ORLANDO, Fla. In South Korea,a credit card company uses blockchain technology to let its staff and customer base 23 million altogether sign on easily and securely to its platform.

Another company, which offers a rewards program for customers, also leverages blockchain to ensure its 9 million daily users can access services.

Powering both platforms is Seongnam, South Korea-based blockchain company Blocko. Both clients saw value in a blockchain solution because it fit the use case,according to Jae Shin, chief marketing officer at Blocko.

"We haven't focused on blockchain but in assessing needs and then giving the technology to address those needs," Shin said, in an interview with CIO Dive during the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Florida, last month.

It's one way the company found to convey the potential of blockchain, especially for companies in heavily regulated sectors like financial services.

Per a review of early blockchain adoption cases by Gartner, the three key hurdles enterprise-level organizations faced were:

Though it's the early days of development,blockchain is headed for widespread adoption. Failure to catch up will come at a cost for enterprises, that risk giving up a competitive edge as industry and consumers embrace blockchain long term.

In its 2019 Hype Cycle,Gartner warned most blockchain technologies were stuck in the "experimentation mode," failing to deliver on expected outcomes.

But the road ahead seems clear for the continued evolution of the underlying technology. By 2021, the analyst firm expects the technology to move past the experimentation phase. However, Gartner does not expect blockchain to become fully scalable technically and operationally until 2028.

"The hype in this technology is significant," said Rajesh Kandaswamy, chief of research and Gartner Fellow at Gartner, speaking at the IT Symposium/Xpo, last month. "But actual adoption is rare."

In review of 1,063 enterprise companies, Gartner found early blockchain adopters mostly hail from highly regulated industries like banking and securities,alongside communications, media and services companies, and manufacturing and natural resources.

Naomi Eide / CIO Dive,Data from Gartner, 2019

But organizations which have blockchain projects up and running represent just 4% of the group. Almost half of companies, 48%, said there was no interest in deploying blockchain, while the remaining 48% of companies have plans to invest in blockchain within the coming three years.

Most use cases in the enterprise have had to overcome barriers to get there. Mainly, companies have grappled with stakeholder dynamics,internal commitment and immaturity of blockchain.

The non-technical challenges can become "thornier than technical ones"as they impact the dynamics of the tech adoption, said Kandaswamy.

These are the three key issues identified by Gartner's research:

Instead of having competing blockchain projects under development at different companies, success stories include the formation of standalone companies or consortiums in order to better articulate a strategy around a specific technology.

One example is the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which in 2017 connected JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, Accenture and other financial services companies with blockchain technology company ConsenSys to work on reducing inefficiencies in financial applications.

Partly due to the hype surrounding blockchain technologies, the outcomes and value they can bring is often vague for teams.

Overselling the value of blockchain, or attempting to force the technology into a project that doesn't call for it, can derail the effort.

"The benefits are still vague," Kandaswamy said. "There's not a common shared understanding, and that's still a big problem."

Early adopters learned there's a need for internal work to convey the potential of blockchain and the value they can deliver, as most technologists have a certain level of skepticism regarding the technology.

"Investing in education internally is critical to get a shared understanding,"Kandaswamy said.

It's unlikely blockchain technologies will fully catch up to the hype in the coming years, according to Gartner.

Companies wanting to deploy blockchain need to be prepared for deployment processes marked by the iterative solution of issues as the technology evolves.

"Plan for the immaturity of solutions that will evolve over time," said Kandaswamy.

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Early lessons on blockchain: Companies a long way from widespread adoption - CIO Dive

Volvo Cars announced last week that it is using Oracles blockchain platform to trace cobalt, one of the main components in electric car batteries. Following the unveiling of the companys first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge, Volvo has come up with a new business strategy that includes introducing an electric vehicle every year through 2025.

Cobalt is at the heart of electric vehicle batteries, yet supplies are limited. Companies like Volvo are ramping up their production significantly, as half of Volvo cars will be electric by 2025. Each car requires 10-20 kilograms of cobalt in their batteries, Mark Rakhmilevich, senior director of blockchain product management at Oracle, told Cointelegraph.

While cobalt is a key mineral for making lithium-ion batteries, the majority of cobalt production comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a region criticized for its unethical cobalt mining conditions.

According to findings from Amnesty International, children as young as seven are working in life-threatening conditions in the DRC to mine cobalt that ends up in smartphones, tablets and cars each year. Young children and adults are often paid only $1 a day to work under these perilous conditions.

Volvo will be applying blockchain technology to provide global traceability in all raw products used throughout its supply chain. Rakhmilevich explained:

Volvo is ensuring that their supplies of cobalt are clear and safe from unethical issues by tracing raw materials on the Oracle blockchain. Weve been working with Volvo since this summer to implement a material tracking application that captures data relevant to different points in the manufacturing process.

Volvo has also partnered with traceability-as-a-service provider Circulor to trace raw materials through the supply chain to its battery manufacturer and then to Volvo cars. This end-to-end solution would ensure transparent and reliable data sharing, significantly boosting transparency of the entire raw material supply chain.

Following a successful pilot with Oracle and Circulor this summer, Volvo Cars has now reached an agreement with its two global battery suppliers, CATL of China and LG Chem of South Korea, to implement cobalt traceability starting this year.

Both Oracle and Circulor will operate the blockchain technology across CATLs supply chain, while the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network, together with responsible sourcing specialists RCS Global and IBM, will roll out the technology in LG Chems supply chain.

Data captured on the Oracle blockchain platform will include the cobalts origin, attributes such as weight and size, the chain of custody and information establishing that participant behavior is consistent with globally recognized supply chain guidelines.

Weve been working with Volvo and Circulor, to implement a material tracking application on top of the Oracle blockchain, Rakhmilevich said. This will capture data relevant to different points across the manufacturing process, such as time, location, weight, size and more, to ensure that all materials being used are accurate.

Blockchain is an ideal solution for tracking materials across a supply chain, as the technology creates records of transactions that cant be changed while also enforcing a common set of rules about which data can be recorded. This lets participants across a network independently verify and audit transactions.

After ensuring that all materials are accurate, we record each data point from those transactions on the blockchain, making that data immutable and transparent across the network, Rakhmilevich noted.

According to Rakhmilevich, Volvo, CATL and seven other companies (participants in this supply chain) currently record about 28 million material scans and other production events monthly on the Oracle blockchain platform. While he is confident that this will scale over time (and eventually evolve into other aspects of the supply chain, like tracing lithium and nickel), the real challenge is properly managing materials.

There are a number of complex stages that cobalt and other materials go through to ensure that data points are captured at origin. This data must then be scanned and secured, so its important to make sure that data from physical sources is captured appropriately, Rakhmilevich explained.

According to Caspar Rawles, senior analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, its great that Volvo is using blockchain to track its cobalt, but much of the DRCs cobalt comes from small, independent mines. Child labor and a number of fatal accidents have been reported in such small-scale, so-called "artisinal" mines.

Although Volvo is tracking its materials, the company also needs to carefully follow cobalt through the entire supply chain, from where it is mined all the way to where it is shipped in China. This ensures that materials are not then blended with other minerals coming from the DRC.

Volvo needs to trace cobalt not only from the mine but also to where it is being shipped, up until batteries are placed in cars, to ensure that materials are not being blended with unethically sourced items, Rawles told Cointelegraph.

While there are obstacles, Rawles also noted that Volvo has taken the first steps to demonstrate that using technology can ensure sustainability and ethically sourced products:

As more carmakers produce electric vehicles, they need to realize that dealing with the supply chain will be a crucial aspect. Its good to see that Volvo is taking this approach now with blockchain technology.

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Volvo Adopts Oracles Blockchain for Its Supply Chain Heres Why - Cointelegraph

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ShelterZoom, the inventor of Contract of ThingsTM (CoTTM), the next milestone in the evolution of contracts, today announced its expansion into the Asia-Pacific market by adding several new regional talents to its team and setting the stage for a Melbourne, Australia, office opening in Q1 2020. This will be closely followed by a second Asia-Pacific office opening in China.

At the invitation of the Victoria state government, ShelterZooms co-founders, Chao Cheng-Shorland and Allen Alishahi, recently travelled to Australia and met with some of the countrys largest banking, legal, real estate and insurance firms. The trip saw several potential and major partnerships for ShelterZooms groundbreaking CoT technology, which will transform records, documents and contracts into fully digital, interoperable and intelligent assets.

We are thrilled to announce this expansion into the Asia-Pacific region with the addition of entrepreneurial-minded, top professionals such as Lily Li, Kevin Huang and Mike Yang. They each have the regional experience and connections, especially in Australia and China, to greatly expand awareness of our company and bring our exciting CoT and proprietary blockchain technology into one of the fastest growing regions in the world, said Chao Cheng-Shorland, CEO and co-founder of ShelterZoom.

Lily Li comes to ShelterZoom with a long track record of successfully raising capital, managing interdisciplinary teams and navigating intricate contracts across different industries. Most recently, she founded a management company in the commercial real estate sector, overseeing a portfolio of clients through the complex contract negotiations involved in securing and maintaining long-term leaseholds.

Kevin Huang brings extensive experience in banking, mortgage and finance. Huang comes to ShelterZoom most recently from Collins Hotel Pty Ltd, where he owned and operated an apartment-hotel business in Melbournes central business district.

Mike Yang adds a wealth of private sector and government experience to ShelterZoom. After serving terms on two Ministerial Advisory Committees for the most recent Victorian state government, Mike has been reappointed by the current government to the Visitor Economy Ministerial Advisory Committee. Between 2010 to 2013, Mike was a senior adviser to the Honorable Daniel Andrews, the current Victorian Premier. And, as managing director of Modun Group, Mike has been instrumental in some of the largest Asia/Australia business deals in sports, red wine export and property.

ShelterZooms blockchain technology and its revolutionary Contract of Things invention have the potential to redefine modern business relationships, e-Commerce, transactions and processes. I am excited to join their Asia-Pacific team, added Yang.

Celebrating Asia-Pacific Expansion

ShelterZoom is running a Tiny Cabin Giveaway raffle through March 2020. The winner will receive an all-wood, Claudia Kit Cabin delivered to their front door. The raffle is open to anyone who registers and submits a non-binding practice offer here (terms and conditions apply). Its a great opportunity to register interest in CoT and have a chance to win a cabin. The raffle winner will experience the Kit Cabin contract on the CoT platform firsthand once the raffle is drawn.

About ShelterZoom

ShelterZoom was founded with a vision to revolutionize the way people buy, sell and rent properties. In 2017, we launched the worlds first blockchain-based real estate platform that provides a way to stay on top of every stage of property offers and negotiations. After winning the 2018 SIIA CODiE Best Emerging Technology Award, which recognizes high-impact products, we are developing a transformational and industry-agnostic platform to evolve contracts to Contract of Things (CoT). For more information, visit ShelterZoom.com.

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Blockchain Market Leader ShelterZoom Expands Its Asia-pacific Presence With Breakthrough Contract of Things (CoT) Technology - Business Wire

Blockchain technology has evolved greatly since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008, the first decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Today, innovators in various fields are realizing the benefits of the technology behind Bitcoin. From medicine to finance, many sectors are looking for ways to integrate blockchain into their infrastructures.

With its decentralized and trustless nature, Blockchain technology can lead to new opportunities and benefit businesses through greater transparency, enhanced security, and easier traceability.

Blockchain Concept and Manhattan Skyline at Night

How Blockchain Can Power Up Your Business

Blockchain solutions are not only limited to the exchange of cryptocurrencies. There are numerous benefits that this technology can present to businesses in many different industries, through its distributed and decentralized nature:

#1 Greater Transparency

Blockchains greatest characteristic stems from the fact that its transaction ledger for public addresses is open to viewing. In financial systems and businesses, this adds an unprecedented layer of accountability, holding each sector of the business responsible to act with integrity towards the companys growth, its community and customers.

#2 Increased Efficiency

Due to its decentralized nature, Blockchain removes the need for middlemen in many processes for fields such as payments and real estate. In comparison to traditional financial services, blockchain facilitates faster transactions by allowing P2P cross-border transfers with a digital currency. Property management processes are made more efficient with a unified system of ownership records, and smart contracts that would automate tenant-landlord agreements.

#3 Better Security

Blockchain is far more secure than other record keeping systems because each new transaction is encrypted and linked to the previous transaction. Blockchain, as the name suggests, is formed by a network of computers coming together to confirm a block, this block is then added to a ledger, which forms a chain. Blockchain is formed by a complicated string of mathematical numbers and is impossible to be altered once formed. This immutable and incorruptible nature of blockchain makes it safe from falsified information and hacks. It's decentralized nature also gives it a unique quality of being trustless meaning that parties do not need trust to transact safely.

#4 Improved Traceability

With the blockchain ledger, each time an exchange of goods is recorded on a Blockchain, an audit trail is present to trace where the goods came from. This can not only help improve security and prevent fraud in exchange-related businesses, but it can also help verify the authenticity of the traded assets. In industries such as medicine, it can be used to track the supply chain from manufacturer to distributer, or in the art industry to provide an irrefutable proof of ownership.

Blockchain-as-a-Service for Simpler Integration

The problem that many businesses face, however, is that blockchain is sophisticated to integrate, and lack a technical team that is well-versed in this arena. BaaS or Blockchain-as-a-Service companies allow customers to integrate Blockchain technology into their businesses easily, without disruption to their daily processes. One such company that identified the need for BaaS is Broctagon Fintech Group.

With a global presence across 7 countries, Broctagon provides premier fintech solutions including multi-asset liquidity, brokerage technology solutions, and enterprise blockchain development. Businesses are also apprehensive about blockchain integration, especially about investing large sums of funds into development for a technology that is still considered disruptive. Starter kits like Blockchain-in-a-Box allows modern businesses to create a proof-of-concept to confirm blockchains viability and feasibility for their business before embarking on a full development.Investors are more likely going to finance a project they can see, rather than just a conceptual idea. With its Blockchain-in-a-Box starter kit, businesses can create a fully tangible platform to stand out in their market and gain confidence for their projects.

Blockchain has the potential for many use cases, applicable to a multitude of industries, and BaaS facilitates that movement from disruptive into mainstream.

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The Benefits Of Applying Blockchain Technology In Any Industry - Forbes

SoftBank is teaming up with IBM to develop cross-carrier blockchain solutions, with the focus on technologies that will allow smartphone users to make local payments when traveling overseas and roaming.

According to an Oct. 22announcement, SoftBank said it will be working with IBM as well as blockchain startup TBCASoft that develops cross-carrier blockchain networks in order to carry out applications under the Carrier Blockchain Study GroupConsortium.

TBCASoft was founded in 2016 and has received funding from SoftBank. In 2017, together with SoftBank, Sprint and Taiwans FarEasTone, it formed the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG), now an 18-member consortium working toward the development of blockchain solutions for phone companies.

SoftBank added that the first project being undertaken by the CBSG is the Cross-Carrier Payment System (CCPS), which is aimed to allow mobile-phone customers to pay locally using their devices when traveling outside their home countries.

Other members of the consortium include Koreas LG U+ and KT, Malaysias Axiata, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, Turkeys Turkcell and PLDT of the Philippines.

The Oct. 22 announcement did not provide much detail about the terms of the agreement between the three companies, though it noted that TBCASoft will be using the IBM Blockchain Platform, IBMs Hyperledger-powered enterprise blockchain solution.

This is a business relationship, an IBM spokesperson clarified by email. IBM is not joining the consortium.

TBCASoft technology helps optimize clearing between different carriers and transaction records, according to the announcement, and allows for the interoperability of mobile networks and the bolting on of networks of merchants to enable payments.

The announcement also noted that SoftBank plans to have a payments system in operation in Tokyo in 2020, when the Olympics will be held in the city.

Last year, SoftBank completed a blockchain proof-of-concept in partnership with TBCASoft that would allow peer-to-peer mobile payments across different carriers.

SoftBank image via Shutterstock

Originally posted here:

SoftBank to Develop Cross-Carrier Blockchain Payments With IBM Tech - CoinDesk

Almost half of all people working in the blockchain industry are employed by cryptocurrency exchanges, new research from industry-focused publication The Block reveals.

The Block published the research results on Oct. 23, stating that 42% of people at 158 analyzed companies work for digital currency exchanges, with around 7,700 people combined working at 30 different exchanges.

Crypto exchanges are followed by crypto mining equipment producers, comprising 11% of blockchain industry employees. 10% of the surveyed employees work for various cryptocurrency governing foundations, with Ripple, TRON, Block.one and IOHK being the largest employers in that sector.

Out of the analyzed 158 companies involved in cryptocurrencies and blockchain, Bitmain, Huobi, Coinbase and OKEx take the lead in terms of the numbers of people employed, with 1,500, 1,300, 1,000 and 950 employees, respectively. Binance and Ripples staff consists of around 650 and 450 employees respectively.

As reported in September, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple fell out of the top-10 of Linkedlns The 50 hottest U.S. companies to work for list. Stock and crypto trading startup Robinhood mostly retained its position, moving from the sixth place in 2018 to the seventh in 2019.

Ripple was ranked as one of the best employers in the technology industry in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. At the time, 91% of employees reportedly said that Ripple is a great place to work at, with 95 percent of the surveyed claiming that they are proud to tell others they work there.

In June, LinkedIn named blockchain as one of the top-10 most important employee skills in the Asia Pacific region.

Originally posted here:

Research: Over 40% of Blockchain Industry Employees Work at Crypto Exchanges - Cointelegraph

U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry, who represents North Carolinas 10th District, says he wants regulators default reaction to crypto innovation to be yes.

The Congressman who goes by the moniker of Mr. Fintech on Capitol Hill made his remarks during an interview for Laura Shins Unchained podcast, published on Oct. 22.

McHenry related his observations of the cryptocurrency spaces development, underscoring that the Bitcoins enormous value had become swiftly apparent. He soon recognized, he said, that regulators responses would struggle to keep pace with the wealth of new ideas:

My conclusion was, any action by the government really up until the last 2, 3 years would be negative, would impair innovation and would restrict the development of cryptocurrencies and their enormous value, now and in the future.

Its far better, he continued, for Capitol Hill to slowly become more informed about the industry rather than rush to go kill or try to kill an idea.

As the industry has evolved, he argued that weve entered a different phase: one that now needs smarter regulation and increased certainty from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as a clarification from the U.S. Treasury and IRS in regard to taxing authority.

Real government work still needs to be done, he noted.

To this end, he has this week reintroduced the Financial Services Innovation Act. The bill proposes the creation of financial service innovation offices within each of the ten different federal offices that deal with financial service issues.

The bill, he said, will ensure that regulators are innovation-forward and situated to say yes rather than no. I want the default to be yes, not no.

McHenry outlined that the creation of these offices would establish something similar to what other jurisdictions call a regulatory sandbox. His proposed term, permanent beta testing, would work on the same principles.

Regulatory agencies would be able to offer innovators in the crypto space to enter into an enforcement compliance agreement: once accepted, this would allow them to provide services under a modified compliance plan, with certain waivers for out of date measures or unduly burdensome.

For agencies such as the SEC and CFTC and others, he argued that the bill represents a necessary step to establishing a regulatory process that works with, not against, innovation.

As reported, McHenry told lawmakers this summer that:

The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the Bitcoin whitepaper envisioned, and others are building, is an unstoppable force.

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US Congressman: Default Reaction to Bitcoin, Blockchain Must Be Yes - Cointelegraph

Scroll through LinkedIn and you will see some bold claims. Some will profess to know the secret of effective marketing; others will boast there is no secret at all, just hard work. You will see technology experts describe new code, fresh mechanics and futuristic algorithms; all designed to shake up the market.

One area never too far down on my home page is blockchain technology. Those in this specific corner of the industry say it is not a tool of the future; it is already here and is essential. Conferences and events are held across the world to emphasise its progress and provide opportunity for experts to demonstrate its value.

But weve been hearing about how crypto-currencies are on the verge of mass adoption for more than a year now. We saw the hype of Bitcoin rise and fall in unity with its value and today we seem no nearer to a world run by distributed ledger technologies (DLT). So when will it happen? What will it take for blockchain to truly emerge from its corner and flood the gaming industry?

To deny that progress has been made would be naive. The first example has to be Malta. Labelling itself as the worlds Blockchain Island was another bold move. However, it is clearly keen on living up to that title. In 2018, the inaugural AI and Blockchain Summit was hosted on the island and this year it was given two slots on the global gaming calendar. The first edition of 2019 was held in spring and the next will take place in November.

That growth highlights the level of attention received by the new technologies. It is worth noting however, this conference does not solely focus on the gaming industry and of course includes AI as well as blockchain.

When I speak with digital suppliers such as platform providers, they are all eager to make it clear they can integrate blockchain technology. They say this is no problem and are happy to do it for any customer. When I ask them how many operators have actually opted for a crypto payment system, I get a less enthusiastic response. The answer rarely exceeds double digits.

There is still so much doubt in place over the use of crypto-currencies. Maybe the hesitancy exists more as a result of the extra effort. Operators already have a series of regulatory hoops to jump through, so to add another one may be a step too far at this point. With blockchain technology still so new when compared to traditional payment methods, the process is obviously far from being streamlined. This can be off-putting to operators. Time is money after all and if they need to close their website to integrate crypto-currencies, even if only for a short period, they will lose revenue.

One area that will surely drive on the use of blockchain technology is betting on esports. For the moment, it seems as if the industry is waiting for a new target demographic to mature. Betting on esports is becoming more popular as children who would play Fifa or Call of Duty become old enough to place a wager on their favourite pro team. Esports and crypto-currencies are a perfect partnership to help each other grow.

This partnership can be further fuelled by operators designing their own tokens, essentially creating their own currency. This is what esports operator Unikrn has done. By building its own token, Unikoin Gold, it encourages customers to spend more on its websites. The tokens can obviously be used to bet but are also used in giveaways, online shopping and exchanges.

Are we on the verge of mass adoption? The short answer is no. Rather than an overnight surge, blockchain in gaming will experience a steady trickle of new users. Day-by-day the number of customers using it will grow and this will be influenced by new players joining the betting landscape, bringing their expectations with them.

RELATED TAGS: Online | eSports | Industry | Sports Betting | Financial | Casino | Feature

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When will blockchain be adopted on the mass scale? - Gambling Insider - In-depth Analysis for the Gaming Industry

I study blockchain technology and its potential use in fighting fraud, strengthening cybersecurity, and securing voting.

I see promising signs that blockchain-based voting could make it more convenient for people to vote, thereby boosting voter turnout. And blockchain systems can be effective at strengthening the security of devices, networks, and critical systems such as electricity grids, as well as protecting personal privacy.

The few small-scale tests run so far have identified problems and vulnerabilities in the digital systems and government administrative procedures that must be resolved before blockchain-based voting can be considered safe and trustworthy. Therefore I dont see clear evidence that it can prevent, or even detect, election fraud.

There are a few steps in a blockchain-based voting system, which uses technology to mirror the process of in-person voting.

First, the system needs to verify a voters identityoften by having the user upload a photo of a government-issued ID and then a photo or video self-portrait. The system confirms the IDs validity, and facial recognition software makes sure the person in the self-portrait is the person on the ID. Then the user is authenticated as eligible to cast a vote.

Only at that point does blockchain technology actually enter the process. The system gives each authenticated voter a digital token that represents the persons vote and a list of the digital addresses to which he or she can send that token. Each address indicates a vote for a particular candidate or an answer to a ballot question.

The tokens dont indicate who cast them, so votes remain anonymous. When a voter sends a token, a record of that act is stored simultaneously on several different computers, making it much harder for hackers to alter the vote records. After casting the ballot by sending the token, the user receives a unique code that they can use to look at the anonymized online vote tally to confirm their vote was counted as they intended.

Early results show that blockchain systems may increase voter turnout, though its not yet clear why. Many of the tests have been for informal ballots, such asstudent government groups and community projects.

However, several election officials in the U.S. have held small-scale trials of blockchain voting, allowing members of the military who are stationed overseas to vote electronically, rather than by mail.

In the November 2018 congressional elections, West Virginia allowed 144 voters living overseas to cast ballots from 31 different countries using an app developed by a private company called Voatz, which is involved in many of these trials.

Another 200 voters overseas expressed interest in using the system, but their home counties in West Virginia werent set up to allow them to do so. Based on the results, West Virginia says it plans to continue and expand the trial in the 2020 presidential election.

In Denver, Colorado, 119 voters who were overseas used a Voatz system to cast their ballots in municipal primary elections in May. In the citys June runoff election, 112 voters did so online through a blockchain system. In August, 24 voters cast their ballots from overseas using a Voatz app in a Utah County, Utah, election.

The most recentand largestuse of a blockchain-based voting system was in the city council election in Moscow, Russia, on September 8. Because of concerns that the system was not set up in a secureway, only three of the citys 20 electoral precincts allowed voters to use a blockchain-based mobile voting app to cast their ballot from anywhere with an internet connection.

Again, the evidence showed a boost in voter turnout: The citys overall turnout rate was around 17% of registered voters. That includes a 90% turnout among the voters who had registered to use the system.

However, technological complications barred some people from voting, which led at least one losing candidate to object that he would have won if everything had worked properly. Thats the sort of problem that is most worrying for people who hope using mathematical principles and computerized encryption will help the public have trust in election outcomes.

There are several obstacles in the way of blockchain ever becoming useful for large-scale, legally binding voting.

One is that most people have little understanding of how blockchain systems work. Another, equally vital, is that even experts dont have a way to identify every possible irregularity in online voting. Voting on paper, by contrast, is well studied and easily verified and audited.

One crucial aspect of a blockchain voting system is the method by which the computer system verifies voters identities. When a verified voter establishes an account on the system, that process creates a digital key that identifies them securely when casting a ballot. A more complex key is harder to hack but also takes more computing resources to verify. It will be important to find a way to protect the integrity of the voting process, without exhausting government budgets buying advanced computing power. The computational power required may make blockchain systems inefficient for voting on a nationwide scaleor even statewide, in populous states like California and Texas.

The Moscow election system, for instance, initially assigned keys that were too easily hacked. That opened the possibility of voter impersonation, which is bad enough. But that weakness also violated the principle of a secret ballot by letting outsiders know how each person voted.

Other problems with digital voting systems are separate from the underlying technologies. In some cases, government-issued IDs used to verify voters identities are many years old.

Even when dealing with current images, facial recognition systems, including the one used by Voatz, have high error rates, especially for nonwhite voters. In addition, hackers may try to trick the system.

The phone or computer a voter uses to cast a ballot may not be secure, eitherand its not safe to assume that the computer networks they communicate over, and the servers the data is stored on, are safe from manipulation or even random errors.

Proprietary voting apps like Voatz offer the public no way to know whether voters choices are accurately recorded, nor whether these apps truthfully deliver their ballots encrypted copy to be counted by election officials.

Voatz has claimed that its system has been audited by third partiesbut has made few details of that process or its findings available to the public. West Virginia officials who hired Voatz have also refused to reveal information about how its security was evaluated.

The company has said it would not release that information because it had a nondisclosure agreement with the auditors, and for fear its proprietary system design might be discovered by competitors.

Its possible that blockchain-based voting could boost voter participation rates, but theres no evidence yet that it is better at preventing election fraud. With plenty of potential trouble spots outside the system itself, and little public transparency within it, I have to conclude that blockchain voting is not yet safe or ready for service.

Nir Kshetri is a professor of management at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. This story was republished from The Conversation.

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I study blockchain. It's not ready to use in our elections - Fast Company

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At the recent Blockchain LIVE 2019 hosted annually in London, I had the pleasure of giving a talk on Next Generation Infrastructure: Building a Future for Smart Cities. What exactly is a smart city?The term refers to an overall blueprint for city designs of the future.Already half the worlds population lives in a city, which is expected to grow to sixty-five percent in the next five years. Tackling that growth takes more than just simple urban planning. The goal of smart cities is to incorporate technology as an infrastructure to alleviate many of these complexities. Green energy, forms of transportation, water and pollution management, universal identification (ID), wireless Internet systems, and promotion of local commerce are examples of current of smart city initiatives.

The current technology needs of smart cities are served by what is called the Internet of Things, a term used to describe an overall network of devices with embedded unique identifiers. Example use cases for these devices include payment for items, and traffic management. In London, a traffic management system known as SCOOT optimises green light time at traffic intersections by feeding back magnetometer and inductive loop data to a supercomputer, which can coordinate traffic lights across the city to improve traffic throughout.

Barcelonasaved75 million of city funds and created 47,000 new jobs in the smart technology sector by implementing a network of fiber optics throughout the city, providing free high-speed Wi-Fi that supports the IoT and further linking to the integration of smart water, lighting and parking management. The Netherlands hastestedthe use of IoT-based infrastructure in Amsterdam, where traffic flow, energy usage and public safetyare monitored and adjusted based on real-time data. Meanwhile, in the United States, major cities like Boston and Baltimore have deployed smart trashcans that relay how full they are and determine the most efficient pick-up route for sanitation workers.

In 2015 India became one of the pioneers to openly enact a smart city mission across 12 of its cities. As governments across the world start to implement these initiatives, blockchain can provide the infrastructure necessary for transaction management. Transparency and security core fundamentals of blockchain are two very important elements in a smart city implementation.

Today, there are over a dozen smart cities, with less than a quarter that have an active large scale implementation of the use blockchain or distributed ledger technology. The city of Dubai has already planned to become the first blockchain powered smart city by 2021 and the country of Estonia has been using variations of blockchain and distributed ledger technology to keep track of citizens since 2012.

Leading smart city developers like Hancom are already supplying products and services from core hardwares of IOT to actual Smart City development. Gapyeong Malang Malang Smart Ecosystema 470 acre smart city development project is just one the many initiatives under the Hancom Group that will incorporate blockchain technology as the basis for smart city development. The most recent project for the Group, is the development of the Atlanta based Augury Square. The Augury Square is a 30-acre project that will incorporate blockchain and the use of cryptocurrency accelerating the concept of digital currency usage into daily life activities for its residents.

Example use cases that will improve resident life across cities when implemented with blockchain are without bounds. Information captured and kept in a cloud based infrastructure utilized by a smart city can be encoded through a blockchain system to ensure the privacy and security of data.The use of blockchain for identification in a smart city can assist with proof of citizenship, voting for public office, and tax data.In addition to security and fraud measures, the elimination of paperwork under such a system connects right with the smart city initiative to manage and reduce pollution and waste.

Other typical services include the use of internet sensors to detect road maintenance or other general repairs, connection of home utilities and rent to the blockchain and well as healthcare services. Blockchain healthcare networks which store protected health data information can be useful when considering emergency situations that involve individuals in a crisis, proving beneficial to certified first responders (MFS) in accessing pertinent medical information.

Whats most important to a smart city, however, is integration.None of the services mentioned above exist in a vacuum; they need to be put into a single system. Blockchain provides the technology to unite them into a single system that can track all aspects combined.

The Smart City Expo will take place in Barcelona, Spain, in November 2019.It aims to discuss the growing urbanization of the world with attributes of blockchain.

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Are Smart Cities The Pathway To Blockchain And Cryptocurrency Adoption? - Forbes

HTC has announced a new entry-level phone aimed at cryptocurrency users called the HTC Exodus 1S, a followup to the $699 Exodus 1 that was originally released last year. The Exodus 1S is a much cheaper device at 219 (around $244), and offers much less powerful hardware built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor.

The Exodus 1Ss big new cryptocurrency feature is that its able to run a full bitcoin node, which HTC says is a first for a smartphone. Its something the company has been talking about wanting to do since the announcement of the original Exodus 1. Speaking to Forbes, HTCs Phil Chen said that being able to run a full node means that the phone can relay, confirm, and validate bitcoin transactions, which offers more privacy and also allows you to contribute to the security of the network.

Running a full bitcoin node on a phone comes with its limitations. HTC recommends that you connect the phone to Wi-Fi and plug it into a power source while its running the full node, and youll also need to buy an SD card with a capacity of 400GB or more if you want the phone to be able to hold a full copy of the Bitcoin ledger. The Exodus 1S will also not be able to operate as a mining node.

Outside of its blockchain capabilities, the HTC Exodus 1S features entry-level hardware. Its got a 5.7-inch HD display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and it has a single rear-facing 13-megapixel camera. It charges over MicroUSB, but at least you get a 3.5mm headphone jack.

HTCs Exodus phones are an ambitious attempt by the company to appeal to cryptocurrency enthusiasts as its smartphone sales have plummeted in recent years. Compared to the Exodus 1, the cheaper starting price of the Exodus 1S could make it appealing as a secondary device to experiment with.

The HTC Exodus 1S wont be available in the US, but you can now order it from HTCs site in Europe, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Naturally, HTC will happily accept payment in bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, Binance coin, and bitcoin cash for the phone.

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HTCs second blockchain phone drops the price and adds a full Bitcoin node - The Verge

Resin suppliers Domo and Covestro are teaming up with transparency start-up Circularise in a collaborative project for circularity in the plastics industry through the use of blockchain technology. The newly-formed Circularise Plastics project group aims to set up an open standard for sustainability and transparency within this field. At K 2019, Domo and Covestro discussed the project with customers and looked for new partners to join them on this pathway towards full circularity.

Netherlands-headquartered tech innovator Circularise is making transparency and communication in global value chains possible by utilizing blockchain and zero-knowledge proof. Their protocol enables trusted data exchange in fragmented supply chains without public disclosure of datasets or supply chain partners. Unlike other blockchain transparency solutions, Circularises technology called smart questioning protects a companys privacy and sensitive information.

This means that confidentiality and competitive advantage are always maintained. The technology also eliminates the need to trust a centralized party. Because all of the verification is done by the system itself, the idea is that users do not need to rely on a central point of control. Instead, trust is transferred from one centralized authority (such as a verifying party) to many decentralized, anonymous participants, says Mesbah Sabur at Circularise.

The Circularise Plastics concept involves a seven-step process whereby the source material can be followed through a blockchain pathway, ensuring end-to-end product traceability and provenance. If ultimately accepted by the original information holder (plastic producer/molder), the OEM can access important information and make statements accordingly. This solution has two basic main advantages over other initiatives. The open protocol will enable an industry standard (on any blockchain) and avoid monopoly. The Smart Questioning technology safeguards privacy, while still allowing for transparency.

Blockchain technology is a prodigious consumer of electricity. According to one estimate, each transaction on the Ethereum network consumes enough electricity to power two U.S. households for a day. Commenting on the energy consumption associated with the Circularise Plastics blockchain, Sabur said that while the proof of concept was carried out using the Ethereum network because it is the most open and secure, having the greatest number of users, Circularise Plastics blockchain agnostic so a switch could be made to another, more energy-efficient system for commercialization.

Ethereum and Bitcoin currently work on a proof of work principle but there is a long-term vision for Ethereum is to transition to a mining model called proof-of-stake (PoS). This way Ethereums energy requirements would be reduced by more than 90%. Proof of authority is another, less energy-intensive model.

The Circularise Plastics project is still at a very early stage and the objective at K 2019 was to raise interest among value chain partners, that are willing to join the consortium in the ideation and testing phase. New members will become sustainability innovators in the plastics industry. This will give them access to the latest information and resources, and present the opportunity to co-create an industry-wide communication standard for a circular economy.

Registries and tracking systems are key to assessing progress towards global circularity goals. Blockchain can bring transparency where it's most needed, especially when it comes to supply chain traceability in our industry. Achieving a single standard for traceability to origin would enable the industry to responsibilize and communicate regarding sustainability practices and attach proof of origin to materials, says Alex Segers, CEO at DOMO.

The partners believe that achieving traceability and transparency in the plastics supply chain enabled by blockchain will make it more authentic and transparent. There are three main objectives:

Choose Circular: Make it easier for suppliers, processors, manufacturers, molders and brand owners to choose traceable, sustainable and circular materials.

Produce Circular: Create incentives for suppliers and manufacturers to produce traceable, sustainable and circular materials and products.

Make Circular: Provide critical information for reversed logistics and take back of products, materials and components.

The compatibility of blockchains has been a hot topic, including in the plastics space, where the benefits of this new technology can serve all parts of the supply chain. For material suppliers and processors, as well as equipment and moldmakers, Circularise Plastics participation means increased material value and trust in your production, by adding material passports to plastic resin, additives, colorants and any other materials produced. For OEMs and brand owners, it helps on the road to achieving sustainability targets and a strengthened brand position, by revealing a products origin and transparency on its environmental impact, says Dr. Burkhard Zimmermann, Head of Strategy, Sustainability and Digital at Covestros Polycarbonates segment. The value of blockchain is that it avoids the use of a powerful central authority and thereby gives equal rights to all participants.

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Blockchain technology applied to plastics traceability and sustainability - Plastics Today

Blockchain technology may well be the most transformative technology in a generation. And as the potential use cases have become mapped out, financial firms around the world have spent the past few years investigating how the technology can disrupt banking.

Banks playing around with blockchainor distributed ledgertechnology isnt completely new. The World Economic Forum noted that the Bank of England published the first research report on blockchain by a central bank way back in 2014. And in 2015 Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK) created its own digital currency, BK Coins, as a reward system for its IT employees. That same year, (NYSE: UBS), USAA and CBW Bank all began investigating the applications of blockchain.

But as more banks have dipped their toes in the blockchain waters, theyve begun teaming up to test potential solutions together.

On the question of cross-border payments, 344 banks have signed an intent to join JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s (NYSE: JPM)Interbank Information Network (INN), a project launched in 2017 and powered by Quorum, a JP Morgan-developed variant of the Ethereum blockchain. Participants include some of the biggest banks in the world, and the Financial Times recently reported that 75 additional banks have signed on, including Societe Generale and Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN).

According to JP Morgan, the project is trying to investigate how blockchain can solve the challenges in interbank information sharing, from minimizing friction in the cross-border payments process to enabling payments to reach beneficiaries faster and with fewer steps. INN is currently only working on payments denominated U.S. dollars, but is hoping to expand the program into other non-U.S. dollar currencies.

The pilot programs of blockchain are still in the early innings of the game, saidDarren Conte, founder and CEO of Siftsort.com a secure documents and messaging platform. Conte, a former Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) executive, feels that there are huge benefits to reduce friction, add more security and lower operational costs when implemented across the banking network.

Initially, banks will focus on the obvious use-cases that present common risks across the industry, for example payments that need to be sent inter-bank or cross-border, where the opportunity for fraud is relatively high. As blockchain adoption matures, you will see more integration into routine customer or backend functions that will focus on speed and accuracy while further reducing operational costs and even headcount.

An analysis by the World Economic Forum found that 44 central banks are currently testing blockchain technology.

According to the WEF, more than 60 research papers on blockchain technology have been published by central banks since 2014. Among this group, The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore stand out as having published multiple research reports or conducted multiple studies with blockchain technology.

These pilot programs run the gamut, including interbank securities settlement, bond issuance and lifecycle management, and cash money supply chain. The most notable study however could be the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). As the WEF put it:

CBDC is a potential application of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) where the central bank issues new money equivalent to and redeemable for its domestic currency, often simultaneously removing the equivalent amount of currency from the money supply. It may be issued for general use (retail CBDC) for peer-to-peer payments and payments from consumers to merchants, or for use by commercial banks and clearing houses (wholesale CBDC) for more efficient interbank payments that occur outside traditional correspondent banking and other payment systems.

One of the huge benefits of blockchain and its distributed ledger technology is that it significantly reduces the dependency on centralizedlegacy systems that are vulnerable to modern day cybersecurity threats," said Conte.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) both recently joined Marco Polo, a consortium including major institutions such as BNP Paribas (OTCQX: BNPQY), Commerzbank (OTCQX: CZRBY) and ING working to reduce barriers to trade.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) has also begun a cross-border pilot of its own. The company recently announced its Wells Fargo Digital Cash program. Similar to JP Morgans INN, Wells Fargo Digital Cash will be using the banks internal blockchain to track payments sent between branches.

Infosys Finacle, a subsidiary of Infosys Ltd (NYSE: INFY), announced at the end of September the completion of a five-week trial of its trade finance solution, which involved 18 banks using R3 blockchain technology to test domestic and cross-border trade finance transactions. According to a post-trial survey from the company, two-thirds of respondents believe blockchain can reduce trade finance operational costs by at least 20%.

Implementing blockchain into the 'Know Your Customer'process would be very impactful from a compliance and regulatory standpoint," Conte added. Allowing numerous institutions to access or contribute to a client verification journal performed by another institution would help to minimize money laundering or terrorism activities and reduce the exorbitant administrative costs generated within the compliance department."

2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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More Banks Are Teaming Up To Test Blockchain Solutions - Benzinga

More than 30 firms in South Korea are teaming up to develop and implement an ID verification system underpinned by blockchain technology, the Korea Herald reported.

The goal is to streamline the consumer process in areas such as renewing of loans and opening bank accounts.This new ID system is made to be interoperational between several different service providers and is why more than 30 businesses and firms in the country are on board.

This decentralized ID system will be launched later this year. Referred to as Initial, it will be tested to see how effective it is in identifying the individual with documents such as their graduation or employment certificates. It should help to streamline and create a more secure system for receiving or renewing loans as well as for applying for jobs. All of this, it is hoped, will be accomplished through a single mobile app.

By using the decentralized identities (DiDs) system, customers will be able to use their smartphones to connect directly with their bank. This will enable them to send digital documents remotely from any location. All of this can be done through a few clicks on their devices. Once the institution is able to authenticate the DiD, it is then stored in the customer account which will then enable them to use that authentication to verify their identity in the future.

The use of blockchain technology will be the basis for the decentralized system. This technology is already being used in many institutions and industries, including banks, which is why it is being received so favorably. The Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute (KTFC) is hoping that this new system will replace physical identification materials that people use now, including such things as drivers licenses.

The service will be initially rolled out to six universities, enabling students to be able to download their graduation certificate or academic records for use when theyre applying for jobs, sending transcripts to other universities or even for personal use. Employers will also be able to use to system to verify graduation certificates.

Seven initial members help to get this project underway. They included KT, SK Telecom, LG Uplus, Samsung Electronics, KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank, and fintech firm Koscom. The new members include BC Card, Hyundai Card, Shinhan Bank, and NH NongHyup. This consortium was first created under the Korea Internet and Security Agency.

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Blockchain ID verification coming to South Korea - CoinGeek

Four more major institutions including the Shinhan and NH Nonghyup banks have joined a South Korean decentralized identity initiative thats aimed to secure and share personal information using blockchain.

According to a report from CoinDesk Korea on Sunday, the program, which was first released in July, is now officially named as the Initial DID Association. Besides Shinhan and NH banks, two major payment processors BC Card and Hyundai Card have also joined the program as of late, bringing the total number of participants to 11.

The consortium now includes Samsung Electronics, KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank, as well asKoreas three major mobiles carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG U+. It also includes Koscom, an IT company 76.6 percent owned by the Korea Exchange.

The project, which is backed by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), aimsto develop a mobile product that will allow for the secure storing of personal identification information with blockchain technology. Users of the system will be able to prove their identities for online transactions and for the validation of qualifications or credentials.

Initial will be used at first for certificates from six Korean universities, as well as for English test scores. It will then be expanded to the submission of loan application documents, such as income tax withholding and loan certificates. According to the earlier reports, the system is expected to be up and running in 2020.

While the project is expanding, competition in the blockchain identity space is also increasing. On Oct. 14, the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC), a payment settlements organization, said that it will have its own mobile ID solution using blockchain up and running by the end of the month, according to a report in the Dong-a Ilbo.

Initial image courtesy to SK Telecom

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Major Korean Banks Join Government-Backed Blockchain ID Initiative - CoinDesk

By Tony Sagami

As I pulled into a paid parking lot, I realized that I didnt have any cash on me. No problem, there was a Bank of America Corp(NYSE: BAC) ATM right just down the block.

I had to wait behind a moron who took so long that by the time I got back to my car, the parking enforcement patrol strapped a parking boot to my tire.50 minutes and $115 later, I got my car out of parking jail.

Arggggh!

I cant wait for blockchain to make sure I never get waylaid by the parking lot tyrants ever again.

Blockchain?

Thats right; five of the largest automakers in the world General Motors Company(NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Company(NYSE: F), Honda Motor Co Ltd.(NYSE: HMC), Renault and BMW are field testing a blockchain-based vehicle identification system that will let drivers automatically pay parking fees and highway tolls without cash or credit/debit cards.

Hooray!

Heres how it works: The blockchain-based system assigns an individual digital ID to every car as it rolls off a factory floor. This vehicle ID is then linked to whoever buys it. It includes information such as ownership authentication and bank accounts.

For toll roads, the vehicle ID makes it possible for fees to be automatically paid without the need for the specialized tags currently used in electronic toll collection systems.

It can also be used for parking lots, like the one that clipped me for $115.

Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative

This system is called the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative. Its built around a blockchain-secured system that tracks the car during its entire lifetime.

In addition to ownership and personal banking information, other data such as sales history, maintenance and repairs and recall information are stored in an immutable distributed ledger AKA blockchain.How about that! A blockchain log that records a cars entire repair/maintenance history and that can also verify that all replacement parts are factory-authorized and not faulty black market parts.

What a wonderful tool for used car buyers!

Blockchain could also be used to track driving mileage and make it possible for low-mileage drivers to pay lower auto insurance rates.

Or it could make standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles to register and title a new car unnecessary since ownership could be transferred digitally. Blockchain technology would be able to verify and secure that sensitive data.

Or it could remotely unlock your car door when locked your keys inside.

A blockchain system would be especially useful for electric and hybrid automobiles. Car makers invested in blockchain want all public charging stations to be internet-enabled. This would allow data, as well as messages, to be automatically downloaded while plugged into a charger.

Heck, it may even be possible to pay for a Big Gulp, Slim Jim and six-pack of Bud Light with your car.

All these ambitious services are only possible with blockchain due to the security and reliability the tech offers. After all, nobody wants their personal banking and financial information floating around the airwaves for thieves to steal.

The distributed ledger technology of blockchain is what keeps your data safe.

Blockchain has such far-reaching potential that can sound more like science fiction than reality, including the support of self-driving cars.

People said the same thing about the personal computers, the internet, mobile phones and social media when they were first introduced. And I dont have to tell you how much money you could have made by investing in the pioneers of those industries.

The same is even more true for blockchain stocks. So, jump on board ... NOW!

Image Sourced from Pixabay

See more from Benzinga

2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Blockchain-Backed Smart Cars To Revolutionize The Road - Yahoo Finance

Update: Changpeng Zhaos comment was translated incorrectly in the article. It was since updated to reiterate the platforms stance that individuals engaged in crime should not sign up with Binance.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the blockchain industry.

On Oct. 22, in an article on RBC News, Zhao, also known as CZ within the crypto community, pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the blockchain space. Zhao further said that he believes the bill on regulating digital money may be adopted in the Russian Federation in the foreseeable future.

Zhao also reportedly revealed that Binance may in some cases provide user information to Russian financial regulators and warned people involved in crime to stay away from the trading platform, noting:

As a rule, we do not provide information to any regulator en masse. But in individual cases - yes [...] therefore, if you are engaged in crime, you don't sign up with Binance.

Zhao concluded his statements by telling the story of how he sold his house in 2014 to buy Bitcoin (BTC) before a drop from $600 to $200, despite which he hodled to the present day, with BTC standing at $8,100 at press time. The story was a way of explaining his belief that the worlds most popular cryptocurrency will see impressive growth by the end of this year.

Cointelegraph previously reported that Binance will soon add support for the Russian ruble. By adding Russias national currency to its platform, Binance will allow users from Russia to buy cryptocurrencies directly using rubles, CZ explained at the Open Innovations Forum in Moscow, a Russian government-led event. While Binance did confirm the addition of a ruble-crypto pair to Cointelegraph, it did not provide any additional details or an explanation for why the ruble was chosen for the first fiat-crypto trading pair.

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Binance CEO: Putin Is the Most Influential Person in Blockchain - Cointelegraph

Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten says blockchain will enable smart contracts that provide trust to company systems in the future, but there are some myths and misconceptions.

TechRepublic's Karen Roby talks with Princeton computer science professor and Offchain Labs chief scientist Ed Felten about blockchain and the future of smart contracts. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Ed Felten: A lot of people think about blockchain as a way of holding money or sending money from one person to another, but the other really exciting thing that blockchain systems can do are these smart contracts. A smart contract is basically a computer program or an application that rather than running on some company's computer where you don't know what it might be doing or what code is in it, it runs on the blockchain itself, and that is the advantage that people can see what the software is and they know that it will execute the way it's supposed to. It's a way for us as end users to get more trust in the services that we're using by moving them onto a blockchain instead of being on some company's machine.

SEE: Special report: How blockchain will disrupt business (free PDF) (TechRepublic download)

Karen Roby: So, where do you think we are with this? It's obviously very empowering to the end user, but understandably right now the technologies to support this program just aren't there yet.

Ed Felten: Right, well it is early days. We're sort of in the Commodore 64-, early-IBM-PC-phase of development here where the technology is far enough that people in the field can really see what it's capable of, but it's not really quite ready for prime time in terms of supporting the kinds of applications that people are used to doing on computers. But that will come. The smart contract technology is developing really fast, and there are a bunch of companies, including ours, that are really trying to push it forward and make this a platform where people can do the kinds of things that they're used to doing on their computers every day.

Karen Roby: What do you think in terms of blockchain, what are some of the bigger myths? I think there's a lot of confusion out there as to what it can and can't do, and what all of this will mean down the road. But what do you see are some of the bigger myths or misconceptions with blockchain?

Ed Felten: Well, I think right now blockchain technologies are kind of rough around the edges. The idea that this is ready to be a sort of routine part of people's lives, that this would be where you could keep most of your money or how you buy most of the things you buy, the technology is really not there yet. We're really in an experimental phase, and you see people who are hobbyists there, and it really is a situation where you can see what the future is going to be, and it's just a matter of the technology community building the same kinds of infrastructure in the same kinds of ways that they did with first with PCs and then later with the internet.

Karen Roby: And what is it, when you look at down the road when it comes to blockchain, what is it that excites you the most about what's to come?

Ed Felten: What really excites me is seeing that this is going to become a more consumer-friendly technology. It's a technology that can really empower end users. It can equalize the relationship that we tend to have with the big services that we use, if it develops in the right way. And it's a way of integrating our sort of online interactions and the computer programs that do a lot of the things on our behalf. It's a way of integrating those together and giving us more control over them. So you can see a world where computers are more friendly and more trustworthy because of this technology, and that's what I see long term. And that's really, I think, the promise of the technology.

Karen Roby: Do you feel like we have the talent that's coming up that will be able to move this down the field?

SEE: Blockchain: Why the revolution is still a decade away (ZDNet)

Ed Felten: Well, there's a tremendous amount of talent. The students that we get today in our computer science classes are smarter and better prepared than ever. And there's a lot more of them. People are figuring out, especially students, young people, that being a computer scientist, being a software engineer is a high-leverage way to have a big impact on the world. That it's not just about going into a cubicle and producing some lines of code, but you can build new kinds of structures and relationships that people really value.

Be in the know about smart cities, AI, Internet of Things, VR, autonomous driving, drones, robotics, and more of the coolest tech innovations. Delivered Wednesdays and Fridays

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Smart contracts and blockchain will provide needed trust, says Princeton professor - TechRepublic

The industry is leaving the "blockchain inspired" phase and moving into the "blockchain complete" phase.

To realize the true value of blockchain, CIOs have to strike a balance between ignoring the technology and rebuilding the business model around immature technology.

Blockchain is not one thing: It includes a range of technologies from smart contracts to tokens to consensus models. Because these products will continuously mature and become available, CIOs should plan for incremental evolution of their blockchain strategies.

Mature blockchain solutions include all five components. Many products on the market now lack the tokenization and decentralization components.

Image: Gartner

Gartner analysts David Furlonger and Christophe Uzureau explain how to develop a blockchain strategy in their new book, The Real Business of Blockchain: How Leaders Can Create Value in a New Digital Age. Furlonger said the key to success with blockchain is understanding the timing of investments.

"Fully mature blockchain complete solutions will allow organizations to re-engineer business relationships, monetize illiquid assets, and redistribute data and value flows to more successfully engage with the digital world. That is the real business of blockchain," said Furlonger, a distinguished research vice-president and Gartner Fellow, in a press release.

Gartner sees four phases in the evolution of blockchain technology:

The industry is currently moving out of the second phase--blockchain inspired" and into the third phase--"blockchain complete." Gartner predicts that the final phase will start by 2030.

SEE: Blockchain: An insider's guide (free PDF)

Real blockchain solutions have five components:

According to Gartner, most blockchain products currently on the market are incomplete because they lack tokenization and decentralization components.

Here is how Gartner describes the four phases of the blockchain spectrum.

Blockchain enabling technologiesThese technologies are the foundation for future blockchain solutions. Technologies in this group include cryptography, distributed computing, peer-to-peer networking, and messaging.

Blockchain inspiredThis phase started in 2012 and will last through the early 2020s. Blockchain-inspired solutions leverage the foundational technologies but use only three of the five elements of blockchain distribution, encryption, and immutability. While some of these solutions make use of tokenization, they are not sufficiently decentralized to create new value exchange systems. As a result, these solutions often aim to reengineer existing processes specific to an individual organization or industry while maintaining centralized controls.

Blockchain completeBlockchain-complete solutions deliver the full value proposition of blockchain using all five elements: Distribution, encryption, immutability, tokenization, and decentralization. Blockchain-complete solutions will feature tokenization enabled by smart contracts and decentralization, two components blockchain-inspired solutions lack. These solutions enable trade in new forms of value (such as new asset types) and unlock monopolies on existing forms of value ad processes such as digital commerce or digital advertising.

Enhanced blockchainAfter 2025, complementary technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and decentralized self-sovereign identity (SSI) solutions will converge and integrate fully with blockchain networks. These enhanced blockchain solutions will expand the types of customers and the value that can be tokenized and exchanged. This final phase will enable a large number of smaller transactions that would not be possible with traditional mechanisms.

Uzureau predicts that startups providing blockchain-native solutions will gain market momentum by the early 2020s and start to scale after 2025.

"Though not immediate, the proliferation of blockchain-complete solutions will push organizations to explore new ways of operating with greater degrees of decentralization than they have now," said Uzureau said in a press release.

Turn to these must-read primers to get the skinny on the hottest tech topics, strategies, and analyses. Delivered Fridays

Gartner predicts four phases of evolution for blockchain technology.

Image: Gartner

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Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2019: Blockchain strategy must evolve at the same pace as technology - TechRepublic

A beneficiary is usually oblivious to the intricate networks that data and money flow across before cash lands in their bank account. The sender, however, is struck with dozens of choices to make with a cross-border transfer that might leave them reeling.

At this stage, a network of networks along the lines of what Unbounded is doing where senders can differentiate between various platforms and their offering, will be invaluable.

But what will happen as more and more payment solutions come to fruition?

There will be consolidation in the payments industry. It is inevitable.

So, while polite transaction bankers continuously talk about collaboration in paymentsfor the benefit and the development of the industry in general, in reality only a handful of these networks will gain market share and succeed in the long run.

Transaction bankers are playing a tactical game. Some are joining forces with other institutions and consortia because there is strength in numbers while others wait patiently on the sidelines to jump on board once a payment platform becomes the market leader.

So many companies are experimenting with blockchain in cross-border payments right now it would be easy to think that a platform that uses this type of technology will reign victorious. Ripple is doing it, JPMorgan is doing it, IBM is doing it, Facebook wants to do it and Visa and MasterCard are looking into doing it.

But then there are companies such as Transferwise, which has been able to gain market share in payments because of its ability to keep costs down, and Swift, which hopes that its own global payment initiative (Swift gpi) and the prevalence of domestic instant payment solutions will spread cross-border without blockchain as a prerequisite. There are also MoneyGram, Western Union and WorldRemit as well as many others.

Do these platforms have a chance?

For the first time in a while, blockchain may not be central to deciding which payment platform will win in the long run. In fact, blockchain may not be as central to transaction banking as it has seemed to be for the last 10 years.

This was in evidence at this year's Sibos conference in London although no one I spoke to there would say iton the record.

"Nobody in transaction banking wants to be the blockchain cynic, so, for now, we will keep a lot of these feelings to ourselves," one European transaction banker at the conference said.

After years of bullish announcements about how blockchain will transform the payments landscape, Sibos had a different flavour to it this year: a focus on how technology will benefit customers and corporates, as opposed to developments in technology itself.

"What's the point in coming up with solutions that use blockchain if the people we are creating these solutions for in the first place dont see the benefits in this technology?" another transaction banker at the conference declared.

So what happens if we look at consolidation in payments under this new lens? Which platform will win through as consolidation takes hold?

Some will argue that Swift which as we have already pointed out doesn't use blockchain technology as yet is the natural choice. Swift has linked more than 11,000 financial institutions across more than 200 countries and is working with the banks to set industry standards.

Swift gpi was launched in 2017. By September 2019, 60% of all Swift transactions were sent via gpi and 3,500 financial institutions are signed up to the initiative.

But further momentum towards becoming gpi-compliant will wane becauseof that vast number of institutions connected via Swift to gain consensus it needs to work with over 11,000 institutions, many in developing markets where domestic instant payment solutions are not the priority.

Swift gpi may not be the answer to faster cross-border payments we all hope for.

On the other hand, JPMorgan's Interbank Information Network (IIN) is growing at lightning speed. After Deutsche Bank signed up to IIN on September 20, another 25 banks quickly followed suit, bringing the total number of banks signed up to the platform to 356 since its launch in 2017.

More top-tier banks will follow Deutsche, because joining JPM IIN makes sense: the bank is the largest dollar clearer in the world and its treasury services business processes around 26 million transactions a day worth more than $3 trillion in 108 currencies and 100 countries.

Yes, 356 banks isnt 11,000 but thats the point. It is a manageable number, and once IIN starts processing cross-border payments on its platform, more banks will come on board. Rather than JPM having to convince members to become part of IIN, as Swift will have to do with gpi, banks will join precisely because of what IIN has to offer.

What is important is an ability to remain nimble in this evolving landscape. Whether or not the platform uses blockchain technology is a moot point.

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Blockchain is not the only solution for better and faster payments - Euromoney magazine