Are cryptobanks the financial model of the future?
by
CyberMiles
on 12/12/2018, 17:18:31 UTC
2019 is less than a month away. For many in the crypto space, this year may as well be sooner done. But it hasn't been all that bad if we look at the technical part of the industry. Crypto banking is one of the winners with a growing momentum seen so far in this last quarter. Taking a few highlights as cases in point, we had Noomi Wallet launch. It is said it is set to "elevate crypto banking in Blockchain 3.0 era" by building a Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) solutions for the blockchain ecosystem. Europe's first complete crypto nanking solution is coming with a complete Banking as a Service (BaaS) solution on the EOS Blockchain. And as recently as Nov. 22, SEBA Crypto AG (founded by former UBS Bank managers) announced a partnership to build Tempest 'Level A' cold storage for cryptocurrencies, barely a month after raising mega-round funding to build a bank offering crypto services.
How can blockchain shake up the accounting industry?
by
CyberMiles
on 30/11/2018, 21:04:04 UTC
Accounting is one of the high-in-demand jobs in business. It is also one of the industries that is expected to change the most as the result of blockchain adoption. What can blockchain do for accounting?
When talking about the issues that the blockchain technology can address, experts seem to be unanimous that the new technology can dramatically reduce accounting costs as well as making the industry more transparent. Dr. Michael Yuan, a long-time technologist and the chief scientist at CyberMiles, mentions many transformative ways to use the blockchain technology in the finance industry: from managing customer identity and data privately and safely, to storing important financial records in a decentralized network, to supporting a large library of smart contracts.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) is a consensus model that seeks to supersede Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), with promises of increased efficiency and greater representative democracy amongst coin holders with regards to platform decision making.
As DPoS is an as-yet lesser adopted consensus mechanism, there's a wide range of different approaches in place and little in the way of standardised definitions. But one big opportunity is becoming increasingly clear: decentralizing e-commerce.
5miles marketplace is rolling out "tokenized rewards program" for users
by
CyberMiles
on 25/09/2018, 18:41:53 UTC
On track to become the largest blockchain-powered e-commerce platform, 5miles, a peer-to-peer marketplace with 15 million users, is aiming to reinvent the loyalty program concept with 5miles Rewards...
It’s official! CyberMiles is launching MainNet next month...
by
CyberMiles
on 14/09/2018, 16:46:48 UTC
The release of the CyberMiles blockchains MainNet is the most significant milestone in our quest to create a truly decentralized e-commerce ecosystem. By operating on our native blockchain, well be able to run an independent blockchain network, free from the limits of the Ethereum blockchain, while adding new functionalities to existing blockchain technology. Through research efforts, the CyberMiles blockchain provides an optimal environment for e-commerce related decentralized applications (DApps) and projects. The smarter smart contracts will empower a new e-commerce network with the native CyberMiles Token (CMT).
CyberMiles MainNet will be launched officially on Oct. 15, 2018. At the same time, ERC20 CMTs will migrate from the Ethereum blockchain to the CyberMiles blockchains MainNet and become native CMTs on a one-to-one basis...
The first crypto tokens that I can recall, going back to my days as a futurist in the early 2010s, is Bitcoin. What made Bitcoin special is that it was designed to be fungible. That is, each BTC is designed for the tokens to be interchangeable with ease to hold the same unit of value, if you will.
Now you dont have to be a futurist from way back to fully appreciate what makes these tokens special. On its own, Bitcoin created a revolution. Couple that with the world-domination of the Internet, and you have a bonafide dual revolution. Which brings me to the non-fungible token, a special type of cryptographic token that represents something unique (i.e. NFTs are not interchangeable).
Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro lopped off five zeroes from the bolivar and unveiled a new currency to try to put a muzzle on the countrys skyrocketing inflation.
But thats not all. This new sovereign bolivars backed by a government cryptocurrency called the petro. Which, if you ask the parliament, has been illegally used to mortgage Venezuelas oil reserves.
About that petro Maduro introduced it back in February as a way of raising cash as the economy tanked. He said each petro would be backed by a barrel of Venezuelas crude reserves (FYI, Venezuelas a major oil exporter, but production hit a multi-decade low back in June).
Maduro then claimed the petro initial coin offering (ICO) raised $735 million (though theres not much evidence to back him up). The opposition-led parliaments response? The petro sale was unconstitutional.
Fast forward to today, and many are skeptical at best Maduro has said the goal is to peg wages, pensions, and prices to the petro (which equals $60, or 3,600 new sovereign bolivars) and create a single floating exchange rate. But
ICOindex.com (a crypto site that rates ICOs) labeled the petro a scam. If that wasnt bad enough, fellow reviewer ICObench gave it a 1.6 rating out of 5 which makes Bananacoin (3.2 rating) look like the U.S. dollar.
Johns Hopkins applied econ professor/hyperinflation guru Steve Hanke: Ill believe it when I see it the problem with the petro is its a scam, it doesnt even trade, per CNBC.
Re: In Venezuela, Cryptocurrency Is an Oppressor and a Lifeline
by
CyberMiles
on 13/08/2018, 20:57:48 UTC
Sadly, they have nothing to lose at this point.
Post
Topic
BoardEconomics
Re: Americans own less stuff because of the Internet. Is that a worry?
by
CyberMiles
on 13/08/2018, 20:53:39 UTC
Good points. It's certainly better for the environment.
Post
Topic
BoardEconomics
Americans own less stuff because of the Internet. Is that a worry?
by
CyberMiles
on 13/08/2018, 17:45:52 UTC
Some social problems are blatantly obvious in daily life, while others are longer-term, more corrosive and perhaps mostly invisible. Lately I've been worrying about a problem of the latter kind: the erosion of personal ownership and what that will mean for our loyalties to traditional American concepts of capitalism and private property.
The main culprits for the change are software and the internet. For instance, Amazon's Kindle and other methods of online reading have revolutionised how Americans consume text. Fifteen years ago, people typically owned the books and magazines they were reading. Much less so now. If you look at the fine print, it turns out that you do not own the books on your Kindle. Amazon.com does.
In Venezuela, Cryptocurrency Is an Oppressor and a Lifeline
by
CyberMiles
on 12/08/2018, 03:43:00 UTC
A host of practical challenges hinder widespread use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Venezuela in lieu of paper currency. But over the past few years, many Venezuelans have embraced the decentralized, censorship-resistant technology as a means of transferring and storing money without being slapped with hefty international transaction fees. The distributed nature of blockchain makes it nearly impossible for governments to alter transaction data or control the network, as long as that network remains decentralized.
NYSE owner wants to bring bitcoin to 401(k). Are crypto credit cards next?
by
CyberMiles
on 06/08/2018, 15:24:35 UTC
Backed by Microsoft and Starbucks, Intercontinental Exchange is launching a startup called Bakkt to make the cryptocurrency safe for your retirement fund, and maybe for retail, too.
Bitcoin vs. Blockchain: The State of the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem
by
CyberMiles
on 02/08/2018, 19:03:57 UTC
News circulating around the cryptocurrency market and blockchain technology continues to make headlines daily. From the highs and lows of Bitcoin prices to innovative ways blockchain technology is being used to transform industries, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is seeing a clear divide between two decentralized worlds.
And while the cryptocurrency market continues to fluctuate, blockchain technology is clearly on the rise and will most likely drive digital transformation for a number of industries. This is already becoming clear as more companies and technologists are investing heavily in blockchain-based technologies.
Chief Scientist and Co-Founder of the CyberMiles Foundation Dr. Michael Yuan is the author of the upcoming book Building Blockchain Apps. From a technology perspective, Dr. Yuan believes blockchain technology has great potential. During an exclusive interview he said, "As a result of the current cryptocurrency bubble, I believe that blockchain technology will gain traction and any technical problems associated with it be resolved within 6-12 months. After that, the next major challenge is beyond software engineering, but rather the design and implementation of new economic systems. Experimentation with the economic design is something that caused major consequences in human society before (think the communism experiment). But with blockchain ecosystems, we can now all become economic system designers and let the best design win."
Smart Contracts on Steroids: Solving the Problems Facing Ethereum’s Solidity
by
CyberMiles
on 02/08/2018, 03:33:16 UTC
The Ethereum network currently consists of more than 1,700 decentralized applications (DApps), a number that is expected to grow in the coming years. And while all of these DApps rely on smart contracts to accomplish a number of important tasks, it has become clear that smart contracts are prone to errors, bugs and other catastrophic mistakes to the tune of more than a billion dollars stolen in smart contract hacks to-date.
In order to write a smart contract, programmers must learn an entirely new programming language called Solidity. While smart contracts facilitate complex operations in ethereum, making simple mistakes while writing smart contracts in Solidity can cause dire consequences, including security breaches and / or very high transactional costs.
Music business is cashing in on cryptocurrency, but is it 'the next revolution'?
by
CyberMiles
on 16/07/2018, 16:24:19 UTC
Cryptocurrency can buy you a dance at a Las Vegas gentlemen's club or tickets to see the Dallas Mavericks in their 2018-2019 season. But if you're more into music than cabarets and sports, a record label in Texas recently started accepting crypto for music and band merchandise.
This is just one in a larger movement toward decentralization driven by blockchain and cryptoeconomics. One of cryptocurrency's selling points is that it's not "centralized" or stored in one database, but rather many databases. There are now efforts to apply that same thinking to music publishing and licensing, music curation and even journalism.
How crypto could work in the music world
Any discussion about crypto revolves around two separate but complimentary concepts: the token, coin or currency; and blockchain, the technology that supports it. Both are enticing to musicians because they remove the need for third-party organizations such as labels, and are said to give artists greater control of their intellectual property.
Music business is cashing in on cryptocurrency, but is it 'the next revolution'?
by
CyberMiles
on 16/07/2018, 16:19:45 UTC
Cryptocurrency can buy you a dance at a Las Vegas gentlemen's club or tickets to see the Dallas Mavericks in their 2018-2019 season. But if you're more into music than cabarets and sports, a record label in Texas recently started accepting crypto for music and band merchandise.
This is just one in a larger movement toward decentralization driven by blockchain and cryptoeconomics. One of cryptocurrency's selling points is that it's not "centralized" or stored in one database, but rather many databases. There are now efforts to apply that same thinking to music publishing and licensing, music curation and even journalism.
How crypto could work in the music world
Any discussion about crypto revolves around two separate but complimentary concepts: the token, coin or currency; and blockchain, the technology that supports it. Both are enticing to musicians because they remove the need for third-party organizations such as labels, and are said to give artists greater control of their intellectual property.
Where Plasma meets electricity: Building application-specific side chains
One of the most ambitious cryptoeconomic projects is Eloncity. It aims to decentralize the electrical grid infrastructure and energy monopolies by replacing them with a hierarchy of blockchain-enabled microgrids. Those microgrids allow communities to store, trade, and consume locally-generated renewable energy. The system aims to achieve supply and demand balance within and across communities, reducing the need for very expensive peak generation power and the power transmission fees that plague the network today.
However, households need to trade frequently in order to establish an efficient energy market. As the trading volume grows geometrically with the number of households in the network, the frequency of trading, which we estimate to be millions of transactions per second in a typical country, could exceed the capacity of any blockchain.
E-commerce platforms benefitting from putting securitized assets on blockchain?
by
CyberMiles
on 04/07/2018, 06:55:17 UTC
Securitization issuance, including agency and non-agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and asset-backed securities (ABS), totaled $2.2 trillion in 2016 a 9.3% increase from 2015.
As this market continues to grow, decentralized trading platforms are demonstrating how blockchain technology can be applied to allow issuers to sell securities themselves, without having to go through any middlemen. As a result, a number of benefits become evident, such as more revenue going directly to e-commerce providers, along with assets that are fully secure and transparent over the blockchain.
"When looking at the fixed-income market, the question comes to mind: Why do I need a human broker to issue and sell securities? We want to use blockchain technology to make this task fully automated," said Dr. Michael Yuan, Chief Scientist at CyberMiles.