Blockchain Journal: Recent Episodes
Blockchain Journal
The world's leading source of information for enterprises and businesses looking to use blockchain as an application platform for digital transformation, business innovation, customer engagement, and industry disruption.
From NFT.NYC 2024 in New York City, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Sam Whitaker, the founder of Quixotish, a newly launched startup focused on the usage of blockchain to drive the success of charities and non-profits. Given how Blockchain Journal is focused on implementations of blockchain meant to drive new or improved business outcomes for big brands and enterprises, Quixotish's first customer – St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – caught David's eye as one of the most well-known non-profits on the planet. During the interview, Whitaker explains how Quixotish's novel blockchain-based approach to driving charitable donations works. The general idea, as Whitaker describes it, is for a charity like St. Jude to curate donations of valuable blockchain-based assets (e.g., NFTs) and then for the charity to conduct an auction where those assets are sold on the secondary market with the proceeds flowing to St. Judes as fiat currency. On the surface, it sounds pretty simple. But it's also important for donors to know that when they're dealing with a relatively anonymized address on a blockchain, that address actually belongs to the intended charity. In other words, it can be a bit more complicated than it sounds. To ensure accountability, Whitaker highlights the steps he took with St. Jude, including the video recording of wallet setup sessions involving St. Jude representatives and the subsequent publication of these videos on Quixotish's platforms. The interview touches upon the significance of St. Jude's reputation and operational scale, framing it as the "Google" or "Apple" of the charity world, given the charity's multi-million dollar daily cash flow. Whitaker underscores the hospital's commitment to providing free care to children and openly sharing its research. Towards the end, Whitaker discusses the practical aspects of the auction, including its timing and accessibility to both crypto and fiat currency users by virtue of St. Jude's reliance on a combined NFT marketplace and custodial wallet solution from Magic Eden. By supporting crypto users across a long list of public blockchains as well as non-crypto users who prefer to deal in fiat currencies like the US dollar, he underscores the initiative's inclusivity, welcoming participation from individuals regardless of their familiarity with blockchain technology.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-quixotish-is-helping-st-jude-charity-raise-money-blockchain-technologyThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHr3gx8Jy78
Keith Miller, a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm, joins BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind on the Blockchain Journal podcast during the NFT.NYC conference in New York City. As law firms go, Perkins Coie is well-known for its expertise in technology and has been involved in blockchain since 2012. During the interview, Miller recounts his journey into the space, representing early exchanges and navigating major crypto cases involving the SEC, such as Library (LBRY) and Ripple. But the conversation quickly turns to the current day environment where American businesses are hesitant to move forward with their blockchain plans so long as there's a chance they could end up on the wrong side of a law that hasn't even been written yet.Today, Miller and other members of the Perkins Coie team help the law firm's clients figure out how to move forward with their blockchain innovations, given the significant regulatory uncertainty in the United States. While some states have passed blockchain-specific laws, the US Congress has made virtually no headway in terms of drafting such laws at the Federal level. This situation leaves government agencies such as the SEC, the CFTC, and the IRS to rely on existing laws (laws that were drafted before blockchain existed) to guide their regulatory activities when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Against the backdrop of that lack of regulatory clarity, Miller discusses the challenges facing organizations in the evolving crypto landscape and advises organizations against the idea of engaging in projects solely for fast profits. Highlighting recent cases involving NFTs, Miller stressed the need for organizations to develop a clearly articulated business purpose for their NFT ventures (implying that making a quick buck off primary market sales of NFTs is likely to attract the attention of regulators looking to carry out their next enforcement). The conversation delves into the role of the SEC in fostering innovation amidst its primary objectives of investor protection, capital formation, and market integrity. Miller suggests that regulatory clarity is necessary for innovation to thrive, expressing skepticism about imminent changes from the SEC without Congressional intervention. The current highly tribalistic political divide is further complicating the regulatory landscape, potentially hindering progress when it comes to blockchain legislation. And, so long as the laws are slow in coming, organizations would be remiss not to seek the input of legal experts to help them strike the right balance between blockchain innovation and federal enforcement trends.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/given-regulatory-uncertainties-businesses-should-seek-experienced-legal-input-blockchainThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XST_RfApG1Q
During the NFT.NYC 2024 Conference in New York City, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed Jonathan G. Blanco, CEO and founder of Niftmint. The two discussed the evolution of his company and the challenges facing enterprises in the realm of tokenization. According to Blanco, Niftmint's namesake service is a blockchain-based tokenization platform that, among other things, allows organizations to offer digital versions or "twins" of their physical products to customers in a way that seamlessly integrates into existing non-blockchain e-commerce platforms. NFT-based strategies that involve this sort of "digital twinning" are referred to as "phygital" strategies.One key feature of the platform that could appeal to businesses is that brands and customers do not have to transact with one another using cryptocurrencies in a way that's typical of many blockchain-based solutions. While Niftmint manages the crypto-specific nuances of using blockchain in the background, organizations and customers can transact with one another using fiat currency like the US dollar.In the interview, Blanco explains the use case for tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), particularly in the context of luxury brands like high fashion manufacturers. He explains how brands can offer customers NFT-based digital twins of the physical items they buy, thereby enhancing the consumer's overall brand experience and potentially mitigating issues like counterfeit products where the digital twin can serve as a blockchain-based (and therefore cryptographically secured) Certificate of Authenticity. But certificates of authenticity are simply one advantage of pairing individual NFTs with their real world counterparts. As Blanco explains, once a physical product is paired with something like an NFT that's programmable, all sorts of new experiences and business process efficiencies can be tied to that inventory item in a way that benefits manufacturers, marketers, consumers, and other product ecosystem stakeholders (wholesalers, retailers, etc). Blanco was a speaker at NFT.NYC, and in his presentation, he argued that current trends in artificial intelligence are driving a significant amount of distrust in the provenance of content and physical goods and that blockchain-based tokenization of both is the most obvious solution. As a result of AI, Blanco predicts a future where consumers will shift their spending to only those physical and digital products that involve a digital guarantee of provenance.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/risks-posed-ai-could-drive-consumer-demand-blockchaintokenized-physical-and-digital-waresThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_BEGXQU6xI
From the NFT.NYC 2024 conference, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind checks in with Unstoppable Domains COO Sandy Carter to learn about the unique value proposition of Web3 domains over the plain old internet domains that most Web users and internet destinations are familiar with. Unstoppable Domains is both an internet registry and an internet registrar. According to Carter, perhaps the biggest and most noticeable change from legacy domains to Web3 domains is that legacy domains are essentially for rent. They must be renewed by the registrant on a periodic basis. Meanwhile, Web3 domains are owned. But, according to Carter, there are additional advantages to Web3 domains over their legacy counterpartsAnother major challenge associated with legacy domains acquired through legacy registrars is how the internet domain itself (i.e., abc.com) cannot verifiably represent anything about the individual or organization that owns the domain. For example, whereas a Web3 domain can behave as a digital proxy for an entity's identity, credentials, education, personal or organizational profiles, and other information that might be useful to the automation of certain business processes, legacy domains have no such inherent capability. Referring to how today's social networks are often the repositories of this personal and organizational information, Carter refers to this capability to associate that data directly with an internet domain the "LinkedIn for Web3." However, whereas most entity-specific data that are kept with a social network is discoverable based on a user's global security settings (ie, "friends only"), the different types of identifiable information associated with a Web3 domain can be individually and optionally shared in an infinite number of specific (and non-global) contexts.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/blockchainbased-internet-domains-are-linkedin-web3-says-unstoppable-coo-sandy-carterThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV1A0CZOYXA
Blockchain Journal Customer Journey Analyst Sophie Maxx Waldman joins BCJ editor-in-chief David Berlind at the NFT.NYC blockchain conference for a conversation about the buzz at the event and how the death of the NFT-based Starbucks Odyssey customer engagement and loyalty program impacted her as both a program user and a Starbucks customer. Sophie has written about her experiences with the Odyssey program multiple times, and not only was she sad to see the program – one of the most visible of its kind in the world – come to an end, but Starbucks' termination of Odyssey raises questions about the viability of such NFT programs for other global brands. What went right? What went wrong? What does it mean for other global brands looking into NFTs to drive new or improved business outcomes? How might Starbucks take some of the learnings from the Odyssey program and incorporate them into its existing Rewards program (one of the largest and most visible customer loyalty programs in the world)? As David and Sophie point out, Starbucks tried pretty much everything in the book to make the program work. It integrated augmented reality into several of the user "journeys." It relied on NFTs to provide exclusive token-gated experiences. It rewarded program members with NFTs for repeat purchases and sampling new coffees. It gamified certain elements of the program including its Discord-based community center. But despite Odyssey's success at transforming traditional loyalty programs into immersive, social, and gamified experiences while at the same time fostering deeper customer connections with the brand, the program was still scuttled.As Sophie and David discuss, one challenge faced by Starbucks and other brands entering the NFT space might have to do with the lack of a pre-existing collectible culture. They discuss how NFT initiatives from brands like Nike and Adidas were able to leverage collectibility as a key feature of the pre-blockchain sneakerhead culture (for which no Starbucks corollary existed). Lack of any mojo on the collectibility front wasn't the only issue with the Odyssey program. But it's one of several industry and brand-specific nuances that must be taken into consideration before launching an NFT strategy.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/starbucks-scuttles-odyssey-one-worlds-most-visible-big-brand-blockchain-projectsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2F1QcFrhnc
In a recent interview at the NFT.NYC conference in Manhattan, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind chats with Nicola Sebastiani, Chief Content Officer of The Sandbox. The Sandbox is a Roblox/Minecraft-style metaverse platform where pretty much all of the assets within, including the land itself, are blockchain-based NFTs that can be bought, sold, and traded on the secondary market. While much of the user experience found within The Sandbox is gamified (similar to that of Roblox and Minecraft), the virtual world platform is actually capable of a diverse range of experiences in music, entertainment, and B2C engagement thus serving as a vehicle for big brands and enterprises to launch their own metaverse experiences.Sebastiani emphasized The Sandbox's unique proposition as a metaverse provider, enabling brands to create their own immersive experiences within a branded virtual world. Through partnerships and Sandbox-specific tools like Game Maker and VoxEdit, The Sandbox empowers brands to build tailored experiences, whether it's gaming, virtual concerts, learning environments, or museums. These experiences are interconnected within The Sandbox's metaverse, allowing users to travel from one brand's virtual experience to another completely unrelated experience without much friction. Blockchain technology plays a pivotal role in The Sandbox ecosystem, with virtual land, avatars, and assets being represented as NFT tokens. Additionally, The Sandbox facilitates occasional primary land sales within the platform (of which there will be a finite number), leaving secondary market transactions to occur externally on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Notable brands like Gucci, Warner Music, and The Walking Dead are among the 400 entities already leveraging The Sandbox's metaverse for immersive experiences.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/sandbox-metaverse-pretty-much-everything-including-limited-parcels-land-is-an-nftThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSuZW936qlY
While covering the NFT.NYC 2024 Conference in New York City, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind caught up with Mojito CEO Raakhee Miller, who, for nearly two years, has been talking about the idea that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are the "new cookies." David first heard her talking about the idea in 2022 at the Consensus Conference in Austin, Texas. But when it comes to the role of browser cookies as a means for brands and media sites to maintain intimate connectivity with their customers and users, the technical utility of the cookie is facing more significant headwinds than ever.This erosion of the cookie's utility is largely attributable to three trends: native and third-party ad-blocking technology for web browsers (which can be configured to block cookies as well), the prevalence of cookie consent forms that give web users the power to reject specific cookies, and the recent announcement by Google that it's disabling support for third party cookies in Chrome. Cookies are literally on their way "out," which begs the question of how that connection can be reformulated in a way that does a better job of respecting privacy than cookies ever did.Enter NFTs and the idea that the NFT is the new cookie. In the interview, Miller emphasizes how NFTs can offer some of the utility of the cookie while at the same time, relying on the principles of decentralized ownership of data and user sovereignty to give customers more control than they had with cookies. Drawing parallels to the cookie, Miller explained how NFTs enable brands to engage with consumers both online and offline, fostering a more transparent and consent-driven ecosystem.Miller also discussed Mojito's role in helping businesses navigate this transition, providing both strategic consulting and technological solutions to integrate Web3 principles into existing marketing strategies.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/wait-what-blockchains-nfts-are-new-cookies-mojitos-raakhee-miller-explainsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoIY0Y-RdRg
In this fascinating bit of tribal storytelling, BlockhainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Will Entriken, the lead author of the NFT standard (technically referred to as the ERC-721 specification) at the NFT.NYC conference in New York City.Entriken is a pivotal figure in the history and development of blockchain-based NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Without his Herculean efforts, the ERC-721 spec as it's known today might not even exist. The same might be said for the current process of ratifying any ERC spec. ERC stands for "Ethereum Request for Comments," a phrase and community-driven consensus process that harkens back to the time-tested RFC (Requests for Comments) process used by the Internet Engineering Task Force to set standards for Internet protocols like the Transmission Control Protocol (the "TCP" part of "TCP/IP"). During the interview, Entriken describes how an entire open source political, deliberation, and development process had to be scaffolded before a standard like ERC-721 could be brought across the finish line. That scaffolding went on to benefit other ERCs, the standards that sit behind the Ethereum public blockchain and that are often used as the basis for the standard specs found on other blockchains. Entriken explains how his history of working at Google on Linux-related open source projects prepared him for the role he played in establishing a standard process for ERC ratification while applying that process to the ERC-721 spec for NFTs. Entriken didn't just play a pivotal role in the development of the ERC process and 721 spec – he is the first to very humbly give credit to others who were involved in the work. He was also the first to mint an ERC-721 compliant NFT under the name "Su Squares." As the conversation progressed, Entriken and David explored the diverse applications of NFTs beyond the realm of art and collectibles. They discussed how NFTs could revolutionize supply chain transparency, corporate accountability, and consumer trust. Entriken emphasized that while NFTs serve as the underlying technology, the true value lies in the principles they embody, such as transparency, authenticity, and verifiability.Looking towards the future, Entriken outlined a vision where NFTs seamlessly integrate into commonplace transactions, becoming as ubiquitous as the databases that currently underpin many daily interactions. Much the same way we don't talk about how databases are integral to our everyday lives, he envisions a shift away from a conversation about NFTs as they transition into a somewhat hidden infrastructural role. Of course, for this to be true about NFTs, it must also be true of blockchain as well.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/lead-author-nft-standard-predicts-nfts-will-melt-fabric-our-everyday-livesThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygg7WcAcj1o
During the NFT.NYC 2024 Conference in New York, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews one of the speakers at the event: Marc Baumann, founder of FiftyOne Ventures and Dematerialzd.xyz. Baumann is well-known for his opinionated analyses regarding the NFT-based customer loyalty and engagement programs operated by some of the world's biggest brands. The discussion delves into the evolution of NFT use cases, which famously (or infamously, depending on your point of view) began with collectible digital images. Baumann responds to David's questions with a walk down memory lane, examining the past and current NFT landscapes, and eventually ends with some predictions about some of the more nuanced use cases, focusing on tangible business outcomes.Baumann identifies four key verticals where NFTs are making waves in business applications. The first, tokenization and phygitals, involves the 1:1 marriage of physical items with their digital counterparts on-chain, often facilitated by near-field communication (NFC) chips. According to Baumann, this results in myriad possibilities for post-purchase activations and direct consumer engagement, such as unlocking rewards or exclusive experiences tied to the possession of specific products. Baumann talks about how physical items become proxies for their digital counterparts and vice versa, paving the way towards the idea of token-gating, a fusion of the physical and digital realms where either "twin" grants the holder exclusive, "velvet rope" style access to real or virtual world (a.k.a. "metaverse") customer journeys. Baumann also leans into loyalty and rewards, community and commerce, and data insights as the other three key verticals. Baumann emphasizes the need for brands to move beyond the allure of NFTs as standalone collectibles and instead focus on solving real business problems, creating value for consumers, and generating measurable ROI. Baumann and David spend a fair amount of time discussing the history of the recently scuttled Starbucks Odyssey NFT program as a bit of a stain on the NFT landscape. This leaves open the question of how, if a big brand like Starbucks can't make NFTs work, what enterprise can? This brings the discussion full circle back to the challenges associated with collectibility (one of the main features of the Odyssey program).To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/dematerialzd-researcher-marc-baumann-discusses-post-starbucks-business-value-nfts-nftnycThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV2ZBY7vuOk
In an interview conducted at the NFT.NYC conference in New York, David Berlind engages in a conversation with Amy Kalnoki, the COO and co-founder of Bitwave. Bitwave is essentially an accounting solution that bridges the gap between an organization's traditional financial recordkeeping systems (e.g., NetSuite, Quickbooks, etc.) and its implementations of blockchain. The net effect, Kalnoki claims, is an automated consolidation of all financials (fiat and cryptocurrency) into one single source of truth in a way that's designed to simplify both financial recordkeeping and tax compliance. This arrangement overcomes the inability of traditional financial systems to cope with the complexities of cryptocurrency recordkeeping. Creating a single source of truth when public blockchains are involved is a highly nuanced process. Different organizations engage with different public blockchains for a variety of applications that involve different financial patterns. For example, whereas some organizations transact in certain cryptocurrencies as a part of their e-commerce workflows, other organizations rely on a public blockchain for non-payment-related applications that require crypto-based payment of a blockchain's service fees. In those and other use cases, organizations end up keeping some amount of crypto in their treasuries, and the tax implications connected to that activity are non-trivial. According to Kalnoki, it's not just fungible token activity that businesses must keep an eye on. Now, with businesses increasingly discovering the transformative power of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to drive new or improved business outcomes – Kalnoki cites ticketing and gaming as two such applications – trying to track all blockchain-related financials using extemporaneous methods is not an option (which explains why Kalnoki was speaking at a conference about NFTs). The conversation shifts to regulatory challenges, focusing on IRS regulation 6050I, which aims to treat crypto transactions over $10,000 as cash equivalents, necessitating detailed reporting. It's a rare example of where a small shred of regulatory clarity exists such that businesses (and solution providers like Bitwave) can work with blockchain in observance of certain legal guardrails. But a dearth of such regulatory clarity is still problematic for most American businesses. As the gears of blockchain law and policy-making have essentially ground to a halt in Washington, DC, organizations are holding, back on their blockchain applications for fear of waking up one morning on the wrong side of the law. Kalnoki acknowledges the need for more clarity in order to foster compliance and, ultimately, innovation. Finally, Kalnoki invites viewers to attend Bitwave's Enterprise Digital Assets Summit in Nashville (July 2024), where the conversation will address the challenges and solutions to business adoption of blockchain amid regulatory uncertainty.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/bitwave-looks-ease-accounting-complexities-arise-enterprise-adoption-nftsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nHeqppkXa8For information about Bitcoin2024, please visit:https://bitcoin2024.b.tc/2024
In this interview, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind and Cody Carbone, Chief Policy Officer at The Digital Chamber, discuss the myriad regulatory challenges in the blockchain and crypto space, particularly within the United States. But first, Carbone discusses The Digital Chamber's new rebranding (it was formerly named "The Chamber of Digital Commerce"), emphasizing its role in advocating for clear and common-sense laws and regulations for blockchain and cryptocurrency-related technologies. The conversation delves into the hurdles faced by enterprises due to the lack of regulatory clarity and how that sort of legal uncertainty stifles innovation. Carbone notes that many companies are hesitant to adopt blockchain technology due to the confusion between blockchain and crypto in policymaking circles. He stresses the importance of distinguishing between the two and educating both lawmakers and enterprise decision-makers on the broader applications of blockchain beyond the usage and trading of cryptocurrencies. During the interview, Carbone acknowledges the lack of significant progress over the past decade when it comes to blockchain-related lawmaking. When David asks if that lack of progress is due to the politics rather than the merits and risks of the technology, Carbone feels as though blockchain regulation is still not yet influenced by such partisanship. But at the same time, he warns that there won't be much progress for the remainder of 2024, given that it's an election year. Carbone is optimistic that the real progress will finally come once the election in November is over. The interview concludes with a mention of the DC Blockchain Summit (May 15, 2024), where lawmakers, regulators, and industry leaders will gather to advance the regulatory conversation surrounding blockchain and cryptocurrency while also educating the many stakeholders on the technology's nuanced benefits.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/digital-chambers-cody-carbone-predicts-breakthroughs-us-crypto-lawmaking-after-electionThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs7R2n3YBswFor information about the DC Blockchain Summit, please visit:https://dcblockchainsummit.com/
In an interview during a Boston Blockchain Association event at the US Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind speaks with Hester Peirce, one of five commissioners at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).Peirce first clarifies the SEC's mission, emphasizing its focus on protecting investors, fostering capital formation, and maintaining market integrity. She highlights the distinction between the SEC and other regulatory bodies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and stresses the importance of understanding the various regulatory frameworks to which businesses operating in the blockchain space are legally beholden. Those frameworks could involve local, state, and federal government organizations in the US as well as other government agencies in international jurisdictions.As the discussion progresses, Peirce addresses concerns about the slow pace of regulatory developments in the crypto space, acknowledging the complexities that businesses face when it comes to achieving their blockchain ambitions at a time when legal clarity has yet to take form. Although she encourages caution while operating amid such regulatory uncertainty, she encourages engagement with regulators while advocating for a lighter regulatory hand when it comes to oversight of cryptocurrency and blockchain (a personally held belief that has informally earned her the nickname "Crypto Mom" in some industry circles). Peirce also delves into the potential applications of blockchain beyond cryptocurrency, and David asks about the possibility of blockchain's role in emissions data tracking, given the SEC's recent regulatory announcements regarding the disclosure of such data. Peirce was not in favor of those new regulations.In response to David's questions about regulating blockchain and cryptocurrency on separate regulatory tracks, Peirce agrees with the need to take a more nuanced approach as opposed to painting blockchain (the platform) and cryptocurrency (an application that runs on that platform) with the same brush. Peirce emphasizes the importance of balancing regulatory oversight with market-driven solutions, hinting at the potential of self-regulation. Overall, the interview sheds light on the SEC's stance on blockchain regulation and underscores the need for collaboration between industry stakeholders and regulators to foster innovation while ensuring investor protection.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/sec-commissioner-hester-peirce-we-need-a-more-nuanced-approach-regulating-crypto-andThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2l5F0kq4sFor information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this special edition of the Blockchain Journal Podcast, Blockchain Journal brings you a recording of a "fireside chat" involving Boston Blockchain Association (BBA) Chair Doug Mehne and Commissioner Hester Peirce of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A key focus of their conversation was Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), their recent (January 2024) approval by the SEC, and the extraordinary amount of time it took for the SEC to finally clear the way for the ETFs to reach investors. At the time of publication, there were 11 such ETFs available on the public markets in the US. Peirce is regretful about the time it took and suggested that she might have taken a different approach had she known back in 2018 what she knows now. It's important to keep in mind that Peirce is one of five commissioners who vote on regulatory matters at the SEC and that she does not bear sole responsibility for the passage of any regulation at the SEC, crypto or otherwise.Among the many topics they discuss, Peirce is keenly aware of the degree to which the lack of regulatory clarity when it comes to cryptocurrency and blockchain is causing American firms to hesitate with their innovations. She cited the ten-year period that elapsed between 2014, when ShapeShift AG first enabled crypto investors to trade certain cryptocurrencies for other cryptos, and 2023, when the SEC finally closed the books on its enforcement action against the Switerland-based company (for acting as an unregistered dealer of securities). Peirce noted how, even if it's through precedent enforcements of the sort that the SEC took against ShapeShift, ten years was too long to establish such precedents as legal guardrails for other American innovators to observe. It gave other crypto-permissive international jurisdictions an opportunity to not only establish a technological lead over the US but also to foreclose on participation by US companies. Despite her concerns, Peirce feels there is still time for the US to catch up.An introduction from Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind precedes Blockchain Journal's special presentation of the BBA's fireside chat.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/us-sec-commissioner-peirce-says-its-not-too-late-us-catch-blockchain-innovationThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slFqO_JL-CMFor information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this video, filmed during a special Boston Blockchain Association (BBA) event at the US Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief interviews Bitwise president Teddy Fusaro to learn more about the impact of the January 2024 US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision to approve of Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). At the time of the publication of this interview (March 2024), Bitwise was one of only 11 different organizations offering Bitcoin ETFs as a financial product. According to Fusaro, Bitwise is an asset management company focused exclusively on cryptocurrency-based offerings.The conversation delved into the concept of ETFs and their accessibility to both professional and retail investors who, as a result of the SEC's decision, no longer need a crypto wallet to invest in Bitcoin (nor do they need to work with a cryptocurrency exchange). Fusaro talks about the significance of that single structural change as well as ETFs as pooled investment vehicles traded on public exchanges such as NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.David asks Fusaro about other Bitcoin ETF issuers (Fidelity and iShares are mentioned) and what the differences are from one Bitcoin ETF to another. The two also discuss the possibility that an ETF for Ether (a.k.a. ETH), the protocol token for the Ethereum public blockchain, might be next in line for SEC approval.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/bitwise-president-teddy-fusaro-discusses-dynamics-bitcoin-exchange-traded-funds-etfseThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS30cemroJoFor information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this podcast, recorded on February 16th, 2024, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Boston Blockchain Association (BBA) Chairman Doug Mehne during a special event at the downtown Boston campus of Suffolk University. Mehne discusses the BBA's plans for 2024, highlighting its focus on institutional adoption, regulatory clarity, and educational initiatives. The conversation delves into the BBA's upcoming events, including a March 11, 2024, panel discussion featuring Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce from representatives from major financial institutions like Fidelity and NASDAQ. Mehne emphasizes the importance of collaboration between industry players and regulators to establish responsible frameworks for blockchain and digital asset adoption. Additionally, he touches upon the challenges of navigating regulatory ambiguity and the BBA's role in advocating for clarity and fostering community within the blockchain industry.Throughout the discussion, David and Mehne explore the motivations behind the Boston Blockchain Association's efforts, emphasizing the organization's commitment to blockchain education, advocacy, and community-building. They discuss a local academic environment that's highly unique to Boston, Massachusetts, with prominent universities like Harvard and MIT actively engaging in blockchain research and education.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/comprehensive-series-blockchain-events-ontap-boston-blockchain-association-2024The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og01tFslOf0For information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this podcast, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Tanya-Elisa (Vasilyeva) Baseley, a regulatory attorney based in Europe. Baseley discusses her work in navigating the complex regulatory landscape of blockchain and cryptocurrency, particularly focusing on compliance with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) established by the European Union. She explains the challenges faced by blockchain companies operating across multiple European legal jurisdictions. She highlights how MiCA helps to establish a common crypto and blockchain regulatory footing across those jurisdictions in a way that provides some legal clarity for businesses operating across most of Europe. The conversation also explores the relationship between MiCA and national regulations within each of those jurisdictions (e.g., Germany, UK, Switzerland, etc.), with Baseley emphasizing MiCA's broader scope and potential to supersede country-specific regulations (of which there are many). Additionally, the discussion touches on the implications of regulatory developments in Europe for the global blockchain industry, particularly regarding competition with the United States. Whereas MiCA and certain country-specific regulations are in place in Europe, many organizations in the US are still in a holding pattern when it comes to their blockchain projects because the sort of legal clarity that exists in Europe has yet to take shape in the US. However, Baseley doesn't necessarily agree that America's trailing regulatory developments will undermine its international competitiveness in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. She points out how, even though US lawmakers are well behind their European counterparts when it comes to ratifying blockchain-related regulations, everyone still wants and needs access to the highly lucrative US market (perhaps more so than other international markets). In other words, she thinks it's likely that the US will catch up to other crypto-friendly international jurisdictions once its laws and regulations are in place, no matter how long it takes.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/european-blockchain-lawyer-us-will-catch-europe-once-americas-crypto-laws-take-shapeThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51whIMZ8DqoFor information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this podcast recorded on February 16th, 2024, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Christopher Concheri, founder of Concheri Consulting, during a Boston Blockchain Association event at the Suffolk University campus in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. During one of the event's panel discussions, Concheri expressed concern over the way blockchain is often inextricably conflated with cryptocurrency in a way that many people cannot appreciate the non-crypto applications of blockchain as an application platform.Concheri sees the need to differentiate between the two technologies. He argues that while cryptocurrency may dominate headlines, blockchain's potential extends far beyond crypto, with broader applications in various industries. Concheri also discusses the challenges that result from this over-association such as an ongoing hindrance to blockchain's widespread adoption.Throughout the interview, Concheri shares insights into non-crypto applications of blockchain, including its role in enhancing security, enabling fractionalization of assets, and facilitating record-keeping for transactions. He offers examples of blockchain's ability to support lending platforms, emphasizing its potential to disrupt traditional approaches to finance.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/blockchain-consultant-expresses-frustration-over-inextricable-conflation-cryptoThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6G-8SquTl8For information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this podcast, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Oumayma El Adaoui, a graduate student at Boston University studying banking and financial law with a focus on cryptocurrency regulation. El Adaoui is a part of the first generation of students to enter the workforce who are university-schooled in the many aspects of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Given that students often have a very different and fresh perspective on various subjects, David hoped to get her point of view – particularly given her legal ambitions and Moroccan background – on the many issues surrounding cryptocurrency regulation and international blockchain industry competition. Responding to David's questions, El Adaoui offered her insights on the current state of blockchain and crypto regulation, emphasizing the urgency for the US to enact clear regulatory frameworks to avoid falling behind other countries, such as the European Union, which is making significant strides in this regard. Despite not being a US citizen herself, Oumayma stressed the importance of US leadership in shaping global regulatory standards for the crypto industry.The conversation delves into the complexities of navigating diverse regulatory landscapes across different jurisdictions, highlighting the need for legal expertise in interpreting and complying with various and sometimes conflicting international regulations. El Adaoui also discusses her intention to pursue a career in the legal or compliance aspects of crypto, driven by her fascination with interpreting evolving regulations in a field marked by ambiguity. The interview concludes with David Berlind acknowledging the critical role of legal professionals like her in navigating the intricate regulatory environment of the crypto space, underscoring the importance of ongoing discussions and initiatives within the blockchain community.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/crypto-regulations-are-top-mind-university-student-prepares-enter-blockchain-industryThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-es-60SnUFor information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this special edition of the Blockchain Journal podcast recorded on February 16th, 2024, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind engages in a conversation with Ken Mooney, an adjunct professor at Suffolk University and an angel investor in blockchain technologies. The discussion takes place during a Boston Blockchain Association event at Suffolk University, where Mooney moderated a panel focusing on the challenges of distinguishing blockchain from cryptocurrency and the need for education to clarify this distinction. Mooney emphasizes the importance of education in dispelling misconceptions and highlights the diverse applications of blockchain beyond the applications of cryptocurrency. Throughout the interview, Mooney shares insights into his approach to teaching blockchain to his University, discussing the practical applications covered in his classroom, such as blockchain-enabled opiate prescription tracking in healthcare (an example of the anti-double spend feature of blockchain can be used in contexts besides the double-spending of money). The conversation also delves into the potential of blockchain in revolutionizing voting systems despite current challenges and skepticism. Mooney underscores the incremental nature of blockchain adoption, the varied opportunities available for individuals interested in blockchain careers, and the need for skilled blockchain professionals within enterprises.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/university-professor-discusses-urgency-educating-differences-between-crypto-andThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXWLKQthAzQFor information about the Boston Blockchain Association, please visit them at:Web: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boston-blockchain-associationYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonblockchainassociatio5811
In this episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Daniela Barbosa, the executive director of the Hyperledger Foundation. They cover a wide array of Foundation-related topics, including the formation and growth of the foundation, its flagship project (Hyperledger Fabric, an open source offering that enterprises can use to launch their own public or private blockchains), some of the Foundation's other projects, and the difference between permissioned and permissionless distributed ledgers. From a governance point of view, David and Daniela also consider the parallels between the decentralized development and maintenance of open source software and the decentralized governance of public blockchains. With an eye toward improving the adoption of distributed ledger technologies, Daniela talks about the urgency around education and training in blockchain and the building of a commercial ecosystem. The conversation covers blockchain interoperability with existing enterprise platforms and the benefits of Java integration (particularly related to the Hyperledger Foundation's recent announcement of its Web3j project).Key Takeaways The Hyperledger Foundation is the home for blockchain and blockchain-related projects at the Linux Foundation, focusing on open source and open development. Hyperledger Fabric is currently the most adopted permissioned distributed ledger platform globally. Enterprises are interested in blockchain technology for its potential to bring efficiencies to the market, such as 24/7 liquidity and decentralized identity. Open source and open governance are crucial for decentralized technologies, allowing for transparency, security, and collaboration.* The Hyperledger Foundation aims to support developers, provide education and training, and foster a commercial ecosystem for enterprise blockchain adoption.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/hyperledger-open-source-blockchain-project-looks-make-enterprise-inroads-new-javaThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9CWy9XdEO0
In this interview, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Garrett Minks, founder of RAIR Technologies. RAIR claims to offer an enterprise-grade NFT minting and marketplace solution that simultaneously serves as a digital rights management solution for gating access to video content. One of the most interesting aspects of RAIR's solution is that it's one of the first commercially available solutions that Blockchain Journal has seen that relies on Ethereum's ERC-4337 specification for account abstraction. Among other things, ERC-4337 allows users of a compliant service to log in with credentials (e.g., social credentials, enterprise identity management credentials, etc.) other than a cryptocurrency wallet like MetaMask. This, according to Minks, is a key user-friendly feature that will enable enterprises to onboard users who aren't very blockchain-savvy and who lack the expertise to work with cryptocurrency wallets. The conversation concludes with a demo of the RAIR's standard user interface. But another enterprise feature that Minks discusses is the option for private-labeling the entire solution within an enterprise's corporate branding. Not only can the designs and color schemes of the existing user interface be customized to an enterprise's liking, RAIR offers a comprehensive set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable enterprises to run the whole solution in a headless mode, thereby allowing organizations to integrate the platform's capabilities into their existing web or mobile applications (or bolt a front-end of their own making to RAIR's NFT and DRM infrastructure).Key Takeaways RAIR Technologies provides enterprise NFT marketplace infrastructure, allowing enterprises to deploy their own NFT solutions and have full control over their data. Understanding the new medium of open public blockchains is crucial for enterprises looking to engage with NFTs. Smart accounts and account abstraction simplify the NFT experience for users and enable interoperability with a wider Web3 audience. DRM solutions can be used to secure digital assets and provide granular permissioning for end-user and customer access.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/rair-technologies-hopes-attract-enterprises-its-erc4337-compliant-hybrid-nftdrm-solutionThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a30rBkCZlA
In this episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind unboxes a care package from the Starbucks' Odyssey NFT-based customer loyalty and engagement program. Clad in his "My Mom Thinks I Work at Bitcoin" t-shirt (thanks Alchemy!), David first explains how the Odyssey program worked throughout 2023 (he was an active participant) and how he worked his way into a special tier of accumulated points that earned him access to the physical items in the box. One by one, he picks through the contents of the box, which include a Starbucks Odyssey-branded MiiR mug, a Starbucks Odyssey hoodie, a coffee passport guidebook (sort of like a wine taster's diary, but for coffee drinkers), a sticker pack featuring images of some of the NFT stamps that he earned throughout 2023, and a canvas tote bag adorned with the Starbucks Odyssey logo.While Starbucks isn't tying these particular physical items to the NFTs themselves like other global brand enterprise programs have, David discusses Starbucks' chosen blend of the physical and digital realms (often referred to as a "phygital" strategy in blockchain circles). Starbucks came closest to this marriage when it issued large MiiR tumblers to the holders of its Siren NFT (Starbucks uses the word "Stamp" instead of "NFT"). A siren is a special type of mermaid that Starbucks has chosen as the centerpiece of its iconic logo, and each MiiR mug that the coffee house issued to Siren NFT holders bore images of the sirens on their NFTs. David offers insights into the Starbucks Odyssey program's mechanics throughout the unboxing, including accumulating points through various activities and tier-based benefits selection. David also notes the personal data implications of participating in such programs, noting the additional personal information, such as shipping addresses, that Starbucks could not have otherwise gathered were it not for how the Odyssey program works.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/analysis/holy-unboxing-batman-starbucks-odyssey-nft-project-wraps-2023-gifts-program-participantsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?OBStfIiLuRQ
In this special episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, host David Berlind embarks on another unboxing adventure featuring a factory-dropped polo shirt from Lacoste's NFT-based customer engagement and loyalty program (better known as UNDW3 or "Underwater"). David explains how he found his way to buying a UNDW3 NFT with Ether (a.k.a. ETH, the protocol token of Ethereum) and then, in an act of "token gating," was able to use that card to gain access to exclusive benefits and customer experiences that are only available to UNDW3 NFT holders. Throughout 2023, David earned points in the program by going on UNDW3 missions, similar to how they completed certain journeys in Starbucks' Odyssey NFT program. But those points had nothing to do with his right to access the factory drop. Whereas members in the Odyssey program were gifted certain physical items based on points earned (be sure to watch David's unboxing of the care package he got from Starbucks), his status as a UNDW3 NFT holder only earned him the right to purchase UNDW3-branded polo shirts, sweat pants, and hoodies. David picked the least expensive of the three to purchase with his own money: the polo shirt for $125.Come along as David rips open the box from Lacoste, discovers what's inside, and figures out how Lacoste married the physical item to a digital, augmented reality experience using the Snapchat platform.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/analysis/unboxing-first-phygital-drop-associated-lacostes-undw3-nft-customer-engagement-programThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?Frsjfr6geBw
In this episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Shyam Nagarajan, a global partner with IBM Consulting whose focus is Blockchain and Responsible AI (Artificial Intelligence). Naturally, Nagarajan had a lot to say about the explosive growth of AI, the increasing importance of trusted data in training AI models, and the role that blockchain is uniquely qualified to play when it comes to the responsible, fair, and transparent deployment and governance of AI in the enterprise. David and Shyam explore the role of blockchain in ensuring data authenticity and provenance in the so-called "supply chain of AI models." But until actual management consoles and applications are put into business decision-makers' hands, the conversation borders on the theoretical instead of the practical. But IBM is looking to change that with some new application layer governance offerings that sit on top of blockchain with an eye towards ease of access and control. But overall, the conversation highlights the value of blockchain in addressing the challenges and risks associated with AI.Key Takeaways The value of blockchain in the world of AI lies in its ability to ensure the trustworthiness and provenance of the data that AI relies on. Blockchain can be used to verify the authenticity and integrity of data used to train AI models, reducing the risks associated with data bias and tampering. * An AI-imbued application layer on top of blockchain can provide additional functionality and governance for ease of AI model and data management as well as third-party auditing.* Education and awareness about AI governance are crucial for organizations to implement responsible AI practices effectively. Today, the need for AI governance is under-appreciated, and it's unclear who within the enterprise should assume the responsibility. This "don't look at me" attitude is delaying the enterprise AI governance conversation while the effects of shadow IT, where unchecked departmental AI deployments start to take root, could become irreversible at the pace things are heading.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/ibm-turns-blockchain-solve-some-ais-thorniest-problemsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwc2pkZ3_FI
By some estimates, pharmaceutical companies will only waste their time developing a drug if it can be patented and potentially deliver $40 billion in revenue over 20 years (during which the patent is protected). And by "development," we're not just talking about the invention part of a drug's lifecycle. Certain compounds might never get invented because the market for them is too small. But, there's also the situation where a particular medication is efficacious to a disease the inventor didn't intend. Suppose the market isn't big enough for this so-called "off-label" application of a drug already approved for a different use case. In that case, the inventor is disincentivized from financing the required trials for the drug's additional usage. Without such trials, insurance companies are unlikely to cover the cost of the off-label use, and people are left to suffer. In other words, profitability largely governs what cures are available to sick people and what cures are not. Enter Pharma Collective. As one of the organization's founding members, Israel Mirsky, explained to Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind, Pharma Collective uses the blockchain idea of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) to remove profitability as an obstacle to the availability of promising medications. In other words, Pharma Collective is looking to reverse Big Pharma's order of priorities by putting the issue of human health ahead of profitability. During the interview, Mirsky delves into drug shortages, repurposing generic drugs, creating an engine for drug development, and how artificial intelligence impacts the discovery of new compounds and what that means for how those compounds get funded for development.Key TakeawaysThe pharmaceutical industry has misaligned incentives that prioritize profits over human health, leading to drug shortages and the neglect of specific health needs.Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) provide a new approach to incentivize actions that prioritize human health and enable collective decision-making. The Pharma Collective is a nonprofit investing DAO focused on enabling human health by subsidizing drug production, repurposing generic drugs, and creating an engine for drug development. Blockchain technology and DAOs can potentially revolutionize various industries by removing rent-seeking middlemen and democratizing decision-making.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/pharma-collective-uses-blockchain-make-less-profitable-drugs-available-those-who-sufferThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyLm4u3vRmw
In this episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, host Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Pat White, the CEO and co-founder of Bitwave. They discuss the challenges companies face when integrating digital assets into their traditional accounting systems and how Bitwave can help those enterprises overcome those challenges. The bottom line is that, as more government organizations like the Internal Revenue Service intensify their interest in organizational digital asset recordkeeping, contemporaneously keeping track of all those blockchain-related flows with out-of-band tools like spreadsheets is just asking for trouble. Especially when it comes time for an audit (and there will be many more of those when it comes to 2023 financials). The conversation between David and Pat covers topics such as the integration with backend financial systems, compliance with recently updated or shifting tax regulations and guidelines like FASB, partnerships with NetSuite, and QuickBooks, the new announcement with Deloitte, and Bitwave’s acquisition of Gilded. Key Takeaways: Traditional accounting systems are not designed to handle the complexities of digital assets, such as decimal points and valuations, leading to the need for specialized solutions like Bitwave. Bitwave bridges the gap between traditional financial systems and the blockchain and crypto world, allowing companies to seamlessly integrate digital assets into their existing financial operations. Compliance with tax regulations is a critical aspect of using digital assets, and Bitwave provides the necessary tools and support to ensure accurate and efficient reporting. Partnerships with companies like NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Deloitte enable Bitwave to offer comprehensive solutions that meet the needs of businesses of all sizes and complexities.* Trends in crypto adoption include the use of NFTs for customer loyalty and engagement, as well as the growing popularity of staking as a way to earn passive income on digital assets.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/what-your-erp-system-cant-handle-your-crypto-recordkeeping-and-compliance-bitwave-rescueThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fWUGokMHw
TruckCoinSwap (TCS) is a fintech and blockchain-as-a-service startup that provides freight invoice settlement to the transportation industry that, as a whole, appears to shippers as an enterprise. For truckers and freight companies critical to national security, the current options for freight invoice settlement involve egregiously burdensome payment terms and high costs. In the worst cases, trucking companies must wait as many as six months to get paid. It's a great example of where the utility of blockchain-as-a-platform (for example, its 24/7 availability and fast settlement times) can be very disruptive to a legacy industry in a positive way. To find out more about how exactly TCS works, Blockchain Journal's editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews TCS co-founder and CEO Todd Ziegler as well as Gabriella "Gabby" Kusz, an advisor to the startup. Among other things, David learns about how TCS uses blockchain technology and an ERC-20 token to facilitate faster and less burdensome settlement of freight invoices thereby making it possible for truckers to keep gas in their tanks and food in the bellies of their families. If there was ever an application of blockchain that could inspire lawmakers and regulators to reconsider how blockchain should be considered somewhat separately from retail crypto investment, this is certainly one of them. But not just this one example. During the interview, David and Gabby cover examples in other enterprise industries where blockchain can fuel similar forms of disruption and efficiency.Key Takeaways: * Truck Coin Swap (TCS) provides a blockchain-based solution for faster and cheaper freight invoice settlement in the transportation industry. The current options for freight invoice settlement have long payment terms and high costs, which negatively impact small businesses in the industry. Real-world use cases like this are crucial for educating policymakers and changing the narrative around blockchain technology in ways that emphasize the utility of blockchain versus crypto as a retail investment instrument.* Blockchain technology can be applied to many industries to facilitate more timely settlements and reduce the costs associated with traditional financial "rails."To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:BCJ URL:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-truckcoinswap-hopes-ensure-backbone-america-keeps-truckinThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deXW02Mtz3c
In this podcast video interview recorded on December 4th, 2023, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind speaks with Aon Managing Director James Knox who was one of the panel discussion moderators at the Boston Institutional Digital Assets Forum's end-of-year event in Boston, Massachusetts. The discussion primarily revolved around the current trend where investment into blockchain technology is more likely to happen in international jurisdictions where there's more legal certainty than not. Knox notes that global enterprises are gravitating towards jurisdictions outside the US, such as Germany and Singapore, where there is more regulatory clarity in the digital asset space. Investments, as well as activities like the adoption of blockchain as a platform, are being influenced by the still-evolving yet crypto-permissive guidelines offered by legislation and regulators in these and other international jurisdictions.The conversation covers specific international examples such as Project Guardian from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the European Union. These and other government-led initiatives are essentially welcome mats to blockchain innovation, encouraging early adopting enterprises to set up their operations in these regions. Knox emphasized that regulatory certainty extends beyond investments to broader blockchain activities, including tokenization, stablecoins, and NFTs. Regulator interest in stablecoins is growing due to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional financial instruments based on US dollars.The interview concludes with insights into Aon's role in the blockchain space. James highlights Aon's provision of consulting advice and insurance to companies involved in digital assets and blockchain. The insurance coverage includes protection against cyber threats, theft of digital assets, and other risks. Overall, the interview underscores the importance of regulatory clarity in shaping the global landscape of blockchain investments and activities, with Aon playing a crucial role in providing risk management solutions for companies navigating the ever-evolving blockchain space.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/aon-managing-director-knox-lack-regulatory-clarity-leads-blockchain-investments-outsideThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJYhZ1CsOnE
In this episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Charles Adkins, the newly appointed president of the Hedera Governing Council. They discuss various topics related to blockchain, including educating executives and lawmakers, the differences between blockchain and databases, the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence, and why 2024 will be the year that enterprises must finally take full notice of blockchain if they don't want to be left behind.David also asks Adkins about the somewhat unorthodox structure of blockchain ecosystems and which of the many use cases for blockchain as a platform are his favorites. The conversation provides insights into the current state and future potential of blockchain in various industries.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/new-hedera-governing-council-president-adkins-2024-is-pivotal-year-enterprise-blockchainThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JIJga9T7ME
In this video podcast interview recorded during an Institutional Digital Assets Forum event in Boston on December 4th, 2023, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind and Boston Blockchain Association (BBA) Chair Doug Mehne talk about the objectives of the BBA, why Boston makes for a great blockchain city, and challenges when it comes to blockchain regulation uncertainties.The event was produced in partnership with the TABB Group and focused on blockchain adoption within enterprises as well as institutional investment in cryptocurrency. In the interview, Mehne highlights the three pillars of the Boston Blockchain Association: education, advocacy, and leveraging the unique Boston ecosystem on the national and international stage.On the topic of blockchain regulation, Mehne talked about how regulatory certainty is one of the keys to fostering innovation. He noted how jurisdictions with ever-evolving crypto regulations such as India, Germany, and Singapore, are attracting significant investments while such investments are muted in the US where federal and state regulations have largely been gridlocked. According to Mehne, the BBA is looking to foster a productive dialogue with US regulators to promote responsible blockchain adoption.As for the city of Boston, Mehne argues that the town's unique blend of world-class universities, traditional finance firms, and a vibrant technological startup scene across various industries, make for a unique ecosystem relative to other global blockchain destinations. The interview touches on the challenge of explaining blockchain to individuals with preconceived notions and the negative headlines surrounding cryptocurrency. Mehne emphasized the need to showcase responsible use cases and pointed to some upcoming BBA initiatives designed to further drive adoption strategies.The full transcript text of this video can be found at https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/boston-blockchain-associations-doug-mehne-regulatory-clarity-is-key-blockchain-innovationThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEjK_1gZalQ
In this video podcast interview recorded during the Institutional Digital Assets Forum event in Boston on December 4th, 2023, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind and Oasis Pro CEO Pat LaVecchia discuss the challenges enterprise executives face when it comes to understanding and implementing blockchain technology. LaVecchia talks about how CxOs will often inextricably conflate cryptocurrency with blockchain in a way that often belies the unique value proposition of blockchain as a platform (beyond the most well-known application; cryptocurrency-based transfer of value). LaVecchia emphasizes that while crypto relies on blockchain, blockchain is a separate technology with various other use cases that can be transformative to organizations. He notes that large enterprises often invest millions in blockchain without much success, and the negative headlines surrounding crypto further complicate the understanding of blockchain at the C-suite level.LaVecchia also explains how distributed ledger technologies have applications in trade, finance, stock trades, royalty streams, and the provenance of luxury goods. He distinguishes between blockchain and crypto, stating that while crypto could be a commodity, utility, or security, it, like other applications relies on blockchain to function. On the payments front, the interview delves into the potential benefits of blockchain over traditional finance (TradFi) such as dramatic cost reduction, 24/7 access, and dramatically improved settlement times (particularly in cross-border remittance and trading environments). LaVecchia acknowledges some of the challenges when it comes to integrating blockchain into existing financial workflows but anticipates blockchain adoption will skyrocket once organizations begin to recognize the potential for cost savings over legacy mainframe approaches that are still in place today.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/oasis-pro-ceo-pat-lavecchias-advice-execs-consider-blockchains-potential-separate-cryptoThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVIAl_lfwzI
Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind speaks with Deloitte Global and US Tax Blockchain and Digital Assets Leader Rob Massey about the challenges associated with enterprise cryptocurrency transactions and taxation. As the end of 2023 fast approaches, US-based businesses (and individuals) that are in some way involved with cryptocurrencies and other digital assets will face new challenges, not the least of which will be increased scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).Compared to years past, Massey suggests that there's an increased likelihood that the IRS will be summoning many organizations for an “exam” of their financial records (the universally feared “IRS audit”) especially as they relate to digital assets (including cryptocurrencies) and how exactly those organizations accounted for the constantly shifting valuations of those assets relative to fiat currencies like the US dollar. For many organizations, the idea of great digital asset record keeping is easier said than done because many existing enterprise financials and ERP systems are incapable of gracefully tracking cryptocurrency payments in the same way they track flows of fiat currency (never mind the constant volatility of crypto). Nevertheless, the onus will be on organizations to make up for those shortcomings when preparing for an IRS exam, however contemporaneous their ad hoc record keeping might be.Even more challenging; despite the IRS's increasing interest in digital asset transactions, there’s still a lack of well-publicized comprehensive guidance on how best to prepare for such an exam. According to Massey, IRS examiners might have some latitude when conducting these audits and, as a sign of cooperative intent, organizations that are invited for an exam should come prepared with an overabundance of transparency.In the absence of guidelines, there's a compelling reason to work with Deloitte or one of the other consultancies with a longstanding global blockchain practice: They've been through enough exams with other customers (both domestically and internationally) to come up with their own guidelines for how to survive such an audit. Not surprisingly, the organizations that perform the best when the taxman comes knocking are the ones that anticipated the increased scrutiny and adjusted the record-keeping accordingly.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/2023-comes-an-end-deloitte-anticipates-greater-irs-interest-taxpayer-crypto-recordsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUu-O-LSbk4
In this Blockchain Journal Podcast episode, host David Berlind discusses SAP's initiative to tackle one of the biggest challenges businesses have when making or receiving payments with cryptocurrency; the record-keeping and integration of everything having to do with those payments into existing business workflows and systems. David's guest for this interview is SAP Vice President of Product Management Innovation Bernhard Schweizer. One of the primary challenges for enterprises of all sizes is the current inability to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency payments into back-office accounting systems which, not coincidentally, are also the systems of record when it comes to any business's compliance with government regulations (whether they're the older traditional finance regulations or ones that are just now emerging for cryptocurrency and blockchain). SAP's solution for these challenges is SAP Digital Currency Hub. During the interview, SAP's Schweizer gives David a demonstration of how the solution not only tracks inbound and outbound cryptocurrency payments but it also ties those payments into existing SAP accounting modules such as that for invoicing. During the demo, Schweizer shows how the Digital Currency Hub allows businesses can make and receive payments using stablecoins. One reason SAP is addressing this need is due to its customers' rising interest in working with cryptocurrency as a form of payment due to its faster settlement times, low transaction fees, and multi-party transparency (all of which are regarded as some of the unique value propositions of blockchain).Schweizer's demo also showcases the platform's user interface, highlighting features like payment creation, account reconciliation, and its self-custodial wallet solution. He emphasizes the importance of stablecoins in cross-border payments, providing stability and reducing the risks of volatility associated with non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. The platform is currently in the pilot phase, with open APIs that allow easy onboarding for both SAP and non-SAP customers.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://www.blockchainjournal.com/interview/saps-digital-currency-hub-eases-pain-enterprise-crypto-payment-recordkeeping-andThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sbgoeCDidI
In this episode of the Blockchain Journal podcast, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain with guest Casper Labs CEO Mrinal Manohar. As more people become personally exposed to the productivity gains that can be had from offerings like ChatGPT and MidJourney (automated art and image generation), more enterprises are taking a closer look at how AI can optimize business processes and improve the bottom line. But, in its current state, AI is neither risk-free nor without potential long-term legal consequences. During the interview, Manohar discusses the applicability of blockchain's tamper-proof nature to the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence. As Manohar puts it, AI is a "black box," lacks transparency, and suffers from a range of governance issues not the least of which has to do with version control. According to Manohar, Blockchain can bring a certifiable and trustworthy audit trail to AI decision-making, addressing concerns related to biases, data integrity, and accountability.So who should care among those in the world's largest enterprises where AI is already playing a role? Manohar says the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) are probably at the top of the list with the former bearing responsibility for technology deployments and the latter concerned with the potential for legal exposure due to the risks associated with AI.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://www.blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-blockchain-can-address-inherent-risks-artificial-intelligenceThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNWC-1ZxIC8
In this Blockchain Journal podcast episode, BCJ editor-in-chief David Berlind and Customer Journey Analyst Sophie Maxx Waldman discuss the growing trend of global brands integrating NFTs into customer engagement and loyalty programs, moving beyond the perception of NFTs solely as collectibles like Bored Apes or JPEGs. Sophie highlights how brands such as Nike and Michelin are leveraging NFTs to enhance customer experiences and build communities.The conversation delves into Michelin's unexpected entry into the NFT space with the launch of the Michelin 3xplorer Club (pronounced “Explorer”). Sophie commends Michelin for taking the leap and creating a Web3 strategy to engage up to 5000 customers with its first mint. However, that mint topped out at 2400 NFTs, each of which theoretically grants the holder access to valuable perks and experiences.The discussion also touches on the challenges Michelin faced during the NFT minting process, including multiple launch delays. Sophie outlines the benefits, including ownership of a piece of Michelin's history, access to unique experiences such as races and Michelin-starred restaurants, and participation in digital experiences.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/analysis/blockchain-journal-reviews-launch-michelin-explorer-nft-program/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQISc3L2kCk
Many of the biggest global brands are experimenting with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a means to improve customer loyalty and engagement. One of the brands is probably just around the corner from where you live: The Starbucks Odyssey Program.As NFT programs go, Starbucks is going a little bit further than some other brands to insulate its customers from the complexities and even the vocabulary of blockchain. In fact, Starbucks doesn't even call its NFTs "NFTs." It calls them "Stamps" and most of the customer experience (including a marketplace where the Stamps can be bought and sold) is self-contained within Starbucks branded pages where the monies exchanged are primarily in US dollars. In this video, Blockchain Journal Customer Journey Analyst Sophie Maxx Waldman and editor-in-chief David Berlind talk through some of the finer points of the Odyssey program so that other global brands and enterprises can get a better idea of how it works and what if any elements of the program might be worth reproducing for their own customer loyalty and engagement initiatives.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/analysis/what-can-global-brands-learn-starbucks-odyssey-nft-customer-loyalty-and-engagement-program/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=0Bu_zWfcxF8
The Williams Formula One Racing Team has launched an NFT-based Grand Prix fan engagement program known as "Grid Pass." One of the big ideas is to offer exclusive virtual and physical fan experiences as well as discounts on team merchandise to certain Grid Pass NFT holders.In this video, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind offers a review of one small part of the fan NFT journey as offered by the Williams F1 Racing team and highlights some of the cooler interactive elements while at the same time pointing out some areas where the user experience misfires. Of course, it is in the very early days when it comes to NFT programs like this one and there will be plenty of time to get it right – especially since the Williams F1 Racing team is well ahead of all the other teams (at least off the track) when it comes to adopting blockchain.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to: https://blockchainjournal.com/analysis/demo-ups-and-downs-williams-formula-one-racing-teams-nft-fan-engagement-program/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T77FGfG1PZw
For the first time since launching its dotSWOOSH NFT program, Nike has used its SNKRS mobile app to drop a limited edition, phygitally-twinned pair of sneakers along with matching NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Not only was that a first for the SNKRS app that normally caters to sneakerheads, but the drop was also gated to holders of the dotSWOOSH brand's previously issued Our Force 1 NFTs.In what appeared to be a nearly flawless execution joining together its traditional sneakerhead marketing with the efforts of its Web3 group (Nike Virtual Studios), Nike may have just given other global brands and marketers a masterclass in using blockchain to drive new business outcomes.To learn more about the dotSWOOSH TINAJ customer journey and how it resonated with both sneakerheads and Web3 "degens," David Berlind interviews Blockchain Journal's Customer Journey Analyst Sophie "Sophie Maxx" Waldman to breakdown her own experience with the program.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/analysis/did-nikes-phygital-tinaj-sneaker-drop-just-set-a-new-standard-nftbased-customer-engagement/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QzbEYLcT44
According to Blockchain Journal's research, the number one use case for blockchain technologies across enterprises and global brands (based on several projects) involves using NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for improved customer engagement and loyalty. Meanwhile, the second most common use case is the acceptance of cryptocurrency payments for goods and services.While Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari has experimented with NFTs in the past, it has now, in 2023, announced that it will also accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment for its cars. Like many other enterprises that allow for crypto payments, the company has chosen to use BitPay as its processor of those payments.In this video, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Mark Venables, founder of The Crypto Merchant, to better understand what the business rationale and motivations are for enterprises like Ferrari to accept cryptocurrency (in addition to fiat currency) as a form of payment.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to: https://www.blockchainjournal.com/interview/supercar-maker-ferrari-joins-growing-list-global-brands-accept-cryptocurrency-paymentsThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkPAP-JFJTU
One of the biggest barriers to the enterprise adoption of blockchain is the lack of integration between blockchain-based workflows and the traditional back-office systems (financials, ERP, CRM, etc.) that companies depend on to run their businesses. Without such integrations with some of the more commonly used back-office platforms, blockchain-based workflows are practically rogue in the way they escape an organization's technological control points for business process standards governance. At a blockchain meetup in Cambridge, MA, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind caught up with Mukn (pronounced "moon") CEO Alex Smart who claimed that his company's offering – Web3 Enabler – is the first plug-in to integrate an organization's blockchain and cryptocurrency workflows with its existing customer relationship management (CRM) processes as they exist in Salesforce.com. According to Smart, Web3 Enabler is the only offering of its kind that's also available through Salesforce's AppExchange; the Salesforce-operated marketplace where customers of Salesforce can shop for, and activate third-party add-ons to their Salesforce deployments. Mukn's Web3 Enabler is one of a growing list of solutions that target enterprise back-office integrations with blockchain. Others include Bitwave which focuses on bridging blockchain and cryptocurrency workflows to existing financial systems like Netsuite and SAP's Digital Currency Hub which looks to cross the gap between those same workflows and SAP's portfolio of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. One of the big advantages of Web3 Enabler, according to Smart, is how an organization's Salesforce workflows for existing fiat currencies are easily applied to cryptocurrency payments without the need for major changes or team training.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to: https://www.blockchainjournal.com/interview/mukn-launches-web3-enabler-crypto-payments-salesforceThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5wVgvrfIRg
During an after-hours event on the eve of Consensus 2023 in Austin, Texas, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind speaks with Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, and Brandon Russell, CEO of Etana Custody about a newly forged partnership between the two companies. With products like its line of nanodevices, Ledger is widely known in cryptocurrency circles as a physical "cold wallet" provider that offers hardware-based solutions for the self-custodying of cryptocurrency. But Gauthier takes a broader view of Ledger as a security company that also offers management and governance solutions to businesses where no single individual can or should have full control over an organization's cryptocurrency reserves. Meanwhile, few if any enterprises are going to self-custody cryptocurrency reserves in any significant amounts. Much the same way enterprises custody their cash and other assets with enterprise-grade custodians such as banks, Etana claims to offer safe and compliant custody of digital assets to large organizations. However, regardless of where exactly an organization's digital assets are custodied, a management and governance layer of the sort offered by Ledger is still necessary. Thus, the partnership between the two companies brings together the security technology provided by Ledger and the custodian services offered by Etana to provide greater security and governance to digital assets held by their mutual enterprise clients.In the interview, Gauthier explains that for enterprises with significant crypto assets, it is important to have a governance layer on top of those assets to ensure that there are clear rules of engagement when it comes to who, within the organization, can access and spend those assets. Russell further explains that the role of Etana is to handle the trade lifecycle of the assets, with the goal of mitigating counterparty risks and ensuring that assets are safely kept for the benefit of the underlying clients.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/ledger-ceo-gauthier-and-etana-ceo-russell-discuss-enterprise-crypto-wallets-and-custodyThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlbFcycaGKM
Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Dr. Ben Zhang, the co-founder and chief operating officer of NodeReal, at Consensus 2023 in Austin, Texas. NodeReal claims to be a one-stop infrastructure provider that eases access to public and private blockchain services for enterprises that don't want to build their own blockchain application infrastructure from scratch. In many ways, NodeReal is positioning itself as a turnkey AWS-like provider for distributed ledger infrastructure. However, David questions why a company would want to build its own blockchains when private blockchain technologies (eg: Hyperledger) and public blockchains already exist. Dr. Zhang argues that Web3 technology is changing the ownership of data and many companies, such as gaming companies, see benefits such as quicker access to customers and better incentives to engage with their users through blockchain-driven decentralization of their applications in private, public, or hybrid scenarios and that solutions like those from NodeReal can give them a big head start.Overall, the interview provides insight into why companies should be interested in building their own blockchains and the role of NodeReal in providing infrastructure services for these companies. It also highlights the benefits and challenges of building private blockchains and the importance of considering how Web3 technology can benefit businesses.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/iinterview/nodereal-looks-offer-amazonlike-infrastructure-specific-enterprise-blockchain-deployments/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAegJm8mrA
Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Adam Lowe, the Chief Product Officer for Arculus, an exhibitor at Consensus 2023, about its digital asset and digital identity platform that allows enterprises to enable employees and users with a single smart card that stores their cryptocurrency keys, their application credentials (eg: Microsoft 365) and even their building entry credentials. The same smart card can even be used as a payments card (Arculus already supplies smart cards to many credit card-issuing financial institutions). Lowe explains that smart cards have been protecting keys for decades and have never been penetrated. Arculus claims to be the first to put payments, FIDO keys, WebAuth keys, and crypto-keys all on the same card using the same secure on-card microcontroller. Lowe highlights that enterprises are interested in the solution because no one wants to manage multiple systems to handle each of these different use cases.David asks Lowe if the card and the infrastructure behind it includes all the technology to manage the multi-party permission structure that enterprises might want to apply to the way they involve multiple managers and executives in the cryptocurrency custody process. Lowe responds that such permissions should be managed with smart contracts and that Arculus can then integrate with those smart contracts. However, other solutions — for example, one that's emerging from a partnership between Ledger and Etana Custody that was announced at Consensus 2023 — are launching in an effort to help enterprises with such permissions management. Even so, the consolidation of all those capabilities into a single smart card is, in Blockchain Journal's estimation, where things are heading. Even from an employee's point of view, nobody wants to carry three or four physical security tokens when they can just have one. Toward the end of the interview, Lowe explains some potential consumer applications: the card could be used as a secure digital identity to access things like email, social media, and banking. He also mentions that the card could be used for government applications such as voting, health records, and digital passports.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:/interview/arculus-offers-enterprises-crypto-key-storage-payments-2fa-system-access-and-more-one/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLiYcuiVV0w
David Berlind, host of the Blockchain Journal Podcast, interviews David Bchiri, President of XRPL Commons, an independent non-profit organization that helps to drive the success of the XRP ecosystem (XRP is the native protocol token of the Ripple distributed ledger). During the interview, conducted at the Consensus 2023 Conference in Austin, Bchiri explains that XRPL Commons is working towards the support and education of four organization types — "pillars" as he calls them — to drive interest and adoption; universities, large organizations, startups, and the community. In the blockchain industry, "community" is a standard one-word reference to the collection of individuals — developers, enthusiasts, adherents, retail investors, fans, etc — who, in aggregate typically represent a huge base of support for a given distributed ledger's ecosystem. XRPL Commons aims to be at the crossroads of these four pillars with dedicated educational programs for each.As Berlind points out during the interview, blockchain as a technology faces various obstacles when it comes to adoption by enterprises and other large organizations (one of Bchiri's four organizational pillars). Among the challenges is a complete lack of familiarity with blockchain technology among business executives. Most of what those executives see are the unflattering cryptocurrency headlines in the mainstream media. Bchiri agreed, saying that the solution from the XRPL Commons' perspective is to invite those executives to XRPL Commons-organized briefings where they can learn about the true value of blockchain technology and how it can unlock new opportunities in their specific industries. Bchiri echos some key blockchain messages having to do with the erosion of corporate trust and the role that decentralized public ledgers — systems and records with which malfeasant or incompetent organizational personnel cannot tamper — can play. Whereas centralized systems leave open the opportunity for manipulation of information by one or a handful of people who are in charge of them, Bchiri pointed out that blockchain creates complete auditability and permanence of data that cannot be changed and therefore offers enterprises an opportunity to restore the trust which has been eroding over time.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/xrpl-commons-president-david-bchiri-education-is-a-prerequisite-enterprise-blockchain/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO3SXEMeDxE
Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Miles Paschini, CEO of FV Bank, at Consensus 2023, a blockchain and cryptocurrency conference in Austin, Texas. FV Bank aims to provide an enterprise-grade custody solution to organizations and institutions seeking a reliable, regulation-compliant, and structured way to operate in the digital asset space. For those new to the terminology of the blockchain industry, a custodian is the entity that controls the private keys to digital assets. But simply holding those keys is not enough. Also of import are the legal and regulatory frameworks under which custodians of any assets — digital and non-digital — must operate (although FV Bank specializes in the custodianship of digital assets). In the interview, David asks how FV Bank can promise compliance in an environment where there's a dearth of laws regarding crypto and subsequently, a great deal of regulatory uncertainty. Paschini disagrees, saying that both banking and custodianship are very well-understood from a regulatory point of view. For example, know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are well-defined, and the real issue is that some subsections of the blockchain industry have decided to ignore many of those existing laws. That said, Paschini concedes that FV Bank would like regulators to clarify certain aspects of the market, such as what is a security or commodity in the context of digital assets, and to define more market-friendly tax regulations around crypto.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/compliance-is-key-factor-enterprise-choice-crytpocapable-custodians-says-fv-bank-ceoThe video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsQzuuJwaHo
Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews David Wachsman, CEO and founder of Wachsman Public Relations, one of the largest (if not the largest) PR firms in the blockchain industry. The interview took place at the Consensus 2023 conference in Austin, Texas, where Wachsman PR has been a sponsoring exhibitor since 2015.Wachsman revealed that his company currently represents 75 to 80 companies in the blockchain and Web3 space across three offices in the United States, three in Europe, and one in Asia. Given his years of experience and industry observation, Berlind was looking to Wachsman to see what blockchain trends and new companies were most interesting to him and to get some predictions for the year ahead. Based on what he has seen over the last year, Wachsman believes the blockchain industry is making a pretty hard pivot toward enterprises; a segment of the market that, until recently, was pretty underserved. While there is still plenty of demand for cryptocurrencies from retail investors and consumers, Wachsman says the real killer use cases for blockchain involve scenarios that most people cannot naturally imagine until they take a moment to really understand the unique value proposition (UVP) of distributed ledger technology (DLT). For example, how blockchain can serve as the backbone for air traffic control systems that handle swarms of drones or for three-dimensional accounting systems that address the unique needs of a multi-party supply chain. However, Wachsman does admit that working with enterprise companies can be complicated. He notes that many blockchain companies are still struggling to successfully target enterprises with their offerings. When asked by Berlind about the barriers to blockchain adoption, Wachsman cited regulatory uncertainty, cryptocurrency volatility, and the lack of understanding of the technology as some of the main blockers. However, he believes that the benefits of blockchain technology are enough to convince enterprises to overcome those barriers and get started on their blockchain projects.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/ceo-blockchain-public-relations-giant-wachsman-sees-major-industry-pivot-towards/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVroMvcLSog
For many enterprises, the idea of venturing alone into the wilderness of blockchain is a frightening proposition. Not only is there a general lack of blockchain and cryptocurrency talent within their executive, management, and developer ranks, the talent pool from which to recruit enterprise-grade blockchain expertise is, in 2023, tiny. In other words, demand for talent is outstripping supply. Enterprises could simply do nothing when it comes to blockchain. But sitting still while competitors and startups are keen to discover how blockchain can be used to disrupt the status quo is not the best option. So, what's an enterprise to do? Who can they turn to?Enter the so-called "Final Four"; the four major accounting and IT consultancies that survived the shakeout from what was once called the "Big Eight." Keen to capitalize on the enterprise's need for professional assistance with everything from blockchain strategy to tax to regulatory compliance, Accenture, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG have all established global blockchain practices. And each is competing to win the hearts and minds of enterprises ready to enlist a consultancy for blockchain help.While he was covering the action at the Consensus 2023 conference in Austin, Texas, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind met up with Paul Brody, the global leader of EY's Blockchain Practice to better understand what EY (formerly known as is Ernst and Young) is doing in hopes of differentiating itself from the other Final Four consultancies.According to Brody, among other investments in privacy and supply chain, EY views its own software investments such as Nightfall — a Layer 2 technology it jointly developed with Polygon — and Starlight (a zero-knowledge compiler for building private smart contracts) as major differentiators that make it possible for EY to not just bring expertise to the negotiating table, but intellectual property as well.
In the virtual halls of Blockchain Journal (BCJ), we often talk about an elephant-in-the-room like problem that we've nicknamed "The William Shatner Problem." It all started when our technical analyst Bob Reselman was looking at some non-fungible tokens that were once minted on the Wax blockchain in partnership with William Shatner and then asked a simple question: "How is anybody expected to know for sure that it was the real William Shatner who worked on these NFTs and not an imposter?" When BCJ editor-in-chief David Berlind posed that same question to Wax co-founder William Quigley during the NFT.NYC 2023 conference in New York City, Quigley's answer was essentially that we have to trust Wax as a central entity to be telling the truth and that like Amazon, it's beholden upon Wax to market itself (and maintain itself) as a trustworthy marketplace. The problem with this approach is that it's a non-technological and non-standard approach that doesn't scale across the blockchain industry. In fact, BCJ's so-called William Shatner problem is not just about C2C contexts involving consumer activity in the primary and secondary market of NFTs. It's also a proxy for a larger identity issue that needs solving before businesses can fully exploit the potential of distributed ledger technologies. During Consensus 2023 in Austin, Texas, after Ripple CTO David Schwartz concluded a fireside chat during which he openly discussed some of the challenges when it comes to the intersection of blockchain and identity, BCJ's David Berlind interviewed him for his perspective on the William Shatner problem. Similar to some of the conclusions that were reached in Berlind's interview of Wax's Quigley, Schwartz — one of the OGs of blockchain technology — agreed that it is a problem that needs solving, joked that he and Berlind should call some venture capitalists, and suggested there may be no way to avoid the need for central authorities that vouch for the identities of blockchain users (individuals or organizations). The idea is similar to the originally intended role of Certificate Authorities back in the days of Web 1.0.
While Blockchain Journal has been spending time connecting with some of the biggest consultancies (the so-called "Final Four") to understand how their blockchain practices — typically one of the multiple practice types they operate — can help large brands and enterprises with their blockchain go-to-market strategies, there are also other independent consultancies that are "Web3-native." In other words, 100 percent of their firms' energies are devoted to helping clients with blockchain and Web3 strategy and execution. One such Web3-native consultancy operating out of France is Doors3. In fact, Doors3 claims to be the first of its kind to operate in France.While he was attending the NFT.NYC 2023 conference in New York City, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind met with Doors3 co-founder and CEO Karen Jouve to learn more about the global brands that the firm is helping and what its methodology is for helping clients like Groupe Renault, L'Oréal, L'Équipe, and Yves Saint Laurent. According to Jouve, Doors3 takes a long-term strategic approach that starts with helping them to understand the Web3 ecosystem and related concepts having to do with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, blockchain, the idea of metaverses and the technological gaps between Web 2.0 and Web3. A journey with Doors3 starts with the development of a strategic vision and goes right through to the deployment of a proof-of-concept and after that, deployment at scale. The good news, said Jouve in the interview, is that a lot of brands have already moved past the early days of one-and-done publicity generating air drops and on to an understanding of how blockchain is less about making money and more about building a shared ownership experience (shared between brands and their customers) and a true internet of value. Referring to one of the key use cases, "Loyalty 3.0," Jouve says the next wave of digital transformation involves a reinvention of the way that customers engage brands and vice versa.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/parisbased-web3-consultant-doors3-helps-some-worlds-biggest-brands-blockchain-strategy/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXAXNEt5gY
One of the biggest conversations in the blockchain industry that tends to fly below the radar has to do with the custody of digital assets. It's so important that the word "custody" has actually become a verb and you'll hear it come up in questions like "Should an enterprise self-custody its cryptocurrencies or should it custody those and other digital assets with a trusted third party custodian?" The idea of custody is as old as banks. The reason banks exist is because of the dangers involved in the self-custodianship of cash (eg: keeping all your money under a mattress). But currency isn't the only valuable asset that you may not trust yourself to protect. For example, art museums often act as custodians of private art collections on behalf of the owners of those collections. Another prized collectible among the Gen Zs and Alphas are rare sneakers and South Korea-based MetaZ is looking to capitalize on the growing interest in collectible sneakers by offering a service that not only custodies the physical sneakers in a vault (where their pristine condition can easily be preserved), they issue a digital twin NFT that represents a transferrable certificate of ownership (in the same way that many other NFTs can be sold in the secondary markets). While MetaZ doesn't exactly fit into the enterprise blockchain category that Blockchain Journal likes to cover, it's not difficult to imagine a large apparel company that's already working with NFTs (eg: Nike) getting into a similar business where, instead of sending a physical collectible sneaker to a customer, it just sends the digital twin NFT for that sneaker instead and then the manufacturer custodians the sneaker as a service to the customer.While at the NFT.NYC 2023 conference in New York City, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind took the opportunity to interview the MetaZ co-founder and platform lead Kim Kim to learn more about how the service works.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/metaz-will-custody-your-collectible-sneakers-a-vault-and-issue-nfts-certificates/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt6C_hQ-Q7s
Of the many barriers to blockchain adoption that enterprises must contend with, one of them has to do with basic record-keeping issues. If you've ever studied the details of just a single blockchain transaction, then you'd know that, from a financial point of view, such transactions look nothing like the sorts of transactions that are typically recorded into an organization's financial ledger or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Blockchain transactions have multiple "ins" and "outs" and involve financial values that go up to eight decimal points or more. From one chain to the next, there are wildly different transaction fee structures involving multiple fee types, all of which have to be individually recorded and categorized. And then there are the compliance issues. The organizations that set the standards for how all transactions are recorded (blockchain or not) like the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are just now issuing their final guidance on how to comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Meanwhile, today's ERP and accounting systems are light years behind. Enter Bitwave; a solution provider that bridges the gap between the way transactions are recorded on dozens of different distributed ledgers and a multitude of existing enterprise financial solutions such as Oracle Netsuite.To find out more while he was covering Consensus 2023 in Austin, TX, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed Bitwave co-founder and CEO Patrick White at the Enterprise Digital Assets Summit (a satellite event that took place the day before Consensus 2023 started).To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/bitwave-looks-bridge-chasm-between-traditional-erp-and-enterprise-cryptocurrency.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBlbjNRHk3c.
Of the many blockchains that are out there, only a handful are really thinking about how to satisfy the requirements of enterprises interested in public distributed ledger technology (DLT) for digital transformation, industry disruption, stakeholder engagement, or business innovation. While he was in Austin, TX to cover Consensus 2023, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed Robert Viglione, CEO of Horizen Labs, the engineering organization that supports the Horizen blockchain and its protocol token: ZEN. One of Horizen's key areas of focus when it comes to serving enterprises is about Zero-Knowledge or ZK cryptographic technology. In the interview, Viglione discusses how ZK technologies make it possible for the different stakeholders in a blockchain-based multi-party transparency use case to draw certain conclusions (for example financial conclusions) from batches of transactions without actually revealing the underlying details of those transactions. For example, if a transaction represented the settlement of an invoice, the amount may be known and so too is the fact that it was for an invoice. But other details regarding the invoice such as what goods or services the invoice was for or even who it was to can be kept private. Viglione also discussed the forthcoming introduction of an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to Horizen's mainnet (blockchain industry jargon for the actual production public blockchain and not the non-production or "testnet" version). Some of the enterprise-targeted public blockchains have strategically embraced the EVM as the means through which their public distributed ledgers will support enterprise needs for custom blockchain application development. As more chains gravitate towards the EVM as their virtual machine of choice, enterprises can seek solace in those chains knowing that the EVM is becoming a defacto industry standard, making it easier to switch public ledgers should the need arise without having to recode their applications from scratch. It is akin to the comfort that enterprises have traditionally appreciated in the multiple Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) offerings on the market and the flexibility that was similarly afforded to enterprises by virtue of the JEE standard.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/why-enterprises-would-be-wise-choose-an-evmcompatible-chain-horizen-labs-ceo/.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFnTfQwq2lY.
Here in the halls of Blockchain Journal's virtual offices, we've come up with a name for an unsolved blockchain identity problem for which no scalable, technological solution exists as far as we know. We call it "The William Shatner Problem" because, back in July 2020 when a bunch of William Shatner-approved NFTs were posted for sale on Wax.io's NFT marketplace, there was no technological identity standard in place such that buyers could trace any so-called William Shatner NFTs back to the actual William Shatner himself. As far as Blockchain Journal can tell, this important element of transactional provenance remains technologically unsolved which in turn means that less scalable non-standard workarounds must be applied when such provenance matters in order to avoid fraud (for example, when purchasing digital assets from a seller that's truly authorized to sell those assets). Those workarounds, which do work but are not inherent to blockchain technology, are currently the basis for much of the trust in the world of blockchain today.So, when Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind was invited to interview the co-founder of Wax.io William Quigley (who also co-founded Tether) at the NFT.NYC 2023 Conference, he jumped at the opportunity to see if maybe the technological solution existed but was evading the BCJ team. According to Quigley, as far as the decentralized ethos of blockchain is concerned, it still remains an unsolved problem. In the interview, Quigley says "One of the challenges with NFTs is understanding the provenance of the item because, while anyone can go on and buy a William Shatner NFT, they would rightly want to know 'Well, did William Shatner actually approve this? Is this really his?'" Quigley also points out that technologically speaking, this problem tracks closely to the identity problem that was solved in the Web 1.0 era by Certificate Authorities saying "There are third parties that validate that a company is who they say it is like Verisign for example." But reliance on such central authorities or registries to establish such trust is contradictory to the decentralized religion of distributed ledger technology (DLT). As such Quigley also pointed out that "The goals of blockchain [aren't] where [they need] to be. There's still some trust you have to place in the system. You hear 'trustless' a lot but there are very few things that are trustless. Decentralization is a path and not something that someone has fully done yet." And until standards for technologically assuring (a) the authenticity of an identity and (b) the provenance of digital assets that are connected to that identity are developed, Quigley says "non-blockchain forensics" will be a part of the buyer-beware process. Towards the end of the interview, Quigley tells David that NFTs have all sorts of magical properties and applications that are not widely understood and that the buying and selling of digital art, music, and video are just the first of many applications to come.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/decentralization-trust-still-not-fully-solved-blockchain-says-cofounder-tether-and-wax.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8y_jrQMmUc.
When it comes to NFT marketplaces in Asia, they don't get much bigger than Jump.trade which claims to be the biggest of them all. Jump.trade is just one of the businesses operated by the site's parent GuardianLink which was founded in 2016. GuardianLink also works with some of the world's biggest brands on their NFT strategies. To find out more about the enterprises that GuardianLink is working with and what those brands are doing with NFTs, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed GuardianLink co-founder and CEO Ramkumar Subramaniam at the NFT.NYC 2023 Conference in New York City.Among the enterprise brands that GuardianLink has worked with are Pepsi, snacks and candies conglomerate Mondelēz International, and the Los Angeles Times. For example, it worked with Mondelēz International to develop Cadbury Gems — charitable NFTs for its Cadbury chocolate brand (founded in 1824 by John Cadbury) — the proceeds of which were donated to support the educational needs of underprivileged children. Following the success of that program, GuardianLink is also working on an NFT program for Chips Ahoy! cookies, another one of Mondelēz's hugely famous brands. During the interview, Subramaniam also explained what GuardianLink has done for Pepsi (for its sugarless Black Pepsi Brand) and the LA Times (for its Super Bowl 2023 promotions), and how the Indian-based company plans to use its experience in building its own Cricket Metaverse to help its big brand customers launch their own immersive Web3 ecosystems.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/guardianlink-ceo-discusses-nft-strategy-and-execution-work-it-does-pepsi-cadbury-and-la/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOfizQ42HVE
When it comes to concerts and professional sports, two of the biggest brands experimenting with NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are the National Football League (NFL) and Ticketmaster. NFL Sr. Director Emerging Products Daniel DeVece and Ticketmaster Director of Product Management Joe Aiello were on hand at the NFT.NYC 2023 conference in New York City where they, along with Dapper Labs VP of Partnerships Brittany O'Hagan presented a session on how NFTs are powering fan engagement. Following the session, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind took the opportunity to interview O'Hagan to better understand how Dapper Labs is working with the NFL and Ticketmaster and how other enterprises and big brands should be thinking about NFTs and the opportunities they create. One thing that O'Hagan made clear is that the three organizations — what she calls "the three-headed monster" — do not yet have all the answers. The applications of NFTs to fandom and big brands is such a new area for many organizations that the three-headed monster is still "in the depths just grinding" on new ideas. But what the three organizations do know is that they are moving forward with blockchain and NFTs. The first outcome of their collaboration is called NFL All Day; a brand involving NFT-based digital collectibles that will feature NFL game highlights on the Flow public distributed ledger. But according to O'Hagan, there's more to come. During the interview, O'Hagan talked about using the individual brand powers of the league, team, and player to unlock new levels of fandom that are currently unavailable to sports fans in real life. But in terms of applications that are transferrable to other industries and enterprises, one major use case that the three organizations are looking into (especially given Ticketmaster's involvement) is the idea of NFT-based ticketing for events like concerts and big league games (Dapper Labs is also working with the National Basketball Association; the NBA). According to O'Hagan, ticketing on a big-event scale is definitely the next phase of how NFTs can and will be used. But in order for blockchain-based ticketing to really work, it will not only take a lot of fan education, it will also depend on how easy it will be for big brands to bridge their existing fan and customer bases to Web3 experiences where there's still a fair amount of onboarding friction.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/big-event-ticketing-is-next-phase-how-nfts-will-be-used-dapper-labs-ohagan/.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVs_PqTbldA.
As buzz phrases go, "the NFT is the new cookie" is getting some traction in enterprise blockchain circles because of the incredible shrinking usefulness of cookies; bits of data that, when allowed into a user's desktop or mobile web browser, make it possible for web sites to build more personalized user experiences. But, as with many technologies that involve end-user benefits, cookies are a double-edged sword that can also be used to invade a user's privacy. Such invasions have led to privacy laws that have eroded if not fully stripped the cookie of its utility. Unlike cookies, however, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are by their very nature permissioned. In other words, users are never unwilling recipients of an NFT the way they are with cookies or spam. As such, NFTs create new opportunities for high-fidelity relationships with customers. But seizing those opportunities is a different story.To make NFTs work in this capacity, enterprises must first understand the role that blockchain plays in both the minting and ownership assignment of NFTs. As enterprise workflows go, the process is nearly as complicated if not more complicated than the way cookies work. The reason cookies experienced early success is that end users played little to no role in cookie engagement. Similarly, for businesses to unlock the promise of NFTs as the new cookies, they'll need to be friction-free from the customer's perspective.According to NiftMint founder and CEO Jonathan G. Blanco, "As with any form of industry revolution, it's all about how things become more simple. It's not like 'We created this new industrial revolution and now things are more difficult' so productivity is more complex." While at the NFT.NYC 2023 Conference in New York City, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind had a chance to speak with Blanco shortly after he finished his presentation on what it will take to onboard the first billion users to blockchain. One thing it won't take: is friction.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/niftmint-looks-take-friction-out-enterprise-nft-deployment/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e90hw-tqbo
Many companies are in a catch-22 when it comes to working with blockchain. On the one hand, organizations are fearful of doing nothing with blockchain because they know how, in the hands of a clever competitor, distributed ledger technology could be used to disrupt their businesses or industries. On the other hand, those same organizations also know blockchain laws are coming but not when or in what form. Meanwhile, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have embarked on a startling wave of enforcement activities against blockchain-related projects. At NFT.NYC 2023, a conference dedicated to the many use cases of non-fungible tokens, two Washington, DC-based crypto attorneys from Perkins-Coie LLP—Jamie Schafer and Valerie Dahiya—were on hand for a panel discussion to offer sound advice on how to move forward as safely as possible on blockchain projects given the current regulatory climate. Following the session (which was standing room only), Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind caught up with Schafer and Dahiya (who was once an attorney for the SEC) and looking for more specifics on behalf of reluctant enterprises that want to move forward with their blockchain initiatives. Two significant takeaways were (1) to take note of laws surrounding corollary precedents that already exist and (2) to bring a lawyer with you if you decide to take any regulators up on their open-door offers to meet with "industry."Only a few weeks before this event, David interviewed CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger (https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/cftc-commissioner-mersinger-invites-nervous-enterprises-come-chat-about-blockchain/) who, in response to the same line of questions about moving forward amid regulatory uncertainty, advised businesses to come in for a chat. Said Dahiya, "They are not your lawyers." In other words, do not necessarily take a regulator's advice as legal advice.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/use-nonblockchain-precedents-a-guide-selfregulation-say-perkins-coies-crypto-lawyers/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a-SX8Flr5I
Apart from the many instances where cryptocurrency holders get socially engineered (hoodwinked) into turning over their crypto or their account credentials to extremely clever and tenacious hackers (essentially, “user error”), the leading cause of cryptocurrency theft is a vulnerable cross-chain bridge. In fact, on the same day this interview with LayerZero co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino was recorded at the Harvard Blockchain Conference, the AllBridge cross-chain bridge was exploited for approximately $574,000.According to Pellegrino, approximately $4 billion has been stolen via cross-chain bridge exploits since late 2021. Pellegrino was at Harvard University’s annual blockchain conference to talk about what it takes to secure communications between chains—an area of particular interest to enterprises because, as enterprises are already learning, in the same way, that many businesses have to work with multiple fiat currencies, there’s a high likelihood that they’ll also have to deal with multiple cryptocurrencies which in turn means they’ll have to simultaneously deal with multiple public distributed ledgers. Secure inter-chain communication will be an absolute must.As opposed to relying on smart contracts to handle cross-chain bridge management at the so-called application layer of blockchain, Pellegrino’s company has been focused on handling cross-chain bridging at the protocol layer; a layer that, like the Internet’s TCP/IP protocol, lives below the blockchain layer itself. Thus, the company’s name “LayerZero” (an implication that the lowest layer in the software stack where a blockchain exists is at layer 1, an idea that aligns with the way many different public distributed ledgers are described as “L1s”). While he was at Harvard’s Blockchain Conference, Pellegrino told BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind that LayerZero has successfully secured over $7 billion, has over 35,000 applications running on its test net, with 3,500 apps now in production on the LayerZero main net. Said Pellegrino of LayerZero’s industrial strength, “You take a look at [which venture capitalists’] confidence have we [have] won; Sequoia, Andreessen, all these groups have made single bets in the space, and that bet has been on us.”Aside from operating at the protocol level, what’s LayerZero’s secret to success? Well for starters, all of the code behind LayerZero has been purpose-built from scratch. Beyond that, are three convictions that are sacrosanct to everything LayerZero does; immutability, permissionlessness, and resistance to censorship.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/why-layerzero-might-be-a-contender-enterprises-need-crosschain-bridges/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4pH02yaPbA
While it’s not necessarily an enterprise application of blockchain, MintStars.com perfectly exemplifies the degree to which blockchain is not only the basis for disrupting existing businesses (even relatively new ones that are wildly successful), it also demonstrates how the financial rails of cryptocurrency can be thoroughly disruptive to traditional financial rails (sometimes called “TradFi”) as well as the governments who are in a position to control industries and business by virtue of their oversight of those TradFi rails. One such industry, controversial as it may be, is the sex work industry that has given a significant rise to the OnlyFans platform; a content subscription marketplace for creators predominantly known for its role in facilitating independently produced sex worker-created content. According to MintStars co-founder and COO Jessica Van Meir who is also a Ph.D. student at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (studying sex workers’ rights), OnlyFans did a great job of unencumbering sex workers from an exploitative industry culture and structure. Said Van Meir of the platform, “[OnlyFans] has done a tremendous thing in the industry, which is [to] create independence for creators to be able to make money directly from their fans rather than having to work with a studio or other middlemen.”However, as much as OnlyFans has thoroughly disrupted what, to many is called “the porn industry” but what Van Meir calls “sex-positive work,” MintStars was founded on the principle that blockchain can take the creator independence pioneered by OnlyFans to an entirely different level. According to Van Meir, the opportunity is grounded in OnlyFans’ reliance on traditional finance rails for payments and the fees that creators must pay to OnlyFans which she says can be exorbitant at times. And so, MintStars.com — the tagline of which is “Take control of your content and earnings” —was born.One problem with OnlyFans’ TradFi approach, says Van Meir, is that the credit card companies get to make the rules. If OnlyFans wants to be able to process credit card payments, the credit card companies have a say in what creator content can and cannot be published and even what language creators use in their content. But once those traditional rails are bypassed using blockchains and cryptocurrencies (MintStars relies on USDC), MintStars can bypass the fees of a platform like OnlyFans and disintermediates the credit cards from any governing role (which in turn is influenced by governments and lobbyists). Given MintStars's multi-faceted approach to disrupting OnlyFans, one question for enterprises is, "Where do similar opportunities for blockchain-driven disruption and financial efficiencies exist in their markets and industries?"
While at the Outer Edge LA 2023 Conference in Los Angeles, Blockchain Journal technical analyst Bob Reselman interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Decentralized Pictures, Leo Matchett. Decentralized Pictures was founded on the principle that blockchain can be used to democratize the process of creating and approving ideas (everything from scripts to talent choices) for TV shows and movies. As opposed to testing piloting production ideas with small audiences, Decentralized Pictures makes it possible for Hollywood studios to test market ideas with larger audiences by using blockchain to financially incentivize reviewers via smart contract-managed compensation. Calling it the "opposite of crowdfunding," Matchett says studios can get a massive amount of feedback on audience resonation before making huge investments in production. The system works for the financially incentivized reviewers as well because of how they're scored based on their review history. As a reviewer's score improves, so too might their opportunities to derive more income from the platform.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to: https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/decentralized-pictures-looks-democratize-hollywoods-ideations-blockchain/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/R4MZOANHolI
In an effort to disrupt the TV industry and leverage distributed ledger technology (DLT) for game-changing fan engagement, Fox Media has launched a blockchain-specific division called Blockchain Creative Labs. The division's chief revenue officer Tomasso Sandretto was in attendance at the Outer Edge LA conference and sat down with Blockchain Journal technical analyst Bob Reselman for an in-depth interview regarding Fox's plans for blockchain.According to Sandretto, one of the first fruits of the division's labor will be the integration of NFTs into the Dan Harmon-created Krapopolis animated series that airs for the first time in Fall 2023. To bring fans on board to a more intimate relationship with the show, Blockchain Creative Labs has minted a collection of 10,000 Picture for Profile (PFP) NFTs featuring Krap Chickens; the currency of the show. The resulting NFT-driven fan experience, said Sandretto in the interview, will involve sneak peeks, in-person activations, rights to vote on the show's content, and even a chance to be on the show. Not resting on the laurels of the Krapopolis project, Blockchain Creative Labs is following up with NFT-based integrations into the Masked Singer (now in its ninth season) where fans can vote on different components of the show and have access to behind-the-scenes cuts and confessional rooms that nobody else has ever seen. Beyond that, Sandretto and his team are working on a project for Fox Sports that will offer football fans a more engaged experience with the United States Football League; one that connects fans and ticket holders directly with teams and players.During the interview, Sandretto delves into the challenges in onboarding Fox's audience to a pure Web3 experience and how Blockchain Creative Labs is looking into more of a hybrid approach involving traditional Web 2.0 onboarding techniques that the majority of Fox's audience is undoubtedly more comfortable with (these blended onboarding techniques are often referred to as "Web 2.5" approaches).To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/fox-media-is-doubling-down-blockchain-9-franchiserelated-web3-projects/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/rpBzUi6Y9Us
Jack O'Holleran is the co-founder and CEO of Skale Labs, a 5-year-old scaling solution provider that not only solves for Ethereum's slow settlement times but, for Skale's customers, also changes Ethereum's engagement model from a coin-operated pay-per-transaction approach to a subscription model similar to how other cloud-based SaaS offerings like Salesforce do business. O'Holleran was at the Outer Edge LA 2023 Conference in Los Angeles where Blockchain Journal technical analyst took the opportunity to interview him. During the interview, O'Holleran talked about how blockchain solves enterprise business problems that cannot be as well-addressed by database-driven approaches like MongoDB or Oracle. Using a hypothetical sports team as an example, O'Holleran discussed how NFTs are a ready-made technology for customer engagement that cannot be duplicated with traditional database-driven loyalty solutions. Such a team could issue NFTs as live, digital passports that automate different levels of fan engagement such as first access to season tickets, special merchandise, and in-person meetings with players. When presented to fans as NFTs, such benefits are more easily transferred to other fans in a way that the team can not only track what's happening on-chain, it can even programmatically profit from that downstream secondary market activity. On the customer side, fans have more control and can discover such a passport's chain of custody and trace its provenance to the team itself.During the interview, O'Holleran recommends a simple three-step process for enterprises looking to embrace blockchain for certain use cases:1. Understand how it is that open networks such as public blockchains can be utilized for those use cases (blockchain isn't for every use case and other solutions like Mongo still have a place in the corporate IT stack).2. Design a detailed technical execution plan relying on external experts if necessary.3. Build a compliance plan that can be adjusted according to the ever-shifting domestic and international regulatory perimeter around blockchain and cryptocurrency.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/skale-cofounder-jack-oholleran-explains-why-blockchain-beats-mongo-or-oracle-enterprise/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/OhFKZk3mRDU
Having originally cut her enterprise technology teeth at Tivoli and IBM (and then later at Amazon Web Services), Unstoppable Domains Chief Operating Officer Sandy Carter is no stranger to IT. Now, she’s about to release a book titled The Metaverse Mindset of Web3, AI, and the Future of Business. The timing of the book is uncanny given the groundswell of activity currently percolating around distributed ledger technology (DLT) and ChatGPT. At the Outer Edge LA 2023 Conference in Los Angeles, Blockchain Journal technical analyst Bob Reselman took the opportunity to interview her about the book and the sorts of applications she’s seeing for blockchain in the enterprise. Among the examples she offered, perhaps the most interesting one has to do with how Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (the hardware chain) is using non-fungible tokens (NFT) as a form of theft protection for power tools. Carter talks about some other enterprise applications that she’s come into contact with (including one at luxury car brand BMW) and advised enterprises to form rabbit teams. Unlike tiger teams, rabbit teams are teams that can not only go down rabbit holes where it’s necessary for pre-ideation technical diligence, but they can also really hop to it (get it done fast).To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/enterprise-tech-veteran-sandy-carter-discusses-enterprise-use-cases-blockchain-technology/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/xVqzPw44cu0
While at the Outer Edge LA 2023 Conference in Los Angeles, Blockchain Journal technical analyst Bob Reselman spoke with Ecosapiens co-founder and CEO Nihar Neelakanti who believes that one of the keys to saving the planet is to use collectible NFTs as a means to fund the soil-based sequestration of airborne carbon. In the interview, Neelkanti tells Bob how his company is working with farms in Africa that handle the sequestration process. In exchange for purchasing an Ecosapiens collectible (each one is called an "ecosapien"), not only does the buyer get the collectible NFT, some number of carbon credits (issued by the farmers) are connected to the NFT as evidence of the buyer's philanthropy.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/ecosapiens-uses-nft-collectibles-drive-soilbase-carbon-sequestration/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx_SBziwL0o
One of the lesser-understood aspects of the smartphones we use and the mobile carrier accounts to which they’re connected is the fact that a phone’s user does not “own” the phone number to which his or her phone is connected. The number belongs to the carrier and the carrier is leasing that number to the customer. But, between blockchain and the newest breed of phones that support electronic sim cards (aka “eSIMS”), a new opportunity revealed itself to the founders of Ultimate Digits; a company that immutably records the sale of blockchain-based phone numbers onto the Ethereum public distributed ledger.While at the Outer Edge LA 2023 Conference in Los Angeles, Blockchain Journal technical analyst Bob Reselman sat down with the co-founder and CEO of Ultimate Digits, Atharva Sabnis. According to Sabnis, the impermanence of leased phone numbers isn’t the only insult that smartphone users are currently forced to endure. Mobile carriers have also been caught with their proverbial “hands in the cookie jar” when it comes to the personal data and behaviors of their customers. However, instead of affiliating itself with one of the many global carriers, Ultimate Digits rents telephony infrastructure in bulk and disintermediates the carriers by not only selling phone numbers to its customers in a way that those customers subsequently own the numbers for themselves but also in a way that removes carriers from sitting between those customers and connectivity (thereby preventing carriers from grifting any personal data). With Ultimate Digits, the entirety of its customer relationships—everything from the sales of phone numbers to billing for wireless services—is recorded on Ethereum, and billings are not only managed via smart contracts, customers can pay with either cryptocurrency or fiat currency.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to: https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/using-blockchain-ultimate-digits-hopes-disrupt-mobile-carrier-industry/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/0Uur4bw3uoE
Wendy Henry is the Global Practice Lead for Deloitte's Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency Consultancy; one of the firm's four business units dedicated to helping its business clients get the most out of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) including blockchain. Among her many very well-informed opinions about blockchain adoption is her advice to enterprises to not sit idly by while other entities—existing competitors, disruptive startups, regulators, and lawmakers—sort out their positions on blockchain.While at DC Blockchain Summit 2023 in Washington, DC, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed Ms. Henry to learn more about what she's seeing in the way of blockchain adoption as well as obstacles to that adoption (including blockchain regulation; the main theme of the DC event). During the interview, Henry covered a wide range of topics including enterprise use cases for both fungible and non-fungible tokens and the fact that many enterprises are still not yet 100 percent comfortable with the impact of decentralization on their boundaries for where "control" typically begins and ends. But the best advice that Henry offered had to do with the holistic view that enterprises must take when it comes to working with distributed ledger technology. For example, in use cases where multi-party data transparency is the main driver, an often overlooked imperative is to make sure that all of the involved parties and stakeholders are operating from the same levels of understanding and expertise. So, it's not just about an enterprise educating itself. It's about ensuring that its partners in any blockchain endeavor are equally skilled and fluent in the technology. Said Henry, "The learning is in the doing. So you got to do. You can’t just sit on the sidelines and wait for everyone to figure this out. You’ll be left behind.”To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/deloitte-businesses-sit-sidelines-while-others-pilot-blockchain-will-be-left-behind/
According to the Principal Leader of Deloitte's global Enterprise Trust Practice Michael Bondar, businesses are facing an unprecedented erosion of trust when it comes to their stakeholders (customers, employees, stockholders, etc.). The problem, according to Bondar, exists across the board and impacted businesses of all sizes in all industries. During this interview with Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind, Bondar said that in healthcare, only 23 percent of clinicians trust their leadership and it's even worse for nurses (15 percent). In the technology space, only 40 percent of consumers trust tech companies to maintain and safeguard their data.Whereas trust was once a basic cost of entry into any market, trust has reached such record lows that, for those organizations that figure out how to engender it, it could actually turn into a competitive advantage. Bondar emphasized the importance of taking proactive action before trust issues turn into crisis situations for organizations. What does any of this have to do with blockchain? Referring to the centralized nature of the finance and banking industries and how often the organizations "in charge" have violated the trust of their stakeholders, Bondar noted that blockchain was literally born out of a lack of trust and that distributed ledger technology is a "trust machine." However, recent events have proven that the blockchain industry itself is not immune to the same trust issues that confront other industries. Similar to his recommendations for all industries, he notes that it's time for some new approaches to blockchain industry leadership and structure.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/Zm0poOtXFKk
While at DC Blockchain Summit 2023 in Washington, DC, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind got the chance to interview Open Dialogue Foundation President Lyudmyla Kozlovska about her organization's role in the battle for human rights and democracy in the 21st century. Kozlovska is a native of Ukraine and has been instrumental in the flow of cryptocurrency donations to fund the acquisition and supply of everything from humanitarian aid to weapons to the front lines of the many battles taking place between freedom and oppression. In fact, to the extent that a violent war undermines the store and transfer of fiat currencies, cryptocurrency has played a surprising and unique role in bankrolling Ukraine's fight against Russia.While many of her organization's resources are currently directed at Ukraine, Ms. Kozlovska reminds David that the war taking place in Ukraine isn't just about the freedom of Ukraine. In her view (and the view of many others), the war in Ukraine is the epicenter of democracy's fight for survival in a world where authoritarian regimes are becoming increasingly normalized. In other words, Ukraine could very well be defending democracy while at the same time defending itself.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/yStrzCPFwgo
When it comes to working with distributed ledgers and cryptocurrencies, one of the most significant barriers to enterprise adoption is the significant regulatory uncertainty that enshrouds the blockchain industry. This is especially true of the United States where lawmakers, regulators, and the industry have been gridlocked over a multitude of wildly opposing viewpoints. Meanwhile, as the regulatory perimeter shifts continue to shift, enterprises are stuck in a Catch-22; Either move forward with their blockchain pilots and run the risk of irritating officials at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) or other American agencies. Or, risk disruption by putting their projects on hold until the legalities of working with blockchain are less ambiguous.While at DC Blockchain Summit 2023, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind caught up with CFTC Commissioner Summer Mesinger to ask her what she thinks enterprises should do while the wheels of legislation turn at their typical, glacially slow pace. According to Mesinger, the best thing for enterprises to do is come into her office for a chat. Mesinger says she has an open-door policy and room on her calendar for those companies seeking legislative therapy.The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/prgUP3U946c
The way Deloitte Blockchain Practice Leader Rob Massey tells the story, there weren't a whole lot of enterprises interested in distributed ledger technology a decade ago. But despite Deloitte's reputation for working with enterprises, the consultancy took on smaller blockchain projects and startups because it had an idea of blockchain's disruptive potential and wanted to be in position for when enterprise interest in DLT started to ramp. Ten years later, Massey knows of very few enterprises that aren't involved with blockchain in some capacity and Deloitte has been helping many of them to jumpstart their DLT strategies.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/after-10-years-working-blockchain-deloitte-position-help-enterprises-dlt-plans/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hrMMT344pU
While at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind sat down with the leader of IBM Consulting's Blockchain and Web3 Practice Shyam Nagarajan to find out the extent to which IBM is invested in blockchain technology (hint: it has been all-in for the better part of the last decade). Nadarajan is practically a veteran with blockchain and he talks about when, in the course of providing its consultative services to its enterprise customers, IBM pulls blockchain into the mix of technologies it recommends to solve for specific business use cases.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-ibm-sprinkling-blockchain-solutions-it-builds-and-maintains-enterprise-customers/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyI3Vquvi1U
At World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind met with MobileCoin Head of Business Development Brady Forrest who talked about how MobileCoin's global mobile payment app makes it possible to send money to anyone for a fixed fee of 1/4th of a cent. The app is enabled by the MobileCoin blockchain and like other distributed ledger-based payment workflows, sends cryptocurrency from the originator of a transaction to the recipient. In the case of MobileCoin however, that cryptocurrency can be MOB (the native cryptocurrency of MobileCoin) or eUSD; an asset-backed stablecoin pegged to the value of US$1. Onboarding appears relatively friction-free since payments processor Moonpay will exchange fiat directly from Apple or Google Pay (or a debit card) into one of the two cryptocurrencies. Offboarding from one of the two cryptos to Fiat requires a centralized exchange such as Binance. MobileCoin functionality is also available directly from within the Signal app and, to ease the minds of those concerned about custodial wallets, relies on a non-custodial wallet called Moby.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/mobilecoin-looks-disrupt-venmo-cash-app-paypal-frictionless-blockchainenabled-payments/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irouMkDEVms
Judging by the incredibly stoic demeanor of Yulia Parkhomenko, one of the directors within Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation, you would never guess that she and her colleagues are forging ahead with their plans to revolutionize Ukraine's government services while bombs are randomly falling around them and electricity is only available for four hours on a good day. But with an eye towards a fully digitally transformed country (a vision that comes straight from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky), and in a demonstration of true grit, that's exactly what she and her team are doing and they are moving at a lightning pace. Also, as Parkhomenko explains to Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ukraine plans to run its first Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot in 2024.To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/amid-daily-bombings-ukraines-plans-transform-government-services-blockchain-surge-forward/The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zJhVxtlxXQ
There are two types of cryptocurrency exchanges in the cryptocurrency world; centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX). Both models have their pros and cons and while at World Economic Forum 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind caught up with Dylan Peters and Michael Callahan, the Chief Business Development Officer and Vice President of Marketing at Deepwaters; an exchange that is neither fish nor foul. Deepwaters has some of the operational features of a centralized exchange but unlike most CEXes (and more in DEX-like fashion) never takes control of traders' currencies (fiat or crypto). This hybrid model, according to Peters and Callahan offers crypto traders the best of both worlds.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/wake-ftx-deepwaters-claims-its-hybrid-exchange-best-both-cex-and-dex-worlds/
Blockchain Journal's editor-in-chief David Berlind meets up with Casper Labs CTO Medha Parlikar at the World Economic Forum in Davos to find out more about how enterprises can outsource their distributed ledger deployments to the full-stack blockchain consultancy of which she is a co-founder. As Parlikar explains, full-stack blockchain consultancies like Casper Labs are good for enterprises that know they have a use case for public distributed ledger technology (DLT), but that do not have enough in-house expertise to deploy a solution themselves. In the interview, Parlikar also talks about why fine-grained tracking of permissions and smart contract versioning are two of several features that make Casper public DLT a good choice for enterprise deployments.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/fullstack-blockchain-consultancy-casper-labs-helps-enterprises-distributed-ledger/
While at World Economic Forum 2023, Blockchain Journal's editor-in-chief David Berlind caught up with AY Young, one of 17 young people taking part in a United Nations program that looks to connect the status quo leaders of the world with up-and-coming leaders. Through his music and live concerts, AY raises money to bring energy to people and parts of the world where there is no power.Full transcript of the audio is available at: https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/ay-young-one-uns-17-young-leaders-world-world-economic-forum/
While at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind met with Max Lurya, founder and developer of EnoughTea; an Instagram look-alike application that incorporates the Know Your Customer (KYC) approach of blockchain in order to offer an imposter and bot-free social network.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/tired-imposters-social-networks-heres-enoughtea-version-instagram-built-blockchain/
While at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed HBAR Foundation Sustainable Impact Fund Director Hania Othman to find out why public blockchain is so well-suited to traceably and openly documenting, at a very granular level, an enterprise's track record when it comes to all of its environmentally related activities. These include all the activities that contribute to an enterprise's carbon footprint as well as everything an enterprise does to offset that carbon footprint. Why is it in the best interests of an organization to make all of its environmentally-related behaviors a matter of public record? According to Othman, it's not only the best way to maintain compliance with currently emerging global sustainability regulations, but it is also key to winning over a new and growing breed of environmentally sensitive investors (aka "access to capital") and customers.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/why-blockchain-perfect-documenting-open-traceable-proof-enterprise-sustainability-efforts/
Hyperledger Executive Director Daniela Barbosa is no stranger to the need for, and the importance of, open standards and open source in driving technology adoption. Especially among enterprises. In fact, in a previous life, Barbosa was one of the original co-founders of the Data Portability Project (dataportablity.org) whose long-time focus has been the interoperability of data between dissimilar systems (a long-time obstacle to the sort of IT singularity that many enterprises wish for). As Barbosa explains to Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind at World Economic Forum 2023, the Linux Foundation is heavily engaged in similarly driving open-source blockchain interoperability through multiple projects including Hyperledger itself (an open-source blockchain used for both permissioned and permissionless distributed ledgers) and Hyperledger Besu; an alternative Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) whose availability on multiple layer 1 chains is probably responsible for making EVM the defacto industry standard for blockchain smart contract execution.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/hyperledger-exec-director-waxes-linux-foundations-role-driving-enterprise-blockchain/
Law firm DLA Piper operates in over 40 countries and is one of the three biggest law firms in the world. But just because it's an old-school company in an old-school industry doesn't mean that it (or any other similarly positioned organization) cannot leverage technology to seize a competitive advantage for itself and its customers. At World Economic Forum 2023, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind met with DLA's Chief Innovation Officer Andy Gastwirth who explained why a global law firm needs a chief innovation officer as well as the significance of using blockchain to tokenize real-world assets; everything from office buildings to race horses. Two driving factors have to do with the idea of fractionalizing those assets and optimizing a multitude of complex and legal workflows to involve significantly fewer people, paper, and process-based friction than they do today (think "digital transformation"). As Gastwirth says in the interview, it just means you have to reimagine those old-school processes as digital processes. In the legal world, blockchain-based tokenization will be key to that reimagination.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/top-3-global-law-firm-seizes-first-mover-advantage-tokenize-almost-everything-blockchain/
The business of storing enterprise data has gone through several technological revolutions over the last two decades. After on-prem storage came cloud storage (which enterprises initially resisted) and now, thanks to Filecoin and its competitors, comes blockchain-driven storage. The big question however (as with any blockchain discussion) has to do with the enterprise use cases to which Filecoin's "commercial" offering of an InterPlanetary File System-based (IPFS) solution is suited. At World Economic Forum 2023, Blockchain Journal's editor-in-chief David Berlind interviewed Protocol Labs' Director of Growth Stefaan Vervaet to learn not only about Filecoin's current view on that question but the long-term outlook as well. Protocol Labs is the research arm of the coalition that's responsible for Filecoin's technology and adoption.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/filecoin-looks-move-upstack-just-archival-enterprise-data-database-functionality/
Monty Metzger is the CEO of enterprise blockchain consultancy LCX, based in the country of Liechtenstein, where many of the nation's regulations regarding blockchain are already in place (creating some certainty with respect to the legal operating conditions for companies like his). Blockchain Banking, the book that Metzger recently published is about how the balance of innovation, regulation, and everyday life will change due to digital currency. In the interview with Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind, Metzger that he has been heavily engaged with the World Economic Forum and several central banks as they experiment with the idea of Central Bank Digital Currencies and, based on his experience, tells us that many banks have a keen understanding of blockchain as well as how CBDCs might impact their currency strategies longer term.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/lcx-ceo-monty-metzger-literally-wrote-book-blockchain-banking/
Hedera is one of several Layer 1 public Distributed Ledgers talking to world and business leaders at World Economic Forum 2023 about the benefits and use cases for blockchain technology. But, according to Swirlds Labs Chief Marketing Officer Christian Hasker, enterprises are typically concerned with a different set of blockchain issues than are startups and smaller blockchain project developers. Swirlds Labs is the research and development arm of the multi-party coalition that's responsible for Hedera's technology and adoption. According to Hasker, similar to other technologies that enterprises include in their application stacks, scalability, performance, and cost should rank pretty high as issues when considering distributed ledger technology (DLT). Disclosure: As reflected by its coverage of other layer one public ledgers, BlockchainJournal.com endeavors to be a fair, independent, and unbiased observer of the blockchain industry. It should be noted that, at the time this video was published, Swirlds Labs was an underwriter of Blockchain Journal.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/hedera-describes-criteria-enterprises-should-consider-when-investigating-blockchain/
At World Economic Forum 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind catches up with Avery Dennison market development manager Neil Hay who describes how the $8B multinational enterprise uses blockchain to provide atma.io, a cloud service offering that helps the global giant provide supply chain transparency to some of the largest consumer goods companies in the world (and their customers).Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-8b-multinational-avery-dennison-leverages-blockchain-across-its-supply-chain/
As enterprises begin to adopt blockchain technology in order to optimize their systems and processes in ways that simply cannot be done with other technologies, the likelihood that their customers will know or care could be low. After all, once deployed in enterprise fashion, blockchain typically occupies a fabric-like spot within the organization's enterprise information technology stack. In other words, not necessarily at the customer-facing surface. And there's no industry where this could be more true than in the telecommunications and carrier business where the sorts of integrations that make it possible for people to call or text their friends and families across different carriers are fraught with technological and settlement challenges due to lack of a single source of truth. As Syniverse Sr. Distinguished Engineer of Emerging Technologies Monique Morrow explained to Blockchain Journal editor-in-chief David Berlind at World Economic Forum 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, both Syniverse (which itself is in the SMS fabric of hundreds of carriers) and the GSM Association (GSMA) where she chairs the GSMA-Distributed Ledger Technology Group have a pretty clear understanding of the business problems that blockchain can solve in the telecommunications industry.Full transcript of the audio is available at:https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-sms-messages-and-other-carriergrade-services-could-be-moving-enterprisegrade/