Charles Brett is a business/technology analyst consultant. His specialist areas include enterprise software, blockchain and enterprise mobility tech (including metering). Specific industry sectors of interest and experience include finance (especially systems supporting wholesale finance), telecommunications and energy. Charles has spoken at multiple industry conferences, has written for numerous publications (including the London Times and the Financial Times). He was the General Chair of the bi-annual High Performance Systems Workshop, 2005. In addition he is an author and novelist. His Technology books include: Making the Most of Mobility Vol I (eBook, 2012); Explaining iTunes, iPhones and iPads for Windows Users (eBook, 2011); 5 Axes of Business Application Integration (2004). His published novels, in the Corruption Series, include: The HolyPhone Confessional Crisis, Corruption’s Price: A Spanish Deceit and Virginity Despoiled. A fourth novel nears completion. Charles has a B.A. and M.A in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He has lived or worked in Italy, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, California and New York, Spain, Israel, Estonia and Cyprus.
Blockchain energy market provider, Power Ledger is putting its peer-to-peer energy trading platform to the test via a trial with Australia’s energy retailer, Origin. The trial involves Power Ledger using anonymised consumer data. This will seek to prove the accuracy and security of the Power Ledger trading platform. The trial will begin in October and…
In a recent examination of EASME (the EU’s The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), ET was somewhat scathing about the amount it was investing in blockchain or distributed ledger technologies (DLT). After following up with EASME the latter provided an additional six investment destinations. These are described below. Innovaetica Innovaetica is an Italian…
Embedded Downloads – based in Limerick, Ireland and New Delhi, India – has announced BitVault, allegedly the world’s first crypto communicator and blockchain-supporting smart phone. It will ship in November at a price of €949.00. The BitVault was introduced, via prototypes, to the fintech community earlier this year. Now it is almost real. BitVault features…
There is no doubt that interest in blockchains as a technology is running high, nor that this is a global phenomenon. Two contributions, with very different considerations, illustrate this: Chris Berg, Sinclair Davidson and Jason Potts are with the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub in Melbourne, Australia; their opinion piece, entitled ‘Institutional Cryptonomics: A New Model for a…
Nextech, a Perth (Australia) company, has created a project called ClearPoll. This allows users around the world to: browse for opinion polls on topics they care about most vote on the polls view detailed results. By deploying blockchain technology Nextech securely stores both votes and results. Better still, no individual or corporation can tamper with…
GS1, IBM and Microsoft have announced a collaboration to leverage GS1 Standards in enterprise blockchain applications for supply chain clients. GS1 is a not-for-profit organisation with member organisations in 112 countries, 1.5 million user companies and claims 5 billion transactions conforming to a common language that supports systems and processes. It provides global standards for…
At an industry conference organised by Barclays, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, stated “Bitcoin will eventually blow up. It’s a fraud. It’s worse than tulip bulbs and won’t end well.” Before examining the accuracy of his assessment, he did manage to put another dent in an already much dented valuation of Bitcoins (BTC). At…
ZF, UBS and IBM are jointly to develop the Car eWallet open automotive transaction platform for mobility services. This will use blockchain technology. To its founders, Car eWallet has the potential to change radically the way manufacturers, suppliers and service providers process digital transactions. The objective is to simplify the use of vehicle services. Equipped…
According to security research firm FireEye, Kim Jong Un’s DPRK (aka N Korea) is focusing on Bitcoin (BTC) as a source of foreign funds. That he seeks to do this is a direct consequence of US-inspired, and UN-mandated sanctions. As so often the laws of unintended consequences may yet apply. In this case, not only…
The EU’s Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME) has invested, via SME Instrument funds, a ‘whole’ c €3.4M in three companies (see below) in pursuit of blockchain use. The Commission set up EASME to manage several EU programmes. These include: COSME (Competitveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium Enterprises) Horizon 2020 (the EU primary programme for…