Welcome to this weeks' edition of Digital Bytes.
This is our fourth anniversary as we first published Digital Bytes back in March 2018 and have continued to do so each week. As well as being sent to a wide range of readers in Europe, South and North America, Africa, India, Digital Bytes is translated into Chinese and sent via WeChat to many Asian countries including China.
This week we have articles on the following topics:
How Blockchain and Digital Assets can impact the real estate sector - real estate is not immune to the effects of Blockchain technology. With offline real estate transactions frequently including face-to-face interactions between several parties, blockchain has made it possible to modify this. Assets such as real estate may now be tokenised and sold, like cryptocurrencies, thanks to the development of smart contracts on blockchain platforms. By tokenising real property assets can then be traded, much like stocks on an exchange, and transactions can be completed online.
Blockchain technology fuels the winds of change in the global payments industry - the global payments sector is facing new competition and radical change as never before. Blockchain-powered platforms and the digital currencies they can create from governments and companies are forcing the traditional payment platforms to make changes. Existing firms offering global payment solutions are changing their business and blockchains have ushered-in new FinTech firms offering competition in this once tightly controlled market.
Inflation is on the rise: what impact could it have holders on cryptos? - inflation rates are increasing globally, especially in the US, resulting in rising interest rates which is bad news for those governments, companies and individuals which have become addicted to debt as the cost of borrowings increases. Will Bitcoin prove to be an inflation hedge or, indeed, be truly uncorrelated with other assets such as equities and bonds, and actually rise in value as these traditional assets fall? The volatility of cryptos and traditional assets is likely to rise and so present a great opportunity for those who can and do know how to sell ‘puts and calls’ i.e., options.
Issuance and settlement of securities directly on the blockchain: now a reality in Luxembourg? - over the past months, Luxembourg has taken several important steps regarding the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) applied to the financial world. Indeed, dematerialised securities may be issued and settled within or by virtue of DLT, thereby enabling the creation of native tokens. Following this, the regulator for the financial sector has provided useful guidance as to how and when regulated entities could invest in virtual assets and/or provide services in relation thereto. Finally, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange recently admitted to its Securities Official List financial instruments registered on a DLT.
Please do keep your comments and feedback coming and suggestions of further topics you would like us to cover in future editions of Digital Bytes.
Jonny Fry / James Tylee of Digital Bytes by Team Blockchain on Cyber.FM featuring Aurélia Viémont at CMS Luxembourg