed exchange, was supposed to go live in January, but its launch was eventually delayed due to the longest government shutdown in history. Speaking of other ‘big-fish’ players, NASDAQ and the NYSE plan to launch Bitcoin futures while also being keen on Blockchain. Since the crypto hub died down, there is a good reason to believe that 2019 will be the year of exciting developments in the Blockchain space.

More decentralized exchanges appearing on the horizon

Decentralized exchanges, while actually living up to Satoshi’s vision, have numerous usability issues that take a toll on their popularity. There is no centralized authority that manages the users’ funds, but it’s also a double-edged sword problem – there is no way to revert a certain transaction if private keys are stolen or lost. Keep in mind that there are certain degrees of centralization. Case in point: the Bancor DEX, which suffered from a $13.5 mln hack, though Charlie Lee later claimed that no decentralized exchange can lose its funds.   

With that being said, major crypto startups – from Binance to Tron – have launched their own DEXs in order to spearhead the shift towards decentralization in the crypto world.     

Governments will continue looking into Blockchain

The wide variety of Blockchain applications are being explored by governments across the globe (even those ones who are openly hawkish towards cryptocurrencies). China cracked down on Bitcoin, but this country is hell-bent on becoming the leader in the Blockchain race. Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major cities are all supporting Blockchain developments. As reported by U.Today, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) launched an initiative to incentivize business who are working with the DLT technology. Moreover, there are specific Blockchain guides in China for educating government officials.

Estonia is yet another country that is focused on the e-Estonia program that will digitize the government. Meanwhile, Dubai could become the very first government that is powered by Blockchain. The implementation of Blockchain could help Dubai save up to $1.5 bln per year by cutting the red herring and creating a fully paperless government.

Blockchain-powered startups banking the unbanked

Africa, where a substantial part of the population remains unbaked, represents a breeding ground for different startups that utilize Blockchain technology in order to increase economic inclusiveness. The Rohingya Project went even further by using Blockchain to restore the identity of stateless Rohingyas and give them access to banking services.  

Real-word use cases beyond fintech  

It is worth noting that Blockchain is the most disruptive technology of the last decade, but it remains unknown to the general public. Yes, along with Bitcoin, Blockchain was one of the buzzwords in the tech space, but it’s all about real-world adoption. According to PwC research, 84 percent of companies have dipped their toes into Blockchain, but they are not ready to embrace it due to numerous ‘trust issues.’ Those who will be able to integrate Blockchain into their businesses will turn out to be the true winners of 2019.

Scalability becoming one of the main issues

Without a doubt, scalability is one of the major bottlenecks of Blockchain, which poses a major hindrance to mainstream adoption. That became very evident when CryptoKitties, one of the best-known dApps, created congestion on the Ethereum network. Bitcoin and Ethereum are only able to handle seven and 25 TPS (this level of scalability doesn’t hold a candle to mainstream payment processors in the likes of VISA).

Hence, many promising solutions, such as sharding and sidechains, are expected to be implemented in 2019. Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN), for example, is witnessing growing popularity with major industry players, with an eye-popping 830 percent surge in half a year. LN will significantly boost Bitcoin adoption while solving scalability pain points.   

Blockchain jobs will become more common

Despite Bitcoin, the major use case of Blockchain, taking a hammering in 2018, the number of Blockchain-related jobs continued to grow throughout the year. Moreover, as reported by CNBC, the salaries of Blockchain engineers skyrocketed to $175,000 per year, which means that they receive the highest salaries in the software development niche on par with AI specialists. According to Hired CEO Mehul Patel, ‘there’s a ton of demand for Blockchain.’ On top of that, Upwork, the leading freelance platform, had a 35,000 percent uptick in the number of Blockchain freelancers (it’s the fastest-growing freelance sector).

However, earning a six-figure salary is not an easy feat. Blockchain developers have to code in numerous languages, including Go and Solidity. As mentioned above, major companies do not want to miss the boat on Blockchain, so they are striving to hire talented programmers.

Source: https://u.today/10-major-blockchain-trends-in-2019

#Blockchain stock listings set to explode in Canada: GMP Capital #Blockstation #ThreeD #Bitcoin $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca $BLOC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:11 PM on Thursday, December 7th, 2017

  • A least 50 firms tied to blockchain and cryptocurrencies are set to list on Canadian stock exchanges in the next year, thanks in part to a junior market that’s more comfortable with risk than other parts of the world, the head of securities firm GMP Capital Inc. said.

“The level of activity in this market of quality plays, quality teams is as high as I’ve seen since the internet age,” Harris Fricker, chief executive officer of the Toronto-based firm said in an interview at Bloomberg’s offices. “Canada’s place in this is dramatically more important than what it was in the first phase of the internet.”

Canada is emerging as a hub for bitcoin and cryptocurrency stocks amid “a virtuous circle” of expertise and business, backed by a capital markets ecosystem that supports small companies, particularly on the TSX Venture Exchange, Fricker said. While that system has been geared toward miners and oil and gas companies in the past, the marijuana industry has surged to a market value of more than $17 billion ahead of recreational legalization in July, and at least eight cryptocurrency-related stocks are now trading in Canada.

The University of Waterloo and University of Toronto are “hotbeds” for the crypto industry, Fricker said. Russian-Canadian Vitalik Buterin introduced the world to his ethereum blockchain in 2013, not long after dropping out of the University of Waterloo, near Toronto. It all makes Canada “nicely positioned” to be a leading hub for these technology companies, said Fricker.

Bitcoin surged above US$15,000 on Thursday, extending its advance this month to more than 50 per cent, sparking worries over a bubble in the digital currency. Fricker said that while there’s bound to be volatility in the market he’s not concerned about its long-term viability. “I believe that bitcoin is a rapidly emerging new asset class,” he said. “All bitcoin does is it makes mathematics the central bank governor.”

Closely held firms will likely go public by acquiring existing listed companies rather than initial public offerings, Fricker said. The so-called reverse takeover structure has been used for years in Canada’s resource sector as it allows a public listing without having to file a prospectus with regulators or to woo investors through a stock sale.

All bitcoin does is it makes mathematics the central bank governor

“You have a viable system for listing and getting capital for companies, you are involving accredited investors — there’s no pitching of this to the retired people of Canada — and there’s a proper weighting of risk and opportunity,” said Fricker, a Rhodes scholar who counts Alan Turing, the English mathematician who broke the enigma code during World War II, as one of his heroes.

A reverse takeover was how crypto miner Hive Blockchain Technologies Inc. listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Vancouver-based firm, which is backed by Canadian mining maverick Frank Giustra and counts GMP as one of its investment banks, has soared more than 200 per cent since it began trading Sept. 18. Hive has a market value of about $824 million, making it the nation’s largest blockchain company.

“The reverse takeover structure will prevail for now, until the regulators provide full instruction on where they live on clearing of prospectuses,” Fricker said.

GMP is also helping Hut 8 Mining Corp., a Toronto-based bitcoin miner to join the public markets in January through an RTO. Hut 8, named after the facility where Turing worked to break the enigma code and help defeat the Nazis, has an exclusive partnership with Bitfury Group to acquire and operate bitcoin mining data centers in North America.

GMP Capital has refocused its firm to capitalize on the emerging industry. In September it created a dedicated blockchain team, which comprises eight investment bankers — about a quarter of its current contingent — and two research analysts. The group is led by Fricker, who became attracted to blockchain through his interest in cryptography and Turing. GMP is hosting a blockchain conference in Toronto Thursday.

Fricker said he “easily” sees the industry becoming more than 25 per cent of its investment- banking revenue, though he doesn’t see it eclipsing mining and energy. He draws parallels to the medical pot industry, which started in 2014 with its first public listing of a licensed producer, now known as Canopy Growth.

“The junior exchange, typically, and the independent broker dealers have funded the marijuana space and we now have 10 world-class companies in that space,” he said. “I think Blockchain will be 10 times the size of the medical marijuana space.”

Bloomberg News

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/technology/blockchain-stock-listings-set-to-explode-in-canada-gmp-capital

#Blockchain Gets a Wall Street Win: ‘We Know the Thing Works Now’ $IDK.ca #Blockstation $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca $BLOC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:27 AM on Monday, November 20th, 2017

By: Matthew Leising

November 20, 2017, 5:00 AM EST
  • Test of tracking equity swaps with blockchain deemed a success
  • Firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan did a six-month trial

The program, managed by blockchain startup Axoni, kept track of the swaps contracts after they were executed, recording things like amendments or termination of the deals, stock splits and dividends, and achieved a “100 percent success rate,” Axoni said in a statement Monday. Other participants include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Citigroup Inc., BNP Paribas SA and Credit Suisse Group AG.

“We’re on a path to take this forward,” Axoni Chief Executive Officer Greg Schvey said in an interview. “We know the thing works now.”

Blockchain software has captivated Wall Street because it could vastly reduce the cost of back-office operations and speed up trade clearing and settlement times. Banks have to set aside capital while they wait for transactions to be settled, so billions of dollars could be freed up for other uses if trade times go down to minutes from days or even weeks.

Axoni is far from alone in offering banks the ability to experiment with blockchain. Its competitors include Digital Asset Holdings, Symbiont, R3 and Chain.

Read More: All About Bitcoin, Blockchain and Their Crypto World

A blockchain system for equity swaps works to speed transaction times because the banks and asset managers all become members of a network that shares a so-called distributed ledger. Each member has an up-to-date copy of the ledger, so when payments need to go from one participant to another they can be processed almost in real time.

“Fewer valuation disputes, less reconciliation and real-time access to data would benefit all of the industry,” Adam Herrmann, global head of prime finance at Citigroup, said in the statement.

Smart Contracts

The program was all done in a test environment with no real trades being processed by Axoni’s AxCore blockchain software. No money changed hands either; the plan is that current systems like Fedwire or Swift will be used if the program goes live, Schvey said. He declined to say when blockchain for the equity swaps market will be done for real.

A similar test to move parts of the credit-default swap market onto a blockchain for post-trade processing uses the same system as in the equity-swaps model, Schvey said. AxCore uses smart contracts, the heart of the ethereum blockchain network, with a few tweaks.

“It looks and feels a lot like ethereum, but with a lot of differences,” such as changes to enhance scalability, privacy and security, Schvey said.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-20/blockchain-gets-a-wall-street-win-we-know-the-thing-works-now

FEATURE: Legendary Financier, Sheldon Inwentash, Sets His Focus On #Blockchain Themed Technologies and Tells Investors “Stay Tuned” #ThreeD $IDK.ca $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:29 PM on Monday, November 13th, 2017

Threed capital

IDK:CSE

ThreeD Capital (IDK:CSE) recently issued a Press Release Announcing It Had Revised It’s Investment Verticals, With A Hard Focus On Blockchain Themed Technologies.  Many of you don’t know ThreeD Capital – Just Yet – but you do know it’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Sheldon Inwentash.  If you don’t, then you’re about to make your discovery of the year.

 

In short, when Sheldon Inwentash speaks, listeners stand to make a lot of money.  A lot.  He spoke today about why he’s set his sights on the Blockchain.  His most powerful words were his final two … “Stay Tuned”.

FEATURE: Meet The World’s First Electronic Communication Network For Digital Currencies, Annual Gross Trades: $943 BILLION #Blockstation $HIVE.ca $CODE.ca $BLOC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:41 AM on Wednesday, November 8th, 2017

Why Blockstation

You need a stock exchange to trade stocks, but how do you trade cryptocurrencies?

  • Meet the first MARKET DELIVERY SYSTEM For BlockChain Tokens
  • Annual Gross Trades: $943 BILLION
  • Yearly Transactions Up 437%
  • Yearly volume Up 1485%

World’s First Electronic Communication Network For Digital Currencies

  • At the forefront of research, development and commercialization of an enterprise grade, direct market access platform for Blockchain Tokens like Bitcoin.
  • Technology facilitates on-line electronic trading and delivery of live streaming auditable reference quotes, allowing Blockchain Tokens to be accessed by traditional financial institutions and on-line retail trading platforms.
  • Electronic Communications Network  has been built using the methods and design principals of BATS, BRUT, Archipelago and Island

Creating a familiar gateway to the traditional financial industry we not only have enabled the inclusion of millions of participants who might not otherwise have had the ability to access modern Digital Currency markets, we have also provided incredibly new instruments and revenue streams for Clients.