Category: fintech

Financial technology

Please Steal This Code – The Crypto UBI Project is on GitHub

October 7, 2018

A few months ago, The Kuwa Foundation partnered with the University of Massachusetts Center for Data Science to develop The Crypto UBI Project (TCUP). I’m excited to say that we just published the TCUP source code on GitHub under an MIT open source license. We also deployed a demo on our development server. TCUP distributes a cryptocurrency basic income payment to people who have Kuwa IDs, which are “smart contracts” that live on an Ethereum blockchain. We’ve taken the first step in a long and challenging, but ultimately worthwhile journey. … More Please Steal This Code – The Crypto UBI Project is on GitHub

The Cryptoeconomics of Funding a Universal Basic Income

March 21, 2018

After a devastating earthquake in 2010, the world collectively pledged about $13B in aid to Haiti. That’s enough to give every Haitian a 50% pay increase for three years (on average). For far less than $13B, we could implement a basic income in Haiti that would lift millions of people out of poverty. This post is concerned with exploring ways to fund a UBI that we could distribute via a cryptocurrency. I compare inflation funding to transaction fees. I also provide basic projections for an inflation-funded crypto UBI in the US and Haiti. Even though inflation may also impose a “cost” on holders of the currency (through a loss in purchasing power), my analysis led me to conclude that it would be better to fund a crypto UBI through inflation. … More The Cryptoeconomics of Funding a Universal Basic Income

WANTED: Rules for Initial Coin Offerings

December 10, 2017

Entrepreneurs see initial coin offerings (ICOs) as an easy way to quickly raise a lot of money with no strings attached. Some ICO investors’ greed has blinded them to the apparent risks. However, ICOs are an important new fundraising innovation that is appropriate for endeavors where the objective is to create value through decentralization. Although most ICO-funded projects will fail, the ones that don’t will have a more significant impact on our lives than the Web. Governments, particularly in the United States, have been slow to act. When they do, some entrepreneurs will find themselves in trouble, and many ICO investors will have already lost money. For important ICO-funded projects to flourish, we need ground rules. The Simple Agreement for Future Token Sales (SAFT) is the most significant industry initiative so far that tries to define those rules. … More WANTED: Rules for Initial Coin Offerings

Ethereum: What a gas! – Come to our presentation on May 10th.

April 14, 2017

If you’ll be anywhere near Northampton, Mass. on May 10th, 2017, then make sure you swing by the World War II Club (50 Conz Street) at 6 pm. My Meetup.com group, Western Massachusetts All Things Blockchain, will be giving a presentation on Ethereum, which is a leading open source blockchain-based software project. Among other topics, … More Ethereum: What a gas! – Come to our presentation on May 10th.

Presentation: Intro to Blockchain – And, by the way, what the heck is proof of work?

April 11, 2017

I gave a blockchain presentation to my meetup group, Western Massachusetts All Things Blockchain. It’s embedded in this post. You can also see it on Slideshare. Please feel free to download the following files: Php sample code that demonstrates POW concepts; Microsoft PowerPoint XML Presentation If you use any of my material, please give me an attribution. Thanks for having a look. … More Presentation: Intro to Blockchain – And, by the way, what the heck is proof of work?

“Digital Gold” Tells the Story of Bitcoin from Outlaws and Anarchists to Wall Street and Winklevoss

December 10, 2016

Digital Gold tells the story of Bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto’s 9-page 2008 white paper through 2015. It’s fun to read. The characters in this true story are the ideologues, outlaws, millionaires, entrepreneurs, power brokers, geeks and a few oddballs who made Bitcoin the first viable, global and digital currency. Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times columnist, wrote Digital Gold. It was difficult for me to put the book down. … More “Digital Gold” Tells the Story of Bitcoin from Outlaws and Anarchists to Wall Street and Winklevoss

“Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies” Will Teach You how Bitcoin Works

December 7, 2016

If you want to learn how Bitcoin works on a technical level, then read Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies. If you’re a nerd, you’ll love it. Princeton University hosts the book’s web page, which provides links to video lectures for each chapter. From that web page, you can also download Java programming assignments and a free pre-publication version of the book. Coursera has an online course (currently free) that’s based on the book. … More “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies” Will Teach You how Bitcoin Works

FinTech Goodness a la NYU Stern

October 12, 2016

I’m psyched that I’ll be attending the “1st Annual NYU Stern FinTech Conference” at my alma mater in Greenwich Village on November 9, 2016. It’s a one-day event packed with a lot of great info about emerging technologies that promise to dramatically disrupt the financial industry (e.g., blockchain). Keynote speakers include notable Stern alumni such … More FinTech Goodness a la NYU Stern