Ava Labs Partners With Amazon Web Services to Accelerate Blockchain Adoption, AVAX Jumps 16%

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Blockchain tech driving institutional-grade solutions: Blockchain Expo Europe

September 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Amsterdam

Blockchain Expo Europe 2022 in Amsterdam highlights meaningful strides in enterprise-grade blockchain solutions driven by mainstream institutions.

Blockchain is no longer a buzzword being thrown around by mainstream institutions as meaningful and fully-working pilots and programs come to the fore at Blockchain Expo Europe 2022 in Amsterdam.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of mainstream companies from various industries started to explore ways blockchain technology could be used to improve processes and products.

After two years of social distancing and working from home, the time to harvest the fruits of sewn seeds has arrived, as evidenced by some intriguing updates from major corporations utilizing blockchain technology.

The world of business consulting, healthcare and pharmaceuticals and the energy sector are all delivering working, blockchain-powered solutions that have seemingly proved the broad spectrum of utility promised by the burgeoning technology.

Cointelegraph was on the ground for the event and managed to touch base with a number of speakers who showcased how their firms were using the technology to drive innovation.

EY, the global business consulting firm, has been working hard to build enterprise-grade blockchain capabilities over the past three years. Federico De Poli, who heads up the global development of the EY OpsChain functionality, outlined how the firm had spent over $100 million over the past three years building a fulling working product solution.

Federico de Poli at Blockchain Expo Amsterdam.

Driving enterprise adoption has been key, helping clients navigate a new environment, building privacy tools focused on safety and helping companies run business processes on the Ethereum blockchain.

As De Poli explained, the company’s proprietary EY Opschain and EY Blockchain Analyzer are two main tools using blockchain technology.

“Opschain products is our business suite of products. We have traceability which is our most used tool which is being used in production by several clients in different industries. We have a contract manager which is being used in a first trial - it's a tool which helps us do digital contracting between parties."

EY’s public finance manager also allows governments to track the expenditure of funds, proving the widespread useability of blockchain solutions.

Healthcare and pharmaceutical firms also attended the RAI Amsterdam Convention center. Alex Popa, associate director of Blockchain for Pharma Supply Excellence, MSD (Merck), outlined a pilot that was aimed at addressing problems with multi-faceted healthcare networks.

Plagued by expensive, inefficient and vulnerable systems, blockchain technology provides practical solutions to these problems. MSD has operated a pilot to combat a vexing industry issue, counterfeit drugs, using Hyperledger Fabric which allowed patients in Hong Kong to verify medicines’ authenticity from their source.

Jessica Lee, head of Blockchain for Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Commercial North America, also showcased a piloted use case for a value-based health care system to share data privately, securely and transparently using blockchain technology.

Sabine Brink, blockchain lead at Shell, gave a compelling presentation focused on digital innovation in the energy sector. A key takeaway was the growing use of blockchain technology to drive transparency in energy.

Sabine Brink at Blockchain Expo Amsterdam.

The firm is engaged in several blockchain-powered projects deployed on public blockchains to address a long-standing propensity for the energy sector to work in silos. A key highlight was Shell’s work supporting Avelia, a sustainable, blockchain-powered aviation fuel tracing aimed at decarbonizing air travel.

Outlining that 90 percent of airline emissions are attributable to business travel, Avelia acts as sustainability as a service product for corporate flyers and airlines to book and claim sustainable aviation fuel.

"Energy is becoming distributed and decentralized, and it's hard to imagine it's being orchestrated in a centralized way. There is no other way to get it done on a global scale, and blockchain has a huge role."

Conversations with conference delegates and speakers highlighted the apparent strides made in developing working blockchain solutions across industries. The technology has driven innovation across industries, and mainstream companies are doing their part to drive new use cases and solutions for blockchain-based systems.

ETH Merge will change the way enterprises view Ethereum for business

September 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Allianz

Industry experts explain how the Ethereum Merge will impact enterprise adoption for business use cases.

A recent report from the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) highlights how the Ethereum ecosystem has matured to a point where the network can be used by businesses to solve real-world problems. From supply chain management use cases to payment solutions utilized by companies like Visa and PayPal, the report demonstrates how the Ethereum network has grown to become one of the most valued public blockchains.

Although notable, the EEA report also points out that the rapid growth of the Ethereum ecosystem has created a number of challenges for companies, specifically regarding energy consumption, scalability and privacy. For example, the document states that “sustainability was cited as one of the main concerns, along with transaction fees, in relation to using the Ethereum Mainnet.” The report further explains that the transparency associated with a public blockchain like Ethereum has been a hurdle for enterprises seeking data security and trust.

As such, upgrades such as sharding and layer-2 (L2) scalability solutions remain critical for businesses using the Ethereum network. Yet, the complex nature behind such implementations continues to be difficult for companies to navigate. For instance, the EEA report states that “Many layer 2 solutions and sidechains are relatively new projects, with relatively new technology. They do not necessarily have the track record or proven security and stability of the Mainnet.”

The Merge will change how enterprises view Ethereum

However, industry experts predict that the Ethereum Merge, which is scheduled to take place on Sept. 14, will likely improve enterprise adoption. Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at EY, told Cointelegraph that while the Merge will not affect most enterprise use cases that are presently in use, it will change how businesses perceive Ethereum. He said:

“For years, competing layer-1 networks have talked about how Ethereum can’t get the Merge done. The incredible organizational maturity of Ethereum has been working nicely in the background to do it in a careful and professional manner. As an enterprise, that’s the kind of institutional maturity I want to see.”

Although the Merge has been in development for several years, Brody explained that upgrades on mission-critical infrastructure should never be rushed. As such, he believes that this will remain a key point for businesses using the Ethereum network. “I think future efforts to dismiss Ethereum won’t get much airtime in the post-Merge era,” he said.

While it’s too early to detect how enterprises will react to the Merge, Robert Crozier, chief architect and head of global blockchain at Allianz Technology, told Cointelegraph that his firm will monitor the progress of the Ethereum Merge to see how it stabilizes certain use cases.

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This is noteworthy, as Crozier shared that Allianz has only considered Ether (ETH) and Ethereum-based use cases for experimentation purposes on a small scale. The insurance giant currently uses Hyperledger Fabric and the decentralized ledger platform Corda to streamline cross-border auto insurance claims throughout Europe. Crozier added:

“At Allianz, our International Motor Claims Settlement product utilizes Hyperledger Fabric at its core. We would need to understand and be confident that other protocols like Ethereum would deliver the similar benefits in terms of ease of use, scalability and finality.”

With benefits in mind, Brody explained that the Merge will eventually result in better scalability and privacy for enterprises. “I think we’re heading into a new era of enterprise applications. With both scalability and privacy maturing, it will be possible to address enterprise process needs quite comprehensively in the future,” he said.

Shedding light on this, Ivan Brakrac, senior decentralized finance market strategist at ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that although the Merge does not directly increase scalability, a number of planned upgrades to Ethereum will address scalability over the next few years.

For example, Brakrac explained that transitioning the Ethereum network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) was the first step to enable “shard chains.” As Cointelegraph previously reported, sharding is the act of dividing up a database, or in this case, the blockchain, into various smaller chains known as shards.

“This will reduce network congestion and increase transaction throughput,” Brakrac remarked. This is key for adoption, as Brody shared that EY’s enterprise clients looking at supply chain applications are going to need support for 2–20 million transactions per day. “Pre-Merge Ethereum could not have accommodated this,” he said.

Regarding privacy, a report entitled “The Merge for institutions,” published by ConsenSys on Sept. 5 mentions that L2 solutions also address privacy concerns for enterprises. An increase in L2s will unlock greater privacy mechanisms for business use cases.

For example, Brody explained that EY developed a zero-knowledge proof L2 scaling solution known as Nightfall to handle Ethereum gas constraints and keep fees low. According to Brody, multiple powerful L2 networks will enable different options for enterprises that may require more gas and bigger transactions. He elaborated:

“Privacy starts to unlock a much bigger set of use cases for enterprise users. For example, instead of minting one token that represents a batch of product and gives origin information, I can mint one token for each piece of inventory, and then I can manage specific supply chain inventory levels across a multi-company network on Ethereum.”

In addition to scalability and privacy, sustainability concerns will be addressed once the Merge is implemented. According to Brakrac, Ethereum currently uses an inordinate amount of electricity, noting that the Merge will reduce energy usage by 99%. “This will make Ethereum very sustainable in the long run. By design, this further secures the network and resolves an environmental concern which is net positive from the institutional adoption standpoint,” he said.

Indeed, industry experts believe that sustainability efforts addressed by the Merge will be critical for enterprise adoption. Dan Burnett, executive director of the EEA, told Cointelegraph that while L2s and sidechains have served as bandages on sustainability concerns, large organizations with environmental, social and governance goals tended to shy away from building solutions on Ethereum because of its reputation for being environmentally unsustainable. Yet, he noted that with these concerns being addressed, the Merge may enable the Ethereum business ecosystem to leap ahead.

Yorke Rhodes III, co-founder of blockchain at Microsoft and board member and treasurer of the EEA, further told Cointelegraph that the Merge will put to rest one of the main concerns for enterprises that have a big focus on environmental impact, such as Microsoft.

“This removes one of the key arguments enterprises raise when evaluating whether to build solutions on Ethereum mainnet,” he said. To Rhodes’ point, Crozier mentioned that moving to a more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake mechanism will mean that some enterprises, like Allianz, will take a second look at Ethereum.

Benefits not immediate

All things considered, the Merge will likely increase enterprise interest in Ethereum due to the advancement of the network. Moreover, Rhodes believes that removing the key critique of sustainability will encourage additional movement to the Ethereum Mainnet, even if this is just as a base layer for security. “As a key step in realizing the vision of Ethereum, the ETH merge sets things up for a closer enterprise review sooner rather than later,” he said.

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However, it’s important to point out that the benefits promised by the Merge won’t be seen immediately. According to Brody, it will take at least 12–24 months until privacy-enabled use cases are established following the Merge. He said:

“I hope to see pilots by the end of this year, but feedback loops and infrastructure maturity takes time. Unlike consumer applications, there’s little patience among enterprise buyers for products that don’t work on the first go-round and little willingness to experiment. Enterprise buyers are generally quite conservative, and so the cycle will take longer than consumer users.”

Ethereum advances with standards for smart contract security audits

August 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance has published a smart contract security audit specification to ensure consistency when it comes to smart contract security.

The Ethereum ecosystem continues to witness a flurry of activity that has individuals and organizations deploying token contracts, adding liquidity to pools and deploying smart contracts to support a wide range of business models. While notable, this growth has also been riddled with security exploits, leaving decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols vulnerable to hacks and scams.

For instance, recent findings from crypto intelligence firm Chainalysis show that crypto-related hacks have increased by 58.3% from the beginning of the year through July 2022. The report further notes that $1.9 billion has been lost to hacks during this timeframe — a figure that doesn’t include the $190 million Nomad bridge hack that occurred on August 1, 2022.

Although open source code may be beneficial for the blockchain industry, it can unfortunately easily be studied by cybercriminals looking for exploits. Security audits for smart contracts aim to solve these challenges, yet this procedure lacks industry standards, thus creating complexity.

An industry standard to ensure smart contract security

Chris Cordi, chair of the EthTrust Security Levels Working Group at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), told Cointelegraph that as the Ethereum blockchain industry grows, so does the need for a mature framework to assess the security of smart contracts.

In order to address this, Cordi, along with several EEA member representatives with auditing and security expertise, helped establish the EthTrust Security Levels Working Group in November 2020. The organization has since been working on a draft document of a smart contract specification, or industry standard, aimed at improving the security behind smart contacts.

Most recently, the working group announced the publication of the EthTrust Security Levels Specification v1. Chaals Nevile, technical program director of the EEA, told Cointelegraph that this specification describes smart contract vulnerabilities that a proper security audit requires as a minimum measure of quality:

“It is relevant to all EVM-based smart-contract platforms where developers use Solidity as a coding language. In a recent analysis by Splunk, this is well over 3/4 of mainnet contracts. But, there are also private networks and projects that are based on the Ethereum technology stack but running one their own chain. This specification is as useful to them as it is for mainnet users in helping to secure their work.”

From a technical perspective, Nevile explained that the new specification outlines three levels of tests that organizations should consider when conducting smart contract security audits.

“Level [S] is designed so that for most cases, where common features of Solidity are used following well-known patterns, tested code can be certified by an automated ‘static analysis’ tool,” he said.

He added that the Level [M] test mandates a stricter static analysis, noting that this includes requirements where a human auditor is expected to determine whether the use of a feature is necessary or whether a claim about the security properties of code is justified.

Nevile further explained that the Level [Q] test provides an analysis of the business logic the tested code implements. “This is to ensure that the code does not exhibit known security vulnerabilities, while also making sure it correctly implements what it claims,” he said. There is also an optional “recommended good practices” test that can help enhance the security behind smart contracts. Nevile said:

“Using the latest compiler is one of the ‘recommended good practices.’ It's a pretty straightforward one in most cases, but there are a lot of reasons why a contract might not have been deployed with the latest version. Other good practices include reporting new vulnerabilities so they can be addressed in an update to the spec and writing clean easy-to-read code.”

Overall, there are 107 requirements within the entire specification. According to Nevile, about 50 of these are Level [S] requirements that arise from bugs in solidity compilers.

Will an industry standard help organizations and developers?

Nevile pointed out that the EthTrust Security Levels Specification ultimately aims to help auditors demonstrate to customers that they are operating at an industry-appropriate level. “Auditors can point to this industry standard to establish basic credibility,” he said.

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Shedding light on this, Ronghui Gu, CEO and co-founder of blockchain security firm CertiK, told Cointelegraph that having standards like these help ensure expected processes and guidelines. However, he noted that such standards are not by any means a “rubber stamp” to indicate that a smart contract is entirely secure:

“It’s important to understand that not all smart contract auditors are equal. Smart contract auditing starts with understanding and experience of the specific ecosystem that a smart contract is being audited for, and the technology stack and code language being used. Not all code or chains are equal. Experience is important here for coverage and findings.”

Given this, Gu believes that companies wanting to have their smart contracts audited should look beyond the certification an auditor claims to have and take into account the quality, scale and reputation of the auditor. Because these standards are guidelines, Gu remarked that he thinks this specification is a good starting point.

From a developer’s perspective, these specifications may prove to be extremely beneficial. Mark Beylin, co-founder of Myco — an emerging blockchain-based social network — told Cointelegraph that these standards will be incredibly valuable to help smart contract developers better understand what to expect from a security audit. He said:

“Currently, there are many scattered resources for smart contract security, but there isn’t a specific rulebook that auditors will follow when assessing a project’s security. Using this specification, both security auditors and their clients can be on the same page for what kind of security requirements will be checked.”

Michael Lewellen, a developer and contributor to the specification, further told Cointelegraph that these specifications help by providing a checklist of known security issues to check against. “Many Solidity developers have not received recent formal education or training in the security aspects of Solidity development, but security is still expected. Having specs like this makes it easier to figure out how to write code more securely,” he said.

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Lewellen also noted that most of the specification requirements are written in a straightforward manner, making it easy for developers to understand. However, he commented that it’s not always clear why a requirement is included. “Some have links to external documentation of a vulnerability, but some do not. It would be easier for developers to understand if they had clearer examples of what compliant and noncompliant code might look like.”

The evolution of smart contract security standards

All things considered, the security level’s specification is helping to advance the Ethereum ecosystem by establishing guidelines for smart contract audits. Yet, Nevile noted that the most challenging aspect moving forward is anticipating how an exploit could occur. He said:

“This specification doesn’t solve those challenges completely. What the spec does do, though, is identify certain steps, like documenting the architecture and the business logic behind contracts, that are important to enabling a thorough security audit.”

Gu also thinks that different chains will start to develop similar standards as Web3 advances. For instance, some developers within the Ethereum industry are coming up with their own smart contract requirements to help others. For example, Samuel Cardillo, chief technology officer at RTFKT, recently tweeted that he has created a system for developers to publicly rate smart contracts based on good and bad elements in terms of development:

Few days ago I started a little Google Sheet to rate publicly smart contracts in order to raise awareness and help both collectors and developers - it wil also contain do and don't for when developing a contract.
https://t.co/2ixBpkNeoc
— SamuelCardillo.eth - RTFKT (@CardilloSamuel) August 15, 2021

Although all of this is a step in the right direction, Gu pointed out that standards take time to be widely adopted. Moreover, Nevile explained that security is never static. As such, he explained that it’s possible for individuals to send questions to the working group who wrote the specification. “We will take that feedback, as well as look at what the discussions are in the broader public space because we expect to update the specification,” Nevile said. He added that a new version of the specification will be produced within six to eighteen months.

Three-quarters of institutions to use crypto in the three years: Ripple

August 12, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Ripple’s new Value Report on enterprise crypto and blockchain highlights NFT, blockchain and CBDC utility in business settings.

A whopping 76% of surveyed financial institutions plan on using crypto within the next three years, according to the report. Ripple’s new report highlights trends in the adoption and utilization of emerging technologies like crypto and blockchain in enterprise and financial institutions.

Both financial institutions and enterprises are understanding the benefits of internal crypto usage. The most common reason is that crypto gives more people access to more financial services, says 42% of financial institutions and 41% of enterprises.

According to the survey, portfolio management and payments come forward as the most valuable additions to the enterprise world. Portfolio management is detailed as hedging against inflation, hedging against other asset types and asset appreciation. Participants said data security and quality are two major benefits of blockchain and crypto usage for payments.

Nonetheless, as this is an emerging technology, adoption is still an uphill battle for large institutions. According to the report, enterprises and financial institutions both find that a general lack of understanding is one of the biggest challenges.

However, the report also stressed that the slow-moving process of regulations surrounding the industry stirs up hesitation from potential users. Regulations from countries across the globe have been in constant flux as officials rush to keep up with the fast-paced crypto scene.

Recently, regulators in the United States came under scrutiny from the U.S. Congress for their “non-judicial actions” against crypto companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is in the throes of implementing effective crypto regulations for one of the industry’s most active regions.

Despite setbacks in crypto-ed and murky regulations, the report still reveals the active interest of global institutions and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). 34% of surveyed institutions say CBDCs will help with the “acceleration of digitization of finance” and give “greater access to credit for consumers and businesses.”

From a global perspective, the report analyzed regional nonfungible token (NFT) interest based on emotional vs. functional benefits. Respondents in the Asia-Pacific region were three times more likely to purchase an NFT for sentimental or emotional reasons compared to other reasons. Of the eight NFT genres listed, 55% said music-related NFTs are of the most interest.

Sustainability was also assessed, as it remains a hot topic both in and outside of the industry. According to Ripple’s data, over 75% of surveyed consumers prefer to buy sustainable cryptocurrencies. More than 20% claim they would only purchase “sustainable” crypto.

Blockchain and NFTs are changing the publishing industry

August 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Artists

Traditional publishers are using NFTs to build communities and engage with audiences.

Web3 has become the most sought-after investment sector of 2022, as use cases for nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the Metaverse and other blockchain applications come to fruition. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that different segments of the publishing industry have begun to use Web3 technologies to transform traditional models.

For example, the textbook publishing giant Pearson recently announced plans to use NFTs to track digital textbook sales to capture revenue lost on the secondary market. Time magazine, which was founded 99 years ago, has also been using NFTs to create new revenue streams, along with a sense of community within the publishing industry. Keith Grossman, the president of Time, told Cointelegraph that the magazine is demonstrating the new possibilities of engagement that Web3 brings to the publishing industry. He said:

“Web3 can evolve one's brand in a world where individuals are moving from online renters to online owners, and privacy is beginning to move from platforms to the individual.”

Web3 enables a community of content owners

While it may seem non-traditional for one of the oldest, most renowned magazine publishers in the industry to host an NFT gallery, Grossman explained that Time has dropped nearly 30,000 NFTs to date. He added that these have been collected by over 15,000 wallet addresses, 7,000 of which are connected to Time.com to remove the paywall without having to provide personal information. “Along the way, the TIMEPiece community has grown to over 50,000 individuals,” Grossman pointed out.

To put this in perspective, Grossman explained that in September 2021, Time launched a Web3 community initiative known as TIMEPieces. This project is a digital gallery space hosted on the NFT marketplace OpenSea, which has brought together 89 artists, photographers and even musicians. “The number of TIMEPiece artists has grown from 38 to 89. It includes the likes of Drift, Cath Simard, Diana Sinclair, Micah Johnson, Justin Aversano, Fvckrender, Victor Mosquera and Baeige, to name a few,” Grossman said.

*Isaac "Drift" Wright's piece from the Slices of Time Collection. Source: Keith Grossman*

While notable, the more important aspect of this growth lies within the distinction of “audiences” vs. “communities.” According to Grossman, very few people in the publishing sector distinguish between these two groups, yet he noted that Web3 provides a “tremendous opportunity for those willing to explore this oversight.” For instance, Grossman explained that an audience simply engages with content for a moment. However, he pointed out that a community aligns around shared values and is provided with the opportunity for constant engagement. He said:

“Healthy ‘communities’ have moats making them harder to disrupt or circumvent. However, they take a lot of work to develop and nurture. The long term benefit of a community is stability — and publishing is anything but stable.”

Indeed, NFTs may be key for providing the publishing world with the stability and audience interaction it requires to advance. As Cointelegraph previously reported, brands are using NFTs in a number of ways to better engage with customers over time.

Other sectors of the publishing industry are starting to employ NFTs for this very reason. For example, Royal Joh Enschede, a 300-year-old Dutch printing company, is entering the Web3 space by providing its clients with an NFT platform for “crypto stamps.” Gelmer Leibbrandt, CEO of Royal Joh Enschede, told Cointelegraph that the postage stamp and philately world is very traditional, noting that nonfungible tokens will allow for expansion. He said:

“The crypto stamp opens up a global market that will appeal not only to the classic stamp collectors but also to collectors in their teens, twenties and thirties who buy, save and trade NFTs. This is naturally very appealing for our main customers — over 60 national postal organizations worldwide.”

*The crypto postage stamps are launched as NFT collectibles, but they can naturally also be used to mail documents. Source: Royal Joh Enschede*

According to Leibbrandt, Royal Joh Enschede started thinking about ways to use blockchain technology over two years ago, yet the Dutch printing firm decided to start with crypto stamps due to the utility and market fit. Leibbrandt explained that not only will stamp collectors be able to own a unique NFT, but the nonfungible tokens will also serve as “digital twins” intended to provide an extra layer of security and authentication to its physical products.

Leibbrandt also pointed out that linking physical objects with their digital counterparts offers customers additional features. While he noted that crypto stamps are just the beginning of Royal Joh Enschede’s Web3 journey, he explained that the company has started developing “notables,” which are meant to rival secure printed banknotes. He explained:

“Through the use of special printing techniques, we can add, among other things, augmented reality, which in turn provides access to special online promotions and a communication platform. Notables are unique and the NFT element can be used as a collector’s item, along with a means of payment in the Metaverse.”

Like Time, crypto stamps and notables are enabling Royal Joh Enschede to build a community of collectors capable of engaging with the platform and each other. “All kinds of new applications can be linked to these, such as access to real-life events like Formula 1 or Tomorrowland, where only a few notes give entitlement to VIP packages. We are building our business for the next 100 years,” Leibbrandt added.

Furthermore, independent news organizations are starting to apply Web3 technologies to solve one of the biggest challenges facing the media industry today — “fake news.” For example, Bywire is a decentralized news platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and blockchain to identify false or misleading news content. Michael O’Sullivan, CEO of Bywire, told Cointelegraph that the platform has built and deployed a “trust or not” algorithm. “This can provide readers with an ‘at-a-glance’ reassurance that the content served on the Bywire platform is trustworthy, and those who produce it are indeed accountable,” he said.

O’Sullivan explained that Bywire’s AI technology is capable of “reading” an article in a matter of seconds before it goes live to determine the trustworthiness of the content. Once this has been established, the algorithm generates a recommendation, along with the reasoning behind its determination. “The why is vital because it helps consumers become conscious of the motives and intentions of content producers,” O’Sullivan remarked.

While innovative, O’Sullivan pointed out that any independent news organization can aggregate their news content to Bywire, exposing it to tens of thousands of readers per month. Like other publishers using Web3 technology, O’Sullivan noted that Bywire has a community of readers associated with the platform, noting that these individuals are incentivized to read the content. “Every reader gets a free EOS account and can start earning token rewards immediately, which can be later used in the democratic oversight of the network.”

Will Web3 advance the publishing industry?

Although Web3 has the potential to transform the publishing industry by allowing various sectors to reach and interact with new audiences, the impact remains questionable. For instance, it’s been noted that there is still a lack of clarity among publishers regarding how blockchain can and should be used.

Lars Seier Christensen, chairman of Concordium — the Swiss blockchain firm powering Royal Joh Enschede's NFT platform — told Cointelegraph that nonfungible tokens currently mean nothing to most organizations. However, he believes that NFTs and other Web3 technologies will soon become the norm:

“Let’s take one step back from the acronym NFT because it can be confusing. What has been proven is that a blockchain can store immutable data — i.e., the records are final and unbreakable, and this data is fully transparent to everyone by simple access to the chain search engine.”

Regarding consumers, Grossman also mentioned that individuals should not be using the word “NFT,” adding that they certainly do not need to know what blockchain platform is powering these applications. “They should be engaging with brands based on the experiences being provided,” he said. Grossman further remarked that the rise of computers sparked constant discussion around technology until Steve Jobs explained that the iPod could hold “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Grossman believes that a moment similar to this will happen for Web3 but has yet to come:

“Most people’s perceptions of NFTs and blockchains are defined by the extremes — extreme good and extreme bad. The reality is that an NFT is just a token that verifies ownership on a blockchain, and education is needed to provide companies and individuals with the many ways in which it can be used to provide value.”

Layer-1 blockchains: How crypto winter could slow the challenge to Ethereum

July 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Algorand

A Chainalysis report analyzes the layer-1 blockchain ecosystem, questioning if alternative L1s will continue to challenge Ethereum this crypto winter.

Given Ethereum’s dominance coupled with the current crypto bear market, it remains questionable if L1s will flourish. This was recently highlighted in a Chainalsys blog post entitled “New layer 1 blockchains are expanding the DeFi ecosystem, but no ETH killers yet.” Ethan McMahon, an economist at Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph that Chainalysis published this report to raise awareness for the current L1 ecosystem:

While Ethereum allowed decentralized finance (DeFi) to flourish in 2020, a number of layer-1 blockchains (L1s) have since been developed to address the challenges associated with the network. For instance, as Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism and high gas fees continue to impact transaction speed and scalability within its ecosystem, L1s like Algorand, BNB Chain, Avalanche and others aim to solve these problems.

“Chain comparison is important because it seems as if most crypto services are only offered on Ethereum, but this isn’t true. There are a few different blockchains with competitive offerings that have advantages Ethereum doesn’t provide.”

In order to demonstrate this, McMahon explained that Chainalysis gathered data from different blockchains to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the networks. For example, the post points out that with gas fees running high on Ethereum, many developers have chosen to build decentralized applications (DApps) on Algorand. Binance Smart Chain, or BNB Chain, is also recognized for its capability to support new tokens and DApps without the high gas fees of Ethereum. “It’s interesting to see that people are paying exuberant gas fees on Ethereum’s network. Our findings show that transactions less than $1,000 result in a significant amount of money spent on gas fees,” McMahon said.

Based on Chainalysis’s overall findings, however, the post concludes that none of the L1-blockchains analyzed have been successful in solving all challenges associated with the Ethereum network. This also raises the question if L1s will survive long-term. For instance, the current crypto winter may slow down investments in these ecosystems. In addition, the merge of Ethereum 2.0 — which is set to take place this year but may be pushed to 2023 — could lead to improvements in the Ethereum ecosystem that may impact alternative L1 uses.

L1 developments to drive adoption

In order to determine how L1s will advance, it’s important to take a closer look at recent developments within the various ecosystems mentioned by Chainalysis. For example, the report categorizes Algorand as a top-10 L1 blockchain by market capitalization, stating:

“During Q3 2021, Algorand saw its transaction volume grow 65%, while Bitcoin and Ethereum saw volumes drop 37% and 45% respectively. This may have reflected Algorand’s growing hype — having launched in April 2019, Algorand was a relatively new blockchain, and reached an all-time price high in September 2021.”

Findings also show that 10% of Algorand’s transaction volume comes from retail investors, compared with 5% for Bitcoin (BTC) and 8% for Ether (ETH). Given this, the report notes that this could signify Algorand’s success in enabling a high volume of smaller transactions.

Staci Warden, CEO of the Algorand Foundation — the organization behind Algorand’s monetary supply economics, governance and ecosystem — told Cointelegraph that Algorand uses a Pure proof-of-stake (PPoS) consensus mechanism, allowing the network to specifically solve problems that require scale. “The most fundamental difference between Algorand and other L1s is the network’s ability to deliver financial inclusion to the two billion people in the world that don’t have access to modern financial systems,” she said.

Warden elaborated that Algorand’s PPoS consensus mechanism enables this due to its low staking requirements. According to the Chainalysis post, only 1 Algorand (ALGO) token is needed to stake on the network. Warden also pointed out that Algorand is very focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) development, noting that the network is capable of settling about 1,200 transactions per second, with gas fees equating to .001 ALGO.

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“These requirements are necessary for networks to scale,” said Warden. In comparison, the Chainalysis report mentions that Ethereum can only handle roughly 15 transactions per second. Yet, it’s been noted that Eth2 aims to increase this considerably to about 150,000 once upgrades are completed.

In order to stay competitive, Warden shared that Algorand is in the process of rolling out a new feature that would allow the network to settle transactions in 2.5 seconds, compared with the 4.5 seconds it currently takes. Moreover, as multichain networks become more important, Algorand plans to deliver “state proofs” that will allow users to move tokens from one chain to another.

“Algorand could end up being a router for all transactions across chains, since it can handle fast transactions, with little carbon footprint for sub-penny fees,” explained Warden. While state proofs and other developments won’t be rolled out immediately, it’s notable that FIFA recently announced that it will use Algorand to develop its digital asset strategy. “FIFA is building their own wallet on Algorand and creating an NFT marketplace that can accomodate secondary ticket sales,” added Warden.

BNB Chain is also mentioned in the Chainalysis report and is praised for its capability to support new tokens and DApps without high gas fees. In fact, DappRadar found there to be more L2 projects built on BNB Chain than any other blockchain. Gwendolyn Regina, investment director of BNB Chain, told Cointelegraph that the goal behind the network is to help builders create DApps that scale for massive crypto adoption. She said:

“This year, BNB Smart Chain will have 30 times the computing power of Ethereum and will also work on decentralized storage solutions. As a result, blockchain technology will be increasingly integrated into real-world applications.”

According to Regina, the key focus areas for BNB Chain’s 2022 roadmap include decentralization, faster transaction speed, multichain integration and an increased focus on supporting developers and sustainability. Specifically speaking, Regina shared that the BNB Chain community recently released plans for further decentralization via the BEP-131 proposal, which will introduce candidate validators to BNB Smart Chain.

“This proposal would increase the number of BNB Smart Chain Mainnet validators from 21 to 41, providing more decentralization and incentives for validators to constantly innovate their hardware and infrastructure,” she said. While this may create more decentralization, there has been criticism regarding whether or not DeFi is decentralized following Solend’s spontaneous governance proposal related to one of the whale wallets at risk of liquidation.

Decentralization aside, it’s notable that BNB Beacon Chain — a blockchain developed by Binance and its community that implements a decentralized exchange for digital assets — recently became open-sourced. “BNB Beacon Chain is now accessible for developers to build on,” said Regina. She further explained that the benefits of the BNB Beacon Chain are broad, noting its high-speed order book based decentralized exchange to ensure quick transactions. “Harnessing native secure cross-chain support will open doors for blockchain interoperability, meaning users can seamlessly navigate the chains they use,” she remarked.

In addition to Algorand and BNB Chain, Avalanche was mentioned in Chainalysis’s findings. According to the report, Avalanche specializes in customizability, scalability and interoperability. John Wu, president of Ava Labs — the lead developer of the Avalanche blockchain — told Cointelegraph that the network specifically aims to solve a number of problems within Web3 ecosystems. He said:

“Avalanche has the fastest time to finality in the industry at about 500 milliseconds to 2 seconds. This means that all cross-chain and subnet transactions are immortalized in a blink. Financial institutions building DeFi products and Web3 gaming studios developing AAA shooters and RPGs need near-instant finality. It is a precondition to success. Without it, their apps cannot work.”

To Wu’s point, finality is extremely important as more institutions enter the DeFi sector. In fact, Avalanche’s quick finality time could be much greater in comparison with Eth2 finality time, which some believe may never reach under 15 minutes. Ethereum currently processes 15–30 transactions per second with over one-minute finality.

Wu added that regardless of market conditions, the Avalanche community will continue to build. For example, Wu shared that subnets — a set of validators working together to achieve consensus on the state of a set of blockchains — will open new doors for DeFi. For example, he mentioned that a subnet’s ability to incorporate Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and circumvent the bottlenecking that might occur on a chain shared with third-party applications appeals to institutions. “The first Subnet engineered specifically for institutional DeFi is in production right now,” he said.

Survival of the fittest?

Although L1 blockchains are advancing, the Chainalysis report still notes the possibility of Ethereum becoming the “dominant player” due to market conditions and expected upgrades to the network. For instance, Raul Jordan, one of the core devs working on the Eth2 merge, told Cointelegraph that soon anyone in the world will be able to run an ETH node, which demonstrates the true power of decentralization.

It’s critical that we give power to people all over the world, especially in developing countries, to run full nodes on consumer software. Full nodes preserve the security of the protocol by enforcing its rules #ethereum https://t.co/UVucpOQnzM
— rauljordan.eth (@rauljordaneth) April 21, 2022

Alex Tapscott, author and co-founder of the Toronto-based Blockchain Research Institute, further told Cointelegraph that there are two reasons to question the longevity of L1s:

“First, bear markets generally see a drop in interest for crypto-native applications, so if gas fees drop on their own on Ethereum, why use a newer or less proven chain when you can use Ethereum? Second, the merge to proof-of-stake will improve Ethereum’s performance, so even if demand returns, it may be able to handle new growth.”

However, Tapscott added that he believes any decreasing interest in L1s will be short-lived. “Long term, there will be surging demand for block space, with some developers and users willing to trade off between security (Ethereum) for speed and convenience. Also, I think many alternative L1s for all their potential are still pretty early stage tech, and as they mature they will become more reliable, useful and broadly adopted.”

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Tapscott further pointed out that “L1s were initially successful not because they attracted investor capital, but because they drove user adoption and interest.” And, if history has taught the crypto space anything, it would be that bear markets are a perfect time for projects to build. “A bear market would be a fantastic way to assess and support projects that actually make a difference in the blockchain ecosystem as long as innovative teams keep emerging to solve real-world problems using blockchain technology,” Regina pointed out.

On the other hand, a number of projects also tend to fail in bear markets. Warden commented that there will indeed be fallout for several L1 blockchains: “Crypto winter is a time when every component of the crypto ecosystem is going to be questioned and tire-kicked, and not just DApps, but all aspects of crypto infrastructure, including L1s.”

However, Warden added that projects that can scale and handle transactions will continue to accelerate, posing a challenge to Ethereum: “Businesses or projects that are building for long-term utility and real-world adoption will accelerate and garner attention during this period.”

Stratis (STRAX) gains 200%+ after Sky Dream Mall metaverse and stablecoin announcement

June 29, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

STRAX price bucked the market-wide bearish downtrend by rallying 200% after the team unveiled plans for a British pound stablecoin and a new metaverse.

Bear markets can be incredibly harsh for projects that have little adoption or lack an applicable use case, but projects that dedicate to building regardless of market sentiment tend to succeed in the next market cycle.

One project that has seen a noticeable boost in volume, despite the wider-market downtrend is Stratis (STRAX), a blockchain development platform designed to help enterprise businesses establish their own blockchain in a simplified manner.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.365 on June 15, the price of STRAX has rallied 220% to hit a daily high of $1.20 on June 29 amid a surging 24-hour trading volume.

*STRAX/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView*

Here are three reasons why the price of STRAX is rallying this week as the wider crypto market continues to struggle.

Metaverse launch entices volume

The Metaverse was one of the hottest topics during the bull market of 2021 and the concept continues to be a driving force behind mass adoption in the crypto space.

Prior to the recent STRAX price rally, the team behind the protocol teased the upcoming launch of Sky Dream Mall, a metaverse project that is powered by the Stratis blockchain.

Sky Dream Mall, a metaverse powered by Stratis Blockchain Coming soon! #metaverse #metaverseland #nftcommunity #nftartwork #vaperwave #stratis #Cryptocurency
.@StratisphereNFT .@stratisplatform .@Stratis_Faction pic.twitter.com/TpmhGDpKvz
— Polycarbon Games (@Polycarbongame) June 25, 2022

The protocol has been experiencing growth within its nonfungible token (NFT) and GameFi communities, thanks to projects like he Astroverse Club and Trivia Legends.

Stablecoins and NFTs

Along with the growth on the Metaverse front, Stratis could also be getting a boost from its plan to launch a Great British ound Token (GBPT) stablecoin.

The GBPT stablecoin is being developed in conjunction with Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), which is helping Stratis complete the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) registration process. PwC will also provide future auditing services when the GBPT stablecoin is eventually released.

The team is also working on a ticketing management system that will allow NFTs to be used to validate entry, and store benefits and perks for designated events and venues.

Outreach in Uganda

A third factor helping to bolster the price of STRAX is the ongoing development of a blockchain innovation center in Uganda, which aims to increase blockchain knowledge and awareness.

The project began after Stratis entered a long-term partnership with the Foundation of King Oyo, the current monarch of the Tooro Kingdom in Uganda.

The foundations have been laid for the Stratis blockchain innovation center in Uganda as part of the Stratis global expansion.#blockchain #dotnet #Stratis $STRAX pic.twitter.com/nIBl0IEsBk
— Stratisplatform (@stratisplatform) May 24, 2022

Construction of the center began on May 24 and the most recent update on the project was posted on June 27 showing that the foundation for the center is nearing completion.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Genomics company explores NFTs in hopes of advancing precision medicine

May 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

GeneNFTs may be a game-changer for genomic testing, but user education is still needed in order for this model to advance.

It’s predicted that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) will have a vast impact on society. Given this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the trillion-dollar healthcare sector has begun to explore NFTs tokens to advance medicine.

It’s also important to point out that blockchain technology can play an increasingly important role within the healthcare sector. This was recently highlighted in a report from the European Union Blockchain Observatory, which specifically documents how blockchain applications can solve challenges facing the healthcare industry.

For example, the paper notes that patient engagement and transparency of how data is stored, along with the effective distribution of knowledge and data remains problematic for the healthcare sector. Yet, as the blockchain space continues to advance, tokenization in the form of nonfungible tokens may serve as a solution to many of the challenges facing today’s healthcare industry.

GeneNFTs aim to revolutionize precision medicine

For those unfamiliar with the term, precision medicine refers to “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person,” according to the Precision Medicine Initiative.

Specifically speaking, Cao believes that tokenizing genetic profiles can help patients maintain data ownership and transparency into their insights while receiving many benefits that are not typically associated with traditional genomic testing. He explained:

For example, Genetica, a genomic company catering to the Asia Pacific region, recently partnered with Oasis Labs, a Web3 data management firm, to tokenize genomic profiles. Tuan Cao, Genetica’s CEO and co-founder, told Cointelegraph that the goal behind this partnership is to advance precision medicine by giving patients data ownership and rights through GeneNFTs.

“This may be one of the most important NFT applications in the world. Our genetic profile is unique and it should be represented by an NFT. GeneNFTs are the tokenized ownership of one’s genetic data. This enables each of us to truly take control and benefit from our data contribution.”

According to Cao, traditional genetic testing companies like 23andMe, for example, rely on intermediaries to collect patient data for research. As such, users must trust centralized entities to safely store sensitive health information. Moreover, users do not receive any incentives for opting to share their data with third parties. Yet, tokenizing genomic data in the form of an NFT has the potential to transform this model entirely.

For instance, Cao explained that Genetica’s partnership with Oasis Labs enables users to perform a traditional genetic test and receive a GeneNFT afterward that represents true ownership of their genetic profile. More importantly, Cao noted that GeneNFT holders become the gatekeepers of their data, meaning they must grant access to third-party entities that wish to use that information. He elaborated:

“A user holding a GeneNFT also holds the private key for that data. If a pharmaceutical company for instance wants to run a genetic study, they must send a proposal for access. A user can then sign the proposal to approve the access.”

Cao further explained that there are both financial and medical benefits associated with GeneNFTs. “Financial benefits involve revenue sharing, so users will get paid when third parties request to access their data. We are able to issue these payments automatically due to blockchain technology and smart contracts,” said Cao.

Cao believes that the medical benefits achieved from GeneNFTs outweigh the financial incentives. “When users participate in a genetic study, a smart contract is leveraged to ensure patients will receive treatment first if they contribute to a clinical trial. Precision medicine profiles for treatments of certain diseases based on genetic variants, which is how this model is ultimately advancing precision medicine,” he said.

Dawn Song, founder of Oasis Labs, told Cointelegraph that GeneNFTs can be viewed as data-backed nonfungible tokens. “Typically people think of NFTs as JPEG images, but data-backed NFTs combine blockchain with privacy computing to utilize certain pieces of data while still complying with data usage policies like the EU’s data protection regulations, or GDPR,” she said. Technically speaking, Song explained that Genetica will use Oasis Network’s Parcel, a privacy-preserving data governance application programming interface (API), to tokenize genomic profiles. She elaborated:

“Given that genomes are the quintessential identity of individuals, it is critical that any platform that stores and processes genomic data provides confidentiality to the data at rest, in motion and, more importantly, in use. Parcel provides these capabilities via the use of encryption of data at rest and in motion and trusted execution environments to maintain data confidentiality in use.”

Given the size of genomic data and the complexity of the computations that run on them, Song further explained that Parcel’s use of off-chain storage and off-chain secure execution environments makes it possible to store genomic data and run analyses on them. “Parcel also supports a policy framework that is used by data owners, or individuals as owners of their genomes, to specify who can use their data and for what purposes,” she added. To date, Oasis Lab’s technology has enabled the tokenization of 30,000 genomic profiles, and the partnership with Genetica will increase this number to 100,000.

Healthcare industry already uses tokenization

While NFTs are an emerging concept for the healthcare sector, it’s interesting to recognize that tokenization in an entirely different sense from NFT) is becoming more common as patient privacy becomes critical.

For example, Seqster, a healthcare technology company founded in 2016, provides tokenized data to address privacy needs across the healthcare industry. Ardy Arianpour, CEO and founder of Seqster, told Cointelegraph that the company tokenizes various forms of patient data, including genomic DNA data, for healthcare providers:

“Seqster tokenizes a patient’s personal information fields such as their name, address, phone, date of birth and email into a set of unique tokens that a company can then use to identify a patient within its network. Tokenization allows each organization, provider, payer and researcher to have their own internal unique ID representing a real patient without revealing to the other party in a transaction whom the patient actually is.”

According to Arianpour, tokenization in this regard is essential to avoid exposing personal health information about a patient without their explicit consent, which would be a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). On the other hand, Arianpour explained that while tokenization is helpful, it is not always necessary. “In certain environments, like clinical trials, the sponsoring organization can generate a ‘subject_id’ that uniquely identifies the patient. That ID can be shared within their organization or with partners without revealing the patient’s actual identity. This is a more widely used standard among the clinical trial space and also meets FDA compliance,” he said.

Datavant, a healthcare data company, has also been leveraging tokenization to ensure patient information is private yet accessible. McKinsey & Company recently featured an interview with Pete McCabe, CEO of Datavant, in which he explained how tokenization is used.

According to McCabe, Datavant defines tokenization as “cutting-edge, patent-pending de-identification technology that replaces private patient information with an encrypted token that can’t be reverse-engineered to reveal the original information.” McCabe added that tokenization in this regard “can create patient-specific tokens in any data set, which means that now two different data sets can be combined using the patient tokens to match the corresponding records without ever sharing the underlying patient information.”

Education is critical

While it’s notable that NFTs are starting to be applied to healthcare, a handful of challenges may hamper adoption. For instance, Robert Chu, co-founder and CEO of Embleema — a data platform for personalized medicine — explained in the EU Blockchain Observatory’s healthcare report that data must be de-identified in the United States without the possibility of reidentifying patient information in order to comply with HIPAA. But, Chu explained that this becomes challenging once only a few patients participate in the dataset:

“In this example, it may be impossible for any method to completely de-identify the data. Should we then forbid any research for rare diseases, even if patients agree to share identified data? In our opinion, it should not. This example demonstrates well that there needs to be a balance between privacy and innovation.”

To Chu’s point, Cao mentioned that people using GeneNFTs to participate in a clinical study will receive treatment first if they contribute their data. This would also mean that their data would be identifiable, which may result in regulatory concerns in specific regions like the U.S.

Moreover, Cao shared that 90% of Genetica users are non-crypto natives. Therefore, Cao believes that the biggest challenge for the adoption of GeneNFTs is education. “We have to put in extra work to educate almost all of our users on the benefits of GeneNFTs, explaining how these provide data ownership, accessibility and utilization,” he said. Echoing Cao, Song commented that user education is indeed the biggest hurdle for adoption. “Many users understand what an artwork NFT is, but they are not familiar with data-backed NFTs.”

Although this is currently the case, Song believes that data-backed NFTs have the potential to transform society as the world’s economy becomes data driven. “This approach could grow fast, but we first need to get users to understand this model better. Compared to a few years ago, user awareness has fortunately been much higher in regards to emerging data protection methods.”

Ledger Enterprise’s Alex Zinder is all about blockchain, crypto and the future of finance

April 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

"There was a tremendous amount of interest activity experimentation happening in the (crypto) space, but not a tremendous amount of adoption from real use cases," said Zinder.

Alex Zinder, a capital markets veteran who jumped on the blockchain train last year, attended the Paris Blockchain Week Summit, where he sat down with Cointelegraph to discuss blockchain projects, crypto adoption and the traditional financial world’s necessary embrace of digital assets.

After almost two decades in capital markets technology, Alex Zinder joined Ledger Enterprise in March 2021. He previously worked at Nasdaq, where he worked as the global software development director and associate vice president of enterprise architecture.

Zinder now leads Ledger Enterprise Interact, a suite of solutions that allow businesses to manage interactions in smart contract-enabled protocols that support staking, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and other decentralized finance (DeFi) possibilities.

"Being on the Nasdaq side of things that was very much more involved in the distributed ledger ecosystem of the DLT platforms and looking at that from a more traditional financial services perspective," Zinder said, adding: "There was a tremendous amount of interest activity experimentation happening in the space, but not a tremendous amount of adoption from real use cases."

Zinder was asked whether cryptocurrency must develop even further for it to be considered a viable alternative by the traditional sector. According to him, it's not a "requirement or a prerequisite" since traditional players are " smart business companies" and they see opportunities. He stated that what he thinks is happening currently, is that "these opportunities are of sufficient scale" for the traditional players to want to participate.

He pointed out that now" it's no longer can we kind of play around and really understand the space to make sure we don't miss it, and now it's more actually have a financial opportunity here that we can monetize and grow and scale our businesses, which is a very different dynamic."

Zinder also highlighted three primary factors that align well with Ledger Enterprises' overall strategy. As per him, the scale of value, the scale of complexity, and the complexity of operations are much greater in the enterprise space. He added that:

"The demand is definitely coming, but I think we're literally just at the preference of what's coming because the growth is going to continue exponentially for a significant period of time."

Zinder addressed corporate crypto adoption and custody solutions by explaining that the issues aren't technological in nature but rather about processes, organizations and business model innovation because traditional firms must adapt to new models.

For years, government regulation has been a major topic in the crypto space. Zinder summarised his thoughts on enterprise blockchain, cryptocurrency adoption and regulation as follows:

"So regulation is a factor, we've been having a lot of conversations with regulators. [...] We actually have several customers that are fully regulated entities. So several are well-known custodians, custodians are fully regulated in their regions."

Enterprise