Blockchain Archives - Random.Musings

Regulation Overview of the Crypto landscape

September 22, 2021 No Comments

The rise of every new technology or industry comes with added regulatory scrutiny, as we’ve witnessed with the internet, social media, ridesharing,and many other sectors. Regulators are treading a fine line between regulating it with the right approach, which will enable the industry to prosper and gain mainstream adoption, or by over-regulating it, which may inhibit its potential. Finding the right balance when navigating through areas for regulation in new technologies can be challenging but a task that regulators need to embrace. New technologies and industries can bring massive benefits to the community through economic growth, improved quality of life, etc but at the same time without adequate regulations, bad actors may thrive in extracting value from genuine participants. The following quote illustrates the thinking behind regulating with the right approach: “Speed limits and traffic lights provided public safety but also helped cars become mainstream. It is only with bringing things inside—and sort of clearly within our public policy goals—that new technology has a chance of broader adoption”. The current regulation outlook revolves around two key areas: 1) KYC/AML compliance and 2) classification of securities.

Blockchain, Internet

The Rise of the Internet & Web 3.0

September 21, 2021 No Comments

Internet is this amazing intangible thing that enables the world to be connected, and with every additional user connecting to it, its value increases exponentially. As for the new user who just gained internet access, it’s like opening an ever-expanding encyclopedia and a phone directory that allows you to connect with almost anyone across the globe, all packed into a device the size of your palm. The computing power you possess with this palm-sized device is multiple folds of what Apollo had when it embarked on its mission to send humans to the moon for the first time. It certainly sounds utopian to anyone who first hears about the internet and mobile computing, about the limitless possibilities this innovation can bring to mankind. It surely is, when the public first discovered the internet when the world wide web became mainstream, the euphoria kickstarted the dot com era, and a generation of new companies and business models were created that drastically improves our way of life.

Blockchain, Blockstack

Stacks Ecosystem Map

September 4, 2021 No Comments

Stacks 2.0 went live on mainnet in January 2021, and in less than 9 months the Stacks Ecosystem has grown tremendously with diverse sets of communities aggregating across different niche areas. Developers from around the world started building on Stacks Protocol, secured by the Bitcoin Network, with applications from DeFi to Supply Chain Management, Art, Utility Tools and more.

I’m creating this post to document the growth of the Stacks Ecosystem, with quarterly Ecosystem Map updates, so stick around for the latest Stacks Ecosystem updates!

1st Version of Stacks Ecosystem Map, as of September 2021:

Blockchain, DAOs

Rethinking investment fund structures

July 11, 2021 No Comments

vc.DAO

Venture investing as we know it has a rather high barrier of entry especially for those who do not already have existing networks in the ecosystem or are located in geographical areas that do not have a vibrant venture community.

While crypto has certainly democratized venture investing to a certain extent, due to various factors(e.g. regulatory requirements, uncoordinated community, etc) and rightly so, that we’re witnessing venture investing in the crypto space reverting from its ICO days to more institutional-based. Only when a project matures and progresses to its “decentralizing phase” that public sales are conducted and access is opened up to the broader community. This seems like the best solution thus far, given the lack of clear regulations governing the space to prevent bad actors from exploiting participants.

The following is an idea that I’ve been tinkering with for some time and thought could be an attempt in democratizing venture investing for the community using blockchain technology and Decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) structure.

The Problem:

Aspiring investors currently face a high barrier of entry into the industry due to 1) lack of access 2) lack of capital, 3) lack of knowledge/operational experience. The leverage an individual private investor has in negotiating for an allocation in a private fundraising round is minimal, relative to institutions and professional fund managers. The value that an individual private investor can provide to prospective investees is limited as compared to institutions given the limited resources and capacity an individual can afford to commit to an investment. Therefore, in order to bridge this disparity between private investors and institutions is where a DAO-powered investment fund could potentially find value in.

Blockchain, Blockstack, Stacks

Stacks Blockchain materials

February 20, 2021 No Comments

I’ve created some Stacks education materials that addresses some of the common questions that end users may ask when they first come across Stacks and/or using dApps built on Stacks blockchain. I’ve kept it in a very basic modular format, with the aim of allowing creators and developers to freely use them and build on top of it for their own need.

Each folder contains: Video with narration, Video without narration, Audio-only, Text only

Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Regulation

How blockchain can prevent Fraud through the decentralization of information

February 20, 2019 No Comments

Greed is the excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved — not for the greater good but for one’s selfish interest, and at the detriment of others and society at large.

Bad actors with the intention of committing fraud to one’s selfish interest will design an elaborated scheme to have full opacity within the organization.

In private companies, full internal controls are very often not in place which might be due to the nature of the industry where the company needs to be nimble.

This gives rise to opportunities for bad actors to plot fraudulent schemes at the expense of the company.

As actions are not verified, third parties and information are not readily available due to the nature of the system, where only decision makers hold all the information.

This creates an obvious point of failure, with severe information gaps between employees of an organization, resulting in the lack of transparency, therefore, allowing fraudulent activities occurring.

Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Regulation

The Economics of Blockchain

October 27, 2017 No Comments

Blockchain was first introduced in October 2008 through the white paper released by Satoshi Nakamoto describing how a virtual currency (Bitcoin) could potentially work. Blockchain by design is a decentralized technology, where information held on its network reconciled to the database regularly. The blockchain database isn’t stored in any single location instead, it is spread across nodes on the blockchain network. Similar to a peer to peer network, transactions are broadcast, database hosted by a network of computers accessible to the public with no centralized storage, making it impossible for hackers to manipulate. Blockchain technology is unique in the way that it brings together existing technology of peer to peer network, cryptography, along with game theory (providing rewards through competition) to establish a secure medium where functions can take place without a centralized entity.

Bitcoin

What is Bitcoin?

January 19, 2017 No Comments

Bitcoin, chances are you’ll have come across the word one way or another through various medium. Either through news outlet where commentary reports about Bitcoin were mentioned, or within your social network where friends and family mentioned and/or discussed about it. While everyone has a take on what Bitcoin is, but its still somewhat challenging to explain Bitcoin in layman’s term for the average Joe. I experienced the same too, whenever I’m asked by family and friends, what is Bitcoin, what does it do? How does Bitcoin has any value? Those are all legitimate questions, and through this article I look to answering all those questions.