hashcove · developing countries may frame regulations around bitcoin trading considering it as an...

17
1 2017|HashCove HashCove Annual Newsletter- 2016 Author HashCove Team Date Feburary, 2017

Upload: others

Post on 08-Jun-2020

4 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: HashCove · 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

1 2017|HashCove

HashCove Annual Newsletter- 2016

Author HashCove Team

Date Feburary, 2017

Page 2: HashCove · 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

2 2017|HashCove

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

Page 3: HashCove · 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

3 2017|HashCove

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.

Page 4: HashCove · 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

4 2017|HashCove

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

Page 5: HashCove · 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

5 2017|HashCove

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

Page 6: HashCove · 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

6 2017|HashCove

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.

Page 7: HashCove · 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

7 2017|HashCove

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

Page 8: HashCove · 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

8 2017|HashCove

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.

Page 9: HashCove · 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

9 2017|HashCove

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.

Page 10: HashCove · 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

10 2017|HashCove

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)

Page 11: HashCove · 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

11 2017|HashCove

➢ 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

Page 12: HashCove · 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

12 2017|HashCove

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:

Page 13: HashCove · 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

13 2017|HashCove

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/

Page 14: HashCove · 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

14 2017|HashCove

Hashcove and uTrade’s Global Footprint (Client Presence)

Page 15: HashCove · 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

15 2017|HashCove

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.

Page 16: HashCove · 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

16 2017|HashCove

Page 17: HashCove · 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

17 2017|HashCove

Solutions.