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Sean M. Holt
2019-01-03 01:20:00
"What we need is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic evidence rather than trust, which allows two voluntary parties to negotiate directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party." – Satoshi Nakamoto
Bitcoin is dead … again. According to the "Bitcoin necrologi" of 99bitcoins.com, Bitcoin has died 337 times since 2010 (91 times in 2018, alone). Despite the clickbait, this year has made great progress for blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), particularly for the transport and logistics sectors. Since its debut as a key component of Bitcoin 10 years ago, in 2009 (see an article on the origins here), the DLT have experienced a tumultuous journey from cypherpunks basements, receiving daily coverage on the major networks and even earning their ticker symbols of XBT , NYXBT and BTC.
At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin has a price (USD) to about $ 3,600 ($ 16,000 from the beginning of the year), with a market capitalization of $ 63B (total of all 2049-listed cryptocurrencies is $ 120B ) [source: coinmarketcap.com]. Although most of MarEx's coverage on this space was primarily directed to blockchain applications, it is critically important to recognize direct correlation with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Understanding how the research and development of both, foster and benefit the others, will provide a more meaningful appreciation for the ongoing transformation of the new cryptoeconomy.
As mentioned at the beginning of this year in the article, A Force Awakens, "business as usual" is upset and new technologies are being adopted. These adoptions are eliminating both frictions and intermediaries in "trusted" environments (for example, "seller A" has never met "buyer B" but can still trade or interact with security and with verifiable traceability). This year, to better understand and share with our audience, MarEx was an official media partner with four different blockchain-related conferences. So, in order to provide a sampling of the demand signals in the sector and a summary of the summit of this year, we offer this review.
Follow the money
Despite its lackluster performance compared to their prices, what perhaps the layman can not understand is the amount of infrastructure and acceptance these technologies have acquired in 2018. As William Mougayar points out in a recent article, "This is because the greatest mindshare has been on the price of tokens and cryptocurrencies.This is an unfortunate framework of reference, because it symbolizes the speed of advertising, rather than illuminating the real measures of progress in the sector. "
An admirable aspect of the financial markets is its willingness to cut the absurdities and find the most efficient routes. However, the cycle of hype associated with blockchain has also made a deposit for snake oil sellers. In one case, last December, the company Long Island Ice Tea, threatened to be canceled by the NASDAQ, turned and changed its name to Long Blockchain (LBCC) and saw its share price quadruple almost by one day to & # 39; other. His stocks are flat.
However, by following "smart money" you can start to connect the points and better understand the operational and fundamental changes that occur in organizations, along with industry trends. Tim Draper, a well-known venture capitalist who was an early investor in Tesla, Hotmail and Skype, said in April that bitcoin will be "bigger than any [previous investments] combined. "Draper, who is bullish on Bitcoin and plans to [BTC] price of $ 250,000 within four years, discussed on the fact that "This is bigger than the Internet.It is bigger than the age of iron, of the Renaissance.It is bigger than the industrial revolution.This concerns the whole world and will be influenced in quicker and more widespread way than you've ever imagined.In five years' time, you'll try to buy a coffee with fiat money and they will mock you because you do not use cryptography. "
As it were, Draper is not alone in his long position. The players and institutions of the great league have made significant investments in several important projects and / or announcements. The following is an example of some of the main demand signals that should guide the sector in 2019:
Bakkt – Created in August by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) of Atlanta, owners of the NYSE, in order to facilitate the Bitcoin futures markets together with "allowing consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital resources without problems". approval, they were in close coordination with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and established a launch date of January 24, 2019, to begin trading. Kelly Loeffler, CEO of Bakkt, has written that the operations will not rely on the cash platforms for pricing prices for the pricing of the Bitcoin futures contract. Their platform leverages the Microsoft cloud and has worked with Boston Consulting Group and Starbucks on cryptocurrency regulation solutions.
Loyalty investments – With $ 7.2 trillion in customer assets and services to 13,000 consultancies and institutional brokers, the world's fifth largest asset manager launched Fidelity Digital Assets. After working silently on blockchain technology since 2013 with Blockchain Incubator, this independent spin-off company has already started to acquire customers and plans to make products available by the end of 2019. In a recent Forbes article, Fidelity Investments, president and CEO of Abigail Johnson "Our goal is to make digital native assets, such as Bitcoin, more accessible to investors". Interestingly, Fidelity Charitable began accepting Bitcoin donations in 2015. With over $ 69 million, it is the growing form of donations from the organization.
Digital capital management – Located in La Jolla, California, this boutique company led by the CEO Tim Enneking focuses on the active management of digital currency investment portfolios such as Bitcoin and Ethereum for individuals and institutions with high financial value and blockchain investments in initial phase. DCM recently received a significant clarification and an exemption status from the SEC to act as an "exempt reporting advisor" or "ERA", and an exemption from the CFTC as a commodity pool operator (CPO). Along with their Cayman Island power supply, the Crypto Asset Fund (CAF), DCM is serving this emerging asset class globally with, apparently, the blessing of the industry's biggest obstacle, the United States. For those wishing to learn more about ICOs and how to evaluate them, see the MD The Seven Pillars of ICO Investing article.
Bank of America – Reassessing the race of Ibm and Alibaba to have the largest number of blockchain patents (ironic because of the open-source nature of cryptocurrencies and blockchain), BoA has recently filed its 53rd patent. This time it was for blockchain-enabled cash managers (ATM).
Ohio and United States Congress – Buckeye State is launching the red carpet for blockchain companies while their state treasurer Josh Mandel announced in November at the Consensus Invest conference in New York that Ohio would accept Bitcoin for the payment of taxes. Currently available only to businesses, payments via Bitcoin can be made through OhioCrypto.com and are verified by BitPay's third-party payment processor (which also issues Visa debit cards in the United States that can be loaded with Bitcoin). Former US Marine Corps Intelligence Specialist with multiple combat tours, Mandel told CNBC that, "by leading the charge at the state level, we hope it inspires other states and ultimately the federal government to allow people to pay their federal taxes. [with Bitcoin]".
In addition to Ohio, the United States Congress has now had many of its members reach a moment "ha ha!" The Congressional Blockchain Caucus was founded in the 114th Congress. It is a bi-partisan group of Congressmen, co-chaired by Representative (now Colorado's governor-elect) Jared Polis (D-CO), Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) [a Ph.D. whose team helped discover the neutrino burst]and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN). Their areas of interest are government applications, data ownership and health care, with a vision that declares a "hands-off" regulatory approach, believing that this technology will evolve in the best way in the same way as the Internet; alone."
We the People expect great things from the Caucus, but no pressure.
Ripple – A provider of solutions based on blockchain, whose associated cryptocurrency, XRP (a third-generation currency currently ranked No. 2 from market capitalization), focuses on financial institutions with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore, and Sydney. Ripple, along with RippleNet (Ripple & # 39; s Global Payments Network), has made significant progress through their strategic partnerships with over 160 financial institutions and banks around the world.
Strategic partnerships with banks like PNC Bank, Santander Bank, SWIFT, MoneyGram, Western Union, National Australia Bank, Bank of Montreal, Barclays, CIBC, Royal Bank of Canada, Standard Charted, Bank of England, Bank of Thailand and American Express. has given confidence to an ever-increasing number of institutions to join the collective ranks. You can see a live list of their strategic partners here.
More recently, the managing director of the Malaysian Banking Group CIMB, Sri Zafrul Aziz, of Tengku Dato, said: "We are delighted to be part of RippleNet and look forward to a fruitful partnership with Ripple using the strengths and The capabilities of others This innovative blockchain solution will revolutionize cross-border international remittances and is a testament to CIMB's ongoing efforts to improve its digital banking offering by providing fast and cost-effective solutions to our customers across ASEAN. "
In the same press release, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse "We are seeing banks and financial institutions all over the world moving towards blockchain solutions because it allows a more transparent, faster and more economical payment experience".
EOS – One of the most fascinating projects to emerge was that of the EOS currency (a third-generation currency currently classified under No. 5 from market capitalization) and the ecosystem. During their entire initial coin collection (ICO), they raised a $ 4 billion record, without even having a live product (now live since June). With an unrivaled war chest, they laid the groundwork for a completely new ecosystem that uses common and familiar coding languages like C ++ and Python (compared to the seemingly tougher solidity of Ethereum). This ecosystem serves a sandbox for others to teach and learn how to build other projects, as well as launch their cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications (dApps) through the use of "sidechains" on the EOS platform.
The main EOS network reached an important scalability point this year and was able to demonstrate 3,996 transactions per second (tps). For reference, Visa is apparently capable of 24,000 tps, but receives only 4,000 tps at peak times. This could solve the problem of scalability that is currently catching up.
And if that was not intriguing enough, since the ICO market seems to have died due to regulation (and lack of trust), the genius minds have prevailed and discovered an alternative solution. Instead of soliciting money and possibly violating securities laws, projects can simply "stamp" their tokens to other EOS token holders and then let the market provide an assessment (let's see how regulators react). For example, suppose your project puts 100 coins in circulation through a free "airdrop" and that your market value evaluates your currency at $ 0.30; your project would have a market capitalization of $ 30 million. If your team owned 30 percent of those coins, then WHAM! Your company has just raised $ 9 million and did not have to ask for a penny.
Of course, there are many more variables involved, but you understand. Furthermore, as these "flights" are happening all the time, EOS holders essentially get free money. Better still, to play on the EOS platform, projects must buy and then "bet" their coins (think of depositing funds), thus adding even more scarcity and demand for the EOS token. Here is a complete video explanation of The Modern Investor. Also, watch this video on The Million Dollar EOS Bet, which someone is going to lose.
To further articulate the imminent tsunami potential, a recent podcast with Trace Mayer explains how the world economy has earned tens of trillions of dollars more than debt accumulated before the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). Remind the listeners that Bitcoin was born of the frustration resulting from the mistreatment of the GFC. Now that technology has experienced rapid professionalization of space, models and legacy institutions have a rude awakening at the dawn of the "bubble".
As underlined by an article in Forbes, "from the bottom of the GFC in March 2009, the S & P 500 stock index gained over 300 percent, bringing it almost 80 percent more than its 2007 peak . " Mayer continues, as we move forward with this new technology, a new financial paradigm is occurring both psychologically and fundamentally. This change will be …
The opinions expressed in this document are of the author and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
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