Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA
Blockchain and Big Data are among the emerging technologies that are high on many companies’ agendas. Both are expected to radically transform the way businesses and organizations are run in the upcoming years. Long-time developing in a separate way, at first sight one might assume that these technologies are mutually exclusive. But that idea is...
29 January 2019 Blockchain Observations
It is increasingly becoming a certainty that crypto-assets are here to stay. Also regulators are now more convinced that these will be here for the long run. Long time taken a wait-and-see attitude, there is growing consensus at European regulators to come up with EU-wide regulation. While on the one hand EU regulation could give the crypto marke...
15 January 2019 Blockchain Observations
2018 was a challenging year for the blockchain world. Not all my predictions were realised. But what is sure is: the hype is over. The adoption of this technology by the industry was less outspoken than predicted. Blockchain spending by companies went slower than expected, while many ongoing projects were stalled or even stopped. This had much to ...
27 December 2018 Blockchain Observations
My wife and I recently returned from our trip through South Africa and Namibia. It was great again. All went very well except our flight back to Amsterdam. That was cancelled because of fleet shortage at the airline company. The result was that we were offered a flight two days later. At the counter in Joburg International Airport it took us more ...
18 December 2018 Blockchain Observations
Recently Ripple launched its “Blockchain in Payments Report 2018”. Main finding of this Report was that global payments based on this technology is reaching critical mass this year. And on top of that organisations are already ‘looking to incorporate digital assets into payments flows’. I was wondering where these findings were based on, so this ...
23 October 2018 Blockchain Observations
It has now been more than four months since the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (hereafter GDPR) came into effect. This regulation aims to strengthen privacy and personal data protection in the EU, by giving private persons more control over their personal data. But it also offer a uniform set of regulations for businesses with ...
09 October 2018 /regulation Blockchain Observations
In an earlier blog (“Blockchain is looking for Scale: a Balancing Act, Part I + II, 18 June 2018) I showed how the blockchain world was trying to solve the scalability issue. There I concluded that it was “hard labor” to solve the so-called Scalability Trilemma. That means reaching enough scalability without compromising transparency and secur...
02 October 2018 Blockchain Observations
Trade finance is one of the most crowded areas for blockchain-based projects. In one of my earlier blogs I gave an overview of them (see my blog: “Blockchain for Trade Finance: a network business”, 23 May 2018). And now, a new one can be added to that list: Komgo. A consortium of fifteen of the world’s largest institutions, including internationa...
25 September 2018 Blockchain Observations
“Out of the Blue”, and “quite in the shadow”, IBM recently introduced a new product called Blockchain World Wire. A cross-border payments system for financial institutions based on blockchain technology. This new global financial network will work on the Stellar network and will not only compete with the traditional Swift system, but could also be...
06 September 2018 Blockchain Observations
Early 2017 I wrote a blog on Central Banks and blockchain (see: Blockchain and Central banks: a Tour de Table Part I and II, 3 and 9 January 2017). My conclusion at that time was: “It has become clear that central banks are set to take a much more active role in the development of blockchain technology. But how active that will be is not yet clear...
21 August 2018 Blockchain Observations
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