How Effective Can Blockchain Token Credits be in the Battle against Climate Change?

Friends, we all know that the potential applications of Blockchain go far beyond the realm of cryptocurrencies. Despite the US’ departure from the Paris Accord can Blockchain be used to successfully manage tokenized credits for carbon emissions between the private sector and government regulatory bodies worldwide? Commercial entities – especially in the manufacturing sector – likely will manage excess carbon emissions throughout their supply chains to create carbon neutrality while firms such as privately held Zerofootprint Software and CarbonX Personal Carbon Trading can enable and individuals to manage their carbon emissions. Undoubtedly other vendors and exchanges will rapidly enter this niche. Send us your predictions today! Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)

Which Third Generation Blockchain Platform(s) Will Succeed in 2018?

Which Third Generation Blockchain Platform(s) Will Succeed in 2018? Friends, like any new technology such as smartphones, A.I., machine learning, Blockchain will surely undergo multiple generations before a sustainable market leader or leaders are established.  Blockchain expansion and adoption will reach escape velocity once four critical barriers are addressed: Security, Governance, Scalability and Interoperability. Among the contending third gen platforms vying for the role of market leadership include ICON, Cosmos, Polkadot and Aion. A central element to consider is that unlike their forerunners these emerging platforms are “purpose-built” from the ground up and allow dissimilar systems to communicate. Share your picks with us today! Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)

Will Next Generation Cryptocurrencies Facilitate Trans-Border Trade and Monetary Transactions?

Friends, cryptocurrencies have the potential to increase transaction speed and reduce the cost of trans-border trade and financial transactions. Ripple purports to conduct 1,500 transactions per second, than six times faster than PayPal. What's more, Ripple's transactions comes in at just a fraction of a cent, which could prove significantly more attractive than PayPal, depending on the sender and receiver of funds. Ripple's transactions comes in at just a fraction of a cent, which could prove significantly more attractive than PayPal, depending on the sender and receiver of funds. Transaction speeds vary widely among cryptocurrencies. While currently limited to cross-border payments involving British pounds and Fijian dollars, the early-stage platform is nonetheless designed to scale to handle seven fiat currencies in the South Pacific - including the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar and the Tonga pa'anga. Perhaps the platform's most distinguishing characteristic, however, is that the project showcases how private and public Blockchain technologies are increasingly being used in tandem. While IBM's Blockchain solutions are designed to complete much of the workflow around transaction clearing, the actual settlement will be conducted using Stellar's Blockchain. What is your assessment? Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)

Reuters Prepares to Release a new Bitcoin Sentiment Tracker

Friends, it is quite easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast volume of news, ICOs, vendor announcements, etc. concerning the Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain arena. To help us separate real news from the chatter Reuters and its partner MarketPsych Data will scan over 400 portals to select the most relevant market-moving developments and convert them into a tradeable index as part of a new version of its MarketPsych Indices service. Bottom line: Less is more and quality is far more important than quantity of information for traders, investors, VCs, bankers and researchers alike. The goal here is on intelligent “tradeable” information. Send us your thoughts. Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)

Will Gold-Backed Cryptocurrencies Outperform Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin?

Friends, a token or coin is issued that represents a value of gold (for example 1 gram of gold equals 1 coin). The gram of gold is stored by a trusted custodian (preferably third party), and can be traded with other coin holders. Some countries starting with Kyrgyzstan in central Asia plan to issue their own national cryptocurrencies backed by gold. If the cryptocurrency becomes popular then the price of the coin can potentially increase in value, greater than the value of gold. Much more mainstream is the UK’s Royal Mint, the government institution responsible for producing all the physical money the country has for circulation, which has announced the launch of its own gold-backed cryptocurrency. It is a Blockchain-based coin called Royal Mint Gold (RMG), is a digital representation of gold. Thus, the key question for investors and researchers alike is simply this: Will gold-backed currencies outperform other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.? Send us your comments. Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)

At the Intersection of Blockchain and Big Data

Friends, most of us know that Blockchain is an enabling technology that is poised to transform industries and their business processes. Even more exciting is the potential when Blockchain is integrated into other emerging technologies such as Machine Learning, AI and Big Data. Such nexuses are boni fide strategic multipliers. Big Data analyses are performed by building models, based on the data we can collect, and then running simulations, modifying the value of data points each time and monitoring how it impacts our results. Blockchains greatly improve transparency in data analytics. Unlike previous algorithms, Blockchain design rejects any input that it cannot verify and is deemed suspect. Analysts in industries like Retail only deal with data that is completely transparent. The customer behavior patterns that Blockchain systems identify are likely to be much more accurate than it is today. That is the concept. But in reality will the nexus of Blockchain and Big Data fulfill this vision? Send us your comments. Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)

Assessing the Impact of Blockchain on Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

Friends, Blockchain provides users with a digital public record of Bitcoin transactions (the digital currency through which these transactions are conducted) that have been executed by a particular entity. It is inherently difficult for hackers to manipulate. Copies of the Blockchain are distributed across potentially thousands of participants in the database. The results is that hackers would have to individually access and manipulate every single copy of the distributed Blockchain. Leveraging a Blockchain platform for AML nationwide or across a geographical region will give regulators, auditors and other stakeholders an effective and powerful set of tools to monitor complex transactions and immutably record the audit trail of suspicious transactions across the system. We believe that Blockchain applied to AML has great potential benefit to the banking and securities institutions such as the US SEC and FINRA. And in turn, may also help impede nefarious transactions of state-sponsored terrorism and mitigate strategies intended to subvert economic sanctions placed on Russia, Iran and North Korea. Send us your views. Lawrence, Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com)