Showing posts with label Bitcoin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bitcoin. Show all posts

Thursday, July 18, 2019

The Underbanked And The Blockchain

The Blockchain: The Unavoidable Governance Issues









Why is it that despite the fact that the dollar a day people are much, much better at paying back their loans than the educated, rich people in a place like NYC that the banks have a history of ignoring the dollar a day people? I don't think it has been malice, for the most part. I think the processing costs for a loan has been just too high to take it to the dollar a day people. Now that has fundamentally changed. The costs are on their way to zero. Which is to say, the Blockchain will positively impact the close to two billion unbanked, and almost that many underbanked (a lot of whom are right here in the US), more than the other groups. For the same reason why drones are taking off in Rwanda like no place in the US or Europe, and why mobile phones penetrated India so fast.











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The Blockchain: The Unavoidable Governance Issues


Africa Is The Next China, And The Blockchain Is How
Blockchain PDFs
A Powerful Interview Of Ray Youssef, Paxful Founder CEO
The Blockchain Rumble
The Blockchain In The News
Paxful: Buy Bitcoins Instantly
Facebook's Blockchain Push: Libra

30-30-30-10: A More Thoughtful And Egalitarian Formula For Equity Distribution In Tech Startups For The Age Of Abundance
The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet
The Blockchain Rumble
The Character Called The Tech Entrepreneur

In the Blockchain realm, it is the wild west right now. Most people mistake the Bitcoin for the Blockchain. And the public sentiment around the Blockchain seems to go up and down with the dollar value of the Bitcoin on any particular day. The Bitcoin is one application that sits on top of the Blockchain. It is the most famous cryptocurrency, but it is only one of several. And the Blockchain is not just about cryptocurrencies.

The promise is that on the Blockchain you will be able to send around money as easily as you can send text and photos over the Internet. That changes things. Ask the newspapers that were around in 1992. The financial institutions of today are like the newspapers of 1992. When the likes of Bernie Sanders rant and rave, they do so about these banks. They are said to have much power. Many people claim these banks are the tail that wags the Washington DC dog. But IBM was also powerful when Apple showed up. The Blockchain is inevitable. As inevitable as the Internet itself.

It can be argued, people will vote with their money. If they don't trust you, they will not move their money. It is in the nature of innovation that it asks for much freedom. Politicians made the wise decision of not taxing e-commerce for a really long time.

But that Internet would not have been possible if common standards had not been agreed upon. Governance issues are bound to crop up also with the Blockchain.

There are voices in DC saying if Bitcoin companies want to act like banks, they should register like banks. Fair enough. Except that the speed limits that worked for horse carriages were never going to work for motor cars.

You are not only going to move money over the Blockchain. You are also going to offer financial services. This is not just about Internet and Blockchain protocol. This is about ground rules about fundamental financial services.

Since ID is even more fundamental than finance, soon sovereignty issues will crop up. What will it mean for a company incorporated in the United States to have a large database of the identity of most citizens in a country like Rwanda or Kenya when their own governments don't have it? These questions can not be avoided.

I propose the creation of a B100, or Blockchain 100, a coming together of the top 100 Blockchain companies by market cap that meet annually along the lines of the G20, and hash out the governance issues to do with the Blockchain. These same companies will compete with each other in the marketplace. But on governance issues, they have to cooperate.

Think about it. When money can move instantly and for free from anywhere to anywhere else in the world, what does it even mean to have money? What does it mean to be a central bank? The Blockchain necessarily asks for a new governance structure for the world. This is way bigger than Bretton Woods and World War II.

Inequality And Climate Change Are Existential: A Blueprint For Survival
Towards A World Government
AOC 2028

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Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Ray Youssef Of Paxful Likes My Tweets





































Africa Is The Next China, And The Blockchain Is How
Blockchain PDFs
A Powerful Interview Of Ray Youssef, Paxful Founder CEO
The Blockchain Rumble
The Blockchain In The News
Paxful: Buy Bitcoins Instantly
Facebook's Blockchain Push: Libra

30-30-30-10: A More Thoughtful And Egalitarian Formula For Equity Distribution In Tech Startups For The Age Of Abundance
The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet
The Blockchain Rumble
The Character Called The Tech Entrepreneur





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Monday, July 15, 2019

Africa Is The Next China, And The Blockchain Is How

There is the dour debate (is it even a debate?) around immigration in DC, all the racist rhetoric flying around like bullets in a war zone, and then there is the excitement around the Blockchain. Africa is the next China, and the Blockchain is how.

There is going to be some bad news, some pain. When you make it easy for people to move around money, plenty of scammers are going to jump in. The Blockchain companies do have to try and do the very best job they can in terms of product architecture, policing (at their sites), and educating the general public. The scamming has to be minimized as much as possible. But it will not go down to zero despite the best efforts.

I have been reading up on one particular company these past few days, watching videos on YouTube, particularly of its Founder CEO who, I learned, after 11 failed startups lost his apartment and ended up homeless, but came back to found Paxful, which has seen much success over the past few years.

And today this tweet showed up in my stream. Paxful is celebrating its birthday. Happy birthday, Paxful. 



Paxful Turns Four!


30-30-30-10: A More Thoughtful And Egalitarian Formula For Equity Distribution In Tech Startups For The Age Of Abundance
The Blockchain: Fundamental Like The Internet
The Blockchain Rumble
The Character Called The Tech Entrepreneur



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Thursday, July 11, 2019

Blockchain PDFs





Blockchain: An Introduction (49 pages)

Bitcoin: A Peer To Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto (9 pages)

Bitcoin Technology Overview (59 pages)

Blockchain Economics (53 pages)

Conceptualizing Blockchains: Characteristics And Applications (9 pages)

Blockchain White Paper (20 pages)

What Is A Blockchain (4 pages)

The Impact Of Blockchain For Government (41 pages)

Blockchain And Suitability For Government Applications (41 pages)

Reinforcing The Links Of The Blockchain (19 pages)

Blockchain And Distributed Ledger Technology At Travelport (14 pages)

Application Of Blockchain Technology In The Manufacturing Industry (23 pages)

Blockchain And Economic Development: Hyper Vs. Reality (49 pages)

Blockchain Challenges And Opportunities: A Survey (25 pages)

An Overview of Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Consensus, and Future Trends

Blockchain For Fragile States: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (7 pages)

Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study (122 pages)

Blockchain: Distributed Ledger Technology And Designing The Future (115 pages)

Unlocking The Real Value Of Blockchain Through Its "Sweet Spot" (10 pages)





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A Powerful Interview Of Ray Youssef, Paxful Founder CEO

This interview reminds me of the Joe Rogan interview with Elon Musk. And it is not just about the length. It is more about the relaxed pace.








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The Blockchain Rumble



1999

Today the term Bitcoin is pretty much synonymous with the Blockchain. But the Bitcoin is just one application that sits on top of the Blockchain. The Blockchain is the underlying fundamental technology. Many cryptocurrencies sit on top of that Blockchain. The Bitcoin is not alone.

But perception is not irrelevant. It is like, around 2012, for a ton of people, Facebook and the Internet were the same things. Everything they experienced on the Internet they experienced through Facebook. Facebook was their gateway. Facebook was their browser, their operating system. So when they clicked on a link they saw on Facebook, to them it was still Facebook.

Bitcoin is that.

And right now is 1999 for the Blockchain. And by right now I don’t mean this very month or even this very year. I could have said this a year ago. I will say this a year from now. And I am not claiming we are precisely two years from some kind of course correction.

When cars first showed up, thousands of car companies popped up. Most of them failed. It is in the nature of new technology to spring forth tons of new ventures. It is not even unfair. Who is to say someone can not take the plunge? A lot of people decide to take the risk, to solve the big puzzle, make the big bucks. That risk-taking is essential to big innovation. That froth is necessary.

Froth is not fraudulence, but the industry does need to watch out for fraudulence.

B100

There are innovation issues and there are governance issues. Internet protocol is governance, and there even competing companies can come together to create common ground.

You just have to go watch what happened on Capitol Hill when the Google and Facebook CEOs showed up to testify. Some of the questions that were asked came across as so foreign. Ordinary netizens were perplexed by the gulf between them and their political leaders. It is perhaps not fair to expect the governments of the world to lead the governance of the Blockchain. And it would not make sense for individual companies to do the same.

I propose the creation of a B100, or Blockchain 100, along the lines of G20 for nations, a coming together of the top 100 Blockchain companies by market value that meet once a year and hold their discussions in a transparent fashion to decide on governance issues. This has to be a global grouping.

Your bank might fail, but your money to a certain extent is secure because your government guarantees that. The cryptocurrencies need that umbrella. The company through which you bought your Bitcoin might fail, but your Bitcoins are safe because they reside on the Blockchain. People need to know that. And it is not enough that your Bitcoins are safely sitting on the Blockchain. If you can’t access it, it is as good as lost.

The Blockchain people need to tackle ID issues as something even more fundamental than finance. In the hierarchy of things, ID is most fundamental. Access to finance might be the next step up the ladder. Then come things like electricity and access to the Internet. In a few years when thousands of satellites bring the Internet to every point on earth, land or ocean, we will be in a good position to solve the ID problem for everybody. Give people ID and finance and Latin America will feel no need to pour into the United States. Africa will feel no need to shift to Europe.

The Blockchain is supposed to be empowering. There is a reason the Blockchain is hottest in Africa, the most disempowered continent. Ordinary people instinctively see the promise.













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Monday, July 08, 2019

The Blockchain In The News


Ethereum Leaders Are Slowly Courting Persian Gulf Royals and Investors Ethereum’s leaders are pursuing a “moonshot” in the Middle East....... is partnering with finance experts in the Persian Gulf to show that the world’s second largest blockchain is compatible with Islamic law. ....... work to certify ethereum’s Sharia compliance. ...... here’s a hypothetical case where say, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund invests, like, a trillion dollars [in ethereum projects] ...... his firm issued a paper saying ethereum smart contracts can be halal, or compliant with Islamic banking rules ....... make Dubai “the first city fully powered by blockchain by 2021.” ...... digital permits and an automated “process of attesting any document by governmental entities.” ...... the understanding and appetite for investment in blockchain technology is accelerating.”


Cuba Eyes Cryptocurrency as Solution to Sanctions, Financial Woes the country’s Communist government announced on state-run TV that it would potentially use crypto as part of a package aimed to boost incomes for as much as a quarter of Cubans and assist with market reforms....... the state appears to be placing a lot of hope in its crypto dreams


The State of the Blockchain Revolution Many of us are old enough to remember what using the internet was like in 1995: The crackling, hissing and discordant tones of a dial-up modem, followed by long wait times for ugly websites to load. To all appearances, those days are far behind us – yet looks can be deceiving. The internet that has matured so spectacularly over the last 25 years is about to be reborn, and what will replace it is still in nascent form. The technology behind this rebirth is blockchain....... a system designed to liberate information is not always ideal for protecting valuable assets, like money, votes, intellectual property and personal data. With blockchain, we can trade and move assets through a distributed database that is autonomous and self-policing (i.e. very difficult to hack)......... Transactions can thus occur without the once-necessary involvement of third parties (e.g. banks and governments) to ensure trust. This capability has transformative implications for business and society. Sectors that are still reeling from relatively recent waves of digital disruption may be upended all over again by blockchain’s radical removal of the middleman.......... The convoluted trail of documentation required in the logistics industry – such as bills of lading, export licenses and certificates of origin – can share a network state on a blockchain. That means suppliers, purchasers and consumers all have access to identical, unalterable and accurate information about the products’ status and origins. In 2016, IBM began working with Walmart and other retailers on a blockchain-powered solution to enable food traceability across the entire supply chain. The current system is designed to identify the origin of any contamination of the food supply, so that users of the system can remove it swiftly........ fraudulent or erroneously labelled seafood is rampant, affecting up to one-third of the market in such countries as the United States. In such a byzantine seafood supply chain, irregularities easily go undetected. With blockchain, users can illuminate the more obscure corners of the industry........ Patients at Toronto’s highly regarded University Health Network, Canada’s largest research hospital, can opt in to receive a digital identity containing their medical records to take control of their treatment. Adding blockchain would empower patients to create value with their personal data, potentially donating it to further scientific efforts or even selling it.......... Start-ups can now raise money by selling equity shares on the blockchain (incurring relatively miniscule administrative fees), or tokens that token holders can later exchange for products or services once the company is up and running....... In addition to guaranteeing that business is conducted according to a single version of the truth that is as complete as possible, blockchain networks can control how agreements between parties are executed, via smart contracts. Assets exchanged through the blockchain can carry their own inviolable terms of use. Smart contracts compel a Goliath to deal as honestly with a David as it would its fellow corporate giants....... Think of Uber drivers and others in the so-called “sharing economy” whose earnings have been sliced to the bone by aggregator apps and their algorithms. Smart contracts on the blockchain could one day replace the sharing economy intermediary platforms, thereby ensuring participants are fairly compensated for the value they create. Or consider the plight of independent musicians, who must increasingly live on the road to make ends meet now that album sales have dried up industry-wide. Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap is the force behind Creative Passport, a database for musicians that, among other things, uses smart contracts to circumvent industry barriers that come between artists and their rightful revenue......... With an assist from the Internet of Things, automated transactions on the blockchain can transform our wasteful relationship with energy....... blockchain may help revive the legitimacy of democracy itself. Why do we still have to queue up, often for hours, at a physical polling place to cast our ballot on Election Day? Increasing ease of voting through digital access would bring untold numbers of citizens, especially young people, into the democratic fold. ...... a fully virtual system could not win public trust without the cutting-edge cryptography of blockchain to prevent cyber-interference...... we could engineer votes as smart contracts, obliging winning candidates to act on the promises and platform on which they campaigned...... many established players recognise that blockchain represents a direct threat to their business model and are handling it gingerly........ as with any innovative technology, the brave early adopters will capture the most value

First Successful Blockchain-tracked Shipment from South Korea to the Netherlands
After Experimenting With Bitcoin and Ethereum, DocuSign Is Accelerating its Blockchain Ambitions
Why IBM’s Blockchain Isn’t a Real Blockchain
Blockchain blossoms in Haiti
Blockchain Startups Raised $822 Million in H1 2019: New Report
Facebook vs Google: Who Will Dominate The World Of Crypto-blockchain?
Briefing: China’s use of blockchain a ‘strategic weapon’ – report
Platforms and Blockchain Will Transform Logistics
Paradigm Shift: Biometrics And The Blockchain Will Replace Paper Passports Sooner Than You Think
Blockchains CEO buys Nevada-based bank to get closer to blockchain vision
Singapore emerging as global centre of blockchain expertise
Why Rising Number of Mining Companies Are Embracing Blockchain Technology
Is Google Chasing The 90% Potential Of Blockchain That Facebook Left Out?
5 Blockchain Breakthroughs Coming in the Next 5 Years
Cube System Announces New Blockchain eCommerce Platform
Galaxy Digital Leads $5.5 Million Round for Contract Management Startup
JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says Crypto Companies ‘Want to Eat Our Lunch’
Dubai Chamber of Commerce Signs MoU on Blockchain Trade Solutions
How Malta Is Becoming the Global Capital of Crypto | Cointelegraph Documentary




Blockchain’s real promise: Automating trust Combining the distributed ledger with other technologies such as artificial intelligence cuts costs and makes supply chains traceable. ......... Combining blockchain—the distributed ledger technology that forms the basis of the digital currency Bitcoin—with artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) ....... eliminates time-consuming and expensive manual efforts, automating trust between partners and bringing traceability to supply chains. ........ “Blockchain is fundamentally changing a lot of things” ........ the cost of establishing trust in a supply chain is incredibly high. ...... $461 billion worth of fake goods are sold annually, amounting to 2.5 percent of global trade. ...... total global counterfeiting is expected to surge to $1.82 trillion by 2020, exposing businesses to revenue loss, quality issues, and potential reputational damage....... a digital “birth certificate,” which includes relevant data such as product specifications, provenance, and cost, gets entered into enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) and then integrated with blockchain. That provides an immutable, secure distributed ledger that serves as an authoritative and secure source for all participants in a supply chain ..........






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Sunday, June 30, 2019

Paxful: Buy Bitcoins Instantly

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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Facebook's Blockchain Push: Libra

Facebook has taken a public relations beating since 2016. A lot of people blame Facebook for Trump.

There are serious privacy and security issues that the entire sector of tech needs to address. 5G is so promising, but one major line of attack on Huawei has been to do with privacy and security.

But tomorrow is not going to wait. And of the tech giants - Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook - looks like Facebook has made the boldest move on the biggest of the next big things: The Blockchain.

Taking banking to the unbanked is a noble goal. They say poverty is a lack of cash. Direct cash to the poorest two billion would eliminate poverty. I am all for it.

A Libra is like a dollar, or a euro, or a yen, or renminbi. The worth of one Libra likely will be pegged to a basket of all those major currencies. This is something the governments of the world should have long done but never did. That's the first part. The second part is anyone anywhere on the planet will be able to move money as near or as far as they want for zero costs. That's revolutionary. The best use case scenario would be where direct deposits are made into the accounts of the two billion poorest. That is the best way to fight poverty. Poverty is lack of cash. Inject cash.

What Facebook should do next - and I said this years ago - is add a voting feature to its Groups, and a book-keeping feature.

Libra will be governed by a body where Facebook will have only 1% of the vote. Calibra will be a Facebook app, but then anyone else is free to build a Calibra competitor, including the other members of the Big Five.















Libra: White Paper



Bitcoin’s digital gold, but Facebook’s Libra is the digital dollar—here’s why that matters there are some crucial differences between Libra and a cryptocurrency like bitcoin. ....... what Libra is doing is creating a digital version of the U.S. dollar, yen, euro. It’s like a stablecoin, but you still have all the characteristics of a fiat currency ...... With Libra, Facebook users will be able to exchange their dollars for Libra tokens, thus entrusting Facebook and its fellow backers with building a reliable ledger of all transactions ....... Libra users will have to trust the company that has perhaps been most plagued by issues around trust and privacy: Facebook. ...... it’s like the AOL moment: AOL got you online, Libra’s going to get you into crypto

The Senate will hold a hearing next month on Facebook’s Libra currency “Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy,” Brown said yesterday. “We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new cryptocurrency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight. I’m calling on our financial watchdogs to scrutinize this closely to ensure users are protected.”

FACEBOOK’S LIBRA REVEALS SILICON VALLEY’S NAKED AMBITION a comprehensive, borderless economic system for its platform, which is based on a new cryptocurrency, Libra. ....... The company plans to sit ostentatiously on its hands when it comes to governing the project, just one member of the so-called Libra Association, with a total of 28, to emphasize the separation between the currency—which will have a record of your every purchase—and the company ........ whatever scandals may trail the big Silicon Valley companies they are not scaling back, whether that means studying how to eavesdrop on people’s brainwaves to read their minds or building a currency to circumvent borders and national regulation ....... Move fast and break things may have destroyed civic institutions and jeopardized our democracy, but the opposite should be downright scary: Move slow and they break you up. ........ “Libra holds the potential to provide billions of people around the world with access to a more inclusive, more open financial ecosystem,” he said, adding, “We know the journey is just beginning, but together we can achieve Libra’s mission to create a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that will empower billions of people.” ...... spoke of the high fees for transferring money back home, the inefficient requirements of traditional banking, and, most sweepingly, of bringing financial services to the “unbanked” across the far corners of the globe. ......

Libra Quotes we should be able to send money as quickly and securely across borders as we send photos and email. ........... e frictionless commerce for hundreds of millions of people around the world ....... We are committed to ensure that the Internet of
Everything comes with the inclusion of everyone. ........ we know how important it is to promote financial inclusion. We are
committed to developing solutions that are efficient, innovative, and cheap. ...... a new, global digital currency, built on blockchain technology. ....... creating a world without financial borders, where everyone can prosper. ...... Libra has the potential to be one of the most impactful financial innovation opportunities of our time ........ there is an
opportunity to better reach Spotify’s total addressable market, eliminate friction, and enable payments in mass scale. ......... The Libra Association has the potential to significantly expand access to the global economy ........ Sending money to your friend shouldn’t be harder than getting them an Uber ride home. ....... Union Square Ventures has always looked to back platforms that will bring cryptocurrencies to mainstream consumers at scale. Libra is exactly that type of effort, and we look forward to participating in its development and governance. ......... In Digital Societies people should be able to access financial services regardless of where they live or how much they have. ......... This has the potential to be truly transformative and will benefit those who have never used, or are struggling to access, financial services around the world. ....... We are particularly enthusiastic about the potential of Libra’s programming language, Move. Thoughtfully designed smart contracts operating on a widely accessible and stable global currency platform will unlock never-seen-before gains from trade, benefiting society at a meaningful scale. ....... Kiva is focused on addressing the systemic barriers impeding access to financial services for 1.7
billion unbanked individuals around the world. We’re proud to serve as a Founding Partner of the Libra Association and excited by the potential for new technologies to create a more inclusive financial system. ....... More than 1.7 billion people today are financially cut off from the world, with no access to a bank account- a poverty trap that could deepen as the rest of the world becomes ever-more connected. A global digital currency has the potential to spark financial inclusion for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, connecting them to the local, national, and global economy ......... Libra has the potential to level the playing field for the 1.7 billion people who remain unbanked and excluded from formal financial services – over half of whom are women! This may be the pivotal moment in time when we look back and recognize we had the key that unlocked the door for billions of people! ....... What we’ve found in almost two decades of work with the financially vulnerable is that when provided with
the right tools, people make good financial decisions. We’ve all read that blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. Financial exclusion and insecurity are clearly problems, both globally and in our home here in the U.S. If a blockchain-based stable cryptocurrency can make a lasting dent in this problem - by offering underserved people critical tools: a stable, secure, convenient place to store and move funds - we should do all we can to understand and explore the opportunity. ....... By simplifying access to the financial transactions that so many of us take for granted, these tools help build resilience and opportunity for the underserved. ....... It represents a highly disruptive step change not just for the cryptocurrency industry, but also for the broader financial system.

Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra aims to 'put the currency back in cryptocurrency' While the “founding members” of Libra include some very big names in payments and commerce—like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Stripe, Coinbase, and eBay—many still see the entire project as a Facebook venture, considering the simultaneously coordinated announcements and that Facebook executive David Marcus oversaw the Libra launch. ...... It really is designed to be a unit of purchase and a unit of daily transactions, as opposed to a speculative asset—which is, candidly, where many cryptocurrencies have stood. ...... eventually, when the Libra blockchain launches, it aims to have 100 founding members, with no one member having more than 1% say in the governance.

Bitcoin Faces Technical Hurdle as Libra Steals Crypto Spotlight

Welcome to the official White Paper a new decentralized blockchain, a low-volatility cryptocurrency, and a smart contract platform that together aim to create a new opportunity for responsible financial services innovation. ...... 1.7 billion adults globally remain outside of the financial system with no access to a traditional bank, even though one billion have a mobile phone and nearly half a billion have internet access. ...... All over the world, people with less money pay more for financial services. Hard-earned income is eroded by fees, from remittances and wire costs to overdraft and ATM charges. Payday loans can charge annualized interest rates of 400 percent or more, and finance charges can be as high as $30 just to borrow $100........ We believe that many more people should have access to financial services and to cheap capital. ...... global, open, instant and low-cost movement of money will create immense economic opportunity and more commerce across the world......... people will increasingly trust decentralized forms of governance. ........ a global currency and financial infrastructure should be designed and governed as a public good. ...... the promise of “the internet of money.” ...... Moving money around globally should be as easy and cost-effective as — and even more safe and secure than — sending a text message or sharing a photo, no matter where you live, what you do, or how much you earn. ....... people need to have confidence that they can use Libra and that its value will remain relatively stable over time....... Unlike the majority of cryptocurrencies, Libra is fully backed by a reserve of real assets. A basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities will be held in the Libra Reserve for every Libra that is created, building trust in its intrinsic value. ........ any consumer, developer, or business can use the Libra network, build products on top of it, and add value through their services. ...... The goal of the Libra Blockchain is to serve as a solid foundation for financial services, including a new global currency, which could meet the daily financial needs of billions of people. ....... “Move” is a new programming language for implementing custom transaction logic and “smart contracts” on the Libra Blockchain. Because of Libra’s goal to one day serve billions of people, Move is designed with safety and security as the highest priorities. ......... We believe that the world needs a global, digitally native currency that brings together the attributes of the world’s best currencies: stability, low inflation, wide global acceptance, and fungibility. ..... anyone with Libra has a high degree of assurance they can convert their digital currency into local fiat currency based on an exchange rate, just like exchanging one currency for another when traveling. ....... will be backed by a collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and short-term government securities in currencies from stable and reputable central banks......... the ability to send money quickly, the security of cryptography, and the freedom to easily transmit funds across borders. Just as people can use their phones to message friends anywhere in the world today, with Libra, the same can be done with money — instantly, securely, and at low cost.......... success will mean that a person working abroad has a fast and simple way to send money to family back home, and a college student can pay their rent as easily as they can buy a coffee.














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Monday, May 20, 2019

Tech Talk (9)

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Sunday, August 05, 2018

The Blockchain And The Bitcoin



Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I’m a Crypto Skeptic by Paul Krugman
comes down to two things: transaction costs and the absence of tethering ...... the enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies seems very odd, because it goes exactly in the opposite of the long-run trend. Instead of near-frictionless transactions, we have high costs of doing business, because transferring a Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency unit requires providing a complete history of past transactions. Instead of money created by the click of a mouse, we have money that must be mined — created through resource-intensive computations. ........ you need the digital equivalent of biting a gold coin to be sure it’s the real deal, and the costs of producing something that satisfies that test have to be high enough to discourage fraud. ........ cryptocurrency enthusiasts are effectively celebrating the use of cutting-edge technology to set the monetary system back 300 years ......... please answer the question, what problem does cryptocurrency solve? Don’t just try to shout down the skeptics with a mixture of technobabble and libertarian derp.



The Blockchain is like the Internet, the Bitcoin is like a search engine built on top of that internet. A dozen search engines failed and then Google came along. It is not surprising that several cryptocurrencies have failed. That does not take away from the promise of the Blockchain. The Blockchain will be 1,000 times more promising than the Internet.

You could not have built Facebook or YouTube in 1998. There simply was not enough bandwidth to go around. I think Blockchain technology is waiting for a similar quantum jump in computational power to take off. Perhaps quantum computers will do the trick. And then the Blockchain goes mainstream.

Bitcoin (1/31/2014)
The Blockchain Is About Trust (12/07/2014)

Crypto token roundup
Crypto Tokens: A Breakthrough in Open Network Design
crypto tokens — a new way to design open networks that arose from the cryptocurrency movement that began with the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008 and accelerated with the introduction of Ethereum in 2014. Tokens are a breakthrough in open network design that enable: 1) the creation of open, decentralized networks that combine the best architectural properties of open and proprietary networks, and 2) new ways to incentivize open network participants, including users, developers, investors, and service providers. By enabling the development of new open networks, tokens could help reverse the centralization of the internet, thereby keeping it accessible, vibrant and fair, and resulting in greater innovation.








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