Don Tapscott: “We Need Microsurgery on This New Economy” | News | Cointelegraph

But you know, if you’re doing an ICO and the token represents a share in the company that’s called a security, it should fall under securities legislation. But we need microsurgery on this new economy. We don’t need to bring a chainsaw to it. This would be one of the three most important rate determining factors in terms of what countries emerge not just with the Blockchain industry, but with the whole new innovation economy. Do governments do the right thing and implement sensible legislation or did they mess it up?

The supply chain industry globally is a $64 trillion industry and supply chains are going to move to Blockchain. You can see that with Foxconn doing this now, we’ve done a case on that. On the Walmart food sale they use Blockchain for food safety. The biggest supply chain in the world ever is the ‘One Belt One Road’ project linking Hong Kong and Rotterdam. All the trade and finance and a lot of the supply apps on that are being done via Blockchain.

Blockchain is perfect for situations where you have a buyer and a seller and escrow agent, and governments, and various shippers, and tax authorities and so on. Instead of passing pieces of paper and faxing, and emails and so on, they have a single shared network state where they can all instantly see what’s going on. It turns that supply chain into something we call an asset chain. And ultimately, this thing becomes cognitive. It really becomes a new cognitive computer. That’s where the supply chain will be.

Source: Don Tapscott: “We Need Microsurgery on This New Economy” | News | Cointelegraph | News | Cointelegraph, January 29, 2018

Thanks, Ahmed!

Read More

Canada testing ‘digital ID’ system that uses blockchain, biometrics to screen travellers – National | Globalnews.ca

Over time, travellers can build up their credibility as “Known Travellers,” giving them access to special screening lanes in airports, and allowing border officials to devote more time and resources towards screening lesser known, higher-risk travellers.

Source: Canada testing ‘digital ID’ system that uses blockchain, biometrics to screen travellers – National | Globalnews.ca, Rahul Kalvapalle, January 27, 2018

Thanks, Massimo!

Read More

Smart Contracts: Should you? Can you? Will you? Imagine the possibilities (the easy part). Don’t let the behind the scene complexities discourage you | IBM | LinkedIn

What should be in a CIO’s IT strategic plan?

Bitcoin emerged in 2009 as a revolutionary way to transfer value without a third-party intermediary like a bank. Blockchain technology, in turn, is gaining attention for its promise to enable value and asset transfer across a wide range of industries and use cases — and its potential to disintermediate financial institutions, remittance companies and lots of other transactional middleman businesses. Smart contracts, meanwhile, work hand-in-hand with blockchain technology and have the potential to automate — and also disrupt — processes in many industries. 

Source: Smart Contracts: Should you? Can you?Will you? Imagine the possibilities (the easy part). Don’t let the behind the scene complexities discourage you | IBM | LinkedIn, Hans Casteels, January 24, 2018

Read More

Smart Contracts: Blockchain is the thing that enables the thing | IBM | LinkedIn

Blockchain is not a technology that will enable one organisation to come up with a new category killer product or process that will give it an advantage over its rivals. Rather, its success “will require co-operation among market participants, regulators and technologists”. The greater the number of businesses around the table, the greater blockchains impact will be.

Source: Smart Contracts: Blockchain is the thing that enables the thing | IBM | LinkedIn, Hans Casteels, January 22, 2018

Read More

News – EY – Big risks in ICO market: flawed token valuations, unclear regulations, heightened hacker attention and congested networks – EY – United States

“Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO) drives token valuations without any connection to market fundamentals.

Investor demand for initial coin offering (ICO) projects remains high, but the ability to reach fundraising goals has been declining since mid-2017; down to 25% of projects in November from 90% in June.

Speed and size of market draw hackers’ attention with 10% of ICO funds lost or stolen.

Source: News – EY – Big risks in ICO market: flawed token valuations, unclear regulations, heightened hacker attention and congested networks – EY – United States, EY, January 22, 2018

Read More

Canada trialing use of Ethereum blockchain to enhance transparency in govt funding – National | Globalnews.ca

Every time the NRC gives a grant to a company or individual, it shares that information with Bitaccess, which stores the data on the secure and tamper-proof Ethereum blockchain. Individual grant information is then posted online.

Canadians can peruse grant information by monetary value, date, recipient and region. They can also verify grant information by clicking on the Transaction ID link, which takes them to the unique transaction listing on the online Ethereum transaction database Etherscan.io.

As of Saturday, Jan. 20, the biggest grant listed on the database was an $11,849,901 contribution to an industry R&D project at Ryerson University.

In November, Buterin tweeted out a poll asking his half a million followers to vote on which institutions they would most like to see adopt blockchain storage.

With 44 per cent of the vote, the “government” option easily won out.

Source: Canada trialing use of Ethereum blockchain to enhance transparency in govt funding – National | Globalnews.ca, Rahul Kalvapalle, January 20, 2018

Read More

Blockchain in the Boardroom: Toward Enterprise Deployment – CoinDesk

For many enterprises, the journey starts with blockchain education and strategic thinking, and will certainly also result in new business models and collaborations. When it comes to blockchain, we will not know with certainty how the future state of the technology will look.

The best recommendation is to keep moving, learning, and testing out business models. In the midst of this technology paradigm shift, it’s ok to think really big – in fact, it’s imperative.

Source: Blockchain in the Boardroom: Toward Enterprise Deployment – CoinDesk, Iliana Oris Valiente, January 15, 2018

Read More

A Legal Renaissance, Blockchain Style – CoinDesk

Maybe it makes sense that the old, siloed law firm models need to evolve, as well.

We are experiencing a technological tidal wave of new business models and novel legal questions, and regulators, market participants and lawyers all are trying to navigate the current.  The entire blockchain ecosystem arguably benefits when lawyers focus some of their energies outward, beyond their individual firms – advancing legal discussion and theory and grappling together to interpret and apply legal frameworks – rather than solely inward.

Source: A Legal Renaissance, Blockchain Style – CoinDesk, Joshua Ashley Klayman Kuzar, January 7, 2018

Read More

Blockchain reinvents the consumer experience | IBM

Executive summary

The IBM Institute for Business Value surveyed executives from 203 organizations in the consumer industry – which includes both retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) organizations – from 16 countries. We found that 7 percent expect to have a commercial blockchain solution at scale in 2018. Even more are working with and investing in blockchain now – a total of 18 percent.

These “First Movers” expect blockchains to take down the frictions that hold them back. Three-quarters of them have their eyes on new markets, while 69 percent expect to strip away information risks and 64 percent to better navigate the regulatory environment.

First Movers see broad benefits from blockchains across six areas: product safety and authenticity, supply chain optimization, finance, operational processes, promotional strategy management, and customer engagement and co-creation. In each case, they don’t just expect targeted business benefits, such as time and cost savings or risk reduction, but the opportunity to create new business models or disrupt the industry. Ultimately, no matter where they start, they aim to expand new blockchain solutions to cover virtually every aspect of their value chains.

First Movers recognize that the opportunity introduced by blockchain covers both the supply side of their businesses and customer-facing interactions. They can use blockchain to dynamically reconfigure networks for real-time optimization or, in collaboration with other institutions, to gain deeper insights into their consumers. They can better assure the safety and quality of goods and also establish new markets, enabling them to transform the way they see and do business.

Source: Blockchain reinvents the consumer experience | IBM

Read More