Monday, February 8, 2016

EoC, WEF, HFT and Rubics cube....Netflix and Qantas


Another week and another barrage of blockchain papers. This week piccie from http://bitsonblocks.net/

This week Euroclear come out with their paper. The Citi Digital Money paper also available online after being formally presented.

Also included are links to the Davos papers (World Economic Forum). Some of them, like the future of jobs are nothing new, just confirm what we arleady know (we hardly know what the job specs will be in 10 years time).

A couple of HFT stories. Interesting to read Aquis taking order handling action. Also liked the work of the Tradebot guys in using technology to solve the rubics cube. For those that like management, I very much enjoyed the Netflix insights. New found respect for their culture (assuming it endures). And a magic safety video from Qantas for all those frequent fliers.

Have a great week all.

S

www.clearingandsettlement.blogspot.com


Blockchain (DLT)

Blockchain in Capital Markets
(24 pages)

Releasing the flow of digital money: Hitting the tipping point of adoption.https://www.citibank.com/icg/sa/digital_symposium/

Davos: World Economic Forum Tackles Fintech
http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2016/02/03/davos-world-economic-forum-tackles-fintech/
Nice piccie. (p12)
Nice presentation (178 pages)

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_future__of_financial_services.pdf

Jump to pages 44 and 45 of the roundup.
This introduces the reports released at Davos.
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AM16_Report.pdf

such as the future of jobs...
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOJ_Executive_Summary_Jobs.pdf

Goldman and IBM join Digital Asset Holdings funding round
Goldman Sachs and IBM have jumped aboard Digital Asset Holdings' recent investment round, taking the blockchain startup's haul to more than $60 million.
https://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=28415
Love this comment:
...if the tool of the month is a hammer, everything around you looks like a nail....

Bank of America loads up on blockchain patents
Bank of America is in the process of filing 20 new blockchain-related patents, adding to the 15 it has already submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
.....describing the potential commercial application of its patents as "very unclear", Beasant said: "(It's) very important in the intellectual property world to reserve our spot even before we know what the commercial application might be."...
https://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=28401
I just don't see how 'very unclear' patents can be enforceable.
Rather disappointing GS 'esk behaviour from mother Merrill.

Smart Securities Trading Platform Symbiont Raises $7 Million
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/smart-securities-trading-platform-symbiont-raises-million-1452613323

Blockchain: Catalyst for Massive Change Across Industries
http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2016/02/02/blockchain-catalyst-for-massive-change-across-industries/#

CIO Explainer: What Is Blockchain?

Kynetix appoints exchange industry pioneer to drive Commodity Blockchain Consortium
https://www.ctrmcenter.com/news/vendor-news/kynetix-appoints-exchange-industry-pioneer-drive-commodity-blockchain-consortium/



Markets

Aquis Exchange to ban predatory high-speed trading
“This is absolutely not against HFT,” said Haynes


Olathe co-workers build a superfast Rubik’s Cube robot for a Guinness World Record attempt
(They work together at Tradebot Systems.)
http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/technology/article57328688.html

BNP Paribas to simplify its wealth management structure

LSE Said to Hire Morgan Stanley's Ross to Run Derivatives Venue: CurveGlobal
(previously Project Rita)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lse-said-hire-morgan-stanleys-111825144.html

BBA calls on European Commission to ensure financial regulation supports competition and growth
(80 pages!)
https://www.bba.org.uk/news/press-releases/bba-calls-on-european-commission-to-ensure-financial-regulation-supports-competition-and-growth/#.VrPmr4_XLIU

AFME responds to Commission’s call for evidence
Equity primary markets and trading report: Q4 2015

AFME publish first pan-European SME guide
All at: www.afme.eu/

Stuff



THE WOMAN WHO CREATED NETFLIX'S ENVIABLE COMPANY CULTURE

Here's to the Crazy Ones, Think Different
Apple Confidential - Steve Jobs on "Think Different" - Internal Meeting Sept. 23, 1997
1997. Steve Jobs in shorts, relaxed, during internal meeting with Apple executives and managers, just a few weeks after his return to Apple, speaks briefly about planned changes in company (pipeline, products, distribution changes) and then presents first informations about planned "Think Different" campaign, now legendary and iconic... Samples of TV commercial, outdoor, posters, and press ads.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GMQhOm-Dqo&feature=youtu.be


Don't Touch That Dial! By Vaughan Bell
Worries about information overload are as old as information itself.
A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind. It's worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That's not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565.
Socrates famously warned against writing because it would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories." He also advised that children can't distinguish fantasy from reality, so parents should only allow them to hear wholesome allegories and not "improper" tales, lest their development go astray.
As literacy became essential and schools were widely introduced, an 1883 article in the weekly medical journal the Sanitarian argued that schools "exhaust the children's brains and nervous systems with complex and multiple studies, and ruin their bodies by protracted imprisonment." Meanwhile, excessive study was considered a leading cause of madness by the medical community.

Why Luxembourg wants to mine asteroids
Later this year, Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission will attempt to return a 60g sample from an asteroid to Earth at a pricetag of around $1bn.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/12137693/asteroid-mining-luxembourg-space-plan-esa.html

Qantas Safety Video
Published on 2 Feb 2016. Airbas A380 version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhbXFHrDmTg


Education
“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”
― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook








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