16 TUESDAY 3 JULY 2018FEATURE CITYAM.COM 17TUESDAY 3 JULY 2018 FEATURECITYAM.COM
A new series on AI, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Tokenisation
that is never genuinely ours any-way. It is based on debt, and thatdebt comes at a cost to us. The nature of fiat currency is thatit is backed by nothing more thanthe promise of central authoritiesthat it is worth what they say it is.Add to this the the issue of endlesssupply and you have a recipe for dis-aster. Through quantitative easingthe total amount can be expandedat any given time and basic eco-
Followingon from the observation thatBlockchain technology could help ustrust our institutions again, I’m struck
by the idea that open source / open bookmight actually be a good thing on a widerscale. I mean the whole genesis of theBitcoin Blockchain was as a reaction to the2008 financial crisis and the cypherpunkmovement that included Julian Assange foundingWikiLeaks in 2006. Which Jonny Fry, of Team Blockchain,told me “is ironic given that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoinwere indeed established to avoid banks and institutions;now these same organisations are all over Tokenisation andBlockchain like a rash as they see the cost savings andadded features tokens offer including creating digitalfootprints to help combat the black economy!”Certainly knowing when you give to international aid
organisations that the money is going to the right place andnot being siphoned off; that commerce and trade betweenthe emerging and established economies can beengendered with trust; that the information we rely on tomake informed choices, be they political or otherwise, isbona fide - surely these are examples of where we all agreeyes please, let’s have some of that!Over the past few weeks, since starting this City A.M.
journey, I have met new companies setting out to solve suchproblems. I attended the ICO Masterclass Meetup at CMS’sCannon Street offices where Alastair Band of Sweetbridgegave a compelling presentation, which included thedescription of their forthcoming Bridgecoin which, fullyKYC/AML compliant, will give comfort for trading counter-parties by being underpinned by visible verified assets. A highlight of my week was last Wednesday which was
cram packed, starting with a visit to the Blockchain Summitat Olympia. It was great to spend time with the event’s mainsponsor, the Pillar Project, who have a very clear vision of thefuture with the imminent beta launch of their wallet on the16th July at their ‘Unconference’ in Vilnius which I hope towitness first hand. A standout presence was Sports Ledger,which aims to become the world’s largest sportingecosystem with the aggregation of sporting statistics.I ended my day attending the launch of Pigzbe, which is a
really exciting and innovative ecosystem allowing childrento make digital Piggy Banking engaging and fun with theirown Wallo token. Founder Filippo Yacob was extremelyeloquent describing the ethos of the project and reassuringthat the parents were in control - so no need to KYC/AML fiveyear olds just yet!
nomics tells us that the greater thesupply, the lower the demand. Thedirect result is that price depreci-ates. For fiat currency, this meansthat the new supply siphons valuefrom the existing supply and we seean overall depreciation of what youcan buy for the same number ofPounds. As state-educated individu-als we accept this as a general risein cost of goods and services, but intruth it is a direct consequence of
the government's elite position toborrow more than they can ever re-alistically pay back, with citizensfooting the bill for their politicalspending. It is a never ending cycle,and we haven’t even touched on in-terest and taxation, which simplymeans that the central authorities,and their various stakeholders, areassured of profit from every mone-tary transaction we are ever in-volved in.Blockchain technology, which un-derpins cryptocurrency, ushers in anew world. It breaks the mould ofbureaucracy, and provides a frame-work where irrespective of locationor status, we are afforded an equalrole in economic inclusion, without
the fees and red tape associatedwith the traditional system. It’s anoperating system that blows openunlimited global trade unlike any-thing we’ve seen before, and we’reonly just at the point where the de-centralised foundation has beenlaid. We’re still in the elementarystages of development of the com-mercial applications that will con-tinue to open more and moreopportunities of cryptocurrencyutility, and that is value that willfar outweigh any current pricepoint. The real upside is still to berealised.
£Michael Hudson is Founder and CEO of Bitstocks
As the City of London’s firstcryptocurrency market ad-visory and investmentfirm we, have seen theprice of bitcoin rise from
the lows of $150 back in 2013 to thehighs of nearly $20,000 in late 2017,before a steep slide back to test sup-port around the $6,700 - as of yester-day afternoon.For those who entered the marketat its peak, 2018 has proven to be atough ride as the cryptocurrencymarket hasn’t delivered the returnsone expected. Quite the opposite re-ally, leaving many with significantlosses at this point. The rally wasunjustified in our opinion, and fu-elled mostly by media hype aroundthe ballooning price. A snowball ef-fect ensued, with all and sundryloading savings into cryptos basedon FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) andnot necessarily with a full under-standing of what they were invest-ing in. As the correction startedbringing the price lower, panic hit.New investors - facing almost imme-diate losses - started pulling out themarket triggering further drop off,and so it goes. And it’s not the first time this hashappened. In late October 2013, a mediafrenzy erupted that extensively re-ported on the groundbreaking tech-nology. Over the period of a month,the price of a single bitcoin soaredfrom $150 to $1,242. A fundamen-tally gratuitous surge with no tech-nical reason driving the price. As aresult, the all-time high was short-lived and the price tumbled to set-tle in at the $500 - $600 range.What is most interesting, how-ever, is the wider historical view -
the panoramic perspective. Whenviewed against the backdrop of Bit-coin’s lifetime price chart, thedrama of 2013/2014 fades to a merespeck, a pebble on a vast beach.There is still a long way to go beforethe mainstream adopt the technol-ogy, and when that happens canyou imagine how small the surge-and-purge of 2017/2018 will look onthe timeline? The current dip sim-ply represents another incredible
buying opportunity for those whohave their eye on the intrinsic valueand long-term potential, instead ofthe current price point. The true value of cryptocurrencylies in its ability to facilitate finan-cial sovereignty; to empower us tobreak free from the shackles of theincumbent financial system we areborn into. A system that restrictstrue economic potential, and dic-tates our interaction with money
The True Value ofCryptocurrency:Why the CurrentPrice Doesn’tMatter
Digitalinvestments:Blockchainhelped thecircle tobecomevirtuous.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:THE VIEWS ANDOPINIONS PROVIDED BY CITY A.M.'S CRYPTOINSIDER ARE OF THOSE NAMED IN THE ARTICLEAND SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS INVESTMENTADVICE. THIS COMMUNICATION IS MARKETINGMATERIAL.
The current dipsimply representsanotherincredible buyingopportunity
In association with
L ondon-based Joseph Crawleyheads up the gold miningoperations and corporatestrategy for Jinbi Token), a UKand Belarus-based gold-backed
blockchain business. Jinbi mergestraditional gold investment withblockchain technology, which allows thetoken holder to experience the best ofboth worlds. Joseph is an expert in precious metals,
trading, and mining and understands wellthe commodities and finance sectors. Heis particularly familiar with working ingold mines in Turkey and Ghana.He is now co-founder of Jinbi Token,
having made the leap into the fast-expanding world of ICOs andcryptocurrencies.Such is the popularity of the
proposition, the pre-ICO has alreadyraised $8Million and the main sale,offering tokens up to the value of$88Million, is achieving strong interest
globally. The remainder of the tokens arenow offered in a main sale that runsthrough until July 26 2018. Once the ICO fundraising is complete,
the tokens will be available for purchaseon cryptocurrency exchanges. Joseph Crawley said, “Today, people
who wish to buy twenty-four carat goldface a number of challenges. Where doyou go to buy gold and how do you knowif it is authentic? Is the gold from a trustedsource? How do you store it safely? Howdo you get access to it? The list goes on. “It is undoubtedly a complex and
confusing environment to purchasetwenty-four carat gold. If you buy goldwith paper contracts, you could besubject to counterparty risk. But what ifyou owned the physical assets and theywere under your control? Transparency iswhat the gold industry needs desperately,and we are using blockchain as thesolution to deliver it.”The Jinbi token provides both the
precious metals investor market andcryptocurrency enthusiast with anadvanced value preservation solution, aswell as an innovative and accountablestructure using a blockchain smart
Rick O’Neill,Founder of Look, Touch & Feel - a Specialist DigitalMarketing Agency pulls back the curtains on ICOs, and their Marketingcampaigns, to reveal the real indicators of potential success and failure.
Lastweek we looked at how to assessthe concept behind an ICO, but thisweek I want to “zoom out” a little,
and talk about the competitive land-scape in which ICOs are operating. Itchanges almost hourly, let alone daily,and it’s full of complexity, ambiguity, andcontradiction. Sounds fun, right?For those blockchain startups consid-
ering, or gearing up for, an ICO right now,it’s a worrying time. Regulation is tight-ening, but it’s also still incredibly incon-sistent across different regions of theworld, and no matter how much theyspend on lawyers, they’re all still (mostly)coming up with slightly different an-swers! Aside from the regulation issues
perception from some quarters. The fur-ther announcement that The BostonStock Exchange is working with Zero, anew Cryptocurrency exchange to tradesecurity tokens, gives even further com-fort as traditional investment profession-als and institutions are taking an interest. Authenticity is everything now if an ICO
is to be successful, and for those now ex-ploring the ICO world as a potential par-ticipant or investor, that means enteringa potentially calmer, dare I say safer, en-vironment than you would have beenjust 6 months ago. It will always be BuyerBeware, but ICOs and Tokens as a marketare maturing before our very eyes at arapid pace.
CITY A.M.’SCRYPTO INSIDER
Tokenising Gold – CityA.M.’s Crypto InsiderInterviews Jinbi co-Founder Joe Crawley
News in the last week included a reportcalled, ironically, 'Beyond the Hype'from the global central bank (BIS, theBank of International Settlements)which contains more than its own shareof hype, including a headline stating‘Bitcoin Could Break the Internet'. To-gether with the same obvious errorsthat the Bank of England's Mark Carneymade when addressing the issue of fu-ture money and the viability of cryp-tocurrencies in March.Both simply extrapolate from Bitcoinitself, basically ignoring all subsequentinnovations - of which there are many.According to Wikipedia "as of April 2018[there were] over 1,565 cryptocurren-cies". Which is an underestimate as atTokenIntelligence.io, where we monitorICOs globally, the total is fast approach-ing 2,200 and we see close to fifty newICOs each week. With billions rolling inthe pace of innovation continues to beboth fast and furious.So BIS’ big mistake is its ‘straw man’argument. BitCoin is the Ford Model-Tof cryptos. The first roadworthy model.Such is the pace of development thatmeanwhile something much more likea Tesla, or Lamborghini is already beingtested. As TeamBlockchain’s CEO Jonny Fryhas pointed out, while VISA can process65k transactions per second. “Hash-
graph can process over 300k per second.Currently Telegram handles 70 Billionmessages a day and is looking to do 1mper second” - and has just raised $1.7 Bil-lion. Meanwhile the Lightning Network,now moving into ‘production’ mode, isset to speed up Bitcoin itself many timesover, vastly increasing its capacity.BIS’ report also bemoans wasteful useof energy mining coins - but without ac-knowledging that the solution (some-thing known as ‘Proof of Stake’,replacing the energy hungry ‘Proof ofWork’) is already in the wings - or that aplethora of projects are moving the fieldforward at an unprecedented rate.While no one can say for certainwhether cryptocurrencies will come todominate, replace or live alongside tra-ditional fiat money, basing an Aunt-Sally argument on the less likely (butfeared) outcome does no one any creditand adds nothing to the debate, exceptperhaps a little FUD.What is not controversial, even for BIS,is that the technology created in orderto make Bitcoin possible, and on whichcryptocurrencies are based, Blockchainis set to revolutionise not just bankingbut many other sectors. We are seeingthe remaking of the Internet - the birthof its next generation.
Please Tweet/Telegram questions to @BarryEJames or listen at ICOrad.io.
ICO NEWS
@CityAm_CryptoE:[email protected]
Will Bitcoin Make or Break the internet?
Transparency is what the goldindustry needsdesperately
THE ICO LANDSCAPE
JAMES BOWATER
PARTNER CONTENT
CRYPTO
(which I will be honest, are not really myfield of expertise), the general environ-ment in which ICOs are now launched isVERY different to that of just 6 monthsago. As with the gold rush to California in the
1850s, in 2017 there was a feeling of theWild West; and that was bad for the trustand credibility that is so necessary in thisfield. There can be little doubt that pro-fessionalisation and regulation are nowslowly coming in 2018 and beyond; andthat is a good thing for all involved. Re-cently announced plans for the New YorkStock Exchange to trade Bitcoin have alsogiven the industry a feeling of perma-nency to counteract the ‘flash in the pan’
contract. Jinbi expect to generatesubstantial capital appreciation whilstmaintaining an attractive risk profile forinvestors.Additionally, Jinbi Token holders are
eligible to receive quarterly preciousmetals and cryptocurrency investmentreports. Jinbi Tokens, which are deliveredvia a smart contract, are documentationof the invested physical gold holdings.Crawley adds, "We have been
overwhelmed by the level of supportfrom our pre-sale and we continue tooffer bonus tokens at this early stage ofthe main public sale.
“The great thing about Jinbi is thattokens will be assigned gold via smartcontracts, meaning that each piece ofgold will be accounted for, from mining tostorage. Blockchain technology providesan easy, safe and simple way to transactin an efficient, anonymous and high-frequency manner through Jinbi.” Success can only be achieved through
teamwork and Joseph’s co-founder isAndre Rafnsson from 2030 whointroduced Jinbi to the Pillar Project.Jinbi and Pillar are now working inpartnership which means that JinbiTokens will be one of the first authorisedcrypto assets to be listed on the Pillarwhitelist exchange.The Jinbi token will have its own exclusivewallet using Pillar's unique and first tomarket platform that will provideadditional security and transparency totoken holders. In addition, Pillar projectteam members are supporting JinbiToken as technical experts in blockchainstructures and token transaction security.Crawley summarises, “Raising fundsthough an ICO is a fantastic learningexperience. The resources in London aresecond to none, so it’s a great place fornew businesses to thrive.”
For further information please contactTina Fotherby on 0333 344 2341 or [email protected]
Recommended
