Barry James

7 Years Ago |

#ICYMI: A Bank Made for & Focussed on Crypto

DAG Global - the UK's 1st "Crypto-Friendly" Bank

Investors have called it “the UK’s Silvergate” and a potential “Revolut on steroids” : DAG Global seeks to be the UK’s first digital assets merchant bank – delivering B2B banking services to digital asset / crypto, fintech and SME firms which are underserved.

The underbanked crypto market that DAG seeks to serve is large and growing. Silvergate, based in California, is one of the few banks in a reputable jurisdiction to actively engage with the crypto sector. It has roughly $1.7 billion in deposits from crypto...

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Jonny Fry

7 Years Ago |

Traditional assets, such as real estate investments or private company stock, are notoriously illiquid. It is difficult and expensive to transfer ownership of such assets. Tokenising these existing assets, on the other hand, allows a simple and efficient ownership verification and transfer system, powered by the blockchain.


Team Blockchain recognises the very powerful potential of this new arena and has arranged a special offer for its members tickets at the special price of ￡195.00, saving 65% on the full conference fee.


Topics that will be covered by the conference are:
Security tokens
How to issue tokens in the blockchain
Regulation & governance
An investor’s perspective
Developing an...

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Sharon Henley

7 Years Ago |

It should be clear to all of us that the Supply Chain and Logistics space is ripe for disruption.
So what better way than to find out about the latest and greatest in this space than at a full-day, high quality dedicated event: Supply Chains Unblocked. Confirmed speakers include Genevieve Leveille, CEO of AgriLedger; Gilbert Verdian, CEO of Quant Network; Barry E James of the British Blockchain & Frontier Technologies Association, Sharon Henley, Blockchain Change Agent and formerly of the Royal Mint and, of course, our very own Helen Disney, Unblocked. Early bird tickets on sale now. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/supply-chains-unblocked-tickets-61613548783
Wednesday October 16th 2019, London,...

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Jonny Fry

7 Years Ago |

A Chinese Digital Renminbi could potentially replace the US$ in some countries

WeChat, which has over one billion members, is owned by the huge Chinese tech company Tencent. This is the 5thbiggest company in the world, and is helping China to rapidly replace cash and enable Chinese citizens to digitally pay for all their goods and services. Over $50 billions of transactions in 2018 was carried out on WeChat, with WeChat handling over 48 BILLION messages a day!

In a recent survey, WeChat and Alipay (owned by Alibaba) were found to be responsible for over 50% of transactions, while cash had slipped...

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Bosch using Blockchain for tackling “dodgy” mileage in cars, for e-car charging, smart parking, and fridges.

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

The German manufacturing company, Bosch, has been involved in a number of initiatives involving the use of Blockchain technology.

In December 2017, Bosch announced by using GPS and Blockchains it was possible to track a vehicle and create a secure record of the mileage a car has travelled. In a study, the European Parliament Research Service reported that incorrect mileage for second-hand vehicles in Europe was at least 50%. Additionally the cost, as a result of fraudulent odometers in second-hand cars traded cross-border in the EU, was estimated to be at least €1.31 billion p.a.

More recently, Bosch, which had revenues of $78.5 billion in 2018, has unveiled how it is advocating the use of Blockchain technology to create...

In December 2017, Bosch announced by using GPS and Blockchains it was possible to track a vehicle and create a secure record of the mileage a car has travelled. In a study, the European Parliament Research Service reported that incorrect mileage for second-hand vehicles in Europe was at least 50%. Additionally the cost, as a result of fraudulent odometers in second-hand cars traded cross-border in the EU, was estimated to be at least €1.31 billion p.a.

More recently, Bosch, which had revenues of $78.5 billion in 2018, has unveiled how it is advocating the use of Blockchain technology to create an e-car smart-charging system. It has partnered with German electrical utility company, EnBW, for this smart e-car charging. Bosch is also working with Siemens to address the challenges around smart-parking management systems, using Blockchains.

Bosch has a venture with an Austrian energy supplier, Wien Energie, to create a Blockchain-enabled fridge, which will give alerts to your mobile phone should you leave the fridge door open, as well as being able to control the fridge temperature using your mobile phone. It will allow users to see exactly where the energy needed to power the fridge has come from i.e. solar panels, wind farms or traditional power suppliers, and allow you to track how much energy the fridge uses a month.

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Manufacturing

Blockchain set to challenge the Peer 2 Peer lending market

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

The size of the world bond market in the last 15 years has tripled and now stands at over $100 trillion, compared to the value of equities globally of $64 trillion.

The performance of bonds has been helped by falling interest rates, as many governments have looked to keep these rates low, by trying to stimulate their economies via quantitative easing. The World Bank has announced this week the development of a trading platform, powered by Blockchain technology, and in conjunction with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, that will allow the recording of a secondary bond market. Sophie Gilder, head of experimentation & commercialisation at Central bank of Australia Innovation Labs. said: “Blockchain has the potential to streamline processes for raising capital and trading securities, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance regulatory oversight.”...

The performance of bonds has been helped by falling interest rates, as many governments have looked to keep these rates low, by trying to stimulate their economies via quantitative easing. The World Bank has announced this week the development of a trading platform, powered by Blockchain technology, and in conjunction with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, that will allow the recording of a secondary bond market. Sophie Gilder, head of experimentation & commercialisation at Central bank of Australia Innovation Labs. said: “Blockchain has the potential to streamline processes for raising capital and trading securities, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance regulatory oversight.”

However, while the market for bonds has historically been the preserve for governments and larger companies, smaller organisations have not been able to issue debt as easily. This could be about to change as we are seeing more organisations using Blockchain technology to issue bonds. Already we have seen companies such as Nivura, Société Generale, and BVVA all issuing bonds and raising capital, using Blockchains. It is believed that it will be possible to issue bonds on Blockchains at a cost, which could be at least 60% cheaper than the current method. This ought to allow smaller-sized bonds to be issued, so enabling smaller organisations to become involved in the bond market. If this does happen, then bonds could challenge the Peer2Peer lending market which is predicted to grow by over 50% p.a. and reach over $46 billion by 2022.

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Blockchain

Financial Market

Softbank Vision fund invests $800 million, creating London's biggest FinTech company!

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Softbank Vision fund is a massive Venture Capital fund, having participated in more than 530 funding rounds, investing over $82 billion in 200 different companies globally.

It is based in Dubai, and those that have invested in Vison fund include Apple, Larry Ellison from Oracle, and the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. Softbank’s Vison fund crystallised a $7 billion profit this week, as Uber carried out its IPO, because Softbank had invested in the taxi firm a few years ago. Softbank has recently reported a profit of over $17 billion, considerably helped by its Vision fund.

This week Softbank’s Vision fund invested in two firms that are using Blockchain technology in the financial services sector, buying $900 million of Wirecard, which is a German publicly quoted...

It is based in Dubai, and those that have invested in Vison fund include Apple, Larry Ellison from Oracle, and the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. Softbank’s Vison fund crystallised a $7 billion profit this week, as Uber carried out its IPO, because Softbank had invested in the taxi firm a few years ago. Softbank has recently reported a profit of over $17 billion, considerably helped by its Vision fund.

This week Softbank’s Vision fund invested in two firms that are using Blockchain technology in the financial services sector, buying $900 million of Wirecard, which is a German publicly quoted company. Softbank also invested $800 million into Greensill, doubling its value compared to last year from $1.6 billion to over $3.5 billion.

This now arguably makes Greensill more valuable than Oak North, which is valued at $2.5 billion, so Greensill is now the UK's most valuable FinTech company. This is impressive given Greensill was only established in 2011!

Wirecard is a digital payments company which has been active in the Crypto payments sector, having worked with the company Crypto.com. Crypto.com is based in Hong Kong and offers Visa debit cards, which it claims are the first Crypto debit cards to be made available in Asia. Wirecard is also working with Telegram, which was one of the largest Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) to date, as it raised over $1.7 billion last year. Telegram is using Wirecard to build a digital global payments platform to create TON, which is to be Telegram’s digital token.

Greensill was set up in 2011, and its HQ is in the UK with offices also in the US, Germany, Australia, and South Africa. Greensill provides supply chain funding (also called working capital finance) to help companies’ cash flow. Greensill also uses Blockchain technology and sees huge potential for further growth, as it claims that over $55 trillion of cash is locked up in businesses that it aims to target.

The above graphic illustrates the types of opportunities that Greensill states are available for it to help finance. Greensill offers businesses early payment based on their invoices, due to be paid at a later date by large companies and government agencies. The payment fee to Greensill to provide financing is 1%, and Greensill is paid in full by the suppliers' customers when the invoices are settled.

However, the founder of Softbank, Masayoshi Son, despite proving to be a canny investor and making billions from holdings in Uber, Nividia, WeWork, and Flipkart, had to nurse a reportedly $130 million loss on Bitcoin. It is alleged that the Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son bought Bitcoin when it was trading close to $20,000, and then sold his Bitcoins less than a year later when the price was closer to $5,000. So just goes to show even the best investors do not always get their timing spot on.

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Fintech

Investment

New European Prospectus Legislation and the 5th Money Laundering Directive will help STOs

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Last year, the European Union agreed on new prospectus regulations which will come into force on July 21st and will give clarity as to how much capital a company is able to raise when doing a securities offering in each member state.

It will be possible to raise up to 8 million euros within any 12-month period from the general public, without the need for a prospectus.

The image shows the different amounts that each country will be able to raise before a prospectus is required.
This new regulation will be of great assistance to firms which intend to launch a Securities Token Offering (STO), in particular, those STOs that wish to raise a small amount of capital. STOs will also benefit as more Digital Exchanges are launched, which themselves will list these newly created securities.

Digital Asset Exchanges are where you...

It will be possible to raise up to 8 million euros within any 12-month period from the general public, without the need for a prospectus.

The image shows the different amounts that each country will be able to raise before a prospectus is required.
This new regulation will be of great assistance to firms which intend to launch a Securities Token Offering (STO), in particular, those STOs that wish to raise a small amount of capital. STOs will also benefit as more Digital Exchanges are launched, which themselves will list these newly created securities.

Digital Asset Exchanges are where you can trade Digital Assets for others, or fiat currencies, such as £, US$, Yen CHF or Euros. If you need access to technical analysts’ tools, stop losses, profit targets, etc, then you are likely to have to open an account. However, if you just wish to make the occasional trade, there are Exchanges (often referred to as platforms) which you can use that do not require an account to be opened. There are typically three types of Digital Exchanges:

• Trading Platforms – connect buyers and sellers and take a fee from each transaction.
• Direct Trading – these platforms offer direct person to person trading where individuals from different countries can buy and sell. Direct trading exchanges don’t have a fixed market price, instead, each seller sets their own price that they wish to trade at.
• Brokers – anyone can use these to buy Digital Assets at a price set by the broker and are similar to foreign exchange brokers.

In the UK and many other jurisdictions, pension managers, mutual fund managers, and many private client portfolio managers are often restricted by their investment mandates and client agreements, to hold but only a small percentage of assets in securities that are not listed on a recognised exchange. There are many exchanges/platforms around the world that are able to trade Digital Assets - such as Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Poloniex - and you can find a list here that gives a brief summary of ten of the better known Digital Exchanges.

It is not just new exchanges, but we are also seeing traditional exchanges entering this sector, such as the London Stock Exchange, which has recently listed UK’s first Digital Asset (2030) and has even licensed its technology to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange AAX. The world’s largest operator of Stock Exchanges, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), is active in this space. ICE is a Fortune 500 company which owns the New York Stock Exchange (which is the world’s largest).

We have just seen new legislation being introduced in Europe, the 5th Money Laundering Directive (5MLD), which will bring it in line with the US. The 5MLD will impact Digital Assets which are involved in the provision of two different services:

• Digital Asset Exchanges – where one can buy and sell Digital Assets and traditional fiat currencies.
• Custodian Digital Wallets - firms which hold private keys

European members will now have 18 months to implement the new 5MLD. This will mean that organisations offering Digital Assets will need to carry out more robust and comprehensive Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Client (KYC) checks when raising capital and trading in these securities.

The two regulations, the Prospectus Regulation, and the 5MLD will give greater clarity and hopefully deter “bad actors”. This, in turn, ought to offer institutions more comfort regarding Digital Assets, whilst harmonising global regulation on AML standards between Europe and the USA, and so reducing the potential for regulatory arbitrage between different jurisdictions.

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Capital Markets

Financial Regulation

STO

SEC “shows it’s teeth” as it tackles ICOs - SEC coming to get you!

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

The American Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is not making the US a Crypto-friendly jurisdiction for businesses looking to raise capital, as it turns its attention to various companies which have carried out Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

The SEC has already taken action against a variety of companies, a list of which can be found on its website Cyber enforcement actions. 

This week the Canadian social media site, Kik, that targets teenagers, carried out an ICO and claimed that it has spent over $5 million to defend itself against the SEC. Kik has argued that it has not broken US securities regulations, as it did not issue security when it launched an ICO and raised nearly $100 million. 

In December 2018, Basis, which was a stablecoin and had raised over $130 million, closed down and handed back money to...

The SEC has already taken action against a variety of companies, a list of which can be found on its website Cyber enforcement actions. 


This week the Canadian social media site, Kik, that targets teenagers, carried out an ICO and claimed that it has spent over $5 million to defend itself against the SEC. Kik has argued that it has not broken US securities regulations, as it did not issue security when it launched an ICO and raised nearly $100 million. 

In December 2018, Basis, which was a stablecoin and had raised over $130 million, closed down and handed back money to investors, which it was able to do as it was holding mainly US$ as this is what it was pegged/linked to. However, this is not an option for many of the ICOs that were funded by people swapping Bitcoin and/or Ethereum for tokens, as the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum has fallen significantly since some of these ICOs were launched. One of the leading authors on Blockchain, Alex Tapscott, has been fined this week by the SEC. Tapscott had to relinquish a potential $2million profit he was due from Next Block Capital for allegedly potentially misleading investors, as well as being personally fined $25,000. 

The SEC issued what has been reported as the first ICO enforcement action against a company that has, in effect, “whistle blown” on itself. The company concerned is called Gladius Network LLC, and carried out an ICO in 2017 without prior registration with the SEC. Despite the SEC releasing guidance on ICOs, which some had hoped would clarify the regulators' stance, others fear that the guidance highlights possible causes of concern for a number of firms that have already carried out ICOs, and may indeed discourage companies from promoting ICOs to investors in the USA. 

The SEC has already taken action against people endorsing/seen as promoting ICOs, by bringing charges against professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr and music producer Khaled Khaled (known as DJ Khaled), for failing to disclose payments they received for promoting an ICO they were involved with. 

The SEC is casting its regulatory net further (and remember, unlike the FCA in the UK, the SEC sometimes takes retrospective action) to target advisors which helped organisations launch ICOs, or those that may prove to have manipulated the price of certain tokens. While this may be uncomfortable for some existing parties, it hopefully will deter others from breaking the law and in time, help to improve investors and more importantly institutions’
confidence in Digital Assets. 

Despite the SEC action, it has not stopped some companies like Coinbase from successfully signing up institutions for its custody service which now, after just 1 year, has over $1 billion under custody.

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Cryptocurrency

ICO

Luxury Brand points to a more collaborative style of capitalism

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), which had a turnover of $46.8 billion in 2018, is the owner of luxury brands including the wine producer Chateau d’Yquem (which has been a vintner since 1593) and has officially announced a Blockchain-powered platform called Aura.

Aura is designed to enable luxury brands to be able to track materials that are used to manufacture items, through supply channels and production, to the shops where they are sold. It is also the intention to use Aura for some luxury brands for the trade of second-hand items such as handbags, dresses, watches, etc. The second-hand market is currently $360 billion p.a. and is predicted to grow to over $400 billion in 2020, making it actually larger than the market for new luxury brands, which is $302 billion, according to the fashion resale company Thredup.

The German Blockchain organisation...

Aura is designed to enable luxury brands to be able to track materials that are used to manufacture items, through supply channels and production, to the shops where they are sold. It is also the intention to use Aura for some luxury brands for the trade of second-hand items such as handbags, dresses, watches, etc. The second-hand market is currently $360 billion p.a. and is predicted to grow to over $400 billion in 2020, making it actually larger than the market for new luxury brands, which is $302 billion, according to the fashion resale company Thredup.

The German Blockchain organisation IOTA, which has been working with a number of major cars manufactures, has also recently launched The Block to track and monitor the supply chains for luxury clothing brand ALYX.
While we reported LVMH plans a few weeks ago in Digital Bytes, what is really interesting about Aura (which is being built with ConsenSys and Microsoft) is that LVMH has said that, according to a press release, it is already in discussion with other leading luxury brand owners. It is not normal for competitors to pay and develop technology and then share this with their competitors, but LVMH has decided that fraud and counterfeiting are endemic in the luxury brands sector, and it is better if the industry uses one platform to help tackle this challenge.

Blockchain was originally conceived as being a consensual technology where no one entity had total control, as it operates in a very decentralised manner. Will we see other industries using Blockchain technology in such a collaborative manner like LVMH is offering to do and so solve common problems for its industry? Is this a sign of a more collaborative style of capitalism?

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Logistics And Supply Chain

https://cointelegraph.com/news/louis-vuitton-an...Blockchain

How Social Media is adopting Blockchain

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

There has been a lot of discussion about the forthcoming launch of Facebook’s ‘Facecoin’ and what a huge fan Jack Dorsey (the founder of Twitter) is of Cryptocurrencies.

Once either of these social media giants launches their own token, it will no doubt help to further fuel interest and adoption of Digital Currencies. Indeed, if you take a closer look at Instagram, there are over 800 million Instagram users, of which 500 million are active EVERY DAY! It is not just ‘selfies and pictures of plates of food’ that are being shared on Instagram. According to an e-marketing specialist, The Drum, Instagram will generate over $10 billion of revenue for Facebook (its owner) in 2019. Online digital advertisers are increasingly looking at social media sites, such as Instagram,...

Once either of these social media giants launches their own token, it will no doubt help to further fuel interest and adoption of Digital Currencies. Indeed, if you take a closer look at Instagram, there are over 800 million Instagram users, of which 500 million are active EVERY DAY! It is not just ‘selfies and pictures of plates of food’ that are being shared on Instagram. According to an e-marketing specialist, The Drum, Instagram will generate over $10 billion of revenue for Facebook (its owner) in 2019. Online digital advertisers are increasingly looking at social media sites, such as Instagram, as part of their digital engagement with existing and prospective customers.

However, as the chart above shows, the total number of people on social media is a staggering 3.4 billion, and the vast majority are using mobile devices to get onto social media sites. It is not just large social media sites using Blockchain technology - there is a host of other lesser-known social media platforms that use Blockchain technology as well, and many are using tokens to reward and encourage active users.

Minds - similar to Twitter and Facebook, with approximately 2.7 million monthly visits. A ‘Free Speech Social Network’ which does not push particular content over any other and uses a selection of popular features from Facebook and Twitter.

Choon - similar to Spotify. Designed to help musicians ensure they are paid a fare-share for what they create, receiving a form of Crypto tokens as payment. Choon also pays listeners to curate playlists and listen to sponsored tracks in exchange for tokens.

Indorse - similar to LinkedIn. A platform for people looking for a job, by allowing them to post their CV, listing what projects they have worked on and then, anonymously, experts in that person’s professional network can ‘endorse’ them. The user and the endorsers are incentivised to use the platform by being paid ‘Indorse Bucks’, creating a more reliable and honest database of people’s experience and skill sets.

MeWe - similar to WhatsApp, but with a focus on privacy. This could be a better solution for people who use private Facebook groups (shared with close friends) using features such as disappearing messages.

Steepshot - similar to Instagram. This social media platform enables smartphone photographers and influencers to be paid for their content, by earning tokens as an award for their photos and the interest they generate.
So social media, which is now being used by over 3.2 billion people, is embracing Blockchain Technology and or Digital Assets (by giving way tokens to users) and, in many cases, without its users even being aware. Perhaps this is how this technology and this New Asset class will become mainstream. After all, do we really care, let alone think, about what operating 7system our smartphone uses? Or what the latency and cybersecurity challenges are of using a debit card as we pay for our weekly groceries?

The massive growth of social media has financed selling adverts based on users data. This has led users to be at a disadvantage because their data has become, in effect, the “currency” being traded by social media platforms. Blockchain technology can improve the security of a social media platform, as well as rewarding users via tokens for their attention time and data.

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Bitcoin

Blockchain

Social Media

Digital Assets attract greater institutional interest

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Fidelity, the global asset manager which looks after over $6.7 Trillion of customers’ funds, has carried out a survey with Greenwhich, which has a database to interview of up to 3,000 institutions.

This gives Greewhich un-paralleled access to some of the world’s biggest pension, hedge, mutual and alternative managers’ insight. The survey found that 47% of institutional investors thought Digital Assets are worth investing in. The survey also found that 46 percent of respondents like the low correlation between Cryptocurrencies and other asset classes. Of the 441 institutional investors that were interviewed for this survey, between November 2018 and February 2019, 72% preferred to buy investment vehicles that hold digital assets, while 57 % chose to buy Cryptocurrencies directly. Custody continues to be a challenge for institutional managers, with 76% of the...

This gives Greewhich un-paralleled access to some of the world’s biggest pension, hedge, mutual and alternative managers’ insight. The survey found that 47% of institutional investors thought Digital Assets are worth investing in. The survey also found that 46 percent of respondents like the low correlation between Cryptocurrencies and other asset classes. Of the 441 institutional investors that were interviewed for this survey, between November 2018 and February 2019, 72% preferred to buy investment vehicles that hold digital assets, while 57 % chose to buy Cryptocurrencies directly. Custody continues to be a challenge for institutional managers, with 76% of the respondents saying that security is a problem, and there is a preference for well-known established custodians to offer custody services.

Amazingly, over 22% of the respondents had already invested in Digital Assets, compared to almost 0% in 2016. One suspects that we will see another substantial jump in ownership by institutions as more Security Token Offerings (STOs) come to the market, which is typically backed by “real assets”, as well as being subject to greater regulatory controls.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Andreessen Horowitz, the legendary Venture Capital firm, has generated $10 billion-plus on paper in estimated profits for its investors. Over the next year or so, no less than five of the firms it backed - Airbnb, Lyft, PagerDuty, Pinterest and Slack - are going public. Andreessen Horowitz has also been investing in Blockchain technology-related business and Cryptocurrencies, and itself has just raised over $2.7 Billion.

Another sign of institutional interest in Digital Assets can be seen by the ongoing Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity, as this is a sign that Digital Assets, as an asset class, is beginning to mature as corporate brokers and organisations look for synergy and undervalued opportunities.

As the graph shows, M&A has been mainly focused on firms which are building the digital infrastructure i.e. exchanges and services that support them, with companies like Kraken being particularly active. So as ever, nothing changes, as it was the merchants who sold picks and shovels in the California gold rush that made money, more often than the prospectors who panned for gold itself.

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Digital Assets

How raising capital for Digital Assets is evolving, as ICOs make room for IEOs

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) have been used to raise capital by over 5,400 organisations - the largest amount of money being generated was EOS, that reportedly raised $4.3 Billion followed by Telegram with $1.7 Billion, so it is not hard to see why ICOs have attracted so much attention globally.

Unfortunately, it would seem that a number of ICOs are potentially fraudulent, with some estimates saying that over $500 million has been raised for questionable/phony projects. This type of crowdfunding is being replaced by Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), which in many ways are very similar to an ICO. The difference is that an IEO is launched and managed by a Digital Exchange, instead of the organisation that is raising capital, itself, carrying out the marketing and distribution of the token. The exchange typically conducts due diligence on the token to be issued and holds and sells the tokens on behalf...

Unfortunately, it would seem that a number of ICOs are potentially fraudulent, with some estimates saying that over $500 million has been raised for questionable/phony projects. This type of crowdfunding is being replaced by Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), which in many ways are very similar to an ICO. The difference is that an IEO is launched and managed by a Digital Exchange, instead of the organisation that is raising capital, itself, carrying out the marketing and distribution of the token. The exchange typically conducts due diligence on the token to be issued and holds and sells the tokens on behalf of the project team. The buyers of the IEO are existing clients of the Digital Exchange, and while this means that there are considerable savings in terms of marketing and promotional costs, many of the exchanges that offer IEOs are charging companies to have access to their distribution capabilities.

It is ironic that ICOs offered the ability for anyone to get access to the potential profits of a token rising in value in a highly decentralised manner. IEOs seem to be moving back to a more centralised model, where investors will need to “sign up” to particular exchanges to get access to individual IEOs and be subject to compliance and regulation. This more centralised style could appeal to regulators, as they may impose regulations on exchanges issuing IEOs and, in effect, treat them like a Nominated Adviser (NOMAD) or a corporate broker.

We are starting to see more asset-backed tokens i.e. Security Token Offerings (STOs) that offer the ability to trade property, commodities, publicly quoted and private shares, and bonds. The institutions that are more likely to buy these STOs ought to draw comfort from this enhanced level of regulation that IEOs may bring.

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ICO

Digital Assets

https://blokt.com/guides/what-is-an-ieo-initial...-explained

Pepsi and Coca Cola using Blockchain in different ways - also to help your favourite cocktail or coffee

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Pepsi has been working with Mindshare to see how the process of digital advertising can be more efficient and cost-effective.

Only a small proportion of the money spent by advertisers is productive, as there are numerous intermediaries “taking a cut”. Also, a considerable amount of the money spent on digital adverts is fraudulent or inaccurate, as it includes activity from "bots".

Pepsi, this March, ran a trial in Asia and discovered that there was a 28% improvement ‘in terms of costs for viewable impressions, in running the campaign through smart contracts, versus one without,” according to Mindshare.

There are a number of other firms exploring how Blockchain can help in the advertising world including Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Unilever and AB InBev...

Only a small proportion of the money spent by advertisers is productive, as there are numerous intermediaries “taking a cut”. Also, a considerable amount of the money spent on digital adverts is fraudulent or inaccurate, as it includes activity from "bots".

Pepsi, this March, ran a trial in Asia and discovered that there was a 28% improvement ‘in terms of costs for viewable impressions, in running the campaign through smart contracts, versus one without,” according to Mindshare.

There are a number of other firms exploring how Blockchain can help in the advertising world including Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Unilever and AB InBev (which owns Budweiser beer). The International Advertising Board, in a study it undertook, found 48% of clicks from adverts are erroneous.

Coca Cola has been running various projects for over a year on how it can use Blockchain technology to improve the transparency of labour conditions among its workforce. They have been working with the US State Department to create a digital secure database on which to hold workers’ contracts and employment rights.

Meanwhile, in London, Dandelyan (which won the World’s Best Bar for 2019) and CUB restaurant (which won the sustainability award), are both using Blockchain technology to enable its cocktail drinkers to know where the ingredients in their drinks have come from.

There is a growing interest, especially from millennials, to know the provenance of what they are consuming. Furthermore, they are prepared to pay extra if they can be sure of knowing what they are buying, where it has come from and how it has been produced.

If a cup of coffee is more your thing, then look no further than Starbucks, which signed-up the ex-head of global sales and the Windows division of Microsoft in 2015. Starbucks continues to embrace technology and drive efficiency savings, and by using Blockchain technology is enabling it to have greater transparency over its supply chains and where some of its consumables, like coffee beans, come from.

According to the International Labour Organisation, nearly 25 million people work in forced-labour conditions worldwide, with 47% of them in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, if platforms using Blockchain technology can be created to reduce the exploitation of labour, it has to be welcomed.

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Blockchain

Food & Beverages

Digital Advertising

How Blockchains can help identify fraudulent CVs

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

With over 30% of CVs potentially containing fraudulent information, any way for HR departments to be able to check a candidate’s qualification has to be welcome.

The cost to get copies of your old “GCSE”, “O-level”, “A-Level”, or University degree certificate can be as much as £40 per qualification. The hassle factor in dealing both with and the time it takes, can be considerable for many existing analog databases. However, if the qualifications are held digitally, tamper-proof and securely on a Blockchain, employees, and employers alike, can efficiently have access to copies of the qualification documentation.

A research group at the University of Basel, in Switzerland, called Center for Innovative Finance, has been working on a project to put academic qualifications onto a Blockchain. Interestingly, it took...

The cost to get copies of your old “GCSE”, “O-level”, “A-Level”, or University degree certificate can be as much as £40 per qualification. The hassle factor in dealing both with and the time it takes, can be considerable for many existing analog databases. However, if the qualifications are held digitally, tamper-proof and securely on a Blockchain, employees, and employers alike, can efficiently have access to copies of the qualification documentation.

A research group at the University of Basel, in Switzerland, called Center for Innovative Finance, has been working on a project to put academic qualifications onto a Blockchain. Interestingly, it took less than two weeks to complete this initiative, demonstrating that using Blockchain technology can be implemented quickly.

Away from academia, the commercial world is also exploring the use of Blockchain-powered solutions to store qualifications, with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland doing a trial with PWC staff.

Governments are also using Blockchain technology to store educational qualifications. The Singapore government has developed “OpenCerts”, where it is possible to check qualifications from a variety of different academic institutions online, and so help potential employers identify fraudulent CVs.

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Blockchain

Higher Education

Recruitment

Stock Exchanges now using Blockchain.

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

The Bolas de Madrid, Spain’s largest Stock Exchange, has just announced that it will be using Blockchain as part of its settlement system, having carried out tests and found that the total time to process a trade had been reduced by as much as 80%.

The Spanish Stock Exchange is being encouraged to use Blockchain technology, as there has been considerable interest from start-ups using the technology to raise capital. There has also been considerable activity from a number of large Spanish corporations - BVVA ( one of Spain’s leading banks) issuing bonds, and Acciona and Iberdrola (two of Spain’s biggest power companies) both using Blockchains in their power distribution networks.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has recently been used by a company called ‘2030’ to raise £3 Million, making it the first Security Token Offering (STO) in the UK and paving the way for further...

The Spanish Stock Exchange is being encouraged to use Blockchain technology, as there has been considerable interest from start-ups using the technology to raise capital. There has also been considerable activity from a number of large Spanish corporations - BVVA ( one of Spain’s leading banks) issuing bonds, and Acciona and Iberdrola (two of Spain’s biggest power companies) both using Blockchains in their power distribution networks.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has recently been used by a company called ‘2030’ to raise £3 Million, making it the first Security Token Offering (STO) in the UK and paving the way for further firms that are likely to raise money digitally.

The CEO of LSE recently said “You can certainly see distributed ledger technology having an application in the issuance process… I can see that technology being used in settlement too.” This interest in Blockchain technology by Stock Exchanges is not new, as in an article in Coin Desk they revealed that in 2016 there were ten different exchanges looking at the technology and how they could use Blockchain. Inevitably, institutions, especially regulated ones which are subject to close scrutiny, are never going to move quickly! There has been considerable work and various initiatives, and it would appear that the infrastructure continues to be built, making the trading of Digital Assets 24/7 and removing many of the existing intermediaries a reality.

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International Trade And Development

Stock Exchange

Football cards get on the Blockchain and Captain Kirk from Star Trek joins in too!

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

Believe it or not, the size of the global sports memorabilia industry is $5.4 Billion, according to Forbes.

So it is no surprise that Fantastec has bought in PwC as its exclusive Blockchain Partner, as it looks to target leading football clubs in England and Europe.

Even the biggest clubs, such as Arsenal football club with a capacity of 60,260, is tiny, even if it is successful and manages to increase its stadium’s capacity to 90,000, compared to its global fan base:

Arsenal’s followers:
Facebook - 37.5million
Instagram - 13.5 million
Twitter - 14.1 million
Global fan base - 125 million

Football teams, given the size of their global fan base, are keen to explore ways in which they can reach out to their...

So it is no surprise that Fantastec has bought in PwC as its exclusive Blockchain Partner, as it looks to target leading football clubs in England and Europe.

Even the biggest clubs, such as Arsenal football club with a capacity of 60,260, is tiny, even if it is successful and manages to increase its stadium’s capacity to 90,000, compared to its global fan base:

Arsenal’s followers:
Facebook - 37.5million
Instagram - 13.5 million
Twitter - 14.1 million
Global fan base - 125 million

Football teams, given the size of their global fan base, are keen to explore ways in which they can reach out to their fans. Doing this digitally is very cost effective, and helps to explain clubs’ interest in Fantastec. This is a company which offers “digital football cards” (soccer cards for our cousins across The Pond), to collect and swap and then gain access to players videos and special memorabilia.

Talking of Americans, Captain Kirk, aka William Shatner, has just announced his involvement with Mattereum, a London based law-tech firm, which is also addressing the issues around the authenticity of memorabilia using Blockchain technology.

Fantastec has signed-up Arsenal, Real Madrid in Spain, and Borussia Dortmund in Germany to its ‘blockchain-powered solution; SWAP offers fans the chance to get digital collectibles like autographs or player cards’.
These clubs are looking to generate greater fan engagement, as well as making money from additional merchandising and, by using Fantastec’s SWAP platform, are able to reach out to their fans worldwide who are unable to attend matches. If Digital cards perform like their paper-based ones, they could turn out to be a canny investment, as in the US the index of the top 500 baseball cards has beaten the S&P 500 since 2008 by twofold!

Last year, Arsenal became the first Premier League football club to sponsor a firm that did an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) called Cash Bet, which raised $38 million for this California-based firm, established in 2012.
One wonders how long will it be before we see a major football team launch its own Digital currency as a way to further ”lock in” and monetise its fans.

Given the recent dominance of English football teams in the Champions League and the UEFA cup, where all four teams are English, and the dominance of the UK as a fintech hub, could it be that a football team from England is the first to issue a Digital currency?

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Blockchain

Digital Currency

Blockchain is being used to fight fraud and corruption by governments in developing countries

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

The World Bank cites that corruption is one of the key challenges holding back many of the poor in the world, as it can stifle investment into a country.

It undermines trust in society, and it is the poor that are the most vulnerable, according to some studies, by having to pay the highest percentage of their income in bribes.

There have been success stories in the fight against corruption, such as in Afghanistan, where improvements to the management of its public finance, and making its procurement system more transparent, have helped the government save approximately $270 million.In Guinea, all of its civil servants in 2015 had to partake in a biometric identification system to eliminate fictitious or fraudulent positions, and potentially save more than $1.7 Million fraudulent salary payments.

In...

It undermines trust in society, and it is the poor that are the most vulnerable, according to some studies, by having to pay the highest percentage of their income in bribes.

There have been success stories in the fight against corruption, such as in Afghanistan, where improvements to the management of its public finance, and making its procurement system more transparent, have helped the government save approximately $270 million.In Guinea, all of its civil servants in 2015 had to partake in a biometric identification system to eliminate fictitious or fraudulent positions, and potentially save more than $1.7 Million fraudulent salary payments.

In The Dominican Republic the “Participatory Anti-Corruption Initiative” was created, and it claimed it has helped to lower public spending by 64 percent.

Blockchain is proving to be a useful technology that governments are increasingly using to help in this battle against fraud and corruption. The Peruvian government has recently said that it is looking to use a platform on the LAC-Chain Blockchain to register purchase orders from Peru’s Compras, a government agency that regulates electronic purchases in Peru. The LAC-Chain has been developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which was created to promote the use of Blockchain technology in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has a network of nodes (based on Quorum) which is a Blockchain, developed by JPMorgan and is used by the JP stablecoin. It is hoped that using Blockchains will create much greater transparency and a trusted record of transactions, and so encourage additional investment into Peru while reducing bogus invoices, fraud, and corruption on at least some of the government’s spending.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, only half of adults have access to banking services. However, 90% of unbanked adults have a mobile phone. As smartphone penetration continues to grow, the popularity of virtual currencies is also growing. In Brazil, some companies and retail stores are accepting cryptocurrencies as payment. In Colombia and Argentina, more and more of their citizens are using Bitcoin as their currency of choice, due to a lack of confidence in governments and spiraling inflation rates.  Venezuela has launched the Petro, a Cryptocurrency backed by its oil reserves. In the Middle East, Iran and separately, Saudi Arabia and UAE, are launching Digital currencies. All three of these countries have said one of the reasons for doing so, is to fight their countries’ “black economies”.

Ernst and Young produced a report “How Blockchain can help create better public services” last year, in which it gave numerous examples of how Blockchain technology is able to help governments globally.
The adoption of Blockchain technology by governments is important, as it is likely to encourage commercial organisations to embrace Blockchain as well. This ought to help improve peoples’ understanding about what Blockchain can offer and the good it can achieve, as opposed to associating this technology with Bitcoin and people carrying out nefarious activities in some form of anonymous manner.

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Blockchain

Government Relations

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/...o-necesita

The way money is transferred is changing

BBFTA News Editor | May 22, 2019 | PERMALINK

In 2018, The World Bank claimed that the global remittance market (money typically sent back by workers overseas to their home countries)  reached $689 billion, up from $633 billion in 2017.

The top three countries to receive money from overseas were India ($79 billion), followed by China ($67 billion) and then Mexico ($36 billion). While some banks are charging 11%, the average cost to send money home, according to the World Bank, was 7% i.e. over $48 BILLION is being paid, by often those on low incomes, such as security guards, cleaners and domestic staff. These very same transfers could be carried out for a fraction of this price if the banks were bypassed, along with the other intermediaries, and transfers were carried out using Digital Assets.

Therefore, it ought to be...

The top three countries to receive money from overseas were India ($79 billion), followed by China ($67 billion) and then Mexico ($36 billion). While some banks are charging 11%, the average cost to send money home, according to the World Bank, was 7% i.e. over $48 BILLION is being paid, by often those on low incomes, such as security guards, cleaners and domestic staff. These very same transfers could be carried out for a fraction of this price if the banks were bypassed, along with the other intermediaries, and transfers were carried out using Digital Assets.

Therefore, it ought to be no surprise that Facebook is looking to take a share of the global cash transfer market with the launch of its own Digital currency, as reviewed in last week’s Digital Bytes. This may explain why Facebook is no longer banning adverts for Cryptocurrencies, which it enacted in January 2018. Interestingly, Facebook is looking to raise $1 Billion for its new stable coin project and has been courting Mastercard and Visa to invest.

Meanwhile, PayPal has been cautious about Bitcoin, has announced that it is working with Blockchain technology to be able to handle other Digital Assets. PayPal needs to replace the revenue that it generates from e-Bay (which used to own PayPal until 2014), who after 15 years, stated it will be using an alternative payments service-provider, called Adyen. Adyen is a publicly-listed Dutch company which has already revealed a tie-up with BitPay, and will enable Adyen’s clients access to Digital Assets. Therefore, indirectly, e-Bay clients will have access to Digital Assets too.

PayPal currently has over 270 million users, who potentially will have access to be able to deal in Digital Assets. Who knows, maybe PayPal will develop a closer relationship with Facebook? After all, PayPal is already Instagram’s payments provider and Facebook is looking to launch Facecoin on its other platform, WhatsApp, later this year in India.

Not to be left behind in this digital transformation of payments, Mastercard continues to file patents, as it looks to integrate traditional fiat currencies with Digital currencies. It has been working on Blockchain-powered solutions to improve security, in an effort to minimise fraudulent activities. It is also trying to overcome the challenges of integrating different Blockchains so data about different Cryptocurrencies can be held in one place.

As we can see, the traditional landscape of money transfers is being disrupted by Digital Assets. With companies such as BitPay and Facebook entering the market, traditional firms like PayPal, Mastercard and Visa are having to adapt, as their “fat margins” are being challenged by these lower-cost providers.

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Digital Money

Barry James

7 Years Ago |

The FATF Juggernaught - An Existential Crisis for Crypto and Tokens?

If some still think that crypto, tokens and blockchain exist in a separate universe then it's time for a rethink. Just look what happened to ICOs over the last year.

As you may have seen I recently returned from representing the association in Vienna at the G8's financial action task force (FATF) who are responsible for setting AML standards globally.

To put it bluntly why wouldn't the banks wants to do for exchanges and other crypto services (FATF calls these VASPS and seems to include wallet providers) what the SEC has done for ICOs? Not only is it in their...

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Jonny Fry

7 Years Ago |

Digital payments are replacing cash and Cryptos are being accepted more and more in shops

In the UK, Digital payments over took cash payments for the first time last year, and the trend of using less cash when shopping looks set to continue, with now over 63% of UK consumers using contactless payment. Contactless technology was invented by Nickola Tesla,in 1898, using radio signals to control a model boat in New York. However, it took until 1995 for contactless tickets to be first used in Seoul in Korea to replace bus and rail paper tickets. Finally, in 1997, Mobil petroleum launched...

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Jonny Fry

7 Years Ago |

Four different ways Blockchain is being used in the agriculture sector

 
Blockchain technology is being used in a variety of ways to help improve efficiency, cut costs, create greater transparency and offer provenance of where goods have come from in the agriculture sector,here are four ways through which this is happening:

. Traceability- Blockchains are helping supply chains and logistics in the agriculture sector to improve traceability. This helps companies to quickly track unsafe products to their original source, so potentially preventing illness and reducing the cost of product recalls. A good example of this is the Walmart venture with IBM to...

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