Good morning everyone, Alex here. Today is the last day of Consensus and we have plenty of news to bring you. Things are really heating up in this distributed landscape. It’s an exciting time to be a witness to adoption by users, companies, and governments. Markets remain unexciting, shedding about $20 Billion over the last 24 hours.
4 things you need to know:
One: Blockchain in the Supply Chain. VeChain ($VEN -7.41%) has signed a partnership with Bright Food and Shanghai Xiandao Food to integrate blockchain tech into their supply chain and data management systems. One of the more commonly touted use cases for blockchain is its potential to revolutionize supply chain management. It could offer a much more transparent and detailed view of the product at every step in the supply chain.
This is a big deal; Bright Food is the second largest food company in China with revenues estimated to be over $25.3 Billion.
Learn: If you need a refresher on how VeChain works, watch this video (IoT sensors upload key data to the blockchain at each step in the supply chain process).
Adoption: Bright Food and Shanghai Xiandao Food are wholly owned by the Chinese government. This is a great example of governments keeping up with the pace of innovation in DLT.
Two: Streamr and Nokia are partnering up to let consumers monetize their own data with blockchain. Consumer data is very valuable. How much data companies can collect, and who they can sell it to is a constant source of debate. One solution to this problem is to let consumers sell their data directly to companies, and get paid for it, eliminating the middle man like Facebook. This is exactly what Streamr ($DATA -6.35%) and Nokia intend to do.
Inclement Weather: I suspect this is one of the first ripples of change in what is to be a tsunami of innovation in regard to consumers taking control of their information. People already spend an absurd amount of time browsing social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, what if they could get paid for it?
Three: The French Finance Minister wants to make France the first blockchain and crypto-active country in Europe. Bruno Le Maire gave his opinion on the current state of banking related to crypto, fair taxation, accounting standards, and the formalization of the ICO process.
Regulators take note, countries who are not proactive in learning about this burgeoning asset class, and who are not actively working to create fair legislation, will get left behind. The amount of capital that has already flown into regions like Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong is staggering.
Trends: It seems that almost everyone who takes the time to understand the potential of DLT tries to find ways to harness it rather than hinder it.
Four: Circle completes another round of Fundraising. Plans to issue dollar-pegged cryptocurrency. Circle certainly wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last, to attempt to create a cryptocurrency whose value is tied to fiat. However, Circle is one of the more legitimate contenders in the space. Circle’s operations are U.S. based, and they have already navigated the intricacies of managing a cryptocurrency business under current U.S. regulations for a number of years. They also recently acquired the Poloniex exchange.
Concerns: Bitmain Technologies (The most prolific manufacturer of mining hardware and owner of the second largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world) led the most recent round of fundraising. This has irked many members in the community who see Bitmain as a huge threat to the decentralized promise of Bitcoin.
Mainstream: Circle has put an emphasis on user-friendliness. Their app, Circle Invest, allows users to easily purchase a range of cryptocurrencies without having to worry about wallets or complicated addresses. It will be a massive boon for Circle, and the crypto community in general, if they can create a trusted, transparent, dollar-pegged currency (Ahem, Tether).
What I’m reading today:
A bitcoin believer would bet anything that “blockchain tech” won’t last five years
Jimmy Song (who?) and Joseph Lubin (co-founder of Ethereum) had a little debate on stage at Consensus. Jimmy song said, “Blockchain is not this magical thing that you sprinkle blockchain dust over it and it’s okay”. While I can certainly sympathize with his message that the blockchain will not make everything better, to say that there will no meaningful adoption in the next five years is quite frankly, absurd. Lubin wagered, “any amount of bitcoin” against those claims. If you’re reading this Jimmy, you might want to reconsider adding to Lubin’s already quite hefty five-billion-dollar bag.
Arthur Haye’s bets that Bitcoin will hit $50,000 by the end of the year
Arthur Hayes, esteemed CEO of the leveraged cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, made a prediction live on CNBC that Bitcoin would hit $50,000 by 2019. He added that he doesn’t care whether he is right or wrong, and invited Bill Gates to short Bitcoin on his platform, as he makes money either way. In a separate appearance at Consensus, when Haye’s was asked what he looked for in people who wanted to work at BitMEX, he responded, “we look for people who want to be f***ing rich”. Touché Mr. Hayes.
I’ll leave you with this comic.
Via The Bankey
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