Research and trends

What are DAOs?

DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations) are online-native decentralised organisations with self-enforcing rules, governed by their members, and use distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain.
Research and trends

NFTs

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and their varying and increasingly exciting uses are taking the blockchain world by storm.
Research and trends

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

Part I: an Introduction Why Decentralize Finance? In one word: trust. Or, ironically, you could also say trustless. Allow me to explain. For the same reason that Bitcoin is successful without a centralizing third-party─namely that you can transact with a perfect stranger in a foreign country by trusting the protocol and you don’t need to trust the stranger─the cascade … Continue reading "DeFi (Decentralized Finance)"
Research and trends

What is Ethereum?

First, a Brief History What was the problem(s) that Vitalik Buterin was looking to solve? Bitcoin provided a solution to the double-spend problem of creating digital cash by using proof-of-work mining to both maintain the state of the ledger and allow open participation in the network based on computing power. By assigning value to these … Continue reading "What is Ethereum?"
Research and trends

What is Bitcoin?

What was the problem that Satoshi Nakamoto was looking to solve? Digital Cash (without the bank) The 80’s & 90’s saw many attempts to create a digital version of money that could have a token, both private and untraceable, treated as a bearer instrument and not subject to the fragilities of third party issuers and verifiers.
Research and trends

What is a Cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin was the first blockchain and presented the first use-case: money. Creating cash in an entirely digital manner was a problem that remained unsolved until Satoshi Nakamoto (an alias) released software in 2008 as an experiment to see if his version could prevent coins from being copied and incentivise people to join the network. Bitcoin is referred … Continue reading "What is a Cryptocurrency?"
Research and trends

What is a Blockchain?

A blockchain is a data structure with a unique set of properties suited to decentralized systems. The data in a blockchain is usually wrapped in a package called a block and when the network is updated with new information this block is linked to the previous update. In this manner the links form a chain … Continue reading "What is a Blockchain?"
Blockchain Business & Economy

Will 2019 be the year blockchain flops, or flies?

Last year was a turning point for blockchain as we saw a formerly experimental philosophy evolve into tangible projects. So, will 2019 be the year blockchain becomes ubiquitous, or will some well-publicised failures spell the end of the road?
Research and trends

Data for sale: The value of our digital lives

Every time we swipe our bank card, upload a photo to Facebook, watch a video on YouTube, use a loyalty discount, hand over a prescription, read an article online, we’re giving ourselves away.