Our previous article in this series looked at the legal framework surrounding blockchain technology. This article looks at the practical application of the technology. Blockchain technology is having an impact on many business owners, including those who are not interested in the speculative trading element of cryptocurrency, which is similar to trading on the stock exchange. Besides functioning as a cash substitute, cryptocurrencies have many other uses or use cases. Recent uses include non-fungible tokens, tokenization, and wallet transfers.
A new trend in blockchain technology is the creation, sale and trading of non-fungible tokens or NFTs. NFTs can take several forms, but the most common are digital collectibles. NFT collectibles can be published in a single issue that represents a single digital work of art, such as Beeple’s “Everydays – The First Five Thousand Days,” which recently sold for $ 69 million.[1] Another popular NFT collectible is the National Basketball Association’s recently released NBA Top Shot.[2] The product is a version of 21st century sports trading cards, which are digital images of players along with individual game highlights (or “moments”) that can be purchased separately or in sets. In addition, NFTs are used to secure physical goods that serve as both title and certificates of authenticity. Similar to physical collectibles, ownership of an NFT generally does not transfer intellectual property rights to the owner, only ownership of the digital collectible itself.
Entrepreneurial business owners looking to take advantage of blockchain technology may want to research tokenization, the process used to create NFTs and other tokens. Tokenization enables blockchain users to break an asset down into standardized units and sell those units as digital assets redeemable for a product or commodity, such as an interest in a business, ownership of a property, or an interest in one Investment funds .[3] These tokens can then be traded on a secondary market. One of the best examples of this can be found in the Bitcoin SV (BSV) network. Instead of swapping cryptocurrency for cryptocurrency or swapping cryptocurrency for fiat money, users swap tokenized assets for BSV. BSV tokenization is still in its infancy, but entrepreneurs are already creating, trading, and benefiting from various tokenized assets such as time[4], Tacos[5], NFTs[6], and even social media posts.[7] Regulation aside, it’s easy to see how this seemingly niche technology may one day be used for crowdsourcing capital generation or demand-driven pricing for goods and services traded on an exchange.[8] By combining tokenized assets with smart contract functionality, the possibilities are potentially limitless.[9] In one example, the country of Tuvalu with its 13,000 inhabitants is trying to use the BSV platform for its national digital currency as well as for other government records.[10]
Some companies may want to avoid all of the intricacies of the cryptocurrency world by avoiding them entirely. However, others may want to understand the technology by creating the necessary accounts and making wallet-to-wallet transfers for a glimpse into the world of blockchain technology. Some companies set up wallets to prepare for potential ransomware attacks, which hackers typically require payments in cryptocurrency, such as the recent ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline. Setting up and funding a wallet can take days, which can be difficult when a company’s network is taken offline by ransomware. Wallet systems currently lack some of the user error safeguards offered in the fiat banking system[11], so understanding the technology is a must. Having these systems in place prior to a ransomware attack can prevent an already bad situation from leading to a longer-term loss of productivity once a company has made the decision to pay the ransom.
The cryptocurrency market is still in its technological and regulatory infancy, and as regulators are slow to adapt innovation-friendly rules to this emerging technology, time will tell how big the impact cryptocurrency will have on businesses. Vandeventer Black will continue to follow developments in this rapidly changing industry. [12]
[1] Chloe Weiner, Beeple JPG File Sells for $ 69 Million, Sets Crypto Art Record, NPR (March 11, 2021 2:48 p.m.), https://www.npr.org/2021/03/11 / 976141522 / beeple-jpg -file-sells-for-69-million-setting-crypto-art-record.
[2] NBA Top Shot, https://nbatopshot.com/ (last visited May 26, 2021).
[3] Patrick Laurent et al., Asset Tokenization is Changing the Financial Industry. Are you ready ?, Deloitte, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/lu/Documents/financial-services/lu-tokenization-of-assets-disrupting-financial-industry.pdf.
[4] Patrick Thompson, LIU: Bitcoin’s first time-backed token, Coingeek, (May 19, 2021) https://coingeek.com/liu-bitcoins-first-time-backed-token/.
[5] TACO / BSV Exchange, RelayX, https://relayx.com/market/EAT (last visited on May 25, 2021).
[6] RelayX Tickers Give More Benefit, Means (April 13, 2021) https://relayx.medium.com/giving-relayx-tickers-more-utility-a339af56eefe .; see also MoneyButton, https://www.moneybutton.com/ (digital marketplace with NFTs) (last visited on May 27, 2021).
[7] Social Media on Blockchain, Bitcoin Association, https://bitcoinassociation.net/enterprises/use-case/social-media-on-blockchain/; see also e.g. Twetch, https://twetch.app (a Twitter competitor); and Streamanity, https://streamanity.com/ (a YouTube competitor) (all last visited May 27, 2021).
[8] Other projects include prepaid debit cards that convert BSV to fiat-on-demand and price aggregators that allow users to search consumer goods for sale on other websites and see real-time conversion rates. See RelayX card, https://relayx.com/card; and Trading Card Game Online Exchange, https://tcgox.app (all last visited on May 28, 2021).
[9] Technological development, which is still in its infancy, often takes place through hackathon competitions. See e.g. Bitcoin SV Hackathon, bsvhackathon.net, https://bsvhackathon.net/hackathon/upcoming/october-2021; RUN2k21, RUN, https://run.network/hackathon/; and HandCash Hackathon, Handcash, https://hackathon.handcash.dev/ (all last visited on May 26, 2021). However, there are also some large companies that offer business solutions in this area. See Taal in general, https://www.taal.com/ (last visited on May 26, 2021).
[10] Koroi Hawkins, Tuvalu chasing digital immortality on a blockchain, RNZ, (March 14, 2021, 9:43 pm) https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/438341/tuvalu-chases-digital- immortality -on-a-blockchain; see also Ed Drake, Central Bank of Norway weighted Bitcoin SV under “open blockchain” for CBDC, Coingeek (May 3, 3021) https://coingeek.com/central-bank-of-norway-weighs-up-bitcoin- sv -among-open-blockchain-for-cbdc / (citing a report in which the Norwegian central bank looked at BSV for the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC)).
[11] For example, if you accidentally send money to the wrong address, no one will be able to reverse the transaction except the owner of the address who received the money. This may seem unlikely, but it is quite easy when addresses generally look like this: “13LGR1QjYkdi4adZV1Go6cQTxFYjquhS1y”.
[12] Link to full disclaimer: The information on the Vandeventer Black website is for informational purposes only; The information is general and may not reflect the current legal status. The content is provided “as is”. The information on this website should not be viewed as professional legal or financial advice and should not be processed without consulting a qualified lawyer or other professional in the relevant jurisdiction.
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