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Today, I want to talk about a use case that only blockchain technology can deliver. They are few and far between and usually revolve around applications that demand censorship-resistance. Indeed, a public data commons demands just that.  

The first quarter of the year has been largely symbolic of what we can expect over the next 2 years as the ecosystem matures - volatile, fast paced and unexpected. While token prices saw an incredible dip (upto 80% in some cases), both mergers and acquisitions for growth stage startups and funding in equity for market leaders have seen no dearth.

To create a stronger bridge between the token economy, and the rest of the global economy, it will be important that the frictions listed in the previous section are addressed. This might be done through the introduction of new infrastructure, better targeting of resources, or even through a hybridisation of centralised and decentralised innovations. We discuss these solutions below.

The new data value ecosystem sees data captured by the Internet of Things, managed by blockchains, automated by artificial intelligence, and all incentivised using crypto-tokens. For a summary of the thesis take a look at the introductory blog, and for a deeper look into Blockchains, Community, & Crypto Governance have a read of my last post here. Today though I want to talk specifically about the convergence of blockchains and the Internet of Things.  

When technological revolutions occur, why do so many projects end up failing? Perhaps our inability to figure out how and where to effectively deploy new technology results in what Greenspan termed ‘irrational exuberance’ back in 1996.

We are excited to introduce the Outlier Ventures vision of the future and our investment thesis: The Convergence Ecosystem. The new data value ecosystem see data captured by the Internet of Things, managed by blockchains, automated by artificial intelligence, and all incentivised using crypto-tokens. For a summary of the thesis take a look at the introductory blog, today I want to take a deeper look at how important communities, governance and politics will play in this new era.

So on 12th Jan (2018) I wrote a post saying there needed to be a ‘Crypto Winter’: a sustained minimum 50% haircut on the market. I actually wanted to say 75% but compromised with the team to not sound too alarmist. Next time I won’t be so restrained ;)

The month has had its share of regulatory “shake ups” but we believe, this will be an interesting contributor to the ecosystem producing more utility than speculation in the years to come.

The main objective in cryptoeconomics is to design token economies that will grow in utility value over the long haul.

The long-term success of token economies and the protocols they are built around is led by fundamentals, and ultimately adoption. How useful is the protocol, to how many end users? This question is fundamental to our vision of the Convergence Economy.

Despite the original decentralised design of the Internet and the hope of peer-to-peer communication; digital information is anything but peer-to-peer

Blockchains combined with artificial intelligence is more than just a technical innovation: it’s an economic paradigm shift

It is almost banal to say it, but as a society we have a data problem. Most of the World’s data is held on private servers.

Here we breakdown exactly the value and key functions / processes a CTE offers to the token economy.

He is our breakdown of The Token Ecosystem Landscape Map based on an analysis of 505 token offerings as of 20th Sept 2017. This will soon be followed by a fully open and searchable database.

Every man and his dog is doing an ICO at the moment. It feels like a quick and easy way to raise money from sleeping crypto but what are real upsides? We talk through all the considerations from incentive misalignment to timing, regulatory costs and considerations.

Are you also getting the feeling blockchain is a load of bullshit? Are you struggling to see how any of this will ever make any money? Fear not we help you cut through the hype and explain our 'blockchain +' investment thesis.

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