Top Banner
T his Christmas avoid giving your loved ones a branded wallet, give them a digital wallet. They will thank you for years to come. Nouvive has been asked to weigh in on which CryptoAssets are at the top of this year’s Shopping List. We take this opportunity to discuss how easy it is to enter Crypto and the different oppor- tunities within it. Those reading the news over the past year, will naturally be scared of enter- ing Crypto. Since January 2018, it has decreased by more than 80%. It should be noted, that this too happened in 2011, 2013, 2015 and now 2018. Having received the approval of global banking communities, Crypto is a new Asset class and it is here to stay. ENTER CRYPTO FOR FREE 1. Bounty Hunting: This involves for those more technologically astute to find flaws in codes of coins that are relatively new to the market, you later get paid in the coin as a result of it. Likewise, those of marketing capacity can get paid for marketing the projects on social media. 2. Airdrops: Simply download a digital wallet and start accepting coins which are newly introduced to the market. Coins you receive during Air Drops can later become either worthless or incredibly valuable, as was the case of Ontology in 2018 which went from Worthless to $8 Valuable. DIP YOUR TOE IN THE WATER Mining and Staking involve utilising computer hardware to generate new coins. It is a transaction and in return for solving a technological problem or simply holding coins; you receive coins as a token of appreciation. 1. Mining involves purchasing com- puter hardware to solve problems; in return for which you are paid for confirming and processing transactions across the blockchain. 2. Staking involves buying coins, holding them on a digital wallet for a period of time and in return, you are payed for helping the community. LONG-TERM INVESTMENTS Those interested in actively investing within CryptoAssets must understand that Crypto is a very volatile Market, one thing can be stated is that it is not going to go away, and any investment is a decade long investment. Those interested in actively investing, should buy using WirexApp.com/Nouvive or London Block Exchange before transferring their Bitcoin, Ethereum or XRP to Binance to look for investments. Alternatively, they can check out Nouvive: Home of Crypto Enthusiasts, Investors & Traders where you can find about long-term investments, short-term trades or opinion pieces. This Christmas forget the generic gifts; help your loved ones discover a life-long investment by giving a digital wallet. After all, what gift is better than fi- nancial growth? Mik’aeel Dada of Nouvive: Home of Crypto Enthusiasts, Investors & Traders. 26 TUESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2018 FEATURE CITYAM.COM 27 TUESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2018 FEATURE CITYAM.COM the most reliable investment bets you can make, with the opportunity to buy, sell and trade in real estate providing consistent growth with investment. Australia is becoming increasingly popular with global investors. Its sta- ble financial institutions and well- regulated land title system ensure its property market has remained buoy- ant since the 2008 financial crash, with high capital gains rates in its cities, towns and holiday resorts. T he bear market for Crypto continues with Bitcoin (BTC) hitting last Thursday its 2018 low of US$3,275.97 and Ethereum (ETH) US$83.81, however at the time of writing they both have recovered somewhat US$3,533.38 and US$91.78 respectively - the crypto market cap is currently US$110bn (Data source: CryptoCompare.com) Writing in my column of the 27th November I speculated that BTC could test US$2,500 - I still think that that is a distinct possibility especially as the SEC have confirmed that it will not be making its decision on the VanEck Bitcoin ETF until the 27th February 2019. Mining Bitcoin obviously has a cost to it and as such many observers equate a floor in the price of BTC to being that of cost of production. According to bitcoin.org, Bitcoin mining is the process of making computer hardware do mathematical calculations for the Bitcoin network to confirm transactions and increase security. As a reward for their services, Bitcoin miners can collect transaction fees for the transactions they confirm, along with newly created bitcoins. The hash rate is the measuring unit of the processing power of the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin network must make intensive mathematical operations for security purposes. When the network reached a hash rate of 10 Th/s, it meant it could make 10 trillion calculations per second. The more miners there are competing, the higher the hash rate becomes. Fernando Ulrich tweeted last week that on 3rd December Bitcoin had its second largest drop in mining difficulty in its history -15.1% (the largest was -18.0% on 1st November 2011) I recently spoke with a friend in the mining sector and confirmed that he can profitably mine at US$2,500, however, there are many who simply cannot afford this as they invested too heavily in equipment and infrastructure. In China there are currently a significant number of examples where miners are selling their equipment because they cannot compete. However, as Anthony Pompliano observed, “something interesting happens as we get closer to the $2,500-$3,000 range. The miners with high expenses continue to shut off their machines and hash rate keeps decreasing, but the mining difficulty actually DECREASES and it becomes MORE PROFITABLE to mine Bitcoin for the miners who are able to stick around.” It appears to me therefore that, in the same way the Crypto winter has starved out poorly planned ICO projects and most of the bad actors, we will see the mining community have its proverbial tree shaken which will mean that only those with efficient operations and/or deep pockets will survive. PROPERTYBAY LEADS THE WAY PropertyBay is leading the way in the digital eco-tourism space, where eco-tourism and technology meet with a tokenised investment platform. The company’s vision is to create the world's largest property-focused STO, which will oversee a genuinely diverse and unparalleled portfolio. It is transforming world-class Aus- tralian resorts by restoring underval- ued locations into luxurious travel destinations. Investors benefit from having their assets underpinned by a portfolio of unique real estate assets, with all the reliable benefits of an STO. With blockchain offering a secure and immutable way to manage con- tracts between token issuers and in- vestors, proptech companies have an opportunity to gain a foothold in a transformational market. DUNK ISLAND’S CRYPTO RENAISSANCE PropertyBay’s inaugural project is located at the Great Barrier Reef and includes world-class development assets, with outstanding resort benefits and profit opportunities for investors. Dunk Island was considered the jewel in Queensland’s tourism crown before Cyclone Yasi destroyed its infrastructure in 2011. The proj- ect will not only resuscitate Dunk Is- land’s image with an eco vision; it will re-establish a community that depends on tourism. The proposed new development includes a five-star resort and glampsite with luxury restaurants, swimming pools, a day spa, golf course, and a conference centre. PropertyBay will also include new villas and beachfront eco-suites featuring solar panels and water tanks. Partly funded through crypto-cur- rencies, the island’s new developers want to start restoring its fortunes in the first quarter of 2019. STOs help revitalise communities such as Dunk Island as they are un- derpinned by real-world assets. Opti- mistic and safe, security tokens are going to play a transformative role in improving the lives of communities for many years to come. This is an opinion piece brought to you by PropertyBay, in conversation with James Bowater. Discover more about the Dunk Island Project: register.dunkisland.io S ecurity token offerings (STOs) on the blockchain have revo- lutionised the ethical invest- ment world. Currently, impact investing can mean anything from mobilising capital to support a new library in Ecuador, affordable housing in Canada to funding eco-tourism in devastated lo- cations. Helping start-ups and enterprises to raise capital for ethical projects, impact investing supports initia- tives that have a positive social im- pact. Like traditional investors, they expect not only to have a social and environmental impact but to make a financial return as well. Combining blockchain technology with traditional finance mecha- nisms, STOs enable traders to enter crypto markets in a secure fashion. In short, they are an investment con- tract. By using private capital to address ethical concerns, STO investors can make financial returns on eco-tourism, proptech, sustain- able development, and education projects. Most investors have their own idea of what it means to be ‘socially good’. It could mean priori- tising community projects in their home country or focusing on spe- cific areas: healthcare, infrastruc- ture or climate change. Since the advent of STOs, investors can im- prove people’s lives, support new ideas or transform a business loca- tion. ‘ICO 2.0’ STOs are often referred to as ICO 2.0. Unlike regular Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), they provide legal protection to investors and token issuers. STOs issue security tokens, a similar con- cept to stocks and shares, only this time, they are facilitated through blockchain smart contracts. STO investors have voting rights, where algorithms are encoded on a digital ledger to work only when cer- tain conditions are met; ensuring token holders are verified owners of their asset and more secure than unregulated ICO investors. While ICOs are an attractive medium for individual ideas, most companies work upon multiple proj- ects at any given time, so STOs are a more reliable tool for investors. STRENGTH IN REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITIES With the crypto market undergoing a downturn in 2018, security tokens offer investors security in an unstable marketplace. Most people already know that property is one of PropertyBay is investing at Dunk Island, Australia In association with CITY A.M.’S CRYPTO INSIDER Crypto A.M. shines its Spotlight on Nouvive @CityAm_Crypto E: [email protected] JAMES BOWATER PARTNER CONTENT Our series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptoassets and Tokenisation What gift is better than financial growth? T he UK is currently throwing away a multi trillion dollar global opportunity - and we have form! We’ve a history of wildly creative inventiveness – and then throwing it all away. Up to and including the invention of the digital computer itself, with the plans from Bletchley Park going up in smoke straight after the war by order or Winston Churchill himself! Certainly more costly than even for all those who turned down The Beatles (“guitar bands are on the way out”) and, war apart, probably the costliest ‘unforced error’ in history. The cost to the UK economy – and world leadership – is incalculable. Now we’re at it again. Those familiar with this column will know that, despite all the flack and black propaganda, there is now no doubt that both Blockchain and the cryptocurrencies it enables are here to stay and will be transformative. This is no longer in question – what is is whether this will just transform what we have, making existing centralised institutions more efficient and friction free but just as unequal, or replace them with decentralised networks. Or indeed a mixture of both. (If history is any guide the invariable outcome with technology is the latter). Hence the fact that even scions of the establishment such as the IMF’s Christine Lagarde is calling for governments to setup their own cryptocurrencies, and last Tuesday, delivering the Kissinger lecture in Washington, she declared “Through biometrics, blockchain, and more we can find creative ways to build a better, safer system for the long-term. Governments can and must work with the world’s best engineers to build stronger cyber security systems that protect people’s bank accounts and their well-being. This is a common good we must choose to support”. Fractionalisation, now made practical by Blockchain technology and tokenisation, is set to make assets more fluid, safely decoupling ownership from use and physical location in new ways. It’s hard to estimate the value of this but the potential certainly runs into the trillions of pounds. J P Morgan is quoted as saying that “Gold is money, everything else is credit”. So gold’s a special case – partly because it is iconic of value. Like a ‘stablecoin’ it fluctuates in value but we all know that short of a totally unexpected event (such as a largish asteroid made of it landing in someone’s back garden) it will at least retain most if its value. So it is an obvious candidate for fractionalisation – if only to make it safer to own (it can stay in a vault) yet easier to move ownership around. Indeed this is what the pound sterling used to be – a gold backed asset token – before the removal of the ‘gold standard’. So tokens are far from new. Who can, practically, issue them is however. Those tokens (pound notes) were issued by a trusted authority – trusted by users not to abuse their position. Roughly 1,130 years in though surprising it was, perhaps, natural for one of the world’s oldest mints, the UK’s Royal Mint, to take an interest - their strapline being “Established for Tomorrow.” So it was that almost three years ahead of the rest of the world – an eternity in this technology - the UK was ready with a the world’s first cryptocurrency from such an official source – a millennia old mint owned by UK PLC no less. A taxpayer funded cryptocurrency - years ahead. A team had been assembled. A custom blockchain built. A billion worth of investment lined up and Royal Mint Gold was announced and ready to go. Then, at the very last moment, someone took fright and pulled the plug – throwing away a multi million pound project... the funding of which is of no consequence set alongside the incalculable cost to UK PLC – it’s just a benchmark. The project was, however ‘paused’ not cancelled. Meanwhile a three year lead has been lost. They cannot be recaptured. The loss is grievous and incalculable. But the project can and now should be revived. If not, why not - Mr Chancellor? Email [email protected] questions or listen to the latest at ICOrad.io TOKEN INTELLIGENCE Fractionalisation UK, giving it all away Mik’aeel Dada, Managing Partner of Nouvive STOs are a more reliable tool for investors I t’s been a decade since Bitcoin appeared. While ten years may seem like a long time on the internet, arguably, this only puts us in the early days. If we take history as a yardstick, the internet protocols emerged in the early 80s, but it took until 1991 before the World Wide Web was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. So we could compare the current state of blockchain to where the internet was in the early 90s. Those were the days of dial-up modems, newsgroups, and the Mosaic browser. From the Bitcoin idea sprung a cornucopia of alternative cryptocurrency platforms, that continue to innovate on the basic concepts. One of the most mature platform is the payment network Stellar, which uses a “distributed ledger technology” that is more efficient than the Bitcoin protocols. Blockchain has already been used with great success in some niche markets. A case in point is Numerai, a hedge fund, which used their own crypto token to incentivise data scientists to submit stock market predictions. Beyond the niche, the first touchpoint most people have with a cryptocurrency is a so-called “wallet”, where their crypto funds can be stored. Wallets come in range of flavours and security. From super-secure hardware wallets like Trezor or Ledger, to wallet apps like Copay, there is a range of options for balancing ease-of-use versus security. While we’re still in the early days, the days of the crypto dial-up modem, there is much to be excited about. That’s why an early internet pioneer like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called it the next “IT revolution”. We at SatoshiPay have made wallet usage almost invisible by adding a user- friendly, login-free web interface on top of it. The same way that the internet became accessible with the Mosaic browser, it is with safe, easy-to-use tools that mainstream blockchain adoption will come. Meinhard Benn, Founder & CEO of SatoshiPay BLOCKCHAIN AND DIAL-UP MODEMS WHAT IS THE BBIA AND WHY WOULD I JOIN IT? If you work in the Blockchain industry, would like to, or work in Fintech or in an industry that will be directly impacted by blockchain technologies – and there are many including Government, Healthcare, Media and Logistics as well as Financial Services, then this is for you. In the coming months and years Blockchain technologies will be as pervasive as the internet itself transforming business models in ways that are becoming clearer by the day but are impossible fully to predict. Making some industries and institutions many times more efficient and altering, decentralising, others beyond recognistion. If you’re involved in tech more generally and especially Fintech, or rely on them the impact is likely to be profound. Likewise the impact on the recruitment and jobs landscape. If this seems overblown think back, if you can, to the days before the web became pervasive and you’ll recall that the nature of work as well as the skills needed have changes almost beyond recognition. This time things are moving far faster. WHAT DO I GET? This will depend on your level of membership but as an online member, which is free until formal launch in the spring, as well as all the things you’d expect of a industry association focussed on its members we’ll be providing access to a network of real experts with hands on experience. We’ll be offering insights into the trends and new application as well as the players in this fast developing area. Register free now at BritishBlockchainIA.org Open to the World, British at the Core! THE BRITISH BLOCKCHAIN INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION TOKENISATION TO HELP ECO-TOURISM
1

PARTNER CONTENT CRYPTO INSIDER CITY A.M.’S S … · 2019. 6. 4. · Coins you receive during ... winter has starved out poorly planned ICO projects and most ... governments to setup

Jan 22, 2021

Download

Documents

dariahiddleston
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: PARTNER CONTENT CRYPTO INSIDER CITY A.M.’S S … · 2019. 6. 4. · Coins you receive during ... winter has starved out poorly planned ICO projects and most ... governments to setup

This Christmas avoid giving yourloved ones a branded wallet, givethem a digital wallet. They will

thank you for years to come. Nouvive has been asked to weigh in onwhich CryptoAssets are at the top ofthis year’s Shopping List. We take thisopportunity to discuss how easy it is toenter Crypto and the different oppor-tunities within it.

Those reading the news over the pastyear, will naturally be scared of enter-ing Crypto. Since January 2018, it hasdecreased by more than 80%. It should be noted, that this too happened in 2011, 2013, 2015 and now2018. Having received the approval of global banking communities, Crypto is a new Assetclass and it is here to stay.

ENTER CRYPTO FOR FREE1. Bounty Hunting: This involves forthose more technologically astute tofind flaws in codes of coins that arerelatively new to the market, you laterget paid in the coin as a result of it.Likewise, those of marketing capacitycan get paid for marketing the projectson social media.

2. Airdrops: Simply download a digitalwallet and start accepting coins whichare newly introduced to the market.Coins you receive during Air Drops can later become eitherworthless or incredibly valuable, as wasthe case of Ontology in 2018 whichwent from Worthless to $8 Valuable.

DIP YOUR TOE IN THE WATER Mining and Staking involve utilisingcomputer hardware to generate newcoins. It is a transaction and in returnfor solving a technological problem orsimply holding coins; you receive coinsas a token of appreciation.

1. Mining involves purchasing com-puter hardware to solve problems; inreturn for which you are paid for

confirming and processing transactions across the blockchain.

2. Staking involves buying coins,holding them on a digital wallet for aperiod of time and in return, you arepayed for helping the community.

LONG-TERM INVESTMENTS Those interested in actively investingwithin CryptoAssets must understandthat Crypto is a very volatile Market,one thing can be stated is that it is notgoing to go away, and any investmentis a decade long investment. Thoseinterested in actively investing, shouldbuy using WirexApp.com/Nouvive orLondon Block Exchange beforetransferring their Bitcoin, Ethereum orXRP to Binance to look forinvestments. Alternatively, they cancheck out Nouvive: Home of CryptoEnthusiasts, Investors & Traders whereyou can find about long-terminvestments, short-term trades oropinion pieces.

This Christmas forget the genericgifts; help your loved ones discover alife-long investment by giving a digital wallet.After all, what giftis better than fi-nancial growth?

Mik’aeel Dada ofNouvive: Home of Crypto Enthusiasts,Investors & Traders.

26 TUESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2018FEATURE CITYAM.COM 27TUESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2018 FEATURECITYAM.COM

the most reliable investment betsyou can make, with the opportunityto buy, sell and trade in real estateproviding consistent growth withinvestment.Australia is becoming increasinglypopular with global investors. Its sta-ble financial institutions and well-regulated land title system ensure itsproperty market has remained buoy-ant since the 2008 financial crash,with high capital gains rates in itscities, towns and holiday resorts.

The bear market for Crypto continues withBitcoin (BTC) hitting last Thursday its 2018low of US$3,275.97 and Ethereum (ETH)

US$83.81, however at the time of writing theyboth have recovered somewhat US$3,533.38 andUS$91.78 respectively - the crypto market cap iscurrently US$110bn (Data source: CryptoCompare.com)Writing in my column of the 27th November I speculated thatBTC could test US$2,500 - I still think that that is a distinctpossibility especially as the SEC have confirmed that it willnot be making its decision on the VanEck Bitcoin ETF until the27th February 2019. Mining Bitcoin obviously has a cost to it and as such many

observers equate a floor in the price of BTC to being that ofcost of production. According to bitcoin.org, Bitcoin mining isthe process of making computer hardware do mathematicalcalculations for the Bitcoin network to confirm transactionsand increase security. As a reward for their services, Bitcoinminers can collect transaction fees for the transactions theyconfirm, along with newly created bitcoins. The hash rate isthe measuring unit of the processing power of the Bitcoinnetwork. The Bitcoin network must make intensivemathematical operations for security purposes. When thenetwork reached a hash rate of 10 Th/s, it meant it couldmake 10 trillion calculations per second. The more minersthere are competing, the higher the hash rate becomes.Fernando Ulrich tweeted last week that on 3rd DecemberBitcoin had its second largest drop in mining difficulty in itshistory -15.1% (the largest was -18.0% on 1st November 2011)I recently spoke with a friend in the mining sector and

confirmed that he can profitably mine at US$2,500, however,there are many who simply cannot afford this as theyinvested too heavily in equipment and infrastructure. InChina there are currently a significant number of exampleswhere miners are selling their equipment because theycannot compete. However, as Anthony Pompliano observed,“something interesting happens as we get closer to the$2,500-$3,000 range. The miners with high expenses continueto shut off their machines and hash rate keeps decreasing,but the mining difficulty actually DECREASES and it becomesMORE PROFITABLE to mine Bitcoin for the miners who areable to stick around.” It appears to me therefore that, in the same way the Crypto

winter has starved out poorly planned ICO projects and mostof the bad actors, we will see the mining community have itsproverbial tree shaken which will mean that only those withefficient operations and/or deep pockets will survive.

PROPERTYBAY LEADS THE WAYPropertyBay is leading the way inthe digital eco-tourism space,where eco-tourism and technologymeet with a tokenised investmentplatform. The company’s vision is to createthe world's largest property-focusedSTO, which will oversee a genuinelydiverse and unparalleled portfolio.It is transforming world-class Aus-tralian resorts by restoring underval-

ued locations into luxurious traveldestinations. Investors benefit fromhaving their assets underpinned by aportfolio of unique real estate assets,with all the reliable benefits of anSTO.With blockchain offering a secureand immutable way to manage con-tracts between token issuers and in-vestors, proptech companies have anopportunity to gain a foothold in atransformational market.

DUNK ISLAND’S CRYPTORENAISSANCE PropertyBay’s inaugural project islocated at the Great Barrier Reef andincludes world-class developmentassets, with outstanding resortbenefits and profit opportunities forinvestors. Dunk Island was considered thejewel in Queensland’s tourismcrown before Cyclone Yasi destroyedits infrastructure in 2011. The proj-ect will not only resuscitate Dunk Is-land’s image with an eco vision; itwill re-establish a community thatdepends on tourism.The proposed new developmentincludes a five-star resort andglampsite with luxury restaurants,swimming pools, a day spa, golfcourse, and a conference centre. PropertyBay will also include newvillas and beachfront eco-suites featuring solar panels and watertanks. Partly funded through crypto-cur-rencies, the island’s new developerswant to start restoring its fortunes inthe first quarter of 2019.STOs help revitalise communitiessuch as Dunk Island as they are un-derpinned by real-world assets. Opti-mistic and safe, security tokens aregoing to play a transformative role inimproving the lives of communitiesfor many years to come.

This is an opinion piece brought to you by PropertyBay, in conversation withJames Bowater.

Discover more about the Dunk IslandProject: register.dunkisland.io

Security token offerings (STOs)on the blockchain have revo-lutionised the ethical invest-ment world. Currently,impact investing can mean

anything from mobilising capital tosupport a new library in Ecuador, affordable housing in Canada tofunding eco-tourism in devastated lo-cations. Helping start-ups and enterprises toraise capital for ethical projects, impact investing supports initia-tives that have a positive social im-pact. Like traditional investors, they expect not only to have a social andenvironmental impact but to makea financial return as well. Combining blockchain technologywith traditional finance mecha-nisms, STOs enable traders to entercrypto markets in a secure fashion.In short, they are an investment con-tract. By using private capital to address ethical concerns, STO investors can make financial returnson eco-tourism, proptech, sustain-able development, and educationprojects. Most investors have their own ideaof what it means to be

‘socially good’. It could mean priori-tising community projects in theirhome country or focusing on spe-cific areas: healthcare, infrastruc-ture or climate change. Since theadvent of STOs, investors can im-prove people’s lives, support newideas or transform a business loca-tion.

‘ICO 2.0’STOs are often referred to as ICO 2.0.Unlike regular Initial Coin Offerings

(ICOs), they provide legal protectionto investors and token issuers. STOsissue security tokens, a similar con-cept to stocks and shares, only thistime, they are facilitated throughblockchain smart contracts. STO investors have voting rights,where algorithms are encoded on adigital ledger to work only when cer-tain conditions are met; ensuringtoken holders are verified owners oftheir asset and more secure than unregulated ICO investors.

While ICOs are an attractivemedium for individual ideas, mostcompanies work upon multiple proj-ects at any given time, so STOs are amore reliable tool for investors.

STRENGTH IN REAL ESTATEOPPORTUNITIESWith the crypto market undergoinga downturn in 2018, security tokensoffer investors security in anunstable marketplace. Most peoplealready know that property is one of

PropertyBay isinvesting atDunk Island,Australia

In association with

CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER

Crypto A.M. shines itsSpotlight on Nouvive

@CityAm_CryptoE:[email protected]

JAMES BOWATER

PARTNER CONTENT

Our series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptoassets and Tokenisation

What gift is betterthan financial

growth?

The UK is currently throwing away amulti trillion dollar globalopportunity - and we have form!

We’ve a history of wildly creativeinventiveness – and then throwing it allaway. Up to and including the invention ofthe digital computer itself, with theplans from Bletchley Park going up insmoke straight after the war by order orWinston Churchill himself! Certainlymore costly than even for all those whoturned down The Beatles (“guitar bandsare on the way out”) and, war apart,probably the costliest ‘unforced error’ inhistory. The cost to the UK economy – andworld leadership – is incalculable. Nowwe’re at it again. Those familiar with thiscolumn will know that, despite all theflack and black propaganda, there isnow no doubt that both Blockchain andthe cryptocurrencies it enables are hereto stay and will be transformative. This isno longer in question – what is iswhether this will just transform what wehave, making existing centralisedinstitutions more efficient and frictionfree but just as unequal, or replace themwith decentralised networks. Or indeeda mixture of both. (If history is any guidethe invariable outcome with technologyis the latter). Hence the fact that evenscions of the establishment such as theIMF’s Christine Lagarde is calling forgovernments to setup their owncryptocurrencies, and last Tuesday,delivering the Kissinger lecture inWashington, she declared “Throughbiometrics, blockchain, and more we canfind creative ways to build a better, safersystem for the long-term. Governmentscan and must work with the world’s bestengineers to build stronger cybersecurity systems that protect people’sbank accounts and their well-being. Thisis a common good we must choose tosupport”. Fractionalisation, now made practicalby Blockchain technology andtokenisation, is set to make assets morefluid, safely decoupling ownership fromuse and physical location in new ways.It’s hard to estimate the value of this butthe potential certainly runs into thetrillions of pounds.

J P Morgan is quoted as saying that“Gold is money, everything else iscredit”. So gold’s a special case – partlybecause it is iconic of value. Like a‘stablecoin’ it fluctuates in value but weall know that short of a totallyunexpected event (such as a largishasteroid made of it landing in someone’sback garden) it will at least retain most ifits value. So it is an obvious candidatefor fractionalisation – if only to make itsafer to own (it can stay in a vault) yeteasier to move ownership around.Indeed this is what the pound sterling

used to be – a gold backed asset token –before the removal of the ‘goldstandard’. So tokens are far from new.Who can, practically, issue them ishowever. Those tokens (pound notes)were issued by a trusted authority –trusted by users not to abuse theirposition. Roughly 1,130 years in thoughsurprising it was, perhaps, natural forone of the world’s oldest mints, the UK’sRoyal Mint, to take an interest - theirstrapline being “Established forTomorrow.”So it was that almost three years ahead

of the rest of the world – an eternity inthis technology - the UK was ready witha the world’s first cryptocurrency fromsuch an official source – a millennia oldmint owned by UK PLC no less. Ataxpayer funded cryptocurrency - yearsahead. A team had been assembled. A customblockchain built. A billion worth ofinvestment lined up and Royal MintGold was announced and ready to go.Then, at the very last moment, someonetook fright and pulled the plug –throwing away a multi million poundproject... the funding of which is of noconsequence set alongside theincalculable cost to UK PLC – it’s just abenchmark. The project was, however ‘paused’ notcancelled. Meanwhile a three year leadhas been lost. They cannot be recaptured.The loss is grievous and incalculable. Butthe project can and now should berevived. If not, why not - Mr Chancellor?

Email [email protected] or listen to the latest at ICOrad.io

TOKEN INTELLIGENCEFractionalisation UK, giving it all away

Mik’aeel Dada, Managing Partner of Nouvive

STOs are a morereliable tool for

investors

It’sbeen a decade since Bitcoinappeared. While ten years may seemlike a long time on the internet,

arguably, this only puts us in the earlydays. If we take history as a yardstick,the internet protocols emerged in theearly 80s, but it took until 1991 beforethe World Wide Web was created by SirTim Berners-Lee.So we could compare the current

state of blockchain to where theinternet was in the early 90s. Thosewere the days of dial-up modems,newsgroups, and the Mosaic browser.From the Bitcoin idea sprung a

cornucopia of alternativecryptocurrency platforms, that continueto innovate on the basic concepts. One

of the most mature platform is thepayment network Stellar, which uses a“distributed ledger technology” that ismore efficient than the Bitcoinprotocols.Blockchain has already been used

with great success in some nichemarkets. A case in point is Numerai, ahedge fund, which used their owncrypto token to incentivise datascientists to submit stock marketpredictions.Beyond the niche, the first touchpoint

most people have with acryptocurrency is a so-called “wallet”,where their crypto funds can be stored.Wallets come in range of flavours andsecurity. From super-secure hardware

wallets like Trezor or Ledger, to walletapps like Copay, there is a range ofoptions for balancing ease-of-useversus security.While we’re still in the early days, the

days of the crypto dial-up modem,there is much to be excited about.That’s why an early internet pioneer likeApple co-founder Steve Wozniak calledit the next “IT revolution”. We atSatoshiPay have made wallet usagealmost invisible by adding a user-friendly, login-free web interface on topof it. The same way that the internetbecame accessible with the Mosaicbrowser, it is with safe, easy-to-use toolsthat mainstream blockchain adoptionwill come.

Meinhard Benn, Founder & CEO of SatoshiPay

BLOCKCHAIN AND DIAL-UP MODEMS

WHAT IS THE BBIA AND WHYWOULD I JOIN IT? If you work in the Blockchain industry,would like to, or work in Fintech or in anindustry that will be directly impacted byblockchain technologies – and there aremany including Government, Healthcare,Media and Logistics as well as FinancialServices, then this is for you.In the coming months and years

Blockchain technologies will be as pervasiveas the internet itself transforming businessmodels in ways that are becoming clearer bythe day but are impossible fully to predict.Making some industries and institutionsmany times more efficient and altering,decentralising, others beyond recognistion.If you’re involved in tech more generally and

especially Fintech, or rely on them the impactis likely to be profound. Likewise the impact

on the recruitment and jobs landscape.If this seems overblown think back, if you

can, to the days before the web becamepervasive and you’ll recall that the natureof work as well as the skills needed havechanges almost beyond recognition. Thistime things are moving far faster.

WHAT DO I GET?This will depend on your level ofmembership but as an online member,which is free until formal launch in thespring, as well as all the things you’dexpect of a industry association focussedon its members we’ll be providing accessto a network of real experts with hands onexperience. We’ll be offering insights intothe trends and new application as well asthe players in this fast developing area. Register free now at BritishBlockchainIA.org

Open to the World, British at the Core!

THE BRITISH BLOCKCHAININDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONTOKENISATION

TO HELP ECO-TOURISM