What makes a stablecoin useful? Here is our pick of the 3 most important Stablecoin news stories during the week. One feature is that Stablecoins offer interim protection to traders from notorious crypto price volatility. They did so by almost maintaining their one dollar-peg and offering sufficient liquidity to traders who looked for a safety net […]
The post Stablecoin News for the week ending Wednesday 15th September. appeared first on Daily Fintech.
Funding is a prerequisite for any new crypto project or startup. At the dawn of the new decade, we’ve seen a decline in token sales as source of funding. Where is the capital for crypto projects going to come from? Will traditional investment vehicles, like venture capital become more significant or will we see another evolution in crypto fundraising?
Ilias Louis Hatzis is the Founder at Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG and a weekly columnist at DailyFintech.com.
In 2017, ICOs were the most popular cryptocurrency trend. During that year 875 projects sold $6 billion worth of their tokens. In 2018, 1253 ICOs raised $7.8 billion, but 2019 was a completely different story. In 2019, we saw the introduction of the IEO. In total, token generation events during 2019 raised $3.2 billion (ICOs raised less than $370 million). But very few IEOs last year were able to raise a decent amount capital and only on selected exchanges. The drop can all be attributed to lack of regulatory oversight, a large number of exit scams, failed projects and delayed developments, severely damaging investor sentiment around token sales.
While the price of Bitcoin bounced back after the first quarter of 2019, the fate for most of the other coins, like Ethereum, EOS and Tron, was not the same.
The introduction of IEOs provided an extra layer of trust and security, when compared to ICOs. An IEO is very similar to an ICO. Investors receive tokens at a discounted price, in exchange for investment. IEOs are conducted on cryptocurrency exchanges, that claim to perform strict due diligence checks, to filter out any bad actors and protect their users. At a first glance IEO figures are impressive. The launch of BitTorrent on Binance in January ended in 15 minutes with over $17 million worth of tokens sold. But only a small number of IEOs have been able to get this kind of activity.
IEOs have their own share of problems and many are still skeptical. For the most part, IEOs were more secure than the conventional ICOs. While the IEO experiment showed that ICOs can be rebranded, it also showed that some of the inherent flaws couldn’t be evaded. As smaller exchanges, with more lax requirements, launched their own IEO launchpads, once again fraudulent token sales appeared
With declining ICOs and IEOs, blockchain startups are looking for other ways to raise money.
Even when ICOs were red hot, there was venture capital investment in crypto companies. Companies like Coinbase and Circle raised money from VCs. In 2018, VCs invested around $3 billion in crypto and blockchain-related startups, around 40% of what was raised by ICOs. In 2019, venture capital investment took a step back. By the middle of 2019, VC funding in cryptocurrency startups accounted for USD 822 million.
Security Token Offerings (STOs) have emerged as an alternative. While launching an STO is a complicated process, in 2019 they gained more traction and capital, with 64 STOs, collectively raising almost $1 billion. STOs were born out of the need to raise money in a more regulated way, while keeping the flexibility that tokenized assets offer. Only a few platforms are licensed to host STOs, but a huge surge in interest has led many to seek licenses. Because of this, 2020 will likely bring a new wave of STOs, though these will mostly only be offered to accredited investors, while a regulatory framework evolves.
We are also seeing another trend, the Initial DEX offering (IDO). Very similar to IEOs, IDOs are conducted on decentralized exchanges, instead of centralized exchanges used IEOs. Last year, Raven Protocol (RAVEN) conducted an IDO on Binance’s DEX. But for now decentralized exchanges still need to mature in terms of users and volume. For example, Binance’s DEX has a daily trading volume that is under $2 million.
When ICOs first came out, I thought they were revolutionary. The IEO model fixed some of the flaws that plagued ICOs and gave developers an effective and faster way to get to market. Even though IEOs started early last year with some fireworks, they did not completely resolve the trust issues, so the investor enthusiasm quickly fizzled out.
To make investors feel comfortable again, we need more than ease and accessibility, that ICOs and IEOs offer. We also need to offer IPO-grade regulation and compliance. But most startups are not able to do that. So what’s the middle ground? Well, maybe the solution is STOs, tokenized securities that comply with regulations. But for now STOs are still a hard route, that lacks liquidity and regulatory clarity.
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This weekly summary from our 5 experts, brings you insights based on their experience as investors, entrepreneurs & executives.
Ilias Hatzis started his first company, an internet search engine, during the dot-com era & now focusses on crypto.
Efi Pylarinou worked for top tier Wall Street firms and is now a top global Fintech influencer.
Jessica Ellerm is CEO of Zuper Superannuation & previously worked for a top Fintech startup, Tyro.
Patrick Kelahan is a CX, engineering & insurance professional, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners.
Bernard Lunn is CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
If you want to continue receiving This Week in Fintech, you can either become a paying Member for $143 per year (and receive all our content in addition to this weekly summary) by clicking here. If you just want to receive This Week in Fintech for free, you will need to fill in this form. Or fill in the same sign up form at the bottom of this post.
Your Editor is Bernard Lunn. He is also the CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
Monday Ilias Hatzis @iliashatzis our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur (Founder & CEO at Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG and Weekly Columnist at Daily Fintech) wrote Bitcoin Bears vs Bulls
Bitcoin started the year with a bang. In the last 24 hours it went up 3%, topping $9,000. The entire week has been exciting week, with one rally after another feeding the bulls. Bitcoin has exploded by over 30% since January 1, and we’re just a couple of weeks into 2020. What a difference from what happened in January 2018. Market watchers are pointing to Bitcoin’s halving as the catalyst for the next big price push.
Editor note: Ilias looks at many factors such as halvening and Chinese New Year behind the Bitcoin Bears vs Bulls market tug of war.
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Tuesday Efi Pylarinou @efipm our Swiss-based Fintech Adviser, founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory and a Fintech/Blockchain influencer – No.3 influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019 wrote A Fintech side-effect: Excessive Corporate Control by the Big Three
The growth of the ETF sector is well documented and the robo-advisory fintech growth merits a piece of this `success`. According to my estimates, last year digital investing from startups and incumbents represented roughly 12% of the entire ETF market. This is of course, is from the point of investors’ point of view. Earlier this month I looked at facts and figures for ETF issuers.
Editor note: Platforms tend to dominance based on network effects. Yet the extent of dominance in ETFs is surprising. As Efi points out “‘The Big Three` are the largest shareholders in 40% of all publicly traded stocks in the US”. Her conclusion that “We need more fintechs innovating in the shareholder voting process” seems like a problem amenable to technology and a creative entrepreneur. Watch this space.
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Wednesday Jessica Ellerm @jessicaellerm, our Australia-based Fintech entrepreneur and thought leader specializing in Small Business and the Gig Economy & CEO/Co-Founder of Zuper, a new superannuation startup in Australia wrote Green Home Loans A Reality Downunder
The world must go green. How green is probably a debatable question, but slowly the tide is turning towards renewables and fossil fuel alternatives, with many hard-nosed climate conservatives even beginning to thaw on the issue.
Finance has a huge role to play in this greenification of the world. In Australia, companies like Ratesetter are leading the way in helping consumers access finance specifically to help fund the purchase and/or installation of an Approved National Clean Energy Product. This includes air source heat pumps, batteries for solar systems, energy efficient air conditioning, low energy lighting, hybrid cars and trucks, solar panels and much more.
Editor note: The awful reality of the fires in Australia has put some green initiatives onto the front burner, not the worthy but ignorable back burner of the past.
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Thursday Patrick Kelahan @insuranceeleph1, our US based Insurtech expert (a CX, engineering & insurance professional, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners who also serves the insurance and Fintech world as the ‘Insurance Elephant’) wrote Blueprint One- a building plan for a Lloyd’s digital/culture change decade, or pie in the culture change sky?
It’s really a tour de force, the 146 page Blueprint One recently released by leadership at Lloyd’s, a detailed road map for the staff and approximate ninety syndicate players that comprise the firm, its reinsurers, customers, associated MGAs, vendors, brokers and agents. Plans, flow charts and implementation strategy that are planned for the next two years, with all the new moving parts in synch by close of 2022. Oh, and did I mention the £35 billion in annual premiums that the organization generates through its stakeholders? Bold plans for a three-hundred-year tenure organization. And there is the unmentioned tension- an entrenched business model planning to evolve into an agile, cutting edge tech leader.
Editor note: Lloyd’s is a fascinating entity in Insurance, more ecosystem than traditional corporate and a great way of insuring big complex risk. How they change is a critical part of the transformation of Insurance. How they build the technology will determine success IMHO.
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Friday Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy, wrote: Security Token news for Week ending 24 January 2020
Editor note: This weekly snapshot is the news that matters for busy senior people in the Security Token market.
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The post This Week in Fintech 24 Jan appeared first on Daily Fintech.
Here is our pick of the 3 most important Security Tokens news stories during the week:
“Andra Capital, a San Francisco based venture capital firm, announced plans to issue Andra’s Silicon Valley Coin (SVC) via a Security Token Offering (STO). Collaborating with the Tezos Foundation, SVC will utilize TokenSoft’s issuance platform and be built on the Tezos blockchain.”
Equity ownership and governance are closely related in early stage ventures, so the use of Tezos is significant.
“EMURGO Ptd. Ltd. – EMURGO – the official commercial arm of Cardano blockchain – announces the establishment of a blockchain task force with the National Agency of Project Management (NAPM) under the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and alongside advisors KOBEA Group & Infinity Blockchain Holdings, to lead the development of a legal framework for security token offerings (STOs) and exchanges (STXs) in the Republic of Uzbekistan. In addition, EMURGO & KOBEA will advise on infrastructure for digital asset banking & exchange, and blockchain education units, amongst others. EMURGO will provide advisory services to develop the framework and business units with the task force & mutually explore the potential for Cardano’s third-generation blockchain for infrastructure projects.”
Alternative blockchains such as Cardano have to battle the network effects around Ethereum and alternative jurisdictions such as Uzbekistan have to establish themselves in investor’s minds. So expect more partnerships such as this.
“GreyP Bikes (an e-bike company), one of the first “equity token offerings” or ETO to complete a primary issuance on the Neufund platform distributed the digital securities to investors last week. The security offering began last October with a pre-sale followed by a public sale that ended towards the end of November.
As was previously reported in December, GreyP raised €1.4 million from 1017 investors from 34 different countries – . The offering was described as the first IPO every completed on a blockchain-powered platform. The company sold the ETO at a pre-money valuation of €45 million. Founded by Mate Rimac, who also created Rimac Automobili, GreyP claims the backing of large investors like Porsche and Camel Group.”
We like it when we see issuers who have nothing to do with Crypto/Blockchain as it indicates market traction. It is even better when, as in this case, the issuance transaction close/executes successfully.
We have a self-imposed constraint of 3 news stories each week because we serve busy senior leaders in Fintech who need just enough information to get on with their job.
For context, please read the chapter on Security Tokens in our Blockchain Economy book and read articles tagged Security Tokens in our archives.
You get 3 free articles on Daily Fintech. After that you will need to become a member for just US$143 a year (= $0.39 per day) and get all our fresh content and our archives and participate in our forum.
The post Security Token news for Week ending 24 January 2020 appeared first on Daily Fintech.
It’s really a tour de force, the 146 page Blueprint One recently released by leadership at Lloyd’s, a detailed road map for the staff and approximate ninety syndicate players that comprise the firm, its reinsurers, customers, associated MGAs, vendors, brokers and agents. Plans, flow charts and implementation strategy that are planned for the next two years, with all the new moving parts in synch by close of 2022. Oh, and did I mention the £35 billion in annual premiums that the organization generates through its stakeholders? Bold plans for a three-hundred-year tenure organization. And there is the unmentioned tension- an entrenched business model planning to evolve into an agile, cutting edge tech leader.
Patrick Kelahan is a CX, engineering & insurance consultant, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners in his day job. He also serves the insurance and Fintech world as the ‘Insurance Elephant’.
Lloyd’s is the industry standard bearer for specialty risk management, AKA ‘the stuff an underwriter can’t thumb to in his/her U/W manual’. Its technique and mystique have evolved during the more than three centuries since a few gents sat in front of some pints and pondered financial hedges against loss of shipping cargos. Why then, does the firm think that several months of research, interviews, participant interviews, technology vendor schemes, and resulting blueprint from Lime St are the best answers to changing the course of the culture and operations of a complex global insurer?
Consider this voice from the street (location to remain unmentioned):
“Sadly, it seems that Lloyds underwriters have developed a degree of contempt for the XXXX market, over the last year I’ve seen the worst performance from certain Lloyds underwriters I’ve ever experienced in the last 20 years or so. In particular, not having renewal terms ready in time when renewal submissions have gone in well on time. It’s definitely a hard market from where I’m standing, and it isn’t particularly civilised either!”
Well, hard markets currently abound for many reasons across the globe, and anecdotal responses are a little unfair. But the basis of the speaker’s concerns may not be- Lloyd’s is a huge, multi-variate, multi-cultural, global organization that cannot be changed under dictate, singular plan, or silo-driven flow chart. Underwriters remain subject to the performance matrix of the day, and grand plans from on high take a rear seat when quotas aren’t met, or loss ratios are trending north. Additionally, the firm remains entangled in aftereffects of sexual harassment accusations, mitigating the perceived impact of an over-arching office culture of suits and club decorum (although well past the days of PFLs), and recent years’ declining profitability. Can Blueprint One be communicated, integrated and adapted uniformly in the face of these challenges? And can the evolution avoid the strong effects of the “Quarterlies?”
Culture and process changes aren’t new with the advent of Insurtech, innovation, globalization or change of leadership. Much of what the blueprint discusses has its foundation in technology and transparency across the organization’s depth and breadth. At its core we are talking insurance, so the topic may be busy, but it’s not rocket science. Identify risk, understand risk, price risk, hedge risk, service occurrences that confirm risk (claims), and pay less than is taken in. The firm is smart, therefore, to look to leverage technology for easy inclusion of participants across many regions and many forms of access, easier aggregation of business, more effective application of information, collection of data, and so on.
Consider the Blueprint’s ‘what it is’:
That’s on page 7 of the 146 page blueprint; it is an ambitious, wide scale road map.
It’s clear the more complex a plan is the greater the chance of incomplete implementation; the more incomplete or disuniformity of implementation the greater the chance of not achieving success. The firm has its plan, its foundation for success, if the plan can be implemented.
Skipping forward to “Why we will succeed,” on page 11 , and I chime in with some observations that the principles suggest from other large org’s culture/ops changes:
Rather than ramble on I am going to shamelessly borrow some innovation/org change concepts from a Property Casualty 360 article penned by Ira Sopic, Global Project Director at Insurance Nexus that has an apt perspective- “Agility is the key to technology innovation for insurers.” But let’s build a contrast from Lloyd’s presentation.
Agile? Can a global, £35 billion insurance giant be agile? Do Lloyd’s customers demand innovation, or will they benefit materially from innovation? We can see what the author and Lee Ng, VP of Innovation at Travelers Insurance say.
Fundamentally, the article notes org agility means looking at how decisions are made across an org and making significant changes. That’s ambiguous until the addition of, “you can’t prove innovation before it happens.” Uncertainty of innovation’s results can be overdone with analysis. ‘Agile’ is the opposite of ‘waterfall’, an approach where plans and decisions are made at the top and cascaded down through the org as steps in a process are encountered. Rolling out comprehensive plans by their nature inhibit iteration- big plans have milestones, have successive designs, benchmarks and schedules. Agile has ideas, iterative maps, acceptance of failures. Lloyd’s has established a grand approach to the former method- I kid you not, here’s an exemplar flow chart of planned core technology:
Many participants influencing and accessing the tech core of the firm, and those magical skeleton keys to open the doors- APIs and interfaces.
Continuing, agile can be successfully piecemeal- protect the primary ROI factors of the biz, experiment with agile ways of working with collateral functions, build the innovative environment without whacking the quarterlies. The inherent problem with piecemeal approaches? They are hard to measure for success, and hard to program into project management software.
Another agile tack to take? “Done is better than perfect’. Resist the urge to over plan, over measure, and to set expectations that the first attempt is a go or no go for the entire org. A popular innovation concept applies- try, and fail fast. Then try again. There are many vendors who are experts in narrow parts of an org’s innovation path- it’s OK to rely on them. Investment in a POC or two is as good as implementation.
Perhaps another day will allow discussion of the plans for the six Solutions, particularly Claims and Risk Exchange (the nexus of provision of service and of customers’ expectations from the firm.) In spite of a skeptical take on the Blueprint I certainly want Lloyd’s to remain the bastion of risk management in a increasing risky world, but the concern is the firm is approaching this insurance elephant as a full take away meal, instead of as tapas.
In closing consider this- if there are five levels of Blueprint implementation and each effort has a 98% probability of success, after the five levels there is an aggregate probability of integration success of 90%. That’s not bad, unless the interplay of five operational areas serving clients is considered with 90% effectiveness at play- aggregate 59% average Blueprint compliance outcome.
Consider those little bites, Lloyd’s. The industry is pulling for you.
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The growth of the ETF sector is well documented and the robo-advisory fintech growth merits a piece of this `success`. According to my estimates, last year digital investing from startups and incumbents represented roughly 12% of the entire ETF market. This is of course, is from the point of investors’ point of view. Earlier this month I looked at facts and figures for ETF issuers.
Clearly, incumbents dominate ETF issuance. Very few standalone Fintechs are involved in issuing ETFs and their market share is negligible. Those include Sofi, Salt Financial, Ark funds. The growth of passive investing is not limited to the ETF wrapper. Other indexing investment products have also been growing, with mutual funds dominating. Vanguard is has pushed the industry towards such investment products with low expense ratios. Vanguard boasts an average expense ratio of 19bps compared to an industry average of 108bps. Robinhood has pushed the industry to commission-free trading. Most large asset managers have currently, significant platforms with commission-free trading investment products (from Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab).
Efi Pylarinou is the founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory and a Fintech/Blockchain influencer – No.3 influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019.
You get 3 free articles on Daily Fintech. Get all our fresh content and our archives and participate in our forum, by becoming a member for just US$143 a year.
Customers – Investors should be extremely happy with all these developments. However, there is one major concern whose ugly head may not be noticeable. An elephant is in the room, here too. Its name is `The Big Three`. The concentration power of three US-based companies, Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street, and its ramifications has gone largely unnoticed.
Blackrock just passed the $7 trillion AUM. An increase of $1.5trillion from last year.
Vanguard just passed the $6 trillion AUM and State Street the $3trillion AUM.
These three corporates manage $16 trillion AUM. This is a 45% increase from 2017 ($11 trillion AUM)!
Through a visualization produced by Corpnet Research what becomes clear is that `The Big Three` are the largest shareholders in 40% of all publicly traded stocks in the US[i]!
The growth of low cost investing, the disruption of the brokerage business model and the digitalization of the investment process, has created this excessive concentration in the Big Three asset managers.
Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street have corporate control over 40% of the US stock market! These giant index fund businesses have too much shareholder voting power. That is one of the reasons that it matters a lot what the Fink says about climate change and ESG. In this case, we like his commitment but let’s be aware of this Corporate Governance entity in the room
BlackRock CEO’s push toward ESG investing highlights the power he wields over the direction of corporate America#impactinvesting #sustainability #wealthmanagment
cc @Karunk @UrsBolt @efipm https://t.co/mINVPZKlOn via @WSJ @jmackin2— Theo – 劉䂀曼 (@psb_dc) January 20, 2020
The Harvard Law school forum on Corporate Governance is also researching this theme. In their paper The Specter of the Giant Three they look closely into this issue and estimate that the Big Three could well cast as much as 40% of the votes in S&P 500 companies within two decades.
Even though, the Big Three own less shares than 40%, their impact is amplified because they exercise their voting power 100%, whereas smaller asset managers do not. The Big Three currently collectively hold an average stake of more than 20% of S&P 500 companies and each one of them (BlackRock and Vanguard) now hold positions of 5% or more of the shares of almost all of the companies in the S&P 500.
Even more interesting is that this corporate governance problem was identified initially as the “Problem of Twelve”[ii] — the likelihood that in the near future roughly twelve individuals will have practical power over the majority of U.S. public companies.
In just these last two years, the problem has become more acute. If we continue to focus on democratization (access, low cost) of financial products and services with no innovation in corporate governance, we will end up pretty much in the same corner as we have with the Big Tech companies.
We need more fintechs innovating in the shareholder voting process. We need to increase the shareholder voting participation and make it 100% transparent for majority shareholders that are already required to publicly disclose their holdings.
The Big Three references
BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Own Corporate America
[i] Hidden power of the Big Three? Passive index funds, re-concentration of corporate ownership, and new financial risk
[ii] The Future of Corporate Governance Part I: The Problem of Twelve
The post A Fintech side-effect: Excessive Corporate Control by the Big Three appeared first on Daily Fintech.
Bitcoin started the year with a bang. In the last 24 hours it went up 3%, topping $9,000. The entire week has been exciting week, with one rally after another feeding the bulls. Bitcoin has exploded by over 30% since January 1, and we’re just a couple of weeks into 2020. What a difference from what happened in January 2018. Market watchers are pointing to Bitcoin’s halving as the catalyst for the next big price push.
Ilias Louis Hatzis is the Founder at Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG and a weekly columnist at DailyFintech.com.
There are two major forces we need to consider. On one end we have the Chinese New Year, which has always been bad for cryptocurrencies. On the other, political uncertainty is providing a fertile ground for the value of cryptocurrencies. Both these forces are pulling crypto from opposite ends and will cause major price swings in the moths to come.
For some reason Chinese New Year has always been bad news for Bitcoin. This year, just like the last four years, you can expect, a little dip right before the Chinese New Year. In January 2019, Bitcoin dipped to around $3,300. In 2018, the Chinese New Year, kicked off the bear market, with a huge slide from around $16,000 to $5,000. In 2017 we had a mini dip, dropping from $1,200 to $700. Some people attribute the price drops to the Chinese cashing out and giving gifts to family and friends. Personally, think a lot of market makers take time off, and as a result potential orders don’t get filled, which causes the entire market to drop.
On the other end of the spectrum, Bitcoin’s decentralized governance combined with the global uncertainty, because of the relations between the United States and Iran, Trump impeachment and the US and China trade war are pushing people towards crypto and driving prices up. People are trying to find ways to maintain the value of their assets, avoid potential confiscation and limit effects of the possibility of the US government printing money to fund a war.
On May 13th the halving will be important, because it will directly impact the amount of Bitcoin produced per day. Today, 12.5 coins are created every 10 minutes, with a total of 1,800 Bitcoins per day and a value of around $14 million. That number will drop to 6.25 and along with that, inflation will drop. Even though halving event is not a secret, it’s part of Bitcoin’s predictable monetary policy, most of the the general public does not know exactly what the halving means, and this will create most likely create FOMO.
But beyond halving, Bitcoin’s upgrade later this year the could be another important driving force. The soft fork, which will most likely happen int the last quarter fo the year is expected to improve Bitcoin’s privacy and scalability. Schnorr signatures, Taproot schemes and Tapscript language, will bring smart contracts to Bitcoin, eliminate penalties in terms of fees for multisig wallets and improve security with Taproot.
Crypto assets, are here to stay and prices will rise. Governments, central banks and big tech is coming in. Look at China’s central bank, Libra and JP Morgan for example. But thinking that Bitcoin and crypto will go ballistic because of the halving or something else, is just wishful thinking. Volatility is the name of the game, so expect a lot of crazy swings, as bulls and bears duke it out.
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This weekly summary from our 5 experts, brings you insights based on their experience as investors, entrepreneurs & executives.
Ilias Hatzis started his first company, an internet search engine, during the dot-com era & now focusses on crypto.
Efi Pylarinou worked for top tier Wall Street firms and is now a top global Fintech influencer.
Jessica Ellerm is CEO of Zuper Superannuation & previously worked for a top Fintech startup, Tyro.
Patrick Kelahan is a CX, engineering & insurance professional, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners.
Bernard Lunn is CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
If you want to continue receiving This Week in Fintech, you can either become a paying Member for $143 per year (and receive all our content in addition to this weekly summary) by clicking here. If you just want to receive This Week in Fintech for free, you will need to fill in this form. Or fill in the same sign up form at the bottom of this post.
Your Editor is Bernard Lunn. He is also the CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy.
Monday Ilias Hatzis @iliashatzis our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur (Founder & CEO at Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG and Weekly Columnist at Daily Fintech) wrote What could kill Bitcoin?
Defining what life is has always been a challenge. Scientists and philosophers have come up with many definitions to differentiate the living from the non-living. Are viruses alive? DNA molecules? Computer viruses? The inventor of cryptographic hashing, Ralph Merkle, has made the argument that “Bitcoin is the first example of a new form of life.” If something is alive, then it can be killed. Over the years, Bitcoin has survived technical attacks, internal conflict and outside criticism. Bitcoin has shown a quality that goes beyond resilience, that doesn’t just withstand the shocks, but improves when facing volatility, randomness, disorder and uncertainty. Bitcoin has an “antifragility” quality. But is there Bitcoin kryptonite? Can something kill Bitcoin?
Editor note: Ilias looks at why so many ways people predicted Bitcoin will fail have proved wrong. Takeaway: buy and Hodl.
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Tuesday Efi Pylarinou @efipm our Swiss-based Fintech Adviser, founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory and a Fintech/Blockchain influencer – No.3 influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019 wrote Blockchain Thematic ETFs from the West to the East
Listing on exchanges continues to dominate. Whether listing on regulated or unregulated Centralized exchanges (CEX) or Decentralized exchanges (DEX) of any sort; this has not changed at all for assets.
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, in his New Year medium post, foresees that we will be moving from a predominantly trading & speculation phase of cryptocurrencies and Tokens of all sorts, to a phase of actually Using Tokens.
In the meantime, however, incumbents and startups continue building all the necessary infrastructure to issue, custody, settle and clear, trade and invest of all sorts of digital assets.
Editor note: Efi’s Post is a great resource for anybody who invests in publicly traded Blockchain companies.
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Wednesday Jessica Ellerm @jessicaellerm, our Australia-based Fintech entrepreneur and thought leader specializing in Small Business and the Gig Economy & CEO/Co-Founder of Zuper, a new superannuation startup in Australia wrote Australia’s Open Banking Dream Drifts Away
It would seem Australia’s hopes of having a quickly implemented open banking regime are fading fast, if not completely transparent already. An already delayed start date of February 2020 has been pushed out to July 2020, causing much consternation in the startup community, as fintechs continue to battle with unpredictability around the regime.
Editor note: Jessica’s post describes startup frustration with the delays in open banking access.
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Thursday Patrick Kelahan @insuranceeleph1, our US based Insurtech expert (a CX, engineering & insurance professional, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners who also serves the insurance and Fintech world as the ‘Insurance Elephant’) wrote Addressing some symptoms of insurance issues, and not the underlying causes?
There’s an odd contradiction in some of what the insurance industry does; the industry is built on predicting risk and strategizing risk sharing, yet in many ways it is victim of knowing its own concerns and reacting to and pricing the reaction, and not working to mitigating the effects of the outcomes. And in at least one case looking to backfill its model to fit corporate strategy and perhaps not customer choice.
Editor note: Pat describes some well funded and executed initiatives in Insurance that did NOT pay off as expected due to applying old thinking to new technology.
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Friday Bernard Lunn, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy, wrote: The Week ending 17 January 2020 in Security Tokens
Editor note: Security Tokens, the disruptive force in the equities market. This weekly snapshot is the news that matters for busy senior people in this market.
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Here is our pick of the 3 most important Security Tokens news stories during the week:
One. Securitize Opens IRAs to Digital Securities Investors With Partnership
Digital asset issuer Securitize has facilitated what it says is the first direct IRA investment in security token offerings (STOs). A customer of alternative investments gateway AltoIRA purchased an initial investment in security tokens representing CityBlock Capital’s $20 million venture fund, with tokens issued by Securitize.
IRA is a mainstream way for retail investors in America to get exposure to this new asset class. We can expect other pension friendly initiatives in other jurisdictions soon.
Two. US SEC Seeks $16 Million Penalty from Token Sales Platform Operator.
The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking a default judgement against token sale platform ICOBox and its founder Nikolay Evdokimov. Documents filed with the Central District Court of California on Jan. 9 order the defendants to pay over $16 million in disgorgement to the agency within 14 days of the judgement’s entry.
This again shows why anybody operating in this market must pay close attention to regulation, particularly what the top cop (SEC ) is doing.
Three. Quantum-Resistant QAN IEO Is Officially Starting on Bitbay Exchange.
The first IEO to launch on BitBay exchange is poised to commence its token sale on January 20. QAN, an Estonia-based crypto project that proclaims to be the world’s first quantum-resistant blockchain, went live on the Launchpad on December 16.
This shows where the Security Token market is today – Blockchain centric startups launched by Crypto exchanges as an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO).
We have a self-imposed constraint of 3 news stories each week because we serve busy senior leaders in Fintech who need just enough information to get on with their job.
For context on Security Tokens please read the chapter on Security Tokens in our Blockchain Economy book and read articles tagged Security Tokens in our archives.
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