Do you remember the “browser wars” in the 1990s? It started when young upstart Netscape took the world by storm with its web browser.

At the time, Microsoft – with its Windows operating system – dominated the computing industry. It was a behemoth feared by all. Apple, IBM and HP were mere flecks in Microsoft’s rearview mirror.

Yet Microsoft knew that the web (and Netscape) represented an existential threat. It could be the only thing to drive Microsoft out of business.

So Microsoft pivoted. It embraced the internet and the web. And it created Internet Explorer. It was Microsoft’s bid to own access to the web.

Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer for free with its Windows operating system in an effort to crush Netscape and any other company that might have the temerity to launch its own browser.

The company’s efforts didn’t work. But they did define the competitive landscape for the better part of a decade.

Just like Microsoft more than 20 years ago, Facebook and Google have been hard at work trying to determine how they want to approach crypto – and the blockchain.

And this week, we learned more about their efforts.

Last May, David Marcus left Facebook’s Messenger product to lead Facebook’s blockchain initiatives. In December, media reports suggested Facebook was developing a cryptocurrency to be used on its WhatsApp messaging platform. And this week, Facebook hired away Chainspace’s top talent (Mashable).

The move, first reported by Cheddar, gives Facebook a talented crypto team that had been working on building smart contracts and a payment ecosystem (Cheddar).

Facebook didn’t get Chainspace’s technology. But Facebook doesn’t need the tech. It now has the talent and resources to build its own crypto ecosystem. And Facebook’s existing user base (2.32 billion monthly active users) could drive mainstream adoption. That makes Facebook a crypto force to be reckoned with.

Google, meanwhile, is entering crypto in typical Google fashion – by making it searchable. Google has uploaded the entire bitcoin and ethereum blockchains to its BigQuery cloud database and provided open-source tools to search it. It’s in the process of uploading litecoin, zcash, dash, bitcoin cash, ethereum classic and dogecoin to BigQuery. And independent programmers are uploading their own crypto datasets to BigQuery so they can search them (Forbes).

This is a remarkable development. One of the biggest regulatory issues facing crypto is market surveillance. But with the right programming or AI (artificial intelligence) in place, that problem can be solved. In fact, a Google developer has already spotted bitcoin cash being hoarded and autonomous agents moving ethereum around.

An independent developer used Google’s tools to find a specific smart contract flaw. Another created a heat map of XRP flow.

Google’s new foray into crypto has the potential to be transformational. And the entire crypto community should be on notice. Google and Facebook are playing for keeps. Everyone else needs to raise their game.

Now to the News Fix!

Cannabis

It’s earning reports season. Here’s the lineup:

• February 11 – Aurora Cannabis
• February 12 – Tilray
• February 14 – Canopy Growth
• February 27 – MedMen.

Speaking of MedMen, it’s been an interesting few months for James Parker. In the beginning of November, he was MedMen’s chief financial officer. In mid-November, MedMen announced his resignation. And by the end of January, Parker was suing MedMen for breaching its fiduciary responsibility to shareholders (Seeking Alpha).

A Florida judge has struck down a law that limits the number of medical marijuana facilities an operator can have (Orlando Sentinel).

And in Arizona, medical marijuana is legal – except when a county prosecutor says it isn’t (ABC15).

Okay, let’s follow the bouncing ball here. Arizona voters legalized medical marijuana in 2010. In 2017, a cancer patient was told by his oncologist that he should try medical marijuana. He obtained a medical marijuana card from the state and visited a legal medical marijuana dispensary where he bought some wax to help with his nausea.

A few days later, he was stopped by police for a traffic violation. And when they discovered the wax in his car, they arrested him and charged him with possession of a narcotic. He faces a 10-year prison term if convicted.

Whether this Arizona man gets convicted depends on the Arizona Supreme Court. The court is hearing a similar case about an Arizona man currently serving time for the same “crime.”

The legal “argument” at play is that the medical marijuana law says only the plant form of marijuana can be used for medical purposes. All other forms are illegal.

It’s a technicality – one that ignores the fact that he purchased the wax legally. And even the state’s attorney general doesn’t want anything to do with this case.

But the conviction has already been upheld once. Here’s hoping the Arizona Supreme Court does the right thing and frees these men from this legal nightmare.

Startups

Spotify is betting big on podcasts. It just bought podcast startups Gimlet and Anchor to fortify its strategy. The two startups had raised about $43 million combined from venture capital funds (Fortune). Spotify spent about $230 million on Gimlet and wants to spend about $500 million this year on acquisitions (Recode).

And Jetty, a startup that sells rental insurance, just raised $25 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures (The Real Deal).

Crypto

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently revealed that the only cryptocurrency he owns is bitcoin. Why bitcoin?

“Bitcoin is resilient,” Dorsey said on Twitter. “Bitcoin is principled. Bitcoin is native to internet ideals. And it’s a great brand” (Daily Hodl).

And in Argentina, 37 cities now accept bitcoin as payment for buying bus and metro (train/subway) passes (Bitcoinist).

And that’s your News Fix.

Have a great weekend!

Vin Narayanan
Senior Managing Editor, Early Investing

Source: Early Investing

MICHAEL A. ROBINSON

I hope you had the chance to catch my recent interview with legendary investor Frank Holmes. We talked about the need for investors to look beyond struggling cryptocurrencies to understand the enormous potential of the blockchain – the technology “underneath” that makes crypto work.

What kind of potential? Well, I believe – conservatively – that the technology could impact some $8 trillion in global transactions

See, the world’s total GDP runs at around $80 trillion a year. And blockchain tech could eventually underpin all of that buying and selling.

But I’m only assuming blockchain grabs a 10% market share of systems that have been archaic and outdated for years now.

Here’s the thing. As amazing as it sounds, trillions of dollars in trade each year still relies on rickety, less-than-totally-secure computer networks and, in some cases, even paper contracts!

Thanks in part to blockchain technology, that’s all about to change. In a big way.

That’s why today, I want to show you four industries where blockchain technology could add security and transparency – and greatly reduce business costs. I think this could boost bottom lines to the tune of $21 billion in 2019 alone – another conservative estimate – for the innovative firms using this technology.

This is the kind of “strategic info” that could make you look smart at your office Christmas party or next family gathering.

Better yet, put it to use wisely, and it could help you pinpoint your next few triple-digit winners – and that’ll be even more fun to share with friends and family.

So check it out…

Why an $8 Trillion Future Is Just the Start

Obviously, my estimate of blockchain’s impact on global business is very bullish; there are some pretty significant sums involved.

So I want to put my estimate of blockchain’s impact in some perspective. Gartner says blockchain tech will create $3.1 trillion in global business value by 2025.

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That’s a big number, too, of course, but there’s a problem with it: It understates how quickly this radical new tech platform is going mainstream. Last year, according to Gartner, blockchain value came in at $4 billion – and will rise to $21 billion next year.

That’s a 425% one-year increase – a 77,400% growth rate in just nine years. So my $8 trillion estimate is in line with that, meaning at that growth rate we’ll easily get there by 2030 – and probably sooner.

Now then, most folks think of blockchain in terms of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

And it’s certainly true: All cryptos need access to a blockchain to be mined, distributed, and secured.

And once cryptos like Bitcoin see more widespread adoption, it’s going to send prices soaring to $100,000. That day is going to come sooner than many imagine, because, as I type, computer scientists are working furiously on Bitcoin’s “Lightning Fix.” This fix will essentially allow users to pay for everyday items like coffee or a pizza with Bitcoin.

But blockchain is much bigger than any one cryptocurrency. Its use as a global, secure, distributed ledger for smart contracts is proving irresistible to businesses and individuals alike.

You see, industries across the board can adopt this technology – and they don’t have to rely on any one centralized entity to be a gatekeeper or potential source of vulnerability.

In fact, a key feature of public blockchains is that they are decentralized. Moreover, blockchain can greatly reduce transaction costs and improve cybersecurity. It might shock you to learn that, even in 2018, it can take days for a “conventional” electronic banking transaction to fill and finally settle – that incurs costs and security risks. With blockchain, settlement times could be measured in seconds, not days.

Another benefit of blockchain tech is that, unlike centralized databases, the blockchain serves as not only an up-to-date database, but as a historical one as well. That simply means that all of the information of a given transaction that’s put on a blockchain will remain there, available for scrutiny at any time.

With that in mind, I’ve identified four sectors I believe will benefit greatly from this technology. Call them 2019’s “Blockchain Targets.”

Take a look…

Blockchain Target No. 1: Global Finance and Banking

The $1.45 trillion financial services industry has been an early adopter of blockchain technology, and that will remain so for the foreseeable future.

That’s because at its heart, blockchain tech serves as an excellent means to disentangle the dense layers of centralized bureaucracy, redundant paperwork, and exorbitant fees this sector has come to rely on.

Look at exchanges. Many financial industry players are using blockchain tech to develop auditing systems with almost instant clearing and consensus-based verification, according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Trade finance is another area that’s ripe for disruption from blockchain technology. As it stands today, the $17 trillion industry is high volume, costly, and time consuming.

Thousands are being shortchanged out of their money

Financial institutions have begun using blockchain technology to reduce their reliance on manual processes and digitizing trade documents like letters of credit to slim costs and increase efficiency.

And major international banks are joining forces to build their blockchain solutions. Firms like BNP Paribas SA (OTC: BNPQY), HSBC Holdings Plc.(NYSE: HSBC), and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. (NYSE: RBS) are among those leading these efforts.

They’re setting up smart contracts to help track and monitor cross-border transactions, digitally discount receivables, and secure credit risk insurance, among other back-office functions.

Blockchain Target No. 2: the Oil and Gas Industry

About a year ago, a group of the large oil companies – and their banks and trading houses – formed an alliance to launch a blockchain-driven platform for energy commodity training.

The alliance is headed up by firms like BP Plc. (NYSE: BP), Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (NYSE: RDS), and ING Group NV (NYSE: ING).

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Together, they have developed a blockchain platform known as Vakt, which will aid the energy industry’s transition from paperwork-driven transactions to smart contracts. That in turn can bring efficiency gains to trading, reduce the risk of errors, and cut back on the amount of time employees spend on paperwork.

Lyon Hardgrave, Vakt’s product development vice president, says that blockchain members will save up to 40% by speeding up processing trades much more quickly and cutting down on data errors.

Now, the platform will not yet be used to trade or settle any transactions – and not a single bit of cryptocurrency will be involved. But it will include deal recaps, confirmations, contracts, logistics, and invoicing.

The global energy market is worth $1.4 trillion, according to Advanced Energy Perspectives. Look for blockchain to save the sector tens of billions of dollars – or more – as it is further rolled out.

Blockchain Target No. 3: Prescription Drugs & Biotechnology

Meanwhile, the $1.2 trillion global drug industry is ripe for blockchain adoption.

To understand blockchain’s role here, you need to know about the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. This legislation outlines a 10-year time frame that will help track, verify, and notify anyone in the supply chain when counterfeit drugs enter the system.

Here again, we’re talking about a highly secure – and immutable – shared ledger of information that would be open to any and all participants.

By using the blockchain, any movement of counterfeit drugs into the system will be immediately flagged. That’s because there will be no record of it going back to the production source.

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“The public availability of the ledger would make it possible to trace every drug product all the way back to the origin of the raw material used to make it,” Tapan Mehta, an executive with DMI, a mobile technology and services company, told IT Healthcare News.

That’s bad news for the purveyors of counterfeit drugs that earn around $200 billion per year.

But it’s great for consumers that will soon be able to stop worrying about the risk of taking what’s known in the industry as substandard, spurious, falsely labeled, falsified, and counterfeit (SSFFC) drugs.

Blockchain Target No. 4: the U.S. Defense Industry

The U.S. military is rolling out its own blockchain system, under the name Pathfinder. This platform will offer far more security, not to mention a permanent record of every single item the Pentagon buys.

Simply put, the military can’t rely on the unsecure public cloud to transmit and store sensitive data. Global hackers, often sponsored by governments in China, Russia, and Iran, are constantly trying to access vital defense department data.

And when it comes to data encryption, nothing beats what blockchain can offer. Which explains why nearly every defense contractor is expected to adopt blockchain over the next several years.

Last July, Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) said it is working with privately held SparkCognition Inc. to adopt blockchain technology for tracking and allocating flight corridors for drones.

Defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is working with Guardtime Federal LLC to provide blockchain cybersecurity. Lockheed, the nation’s largest defense contractor, counts cyber as a core product.

But civilian branches of the government intend to get in on the action as well. Last June, the $26.3 billion General Services Administration began piloting the federal government’s first blockchain project with vendors Sapient and United Solutions.

Add it all up, and you can see there is enormous potential for blockchain tech – and the firms that develop the products these sectors seek.

Now then, there are no pure blockchain tech plays I can recommend at present. But the companies I’ve just mentioned are hard at work carving out an unbeatable blockchain edge, and I expect bottom lines to fatten accordingly.

That said, there are some firms moving forward aggressively with developing the blockchain itself.

So you can bet I’ll be keeping a close eye on them as we move into 2019. I’m going to have plenty more to say about blockchain technology this year.

Source: Money Morning 

Many investors continue to think of blockchain as merely the technology that Bitcoin is based on. But it is rapidly becoming a lot more than that. . . . .

In this next article in my series on blockchain technology, I look at the ever-expanding uses some of the leading companies in the world are finding for the use of blockchain. Here is just a small sample I want to bring to your attention, emphasizing the practicality of blockchain in all sorts of businesses.

Fixing the Opioid Epidemic

One novel use for blockchain technology is being undertaken by Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and the pharmaceutical industry – tackling the opioid epidemic.

Intel’s idea is to use blockchain to pinpoint where drugs “leak” out of the drug supply chain. The test began this spring when Johnson & Johnson and McKesson among others entered simulated data into new digital ledgers. The experiment will see how easy it is to track drugs as they travel from the manufacturer all the way to a patient’s home.

The effort would include using sensors and scanners to ensure that information is entered accurately. After a pharmacy issues a drug and scans it, the record will immediately appear on the blockchain. Each bottle, and even each pill, would be traceable all the way through the supply chain. And any ‘missing’ drugs could then be investigated.

The hope is the tests will lead to a live pilot project and possibly even a limited deployment by year-end. The ultimate goal is for all drug-related companies and their suppliers worldwide to be on an online ledger that can’t be erased. Then government agencies such as the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) could potentially plug into the blockchain and provide oversight.

It is hoped blockchain technology will also help detect “double doctoring”, where an addicted patient takes out more than one prescription from multiple doctors. There is already software that sift through prescription records from 45 states that detects potential opioid abusers that cross state lines to get their prescriptions filled.

Related: Buy This Blockchain Stock Keeping Our Food Safe

Insurance Industry Adopting Blockchain

In my last article on Blockchain, I told you how the world’s largest container shipping company, Moeller Maersk (OTC: AMKBY), was adopting blockchain to modernize global supply chains.

Maersk is also using blockchain to help decide how its ships will be insured if they are sailing through war zones. It has teamed up with the consultancy Ernst & Young, insurers XL Catlin and MS Amlin and the insurance broker Willis Towers Watson to create a system that Maersk hopes will lead to more efficient insurance policies that are more tailored to what it needs.

This  is just one of dozens of blockchain initiatives going right now in the insurance industry. The major insurance companies, including Axa, Allianz and AIG, are experimenting on how best to use blockchain. For example, one possible use of blockchain would be to store details of the possessions that policy holders want to insure.

The main benefit of blockchain adoption here would be to increase the efficiency of the insurance firms, making them more cost-efficient. That efficiency could take several forms. First, all parties to an insurance contract — from the insurer to the broker and the policyholder — will be able to see all of the documents in the same place, with changes being verified by all parties. That can save a lot of the time-consuming data re-entry that goes on across the insurance industry, and cut down on the risk of mistakes or misunderstandings in a contract. Blockchain could speed up the claims process too, especially if it is a straightforward claim.

Insurance is normally an industry very slow to change. But blockchain could be a real game changer for this staid industry.

Diamonds, Jewelry and Blockchain

This next industry that is adopting blockchain may be a surprise to you – it is the diamond industry. It is desperately in need of this, with such a murky supply chain that may include fakes, synthetic diamonds and so-called conflict diamonds getting into the mix.

The diamond mining giant De Beers said in May that it had successfully tracked its first diamonds all the way from its mines to jewelry retailers using its Tracr blockchain technology that it plans to roll out to the whole diamond industry later this year.

Tracr gives each diamond a unique ID that stores stones characteristics such as weight, color and clarity. To support the process, the system will also be using stone photos and planned outcome images. Its blockchain technology allows De Beers to show transactions to all participants, while keeping their identities and the values hidden. It is meant to give buyers confidence that the diamonds they are genuine and don’t come from conflict zones.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) is working on something similar (called TrustChain) for jewelry in general, following the supply chain from the mines to the jewelry store and that is based on its proprietary blockchain technology.

Supply chain verification for the jewelry industry is becoming increasingly essential because consumers are demanding transparency in the jewelry they buy. They want to be sure the diamond or precious metal in the jewelry was not mined by exploited labor and in a sustainable way. Research has found consumers are willing to pay more for such proof.

The goal is that, by next year, consumers will be able to pull a smartphone, scan a QR code on the diamond and see a visual of the entire supply chain right on their smartphone.

Blockchain Investment

I hope this look at some of the rapidly uses for blockchain brings home the point that it is a technology worth investing into. The only problem is that the highest-quality efforts in blockchain are just small parts of very large companies. Although IBM is probably the best play if you’re looking for an individual stock to invest into.

If you’re looking for a broader approach, there are a number of blockchain-centered ETFs to choose from. The best of these is the Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (Nasdaq: BLCN), which is down 7% year-to-date.  Among its top 10 holdings are: IBM and Intel as well as Square, Microsoft and  AMD.

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There are only a few of these coins left so if you’re even remotely interested I suggest you check out my exclusive briefing on how to earn dividends from Bitcoin.

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