Posts Tagged ‘fintech’
How Blockchain Tech is Inspiring the Art World
“It just kind of can be used for anything, to get rid of lawyers, to bypass copyright law – which is obviously really important for artists. It [the blockchain] will completely empower artists.”
Although it is still early days and crypto 2.0 is still in its relatively nascent stage, it seems that distributed consensus ledgers such as the blockchain will continue to gain momentum among artists, who are typically interested in ways of eradicating the middle-men to gain greater control over their work and their profits.
Source: How Blockchain Tech is Inspiring the Art World
Read MoreA blockchain explanation your parents could understand | Jamie Skella | Pulse | LinkedIn
It’s happening in an increasingly frequent manner: “Jamie, explain this blockchain stuff to me. I’ve read a bunch of articles and I’m no wiser.” The problem with most blockchain explainers is that they provide more detail than what matters to most people, using language that is foreign to most people, which winds up leaving people more confused than when they started. Instead, without worrying about being a technically perfect description, here’s an explanation of blockchain your parents could understand…
Source: A blockchain explanation your parents could understand | Jamie Skella | Pulse | LinkedIn
Read MorePower renaissance: Desmarais empire cozies up to tech startup enemies |
Montreal’s billionaire Desmarais family has come up with a novel approach to fend off the technology startups that threaten its financial services empire: Bring the enemies in and invite them to attack.
That alone is no guarantee of a successful transformation, according to Robert Smythe, a Toronto-based analyst with tech research firm International Data Corp. Canada. The real challenge is to figure out how to use technologies like artificial intelligence and biometrics to seamlessly offer the services people expect from companies like Great-West and IGM. On that front, Power may not be ahead of other major financial institutions, he said.“While investing in fintech companies gives you some exposure to the fintech world and might be financially lucrative — if one of them hits a home run — it does not grow internal fintech expertise,” Smythe said in an email.
Source: Power renaissance: Desmarais empire cozies up to tech startup enemies |
Read More17 Blockchain Applications That Are Transforming Society – Blockgeeks
This decentralized blockchain system is going to change your life from the way you transact business or manage assets, to the way you use your machines, vote, rent a car, and even prove who you are. Along the way, it will transform banks and other financial institutions, hospitals, companies, and governments among others.
Source: 17 Blockchain Applications That Are Transforming Society – Blockgeeks
Read MoreWhat Are Smart Contracts? A Beginner’s Guide to Smart Contracts
Example: Suppose you rent an apartment from me. You can do this through the blockchain by paying in cryptocurrency. You get a receipt which is held in our virtual contract; I give you the digital entry key which comes to you by a specified date. If the key doesn’t come on time, the blockchain releases a refund. If I send the key before the rental date, the function holds it releasing both the fee and key to you and me respectively when the date arrives. The system works on the If-Then premise and is witness
Actually, when it comes to smart contracts, we’re stepping into a sci-fi screen. The IT resource center, Search Compliance suggests that smart contracts may impact changes in certain industries, such as law. In that case, lawyers will transfer from writing traditional contracts to producing standardized smart contract templates, similar to the standardized traditional contracts that you’ll find on LegalZoom. Other industries such as merchant acquirers, credit companies, and accountants may also employ smart contracts for tasks, such as real time auditing and risk assessments. Actually, the website Blockchain Technologies sees smart contracts merging into a hybrid of paper and digital content where contracts are verified via blockchain and substantiated by physical copy.
Source: What Are Smart Contracts? A Beginner’s Guide to Smart Contracts
Read MoreICOs and VCs | AVC
So, while ICOs represent a new and exciting way to build (and finance) a tech company, and are a legitimate disruptive threat to the venture capital business, they are not something I am nervous about and they are not something USV is nervous about. We are excited about them when they are the right thing for our portfolio companies and we are encouraging those companies to use this new approach. We are also investing in tokens, through token funds, and directly on or own.
Thanks Chris for the find!
Source: ICOs and VCs – AVC
Read MoreWhat is An Initial Coin Offering? The Future of Fundraising (ICO) | Blockgeeks
ICO is the abbreviation of Initial Coin Offering. It means that someone offers investors some units of a new cryptocurrency or crypto-token in exchange against cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Since 2013 ICOs are often used to fund the development of new cryptocurrencies. The pre-created token can be easily sold and traded on all cryptocurrency exchanges if there is demand for them. With the success of Ethereum ICO are more and more used to fund the development of a crypto project by releasing token which is somehow integrated into the project. With this turn, ICO has become a tool that could revolutionize not just currency but the whole financial system. ICO token could become the securities and shares of tomorrow.< /blockquote>
Source: What is An Initial Coin Offering? The Future of Fundraising (ICO) – Blockgeeks
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The First Wave of Corporate AI Is Doomed to Fail
Artificial intelligence is a hot topic right now. Driven by a fear of losing out, companies in many industries have announced AI-focused initiatives. Unfortunately, most of these efforts will fail. They will fail not because AI is all hype, but because companies are approaching AI-driven innovation incorrectly. And this isn’t the first time companies have made this kind of mistake.
We suggest taking a portfolio approach to AI projects: a mix of projects that might generate quick wins and long-term projects focused on transforming end-to-end workflow.
There is little doubt that an AI frenzy is starting to bubble up. We believe AI will indeed transform industries. But the companies that will succeed with AI are the ones that focus on creating organizational learning and changing organizational DNA. And the ones that embrace a portfolio approach rather than concentrating their efforts on that one big win will be best positioned to harness the transformative power of artificial learning.
Source: The First Wave of Corporate AI Is Doomed to Fail
Read MoreWhat next for blockchain? | McKinsey & Company
On the consumer side, if I’m being really honest, there isn’t a tremendously compelling use case for somebody like me—somebody who lives in New York, higher socioeconomic status, who’s fairly well served by the current financial system. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t mean that the system that serves me fairly well is a good system. Right? When you actually dig into the financial system as we know it today, it’s fairly antiquated. It’s primarily built on technology that was created in the 1970s.
Source: What next for blockchain? | McKinsey & Company
Read MoreGetting serious about blockchain | McKinsey & Company
If you’re the CEO of a big company, the first thing is to conceptualize this right. This is not like another technology, like AI [artificial intelligence], the cloud, robots, drones, the Internet of Things, and all of the rest of the stuff that are part of this fourth industrial revolution.This is the transactional platform that will enable all of those things to be part of the economy. When we have autonomous vehicles moving around, all of those transactions, everything from how they power themselves to how people pay for them, will be done through a distributed ledger. The Internet of everything needs a ledger of everything for it to work.
Source: Getting serious about blockchain | McKinsey & Company
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