Finance is itself a technology. It is essential for the functioning of our society, and it evolves from barter to coins, to banknotes, fiat money, and then to digital money. The invention of blockchain technology is an important mathematical innovation and the applications it is bringing are going to be much more than the current one of just payments.

The emergence of Bitcoin and subsequent Distributed Ledger Technologies has generated a new digital asset class in which scarcity is based on mathematical properties. Through cryptographic verification and game-theoretic equilibrium, blockchain-based digital assets can be created, issued, transmitted, and accumulated using software. 

We manage a fund committed to exceptional returns for investors through an actively managed portfolio of these blockchain assets.

 
 

Blockchain is a complex system that keeps evolving. It took up many bright minds many years of development, plus a combination of advances in cryptography, distributed computing and economics to come up with the current technology. So expect to require some serious effort to grasp it.

The Trust Machine, the promise of the blockchain by The Economist, 2015

 

bitcoin

The Bitcoin Network is a consensus network that enables a new payment system and a completely digital money. It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen. From a user perspective, Bitcoin is perhaps best described as ‘cash for the Internet’, but Bitcoin can also be seen as the most prominent triple entry bookkeeping system in existence.

WHITE PAPER: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

ARTICLE: Why Bitcoin Matters by MARC ANDREESSEN

Ethereum

Decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud, or third party interference.

WHITE PAPER: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform

NEWS ALERT: Big Business Giants From Microsoft to J.P. Morgan Are Getting Behind Ethereum

Golem

The Golem Network is a global, open sourced, decentralized sharing economy of computing power that anyone can access. It's made up of the combined power of users' machines, from personal laptops to entire data centers. Golem enables the sharing of these resources to compute (almost) any program you can think of, from rendering to research to running websites, in a completely decentralized and inexpensive way.

WHITE PAPER: The Golem Project

 
 

ARDOR

Ardor is a blockchain-as-a-service platform that will allow businesses, organizations, and users to utilize the blockchain technology of Nxt through the use of child chains. Child chains will be able to utilize features currently seen in Nxt such as decentralized phasing, voting, monetary systems, secure massaging, coin shuffle, and trading, as well as be able to interact with other child chains on the platform.

 

 

TEZOS

Tezos is a self-amending cryptographic ledger. It achieves consensus not just about the state of a ledger, but about the state of its own protocol.

 

 

 

MAKER DAO

A new cryptocurrency called Dai that automatically reacts to emergent market conditions in order to stabilize its value against the major world currencies. Dai is created by the Dai Stablecoin System, a decentralized platform that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. 

WHITE PAPER: The Dai Stablecoin System

ARTICLE: Stablecoins: A Holy Grail in Digital Currency

 

 

MAIDSAFE

The MAIDSAFE (Massive Array of Internet Disks - Secure Access For Everyone) Network is made up of the unused hard drive space, processing power, and data connection of its users. It offers a level of security and privacy not currently available on the existing Internet and turns the tables on companies, putting users in control of their data, rather than entrusting it to organisations.

 

 

COUNTERPARTY

Counterparty extends Bitcoin’s functionality by “writing in the margins” of regular Bitcoin transactions, opening the door for innovation and advanced features not possible with ordinary Bitcoin software.

 

 

FACTOM

Factom creates a distributed autonomous protocol to cost-effectively separate the Bitcoin blockchain from the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. This enables products that transform the way organizations secure and share their data. Their products safeguard the most critical government, commercial, and non-profit systems.

 

 

STELLAR

A platform that connects banks, payments systems, and people, integrated to move money quickly, reliably, and at almost no cost. Services include Remittances, Micro-payments, Mobile Branches, Mobile Money, and Services for the Underbanked.

 

 

STORJ

A peer-to-peer Cloud Storage Network featuring client-side encryption which allows users to transfer and share data without reliance on a third party storage provider.

 

 

 

NEW PROJECTS

White papers review and project due diligence are in progress.

 

Thoughts on Tokens

A Framework for Valuing Crypto Tokens

        http://www.coindesk.com/framework-valuing-crypto-tokens/

List of Resources For Researching and Launching ICOs

http://www.coindesk.com/the-ultimate-list-of-resources-for-researching-and-launching-icos/

Some digital assets are in a form of a Tokens. We could classify what tokens enable along three segments:

  • Tokens that power a protocol: e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum. The nature of the “Work” is mostly software development, done by its network participants.
  • Tokens that are intrinsic to a vertical function: e.g. Steemit, Filecoin, Storj. The “Work” is content curation or production, file storage, sharing data, driving a car, etc.
  • Tokens that extend an existing business: e.g. any loyalty points given by existing companies could be turned into a mini-economy to fuel additional transactions. We could label this part “hybrid models.”

The general theory is: User actions generate value that earn them internal tokens that can also be spent inside the network via new transactions. Here are additional thoughts:

  • The tokens that are issued resemble an exhaust of the user's actions
  • Tokens are not just a monetary currency, they are a combination of reputation currency, engagement currency, clout currency, and activity currency as a whole
  • Tokens are a proxy to the economic activity that is generated inside the network
  • Earning tokens should be done honestly, and not easily gamified
  • The closer the token is to the value proposition or native model of the business, the more sustainable it will be
  • The creation of value targets any type of user or customer: they could be your core developers, applications creators, end-users, speculators, ecosystem partners, founders, buyers, sellers, readers, writers, investors, influencers, partners, etc.

At the base of these tokenized constructs is the belief that all participants have a right to earn a part of the overall value creation they are collectively responsible for. We are in the early stages of understanding and implementing the various models behind the tokenization of work with cryptocurrency and blockchains as the operating backbones for these models. We need to see more ambitious projects that take risks in tackling the possibilities. The most ambitious ones to date are The DAO (which failed quickly, but with plenty of lessons), and Steemit (which has a few skeptics, but also a lot of supporters).