Back in the 1990s, a young entrepreneur by the name of Jeff Bezos had an idea.He wanted to bring the experience of walking into a bookstore and choosing a book, digital. Bookstores, he thought, were inefficient, and was a simple enough shopping experience to replicate for a customer sitting in front of their fuzzy, AOL-connected computer screen.


Today, Amazon is the undisputed champion of retail. If you want to buy something, any consumer good at all, you don’t search for nearby electronics stores in your area. You pull out your phone, turn to your friend on the couch and say, “I’m going to AmazonPrime us a new keyboard. It’ll be here tomorrow.”

Now, even if Bezos had designed this grand vision in his head two decades ago, the truth is, all the puzzle pieces weren’t there yet for him to execute it. The Internet was in its infancy. Consumer behaviors hadn’t shifted yet. Smartphones didn’t exist. The list of unsolved variables goes on and on—until industry after industry began to solve for each issue individually, and Amazon could begin capitalizing accordingly.


This story of innovation has been told time and time again. And after each major disruption—Apple’s iPod destroying the physical CD market, Hulu and Netflix eating up Blockbuster stores—there is a calm that settles before the general public says in unison, “How did nobody see this coming?”


That’s precisely what is about to happen with blockchain technology.In the same way online shopping has entirely disrupted retail, blockchain technology has only recently begun making headlines but has already proven itself to be the “secret sauce” missing from some of the world’s largest industries.

For those that don’t know, blockchain technology built on a decentralized network, meaning no single “party” owns all the data. Instead, data is tracked and stored on a public ledger (block after block connected in a chain) that cannot be tampered with or altered later—since each block is verified by all the other blocks on the chain.

This technology, and really the concept as a whole, is the epitomized opposite of how the world of big business operates. Nationwide and global companies, all the way down to small-shop operators, tend to use private and centralized software systems and solutions. Banks and the modern financial system is a perfect example.

If I want to send you money, I have to go through a bank in order to verify the transaction—the bank being the “centralized” hub for verification. But through the blockchain, the very building blocks that power cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, that centralized entity no longer has a purpose. It doesn’t have a job. There is no need for its services because the blockchain does the verification automatically.



If you want to know how, in a single year, Bitcoin went from $900 to $7,000+, it’s because of this, right here: blockchain technology.

Now, let’s take that same framework and apply it to something other than banking and finance. Instead, let’s apply it to the world’s freight and logistics systems.

In the same way a dollar has to pass through a bank, a package has to pass through more than one centralized hub in order to move from original supplier to end consumer.

The current process for sending a package or good is a sort of relay race between manufacturers, brokers, shippers, carriers, and retailers, all of whom are their own private entities, and all of whom work toward different incentives. To say that the freight and logistics world is one well-coordinated song and dance would be a massive over-exaggeration.

The truth is, most suppliers have very little insight into how their shipments get to their end destination. All they care about is that they arrive—and that’s a huge problem.

A blind Hail Mary pass, there is so much room for improvement in the freight and logistics space. And the biggest reason why those improvements are long overdue is because an effective technological solution hasn’t existed yet.Until now.

Blockchain technology is the answer—not just for freight and logistics, but any big industry struggling to track, monitor, and automatically fulfill order requests along a complicated series of checkpoints.

ShipChain, for example, is a blockchain platform diving deep into the freight and logistics space, solving for obvious pain points other centralized systems have yet to solve. It is tackling everything from fraud and stolen goods, to unnecessary broker markup costs, poor communication between suppliers and shippers, and order fulfillment automation upon delivery.

And with big names like Kevin Harrington and Joel Comm on ShipChain’s advisory board, the blockchain space has already matured past the point of speculation. Noteworthy entrepreneurs in every industry are seeing its potential and looking for ways to be part of the disruption.

Since the start of 2017, all eyes have been on Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, for as much attention as the cryptocurrencies have received, Ethereum’s underlying technology and the use cases for blockchain have only exploded.

In 2018, blockchain disruption will be a hot topic, and absolutely something worth studying. Freight and logistics, banking, these are just two examples. But blockchain will make its way into the world of pharmaceuticals, food and agriculture, music and entertainment, and so much more.

Huffpost is one of the most highly acclaimed media companies online. They publish critical articles covering the blockchain you can discover and learn from here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-way-online-shopping-disrupted-retail-blockchain_us_59ffba48...

What Cryptocurrency and Blockchain firms revealed at Fintech Week in Silicon Valley

November 6, 2017 : Permanent Link



 

Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.one, give highlights on blockchain technology
Photo credit: Victoria Globalby David Drake

Fintech Week Silicon Valley is one of the best places to mine for cryptocurrency trends. A few months ago, the price of bitcoin was projected to hit $4,000 by end of 2017. Surprisingly, it already surpassed $4,000 and someone projected that its value may reach $50,000 by 2027.


The value of cryptocurrency market is projected to rise from about $140 billion to $2 trillion, with bitcoin accounting for almost 50% of that value.Innovators, venture capitalists, startups, large firms, government officials, the academe and media converged at Draper University in San Mateo, CA on August 1-6, 2017 to discuss this topic further at the first Fintech Week Silicon Valley event.Digital currency, blockchain, and tokenizing are unstoppable developments in the financial industry.


These are real disruptors that cannot be ignored. Some of these topics were discussed in the event: recent developments in blockchain technology; impact of blockchain on large tech firms; EOS; initial coin offerings (ICOs); blockchain for good; blockchain beyond financial services; international point of view on blockchain; blockchain 2020; DFINITY; the bank of the future; moving money 3.0; what’s happening in Asia, China, and around the globe; as well as future predictions.


Steps in doing a compliant ICO cover 30 steps, which are classified into Legal and Regulatory steps, Designing and Planning, Technical aspect, as well as Marketing & PR.


The conference also featured fast paced company intros, networking tables, coffee breaks, luncheons, panel discussions, standalone presentations and keynote speeches. There was also a workshop that focused on relevant topics in blockchain technology, and blockchain and fintech hackathon.





Blockchain 2020 predictions debated over during the coffee break
Photo credit: Mike Hull, Times Realty News



 Some of the speakers at the event included:

• Alex Bessonov, Founder, Bitclave
• Amar Singh Rathor, Executive Director, Standard Chartered
• Amy Y. Wan, CEO & Founder, Boot Strap Legal
• Brendan Blumer, CEO, block.one (EOS)
• Brett Noyes, Managing Partner, unbank.ventures
• Christopher Hussain, Founder, RealKey
• Dominic Williams, President & Chief Scientist, DFINITY
• Gregory Gilman, Co-Founder and General Counsel, Science
• Gregory Simon, CEO & Co-Founder, Loyyal Corporation
• Igor Khmel, Founder, BankEx
• Kamil Przeorski, Founder, Experty
• Ken Kruszka, CEO & Founder, SnapCheck
• Lloyed Lobo, Co-Founder, Boast.AI
• Michael Jones, CEO, Science, Inc.
• Reeetika Grewal, Head of Payments Strategy and Solutions, Silicon Valley Bank
• Robert Schwentker, Founding President, Blockchain University
• Simon Yu, CEO, CakeCodes Inc.
• Spencer Bogart, Managing Director, Head of Research, Blockchain Capital LLC
• Stephanie Sharron, Partner, Morrison & Foerster, LLP
• Stewart Dennis, CEO and Founder, BitBounce
• Valentine Preobrazhenskiy, Founder, LAToken
• Yulia Yaani, Founder & CEO, RealAtom.com

From left to right: LDJ Capital’s Managing Director of Hedge Funds Bill Marcus, Chairman and Founder David Drake, and Liron Artzi, Director
Photo credit: The Soho Loft Media Group


EOS was the event’s platinum sponsor. The media partners included Coindesk, NewsBTC, The Cointelegraph, CEX.IO, FinTech Profile and Boast. Other partners included Unbank Ventures, UK Department for International Trade (DIT), and Day One Investments.


The other sponsors included Morrison & Foerster LLP, Wolk, OTCXN, DFINITY, Experty.io and LAToken.Experty.io, poised to disrupt the consulting industry, is a blockchain platform that allows people to call or consult experts globally and consultants are paid instantly using ethereum. 


LAToken.com is a portal that uses blockchain technology to tokenize and make a variety of tradable assets including real estate, debt and equity loans, and works of art. I recently joined LAToken’s advisory board.The event was an exclusive and exciting event for everyone that attended it.


They learned about cryptocurrencies, bitcoins, fintech innovation, current trends in the financial landscape, as well as the role that Silicon Valley plays in transforming how financial services are delivered to key stakeholders.




Draper University opened its halls to FintechWeekSV
Photo credit: LDJ Capital


It was also a great place for like-minded people to connect, network and learn from each other about investment opportunities, trends, and risks in fintech industry.

As an investor in cryptocurrency industry, it is important to learn about these recent developments and trends to guide us intelligently in navigating this new territory.For queries on how you can keep your ICO compliant in the world’s largest market, the USA, you can reach out to me.


This entry was posted in Hedge Fund Technology and tagged


cryptocurrency, Digital, Digital Currency, Blockchain, Bitcoin, tokens, tokenization, illiqiuid assets, Ethereum. Bookmark the permalink.

Ethereum classic rose to eight-week high today – its highest level since Sep. 9.At press time, the fork of the etheruem blockchain is trading at around $15.00. As per CoinMarketCap, the ninth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has gained 16.90 percent in the last 24 hours.

Week-on-week, ETC is up 38.88 percent, while on a monthly basis, it is carrying 21.68 percent gains.Volume figures show the rally has been in part fueled by Korean exchanges offering trading in ethereum classic to South Korean won (ETC/KRW) pairs.

As per CoinMarketCap, trading volumes on Bithumb, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, have jumped by 53.52 percent over the last 24 hours.


Elsewhere, the investor community is associating the price rally with the listing of ETC and ETH futures on OKEX, a digital asset trading platform launched by China-based exchange OKCoin.


Whatever the reason for the recent gains, the rally looks solid on the technical charts. Price action analysis indicates that the cryptocurrency could rally to $17.88 levels.

Ethereum classic chart

The above chart shows:

• Consolidation (sideways channel) has ended with a bullish breakout.
• The relative strength index (RSI) is overbought.

View

• Bullish break has opened doors for a rally to $17.88 levels (target as per the measured height method, i.e. difference between the channel high/low added to the channel resistance).
• The RSI is overbought, hence a short-term consolidation in the range of $13.50-$15.00 cannot be ruled out, before prices rally to $17.88 levels.
• On the downside, a sustained move below today's low of $12.91 would abort the bullish view.

Coindesk publishes several articles and reports everyday. Discover them here: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-classic-snaps-slump-as-price-hits-eight-week-high/

Michael J. Casey is the chairman of CoinDesk's advisory board and a senior advisor for blockchain research at MIT's Digital Currency Initiative.

In this opinion piece, one of a weekly series of columns, Casey argues that the value blockchain technology offers to supply-chain management will come once other technologies, such as 3D printing, bring major disruption to global manufacturing and delivery networks.

Blockchains are a technology of tomorrow, not today.

That is not an excuse to ignore them, however. On the contrary, the future to which blockchains belong is coming so fast that a failure to properly strategize and to consider the widest range of design possibilities could eventually prove fatal for many businesses.

This is especially so in supply-chain management, a field that deals with the plumbing of the global economy: how a good's production moves sequentially through the manufacturing processes of separately owned businesses before it is delivered to the end-user.

A combination of new technologies – artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, the internet of things, mobile money, digital identity and, most importantly, 3D printing – is poised to seriously disrupt these underlying processes. They'll make manufacturing more responsive and customizable to customer's orders – in effect, turning supply chains into demand chains. But this dynamism will only be realized if they also adopt the kind of decentralized trust mediation model promised by blockchains.

Supply-chain managers are typically found only at big, downstream companies, such as Walmart. These experts have real influence in the management of many consumer brands.

Smaller upstream players occupying spots earlier on in the chain are outgunned by the bigger players and generally can’t influence the activities of others enough to warrant employing a supply-chain manager. Yet, ironically, improved chain transparency and visibility from better supply-chain management would help them gain bargaining power vis-à-vis the big guys.

So, when we hear about supply chain managers giving thought to blockchain solutions to their problems, it's worth remembering where they are coming from: they represent large buyer companies and tend to view their supply chain proprietarily. They see it as an exclusive club over which they control access, one with a clearly defined, existing set of members.

It's a static vision, not a dynamic one, and it's marked by a power imbalance in their favor.

Static vision, static choices

From that perspective, it's understandable –in fact, appropriate – that many are asking why they should bother with the cat-herding challenge of getting their supply-chain partners to jointly create a complicated, costly, multi-node computing network to run a distributed blockchain ledger.

Often they discover they can address many supply-chain information-management problems, including improving the tracking of inventory and work processes, with well-established database tools that already run internally on their company’s servers.

As Gideon Greenspan, CEO of Coin Sciences, has warned, "If your requirements are fulfilled by today's relational databases, you’d be insane to use a blockchain."

Firms that operate in supply chains where power is more balanced, where middle-size firms have some clout and too much to lose by submitting information to the centralized control of the biggest player, might instead conclude that a blockchain is useful. A distributed, immutable ledger could help different stakeholders overcome their inherent mistrust of each other, which could boost efficiency and visibility along the chain.

Yet here, too, the scope tends to be limited. Since the supply chain is viewed as a club with pre-existing, pre-approved members, chain managers have a hard time grasping why they would submit their transaction-sharing processes to a fully decentralized network and a permissionless blockchain such as bitcoin or ethereum. They'd much prefer to form a consortium and jointly validate the private distributed ledger.

They see other advantages in private blockchains, too: the permissioned structure allows much more transaction capacity than public blockchains; upgrades can be easily agreed to and trivially implemented; identity, privacy and other natural concerns of businesses can be addressed in ways that public blockchains cannot.

But in an era of rapid technological change that poses an existential threat for legacy businesses, it's unwise to assume a static business environment. Many people know the Kodak story.

There's a risk that a permissioned blockchain, based on a consortium managed by existing, pre-approved suppliers, would evolve into a rigid, gatekeeping entity. Members would be incentivized to limit access to outsiders with competing products and new ideas. And while that might protect the chain members’ margins for a while, it would ultimately render the whole chain less competitive.

It might not be a huge risk now, but, as mentioned, things are changing. Rapidly.

The supply chains of the future will be much more dynamic, flexible and customer-responsive than those of the present. Geography and longstanding relationships will be less of issue. This suggests that supply chain managers should not only be looking at blockchains but also striving for the most open, permissionless model they can handle.

They might not need to adopt bitcoin or ethereum per se; I could even be persuaded that a permissioned network of validators might still preserve a decentralized, competitive landscape if the consortium’s governance rules steadfastly allowed any new supplier to write data to the ledger.

Either way, the bottom line is that openness and permissionlessness are vitally important ideals to strive for, precisely because they encourage competition and innovation.

Decentralized trust

Taken together, new manufacturing technologies such as IoT and 3D-printing contain enormous decentralizing potential. By empowering people and businesses to do more with less, they reduce transaction costs, which means they can break down barriers to entry and challenge the economies of scale that have hitherto advantaged big, centralized companies.

If we can prevent the data-gathering behemoths of the internet 2.0 era from monopolizing them, these tools should help level the playing field. They should open the door to to a wider array of potential producers in the global economy.

But to reach its optimal potential, that decentralized, more horizontal economic structure will also require a decentralized trust model. The cost of having a single company verify the trustworthiness of an ever-widening array of potential business partners will be too high for any supply chain to remain competitive.

Let’s imagine a world in which 3D printing – known as additive manufacturing in the industrial world – is ubiquitous. Now imagine a German auto-parts producer receiving a request for quotes from an Argentine car assembler, a customer it has never previously dealt with, and for delivery in two days. The German company knows it’s highly likely that competing manufacturers in the U.S., Brazil, India and South Korea have also received offers. The only way to meet the order is to tap a hitherto untested 3D-printing company in Buenos Aires.

How can it trust this supplier? The time and cost of applying current due diligence, credentialing and approval procedures to onboard this company into an approved list of suppliers would take too long and cost too much money. It would leave the German company outcompeted for the job.

As supply chains start to function more like ... continue reading on Coindesk here: https://www.coindesk.com/blockchains-will-turn-supply-chains-demand-chains/

Cryptocurrency is an early blockchain invention that still has the market obsessed. Bitcoinwas its first real application in 2008, thanks to the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, and has since become synonymous with blockchain itself.

The currency has gained over 500% in value this year alone, but despite its steady trajectory towards the moon, blockchain has emerged from bitcoin’s shadow entirely. Businesses are increasingly recognizing the power of the infrastructure as bitcoin’s primary contribution to the tech world, and around the globe they are using it to create revolutionary digital inventions.

However, a key function of blockchain is its support for smart contracts, which are computer contracts that use cryptocurrency, bringing the technology back to its roots. Smart contracts can understand when their conditions have been fulfilled absolutely thanks to the permanence of blockchain, and have made cryptocurrency a sort of digital tender with unique value.

Not only do smart contracts make cryptocurrencies available, but they can also mirror other digital assets like stocks, bonds, commodities, ETFs, and other instruments. Achieving digital parity unlocks a new decentralized market of investors for innovators to cater to.

Cryptocurrency Gives Ideas Value

The system of trading assets today cannot boast such capabilities. Before blockchain, the most efficient way of serving a high volume of requests was to centralize servers and use huge arrays of hardware to handle the load. This method of handling data is obsolete due to hackers who can do system-wide damage just by entering a single “door”.

Additionally, the system is stratified between geographical borders and asset classes as well. Single exchanges handle different assets, like commodities on the CBOE or stocks on the NYSE. Americans must jump through several annoying hoops to own stock in companies on the DAX, and the bureaucracy required of such a system is fraught with middlemen and fees.

Blockchain-based exchanges like trade.io can store information, power data transactions, verify users, and handle trading volume securely and efficiently by simply relying on the network. For their hard work, network participants like traders and funds are rewarded with cryptocurrency.

Much like a dividend, the cryptocurrency gains value as it becomes more useful, which is a direct result of the success of the platform itself. This “tender of services” quality of cryptocurrency literally gives value to ideas, because it is required for the idea to work, much like a trader would use TradeTokens to invest in assets on trade.io.

Accordingly, as blockchain continues to evolve and more coins are minted, it will not be their speculative value but their backing by a solid product that informs value.
Radical ideas like this serve to widen the chip on bitcoin’s shoulder, which has long suffered talk about its relative uselessness compared to solutions like ethereum. Imminent blockchain upgrades like the Lightning Network will further change the landscape.

The Lightning Network wants to make it possible to immediately exchange any cryptocurrency for any other, without the need for exchanges to connect the blockchains involved. It might be a way off, but would ultimately level the playing field for blockchain.

With Great Power…

As the value of any single cryptocurrency grows increasingly attached to its underlying usefulness, it is incumbent upon innovative blockchain firms to use the technology responsibly, or risk the whole industry. After all, with great power, comes great responsibility.

The process of onboarding blockchain into our modern financial system won’t happen overnight, so it falls on companies to show their compliance with these standards and innovate from the inside. Trade.io is an apt example on this front as well, having met investment bank regulatory requirements and employed the best in banking compliance.
Thanks to creative platforms for blockchain, word will spread quickly. The next year will undoubtedly be a gold rush of innovation, as all the current processes we engage in are quickly outmoded by new blockchain interfaces. New functionality is a byproduct of these new systems, and people have high hopes for their potential.

Once critical user mass is reached, blockchain will be another taken-for-granted tech term, heard as often as others like “the internet” or “Wi-Fi”. This optimistic painting of the future all depends, however, on the willingness of those with a stake in the status quo to be flexible.
Discover more reports on Huffpost here: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cryptocurrency-the-great-equalizer_us_59f9e9f3e4b0412aab840cb8

Simple Token right now seems to aim to become the Stripe of the blockchain industry, are there any plans to expand the usage of the platform to non-developers? Are there any other plans in the pipeline to make Simple Token a “currency”?

Simple Token enables any company to create and manage their own digital branded crypto-currency powered by Simple Token without their internal team needing to know any blockchain technology.



Simple Token combines the “ST” ERC-20 token, an immediately usable protocol for consumer app tokenization, and a SaaS software solution for managing your token economy.

Our message to potential customers is simple: You focus on your own customers and your core technology and leave the blockchain infrastructure to us. We give you all the tools you need to design, create, and manage your token economy.

Simple Token is a digital currency in that it has a value from day 1. Simple Tokens are staked against creating Branded Tokens (“BT”) for each company and the value of those BT is always based on the value of ST.

Aside from adoption, what is the biggest challenge that Simple Token is realistically facing as it grows?

Visibly differentiating ourselves from the slurry of ICO nonsense. There are so many companies that are undergoing token sales for the wrong reasons; either they have a product that does not warrant a token sale, they’re looking to scam investors, or they enter the crowdsale phase much too early.


We don’t view a token sale as a fundraising event, although many do. A token sale is a token generation event, and its primary goal should be to create, build out and strengthen an ecosystem, not just make money.

We are also taking care to make sure that the entire Simple Token software program is simple to use, living up to our brand promise.

What are the steps that your team is taking to increase the adoption rate of Simple Token once it launches?

Firstly, we’re committed to seeing our Member Companies succeed. We reserved 27.2% of the total Simple Token supply (roughly $18M) for our Network Accelerator Program.


The Accelerator Program provides grants to projects we feel will advance and strengthen the Simple Token ecosystem. These grants will help them fund their development and implementations, incentivize and reward their developers, and provide some warm-up tokens to their users to spur the initial stages of adoption.


We’re giving these grants to projects of all sizes, not just already successful companies, but startups with solid ideas and roadmaps.The best way to increase adoption is to be sure that we’re ensuring the success of those already using the OpenST platform, and support potential projects that will continue bolstering its strength.

Because Branded Tokens will be tradeable across the ST ecosystem, as more companies join the platform, their customers will be able to use their tokens to make purchases from other companies, and vice versa, incentivizing more people to frequent their business.

Loyalty programs are no longer isolated to a single company – in the ST ecosystem, tokens gained through frequenting Company A can be used on purchases from Company B, or even spent in games and apps on the platform.

Can you explain more on what you’re trying to do with Simple Token for Pepo? How is it going to change the function of Pepo once the protocol is applied?

We originally came up with the concept of Simple Token in 2016 when trying to develop a token economy for Pepo. Pepo is poised to launch a vibrant marketplace for local tips and reviews using Pepo Coin, powered by Simple Token.



Unlike services such as Trip Advisors or Yelp wherein people give up their reviews for free, Pepo will enable anyone to get rewarded for their valuable contributions.

What is your outlook on Simple Token 5-10 years down the road?

We envision Simple Token as the standard for app tokenization. Not only because we offer a palatable onramp for embracing blockchain technology, but because our ecosystem finds strength in numbers.

Eventually, more companies will be incentivized to join because of the universal exchangeability within this ecosystem.


Why go through the development process to create an isolated token that can only be used within one company?  Because there’s no incentive to use, buy or sell that token when there’s a globally interconnected token marketplace in which any token can be used to frequent any company.

If a company tokenizes their rewards program onto an isolated blockchain, nothing would change from the current status quo of rewards programs; you buy from Company A, and you use those rewards towards Company A.


Rewards programs, in-game purchases, peer-to-peer transactions across every industry will be used towards any other on the Simple Token platform.

The Simple Token token sale

Simple Token will launch the token sale for the ST utility token.

Below are the details of the token sale:

Token name: STToken base: Ethereum (ERC-20 compliant)

Token supply: 800,000,000 (240,000,000 on sale during the token sale)

Token sale date: 14th of November, 2017Token sale target:

$20,000,000Token exchange rate: $0.0833 = 1 ST

Simple Token’s Website

Simple Token’s Whitepaper

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By Daniel

As our editor-in-chief, Daniel is at the helm of our smart tech commentary ship. He is fascinated by this new direction that the tech industry — and really all industry — is taking, and understands the potential, the power, and the promise of putting capital funding in the hands of the public.