Author: Nick Szabo
Release Date: December 4, 2017
Abstract:
The definitive work on smart contracts for entrepreneurs, business executives, leaders of large global organizations, and the legal profession that serves them.
This research brief lays out a taxonomy of nine digital asset categories, including tokens for exchanges, natural assets, platform governance, and smart contracting protocols. For each category, it provides a definition with examples of the asset’s creation and usage. It also explains the asset category’s disruptive effects on financial services and the global economy. The brief is ideal for leaders who want a quick overview of these important financial innovations.
Read MoreThis project explores one of the most critical implementation challenges of blockchain technologies: interoperability. Enterprise uses are reluctant to tokenize their assets or invest seriously in decentralized finance and digital asset management capabilities without assurances that they will be able to move these assets across blockchain platforms. What if chosen platforms fail? What if better platforms emerge? Some of the best minds in the space are addressing these issues head on with a range of innovative solutions. This project features two of them: Cosmos and Polkadot. It looks at their origins and ethos, architecture and core technology components (including the role of their native tokens ATOM and DOT), consensus and governance, and the applications already using them. Finally, the author reviews what enterprise decision-makers need to know as they weigh their options.
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