#87: The World Bank, verified blockchain booster

Blockchain, not Bitcoin!

Chain Letter Blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and why they matter 09.13: Blockchain, not Bitcoin! Welcome to Chain Letter! Today’s email is a special edition, featuring a recap from a blockchain-focused discussion at EmTech, MIT Technology Review’s flagship conference. Satoshi Nakamoto invented the Bitcoin blockchain as a way for people to make financial transactions without the need for banks or governments. So it’s ironic that one of the world’s biggest boosters of blockchains—shared cryptographic ledgers inspired by the one that underlies Nakamoto’s invention—is the World Bank, which is owned by governments. It makes sense, though, argues Prema Shrikrishna, who works in the bank’s Technology Innovation Lab. That’s because her organization’s goal for its recently launched blockchain lab is to “put power back in the hands of the people.” It’s still very early in the process, but the lab’s experiments in education, financial services, and efforts to trace agricultural and pharmaceutical supply chains are already providing valuable lessons, Shrikrishna said today at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference today. This year, the World Bank partnered with Consensys, a company focused on developing applications using Ethereum, to explore how blockchain technology can help improve a pilot-stage educational platform called Evoke. The first goal is to give the project’s donors more transparency into how their money is being used, Shrikrishna explained. The next step will be finding ways to use crypto-tokens to incentivize students to participate and complete certain tasks. Shrikrishna also explained how the bank is experimenting with a mix of information technologies, including blockchains, to figure out how to bring more transparency to the palm oil industry’s supply chain. Blockchains may provide an opportunity to use crypto-tokens to encourage palm fruit farmers and the middlemen that stand between farms and mills to enter higher-quality data about fruit as it moves through the chain, she said. The most concrete blockchain-based application the World Bank has developed so far is a bond it recently issued with the help of an Australian bank that uses a private version of Ethereum. Bonds are a huge part of the bank’s operations—it issues more than $50 billion in bonds each year to raise money for sustainable development. So far, the blockchain-based bond has raised around $80 million. Shrikrishna said the goal of the project is to explore how blockchain technology can make it easier for investors to access the market while also increasing transparency around financing. The bond has an unusually short two-year lifetime, which Shrikrishna says will give the bank the opportunity to quickly learn from the experience, adapt to technological innovations that may emerge in the meantime, and “issue the next bond with a much higher level of confidence.” EmTech Digital. Discover future trends and understand the technologies that will drive the new global economy. Purchase your tickets today. Loose Change Fill your pockets with these newsy tidbits. • The US SEC has brought a first-of-its-kind enforcement case against an “ICO superstore” for failing to register as a broker-dealer. (Bloomberg) • The World Economic Forum estimates that global businesses could generate an additional $1 trillion in trade financing by using blockchains to reduce fees, mitigate credit risk, and eliminate barriers to trade. (CoinDesk) • Several high-profile cryptocurrency companies and investment groups have formed a DC-based lobbying group. (The Washington Post) • Morgan Stanley plans to offer trading in complex Bitcoin derivatives called price return swaps. (Bloomberg) • The Paris Saint-Germain soccer team is planning to issue its own cryptocurrency. (CoinDesk) The Money Quote “This happens in all major technology development cycles. You see a decoupling between the financial capital and where the technology actually is.” —Arianna Simpson, a managing director at venture firm Autonomous Partners, arguing that recent cryptocurrency price slumps reflect doubts about the practical utility of the underlying technology. (Wall Street Journal) We hope you enjoyed today's tour of what's new in the world of blockchains and cryptocurrencies. Send us some feedback, or follow me @mike_orcutt. Know someone who might enjoy reading Chain Letter? Was this forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Discover where tech, business, and culture converge. Attend EmTech Digital March 25-26, 2019 San Francisco View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed with the email address: contacto1745.send-mail@blogger.com edit preferences   |   unsubscribe   |   follow us      MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

Blockchain Association / Mt. Gox Update / $1 Trillion from Blockchain

Subscribe | View in browser 1. A number of high-profile cryptocurrency companies have formed the Blockchain Association, a Washington-based lobbying group to represent companies working with blockchain. The founding members include Coinbase, Circle, Protocol Labs, Digital Currency Group and Polychain Capital. The group has already made its first hire, bringing in Kristen Smith, a former aide to then-Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) who has lobbied blockchain issues for Overstock.com. –THE WASHINGTON POST       2. Mt. Gox's corporate credits can now enter claims to recover trapped bitcoin. Nobuaki Kobayashi, the rehabilitation trustee for Mt. Gox, said corporate creditors will have until October 22 to file proof backing their refund claims. The refund process opened for individual (non-corporate) users on August 23. Kobayashi will submit a statement of approval or rejection of the requests in January. –COINDESK       CryptocurrencyNewsfeed.com -- News Terminal for Crypto Traders View a live demo -- no login or credit card required! -- The world's first crypto news terminal covering 2,000 coins. Take action before the crowd and profit with faster news. Up-to-the-second precision. We are always first with 20 analysts working around the clock. Click here for a no-login-required demo!     3. Morgan Stanley plans to offer swap trading of cryptocurrencies for clients, according to a report. The bank will create contracts that give investors synthetic exposure to the performance of bitcoin. The contract will allow investors to go long or short using price return swaps, essentially allowing them to trade the cryptocurrency without actually owning any coins. Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the report. –BLOOMBERG       4. The World Economic Forum claims that blockchain could generate $1 trillion in trade over the next decade. The report argues that distributed ledger and similar technological innovations can bring "groundbreaking advances" in trade and supply china finance. Those changes could bring 30 percent in new trade volume. –COIN TELEGRAPH       Attend Trading Show New York: FREE Education on Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain & More With your FREE visitor pass to the Trading Show New York, you get access to seminars with topics including crypto investing, blockchain, and capital markets. You can also hit our expo floor, where you can discover new technology solutions for cryptocurrencies, blockchain, data analytics, & more!       5. Cocos-BCX, a China-based blockchain game development platform, has raised $40 million. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate development of its platform. –VENTURE BEAT 6. The price of ethereum has crashed more than 20 percent this week before making a comeback over the past 24 hours. One analyst asks if this is the time to buy, or if investors should wait a little longer. –FORBES 7. Bitcoin's market dominance may only continue to grow. Despite the growth of altcoins over the past few years, bitcoin remains – easily – the most popular coin by a large margin. –FORBES 8. Ethereum's Constantinople upgrade was recently finalized. CoinDesk created a helpful guide to explain everything that will be in the upgrade. –COINDESK 9. Jani Ziedins of CrackedMarket believes the worst is yet to come for the crypto market. While coins rebounded slightly on Wednesday, the change in fortunes could be short lived. –MARKET WATCH 10. Bittrex will launch USD pairs for litecoin and tron. This will make it easier for Bittrex customers to purchase both coins, something the site has already done with the likes of stellar and cardano. –ETHEREUM WORLD NEWS       Written and curated by David Stegon. He has been a reporter for 15 years, the past 10 focused on technology. Follow him @davidstegon. Editing team: Lon Harris (editor-in-chief at Inside.com, game-master at Screen Junkies), Krystle Vermes (Breaking news editor at Inside, B2B marketing news reporter, host of the "All Day Paranormal" podcast), and Susmita Baral (editor at Inside, recent bylines in NatGeo, Teen Vogue, and Quartz. Runs the biggest mac and cheese account on Instagram).       $BTC (1:08 p.m. EST): $6,521.83 (3.33%) // 90-day high: $8,245.16 // 90-day low: $5,889.64/ / More… $BCH (1:09 p.m. EST): $461.25 (8.85%) // 90-day high: $872.84// 90-day low: $420.58 // More… $ETH (1:09 p.m. EST): $209.04 (20.93%) // 90-day high: $531.53 // 90-day low: $171.58 // More… $LTC (1:10 p.m. EST): $55.00 (10.79%) // 90-day high: $107.31 // 90-day low: $49.35 // More… $XRP (1:10 p.m. EST): $0.28 (7.10%) // 90-day high: $0.57 // 90-day low: $0.22 // More… Here are the 10 most important stories about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies today       Dozens of analysts covering news on 2,000 coins in 24/7 realtime. Over 80,000 staff-written headlines. CryptocurrencyNewsfeed.com

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