Blockchain Observations

Being a forum for blockchain ideas

Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA

Facebook and Libra: the new global currency?

Since Facebook announced to launch a new digital currency, the Libra, a complete media craze arose. The one blogger stumbled as it were over the other. And while the one group sings hosanna over this initiative (a salvation for the bankless), warning signals come especially from the supervisors and regulators part (time bomb under the global money...

01 July 2019

Retired Member 

How Blockchain Is Reshaping the Marketing Landscape

Marketing is one of the many fields that have seen a huge impact from blockchain, and we’re likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg too. As the technology around blockchain continues to improve, we’re likely going to see even more effects from it not only in the field of marketing, but many others as well. And just like previous developments su...

26 June 2019

Prasoon Mukherjee Director | Head of Securities Services | GSC-India at Societe Generale Bank

Liberate LIBRA off the currency war, and let it find its meaningful place as a STO.

Calvin Coolidge said "Doubters do not achieve, skeptics do not contribute, and cynics do not create". At the outset let me truthfully confess that I am neither of the three on this subject. On the contrary, I truly believe that we are changing the world as how business is conducted, and transactions are processed, “one blockchain at a ti...

22 June 2019 /regulation

Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA

Blockchain: A game-changer for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises?

In many countries Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbones of their economy. Their role is crucial to worldwide economic and social developments, with more than half of the overall world population working in such companies. In the Netherlands for instance, more than 90% of the Dutch companies are SMEs and together they produce ...

18 June 2019

Retired Member 

Cryptocurrency -- All about Bitcoin and Bitcoin Wallets

It didn’t take very long at all for Bitcoin to become very popular amongst people, and when did, so many people began to invest in this coin. No matter what type of cryptocurrency you take part in, you need a place to keep your coins safely. This would generally require an app or a bitcoin wallet of some sort. There are plenty of Bitcoin wallets t...

07 June 2019

Konstantin Rabin Head of Marketing at Kontomatik

The damage that cryptocurrency trading bots could be doing to exchanges

Trading software and trading algorithms are not a new addition to today’s markets, especially if you consider the fact that most of the trading that happens on traditional financial asset markets is done by these “bots”. It makes sense for them to exist and operate in the markets the way they do. The bots are much faster than humans and they are m...

31 May 2019

Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA

Blockchain-as-a-Service: the accelerator for blockchain adoption

Blockchain technology has attracted growing interest from various businesses from large corporates to SMEs. But a large scale adoption by corporates and others has long time been hindered by the lack of options. But that is changing. When interacting with the blockchain they have now two options. They can either set up their node directly, thereby ...

30 May 2019

Retired Member 

How the Crypto Market Is Moving Away from Traditional Exchanges

Element Zero is a great solution for managing the risk associated with running a cryptocurrency exchange. The cryptocurrency market is relatively new, yet it’s already seen huge developments indicative of a major trend developing. It’s hard to tell where this will all end up, and how long it will take for things to stabilize properly. But one thin...

28 May 2019

Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA

Blockchain and Stable Coins: opening the crypto markets?

In my recent blog about IBM’s Blockchain World Wire I mentioned the use of Stable Coins as settlement instrument for global payment transactions. Not many are familiar with the term Stable Coins, because it is a relatively new type of cryptocurrency. The Stable Coin market is however hotter than ever. In recent months, Stable Coins have seen remark...

14 May 2019

Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA

Blockchain Corda Settler, Ripple and SWIFT a mariage a trois?

My last blog was about the IBM World Wire, a blockchain based platform for global payments. Another competitor in the blockchain payments world I have written about regularly is Ripple. Both are thereby targeting centralised payments messages network SWIFT. IBM and Ripple however are not the only players in the blockchain payments world. Late last ...

30 April 2019