Author: Gabriel Dusil

? 1 ? The Right Path to Funding Decentralized Organizations

About the Author

Gabriel is the co-Founder and General Manager at Adel Ecosystem Ltd. He is a seasoned sales and marketing expert with over 25 years in senior positions at Motorola, VeriSign (acquired by Symantec in 2010), and SecureWorks (acquired by Dell in 2011), and Cognitive Security (acquired by Cisco in 2013). He is a blockchain entrepreneur, with strengths in international business strategy. Gabriel has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Canada and expert knowledge in blockchain incubation, cloud computing, IT security, and video streaming, and Over the Top Content (OTT). Gabriel also runs his own company, Euro Tech Startups s.r.o, creator of MyKoddi, and manages a professional blog.

References

[i] “Baby Boomers” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers

[ii] ”Generation_X” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

[iii] ”Millennials” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials

[iv] ”Satoshi Nakamoto” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto

[v] Stratford Caldecott, “The Religion of Money” (March 26, 2012, http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2012/03/religion-of-money.html)

[vi] Philip Goodchild, “On his book Theology of Money” (Rorotoko, November 30, 2009, http://rorotoko.com/interview/20091130_goodchiled_philip_on_theology_of_money/?page=2)

[vii] “Virtual Currency” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_currency)

[viii] “Crypto Currency (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency)

Crypto ? Opinion ? 16 ? Blockchain’s Disruption in 2020 & Beyond

2019 July 24 / Gabriel Dusil / 0 Comments

How the insurance sector will learn to love smart contracts

As we mark the ten-year anniversary of Bitcoin’s launch, there’s no shortage of news and speculation related to the digital currency’s value and potential applications. Articles related to blockchain, the overwhelming concentrate on an infrastructure underpinning digital currency used for speculative investments. The reality is far more complex. Blockchain technology’s potential application could disrupt vertical industries as diverse as entertainment, agriculture, and logistics.

As distributed ledger technology (DLT), Blockchains have the potential to reduce human error, costs, and processing of data throughout entire supply chains. They also enable synchronization and reconciliation of databases between various players, by increasing efficiency and transparency. These qualities are particularly relevant for the insurance industry, where claims are particularly cumbersome and require details to be checked and verified by separate parties.

Although Blockchain doesn’t inherently change the insurance industry’s business model, it does reduce points of friction between stakeholders while enabling transparency and scalability. In particular, the use of smart contracts, (self-executing pieces of code) sitting on an immutable transparent and auditable shared ledger could revolutionize insurance practices. Blockchain’s “Smart Code” self-executes in response to certain triggers (oracles) from one contractual state to the next and self-verifies when certain terms and conditions have been met.

In practical terms this dramatically changes the risk transparency between contracted parties, improving the ability to calculate risk through verifiable sources, that can be checked in real-time. This automated risk assessment enables blockchain to handle more risk using smart contracts than could otherwise be done using archaic paper=based policies. Blockchain’s data-sharing foundation has the added benefit of protecting against fraud among insurers, reinsurers, and regulators through a distributed database infrastructure.

The reality of smart contract automation is a concern for insurance incumbents who depend on traditional investigations that maintain manual controls necessary to reduce settlement costs. This may result in an influx of insurance startups who will disrupt the industry. If they are successful, it may lead to an insurance revolution throughout the 2020s and beyond.

As a blockchain technology incubator, Adel sees enormous opportunities for this ground-breaking technology to radically transform the way traditional industries operate. As we enter 2019, more people are realizing that this technology can be applied beyond financial services speculative trading applications. The growing awareness of how blockchain can be applied to reduce supply chain frictions in ossified business structures is one of our main predictions for 2019. The use of smart contract technology transforms industries that continue to log information manually., Outdated business models can now be consigned to the past by using blockchain’s trust consensus, in a way that wouldn’t have been possible just a decade ago.

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Crypto ? Opinion ? 15 ? The Crypto Uprising

2018 November 20 / Gabriel Dusil / 0 Comments

By: Gabriel Dusil, co-Founder & General Manager, Adel Ecosystem Ltd.

Crypto.Intro

The blockchain is the underlying technology behind all cryptocurrency. In its simplest form, it is a marketplace for digital payments and asset exchange. Rather than a central authority, a database of transactions is managed by a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network. The importance of cryptocurrency blockchains is its ability to maintain trust at a programmable level. By solving highly complex math problems this marketplace maintains its security and trust.

The Internet created the eMarketplace
Crypto defines the cMarketplace (aka. crypto Marketplace).

Cryptocurrency has become an Over the Top (OTT) version of money, similar to OTT services for video in the entertainment industry, and the how peer to peer (P2P) networking disrupted telecommunications a decade earlier. Over the Top services disrupt incumbent infrastructures, bypassing them completely and offering an alternative competitive service. From a crypto point of view, the plan was to bypass the monopolies that control fiat money[i] – represented by governments or central banks. In a free society, cryptocurrency allows society to decide the fate of its home-grown currency.

Crypto.Apps

Crypto is not only about virtual currencies. It is an ideology that opens opportunities that streamlines and evolves legacy supply chains. The demand for fast, transparent, international transactions and business services on the blockchain is increasing not only horizontally, but vertically, as the industries set for disruption.

One potential use of blockchain is in smart assets. This is where internet-connected assets can be registered on a globally decentralized blockchain. On this basis, blockchain joins the Internet of Things (IoT) evolution, Benefits span the manufacturing, transactions, and movement of goods to any corner of the globe.

In the meantime, FinTech is considered the low-hanging-fruit for blockchain services. Businesses are exploring blockchain to settle payments and manage contracts – quickly and affordable. Successful implementations are expected to disrupt financial service monopolies as they streamline legacy supply chains.

The global benefits of blockchain are similar to how the internet revolution transformed society. With blockchain adoption, information is open and shared across companies, countries, and continents. Business, social and humanitarian possibilities are endless if blockchain applications successfully adopt best practices in privacy, security, and data management.

Crypto.Opportunity

The possibilities unfolding in the blockchain space are nothing short of revolutionary. The largest redistribution of wealth in human history is happening now, completely dictated by a free market society. The blockchain is the underlying catalyst for this evolution. People in remote locations of the world, who previously didn’t have banking services, can now use cryptocurrency as a means to transact. Remittance is significantly cheaper, needing just a smartphone to transfer funds abroad. In this sense, blockchain has the potential to remove economic, political, and social borders for information sharing and expand to humanitarian initiatives.
The blockchain is the underlying catalyst the largest redistribution of wealth in human history.

New applications will enable transparency, fairness, equality and a truly democratic spirit. For example, another application of blockchain is called “Smart Contracts”, allowing businesses to automate agreements between two parties, removing social, economic and personal biases. Smart Contracts will not only function as an unbiased point of social consciousness but also profit from it.

Projects that will succeed are those which showcase blockchain’s unique features such as immutability, decentralized redundancy, programmable trust, open data, and programmatic security. However, one of the biggest challenges in blockchain is that many developers only have “crypto visibility”. Many cryptocurrency communities lack experience in real-world businesses or managing large companies. To legitimize blockchain-tech, the crypto community must collaborate with real-world, brick-and-mortar expertise.

Crypto.Adoption

A common mistake of new entrepreneurs is to utilize a new technology without notable gains in features or functionality. It’s not enough to wrap an old app into a new coat. Many projects today capitalize on the blockchain buzz in hopes of attracting rich cyber millionaires. They have little to offer in terms of improved features and benefits. Apps that use blockchain for no other reason, other than the name recognition, will fail. The projects that will succeed are those which showcase blockchain’s unique features such as immutability, decentralized redundancy, programmable trust, open source, and programmatic security.

The volatility of cryptocurrency attracts new players with its high risk-to-reward ratio. This hype brings attention, investment, and volatility to the blockchain. Thus the cycle repeats through a roller coaster of profit and loss. When viewed from the standpoint of Roger’s Technology Adoption Curve, blockchain is currently in the Early Adopter stage. Likely this will continue into the next decade. This is supported by Gartner’s Hype Cycle ‘18 [ii], which anticipates blockchain to mature in the next five to ten years.

Crypto Adoption Curve

Mentions of “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain” in mainstream media root into the general consciousness. Imagine trying to explain the Arpanet in the 80’s, before the Internet became an integral part of their daily life. With each surge in bitcoin value, new spectators take notice, establishing crypto as a household term. As more big players like Apple, Google and Amazon come on board, the average consumer will help to catapult blockchain into the stratosphere. The future may be closer than we realize, with evolving requests such as:

Consumer: “Can I buy your product with Bitcoin?”
Corporate: “Can I pay your invoice with Ethereum?”
Government: “Can I pay my annual tax return with cryptocurrency?”

Alternatively, blockchain may not become a household name. For example, modern society enjoys access to electricity, gas, and water but have no idea that SCADA is used to operate those services. TCP/IP is well known amongst tech circles, but many don’t know that it is the underlying protocol used to surf the Internet. The blockchain is more analogous to TCP/IP than the “Internet”, in this sense. Blockchain may take on an underlying infrastructure role, but the mainstream may have no idea it’s there, “as long as it works!”

Crypto.Potential

In crypto, there is long-term confidence. The market is certainly volatile and is not for the faint of heart, but the potential for cryptocurrencies is bright. This can be argued from several observations:

Bitcoin continues to receive an influx of investment from mainstream users. With every spike in value, a new round of actors enters its market hysteria. There will continue to be spikes and corrections correlating with the adoption and the evolution of the technology, but as time goes on, the price bounces will become more stable as the technology and market mature.
Tens of thousands proof of concepts around the world is a testament to blockchain’s potential success. Practically every vertical market is investigating the use of blockchain in their environment. Even if a fraction of them survive, it will further propel crypto into the mainstream.
Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google (aka. FAANG[iii], on Wall Street) continue to investigate the use of cryptocurrencies in their services. Once big players are on board, there will be a cascading effect of secondary and tertiary players following their lead.

Crypto Dependencies

In addition, there are three main factors mainly driving bitcoin and blockchain to the mainstream:

The user experience and user interface (i.e. UI/UX) for applications need to improve in order to attract brick and mortar companies. Many blockchain projects are focused on offering a more robust experience for their users.
Adoption is necessary to legitimize crypto into and connect cMarketplaces with mainstream eMarketplaces. As new users are enticed by Bitcoin’s hype, they also get “hooked” into the trading game. Once you’re in, you’re. Traders learn to adjust, to fluctuating market conditions, even if the market drops, they typically don’t abandon their investment – they look at the next opportunity.
Stability is necessary to legitimize bitcoin. This has yet to play-out in crypto. But volatility attracts new players who have a high risk-to-reward ratio.

Crypto hype brings attention.
Attention brings awareness.
Awareness brings Investment

Blockchain will propagate due to its ability to flatten the world’s flow of information and data sharing capabilities. Applications that showcase such abilities will shine.

? Adel ? Opinions

If you liked this article and would like to read more in this series, then check them out here:

? 1 ? The Right Path to Funding Decentralized Organizations

About the Author

Gabriel is a sales and marketing expert with over 25 years in senior positions at Motorola, VeriSign (acquired by Symantec in 2010 for 1.250 billion US$), and SecureWorks (acquired by Dell in 2011 for 612 million US$), and Cognitive Security (acquired by Cisco in 2013 for 25 million US$). He is a blockchain entrepreneur, with strengths in international business strategy. Gabriel has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Canada and expert knowledge in blockchain incubation, cloud computing, IT security, and video streaming, and Over the Top Content (OTT). Gabriel also runs his own company, Euro Tech Startups s.r.o., and manages a professional blog at https://mykoddi.com/dusilcom.

References

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

[ii] https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/5-trends-emerge-in-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emerging-technologies-2018/

[iii] Kenneth G. Winans, “Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google Are Too Hot. These Other Tech Names Look Better” (Forbes, November 16, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kennethwinans/2017/11/16/facebook-apple-amazon-netflix-google-are-too-hot-these-other-tech-names-look-better/&refURL=https://www.google.at/&referrer=https://www.google.at/)

Crypto ? Opinion ? 14 ? For the People, By the People

2018 October 16 / Gabriel Dusil / 0 Comments

Crypto, For the People, By the People

How Blockchain Subverts Today’s Entrenched Power Structures

By: Gabriel Dusil, co-Founder & General Manager,
Adel Ecosystem Ltd.
&: John McLeod, Founder,
JEA Associates Ltd.

Mankind has been shaped by borders, whether physical, geographical, technological or financial. Societies have found ways to structure themselves into coherent and ordered blocks. Over the last few centuries empires have risen and fallen, wars have been waged and physical borders have moved. Governments, institutions and multi-lateral structures underpinning political and financial borders have remained intact.

The financial crash of 2008 shook public confidence in banks and government-backed financial institutions that saw billions of dollars, euros, and pounds spent on shoring up the financial system through quantitative easing. Public confidence in financial institutions and governments was at an all-time low. It is no coincidence that Bitcoin emerged out of this economic crisis where traditional institutions failed. A viable alternative was needed without the oversight of big-brother.

Blockchain services undermine traditional forms of governance because it’s decentralized and its users are typically anonymous. This assumes impunity from government and central banks. Anonymous actors are micro components of a growing ecosystem. To date, this crypto sphere has been relatively left untouched by the authorities of the “real-world”, where regulation typically lags innovation.

This raises real questions about how crypto’s services should be managed. Techno-libertarians envision utopian self-regulation, with codified rules that evolve with the technology. Anyone who denies these programmatic rules essentially forfeits their right to participate in this space. Crypto-anarchists envision a free-rule zone for blockchain businesses and unconstrained virtual currency commerce. Within this zone, blockchain businesses would operate free from government intervention and regulation. Bitcoin is essentially a sandbox experiment that is demonstrating how crypto technologies will be successful and be applied to real-world scenarios.

Bitcoin is a sandbox experiment,
demonstrating how crypto will be successful.

Whichever form it takes, blockchain technology will need to entertain the notion of regulatory oversight, for it to gain mainstream acceptance. For this to happen, both the public and private sectors should have a seat at the same table, to establish a common ground for governance and enforcement.

Creating and adopting an agreed set of standards requires consensus from all major stakeholders. Internet’s protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, HTML, and Java) took years before reaching mass adoption. But eventually, this was achieved through well-constructed and easy to implement standards. Crypto coders redefining their own product lifecycle to accelerate adoption by excluding the powers-that-be from the socio-economic power pyramid. For the time being, they are at the pinnacle of this power hierarchy, with governments, banks and even citizens treated as outsiders. But history has shown that closed solutions are not scalable, to the same potential as standards. Any developer can set the rules of their homegrown blockchain. Have the geeks inherited the earth?

We have reached a unique point where the traditional power brokers who normally put the brakes on disruptive technologies have been sidelined in favor of a newly defined crypto power hierarchy. Governments nor banks control the crypto sphere, but they maintain partial control of cyberspace and the real world. Within the isolated world of crypto, this hierarchy works, but if mass-market adoption is the plan then consensus with the brick and mortar world is needed. The open question is whether this is in the interest of crypto coders, miners, and service providers.

Who could have predicted the spectacular rise in the value of Bitcoin and Ethereum just five years ago? A 100 US$ investment in Bitcoin in 2013 would now be worth 7000 US$ today[i]. Satoshi Nakamoto could not have predicted the creation of nearly 4000 virtual currencies on CoinLib[ii] ten years after releasing his white paper and over 100 thousand token contracts[iii] on the Ethereum blockchain. Only a brave person can envisage what the next five years have in store. It is safe to conclude, however, that crypto has proved its detractors wrong and its potential benefits to humanity are vast. Interoperability, scalability, security, and ease of use for the average person are all questions that need to be answered.

For the first time in history, people have the potential to break down the traditional borders that have divided them, whether geographically, technologically or economically. Individuals are empowered to create crypto services free from government regulation or any other centralized authorities. We have currency for the people by the people, and of the people, only time will tell which direction it takes, and who shapes its future.

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