Its been a big year for blockchain, highlighted by Eth 2.0, the rise, fall and resurrection of decentralized finance (DeFi) andthe real steps towards adoption by institutions like PayPal. But the steady rise of the humble non-fungible token (NFT) has been the real hidden hero.

NFTs are little bits of code that extend the fundamental innovation of hard-capped supply, self-custody and censorship-resistance to all digital assets, not just to money. This is vital. NFTs enable any unique asset or item to be tracked and traded with all the same freedoms as its fungible token counterpart. While this asset class is still nascent, the potential is utterly astounding.

This post is part of CoinDesk's2020 Year in Review a collection of op-eds, essays and interviews about the year in crypto and beyond.Robbie Ferguson is the co-founder of Immutable, makers of "Gods Unchained," a digital trading card game.

Take the $100 billion video game items industry. In the last three years alone, weve seen nine figures in venture capital invested in blockchain companies competing for its disruption.Other NFT verticals are quickly emerging. In 2020, there was an explosion of digital art and tokenized custody startups: everything from sneakers to Czanne to Saint Laurent are now being wrapped up, sold and traded as unique and individual NFTs.

The power of NFT ownership isnt limited to gaming or art. Any illiquid or unique asset globally could benefit from this technological standard. Financial assets? Check. Commodities like diamonds? Check. The 3% timeshare of a boat you bought, have regretted ever since and cant find a buyer for? You bet. The total addressable market is, quite literally, in the trillions.

NFTs are a rapidly emerging asset class with an Achilles heel: scalability. Like most other cryptographic tools, NFTs greatest weakness comes from the codes deployment in the real world. Limited transaction throughput, high transaction fees and slow transaction time are all muting this immutable technologys revolution.

Different blockchains are doggedly fighting to solve this issue and establish themselves as the home of unique digital assets. But the wrong choice will hand the reins of this future to a centralized and insecure solution, destroying the possibility of a truly community owned future.

The battle over ownership

Everyone wants to own the network and users on which NFTs live and trade. Its a big pie, and there are lots of people who want a slice. But the pie doesnt scale.

Trading an NFT is insanely more expensive than an ordinary fungible token. If you trade a million ERC-20s, it costs the same as trading one, while a million NFT trades will cost you a million times more.These scarce digital assets are also inherently illiquid, because every NFT is an individual order-book. If there are 15 million gods unchained cards out there, theres 15 million individual markets, each with their own bids and asks.

Everything from sneakers to Czanne to Saint Laurent are now being wrapped up, sold and traded as unique and individual NFTs.

Better tech will provide better scalability and liquidity without requiring trade-offs in decentralization or security. A swathe of layer 1 and layer 2 solutions are all scrambling to upgrade their tech to lay claim as the default home of NFTs.

So, whos in the running?

VC-backed layer 1s

Over the past year weve seen many ETH-killers come to the party, and many of them have impressive-sounding tech and hundreds of millions in savvy VC funding. New blockchains like Flow and TRON have publicly claimed they want to be the home of all NFTs or gaming and have built up handsome IP partnerships to do so.

Their weaponry? In the end, the blockchain trilemma still applies: the only fundamental scaling boosts come from a reduction in security, decentralization or both. While this is always an individual decision, its imperative users know what theyre trading off.

The emperors new sidechains

Sidechains are trying to operate on existing L1s (predominantly Ethereum) in order to provide a low-security scalability option to NFTs. Namely Matic, Ronin, xDai. However, these scaling solutions are fundamentally achieving this throughput by removing the security and decentralization properties that are necessary to support highly valuable assets. Whats the point?

Rollup: Immutable X and Optimism

It wouldnt be an op-ed without an opinion, and thankfully, mine is shared by someone much smarter than me.

In the short term, I just dont see rollups as being one choice among many things; I see them as being the only choice.

Pens over swords

Todays wars arent fought with force, theyre fought with information. Token holders and expensive PR campaigns evangelize their chosen champions tech with a religious and one-eyed zeal. Anonymous personalities on Twitter become overnight thought leaders (and sometimes stick around long enough to see their predictions validated).

But this marketing comes at a cost: Users have to know what deals theyre giving away when they use a piece of technology. We are at dire risk of letting the future of digital asset ownership, NFTs, be run by a centralized operator, a VC-owned blockchain or fundamentally insecure tech.

If were serious about getting major league developers and financial institutions to consider NFTs, its not enough to just make a high frequency marketplace. The future home for NFTs needs to be secure and censorship-resistant at its core, like Ethereum is today, and be able to securely support a billion dollar item economy.

Over the past six months, so-called Eth killers have announced their intention to draw liquidity to other chains for NFTs. Right now, crypto-developers, gamers and artists are actively being marketed to leave Ethereum. But the moment is even more critical than that. Whoever wins the NFT blockchain wars will become the default network of all future gaming, entertainment and collectible applications.

The blockchain NFT wars are here.

See the original post:

Robbie Ferguson: The Blockchain NFT Wars Are Here - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The year 2020 has almost come to an end. It has been a historically tough year for many. A number of events happened that were not included nor expected in my and many others - 2020 blockchain trends. Especially the COVID-19 pandemic that not only intensified trends that were already underway, but also generated new trends.

It is a tradition to focus my last blog on what to expect for the next year. We will look at the top trends we may expect for the blockchain and cryptocurrency landscape to watch out for 2021 and beyond? So, how will the landscape be look like for blockchain technology in the years to come?

1 Global blockchain market size will exponentially grow

What was not forecasted is that blockchain technology exploded in popularity this year. Businesses from a multitude of industries showed a growing interest to adopt this technology for enhancing their business processes. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation drive in many areas, especially via the use of blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

As a result the global blockchain market size is expected to expand from USD 3.0 billion in 2020 to USD 39.7 billion by 2025, at an effective Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 67.3% during 20202025.

Expectations for 2021 are positive It is estimated that next year, at least 25 percent of theForbes Global 2000will use blockchain as a foundation for digital trust at scale.

2. Covid-19 will further accelerate blockchain transition

We will see a reorientation of the various blockchain projects. Experts predict that 90% of blockchain projects will require replacement within a year.

That is because most are ignoring key features such as tokenization, smart contracts, and decentralised consensus. Next to that, the pandemic has caused more realistic and pragmatic approaches to blockchain initiatives specifically focused on the day-to-day business to continue their growth path. Blockchain projects with clear benefits are expected to do that next year at an even faster pace. There has also been an uptick in the number of companies interested in participating in networks that specifically help to address some of the supply chain issues that the pandemic has put forward.

3. Long-term strategic projects will be put on hold

Volatility and uncertainty sparked by COVID-19 has led many corporates to pull back from some of their more long-term DLT-related projects for the time being. These long-term strategic projects, in particular those requiring changes to market structure or regulatory changes, are mostly working to extended timetables now. Budgets for purely experimental and R&D projects run in isolation from the business- are becoming harder to obtain and have been cut this year. And this will cause an even larger number of these projects will be put on hold.

4. Corporates need to accelerate their digital transformation

Digital transformation is no longer a choice for businesses - it is essential to survival.Due to the increased strain that the COVID-19 pandemic put on day-to-day business, there is a dire need at corporates to accelerate their digital transformation process to emerge stronger than before. Blockchaintechnology is very likely to make the most transformative and dramatic changes in the way businesses function, during the coming years. Many industries are therefore intensively looking at blockchain as a helpful tool to become all the more digital.

5. Globally, 30% of projects will make it into production.

It is forecasted that a growing number of blockchain-based projects will switch to the production stage. This number doesnt just reflect the more realistic approach to projects and the increasing maturity of the technology but also the pandemic-induced acceleration and initiation of projects that may bring measurable benefit within a short timescale. According to Gartner more than 40% of the surveyed corporates has at least one blockchain pilot running. They predict that 30% of global projects will make it into production, partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of networks that transition from pilot to production will thereby run on private enterprise blockchain platforms.

6. Private (permissioned) blockchains will dominate

Another trend we will observe is that private blockchains will become the main contributor to the blockchain market growth and are assumed to retain the largest market size in 2021. Enterprise blockchain solutions are developed customized according to a corporates business needs. Private blockchain provide more opportunities to corporates in terms of utilizing the blockchain technology for business-to-business use cases. They deliver higher efficiency, privacy, reliability, and transparency, while security is provided to a private blockchain using private keys that are known only to authorized persons in the organization.

7. China will make the fastest progress

From a regional perspective China is leading the global blockchain game and will continue this role in 2021. Blockchain is taking China to the level, which is well beyond the present reach of other global market players. China's new infrastructure" national initiative, its state-backed Blockchain Based Service Network, is aimed to make blockchain an integral part of the country's digital infrastructure. China's further ambition is to provide a global public infrastructure via this Network. Beyond that, while other countries or regions like Europe are thinking to launch their own Digital currency, China is almost ready to issue their Crypto yuan.

8. The banking and financial sector further dominates the market

Amongst all the industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial sector is one area that has been hit particularly hard. Falling profits and tightening margins have forced banks to adapt and increasingly meet their customers need in a growing digital world. The adoption of fintech and blockchain technology, enables them to streamline their operations and modernize their operations. This may lead to a firm growth in contactless transactions and redesigned financial services. The banking and financial sector is expected to show exponential growth in blockchain adoption in the coming years. As a result this sector is going to hold the largest market size in the global blockchain market during the coming years.

9. Growing DLT-offerings by non-traditional financial institutions

Another trend we will see during 2021, and also triggered by COVID-19, is the rise in the number of non-traditional financial institutions. They will be triggered by a growing number of corporates but also consumers that are going more into online blockchain-based mode of transactions and financial services. These groups nowadays have more non-bank options delivered by institutions ranging from non-bank lenders, to crypto-currency based banks to fully decentralised financial (DEFI) services alternatives.

10. Fast upcoming trends: DEFI ..

Next to a firm acceleration that is expected in the acceptance of tokenisation i.e. the digital storage of assets on blockchain, another interesting upcoming trend in 2021 and further on will be DEFI or decentralised financial services. If we look at DEFI it shows how blockchain could be used for financial use cases which up till now has been the missing point for enterprise blockchain offerings. DEFI illustrates successful process of smart contracts for financial services. This alternative form of financing perfectly fits into the fintechisation of the economy.

This year we already have seen a firm rose of DEFI services. The total value of fulltime decentralised financial services (based on cryptocurrencies) witnessed an impressive growth and even surpassed USD 10 billion. It is seen to be further speeding up in 2021 and beyond.

11. and ZKP

Another important trend we may see in 2021 is the arrival of Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP). ZKPs are urgently needed to meet challenges with preserving confidentiality that are currently holding blockchain projects back. Blockchain-based ZKPs allow companies with different record-keeping systems to be verifiably in sync on a record-by-record basis without sharing sensitive information. Much progress has been made recently around ZKPs. There are increasingly coming all sorts of solutions on the market to deploy ZKPs in a broad way. For instance to put mortgage requests on blockchain and, via ZKPs as a sort of notary, automatically grant or reject such a request. Big challenge however remains the complexity of the developments. ZKPs are much more complex to develop than coding a smart contract without privacy, but for security reasons corporates are expected to shift from developing DApps to developing ZApps.

12. Cryptocurrencies may reach new heights

2020 has proven to be a good year for all crypto markets, and expectations are for 2021 to be even a better year for Bitcoin and other cryptos. These cryptocurrencies have taken center stage as investors search for new safe haven assets, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. With so much uncertainty in the market, and being largely unaffected by external factors like government policy thanks to its decentralized nature, Bitcoin has proven itself to be a valuable form of digital gold, qualifying itself as one of the strongest players in the digital currency world. As we enter 2021 and adopt to a new normal, social distancing and cashless transactions may further set the stage for cryptocurrencies. However, with the constant fluctuations in the crypto space, anything could be expected.

13. Crypto fraud is rising

While 2020 being great year for investments incryptocurrencies, the downside is a firm rise in crypto frauds. Global crypto exchanges, have suffered high-profile hacks, whereas hacks on decentralized finance (DeFi) companies accounted for more than 20% of the total theft volume in 2020. Expectations are that this will continue during 2021. We may see various types of cyber fraud, including fake crypto investment platforms, fake crypto wallet scams, new forms of malware targeting lesser-known cryptocurrencies and crypto-jacking.

14. The number of CBDC projects will accelerate

There is a proliferation of central banks worldwide that are exploring the possible launch of their own central bank digital currency (CBDC). According to a recent BIS report 80% of central banks worldwide are researching the pros and cons of such a currency. This process will further intensify in 2021, driven by the diminishing use of cash, the digitalisation of the economy, the upcoming of private digital currencies like Libra etc. The Chinese government is well in advance, recently indicating to accelerate their process triggered by COVID-19. They have already executed dozens of experiments amongst citizens and corporates and are even ready for a worldwide roll-out. The ECB will take a clear decision on their Digital euro project mid-2021.

15. Governments Will Tighten Regulations Related to FinTech

A final trend we will see in 2021 and beyond is that regulators will intensify their search for stricter and tighter regulation. Long time being absent, governments around the world are sure to implement a myriad of fintech regulations over the next few years. The growing digitalisation of the economy triggered by the COVID-pandemic is an issue that is now narrowly monitored by regulators worldwide. Digital banking, cryptocurrency, and blockchain will likely be the greatest topics of concern.

As an increasing number of finance transactions occur outside of traditional institutions and mechanisms, issues like DEFI cannot be ignored anymore by regulators. Meanwhile, European Union legislators are pursuing an EU-wide regulatory system for crypto assets markets, including the proliferation of token investments as a sophisticated investing vehicle.

Concluding my blog and wishing all of you a merry Christmas and a good and healthy 2021:

If weve learnt anything from 2020, its the fact that we should always expect the unexpected.

See the rest here:

Blockchain trends in 2021: Expect the unexpected - Finextra

What happened

Shares of CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) shot higher on Tuesday on news that it had acquired more equipment to mine bitcoin. The company is a technology company in the energy sector, but it expanded its business into bitcoin when it acquired a bitcoin mining operation called ATL Data Centers earlier in December. More equipment allows more bitcoin to be mined, which is why CleanSpark stock was up 18% today.

Bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) also announced it's increasing its operations. It was able to buy 15,000 Antminers from Bitmain for $35 million using cash on hand. The move increases the company's capacity by 65%, so the stock's 33% jump today was somewhat understandable.

Finally, fellow bitcoin miner Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ:MARA) might have moved just based on these two other stocks. It upgraded mining operations earlier in the month, but there was nothing newsworthy to explain its 22% spike today.

Image source: Getty Images.

For those who don't know how bitcoin works, here's a simplistic overview. The network is designed to facilitate the movement of tokens, with a ledger recording who owns which bitcoin at all times. Known as blockchain technology, computers voluntarily join the bitcoin network to process transactions, recording them on the blockchain. This means the bitcoin network is decentralized: Computers can be anywhere, and they aren't all owned by any one individual or company.

Computers race to record transactions first, because the winner is issued a brand-new bitcoin as compensation. Unlocking new bitcoin is known as mining. It's an expensive process. Companies invest in equipment powerful enough to outdo the rest, facilities to house the equipment, and energy to run and cool equipment.

Once it's deployed its new mining equipment, CleanSpark says its mining capacity will be 300 peta-hashes per second (PH/s). For its part, Riot Blockchain will have 3.8 exa-hashes per second (EH/s). Marathon will have 3.56 EH/s. For perspective, 1 exa-hash is 1,000 peta-hashes. Without diving too far in the weeds, suffice it to say that Riot Blockchain and Marathon have more than 10 times the capacity of CleanSpark. But this makes sense because CleanSpark's main business is something else.

Bitcoin believers obviously like to see companies investing in bitcoin mining equipment. After all, many think bitcoin is poised to surge in 2021, which would lead to increased mining revenue for these companies. Just how high could bitcoin go? No one knows for sure. Indeed, it could plummet for all we know. But many excitedly project the future value of bitcoin using something called a stock-to-flow model. Championed by a Twitter user going by PlanB, the model projects bitcoin could be worth more than $200,000 by 2024.

I'm not suggesting the stock-to-flow model for bitcoin is an infallible framework. I'm merely pointing out how bullish some are about the future price of bitcoin. This bullish sentiment raises their outlook for many cryptocurrency stocks, including bitcoin miners. In summary, investors believe bitcoin can keep soaring, and the increased capacity will lead to windfall profits for miners. That's why these three stocks are up today.

Image source: Getty Images.

Yesterday when bitcoin mining stocks soared, I pointed out that all bitcoin miners have unique cost structures and therefore should be considered on a case-by-case basis. This is exemplified by CleanSpark's entry into the bitcoin mining space. The company's business is primarily software for microgrids: small, decentralized, self-sufficient power systems. Basically, CleanSpark is in the energy optimization business, and that could be useful for bitcoin mining.

CleanSpark believes it can reduce its power cost for mining bitcoin below $0.0285 per kilowatt hour (kw/h). That sounds low. But for perspective, that's the cost that Marathon has already achieved at its primary facility. While one would expect CleanSpark to have a competitive advantage, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Reducing energy consumption and cost are among the few things bitcoin miners like CleanSpark, Riot Blockchain, and Marathon can control. But the most important factor is the price of bitcoin, which is entirely outside of their control. For that reason, bitcoin-mining investors will likely keep their eyes fixated on bitcoin and not the fundamentals to these businesses.

See the article here:

Why Stocks of Bitcoin Miners CleanSpark, Marathon, and Riot Blockchain Were Up Again Today - Motley Fool

NEW YORK, Dec. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire CryptoCurrencyWire, one of 50+ brands part of the InvestorBrandNetwork, is proud to announce its collaboration with Bitcoin Events as the official newswire of Africas premier blockchain and cryptocurrency event, Blockchain Africa Conference 2021. The seventh conference in the acclaimed series, Blockchain Africa Conference 2021 is scheduled for March 18-19, 2021, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The 2021 event comes as collective sentiment about blockchain technology continues to rise, along with meaningful implementations of the technology in both the public and private sectors. Blockchain Africa Conference 2021 will take a deep dive into the factors pushing blockchain from hype to mainstream adoption.

We are pleased to work with Bitcoin Events and heighten the visibility of their blockchain conference in Africa as we enter into next year, said Jonathan Keim, Director of Communications for CryptoCurrencyWire. Weve seen a significant uptick in interest surrounding both blockchain and cryptocurrency in recent months, so this event exploring the technologys move from hype to mainstream adoption couldnt come at a better time. Our team looks forward to putting our syndication partnerships to work for this class-leading conference.

Bitcoin Events, organizers of Blockchain Africa Conference 2021, has been Africas leading blockchain and cryptocurrency event coordinator since 2015. Through six previous blockchain-focused gatherings, Bitcoin Events has attracted a combined audience of roughly 2,000 delegates and 170 speakers representing 40 countries around the globe.

To find out more and register, visit the events official website at http://www.BlockchainAfrica.co

CryptoCurrencyWire and their affiliates through the InvestorBrandNetwork provide a unique opportunity through which to communicate with the blockchain and financial community, said Sonya Kuhnel, Founder of Bitcoin Events. With their expansive syndication network of more than 5,000 media outlets and sustained coverage through a strong social media presence, were confident that CryptoCurrencyWire will play a key role in helping us reach a wider audience and provide invaluable exposure to our sponsors, presenters and exhibitors.

Blockchain technology is rapidly maturing as companies look to leverage its power to develop and implement robust, enterprise-ready solutions. Blockchain Africa Conference 2021 will explore this ongoing evolution, providing an opportunity for thought-leaders and pioneers in the industry to learn, network and collaborate.

The annual Blockchain Africa Conferences have successfully attracted international experts from all corners of the blockchain arena. Blockchain has massive potential to address many of the existing challenges with transactions and doing business in Africa, particularly as the technology continues to mature.

About Blockchain Africa Conference 2021

Since 2015, Bitcoin Events annual Blockchain Africa Conferences have been bringing together some of the top thought leaders from across the globe. Over 2,000 delegates and 170 speakers representing more than 40 countries have attended the previous six conferences, hailing from both the public and private sectors.

Blockchain Africa Conference 2021 will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 18-19, 2021. Over 500 attendees are expected, as well as a roster of 35 high-profile speakers. For more information, visit the events website at http://www.BlockchainAfrica.co.

For interview requests or additional information, please contact: info@blockchainafrica.co

About CryptoCurrencyWire (CCW)CryptoCurrencyWire is a financial news and content distribution company that provides (1) access to a network of wire services viaInvestorWireto reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible, (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets (3), enhanced press release services to ensure maximum impact, (4) social media distribution via the InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN) to nearly 2 million followers, (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions, and (6) a total news coverage solution withCCW Prime. As a multifaceted organization with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CCW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. By cutting through the overload of information in todays market, CCW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness.

CryptoCurrencyNewsWire is where news, content and information converge via crypto.

For more information, please visithttps://www.CryptoCurrencyWire.com.

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CryptoCurrencyWire website applicable to all content provided by CCW, wherever published or re-published:https://www.cryptocurrencywire.com/disclaimer/

Corporate CommunicationsContact:CryptoCurrencyWire (CCW)New York, New Yorkwww.CryptoCurrencyWire.com212.418.1217 OfficeEditor@CryptoCurrencyWire.com

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CryptoCurrencyWire Collaborates with Blockchain Africa Conference 2021 as Official NewsWire, Africa's Leading Blockchain Event - GlobeNewswire

GUY J sells the first Royalty right income NFT for a song on new music streaming platform ROCKI for $24,800

The Israeli born, Malta-based progressive house music genius, Lost & Foundlabel boss, and ROCKI artist, Guy J, has just released a new exclusive track on ROCKI, COTTON EYES. This new exclusive track sold an ERC721 Royalty income right Music NFT for 50% of future Royalty rights on ROCKI, auctioned off on the decentralized auction protocol Bounce.financefor a record amount of 40 Ethereum ($24,880 USD at the time of writing).

"I've always been interested in new music technologies and services that provide artists with new revenue streams and heighten fan engagement. I'm very excited that my fans around the world can be a part of and trade ROCKI's Music NFTs," Guy J. says.

Bjorn Niclas, ROCKI CEO & Co-founder is equally excited. ""This, the first successful transaction of one of our music NFT's on ROCKI, opens up a new, much-needed revenue stream for artists while simultaneously creating a wealth of new fan engagements and value. We believe that the ability to issue Music NFT's for exclusive listening privileges or the Music NFT's for Royalty income rights of a track on ROCKI is the next step forward."

It's not just for artists with Guy J's reach, he continues. "Regardless of the initial size of their audience, artists can capitalize on their existing fan base with the introduction of Music NFT's and with our unique hybrid user-centric payment model for online streams, even in uncertain times like these."

ROCKI, the world's first hybrid user-centric music streaming platform, came out of stealth mode last month. Its unique hybrid subscription model allows artists to earn streaming revenue in both Fiat and Cryptocurrency. The user-centric payment model, which has often been referred to as the fairest payment model for online streaming, has garnered widespread media attention with French streaming giant Deezerleading the way.

Because streaming platforms like Spotify typically distribute 90% of the royalties to substantially less than two percent of the artists, virtually every independent artist receives only pocket change for their work. ROCKI is thus poised to become the preferred streaming service for all genres of independent artists.

"This is the real story behind the creation of ROCKI," says Niclas. By the end of the private Beta period, the service has already attracted several thousand independent artists and more than 30,000 tracks. The ROCKI platform will soon launch the public Beta access, making it and the sought after music NFT feature open to all independent artists and their fans.

As Forbes reports, the independent music industry is the fastest-growing segment in the business, up 35% from 2017. Yet, as Citigroup reports, only 12% of that money ends up in the artists' pockets. ROCKI is about to upend that. To see how, visit ROCKI.app today.

Web: http://www.ROCKI.app

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rockiapp/

SOURCE ROCKI

https://rocki.app

Continued here:

ROCKI, the new music streaming platform on the blockchain just launched their first Royalty income right music NFT (Nonfungible token) for a song,...

WISeKey upgrades its WISeCoin blockchain technology with AI capabilities and integrates physical and digital world in terms of value

AI takes the role of adaptive decision engine, offers meaningful insights to better understand objects and processes, and makes autonomous decisions based upon machine learning scripts

ZUG, Switzerland December 17, 2020 WISeKey International Holding (WISeKey, SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading cybersecurity IoT company, today announced that its WISeCoin blockchain technology has been upgraded with AI capabilities. AI allows the integration of physical world (objects, places and people) with digital world (software and analytics), creates meaningful insights and makes autonomous decisions based upon machine learning scripts.

WISeCoin AG is a Special Purpose vehicle created by WISeKey in Zug to build the infrastructure for secure intra-object interactions and transactions using AI and blockchain. WISeKey applied and received regulatory clearance from Swiss financial market regulator, FINMA to issue a Security Token Offering (STO) in 2018. The launch of this project is now scheduled for 2021 coinciding with the launch of Swiss Digital Exchange (SDX) in Switzerland by SIX Group (https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-digital-stock-exchange-branches-out-into-singapore/46210156).

Switzerland is one of several countries exploring the promised advantages of distributed ledger technology (DLT), a digital system closely related to blockchain. This would allow company shares and a range of other financial assets to be created and traded more efficiently. The plan is for WISeCoin AG issue a Token Offering in compliance with applicable Swiss law in 2021.

WISeCoin AG was formally established in August 2018 to secure the blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) world, which due to its continuously increasing size and complexity, is constantly vulnerable to cyber threats. WISeCoin AG benefits from the WISeKey architecture as the first and only vertically integrated platform combining proprietary cybersecurity software and secure microcontrollers designed to protect connected devices against evolving cyber threats.

Through its infrastructure, WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be the first mover in bringing legally enforceable transactions, certified by globally recognized WISeID and EIDAS accreditations, to blockchain.

To accelerate the pace of the implementation, WISeCoin AG was established to manage all blockchain initiatives and operations of WISeKey. With a strong emphasis on cybersecurity, WISeCoins mission is to pave the way for the daily use of 4th Industrial Revolution technologies in the IoT sector through blockchain.

Powered by WISeKey Semiconductors and secured by WISeKey Root of Trust (RoT) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), WISeCoin offers connected objects the ability to identify and authenticate each other, initiate, and then complete secure transactions.

Each connected object is equipped with WISeKeys Secure Element consisting of a tamper resistant silicon chip, called VaultIC184. The state-of-the-art secure microcontroller, which can be easily integrated in any object by the manufacturer, is offered as a provisioning service to transfer the burden of device personalization to WISeKeys secure Personalization Center. It is a next-generation technology designed from the ground up to be the data and value transfer layer for the Machine Economy.

The integration of arago into the WISekey platform upgrades the WISeCoin clockchain with AI capabilities by allowing the connection between the physical and digital world in terms of value. AI takes the role of adaptive decision engine, offers meaningful insights to better understand object behaviors and processes and makes autonomous decisions upon machine learning scripts.

Furthermore, the WISeCoin project will benefit from the recent joining of WISeKey to Hyperledger, the multi-venture, multi-stakeholder effort hosted by theLinux Foundation. Hyperledger is an open source community focused on developing a suite of stable frameworks, tools and libraries for enterprise-grade blockchain deployment.

WISeKeys technology supports an ecosystem of connected devices and creates a secured platform to help these devices become intelligent and trusted, able to identify, authenticate and verify each other, gather and analyze data and then safely share with other devices. As a pioneer of blockchain technologies, we are committed to continue our journey of creating cutting-edge applications designed to solve peoples problems, transform businesses and create a better world.

WISeKeys blockchain-based solutions aim to override the need for a central authority by distributing information previously held in a centralized repository across a network of participating nodes. While blockchain is not owned by one individual or organization, anyone with an internet connection (and access, in the case of private blockchains) can make use of it, help maintain and verify it. When a transaction is made on a blockchain, it is added to a group of transactions, known as blocks. Each block of transactions is added to the database in a chronological, immutable chain. Each block is stamped with a unique cryptographic code, which ensures that records are not counterfeited or changed. The blockchain approach lacks legal validity in most jurisdictions, which only recognize the digital signatures as equally valid that manuscript signatures when generated using traditional PKI technology.

Earlier this year, WISeKey established the Trust Protocol Association (the Association) aiming to create a new Trust Protocol for the Internet by combining traditional Cryptographic Trust Models with permissioned blockchain transactions through strong authentication provided by the OISTE WISeKey RoT, a new Global Trust platform and an ecosystem of governmental, technology and business partners, each representing a certification node with the possibility of having multiple certifications nodes per country.

The combination of RoT with blockchain generates a new Trust Protocol in order to allow the blockchain to scale trusted transactions with embedded security, ensuring that each transaction submitted to the blockchain is digitally signed using keys that are trusted by the RoT and combining a vertical trust process verified by a reputable Third Trusted Party with the inherent decentralized trust provided by the blockchain.

This dual Trust Model solves one of the biggest challenges for the internet, which is to bridge the currently fragmented trust domains including existing, incompatible national RoTs used by many governments. By combining RoT with blockchain, our innovative Trust Protocol enables a wide range of use cases and business models that simply are not possible with using just current blockchain-based solutions.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey Microprocessors Secures the pervasive computing shaping todays Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKeys Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit http://www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding LtdCompany Contact: Carlos MoreiraChairman & CEOTel: +41 22 594 3000info@wisekey.com

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)Contact: Lena CatiThe Equity Group Inc.Tel: +1 212 836-9611lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

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WISeKey upgrades its WISeCoin blockchain technology with AI capabilities and integrates physical and digital world in terms of value - GlobeNewswire

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veterans of major crypto mining infrastructure firms, including one of the largest blockchain infrastructure companies in the United States, today announced the formation of a new mining entity, Blockcap Inc. (Blockcap), which is believed to be the largest independent cryptocurrency mining operator in North America.

Blockcap combines the assets of five pre-existing Bitcoin mining companies, taking advantage of economies of scale in purchasing equipment and managing energy risk in order to ultimately provide higher returns for its investors. Blockcap operates what is among the largest collections of hashing power in North America, including highly-valued public companies. Blockcaps current mining fleet includes close to 13,000 next generation Bitmain S19 mining rigs and 500 upgraded S17s, of which 8,442 are presently deployed and 1,426 in the process of being deployed. Present hashing power is approximately 800 Petahashes, with projections to reach close to 1 Exahash at full deployment. With the entire Bitcoin mining network operating approximately 132 Exahashes at present, Blockcaps operation could represent approximately 0.75% of the total hashing power.

Blockcap mined 425 Bitcoin (BTC) in Q3 2020. Publicly-traded mining company Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) reported that it had mined 222 BTCs during the same period. Blockcaps recent gross earnings also exceeds that of other competitors including Hive Blockchain (OTCMKTS: HVBTF), Hut 8 Mining (OTCMKTS: HUTMF), and The Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ: MARA). During this same period, Blockcap operated on a cash flow positive basis, and projects further BTC revenue growth in Q4.

From the team we have put together, to our state of the art ASICs, and our top notch infrastructure partners, we are proud about what we have achieved with Blockcap, said Peter Novak, President of Blockcap. Moreover, we have the resources and relationships necessary to continue to scale Blockcaps mining operations in a financially efficient manner to take advantage of the rapidly expanding market for digital currency.

In the coming months, Blockcap will look to expand its operations by adding more servers and acquiring other existing mining companies.

About BlockcapBlockcap, Inc. (the Company or Blockcap), was founded in 2020 by blockchain industry veterans who have successfully structured or co-founded other large technology companies. All mining equipment is currently hosted at data center facilities in the United States. The Company will exceed more than 1 Exahash of processing power within Q1 2021.

For more information, visit https://www.blockcapinc.com/.

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Blockchain Veterans Create Blockcap, a Massive Bitcoin Mining Operation in North America - Business Wire

If you say blockchain to the average person and ask them what immediately springs to mind, you might get references to Bitcoin, the dark net, fortunes made and lost, Facebooks Libra. Or, you might just get a blank stare.

So when you tell them that some of the worlds most conservative firms are using it or that the Italian banking system now depends on it, its perhaps no surprise when their heads start to spin.

It is indeed true that many of us in the enterprise blockchain world have been working for over five years now to apply techniques pioneered by Bitcoin to solve problems for todays businesses. But the technologies weve built and the applications were developing couldnt be further from that starting point, and we havent already done a good job of taking people on the journey that we ourselves have travelled.

About the author

Richard Brown is CTO at R3

Here, I will attempt to dispel the myths around enterprise blockchain that do it a disservice and explain what it actually is, and how it can bring benefits to the business world.

In attempting to separate blockchain and Bitcoin, it might seem counter-intuitive to begin by talking about how Bitcoin came about; but the truth is, you cant explain the history of blockchain without talking about Bitcoin.

When the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system'in 2009, the world was introduced to a manifesto which proposed an alternative form of currency thatwas a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash. This particular form of alternative cash, as launched by Nakamoto, is Bitcoin.

Importantly, Nakamoto didnt wake up one day wanting to build a blockchain. No. Instead, it turned out that the vision of a peer-to-peer electronic cash systemrequiredan architecture where there was no single party in overall control, where each participant could verify transaction histories for themselves, and where everybody needed a way to be sure thattheirview of the ledger was the same as everybody elses. The need for a blockchain architectureemergedfrom Bitcoins requirements.

But once the idea of a shared network where each participant verifies updates for themselves and where there is an agreed mechanism to ensure people are in agreement has been created, its natural to start to identify other problems it can also solve.

So its helpful to think of Bitcoin as simply one of a number of different applications of blockchain technology.

At its core, a blockchain is an architecture for a distributed network where each participant can verify that their view of any relevant transactions is identical to that of their counterparts. It allows you to build applications where each participant knows for sure that what you see is what I see (WYSIWIS). This is what Nakamoto needed in order to make Bitcoin work: a way for each participant to check things for themselves (no trusted third parties) and a way to ensure everybody reaches the same conclusion as to what actually happened in a case where two valid butcompetingactions happen at near the same time (double-spend prevention).

But, what does that actually mean, and how does it apply in an enterprise context?

The description I have above doesntsoundlike much. But when you know youre in sync with your trading partners and know you have agreedup frontwhat the rules are for any updates, it creates some extremely powerful possibilities.

For example, consider a borrower negotiating a loan from a complex syndicate of lenders. Lots of moving parts, lots of lawyers, lots of incompatible IT systems, and a set of contracts that might last for the next thirty years.

If you could be sure that all participants ultimately ended up with thesameview of the deal and shared the same business rules about how the contract would evolve in the coming years, you could massively reduce the amount of error, duplication, queries and reconciliations.

The WYSIWIS idea, when applied to networks of businesses trying to manage a complicated business process, is extremely alluring. And its the fundamental promise of a blockchain architecture.

But theres also a problem.

The traditional permissionless blockchain architectures in which all data is shared with all parties upon which the likes of Bitcoin were built, dont fit well in an enterprise environment. Worse, permissionless blockchains try hard toobscurethe identity of their participants, whereas businesses want to be completely sure who theyre signing contracts with!

So my firm and others found ourselves in a curious position at the starts of our journeys five years ago. The fundamental WYSIWIS promise of blockchains have the potential to transform entire industries but the specific implementations that support the public cryptocurrencies have designs that render them useless in an enterprise context!

This is why the blockchains being used to solve real problems for businesses today are almost entirely ground-up developments. Heavily inspired by the public platforms, but architecturally different in fundamental ways.

At its heart, enterprise blockchain is creating a way of allowing different systems to speak to one another in a way that ensures they can be sure they are in sync, so that businesses can do what they already do, but better.

One way to think of blockchain is as email for machines. Emails work very well to allow us to communicate and share information with people at all the firms we work with. But, blockchain lets us communicate and share information withsystemsin the firms with which we work. It serves as a common technology that can be used by all industries.

Bearing the same attributes that email does for inter-firm communication, enterprise blockchain brings together institutional-grade identity management; self-sovereign service advertisement; secure asynchronous messaging; shared business and flow logic; and integration capabilities. This is the essence of what you need to link applications in different firms together.

Moving from a world where everybody builds and runs their own distinct applications, which are endlessly out of sync, to one where everybody is using a shared market-level application, dramatically drives down deviations and errors. And thats what we mean when we talk about helping businesses do what they do better.

Herein lies the real opportunity for blockchain technology: to optimise not just entire firms, but entire markets. Most businesses are centralised but the markets that most businesses operate in are decentralised.

Enterprise blockchain is the enabler of this market-wide transformation, and enterprise blockchain platforms achieve some of their magic because they make seemingly trivial improvements to inter-firm business processes. In doing so, they dramatically drive up levels of automation and consensus.

The promise of enterprise blockchain has made incredible headway since it first came to mainstream consciousness some five years ago. We have seen uses cases in just about every industry imaginable and there are few sectors which could not benefit from its core features of trust and transparency.

As with any disruptive technology, understanding its premise and coming to terms with the idea of departing from the status quo will perhaps be the greatest challenge in unlocking enterprise blockchain at scale.

Blockchain when applied to solve business isnt about upending legacy systems, but connecting them and offering a new technology that can enable them to work together, better.

If the first fifty years of financial technology were focused on optimising the operations of individual firms, the future will undoubtedly be about optimising entire markets. This is the ultimate promise of enterprise blockchain technology for financial services and beyond.

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What is enterprise blockchain? Everything you need to know - TechRadar

WISeCoin, the Innovative Tokenized Service of WISeKey, Authenticates People, Products and Machines Using Blockchain and AI

WISeKey allows Connected Electric Cars to Pay with WISeCoin Cryptocurrencies at Autonomous Electric Charging Stations

ZUG, Switzerland December 21, 2020 WISeKey International Holding (WISeKey, SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading cybersecurity IoT company, today announced that its WISeCoin IoT solution enables secure people-to-people, people-to-machines and machines-to-machines digital communications using blockchain and AI technologies.

WISeKey combines its blockchain technology, with extensive experience in digital identities and PKI, and expertise with secure microcontrollers, to create a tokenized service offering, the WISeCoin utility token. WISeCoin provides an innovative way to verify connected objects wanting to interact with one another. Through this unique service offering, WISeCoin AG, a Special Purpose vehicle created by WISeKey to build the infrastructure for secure intra-object interactions and transactions, aims at becoming the ubiquitous industry solution for facilitating secure IoT interactions.

The solutions provided by WISeCoin AG allows any person, object or machine to exchange information or value in a trusted manner while significantly reducing the risk of malicious cyber threats, frauds and hacks. WISeCoins are however not a means of payment, but a service offering. It is enabled through the token which is stored in a digital wallet and entitles the holder to the service offering of the WISeCoin. The token is indifferent to the wallet provider and can be incorporated into any ERC-20 compatible wallet.

The WISeCoin Validation Service uses AI provided by HIRO (via the certificates validation authority) to analyze the digital certificate of different actors and recognize and trust the identity of other parties they are interacting with. To do this, WISeCoin token gives its token holders (stored on digital wallets) access to the WISeKey Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which provides the verification service in order to mitigate malicious actors and hackers from compromising interactions.

Objects send the validation authority the third partys public key and the digital certificate for validation. WISeKey checks that the corresponding public key holds a valid WISeCoin and if so, the identity is verified. In order to get the verification, the object making the request needs to hold at least 1 WISeCoin in its wallet, which is valid for 12 months or 100 requests. WISeCoin AG can, over time, adjust the number of tokens required to get verified, the longevity of the token and entitled verifications per token. The WISeCoin Validation Service is used for the verification of the validity of digital identity of the object in real time, thus ensuring secure use of digital identities for authentication of an object connected to the Internet and the activation of attributes such as digital signing, transactions, or sending WISeCoin Machine to Machine Cryptocurrency technology allows connected cars to pay with WISeCoin at the Electric Charging Stations, completing the transaction without using credit cards or any other traditional payment. Connected car owners can charge their cars and pay by transferring WISeCoins via NFC technology, from their car wallet to the electric charging station.

WISeKey is already providing the integration of WISeKey IoT and PKI in the manufacturers connected car solutions allowing them to authenticate legitimate car components and enabling owners to securely interact with the cars smart features. The fact that the electric car includes a WISeKey digital certificate stored on a WISeKey microchip acting as a secure hardware module it allows to send securely the WISeCoins required to execute the payment transaction between the electric car and the electric charger without any intermediaries or paying any transactional fees.

WISeCoin also includes an unforgeable digital identification for the ecar and echarger, securing both. Virtually all new cars on the market today include electronic technologies that could pose vulnerabilities to hacking or privacy intrusions if data security is not addressed. For example, smart cars without cybersecurity protection technology could allow hackers to gain remote access by exploiting vulnerabilities in their ecosystem of connected components and online services. As the number of cars connected to the Internet is growing quickly smart car manufactures are working to identify and reduce potential hacking vulnerabilities in their vehicles.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping todays Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKeys Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visitwww.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA), the FinSAs predecessor legislation or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA, or within the meaning of any other securities regulation. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

The securities offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States of America Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of said Act.

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WISeCoin, the Innovative Tokenized Service of WISeKey, Authenticates People, Products and Machines Using Blockchain and AI - GlobeNewswire

Analytics tools provider FICO has teamed up with Crystal Blockchain to help financial institutions combat money laundering involving cryptocurrencies.

Crystal Blockchain is an arm of the Bitfury Group that specialises in analysing digital currencies. As part of the agreement, at the end of each day, Crystal Blockchain will launch queries against its database of transactions that FICO will then share with organisations using its software to generate a risk score for transactions that might require additional verification. The aim of this process is to help financial institutions to identify suspicious activity involving cryptos that many of them now accept as a form of legitimate species.

The Crystal Blockchain platform can detect how many addresses are controlled by a particular user regardless of the entity involved. RTInsights reports that the company employs proprietary clustering techniques to identify a list of addresses generated by the same private key. Crystal Blockchain can track more than 20 types of entities, including exchanges, miners, gambling services, and darknet marketplaces to identify which users are associated with entity wallets.

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FICO partners with Crystal Blockchain to combat cryptocurrency ML - The Paypers

Grant Thornton Cyprus,one of the largest business advisory firms in Cyprus and a member firm of Grant Thornton's sprawling business network present in over 140 countries, has formally announced it has become one of the 101 Authority Masternodes for the VeChainThor blockchain.

Earlier this year, Grant Thornton Cyprus and VeChain announced an official partnership with the joint intent of providing and expanding services related to the implementation of blockchain solutions for both local and foreign businesses.

Grant Thornton Cyprus's decision to come forward and announce itself as one of the VeChainThor Authority Masternodes, helping form part of the critical backbone of VeChainThor's architecture. Their joining of the program is a tacit recognition of both the legitimacy of the project, the strength of its network and its future, as well now actively continuing to the dynamic growth of VeChain's ecosystem as a whole.

Authority Masternodes are the critical backbone of the VeChainThor blockchain, ultimately they package, process and add blocks to the blockchain. Therefore, a careful and legally compliant selection is key to ensure high standards are maintained. In the VeChainThor consensus model, 101 Authority Masternode holders represented by enterprise users, blockchain development teams, business development partners, community contributors and academic research partners, are responsible for maintaining the validation of transactions in the entire blockchain ecosystem.

Sunny Lu, General Secretary of the VeChain Foundation, said, "To truly provide a mature and reliable blockchain platform and ecosystem, the VeChain Foundation has always recognized the significance of ecosystem partners. As the enabler in the blockchain ecosystem, the Foundation will power GT-Cyprus to take on more business opportunities and create valuable transactions on the VeChainThor blockchain."

Instead of developing blockchain solutions from scratch, as an Authority Masternode, Grant Thornton Cyprus can leverage VeChain'sblockchain protocol, technical features designed for business adoption including fee delegation, multi-task transactions, as well as the applications already built on VeChainThor. With the extra rewards to the Authority Masternode, Grant Thornton Cyprus will be able to lower the cost and eliminate the barriers of using blockchain technology to provide services to their customers.

"Becoming an Authority Masternode of VeChainThor will provide us with the ability to better cater the needs of our clients by launching proprietary products with the nascent blockchain technology," Mr. Alexis Nicolaou, Director of Distributed Ledger Technologies at Grant Thornton Cyprus stressed."We recognize the potential impact of blockchain technology and have paved the way for re-designing traditional industries like finance, supply chain management, renewable energy, e-commerce, and health & safety. Together with VeChain, we will explore business growth within several industries."

With Grant Thornton Cyprus, DNV GL and other renowned entities securing and validating transactions on the VeChainThor blockchain, enterprises, government agencies and community dApps that build on VeChainThor will be safely assured of the data immutability.

About Grant Thornton Cyprus

Grant Thornton Cyprus is one of the oldest accounting practices on the island. Founded in 1942, the firm became a member firm within Grant Thornton International in 1982. As a member firm within Grant Thornton International, we can combine the knowledge and experience of our local marketplace with the technologies, methodologies and specialist resources of a professional services organisation at the forefront of the global accounting profession. In September 2018, Grant Thornton (Cyprus) Limited grew its technology services with the launch of a new service line. The distributed ledger technology department (or blockchain) has been providing advisory services related to the implementation of DLT technologies for local and foreign businesses. For more information, please visit the official website: https://www.grantthornton.com.cy/services/distributed-ledger-technologies/

About VeChain Foundation

Launched in 2015, the VeChain Foundation has worked tirelessly to build the bridges between blockchain technology and the real world. VeChainThor's evolution continues to gather pace, transitioning from consortium network to best-in-class public blockchain platform using Proof of Authority consensus, boasting advanced technical features, governance structure and economic model.

As the ecosystem enabler, the Foundation's mission is to empower builders and innovators by developing tools that systematically eliminate adoption hurdles. Through the development of a suite of innovative tools such as Multi-task transaction, fee delegation, etc., VeChain has been able to substantially lower the barriers to entry for businesses and developers alike.

VeChainThor has already been applied across a diverse array of use cases including Walmart China, Bayer China, BMW Group, BYD Auto, PICC, H&M Group, Shanghai Gas, LVMH, D.I.G, ASI Group and more.

For more information about VeChain Authority Masternode, please visit: http://www.vechain.org

SOURCE VeChain

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Grant Thornton Cyprus Becomes An Authority Masternode On VeChainThor Public Blockchain - PRNewswire

PRESS RELEASE. Smatoos, which is already known in the blockchain industry as a token economy platform, has released the blockchain-based metaverse, DeNations. DeNations is a blockchain-based decentralized metaverse where anyone can manage nations, cities, and civilizations.

Metaverse is a combination of meta, which means beyond, and universe, which means a virtual space that interacts with the real world, where people can engage in economic, cultural, and social activities. Currently, in the blockchain industry, services that gamify a metaverse such as Decentraland and Roblox have already been released. Unlike other services, DeNations closely connected the real world with the metaverse and was designed to create profits while playing games.

DeNations users own the nation and can build cities and civilizations. Users can make money from taxes and token farming by developing nations, cities, and civilizations. Nations, cities, and civilizations are issued with Ethereum Non-Fungible Token (NFT) cards, proving their authenticity and ownership, even outside the game. NFT card holders develop nations, cities, and civilizations in DeNations and earn tokens and profits. Various national policies are determined by the Quadratic Voting proposed in the book by Eric Posner & Glen Weyl. DeNations develops nations, cities, and civilizations in the direction NFT card owners are aiming.

Currently, 5 NFT cards for France, Japan, India, Italy, and the Republic of Korea are already on sale at Opensea. Each Nation NFT card is issued in limited quantities and is sold at a 50% discount during the first week of release only.

Individuals in the real world cannot build and manage nations, cities, and civilizations, said Justin Jang, VP of DeNations. All of thats possible in DeNations, he said. The time has come for anyone to own, manage nations and cities, and as a result, make the profit they dream of in the metaverse.

DeNations aims to become a leader among blockchain-powered metaverses. It is expected that it will not only contribute to relevant ecosystems within the blockchain-based metaverse but also have a positive impact on the real world as a national management simulation game because users can experiment with and experience political and economic systems in DeNations.

Join DeNations (Decentralized Nations) at:Website: https://denations.com/Telegram: https://t.me/smatoosTwitter: https://twitter.com/SMATOOS_nowMedium: https://smatoos.medium.com/

This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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DeNations, a Blockchain-Powered Metaverse, Launches the First INO - Initial Nations Offering | Press release - Bitcoin News

VeChain & RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub: A World Class Collaboration

The RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub is the world's first research center focused on the social science of blockchain and unites aworld-class team of economists and social science researchers. The body consists of many professional researchers who focus on the institutional possibilities and challenges on blockchain applications across fields such as compliance, economics and healthcare.

Working closely with the head of VeResearch, Chief Scientist Dr. Peter Zhou and VeChain's Senior Blockchain Researcher Dr. Zhijie Ren, the group intends to enhance current studies on blockchain governance models and accelerate the standardization of blockchain governance consensus.

Thecollaborative work will initially focus on developing a framework for evaluating and comparing governance systems of public blockchains. Specifically, the team will develop a theoretical understanding of the trade-offs and dimensions of decentralization for public blockchains. Based on the framework, the next step of the study will be to design governance models to better incentivize various stakeholders to participate in the governance process and ultimately use the research to promote mass adoption of blockchain.

Blockchain Governance Consensus:Key For Unlocking Enterprise Mass Adoption

As a long-term research goal, the joint research team will investigate governance models that are suitable for enterprises, with respect to the future regulatory environment and readiness of individual enterprises. This collaboration further cements VeChain's role as a harbinger of public blockchain standards and set forth the building for the mass adoption of blockchain among governments, enterprises and educational research facilities.

Dr. Peter Zhou stressed that, "Blockchain governance plays a vital role in growing a healthy and sustainable blockchain ecosystem. This research collaboration is going to answer some of the most important and fundamental questions about blockchain governance and will contribute to the long-term growth of VeChain's ecosystem and to achieving our goal of mass adoption."

Dr Chris Berg, Co-Director of the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, commented that,"We are excited to be working with VeChain to explore and research governance models for public blockchains. With this important research we are hoping to build towards a general theory of blockchain governance contributing to VeChain's ecosystem and providing benefit to the broader blockchain community".

VeResearch continues on its mission to build a global grant program that engages in research with academic communities and contributes to framing high-level practical responses to industrial challenges. The program has worked closely with multiple high-profile academic bodies such as Michigan State University, University of Oxford, Dartmouth College, Tsinghua University, and South China Normal University across research areas encompassing blockchain consensus, token economics, cryptocurrency market predictions, smart contract security, blockchain-based ecosystem design and more.

About RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub

RMIT University, based in Melbourne, Australia, is known for applied leading-edge research that engages with business and technology. The RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub is the world's first research centre on the social science of blockchain

The RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub is an interdisciplinary team of researchers in economics, political-economy, organizational theory, law, sociology, politics and communications. The Hub seeks to develop a deeper understanding of crypto-economics, business strategy and adaptation to blockchain technologies, maps the blockchain economy, and identifies the public policy challenges that will hold back or accelerate this economic revolution.

Website: http://www.rmitblockchain.io

About VeChain Foundation

Launched in 2015, the VeChain Foundation has worked tirelessly to build the bridges between blockchain technology and the real world. VeChainThor's evolution continues to gather pace, transitioning from consortium network to best-in-class public blockchain platform using Proof of Authority consensus, boasting advanced technical features, governance structure and economic model.

As the ecosystem enabler, VeChain's mission is to empower builders by developing tools that systematically eliminate adoption hurdles. Through the development of a suite of innovative tools such as Multi-task transaction and fee delegation.VeChain has been able to substantially lower the barriers to entry for businesses and developers alike.

VeChainThor has already been applied across a diverse array of use cases including Walmart China, Bayer China, BMW Group, BYD Auto, H&M Group, Shanghai Gas, LVMH, D.I.G, ASI Group and more.

Website:www.vechain.org

SOURCE VeChain

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VeChain Foundation Announces Partnership With the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Blockchain Innovation Hub, Accelerating Blockchain...

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --CB Insightshas named independent crypto prime broker SFOXas one of the world'stop 50 blockchain companies. The firm was given a place on CB Insights' first ever Blockchain 50, a list of the top private companies using blockchain technology to solve some of businesses' biggest problems. Winners were selected from a pool of 2,700 companies. SFOX provides its services in multiple categories including as an Exchange, Custody, Capital Markets, and Wallet services provider, and was honored in the Exchange category.

CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwalexplained in a statement, "Blockchain moved from possible to practical in 2020 as evidenced by the enterprise adoption we tracked. At the same time, the blockchain company ecosystem also became more crowded, creating noise and uncertainty for enterprises as they evaluate vendors and partners. The Blockchain 50, which we've created in conjunction with Blockdata, was born out of a desire to reduce that uncertainty and recognize the pioneering companies using the blockchain."

"As the longest running prime brokerage platform, SFOX has been a trusted partner for traders since 2014 and has expanded its offering to meet the demand from funds, financial services providers and institutions. We look forward to continuing to innovate to address the challenges our customers face in this highly complex and rapidly changing market,"said Akbar Thobhani, founder and CEO of SFOX.

When selecting the winners, CB Insights based its evaluation on factors including business models, market potential and momentum, competitive landscape, team strength, investor profiles, data submitted by the companies, and Mosaic scores. Many of the companies to make the list have established blockchain service contracts with enterprises like government agencies, retailers and traditional banks.

"We are honored that SFOX has been selected for inclusion on the CB Insights Blockchain 50 list. Our mission is to bring the most advanced and secure trading and custody solution to professionals, traders and institutions in this rapidly maturing market. Earning this recognition from CB Insights is a testament to SFOX's innovation and leadership in driving institutional adoption of crypto assets," said George Melika, co-founder of SFOX.

About CB Insights

Founded in January of 2008, CB Insights is based in New York and builds software to help its clients better understand future technology trends. To do this, the firm will analyze millions of documents so it can provide its clients with the information they need to make stronger and better business decisions. CB Insights provides services to a wide range of Fortune 100 companies and has garnered more than $11 million in funding since its inception.

About SFOX

Headquartered in Los Angelesand founded in 2014, SFOX is a leading prime dealer that seeks to connect its clients with cryptocurrency trading platforms across the globe so they can compare prices and establish trading routes that best meet their ideals and goals. The companyoffers an assortment of ordertypes including standard market and limit orders, smart routing, sniper and instant, so traders can finalize their crypto trades under the easiest and most secure conditions.

Contact: [emailprotected]

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SOURCE SFOX Inc.

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SFOX Named to Blockchain 50 Ranking by CB Insights and Blockdata - PRNewswire

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Topl, the blockchain ecosystem built to prove a companys ethical and sustainable practices, today officially announced the closing of $3 million in seed funding led by Mercury Fund.

Additional investors in the round include GOOSE Capital, Chingona Ventures, Beni Venture Capital, Blue Collective, RevTech Ventures and Social Impact Capital. Topl has now raised $4.4 million in total venture capital funding since its founding in 2017.

Topl intends to leverage funds from the seed venture capital round to speed the launch of their Blockchain-as-a-Service solution in early 2021, which grants access to the Topl blockchain in two clicks. Topls technology simplifies certification processes, drastically cutting operational costs and increasing transparency throughout the supply chain.

Were grateful to have closed an oversubscribed venture round during a pandemic, especially given the unfortunate truth that many women-led startups are getting much less investment during this time, Kim Raath, Topls CEO, said. Bringing transparency to causes dedicated to environmental and social good has never been more important. We are building a modern blockchain for a world where purpose and profit go hand in hand.

Topls commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is reflected both in its team and its board of directors. Forty percent of the team is female, and the majority of the board are representatives of minority groups, including women, immigrants, and people of color. Those actions are some of the first steps Topl is taking to create a more diverse and inclusive company.

A Blockchain Built Specifically for the Impact Sector

According to data from management consulting company McKinsey, an increasing body of research shows a positive link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance or value creation.

Topls blockchain technology allows companies and communities to make verifiable claims about their social or environmental impact by recording data to an immutable ledger. By unlocking new certification systems, Topl opens the door to enhanced transparency in ethical supply chains and the ability to trace funds earmarked to achieve development objectives.

By leveraging Topls infrastructure, a fashion company can transparently track and measure their ecological impact, from water usage for crops, to pollution produced through the production line, to transportation emissions. Similarly, farmers using sustainable practices such as crop rotations and reduced tillage can record proof of these efforts and mechanize that impact.

Earlier in December, Topl announced a strategic partnership with TrackX (TSX.V:TKX | OTC:TKXHF | FSE:3TH), a SaaS-based enterprise IOT asset management and supply chain solution provider. The two companies are teaming up to provide a verifiable tracking and tracing solution to meet the growing demand for greater supply chain sustainability, transparency, and efficiency.

Investor Perspectives on $3M Seed Funding Round

A companys social and environmental impact has become a necessary point of differentiation for brands, and Topl has the potential to be the leading player for brands who are serious about ESG, said Blair Garrou, managing director of Mercury Fund.

Kim and the Topl team have created a custom-designed method to measure and verify your companys sustainability efforts. Were excited to be part of this intersection of cutting-edge technology and positive impact, said Samantha Lewis, formerly director of GOOSE Capital. Lewis was instrumental in helping Topl secure its first round of funding in 2019, and sits on Topls board of directors.

Topls track-and-trace solution appeals to so many core industries: from healthcare to agriculture to energy, said Manolo Snchez, former chairman and CEO of BBVA Compass and also a member of Topls board. Anyone who needs to ensure transparency, efficiency and sustainability would benefit from their technology.

About Topl

Topl, Inc., is a Houston-based venture-backed ESG technology company developing a purpose-built blockchain ecosystem to prove a companys ethical and sustainable business practices. Founded in 2017, Topl empowers companies to drastically cut operational and certification costs, through the use of their purpose-built blockchain technology. The company will expand its offering to include a new Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution in early 2021, allowing its customers and technology partners two clicks to gain off-the-shelf access to the Topl Blockchain. Topl employs a diverse team and centers ESG as one of their core values, utilizing the UNs 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guidepost. http://www.topl.co

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Topl Closes $3M Seed Funding Round, Builds Blockchain for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Global Initiatives - Business Wire

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has issued a new white paper to help auditors providing SOC for Service Organization (SOC) reports on organizations that have incorporated blockchain into their service delivery systems.

Implications of the Use of Blockchain in SOC for Service Organization Examinations was developed by a Working Group of the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee (ASEC). The paper examines the skills and competencies auditors need to perform such engagements, the unique features of blockchain, the risks associated with using blockchain, and how the use of blockchain by service organizations may affect their SOC examinations.

As the use of blockchain increases, its likely that more service organizations will decide to use blockchain. Auditors hired to perform their SOC engagements need a deeper understanding of the technology and the risks it presents to the service organization and those who use their services, said Amy Pawlicki, AICPA Vice President Assurance and Advisory Innovation.

The paper is divided into two parts:

Part 1

Part 2

SOC 1, SOC 2 and SOC for Supply Chain

While this paper specifically addresses SOC 1 and 2 examinations, it may also be helpful to a practitioner performing a SOC for Supply Chain examination. In March 2020, the AICPA unveiled a new supply chain risk management reporting framework to help manufacturers, producers, distribution companies, and their customers and business partners identify, assess and address supply chain risks. Information on the guide can be found here.

Service organization management is responsible for identifying and assessing blockchain-related risks, and for designing and implementing effective controls to mitigate those risks to acceptable levels, explained Pawlicki. When performing a SOC engagement, its critical for auditors to understand those risks and controls.

See the rest here:

AICPA Whitepaper Focuses on Conducting SOC Audits Involving Blockchain - CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

TipRanks

The coronavirus pandemic crisis shows no signs of abating, even with a vaccine coming on to the markets. Were still facing severe social lockdown policies, with a number of states (such as California, Minnesota, and Michigan) forcing even harsher restrictions on this round than previously.Its a heavy blow for the leisure industry that is still reeling from one of the most difficult years in memory. The difficulties faced by restaurants are getting more press, but for the cruise industry, corona has been a perfect storm.Prior to the pandemic, the cruise industry which had been doing $150 billion worth of business annually was expected to carry 32 million passengers in 2020. Thats all gone now. During the summer, the industry reeled when over 3,000 COVID cases were linked to 123 separate cruise ships, and resulted in 34 deaths. After such a difficult year, its useful to step back and take a snapshot of the industrys condition. JPMorgan analyst Brandt Montour has done just that, in a comprehensive review of the cruise industry generally and three cruise line giants in particular."We believe cruise shares can continue to grind higher in the near term, driven overwhelmingly by the broader vaccine backdrop/progress. Looking out further, operators will face plenty of headwinds when restarting/ramping operations in 2Q3Q21, but significant sequential improvement of revenues/cash flows over that period will likely dominate the narrative, and we believe investors will continue to look through short-term setbacks to a 2022 characterized by fully ramped capacity, near-full occupancies, and so far manageable pricing pressure," Montour opined.Against this backdrop, Montour has picked out two stocks that are worth the risk, and one that investors should avoid for now. Using TipRanks Stock Comparison tool, we lined up the three alongside each other to get the lowdown on what the near-term holds for these cruise line players.Royal Caribbean (RCL)The second-largest cruise line, Royal Caribbean, remains a top pick for Montour and his firm. The company has put its resources into facing and meeting the pandemics challenges, shoring up liquidity and both streamlining and modernizing the fleet.Maintaining liquidity has been the most pressing issue. While the company has resumed some cruising, and has even taken delivery of a new ship, the Silver Moon, most operations remain suspended. For Q3, the company reported adjusted earnings of -$5.62, below consensus of -$5.17. Management estimates the cash burn to be between $250 million and $290 million monthly. To combat that, RCL reported having $3.7 billion in liquidity at the end of September. That included $3 billion in cash on hand along with $700 million available through a credit facility. Total liquidity at the end of Q3 was down more than 9% from the end of Q2. Since the third quarter ended, RCL has added over $1 billion to its cash position, through an issue of $500 million senior notes and a sale of stock, putting an additional 8.33 million shares on the market at $60 each.In his note on Royal Caribbean, Montour writes, [We] are most constructive on OW-rated RCL, which we believe has the most compelling set of demand drivers... its extensive investments in premium priced new hardware, as well as consumer data, all set RCL up well to outgrow the industry in revenue metrics, margins, and ROIC over the longer term.Montour backs his Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating with a $91 price target. This figure represents a 30% upside potential for 2021. (To watch Montours track record, click here)Is the rest of the Street in agreement? As it turns out, the analyst consensus is more of a mixed bag. 4 Buy ratings and 6 Holds give RCL a Moderate Buy status. Meanwhile, the stock is selling for $69.58 per share, slightly above the $68.22 average price target. (See RCL stock analysis on TipRanks)Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH)With a market cap of $7.45 billion and a fleet of 28 ships, Norwegian Cruise Line found its relatively smaller size as an advantage in this pandemic time. With a smaller and newer fleet, overhead costs, especially ship maintenance, were lower. These advantages dont mean that the company has avoided the storm. Earlier this month, Norwegian announced a prolongation of its suspension of voyages policy, covering all scheduled voyages from January 1, 2021 through February 28, 2021, plus selected voyages in March 2021. These cancellations come as Norwegians revenues are down in the third quarter, the top line was just $6.5 million, compared to $1.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company also reported a cash burn of $150 million per month.To combat the cash burn and minimal revenues, Norwegian, in November and December, took steps to improve liquidity. The company closed on $850 million in senior notes, at 5.875% and due in 2026, during November, and earlier this month closed an offering of common stock. The stock offering totaled 40 million shares at $20.80 per share. Together, the two offerings raised over $1.6 billion in new capital.On a more positive note, Norwegian is preparing for an eventual resumption of full services. The company announced, on Dec 7, a partnership with AtmosAir Solutions for the installation of air purification systems on all 28 vessels of its current fleet, using filtration technology known to defeat the coronavirus.JPMs Montour points out these advantages in his review of Norwegian, and sums up the bottom line: This coupled with a relatively newer, higher-end, brand/ship footprint would generally lead us to believe it was in a good position to outperform on pricing growth, though its demographics skewing to older age customers probably will remain a drag through 2021. Ultimately, NCLH is a high-quality asset within the broader cruise industry, with a higher beta to a cruise recovery, and it should see outperformance as the industry returns and investors look further out the risk spectrum.Montour gives the stock a $30 price target and an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating. His target implies an upside of 27% on the one-year time frame.Norwegian is another cruise line with a Moderate Buy from the analyst consensus. This rating is based on 4 Buys, 4 Holds, and 1 Sell set in recent months. Like RCL above, the stock price here, $23.55, is currently higher than the average price target, $23.22. (See NCLH stock analysis on TipRanks)Carnival Corporation (CCL)Last up, Carnival, is the worlds largest cruise line, with a market cap of $23.25 billion, more than 100 ships across its brands, and over 700 destination ports. In normal times, this giant footprint gave the company an advantage; now, however, it has become an expensive liability. This is clear from the companys fiscal Q3 cash burn, which approached $770 million.Like the other big cruise companies, Carnival has extended its voyage cancellations, or, in the companys terms, the pause in operations. The Cunard line, one of Carnivals brands, has cancelled voyages on the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth through early June of next year. Carnival has also cancelled operations in February from the ports of Miami, Galveston, and Port Canaveral, and pushed back the inaugural voyage of the new ship Mardi Gras to the end of April 2021. These measures were taken in compliance with coronavirus restrictions.Carnivals shares and revenues are suffering deep losses this year. The stock is down 60% year-to-date, despite some recent price rallies since the end of October. Revenues fell to just $31 million in the fiscal third quarter, reported in September. Carnival reported a loss of nearly $3 billion in that quarter. The company did end the third quarter with over $8 billion in available cash, an impressive resource to face the difficult situation.This combination of strength and weakness led Montour to put a Neutral (i.e. Hold) rating on CCL shares. However, his $25 price target suggests a possible upside of 23%.In comments on Carnival, Montour wrote, [We] believe that some of the same relative net yield drags it saw in 2018-2019 due to its sheer size will likely become top of mind on the other side of this crisis However, given CCLs relative share discount, less pricing growth ahead of the crisis, and geographical diversification, we see it as the company with the least downside over the next few months and are not surprised by its recent outperformance. We believe this will reverse in the 2H21. Overall, Carnival has a Hold rating from the analyst consensus. This rating is based on 10 reviews, breaking down to 1 Buy, 8 Holds, and 1 Sell. The stock is selling for $20.28 and its $18.86 average price target implies a downside potential of ~7%. (See CCL stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

Original post:

Web 3.0 Infrastructure Blockchain The Graph Now Live on Ethereum - Yahoo Finance

More Than Just Bitcoin

By Matthew Ogrodowicz, MSA

Blockchain is a term used to broadly describe the cryptographic technology that underpins several applications, the most widely known of which is Bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies.

Matthew Ogrodowicz

Even though it is the largest current application, a survey conducted on behalf of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 2018 found that 48% of American adults were not familiar with Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin, three cryptocurrencies among those with the largest market capitalizations. The largest of these, Bitcoin, currently sits at a market capitalization of approximately $355 billion. If half of all adults are unfamiliar with this largest application, it is safe to assume that even fewer know about other ways the technology could be used including for some of the regions major industries.

Three of these largest industries in Western Mass. are healthcare, manufacturing, and higher education. In each of these industries, the secure and verifiable information network created by blockchain can provide efficiencies. This network, essentially a public ledger, consists of a series of transactions (blocks), which is distributed and replicated across a network of computers referred to as nodes. These nodes each maintain a copy of the ledger, which can only be added to by the solving of a cryptographic puzzle that is verified by other nodes in the network.

The information on the ledger is maintained by another aspect of cryptography, which is that the same data encrypted in the same way produces the same result, so if data earlier in the chain is manipulated, it will be rejected by the other nodes even though the data itself is encrypted. Thus, an immutable chain of verifiable, secure information is created, capable of supporting applications in the aforementioned fields.

Each of these industries can benefit from the blockchains ability to host smart contracts. A smart contract is a digital protocol intended to facilitate, verify, or enforce the performance of a transaction. The simplest analogue is that of a vending machine once payment is made, an item is delivered. Smart contracts would exist on the blockchain and would be triggered by a predefined condition or action agreed upon by the parties beforehand. This allows the parties to transact directly without the need for intermediaries, providing time and cost savings as well as automation and accuracy.

Combined with the security and immutability noted earlier, smart contracts should prove to be a valuable tool, though there is still work to be done in codifying and establishing legal frameworks around smart contracts. Other applications of blockchain technology are more specifically applicable to individual fields.

In the field of healthcare, blockchains ability to process, validate, and sanction access to data could lead to a centralized repository of electronic health records and allow patients to permit and/or revoke read-and-write privileges to certain doctors or facilities as they deem necessary. This would allow patients more control over who has access to their personal health records while providing for quick transfers and reductions in administrative delay.

In the field of manufacturing, blockchain can provide more supply-chain efficiency and transparency by codifying and tracking the routes and intermediate steps, including carriers and time of arrival and departure, without allowing for unauthorized modification of this information. In a similar fashion, blockchain can provide manufacturers assurance that the goods they have received are exactly those they have ordered and that they are without defect by allowing for tracking of individual parts or other raw materials.

Finally, in the field of higher education, blockchain could be used to improve record keeping of degrees and certifications in a manner similar to that of electronic medical records. Beyond that, intellectual property such as research, scholarly publications, media works, and presentations could be protected by the blockchain by allowing for ease of sharing them while preserving the ability to control how they are used.

And, of course, blockchain development will be a skill high in demand that will benefit from the creation of interdisciplinary programs at colleges and universities that help students understand the development of blockchain networks as well the areas of business, technology, law, and commerce that are impacted by it.

For these reasons and many more, businesses should feel an urgency to increase their knowledge of blockchains impact on their industries while exploring the potential dividends that could be reaped by a foray into an emerging technology.

Matthew Ogrodowicz, MSA is a senior associate at the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

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Blockchain Can Provide Efficiencies in Healthcare and Other Sectors - Business West

TipRanks

The coronavirus pandemic crisis shows no signs of abating, even with a vaccine coming on to the markets. Were still facing severe social lockdown policies, with a number of states (such as California, Minnesota, and Michigan) forcing even harsher restrictions on this round than previously.Its a heavy blow for the leisure industry that is still reeling from one of the most difficult years in memory. The difficulties faced by restaurants are getting more press, but for the cruise industry, corona has been a perfect storm.Prior to the pandemic, the cruise industry which had been doing $150 billion worth of business annually was expected to carry 32 million passengers in 2020. Thats all gone now. During the summer, the industry reeled when over 3,000 COVID cases were linked to 123 separate cruise ships, and resulted in 34 deaths. After such a difficult year, its useful to step back and take a snapshot of the industrys condition. JPMorgan analyst Brandt Montour has done just that, in a comprehensive review of the cruise industry generally and three cruise line giants in particular."We believe cruise shares can continue to grind higher in the near term, driven overwhelmingly by the broader vaccine backdrop/progress. Looking out further, operators will face plenty of headwinds when restarting/ramping operations in 2Q3Q21, but significant sequential improvement of revenues/cash flows over that period will likely dominate the narrative, and we believe investors will continue to look through short-term setbacks to a 2022 characterized by fully ramped capacity, near-full occupancies, and so far manageable pricing pressure," Montour opined.Against this backdrop, Montour has picked out two stocks that are worth the risk, and one that investors should avoid for now. Using TipRanks Stock Comparison tool, we lined up the three alongside each other to get the lowdown on what the near-term holds for these cruise line players.Royal Caribbean (RCL)The second-largest cruise line, Royal Caribbean, remains a top pick for Montour and his firm. The company has put its resources into facing and meeting the pandemics challenges, shoring up liquidity and both streamlining and modernizing the fleet.Maintaining liquidity has been the most pressing issue. While the company has resumed some cruising, and has even taken delivery of a new ship, the Silver Moon, most operations remain suspended. For Q3, the company reported adjusted earnings of -$5.62, below consensus of -$5.17. Management estimates the cash burn to be between $250 million and $290 million monthly. To combat that, RCL reported having $3.7 billion in liquidity at the end of September. That included $3 billion in cash on hand along with $700 million available through a credit facility. Total liquidity at the end of Q3 was down more than 9% from the end of Q2. Since the third quarter ended, RCL has added over $1 billion to its cash position, through an issue of $500 million senior notes and a sale of stock, putting an additional 8.33 million shares on the market at $60 each.In his note on Royal Caribbean, Montour writes, [We] are most constructive on OW-rated RCL, which we believe has the most compelling set of demand drivers... its extensive investments in premium priced new hardware, as well as consumer data, all set RCL up well to outgrow the industry in revenue metrics, margins, and ROIC over the longer term.Montour backs his Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating with a $91 price target. This figure represents a 30% upside potential for 2021. (To watch Montours track record, click here)Is the rest of the Street in agreement? As it turns out, the analyst consensus is more of a mixed bag. 4 Buy ratings and 6 Holds give RCL a Moderate Buy status. Meanwhile, the stock is selling for $69.58 per share, slightly above the $68.22 average price target. (See RCL stock analysis on TipRanks)Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH)With a market cap of $7.45 billion and a fleet of 28 ships, Norwegian Cruise Line found its relatively smaller size as an advantage in this pandemic time. With a smaller and newer fleet, overhead costs, especially ship maintenance, were lower. These advantages dont mean that the company has avoided the storm. Earlier this month, Norwegian announced a prolongation of its suspension of voyages policy, covering all scheduled voyages from January 1, 2021 through February 28, 2021, plus selected voyages in March 2021. These cancellations come as Norwegians revenues are down in the third quarter, the top line was just $6.5 million, compared to $1.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company also reported a cash burn of $150 million per month.To combat the cash burn and minimal revenues, Norwegian, in November and December, took steps to improve liquidity. The company closed on $850 million in senior notes, at 5.875% and due in 2026, during November, and earlier this month closed an offering of common stock. The stock offering totaled 40 million shares at $20.80 per share. Together, the two offerings raised over $1.6 billion in new capital.On a more positive note, Norwegian is preparing for an eventual resumption of full services. The company announced, on Dec 7, a partnership with AtmosAir Solutions for the installation of air purification systems on all 28 vessels of its current fleet, using filtration technology known to defeat the coronavirus.JPMs Montour points out these advantages in his review of Norwegian, and sums up the bottom line: This coupled with a relatively newer, higher-end, brand/ship footprint would generally lead us to believe it was in a good position to outperform on pricing growth, though its demographics skewing to older age customers probably will remain a drag through 2021. Ultimately, NCLH is a high-quality asset within the broader cruise industry, with a higher beta to a cruise recovery, and it should see outperformance as the industry returns and investors look further out the risk spectrum.Montour gives the stock a $30 price target and an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating. His target implies an upside of 27% on the one-year time frame.Norwegian is another cruise line with a Moderate Buy from the analyst consensus. This rating is based on 4 Buys, 4 Holds, and 1 Sell set in recent months. Like RCL above, the stock price here, $23.55, is currently higher than the average price target, $23.22. (See NCLH stock analysis on TipRanks)Carnival Corporation (CCL)Last up, Carnival, is the worlds largest cruise line, with a market cap of $23.25 billion, more than 100 ships across its brands, and over 700 destination ports. In normal times, this giant footprint gave the company an advantage; now, however, it has become an expensive liability. This is clear from the companys fiscal Q3 cash burn, which approached $770 million.Like the other big cruise companies, Carnival has extended its voyage cancellations, or, in the companys terms, the pause in operations. The Cunard line, one of Carnivals brands, has cancelled voyages on the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth through early June of next year. Carnival has also cancelled operations in February from the ports of Miami, Galveston, and Port Canaveral, and pushed back the inaugural voyage of the new ship Mardi Gras to the end of April 2021. These measures were taken in compliance with coronavirus restrictions.Carnivals shares and revenues are suffering deep losses this year. The stock is down 60% year-to-date, despite some recent price rallies since the end of October. Revenues fell to just $31 million in the fiscal third quarter, reported in September. Carnival reported a loss of nearly $3 billion in that quarter. The company did end the third quarter with over $8 billion in available cash, an impressive resource to face the difficult situation.This combination of strength and weakness led Montour to put a Neutral (i.e. Hold) rating on CCL shares. However, his $25 price target suggests a possible upside of 23%.In comments on Carnival, Montour wrote, [We] believe that some of the same relative net yield drags it saw in 2018-2019 due to its sheer size will likely become top of mind on the other side of this crisis However, given CCLs relative share discount, less pricing growth ahead of the crisis, and geographical diversification, we see it as the company with the least downside over the next few months and are not surprised by its recent outperformance. We believe this will reverse in the 2H21. Overall, Carnival has a Hold rating from the analyst consensus. This rating is based on 10 reviews, breaking down to 1 Buy, 8 Holds, and 1 Sell. The stock is selling for $20.28 and its $18.86 average price target implies a downside potential of ~7%. (See CCL stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

Read more here:

HIVE Blockchain to Provide Corporate Update and Results from the 2020 Annual General Meeting - Yahoo Finance

TipRanks

The coronavirus pandemic crisis shows no signs of abating, even with a vaccine coming on to the markets. Were still facing severe social lockdown policies, with a number of states (such as California, Minnesota, and Michigan) forcing even harsher restrictions on this round than previously.Its a heavy blow for the leisure industry that is still reeling from one of the most difficult years in memory. The difficulties faced by restaurants are getting more press, but for the cruise industry, corona has been a perfect storm.Prior to the pandemic, the cruise industry which had been doing $150 billion worth of business annually was expected to carry 32 million passengers in 2020. Thats all gone now. During the summer, the industry reeled when over 3,000 COVID cases were linked to 123 separate cruise ships, and resulted in 34 deaths. After such a difficult year, its useful to step back and take a snapshot of the industrys condition. JPMorgan analyst Brandt Montour has done just that, in a comprehensive review of the cruise industry generally and three cruise line giants in particular."We believe cruise shares can continue to grind higher in the near term, driven overwhelmingly by the broader vaccine backdrop/progress. Looking out further, operators will face plenty of headwinds when restarting/ramping operations in 2Q3Q21, but significant sequential improvement of revenues/cash flows over that period will likely dominate the narrative, and we believe investors will continue to look through short-term setbacks to a 2022 characterized by fully ramped capacity, near-full occupancies, and so far manageable pricing pressure," Montour opined.Against this backdrop, Montour has picked out two stocks that are worth the risk, and one that investors should avoid for now. Using TipRanks Stock Comparison tool, we lined up the three alongside each other to get the lowdown on what the near-term holds for these cruise line players.Royal Caribbean (RCL)The second-largest cruise line, Royal Caribbean, remains a top pick for Montour and his firm. The company has put its resources into facing and meeting the pandemics challenges, shoring up liquidity and both streamlining and modernizing the fleet.Maintaining liquidity has been the most pressing issue. While the company has resumed some cruising, and has even taken delivery of a new ship, the Silver Moon, most operations remain suspended. For Q3, the company reported adjusted earnings of -$5.62, below consensus of -$5.17. Management estimates the cash burn to be between $250 million and $290 million monthly. To combat that, RCL reported having $3.7 billion in liquidity at the end of September. That included $3 billion in cash on hand along with $700 million available through a credit facility. Total liquidity at the end of Q3 was down more than 9% from the end of Q2. Since the third quarter ended, RCL has added over $1 billion to its cash position, through an issue of $500 million senior notes and a sale of stock, putting an additional 8.33 million shares on the market at $60 each.In his note on Royal Caribbean, Montour writes, [We] are most constructive on OW-rated RCL, which we believe has the most compelling set of demand drivers... its extensive investments in premium priced new hardware, as well as consumer data, all set RCL up well to outgrow the industry in revenue metrics, margins, and ROIC over the longer term.Montour backs his Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating with a $91 price target. This figure represents a 30% upside potential for 2021. (To watch Montours track record, click here)Is the rest of the Street in agreement? As it turns out, the analyst consensus is more of a mixed bag. 4 Buy ratings and 6 Holds give RCL a Moderate Buy status. Meanwhile, the stock is selling for $69.58 per share, slightly above the $68.22 average price target. (See RCL stock analysis on TipRanks)Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH)With a market cap of $7.45 billion and a fleet of 28 ships, Norwegian Cruise Line found its relatively smaller size as an advantage in this pandemic time. With a smaller and newer fleet, overhead costs, especially ship maintenance, were lower. These advantages dont mean that the company has avoided the storm. Earlier this month, Norwegian announced a prolongation of its suspension of voyages policy, covering all scheduled voyages from January 1, 2021 through February 28, 2021, plus selected voyages in March 2021. These cancellations come as Norwegians revenues are down in the third quarter, the top line was just $6.5 million, compared to $1.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company also reported a cash burn of $150 million per month.To combat the cash burn and minimal revenues, Norwegian, in November and December, took steps to improve liquidity. The company closed on $850 million in senior notes, at 5.875% and due in 2026, during November, and earlier this month closed an offering of common stock. The stock offering totaled 40 million shares at $20.80 per share. Together, the two offerings raised over $1.6 billion in new capital.On a more positive note, Norwegian is preparing for an eventual resumption of full services. The company announced, on Dec 7, a partnership with AtmosAir Solutions for the installation of air purification systems on all 28 vessels of its current fleet, using filtration technology known to defeat the coronavirus.JPMs Montour points out these advantages in his review of Norwegian, and sums up the bottom line: This coupled with a relatively newer, higher-end, brand/ship footprint would generally lead us to believe it was in a good position to outperform on pricing growth, though its demographics skewing to older age customers probably will remain a drag through 2021. Ultimately, NCLH is a high-quality asset within the broader cruise industry, with a higher beta to a cruise recovery, and it should see outperformance as the industry returns and investors look further out the risk spectrum.Montour gives the stock a $30 price target and an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating. His target implies an upside of 27% on the one-year time frame.Norwegian is another cruise line with a Moderate Buy from the analyst consensus. This rating is based on 4 Buys, 4 Holds, and 1 Sell set in recent months. Like RCL above, the stock price here, $23.55, is currently higher than the average price target, $23.22. (See NCLH stock analysis on TipRanks)Carnival Corporation (CCL)Last up, Carnival, is the worlds largest cruise line, with a market cap of $23.25 billion, more than 100 ships across its brands, and over 700 destination ports. In normal times, this giant footprint gave the company an advantage; now, however, it has become an expensive liability. This is clear from the companys fiscal Q3 cash burn, which approached $770 million.Like the other big cruise companies, Carnival has extended its voyage cancellations, or, in the companys terms, the pause in operations. The Cunard line, one of Carnivals brands, has cancelled voyages on the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth through early June of next year. Carnival has also cancelled operations in February from the ports of Miami, Galveston, and Port Canaveral, and pushed back the inaugural voyage of the new ship Mardi Gras to the end of April 2021. These measures were taken in compliance with coronavirus restrictions.Carnivals shares and revenues are suffering deep losses this year. The stock is down 60% year-to-date, despite some recent price rallies since the end of October. Revenues fell to just $31 million in the fiscal third quarter, reported in September. Carnival reported a loss of nearly $3 billion in that quarter. The company did end the third quarter with over $8 billion in available cash, an impressive resource to face the difficult situation.This combination of strength and weakness led Montour to put a Neutral (i.e. Hold) rating on CCL shares. However, his $25 price target suggests a possible upside of 23%.In comments on Carnival, Montour wrote, [We] believe that some of the same relative net yield drags it saw in 2018-2019 due to its sheer size will likely become top of mind on the other side of this crisis However, given CCLs relative share discount, less pricing growth ahead of the crisis, and geographical diversification, we see it as the company with the least downside over the next few months and are not surprised by its recent outperformance. We believe this will reverse in the 2H21. Overall, Carnival has a Hold rating from the analyst consensus. This rating is based on 10 reviews, breaking down to 1 Buy, 8 Holds, and 1 Sell. The stock is selling for $20.28 and its $18.86 average price target implies a downside potential of ~7%. (See CCL stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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GHB was awarded new technology at the 2020 Blockchain Awards Ceremony - Yahoo Finance