The 10 Most Disruptive Blockchain Solution Providers 2018

www.insightssuccess.com October 2018

Tech Insights

BeneďŹ ts of Blockchain in the making of Smarter Energy Grids

Editor's Choice

The Universality of IoT Technology

Yezune Choi Founder

BOScoin:

Reaching the New Heights of a Cryptocurrency Framework

Blockchain: The Next Big Thing after Internet

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he nature of technology is that it keeps updating towards better. Every now and then, there is an innovation that changes the course of the concerned industry and totally disrupts the market. Blockchain is one such innovation which has been dropped right in the center of the system and has disrupted every industry with the ripple effects. The new technology is gaining popularity due to the various features it adds to businesses. While some seek transparency, others get assistance in a decentralized approach.

However, Blockchain rolled on years after its inception when Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous entity, introduced Bitcoin, a peer to peer electronic cash system. And now Blockchain is known to revolutionize banking and finance as effectively as the internet has transformed media. Major players in the industry are accepting the technology openhandedly and investing extensively in this new model of banking.

Although, Banking is not the only industry that blockchain has disrupted. Cyber security is a vulnerable industry and demands continuous updates due to the constant threat of security breach.

With the help of blockchain technology, the data is verified and secured using cryptography. This makes the data resistant to unauthorized changes. Supply chain management is another example of how useful blockchain technology could be. It helps enterprises to document all the transections in a permanent decentralized record, which enables enterprises to save time as well as cost, and enhance labour efficiency.

Internet of things and Blockchain are moving ahead in the same direction and with a same speed. This makes them complimentary to each other. Blockchain enables faster communication between various systems by eliminating the need for centralized location to handle communication, which eventually leads to better optimization of overall IoT experience.

Blockchain Technology has turned out to be a boon for countless other industries. However, this wouldn’t have been the case without the proactive approach and proper implementation of technology by the companies leading the blockchain industry. Hence, in order to appreciate the constant and constructive efforts of some of the innovative blockchain companies, Insights Success has shortlisted "The 10 Most Disruptive Blockchain Solution Providers, 2018".

Featuring as our Cover Story is BOScoin, a self-evolving cryptocurrency platform for Public Financing. It combines Project Financing, the most libertarian concept, with three alternative solutions that includes credit creation through participation, democratic impact investments, and commonization of certain assets, to form a new Public Financing concept to power a better capitalism. The company also offers incentive scheme and issuance plans which aim towards creating value for the coin, while deterring the centralization of power.

Alongside this, the magazine also includes Everex, a financial technology company that provides blockchain-powered solutions to financial institutions and their customers; Loyyal, a company that is reinventing how customer incentives are created, rewarded, and managed; and SALT, a company which offers a smarter way to leverage blockchain assets—ingeniously bridging cryptocurrency with traditional finance.

Also, make sure to flip through articles, written by our in-house editorial team as well as CXO standpoints of notable industry personalities to have a brief taste of the sector.

Let’s start reading!

Shubham Khampariya

CONTENTS Cover Story

BOScoin: Reaching the New Heights of a Cryptocurrency Framework

08

Articles

22

Origin of Blockchain Blockchain: The onset of a Digital Revolution

Digi Connection

Benefits of Blockchain in the making of Smarter Energy Grids

30

Editor’s Choice The Universality of IoT Technology

42

20 16 Tech Insider

How Smart are Blockchain Smart Contracts?

BlockSafe Technologies: Blockchain Ecosystem Security Provider

28 26 Internet of Internet

Internet of Things is present in every product we use.

How has IOT changed the lives of humans?

Everex:

Delivering Exemplary Financial Services

34

36 Expert’s Column

Challenges and Risks in adopting Digital Disruption

Loyyal:

An Intensive Blockchain-Based Services Provider

40

46 Expert’s Insights

Impact of Blockchain technology in Logistics industry

SALT:

Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Optimize Lending Processes

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Shubham Khampariya Jenny Fernandes Kedar Kulkarni Ishan Mittal Bhushan Kadam David King Amol Kamble Nagesh Tembhekar Sapana Shinde

Art & Picture Editors Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Vishal Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Manish Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialists Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategists Alina Sege, Shubham, Anup SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Avdhut Research Analyst Patrick James Circulation Managers Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

October, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Cover Story

The

10

Most Disruptive Solution Providers

BOScoin: Reaching the New Heights of a Cryptocurrency Framework

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BOScoin: A Self-Evolving Blockchain Platform for Public Financing

Yezune Choi Founder

Cover Story

BOScoin is a self-evolving cryptocurrency platform for Public Financing. It combines Project Financing, the most libertarian concept, with three alternative solutions that includes credit creation through participation, democratic impact investments, and commonization of certain assets, to form a new Public Financing concept to power a better capitalism. The company offers incentive scheme and issuance plans which aim towards creating value for the coin, while deterring the centralization of power.

Additionally, its Modified Federated Byzantine Agreement algorithm is an innovative solution that allows for low latency transactions while being more energy efficient.

A Sovereign Ecosystem In order to solve the problem of fragmented credit creation systems, BOScoin propose public financing, a way for individuals who use and trade

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real credit to make collective decisions through its DApp-ICO strategy.

Rather than being dictated by a central bank or government, the BOScoin community creates its own credit system. Unlike other cryptocurrency platforms, BOScoin offer PF, and tends to introduce a sovereignty governance system called the Congress Network.

In capitalism, the institutionalized financial system holds most capital and a supreme decision-making power.

Most members of the system compliantly follow the decisions made by the system leaders. Through Congress Network, the company can bestow decision-making powers to its participants. This BOScoin community can propose, review, and vote on new token issuance through the Congress Network. Instead of concentrating on an elite groups and giving most of the power to them, the network strives to create financial sovereignty for the overall commune. The community members can regulate the size, volume, and base price of issuance, as well as the terms of its allocation and distribution through a Trust Contract.

Real economic assets acquired through the issuance of BOScoins will be returned to the community as commons, and thus PF remains “public”.

An Ardent Blockchain Technologist BOScoin is headed by Yezune Choi, Founder. Yezune is a top expert in blockchain technology. He has resourceful experience over 20 years in software engineering. Yezune has developed and operated a local

cryptocurrency based on Litecoin before joining BlockchainOS. His goal is to complement and improve the current Smart Contracts in blockchain to provide what it calls Trust Contracts that can be used in real-world business applications, and he has devoted to himself for the complete development of blockchain technology for last five years.

Propounding Disruptive Solutions BOScoin has proposed a new solution to solve the high financial commission problem of Project Financing with the three alternatives including, credit creation through participation, global finance utilizing collective intelligence and the commonization of assets. This specific implementation of ’Public Financing’ is known as Reverse ICO Partner Program (RIPP).

RIPP is financed by BOSNet, the mainnet for public financing based on blockchain. It is targeting reverse-ICO firms that are already operational with their own business models, and looking for additional financing through blockchain based ICOs or Public Financing. The partners of BOScoin can conduct business quickly, without the need for extensive technological investments into the blockchain.

Furthermore, raising post-ICO capital on BOSNet through Public Financing is drastically cheaper than using the traditional financial system with its high fees which makes it more reliable than traditional providers.

In addition, BOScoin launched the ARIST (Advanced Research Institute

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n today’s digital world, it has been observed most of the financial trades frequently face frauds and scams while carrying a trade. The evolution of Blockchain Technology is setting up a benchmark in the finance sector by offering transparency, innovation and a complete disruption in carrying financial trades. Many cryptocurrency platforms are leveraging their contribution in securing financial transactions. One of them is BOScoin, a unique platform aiming to overcome the technical and operational issues inherent in many cryptocurrencies.

We aim to issue a total of 5.0 billion coins over the next 128 years.

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BOScoin aims to overcome the technical and operational issues inherent in many cryptocurrencies.

Striving to Bring One Person, One Vote Principle A cryptocurrency can grow into community money, if justified by community consensus.

Thus, a cryptocurrency must ensure a structure that can be reflected by a majority of the community. However, the voting methods, BOScoin Congress Network proposed in its White Paper 1.0, allowed those who hold many nodes and more wealth to have a bigger influence on community decision-making. To solve this problem, BOSCoin is implementing a system of one person, one vote. It is, however, impossible to introduce the one person, one vote principle without requiring identification which in turn jeopardizes privacy and freedom of expression. This goes against the general ethos of the blockchain.

During the creation of White Paper 1.0, the company was unable to find a solution to this challenge, and the Congress Network’s decision-making process remained unanswered.

However, BOScoin reviewed this problem with KoSAC (Korean Sentiment Analysis Corpus) and looked at the possibility of creating a form of Congress Voting using homomorphic encryption. The company then announced a development of a fully homomorphic encryption solution for electronic voting, which guarantees both, anonymity (secret ballot) and equality. It also announced strategic agreement to launch the first public financing project in November with "Energy7", an online-to-offline platform

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for Social Trust), a research institute that will engineer and verify platform reliability, scalability, and privacy on the BOScoin mainnet. BOScoin has set out a clear vision for its future, namely an evolution of Project Financing into Public Financing for a better capitalism, using credit creation through participation, impact investment based on voting, and commonization of certain real world assets. It takes on the role of engineering, and verifying platform reliability, scalability, and privacy in order to accelerate adoption and commercialization.

Cover Story

that is an innovator in the petroleum distribution industry.

BOSCoin has marked its excellence by creating such unique platform. In addition to these developments, BOScoin is focused on technological developments and business partnerships in order to meet its goals of publicly launching the mainnet.

Addressing Current Capitalist System The current capitalist system fails at distributing wealth.

This indicates that the capitalist system’s existence is endangered, because it continues to break down its own consumption based ecosystem. While skewed distribution causes several market failures, technological developments, particularly in information technology, reduce the need for labor. This, in turn lowers the labor earnings and quality of labor.

This arise questions like, how can the capitalist system be maintained if workers cannot consume due to consequent technologica

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BOS team is striving to demonstrate PF’s ability to go beyond the limits of the existing crypto economy by doing a reasonably scaled pilot.

l developments? If it cannot be maintained, what are the alternatives? BOS team is addressing these questions through BOScoin. However, the DApp-ICO strategy of the current crypto economy is likely to produce large and fragmented credit generation systems that do not solve the capitalist problem that the BOS team intends to solve.

The limitations of the current crypto economy can be clearly observed which includes slow processing speed, an unsafe smart contract development environment that leads to frequent hacking accidents, software code that holds contracts illegible to the public, etc. However, the technical problems of cryptocurrencies such as price volatility due to lack from predefined limitations on volume, fragmentation of the monetary space by ICOs, a fragmented credit creation system, and centralization problem, etc. are expected to be solved in the foreseeable future.

If a crypto platform could have a credit-generating mechanism that is superior to the current financial capitalist system, if it makes impact investments to commonize assets, and if the value created from these assets were distributed to the community, what would that look like?

This is the vision that energized BOScoin. Its proposal is structured around converting this vision into reality.

Walking towards the Vision BOScoin intends to be a global community cryptocurrency and circulated as real money. The existing cryptocurrencies are not as good at generating credit as fiat currencies. To overcome this, BOScoin intends to introduce a credit generation system called the Public Financing (PF) system, armed with a governance structure called the Congress Network, a departure from current ICO models.

In addition, the real economic assets (wealth) secured by the credit created through the PF will be regarded as commons and distributed according to consensus. BOScoin believes that PF can solve the fundamental problem of the end of labor income caused by capital and technology.

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Company Name

Management

Brief

Appii appii.io

Gary McKay Co Founder & Managing Director

Appii is the world's first blockchain career verification platform.

It is using verified credentials and an Intelligent Profile™ to maximise potential.

aXpire axpire.io

Gary R Markham Chief Executive

aXpire is a blockchain technology based spend management software company, initially supporting asset managers within hedge funds, private equity firms and property & casualty insurance companies, globally.

Blockchain Consulting blockchain-consulting.net

Zachary Fitzner CEO

Blockchain Consulting provides in depth blockchain expertise combined with its knowledge in finance and IT product live cycle management.

BlockSafe Technologies blocksafetech.com

George Waller CEO

BlockSafe Technologies is the only US-based company that secures the blockchain ecosystem from all angles: wallets, exchanges, and private blockchains.

BOScoin boscoin.io

Yezune Choi Founder

BOScoin is a self-evolving cryptocurrency platform for Public Financing.

Civic Technologies civic.com

Jonathan Smith CTO & Co-founder

Civic Secures & Protects Identities and believes in giving businesses and individuals the tools to control and protect identities.

Everex everex.io

Alexi Lane CEO and Co-founder

Everex is a financial technology company that provides blockchain-powered solutions to financial institutions and their customers.

Loyyal loyyal.com

Gregory Simon Founder & CEO

The Internet of Loyalty.

Monetha monetha.io

Justas Pikelis Co-founder

Monetha is creating a universal, transferable, immutable trust and reputation system combined with a payment solution.

Decentralised, empowered by the Ethereum blockchain.

SALT saltlending.com

Bill Sinclair Interim President & CEO & Chief Technology Officer

SALT offers a smarter way to leverage blockchain assets—ingeniously bridging cryptocurrency with traditional finance.

About the Author Khai Lin Chua, Co-founder and CFO, Fundnel.

Khai Lin is the co-founder and CFO of Fundnel, a private investment platform that offers unlisted securities in growth and pre-IPO stage companies across industries to a qualied network of investors. She co-founded Fundnel to make a difference to small and medium-sized enterprises that experience insufcient access to growth and expansion funding.

At Fundnel, she is primarily responsible for the company’s nancial and operational strategies, whilst providing foundation to a strong team of visionaries with her execution-driven work ethos. More than just a gatekeeper, she fulls the role of ‘leader-byexample’ with aplomb.

Khai Lin has signicant expertise in banking and private investments, having had more than ve years of experience working at JP Morgan, Citibank and CIMB-GK Securities. She graduated with top honours from University College London (UCL) with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Economics degree.

Khai Lin Chua Co-founder 16

October 2018

Out of the ofce, she is a passionate supporter of animal rights, clocking in hundreds of hours to marine mammal conservation and research projects.

Tech Insider

How Smart are Blockchain

Smart

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Contracts?

he dizzying rise in the valuation of bitcoin has created significant buzz in the finance sector. While much focus has centred around the viability of bitcoin in financial systems, the technology that undergirds the cryptocurrency is steadily gaining mainstream acceptance.

Finance professionals were quick to recognise the potential of blockchain technology in making up the various shortfalls of the status quo. Today, we’ve witnessed the emergence of countless fintech start-ups providing services that leverage on blockchain, while banks are quickly working to integrate the technology into various aspects of its operations.

Current financial systems around the world handle throughputs amounting to trillions of dollars on a daily basis, serving billions of consumers worldwide. Despite its importance, our global financial system is surprisingly antiquated.

Many processes rely on legacy systems characterised by high volumes of paperwork and human involvement. This leads to additional costs, time delays, and increased risk in the form of human error and fraud. A PWC study found a boggling 45% of financial intermediaries to have been a victim of economic crime during the survey period.

A key example would be the convoluted IPO process, where the involvement of many third parties raises costs in terms of both money and time. This presents barriers to entry for much needed growth capital as the resource cost is not something every SME can afford.

Spearheading the Blockchain Revolution Blockchain technology provides a way to structure data and information securely with a digital ledger. Unlike conventional records, blockchain ledgers are not stored with any central authority, but across a network of computers viewable by the public, ensuring transparency and making it impossible for a single person to amend information.

Amongst the most promising and novel uses of blockchain is smart contracts, a use case that stands out as one of the most innovative solutions built on blockchain technology which I foresee to feature strongly in the industry in the years ahead.

October 2018

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Setting a New Standard for Financial Agreements In a nutshell, smart contracts are programmed contracts that automatically execute a set of pre-defined actions when a set of pre-determined conditions are fulfilled.

Being self-validated, self-monitored, and self-enforced, automation enabled by smart contracts has several immediate benefits, some of which are as follows: 1)Risk Management With smart contracting, the execution of an agreement is taken out of the hands of a single party, relying instead on digital verification within a blockchain before an action is triggered. Any funds involved could be locked in escrow, and only released if pre-determined conditions are met. This helps to facilitate trust between the involved parties by removing any concerns about enforceability.

2)Shorter settlement cycles, at lower costs In traditional contracts, many financial intermediaries can be involved in the settlement process once a contract is concluded. Necessary liaison between the numerous intermediaries serves to lengthen the settlement cycle, and adds on to the total cost.

The decentralised nature of a smart contract reduces the number of intermediaries from the equation, vastly reducing monetary costs and time involved.

3)Fraud Prevention Fraud is a common problem in the financial sector. Smart contracts can reduce the potential for fraud by virtue of having all financial movement and transactions digitally recorded on an immutable blockchain, bringing transparency to the table.

Digital records also facilitate easier auditing and detection of suspicious behaviours that could indicate fraud.

A tangible example of how contracts could benefit from the use of smart contracting would be that of companies raising funds on the secondary market. In this instance, the use of smart contracts lowers the risk involved for both parties by shortening the settlement cycle. This reduces the chances of any party experiencing financial distress, leaving them unable to uphold their contractual obligations. Another upside is that the business and investor both get their funds and shares in a shorter period of time, all at a lower cost.

The Future of Smart Contracts in Finance However, it is important to note that smart contracts are by no means a magic bullet. The digital nature of these contracts mean that any oversight in the text of may have detrimental outcomes, as the terms cannot be freely interpreted unlike in traditional contracts, but only according to literal meaning. A cautionary example would be the Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO) case which saw a hacker making off with US$50m by exploiting a loophole in the terms of the smart contract.

While the technology has admittedly yet to reach levels involving contracts of high complexity, its various benefits have the potential to revolutionise the way business is conducted. Smart contracts could definitely be used in instances where the scope or complexity is limited enough, such as sale of securities or insurance where conditions can be clearly defined.

The large-scale adoption of smart contracts across the financial sector would likely require a need for regulatory oversight, which can jeopardise one of blockchain’s major selling points – autonomy from governments. It remains to be seen whether a compromise can be reached.

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October 2018

BlockSafe Technologies: Blockchain Ecosystem Security Provider

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t was considered that the Blockchain was an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value. Eventually, every technology has weak points and that’s the reason the Blockchain was hacked. Therefore, to overcome all the security concerns, BlockSafe Technologies Inc. (now in their Pre-STO funding phase) came up along with its innovative solutions, for which Insights Success has chosen the organization in the list of The Most Disruptive Blockchain Solution Providers.

BlockSafe Technologies, Inc. is taking the lead in securing the blockchain ecosystem with a suite of patent solutions that protect against an array of cyber vulnerabilities. Its products bring trust to the blockchain ecosystem by merging the innovative cyber security solutions with blockchain technology.

George Waller CEO

The crypto world is built on a highly secured mathematical model that is immature, fragile and vulnerable to cyber-attacks and significant financial loss.

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To Make the World a Safer and Faster Place with our BlockChain Products.

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October 2018

Despite widespread perception that the private blockchain is safe, there are inherent vulnerabilities. BlockSafe addresses these vulnerabilities and offers comprehensive solutions.

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Hurdles and Resolutions With hackers going after crypto currencies,

The

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Most Disruptive Solution Providers

they typically use key-logging, screen and clipboard capture to steal wallet credentials and alter transactions. Crypto Defender™ solves this issue and stops all the malpractices mentioned above. The Private Blockchain’s are also very new and there is no targeted solution available today other than BlockSafe’s Blockchain Defender™. This builds a great opportunity for BlockSafe Technologies.

CryptoDefender™ provides radical security for crypto wallets and crypto exchanges that currently are not secure: Ÿ The same vulnerabilities plague exchanges and individuals and have allowed cyber theft of more than a billion dollars (e.g., Coincheck has lost close to $500 million and BitGrail has lost close to $170 million). Ÿ Crypto Defender™ addresses these vulnerabilities and offers a comprehensive solution. Ÿ Currently in Production.

ExchangeDefender™ is a multi-factor authentication product used to add security into user’s crypto exchange: Ÿ Provide keystroke encryption along with multi-factor out-of-band authentication. Ÿ Available Q4 2018 BlockchainDefender™ is a holistic user management platform that offers the industry’s most comprehensive features for user access controls and a transaction verification layer that protects private blockchains. Ÿ Despite common perception, blockchains can be compromised; this is especially true due to the lack of multifactor authentication, transaction verification and policy enforcement tools. Ÿ Available Q1 2020.

Redefining Leadership George Waller, CEO of BlockSafe Technologies, is also the Executive Vice President of StrikeForce Technologies, Inc., the company that is resolving BlockSafe’s application development and maintenance. The products of BlockSafe come from StrikeForce and have 6 patents currently which are currently active. The Crypto Defender™ and Exchange Defender™ utilize the products and are protected with these patents. The Blockchain Defender™ patent pending is owned by BlockSafe. The other members of the BlockSafe management team, Ram Pammareju and Mark Kay, are also corporate members of StrikeForce Technologies, Inc. and both are having at least 18 years of cyber security experience in technology. George has been watching this space over the years and saw the opportunity to bring its products into the blockchain world under another company mostly formed by StrikeForce.

Experience and Achievements BlockSafe started out as a Utility company and to build an ICO. George had a word with many lawyers and learned that the direction to stay in the US is actually to become a STO, not an ICO. So after attending many shows and talking to many strong lawyers, BlockSafe changed, almost 7 months later to become a STO. Therefore, BlockSafe is now strictly an STO, with a strong White Paper, just finishing its last changes and starting to push out its Cyber Security products. These products are very strong and are ready for sale in the marketplace for the Wallets, Exchanges and Blockchains. Today BlockSafe becomes the only company that provides Cyber Security solutions from stopping the hackers from being successful in a large way and growing continuously, which last year was (2017) $1.2Billion stolen.

Ahead of the Competition BlockSafe’s solutions are protected by six patents and one pending patent. There are no other patented products on the market that perform the way BlockSafe’s does. It provides serene protection to crypto currency users and the emerging private blockchain industry. BlockSafe’s CryptoDefender™ and ExchangeDefender™ products will be sold to Crypto Wallet providers and Crypto Exchanges to protect the 20M digital wallets being utilized today, unlike any other products in the blockchain market. Organization’s BlockChainDefender™ product will protect Private Blockchains with Out-of-Band Authentication, Transaction Verification, Policy Enforcement and a Rules Engine. This is currently a $336M market growing at over 60% annually.

Future Endeavour BlockSafe sees itself as a major Cyber Security Blockchain company and within a few years possibly selling itself to a large competitor. BlockSafe foresees selling millions of the products which will give the token holders a nice revenue attribution stream. Its goal is to expand its existence globally.

October 2018

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BLOCKCHAIN The onset of a Digital Revolution

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October 2018

Origin of Blockchain

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on & Alex Tapscott, the authors of ‘Blockchain Revolution’ state that, “The Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”

Blockchain is a network through which one can share information confidentially without making any backup on server.

The base of the Blockchain technology is made up of a ‘Node’.

Node comes from a Latin word Nodus, which means ‘Knot’ and was recorded first in 1565-75. Node is either a communication point or a redistribution point used for receiving, creating and transmitting information. Node may also be a Data Communication Equipment like a bridge, modem, hub, etc. or Data Terminal Equipment like a computer, printer, etc.

A full node is a list of every transaction and have every block ever been created while on other hand a light node is a partial list and have only those blocks which were created in the preceding month. Light nodes are linked with full nodes so that they can be used effectively. Many crypto currency organisations are providing information about setting up and running a full Node; you can download the latest core client version and follow the steps to run. These Nodes can be run on multiple operating systems too.

Nodes in Relation to Blockchain In simple words we can say that a node is a copy of Blockchain that exist on a computer. Anyone can make a node of his/her own and will have a copy of full Blockchain transaction of any cryptocurrency. It takes more than 100 GB data to store so, one should have enough memory to create and handle it.

The purpose of nodes is to preserve the integrity of Blockchain. Only one node has the capability to preserve the full history of the Blockchain due to which the data about cryptocurrency transactions is secured from power failure, hacking, and systematic crash.

Despite the fact of one node, only Blockchain based ‘Bitcoin’ cryptocurrency has almost 30,000 nodes running and it is much safer for the system. Nodes make it impossible to anybody to erase the data or shutdown a

Blockchain. It is pointless to delete every single copy across the world.

Many people across the world are running full nodes because it helps to preserve the Blockchain and to make sure that the cryptocurrency is running in a correct way.

It is necessary to the existence of nodes because, if the nodes are tampered with, then about the information about any transaction and about the owner of the cryptocurrency and who owned what amount of cryptocurrency, will be lost. So, without nodes, a Blockchain cannot function.

Blocks There is one more important part of a Blockchain which is termed as ‘Blocks’. Blocks are used to order facts in a nontrusted network. In simple terms, Blocks are a group of facts and it has only a single chain in the whole network, and each block refers to the previous one. ‘Mining’ is the process of looking up blocks and the people who handle the Nodes are named as ‘Miners’. Mining is too profitable to tech savvy people and it is used to run full nodes as a part of mining setup. But, when two blocks get mined at the same time, the next node to mine a block will have to choose one parent. It should create one longer branch. Then further blocks systematically favor longer branches and that removes shorter branches. The two branches may live in parallel for some time. As other blocks get appended to one of the two branches, the other branch will be smaller, and therefore be abandoned. The network "chooses" one branch and removes the other.

Ian Khan, a TEDx Speaker and an Author, states about the Blockchain Technology that, “As revolutionary as it sounds, Blockchain truly is a mechanism to bring everyone to the highest degree of accountability. No more missed transactions, human or machine errors, or even an exchange that was not done with the consent of the parties involved.

Above anything else, the most critical area where Blockchain helps is to guarantee the validity of a transaction by recording it not only on a main register but a connected distributed system of registers, all of which are connected through a secure validation mechanism.”

A new layer of functionality has been created on the web with the Blockchain Technology. People are doing transactions directly with each other. With the security introduced by the Blockchain, it seems like a new online business is on its track in the field of finance. The expected global savings are up to $6billions per year through Blockchain Technology as it holds a great potential to optimize settlements and clearings.

October 2018

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Omnichannel Agent and Customer Engagement Solutions Simplify and personalize the customer experience, empower agents and achieve business success with one workspace for all channel interactions, application integrations, and CX reporting.

Dhruvil Sanghvi CEO & Co-founder

About The Author

Internet of Things is present in every Product we use. How has IOT changed the lives of humans?

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October 2018

Dhruvil Sanghvi, CEO and Co-founder of LogiNext, youngest tech business head in Forbes India 30 under 30 (2017), started his journey post Carnegie Mellon University and effectively led LogiNext, the fastest growing logistics and eld workforce optimization SaaS enterprise, to the glory.

D

oes anyone remember a time before the Internet? Most of us have seen it, but it’s hard to recreate it in our mind. It only exists in long tales which we tell the young, tales of yesteryears where life wasn’t occupied by technology. But we love technology. And the next evolution of the Internet would make the current time become another yesteryear tale. What is this next Internet evolution?

It’s the Internet of Things.

We know that Internet is where we access relevant and non-relevant information; connect with friends, peers, companies, and customers; and utilize to conduct our daily business and activities. So, what is the Internet of Things or IoT? IoT is when the devices which we use to connect and interact with Internet talk to each other.

‘Talk’ is exchange data among the devices with a view to facilitating better solutions and faster processes.

Internet of Internet

Now, your smartphone can connect to your television and laptop even when they aren’t in the same room. You can sync all your systems so that any change done at one place would reflect everywhere else.

“Where to?” Self-driving cars around the corner!

The true essence of IoT comes out when it is coupled with machine learning. Fast forward into a world of automation where self-driven cars aren’t fiction. The system in your car operates the engine, the sensors around the vehicle, the breaking, and everything else. It connects to the cloud, observing the traffic and weather patterns along the route you are about to take. It auto adjusts to the passing vehicles, all the while ensuring the safety of its passengers.’

There have been some issues with this as a couple of crashes being reported.

This tech can’t be forced live due to market pressures as the cost of mistakes is too high. Once autonomous cars do hit the roads, they would have to be perfect. But this isn’t more than a couple of years away. For now, let’s look at something that is already running and showing great results.

‘How do we get there?’ Perfect route optimization is here!

We are used to having the best products and fastest services. To make this happen, people and goods must be constant on the move somewhere or the other. Be it from the manufacturers to warehouses or distributors, distributors to retailers, or directly to the customer’s door, there are a lot of assets constantly moving.’

How is this logistics movement managed, tracked, and directed?

Technology, like that of LogiNext, tracks vehicles through GPS right from the time they are loaded to the point they finish their replenishment duties.

Delivery personnel and field agents such as technicians, supervisors, sales folks, etc. are tracked using their smartphones. The agents use our app to streamline their daily activities and sync live information gathered on-ground with their company’s central system.

This tech is not just the need of the hour; it’s what keeping the ever-expanding need for cost-friendly logistics management in check.

Spiraling logistics costs arising from increased volume movement with a growing driver storage. Even the trend of same day/next day deliveries means that some vehicles are left underutilized.

Sensors and trackers, backed by a base machine learning based system, can now help managers optimize the capacities of their vehicles, assign the right load to the right driver/delivery associate, and eventually set the best route devoid of traffic and other bottlenecks to ensure on-time deliveries.

Delivery route planning and optimization, hence, is not just cutting down costs, but also incentivizing market evolution. Companies like Amazon and Walmart can ensure better customer service with timely deliveries and end-to-end order tracking. This helps create value for the customer, the company, and the economy.

“What’s in the box?” Automated warehousing streamlines it!

distribution centers or warehouses.

Some high-value companies have already part automated the operations in these centers. As mentioned earlier, the sheer increase in the volume of goods moved nowadays means that the lead time even at warehouses must be shortened to the minimum.

If the order must reach a customer in a day, it can’t really spend about half of that at the center itself. The entire sorting and allocation system is automated. Some companies have even robotized some mundane functions within the warehouses.

“Do as I Say” Voice Controlled Logistics Movement We are well aware of the latest in virtual assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Google Home, etc. It’s a handy way to automate activities around yourself.

You can just ask Alexa to book a cab while playing your favorite songs.

Google recently demonstrated proper AI capable bots which could even have impromptu conversations and book appointments. The obvious extension of this came with voice-controlled logistics management. Using the same ease of household directions, managers can automate the planning of delivery routes, dispatch shipments, tracking vehicles, etc. using just their voice.

They can talk to the system and do all of these things.

The idea is simple. IoT is going deeper and deeper into our lives, not just how we handle our phones, but also how we handle our businesses. Above all, we must remember that it’s only a tool. It’s how we use it that would define our future.

With the development of machine learning backed logistics optimization, companies are investing in large

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Everex: Delivering Exemplary Financial Services

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he inception of Blockchain in 2008 can evidently be considered as technological reformation in the financial industry.

Cryptocurrency, distributed & transparent ledger, smart contracts, and an exponential ascend in a myriad of its applicability has bestowed immortality upon Blockchain technology.

Founded in 2014, Everex is a financial technology company that provides blockchain-powered solutions to financial institutions and their customers. Its solution enables cross-border money transfers, direct payments, price-stable coins through crypto/fiat currency exchanges and lending over the blockchain.

Visakha Thongphetsavong Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer

Everex ceaselessly innovates and transforms the current financial landscape in order to enable real-time transactions, at ultra-low cost. This also aids in bringing individuals and SMEs into the new global economy powered by a distributed ledger technology. Sending money abroad has now been made effortless by Everex’s blockchain-powered e-wallet, Everex.cash.

An All-Encompassing Technological Disruption Everex conducts business within three niches, where not only other businesses can benefit from the strong blockchain technology fundamentals, but end customers too. These areas of functioning are as follows:

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1. Cross-border money transfers for underserved population (remittance services) by accelerating access to financial services for underserved emerging market consumers. For instance, the organization’s latest partnership with a bank in Myanmar will help migrant workers to seamlessly send money back home.

Send money between countries seamlessly at ultra-low fees is now made possible.

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2. Travel Money, Foreign Exchange and direct payments with instant currency conversion on the blockchain: With tourist industry market in trillions and growing every year, Everex offers significant savings on FX rates and payment processing fees by reducing double FX conversion and limiting settlement time to less than a minute. For example, European and Chinese tourists will benefit by exchanging their respective national currencies to Thai baht (eTHB) and pay directly to Thai merchants with Everex wallet.

3. Seamless fiat-crypto-fiat transfers serve institutional / individual traders and investors by enabling both, fiat and emoney deposit and withdrawal options to and from cryptocurrency exchanges and OTC desks. Everex’s e-fiat currencies are a network of fiat-backed currencies which are actually connected by the Everex’s payment network over the blockchain. Currently, the company is opening a money transfers/payments corridor between Europe and Asia for both crypto- and non-crypto-based customers.

The company’s own token, EVX, simplifies these transactions and allows using it to pay for fees and other services.

Everex’s other very popular product includes Ethplorer (ethplorer.io) which has 6 million visitors every month and is quite a leading platform in Ethereum space. Ethplorer is a crypto analytics tool that enables crypto traders to gather access to the crypto market.

Expertise Personified Visakha Thongphetsavong is a former Associate Investment Banker from Credit Suisse. She quit banking and co-founded various FinTech startups before joining Alexi Lane, the Co-founder and CEO of Everex and his blockchain venture for which she is totally passionate about. She is currently the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Everex, and is leading the organization’s global marketing activities and business development plan.

Visakha’s professional background as a former trader for Credit Suisse and crypto trading since 2013 made her a valuable executive member alongside her other colleagues, given her strong understanding of the crypto market and the utilization of the blockchain technology within the FinTech space. She is also one of the very few young women executive members within the blockchain industry having led a successful tokensale of $26mn.

Excellence, Step by Step Everex was founded by Alexi Lane and Aleksandr Kakunov. Its token sale followed a couple of years ago,

raising $26 million, which gave the organization sufficient runways to develop its business channels.

“The lessons we learnt along the way were plenty but the most important one is that there has been a lack of knowledge and education about the blockchain and its advantages be it to the regulators or to the general public,” states Visakha.

“We are more and more confident that the technology will be soon understood and deployed by a wider range of institutions. Central banks have started to look into the technology deeper and regulators have started to understand the benefits of such a technology. We strongly believe that a global adoption will happen sooner than what we initially expected,” Visakha adds.

Beholding an Exponential Future Everex was initiated with a vision to provide individuals and businesses an ideal and seamless solution to make realtime payments and cross-border money transfers costless, regardless of the availability of a bank account. The organization has just signed a banking partnership with a commercial bank in Myanmar, where it will make an impact on the global 2 billion under-banked population which has no or limited access to financial services.

Following this strategic partnership, Everex will further expand into new regions and continents that will widely benefit from its cost-effective solution, and explore the cross-border money transfer route, as the company believes, this is where it is making a big difference. Everex started with South-East Asian markets, which is a home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world. It is also headquartered in Singapore, with offices in Bangkok. The company also plans to expand its solutions globally to Europe and North America. “We would ideally like to be the go-to name for Blockchain-powered financial solution for individuals and SMEs across the globe and become the most admired FinTech powerhouse, making an impact to emerging countries’ economy,” Visakha expresses.

Upon Everex’s latest partnership announcement with Shwe Bank, U Thein Zaw, Executive Vice Chairman, says: “Myanmar people working in Thailand are foreign currency earners of our country, and their hard-earned money is at risk when they send it home via informal channels. Shwe Bank and Everex have partnered to offer faster, less expensive and, most importantly, safer money transfers using Everex’s digital remittance platform. I look forward to working with Everex and expect this technology to greatly improve financial inclusion for Myanmar migrant workers.”

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Smarter Energy Grids

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Digi Connection

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uman beings have always looked up to nature and made efforts to learn from its basic principles.

Sonars were inspired by dolphins, light bulbs by fireflies, suction cups by octopus and robots itself to replicate human beings. One such instance that has been enthused by microorganisms is distributed ledger technology (DLT), widely known as blockchain.

“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”

-Don & Alex Tapscott.

It records transactions between two clients without any third party authentication which is an efficient process when it comes to stable data. Blockchain provides data management without the threat of unauthorized access or manipulations. It is proving to be a solution for frequent problems in various fields. Blockchain technology has the capability to disrupt approximately every industry ranging from finance, to education to power.

Smart Meters Smart meters are used to record electrical usage. These meters enable us to monitor our electrical consumption more precisely which will help consumers make better energy choices. Through blockchain, clients can directly get the amount spent which eradicates middleman thus saving money. This creates a more resilient network for gadgets to run on. Smart meters can also provide accurate data to the provider without needing a direct link to the meter of particular users.

With the help of blockchain, producers of smart grids do not have to invest a humongous amount. Here the producers get paid instantly, which leads to less capital expenditure.

Besides this, blockchain can play a serious role in adjusting power flows through the amalgamation and optimization of local grids measured by the public or consortium modes. It can aid in the maintenance of permanent records by servicers, giving a flawless view of a particular object or part of infrastructure at any given time. This information can be retrieved easily as the structure is built on a shared platform, while retaining the authenticity of the record.

Blockchain Technology in Smarter Grids One of the areas in the energy industry where blockchain technology can disrupt the market is smart grids. Lately, blockchain has been well-thought-out as one of the developing technologies that can be used for developing decentralized grid topologies and revising the distributed management of energy businesses. Blockchain database is shared by all the nodes in the system. A node is an active device which can be connected to internet and has an IP address. Examples of devices include computers, tablets, phones and even printers. The job of a node is to upkeep the network by maintaining a copy of the blockchain and process transactions.

Benefits of Blockchain in Smarter Grids Blockchain can aid numerous utility industry requirements.

It can act as a foundation stone with the possibility of disrupting the prevailing ecosystem. With the promotion for e-vehicles and individuals shifting to electric cars, supply and demand of energy needs to keep pace. Here blockchain comes in the scenario with its peer-to-peer interconnectivity and sharing. This balances the demand from several foundations and makes the grid smarter by directing sharing.

As there are small and compact smart grids, consumers with the help of blockchain can simply trade energy with one another thus saving time and earning a few dollars. In the power industry, blockchain technology can ensure a 5D Impact: decentralization, digitization, democratization, distribution and deregulation.

While the possible benefits of the Smart Grid are usually discussed in terms of renewable energy goals, economics and national security, it has the potential to help save money by managing your electricity usage and choosing the best times to purchase electricity. Consumers can save even more by generating their power with the help of blockchain.

Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized.

It is assessed that the blockchain technology will add another $3.1 trillion by 2030. Lately, due to the speedy growth in the deployment of DEPs the smart grid organization problems can no longer be proficiently addressed using centralized approaches, thus, the necessity for visionary decentralized methodologies and architectures is widely recognized.

Lastly, blockchain technology may eventually fast-track the evolution to what the power industry calls a “distributed world.” It is the sum of both small and large powergeneration structures for communities, businesses and home. To prosper in capitalizing the potential of distributed generation and supervising less foreseeable and more capricious renewable power sources, the trade’s infrastructure must first become more agile and less centralized.

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Loyyal: An Intensive Blockchain-Based Services Provider

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n an interview with Insights Success, Gregory Simon, Founder and CEO of Loyyal shares his experience and gives resourceful insights. In addition to this he has also noted about Loyyal, its products and motto of the organization along with the future goals in revolutionizing the blockchain industry.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Gregory and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of the company, its solutions and services?

Loyyal, the Internet of Loyalty, is reinventing how customer incentives are created, rewarded, and managed. Using proprietary blockchain and smart contract technology, Loyyal’s platform brings a host of benefits to a highly fragmented industry and offers brands an innovative way to unlock the billions of dollars in value held captive in legacy loyalty programs today.

Gregory Simon Founder & CEO

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Our latest product release, Loyyal Product Suite version 1.0 introduced a host of new customer benefits with features and capabilities delivering significant improvements in transaction performance, security, scalability, and network resiliency. This new packaging of Loyyal’s Blockchain-as-a-Service and software components brings together the core Loyyal Platform APIs, the company’s proprietary Private Channels functionality for secure, private transaction sharing among partners, Loyyal’s Program

The only limit is your imagination.

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Manager and Event Manager modules, together with Node hosting for a complete solution.

Key among the major features introduced in the newly bundled Loyyal Product Suite is support for Node-to-Node sharing of transactions across Loyyal’s network. With this, loyalty program operators now have greater flexibility than ever before in providing Members with easy transfer of points or miles between participating programs, all securely enabled via smart contracts. This dramatically lowers costs and improves profitability for program operators over existing, non-blockchain industry alternatives.

Loyyal Product Suite version 1.0 goes further in meeting the demands of world-class loyalty programs with a multicloud, multi-peer architecture for enhanced disaster recovery and data concurrency. This insures the gap-less availability of transaction data required by today’s 24x7 member engagement via a program’s mobile and web applications. Additionally, those same applications require a blockchain capable of the reliable, real-time blocking malicious or fraudulent transactions, to guarantee the accuracy of the ledger shared between programs, partners, and members; which only the Loyyal Product.

Give a detailed explanation regarding the Founder/CEO/Management’s influence towards the industry and the company?

Our CEO and Founder, Gregory Simon, is a CPA and had a successful career in the finance industry before founding Loyyal. His accounting expertise contributed greatly to our understanding of a loyalty program as a balance sheet liability for the program operator. This allows us to see the challenges from the clients’ perspective better and therefore offer more effective solutions with a real market need.

Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learnt that have shaped the journey of the company?

Over the four years we have been in operation we have greatly refined our product from initially as a coalition rewards program administered by Loyyal to the current product of offering a blockchain platform for existing programs to operate. The early years were challenging as general knowledge of blockchain was limited, if it existed at all. A significant portion of our time was invested into educating the industry. Today, that challenge has improved as the loyalty and rewards industry, in general, understand the benefits from blockchain and that it is the future of the industry.

partners, while reducing integration and management costs, and accelerating reconciliation and settlement. We also expand customers’ marketing capabilities, simplifying data sharing among partners with near-zero IT time and effort, enabling customers to personalize offers and promotions with near real-time insights into member behaviors and interests while sharing data with partners more securely than ever before. On Loyyal, customers can also grow program profitability, by being able to trace the true value of all loyalty currency through the entire program lifecycle, and improve revenue management by redeeming the most profitable points/miles first. We offer all this while enabling loyalty program operators to retain complete control over their brands.

Considering the rising number of blockchain solution providers, how does Loyyal stand out from its competitors?

Loyyal has been in operation for four years now, and differs primarily through our focus specifically on loyalty and incentive management, as opposed to the number of blockchain generalists in the market today. This history, and focus, have combined to give Loyyal a technological R&D lead over the rest of the industry; our software platform, and network are in use today across industries, including major global airlines, and a leading international bank. Our strategic VAR and system integration partners IBM, Deloitte, CapGemini, iNet, and Reffind give us a global presence. Last, though hardly least, we have multiple international patents awarded and a growing portfolio of additional intellectual property pending approval.

Where does Loyyal see itself in the long run and/or what are its future goals?

We expect to lead the global loyalty and rewards industry towards full migration to blockchain in the coming years.

We also have plans to expand beyond the traditional loyalty and rewards industry into general incentive management.

For example, enabling health insurance providers to incentivize healthy behavior in real-time, such as miles walked, check-ins at a gym, or spend at a health foods store, or enabling jurisdictions to incentivize its constituents for pro-social behavior.

How do you diversify Blockchain Services so that it will benefit your customers?

We enable loyalty program operators, from travel & hospitality, credit card rewards, retail programs, and more, to increase member engagement and grow their network of October 2018

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Cahn is Global VP of Marketing for Elemica, the leading provider of a Digital Supply Network for process manufacturers.

David Cahn Global VP of Marketing Elemica

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Expert’s Column

CHALLENGES & RISKS IN ADOPTING

DIGITAL DISRUPTION T

echnological innovation is happening at a faster rate than ever before, causing digital disruptions for many businesses. A digital disruption is a transformation that is caused by emerging digital technologies and business models. These innovative new technologies and models can impact the value of existing products and services offered in the industry, actually disrupting the current market and causing businesses to re-evaluate their competitive advantage.

Ignoring digital disruptions can impact businesses.

Remember Polaroid? The company led the market with its cameras that created instant pictures. Yet in 2001, the Polaroid Corporation filed for federal bankruptcy protection because the company failed to make the smooth transition from analog to digital cameras. The corporation decided to bet on their past innovations and, as a result, lost to companies who jumped on the digital bandwagon. By keeping abreast of changes in demand, businesses can follow the trends and adjust their strategies to embrace these changes, which will help them to thrive and grow profits.

Today’s digital disruptors are companies like Amazon and Uber, who use technologies to out maneuver the competition and build growth. Disruptors can be startup companies or long-established businesses. A wait-and-see attitude will not give a business sufficient time to make a comeback when the disruptor begins to dominate the industry.

Companies must continuously reinvent their business using digital disruptive technology or watch from the sidelines while they lose market share. Yet, many businesses still struggle with acceptance, and others don’t know where to start the journey.

Accepting Digital Disruption Digital disruption is fueled by next generation technology, such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, the Internet of Things and software-enabled platforms that tie all these technologies together. C-level executives understand that any industry can be profoundly affected by digital disruption and no one can afford to ignore the threat. In other words, digital disruption rewrites the rules of business.

Digital disruption begins with acceptance of digital transformation using digital technologies within operations and ecosystems. Today’s technology allows all business stakeholders to share a single network, connecting and collaborating on supply chain operations from one end of the enterprise to the other. Each trading partner has access to information generated through the network in order to gain visibility to all aspects of production, procurement, transportation and distribution. With the proper information, executives can make qualified decisions that drive improvements in the business.

Accepting digital disruptions within the enterprise means the business is no longer worried by the disruption and

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instead leverages strategic planning and technologies to drive the business. Disruption is accepted into the culture of the organization so innovation is a day-to-day experience.

Instead of concern, the business will be better able to sense and respond to changes in demand and disruptions to mitigate any risk.

technique is through some type of portal for order capture and invoicing for inter-business automation. Finally, some leading DSNs provide email as a simple onboarding method to digitize an inter-business process without requiring supply chain partners to have any integration software.

Benefits of Digital Disruptions

Often a business has to decide whether to respond to the digital disruption or not. While it is not conducive to ignore the disruption, businesses may not always have to respond.

Instead, the business can complement the disruption by adding value to it. An example would be to create technologies that augment the disruption, such as software (added value) for an iPhone (disruptor).

Beginning a Digital Transformation Journey To start the journey, management needs to design a strategy for digital transformation that involves people, processes and partners. The strategy should be broken down into process steps that contain material, information and people flow. Each employee knows that the product moves from process A to process B in a specific quantity, at a specific time, to a specific location. Because of digital technologies, people have visibility into what is happening with each step, giving them the ability to uncover bottlenecks that can cause delays or poor product quality.

Digital transformation helps customers know where their “stuff” is at all times, similar to the conveniences derived from mobile apps, where a taxi is ordered and the route visualized on the phone screen. Emerging next-gen end-toend visibility applications in concert with a network of interconnected buyers, suppliers and logistics providers are enabling companies to lower working capital and operating expenses, mitigate risk and improve customer satisfaction by breaking down silos within the organization. With digital transformation, the supply chain is now a completely integrated ecosystem accessible by all stakeholders.

With end-to-end visibility as the key driver for an effective supply chain improvement strategy, businesses must rely on building more collaborative relationships across their network of trading partners. Gaining end-to-end visibility across transportation processes can deliver 6% or more in transportation savings, remove the equivalent of 15 people from operating costs by improving productivity, and reduce the Cash-to-Cash cycle by 4 days or more.

Today’s technology allows all stakeholders to share a single network, connecting and collaborating on supply chain activities from one end of the enterprise to the other. Each trading partner has access to information generated through the network in order to gain visibility to all aspects of production, procurement, transportation and distribution.

With the proper information, executives can make qualified decisions that drive improvements in the business.

Digital systems gather data, which can be used for predictive analytics and machine learning to continually improve the organization. More informed decisions can be made by management. Disruptions from digital technologies can reshape markets and help with launching new products or services for less cost.

Digital Supply Networks (DSN) are part of a digital transformation journey, providing a technology foundation for improving inter-business processes, expanding supply chain relationships, increasing revenues and reducing operating costs. DSNs create greater opportunities by integrating suppliers, customers, and logistics service providers in various ways depending on the level of interbusiness processes that are performing.

With a digital transformation in the supply chain, silos dissolve and every part of the ecosystem has full visibility to what is happening from end-to-end. Supply and demand signals can travel through the network uninhibited, alerting the appropriate parties to low levels of raw materials or inventory, or seasonal spikes in demand. Because trading partners get this information in real time through the digital supply network, they can react accordingly. Digital disruptions from digital transformations will results into huge gains in customer satisfaction, profits and efficiencies.

One method is to connect via ERP-to-ERP integrations with high-volume suppliers and customers to streamline and automate sell-side and buy-side transactions. A second

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SALT:

Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Optimize Lending Processes

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Bill Sinclair Interim President and CEO and CTO

lockchain technology has revolutionized the way we make transactions on the internet. Be it valuable information, currency or any other form of asset, blockchain technology helps us to move it from one place to another with enhanced security and ease.

Apparently, various industries have shown interest in adapting this technology. Needless to say, blockchain technology can be a potential tool for industries that are involved in valuable transactions like banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). Many companies have already started leveraging blockchain technology and have introduced all-new services in the financial sector. One of these companies is SALT.

Founded in 2016 in Denver, SALT is smartly leveraging blockchain assets. Through its platform, SALT allows cryptocurrency holders to secure cash loans by collateralizing their blockchain assets. Simultaneously, its services provide opportunity for exposure to this evolving digital asset class. SALT is committed to advancing a global blockchain-based One of the few companies ecosystem. The company has a member that lends in fiat currency, base of more than 70,000 and currently operates globally with a SALT allows crypto holders to commitment to further expand its secure cash loans by collateralizing licensed lending jurisdictions.

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their blockchain assets. The company’s services also provide opportunity for exposure to this evolving digital asset class.

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SALT currently offers loans collateralized by

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Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin to its customers around the world with a goal of expanding its platform to accept additional digital assets as collateral. The company is also continuing to broaden its product offerings based on customer needs.

wide range of clients. Additionally, SALT’s proprietary technology enables it to conduct transactions on the blockchain and will help it to scale quickly in the future.

Optimizing Lending with Blockchain

Adding Value to the Industries SALT is contributing not only to the blockchain industry but to the financial services industry as well. The company seeks to advance the use of blockchain technology in modern society, as well as democratize loan access by enabling crypto holders across the world to secure hard cash loans through collateralization of their digital assets. Through this approach, it also seeks to maximize flexibility of loan terms for customers in all of its lendable areas.

The “One for ALL” Leader Bill Sinclair holds the positions of Interim President and CEO and Chief Technology Officer at SALT where he is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the company, facilitating the development of a best-in-class software platform, and creating long-term enterprise value for shareholders. With more than 20 years of experience in techology and software, Bill has managed IT departments and software development teams as well as executed on global strategies across industries including finance, energy, and Internet of Things (IoT).

Bill’s domain expertise in the energy industry guided a prior venture, Agelio Networks and the development of MineralFile, a patented SaaS platform for revenue tracking and land management in the oil and gas industry. Specifically, he brings three areas of expertise essential to SALT’s success: experience with building technology companies, a strong understanding of the financial services industry, and a natural, proven ability to assemble solid, high-performing teams.

Standing Ahead with its Distinctive Features

As blockchain technology and cryptocurrency became more widely adopted, SALT’s founders recognized a hole in the market that traditional banks and lenders could not fulfill. With an understanding that many crypto holders treat their digital assets as a highly valued investment, it only made sense that there should be a way for these holders to secure a loan by collateralizing them, just as a traditional lender will permit borrowers to collateralize a house or car. No longer should crypto holders have to sell their assets to access hard cash.

Keeping this in mind, SALT was among the first set of companies to offer blockchain-backed loans in fiat currency—an incredible achievement that has opened up new opportunities for crypto holders across the world. As SALT’s business continues to grow and evolve, the company is constantly learning from its customers, responding to their needs and requests in the form of future product offerings.

Aspiring Leadership Goals SALT has numerous goals it is working toward with the overarching objective being to provide as many blockchain-based loans to as many clients as possible, and to be able to do so in a way that is easy and transparent to its lending community. Other long-term goals include its continued growth and expansion of lendable areas including the entire United States. Over time, SALT also seeks to increase the variety of blockchain assets that can be collateralized for loans, as well as add new products for crypto holders from both a consumer and business perspective. On the investment side, SALT is continuously in conversations with investors to bring in capital that can be lent out to meet borrower demand.

SALT is one of the few companies that lends in fiat currency—something that sets it apart from other industry players. With a primary goal of serving large clients, SALT’s offering—live portfolio valuation, around-the-clock global support, a range of competitive rates, flexible loan terms, and a proprietary custody solution— enables it to meet the needs of individuals and businesses alike, making it the ideal loan solution for a

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The Universality of IoT Technology T

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he gratifying tool for companies to lead ahead IoT Technology” The Internet of things (IoT) is a revolutionary change for many sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, retail, electronic, energy and healthcare which are progressing towards the IoT phenomenon to connect digitally. It has placed an opportunity to build unusual results which increases a company’s compatibility. Enterprises seeking development are focusing on the use of real-time data management and IoT analysis. Many of the companies are adopting this technology to heighten their power of consumption. Companies are mainly concentrating on IoT application from “sensing” instead of “doing” to grow its competitive advantages. This element empowers organizations by allowing them to take the IoT advantage and adopt a more ‘innovative connected approach’.

Infrastructure Management – Optimization of Technology New applications are now enhancing their level of consumption. Likewise, manufacturing sector is also

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Editor’s Choice getting engrossed and achieving excellence through IoT Techniques. Applications are liable for monitoring and controlling operations for urban and rural manufactures like bridges, farms, and railway tracks. It is the key features of the applications were IoT infrastructure is also used for monitoring the construction safety and risk management system and operations. This major feature represents the mechanism of IoT application which works under infrastructure management. Benefits of IoT Technology are cost reducing, time reducing, better in quality, and increase productivity. It helps to make fast decisions and save money with real-time analysis. IoT devices help to give prominent results by monitoring and controlling operations used in all infrastructure related area.

Manufacturing Techniques are Growing with IoT Technology In the manufacturing sector, networking and controlling have been used with IoT devices. It provides information about data and operation stability. Network status and the information is collected in the system by tracking IoT device. Manufacturing control process deliver information about industry application and smart manufacturing details receiving form IoT device. IoT intelligent system enables sharing information about product demands, service management, supply chain networks, sensors and control systems together. Small industries can also be integrated with IoT technology that enables real-time optimization, measurements, production compatibility and safety management.

However, intelligent systems are determined as the significant technique that implies user experience and system security which ultimately saves costs.

which land is fertile or which one is dry and predict future fields.

IoT Technology Helps to Optimize Energy Consumption Integrated Sensing and Control system helps to optimize energy consumption. IoT devices are integrated with energy consumption systems in order to maintain balance between power generation and energy usage. IoT devices offer the opportunity to remotely gather information. It enables advance functions like remote controlling and changing light conditions. IoT Technology work for home-based energy system which provide power related information, energy consumption and energy usage at homes. IoT devices set goals to improve efficiency, reliability and sustainability of the energy system.

Monitoring Environment through IoT Technology Environment monitoring application has been involved with sensors to assist information about environment changes by identifying water quantity, atmosphere, air pressure etc. It also has focus on monitoring movements of wildlife and their habitats. Devices connected to the internet also provide statistics about earthquake or tsunami - early warning systems, and also used as an emergency system. IoT device application is used to collect geographic information and majorly instructive information. This device also uses standardized approach to bring wireless sensing technique and gather finest information.

IoT Technology Helps to Sustain Building and Home Automation

IoT Technology brings Innovative Farming Methods The Agriculture sector is one of the industry to implement IoT technology for stability and better performance. IoT technology has become a significant method of farming. It also offers durability and functionality to the whole process. The combination of wireless sensors with agricultural apps and cloud platforms benefits in gathering definite information relating to environmental conditions like, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed etc. Farmers are getting competent results out of it, and are able to find real-time information easily. Linked with farmland, it improves and automates farming techniques like weather information, taking decision on quality and quantity, and minimizes risk and waste. With IoT Tech farmers can find out detailed information of farm and similarly know

With certainty, IoT devices are used to monitor and control the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems.

IoT devices are used in various types of home automation and building automation systems. Control and sensory applications offer unified information. The integration of the internet with building creates an energy management system which will allow prominent energy efficiency.

There have been many ways for IoT technology to expand compatibility in the digital world, and it will be implemented in each sector to work as an important tool, to enhance its affinity. After all, the IoT network makes technology more unified and satisfying, with its tools and applications and IoT will be a step ahead towards numerous opportunities.

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Impact of Blockchain technology in Logistics industry Raghu Bala CEO NetObjex Inc

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raghu Bala CEO, NetObjex Inc is based in Southern California. Raghu formerly worked with Yahoo, Infospace, PwC, and with 3 successful startup exits.

He is a Wharton MBA in Finance, MS in Computer Science from RPI, Ex-Columbia University Adjunct Lecturer, published author and major conferences including IoT Congress, Google IO, and more. His Current focus areas are Decentralized computing, Distributed ledgers, IoT, and Cryptocurrencies respectively.

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Expert’s Insights

T

he Logistics Industry is a key segment in several world economies, including that of the United States.

Using a study from AT Kearney, it accounted for about 7.5% of GDP in 2016. The Logistics industry is made up of several subsegments including:

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Motor Carriers e.g. JB Hunt, Old Dominion Parcel Delivery e.g. Fed Ex, UPS Rail e.g. CSX, Norfolk Southern Container Shipping e.g. Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd Air Freight e.g. DHL, Martinair Pipeline companies e.g. Enbridge, Kinder Morgan Freight Forwarders e.g. Kuehne+Nagel, Sinotrans Third Party Logistics e.g. CH Robinson, XPO Logistics Warehousing Companies e.g. Ryder, Geodis

Many of the players in the above list bleed over into the other segments and offer a broad product mix.

Technology has continued to be the catalyst for change in the Logistics industry. New business models are being constantly developed and driving the industry towards a flexible, connected, optimized supply chain. Customer

expectations also continue to evolve with a greater need for immediacy, convenience and personalization at the core.

AI, IoT, and Blockchain technologies have a major role to play in this evolution.

Logistics, in general, involves a Chain of Custody where goods change hands between multiple parties. For instance, a Seller in China wishes to ship goods to a Buyer in the US. It is very likely that in this scenario the goods e.g. a Container will go through several intermediaries e.g. trucking companies, shipping companies before reaching the buyer.

At present, most of this journey is fairly opaque in that once the goods leave the custody of the Sender, there is very little insight as to its status until it arrives at the Buyer. When single companies handle the entire shipment e.g. FedEx, DHL etc then there is slightly more visibility through mobile notifications and web based tracking via tracking numbers. But when multiple carriers are involved, tracing and tracking becomes exponentially more difficult and is not being handled most effectively at present.

Enter Blockchain to the rescue. Blockchain is a form of

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Source: NetObjex Inc

Distributed Ledger technology may be just what the doctor ordered when it comes to improving the transparency in the Logistics industry. Blockchain technology provides a transparent, tamper proof, and immutable ledger – three properties which could help mitigate several of the inefficiencies in Logistics.

Before we examine Blockchain in detail, let us quickly list some of the common issues faced in Logistics:

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Inefficiency e.g. goods not arriving on time Loss e.g. goods perishing enroute due to improper handling Theft e.g. goods being stolen due to lack of security measures Counterfeiting e.g. goods being replaced with counterfeit goods Fraud e.g. document fraud where documents such as bill of lading are modified

With this context in mind, let us study how Blockchain can help in Logistics. First, blockchain technology is extremely useful in ecosystems involving multiple players who work with one another but there may be trust issues. The Logistics ecosystem easily qualifies in this regard. Second, most of what ails the ecosystem is a lack of accountability which is brought about by the lack of transparency. For instance, in the chain of custody, if all the ecosystem participants have their own information silos (either automated or otherwise), then there is a lack of a common set of truths or a common system of record. This leads to inefficiency, errors, and even fraud. Third, compound this already maligned ecosystem by saddling it customer requirements such as cold chain shipments where temperature has to be maintained within specific thresholds e.g. pharmaceuticals or wine.

In all three cases, Blockchain is a perfect fit. First, it helps all ecosystem participants’ work off of the same data by sharing data across trust boundaries breaking down the silos on information. Second, when coupled with IoT technology for real time data acquisition, blockchain can be used for governance and accountability in Chain of Custody situations.

For instance, in a cold chain shipment, one can easily ascertain which party was responsible for a shipping container while in transit when the temperature gauge reading went outside of the preset thresholds.

Blockchain promises to be a game changing technology and something that is a very good fit for the Logistics business and all of its complexity.

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