WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

In an ongoing effort with Boston-area hospitals, including the Boston Medical Center and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we found that we could predict hospitalizations due to these two chronic diseases about a year in advance with an accuracy rate of as much as 82%. This will give care providers the chance to intervene much earlier and head off hospitalizations.

CRYPTO20 is an autonomous token-as-a-fund allowing you to invest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum in a diversified index fund.

Over the past several years, Gowling WLG has been at the forefront of the blockchain space. In that time, we’ve leveraged our sophisticated understanding of both the technology and the surrounding legal context to help numerous clients navigate this complex area. We look forward to building on that reputation by continuing to advise businesses, institutions and other organizations on their blockchain strategies.

Kon is taking me to see one of the vaults where Xapo, the company he works for, stores its customers’ bitcoins. It’s no ordinary vault: I’ve been told it’s inside a decommissioned Swiss military bunker dug into a granite mountain. Its precise location is secret, and access is limited by security measures that would put a Bond villain to shame.
A bitcoin vault doesn’t store actual bitcoin units. Technically, what’s being stored are private, cryptographic keys. These keys form a pair with particular, public-facing, keys and provide access to the balance of coins stored on the bitcoin network. Gaining unauthorized access to someone’s private keys is akin to making off with a gold bar.

It sounds exciting but it's complicated. Read on to understand the what, the how and the why of blockchains.

As optimistic as Loyyal and myself, in particular, are about the future potential of ICOs, we remain concerned that current accounting approaches towards ICOs are creating a potentially disastrous bubble for companies issuing them. If we are to avoid this disaster at all, we as an industry need to immediately start a more robust dialog around the accounting principles involved and engage the rest of the financial services industry.

In a remarkably frank talk at a Bank of England conference, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund has speculated that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have as much of a future as the Internet itself. It could displace central banks, conventional banking, and challenge the monopoly of national monies.

Venture capitalists are in a pickle. Companies have raised more than $1.7 billion through initial coin offerings, or ICOs, this year by selling their own customized virtual currencies. For the companies, the trend is a godsend. They can raise the money and use it to fuel new projects without having to give away a piece of their company to venture capitalists. Meanwhile, both accredited and non-accredited investors are buying the tokens on the assumption that once these these projects are completed, their tokens will balloon in value.

Bitcoin-like money may emerge in countries where cash is in decline or financial networks need updating.

Cette technologie très puissante est importante à comprendre parce qu’elle pourrait s’immiscer dans bien des domaines de notre quotidien à l’avenir. Et si les commoners s’y intéressaient dès le départ au lieu de laisser les banques et les assurances produire des enclosures à grand échelle? Et s’il y avait des usages de blockchain en commun à construire sans perdre de temps? Pour bien comprendre, il faut tout d’abord se familiariser avec l’une des applications les plus connues et l’une des premières de Blockchain : Bitcoin. Bitcoin est une application de Blockchain à la monnaie mais le principe d’un historique décentralisé de transaction peut s’appliquer à bien d’autres domaines. En gros il permet d’authentifier des échanges de manière fiable et décentralisée.