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The crypto world is full of buzzwords, but if you can peel away the marketing fluff, you sometimes find innovation beneath the surface. You are often also reminded just how early it is in the history of this technology. Case in point: the blockchain phone.
All of a sudden, several crypto-focused handsets are hitting the market, or will soon. The biggest player in the new game is Samsung, which confirmed this month that the Galaxy S10 will include a secure storage system for cryptocurrency private keys. It joins HTC, which for months has been touting the Exodus 1; Sirin Labs, which used proceeds from a huge ICO to build the Finney; and Electroneum, which this week began selling an $80 Android phone that can mine cryptocurrency.
So what is the point? In the wildest dreams of enthusiasts, these devices will be a gateway to something called the decentralized web, or “Web 3.0.” In this future version of the internet, blockchains and similar technologies would support decentralized applications—“dapps”—that look and feel like the mobile apps we use today but run on public, peer-to-peer networks instead of the private servers of big tech companies.
It’s widely thought that a major impediment to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency and dapps is that these technologies are too difficult to use for people who are not especially tech savvy. Better user experiences, starting with cryptographic key management, could change that. But getting there is not straightforward, given that key security is paramount: you lose your keys, you lose your assets.
This also explains why Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin seems so excited about one particular feature of HTC’s Exodus 1, called social key recovery. Essentially, users can choose a small group of contacts and give them parts of their keys. If they lose their keys, they can recover them piece by piece from their contacts. Buterin, as usual, is looking far down the road, in this case to a future where people use blockchains to maintain more control over their digital identities and personal data than is generally possible today. Social key recovery is “arguably an early step toward formalized non-state-backed identity,” he tweeted.
First things first, though. To be compelling to users outside the bubble of enthusiasts and speculators, these phones will probably need to do more than just keep your keys safe. This week, Samsung and HTC touted a few things they hope will do the trick. Samsung seemed to reveal partnerships with several blockchain projects, including beauty services dapp Cosmee and Enjin, a blockchain-based gaming platform. HTC announced that it has partnered with browser maker Opera to make it easier for people to use crypto, whether for making micropayments on websites or for using dapps.
“We are at the dawn of a new generation of the web, one where new decentralized services will challenge the status quo,” Charles Hamel, Opera’s head of crypto, said in a statement about the company’s tie-up with HTC.
For now, the $699 Exodus 1 can only be bought online, but HTC’s “decentralized chief officer” Phil Chen tells CoinDesk that the company is working on getting it into carriers’ stores. Samsung’s Galaxy S10 will reach a much bigger market earlier, but it is more expensive, starting at $900. Sirin Labs is selling the Finney for $999. And Electroneum is taking a different approach, targeting emerging markets with a cheap handset.
Should you buy one? If you are curious about crypto and can afford one, it might be a nice way to test the waters. If you are already into crypto, you probably already have a wallet you trust, and this first generation of phones may not offer you much extra. A Wired reviewof the Exodus 1 called it a “smartphone with a cryptocurrency side gig.” That’s about as much of a “blockchain phone” as can be expected at this point.
Indeed, even if these phones take off, the decentralized web will still be mostly a dream. Construction of its foundational infrastructure is in the beginning stages. Perhaps an influx of new users would spawn compelling new applications, which might in turn inspire the development of new infrastructure. But the best the first round of blockchain phones can do is give us a glimpse at a potential future that’s still a long way off.
Mike Orcutt Associate Editor
I’m an associate editor at MIT Technology Review, focusing on the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains. My reporting, which includes a twice-weekly, blockchain-focused email newsletter, Chain Letter… More
Original Article source : https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613051/what-the-hell-is-a-blockchain-phoneand-do-i-need-one/
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Financial messaging giant SWIFT has teamed up with the Singapore Exchange and four banks to trial a platform for e-voting based on blockchain tech, the firm said Tuesday.
Joining the effort to see if distributed ledger technology (DLT) can help make shareholder voting more simple and efficient are Deutsche Bank, DBS, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, as well as securities software provider SLIB.
As in many areas of finance, shareholder voting on corporate decisions is made “cumbersome” by the current “time-consuming and resource intensive” paper-based process, SWIFT explained.
Explaining why DLT has the potential to help solve the issue, the firm said:
“Proxy voting, in particular, frequently results in error-prone and complex manual processes, which the industry can avoid by fostering greater transparency and automation.”
The proof-of-concept (PoC) trial sets out to test a DLT voting solution involving issuers and a central securities depository (CSD), with data managed over a permissioned private blockchain. The partners will also examine the viability of hybrid solutions that merge financial messaging standard ISO 20022 with DLT to boost interoperability and “avoid market fragmentation,” the announcement states.
Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank will act as as participants for the effort, while DBS and SGX will act as both participants and issuers. It’s not clear from the announcement which CSD will be assisting the PoC.
SWIFT will host the trial in its sandbox testing environment, while the partners will use the SWIFT network and their existing SWIFT infrastructure and interfaces as they test the technologies.
As further aspect of the trial will examine SWIFT’s capacity to host applications in its sandbox and to reuse its security and interface stack for other purposes.
Soh Ee Fong, group head of Securities and Fiduciary Services at DBS, said:
“An innovative and seamless e-Voting platform in this industry is long overdue and DBS is pleased to join SWIFT in the PoC as both issuer and participant. … With this solution, shareholder meetings will not be the same again.”
Back in 2017, SWIFT assisted a consortium backed by a group of CSDs on plans to develop a similar distributed ledger proxy voting system. That project also aimed to adhere to the ISO 20022 standard in an effort to ensure that the voting system could be applied across a wide range of services.
Original Article source : https://www.coindesk.com/swift-teams-up-with-major-banks-sgx-to-trial-blockchain-voting
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A U.S. city plans to utilize a blockchain system to store and track votes in its upcoming municipal elections in May.
Denver, Colorado, announced Thursday that it would implement a pilot program to allow overseas voters, active-duty military personnel and their eligible dependents to vote using a blockchain-based smartphone app in collaboration with Tusk Philanthropies and Voatz.
Voatz’s technology has previously been used in West Virginia, where active-duty military personnel used the software during the state’s primary and general elections in 2018.
Since its launch, the Overstock-backed startup has conducted more than 30 successful pilots, with more than 15,000 votes cast in its largest election to date.
In a statement, Jocelyn Bucaro, deputy director of elections at the Denver Office of Clerk and Recorder said the Denver Elections Division is known for making voting an easier and more transparent process for individuals through technology.
“Participating in this pilot program fits perfectly into our mission,” she said, adding:
“We believe this technology has the potential to make voting easier and more secure not only for our active duty military and overseas citizens, but also for voters with disabilities, who could potentially vote independently and privately using their phones’ assistive technology.”
To participate, eligible voters must file an absentee ballot request and complete an authentication process through the Voatz mobile app. If approved, they will be able to submit their ballot between March 23 and May 7, Denver’s election day.
Using the app means voters can avoid having to print and scan the paperwork they would need should they file normal absentee ballots. Further, voters will be able to confirm whether their ballot was recorded, a feature traditional absentee ballots typically lack.
The National Cybersecurity Center (NCC), which is also participating in the pilot, is “excited to partner with the City/County of Denver, Voatz and Tusk Philanthropies,” said NCC CEO Vance Brown.
“This public/private partnership showcases how promoting innovative technologies, such as blockchain-based mobile voting, protects against cyber-attacks that negatively impact our world,” he said. “The application of blockchain in our election system provides for secure, auditable, transparent and accurate counting of ballots and the increased integrity of our election system.”
The U.S. might see more regular use of this technology should it prove to be effective, he added.
Original Article Source : https://www.coindesk.com/city-of-denver-to-pilot-blockchain-voting-app-in-coming-elections
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BY JOERI CANT
US seafood giant Bumble Bee Foods in collaboration with German tech company SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service, has launched a blockchain platform to trace the journey of the yellowfin tuna from the Indonesian ocean to your dinner table.
According to a press release, both companies will continue to innovate and improve upon seafood traceability as more and more consumers demand to know their food is safe and sustainably sourced. The new platform will be able to monitor the supply chain of yellowfin tuna from Indonesia to end customers.
With SAP's blockchain technology, consumers and customers will have the possibility to easily access the complete origin and history of Bumble Bee Foods' Natural Blue by Anova yellowfin tuna simply by using their smartphones to scan a QR code on the product package.
Bumble Bee Foods Chief Information Officer Tony Costa said that with SAP, their customers will have the ability to track fish from the moment it is caught and as it travels around the world, telling the story of each tuna while positively impacting ecosystems and the lives of the people all the way down the line.
'Bumble Bee has long been an industry leader in tracing its seafood products, and the addition of SAP's blockchain technology allows us to further elevate our efforts in complete transparency with consumers and customers, providing assurance that their fish is fresh and it's been sourced fairly according to our commitments to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation', Costa said.
Blockchain technology will allow Bumble Bee Foods to store data and create a tamper-proof supply chain history, which can then be shared and seen by customers worldwide. The blockchain-stored data will include the size of the catch, the point of capture, as well as information about authenticity, freshness, safety, and trade fishing certification.
Oliver Betz, global head and senior vice president of SAP Innovative Business Solutions, part of SAP Digital Business Services said that this solution is an example of how blockchains can be used to revolutionize the future of food.
'It creates transparency and traceability across the food supply chain, from the ocean, across the cold chain, to the warehouse, store and our table. When we help enterprises like Bumble Bee to make innovation real, we support the consumer's need to know and reinforce their faith in the brands they trust', he added.
Original Article Source : https://www.chepicap.com/en/news/8038/bumble-bee-foods-uses-blockchain-to-track-fresh-tuna-from-ocean-to-table.html
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By Sam Klemens
The technology conglomerate Cisco recently released a new report on blockchain. In the report they discuss how they see the technology being used, what the advantages of blockchain are and what financial impact they expect blockchain to have on the market.
Similar to Joseph Lubin’s prediction that blockchain will capture half of the world’s wealth within the next twenty years, the Cisco report predicts that by 2027 10% of the global GDP will be stored on blockchain.
Currently the global GDP is about $80 trillion. Accounting for growth and new value that blockchain is expected to add to the economy, global GDP could easily be $100 trillion by 2027. If Cisco’s report turns out to be accurate that would mean a $10 trillion crypto market is only eight years away.
According to Cisco, “the true innovation of blockchain is its ability to automate trust among the parties using it. – This embedded trust allows consumers, enterprises, and governments to automate how they manage any transactional relationship.”
Although the ability to create a trusted environment for transactions to occur may not be something that the average consumer thinks about, it’s very important for businesses. In fact, the Cisco report claims that, “83% of executives believe trust is the cornerstone of the digital economy.”
In addition to creating trust, the Cisco report found that supply chain tracking will be significantly improved by blockchain. Says the report, “blockchain can enable manufacturers to improve track and trace of components and finished goods across a supply chain and enable new applications around anticounterfeiting, supplier and purchaser financing.”
Since blockchain will allow a company or a customer to track a product from its creation on the factory floor till delivery at the outlet, it will be significantly easier to detect fraud, waste or theft in the supply chain. This will benefit everyone as companies save money and pass those savings on to the consumer.
How much savings? While it’s difficult to accurately predict anything eleven years in the future, the Cisco report states that, “the transformation toward an era of a programmable economy is expected to deliver efficiencies and new business value in excess of $3 trillion by 2030.”
That’s an incredible amount of money and it stands to reason that the savings will only continue to grow as the technology matures. That’s good news for business, good news for consumers and good news for everyone in crypto. It means increased adoption, legitimacy and hopefully a return to higher prices as blockchain technology begins to get adopted.
Original Article source : https://toshitimes.com/by-2027-blockchain-will-capture-10-trillion-of-the-worlds-wealth/
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by Ruti Vora
The blockchain space is growing substantially, and so is the demand for innovative tech-based solutions. Giant corporations have jumped in, to capitalise the game.
Every prominent sector witnesses several mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations between industry players to create better and profitable solutions. This has been one of the most important aspects of market development. Same applies to the blockchain space too. The market has witnessed several collaborations over the past few years, which have been extremely fruitful.
One such collaboration is about to take place between BMW (Asia), Intel, Neilson, and Tribe, a Singapore Government backed accelerator. The announcement was made on Friday by Tribe, as the start-up informed that these established corporations will be sharing their vast experience and expertise in their respective fields. This will help the collaboration to build an inclusive ecosystem, Tribe mentioned in the announcement.
The German Giant’s Asia wing will mentor the start-up on implementing blockchain based solutions in mass markets. Carsten Sapia, Vice President, IT, BMW Asia, stated that the company hopes to help various start-ups in developing their proofs-of-concept, and step on the next level of their development.
American technology behemoth, Intel will be mentoring the start-up on business and technical fronts. Michael Reed, Director of Blockchain division of Intel said that Intel products like Xeon Scalable processors and Intel SGX will help start-ups improve privacy, security, and scalability while developing blockchain solutions.
On the other hand, the New York-based Neilson will facilitate a safe and controlled environment for testing new technologies, speeding of adoption of the solutions developed by start-ups, by providing a sandbox.
This is not the first time when a big corporation is tying up with government-backed entities. Earlier this year, another American technology behemoth IBM announced its deals with governments of countries like Australia, Canada, Argentina and a few Africa nations, to develop blockchain solutions for various government departments. IBM will also be developing a blockchain based platform to combat the evil of counterfeit medicine supply in African nations.
Blockchain, at large, has been growing exponentially. Major business stalwarts including Facebook, Microsoft, JPMorgan, etc., have all entered the space bringing huge investments along with them. This has given a much-needed boost to research and development on the platform, to discover newer potentials of the extremely potent distributed ledger technology. The innovative tech has certainly moved a long way ahead, from being an underlying platform for cryptocurrencies to becoming the most sought after technology of the 21st Century.
Especially, in emerging markets like Singapore and India, blockchain will play a huge role as the markets, at large, are developing, unlike developed nations, where everything seems to be too perfect to implement blockchain. This gives companies with extensive market research and relevant infrastructure, a chance to redefine market growth, and finally make the platform more accessible to the masses.
Commenting on the partnership, Ryan Chew, Managing Partner at Tribe Accelerator said that the blockchain space needs to encourage experimentation to discover benefits of the revolutionary technology, which will allow mainstream adoption of the platform.
Tribe also partnered with ConsenSys, an Ethereum development studio, in February earlier this year, in a bid to push blockchain development in the Asian powerhouse. The Government-backed start-up was launched in December 2018, by venture capital firm TRIVE Ventures, resulting out of a partnership between Korean company ICON Foundation and PwC Singapore Venture Hub.
Activities in the blockchain space in Asia have heated up in the past few months. Right from the Middle East to Singapore, China and India, countries are taking giant strides in the sector.
Original Article Source : https://www.cryptonewsz.com/intel-neilson-and-bmw-partner-with-singapore-government-backed-blockchain-accelerator/12450/
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JPMorgan and Bank of America lead the pack when it comes to implementing blockchain in the financial sector. In fact, the competition isn’t even close. Between patents, job hiring, and huge technology budgets, it seems unlikely that smaller banks will be able to compete in any substantive way.
JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have the largest technology budgets of the 175 banks surveyed recently by UBS.
JPMorgan is the biggest spender, according to the report, with a $11.4 billion technology budget for 2019. Bank of America is second at $10 billion, with Wells Fargo coming in at third with $9 billion, and Citigroup, with about $8 billion. After that, the drop is steep, with US Bancorp clocking in with a budget of around $2.5 million, half of which is considered operating expenses.
Jamie Dimon: a blockchain believer
JPMorgan and Bank of America are investing the most in new technologies such as blockchain. In the report, JPMorgan says nearly half of its technology budget goes into changing the banking industry and focusing on new technologies, while Bank of America says roughly one third of its budget ($3 billion) is devoted to developing new tech initiatives.
JPMorgan Chase, which announced its JPM Coin project in February, is on a blockchain job hiring spree, posting more jobs with “blockchain,” “cryptocurrency,” or “bitcoin” in their titles than any other financial firm, an Indeed.com report says. Only firms like IBM, Cisco, Accenture, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and Deloitte are posting more, and they have interests in all kinds of industries.
Bank of America, meanwhile, is locking up blockchain patents left and right. The company currently has 82 blockchain-related patents, compared to JPMorgan’s six, according to intellectual property law firm EnvisionIP. The earliest patents filed by Bank of America date back to 2014. They range from a blockchain powered ATM to a storage system for keys to cryptocurrency wallets (though BofA’s tech and operations chief Cathy Bessant says she’s skeptical overall about blockchain).
The UBS report also shows how consolidated spending on technology is in the financial sector. The vast majority of banks outside of the top four spenders on tech aren’t exploring new technologies like blockchain, but rather just trying to maintain the systems they already have in place. Fully 73 percent of respondents at the largest banks (those with assets over $250 billion) said they were implementing blockchain, while only 6 percent of those at smaller banks (those with assets lower than $100 billion) said they were doing so.
It’s not clear how the hegemonic spending of the massive banks will impact how blockchain implementation develops, or doesn’t. But with other behemoths like Facebook also ramping up blockchain-related hiring (connected with its secretive “Facecoin” projects) the giants of mainstream corporate America are wading ever deeper into the land of distributed ledgers. A clash between corporate control and decentralization could be on the horizon.
Original Article Source : https://breakermag.com/jpmorgan-and-bofa-lead-race-for-blockchain-banking-supremacy/
