Blockchain News for 30 Aug 2017
Blockchain: Every Company is at Risk of Being Disrupted by a Trusted Version of Itself
Blockchain will disrupt every industry. Blockchain is a disruptive technology because of it’s ability to digitize, decentralize, secure and incentivize the validation of transactions. A wide swath of industries are evaluating blockchain to determine what strategic differentiation can exist for their businesses by leverage Blockchain. Here is high level overview of what is Blockchain, and what is it used for via MIT Technology Review.
“Blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technologies, show significant promise in addressing the trust and transparency required for a digital world. Opportunities exist to rethink cooperation and control governance, financial control, flow of wealth, the trust gap, and transforming transparency of organizations. Consequently, society faces a unique opportunity with blockchain to transform how we engage with each other.” — Ray Wang
To learn more about the importance of Blockchain and its disruptive nature, Ray Wangand I invited a Blockchain expert author, who believes that every company will be disrupted by a trusted version of itself, and one of the first chief digital officers of a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company to speak about the importance of distributed ledgers and the future of trusted companies to our weekly show DisrupTV.
Richie Etwaru is chief digital officer at QuintilesIMS [NYSE:Q], where he is responsible for identifying, prioritizing and embedding technology innovation and digital trends into the vision, strategy, and operating model required to support the growth of the Global Technology Solutions business unit. Prior to joining QuintilesIMS from Cegedim, Etwaru was the Executive Director and Head of Innovation and Transformation at UBS Wealth Management, SVP and Divisional CIO for Lehman Brothers, and co-founder of several technology ventures.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wJyW0e
Source: Huffington Post
Former Barclays Boss: Banks May Fall Behind in Blockchain Technology Adoption
Former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has claimed that major players in the banking industry could be left behind in the adoption of new financial innovations like Blockchain technology. He claims that banks are generally good innovators, but are not as fast as outsiders in adopting innovations for commercial applications.
According to Jenkins, banks struggle when it comes to transforming their operations and it is the major technology companies and financial technology start-ups that are dominating in said area.
“I think what we see in all industries, especially in financial services, is that incumbents (banks) tend to be quite good at innovation – they throw a lot of resources at that – and then the transformation is much harder for them. If you look at all the interesting work on transformation, it's really going outside the big incumbents. And the incumbents themselves are starting to realize this."
Full story at http://bit.ly/2xtTvve
Source: CoinTelegraph
Citi Speaks: State-Backed Cryptocurrency Key to Blockchain Adoption
State-backed cryptocurrencies are key to the adoption of blockchain technology, according to an executive at investment banking group Citi.
In an exclusive interview with CoinDesk, the bank's recently appointed head of core cash management for Asia-Pacific, Morgan McKenney, positioned its new CitiConnect blockchain project within a larger context – one in which the ultimate success of distributed ledger technology depends on the advent of fiat currencies issued on a blockchain.
According to McKenney, every payment method has an environment in which it's best suited, and to fully unlock the project's potential – and any number of blockchain environments – cryptocurrency is the most suitable payment method.
But in spite of current limits that have been placed on the $187 billion bank's research into the technology, she explained how atomic swaps could be further empowered if any number of cryptoassets could be purchased with a blockchain-based fiat currency.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2xxBXyx
Source: CoinDesk
How Blockchain and Digital Tokens Can Disrupt Money Transfer Business
In Q2 2017, the global average for remittance prices in the world was 7.32 percent. In Q1 this figure was 7.45 percent. This is according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report.
Ironically, banks which have a wide network in the form of SWIFT remain the most expensive way of sending money around the world, with the cost averaging 10.99 percent.
Surely there has to be a better way for both senders and receivers of money?
Considering that a lot of beneficiaries of these remittances are family members in poor countries, the high percentage fee charged by money remittance companies is a big issue.
An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) from Transmission, a system of money transfer which promises ‘revolutionary changes to the traditional principles of existing currencies transfer and conversions’ is all set to raise money from the public.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2xj79BB
Source: CoinTelegraph
Swift's Cross-Border Blockchain Trial Is Moving Into Its Next Phase
Swift is one step closer to adopting blockchain.
After months of work, a team of developers at the inter-bank payments platform have completed a proof-of-concept built with the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. Designed to test whether moving member bank accounts to a distributed ledger could help Swift reconcile in real time, the project is now ready for its next phase.
According to Damien Vanderveken, head of Swift's distributed ledger technology R&D effort, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, RBC Royal Bank and Wells Fargo have now been given access to the platform for further testing.
If successful, Swift believes the tests could free up billions of dollars in dormant funds in banks' nostro accounts, which are set up all over the world to hold various currencies just in case they're needed for transactions. By moving the funds to a shared ledger, the test is seeking to confirm whether that practice can be eliminated, freeing up the capital to be invested in other ventures.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wINJbI
Source: CoinDesk
Blockchain Tech Will Power Future Real Estate Market
They say that there are two things that lead to divorce - having an affair and buying a new home. Real estate transactions are notoriously tedious and painstaking, and much of the headache is caused by a lack of technological advancement.
Listings and sales are still done much in the same way as they were a century ago, with property agents, listing services, and transactions having barely even digitized while other essential industries have globalized and democratized.
This means that traditional profit and access structures are still in place, and centralized fee systems take unnecessary funds and agency away from buyers and sellers, as well as agents.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2wJM7OO
Source: CoinTelegraph
Advertisement:
Resteemed
A lot but interesting to read.