Bank of America Piloting Ripple / 5 Kinds of Blockchains to Watch Out For / DApps, DeFi, and Layer-2
October 23, 2019
We’re kicking a jammed-packed update with Mark Zuckerberg stating that Facebook is willing to quit the Libra Association if it doesn’t see the project fully approved by U.S. regulators — more to come on Libra. Bank of America starts piloting with Ripple’s DLT and HTC releases a new blockchain phone. Andrew Yang suggested using blockchain technology to implement his proposed Freedom Dividend. Thomson Reuters Links With OpenLaw For ‘Smart Contract Express’ Project. In the DApps landscape, we’ve got an update on Outlier Venture’s Convergence Stack, deep-dive on Layer-2 solutions, DeFi, A.I. games and we even found room to cram in plenty of research (Q3 2019 Blockchain Landscape) & books (on Digital Assets & Enterprise Blockchain) along with insights on infrastructure, DApps, Bitcoin, Economics, and Stablecoins. For MORE and to keep you up to speed, here’s a snapshot of the top stories this week around the industry.
📖 Current Market Overview of Digital Assets by David Nage
David Nage provides an overview of the Digital Asset landscape for Family Offices (FOs) and Institutional Investors. From discussions of Bitcoin, Beyond Bitcoin, Direct Investment and Digital Asset Funds to a Regulation overview, this aims to provide a resource to begin the review of digital assets. This content is for educational purposes only and should not be deemed investment advice…read more — I had the chance to dive deep into David’s landscape overview and highly recommend this report as a starting point for anyone looking to get started.
📖 Zuckerberg: Facebook would leave Libra if US regulators don’t approve the project
Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is willing to quit the Libra Association if it doesn’t see the project fully approved by U.S. regulators. The Facebook CEO testified this morning before a U.S. House committee to address lawmaker concerns around how the social network’s planned cryptocurrency, Libra, could impact U.S. financial services and housing sectors. With Facebook’s tarnished reputation in protecting user privacy and combating misinformation, several members of Congress questioned Facebook’s involvement in the Libra project, to which Zuckerberg responded…read more
📖 IRS Followed Bitcoin Transactions, Resulting In Takedown Of The Largest Child Exploitation Site On The Web
The largest dark web child pornography site in the world has been taken down. According to the IRS-CI, agents became aware of Welcome to Video, the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content, because of their work on previous dark web marketplaces. IRS-CI was able to trace bitcoin transactions on the site to people all over the world who were uploading and downloading this material, as well as find the location of the site administrator…read more
📖 Blockchain-Shy Bank of America Quietly Pilots Ripple Technology
The second-largest bank in the US, Bank of America, has quietly tested out Ripple’s DLT (distributed ledger technology) and planning to do more with it. The pilot project was defined as a decentralized ledger technology-based solution to cross border payments marketed to global transaction services clients…read more
📖 The 5 Kinds of Blockchain Projects (and Which to Watch Out For)
Blockchain solutions offer alternative ways for businesses to address known challenges involving data sharing and workflows. Still, buyers beware of giving up too much control over the business currencies of data, technology, access, and contracts. The article highlights five archetypes based on their degree of centralization, which includes Fear of Missing out Solutions, Trojan Horse Solutions, Opportunistic Solutions, Evolutionary Solutions, and Blockchain-Native Solutions…read more
📖 Enterprise Blockchain News, Stablecoin reports, Project DABL and Hyperledger TCFs framework
There is a lot to unpack in this 13th edition of the enterprise blockchain newsletter! We’ll kick things off with a look at a new enterprise blockchain book and a low-code SaaS offering by Digital Asset, then talk about the focus on stablecoins by the Federal Reserve and G7. Then we will dive into the latest on the technical side of enterprise blockchain development as we discuss the new Trusted Compute Framework (TCF) by Hyperledger Avalon and how ChainLink’s oracles are bridging the gap between off-chain and on-chain…read more and be sure to check out more from Biser Dimitrov
📖 Andrew Yang’s America Should Be Built On The Blockchain
One of the 19 Democrats who have declared their candidacy for president in the 2020 US election, Andrew Yang suggested using blockchain technology to implement his proposed Freedom Dividend — the $1,000 per month payment to every adult American. Yang’s platform is the obvious relevance to how the blockchain could be used to roll out some of his fundamental beliefs…read more and be sure to check out more from Matthew Spoke
👉 Register now to receive the Q3 2019 Blockchain for Infrastructure Landscape edition
📖 HTC releases a cheaper blockchain phone
HTC will be launching the first of its kind blockchain phone at Berlin’s Lightning Conference. According to the company, the phone will feature a hardware wallet and Bitcoin node access giving users the ability to run their full Bitcoin node…read more
📖 Sen. Mike Rounds voices support for Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra
South Dakota Sen Mike Rounds has become the first major supporter of Libra, Facebook’s venture into cryptocurrency. He wrote that it was “profoundly disappointing” that other lawmakers responded so negatively to the cryptocurrency, which he fears could put a chill on innovation in the long run. On July 5, members of the House Financial Services Committee wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives to put Libra plans on hold until Congress and regulators had a chance to further examine the cryptocurrency.…read more
📖 Zuckerberg: Facebook will not ‘be a part of launching Libra’ unless US regulators approve
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Social media giant Facebook, said that we addressed several concerns policymakers have expressed regarding Facebook’s blockchain project. He also said that Facebook supports “Libra delaying its launch until it has fully addressed US regulatory concerns.”…read more
More For Your Week:
📖 Biser Dimitrov’s Enterprise Blockchain Newsletter #13
📖 The first AI dApp game arrives on blockchain by Alfredo de Candia
📖 Who Needs Lightning Network When You Have Loom Basechain? by Luke Zhang
📖 Thomson Reuters Links With OpenLaw For ‘Smart Contract Express’ Project — OpenLaw
📖 What Mark Zuckerberg’s Cryptocurrency Testimony Shows About Facebook’s Libra Strategy
DApps (Decentralized Apps) Watch
📖 Introducing The Convergence Tracker 1.0
Recently we published an OSI-like framework The Convergence Stack, (‘The Stack’) to help developers contextualize the web3 landscape and give insight into our vision of the decentralized future. We did this because we have increasingly come to see our investments not just as a portfolio but rather a synergistic stack of protocols and businesses that when combined promise a new data economy. An economy with the potential to unbundle the dominant platform monopolies of today’s Web and decentralize ‘The Cloud’ computing infrastructure. This new data economy will put the sovereignty of users and their data at its core whilst more equitably distributing value across the web stakeholders…read more and be sure to check out more from Outlier Ventures
📖 Dare to DeFi (Away From) Ethereum
According to the cryptocurrency researcher and investor Mohamed Fouda, Decentralized Finance (DeFi ) has always been a popular topic of discussion within all smart contract ecosystems. Ethereum’s decentralization, network outcomes, and abundance of developer tooling create a channel that makes it tough for DeFi protocols to leave Ethereum for other competing smart contract platforms…read more and be sure to check out more from Mohamed Fouda
📖 dApps: An important step for Blockchain adaptation
dApps stand out as platforms that are far superior to traditional apps. At the beginning of this distinction, dApps are decentralized, anonymized and safer, they are much more reliable because dApps are run on a blockchain and distributed computing systems, so the stored data is not vulnerable to one single point of failure compared to the centralized storage of big tech companies such as Facebook…read more and be sure to check out more from Hackernoon
📖 Digging into Layer 2 Solutions
The term layer 2 refers to the second layer of coding that exists on top of a blockchain’s original coding structure. It helps in dealing with various issues such as scaling payment volume and speed, scaling the creation and execution of smart contracts, performing off-chain computations…read more and be sure to check out more from ShapeShift
📚 What I’m Reading:
It’s finally here! The release of “Enterprise Blockchain Has Arrived” by Jorden Woods and Radhika Iyengar. I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing the book and getting early insights from the authors. This book is a great starting point for anyone looking to begin their journey in blockchain and for those who are already deeply involved but looking to be further educated. Enjoy!
Book summary from the authors: In this seminal book, enterprise blockchain experts Jorden Woods and Radhika Iyengar present their tour-de-force enabling executives, visionaries and entrepreneurs to benefit from blockchain’s transformative power. Throughout the book, there are recurring themes of decentralized digital trust, value and identity that are fully explored and developed. These overarching themes comprise a new era, Web 3.0, and blockchain marks the first step in harnessing its power. Drawing on their experiences as experts, serial entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders, the authors provide real-world insights bolstered by incisive interviews that put you in the front row of conversations with key enterprise business and thought leaders shaping this new era.
Today, widespread counterfeiting and identity fraud, grave cyber threats, and ineffective data sharing are escalating multitrillion-dollar challenges. What enterprises need right now is a better technology stack that provides a secure layer of trust, transparency, and accountability to mitigate the inherent risks and inefficiencies of Web 2.0 and the Internet. Enterprise blockchain is generating real value from real deployments across sectors like fintech, supply chain/logistics, healthcare/life sciences, power/energy, and the public sector. Get ahead of the curve on enterprise blockchain as it transforms business and the digital world.
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