Tag Archives: distributed ledger

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Federal Reserve Blockchain Paper: read here

The US Federal Reserve Blockchain Paper is a new research about distributed ledger technology published by the American institution.

This new paper is about blockchain applications for payments and transaction settlement.

It was written by a research group composed by the Federal Reserve Board and botht the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Chicago.

Although another research was published in the past by members of the Federal Reserve system,  this new document is the first major publication from the Federal Reserve Board.

However, the research paper covers a wide range of topics, including both a top-down view of the concepts behind blockchain.

Also, the US Federal Reserve Blockchain Paper talks about the challenges and opportunities for financial companies or payment system operates looking for possible integrations.

“An important goal of this paper is to examine how this technology might be used in the area of payments, clearing, and settlement and to identify both the opportunities and challenges facing its practical implementation and possible long-term adoption.”

This publication comes just two months after the news that Fed governor Lael Brainard revealed the interest in the blockchain by the central bank.

According to the Federal Reserve press release, researchers interviewed almost 30 representatives from the public and private sector, explaining both how to establish companies and startups working with the distributed ledger in the fintech field.

The full US Federal Reserve Blockchain Paper can be found here:

Distributed ledger technology in payments, clearing, and settlement

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Amelia Tomasicchio

Smart Contracts through Rootstock, Ethereum and Bitcoin thanks to RSK Labs

smart contracts bitcoin ethereum blockchain
Some days ago Rootstock received $1m in seed funding for its own blockchain startup called RSK Labs who provides smart contracts through the bitcoin distributed ledger and compatible with the Ethereum platform.
The funding came from the bitcoin mining company Bitmain Technology and from the bitcoin companies Coinsilium and Digital Currency Group (DCG).
During a recent interview, Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, CEO at RSK Labs, commented they aim at building a blockchain platform for bitcoin miners and for developers.
Zaldivar said to CoinDesk:
“Our idea is to leverage everything that has been built by the community so far. Not only on the network effect of bitcoin, because the miners will have an additional revenue stream by merge-mining Rootstock, but by providing Ethereum developers a place to build their applications.”
Probably RSK Labs will launch its platform within the end of 2016. 


Smart contracts with the Blockchain

Even if the RSK Labs is very good news, the most important thing we can learn from this event is the interesting development of contracts managed through the blockchain. 
Smart contracts were originally proposed 20 years ago by the famous cryptographer Nick Szabo
A decentralized blockchain with smart contract applications can allow a global financial inclusion, new democratic political systems and the improve of the Internet of things. 
In fact, smart contracts are technology protocols that verify and ease the stipulation of a contract. 
This way smart contracts can provide a better security compared to a traditional contract and allow a significant reduction in transaction fees. Also, smart contracts can provide a service with less risks and without central counterparties. 
To know more about smart contracts and RSK, read this article.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio