Governments, businesses, and individuals are developing new use cases for blockchain as barriers to adoption continue to decrease. Blockchain has already had a significant impact in the finance industry with the global cryptocurrency market cap now exceeding $1 trillion. Blockchain looks set to be deployed in many other industries. The technology adds value by enabling […]
Category: Blockchain / Crypto
In this article we will provide a beginner’s guide to the Ethereum blockchain. What is Ethereum? What challenges does it face? 1. What is Ethereum? The purpose of Ethereum boils down to the transfer and storage of money and data. According to Ethereum.org, Ethereum is a “technology that lets you send cryptocurrency to anyone for a […]
Blockchain technology is making a strong impact in the finance industry due to the fact that it enables decentralization and direct peer-to-peer transactions. Removing the financial intermediary, i.e. the bank, can increase convenience, efficiency, and security. Direct peer-to-peer transactions can be settled instantly compared with interbank transfers that traditionally take several days. Transaction fees can […]
With the emergence of cryptocurrencies in 2009, the financial industry has experienced major disruption. This invention acted as a catalyst for many subsequent innovations, which came about by building on the revolutionary blockchain technology, or by reacting to it. A prime example for this phenomenon are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). As opposed to cryptos, […]
Cryptocurrencies are some of the hottest commodities among investors, and also the subject of heated debate. While some of the most respected investment banks, such as JP Morgan, are investing heavily into blockchain technology, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler has often vocalised his scepticism towards cryptos as an inflated speculative […]
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have caught people’s attention. For those interested in collecting original digital assets, NFTs have become the new way to legitimize ownership of anything that can be digitized. An asset is fungible if one unit can be directly exchanged for any other unit of the same asset. In other words, each unit of […]
Cryptocurrency has often been a divisive and controversial topic in the world of finance and economics. Some notable figures have written it off, claiming it to be nothing more than a complex Ponzi scheme, while others are insistent that cryptocurrencies are the future of the monetary system. Regardless of which party is correct, the near […]
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Berlin Blockchain Week 2019
In my last blog post I interviewed a fellow CEMSie, who heads partnership advisory at ScanTrust by day and co-runs BerChain by night, about the potential focus areas for blockchain in supply chain and one of the world’s most impressive blockchain ecosystems: Berlin. We learned that due to the ecosystems varying focus areas, the many […]
I recently sat down with blockchain aficionado Ricardo Garcia to gain some insights into the Berlin blockchain space. We dove into an hour-long Q&A session with three main objectives: To learn how Ricardo found himself in the blockchain world after working at a strategy consulting firm To gain insights on potential focus areas for blockchain […]
Blockchain – the underlying technology first used in Bitcoin – is a new type of distributed consensus system that enables transactions to be quickly validated and securely maintained through cryptography, computational power, and network users, removing the need for a trusted centralized authority. The blockchain provides an immutable record and audit trail of transactions and […]
In the past few years, there has been a lot of hype around blockchain. Investors have been blindly investing exuberant amounts of money without clearly understanding the viability of blockchain based business models. VC funding for blockchain start-ups has consistently grown, with venture investment reaching around $1 billion in 2017 (and likely to be more […]
The blockchain revolution continues…next stop: healthcare! Blockchain has shown the ability to streamline and revolutionize a number of industries and sectors and its ability to have a sizeable impact on the healthcare industry will be no different. Being able to capitalize on this unique technology could potentially connect fragmented clinical information in such a way […]
As the price of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in late 2017 and early 2018, there was rampant speculation about whether blockchain and cryptocurrencies are the future. They have potential to replace gold as a store of wealth or even fiat currencies for daily transactions. Bitcoin may be pilfering some gold demand, but gold and fiat currencies will […]
Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies are revolutionary thanks to their decentralized and unregulated nature. Not tied to any central bank or government, these virtual currencies have begun to redefine the fintech sector in a number of ways, but their iconoclastic properties mean they inhabit a murky stretch of legal landscape. As virtual currencies that permeate […]
There is Bitcoin, there is Ethereum, and there are now literally hundreds of other cryptocurrencies. In fact, as of late March 2018, there were almost 1,600 cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap. Admittedly, the majority of these are thinly traded, and only a few of them are serious contenders for first place. Before 2017, most people had […]
What is Blockchain? Blockchain is a decentralized network of computing units called nodes that facilitate peer to peer transactions without the need for a third party or a larger centralized server to facilitate or validate those transactions. Currently, a trusted third party like a bank,lawyer or a government body is required to validate transactions, such […]
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Blockchain Entertainment
While the global banking behemoths rush in to the blockchain space, many industry verticals beyond banking are also exploring applications for this technology. This starts with insurance but also extends to supply chain management and shipping. However, there is a new vertical that has almost overnight started using the technology, learning how to make money […]
Just this week, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon came out strongly against Bitcoin. Calling it a “fraud“, claiming that “it is worse than tulip mania”, and declaring that he will fire any employee who trades the cryptocurrency for being “stupid”. (While somewhat amusingly admitting that his daughter invests in Bitcoin.) Also this week, several China-based Bitcoin […]
As I have been writing in this space of late, the days of the Wild West for cryptocurrency are absolutely at an end. The writing has been on the wall all summer. The latest news to hammer the point home? As September dawned last week, six more major banks joined a UBS-led effort to create […]
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Can Bitcoin Be Regulated?
One of the attractions of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the idea that they are not regulated by a central banking authority. It has led to some spectacular jumps in the price of Bitcoin, which is controlled by a relatively small number of global investors. The volatility in the market was even more obvious this […]
For those struggling to understand blockchain, think of it this way. It will be the digital connection between people as well as between machines – starting with your cell phone. It will be used to tell your washing machine when to run. It will also be used to bill you for the electricity and water […]
One of the most important things to remember about a digital currency is that it is just a way of transferring ownership and assets electronically. In fact, for those who are scrambling to understand both cryptocurrency and blockchain, this idea is the first, and unfortunately all too often, the only port of call. That said, […]
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Blockchain For Managers
No matter one’s professional background, these days it is almost impossible to escape at least a very basic introduction to “blockchain.” At its core, blockchain has the potential to give every individual access to data, processes, and the ability to transact with others on a scale that was never before possible. From a strictly mid-20th […]
There are many people who cringe when they think about what is going to happen to healthcare under a Trump administration. Healthcare is a subject which has wormed its way into everyday conversation since Ronald Reagan was in office. Back then “entitlements”, specifically social security, were a supposed “third rail” that could not be touched, […]
Cryptocurrencies are digital assets or “tokens” – akin to the idea of money – specifically designed to take advantage of the architecture of the Internet. Unlike traditional currency they have value not because of the guarantee of a financial institution or government. Instead, they have value for three reasons: their ability to be accurately “confirmed” […]
The year 2017, for everything else it may or may not be, is already heralded as “The Year of Blockchain.” But what exactly is “blockchain” – and why is it slated to be the debutante of the ball across multiple industries? Essentially blockchain is a way of connecting distributed databases to each other. In other […]
Blockchain, the underlying technology used by Bitcoin, has implications that reach far beyond the financial services community and banks. This is where new development and implementation may have focussed so far. However, as the technology and its implications become better understood, it will rapidly expand to new industries and verticals. Blockchain systems operate as a […]
When news broke in late October that some of London’s largest banks were investing in Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies in general got another boost. According to reports, however, this latest move to embrace Bitcoin was not a positive embrace of the digital currency per se, but rather a move to stockpile Bitcoin to fend off denial of […]