Blockchain Catch-up

This is Charles Brett’s start-of-the-week Enterprise Times ‘blockchain catch-up’ Week 23. Necessarily it is idiosyncratic and selective.

It is not intended to be comprehensive but does seek to highlight ‘Quick Takes’ on specific developments as well interesting pieces to read, a listing of some (not all) announcements/press releases and pointers to upcoming events.

Quick Takes – Charles Brett’s Blockchain Catch-up Week 23

BIS: the digitalisation of money 

This working paper from the Bank for International Settlements (the ‘central banks’ central bank’) discusses key questions and the economic implications of digital currencies, including how digital currencies could unbundle the traditional roles of money, lead to digital currency areas that cover multiple countries and move payments away from banks’ credit provision towards digital platforms. Such changes, it argues, could influence the transmission of monetary policy and necessitate the introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Quick Take: Enterprise Times recommends this as reading for anyone with an interest in money, business or relevant technologies (like blockchain). The working paper finds:

  • digital currencies will unbundle the traditional functions served by money (store of value, medium of exchange and unit of account, and in so doing will create fiercer competition among currencies
  • digital money issuers will try to differentiate their products (for example a currency) by re-bundling monetary functions with data gathering and social networking services: “In combination with digital connectedness, new currencies could lead to digital currency areas linking the currency to the use of a particular digital network rather than to a specific country – (which raises the risk of ‘digital dollarisation’, in which the national currency is supplanted by the currency of a (systemically important) digital platform”
  • digital currencies affect the competition between private and public money; cash could disappear, and payments could centre around digital platforms rather than banks’ credit provision (which may mean governments may need to offer CBDCs in order to retain monetary independence).

Forbes: What is blockchain?

At its core, blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that stores data. A blockchain can record information about cryptocurrency transactions, NFT ownership, DeFi smart contracts – and more. While any conventional database can store this sort of information, blockchain is decentralised. Rather than being maintained in one location, by a central admin, multiple computers hold many identical copies of a blockchain database spread across a network. This is what is different.

Quick Take: This is a short, sharp summary of blockchain – and is no less useful for that…

7 pieces to read – Charles Brett’s Blockchain Catch-up Week 23

Selected announcements/press releases/opinions – Charles Brett’s Blockchain Catch-up Week 23

  • IMF warns President Nayib Bukele about Bitcoin adoption n El Salvador (announcement)
  • Decentralized Finance: (DeFi) Policy-Maker Toolkit (Report/White Paper)
  • Caizcoin ready to create its own crypto ecosystem based on Islamic blockchain network (announcement)
  • Top universities offering blockchain technology education for 2021 (education)
  • Blockchain games that gamers want to win (opinion)
  • BitMart co-hosts blockchain start-up competition with GDA Capital to nourish future entrepreneurs (announcement)
  • IBM reinforces commitment to enterprise blockchain and open-source Hyperledger (announcement)
  • Zabo partners with Kubera to bring the ‘Dead Man’s Switch’ to crypto (announcement)
  • Why tokenisation is the future (education – webinar, replay).

Selected upcoming events

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here