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
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.
——————-
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).
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 5:39 PM on Tuesday, May 21st, 2019
AGORACOM Engagement Metrics Beat Benchmarks By 402%*
AGORACOM Cashless Marketing and Awareness Program Is 100% Compliant
We are very proud to announce AGORACOM achieved another major milestone on February 28, 2019, when we surpassed 600 Million page views (90% AGORACOM / 10% Twitter) from 7.7 Million investors that visited 55.2 Million times.
These milestones are significant because they continue to demonstrate that AGORACOM is the primary home for serious small cap investors that want to discover their next great small cap investment. That is because on AGORACOM, we don’t talk about large-caps or general economic news. Investors come to AGORACOM for just one thing – small cap stocks.
AGORACOM ENGAGEMENT BEATS FINANCE BENCHMARKS BY 402%
AGORACOM small cap investors don’t just flip through pages, they invest a significant amount of time reading, studying and researching our small cap stocks like yours. …. And they do it far more than everywhere else.
In a recent survey of 275 finance sites, LittleData determined the average number of pages read per visit was 2.4. The average number of pages read on AGORACOM are 9.67, which is 402% higher than the benchmark.
Moreover, LittleData determined anything greater than 5.7 pages per visit represents the best 10% of Finance sites. At 9.67 pages per visit and 170% higher, it is fair to say AGORACOM is in elite status for engagement.
Finally, the average visitor to AGORACOM stays for an average of 8mins 32secs To put this into perspective, the average visitor to the Wall Street Journal stays for an average of 3 mins 18secs, putting AGORACOM 257% higher.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO SMALL CAP COMPANIES?
We attribute this significant amount of research time to our philosophy of Quality over Quantity. We don’t allow profanity, bickering and nonsense found on other sites. We believe that driving away the crazies attracts smarter investors – and the numbers tell us we’re right.
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Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:37 AM on Tuesday, May 21st, 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
Right now, many cannot see the forest for the trees. By that I mean the big picture for EVs and EV metals demand.
What percentage of buyers do you think will buy an electric car by
end 2022 if it is cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, and cheaper to
maintain?
What if 50% of buyers want to buy an electric car in 2022, and 75% by 2025.
In a recent British survey, 71% of British car buyers said they are considering an electric car as their next vehicle.
In this article, my goal is to remind investors that the electric
vehicle [EV] and EV metal miners (lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel)
opportunity is a long-term event. By this I mean the next decade or two.
If as I have forecast electric cars continue to gain in popularity,
then the demand boom for EVs and the EV metal miners will be
unprecedented in history and we will see an EV metals super-cycle over
the next decade or two.
Right now, many cannot see the forest for the trees
In the world of electric vehicle metals (particularly the key battery
metals lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel) market participants
continually focus on what will happen this year, and what will stock
prices do in the next 1 year. The problem here is that short-term market
events can mean we sell down our stocks at the worst possible time when
the market is negative and we forget to see the big picture.
Take the lithium and cobalt markets the past year. Concerns of
oversupply have caused large sell-offs in the lithium and cobalt miners.
Retail investors have fled the market. Does this really make sense when
we look at the big picture over the next decade?
The big picture for EVs and EV metals over the next decade or two
Investors should focus on what lies ahead in the next decade or two. For example:
According to Bloomberg, we can expect EV sales to increase (from 2017 levels of 1.1%) 10x by 2025, 27x by 2030, 50x by 2040.
CNBC reported that JP Morgan forecasts “electric cars would take 35 percent of the global market by 2025 and 48 percent by 2030.”
The chart below compares my electric car penetration forecast to Bloomberg’s forecast.
Bloomberg forecasts annual electric vehicle sales – 30m by 2030, 60m by 2040
Do these forecasts sound realistic or possible? Only readers can decide for themselves.
My view remains that by end 2022, an electric car will start to
become cheaper than a conventional Internal Combustion Engine [ICE] car
(assuming zero subsidies). This is based on lithium-ion battery prices
falling ~16% pa, which has been the case the past decade. With 76
lithium-ion battery megafactories to be in production by about 2028
(~45 in production now) this looks highly realistic as scale and fierce
competition take effect.
My model forecasts a 60kWh battery will sell for less than an ICE engine system by end 2022 (earlier for a 50kWh battery)
Source: My Model
My forecast above states by end 2022, a 60kWh lithium-ion battery
will sell for US$5,300 which is less than the cost of a standard car’s
engine system (includes the engine, exhaust, transmission, petrol tank,
etc.).
If the above forecast is correct, it will mean a consumer by end 2022 can buy an electric car cheaper than a comparable ICE car. Furthermore, the electric car will have up to 10x cheaper running costs (electricity vs. gasoline) and up to 10x cheaper maintenance costs.
Once this happens, who would buy an ICE car if they are happy with a range of at least 208 miles or 335 kms (Tesla (TSLA) Model S 2012 model range).
The chart below shows by ~2017/18, an electric car can sell cheaper
than the average US conventional car, and by ~2031, an electric car can
be cheaper than the lowest priced new US conventional car. In 2018,
Reuters reported
in ‘VW plans to sell electric Tesla rival for less than $23,000:
source’ “Volkswagen intends to sell electric cars for less than 20,000
euros ($22,836).”
Electric car selling prices are forecast to fall rapidly as battery costs fall
What percentage of buyers do you think will buy an electric car by
end 2022 if it is cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, and cheaper to
maintain than a comparable ICE car?
Added to the above headline the electric car will have better acceleration and be more trendy than an ICE car.
Given the above, it would seem quite clear to me that most people if
given the option will choose an electric car post 2022. Certainly, by
2025, when an electric car is even cheaper it would seem almost everyone
will want one.
If again the above assumptions are correct, then electric car
penetration rates will be way higher than my forecasts above. For
example, my end 2022 forecast is at 10%, and end 2025 is at 20%. The
real demand could in fact be 3-5x higher than my forecasts, and higher
than Bloomberg’s forecasts. Perhaps JP Morgan’s forecasts of 35% by 2025 (and 48% by 2030) will be a better guide.
Nearly 75% of car buyers are considering an electric car as their
next vehicle. Sales of electric and hybrid cars will overtake petrol and
diesel by 2030, report claims. Searches for alternative fuel vehicles
on Auto Trader up by 40% in 2018. The British public’s appetite for electric vehicles
is growing significantly, according to a new report published by Auto
Trader. Almost three quarters (71%) of car owners said they’d consider
buying an electric vehicle as their next car, which is a huge leap from the 25% who answered positively when asked the same question in 2017.
What if 50% of buyers want to buy an electric car post 2022, and 75% by 2025
Clearly, if we get to levels above 50% by 2022, the electric car industry would probably not be able to meet this demand.
For example, the lithium demand to meet 50% electric car penetration
rates by end 2022 would be ~2.6mtpa. This would be almost 10x the level
of lithium demand from 2018. Similar problems would occur with the other
EV metals as well as the battery and electric car producers.
In other words, we could very well see a period post 2022 until
perhaps 2030 where people will be on waiting lists to get an electric
car. Similar to the ~400,000 list for the Tesla Model 3, but several magnitudes higher. Even the expensive Porsche Taycan (OTCPK:POAHY) already has a 20,000 waiting list.
The car companies and 76 megafactories confirm the boom is coming
BNEF forecasts by 2020 there will be over 289 different models of
electric cars across the spectrum. Added to this will be electrification
across the entire transport sector (limited for planes) and widespread
adoption of energy storage (home, office, utility).
My purpose in this article is to encourage investors to think outside
the box, or to have a clearer view of the big picture. Demand levels of
50% electric cars by end 2022 once an electric car is cheaper to
buy/run/maintain would seem very logical.
Should this occur, then we will see an EV metals super-cycle. Waiting
lists for electric cars will become normal, battery shortages the norm,
and very strong EV metal prices a reality.
While 2018 and early 2019 have been bleak for the EV metal miner
stocks, I would encourage investors to think beyond 2019, and towards
2022 which is less than 3 years away. The quality EV metal miners that
are very oversold today may look like absolute bargains tomorrow.
I suggest to investors that 2019 is very likely the “calm before the storm of demand” for the EV metal miners.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:40 AM on Tuesday, May 21st, 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.
——————-
Bitcoin and Blockchain: The Tangled History of Two Tech Buzzwords
“I’m interested in blockchain, not bitcoin.â€
Admit it, you’ve heard this hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
(You might have even said it yourself.) And sure, people know what
you’re saying, you’re talking about the “technology underlying bitcoinâ€
and you sound smart enough.
Once it became known – or at least presumed – that you could apply
cryptography in finance, in ways similar to how it’s used in bitcoin,
everyone started making sure that statement fell from their lips. And
that refrain – kicked off by bitcoin itself – remains powerful today.
Sounds plausible? Sure. But, interestingly, the word “blockchainâ€
doesn’t actually appear in the original bitcoin white paper, released
back in 2008. Rather, the white paper uses the words “block†and “chainâ€
separately many times.
It describes the word “block†as the vehicle for a bundle bitcoin
transactions. Then, these blocks of are linked together, forming a
“chain†of “blocks.â€
Turns out, the origins of the word are not quite so revolutionary.
“The word blockchain was never used in the early days,†former
bitcoin developer Mike Hearn told CoinDesk. Although, Hearn did
acknowledge that Satoshi often referred to bitcoin’s “proof-of-work
chain†in discussions on forums.
It seems the first references to the word came about on Bitcoin Talk, a bitcoin-specific forum created by Satoshi, in July 2010 – more than a year after bitcoin’s release.
And at that time, these remarks weren’t about how innovative the
technology was, but instead were complaints about how long it took to
download the bitcoin “blockchain†(the entire history of bitcoin
transactions).
While compared to today, the download would have far faster,
according to one Bitcoin Talk user: “The initial blockchain download is
quite slow.â€
In other words, initially, blockchain was far from the sexy word it is today.
Blockchain mania
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the word really took hold.
But interest in the term seems to have sprung out of professional
organizations and individuals hesitance to align themselves with bitcoin
itself because of its bad reputation as the currency for drugs and gray
economies.
“I think it [became popular] around the time people started going to
Washington [D.C.] and trying to make bitcoin respectable by divorcing
the currency from the underlying algorithms,†Hearn said.
To many, bitcoin the currency could be decoupled from bitcoin the
blockchain protocol, and so a whole new industry of so-called “private
blockchains,†devoid of a cryptocurrency, emerged. Sure enough, around that time in 2015, Google Trends data show the term surged.
“Initially people said ‘block chain’, and then, thanks to a great PR
campaign, we were blessed with the much improved ‘blockchain,’
single-word, probably thanks to a community-wide effort near and around
the Bitcoin Talk forums,†long-time cryptocurrency developer Greg Slepak
said.
Not only did it become one word, but it also came in vogue to
describe any blockchain that wasn’t bitcoin’s blockchain as “a
blockchain.†Bitcoin got to keep the terminology “the blockchain,â€
giving credence to the fact that it was the first.
Yet blockchain has become so divorced from bitcoin that both words
typically see a similar spike when cryptocurrency prices start mooning.
For instance, the word blockchain saw a huge uptick in Google searches
in late 2017.
Still, it’s unclear exactly where the idea itself begins. To some,
blockchains existed even before bitcoin, although that term wasn’t
applied to them back then.
For instance, cryptographer Stuart Haber, whose whitepapers on
timestamping were cited in the bitcoin white paper, claims to have
created the first blockchain called Surety.
According to Haber, that has to be the reason why Satoshi cited his
work – three times out of just nine total citations. Surety was launched
in 1995 for timestamping records, and it’s still running today.
Yet, Haber admits that his version doesn’t have all the same benefits
of bitcoin since it’s centralized – managed by one company.
And that highlights where things get tricky when you’re talking about
a blockchain. See, there isn’t necessarily agreement on a single
definition of a the technology.
The Merriam Webster dictionary
actually presents a much older word for blockchain – “a chain in which
the alternate links are broad blocks connected by thin side links
pivoted to the ends of the blocks, used with sprocket wheels to transmit
power, as in a bicycle.â€
While Google defines blockchain as:
But, for those seasoned veterans of the space, even this definition
is problematic. Many of these new-age private blockchains don’t record
their transactions publicly.
“The term has become so widespread that it’s quickly losing meaning,†as The Verge put it earlier this year.
Blind men
Haber pointed to an Indian parable to help explain the incompatible descriptions.
In the parable, a group of blind men come upon an elephant and start
touching the animal to try and figure it out what it was in front of
them.
Depending on what part of the elephant each man is touching, their
answer changes. For instance, one of the blind men, touching the
elephant’s trunk, thinks it’s a snake, while the other, touching the
elephant’s leg, exclaims it’s a tree trunk.
It’s similar when people define blockchain, Haber said.
He told CoinDesk:
“Some definitions will be completely silly, showing that people don’t
understand what they’re doing, but there will also be a bunch of
accurate descriptions of various parts of the vast body of work.â€
As such, he argues there isn’t just one meaning.
Even though, bitcoiners believe a blockchain can only be the one and
only bitcoin blockchain, like words, definitions are always evolving and
changing.
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Ripple Exec: Blockchain, Crypto Will Have a Role in US Tech Independence
“There is a broad discussion in Washington around 5G being dominated by foreign firms and the U.S. being reliant on foreign technology and foreign expertise… With blockchain and crypto, I think there’s a recognition now that these will be part of our future infrastructure… It’s important both for national security and from an economic perspective, that the U.S. is a leader in that.â€
Technology needs to be a national issue for the United States, with digital currencies and blockchain
to be recognized within that goal, according to Ripples’ Director of
Regulatory Relations Ryan Zagone, at the Consensus 2019 conference on
May 14.
Recently, legislators reintroduced the Token Taxonomy Act, that would exclude cryptocurrency
from being classified as a security. The act also pursues the
introduction of regulatory certainty for businesses and regulators in
the U.S. blockchain industry, as well as clarifying conflicting state
initiatives and regulatory rulings that have confused the issue.
Moreover, the announcement calls attention to the growing strength of digital asset markets and the blockchain industry both in Europe and China, and states that the Act is necessary in order to keep the U.S. competitive in the global market.
As reported
in March, the number of lobbies working on blockchain technology issues
in Washington D.C. tripled in 2018, reaching 33 projects in the fourth
quarter of 2018 compared to 12 in the same period of 2017. Jerry Brito,
executive director at the non-profit organization Coin Center, suggested
that the growth is driven by securities regulation.
