Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:47 AM on Monday, June 3rd, 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.
Big banks are launching a blockchain trade platform powered by ‘Bitcoin-like’ token
The financial giants have poured over $60 million into the new company, called Fnality International.
The token, which has been in the works for four years now, will function both as a payment device and a “messenger that carries all the information required to complete a trade,†according to the report.
Story by: Mix
The banking industry wants to blockchain too
The banking industry is hell-bent on taking over the nascent
blockchain and cryptocurrency market. A group of financial firms led by
UBS Group AG is eyeing blockchain technology for settling cross-border
trades worldwide with its own “Bitcoin-like†token.
The 14 firms – including Barclays, Nasdaq, Credit Suisse Group, Banco
Santander, ING, and Lloyds Banking Group – have registered a new entity
to control the devleopment of the token, dubbed ‘utility settlement
coin’ (or USC for short), The Wall Street Journal reports
The financial giants have poured over $60 million into the new
company, called Fnality International. The token, which has been in the
works for four years now, will function both as a payment device and a
“messenger that carries all the information required to complete a
trade,†according to the report.
The new permissioned
blockchain system will purportedly make cross-border trades much faster
and less risky. “You remove settlement risk, the counterparty risk, the
market risk,†UBS investment strategy head Hyder Jaffrey told the WSJ.
“All of those risks add up to costs and inefficiencies in the
marketplace.â€
In addition to the previously mentioned institutions, Bank of New
York Mellon Corp., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce , State Street
Bank & Trust Co., Commerzbank AG, KBC Group NV, Mitsubishi UFG
Financial Group Inc., and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp have also agreed
to use the USC token.
The new platform is expected to take off within the next 12 months, which corroborates past reports suggesting the platform will be fully operational by 2020.
It remains to be seen if USC is more of a cryptocurrency than JP Morgan’s token, though.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:16 AM on Friday, May 31st, 2019
Announced that the CEO, Mr. Photis Peter Pascali, had increased his beneficial ownership in the Company to 52.82% from 50.37%, an increase of approximately 2.5%.
MONTREAL, May 31, 2019 — PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (TSX-V: PYR) (OTCQB: PYRNF) (FRA: 8PY), a high-tech company, (the “Company”, the “Corporation†or “PyroGenesis”) a Company that designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes plasma atomized metal powder, plasma waste-to-energy systems and plasma torch products, wishes to clarify today, due to numerous inquiries, the transaction that took place yesterday wherein it was announced that the CEO, Mr. Photis Peter Pascali, had increased his beneficial ownership in the Company to 52.82% from 50.37%, an increase of approximately 2.5%.
As this transaction involved the CEO, a significant investor in the
Company, the Company was obliged to issue an early warning report which
regretfully has caused confusion.
In the transaction, Mr. Pascali acquired 3,385,715 Common Shares, plus Warrants for C$1,862,143.25.
The Company would like to clarify the fact that this was not a
private placement, no money was received by the Company and no new
shares or warrants were issued by the Company.
It was announced that Mr. Pascali acquired the Common Shares and
Warrants for investment purposes and may, from time to time, acquire or
dispose of ownership or control or direction over some or all of the
existing securities or over additional securities of PyroGenesis.
PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a high-tech company, is the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes and products. We provide engineering and manufacturing expertise, cutting-edge contract research, as well as turnkey process equipment packages to the defense, metallurgical, mining, advanced materials (including 3D printing), oil & gas, and environmental industries. With a team of experienced engineers, scientists and technicians working out of our Montreal office and our 3,800 m2 manufacturing facility, PyroGenesis maintains its competitive advantage by remaining at the forefront of technology development and commercialization. Our core competencies allow PyroGenesis to lead the way in providing innovative plasma torches, plasma waste processes, high-temperature metallurgical processes, and engineering services to the global marketplace. Our operations are ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified, and have been since 1997. PyroGenesis is a publicly-traded Canadian Corporation on the TSX Venture Exchange (Ticker Symbol: PYR) and on the OTCQB Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.pyrogenesis.com.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements,
including, without limitation, statements containing the words “may”,
“plan”, “will”, “estimate”, “continue”, “anticipate”, “intend”,
“expect”, “in the process” and other similar expressions which
constitute “forward- looking information” within the meaning of
applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the
Corporation’s current expectation and assumptions and are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited
to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the
market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the
capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research
and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new
product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory
approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the
Corporation with respect to future events and are subject to certain
risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in
the Corporation’s ongoing filings with the securities regulatory
authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com, or at www.otcmarkets.com. Actual
results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update
or revise any forward- looking statements either as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as required by
applicable securities laws.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture
Exchange) nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this press release.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:00 AM on Thursday, May 30th, 2019
SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE)
Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14
million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper. Tartisan also has
interests in Peru, including a 20 percent equity stake in Eloro
Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property. Click her for more information
The biggest themes in global natural resources today
Ongoing trend towards the electrification of vehicles will likely benefit lithium and other metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt
This is a significant change and is being driven by better technology, legislative restrictions on pollution in cities and consumer demand for more environmentally-acceptable transport
The global natural resources sector, including mining and energy, as well as agriculture, is about four times bigger than the entire Australian equity market. Sifting through this massive and diverse universe for opportunities is Daniel Sullivan, Co-Head of Global Natural Resources at Janus Henderson Investors.
In our recent Q&A, Daniel explains why he thinks this sector will
undergo more change in the next 20 years than the last century and
talks through the big themes investors should have on their radar,
including the seismic shifts taking place in energy.
Daniel also looks at where the rejuvenated mining sector could go
next and shares some of his thoughts on lithium, coal, gold, LNG, as
well as renewable energy and agricultural commodities.
Read on for this fascinating discussion that goes well beyond the
local resource themes to reveal a truly global perspective on this vast
and rapidly evolving global industry.
Q: Please explain what you do in your role as though someone
at a dinner party asked you. What are some of the most enjoyable
aspects of your work?
When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them that I invest
in companies around the world in the mining, energy and agriculture
sectors on behalf of investors. To bring natural resources into a more
relatable context, I ask them to look around – at the clothes they are
wearing, the phone in their pockets, the food on their dinner plate and
even the building over their head and to understand that every component
of every item was derived from natural resources.
Natural resources underpin our society – and for me, that makes the
sector a fascinating place to invest. Ours is a sector with an enormous
variety of companies, with constant changes in market dynamics across
the three sub-sectors giving us a lot to work with and to think about.
Q: What is the big opportunity in your investible universe that the market has not fully appreciated?
We believe the long-term demand for metals, energy and agricultural
output will remain strong as the world continues to grow and urbanise;
billions of people’s needs must be catered for.
The next twenty years will see more change than was witnessed over
the past century, with access to vast numbers of young people and
technology available to help solve incredibly complex problems.
The companies in our investment space that align to these changes
are likely to grow at much higher rates than their peers and become more
highly valued over time. This has begun in earnest in the past few
years and appears to be accelerating. Rapid change is being discussed in
the largest resource companies in the world and this will likely
continue to gain momentum.
Q: Agriculture has seen some major developments in genomics, why is this an interesting theme to watch?
The sequencing of the wheat genome will prove to be a major
breakthrough for food production in more challenging agricultural areas,
boosting incomes and development for many people.
The interaction of genetics, climate, fertiliser and crop protection
to deliver better quality produce and improved farmer/supplier economics
is always being played out. Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural
company being spun out from the merger of Dow and DuPont is an
interesting example of a specialist company in this area.
Q: Changing dietary habits of the surging Asian middle class
is often cited as a driver for increased protein production. Is this an
area you see good opportunities, and if so, how can investors play
this?
While China has the world’s largest rates of pork production and
consumption, they are largely self-sufficient, meaning there is limited
opportunity. That said, we have invested in the leading producers of
high quality agricultural products, including milk powder, berries,
apples and salmon, which have seen strong growth resulting from the
Asian middle class thematic.
Looking at the upstream opportunities from this theme, our
investments in seed and fertiliser companies benefitted from the boom in
soybean production in Brazil and the US. Over the past 10 years, China
has been a major soybean importer.
Q: On a sector basis, mining saw the strongest dividend
growth of all last calendar year, with the local big miners BHP and RIO
certainly reminding us that miners can actually generate a yield too.
Has this return to form of resource stocks as income stocks been a big
factor in your investment strategy, and what are you expecting over the
medium term in this regard?
The mining sector is currently in a very favourable position, having
come through the five-year downturn with reduced capital and operating
costs and much lower debt. As a result, in the upturn of the past three
years, cash flows have been very significant. Coupled with the sale of
non-core assets, cash returns to shareholders have been high. Many of
these businesses are in great shape operationally and financially. We
expect that they will remain disciplined with capital allocation and
continue to drive high returns back to shareholders. This is likely to
result in a re-rating from investors.
Q: I understand you have some exposure to the lithium
majors. How big an opportunity do you think the battery minerals
thematic will be in reality over the next 3-5 years, and where in the
supply chain will the best opportunities be?
The ongoing trend towards the electrification of vehicles will likely
benefit lithium and other metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt.
This is a significant change and is being driven by better technology,
legislative restrictions on pollution in cities and consumer demand for
more environmentally-acceptable transport. However, we do expect
progress to be a little stop-start and significant demand changes may
not occur until post-2025.
Q: How does the M&A current in play among the global
gold majors mean for the rest of the sector, and what does it tell us
about the current state of the industry?
The major gold producers have generally been poor performers and have
failed to deliver the significant cash returns seen in the major
diversified companies. The recent spate of mergers has been
disappointing as they have generally been conducted at low or no
premium. Despite being on the right side of the Barrick-Randgold,
Newmont-Goldcorp and Barrick-Newmont merger proposals, these have not
generated significant performance for our strategy. Where we have
historically seen better opportunities has been in explorer-developers,
with significant value generation through resource discovery and the
successful progression through to development.
Q: Given the recent reversal in Fed policy, it is easy to
take a positive view on the gold price from here; do you have a view on
gold, and does it influence your strategy?
As a team we tend not to have a strong view on commodity prices – and
this includes gold – but we do acknowledge there is a monetary and
safety aspect to gold that could see significant price appreciation in
crises or monetary realignment. Having said that, there has been no
significant value generated from these themes and we are much more
interested in real companies operating on the ground to find and develop
quality gold mines.
Q: Given the chronic underinvestment in exploration and
development assets by the majors since the GFC, how big an opportunity
is there in investing in quality juniors, and in which sector are you
seeing the best opportunities in this regard?
Part of the problem with a significant downturn is the withdrawal of
capital from many junior companies. Many of the promising projects of
the past five years were shut down and are only now re-emerging with
some small capital raisings recommencing this year. Exploration and
development are long term cycles, often seven years or more, so the
world has lost a cycle of projects in this downturn. We do need to be
mindful of liquidity and this means being cautious in taking on juniors.
Q: What was your take on the recent banning of Australian
coal imports at some Chinese ports, and how big a potential risk do you
think it is for the majors; i.e.: should we expect more of this?
China is very complex and the interplay between policy, demand,
pricing and preferences can be hard to understand. Of their total demand
for coal, imported coal is a small component. They have also pivoted
very strongly to liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports over the last two
years. Across 2018, the markets worked through the tariff disputes,
continued economic maturation and more recently, the Lunar New year
periods, each of which reduces activity and demand growth.
Q: What is the most interesting theme in energy (including sustainable energy) right now? Please explain why it matters.
For the world’s largest energy companies, gas has become the
transitional fuel. This has been seen with major LNG projects built and
planned by all the large companies. There has also been a pivot to
electricity and trading, and we saw a general sell down away from oil
sands.
The true pivot to renewables will be difficult for companies of this
size, but they are increasing investment into wind and solar projects.
More interesting are the smaller companies that are still discovering
and developing high quality, low cost and growth projects.
We have a favourable view of the long term growth of renewable
energy and the storage of electricity, but these opportunities are not
as common in listed markets.
Q: While Australia only makes up a small part of your
investable universe, what do you see as the globally significant themes
within the Australian resources sector?
It’s true that our global natural resources investable universe is
many times the size of the Australian resources sector, in fact, the
market cap of the global resources sector is about four times the market
cap of the entire Australian equity market. That said, Australia has a
very strong mining heritage and has also grown its energy industry in
recent years to become the world’s second largest LNG exporter after
Qatar. With a good entrepreneurial culture in Perth, Australia continues
to contribute to mineral exploration and development of global
significance. With the recent lithium demand growth and price boom,
Western Australia has delivered six new mining developments.
Q: What was the last thing you read that really blew you away, and why?
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:47 AM on Wednesday, May 29th, 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.
——————-
Debunking the Top 5 Blockchain Myths
Satoshi Nakamoto’s seminal paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,†published in 2009, which took cues from “How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document,†published by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991, sparked a feeding frenzy of accolades for blockchains
which inscribed an urban legend about trusted public decentralized
blockchains, a historical departure from the mediation of brokers and
third parties. The first paper sought to create trust in digital
currencies by solving the decades-old “double spend†problem associated
with digital currencies with applied cryptography and the second by preventing the tampering of digital documents with time stamping.
The information, documents, transactions or digital coins are mathematically protected with hard-to-crack hash functions
that create a block and interconnect it to previously created blocks.
To validate the new chain of blocks, it is then broadcasted and shared,
to a distributed network of computers, to collectively agree about the
authenticity of the transactions, using additional mathematics of a
consensus algorithm.
The entire cryptographic proof of transactions is stored as an
immutable record on a distributed and shared ledger, or the blockchain.
“In effect, this is triple entry accounting which includes the two
entries of the transacting parties and a third record for the public,
registered on a public distributed ledger, which cannot be tampered
with,†Ricardo Diaz, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based founder of Blockchain CLT and management consultant for commercialization of enterprise blockchains, told us.
Rising from the trough of disillusionment, the myths around public
centralized blockchains have been reexamined and we will now assess the
controversy. (Blockchain is being used for much more than just
cryptocurrency. Learn more in Why Data Scientists Are Falling in Love with Blockchain Technology.)
Myth #1: Private permissioned blockchains cannot be secure.
Private permissioned blockchains are a contradiction in terms and
public blockchains are the only secure and viable option. Public
blockchains gain trust by consensus, which is not possible when private
blockchains need permission for a small group of people.
In actual implementations, centrally controlled private or federated
permissioned blockchains, albeit distributed, are common. Federated
blockchains focus on specific verticals
such as R3 Corda for banks, EWF for energy and B3i for insurance
companies. The motivation to keep a blockchain private is
confidentiality and certainty of regulatory compliance as in banking,
unique needs such as in renewable energy
where small producers need to connect with consumers, or the fear of
cost overruns or underwhelming performance of unproven technologies as in insurance.
The jury is still out whether private blockchains will last beyond their pilot programs. TradeLens is one private blockchain which IBM created with Maersk,
the largest container company in the world. According to press reports,
the project has gotten off to a slow start as other carriers, which
could be potential partners, have expressed skepticism about the
benefits they will realize from joining.
Steve Wilson, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research,
cautioned against a rush to judgment. “IBM is moving slowly because it
is bringing together a group of partners who have not worked together
before. They are also transitioning from a world where trades were
mediated by brokers to an unfamiliar world of direct trading. The trade
documentation is convoluted, and IBM is trying to avoid errors,†he told
us.
Fundamentally, Wilson does not see a well-defined use case for public
blockchains. “Public blockchains overlook the plain fact that any
business solution is inseparable from people and processes. The double
spend problem does not exist when transactions in physical worlds are
tracked at each stage,†he concluded.
By contrast, private blockchains, such as Corda in financial services,
are solving real problems. “The supervision of private blockchains by
credible stewards narrows down the problem of trust. Private blockchain
realize efficiency gains from a common and secure distributed ledger
which takes advantage of the cryptography, time-stamping, and smart contracts which were prototyped in public blockchains,†Wilson explained.
Myth #2: Hybrid blockchains are an incompatible mix of private and public.
Public, permissionless decentralized blockchains and private
centrally controlled permissioned blockchains are mutually exclusive.
They seek to create a trustworthy environment for transactions in
entirely different ways which are not compatible. It is not possible to
have a combination of the private and the public in a single secure
chain.
Hybrid combinations emerge as the market matures and dispel the
skepticism about the early forms of new technologies. Just like the
precursors to the internet were intranets and extranets which evolved into the internet with sites searchable with browsers; the cloud followed a similar path and hybrid clouds are widely accepted these days.
In the crypto community, there are two camps: the public,
permissionless blockchains and private, permissioned blockchain.
According to Diaz:
The private blockchain side has historically presumed to require miners and a cryptocurrency
financial incentive to validate the blockchain was unnecessary. Today,
new blockchain projects support private and public distributed ledger
technologies. Ternio.io, an enterprise
blockchain platform, leverages Hyperledger Fabric (a permissioned
blockchain technology) AND Stellar (a permissionless blockchain). Veridium.io, a carbon credit marketplace blockchain project, also has a similar DLT architecture.
Diaz also noted:
Jaime Dimon, CEO of JPMC, who dismissed bitcoin as a fraud, has not only invested in building a popular, secure, private blockchain called Quorum, but also introduced an enterprise stable coin (a type of cryptocurrency token) called the JPM Coin. It was built using the Ethereum
blockchain code base, a public blockchain protocol, and the privacy
technology from ZCash, another public but more secure blockchain
protocol. Security on Quorum is reinforced by secure enclave technology
which is hardware-based encryption.
Quorum is not a hybrid blockchain that has public and private
blockchains working together, but it incorporates the code from public
blockchains and cryptocurrencies that are normally integral to public
blockchains. It creates a fork on Ethereum to create a private
blockchain. There are other hybrid blockchains in which private and
public blockchains play complementary roles.
Hybrid blockchains have a compelling value that is driving skeptical
enterprise clients to progress from private blockchains to hybrid ones
that incorporate public blockchains and token economics on an as-needed
basis. The bridges between the private and the public chains in the
hybrid blockchain ensure that the security is not compromised, and
intruders are disincentivized by requiring them to pay to cross the
bridge.
Hybrid crypto networks of the future will be more secure than anything the internet, Web 2.0, has today. Diaz explained:
Crypto mesh networks that are supported by crypto routers, like the wireless router
in your home, will only process transactions that are cryptographically
secured not only with blockchain technology but also true crypto
economics. Imagine a crypto router or device that requires a small
amount of cryptocurrency to process a transaction like an email between
two parties. This one key difference will drastically impact hackers across the planet who are used to freely hacking computers and networking them together to launch a massive denial of service attack on some business. On the Decentralized Web, Web 3.0, the hacker would have to pay upfront for his/her bot army to launch the same attack. That is token economics crushing a major cybersecurity issue.
Myth #3: Data is immutable in any circumstance.
A cornerstone of public blockchains is the immutability of the pool of the data for all transactions that it stores.
The reality is that public blockchains have been compromised either
by an accumulated majority, also known as a “51% attack†of the mining
power by leasing equipment rather than purchasing it, and profit from their attacks or by bad code in poorly written smart contracts.
Rogue governments are another cybersecurity risk. “Private
individuals respond to incentives for keeping the data honest. My worry
is governments who have other non-economic objectives immune to
financial incentives,†David Yermack, Professor of Finance at the Stern
Business School in New York University, surmised.
Public blockchains have to come to grips with the fact that human error is possible
despite all the vetting — it happens in any human endeavor.
Immutability breaks when corrections are made. Ethereum was split into
Ethereum Classic and Ethereum following the DAO attack which exploited a vulnerability in a wallet built on the platform.
“The Bitcoin blockchain network has never been hacked. The Ethereum
blockchain has suffered attacks but the majority of them can be
attributed to bad code in smart contracts. Over the last two years, an
entirely new cybersecurity sector has emerged for the auditing of smart
contract code to mitigate the common risks of the past,†Diaz told us.
Auditing of software associated with blockchains, including smart
contracts, helps to plug the vulnerabilities in supporting software that
exposes blockchains to cybersecurity risks. (For more on blockchain
security, see Can the Blockchain Be Hacked?)
Myth #4: Private keys are always secure in the wallets of their owners.
Blockchains rely on public key infrastructure (PKI) technology for security, which includes a private key to identify individuals. These private keys are protected by cryptography and their codes are not known to anyone except their owners.
The reality is that in 2018 over $1 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen.
The myth about the privacy and security of private keys rests on the assumption that they cannot be hacked. Dr. Mordechai Guri
of the Ben-Gurion University in Israel demonstrated how to steal
private keys when they are transferred from a safe location, unconnected
with any network, to a mobile device for usage. The security vulnerability is in the networks and associated processes.
“Today there are many best practices and technologies that reduce the
risk of this perceived weakness in basic cryptography to protect
private keys. Hardware wallets, paper wallets, cold wallets and
multi-signature (multi-sig) enabled wallets all significantly reduce
this risk of a compromised private key,†Diaz informed us.
Myth #5: Two-factor authentication keeps hot wallets secure.
My private keys are safe on a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Gemini. The added security of two-factor authentication (2FA) these sites provide in their hot wallets can’t fail.
A crypto hot wallet cybersecurity hack that is becoming more and more common is called SIM hijacking, which subverts two-factor authentication. Panda Security explains how hackers receive verification passcodes by activating your number on a SIM card
in their possession. This is usually effective when someone wants to
reset your password or already knows your password and wants to go
through the two-step verification process.
“If you must purchase cryptocurrency through a decentralized or
centralized crypto exchange, leverage a third-party 2FA service like
Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator, NOT SMS 2FA,†Diaz
advised.
Conclusion
Distributed ledger technologies and blockchain technologies are
evolving, and the current perceptions about their risk are more muted as
new innovations emerge to solve their inadequacies. Although it is
still early days for the crypto industry, when Web 3.0 and decentralized
computing become more mainstream, we will live in a world that will put
more trust in math and less in humans.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:25 PM on Monday, May 27th, 2019
SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE)
Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14
million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper. Tartisan also has
interests in Peru, including a 20 percent equity stake in Eloro
Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property. Click her for more information
Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange surged nearly $500 in about 10 minutes in the morning, spurred by Chinese investors covering short positions, traders said, continuing the rally in the afternoon.
That sent nickel surging 5 per cent to a peak of $12,495 a tonne, the highest since April 30, before paring gains in closing open outcry activity to a bid of $12,370, a rise of 4 per cent.
Published on: May 26, 2019
Nickel — the key metal mined in Sudbury — spiked to its highest level
in over two weeks last week as bearish investors covered positions,
while other industrial metals gained on a weaker American dollar and
hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal.
World stocks edged higher and oil prices also recovered from bruising
falls last week after U.S. President Donald Trump nurtured hopes of
progress in U.S.-China talks.
“With the stock markets popping up a tad this morning and also the
dollar strength pausing, that’s giving the market an excuse to cover
some shorts ahead of the weekend, which is a long weekend in the UK and
US,†said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in
Copenhagen.
“But we are by no means out of the woods yet, if anything, it may just be the market pausing before we hit the next headline.â€
Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange surged nearly $500 in
about 10 minutes in the morning, spurred by Chinese investors covering
short positions, traders said, continuing the rally in the afternoon.
That sent nickel surging 5 per cent to a peak of $12,495 a tonne, the
highest since April 30, before paring gains in closing open outcry
activity to a bid of $12,370, a rise of 4 per cent.
Put another way, nickel finished At US$5.5980 on Friday, up 0.2161 cents from the day before.
The move higher in nickel gained steam as it broke through its 200-day moving average, a key technical level, traders said.
* NICKEL FORECAST: Fitch on Friday revised down its London
three-month nickel average price forecast for 2019 to $13,250 a tonne,
from $14,500 estimated earlier, on rising global economic risks, an
escalating trade dispute and disappointing refined nickel demand from
China so far this year.
* COPPER: Three-month LME copper (another key metal in Sudbury)
climbed 0.5 per cent to finish at $5,955 a tonne in closing rings, but
on a weekly basis it marked a sixth consecutive decline.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:19 AM on Monday, May 27th, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
——————-
The Growing Use Cases of Blockchain in Cannabis
Blockchain might relieve some of the pain felt by marijuana-related enterprises.
Governments are struggling through growing pains with this emerging industry, and blockchain may hold the answer.
In fact, as American industries go, its 250,000+ employees
far surpassed the 52,300 coal miners in the USA in 2018. That number is
expected to grow to 330,000 by 2022, and cannabis lobbyist group the Marijuana Policy Project reports nearly every state has some sort of pro-marijuana legislation at some stage of approval moving toward the 2020 election.
TruTrace CEO Robert Galarza took some time out from Consensus and Blockchain Week to discuss how his company’s StrainSecure platform is leveraging blockchain to resolve the most pressing issues facing the modern cannabis industry.
The company currently operates in
California and Canada, two of the most advanced cannabis cultures in the
world. California contains Humboldt County, home to the Emerald Triangle, which is known worldwide as the Aalsmeer Flower Auction of pot. Canada joins Uruguay as the only two sovereign states in the world where cannabis is recreationally legal.
Both governments are struggling through growing pains with this emerging industry, and blockchain may hold the answer.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:00 PM on Sunday, May 26th, 2019
SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE)Â Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper. Tartisan also has interests in Peru, including a 20 percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property. Click her for more information
Nickel Prices Could “Go Through The Roof”; Watch For Signs – Expert
In the next five to ten years, the electric vehicle (EV) revolution will likely dominate the nickel space and will be sending prices much higher…
Guest(s): Alex Laugharne Principal Consultant, CRU Group
Laugharne said that nickel sulfide producers and the metallurgical laterite producers, who are most closely linked to EVs, are undergoing technological changes that may leave a supply gap in the nickel market.
“I think you’re seeing a lot of people being hesitant to invest in
new supply in the space because of this potential latent capacity. If
they do encounter technical difficulties, may fail to materialize, and
in that scenario, we may end up with a real crunch that could cause
nickel prices, and in particular, nickel sulfide prices, or pure nickel
prices to go through the roof,†he told Kitco News on the sidelines of
the Mines and Money New York conference.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:58 AM on Thursday, May 23rd, 2019
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legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
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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.
——————-
Despite Crypto Rally Pause, This Billionaire Still Expects Bitcoin at $250,000
Tim Draper, a prominent venture capitalist known for sporting an “offensive†purple Bitcoin tie, recently told The Street that now’s still an optimal time to purchase Bitcoin.
He goes on to state that by 2022, “maybe 2023â€, he expects for each BTC to be valued at $250,000, explaining his prediction as an estimate of the market share that Bitcoin will obtain as a viable currency and digital store of value.
Bitcoin
(BTC) may have dropped by 4% in the past 24 hours, receding to $7,600
in an interday drop, but many analysts and investors are still
optimistic. The thing is, the fact that BTC collapsed to $6,100 and then
skyrocketed to tap $8,000 for a second time was deemed by many to be
wildly positive, as it asserts that the bulls have control of the
cryptocurrency wheel.
One prominent investor claims that this is just the start though. He
recently asserted that Bitcoin’s runway is a lot longer than some expect
and that BTC can easily reach a value in the sextuple-digit range.
Bitcoin Rally Is Just Getting Started
Tim Draper, a prominent venture capitalist known for sporting an “offensive†purple Bitcoin tie, recently told The Street
that now’s still an optimal time to purchase Bitcoin. In a comment
characteristic of his long-term expectations for this space, the
investor quipped that it may be wise to “buy the dip [or] buy the
reboundâ€, hinting at his belief that whether your BTC cost basis is
$5,000 or $10,000 in years from now won’t matter.
He goes on to state that by 2022, “maybe 2023â€, he expects for each
BTC to be valued at $250,000, explaining his prediction as an estimate
of the market share that Bitcoin will obtain as a viable currency and
digital store of value.
This is far from the first time he touted such a lofty prediction.
Speaking to CoinTelegraph, the staunch permabull remarked that 2018’s
sell-off to $3,150 from $20,000 was simply a “fluctuationâ€, musing that
the move was catalyzed by manipulators looking to turn a quick buck.
Explaining why buying cryptocurrency whenever is logical, Draper opines:
“All times are good times to enter the crypto market. If you are
forward-thinking, you’re going to look and say ‘this is just better
currency’, so it’s just a matter of time before the world adopts it.
[This will happen] when everything I can do with fiat, I can do with
Bitcoin.â€
Indeed, many have expressed that the simple adoption of Bitcoin as a
digital currency, potentially the money of the future, is what will
drive such long-run growth. Researcher Filb Filb expressed
four months ago that if Bitcoin’s supply schedule, BTC’s adoption
rates, its share of global financial transactions, and worldwide debt
continues to follow his in-depth model, BTC could hit $250,000 by as
soon as 2022, lining up with Draper’s forecast.
He then added that Bitcoin’s fair value (at that time) was $5,500, meaning that the spot market was then undervaluing the asset.
What’s Crypto’s Endgame?
What comes after Bitcoin hits $250,000? Well, in the extremely long
run, like in the coming decades, Draper expects for the value of all
digital assets to begin to make a move on the $100 trillion hegemony of
fiat, government-issued money. While fiat makes up a vast majority of
global capital flows, Draper argues
that using such “poor†currencies is illogical, citing their
controllability, lack of transparency, and subjectivity to political and
social whims on the day-to-day.
With the brightest developers, engineers, and academics working on digital assets — Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart would agree — Draper notes that there could be a capital flight from fiat to crypto over time. He elaborates:
“My belief is that over some period of time, the cryptocurrencies
will eclipse the fiat currencies. That would be a 1,000 times higher
than what we have now.â€
In a subsequent comment, Draper quipped that in five years’ time,
when consumers walk into Starbucks using fiat, the baristas will “laugh
at you.†He’s effectively implying that Bitcoin and other media of
exchange digital assets will be used in the place of traditional payment
rails, like U.S. dollars, Euros, or Yen on Visa or Mastercard.
What Will Bring BTC Higher?
Although the aforementioned commentators seem to be 100% sure that
fresh highs are in Bitcoin’s cards, what could kick off the adoption of
Bitcoin as a currency. Theses on this matter very, but many are coming
to the conclusion that a reduction in supply (the halving), growing
interest in BTC, and capital flight from traditional assets is what will
cause this embryonic industry to see massive adoption.
Per previous reports
from NewsBTC, quantatative analyst PlanB writes that money from silver,
gold, negative interest rate economies, authoritarian and capital
control-rife states, billionaires looking for a quantitative easing
hedge, and institutional investors will be what pushes Bitcoin to
$55,000 after 2020’s halving. This inflow could potentially kick off
what many call “hyperbitcoinizationâ€, which is when fiat currencies
rapidly lose value as Bitcoin supplants it.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:41 AM on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019
SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by
legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based
venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap
companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just
lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap
exits. Click Here For More Information.
These and many other insights are from Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
Based on interviews with 1,386 senior executives in twelve nations
(Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Luxembourg,
Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the
United States), 53% of whom say blockchain technology has become a
critical priority for their organizations in 2019. Please see page 2 of
the study for a methodology. The study is available for download here (PDF, 52 pp., no opt-in).
Blockchain is gaining trust in the enterprise by succeeding at
pragmatic, well-defined pilots that show the potential to scale into
production. Deloitte found financial services leads blockchain adoption
today with adoption accelerating in technology, life sciences, media,
telecommunications, and government. Key insights from the survey include
the following:
53% of senior executives say blockchain has become a critical
priority for their organization this year, 10% higher than last year.
Deloitte found that senior executives are gaining more experience and
insights into blockchain’s potential contributions and pitfalls as more
use cases are evaluated, piloted, and moved to production. The following
graphic compares blockchain’s relevance between 2018 and 2019.
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
86% of senior executives interviewed believe that blockchain
technology is broadly scalable and will eventually achieve mainstream
adoption. The majority of senior executives (83%) believes
there is a compelling business case for blockchain. 81% are planning to
use blockchain to replace their system of record, which reflects a shift
in mindset away from relying entirely on legacy systems. A growing
number of senior executives also believe blockchain is overhyped (43% in
2019, up from 39% in 2018).
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
Blockchain’s three greatest organizational barriers include
implementation (which includes replacing or adapting existing legacy
systems), regulatory issues, and potential security threats.
Additional barriers include lack of in-house capabilities, uncertain
Return on Investment (ROI), concerns over the sensitivity of the
information, and the lack of a compelling application of the technology.
The following are the respondents’ responses to the question, What are your organization or project’s barriers, if any, to increase adoption and scale in blockchain technology?
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
73% of enterprise leaders in China are prioritizing blockchain
as one of their top five strategic priorities, the most in the ten
nations surveyed. The Chinese government’s Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology cited blockchain as a key driver of economic
development in a recent economic analysis. The Chinese government sees
product traceability, copyright protection, and smart contracts as
examples of blockchain’s potential to strengthen China’s global
technology direction. “China, more than anywhere else in the world, will use blockchain strategically instead of tactically,†says Paul Sin, consulting partner, Deloitte Advisory (Hong Kong) Ltd., and leader of Deloitte’s Asia-Pacific blockchain lab. “More projects are driven by top management who use blockchain as a strategic weapon rather than a productivity tool.†The following is a comparison of countries’ differing attitudes about blockchain along with several metrics.
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
18% of enterprises are planning to spend $10M or more on
blockchain initiatives this year, and 23% will spend between $5M to
$10M. Senior executives based in each of the twelve nations
included in Deloitte’s survey are predicting wide variations in
blockchain investment levels. Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Germany are
the home nations of enterprises planning to invest $10M or more in
blockchain technologies in the next twelve months.
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
Blockchain use cases are proliferating today, with data
validation (43%), data access/sharing (40%), and identity protection
(39%) being the most popular. Enterprises are piloting
blockchain to improve payments, achieve track and trace accuracy
throughout their supply chains, and evaluating the digital currency
aspects of the technology. It’s important to note that 87% of
enterprises first start evaluating blockchain due to its innate
strengths for enabling completely automated or touchless business
processes. 86% of enterprises are evaluating and piloting blockchain to
achieve the goals enabling new business models and revenue streams.
Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
For the majority of enterprises actively piloting and promoting
blockchain into production, success is defined by greater process
efficiency first. 55% of enterprises define blockchain success
by the process efficiencies they can accomplish first, followed by cost
saving (51%) and risk reduction (50%). Deloitte also found blockchain is
proving to be an effective platform for revenue generation, enabling
new business models and customer acquisition.
Source: Deloitte’s 2019 Global Blockchain Survey: Blockchain gets down to business.
Louis Columbus is an enterprise software strategist with expertise in
analytics, cloud computing, CPQ, Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), e-commerce and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
