David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Florida Bill Would Legally Recognize Blockchain Signatures, Smart Contracts

A lawmaker in Florida has introduced a bill

that, if passed, would create a legal foundation for blockchain data and smart contracts in the U.S. state. House Bill 1357 introduces multiple stipulations that blockchain ledgers and smart contracts be treated as legally-binding methods of data storage – provided that such measures do not break any pre-existing laws or regulations.

Notably, the bill states that a "record or contract that is secured through blockchain technology is in an electronic form and is an electronic record," and confirms that a signature recorded through a blockchain also qualifies as a valid electronic signature. As a result of these qualifications, the bill outlines that, if a person uses a blockchain to secure interstate or foreign commercial ventures, it would not impact ownership rights. In other words, if someone used a blockchain ledger to store information, the bill would legally recognize that person's rights to that information.

Similarly, the bill states:

"A contract may not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because: 1. An electronic record was used in the formation of the contract [and] 2. The contract contains a smart contract term."

If signed into law, the bill would make Florida the latest state to recognize blockchain records and smart contracts. Last year, Arizona passed a similar measure, with identical notes on confirming blockchain records as electronic records, as well as giving smart contracts legal force. A slightly different bill in Vermont, when passed in 2016, allowed for the use of blockchain-based data as evidence in court.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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Atomic Action:
Will 2018 Be the Year of the Cross-Blockchain Swap?

What if there were no exchanges to hack?

As a new generation of crypto users begin to invest in the technology, developers are growing concerned about its infrastructure. They've seen this happen before – new users enter the space attracted by big gains, then suddenly, a catastrophic failure, usually at the very exchanges designed to hold and custody those funds.

But out of adversity, inspiration is taking hold, with high-profile coders turning their focus to atomic swaps, a concept that claims to allow for the direct, peer-to-peer transfer of cryptocurrencies across different blockchains. In the place of the vulnerable exchanges we use today, the idea behind atomic swaps is that these large repositories of customer money could be rendered obsolete by code. And seasoned blockchain developers like Alex Bosworth believe this is all too necessary, especially given that users today need to effectively give up custody of their assets if they choose to hold funds on exchanges.

He siad:

"Putting users in control of their own private keys has the best aggregate track record for security despite individual cases of loss. Funds under centralized control on exchanges have led to the most massive security failures we've seen."

Andrew Gazdecki, CEO and co-founder of Altcoin.io, which recently launched a beta wallet for atomic swapping between crypto tokens, describes the problem in similar terms, arguing that users should be empowered to hold their own private keys (the alphanumeric strings that allow users to unlock, access and spend their funds) without relying on others.

"There are literally billions of dollars being held within these digital honeypots, and it's nearly impossible to find the perpetrators," he said. Early examples of atomic swaps technology emerged in various stages in 2017, and while there's disagreement as to the timeline they'll be available to the public, some believe 2018 will be their year. As Jameson Lopp, a BitGo software engineer,

recently tweeted:

"Nearly instant atomic swaps … are coming sooner than everyone thinks. Definitely not a year away, but mere months."

Atomic swaps already?

In some ways, atomic swaps are already here – depending on the kind of atomic swap you're looking to make. For instance, last year saw swaps between different blockchains built on similar code – the cryptocurrencies decred, litecoin and bitcoin – executed. Meanwhile, atomic swaps between cryptocurrency tokens on the same blockchain became more commonplace, with decentralized exchanges such as 0x and, as mentioned above, Altcoin.io, adding instant trades between tokens on ethereum compatible protocols.

Cryptocurrencies running on blockchains with much different codebases, though, must rely on purpose-built tools to facilitate these kinds of transfers today. Toward this goal, a tool for exchanging zcash for bitcoin called ZBXCAT was developed last year. Described by co-developer Jay Graber as the "walkie-talkie of payments," the tool will soon be accompanied by a simplified web interface.

Indeed, atomic swaps "could always be done manually," Graber said. However, because this requires a degree of technical skill, before atomic swaps see mainstream use, easier to use platforms will need to be developed. At the same time, Lightning Labs, a company devoted to promoting bitcoin's Lightning Network, recently conducted its first off-chain atomic swap on its test blockchain. Completed in November, the transaction saw litecoin and bitcoin swapped on an off-chain payment channel.

Off-chain hurdles

Off-chain atomic swaps of this type are highly anticipated since trading would be automatic, not reliant on the processing times of different blockchains, but the technology needed to implement off-chain atomic swaps – things like the Lightning Network and Raiden Network on ethereum – are still under development. Which is why some, like Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, are less optimistic about cross-blockchain atomic swaps. Stark recently discounted the hype, writing on a development channel, "Anyone telling people that Lightning swaps will be ready in months doesn't know what they're talking about."

And in interview with CoinDesk, Stark said:

"There's still a good amount of infrastructure to build."

One website, swapready.net, provides a breakdown of how close each cryptocurrency is to supporting cross-chain atomic swap capabilities – and to date, there's very few that can interoperate. Mirroring Stark's sentiments, Philippe Castonguay, developer relations manager at 0x, which offers on-chain atomic swaps of tokens on ethereum, told CoinDesk that developers looking to create atomic swaps between vastly different protocols are faced with "a lot of challenges." The infrastructure needed to interface between bitcoin and ethereum, for example, is still in development, and "to make it even worse, these cross-chain platforms also need to solve some of the main problems other blockchains are trying to solve, such as scalability," Castonguay said.

Still optimistic

Yet, even with a lot a work still to do, many remain assured advances are close. Bosworth, whose work has focused mostly on developing applications for bitcoin's Lightning Network, for one, made his excitement about a new era public, tweeting: "The atomic age is coming, what cannot be swapped will be left behind." And Castonguay, whose work focuses on ethereum, also remains encouraged by the development happening within that ecosystem. Even if swaps between blockchains with different code bases prove cumbersome, he believes the blockchain could yield other solutions given the expansive capabilities of its code.

"Eventually the ethereum blockchain will be able to communicate with other blockchains," he said. "Once this happens, all the different coins from different blockchains will be representable on the ethereum blockchain." For example, if bitcoin and ethereum blockchains can communicate with each other in a trustless way, then users could have an ERC-20 bitcoin on the ethereum blockchain, pegged one to one with bitcoin on the bitcoin blockchain, he posited. Such short-term solutions, he thinks, could help advance the atomic swaps concept overhaul.

Castonguay concluded:

"I do believe it is possible that some blockchains might be able to interact with one another this year, but I think 2019 through 2021 would be a safer bet."

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
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David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Telegram plans multi-billion dollar
ICO for chat cryptocurrency

Encrypted messaging startup Telegram plans to launch

its own blockchain platform and native cryptocurrency, powering payments on its chat app and beyond. According to multiple sources which have spoken to TechCrunch, the “Telegram Open Network” (TON) will be a new, ‘third generation’ blockchain with superior capabilities, after Bitcoin and, later, Ethereum paved the way. The launch will be funded with an enormous Initial Coin Offering, with forthcoming private pre-sales ranging into the hundreds of millions, potentially making it one of the largest ICOs to date. Demand is driven by the fact that rather than the ICO coming from a fresh startup, Telegram is a well-established messaging platform used around the world.

Adopting a homegrown cryptocurrency could give Telegram’s payment system enormous independence from any government or bank — something Co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov is known to covet after investors took over his last company, Russian social network VK. Durov has not responded to TechCrunch’s several attempts to contact him regarding this story. The potential for a cryptocurrency inside a widely adopted messaging app is enormous. With cryptocurrency powered payments inside Telegram, users could bypass remittance fees when sending funds across international borders, move sums of money privately thanks to the app’s encryption, deliver micropayments that would incur too high of credit card fees, and more. Telegram is already the de facto communication channel for the global cryptocurrency community, making a natural home to its own coin and Blockchain.

Selling a TON of cryptocurrency

Telegram is understood to be considering raising as much as $500 million in the pre-ICO sale at a potential total token value in the range of $3 billion to $5 billion. However, those figures could change before the ICO, which could come as soon as March. Those figures would make it possibly the biggest private crypto raise to date after Tezos, which raised over $230 million in July. A pre-sale in an ICO is a minimum cap on investments (sometimes with discounts) to attract big investors (‘whales’) before a wider token sale to retail investors. The public, retail phase of an ICO tends to raise less because there is a long tail of people investing small sums. But front-loading the ICO with institutional investment inspires confidence for retail investors.

Those pre-sale investors may be required to place a minimum buy-in of $20 million if they’re outside of Durov’s inner circle. Sources say that the ICO will require real fiat currency like US dollars for buy-in, not Bitcoin or Ether as others ICOs have to date. Top-tier institutional investment firms have expressed interest, but Durov is said to be wary of accepting their cash. One firm rumored to have pushed for a pre-sale allocation is Mail.Ru Group (formerly DST), founded by Russian emigre Yuri Milner. A spokesperson for DST did not reply to our inquiry about this story. Interestingly, Mail.Ru Group is the fund that ended up buying Durov’s last company VK.

Understanding Telegram Open Network

Durov’s idea is to launch an entirely new blockchain, using the Telegram’s 180 million users as rocket fuel to power forward into mainstream adoption off cryptocurrency and making Telegram, effectively, a kingmaker of other cryptocurrencies, because of its existing scale. According to Telegram’s white paper that TechCrunch has review portions of, its cryptocurrency will be called “Gram” and could potentially gain immediate mainstream adoption by being tied to Telegram’s chat app. Sources say Durov has decided to combine both a centralized and decentralized infrastructure, since a totally decentralized network doesn’t scale as fast as one which has some elements of centralization, hence why Telegram needs to own its own blockchain.

Moving to a decentralized blockchain platform could kill two birds with one stone for Telegram. As well as creating a full-blown cryptocurrency economy inside the app, it would also insulate it against the attacks and accusations of nation-states such as Iran, where it now accounts for 40% of Iran’s internet traffic but was temporarily blocked amongst nationwide protests against the government. Telegram has played a delicate political balancing act to try and retain its users in the country, shutting down some channels for calling for the downfall of the government, while keeping others open.

WeChat But With Crypto

With TON, Telegram aims to develop cryptocurrency-based utility akin to WeChat, which has blossomed into much more than a chat app and acts as default payment mechanism for many in China. While payments can be made very quickly in WeChat for a variety of services, the system remains very centralized. A decentralized platform such as TON could offer more security and resilience. Sources say that Telegram plans to allow users to hold both Telegram’s currency and fiat currency in a forthcoming wallet. There’s also the existing developer ecosystem Telegram has built up around it, where bots and services are offered by third-party developers. Again, here TON could, in theory, underly everything a developer brings to Telegram.

Inside TON

In a 132 page white paper, Telegram has outlined a four-stage plan:

“TON Services” will be a platform for third-party services of any kind that enables smartphone like friendly interfaces for decentralized apps and smart contracts. “TON DNS” is a service for assigning human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts services and network nodes. With TON DNS, accessing decentralized services could be like “viewing a website on the World Wide Web.” “TON Payments” is a platform for micropayments and a micropayment channel network. It aims to be used for “instant off-chain value transfers between users bots and other services”. Safeguards built into the system are designed to ensure that these transfers “are as secure as on-chain transactions”.

The “TON Blockchain” will consist of a master chain and 2-to-the-power-of-92 accompanying blockchains. Its most notable aspect is that it will have an “Infinite Sharding Paradigm” to achieve scalability. Thus, TON blockchains aim to be able to “automatically split and merge to accommodate changes in load”. This would mean new blocks are generated quickly and “the absence of long queues helps keep transaction costs low, even if some of the services using the platform become massively popular”.

It will also consist of “Instant Hypercube Routing” designed so the blockchain can maintain top speed even as it grows. Its proof of stake approach will reach consensus through a variant of the ‘Byzantine Fault Tolerant’ protocol, again increasing speed and efficiency. And it will also use 2-D Distributed Ledgers. This means the TON can grow new valid blocks on top of any blocks that were proven to be incorrect to avoid any unnecessary forks. In other words, TON aims to be ‘self-healing’.

TON’s third generation blockchain will be based on a dynamic ‘proof of stake’ secured by multiple parties with a high degree of fault tolerance. It will also handle storage of ID, payments and smart contracts. So, instead of relying on proof of work to create its currency, Telegram will rely on a new, less energy-hogging way of mining cryptocurrency than the original Bitcoin method. The claim is that it will be capable of a vastly superior number of transactions, around 1 million per second. In other words, similar to the ambitions of the Polkadot project out of Berlin — but with an installed base of 180 million people. This makes it an ‘interchain’ with so-called ‘dynamic sharding’.

 Keeping Control

The white paper also makes clear that four percent of the supply of Grams (200 million Grams) will be reserved for Telegram’s development team with a four-year vesting period. Telegram also plans to retain “at least 52 percent” of the entire supply of the Grams cryptocurrency to protect it from speculative trading and maintain flexibility. The remaining 44 percent will be sold in both the public and private sale.

The currency will be listed on external exchanges

and used inside the Telegram app. Timing-wise, the first quarter of this year will see the launch of the Telegram External Secure ID, followed by an MVP of TON. The launch of the Telegram Wallet is slated for Q4 2018, and the creation of the TON-based economy could launch in Q1 2019. The rest of the TON Services would follow in Q2 2019. Some in the crypto community remain skeptical of TON. “I just think this is the CEO’s way of monetizing Telegram, basically,” says Jackson Palmer, the founder of early cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

The Brothers Durov

Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov, a mathematical genius, were behind the creation of VK, “Russia’s Facebook”, worth an estimated $3 billion, but were effectively forced to sell their stake in the company by oligarch shareholders deeply connected to the Putin-led government. Although Pavel managed to negotiate an exit with a large payoff, he’s known to have harbored a resentment against outside investors ever since. Pavel reportedly left Russia with $300 million and 2,000 Bitcoins and, after buying a citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis, splits his time between London, Dubai and, where possible, Russia. Telegram’s move into crypto could give him another shot at a massive fortune, while potentially turning the chat app into a vast payment network protected from government interference.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
Interested or have Questions, Call Me, 559-474-4614

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Exponential Growth:
Cryptocurrency Exchanges Are Adding 100,000+ Users Per Day

Major Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading platforms

within the global market have been adding more than 100,000 users per day. Many of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase (GDAX), Binance, Bittrex, Bitstamp and Kraken have struggled in dealing with the abrupt surge in demand for cryptocurrencies. Some exchanges have overhauled their systems to improve their scalability, while others have temporarily stopped opening new user accounts.

Unexpected growth rate

This week, Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, the global market’s largest cryptocurrency exchange with a staggering $9.5 bln daily trading volume, revealed that it has added more than 250,000 users on a single day.

“Sorry guys, servicing existing members is higher priority at this point. Full team working around the clock. Both tech and support. Just too much demand. Added 250,000 new users in the last 24 hours,” said Zhao, referencing the official statement released by the company. On Jan. 4, Binance stated, “due to the overwhelming surge in popularity, Binance will have to temporarily disable new user registrations to allow for an infrastructure upgrade. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

In December, both Kraken and Coinbase allocated a significant portion of their resources and capital in improving customer support and the scalability of their platforms. On Dec. 23, Kraken, which has found difficulty in processing account verifications, disclosed that it has implemented major system upgrades and improvements in performance and will continue to develop its trading platform to support new users. The Kraken development team admitted that its current infrastructure is “degraded and unreliable,” and vowed to improve it throughout January.

The company said:

“We have made significant progress in the last week with the system upgrades and have realized moderate improvement in performance. Unfortunately, we were not able to complete all of the upgrades and the most impactful measures are yet to come. For the time being, systems should still be considered degraded and unreliable.”

Regional exchanges such as South Korea’s Bithumb, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume, have also stopped accepting new users.

Why are large exchanges struggling?

In late 2017, South Korea’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange Korbit was acquired at a valuation of $140 mln by a $10 bln gaming giant in Nexon. Given the size and the market valuation of Korbit, major exchanges like Bithumb, Bitstamp, Kraken and Binance could be worth more than $1 bln, as Coinbase was valued at $1.6 bln in its latest funding round.

Even with such large market valuation, high-profit margins, and many resources, cryptocurrency exchanges are struggling to address the exponentially increasing demand from investors because of the strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) systems the companies were forced to implement by the authorities. Each user application must be manually approved and verified. The failure to segregate fraudulent accounts from legitimate users could result in large fines and lawsuits for exchanges. Consequently, the vetting process of users is rigorous and requires significant efforts from the employees of exchanges.

Given that exchanges are adding more than 100,000 users per day, it is likely that exchanges are also receiving more than one mln trading account approval requests per month, at least. That is, if the approval process of accounts take around 10 minutes per account, 166,666 hours on a monthly basis that employees have to cover manually. In the next few months, global cryptocurrency exchanges will make drastic changes to their systems. Until then, users, especially newcomers, will find it difficult to open approved trading accounts.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
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Use of Tor in Iran Is at an All-Time High Amid Political Struggles

More and more consumers need to start taking their privacy seriously.

Especially when it comes to using the internet, there’s no reason to expose sensitive and personal information to third parties. With the use of VPNs and Tor on the rise, an interesting trend is created. Especially in Iran, reliance on Tor is skyrocketing as we speak. Given the political turmoil in that part of the world, this is no real surprise.

Iran Starts Flocking to Tor for Political Reasons

There are many reasons why people would start using Tor or a VPN connection to mask their online activity. While some people may think this always has to do with illegal activity, that is far from the case. In fact, the number-one reason for using such tools is simply to ensure privacy for all online activities and keep information away from prying eyes such as the government and internet service providers. After all, we should never give up such information either willingly or unwillingly.

At the same time, governments all over the world are cracking down on such tools. Especially in countries with oppressive regimes, there is a growing concern over the use of Tor and VPN connections. After all, such governments don’t want their residents to have any freedom of speech whatsoever, even though it is a basic human right in the eyes of most internet users. Restricting access to specific websites and platform has become the new normal in some places. China is a good example of such political interference.

It seems things are slowly evolving in this direction in Iran as well. More specifically, the public has protested against some decisions made by their country’s government in recent months. When such turmoil comes to light, the first step oppressive governments tend to take is ensuring no one can voice any public concerns over the situation. That often involves restricting access to social media and other platforms on which anyone can share their opinions on these sensitive topics.  

However, restricting access to platforms such as Instagram, Telegram, and a few others is almost never the answer (though one would expect the Iranian government to know better by now). Furthermore, the government started blocking access to Tor in August 2016, even though its efforts seem to have been less successful than originally anticipated. In fact, they have backfired.

Whereas the number of people connecting to Tor was relatively low in December 2016, it increased significantly starting in March 2017. A spike appeared on the charts in December 2017, and the current protests will only make more people flock to tools such as Tor. That is only normal, as people want to access the blocked social networks first and foremost.

Whether or not we will see a further increase in Tor usage across Iran remains to be seen. It is evident the government will not be too pleased with the way things are unfolding right now, especially considering that it tried to block Tor in the past without much success. It seems unlikely that it will crack down on this tool any further, although anything is possible at this point. Even so, there is still the option to connect through a bridge if needed, which would bypass most restrictions.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

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• Word appeared in 110 releases in 2018, up from five a year ago
• It’s part of the frenzy surrounding all things cryptocurrency

If you want to create the next hot stock, just say the magic word: blockchain. In the four days since the start of the year, there have been more than 110 corporate releases that contain the word “blockchain,” data compiled by Bloomberg shows. That’s up from five in the same span last year. The surge in citations comes amid a frenzy surrounding cryptocurrencies following bitcoin’s 1,400 percent gain last year. Companies mentioning the term often see their stock jump, with some even renaming themselves despite having no ties to blockchain in their businesses.

Long Island Iced Tea Corp., for instance, soared as much as 289 percent Dec. 21 after rebranding itself Long Blockchain Corp., while Hooters franchisee Chanticleer Holdings Inc. rose 41 percent Tuesday after announcing plans to start a blockchain-based customer loyalty program. However, there is a question over how much longer this can last, and analysts and investors continue to warn of a bubble in bitcoin. Warren Buffett, GMO’s Jeremy Grantham and even bitcoin-bull Mike Novogratz have urged caution.

Government Think Tank to Trial Blockchain Verification in India

An Indian government policymaking body is eyeing the potential applications of blockchain technology across various sectors.As part of that process, the National Institution for Transforming India, known as NITI Aayog, is developing a proof-of-concept to explore blockchain in key sectors including education, health and agriculture, the Economic Times says. An anonymous senior government official reportedly said that blockchain's promise in secure document verification is the primary reason for potential adoption of the tech.

The move comes after the think tank conducted a hackathon in November 2017 on the use of blockchain technology – an event jointly organised with Harvard-based blockchain startup Proffer. While India's government has been largely skeptical on cryptocurrencies, it has looked on blockchain technology more favorably. In June 2017, several regional governments in India, including Andhra Pradesh, revealed they were looking into applications of blockchain technology in land registries – systems used to keep track of who owns which properties. Further, in September of last year, India's central bank research group announced plans to launch a new blockchain platform to build and support a range of banking-related services.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor

Please click either Link to learn more about Bitcoin.
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Cryptocurrency boom:
Why everyone is talking about ripple

The craze over bitcoin has given other crypotcurrencies like litecoin and ethereum their moments in the spotlight. Now, it's ripple's turn.

In recent weeks, ripple's value has spiked, making it the second most valuable digital currency and bringing it newfound attention. The relatively obscure cryptocurrency, also known as XRP, is now worth about $2.60 with a market cap of more than $100 billion, according to Coinmarketcap. In early December, it was trading at just 25 cents. Even with the spike, ripple is worth considerably less than bitcoin. After a tumultuous December, bitcoin was trading around $15,000 late Tuesday with a market cap of more than $250 billion.

What's different about ripple is it's controlled by just one company, San Francisco-based Ripple. There are reports of current and former Ripple executives becoming cryptocurrency billionaires from its recent boom. Ripple launched in 2012 to facilitate global financial transactions. It differentiates itself from other digital currency platforms by its connections to legitimate banks. Companies that use the Ripple platform include Santander (SANPRA), Bank of America (BAC) and UBS (UBS).

It created 100 billion ripple coins initially, and 38 billion of them are in circulation at the moment. Ripple management can release up to 1 billion coins per month, which Powaga predicts could oversaturate the market. North & South Koreans are OBSESSED with bitcoin."It's somewhat concerning for me because if they chose to release them as quickly as possible, within a little over four years, you'd see more than a doubling of supply of ripple," he said.

That could put pressure on its price.

"I'm not certain that some of the newer market participants are fully appreciating the potential for inflation," Powaga said. Cross-border payments that can take hours with bitcoin or days with traditional financial transactions can go through in a matter of seconds with ripple, the company says. Like bitcoin, ripple's payment network, RippleNet, uses blockchain technology. A blockchain is a public ledger containing transaction data from anyone who uses the service. Transactions are added to "blocks," or the links of code that make up the chain, and each transaction must be recorded on a block.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Where Are All the Quick Wins for Blockchain?

In 2017, much of the focus was on vision setting,

long-term projects and the sizzle of cryptocurrencies. We also got CryptoKitties, a star of 2017 blockchain usage that is cute and fun, but of limited benefit. As someone who joined the community because of the technology and social impact, the vision is compelling, but nowhere near sufficient to sustain this ecosystem until 2022-2024, the time when most predictions of meaningful production applications are settling. The question for 2018, then, is more tangible: How do we get real cost savings? Improve the customer experience?  Increase revenue? Decrease risk? Arrive at stakeholder benefits more quickly?

Bite-sized success

First off, we need to make the entire blockchain ecosystem more actionable, more real, even better – simpler! Maybe because this is a technology-led community, most blockchain discussions get more complicated rather than simpler. With simpler, quick-win, use cases, there is an opportunity to move organizations from research and into action.

You might think, there are already plenty of use case lists, just get going! True, there are plenty of lists, but they lack actionability. They are too high level – it'd be almost the same as telling a salesperson to "just go sell something" without the context, the training, the experience and the technology underpinnings for them to be successful. My company is helping to change the process by thinking this way: "What benefit can we bring using existing blockchain technology in 3-6 months?" Though we certainly don't have these simpler, quick-win use cases nailed down yet, we have identified four patterns where we believe there can be

2018 value:

• Decrease digital storage costs while learning blockchain
• Improve trust and usability of recorded data
• Next generation business process management and integration
• Speed up and reduce costs of payments.

The goal of this list is to combine the fundamental values of blockchain, existing technology and real organizational needs. The first pattern on the list is a perfect example. Hardly anyone would say that storage is visionary and while it’s cheap, the continual expansion of data, necessitates better solutions. With Sia, Storj, and others, you can reduce your costs over AWS – a practical benefit from a blockchain. Another quick win example is a private equity administration blockchain developed by Northern Trust. In its solution, the company looked at how to leverage the trusted data resulting from using blockchain. Their blockchain leverage turned into reduced costs and duration of transactions along with increased transparency for audit and compliance.

Giving up control

In addition to simplifying the use cases, we need to address the proverbial elephant in the room: everybody wants the benefits of a blockchain but is hesitant to dive in because of competitive and control concerns. These are valid concerns, and we've already seen these issues manifested in the bitcoin community. Since we won't eliminate the concerns directly with blockchain, a better way to speed adoption is to create a set of patterns to follow.

For example, take a look at a simple hierarchy of business network models:

• Public data + Own Organization + consumer
• Vertical value chain with dominant origin or end point
• Complementary Proprietary Data/Contracts/SLAs + Own Org + consumer
• Complementary Proprietary Data/Contracts/SLAs + Own Org + Proprietary Data/Contracts
• Competitors via alliances, consortiums and direct relationships

The model at the top is the easiest way to get started since it has the fewest direct participants while the one at the bottom is the most difficult because these are your numerous, direct competitors. Not surprisingly, each of these models has examples. Public data is the key to the first model, whether it’s flight departure times or from a governmental entity. The second has many examples (Tencent, Daimler, Cargill, Bloomberg…) where a dominant organization can drive or forestall change within a business network.

The third and fourth are about disruption – both avoiding it, and creating new combinations to improve a customer’s experience. And finally, there is the straightforward combination of direct competitors working to create some sort of new standards. Like a lot in blockchain these days, these patterns and models are only the beginning. Feel free to use them as a guide to prioritize your thinking, minimize blockchain readiness objections and get to the nuts and bolts of creating a real blockchain project. Meanwhile, we’re working on enhancing these patterns with specific scenarios to make them even more actionable. We can see a better world using blockchain. Let's get there faster by focusing on creating simpler, more practical, use cases. We may even get to the world-changing visions more quickly.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden