Blockchain Revolution: from the internet of information to the internet of value

[kneehighs]

@shyheels 

Microsoft is getting in on the action too http://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-blockchain-idUSKBN1AQ1KD

[Shyheels]

Looks like people will be making money with it - as usual, where money-making is concerned, I won't be in amongst it!

[kneehighs]

@Shyheels haha

The market cap for blockchain currency (currency is just one aspect of blockchain growth) was at 12.4 Billion in June of 2016.  In June of 2017 it hit 106 Billion.

This barely even touches upon the explosive Initial Coin Offerings potential...

[Shyheels]

There was also a time, remember, when tulip bulbs were worth more than their weight in gold, and at that time investors were salivating at the chance to buy into this never ending upward spiral. Without even half trying they could come up with all sorts of convincing reasons why tulip bulbs were an extremely sound investment, not only worth the value that was being put on them but sure to climb still higher...

Edited August 12, 2017 by Shyheels

[meganiwish]

It's the history of the canals and the railways.

[Shyheels]

And who could forget the South Sea Island Bubble of 1720

[kneehighs]

While there's much more opportunity in blockchain than crypto-currency trading (I tell everyone to put in 3%-5% to start), here's a desktop app that calculates ROI based on investement in crypto's since Jan 1, 2017.  Notice, the ENTIRE CATEGORY is almost all profitable.  As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.

https://www.cryptoground.com/what-if?amount=1&coin=all&month=Jan&day=01&year=2017

[Shyheels]

A rising tide does indeed lift all boats - and depending on the tide it can also sweep them inland and deposit them on the rocks, leaving them high and dry. The South Sea Island Bubble comes to mind. I am extremely wary of any financial proposition that appears to be all blue sky. (To mix a metaphor)

Edited August 20, 2017 by Shyheels

[iggy_ze]

Just a couple of thoughts. Online financial transactions are not completely safe, they can be hacked. I even got a bank manager to confirm that this week. Until a currency is fully tradeable virtually everywhere it won't be accepted. An oxymoron? Think of the US Dollar and Stirling.

Edited August 20, 2017 by iggy_ze

[Shyheels]

And then think of the North Korean won...

[las]

A great shame reading some of the posts on the first page; it proves that even though Bitcoin (as an example) is 10 years old, it's still so unknown and thus held by even fewer.

@kneehighs To answer the question in the first post, I guess I have studied the emerging blockchain cryptocurrency industry, through reading whitepapers and joining in ICOs. I sit on Discord and have joined numerous related channels, subscribe to too many crypto subreddits and have accounts on several exchanges. It is a truly exciting time; whilst many will choose not to educate themselves in this area, they will still benefit from the technology as the corporations look to implement it.

Glad there is a thread for this here; so how else are you getting involved beyond mining or trading? 

[Shyheels]

I'd say the prefix 'crypto' might provide a clue about why the general public has not rushed to embrace all this!

Edited August 20, 2017 by Shyheels

[Shyheels]

As las says, it is nice to have this thread going, a bit of variety on the site!

For a brief year or so in my dim and distant past I used to be a finance journalist - obviously the world has changed much in thirty-odd years, but cautionary principles learned back then still seem valid. There are squillins if ways of losing your dough.

Edited August 20, 2017 by Shyheels

[kneehighs]

8 hours ago, las said:

A great shame reading some of the posts on the first page; it proves that even though Bitcoin (as an example) is 10 years old, it's still so unknown and thus held by even fewer.

@kneehighs To answer the question in the first post, I guess I have studied the emerging blockchain cryptocurrency industry, through reading whitepapers and joining in ICOs. I sit on Discord and have joined numerous related channels, subscribe to too many crypto subreddits and have accounts on several exchanges. It is a truly exciting time; whilst many will choose not to educate themselves in this area, they will still benefit from the technology as the corporations look to implement it.

Glad there is a thread for this here; so how else are you getting involved beyond mining or trading? 

Wow, you are immersed!  There's a colleague of mine who is prominent in the Eastern European business creating a blockchain backed e-commerce site.  He's creating a token sale and wants me to move to EE for awhile to be part of the team.  I also have an Augmented Reality #ARkit "try before you buy" art app backed on blockchain idea in the works. Naturally, ETH and BTC are in my portfolio. 

p.s. if you have any good resources for how to negotiate salary in terms of pre-ICO, ICO, or post-ICO, please let me know.  The currency conversion for EE countries against the US$ is horrible. 

P.S. the best forum I found so far is https://bitcointalk.org/.  They even have developers, people looking to partner up, pretty much everything for a successful token sale there. It's still early days so a great time to make your name known there among Early Adaptors.

8 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I'd say the prefix 'crypto' might provide a clue about why the general public has not rushed to embrace all this!

True!  Also, kind of funny.

Edited August 20, 2017 by kneehighs

[Shyheels]

Being a creative type I seldom have money to invest...or can afford to lose...

Edited August 20, 2017 by Shyheels

[meganiwish]

9 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I'd say the prefix 'crypto' might provide a clue about why the general public has not rushed to embrace all this!

Thank you Shyheels.  Just for those who don't have Greek, 'crypto-' means 'hidden'.  This is Tetzcatlipoca or Smoke and Mirrors.

[kneehighs]

Regarding blockchain being smoke and mirrors, it's actually totally transparent.  Criminals have been caught simply b/c they conducted financial transactions on blockchain.

[Shyheels]

And now they're on ball-and-chain

[kneehighs]

@Shyheels I attached a Gartner 2015 (very old) graph that defines 3D printing and it's sub genres according to their position on the Gartner Hype Cycle. Gartner argues that all emerging technologies follow the same hype cycle, starting with an Innovation Trigger, a Peak Of Inflated Expectations, a Trough of Disillusionment, and a Slope Of Enlightenment. These categories might be meaningless to you, but the graph made me think of you.

Not to derail this thread away from it's theme towards Blockchain, but Price Waterhouse Cooper has a graph called The Eight Essential Technologies and How They Can Be Applied.  These 8 technologies will soon change the world and how we live our lives.  Food for thought for those prepared to adapt as the world adapts.

 

[Shyheels]

Funnily enough I am quite familiar with the terms having followed and written about the 3D printing revolution a few years ago. The inflated expectations there certainly fell away quickly as it became obvious that nobody was going to be fabricating brilliant functional bits of kit at home.

[Cali]

Several years ago, I was going to have another experimental surgery on my hand to deal with a damaged bone. I tried to convince my hand surgeon to let me recreate the bone they were going to remove from my hand and replace it with a plastic bone I would created with 3D-scanning (MRI and cat scan) and 3D-printing. It didn't happen, so I have the #3 version of this experimental surgery. 

[las]

On 20/08/2017 at 6:13 PM, kneehighs said:

Wow, you are immersed!  There's a colleague of mine who is prominent in the Eastern European business creating a blockchain backed e-commerce site.  He's creating a token sale and wants me to move to EE for awhile to be part of the team.  I also have an Augmented Reality #ARkit "try before you buy" art app backed on blockchain idea in the works. Naturally, ETH and BTC are in my portfolio. 

p.s. if you have any good resources for how to negotiate salary in terms of pre-ICO, ICO, or post-ICO, please let me know.  The currency conversion for EE countries against the US$ is horrible. 

P.S. the best forum I found so far is https://bitcointalk.org/.  They even have developers, people looking to partner up, pretty much everything for a successful token sale there. It's still early days so a great time to make your name known there among Early Adaptors.

True!  Also, kind of funny.

ARKit - is that the one in iOS (11) or are you using a different software vendor for AR? Sounds super cool; I love how AR as a technology has been in people's hands for so long, but is starting to make a comeback that people are understanding & using, and some of the apps out there are more than gimmicks or demos.

I think the way salary tends to go in ICOs is through $ or the native currency of the firm making the ICO. Here's a simple example:

We have an ICO that will create a maximum supply of 10 tokens; 5 of these will be sold at launch and the other 5 will be kept for a future sale, other investment or as possible "stock" options for employees. Once the ICO goes live and the 5 tokens are sold, you will have "sold" (swapped) them for BTC, ETH etc. As part of your business plan, you'd have allocated various percentages and costs towards development, marketing, office space, etc; these percentages can be mapped to the tokens exchanged during the sale. Employees tend to be paid in <native currency> but you currently hold a ton of BTC, ETH etc. Some people will be happy to be paid in these and others will want $ or £, so you'd need to sell some of the tokens to get money to pay regular expenditures like these.

If you read some whitepapers and visit the websites of a few ICOs, you'll soon see how they have managed all this and understand their route to market. It sounds very exciting and certainly something I should look into myself more - as a developer

[Heelster]

OK - - after doing some reading, a couple thoughts. Good software requires great implementation. SAP is considered one of the best business applications in the market, and yet a large portion of the industry who have purchased and implemented are not any more efficient.Why?? - - implementation. If your not careful, SAP runs you, and you don't run the business.I have personally seen what SAP has done to businesses, and a simple phone call gets the job done faster than the application does.

Hackers - -recall that Stage Coach analogy I stated before?? - - Nuff said!

One EMP and the whole value chain is shot to hell (I could see a little fat fu---r in North Korea do this) 

At some point in the process, If your going to use a cryptocurrency, you have to revert to, or dispense in a currency recognized as having a tangible value. That means CASH. If I'm going to pay the kid down the street to mow my lawn, I find it unlikely I'm going to pay him in Bitcoin.

I can see value in tracking, and contractual issues - - It's not likely to have any real affect on the little guy.

[meganiwish]

does Stage contractual recall large after Good phone implementation SAP done analogy Nuff chain industry north dispense unlikely lawn Emerson Lake and Palmer.  I'm assuming you're using the word 'thought' loosely.  Those voices.  They're not your friends.

Edited August 23, 2017 by meganiwish

[HappyinHeels]

After reading this dizzying array of techno news I just  want to return to yesterday. Mesmerized between my wife and my son beneath a total eclipse of the son near St. Louis, Missouri, USA. No spin, no politics, and no theoretical values. Just pure spectacle and purely awesome. HappyinHeels

[Shyheels]

In total agreement! (Although over here on my side of the pond we did not have the opportunity to see the eclipse!)

[Cali]

I was under thick fog...what eclipse?

[Shyheels]

Speaking of thick fog, I happened to see an article on LinkedIn about "The blockchain" Muddling through its techno-speak, jargon and misused English left me singularly unenlightened. It was like trying to read Finnegan's Wake - backwards. 

[Heelster]

19 hours ago, meganiwish said:

does Stage contractual recall large after Good phone implementation SAP done analogy Nuff chain industry north dispense unlikely lawn Emerson Lake and Palmer.  I'm assuming you're using the word 'thought' loosely.  Those voices.  They're not your friends.

If I've confused you in any way, Disregard. Blockchain and cryptocurrency discussion won't go well with a cup of tea.

[meganiwish]

No, not confused really.  I'm quite used to seeing when words are being used to hide something.  Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.