Posts Tagged ‘scott’
Blockchain Could Make the Insurance Industry Much More Transparent | HBR
… in the U.S. there is approximately $7.4 billion in unclaimed life insurance money from insured people passing away and their beneficiaries being unable to connect the dots. A blockchain-based registry could help address this challenge while retaining anonymity and improving security as a distributed public record. Part of the driver of these unclaimed funds is known as longevity risk: People living longer means more life insurance policies mature and the memory of who was insured and where physical policy documents may reside fades. Rather than being a threat to the industry, a blockchain-based public ledger would enable the rightful claimants to these proceeds to receive their due, rather than having these unclaimed funds be sold in a secondary market or stagnate.
Part of the reason insurers are wary of insuring tangible assets in developing markets is the fear of fraud and losses that cannot be validated. In these cases, the insurers’ right to subrogate, or go after the assets of others to recoup their losses, is largely unenforceable. A blockchain-based claims validation network can serve as a utility benefiting the entire industry by recording in a semipublic blockchain ledger the physical status of an insured asset, which in turn could help improve insurance penetration and adoption rates in emerging and developing markets.
Source: Blockchain Could Make the Insurance Industry Much More Transparent
Read MoreBitcoin Hedge Fund Director: ICOs Are Having a ‘Eureka’ Moment | CoinDesk
Lauding the mechanics of the sale as “striking,” he asserted that Bancor was able to use blockchain technology to offer services that transcend traditional services like Kickstarter.
“Bancor gave a money-back guarantee backed by 80% of the ethereum raised should the market price of [its BNT token] fall below the issue price. Sure enough, a few days later in an overall market sell off, BNT traded to par. Bancor issued a statement saying the buy-back was activated,” he wrote.
Overall, Masters sees this type of “coded instruction” as a “eureka moment” showcasing what he thinks is evidence of the truly disruptive power of peer-to-peer digital assets.
Source: Bitcoin Hedge Fund Director: ICOs Are Having a ‘Eureka’ Moment – CoinDesk
Read MoreWhen Blockchains Fly – ETHNews.com
blockchain integration could reduce overhaul time for an aircraft’s engine by as much as 25 percent. Theoretically, he explained, this could save almost two weeks on a traditionally two-month process. The time and cost savings could be substantial. As Gottlieb put it, “That’s a fair number of shekels.”
Source: When Blockchains Fly – ETHNews.com
Read MoreHow is blockchain technology used in the real world? — Quartz
Take Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, which borrowed €100 million ($114 million) via German bank LBBW using blockchain technology. The old way of taking out such a loan required drawing up contracts, communicating with investors, making payments, and extensive administration. The old way also apparently involved a fax machine for confirmations.
The excitement around blockchain may well mirror the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when lots of companies went bust, but a few gems emerged: Some 90% of so-called distributed-ledger projects will probably fail, but a few will survive with potential to change the financial world, says Ajit Tripathi, a director at PwC.
Source: How is blockchain technology used in the real world? — Quartz
Read MoreBlockchain: 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”
Read MoreProvenance | Case Studies
Tracking sustainability claims through global chains
Can we prove that products are sustainably-sourced and slavery-free? In an international pilot, working with IPNLF and 12 tuna producers, we used Provenance to track fish through the complex Southeast Asian fishing industry for the UK, Japanese and US markets.
Pioneering a new standard for trust in food retail
How can we empower customers all along the supply chain with data they can trust? Provenance partnered with the UK’s largest consumer co-operative The Co-op to track fresh produce, and their product claims, from origin to supermarket.
Increasing transparency in fashion with blockchain
Can tech help boost trust and transparency in the fashion industry? Collaborating with businesses along a UK-based fashion supply chain, we’ve used blockchain to track raw alpaca fleece from farm to finished garment.
Boosting the value of small, independent food brands
How does the Provenance platform benefit small businesses? Enabling producer, shop and shopper to collaborate on product stories and journeys, Provenance demonstrated a new way to increase trust and visibility for independent brands.
Showcasing craftsmanship via smart labels
How can we give shoppers the information they need to chose your product? Provenance presents the journey of material to finished product through interactive labels.
Raising the value of single-origin coffee
How can single-origin coffee producers prove the provenance of their product? We trial location data verification to differentiate between authentic single-origin coffee from mere marketing buzz.
Tracking towards a circular future for cotton
How can tech help cotton producers increase demand for the sustainable, renewable and biodegradable, fabric? We use Provenance to track cotton from origin to finished good and beyond, closing the loop.
Source: Provenance | Case Studies
Read MoreFrom Farm To Finished Garment: Blockchain Is Aiding This Fashion Collection With Transparency | Forbes
Each garment has a unique digital token, enabling Provenance to verify every step of its production and create a digital history of that information including location data, content and timestamps, all of which is presented to consumers via an interface they can access through their item’s QR code or NFC-enabled label (so that it works on both Apple and Android devices).
Another keyword for the blockchain therefore is storytelling. As Drinkwater adds: “Where transparency and sustainability play a part, then there’s really beautiful storytelling to be told. And brands can do that actually fairly easily. For Martine, there was a real desire to show off the craftsmanship and ability [of the partners]. Rather than just presenting the final product, it enables every partner to show off their expertise and their brilliance in a very visual and engaging way. Ordinarily when you look at a finished product you never think about that.”
Source: From Farm To Finished Garment: Blockchain Is Aiding This Fashion Collection With Transparency
Read MoreWill Provenance Be the Blockchain’s Break Out Use Case in 2016? – CoinDesk
Much has been said about the blockchain as an ownership layer. But what exactly does that mean?
It means that blockchains represent ownership of an asset in terms of control over the data relating to that asset. In other words, only the current owner can authenticate a transaction that would cause that asset to be transferred to another owner.
This is provenance expressed in protocol form. The word “provenance” is derived from the French “provenir” which means “to come from”, and is used to describe the custodial chronology of an object.
Provenance is one of the backbones of economies, whether it relates to artifacts or real estate. There has always been a need to authenticate that a party actually owns an asset prior to any business dealing involving that asset, to ensure that the asset is “true” rather than stolen or faked.
In the past, trusted third-parties have traditionally played this role.
However, blockchains can streamline this function by serving as the infrastructure for registering and authenticating asset ownership between untrusting parties with common interests.
Source: Will Provenance Be the Blockchain’s Break Out Use Case in 2016? – CoinDesk
Read MoreIBM Think Academy: Blockchain, How it works
What is Blockchain? Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions. It fosters a new generation of transactional applications that establish trust, accountability and transparency—from contracts to deeds to payments.
Frees up capital flows, speeds up processes, lowers transaction costs and most importantly provides security and trust. We believe that Blockchain will do for business what the Internet did for communications.
Source: IBM Blockchain
Read MoreThe difference between public and private blockchain – Blockchain Unleashed: IBM Blockchain Blog
The sole distinction between public and private blockchain is related to who is allowed to participate in the network, execute the consensus protocol and maintain the shared ledger. A public blockchain network is completely open and anyone can join and participate in the network. The network typically has an incentivizing mechanism to encourage more participants to join the network. Bitcoin is one of the largest public blockchain networks in production today.
A private blockchain network requires an invitation and must be validated by either the network starter or by a set of rules put in place by the network starter. Businesses who set up a private blockchain, will generally set up a permissioned network. This places restrictions on who is allowed to participate in the network, and only in certain transactions. Participants need to obtain an invitation or permission to join. The access control mechanism could vary: existing participants could decide future entrants; a regulatory authority could issue licenses for participation; or a consortium could make the decisions instead. Once an entity has joined the network, it will play a role in maintaining the blockchain in a decentralized manner…
This type of permissioned blockchain model offers the ability to leverage more than 30 years of technical literature to realize significant benefits. Digital identity in particular, is fundamental for most industry use cases, be it handling supply chain challenges, disrupting the financial industry, or facilitating security-rich patient/provider data exchanges in healthcare. Only the entities participating in a particular transaction will have knowledge and access to it — other entities will have no access to it.
Source: The difference between public and private blockchain – Blockchain Unleashed: IBM Blockchain Blog
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