Social Development
- by Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst
- 18 posts
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Programmable Biology & Institutional Innovation with Jason Kelly, Founder, Ginkgo Bioworks. Dr. Uma Valeti, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, UPSIDE Foods.
Moderated by AJ Scaramucci, Managing Director, The SALT Fund.
SALT New York is a global thought leadership and networking forum at the intersection of finance, technology and public policy. Over the course of three days, leading investors, creators and thinkers will take the stage in support of SALTâs mission: empowering big ideas.
To learn more about SALT, visit https://www.salt.org/
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Developed, created and produced by SALT Venture Group, LLC.
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst When visionary CEOs and Founders meet, the imagination mixes with reality and the ideas arise so fast and so well... This SALTNY panel is about the new technological Rennaissance of the biological sciences. Just less than half an hour but the feeling is that there is a new and hopeful horizon in biological sciences which undoubtedly change the world, hoping for good, starting now for a long time. What was sincere fictions is becoming reality. And this is having a clear impact on environment, animal species and humans, and the interactions of these three sides. Watch this, then start imagining what developments can happen in the next future.- 10 1 vote
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EuropeansâloveâSpanishâproduce.âButâthe monoculturesâdamageâtheâsoil.âAndâwhileâGermans in particularâcareâaboutâclimate and environmentalâprotectionâwhenâit comes to elections,âdoesâtheirâconcernâextendâtoâtheâimpactâtheirâconsumptionâhasâinâSpain?
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#Spain #Drought #ClimateChange- By Admin
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On the eve of the new season, F1 has launched the #WeRaceAsOne initiative, aimed at tackling the biggest issues facing the sport and global communities â the fight against COVID-19 and the condemnation of racism and inequality.
During the race weekend in Austria, teams and F1 partners will be saying thank you to key workers and individuals by displaying rainbows on cars and around the circuit.
There will also be visual displays of support in the fight against racism, with F1 set to announce later this week clear pledges to increase diversity and opportunity in the sport, and the setting up of a Formula 1 Task Force.The details in full
As Formula 1 returns after a four-month break, we believe we must return with added purpose and determination to tackle the major issues that we as a sport, but also society, are facing. Those issues are important to the longer-term future of our sport, but equally have a major impact on the communities we race in and countries around the world.
Last November we launched our sustainability strategy to make our sport net zero carbon by 2030, improve diversity and inclusion in Formula 1 and to support communities.
Recent events have reinforced the importance of those issues and the need for us take action to make our sport better, improve opportunity and to have a positive impact on the world we live in.
In recent months, the whole world has come together as one collective community in the fight against COVID-19 and it has brought out the best in human nature. In recent weeks people from all walks of life have united in their condemnation of racism and inequality, something that has no place in our modern world.
We believe that as the first international sport to return we can make a difference and use our voice to address these vital issues.
As a member of the global FIA motor sport family, we acknowledge its Fundamental Principles Statutes, including the fight against any form of discrimination.
That is why today, ahead of our season start, Formula 1 announces our new #We Race As One initiative, in support of the #PurposeDriven Movement launched by the FIA last week.
This initiative will be the platform for the priorities set out above and is aimed at tackling the biggest issues facing our sport and global communities. It will not be a one week or one-year theme that disappears as issues disappear from headlines, it will underpin the Formula 1 strategy to make a tangible difference in our sport and society.
Recognising the two major issues dominating societyâs consciousness at this time, COVID-19, and inequality we will use our opening race to thank people around the world for the incredible strength and fortitude they have shown against a global pandemic.
Everyone from key workers through to families and individuals that have endured lockdown to tackle the virus deserve our thanks and gratitude.
Equally we want to use our restart to show that we as a sporting community stand united against racism and are doing more to address inequality and diversity in Formula 1.
An example of how the #WeRaceAsOne rainbow will feature on the McLarenTherefore, ahead of our first race in Austria on 3-5 July and with the support of the teams and our partners Formula 1 will be saying thank you to key workers and individuals around the world by displaying rainbows on the Formula 1 cars and around the race circuit with the hashtag #We Race as One.
The rainbow has been chosen as it has become a symbol used internationally in the recent crisis to bring communities together. We believe this important gesture will encourage our fans to join us in saying thank you. The rainbow initiative will continue throughout the season.
During the race weekend in Austria we will take a stand against racism. This will include visual displays of support in the fight against racism. In addition to the visual display of support we will also announce later this week clear pledges to increase diversity and opportunity in our sport.
This will include setting up a Formula 1 Task Force that will listen to people from across the paddock, including the drivers, as well as externals and make conclusions on the actions required to improve the diversity and opportunity in Formula 1 at all levels.
Further details of the Task Force will be set out in the coming weeks and the visual displays of support at the first race will be seen for the first time during the race weekend.Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO of Formula 1, said:
âOur first race in Austria at the start of July is a big moment for our sport after nearly four months of no racing. While it is an important moment for the Formula 1 community it is also a time to recognise the issues that are bigger than any one sport or country.
The #WeRaceAsOne initiative we have launched today, in support of the #PurposeDriven Movement launched by the FIA last week, is our way of saying thank you to the bravery and unity everyone around the world has shown during this unprecedented time. It will also be a platform for Formula 1 to come together and achieve results against the most important issues facing us as a sport and the world.
That is why at our first race in Austria Formula 1 will stand united to say loud and clear that racism must end. We will show our full support in fighting inequality throughout the weekend and accelerate our own efforts to make Formula 1 more diverse and inclusive.
As a global sport we must represent the diversity and social concerns of our fans, but we also need to listen more and understand what needs to be done and get on with delivering.âJean Todt, President of the FIA, said:
The âNew Dealâ I propose for motor sport in the context of COVID-19 pandemic means laying the foundations for the recovery and a sustainable future for Formula 1 and other disciplines. It includes new rules to reduce costs as well as initiatives to increase the popularity and accessibility of motor sport.
Importantly, it shall also harness the positive contribution motor sport brings to society, covering all sectors from health, safety, economy, environment, education, inclusion and diversity.
This is the intention of the #PurposeDriven Movement we launched last Thursday, and I am very pleased to welcome the #WeRaceAsOne initiative as part of this collective effort.
With Formula 1, we have already been committed for many years to helping to protect the environment with, for example, hybrid engines and the signing of the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework.
The FIA is guided by the Fundamental Principles of its Statutes, including the fight against any form of discrimination and notably on account of skin colour, gender, religion, ethnic or social origin. We must promote diversity in motor sport.â-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Global sports have been widely affected by COVID19 lockdowns. Formula 1 #WeRaceAsOne initiative is one of the efforts the sports sector is doing to "reset" the industry and the sport itself to a changed world. Although some would think this is a cynical show of marketing we prefer to see it as another sign of a new societal consensus slowly appearing. What do you think?
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This whiteboard video demonstrates, using an example of customs declaration from Poughkeepsie to Singapore, how to apply blockchain technology to ensure the integrity of asset transfer across your supply chain. LINKS What is blockchain ?:
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Thereâs an endless war fought for the attention of blockchain developers. Projects like Ethereum, EOS, $EOSâČ1.67% and TRON all push their different visions of the tech, often with attempts to define success by how many dapps each network supports, and how big their userbases are.
Well, over the past few months, cryptocurrency gamblers have left Ethereumâs gambling dapps en masse, with data showing theyâre now betting on casino dapps hosted by rival blockchains.
Today, Hard Fork reviewed data pulled from DappRadar, a service that tracks dapp usage across those three blockchains, to see exactly what kinds of dapp activity each network is attracting.More than half of ETHâs top dapps are blockchain-based games
Back in late January, data showed just 2 percent of Ethereumâs US-dollar transactional volumes could be attributed to gambling dapps.By contrast, 70 percent of overall traffic on EOS was the result of cryptocurrency betting activity; for TRON, more than 95 percent of its network activity was gambling-related.
For this research, we focused purely on the number of related transactions processed (not their value) in the past 24 hours, which is Dapp Radarâs default setting for sorting dapps.Looking at Ethereum, just two of the top 25 dapps relate to gambling, and more than half are blockchain-based games
like CryptoKitties.
Around one-quarter of Ethereumâs top dapps are platforms for trading and converting tokens and cryptocurrencies, like exchange service IDEX. Two are labeled âmarketplaces,â which act as auction houses for collectible Ethereum-based tokens.EOS and TRON have SO many âgambling and âhigh-riskâ dapps
In comparison to Ethereum, most top dapps hosted on EOS and TRON are either labelled as âgamblingâ or âhigh-riskâ platforms. Remember: just 8 percent of Ethereumâs most-used dapps wear that label.
For TRON, 18 of the top 25 dapps hosted on its network are flagged as such. Indeed, just two of TRONâs current âmost-usedâ dapps were found to be actual âgames,â and 20 percent of its top dapps are for exchanging and converting various tokens.
âPlease do your own due diligence before investing in dapps in the High-risk category (or in any dapp in general),â DappRadar warns. âIf it sounds too good to be true, we advise you to stay away and do not invest in that specific dapp.
âBut perhaps the most worrisome is the EOS network. According to DappRadar, 17 of its top 25 dapps are straight-up gambling platforms (68 percent). Two are games, two are exchange/conversion services, and one a âhigh-riskâ platform.
This means that 72 percent of the most-used EOS dapps (at pixel time) are either for gambling or come with explicit user warnings to
ensure their online safety.
There are three labeled âOther,â which appear to generally be platforms that aim to reward users for using their native tokens in a variety of ways, such as interacting with other users using the dapp.Gambling was meant to be an âearly use-case,â but 10 years laterâŠ
At some point, this industry will need to discuss âtransaction quality.â Ethereum uses Proof-of-Work to come to consensus. This (currently) attaches fees to transactions, payable by the user and collected by network participants.
This effectively protects the network against being flooded by useless âspamâ transactions, as it costs money to submit them for processing.
âDelegated Proof-of-Stakeâ networks like EOS do not feature such transaction fees in their economic model â âactionsâ on those blockchains are considered free (or almost feeless), which could be seen as attractive by dapp developers with apps featuring fast-moving and repetitive activity like dice and roulette games.
Earlier this week, finance industry bulwark Weiss Ratings released its annual list top cryptocurrencies. It announced the EOS network was first when it came to the sheer amount transactions processed â 14 times that of Bitcoin and eight times Ethereumâs total count.
Weiss ultimately placed EOS as the number one cryptocurrency, after awarding it high scores using proprietary metrics related to technology and adoption. Taking a look at the data, though, itâs pretty obvious âadoption qualityâ is one metric nobody has figured out how to define, yet.
Did you know?
Hard Fork has its own stage at TNW2019, our tech conference in Amsterdam. Check it out.- By Admin
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst EOS is interesting to gamblers and gaming because of its speed and the absence of fees. That is very clear. What this means for EOS in the long term, when the network is yet felt as not completely safe? We don't know yet. TRON is the same. The advice in the article is good: "If it sounds to good to be true, then don't invest!"
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The Coffee Board of India has launched a pilot blockchain-based e-marketplace in order to integrate coffee farmers with markets. The development was announced by Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) on March 28.
The Coffee Board â an organization backed by the MCI to promote coffee production in India â Â has rolled out an e-marketplace for coffee producers in order to reduce the number of intermediaries between coffee growers and buyers.
The product will reportedly be delivered in the form of an application and aims to improve transparency and traceability of coffee produced in India âfrom bean to cup.
â To implement the project, the Coffee Board collaborated with M/s Eka Plus, Đ° digital commodity management platforms for Đ°griculture.According to Indian business publication Business Line, the application will initially launch in a pilot phase with a limited number of growers for the next four to five months.
Should the test prove successful it will be expanded to all growers in the country.
There are over 350,000 coffee growers in India, according to Business Line.Blockchain has been actively adopted by food producers around the world in a bid to bring more efficiency to their supply chains.
Recently, the United States National Pork Board partnered with startup ripe.io to test out a blockchain platform for pork supply chains.
The new platform will purportedly enable the Board to monitor and evaluate sustainability practices, food safety standards, livestock health, and environmental protections.
In February, French President Emmanuel Macron advocated for the use of blockchain to innovate supply chain management in European agriculture.
Blockchain can bring transparency to agricultural production and distribution to assuage mounting consumer concerns about productsâ provenance and sustainability, Macron said.-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Agriculture use cases in blockchain is evolving rapidly. Big supermarket chains around the world, food supply chains and also food producers are adopting this technology to save money and time. Trust is very important in the food chain, and blockchain tech is the tool for that.
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Duke University is teaming up with blockchain startup Citizens Reserve on an educational initiative aimed to develop studentsâ interest in blockchain technology.
Citizens Reserve, a firm led by a team of former Deloitte blockchain employees, told CoinDesk Friday that it will jointly create a new incubation lab on Duke campus for students to work on real blockchain projects and host blockchain-focused events.
The company will also support the university in putting together a curriculum on blockchain technology, as well as in connecting students with blockchain experts and helping them find jobs in the sector when they graduate.
âAs a Duke MBA alumnus, I am excited to spearhead this program, and help the next generation of blockchain advocates and leaders succeed,â said Yonathan Lapchik, chief innovation officer at Citizens Reserve.He added:âMany industries, including finance, supply chain, and healthcare, are already exploring the potential of blockchain technology, so it is more important than ever to provide students with the tools needed to develop the skills, connections, and knowledge employers will seek from tomorrowâs workforce.â
Citizens Reserve launched a supply chain platform called SUKU in September, leveraging both the ethereum and quorum blockchains. Participating students in the program will be able to work on active incubation lab blockchain projects through the platform, according to the announcement.
âThe lab will come equipped with tools, such as mining rigs, that will enable students to explore various blockchain mechanisms,â the firm added.Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke Universityâs Fuqua School of Business, will serve as the faculty advisor to the program.
Harvey said that âit is crucial that academic institutions be willing to collaborate with thought leaders in the blockchain industry, and we look forward to working with Citizens Reserve in this regard. Duke is very proactive in external collaborations and we are excited about the opportunity for our students to get hands on, industry-relevant experience.
âDuke University already offers an âInnovation and Cryptoventuresâ course, launched by Harvey back in 2014. He also recently helped found the Duke Blockchain Lab, a student-led organization, providing a connection to the professional blockchain community.
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Industry and education must go hand by hand to be successful during the incoming transformation of this 4th IR. Labs on the blockchain inside educational centres like universities and colleges are a need, from meet ups (the new debate centres) up to classes, sand boxes, etc. There is no doubt on this. Those who do this will have an advantage from those who don't.
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Africa continues to dominate Google Trends search interest for âbitcoin,â but that has not translated into widespread adoption of cryptocurrency by users and businesses. Apart from opaque regulation and a lack of awareness, one of the major reasons for this failure has been the expansive use of mobile money on the continent.
Also read:Â Report: 87% of Crypto Exchanges May Be Falsifying VolumeCrypto Adoption Disappoints, Even as Africa Dominates Bitcoin Search Interest
According to Google Trends, the biggest search interest for bitcoin in the world is by potential investors from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya â the three biggest cryptocurrency markets in Africa. That dominance is, however, predominantly limited to trading activities on exchanges.
On a few occasions, bitcoin may be used as a means of payment, mostly to overseas suppliers.But despite that world-leading interest, Africa still lags behind the rest of the world in everyday BTC use and adoption.
The cryptocurrency has found it difficult to break the stranglehold of convenience, simplicity and efficiency that, like a magnet, draws millions of Africans to mobile money. The continent of 1.2 billion people is home to over 50 percent of the worldâs mobile money services.
Google Trends chart for the keyword âbitcoinâFor example, with a basic telephone handset, one can send or receive money via SMS anywhere within a particular country, without the need of an internet connection.
By comparison, you will need a smartphone and a secure internet connection to complete a cryptocurrency transaction. While internet use has risen sharply in the past 20 years, users from Africa account for just 10 percent of the global total, making the case for crypto on the continent even more cryptic.
Also, erratic power supplies in many countries continue to impede the internet access on which cryptocurrency largely depends.Beating Mobile Money at Its Own Game
Vin Armani, founder and CTO of Cointext, an internet-free wallet service that allows users to send or receive bitcoin cash (BCH) via SMS â just like mobile money â believes his service could rival mobile money in the continent.
 In Africa, Cointext is currently available only in South Africa, and itâs unclear how many people are actually using the service there. âWe are preparing to make a major announcement that will give us global coverage (in every country),â Armani told news.
Bitcoin.com.
âWeâre currently working on an integration that will make us available for smartphones throughout Africa. Weâre also working on SMS solutions for a few other African countries,â another official from Cointext explained separately.
Elisha Owusu Akyaw, a 17-year-old Ghanian crypto investor and influencer, has made a fortune investing in bitcoin.
He believes that âCryptocurrencies should probably integrate with mobile banking platforms.
â Akyaw might have a point. The mobile money sensation has grown very deeply in African economics to the extent, perhaps, of defining its people.
âThe power of financial technology to expand access to and use of accounts is demonstrated most persuasively in Sub-Saharan Africa,â the World Bankâs Global Findex Database detailed in its financial inclusion survey, which found 21 percent of adults on the continent now have a mobile money account.
This is ânearly twice the share in 2014 and easily the highest of any region in the world.âIf that is not enough, cryptocurrencies will likely have to fight tooth and nail to gain any reasonable market share in the mobile money-dominated payment systems in Africa, a region often touted as the next frontier for virtual currencies.
In Zimbabwe, publicly listed Econet Wireless controls 95 percent of the mobile money market share through its Ecocash platform. The seven year-old service is so successful that almost every government department depends on it for electronic payments.
With more than six million users in the Southern African country, Ecocash has processed over $23 billion worth of transactions since launch in September 2011.
It boasts more than 32,000 agents (merchants) throughout Zimbabwe. This is the sort of entrenched competition that cryptocurrencies will have to contend with. There will be 725 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa by 2020, according to the GSM Association, who could either plug into crypto or mobile money.Cumbersome Registration Processes Dissuade Crypto Use
Bernard Parah, a 26 year-old entrepreneur from Lagos, Nigeria, recognizes this challenge and opportunity. Two years ago, he founded Bitnob Quickserve, a platform that allows Africans to buy vouchers and reedem them for BTC without the need to complete KYC or AML procedures.
Parah posits that one of the biggest hindrances to cryptocurrency adoption is the labyrinth of verifications required by exchanges at registration.
âWe believe that [the service] will reduce the entry barrier for many people who want to try out bitcoins here in Africa,â Parah told news.Bitcoin.com.
âOnboarding users needs to be made simpler. Many first time users give up at the point where they have to upload their personal identity details for verification.â
Parah also pointed to ease of use and the fear of loss of funds without recovery as stumbling blocks. âA bitcoin address looks like a foreign language to new users,â he notes.
âMany people are not ready to be their own banks, they would rather settle for convenience over security,â said Parah, who reckons thereâs need for more awareness and education about crypto.
A litany of fake bitcoin schemes have not helped the cryptocurrency cause either. In Uganda, for example, thousands of people have fallen victim to a number of Ponzi schemes, including the D9 Club, which promised to pay members in BTC.
The scheme, now collapsed, masqueraded as a sports trading company, promising members hefty weekly payouts in bitcoin on initial investment of between $250 and $2,000.
âScams give Africa [and crypto] a bad name,â decried Chimezie Chuta, an IT specialist and bitcoin enthusiast from Nigeria. Regulation has, as always, been a sticky issue where bitcoin is concerned.-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst These news are not negative. Yes, there is too much bureaucracy, resistance to change and logistic and network problems, but look at the strength Mobile money technology (which mostly doesn't depend on internet network) has on the African continent. Once the crypto sphere gets easier to use, central banks' understanding, anti fraud regulations spread, and blockchain technology becomes more pervasive there is no doubt for us many African countries will be on the forefront of the 4th IR change.
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Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys creator Joseph Lubin said that blockchain technology and decentralization can benefit content creators and journalists. Lubin spoke about different industries that are benefitting from blockchain technology in a video on March 12.
In the video, Lubin said that artists are âset to benefit quite dramaticallyâ from blockchain, as it allows them to attach policies and stipulations for how the content is consumed and shared i.e. derivative works, streaming, public performances, etc. In Lubinâs view, it also allows them to eliminate middlemen:âI think artists in the music industry on average capture about 11 or 12 percent of the value in the industry and those big record companies are sucking up 70 or so percent. We can replace those record companies with smart contracts on the Ethereum platform.â
Lubin continued that, while there will still be intermediaries such as promoters, they will not be able to âget to a commanding position where theyâre extracting enormous rents just because of their intermediary role.
âIn regard to journalism, Lubin said that blockchain-driven platforms like Civil could help the âguttedâ journalism industry to deliver content directly to the consumer and âreturn ethics to journalism.â Lubin said that a platform like Civil allows newsrooms to form a code of ethics and stake that security bond on the platform:âIf they break that pledge in some way, their readership, their listenership can call them to task, can challenge their stake and potentially have them bumped off the platform.â Â
Earlier this month, Civil announced its official launch, despite a lackluster initial coin offering last year. The platform â which aims to provide an alternative business model to the journalism industry â now allows participants to purchase Civil membership, including CVL tokens which will represent membersâ voting power within the Civil ecosystem.-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst The blockchain allow for many new ideas which radically change the way we work and interact. or media and art this is going to be very visible, as it may allow artists and content creators to own their works and art and content consumers enjoy a cheaper but good quality work. No more intermediaries where is not needed.
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Jobs and Talent: Shell is recruiting graduates to build blockchain use cases for... (thenextweb.com)The worldâs fifth largest oil and gas producer in the world, Royal Dutch Shell, is getting further into the blockchain game, and is looking to train the next generation of blockchain industry execs.
Shell is looking for âblockchain analystsâ as part of its Information Technology (IT) graduate programme, according to a job listing on its graduate careers website.
The job role has seemingly flown under the radar for the last four months after being posted to LinkedIn. According to the job specification, the placement will take place in Shellâs Blockchain Centre of Excellence (CoE). But what does a âblockchain analystâ even do?
Well, successful applicants will explore potential new applications of the decentralized technology across all of Shellâs business areas â from its core in oil and gas to new energies and electric vehicles.
They will be responsible for taking potential use cases from âideationâ through to implementation. This will include finding new applications of not just blockchain but other decentralized technologies. Itâll then be the responsibility of the analyst to sell these potential uses to the rest of the business, the job listing states.
Shell is looking for recent Masterâs graduates with backgrounds in the following disciplines: mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence.Indeed, it makes sense that Shell is looking for the next generation of business-based blockchain proponents.
In November last year, the Dutch firm took part in launching a blockchain-based platform for trading oil, that is replacing a centuries old, traditionally paper-based, process.
Whatâs more, the fact that Shell is hiring graduates points to a greater trend uncovered earlier this month.
Data gathered by Hard Fork showed that the blockchain industryâs biggest employers are actually old-school corporate firms like Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, Oracle, and KPMG.
Want to find out more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology?
Check out our Hard Fork track at TNW 2019!-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Another big corporation exploring the blockchain ways, confirming the trend we are observing from big companies which try to experiment and possibly adopt the blockchain and adapt their business models to the incoming 4th IR, saving in costs, time and opening new business avenues.
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Despite the crypto-winter causing widespread layoffs for employees in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry over the last few months, there are still plenty of jobs in the field.According to information Hard Fork gathered from Glassdoor, the US is leading the way when it comes to opportunities for blockchain related jobs, followed by the UK, and then India.
But when you see who is hiring, it starts to get interesting.How we did it
Hard Fork took a look at Glassdoor to find all the jobs that had the term âblockchainâ mentioned somewhere in the job listing, from all over the world. These included all vacancies related to the field, ranging from roles in development, marketing, and more.The US takes the cake
Glassdoor is currently advertising a total of 5,711 blockchain jobs globally. Currently, US employers account for around half of those, with 2,616 vacancies on offer. The UK is the runner-up with 1,015 blockchain-related job ads, followed by India with 257 vacancies.
âBlockchain Engineerâ is the most common job, what that means specifically is anyoneâs guess, though. Itâs certainly a broad enough title to include a whole host of responsibilities.
âSenior Software Engineerâ and âBlockchain Developerâ are the second and third most common job titles.Indeed, these are the types of jobs that the likes of Facebook has been advertising. It should come as no surprise, as the social media Goliath has a secret 50-strong team working on its rumored blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.Whoâs hiring?
The below table shows the number of blockchain related jobs offered around the globe, by employer. (Though please note, we were only able to collate information from the first 3,500 jobs of the 5,711 jobs currently on offer globally.)
In the top 10 companies offering careers in blockchain only three are related to cryptocurrencies: Foris Limited, Crypto.com, and Wirex.The rest are all familiar household names like IBM, Ernst & Young (EY), Oracle, Accenture, Deloitte, and PwC. Of course, these arenât traditionally related to blockchain, but are all starting to get into the game.
Recently, EY announced the launch of its cryptocurrency tax accounting tool for investors, and IBM has been working in its corporate blockchain solutions for some time now.
So on deeper inspection, these hires arenât entirely surprising. As we look further down the list, more understandable names like Ripple, and ConsenSys appear. That said, less than half of the companies in the top 20 are dedicated blockchain startups or directly related to cryptocurrency.
It certainly seems that as interest in cryptocurrency development wanes, institutional interest in blockchain tech is here to stay, and a lot of its development is happening in the US.It should be noted that a report from PwC last year found that China was the second largest developer of blockchain technology, behind the US.
Whatâs more, by 2023 the tables are expected to turn, and China will assume the role as a world leader in blockchain tech, so itâs still got some way to go if this is to be the case.Itâs also worth bearing in mind that Glassdoor is an English-centric website which may skew the results somewhat.
But even so, in the English-speaking world, the US is dominating with blockchain employment, and only a small fraction of the jobs are even related to cryptocurrency.
Want to find out more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology? Check out our Hard Fork track at TNW 2019!- By Admin
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Interesting Reading: Steve Bannon looking at bitcoin, cryptocurrency, ICO, deplo... (uk.businessinsider.com)
- Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, is getting into cryptocurrencies.
- Bannon said he took a significant position in bitcoin and is considering creating a new cryptocurrency called "deplorable coin."
- Bannon was introduced to cryptocurrencies by Brock Pierce, a former child actor in the "Mighty Ducks" movies.
Steve Bannon wants in on the cryptocurrency craze.Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist and the former head of the far-right website Breitbart, has invested in bitcoin and is making plans to dive into the cryptocurrency markets according to a new report from the New York Times.
According to the Times' Jeremy W. Peters and Nathaniel Popper, Bannon discussed plans with a group of academics at Harvard to launch a new cryptocurrency called "deplorables coin," a reference a now-infamous comment form 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.Bitcoin, the most widely-known cryptocurrency, soared to a price of nearly $20,000 a coin in December before shedding a large amount of its gains.
As of Thursday, bitcoin was trading around $6,450 a coin and is down over 50% on a year-to-date basis.Bannon has discussed various ways to get into cryptocurrencies through his investment firm Bannon & Company, said the Times, including helping countries create their own coins.
"Itâs disruptive populism," Bannon said. "It takes control back from central authorities. Itâs revolutionary."The attraction of cryptocurrency, Bannon said, is its ability to get around the traditional banking system and cut out central banks that make people "slaves to debt.
" While cryptocurrencies are growing in popularity among legitimate institutional investors, the decentralized nature of transactions using the technology are also harder to track, making the method popular with drug dealers and the far-right.According to the Times, Bannon was introduced to idea by Brock Pierce, a former actor in the "Mighty Ducks" movies, who now runs various cryptocurrency endeavors.
The pair first became involved in 2005 when Bannon came on to advise Pierce's company, Internet Gaming Entertainment, which sold the currency used in the online game World Of Warcraft.Since leaving the White House and getting attacked by Trump for his comments in Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury," Bannon has traveled to Europe to meet with rising far-right populist leaders in countries like Hungary and Italy.
According to Bannon, cryptocurrencies offer burgeoning political movements economic freedom because it weans the groups off government-controlled currencies.
"It was pretty obvious to me that unless you got somehow control over your currency, all these political movements were going to be beholden to who controlled the currency," he said.
Get the latest Bitcoin price here.>>-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Crypto currencies are dear to many American libertarians due to their decentralised methods, and the lack of central regulation, meaning no government in the middle. Bannon is one of their figure heads, thus announcing the creation of a "deplorable coin" (in homage to Trump voters) can be seen as a joke, but in these strange times, anything can happen.
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ALISON MCGUIRE
Blockchain International Show London is a two-day event dedicated to the blockchain industry, uniting world-leading experts and business representatives. Hereâs what you need to know about this event:When and where is it on?
June 6th to 7th, 2018 at Londonâs ExCel exhibition and convention centreHow many years has it been going?This is the first BIS in London, but not the first Blockchain event in Great Britain organized by Smile-Expo, since the company has already held ICO Event London.
Smile-Expo has organized more than 30 Blockchain & Bitcoin Conferences all over the world and continues with the series.What was the inspiration to start it?The importance of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies and the way they are developing in todayâs world.
What exciting things can people look forward to?Top-level experts from all around the world will provide their presentations in two conference halls on the topical issues concerning the technology in general as well as details within the industry. Highly interactive panel discussions based on case studies will provide real-world options for technology implementation.
Visitors will have an opportunity to discover a free-to-enter exhibition that will help them to discover the latest hardware and software products based on blockchain technology used in banking, social services, infrastructure projects, computer security, automation services, IT and hardware.
What opportunities are offered for those attending?Networking opportunities: Meet service providers, operators, platform providers, investors, data scientists, business analysts, venture capitalists, C-level management representatives and government representatives as well as your future partners, like-minded people and new friends.
See the leading brands providing their latest developments and groundbreaking ideas to a wide audience in the exhibition area gathering up to 100 companies.
Find new great products and services: discover the latest developments and cutting-edge blockchain products, interact with product teams, ask anything you would like to know about the product, technology or service you will use in your everyday life soon.
Enjoy networking: More than 2000 visitors and up to 100 companies will create an unforgettable atmosphere of technological transcendence. Take a chance to meet your future partners, like-minded people, new friends.Who will be speaking?The list of speakers is not complete and still expanding:Michael Mainelli â Executive Chairman at Z/Yen Group;Richard Kastelein â Co-founder of Cryptoassets Design Group;Sally Eaves â Global Strategy Advisor, Founder of Sally Eaves Consultancy;Bogdan Maslesa â Founder of Universal Crypto;Iman Mutlaq â CEO at Sigma Investments;Arnab Naskar â CEO at SICOS (Lux) S.C.S.;Spiros Margaris â Influencer and Venture Capitalist, Senior Advisor at Arbidex;Jimmy Nguyen â CEO at nChain Group;Jan Sammut â CEO at RefToken, cryptocurrency investor and ICO advisor;Kambiz Djafari â CEO and Co-founder at Edgecoin.io;Lex Sokolin â Global Director Fintech Strategy, Partner at Autonomous Research. The list of speakers is constantly expanding. See the latest updates at the conference website bisshow.com
What tips would you give to those attending to get the most out of it?Interact, learn, absorb the valuable information. Discover the products represented at the exhibition area, ask anything you want to know about the product or technology directly from the team, listen to the presentations at the lecture zone in the exhibition area, use the networking area to get the most from interaction.
And the main tip: attend the conference. Only here you will be able to find the greatest opportunities for you to get the most from the event. Financial and Tech conference halls will provide full coverage of the current state of the industry and forecast for its development in the next six months.How can people book tickets and when are they usually sold out?You can book your tickets at the conference website.
This year our venue is ExCel London, so there will be enough space for everyone who is fond of the technology of tomorrow.Anything else youâd like to add?Use the kind advice of the eventâs motto:
Discover the latest products, talk to the leading experts, interact, learn how to get the best of the blockchain technology. The future is closer to you with BIS.
Our event team looks forward to welcoming you. Â
If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Blockchain events are coming every month and seemly even every week. This time in London in June. This will be a big event as London is one of the Blockchain world hubs and give opportunities to share ideas and do a better networking.
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There are a lot of events covering blockchain and cryptocurrencies these days, though few have touched on the impact the technology will have on the mainstream public.
The event âBlockchain of the Future: Smart Cities, Media, Smart Contracts & Beyondâ gave us a look at how blockchain can affect our lives on a more social level.
BlockchainNYC.org has hosted numerous events often focusing on finance, healthcare, and logistics, areas where blockchain has an obvious fit.
Theyâve done well bringing in well-known names as speakers on their panels and attracting huge crowds as New York Cityâs largest blockchain group. Going in to this event held at the eBay NYC event space, it wasnât surprising to see so many people enjoying drinks and networking, though it had a distinctly lighthearted feel.
Talking to those who attended, it was clear that they were hungry for ways to connect blockchain to their peers who donât have much knowledge on the space.The diverse set of speakers certainly delivered.
Meggie Hsu of Air Swap, a decentralized token exchange on Ethereum, brought in the expertise on cryptocurrencies and blockchain that weâve come to expect from events on the topic.
Though speakers like Tyler Gold of Vice Media; Lillian Ruiz from Civil, a journalism-focused blockchain company; and Karen Bhatia, who works with EDCNYC, were able to connect those ideas to the mainstream public.
Most people have taken a backseat in blockchain developments, not realizing nor understanding how great an impact it can have. These impassioned speakers connected to this audience and sparked a thirst for knowledge in a wider demographic of people. During the event, Lillian Ruiz from Civil remarked: ÂBlockchain itself is not going to unlock anything. We need a wider depth of fieldâŠa less capitalist world view. Weâre talking about a seismic shift in technology, so it benefits us all to think a little bigger.
They talked about social media and how cryptocurrencies will allow people to earn tokens from their original content. An issue many currently have due to content being stolen and reposted, with little to no reward for their efforts.
Platforms like Steemit and Civil were highlighted as a means to achieve compensation for content creation, not only driving a community of sharing from content providers, but allowing people to feel secure in the fact that their private information wonât be sold to advertisers.
As social media has become a major aspect of peopleâs everyday lives, hearing of these revolutionary changes was enough to convince those more passive towards blockchain about its importance in the future.
It opened a lot of doors, and I noticed more people taking notes and an active interest in the topics than Iâve seen before at similar events. Transitioning into smart cities, it began to make sense to those less knowledgeable how building city infrastructures on secure data could impact their lives and not just the behind the scenes of how cities are run. Estonia was a great example of this. Nasdaq notes:Is it any surprise that our cities are growing up and getting smarter? From the 1950âs onwards, cities were built around cars; now smart cities are being built around data and information. The obvious next step is to share data which is a good reason why sharing and decentralization on blockchain is important.
With these points established, it was easier for people on the less technical side to absorb information about blockchain, the role cryptocurrencies play, and what smart contracts are and how they can be utilized. These arenât topics that only investors should be keeping an eye on.
This technology will play a pivotal role in everyoneâs lives. It was inspiring to see everyone in agreement and actively taking an interest in this transformative technology.
Seen any good events recently? How do you think blockchain will impact the mainstream public in the future? Let us know at Bitcoinist here:Â http://bitcoinist.com/blockchain-of-the-future-event-coverage/-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Blockchain evangelisation is always exciting and heart lifting. In this case in NYC talking how social media, cryptocurrencies, and smart cities will change due to #blockchain. These type of events are very important to spread the knowledge and also to start thinking on how this technology is changing already everything from economy to social mores and values, and even the way we do and build things.
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How will blockchain change the economy? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.Answer by Samantha Radocchia, Co-Founder at Chronicled, on Quora:
Think of how the sharing economy has exploded in the past decade. If youâve taken an Uber to the airport or rented an Airbnb, youâve been a part of it.Weâre even at a point where renting out personal items is a viable business model. For example, Omni Storage stores items youâre not usingâjust like a normal storage companyâbut they also rent your items out to people.
Skis, guitar, winter jackets. Itâs all available for rent (with the ownerâs permission) via an app.
We all hold onto certain possessions because we plan to use them eventually. Or so we tell ourselves. Why not make some money off of our stuff instead of letting it go unused?That question is at the heart of the sharing economy, and weâre going to be hearing a lot more about businesses like Omni in the next few years.This is what it can look like if blockchain is involved.
Changing Value
Futuristic sharing concepts will only work if many other considerations are taken care of. Each item has to be documented, proven authentic, assigned a current value, and even insured. And blockchain can be extremely useful here.Say I register a guitar on blockchain. In theory, I would be able to access information about where it is, as well as its current worth and condition.This isnât as far-fetched as you may think.
Seven years ago, a friend of mine sent me a business plan for a platform that allows people to rent out their art. Itâs funny to look back on that now, because weâre actually at the point where a concept like that is possible. And renting or leasing is just a part of it.Imagine the entire art economy on top of blockchain, where individuals could own fractions of a work.
We have the ability to attach microchips to items and register them on blockchain, making it feasible that someone could rent an expensive piece of art and keep it in their office for a few years. It just means assigning the rights values.
Take it a step farther and once we have that link between the physical asset and the digital tokenized representation of that art, buyers and sellers can invest in a small percentage of the art. 100 owners. One Michaelangelo.
Shifting Responsibility
With this system of renting comes an inevitable question: What if something happens to your stuff?
Renting out a guitar you pluck on once a year sounds like a good deal, but what if it gets broken or lost? Youâd need insurance on it first to have peace of mind.We actually thought about this at Chronicled a couple years ago. We were talking to some people who had built a platform for filmmakers to lease out their film equipment.
But film equipment is very expensiveâa lens could cost $10,000. And getting insurance isnât always a simple process.So, we built a proof of concept that allowed people to authenticate high value assets, place a microchip on them, and register them on blockchain. That was the link between the record of its authenticity and the data about its condition.
Through the mobile app, you could quickly purchase insurance on it.To buy insurance on an item this fast, you need to have available data on what it is, what it costs, and what condition itâs in. But if that was all collected and stored on a blockchain network, you could build a platform to quickly grab this data and add insurance accordingly.
Letting Go Of Ownership
If this type of radical sharing economy were to emerge, it would constitute a major shift in the way we view ownership and material possessions. And the storage facility concept is a great model for easing people into that thought process. Youâve already taken the first step by saying, âThis isnât important enough for me to keep in my home.
âWhen something sits idle for a long period of time, it becomes an underutilized asset. It makes sense to rent out items you own that simply sit in storage, costing you money.Will a future sharing economy like this start moving us away from a consumer-based, materialistic mindset?
Is it possible for people to be so accustomed to sharing that they change their attitude about ownership? Is it possible for tokenization and fractional ownership of possessions, art, real estate enabled by said tokenization to lead to a new concept of consumerism?
Maybe. Western society isnât really built that way, so it would be a monumental change in how we view possessions. But itâs not impossible to make that adjustment.
Adjusting Our Attitudes
It is possible to change your view on material ownership. I know firsthand. When I first moved to San Francisco, my apartment complex was robbed by a maintenance worker. He took jewelry I inherited from my grandmother. They ended up catching the guy, but I never got the jewelry back. And after that robbery, I no longer had any possessions I cared much about.
That event makes it easier for me to accept the notion of the sharing economy. I donât mind putting items in storage and letting other people rent them out, because I donât feel attached to objects.
Iâm sure some people donât see things that way, but there are plenty of people who feel the same as I do. Thatâs why Iâm interested to see how far we can take the sharing economy in the coming years and how blockchain can help make it a secure, seamless system.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Introduction to Blockchain. I like the emphasis of the author on how this technology will need to change in a huge way the way we view possessions, and consumerism... food for thought.
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Blockchain is the single most disruptive technology for the international development sector as we understand it today. Devex has previously reported on the potential for blockchain to transform development.
The World Economic Forum has called blockchain a "mega-trend" and the United Kingdomâs Department for International Development's innovation chief, Tamara Giltsoff, called blockchain the next tech game changer. Now the United States Department of State is keen to explore applications of this technology to the work of international development and diplomacy.
Blockchain is here to stay, and over the next few years â yes years, not months â we can expect to see it increasingly in emerging markets.Â
The potential is immense â but where can actual success stories be found? Through research, conferences, meetups, and meetings, weâve been trying to identify where and for what blockchain use case applications are being implemented or piloted in developing countries, focusing on applications that can benefit the poor.
We are developing and will soon launch an Impact Register, to provide a repository of prequalified, genuine use cases for developing countries.Here are examples of blockchain being used across sectors.
See more related topics:
âșÂ Opinion: In developing economies, blockchain's benefits and risks depend on the application
âșÂ Blockchain and bitcoin: Global development game changers?
âșÂ Alibaba's blockchain embrace: A watershed moment for financial transparency?
âșÂ Opinion: Blockchain offers poorest a real economic identity â and a shot at the SDGsFinancial services
The fastest moving sector is fintech, or financial services applications. Many of these are aimed at the unbanked, and are proliferating. BitPesa is a fast moving pan-African blockchain-based payment system headquartered in Kenya. It is targeted at businesses to easily make payments to employees, distributors, and suppliers.Â
Banqu is using blockchain technology in Indonesia to offer banking services to refugees, the displaced, and impoverished people. UCash, a Canada-based company, offers both blockchain and traditional banking services through their cloud-based customizable software in India. Users can pay bills, cash checks, send remittances, trade bitcoin, or certify transactions.Remittances
In the ever-expanding space of remittances, CASHAA is a blockchain-based financial service that helps complete mobile cash transfers with zero fees. Cash senders can choose the amount to transfer in their currency and the amount to be received in the currency of the receiver.
CASHAA beta is currently set up to accommodate British pounds, Indian rupees, Nigerian naira, and Indonesian rupiah. To run the transfers, CASHAA uses over 12,300 registered traders, who buy and sell bitcoin to aid in the cash transaction.Peer-to-peer energy trading
Another rapidly developing sector is peer-to-peer energy trading, which offers opportunities for the poor to both access renewable energy and trade it. Solar startups Azuri Technologies, Off-grid Electric, and Mobisol are producing low-cost solar panel solutions for off-grid areas in rural Africa.
In Bangladesh, SOLshare offers a blockchain-based "swarm electrification" service to allow solar producers to sell solar electricity to their neighbors. If a user needs electricity, they simply add bKash, the countryâs largest mobile banking network, credit to their mobile wallet, turn their SOLbox to "buy mode" and trade credit for power, for those looking to sell electricity, they simply switch the box to "sell mode.
" The credit in the mobile wallet can be used to purchase goods at local stores. Similarly, Australian Power Ledger uses blockchain technology to allow individuals who generate energy with renewables (i.e. rooftop photovoltaic arrays) to sell surplus electricity to their neighbors. With the peer-to-peer trading system, electricity consumers save financially and property owners maximize the value of their renewable energy investment.Supply chain
Agriculture supply chains is another sector where blockchain has great potential. Bext360 leverages blockchain technology to manage payments in automated kiosks that evaluate produce â cherries and coffee â negotiate price and transfer digital cash. The company makes digital/mobile payments directly to all the stakeholders in the supply chain, including farmers, communities, banks and others.
Their system tracks the goods from their source to end consumer, enabling customers to directly interact with the supplying communities. Their first machine will be tested in California and then launched in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Columbia.Â
Provenance, another supply chain application, uses blockchain to verify the origin of foods. Provenance is conducting pilots focused on Asia tuna supply chains to ensure slave-free labor, raw alpaca fleece sourcing in the fashion industry, and single-origin coffee supply chains.Land registry
In the area of land registry, two startups in Ghana are testing blockchain solutions. BenBenâs blockchain-enabled land registry allows people to search, manage, and verify property and land documents such as site plans, indentures, and mortgages. BenBen has two programs running in Accra, Ghana, and plans to expand to Nigeria, Mozambique, and Colombia.Â
Bitland hopes to create a digital land registry that is universal, transparent, immutable, and bridges the gap between the government and undocumented areas. The company currently runs pilots in 28 communities in Kumasi, Ghana, and aims to expand across Africa to train people about blockchain technology, land rights, and corruption reduction in the land sector.Identity
New initiative aims to deliver on the promise of blockchain for identityThe launch of the World Identity Network may have taken place at Sir Richard Bransonâs private luxury island, but the aim is to benefit the 2 billion people living without recognized identification documents.
Central to all of these applications will be identity. Bitnation's Refugee Emergency Response focuses on the identity and financial issues of displaced people in the European refugee crisis. By signing up for a blockchain emergency ID, refugees can have a permanent, non-government affiliated ID (a quick response code) that is verified through their relationships with friends and family.
Bitnation also provides access to bitcoin debit cards, where donors can fund a refugeeâs new bank account, leading humanitarian aid right to the hands of those who need it. An exciting new entrant to the ID space is the IDBox, which can register a digital identity without electricity, internet, or smart phones.
IDBox can be used in humanitarian emergencies, remote populations, and can ensure cash transfers reach intended beneficiaries. Abt Associates is working with the Papua New Guinea Central Bank and IDBox founder Julien Bouteloupe to run a use case trial in Papua New Guinea.Fund tracking
Another area of interest is the development of applications to track donor funds. Aid: Tech works with governments and NGOs to improve the flow and transparency of funds and services to underserved people. They have completed a blockchain pilot in Lebanon, providing digital cash vouchers to Syrian refugees to enable them to purchase much-needed food and other supplies.
Another startup called Disberse aims to reduce the mismanagement or misappropriation of funds moving from donor to recipient. Disberse launched three pilot programs managing funds with their blockchain solution in school payments in Swaziland, an environmental deforestation initiative in Uganda, and a solar energy project in the Philippines.How will it be funded?
Itâs not just the technology developments to watch â itâs also how funds are raised to scale it. A new runaway phenomenon called initial coin offerings is moving so fast, it takes your breath away. This new fundraising phenomenon is fueled by a synergistic convergence of blockchain technology, new wealth, clever entrepreneurs and cryptoinvestors backing blockchain-fueled ideas.
 They raise funds by creating their own cryptocurrency. These are offered at discounted rates on digital assets before they hit the cryptocurrency exchanges. A digital asset is created, a value determined â and by consensus reached by investment, value is settled by a network of participants rather than by a central authority or government.Â
Startups can now open source or put their project under a nonprofit foundation and raise money â and not just seed money, but significant growth capital into the millions. While the phenomenon is huge, there remain issues of interoperability, governance, technical talent shortages, crossborder agreements, and credentialing of funders.
With token sales and initial coin offerings generating many millions of dollars, some fintech companies and individuals are exploring how token sales could create social change. Idealists see that the movement is all about creating community â creating a social network or market place for likeminded people with opportunity for benefactors to get involved as well.
It creates network incentivization for a new way of global, blockchain-powered, and innovative businesses that could change the world for the better.
The international development community needs to...
continue reading:Â
https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-7-ways-to-use-blockchain-for-international-development-90839- By Admin
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Blockchain is an innovative new technology with the power to disrupt existing economic and business models, as discussed in EMCompass Note 40. Blockchain also has enormous potential for emerging markets. These nations appear poised for a more rapid adoption of blockchain, though a framework is needed to assess how the technology can be deployed and which applications and use cases are likely to be seen in the near future. While the potential of blockchain is great, the technology is still at an early stage of development and will need to overcome potential setbacksâtechnical, regulatory, and organizationalâbefore it becomes mainstream. In such a context of uncertainty, companies in emerging markets can neither afford to wait until the outcome is evident nor expose their existing business models to overly risky wholescale blockchain initiatives. Instead, they will need to adopt an experimental approach that allows them to develop
Blockchainâs full capability is difficult to predict at this early stage in its development. Yet while most of the attention surrounding blockchain has taken place in advanced economies, its greatest potential for decisive impact may lie in emerging market economies. In 2016 Christian Catalini, Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at MITâs Sloan School of Management, and Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Torontoâs Rotman School of Management, proposed an economic framework to assess the potential impact of blockchain and its capacity to disrupt the current market by reducing verification and networking costs.1 Their paper concluded that when blockchain is combined with cryptocurrency, marketplaces can be âbootstrappedâ to function without the use of traditional âtrusted partiesâ and thereby result in significantly lower networking costs for participants. 2 The paper also finds that open blockchains will likely have the most drastic effect on market structure, challenging the market power of incumbents and lowering the cost of entry for new entrants. Nevertheless, given the relatively high costs of the proof of concept, it is likely that most early adoptions of blockchain will take place in the form of (i) value-added applications built on top of existing blockchains such as bitcoin; (ii) private or semi-private blockchains targeting process efficiencies in financial services; or (iii)Â
The coexistence of public and private blockchains is assured, depending on the type of services and the nature of the industry where they are applied. A compelling business case for blockchain can be made in currently neglected or underserved markets, where there is a less competitive market structure and high verification costs. Use cases that are relatively simple to design and implement, and which are combined with already tested technological solutions such as cryptocurrencies, will likely find early adoption (for example, adding a digital currency payment option for wallets and cross-border payments). Intraorganizational projects intended to reduce organizational complexity and reconcile multiple databases would be another possibility. 3 Financial services firms are extending that kind of collaboration to trusted counterparties to reduce costs through private blockchains. Truly disruptive blockchain solutions that depart from existing business practices carry high potential for future growth, but their heightened complexity and need for stakeholder collaboration (such as elaborate financial instruments and smart contracts) will likely delay their adoption. Building on this hypothesis, emerging markets appear poised for a more rapid adoption of blockchain technology, as they meet many of the conditions listed above, including high verification costs, underserved populations, and in many cases
have a relative lack of traditional incumbents with significant market power to impede new entrants. In financial services, for example, the existing infrastructure is shallow in almost all low-income countries, many of which have also suffered from de-risking in the wake of the financial crisis. Fortunately, this handicap may accelerate adoption of blockchain, as a lack of financial infrastructure also means less organizational resistance to the new technology and lower transition costs for moving from a legacy to a new system. Consequently, regulators and existing financial institutions in emerging markets have less incentive to prevent the blockchain revolution, as it does not massively disrupt existing market conditions. Global payments and trade finance are examples of sectors experiencing a flurry of initiatives from market frontrunners and new entrants alike. Both have high transaction and verification costs that blockchain can reduce by improving the speed, transparency, and process. Emerging market nations have large population segments that remain underserved in terms of financial and banking services due to the high cost of customer acquisition for traditional financial institutions. In addition, the extensive use of mobile based services, particularly in Africa and Asia, provides an easy avenue for a blockchain-based system to extend its services. Even in lower income countries, mobile penetration is extremely high, at 83 percent among the 16-to-65 age bracket. 4 If blockchain manages to provide proof of concept for a viable business model in payments for mobile banks and other financial players, it would advance the longstanding developmental goal
of financial inclusion. Serving previously unprofitable customers and small and medium-sized companies can generate up to $380 billion in additional revenues.5 So blockchain may provide emerging markets an opportunity to leapfrog traditional technologies, as happened with mobile technology in many emerging market regions, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa.
Click here to Download the full report
About IFC and World Bank Group work on blockchain IFC is part of the World Bank Group, mandated to foster development through private sector focused investment and advisory interventions. Within the World Bank Group, IFC participates in the initiative âBlockchain Labâ that was launched on June 27 by the World Bank Group VP Information and Technology Solutions (ITS) and CIO Denis Robitaille. The Blockchain Lab serves as a learning, experimentation, and collaboration platform on DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) and Blockchain inside and outside the WBG. The ITS Blockchain Lab engages and partners with leading technology companies, start-ups, entrepreneurs, innovators and development organizations to experiment, develop, and roll out blockchain-enabled solutions. The Blockchain Lab conducts knowledge-sharing events open to anyone interested in topics related to blockchain and development. This initiative aims to connect development practitioners and disparate efforts across the WBG in DLT and Blockchain technologies. The Lab will boost and contribute to increased WBG knowledge and expertise in DLT and Blockchain, and improve its capability to respond to client countries inquiries and needs. For more information please contact the Blockchain Lab team [email protected] or Stela Mocan, Lead IT Officer, Business Solutions, World Bank at [email protected]-
Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst I agree with the article where it says that Block chain will be useful and will be accepted faster in emerging markets in the financial sector. I would say also on the development sector and in adding value and lowering verifications costs to agricultural products which are so important in emerging markets. I have lived the revolution of Mobile money in East Africa and understand how fast and easy will be for the public and the institutions there to jump to the Block chain wagon when needed. For me is also interesting when comparing with financial institutions in developed countries which are more cautious or even against BC startups and their ICOS. Again, the forefront of technology will be on developed countries but I strongly believe that many successful applications will be based on emerging markets first.
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âAre you ready for Isaac?âI attended a startup and tech conference four years ago, and one of the presenters asked this as the main argument of his keynote about fintech.
Back then, the industry wasnât yet widely known as fintech. But the presenter, Scott Bales, had a vision for the banking system, and that is for tech firms to give better access to the millions and millions of unbanked and underbanked individuals across the globe through democratized financial services that are mainly digital-first or mobile-first.Â
He highlighted that for the financial sector, itâs now becoming more common to be âsans branchâ. This means the physical presence of a bank branch is becoming less and less important, in favor of digital services that can be offered in lieu of it. Central to all these is the proverbial âIsaacâ, a young person born in a digital native age, where persistent mobile data connections and mobile apps are ubiquitous, and where peopleâs first access to the internet are done on a mobile device instead of a computer.
This generation, argued Bales, who is now Managing Director at venture fund Innovation Labs Asia, does not know a world without the internet. And this means that startups will need to tailor-fit their services to an audience like âIsaacâ. Startups, especially fintechs, will need to make leaps and bounds in order to better address the needs of a digital native generation â whether they are millennials or younger.With blockchain tech, tomorrowâs dreams are realized today
Fast forward to 2017, I am increasingly of the opinion that Balesâ thoughts were prophetic. However, back then we probably did not expect the potential of fintech to be so big. That was four years ago â startups were already dealing with peer-to-peer banking through mobile devices, and digital accounts could be opened through smartphone apps.
Still, these were largely based on the traditional banking transactions: depositing or withdrawing money, paying merchants for purchases, and using mobile devices for other such payment transactions. For years, Bitcoin and the blockchain already proved to be viable means to establish trust and authentication among fintech users and providers. However, the cryptocurrencyâs rise was the bigger news.
Blockchain tech took a backseat role behind the scenes.Today, it is simpler than ever for users to take care of their banking and financial transactions through blockchain-powered services. And this has the potential to change the lives of millions of poor and marginalized users for the better, particularly through better access to capital, financial resources, and game-changing small business transactions.Reducing poverty through better access
According to the World Bankâs global financial index, there are around 2.5 billion unbanked or underbanked individuals across the globe, representing a quarter of the worldâs population. For this number, the inability to access financial systems and transactions can be debilitating in terms of not being able to secure potentially life-changing resources.
For example, credit cards offer a good way to access credit during times of emergencies â medical expenses, urgent repairs, and even the need for small business expansion can usually be addressed with the swipe of a card. But what if you donât have a credit card or even a bank account?
For most underbanked users, the last resort would be to turn to loan sharks and their extremely predatory interest rates. This contributes to the cycle of poverty, as such predatory lending practices often result in the borrower getting deep into debt even before they can finish off principal payments.
Thus, fintech companies and other startups are now tasked to address not only the highly-capable and moneyed crowd, but also the marginalized sectors, who stand to gain the most from innovations in finance.âWe believe that if you really want to increase wealth, in any country, the best way is to make it easy to do businessâ, writes Alexi Lane, founder and CEO of Everex, a Singapore-based blockchain-powered startup that provides cryptocash services with focus on easy and inexpensive access to fintech services.
 âCapitalism, entrepreneurship, and free flow of money have improved more lives than any development scheme or government policy. History is proofâ, he adds.Lane has shared on Quora that the decentralized nature of the blockchain makes such payment platforms significantly more efficient and secure. Â
âSo weâre opening up financial world to the underserved. International ecommerce for everyone. You can only achieve this with blockchain tech; everything else is too centralized. Once everyone has the same access to payment and business services, everyone has a better chance to make money and a better life. âWhile its platform can be used globally, Everex is focusing on emerging markets, such as Thailand and Myanmar, where it has already established a foothold, enabling migrant workers to send money back home through blockchain-powered transactions.
Of course, the bigger opportunity is with how users can borrow small amounts of money through micro-credit transactions, without the need to undertake formal processes that traditional banks require, or without the predatory interest rates offered by loan sharks.In such transactions, cost and speed are main drivers of innovation.
âEthereum, and blockchain technology generally, have the capacity to lower transaction costs, increase transparency and onboard diverse swathes of individuals who donât have access to the financial services many of us take for grantedâ, says Lane.
These innovations are seen to bolster financial infrastructures, especially in emerging regions like Asia â one reason why Chinese firm Holley Group, has chosen to invest a US$500,000 round in Everex as its first capital infusion into a tech company in Southeast Asia.
It is ânot just a single project investment, but an investment into the futureâ, says Wenxin Liu, Regional President of Holley Group ASEAN Region Headquarter, especially since such blockchain-powered platforms can equally service banks, financial institutions, and individuals.Â
As part of growing its platform, Everex is launching its initial coin offering (ICO), meant to crowdfund capital in exchange for digital tokens, wherein early adopters can get gains from better pricing on its cryptocurrency upon launch.. The ongoing ICO is currently at 30,000 ETH, equivalent to around US$ 6 million. Once complete, Everex aims for a total of $157.5 million in capitalization.Breaking the cycle of poverty through economic inclusion
It is certainly easy to take financial transactions for granted if a credit card and mobile banking app were easily accessible on a daily basis. However, it is not just in financial transactions where blockchain tech can potentially reduce poverty. At the Singularity Universityâs Exponential Finance Summit in Singapore this June, Ashish Gadnis, founder of blockchain-powered ID startup BanQu, says that economic identity is essential to breaking out of the poverty cycle.
It is not just about transactions, but also longer-term economic inclusion. Economic identity, he says, is âthe marriage of identity and commerce, resulting in a global, vetted, and manageable asset. âAgain, itâs easy to take for granted the fact that you have an established identity, bank records, credit history, and the like. But for the billions of underbanked, such transactions and credentials are currently difficult to establish.
Platforms like BanQuenable users to âbuild a recognizable, vetted identity, which is the base prerequisite to participating in any form of ownership or transactions in the global economyâ, adds Gadnis. BanQu does this by storing user data on its blockchain, which provides the ability to share data directly between two users without a centralized authority.
The secure and immutable nature of the blockchain offers a way to share sensitive user data without worrying about the information getting lost or altered along the way.
Thus, helping the marginalized goes beyond the infrastructure for transactions. The real value in pulling people out of poverty in the long term, says Gadnis, is giving them the identity in order to participate in these transactions. âPeople need to be connected to the supply chain, not be given more money.âIn conclusion: Better access means better opportunities
Itâs easy to take fintech applications for granted as faster, easier, and...continue reading:Â
https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/07/25/heres-blockchain-can-potentially-end-global-poverty/#...- By Admin
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