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Bodhi Bets on the Decentralized Prediction Marketplace

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As with brick-and-mortar industries that are slowly fading away to the globalism of the online world, so too will the traditional prediction market industry have to innovate to keep up with the sheer efficiency, reliability and security that the decentralized prediction markets promise to bring. Augur ( REP ) has grabbed headlines lately with the launch of its highly anticipated prediction market earlier this month. Ethereum-based futures market DApp Gnosis ( GNO ) is also under development and running on the Ethereum testnet . Meanwhile, Bodhi ( BOT / BOE ), another decentralized application, has been operating on the Qtum mainnet since April 23, 2018. These decentralized prediction platforms aim to disrupt the institutional futures markets by lowering the barrier to entry, allowing more people to cast predictions on a global scale and increase the mindshare of information; creating transparency in the prediction process via the blockchain ledger and smart contracts ; incre
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“Eating Their Lunch:” Blockchain Upstarts Challenge Investment Banks

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Access to personal financial data and the emergence of blockchain technology have been the catalyst for a revolution in the banking sector. At the start of this year, banks within the European Union were ordered by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to grant customers access to their personal data. Banks must allow customers ownership of their financial data which they can then share with other banks and regulated financial businesses to shop around for a better deal — such as getting a cheaper overdraft. With Open Banking, anything from customer transaction history and product information to branch locations will now be owned by the customer, not the bank. This combination of available financial data and new possibilities for blockchain-driven efficiencies have made the climate ripe for the disruption of traditional investment banks. “Accenture has estimated that some major investment banks could make a whopping $10 billion in efficiency savings by utilizing blockchain
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An Australian Blockchain Experiment: Tracking Global Almond Shipments

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Following a successful 2016 trial of blockchain technology in an interbank open account transaction, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has partnered with five international and Australian companies to ship 17 tonnes of almonds from Melbourne, Australia, to Hamburg, Germany, using a new distributed ledger platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. The Experiment Originating in Sunraysia, the shipment made its way to Western Europe in a pioneering experiment that combined a private blockchain, smart contracts and a geotracking Internet of Things (IoT) framework to facilitate end-to-end movement of the almonds. Using the joint solution, the entire process was seamlessly tracked and verified remotely from the point of origin to delivery in real time. Taking part in the procedure alongside the CBA were Pacific National, Olam Richards Australia Pty Ltd, OOCL Limited, Patrick Terminals and LX Group. The primary purpose of the experiment was to establish a reliable framework for
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Op Ed: Cryptocurrency Capital Gains Taxes — Breaking Down the Problem

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Capital gains on crypto transactions are easy to track, one at a time. What about when there are thousands? Cryptocurrency capital gains taxes are becoming a point of interest for governments. In 2017, which will likely come to be known as the year crypto went mainstream, the combined market cap for all cryptocurrencies rocketed up from 15 billion to over 600 billion dollars. This kind of growth is hard to ignore — not just for the day traders and blockchain evangelists but for governments as well. This article focuses on how the United States specifically approaches crypto taxation. Don Fort , the chief of the IRS criminal investigation unit, speaking on a recent tax conference panel, discussed at length how “cryptocurrency is becoming a new area of enforcement for him.” Other events like the IRS Coinbase Summons and the IRS warning sent to tax filers show the clear intentions of the U.S. government. Because cryptocurrency is treated as property (not as currency), it is subje
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How Blockchain Promotes International Trade, Identity and Financial Inclusion

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International trade, people without identity and financial exclusion are global development areas that stand to be radically improved with blockchain technology, according to Michelle Chivunga, regional advisor for the British Blockchain Association. “I’m quite keen to help people in understanding what the potential of blockchain is,” said Chivunga in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine . “And at the same time I’m also quite passionate and I’ve done quite a bit of work and involvement with women’s economic empowerment programmes, working with different groups from UN women to the World Bank and a whole range of other organizations.” “I’m also focused on emerging markets and nations as there are a lot of opportunities for technology to help,” she added. Chivunga highlighted the plight of the financially excluded as a major area of global development where blockchain technology could bring unprecedented improvement: “I think it’s really important that we look at how we can use block
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Chamber of Digital Commerce Sets Out ICO and Token Guidelines

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The Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Token Alliance is producing a new group of guidelines built to help the cryptocurrency and initial coin offering (ICO) markets grow responsibly. Released today as a whitepaper, the report is entitled “Understanding Digital Tokens: Market Overviews & Guidelines for Policymakers & Practitioners.” The paper will specifically pertain to “utility tokens,” which provide users with future access to products or services. In these instances, ICOs will raise money for new blockchain products by offering investors future use of the items being developed (usually at a discounted rate). Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner and CEO of Patomak Global Partners Paul Atkins comments, “These principles are an important tool for responsible growth and smart regulation that strikes the right balance between protecting investors while allowing for innovation in this new technological frontier. We think it is important to explain the uni
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[promoted] WatermelonBlock Harnesses AI Brainpower to Fuel Crypto Market Analysis

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The world of cryptocurrency is in a constant state of flux. As a result, the process of sorting through untold amounts of background information and data can be a laborious, time-consuming endeavor. Continually subjected to emotions and opinions, investors are often unable to reliably assess the informational signals needed to make informed market decisions. That’s where WatermelonBlock , a data analytics company featuring a suite of products that deliver cryptocurrency insights directly to the consumer, comes in. Through a mix of data points gathered from social media as well as traditional technical analysis, this emerging startup assists investors in staying abreast of critical data and information sets in real time. WatermelonBlock seeks to deliver these insights to all levels of investors, from experienced traders seeking to stay ahead of the curve relative to their personalized portfolio to newcomers attempting to mitigate the information overload often tied to their first m
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