2 Crypto Startups Want to Put 10 Million Used Cars on a Blockchain – CoinDesk

“There’s a million vehicles on the road that have ‘washed’ titles, which means there is fraud there. The insurance industry is hit with billions in fraud because of missing information, drivers providing the wrong information and inaccurate reporting.” Source: 2 Crypto Startups Want to Put 10 Million Used Cars on a Blockchain – CoinDesk, Ian…

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What Blockchain Can’t Do

As the ecosystem around blockchain technology develops, new types of intermediaries will emerge that turn the last-mile problem, of keeping digital records in sync with their offline counterparts, into actual business opportunities. While the technology is early stage, as these key complements mature, blockchain has the potential to fundamentally reshape ownership over digital data, and the digital platforms we use every day.

Source: What Blockchain Can’t Do, Catherine Tucker & Christian Catalini, June 28, 2018

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This is a Private Blockchain

This is a private blockchain. Some people may try and tell you your competitors will see all your business transactions. They might scream about your suppliers and your costs, your customers, and their special pricing. They might say it in front of your board of directors. You might even start to believe that everything is in public view. But it’s not true. This is Hyperledger Fabric. Bring your Q&A to Startup Breakfast Club.

Inspired by CNN’s Facts First

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This is a Public Blockchain

This is a public blockchain. Some people might try and tell you it does not work without Bitcoin. They might scream Bitcoin, Bitcoin, Bitcoin over and over and over again. They might say it in front of the House of Commons. You might even start to believe that you need Bitcoin. But it’s not true. This is Ethereum. Bring your Q&A to Startup Breakfast Club.

Inspired by CNN’s Facts First

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Blockchain: Massively Simplified | Richie Etwaru | TEDxMorristown – YouTube

Richie Etwaru, discusses the opportunity and implications of blockchain as a paradigm to slow/close the expanding trust gap in commerce. He unpacks blockchain to a level of simplicity to be consumed by those who are just starting to understand and explore the paradigm. He lays out a current state of commerce, suggesting that every company is currently at risk of being disrupted or incurring severe strain from a blockchain version of itself.

Every company in the world today, not just the intermediaries, are at risk of having competition from a blockchain version of themselves.

We are at the ground floor of a new paradigm in humanity that will change the human experience called Blockchain. The thing it is going to change is Trust.

Takeaway

Blockchain in one word: “Trust”

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Bitcoin & Blockchain: What do They Mean for Financial Services? | Publications | Fasken Martineau

Blockchain and digital currencies are expected to change the way parties transact in coming years. It has been suggested that the Government of Canada is likely to issue a Canadian Dollar digital currency in the future. The Royal Canadian Mint has already issued a version of this known as MintChip. The Bank of Canada announced, in a closed media session at the 2016 Payments Panorama conference, that they had been experimenting with “The Jasper Distributed Ledger Settlement Platform.” This project introduced the concept of a possible “CAD-COIN.” This has placed Canada in a unique position in comparison to other jurisdictions, as the government is actively exploring the applications of this technology.

Source: Bitcoin & Blockchain: What do They Mean for Financial Services? | Publications | Fasken Martineau

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Blockchain — What You Need to Know | Harvard Business Review

Invest 23 minutes and listen to this!

Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School professor and co-founder of the HBS Digital Initiative, discusses blockchain, an online record-keeping technology that many believe will revolutionize commerce. Lakhani breaks down how the technology behind bitcoin works and talks about the industries and companies that could see new growth opportunities or lose business. He also has recommendations for managers: start experimenting with blockchain as soon as possible. Lakhani is the co-author of the article “The Truth

Takeaways
  • Blockchain = Trust
  • Disintermediation = “Bringing the ends of a transaction together” = An exponential level of disruption not seen since the introduction of the World Wide Web in the mid 1990s (IMO)
  • We are in the “dial-up days of Blockchain”

Source: Blockchain — What You Need to Know

(Click Read More to listen to the audio.)

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The Truth About Blockchain | Harvard Business Review

Ultimately, it took more than 30 years for TCP/IP to move through all the phases—single use, localized use, substitution, and transformation—and reshape the economy. Today more than half the world’s most valuable public companies have internet-driven, platform-based business models. The very foundations of our economy have changed. Physical scale and unique intellectual property no longer confer unbeatable advantages; increasingly, the economic leaders are enterprises that act as “keystones,” proactively or

Consider how law firms will have to change to make smart contracts viable. They’ll need to develop new expertise in software and blockchain programming. They’ll probably also have to rethink their hourly payment model and entertain the idea of charging transaction or hosting fees for contracts, to name just two possible approaches. Whatever tack they take, executives must be sure they understand and have tested the business model implications before making any switch.

Clearly, starting small is a good way to develop the know-how to think bigger. But the level of investment should depend on the context of the company and the industry. Financial services companies are already well down the road to blockchain adoption. Manufacturing is not.

No matter what the context, there’s a strong possibility that blockchain will affect your business. The very big question is when.

Source: The Truth About Blockchain

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Product managers for the digital world | McKinsey & Company

Product managers are the glue that bind the many functions that touch a product—engineering, design, customer success, sales, marketing, operations, finance, legal, and more. They not only own the decisions about what gets built but also influence every aspect of how it gets built and launched.

Unlike product managers of the past, who were primarily focused on execution and were measured by the on-time delivery of engineering projects, the product manager of today is increasingly the mini-CEO of the product. They wear many hats, using a broad knowledge base to make trade-off decisions, and bring together cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment between diverse functions. What’s more, product management is emerging as the new training ground for future tech CEOs.

As more companies outside of the technology sector set out to build software capabilities for success in the digital era, it’s critical that they get the product-management role right.

Source: Product managers for the digital world | McKinsey & Company

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