Blockchain: Getting down to basics June 2, 2017 There has been much talk about blockchain disrupting the financial services industry. Earlier this month, IBM’s vice president of blockchain declared that ‘2016 was the year of blockchain experimentation,’ and ‘2017 is the year of adoption.’ (The fact that IBM has an executive with ‘blockchain’ in his job title is a data point by itself.) [...]
Gold is under-owned by investors… for now September 19, 2017 Gold remains extremely under-owned by investors despite having a solid track record as a currency of last resort in times of uncertainty, and despite the current global environment being arguably more uncertain than any point since the second world war. Current gold ETF holdings as a percentage of global ETF assets are tiny. An ETF [...]
Fintech is saving UK businesses £4.6bn as nearly two thirds adopt financial technology solutions, according to a MarketInvoice survey September 25, 2017 Nearly two-thirds of UK businesses are adopting financial technology (fintech) and making significant savings as a result, according to a survey conducted by business finance firm MarketInvoice. The survey found 65 per cent of 3,482 UK businesses have adopted at least one fintech solution, with 19 per cent making use of four services. These fintech [...]
US Presidential Election 2016: Bitcoin jumps four per cent as Donald Trump wins over Hillary Clinton November 9, 2016 The bitcoin price has surged almost four per cent so far this morning, as Hillary Clinton conceded the presidency to her Republican rival Donald Trump. The price of a single bitcoin has reached $737.07, according to exchange Bitstamp. The currency steadily rose as election officials began counting votes last night. It has risen from a [...]
A financial crisis in 2018? The danger signs are starting to emerge December 15, 2017 It is 10 years since the last financial crisis, and it has taken that long for normality to return. For the first time since the crisis, major economies are expanding together. Unemployment rates in the US and UK economies have halved. However, productivity and investment growth has been on a declining trend in major economies. [...]
FTSE 100 predictions, share tips… forget it all and consider the 2018 anti-forecast January 17, 2018 The start of January traditionally sees many investors trying to fill the blank slate the new year represents with forecasts of what the coming months will bring. Ever the contrarians, including us on The Value Perspective, a blog with value investing ideas, a more recent tradition has seen us offering up our own new year [...]
Unilever, Walmart and Nestle are starting a major blockchain project with IBM August 22, 2017 Unilever, Nestle, Walmart and a handful of the world’s top retail and food brands are joining forces to tackle food safety with the help of blockchain technology. The 10 companies will work with IBM on a new project that will look at how the distributed ledger technology (DLT) behind bitcoin could be used to track [...]
Romania’s first bitcoin exchange BTCXchange closes a month after being put up for sale September 14, 2016 The first order-book bitcoin exchange to launch in Romania shut down its operations this week, almost a month after it was first put up for sale. BTCXchange closed on Monday after failing to find a buyer, local news group Bihon reported, after being put up for sale on 18 August. However, the cause of the [...]
Blockchain firm Elliptic and Internet Watch Foundation unite to clamp down on bitcoin’s use in child porn July 6, 2016 Blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) have launched a partnership to clamp down on the use of bitcoin in purchasing child porn. London-based Elliptic, which identifies illicit activity on the bitcoin blockchain, will integrate the IWF's database of addresses with child sexual abuse content into its transaction monitoring and investigations. It [...]
The Blockchain Brothers: BTL’s Guy and Hugh Halford-Thompson on running the world’s first public blockchain firm July 10, 2017 Based on Fenchurch Street, it’s not so often I mosey down to Canary Wharf. I suffer a terrible contradiction of mind when I do. Its Dubai-lite pastiche is soulless and underwhelming, yet as a location, its essence is one of unassailable purpose: a financial powerhouse, driving upwards of £100bn into the UK economy every year. [...]