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1 2017|HashCove
HashCove Annual Newsletter- 2016
Author HashCove Team
Date Feburary, 2017
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Contents Page
1. Executive Summary…………………………………………03
2. Bitcoin Growth………………………………………………04
3. Blockchain Evolution……………………………………......07
4. What may happen in 2017 and Beyond?.................................09
5. What are we reading?..............................................................10
6. Hashcove Company Overview………………………………12
7. uTrade/HashCove’s News, Blogs & Events.………….…......13
8. uTrade/HashCove’s Global Footprint...………………………14
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Executive Summary
Bitcoin Scaled & Blockchain started to go mainstream in 2016
2016 has been the year of ‘De-globalization’. Unfortunately, several developed countries’
citizens wrongly attributed their job losses (or lack of jobs growth) to immigration, instead of
automation. Brexit, the Trump victory and Demonetization in India made black swans a
normal occurrence. All these events also meant that people trusted their Governments less,
and decentralized technologies like Bitcoin more, hence pushing its value over $1000.
Geopolitical and Climate Change related challenges continued to mount and threaten social
order.
The future of Bitcoin remains uncertain due to the community’s lack of agreement on
issuing additional bitcoins, increasing the block size of bitcoins, and on improving mining
efficiencies. Besides, BitFinex and DAO had Bitcoin hacks equivalent of 100s of millions of
dollars, denting the confidence in Bitcoin. Though the hacks were due to poor
implementation of bitcoin wallets (and re-enforced the fact that one should not blindly
believe the open source systems). On a positive note, Bitcoin acceptance grew to 300,000
merchants worldwide, including Tesla Motors, EnY Switzerland, etc.
Amidst its challenges, Bitcoin’s underlying technology Blockchain has been gaining more
traction in 2016. Blockchain started to dominate as the latest and possibly the greatest
technology with huge potential in re-organizing world’s social economic order. There are
major developments across Blockchain open source platforms (like Etherium, Multichain, R3
Corda, IBM Hyperledger), which have led to an undesirable fragmentation at a very early
stage of Blockchain adoption. Blockchain applications across all sectors including Financial
Services, Healthcare, Identity management, etc. are moving gradually from Proof of Concept
to Minimum Viable products. In the next few years, we may embrace blockchain like we
started to adopt Internet in 1999.
Technology driven Automation showed us glimpses of what the future might bring. With the
evolution of driverless cars, virtual assistants, messaging bots, healthcare ATMs, 3D printing,
Artificial Intelligence; the future shall improve human lives dramatically; while at the same
time possibly imposing, social challenges including joblessness and high dependence on
technology usage.
Automation of platforms, and platforms interacting with platforms shall lead to the need for a
micro payment tokenized mechanism for sharing value among value creators.
2017 should be an eventful year for digital currencies and Blockchain technology in general.
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Bitcoin Growth
Economists and Thinkers have been debating the idea of “one world, one currency’ from the
past few decades. The idea is interesting, but hard to implement as bringing different
countries together on a common currency is highly political. Bitcoin somehow surmounted
the issue of bringing the Governments together, by going digital and borderless using
Blockchain. It got lucky that the governments of developed nations allowed it to grow slowly
for a while, to see what it may become. And its consensus model for deciding its future, as
well as operational mining process has worked well, so far. Bitcoin is the decentralized global
digital immutably audited currency that has been beautifully accepted by 300,000+ merchants
around the world within 7 years of its naissance. With miners (who validate bitcoin
transactions) owning ~10 times computing hardware of Google, 300,000+ daily transactions,
a single Bitcoin value increasing from few cents to $1000 in 6 years, and Bitcoin acting as a
hedge to people’s distrust among their own Governments; it has arguably been the invention
of the century so far. Read more for details of Bitcoin and its evolution here on Blog.
Bitcoin works as a currency, due to its limited supply (been decided to 21 million for now),
and its value evolves with the supply & demand and people’s faith in the decentralized
system.
Bitcoin’s acceptance around the world has been fragmented, as one would expect. While
developed countries like the US, the UK and Canada have broadly embraced Bitcoin,
developing countries like Bangladesh, Bolivia, Thailand have shown hostility towards
bitcoin. Countries like China which has the largest market for Bitcoin, recently stirred the
market when PBoC announced the investigate of the three biggest exchanges (BTCC, Huoboi
and OKcoin) on possible violations of legal operations and financing activities, after which
Bitcoin exchanges introduced trading fees and as a result the Bitcoin market witnessed
turbulence. After China and the UAE, Nigeria took a similar stance on Bitcoin after issuing a
warning to its financial institutions. Whereas in Russia, mining remains illegal but trading in
Bitcoin is not. India has not taken a firm formal stance yet, except declaring Bitcoin
transactions as speculative and risky.
Several countries do regulate the use of Bitcoin, for example, Bitcoin is being regulated under
AML and Counter Terrorist financing laws in Canada, which is a reasonable and acceptable
position on regulation of Bitcoin, in our opinion.
Bitcoin circulation has increased over a period of time. Now you can buy software from
Microsoft, a car from Tesla, get your company’s audit done from Ernst and Young (in
Switzerland), by using Bitcoins. More here on Blog
Bitcoin in its current form has some challenges too. Debates in the Bitcoin community have
emerged on how the Bitcoin platform should evolve: by increasing the number of Bitcoins,
block size, introducing efficient mining process, etc. These challenges have led to a surge in
other similar crypto currencies with variant enhancements in features and are slowly being
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accepted in the public communities, though Bitcoin clearly remains the most widely accepted
cryptocurrency.
In 2016, Bitcoin value acceptance by merchants and transactions grew as shown below
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Bitcoin growth has been dented by hacks on some Bitcoin platforms, which were primarily
poor implementations of Bitcoin wallet systems in DAO and BiFinex.
A twofold increase in the number of merchants accepting Bitcoin in 2016, has been a great
positive. Since Bitcoin’s popularity has increased, governments across the world are trying to
frame legal regulations on Bitcoin with both positive and conservative attitudes considering
the associated risks with Bitcoin exchange which may encourage criminal acts and violation
of money laundering acts, especially because bitcoins can be spent anonymously.
In 2017, we shall witness the evolution of Bitcoin in terms of its regulation across different
countries in the world.
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Blockchain Evolution
“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed”
Blockchain is a distributed and shared database - a digital tool for building trust among
people in creating and sharing information collaboratively, using an immutable consensus
model.
Its useful to re-visit the concept of Trust- we trust people, systems, and institutions, as we
want them to do something for us. In the current information age, we have started trusting
technology more than humans / human driven systems. For example, 10 years ago, we would
not have imagined to sleep at a stranger’s house, or ride in a stranger’s car; but now we do it
all the time with AirBnB and Uber. Blockchain is a technology that helps build trust among
people or institutions that do not know each other, without relying on anybody being in the
middle. Decentralization is the core theme of Blockchain. Rather than a single central
authority demanding trust and declaring: ‘I say this information is correct,’ we have the
distributed consensus of everyone in the chain, saying in unison: ‘we agree that this data is
correct”
Read here for the basics of Blockchain blog.
Blockchain has great potential for creating decentralized, immutable and collaborative
platforms for digital assets (like bitcoins), title to unique assets (like property, diamonds,
paintings), voting, identity management and even government functions. Read here on How
Government can regain trust by using Blockchain. Such applications have moved to Pilot
stage across the world at a very fast pace, and shall move to Minimum Viable Product(s) in
2017.
Bitcoin is the only major successful application on Blockchain so far. Unfortunately,
several other use cases / applications being tried on Blockchain are over-hyped and not very
relevant. They could and should be easily done on more mature shared database technologies
like SQL and Oracle. Read here for a blog on whether to use Blockchain or not, for your use-
case.
Several underlying Blockchain platforms have emerged; from Bitcoin (the original
blockchain platform behind Bitcoin), to Multichain (simplest to adapt and implement
platform), to Ethereum (primarily known and used for smart contracts, where conditional
logics can be implemented within the technology itself), to Hyperledger (supported by IBM).
Dozens of these underlying variable Blockchain platforms have led to undesirable
fragmentation at a very early stage of Blockchain adoption.
‘Smart contracts’ have been overly hyped with Blockchain technologies. A Smart contract is
essentially a software code, which can be stored within a Blockchain, triggered by
Blockchain transaction(s) and / or any external data, leading to specific actions as desired.
There are few challenges with this,
1. Contracts are usually more complex and varying in nature. You do not want to be
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changing the Blockchain code to enforce any changes, too often.
2. Smart contracts are not legally recognized in any jurisdiction yet.
3. Dealing with any wrong implementations shall be challenging
4. Any contract can be easily implemented outside the blockchain, and be changed
easily as per agreement with all parties.
Customer adoption for Blockchain platforms shall be built in time, primarily driven by the
core value created by the Blockchain app, rather than any hype. Blockchain is less useful for
institutions trying to build Blockchain apps for the sake of building them and centralizing
data control with them without having another second node for collaboration / consensus
building. To know more about why banks are using Blockchain, read here blog.
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What may happen in 2017 and Beyond?
➢ As Europe votes on its disintegration (or not), leading to higher volatility and rise in
Bitcoin value
➢ Bitcoin security protocols shall improve within the open source communities.
➢ Bitcoin can become a hedge to the global volatility. Bitcoin futures shall emerge too.
➢ Blockchain POCs shall graduate from Institutions to wider testing among consumers.
➢ Blockchain maybe used more for information management, creation and sharing, like
internet platforms, especially as users’ privacy gets better understood.
➢ Developing countries may frame regulations around Bitcoin trading considering it as
an asset or a currency, which would positively affect Bitcoin.
➢ The bubble of use-cases based on Blockchain technology shall start to die down to the
relevant ones.
➢ Some central banks may live test a digital fiat currency, leading to increased adoption.
➢ Voting based Blockchain technology would come into existence.
➢ Cryptocurrency may get injected into social media to get good incentives.
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What are we Reading?
➢ Reserve Bank of India Successfully Tests Blockchain Technology
➢ After Internet, it's Blockchain Internet 2.0
➢ RBI hasn't authorized use of Bitcoins; flags risks
➢ Nine in 10 Government execs plan to invest in Blockchain by 2018
➢ Former Fed employee fined $5,000 for using office computers for Bitcoin
➢ Rethinking Proof of work: The quest to 'improve' Bitcoin heats up
➢ Washington State liquor & Cananbis Board Ok with Bitcoin for Pot
➢ Julian Assange just read out a Bitcoin Block hash to prove he was alive
➢ Bitcoin's Network Hash rate has Doubled Since October
➢ The Israeli tax authority has put forward a draft tax guideline on Bitcoin
➢ Korea's Central Bank considers 'supernode' for Blockchain oversight
➢ IBM Blockchain to help address KYC issues for Banks
➢ High-Speed Traders are taking over Bitcoin
➢ Automated, high-speed Chinese Traders Dominate Bitcoin trading
➢ Steemit to offer native mobile Apps among other 2017 upgrades
➢ Iris Automation raises $1.5 million to help drones sense and avoid obstacles
➢ The reason behind Japan's Bitcoin Binge
➢ A Rude Awakening for Blockchain's dreamers
➢ Blockchain for Healthcare
➢ Probably aliens sending us signals
➢ Robots will replace doctors, lawyers and other professional
➢ Netherland Government gets the power of Open Source - mandates open standards
➢ Before the Flood - a movie on climate change
➢ When you miss the biggest investment opportunities as a VC.
➢ India-will-be-late-by-50-years-in-achieving-education-goals-Unesco
➢ US exchanges seek Blockchain regulation
➢ WHO says-90%-world-breathing-polluted-air
➢ Air Pollution costs India 8.5% of its GDP (We reckon this GDP loss due to air
pollution is much higher, we shall publish our own research in 2017)
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➢ Why a good enough Product Manager is not Good Enough
➢ Microsoft-hololens - future of computing
➢ Silicon-valley-has-an-empathy-vacuum - highly recommended read on social
responsibility of tech platforms
➢ Flipkart - Ola seek Govt protectionism against foreign rivals - Uber - Amazon
➢ Winter got colder for Indian startups - Flipkart marked down to $5bn (from $15bn 2
years ago)
➢ Telemedicine makes healthcare accessible (we are also doing something interesting in
this space, more to follow in 2017)
➢ Perfect-code-is-an-illusion
➢ Poison on your plate - quality of food in India
➢ Gotta love the guts and marketing here Slack took-out-a-full-page-ad-in-the-new-
york-times-to-welcome-its-new-competitor - Microsoft
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Hashcove Company Overview
HashCove is a Blockchain Solutions Company that builds products and services around
Blockchain technology, for its clients.
At HashCove, we help our clients
➢ Evaluate whether their use-case needs blockchain technology or not ➢ Design and prototype the solution ➢ Build the full product
HashCove’s Blockchain solutions include
KYChain
KYChain is a KYC platform with mobile and web driven interfaces for clients to upload their
documents and share them securely with any institutions, primarily for KYC purposes.
Institutions can also contribute to the data of the users based on permissions.
uClear
uClear is a Blockchain based clearing solution for real time clearing and settlement. It allows
for any exchange-matching engine to clear trades post execution through a private
blockchain, across equities and futures, with real time risk management, reporting and other
financial transfer instructions.
HashDegree
HashDegree allows for the issuance of any digital documents on a blockchain, so the
validation of authenticity of the documents is efficient and secure. The documents can be
certificates like the university degrees on blockchain as well as in print format. The digital
issuance allows for verification of the documents digitally within seconds. It takes away all
the slow, expensive and physical verifications done by various institutions, corporate and
universities.
HashCove is the Blockchain arm of uTrade Solutions, a Capital Markets trading technology
company providing multi-asset trading platform, algorithms and risk management solutions
for global financial institutions.
uTrade Solutions was recognized as a leading innovative fin-tech start-up by:
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uTrade/HashCove News, Blogs and Events
➢ Bitcoin / Blockchain Overview by Hashcove team YouTube Link
➢ Why do Banks use blockchain Blog
➢ uTrade and Object trading partner for global market access
➢ uTrade interview on CNBC around how HFT benefits retail investors CNBC
Interview CNBC Interview
➢ Can-governments-use-blockchain-to-be-more-efficient-and-regain-public-trust?
➢ Hashcove - KYChain on Blockchain
➢ How start-ups are using blockchain tech for KYC verification financial security?
➢ Blockchain sets its sights on the OTC market Treasury Today UK
➢ Hashcove / uTrade partner with Israel based blockchain platform - Multichain
➢ uTrade ships blockchain clearing platform to GMEX, UK Finextra
➢ Demystifying blockchain Business world
➢ uTrade brings bitcoin tech to market | The Hindu Business Line
➢ How to identify and avoid a Kodak failure moment Blog
➢ Future of Bitcoin Blog
More available at
➢ http://www.utradesolutions.com/newsroom.html
➢ http://hashcove.com/newsroom.html
➢ http://kunalonfintech.com/
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Hashcove and uTrade’s Global Footprint (Client Presence)
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Disclaimer
This information is intended for sharing the news coverage, independent opinions around the markets, product
details, for the purpose of information sharing or potential partnership opportunity. The information shall not
be distributed or used by any person or entity in any jurisdiction or countries where such distribution or use
would be contrary to the applicable laws or Regulations. It is advised that prior to acting upon this information,
independent consultation / advice may be obtained and necessary due diligence, investigation etc. may be done
at the user’s end. You may also contact us directly for any questions or clarifications. All statements regarding
the future are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, and many factors may lead to actual profits or losses
& developments deviating substantially from what has been expressed or implied in such statements.
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Solutions.