Blockchain

[Wildreamz]

China's taxman is going after fake claims with Tencent blockchain invoices
http://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/art...blockchain
PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 May, 2018, 8:31am
UPDATED : Friday, 25 May, 2018, 12:41pm

Tencent’s latest initiative also marks the ramped up adoption of blockchain, the distributed ledger technology behind bitcoin, in China even as regulators continue the clampdown on cryptocurrency fundraising schemes in the country.

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Tencent and China Unicom launch eSIM card with blockchain-based authentication
https://technode.com/2018/05/24/tencent-...lockchain/
May 24, 2018 Masha Borak

Tencent and China Unicom, a state-owned telecommunications operator, have launched the TUSI SIM card which implements new identity authentication standards for the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. The Tencent TUSI (Tencent User Security Infrastructure) IoT joint laboratory has also issued an identity-based blockchain product which provides cross authentication service.

The product was launched at a joint conference in Wuxi on May 23 attended by Tencent Vice President Ding Ke and Chen Xiaotian, general manager of China Unicom, Tencent News reports.

The TUSI SIM card’s main task is to provide safety standards. IoT connects machines by transferring a multitude of information which is in danger of being intercepted and exploited by hackers. Data breaches have already become a massive problem across China. The card will also be used in smart city applications.

The new card belongs to the new generation of eSIM cards which is already being adopted by Apple for its Apple Watches. The new standard is becoming popular among consumer electronics manufacturers who want to connect more devices through IoT. China Unicom and Tencent will focus on implementing the new cards in consumer electronics, vehicles, shared items and other fields.

The TUSI blockchain-based authentication system is a technical solution that emerged as a result of the transformation from traditional smart cities to new smart cities, said Shen Zixi, Deputy General Manager of Tencent’s wireless security product department. While traditional smart cities emphasize infrastructure construction, new smart cities pay more attention to the interaction between people and cities, he added.

Tencent’s TUSI IoT lab was established in September 2017 with the Wuxi High-Tech Industrial Development Zone which aims to be China’s center for IoT and sensor technology. During the launch of the lab, Tencent also signed an agreement with Intel to develop blockchain technology for boosting security in IoT applications.

[Wildreamz]

China Preparing “National Standards” For Blockchain
Andrew Ancheta On May 10, 2018
https://cryptobriefing.com/china-nationa...lockchain/

China’s government is preparing a set of “national standards” for Blockchain technology in preparation for its wide-scale use, according to official media channels. Citing government officials, the China Daily reported that a set of national blockchain standards will be published by the end of 2019.

..

But, perhaps even more significant, there are signs that the People’s Republic is preparing to launch a national cryptocurrency. State reporters at the Global Blockchain Summit were given a behind-the-scenes peek at the Blockchain Technology Institute, where the Bank of China is preparing what may be the biggest ICO yet.

Officials stressed to state media that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not digital currencies—only those created by the central banks count.

[Wildreamz]

http://bitcoinist.com/alipays-jack-ma-co...emittance/

ALIPAY’S JACK MA CONFIRMS SUCCESSFUL 3-SECOND BLOCKCHAIN REMITTANCE
WILMA WOO | JUN 25, 2018 | 06:00

Jack Ma’s Ant Financial (Alipay) has revealed it has successfully trialed a new Blockchain remittance service which it plans to expand throughout the world.

NO LOVE FOR BITCOIN
For Ma, however, the impact of Blockchain goes far beyond his trial.

"Blockchain should not be a tech to get rich overnight…There are still 1.7 billion people in the world who have no bank accounts, but most of them have mobile phones."

He continued:

"The impact of blockchain on the future of humans may be far beyond our imagination."

[Wildreamz]

Guess who's winning the Blockchain patent race?

Source: http://www.iprdaily.cn/news_19746.html
2018年全球区块链专利企业排行榜（TOP100）
榜单 芭儿7天前

[Wildreamz]

Ex-Facebook, Ex-Snapchat employee, VC managing partner Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano:

Why is Blockchain a game changer? Everything and anything can be securitized: real estate, private companies, services etc. Exactly the same as before, but instead of paper (certificate of ownership), will be digital (recorded on a Blockchain). Increase free market exposure, mispriced assets will be priced more accurately (removal of middle man, cost of transaction; regulatory and geographical barrier). And more:

[Wildreamz]

https://101blockchains.com/enterprises-i...rettyPhoto

20 Enterprises Which Are Implementing Blockchain Technology
BY SWATI GOYAL ON SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

[Wildreamz]

My thoughts on Blockchain at the moment. 2016 was the year it caught my attention. 2017 was the year crypto blew up (missed it, wasn't interested in it). 2018 Crypto hit the trough of disillusionment, many speculators got burnt, many so called "shitcoins" got devalued drastically, funding for ICOs dried up, especially in the last few months.

However, Bitcoin price still remains strong (up more than 500% since Jan 2017).

Why is that? Crypto and Bitcoin specifically still has many believers in one of the richest and smartest place in the world - Silicon Valley. There are many startups, and entrepreneurs, public companies (eg. Jack Dorsey's Square Inc.) working very hard to build secondary "layers" and "DAPPs" (distributed apps) on top of the Bitcoin blockchain (such as aggregating hundreds and thousands of transactions, and use Bitcoin blockchain as the final layer of verification).

Where is this going? No idea, but Bitcoin now, appears to be the most promising and elegant solution for decentralized transaction, solely because there are so many rich, smart and prominent people backing it, and believing in it (this is basically what money is, faith in it's value). It still faces many (especially regulatory) challenges, and I still have no idea how to determine it's intrinsic value. But if I squint my eye hard enough, it starts to look like something "investable" (?).

[Sampling]

These are just my own POV on the Pros and Cons of Blockchain, not specifically on Bitcoin but it's uses as a whole. Also when I first looked at the blockchain tech, there are certain industries that had adopted parts of the blockchain concept/tech probably more than 20 years ago, e.g. the lottery and 4D companies.


Pros
-Ease of implementation, the Blockchain tech provides a good base for companies to implement a "fairly secure" platform for processing transactions (not limited to Bitcoin.
-Transaction logging and tracking - automatically built in the Blockchain tech, the detail/level of logging/tracking hard to implement on conventional systems.
-Ease of migration - Data and transactions easily migrated to newer tech (e.g. newer blockchain technology).
There are other benefits the Blockchain have, but I feel the above is perhaps the advantage of Blockchain vs other conventional systems/applications.

Cons
-Security - Decentralising also means decentralising one of the most important control to protect systems/applications, i.e. Access Controls. This means more hackers have a wider attack vector to gain unauthorised access to systems/applications using blockchain.
-As transactions can't be "deleted" off, if the Blockchain system is compromised, it could mean the "death" of the system depending on how bad the compromise is. A compromised from an integrity perspective affects the entire system. A compromised from a confidentiality perspective affects the entire system as well. Very different from the traditional systems whereby things can be "contained under containers" or segregated.
-Taking reference to the above point, Blockchain systems like any other systems built by developers have a certain margin of bugs or errors programmed in the code. Any bugs in the underlining programming language that was used to build the Blockchain system affects the entire transaction/ledger of the Blockchain system.
-The way Blockchain tech works, it makes it difficult to process transactions at an optimised rate. If a Blockchain grows too complex or too big before the infrastructure is ready to support it, it can lead to transaction speed issues.

[AQ.]

If I were a crazy rich dude with many billions to spare, i would have:

1. bot a ton of bitcoins very early on when they were worthless
2. Spend some $ and ramp up the value by buying them up aggressively causing a huge price spike in a short time
3. Spend some $ and hire a bunch of media to play up the hype, drawing the herd in.
4. Spend some $ and then build up a clearing exchange, launch an ETF, launch derivatives etc i.e. all sorts of financial products
5. Monetise the stuff bot in 1. by selling to the blokes in 3 (i.e. retail) and 4(i.e. useless money managers + etfs etc)
6. Earn fees thru stakes in exchange and investment managers, eventually selling them away.

Bubble collapses.

[Wildreamz]

These are just my own POV on the Pros and Cons of Blockchain, not specifically on Bitcoin but it's uses as a whole. Also when I first looked at the blockchain tech, there are certain industries that had adopted parts of the blockchain concept/tech probably more than 20 years ago, e.g. the lottery and 4D companies.


Pros
-Ease of implementation, the Blockchain tech provides a good base for companies to implement a "fairly secure" platform for processing transactions (not limited to Bitcoin.
-Transaction logging and tracking - automatically built in the Blockchain tech, the detail/level of logging/tracking hard to implement on conventional systems.
-Ease of migration - Data and transactions easily migrated to newer tech (e.g. newer blockchain technology).
There are other benefits the Blockchain have, but I feel the above is perhaps the advantage of Blockchain vs other conventional systems/applications.

Cons
-Security - Decentralising also means decentralising one of the most important control to protect systems/applications, i.e. Access Controls. This means more hackers have a wider attack vector to gain unauthorised access to systems/applications using blockchain.
-As transactions can't be "deleted" off, if the Blockchain system is compromised, it could mean the "death" of the system depending on how bad the compromise is. A compromised from an integrity perspective affects the entire system. A compromised from a confidentiality perspective affects the entire system as well. Very different from the traditional systems whereby things can be "contained under containers" or segregated.
-Taking reference to the above point, Blockchain systems like any other systems built by developers have a certain margin of bugs or errors programmed in the code. Any bugs in the underlining programming language that was used to build the Blockchain system affects the entire transaction/ledger of the Blockchain system.
-The way Blockchain tech works, it makes it difficult to process transactions at an optimised rate. If a Blockchain grows too complex or too big before the infrastructure is ready to support it, it can lead to transaction speed issues.

While enterprise blockchain applications will be a significant step forward (I see it akin to established enterprises in the early 2000s using the internet to make their back-end more streamlined and efficient), I think the biggest return would come from the small startups (today or the near future) that build brand new business models, that will change the world on the inside out.