21st Century Learning and Teaching

The Blockchain Economy: A beginner’s guide to institutional cryptoeconomics

Chris Berg, Sinclair Davidson and Jason Potts are from the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, the world’s first social science research centre into the economics, politics, sociology, and law of blockchain technology.

The blockchain is a digital, decentralised, distributed ledger.

Most explanations for the importance of the blockchain start with Bitcoin and the history of money. But money is just the first use case of the blockchain. And it is unlikely to be the most important.

It might seem strange that a ledger — a dull and practical document associated mainly with accounting — would be described as a revolutionary technology. But the blockchain matters because ledgers matter.

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=blockchain

A major breakthrough in cryptography may have solved one of the biggest obstacles to using blockchain technology on Wall Street: keeping transaction data private.

Known as a “zero-knowledge proof,” the new code will be included in an Oct. 17 upgrade to the ethereum blockchain, adding a level of encryption that lets trades remain private. Previously, users were able to remain anonymous but transactions were verified by allowing everyone on the network to see them.

“Zero-knowledge proofs are one of the biggest inventions in the last two decades in cryptography,” said Emin Gun Sirer, an associate professor of computer science at Cornell University. It “will allow a slew of applications we can’t even imagine right now.”

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It’s long been argued that blockchain  – the underlying DNA of cryptocurrency Bitcoin – could transform the way financial services companies do business, but how close is it to being used day-to-day?

When it comes to some aspects of the financial services industry, adoption is still a little way off.

There’s no doubt that blockchain’s real-time characteristic and ability to act as a public ledger of all transactions could revolutionise many parts of financial services, reducing risks and bringing cost savings among other benefits.

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Since its advent in 2009, bitcoin’s decentralized, broker-less and secure mechanism to send money across the world has steadily risen in popularity and adoption. Of equal — if not greater — importance is the blockchain, the technology that supports the cryptocurrency, the distributed ledger which enables trustless, peer-to-peer exchange of data.

Every day, new companies and organizations, including big names such as Microsoft and Tesla, take strides toward or show interest in using cryptocurrency and blockchain to support their business.

But the fame of blockchain has also given rise to two new challenges, namely that of interoperability and flexibility.

There are now more than a score of blockchain-based currencies, each optimized for different purposes, with different exchange rates, verification and consensus mechanisms, performance, distribution function, block size limit and degree of anonymity. And none of these currencies are compatible with others, making it hard for users to transfer money between them.

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What do Pied Piper and blockchain tools have in common? Both are always “coming soon.”

By now most of us are familiar with blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Outside of cryptocurrency, blockchain has many purported use cases in scenarios that require an immutable ledger.

Rhetoric has elevated blockchain to godly status, labeling it as a bleeding edge technology poised to disrupt all facets of life, from voting, to smart guns, health data, stock trading, international shipping, and beyond.

We’ve seen a ton of other innovative blockchain ideas too, yet many are unproven or simply hypothetical. So, the question is, what projects are successfully implementing blockchain in practice?

In this article we’ll strive to separate fact from fiction by showcasing 5 living projects that are actually using blockchain, with real world results. We’ll gauge the viability of such projects, and see how proven use may affect the global climate and attitude toward blockchain adoption.

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Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard of Bitcoin and blockchain. After all, they are one of the most trending topics these days  —  the ultimate buzzwords of the year. Even people who’ve never mined cryptocurrency or understand how it works, are talking about it. My non-techie friends are completely at loss …

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DETROIT (Reuters) - The technology underpinning the cryptocurrency bitcoin is migrating to the auto industry and vehicle sharing.

Accounting and consulting firm EY, part of Ernst & Young Global Ltd, said on Wednesday it was launching a blockchain based system that will enable companies or groups of individuals to more easily share ownership of vehicles and access to cars and trucks. EY could deploy the system, called Tesseract, in a test with an unnamed partner within the next quarter, EY partner John Simlett told Reuters in an interview.

The concept of sharing the use of vehicles is not new to the auto industry, but the use of blockchain technology to record vehicle ownership, log the use of vehicles, and apportion insurance costs and other transactions is in its infancy.

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The Blockchain is a distributed database technology that stores a single version of the truth of anything digital. How will it impact your business?

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