Issue 7: The Great Race (To Patent Blockchain Technology)
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Company Spotlight: Bitmark
Founded: 2014
Description: Bitmark is using blockchain technology to create a decentralized property system — the ability to transfer physical and digital property from one party to another without an intermediary. We’ve referenced one of their projects before, which was enabling ownership and tracking of donors’ data in public health studies.
Team: Sean Moss-Pultz (Founder & CEO)
Partnerships & Projects
Goldman Sachs awarded patent for its ‘SETLcoin’ | Banks/FIs have been racing the past few years to patent their own blockchain technology and put a stake in the ground before any killer use cases are deployed at scale by competitors. The young kids call this FOMO (fear of missing out), others call it “defense patents.” You could also say that FIs are fighting to own the blockchain ecosystem in which case the concern is that companies gradually become patent-aggressive (lawsuits, etc): Vitalik Buterin [creator of ethereum] has spoken about this: “Blockchain software companies may end up being amalgamated into existing software giants, at which point blockchain patents will just become part of the existing patent war…as is the case with all software patents, in my opinion their availability will only slow down and harm innovation.”
American Express integrates with bitcoin wallet, Abra | Abra offers a very friendly bitcoin wallet (storing, sending, receiving bitcoin) via its Abra smartphone app. Users with an AmEx card are now able to fund their Abra account with it.
Renault working with Microsoft and VISEO for a shared car maintenance database | This was done via Microsoft’s Azure blockchain platform. China based BitSe and VISEO provided the technology and implementation support. The basic idea is to create a shared database between automakers, insurers, repair shops, and other stakeholders to better track customer and vehicle information.
Borsa Italiana and IBM to digitize issuance of securities for SMEs in Europe | Another example of what may be enterprise blockchain technology’s greatest feature to date — a catalyst for bringing people’s attention to modernizing back office processes. “The blockchain solution for unlisted SMEs in Europe is designed to replace the paper trading certificates that are commonly issued to private companies today.”
The Ripple Network has grown quickly | The Ripple network has doubled in size in less than two months since May. Its validator network now has 55 participants running the XRP Ledger (software that validates the order of transaction settlements). “Newly revealed validators include WorldLink, Telindus-Proximus Group, Swedish ISP, Bahnhof and AT TOKYO Corporation, a data center and systems integration service provider.”
European FIs consortium launches blockchain startup, LiquidShare | The startup will develop and operate a post-trade infrastructure “to improve SME’s access to capital markets, improving the transparency and security of post-trading operations using blockchain.” The venture was launched by BNP Paribas, CACEIS, Caisse des Dépôts, Euroclear, Euronext, S2iEM and Société Générale with the support of Paris EUROPLAC. One of the features mentioned is T+0 real-time settlement. For most large institutions, it’s unclear for now that real-time (vs. near-time) settlement is necessary in practice.
Nuco plans to connect blockchains with its own public blockchain | “Dubbed Aion, the proposed technology aims to connect different blockchains, including private networks operated by enterprises. The idea is that, as more companies turn to the technology for a variety of applications, there will need to be a public layer through which these future networks can communicate — and that’s where Aion comes in.”
Regulation & Policy
South Korea officially legalizes international Bitcoin transfers | With legalization comes regulatory clarity for things like minimum capital requirements, data retention requirements for KYC/AML compliance, etc.
Indian government considering tax on bitcoin purchases | In the U.S. the government regulates digital currencies as property not currency, a significant roadblock to wide adoption as a payment method. That means if a consumer want to buy a cup of coffee with bitcoin that has appreciated in value since your original purchase, that’s a taxable event (capital gains) for the consumer.
Consumers in Austria can purchase digital currencies via bitpanda at all post offices | “Starting on July 10th, you can now purchase Bitcoins and other digital currencies quickly, safely and at a favourable price via “bitpanda to go” in all 1,800 Post branches all over Austria. At any of these locations, you can change cash into Bitcoins worth 50€, 100€ or 500€. You will then receive a code on a receipt, which can be entered on bitpanda.com/togo.”
Further Reading
Blockchain hiring crunch // Tezos’ token sale was record-setting // “People trust cryptocurrencies over gold” // Singapore’s blockchain R&D // “A rational take on cryptocurrencies” // “Bitcoin will go mainstream once banks start accepting it”
About Us
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