Hype and hubris

More from our Year in Review series; Ripio funding; Kraken adds Monero; new sector research; UAE blockchain healthcare View this email in your browser January 4th, 2017 "Reality is frequently inaccurate." – Douglas Adams Got this from a friend? SUBSCRIBE HERE In our Year in Review series, Professor Ferdinando Ametrano, former blockchain lead at Intesa Sanpaolo, pokes holes in the blockchain hype of 2016, and argues that the current approach to blockchain and digital ledger technology (DLT) applications is impractical.   He contends that the current focus misses the main point: bitcoin and the blockchain are more than a new technology, they are a paradigm shift based on decentralization. The trend towards centralized services to harness their advantages, he argues, is "ludicrous".   Furthermore, Ferdinando is bewildered by the lack of focus on bitcoin as digital gold, but does concede that some central bankers have started to fear bitcoin's relevance. He points out that while bitcoin still has some scalability and fungibility issues to solve, the ethereum failures have ironically helped to clarify bitcoin's development path.   Ferdinando believes that 2017 will still see more blockchain-without-token and smart contract hype, but is certain that by 2018, bitcoin's role as an alternative to money will usher in new global economic and trade systems. (You can see more of our 2016 in Review series HERE.)   Read the whole story Tweet Share Ethereum went through some major changes last year. And this year looks like it will be even more interesting.   Hudson Jameson of the Ethereum Foundation will give a talk at CONSTRUCT, our invite-only developer conference in San Francisco, USA on January 30-31. He'll be joined by other senior engineers and industry leaders, in a unique gathering of the minds behind recent innovation and upcoming updates. Come take a look with us at where the sector is going. 😎 APPLY TO ATTEND 😎 Wait, there's more: A $2,000 Bitcoin (and 9 Other 2017 Blockchain Predictions) *Year in Review*: Ajit Tripathi, director of fintech and digital at PwC, offers his blockchain predictions for 2017. He believes that by the end of the year a central bank will have put cash on a blockchain, at least one supply chain blockchain will go live, and the privacy issue will have been solved. He also argues that many bitcoin startups will close, blockchain will lose its hype, and project will start to coalesce around a limited number of private blockchain systems. Read more. Preparing for Blockchain Regulation in the Post-Obama Era *Year in Review*: Compliance expert Juan Llanos looks back on 2016 as a "gap" year for blockchain regulation. While there has been activity from both law enforcement and supervisory bodies, he points out, there have been few pronouncements from regulators. While predicting the policy direction of the Trump administration is difficult, the author does believe that change is likely, and may come in the form of a "laissez-faire" stance. Read more. Kraken Adds Anonymous Cryptocurrency Monero Digital currency exchange Kraken has added Monero to its list of traded currencies. The privacy-oriented cryptocurrency has been gaining traction over the past year in dark net marketplaces, but has until now not traded on most of the major exchanges. Read more.   Greenwich: Blockchain Projects Will Move to 'Production' in 2017 Market intelligence firm Greenwhich Associates has released a new report on market structure trends, in which it predicts that blockchain projects will move to 'production' in 2017. The report also reminds readers of the potential value of digital currency. Read more.   India's Yes Bank Builds Blockchain for Vendor Financing India's Yes Bank has built a blockchain-based solution for vendor financing. Based on Hyperledger, the system was built for consumer electrical equipment manufacturer Bajaj Electricals to digitize how it transacts with clients, reducing the need for physical documents and manual intervention. Read more.   BitPagos Raises $1.9 Million in Funding, Rebrands as Ripio Argentinian bitcoin startup Ripio (previously BitPagos) has raised $1.9m in Series A funding, in a round led by Huiyin Blockchain Venture. Other participants included Boost VC, Digital Currency Group and Draper VC. The company plans to raise an additional $400,000 in funding over the next 90 days via AngelList, bringing its total funding to $2.3m. Read more. Mobile Telco Du Reveals New Blockchain Healthcare Partnership UAE telco enterprise Du will partner with the area's largest private healthcare provider NMC Healthcare to put electronic health records on the blockchain. Developed in partnership with Guardtime, the project is expected to be completed in early 2018. Read more. BBVA: Blockchain Regulation Needs to Move Beyond Bitcoin Spanish banking group BBVA has released a new research report on bitcoin and blockchain regulation. The note argues that more regulation is needed to oversee blockchain enterprise use cases, but that the youth of the technology makes this complicated to address. Read more.    Go to CoinDesk BTC: $1,088.39 +6.8%  ETH: $10.61 +19.2% @10:00 EST - More price details PRESS RELEASES   03, Jan - Press Release: Diginomics Announces Rootstock Programming Course 28, Dec - Press Release: P2P Exchange Just Got Better with new player Remitano 22, Dec - Press Release: Avanquest Software Launches AQ Rewards App Powered by Blockchain Technology 2017 seems to be off to an intense start. As well as increasing coverage and improving our web, we'd like to continue to improve our emails. Is there anything you'd particularly like to see? Anything you think we should get rid of? We'd love your comments. Just hit "Reply" and drop us a line. Share Tweet Copyright © 2017 CoinDesk, All rights reserved. You're receiving this email because you subscribed for updates on our website. Our mailing address is: CoinDesk 636 Avenue of the Americas New York City, NY 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? 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