It's Just Technology
IBM is using the Stellar protocol to facilitate financial institution clearing and settlements of cross-border payments in seconds.
The idea is to integrate messaging, clearing and settlements together on one blockchain to simultaneously clear and settle cross-border payments in near real-time.
CryptoCompare just released its 2018 Cryptoasset Taxonomy Report.
At 79 pages in length, it covers some ground in attempting to put order into the cryptocurrency and blockchain universe.
As noted in the introduction:
The purpose of this taxonomy is to provide an independent classification of cryptoassets, based on the depth, breadth and scope of our global data sets, while adhering to our rigorous data standards to ensure data integrity and accuracy. The taxonomy offers a framework to help retail and institutional investors, regulators and the industry as a whole gain a holistic understanding of the cryptoasset landscape.
The report primarily presents its summary of classifications, including what it refers to as “CryptoCompare archetypes.” These represent what they deem to be “the most natural grouping of cryptoassets at this moment in time.”
Their first order of summary archetype classification is “Fungibles” and “Non-Fungibles.”
Additionally, the report uses four other classification categories:
The report is valuable to anyone attempting to break the landscape down into an organized framework.
Although there is much useful information, one point that caught my attention was that they could only classify 16 percent of cryptoassets as close to a truly trustless, decentralized network. For those with philosophical aspirations in favor of blockchain resolving what the internet never was, this may be discouraging.
The International News Media Association (INMA) hosted a webinar this past week (Oct 17, 2018) titled, “Blockchain: Enabling Next Generation Media Services.”
The webinar was presented by Stefan Farestam, Co-Founder, Carechain, Sweden.
INMA editor, Shelley Seale, provided an article about the webinar.
Farestam notes, “What the internet enabled was for information to be shared with other parties. But what blockchain enables is distribution of transactions among multiple parties without a central intermediary.”
Blockchain has the potential to disrupt all parts of the media value chain through:
Blockchain-enabled identity solutions could benefit the following:
There are several reasons to keep data on a blockchain, Farestam shared:
Daniel Sieberg speaks about blockchain, cryptocurrency, trust and more specifically, what blockchain is good for when it comes to journalism.
In this talk he highlights three points:
Civil’s goal for their first token sale: Sell 34 million CVL tokens for between $8 million and $24 million.
The sale began on September 18 and concluded Monday night, October 16.
1,012 buyers purchased $1,435,491 worth of CVL tokens. Since they didn’t meet their goal, refunds will be issued to all buyers.
Civil is going to try again. The company says “a new, much simpler token sale is in the works.” Details to be shared soon.
Here’s the post from Civil: What’s Next For Civil.
Data collection of internet users has been an issue since the dawn of the world wide web. But in recent years a larger percent of the public is becoming more sensitive about media and tech companies aggregating their user data. As a result, more users having been opting out.
Europe’s new data privacy law has established the continent as a global leader re issues surrounding data privacy. (The law requires companies to inform users what data is being collected, and it gives consumers the right to access stored data and even correct information that turns out to be inaccurate.)
Blockchain offers a different solution. A way consumers can choose what to share and when to share it, rather than handing everything over to corporations and hoping it isn’t misused or lost.
For more info, visit the following article: Opt-Out Versus Opt-In: How Blockchain Will Change The Data Collection Culture.
Sally Eaves is a Chief Technology Officer, Professor of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, Founder and Global Strategic Advisor, and a specialist in the application of emergent technologies for business and societal benefit. In this presentation she speaks about Tech for Good.
Eaves notes that trust in business, media, government and NGOs is at a 17 year low and contrasts that with the idea that blockchain can facilitate trust.
She discusses creating shared value in conjunction with making a profit, as well as doing meaningful work by creating sustainable business models that combine profit and purposes for good.
She notes that opportunities exist in the technological convergence of blockchain and AI, in partner with the Internet of Things (IoT).
She touches upon making applications of blockchain accessible and everyday.
Eaves also points out her belief in the needs for arts and tech to work hand-in-hand.
CoinDesk, located in NYC, bills itself as “The world leader in news, prices and information on bitcoin and other digital currencies.”
They cover news and analysis on the trends, price movements, technologies, companies and people in the bitcoin and digital currency world.
Their per-minute Bitcoin Price Index, a derived measure of bitcoin’s value based on an agreed set of criteria, also serves as a point of reference for those involved in the bitcoin industry.
CoinDesk hosts its annual Consensus summit, an annual blockchain technology gathering in New York City. It also hosts Consensus: Invest, an event designed to showcase the new crypto asset class to institutional investors across the globe.
CoinDesk publishes The State of Blockchain, and important analysis on the growth of blockchain technology.
The above popular video touches upon the basics of Bitcoin as a currency and how it works, including its support by Bitcoin miners.
Ethereum describes itself as “a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference.”
The term “smart contract” refers to computer code that can facilitate the exchange of money, content, property, shares, or anything of value. When running on the blockchain a smart contract becomes like a self-operating computer program that automatically executes when specific, defined conditions are met.
Ethereum was proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a cryptocurrency researcher and programmer and launched in 2015.
The platform is also the basis for its own virtual currency, Ether.
Ethereum is not just a platform. It’s also a programming language, helping developers to build and publish distributed applications.
As an example for comparison and contrast, Bitcoin is also a distributed public blockchain network. Although there are important technical differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum, Bitcoin solely exists to offer one famous application of blockchain technology: a peer to peer electronic cash system that enables and tracks online Bitcoin payments.
Conversely, the Ethereum blockchain focuses on running the programming code of any decentralized application.
In fact, Ethereum is also being used as a platform to launch other cryptocurrencies
In the Ethereum blockchain, instead of mining for bitcoin, miners work to earn Ether, a type of crypto token that fuels the network. Beyond a tradeable cryptocurrency, Ether is also used by application developers to pay for transaction fees and services on the Ethereum network.
There is a second type of token that is used to pay miners fees for including transactions in their block, it is called gas, and every smart contract execution requires a certain amount of gas to be sent along with it to entice miners to put it in the blockchain.
Visit the following link to see what types of Dapps are being built on Ethereum.