147 Results
Carlo R.W. De Meijer Owner and Economist at MIFSA
“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
During the whole month of November we are going to visit Southern Africa again, travelling around. So it’s time again to look at this continent from a blockchain point of view. Since my last blogs on this topic a lot has happened (See: South Africa and Blockchain: changing the face of Africa, 15 November 2016). Even though Africa did not get a lot...
14 August 2018 Blockchain Observations
Early this month R3 announced the launch of Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of its open-source Corda blockchain platform, which aims to help a wider range of business use blockchain in their sector. With the launch of Corda Enterprise, companies can now select a version of Corda that fits their unique needs – regardless of their industry, ...
16 July 2018 Blockchain Observations
At the Blockchain Innovation Conference in Utrecht early June, Wiebe Draaier, the Rabobank chair said that We.Trade, the European trade platform on blockchain, was ready for production. We.Trade, the new name of the earlier Digital Trade Chain Project, is indicated to simplify trade finance processes and increase access to trade finance for SMEs ...
03 July 2018
In this second part of my blog on scalability the main Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions will be described and judged on their ability to meet the three Scalability Trilemma requirements: scalability, security and decentralisation. Main Layer 1 Solutions SegWit (Bitcoin) Bitcoin developers launched a scalability solution in 2017, called SegWit or se...
18 June 2018
Last week the Dutch Central Bank launched a report on blockchain, in which they concluded that the blockchain technology “fundamentally failed to pass muster as a realistic replacement for current financial market infrastructures”. The Bank found definitive limitations in capacity, efficiency and certainty of payment, that compared unfavourably a...
Trade finance has become one of the top focus issues for blockchain technology use. The number of pilots and other trials that are looking into the opportunities of blockchain technology for trade finance and supply chain have dramatically increased in 2017 and intensified this year. The sheer complexity of trade finance is thereby reflected in th...
23 May 2018 Blockchain Observations
Notwithstanding the large number of blockchain and distributed ledger pilots, there is still a large number of challenges to overcome that are limiting its uptake. Next to scalability, other main issues that should be tackled are integration and interoperability, as they stand in the way of large-scale adoption of blockchain technology. In order t...
30 April 2018
On 10 April, at the EC Digital Day 2018, the European Union made a big step forward towards a great blockchain future. On that date 22 EU member countries have signed a Declaration on the creation of a European Blockchain Partnership. This has been the consequent result of a year hard working by the European Commission. Long time the European Unio...
16 April 2018
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