Blockchain | - Part 8

Bankers Go on a Day Trip to Blockchain’s Magical World

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Blockchain experiments are everywhere in finance these days. Actual blockchain applications that are big enough to have any lasting impact on banking, not so much. Those offenders who talk a lot without doing anything of substance have even been given a name in crypto world. “Too many people are using [blockchain] as a buzzword and are not focused on solving a real problem,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse wrote recently. “We like…

Hedge Fund That Loves Bitcoin Unfazed by Surge Toward $6,000

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin-focused hedge fund BitSpread Limited isn’t interested in the price of the cryptocurrency, even as it soared close to the $6,000 mark this week. Instead, the firm is looking at something else: the price disparity between the exchanges that sell bitcoin. “We’re not interested in the price of bitcoin — high or low,” said Cedric Jeanson, the former JPMorgan Chase & Co. trader who started Bit Spread, which manages more than $25…

My Reluctant Education in Bitcoin: Fully Charged

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – While markets as a whole have been pretty boring this year, cryptocurrencies have been anything but. I, along with a vast majority of the population, have avoided thinking about this super-complex world for as long as possible. But I’ve finally forced myself to make the dive. And it looks like a lot of people have as well. Even my boxing coach recently asked me if he should buy bitcoin or ethereum….

Blythe Masters’s Blockchain Firm Raises Money, Hires Executive

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Blythe Masters’s blockchain software firm Digital Asset Holdings LLC raised another $40 million and hired a technology executive who previously worked for software giant Microsoft Corp. and quantitative hedge fund Two Sigma Investments. The company, where former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker Masters is chief executive officer, is one of several trying to reshape finance by leveraging the blockchain ledger technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. DAH’s clients include the…

Bitcoin’s Rise Happened in Shadows of Finance. Now Banks Want In

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – At first, bitcoin was a way to make payments without banks. Now, with more than $100 billion stashed in digital currencies, banks are debating whether and how to get in on the action. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein tweeted Tuesday that his firm is examining the cryptocurrency. Other global investment banks are looking into facilitating trades of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to industry consultants. Bitcoin has surged more than 300…

`Mind-Boggling’ Math Could Make Blockchain Work for Wall Street

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A major breakthrough in cryptography may have solved one of the biggest obstacles to using blockchain technology on Wall Street: keeping transaction data private. Known as a “zero-knowledge proof,” the new code will be included in an October 17 upgrade to the ethereum blockchain, adding a level of encryption that lets trades remain private. Previously, users were able to remain anonymous but transactions were verified by allowing everyone on the network…

Crypto-Mania Grips Hong Kong as City Looks Beyond Banking

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – In the mid-1990s, Johnson Leung embarked on a career in shipping. In the early 2000s, he moved to finance. And now, he runs a Hong Kong startup that aims to improve how container ships are booked using blockchain technology. Many in Hong Kong hope the city can make a similar leap. The shipping and banking hub, which has struggled for years to nurture a domestic technology industry, is embracing the blockchain…

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