Even in a pandemic, energy innovators are developing blockchain technology to implement powerful changes. From automating crude oil trading to amplifying the impact of renewable energy sources, innovations harnessing blockchain technology are likely to change the energy industry in profound ways. Inventors, enterprises, and investors who act today to obtain patent protection for their early blockchain-based inventions will find themselves in an enviable position tomorrow to capitalize on their early visions. This article explains some basics of blockchain technology, highlights two exciting applications of energy-related blockchain technology, suggests patenting strategies, and recognizes challenges to patentability and enforcement of such technologies.

Blockchain is a software-based technology used to track and secure a list of continuously growing data records (blocks) that are linked together (chain) using cryptography, over a network of computers (nodes). It was introduced along with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. However, innovators are now developing applications of blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrency.

Blockchain technology is often called distributed ledger technology to emphasize the distributed or decentralized nature of its list of records (that is, its ledger or database), in contrast to a traditional, centralized database. Conventionally, databases have been secured by entrusting them to third-party intermediaries having administrative privileges. However, blockchain technology secures a database, without the trusted third-party, through a combination of three core enabling technologies: peer-to-peer networks, digital signatures, and consensus algorithms.

Peer-to-peer computer networks account for the decentralized nature of blockchain technology. In a conventional client-server network, one central computer (server) stores data and responds to requests from numerous computers (clients). In contrast, each node in a peer-to-peer network can act as a server and a client. If a server fails, a client-server network fails. However, if a node fails, a peer-to-peer network continues to work.

Digital signatures provide the integrity and authenticity for transactions that make up a blockchain ledger through cryptographic hash functions and public-key encryption. Consensus algorithms allow the nodes in a blockchain network to agree on the current state of the ledger while making it virtually irreversible and tamperproof. Different types of consensus algorithmssuch as, Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stakeare being developed to better serve the needs of specific applications of blockchain technology.

Smart contracts allow agreements to be automated through terms and conditions preprogrammed into a blockchain. Smart contracts are where blockchain technology becomes unleashed from its cryptocurrency origins.

In the energy industry, blockchain technology is being developed to dramatically alter the supply, demand, and distribution of energy. For example, VAKT Global Ltd., a European company, is developing a blockchain-based energy commodity trading platform, with no cryptocurrency involved. As of April 8, 2020, the platform was in use in the North Sea BFOET crude oil market. The platform makes physical commodity markets more efficient by becoming a single source of truth for the trading parties and ecosystem participants: terminals, surveyors, agents, ship owners, brokers, banks, etc. By transforming conventional paper-based processingwhich tends to be slow, complicated, and error-proneinto a digital process that is fast, secure, immutable and private, VAKT intends to become the digital backbone of commodities trading within the energy industry and beyond.

Energy Web Foundation (EWF) is also developing an energy-specific blockchain called the Energy Web Chain (EW Chain), which uses a Proof-of-Authority consensus mechanism for reduced energy consumption. This blockchain aims to accelerate the global transition to a decentralized, democratized, decarbonized, and digitalized energy system. EWF has collaborated with Wirepas and Vodafone Business to combine blockchain technology with the Internet of Things (IoT) to develop systems for connecting renewable energy assets to energy grids. By providing the core digital infrastructure connecting utilities, distributed energy resources, and consumers, EWF sees itself as the digital backbone of the futures low-carbon electricity systems.

Importantly, such digital platforms are likely to exhibit network effects. That is, digital networks of energy providers and consumers are likely to become more valuable to their users as they gain more users and, at some point, an expanding energy network may prevent competitors from entering the market. Accordingly, pioneering energy platforms may have a head start to dominate energy-related industries through the power of network effects.

The database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) suggests that energy-related blockchain patent application filings have continued to increase since the first of such applications was filed in 2016. Nevertheless, the energy-related blockchain patent landscape is currently not a crowded one. Thus, the time is ripe for energy innovators to claim valuable patent rights. Patent owners may use patents defensively and offensively to gain an edge over competitors and realize significant business value.

A defensive approach to patenting allows patent owners to benefit without suing. For example, patents can deter competitors from copying and encourage them, instead, to seek a licensing agreement or focus their research efforts elsewhere. Furthermore, patents are considered assets of a company and therefore increase the companys valuation and provide leverage in negotiating business deals.

An offensive approach to patenting allows patent owners to enforce their rights through litigation in a federal district court, or at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Courts may award a successful patent owner litigant remedies including injunction, lost profits, reasonable royalties, andfor egregious intentional infringerspunitive/enhanced damages. As importantly, the ITC provides a quicker process than the courts and is able to stop patent infringers from importing infringing products or services into the U.S.

To adequately benefit from patent ownership, a patent application must be prepared to overcome the statutory hurdles to patentability, without giving up valuable scope of protection. Software-based technologies, like blockchain technology, are often rejected under the subject matter eligibility hurdle of the U.S. Patent Law (35 U.S.C. 101). To overcome this hurdle, care should be taken to ensure that the disclosure of the invention in the patent application emphasizes a practical, and advantageous, technological application of the invention to prevent the rejection of the patent application based on an unpatentable abstract ideasuch as, a mathematical concept, a method of organizing human activity, or a mental processand/or provides for additional elements amounting to an inventive concept beyond a mere abstract idea.

For example, patent claims describing a method of renewable energy trading using IoT sensors, processors, and memory to autonomously measure, record, and analyze energy supply and usage data through a blockchain ledger may be rejected by the USPTO based on the grounds that they are directed to a method of organizing human activity (that is, measuring, recording, and analyzing energy data may be considered as organizing human activity or a fundamental economic practice). Furthermore, the USPTO may reason that merely recording and analyzing energy-related data through a generic blockchain ledger provides no practical application of the fundamental economic practice and that the recitation of generic IoT sensors and computer hardware does not provide an inventive concept beyond the fundamental economic practice.

Such a rejection may be avoided altogether by drafting the application with a technological problem-solution emphasis and identifying how problems of existing approaches are overcome by the applicants invention. This approach would help ensure that the patent claims are not drafted to preempt all future technological improvements, but to focus more reasonably on the relevant technological area of invention. For example, claims incorporating features of an energy-specific data structure to be stored in a blockchain to improve the processing of transactions would likely remove the claims from the abstract idea realm, because the invention would not threaten to preempt virtually all applications of blockchain technology as applied to energy trading.

Furthermore, inventions that improve the functionality of blockchain technology itself may avoid or overcome a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101. That is, improvements to distributed storage, distributed processing, cryptography, security and authentication, data structures, and data exchange protocols would not likely be interpreted as being directed to an abstract idea. For example, proof-of-work consensus algorithms provide security for many cryptocurrencies, but they intentionally slow down processing and waste electricity. Accordingly, an invention involving an energy-specific consensus algorithm that provides adequate security with greater energy efficiency and faster processing would not likely be rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101.

Additionally, patent claims should be drafted to facilitate investigation and the collection of facts to support an infringement allegation. For example, patent claims related to distributed renewable energy assets and linked via blockchain technology should allow for a finding of infringement by one infringer in one location, rather than requiring a series of steps to be performed by multiple parties in multiple jurisdictions.

While blockchain technology is in its infancy, choosing to invest and become a patent holder for early blockchain inventions could pay dividends as the technology matures to become widely popular and useful, particularly in energy-related industries. To benefit from the maximum scope of patent protection, it is important to seek out counsel with the experience and sufficient understanding of the legal and technical issues to handle the challenges associated with patenting software-related technologies.

Raymond R. Tabandeh and Kurt S. Prange are Intellectual Property attorneys with Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP.

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Blockchain and Energy Innovation Marches On - POWER magazine - POWER magazine

Various cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum soared at the end of 2020 and into the new year, albeit with a lot of volatility, in typical crypto fashion. The huge burst of activity has highlighted several banks that are catering to crypto customers by leveraging blockchain technology to develop specialized payments systems and offer niche banking products. And many of these banks are being rewarded by shareholders for their innovation. Here are three banks that have big plans for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

The top-performing bank stock of 2020,Silvergate Capital (NYSE:SI) went public toward the end of 2019, opening around $13 per share. Today, it trades for roughly $90. The bank, which has $5.6 billion in assets and is based in La Jolla, California, is most famous for the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), a digital payments network that can instantly clear transactions in U.S. dollars around the clock, 365 days a year, between two users in the network. This is ideal for institutional crypto traders and crypto exchanges because cryptocurrencies are always trading.

Image source: Getty Images.

As one of the first banks to build this kind of network, Silvergate has a first-mover advantage. The bank has onboarded 76 crypto exchanges and 600 institutional investors onto the network, and the larger it gets the more attractive it becomes for other customers to join. In the fourth quarter of 2020, there were a record 90,000-plus transactions conducted on SEN for a total volume of $59 billion. That's a roughly 530% increase on transactions compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Silvergate's chief strategy officer, Ben Reynolds, said on the bank's recent earnings call that the company also has 200 SEN prospects in its pipeline. New customers bring in lots of non-interest-bearing deposits for the bank, while transactions bring in fee income.

Silvergate is also building out other products related to crypto. The bank recently finished its pilot on a new lending product called SEN Leverage, which allows customers to obtain lines of credit in U.S. dollars that is collateralized by bitcoin. The product is off to a great start after exiting its pilot program at the end of the third quarter, growing total SEN loan volume from $35.5 million at the end of the third quarter to more than $82 million after the fourth quarter. Silvergate also launched a bitcoin custody solution in the quarter, and Reynolds said launching new products is a key piece of the bank's growth strategy.

The nearly $74 billion asset Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY), which is based in New York City, has also jumped into the world of cryptocurrency with its Signet digital payments system. Signet leverages blockchain architecture to create a real-time payments system, which, like Silvergate's SEN, also allows commercial clients on the network to instantaneously send and clear payments to one another. The platform has helped the bank bring in $10 billion in deposits, which is way more than Silvergate Capital, although Silvergate is a much smaller bank. Signature also has the top five crypto exchanges on Signet.

Signature CEO Joseph DePaolo said the network is "growing by leaps and bounds." He also said the bank is continuing to build the ecosystem using the platform, and that he sees the potential for other ecosystems beyond crypto to use Signet.

You might never know it by the way Jamie Dimon sometimes talks about bitcoin, butJPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) is doing all sorts of innovative and interesting work with blockchain technology. In October, the bank launched its own digital coin, the JPM coin, in order to conduct global payments activity, in what seems similar to the payments offerings of Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital. JPMorgan also has its own digital currency division called Onyx with more than 100 employees.

Additionally, the bank has its own Blockchain Center of Excellence, which actively researches blockchain and its potential uses in order to develop its own technology and try out solutions across its various business divisions. When it launched the JPM coin, Takis Georgakopoulos, the bank's global head of wholesale payments, said he could see a ton of potential uses in the payments space for blockchain. For instance, he said it could help banks confirm that people inserted their account information correctly, helping to avoid rejections on payments. He also said digital currencies could remove a lot of expenses at banks such as the cost of processing paper checks.

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3 Banks That Have Big Plans for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency - Motley Fool

WENCES CASARES: It's hard to have a rigorous discussion about Bitcoin without understanding money. And the best way to understand money, is to understand the history of money. Anthropologists agree that there is no tribe, much less a civilization, that ever based its commerce on barter. There's no evidence, barter never happened. And that's counter intuitive to most of us, because we are taught in school, that we first bartered and then we made money because barter was too complicated. Well, barter never happened, and that's one of the key sort of myths about money. So then, you would ask the anthropologists like, okay so how did we do commerce before money, if there was no barter? There was no commerce? No, there was plenty of commerce. And the way that commerce would happen is that, let's say that someone in our tribe had killed a big buffalo and I would go up to a person and say, "Hey, can I have a little bit of meat?" And that person would say, "no," or "Yes, Wences, here's your meat." And then, you would go up to the person and say, "Hey, can I have a little bit of meat?" And that person would say "Yes, here's your meat." And basically, we all had to keep track, in our heads, of what we owed other people, or what other people owed us. And then someone would come to me and say, "hey, Wences, can I have a little bit of firewood?" And I would say, "Sure, here's your firewood." And now, I have to remember that I owe that person a little bit, that this person owes me a little. And we all went around about our business, with these ledgers in our minds of who owes us what, and what do we owe to whom. Very subjective system.

Often, these debts didn't clear, or cleared in ways that were not satisfactory to both parties, until about 25,000 years ago. Someone very, very intelligent, came up with a new technology that really took off, which they came to me and said, "Hey, can I have a little bit of firewood?" And I said, "Sure, here's your firewood." And this person said, "This time, we're gonna try something different. Here are some beads for you." And I said, "I don't want beads, I don't care for beads, I don't need beads." He said, "It's not about that. We're gonna use beads, as the objective ledger of our tribe. Instead of each of us having to remember what we're owed, the beads are gonna keep track for us, an objective ledger to keep track of debts." And it was such a successful technology that it took off. And in a couple thousand years, it became impossible to find a tribe or civilization that didn't have some form of objective ledger. In some cases it was one point shells. In other places, it was salt, in other places, rocks or beads. But, this form of keeping track of debts, with an objective ledger took off, and anthropologists go as far as saying that, if you describe a tribe's environment in detail, they can predict what's going to emerge as an objective ledger, as money. Because it's always something that has six qualities, the most important of which, is that it be scarce. And it makes sense, because if it's not scarce, we can create, you know, if we were to use tree leaves, for example, we could create debts that are owed to us out of thin air, and that wouldn't be good, that wouldn't be a good ledger. But also has to be durable. If it's something that decays or corrodes, it doesn't store the information well. It has to be divisible. It has to be transportable, recognizable, and fungible.

And this system really worked until about, 5,000 years ago, when trade began to extend a lot geographically, and we began to trade with other tribes. And different tribes were using different ledgers. So they couldn't trade with each other. And what happened then, about 5,000 years ago, is that gold emerged as the first universal ledger to keep track of debt. And it was gold, because it was universally scarce. That was the most important consideration. But also it was very, very durable. Fairly divisible, transportable, recognizable, and fungible. And that's why for 5,000 years gold has been the best store of value we have ever seen. It's incredible that today, if you need to leave $5,000, for someone, for your daughter, not your daughter or your granddaughter, but some great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of yours. 40 generations from now, 900 years from now. We don't know how to do that. If you leave it in just dollars, it's not going to be worth very much. We know of no security, that will last that long. The only thing that we know can carry value for that long, is you need to buy $5,000 worth of gold, lock it in a vault, and give the key to that person 900 years from now. And it's incredible that in the 21st century, this is the best answer we have.

This is why Bitcoin is so relevant. Because it's the first time in 5,000 years that we have something that is incredibly superior to gold in each one of these six characteristics. It's much more scarce than gold. There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins. It's much more divisible than gold. Bitcoin is composed of a million pieces called Satoshis. It's much more durable, divisible, transportable. You can attach a Bitcoin to an SMS message, or, or an email and send it for free and in real time across the world. And it's incredibly easy to verify. The second you get a Bitcoin, you know that it's a good Bitcoin.

BILL BARHYDT: Bitcoin itself is what we call deflationary, which means that over time, the amount of Bitcoin in circulation if you look at a chart, would actually approach a fixed value of 21 million, never quite approach it, but it will asymptotically in math terms, approach that line of 21 million over time. And it does that, by the amount of Bitcoin being mined, or created, being cut in half every so often, right? Right now it's every few years. And then it'll be every few months, and then et cetera, et cetera. Right? And so that these halvenings actually create a predictable rate at which Bitcoin is created. That rate, like I said, will asymptotically approach 21 million over several years. And at that point though, if Bitcoin is being used for money transfer applications, there are institutional investors buying it like digital gold, that will drive the price higher, but if the price shoots up, to let's say, a trillion dollars, right? And there's only 21 million, it's still not a problem, because you can subdivide Bitcoin down to eight decimal places. So you can get to the point where one satoshi, which is 0.0000001 Bitcoin, could be worth a thousand dollars. So the ability to subdivide Bitcoin into tiny amounts called satoshis, which are, you know, in today's value, fractions of a penny, could eventually be worth, thousands of dollars in their own right, right? So that gives the utility of Bitcoin a lot of legroom for the longterm because even if the value goes up to trillions, you'll be able to subdivide it into small amounts to make it useful for small payments. So cryptocurrencies eventually will look like, traditional commodities, in my opinion. Whether it's gold, or platinum, or other metals, or is probably the best, but it could look like oil and gas, things like that. And so they are starting to trade in in a fashion that's more and more similar, to traditional commodities. But the difference right now is, they're not as liquid yet. Right? So that means that the price is very inefficient, or the markets for cryptocurrencies are very inefficient. So most people who are holding cryptocurrencies, are long-term holders, they're not selling, okay? So that actually means that the price of Bitcoin and Ether, for example, is largely driven by the volume of buyers. So if there are large volumes of buyers coming into the market, it drives the price higher because there are not a lot of sellers. But if the buyers dry up, then the price goes down, regardless, because there are still not a lot of sellers. So that'll change over time because if the price skyrockets, so for example, if institutional money starts to come into the cryptocurrency market in large numbers, which I think it will, that will force the price higher, because there's not enough cryptocurrency to go around. And that'll also cause some of the holders to loosen up their purse strings, because they're going to want to reap the profits that they've been waiting for for 10 to 15 years, by the time that happens. And that'll also create more liquidity in the system, which will create a really positive feedback loop, which should drive the price even higher. The other thing that I think is very relevant is, you're starting to see more traditional types of financial products being applied to cryptocurrencies, derivatives, options, non-deliverable forward contracts. You know, things like that, that actually will help make the cryptocurrency market more efficient over time, close a lot of what we call arbitrage loopholes, which is kind of like free money, in the system for traders. And as those loopholes get closed, the market becomes more efficient, more liquid, and it becomes better for everyone.

BRAD TEMPLETON: What Bitcoin creates is a ledger that needs no bank. And that's actually pretty important because if you think about what is a bank, at least as far as the money transfer and the checking and the savings, not the loan part, but the financial, the moving money part of a bank, it's really a secure ledger. The bank does not just have a little file, that says your account has $3,000 in it. They insist that when you write something, they make a note in their ledger, that $1,000 was transferred from your account to someone else's account and so on. And that's important to make it secure. Well, what the designers of Bitcoin created was a way to make a ledger that's secure, and that everyone can trust, but that no one owns or controls. And this allows people to have money that can be, free of the influence of governments, which is both bad if you're a government, and great, if you don't like what governments do, with their monetary policies. It lets the policy be set by consensus and software. So Bitcoin basically has found a way, to always know what the majority thinks. And by always knowing what the majority thinks, you get something you, you hope you can trust. In theory, if, someone controlled more than half of the computers in the world they could take over Bitcoin, but that's pretty unlikely.

TONY SALDANHA: Blockchain is the underlying programming, on top of which, cryptocurrencyBitcoinhas been developed. Let me distinguish the two. Bitcoin is just one little application of blockchain. It is something that most enterprises will shy away from because it is speculative. And I'm not here to preach that companies go out and start trading using Bitcoin, that would be a mistake. Blockchain is, basically think of it as an Excel spreadsheet. It is basically a big, big ledger, in which everybody can put transactions, but none of the cells, none of the values of those transactions, can be messed around with. Can be changed without everybody else saying, "Oh, wait a minute!" You know, "that particular cell was changed." And because of that, it is known to be unhackable. Now, the value of having an underlying platform that is available to the entire world to see, if you have the appropriate kind of authorization, and is known to be secure is obvious, right? Because we know one of the biggest challenges when it comes to technology is somebody changing the values of my data. If you have an underlying platform that's known to be unhackable, that provides a huge competitive advantage for most people. So potential uses of blockchain could be, everything from, let's take a voting mechanism. By the way, blockchain is being used for voting, in places like Dubai for their stock exchange or even Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, for their actual people voting processes. But there are more mundane uses of blockchain. You could use blockchain, for example, for intracompany financial transactions, between the companies and both, within companies as well. So instead of having your money, go from your company, to a bank, to another company, what if there was a common platform, where you could actually have the best information, that could not be hacked. That would eliminate the middlemen. That is the promise of blockchain. It has the ability to eliminate the middleperson because everybody has equal access to one version of the truth.

BRIAN BEHLENDORF: One of the real strengths is being able to take these systems that today depend very much on bureaucracy, and paperwork, and very human processes for sure, but processes that get bogged down and actually automate them. And cut the cost of a lot of this, but also by automating them, improve the auditability of them. People pay a lot of money to have third-party auditors come in and make sure that the claims that are in their books are actually real. It's a tremendous burden. And it's why bureaucracy often requires three signatures to do anything interesting. To send a shipping container, for example, from Asia to the United States. About half the cost of that is in the paperwork involved in coordinating between 20 to 30 different organizations for sign-offs from the bill of materials, all the way to the person that's delivered to. If blockchain technology can help us automate these systems, make them more efficient, they may also ensure that we keep the opportunities for fraud and the opportunities for corruption to a minimum. If we make it hard to steal people's land, or to ship illicit product in shipping containers, or simply approving a permit for construction on your home, holding that up for days or months until you pay me an expediter feewhich all too often happens in home remodelingIf we can make these processes a bit more automated more transparent, then I think we can do a lot to improve society.

ELAD GIL: Some people are talking about the web three, or internet three, and how all infrastructure is gonna flip over to decentralized, cryptocurrency-based systems. I'm much more skeptical about that, at least in the short run. In part because centralized systems tend to be dramatically more efficient than decentralized systems. In other words, if you look at the costs of running a centralized system, it's much lower. You have bargaining power around the underlying hardware. You have economies of scale in terms of how you deploy it and where you place it. And also just running these systems is much simpler, if you have a centralized approach.

BEHLENDORF: Every use case I could give you around where blockchain technology is applicable, you could always come back to me as a technologist and say, "Wouldn't this be more efficient, faster, cheaper to do as a central database? Isn't somebody just gonna pull a Google or pull an Amazon, and build a central database to track all the fish supply, catches and shipping, you know, this or that?" And the answer is always yes, that it is more efficient and cheaper, but it's also expensive when you think about the cost of having politically, and from a business perspective, having a central actor in a marketplace. Many marketplaces simply don't want that. The banks of the world don't want one big bank at the center. People who care about their land title care about, worry about the corruptibility of the land title office. In certain countries that's a big issue. Blockchain technology allows us to build the same kind of systems, but in a world where we don't want to or we can't trust central actors. And, that's hard to wrap your head around, especially because everyone believes they can be trusted, right? Hey, if I'm the center of the market, you can trust me. What do you mean you can't? It feels like a very personal affront perhaps even to say that but it's essential, I think, to realize you can't really grow your market beyond those who can really trust you, if that's your business model. So that's, I think, hard for people, for some people to get the conceptual model around, just like it might've been hard in 1993 to understand what it means to send email to somebody at the other side of the planet, or to buy a television or buy a car through a website. You would've been told you were crazy to think that people would be doing that in 1993. Now we kind of take it almost for granted. So, these are the challenges, but I see many people addressing these challenges.

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Bitcoin and blockchain 101: Why the future will be decentralized - Big Think

Humankind has lost some swagger of late. Were more vulnerable to airborne viruses than we hoped. Our planet is struggling more than we feared. And, the economic fabric of society is stretched further than we imagined. There is a growing consciousness of the fragility in our systems and our species thats calling out for a different, more responsible approach.

In modern multi-tier supply chains, sourcing needs and production processes are often spread across hundreds of suppliers operating in multiple countries to maximize economic efficiency. For years, this came at the cost of greater transparency and resilience. But, for years, global markets mostly got away with it. Then the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) arrived.

The pandemic sent a wave of panic through global supply chains. Almost overnight, the taps turned off. Stockpiles were found to be insufficient. Products and services that were never previously deemed top priority or of strategic national importance were making headline news.

But, what was really lacking? It wasnt just the physical toilet rolls, face masks or pasta. It was the digital information about where to find them. Who could provide them fastest? Were they the right quality? Where did they come from? Without that instant, reliable data, the wheels quickly fell off the cart.

Typical of black swan events, its already hard to remember the world before COVID-19. The microscopic virus has created unprecedented market volatility and fragility, alongside sweeping societal, government policy and financial framework changes. All of these interwoven pressures have driven companies across various industries to urgently re-evaluate their complex global supply chains.

The pandemic has changed the record. Before, businesses could play transparency in the background. It was pleasant mood music, as they continued expanding their supply chains. Now, they need to pump up the volume. And they may need a whole new audio system.

It is trust, not money, that makes the world go round, after all.

Those of us in the transparency industry have proclaimed the usefulness of blockchain for provenance for many years. COVID-19 has brought the full power of distributed ledger technology into clear view because international commerce needs to regain trust in its underlying systems. This challenge presents an opportunity for the integration of blockchain, a technology with the potential to fundamentally alter the future of supply chains forever.

Indeed, blockchain can help replace opaque, transactional supply chains with more transparent value chains. These three-dimensional networks encourage industries to grow the worth of their products and brand equity by creating digital twins of their products offering social, ethical and environmental provenance that can be captured and shared as a point of differentiation in the market. Transparency is thus elevated into a competitive advantage.

Making visible the impact of a product through transparent and evidenced claims can enable accurate assessments of life cycle analysis in a fair and equitable way. If we are able to choose products on the basis of impact, we can support a circular economy and a conscious global trade system of value.

Blockchain technology offers the building blocks to provide trading partners and consumers with trusted and secured data, and to synchronize processes through a mutually agreed ruleset. It is immutable (impossible to change once transactions are written), traceable (gives a fully traceable transaction history) and easy to automate (via smart contracts), which makes it highly practical at a time when international borders are closing to people.

The technology offers solutions to business challenges that have rapidly climbed up the agenda in recent months. For example, blockchain can help enable digital tooling to facilitate more frequent and in-depth supplier risk assessment, as more companies need to plan automation in supply chains as a response to COVID-19.

Blockchain can also help build resilience, by providing the connected tooling thats needed to build an inventory of finished goods and raw materials to prevent future shocks and keep more products on hand for identified customers. Importantly, it can help to simplify manufacturing, as companies focus on their most important products, given the recurring risk of staff shortages due to lockdown protocols.

Consumers, businesses and governments need a clearer idea of where goods come from and where they are headed next. This global crisis offers an opportunity to move away from a purely transactional decision-making process around supply chains, based solely on cost and availability.

The commercial advantages of having the lifetime journey of an asset at our fingertips crystalized during the pandemic. Provenance data suddenly became an asset in its own right. Moving forward, industries can no longer afford to be laid-back about where resources come from.

As we chart a path forward beyond the COVID-19 crisis, blockchain has the potential to contribute to a more equitable system of commerce for producers and consumers alike. Its time to make some noise about it.

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How COVID-19 Has Amplified the Need for Blockchain Provenance - Supply and Demand Chain Executive

PRESS RELEASE. PARSIQ, a blockchain monitoring and workflow automation platform connecting on-chain and off-chain applications in real-time, announced that its PRQ token is now listed on OKEx with USDT base pair.

Please take note of the following go-live schedule:

PARSIQ is a blockchain monitoring and workflow automation platform that serves as a multi-level bridge between blockchains and off-chain applications. PARSIQs features automate the blockchain analytics and monitoring process, providing customizable workflows with real-time intelligence.

Developers and individual users can transform the blockchain data to their favorite off-chain application or web service.

Among the obvious use cases is monitoring the wallets of traders and ordinary users. Among the non-obvious are complex system integrations for financial institutions and DeFi projects that use the PARSIQ infrastructure to improve security, conduct audits, comply with regulatory requirements, AML, and expand their workflows in other ways.

The infrastructure underneath PARSIQs user interface is built with their proprietary programming language ParsiQL, and its users benefits are multiplying with each supported integration.

PRQ Token

PARSIQ Token (PRQ) is an essential piece of the PARSIQ platform that co-exists with FIAT payments for using its services. Payments within the platform that are made in PRQ tokens guarantee a discounted rate. During the first Epoch when PRQ tokens are used as payment for running Smart-Triggers users receive higher execution limits, unlock transport methods, and are able to propose features that can be added to the platform.

In October 2020, the PARSIQ team released plans for Epoch 2.0.

#1. Public Projects

With Public Projects users can subscribe to existing PARSIQ Projects that were pre-made by other users. By paying in PRQ, users that have subscribed to the Public Project will incentivize the creators to create interesting, complex, and more important problem-solving projects.

#2. User Data and PRQ

Every single monitoring target (primitive of type address, a struct with the field of address type, table row) would require 1 PRQ to hold after the implementation. It means that if there are 1000 addresses (960 in the table as rows, 30 as primitives, 10 in the structs) then the User would need 1000 PRQ on the connected Ethereum Account balance.

#3. IQ Protocol

IQ Protocol will allow risk-free PRQ lending and collateral-less borrowing. Risk-free PRQ lending means that PRQ is not transferred from the lenders address to the borrowers address. Details on the algorithm are available in the dedicated explainer on PARSIQs blog.

#4. PRQBoost

PRQ Boost is a liquidity boost program to incentivize PRQ/ETH liquidity providers on Uniswap, which goes with the PRQBOOST utility tokens to increase rewards for liquidity providers.

PARSIQ is actively working to partner with major layer 1 blockchain protocols to expand the range of blockchain integrations and give projects that build on those protocols the ability to monitor and automate workflows between blockchain and off-chain.

Visit the PARSIQ website to discover some possible use-cases and find more details on the project and token: https://parsiq.net

Media contact: anastasia@parsiq.net

This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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Real-Time Blockchain-to-Everything Platform PARSIQ (PRQ) Now Listed on OKEx Press release Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Databridgemarketresearch.com Present Global Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2027 new report to its research database. The research report released by Data Bridge Market research provides the market segmentation based on type, market size, Product launches and applications. It identifies the global adoption of the products as one of the growth factors, driven by the availability of the product. The global research report gives the brief summary of the leading players operating in the market, their product offering, key developments, investments feasibility and returns. This Global Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market report which is outcome of the ultimate dedication of industry experts, has an abundance of data that can profit anybody, regardless of their business or academic interest.

The Global Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market report provides an in depth analysis of the market in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market research report also includes up to date analysis and forecast for various market segments and all geographic regions including North America, South America, Asia and Pacific Region, Middle east and Africa and Europe. The report also features the revenue; industry size, share, production volume, and consumption in order to gain insights about the politics and tussle of gaining control of a huge chunk of the market share.

Blockchain technology in the healthcare market is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028. Data Bridge Market Research analyses the market to growing at a CAGR of 21.70% in the above-mentioned forecast period. The growing awareness amongst the patients regarding the benefits of blockchain technology in the healthcare which will further create new opportunities for the growth of the market.

Download Exclusive Sample Report (350 Pages PDF with All Related Graphs & Charts) @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-blockchain-technology-in-the-healthcare-market

The major players covered in the blockchain technology in the healthcare market report are IBM Corporation; Microsoft; Guardtime; PokitDok, Inc.; Gem; Global Hospital & Healthcare Management.; Chronicled; iSolve, LLC; Patientory.; Factom.; Medicalchain SA.; Proof.Works; Blockchain AI Solutions Ltd; BurstIQ; Doc.ai , Inc.; Intellectsoft US; Medtronic; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated.; Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI); Nebula Genomics; among other domestic and global players.

Competitive Landscape and Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market Share Analysis

Blockchain technology in the healthcare market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, global presence, production sites and facilities, production capacities, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product width and breadth, application dominance. The above data points provided are only related to the companies focus related to blockchain technology in the healthcare market.

For More Insights Get FREE Detailed TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-blockchain-technology-in-the-healthcare-market

Global Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market Scope and Market Size

Blockchain technology in the healthcare market is segmented on the basis of application, type, deployment sector, and end-use. The growth amongst these segments will help you analyse meagre growth segments in the industries, and provide the users with valuable market overview and market insights to help them in making strategic decisions for identification of core market applications.

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Blockchain technology is used on a real-time basis to gather and monitor information about transactions. This technology acts as a digital ledger and manages all the operations carried out within the network. Blockchain technology offers many advantages, such as higher transaction speed, lower data replication, lower chances of failure, and high confidence and governance. Information on the patients database is stored in bits and pieces in healthcare systems.

Surging incidence of healthcare data breaches, rising threats of counterfeit drugs, growing adoption of blockchain as a service, transparency and immutability of the distributed ledger technology, cost-effective and secured datainteroperabilitythrough blockchain are some of the major as well as factors which will likely to augment the growth of the blockchain technology in the healthcare market in the projected timeframe of 2021-2028. On the other hand, increasing number of government initiatives regarding the growth of the healthcare sector along with growing adoption ofelectronic healthcare recordswhich will further contribute by generating immense opportunities that will led to the growth of the blockchain technology in the healthcare market in the above mentioned projected timeframe.

Lack of skilled professionals along with lack of technicalinfrastructurewhich will likely to act as market restraints factor for the growth of the blockchain technology in the healthcare in the above mentioned projected timeframe. Absence of necessary regulatory system along with lack of awareness in developing economies which will become the biggest and foremost challenge for the growth of the market.

This blockchain technology in the healthcare market report provides details of new recent developments, trade regulations, import export analysis, production analysis, value chain optimization, market share, impact of domestic and localised market players, analyses opportunities in terms of emerging revenue pockets, changes in market regulations, strategic market growth analysis, market size, category market growths, application niches and dominance, product approvals, product launches, geographic expansions, technological innovations in the market. To gain more info on blockchain technology in the healthcare market contact Data Bridge Market Research for anAnalyst Brief, our team will help you take an informed market decision to achieve market growth.

Global Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market Country Level Analysis

Blockchain technology in the healthcare market is analysed and market size insights and trends are provided by country, application, type, deployment sector, and end-use as referenced above.

The countries covered in the blockchain technology in the healthcare market report are U.S., Canada and Mexico in North America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Rest of Europe in Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa (MEA), Brazil, Argentina and Rest of South America as part of South America.

North America dominates the blockchain technology in the healthcare market due to the rising incidence of fraudulent activities along with increasing need to reduce healthcare cost in the region, while Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest growth rate in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028 due to the development of healthcare infrastructure along with rising adoption of EHR systems in the region.

The country section of the blockchain technology in the healthcare market report also provides individual market impacting factors and changes in regulation in the market domestically that impacts the current and future trends of the market. Data points such as consumption volumes, production sites and volumes, import export analysis, price trend analysis, cost of raw materials, down-stream and upstream value chain analysis are some of the major pointers used to forecast the market scenario for individual countries. Also, presence and availability of global brands and their challenges faced due to large or scarce competition from local and domestic brands, impact of domestic tariffs and trade routes are considered while providing forecast analysis of the country data.

Healthcare Infrastructure growth Installed base and New Technology Penetration

Blockchain technology in the healthcare market also provides you with detailed market analysis for every country growth in healthcare expenditure for capital equipments, installed base of different kind of products for blockchain technology in the healthcare market, impact of technology using life line curves and changes in healthcare regulatory scenarios and their impact on the blockchain technology in the healthcare market. The data is available for historic period 2010 to 2019.

About Data Bridge Market Research:

An absolute way to forecast what future holds is to comprehend the trend today!Data Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.

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Global Blockchain Technology in the Healthcare Market 2021-2028 Study & Future Prospects Including k - PharmiWeb.com

The rapid rise of Bitcoin has generated fierce debate concerning the long-term viability of investing in cryptocurrencies. While rapidly evolving blockchain technology can provide a discrete digital ledger to track transactions, many advisors remain concerned with the regulation and volatility of cryptocurrency products. In the upcoming webinar, Amplify ETFs and ETF Trends will explain how blockchain technology can add value to your portfolio, and do more than just track cryptocurrencies.

February 24, 2021

11am PT | 2pm ET

1 CE Credit

Please enable Javascript on your browser so you can proceed with the registration.

Topics will include:

Pending acceptancefor one hour of CFP/CIMA CE credit for live and on-demand attendees

CFA Institute members are encouraged to self-document their continuing professional development activities in their online CE tracker.

Bill Belden PresidentAmplify ETFs

Michael Venuto Portfolio Manager, BLOK ETFToroso Investments

Dave Nadig CIO, Director of ResearchETF Trends and ETF Database

DisclaimerBy registering, you are certifying that you are a financial professional and agree to share your data with ETF Trends and opt-in to receiving occasional communications about projects and events. The contents of this form are subject to the ETF Trends' Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Important Disclosures

Carefully consider the Funds investment objectives, risk factors, charges, and expenses before investing. This and additional information can be found in Amplify Funds statutory and summary prospectus, which may be obtained above or by calling 855-267-3837, or by visiting AmplifyETFs.com. Read the prospectuses carefully before investing.

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Shares of any ETF are bought and sold at market price (not NAV), may trade at a discount or premium to NAV and are not individually redeemed from the Fund.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have unique risks and may not be suitable for all investors. There is little regulation of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology other than the intrinsic public nature of the blockchain system. Any future regulatory developments could affect the viability and expansion of the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology systems may operate across many national boundaries and regulatory jurisdictions; therefore, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology may be subject to widespread and inconsistent regulation.

Amplify ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

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Webcast: Beyond Bitcoin: How Blockchain is Transforming the Investment Industry - ETF Trends

The price of Bitcoin has reachedrecord highs over the past few months, prompting the CEO of Galaxy Digital tocall the cryptocurrency a digital gold story.However, the comparison is a flawed one.

While gold has shown time and time again that it is a resilient form of money, the price of Bitcoin saw thebiggest single crash in its history at the beginning of the year. Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are volatile, and they lack the necessary components to scale as a global currency and payments platform. The way in which blockchain was designed will ensure it remains so.

Blockchain technology lacks fundamental regulatory guidance and therefore poses a number of risks to crypto holders. Bitcoin was intended to be transparent and decentralized, but as it has grown, the core framework has been augmented with retrofitted capabilities like off-chain transactions where deals cannot be publicly tracked and dont actually write transactions to the public ledger when they are made.

This lack of visibility is a problem in any financial setting, and thats just one of the problems of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Blockchain has instabilities that are inherent to its framework: They cannot be fixed, and ultimately result in a poor store of funds for money and savings purposes. Whats more, the increased utilization of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will only serve to exacerbate these issues. And as people adopt crypto, leveraging blockchain as the distributed ledger of choice, these problems will grow larger and expose a looming end-of-life. Crypto traders wont exactly be advertising these weak points.

So if no-ones told you before, here's what you should know about Bitcoin, other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and how it affects you.

Cryptocurrencies are subject to quick and severe value changes. The surge in price over the past few weeks is not the beginning of a settling period, its mostlikely been triggered by a drop in the U.S. dollar and investors flocking to a seeming safe haven in the coronavirus pandemic (probably encouraged by BlackRockexpressing interest in Bitcoin and Paypallaunching a new service to buy, sell and hold crypto).

Its important to remember that Bitcoin ishistorically volatile. Just this year, itsprice was sliced in half between February and March, before doubling in price between November and the end of the year. Even after hitting its record high on January 3, its value fell by nearly 15 percent only hours later.

Because cryptocurrencies hold no intrinsic worth, their value is purely speculative. Unlike other financial assets like gold which has other uses such as material for electronic devices, medical equipment and jewelry cryptocurrencies also dont serve any other purpose other than a store of value. As a result, there is no real connection between the price and longevity of cryptocurrencies, so the bubble around them could burst at any time.

This volatility means that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general cannot offer the long-term security that people need especially not during a recession and such uncertain market conditions. As the Guardians Kenneth Rogoff puts it, Like lottery tickets, there is a high probability that [cryptocurrencies] are worthless.

Theres also thecrypto paradox, whereby people buy cryptocurrencies but dont use them because they want their value to grow. Ironically, unless crypto is used as a currency (its only purpose), its value will fall and investors will eventually offload it to avoid further losses. Theres no sign of cryptocurrencies becoming widely accepted as payment either, as the volatility and lack of transparency makes it too high risk for most vendors. These reasons are why leading economists predict that cryptocurrencies will sooner or later return to a value near zero.

The previously mentioned off-chain transactions are particularly problematic for cryptocurrency users because they arent individually written to the blockchain. What that means is that people can buy and sell crypto coins outside of the wider blockchain consensus essentially undermining the entire reason to use the technology in the first place.

These off-chain transactions are supported by constructs like the Lightning Network, which operates as an external layer on top of a cryptocurrency blockchain and allows for private payments to take place separately before being written back onto the main blockchain.

Blockchain is intended to be a trustless environment: Every transaction requires the different nodes in the system to reach a consensus, so no single actor is responsible, and its nearly impossible to manipulate. But off-chain sales depend on the individuals managing those transactions, which opens the door for foul play. Its already been discovered that off-chain transactions can be manipulated before being written to the blockchain. For example, if an off-chain transaction takes place but one party stops cooperating, the transaction wont be confirmed back into the Blockchain, and the other party wont be able to withdraw their money or take action to redeem the transaction.

Bitcoin cant be the digital gold investors are alluding to because it doesnt have the characteristics to make it a good store of value. Gold has intrinsic value and is in finite supply: Theres a fixed amount of it in existence, and it cant simply be manufactured out of thin air. While Bitcoin can be considered finite because there is a limited amount of it, there is no cap on the number of other cryptocurrencies that can be created. This ability to continually reproduce cryptocurrencies will dilute their value over time, which is why theyll never be a place for people to safely store their money.

The speculative nature of cryptocurrencies also means that their purchasing power is unstable. That means that anyone who buys crypto could find that when they need to buy services, be it the following day or the following year, they have less money than when they started out.

Theresalso great concern over cryptocurrencies in the banking sphere. In 2019,eight of the 10 major U.S. retail banks had dealings with illicit crypto money service businesses. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has sinceemphasized the importance of anti-money-laundering schemes in relation to cryptocurrencies, but many banks still find themselves unsure of protocols when it comes to virtual currencies. If banks are plagued by such crypto gray areas, it could seriously undermine their stability as financial institutions.

Just as fiat (government-run) currencies lose their value over time, so will Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but at a greater pace. Already, a large majority of cryptocurrencies have ended up listed asdead coins, or failed currencies. Spikes in crypto prices should not be taken as a sign that they are digital gold but rather that there are so many unknowns surrounding virtual currencies that raw speculation is dictating their price. This couldnt be further from the historic reliability of gold: As the worlds oldest currency, gold has endured countless recessions and economic dips and dives. Yet it has come out stronger than ever, and it continues to be used as money universally. Any emerging currency has to pick up a lot more mileage, experience and security before drawing such a comparison.

As blockchain-based crypto utilization expands globally, there are clear limitations to their speed and scale. It takes huge computational time and energy to write transactions to a blockchain, which is why fewer than 10 transactions are written per second. This slow speed cannot be improved without rebuilding the original framework of the Blockchain technology. But even if this were successfully done, the augmentations would mean that the blockchain wouldnthave the same security as before, nor the same capabilities, and it would be proven to be susceptible to modifications.

Blockchain also relies on the immutability of previous transactions and the related algorithms that maintain the network. That means blockchains are intrinsically difficult to enhance; they cant be simply upgraded from version to version and still maintain the integrity of the original system.

There are also concerns around the environmental impact of crypto processes. Transactions made by Bitcoin users are verified via mining, a process that involves solving a problem on a computer. Because people are rewarded with cryptocurrencies for correctly solving the problems,Bitcoin mines have emerged: warehouses full of mining computers that run all day. The energy consumption associated with crypto is breathtakingly high;estimates showthat Bitcoin uses around 90 TWh of electricity per year, about as much as the entire country of Finland.

Bitcoin and blockchain can be thought of as version 1.0 of cryptocurrencies. They were built to serve the core purpose of providing a distributed ledger of tokenized assets that utilizes cryptography principles and a trustless network of distributed ledgers (nodes) to ensure the security, accuracy and non-repudiation of cryptographic transactions. Version 2.0 added the ability to use the same blockchain framework to support binding legal contracts, but it still suffers from the problems of scalability.

There is an alternative distributed ledger technology to blockchain that could support digital payments outside of cryptocurrencies, while providing a far more efficient and borderless service compared to traditional banking.

Hedera Hashgraph can be considered version 3.0 of distributed ledger technologies. Hashgraph takes all the benefits of a distributed ledger security, cryptography, binding contracts between entities, non-repudiation and builds a secure, mathematically proven distributed ledger framework that can scale to support the demands of global adoption.

As a distributed ledger platform, Hashgraph is much faster and more secure than Bitcoin, supporting up to10,000 transactions per second compared to Bitcoins 2.8 per second. The network also utilizes a gossip protocolto ensure the network remains resilient even if the entire internet was turned off in the middle of a transaction. Furthermore, the network has been proven to be Byzantine-fault tolerant, meaning that, as long as two-thirds of the nodes are controlled by reputable entities, no data can be manipulated on the DLT. Byzantine-fault tolerance is also proven mathematically to be the best possible outcome any distributed network of nodes can hope to achieve.

Distributed ledger technologies stand poised to change the landscape not only for fintech as a means to transact and allocate funds but also as a mechanism for cradle-to-grave asset tracking, legally-binding contracts between entities and, of course, as a platform for generating an infinite number of cryptocurrencies.

In order to properly utilize crypto as a transactional currency with a long-term store of value, it must satisfy two requirements:

Due to the inherent gaps in both scalability and as a store of value, its my view that Bitcoin will never live up to the hype surrounding it as a crypto platform.

Read More From Our Experts in FinanceBreaking Out of the Bubble: Why Im Committed to Investing Beyond Silicon Valley

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What We Don't Know About Bitcoin and Why It's a Problem - Built In

New York-based Ethereum hub ConsenSys has partnered with the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) to bring its enterprise ledger, Quorum, to Chinas nationwide blockchain project.

As part of the partnership, announced Monday, ConsenSys Quorum, an open-source protocol layer that serves as a foundation for businesses to build Ethereum-based applications, will be available in about 80 different cities through BSNs public city nodes throughout mainland China.

China is a great example of where enterprise blockchain is a strong play, said Charles dHaussy, director of strategic initiatives and ConsenSys man in Hong Kong. What Ethereum is doing with ConsenSys Quorum is connecting people who are essentially migrating from the permissioned chain to the global chain.

Its a plum announcement for Quorum, the privacy-centric blockchain originally designed by engineers from JPMorgan. Quorum appeared to be in the wilderness for a time, between being spun out of the bank and re-housed within the ConsenSys ecosystem.

Quorum was very much associated with JPMorgan, but there was also this open-source software which was available to many developers, said dHaussy in an interview. It may not have been apparent, but there was this large audience of enterprise users, and we are now bringing to this ecosystem other products and applications from ConsenSys.

The BSN was founded in April 2020 by Red Date Technology, a Beijing-based software company, China UnionPay and China Mobile. BSN spans various cloud environments and portals in China (Quorum is already integrated with Alibaba Cloud), and is also backed by the Chinese government in the form of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), an economic planning agency.

Designed to be the backbone of the so-called Digital Silk Road, BSN has so far deployed 108 public city nodes, connecting over 80 cities across mainland China and eight public city nodes in other countries around the world, according to a press statement.

After the launch, BSN will include Quorum in BSNs training programs in 2021 to substantially accelerate the enterprise adoption of blockchain technology and Ethereum-based solutions in China, Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology and the executive director of BSN Development Association, said in a statement.

GoQuorum will also be interoperable with other permissioned frameworks and open permissioned frameworks on BSN, He said, building the blockchain cornerstone for the new infrastructure in China.

Summing up, dHaussy pointed out permissioned blockchain was the obvious start of the journey for many large firms but that commercially these networks are extremely hard to get off the ground.

Enterprise blockchain has been given strong support from the government in China and the tech is a good fit for the countrys sprawling manufacturing landscape, he said.

Chinas industries, which are a global network of large and small suppliers, are not integrated as they were in the past, said dHaussy. They are jumping on coordination tools such as blockchain.

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Ethereum-Based ConsenSys Quorum Partners With Chinas BSN Blockchain - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Crypto startup The Graph has announced it is exploring providing support for additional layer-one blockchains, including Bitcoin, Polkadot and NEAR.

The potential integrations, which comes over a month after The Graph launched on mainnet, would add to the startup's existing list of supported chains, including Ethereum, IPFS and POA. The Graph's service enables the querying of data across many blockchains.

For instance, the Bitcoin integration would allow developers on layer-two Bitcoin projects to use some data they need from Ethereum or whatever other layer-ones that are integrated. The Graph's integrations across that first layer will allow developers to use each integration's best features to build their apps.

After launching mainnet, we are looking to accelerate the upward trajectory of the Web3 ecosystem. That means ensuring that no matter which Layer 1 blockchain you are building on, you can build a subgraph and easily access data from across chains," said Director at The Graph Foundation Eva Beylin. "We think this is a key part of unlocking that next wave of innovation on the decentralized internet.

According to the startup, the new layer-one integrations are expected to take place in the next few months, depending on community interest and engagement.

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Graph to explore rolling out several new Layer 1 integrations, including one for Bitcoin - The Block Crypto

By Ioana Good

Cryptocurrencies have become a hot topic again. The emergence of the token-based economy, allowing people to buy and sell goods using new types of currencies, will have far reaching legal ramifications.

Legal marketers should be prepared for expansion of practice groups around blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Clients will no doubt be curious how this emerging technology may change how they live and work. The legal space will most likely be one of the first places they turn for answers. This is a complex, technical topic, but understanding the basics is critical for the legal market and those who promote it.

Legal marketers should be prepared for expansion of practice groups around blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

I spoke with Debbie Hoffman, founder of Symmetry Blockchain Advisors; Michael Laussade, head of blockchain and cryptoassets at Jackson Walker; Dr. Hans Kuhn, legal advisor to Idoneus; and Ciaran Connelly, who oversees blockchain at Ball Janik. Here is what each have to say to provide some insight and help demystify this new digital economy.

Hoffman, who spent many years working as an in-house legal counsel, founded Symmetry to help clients with blockchain strategy and implementation primarily in real estate. Companies are seeing immediate efficiencies and cost savings when they implement this new technology, says Hoffman. With the pandemic driving so much of our lives to the digital world, interest in blockchain is growing rapidly and there is more willingness to explore and adopt this technology.

"Blockchain opens up the door for many types of legal questions..."

But blockchain is still in its early stages and questions center around its impact on tax, security and other laws across a range of different industries and countries. Hoffman provides this analogy as it relates to a benefit of blockchain: A young adult entering a bar must show a hard copy of a drivers license to verify age. Imagine if you could verify your identity through your phone using blockchain technology. The technology allows for identity data points to be stored. You have the ability to securely share only the information that is important to that specific transaction.

Legal marketers are beginning to work with lawyers to market this evolving technology globally. Since blockchain technology is being used in a wide variety of industries, law firms may consider appointing one person in marketing who understands and has the combined expertise of the different angles that affect clients, says Hoffman, who will also teach a blockchain course in March at Albany Law School. Blockchain opens up the door for many types of legal questions, so it would be helpful for law firm marketers to address the benefits and legal issues through targeted marketing programs.

Laussade at Jackson Walker agrees. He first got involved in blockchain when states like Delaware and Texas amended their corporate statutes to allow stock ledgers to be maintained on a blockchain. He worked on drafting amendments for corporate statutes, which lead him to working with clients, primarily those who operate private investment funds or startups, about the use of cryptocurrency to raise capital.

"This will drive innovation across the technology spectrum..."

Initially clients had a lot of securities law questions about blockchain and crypto. Laussade says, but over time thats shifted into startups looking to deploy these technologies more broadly. Laussade is also seeing clients move some of their wealth from traditional currencies to cryptocurrencies. Global economic uncertainty tends to drive interest in cryptocurrencies, Laussade says. Remote work and communication will continue to be important in 2021 and beyond. This will drive innovation across the technology spectrum to bolster solutions that enhance flexibility and security.

Idoneus is one such company that has emerged to provide a blockchain based platform for the exchange of luxury goods and services globally. The company has already established a large portfolio of assets available for sale and rent on their platform that includes real estate, yachts, jewelry, cars and fine art, including works of Picasso. One of the first things a new client has questions about are the laws surrounding what we do, says Kuhn who concentrates much of his legal practice on the banking and financial market with a focus on regulations. Blockchain allows Idoneus to deliver a much more rapid, secure and cost-effective method to facilitate transactions.

Blockchain is allowing Idoneus to solve several challenges around security and identity during a transaction while also speeding up transactions and lowering costs. The technology will evolve a great deal over the next 10 years, Kuhn says. While the technology is still very much evolving, Im deeply convinced that blockchain will have a big impact on real-world assets.

"We are still in the exploratory phase."

Although this is an exciting field that is quickly evolving, there are some concerns around the security of blockchain and cryptocurrency because they are not all created equal, warns Connelly. He is working with several clients in Oregon, including engineers who may be working on two to three different blockchain projects at a time. Would-be blockchain users must understand the risks before they decide to implement blockchain technologies. When crypto currencies are involved, there are securities laws, fraud and money laundering risks that must be mitigated. SEC enforcement actions extracted millions of dollars from companies that engaged in improper Initial Coin Offerings.

Connelly points out, Its important to know the pros and cons of using blockchain. We are still in the exploratory phase. The question I always ask clients is: What problem are you really solving by using blockchain? I have yet to hear a convincing answer.

*

Ioana Good is a regular contributor and is the founder of Promova, an international communications and PR agency. She may be reached at igood@promo-va.com.

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New Year, New Legal Focus: The Impact of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Law - JD Supra

Shares of Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) are getting a nice boost on Friday despite no company news emerging from the firm.

Source: Shutterstock

Overall, RIOT stock traded relatively flat for most of 2020 up until late July, And after ending the year strong and more than 1,300% higher, RIOT stock continues to ride its positive momentum as we close out January 2021.

So, who is Riot Blockchain and what do they do? Lets take a closer look at the company for a better idea.

RIOT stock was up 7.8% as of Friday morning.

On the date of publication, Nick Clarkson did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

Nick is a web editor at InvestorPlace.

Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2021/01/riot-stock-6-things-to-know-about-riot-blockchain-as-share-prices-soar/.

2021 InvestorPlace Media, LLC

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RIOT Stock: 6 Things to Know About Riot Blockchain as Share Prices Soar - InvestorPlace

It is a useful exercise for those of us working in tech to cast our minds back to the dot-com boom and bust of the late 1990s. There is a lot that can be learned from that time. The period was crucial for the United States and the global economy and a defining moment for the tech sector. It is helpful to consider those helter-skelter days when assessing the current crypto ecosystem.

Most people will rightly point to the glut of Super Bowl ads coming in at over $2 million each or the initial public offerings that rose more than 1,000% on opening day as the defining memories of the time, and they would be right. It was a time of frenzied excitement, where the fundamentals of technology and business models were often disregarded by sky-high growth projections. But this excitement only arose because technology unlocked a new approach to doing business. Well-run companies built on network effects survived the crash and continued to grow and create enormous value. In 2000, three of the top five listed companies in the U.S. were tech stocks now it is all five.

Even the Super Bowl ads that we like to ridicule were associated with business models that have since led to the formation of great companies trading stocks and recruiting staff online are big industries. Digitizing these functions and other similar ones led to extremely successful companies, but this value was only realized in the subsequent decades as digital infrastructure was rolled out internationally and digital literacy improved. These first movers could have achieved far more if they had concentrated on building effective businesses based on long term vision and solid unit economics. Instead, they are notorious for being swept up by hype bubbles and being swayed by large valuations inflated by immature investors.

Something similar can be witnessed in the fintech and crypto space. This story also involves a crash, as the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers led to a crowd of young, bright finance professionals suddenly looking for work. Nascent fintech startups absorbed the talent, creating a fintech boom in clusters within financial capitals, including New York and London. Technologists and mathematicians reimagined finance at an abstract level, recruiting financial masters of the universe to complete the vision and build companies.

The combined talent from these two groups, coupled with the experience of two crashes in a decade and a half, led the fintech industry to take a pragmatic approach to growing companies and building products. Because investors had cooled on tech, fintech entrepreneurs had to focus relentlessly on product/market fit to grow their startups, iterating repeatedly when building new financial products and markets from first principles. This led to the creation of a stable ecosystem where valuations were grounded in reality, rather than charismatic founders and fantasies of growth.

The other financial milestone of 2008 that history books will recognize was the creation of Bitcoin (BTC). When the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper in October of that year, she, he or they looked past the wreckage of the financial system and imagined a new one based on blockchain technology. This store of value based on memory and removed from a central authority was intellectually elegant and came at a crucial juncture of technological development and financial instability. Many thought the stage was set for Bitcoin to take over the world.

But there was a problem. Where some of us saw an asset class with tremendous social value, far more saw nothing more than an asset going up in price, and others saw a Ponzi scheme. Satoshi built an amazing system, but its true value had yet to be realized.

We know what happened next. Bitcoin became a speculative asset that then surged in value in 2017, leading to behavior eerily similar to the Super Bowl ad blitz with Bitcoin mortgages and blockchain iced tea. Then the price cratered and ushered in the crypto winter. Just like the viable ideas of the dot-com craze, a fundamentally strong idea was lost to poor communication, scarce infrastructure and a lack of product/market fit.

Like we saw in the broader tech ecosystem, things change over time. Today we have a vast range of products, functions and currencies built on blockchain technology, built to last during the crypto winter, like the fintech companies of the last decade. This is backed by a sophisticated class of investors who are providing clear-eyed valuation to the blockchain. Wide-scale quantitative easing and fluctuating fiat currencies due to the COVID-19 pandemic are showcasing the true value of the blockchain. Its time has come.

The global financial system as a whole is a demonstration of an apt product/market fit for blockchain. Bitcoins hype exceeded reality, harming the sectors reputation for several years. However, we now have the infrastructure, expertise and demand to meet the technologys potential. The key to reaching maturation will be to realize the social value of blockchain how it empowers people rather than solely viewing it as a financial instrument.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Andrew Kessler is the chief technology officer and a co-founder of Zenotta.Andrew is a tech entrepreneur and cryptographic generalist. He won first prize at the IDC Inventors Garage, was a finalist in the GAP Innovation Competition, a finalist in Seed Stars, and a TIA grant holder. Zug-based Kessler is a serial entrepreneur who worked on an N-doped diamond-based semiconductor startup and founded several additional startups focused on biometrics, logistics and human identity. Andrew has a background in chemistry and biochemistry and has a strong knowledge base in cryptography.

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Blockchain tech may have arrived too soon, but now, its ready - Cointelegraph

Warangal: The experts who gathered at the five-day Faculty Development Programme (FDP) jointly organised by the AICTE Training and Learning (Atal) Academy and the Department of CSE, Kakatiya Institute of Technology and Science, Warangal, here on Friday discussed at length about the 'Blockchain Technology'. It may be mentioned here that Blockchain technology is a decentralised ledger that keeps a record of transactions across a peer-to-peer network. It allows participants from across the network to confirm their transaction without the need for a central authority.

Speaking at the valedictory, KITS Principal Prof K Ashoka Reddy said that 134 participants including faculty, researchers, post-graduate scholars and industries from across south India have utilised the FDP that provided a hands-on-experience on Blockchain Technology.

Head, Department of CSE Prof V Shankar said that Blockchain was a database that is shared across a network of computers. Once a record has been added to the chain, it is very difficult to change. To ensure all the copies of the database are the same, the network makes constant checks.

Blockchains have been used to underpin digital currency (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum). The technology allows digital information to be distributed, but not copied. That means each individual piece of data can only have one owner. Using cryptography to keep exchanges secure, blockchain provides a decentralised database, or "digital ledger", of transactions that everyone on the network can see.

Dean, Research and Development, Professor P Niranjan said that this network was essentially a chain of computers that must all approve before it could be verified and recorded. The information is constantly reconciled into the database, which is stored in multiple locations and updated instantly. It means that the records are public and verifiable. Since there is no central location, it's hard to hack. Blockchain is going to be used for more than just currency and transactions, he added.

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Experts dwell on Blockchain tech - The Hans India