How blockchain will kill fake news (and four other predictions for 2020)

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2019 03:00:00 -0800

As blockchain’s hype cycle continues to befuddle many about its potential beyond  cryptocurrencies, businesses and governments are moving ahead with projects involving everything from digital identities to voting and supply chain tracking.

Blockchain has slipped into the “Trough of Disillusionment” (see Gartner Hype Cycle), because it got ahead of its technical and operational maturity. As a result, interest has waned as most experiments and implementations failed to provide expected results.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more

Can Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency survive the exodus?

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2019 12:00:00 -0700

After the withdrawal of seven of the 29 founding members of the Libra Association, the governing council for Facebook’s planned global cryptocurrency, the project’s fate  looks increasingly uncertain.

PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, eBay, Stripe, Mercado Pago and Brooking Holdings have backed away from participation on the Libra Association; their hands were forced when  all members met Monday in Switzerland for formalize their commitment to the project.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more

Why France and Germany fear Facebook’s cryptocurrency – and plan to block it

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 03:00:00 -0700

Facebook’s plans to launch its own Libra cryptocurrency next year is getting resistance from France and Germany who have promised to block it and plan to create their own national cryptocurrencies.

Last week, the two nations said Libra could threaten the Euro’s value and unlawfully privatize money. Last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, announced a ban on the use of cryptocurrencies by any regulated financial entity because of risks associated with it.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more

Hedera Hashgraph launches mainnet, hopes to compete with global business networks

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 05:00:00 -0700

Hedera Hashgraph, an electronic public ledger developed for corporate use, launched its mainnet beta today, allowing developers to create an account and build decentralized applications (dApps) for it.

The distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a direct competitor to blockchain distributed ledgers such as Ethereum and Hyperledger, and claims it can outperform traditional financial and business networks.

“There is no direct equivalent to Hedera Hashgraph today,” said Martha Bennett, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Hedera is potentially competing with public networks and all the enterprise DLT frameworks (such as Hyperledger Fabric & Sawtooth, R3 Corda, and others) and their commercial providers, which include AWS, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more

Hadera Hashgraph launches mainnet, hopes to compete with global business networks

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 05:00:00 -0700

Hedera Hashgraph, an electronic public ledger developed for corporate use, launched its mainnet beta today, allowing developers to create an account and build decentralized applications (dApps) for it.

The distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a direct competitor to blockchain distributed ledgers such as Ethereum and Hyperledger, and claims it can outperform traditional financial and business networks.

“There is no direct equivalent to Hedera Hashgraph today,” said Martha Bennett, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Hadera is potentially competing with public networks and all the enterprise DLT frameworks (such as Hyperledger Fabric & Sawtooth, R3 Corda, and others) and their commercial providers, which include AWS, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more

The top 8 problems with blockchain

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2019 03:00:00 -0700

While blockchain holds tremendous potential for creating new financial, supply chain and digital identity systems, it’s often erroneously seen as a panacea for business problems.

The myriad of pilots and proofs of concept by large corporations and government agencies are showing real promise, but those projects don’t always lead to obvious business cases that justify doing something differently. Sometimes a tried and true technology like a relational database can perform the task much more efficiently than a distributed ledger based on peer-to-peer technology that will require complex governance and rules.

To read this article in full, please click here

(Insider Story)

Read more

With its Apple Card, Apple edges further into financial services

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2019 03:00:00 -0700

Apple’s Monday announcement of a credit card – the Apple Card – represented a natural progression of the company’s journey into financial services that began with the Apple Wallet app and its contactless digital payment service, Apple Pay.

apple card iphonexs entertainment 032519 carousel.jpg.medium 2x Apple

The Apple Card, as described by the company this week, will offer users some attractive features: up to 3% cash back on daily purchases, no late or international transaction fees, and a physical chipped card make of titanium (sans any credit card numbers – just your name and an Apple symbol).

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more

How blockchain is becoming the 5G of the payment industry

Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2019 03:00:00 -0700

As more blockchain-based payment networks and fiat-backed digital currencies – including one from the largest U.S. bank – emerge, experts and analysts are predicting a sea change for the financial services industry.

“I think you’re starting to see a growing consensus,” said Matt Savare, a partner who works in the technology group of New Jersey-based law firm of Lowenstein Sandler LLP. “I do quite a bit of FinTech and I can tell you my clients… the banks, are inherently conservative – at least the large ones. But once they see other banks adopt new technologies, you see it snowball. Other banks will often join on in pretty quick fashion.”

To read this article in full, please click here

Read more