Showing posts with label blockchain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blockchain. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

India, China, Cryptocurrencies, And What's Up With Banning?



China might have active censorship of the Internet, but it knew better than to ban the Internet. China might have disallowed Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. inside China, but it actively nurtured Chinese versions, most of which are huge in size by now.

Banning cryptocurrencies is not like banning Google, or Facebook, more like banning search engines, or social networks. Cryptocurrency is not a company. It is an entire class of application. The Blockchain is the fundamental technology, just like the Internet. There are many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin that sit on top of that Blockchain. Take just one Bitcoin. There are many, many companies who all deal with Bitcoin. The Bitcoin is basically a ledger. It is bookkeeping.

There are too many bright minds in China and India to want to skip something that is going to be 100 perhaps 1,000 times more monumental than the Internet. The Blockchain is as inevitable as the Internet. There is no skipping the Blockchain.

But there is a feeling that US-based Bitcoin dealing companies go into all these countries and suck money out of the system. People buy Bitcoins with real money. But the Bitcoins they buy then is no longer in reach of the respective central banks. That the governments of China and India seem to see as a problem. Is that a problem?

What they fail to see is the Bitcoin challenges the global hegemony of the US dollar like China has long dreamt about. Donald Trump's anxieties about trade deficits would go away if the US dollar is no longer the global currency by default. So looks like even the US government ought to be rooting for crypto.

Just like the Internet has been free speech in a concrete form in places that have yet to enshrine free speech through the traditional political route, the cryptocurrencies challenge the global hegemony of the US dollar, as well that of the central banks of the world. Crypto gets rid of both inflation and deflation.

Instead of trying to stop cryptocurrencies, countries like India ought to try to shape them. There are glaring governance issues. There are obvious questions.

If citizens in a country like Venezuela were to move their money from the local currency suffering the plague of hyperinflation onto the crypto realm, does the central bank in Venezuela become toothless? No. It can still print more money.

Being able to easily move money is a boon for the average person in a country like India. That is the most immediate application of the Bitcoin. For the number one remittance country in the world, it is curious India might want to ban crypto. Don't you want the Indian diaspora to be able to send money to India in frictionless ways?

It is true right now is the wild west phase of the crypto. Too many people are using it as a speculative exercise. Many of them will lose money. By the Indian government's count, there are more than 2,000 cryptocurrencies floating right now. This is the dot com mania all over again. If Ethereum were to collapse, whatever that might mean, there is no entity that will reimburse you for the money you might have used to buy those crypto coins. Is the Indian government seeing a crypto crash in the near future? And preparing for it?

The G20 should instead take the initiative to try and create a B100, or Blockchain 100, a G20 like grouping of the top 100 Blockchain companies by market value that would meet annually, and hold transparent debates and discussions to forge the ground rules for cryptocurrencies and the Blockchain in general.

For example, it should not be easy for anyone to simply launch a cryptocurrency. Unless a cryptocurrency meets the basics of the rules laid out by the B100, it would lack B100 certification.

The number one rule ought to be that no matter who you bought the cryptocurrency from, that money does not sit with any one company, but rather sits on top of the Blockchain and thus is indestructible. The company that was your gateway might go out of business, but your money will stay safe. The number two rule ought to be that every person who buys and holds a cryptocurrency must tie it to a valid biometric ID, traceable by the Interpol for law enforcement purposes. You don't want druglords and crime masters to be able to easily move money. That would create havoc.

China, India, and the United States, one of which has already acted, another is about to act, and a third has expressed anxieties at the highest levels, ought to help create the B100.

It necessarily means that the B100 would together create a super-secure database of a digital, globally available, biometric ID for every human being on earth that is collectively owned, created and maintained by the B100, that meets the highest standards of privacy and security, is kept out of reach of governments unless they show up with warrants issued by recognized courts. All ground rules following crypto companies should be able to access that database for transaction purposes.

These concerned governments should not throw out the baby with the bathwater before the baby is even born.


Indian government panel wants cryptocurrency holders jailed, but can’t deny its tech has merits
The Growth of Cryptocurrency in India: Its Challenges & Potential Impacts on Legislation
INDIA MAY BAN BITCOIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCIES EXCEPT ‘DIGITAL RUPEE’
Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency faces more backlash
Facebook won't launch Calibra or cryptocurrency Libra in India
Move to ban cryptocurrency has Indian blockchain firms worried
Understanding India's Cryptocurrency Crackdown
India's central bank bans financial firms from dealing with cryptocurrency
What is Laxmicoin, possibly the first legal Indian cryptocurrency?
Proposed Indian Ban on Crypto is Even Harsher than China’s
A history of the development of cryptocurrency in India
Has RBI’s Ban On Bitcoin Killed The Future of Cryptocurrency In India?
No Blanket Ban on Cryptocurrencies in India, Government Says
Warning: India is Heading Towards Clueless Bitcoin Regulation, Here’s Why The only concrete steps the world’s sixth largest economy took all these years were: raid cryptocurrency startups, portray bitcoin as a scam via half-baked media coverages, and – to top all – ban its banking sector from offering services to cryptocurrency industry. When the Western economy had moved forward with bitcoin, India started walking backward....... the multifaceted nature of cryptocurrencies. The technology converges multiple disciplines – of securities, currency, and commodities – making it difficult for regulators to assess its exact use case from a user’s point of view. Before the banking ban, RBI and SEBI passed the burden of regulating cryptos to each other, never realizing how they would define the asset class. It is one of the reasons why one cannot help but be skeptical about their intentions to deliver a robust legal framework in four weeks. ...... With any luck, RBI would have realized by now that its banking ban is not working. On the contrary, it has moved the bitcoin market underground. ...... both the regulators would first define how they would separate utility tokens like bitcoin from security tokens like a company-backed equity coin...... In the worst case scenario, SEBI and RBI would call an outright bitcoin ban after taking inspirations from their neighbor China. Practically, that does not change anything for Indian crypto users, which are already trading bitcoin via peer-to-peer methods. However, for an economy that boasts of being the world’s largest IT hub, India will lose a lot that it would gain by shunning an emerging sector.
India's First Cryptocurrency ATM Launched In Bengaluru
India signals ban on cryptocurrencies, embraces blockchain
CRYPTOCURRENCY STILL DOES NOT HAVE A BLANKET BAN IN INDIA BUT A DRAFT IS BEING WORKED UPON
An Indian government panel wants ‘Digital Rupee’ to replace all private cryptocurrencies The report admitted that the distributed-ledger technology behind digital currencies can have positive effects if deployed in financial services, but their most popular application, cryptocurrencies, have “risks associated with them”. ..... India must consider introducing an official virtual currency, or the “Digital Rupee”, to replace private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin....... As opposed to traditional ledgers, which store records of financial transactions in a centralised database, distributed-ledger technology uses local electronic ledgers that synchronise and share the data. The elimination of central record keeping makes financial transactions operationally more efficient and secure. ....... “The distributed-ledger technology-based systems can be used by banks and other financial firms for processes such as loan-issuance tracking, collateral management, fraud detection and claims management in insurance, and reconciliation systems in the securities market”....... Private cryptocurrencies “have no intrinsic value and cannot replace fiat currencies”, it added, recommending measures that could potentially destroy the crypto-ecosystem....... The Garg panel recommends penalty and imprisonment for those who directly or indirectly “mine, generate, hold, sell, deal in, transfer, dispose of or issues cryptocurrency”....... private cryptocurrencies have not been recognised as legal tender in any jurisdiction....... Ajeet Khuranna, CEO of crypto-bourse Zebpay, which was compelled to shift out of India last October, said India will miss out on the benefits of distributed-ledger technology.


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

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



















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Tuesday, July 23, 2019

The Unresolved Governance Issues Of Cryptocurrencies

It has to be noted that President Trump recently tweeted a really hostile comment about Bitcoin. The US Secretary of Commerce spoke hostile about the Bitcoin recently. The Bitcoin can not be seen as the American thing. Heck, many prominent House Democrats are skeptical and hostile. You would think the Bitcoin is China. The hostility is bipartisan.

This development in India is not like China banning Facebook, and Twitter, and YouTube, and Google so as to make room for native versions. This development is more like the US government itself banning the Bitcoin if it could. The Bitcoin is utterly not respectful of the dollar or any other currency, and their political statures.

But the Blockchain community has been equally irresponsible in that it has not been proactive about the unavoidable governance issues.


Govt committee recommends ban on cryptocurrency in India The report lays down that all private cryptocurrencies except the ones issue by the state be banned in India and endorses the stand taken by the RBI to eliminate the interface of institutions regulated by the central bank from cryptocurrencies....... The report states that there are around 2,116 cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin like Rippld, Ethereum and Cardano with a market capitalisation of $119.46 billion.

The Aftermath Of India’s Cryptocurrency Ban: Startups, Investors Poke Holes In Govt’s Plan India’s official report on cryptocurrencies has shaken crypto startups and investors ..... the committee is agnostic about exploring the idea of RBI-backed digital currencies and has welcomed the ongoing innovations happening around the underlying technology, known as blockchain. ....... crypto startups and enthusiasts feel it’s a direct violation of Article 19(1)(g) which gives them the fundamental right of freedom to business in any sector or trade. Many of the startup founders and stakeholders were naturally miffed with the decision, and some questioned the logic of the move...... “Report says the government will take all measures to usher in digital economy using Blockchain. By banning Crypto there can never be a public blockchain so the report contradicts itself.”...... by being very risk-averse we will significantly hinder the progress of the industry and would only end up as being spectators of how other developed countries adopted and moving forward with it....... The report cites high volatility, malware used for illegal mining, high use of electricity for Bitcoin’s mining, cryptocurrency’s ability to affect the efficacy of RBI’s monetising capability as among the other primary reasons to recommend a complete ban on cryptocurrencies........ “It’s clear from the report that the government wants to boost distributed ledger technology but they need to understand that you can’t boost DLT like blockchain while completely banning crypto assets.” ...... Many cryptocurrencies, these days, are backed by petroleum, gold, as well as the US dollar in the case of Facebook’s Libra. The IMC does not make any differentiation among cryptocurrencies that are not backed by any central banks. ....... Unocoin’s Vishwanath said the question is to what extent the ban is enforceable as everything happens digitally on the internet. If it cannot be enforced, then there is no point of discussing conviction which means the ban was useless anyway. ...... in February 2018 there were around 50 lakh traders in India in 24 exchanges and cryptocurrency trading volumes are in the range of 1500 Bitcoins a day, or around INR 1 Bn, compared to the global 24-hour trading volume which is in excess of $21 Bn. So there are plenty of stakeholders in the crypto ecosystem........ “Any person shall, on or after the date of commencement of this Act but on or before the expiry of ninety days from the date of commencement, make a declaration in respect of cryptocurrency in such person’s possession and shall dispose of the same within the aforesaid period.” ....... Vishwanath chimed in “It would just be bad news. To literally not hold any crypto assets technically, the users would need to withdraw the crypto assets from exchanges if any into their own wallets and delete their private keys. But this will be the same as throwing money into the fire. ...... if the draft bill gets enacted, in a short time thousands of people will lose their jobs as well as crores of their hard-earned money. India, in the long term, will see an increased brain drain, especially in regard to blockchain or decentralised apps. India will not have blockchain and crypto expertise leading to little-to-no crypto-related work reaching India. And, thus, India will lose billions in investment that the crypto sector can potentially attract and the thousands of jobs that it might create in future....... “There are legitimate concerns regarding crypto-assets, but the report’s recommendation of an outright ban appears excessive. Crypto-assets have benefits as well, which have been recognized globally, including by leading universities like Harvard, global corporations like JP Morgan, and international bodies like the IMF, as well as by previous Indian government reports. Therefore, as we have always recommended, crypto-assets should be regulated to promote the benefits and mitigate the risks.” ...... traditionally courts have taken a stern view on outright bans and have generally advised for measures with a lesser impact, before endorsing complete prohibition. So hope exists for the crypto community in India, but it’s fleeting and time may be running out on cryptocurrency in India.

Government panel recommends ban on cryptocurrency in India



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Saturday, July 20, 2019

Africa Is Mars


Mars is undoable. Mars is undesirable. There is this funny thing called gravity. The human body does not do well in the absence of gravity. Send robots. They are gravity neutral. But people? Africa is plenty undiscovered. Plant a trillion trees instead. Save this very planet instead.

When you plant the Australian eucalyptus in a new climate, there is havoc. Imagine a microbe from Mars coming over to earth. What could happen?

The best point for rockets are one step further and one step closer. I am all for robotic mining of the asteroid belt. Countries used to go to war over spices. Gold is the new spice. I am all for internet access on every point on earth through 10,000 or more satellites.

But I am all about Africa, not Mars. Ray Youssef has an edge over Elon Musk in that regard. Mars might be Elon Musk's masterstroke in marketing, not an actual place he wants to go to. Look, Mars! He says. And then builds boring tunnels and exciting cars.

Both Ray and Elon are immigration success stories. Both are out of Africa. Elon might look like he has white skin, but you just have to read his life story to realize the sickness that was apartheid also brutalized him. Elon grew up in South Africa. Ray's parents came from Africa. Ray is a New Yorker. And now Ray is America's gift to Africa. These two inspiring entrepreneurs are in stark contrast to the stupidity emanating out of Washington. So much garbage is being talked about immigration. To Ray I might say, go back to Africa. But looks like he is already there.














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Thursday, July 18, 2019

Money Moved, Value Created



The biggest development economics story of my life is something I was never taught in any of the textbooks in high school or college. No development economist, many of whom do originate from the Global South, was able to foresee that remittance will play a much bigger role in development than foreign aid or even trade.

Aid is big, trade is much bigger, but the biggest of them is remittance. And we have to put remittance in a separate category from trade because we have still not achieved that stage in human evolution when we might realize a completely free movement of people all over the world will immediately add a few trillion dollars to the global GDP. Money moves. Goods move. But people get clamped down. That is where we are.

What is remittance? People move from poor countries not always to the richest countries. More often they move to slightly richer countries. They work the lowest-paying jobs. They save money when saving might be thought of as impossible. They pay shark rates to move money. And they send money home. This has been the greatest driver of development in the past few decades. No economist was able to foresee it.

There is enormous value created when you make it possible for people to move money. And that is elemental. That is not even banking. When you make that movement instantaneous and free, the value is so, so much larger. And the Blockchain promises to do that. The Blockchain is going to be more revolutionary than the Internet. The Internet has been the appetizer. The Blockchain is the meal.









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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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