Podcasts about corda network

Matthias Goessler, CEO of Ritablock and Jean-Pierre Fischer, Markets Director at Ritablock join us in this Insureblocks podcast to discuss their reinsurance accounting blockchain platform called Ritablock and their experience of integrating it into B3i’s recently launched Fluidity Platform. Matthias has been working in the insurance industry for 25 years and has been Ritablock’s CEO since October 2019. Jean-Pierre has been working in both the insurance and reinsurance industry for the last 35 years.   What is blockchain? Jean-Pierre defines blockchain from a non-technical standpoint. For him the block is the digital information that can be reinsurance accounting information or claimed information. That block can be stored in a public blockchain or as in the case of Ritablock stored within a private network on a database.   Challenges of technical accounting and claims data in the insurance industry The administration process within the insurance industry has a very high admin costs due to too much paper still being used along with PDFs and unstructured files being exchanged along the value chain. This creates long processing times along with a lack of transparency, inefficiency and inaccuracy. The slow process leads often to inaccuracy in technical and financial accounting, especially for in-house reinsurance within larger groups. Whilst there are global standards such as ACORD, their implementation on the primary insurance side is very costly leading to a limited adoption of it. This creates problems for reinsurance companies who don’t always get standardised data from the primary insurer. Jean-Pierre mentioned that there have been studies that showed that by digitising this process and using standardised data formats would lead to a drop of 30-40% of running these admin processes. Matthias mentioned that one of Ritablock’s clients mentioned that using their system allowed them to run admin processes that typically would take 2 weeks down to a few seconds.   Differences between primary insurer and reinsurer Jean-Pierre mentioned that the primary insurer isn’t incentivised to send data to a reinsurer in a standardised digital format as the reinsurer will take accounting data in any format today. However, Jean-Pierre believes that as new tech savvy university recruits continue joining primary insurers there will be a push to digitise their processes. Primary insurers have two issues for sending accounts: (1) they’re not incentivised to implement digital standardised formats and (2) the price of using such standards. Ritablock’s proposition to primary insurers is for them to send their existing form to Ritablock who will convert it into a digital standardised format when delivering it to the reinsurer. This is done for the primary insurer at a low yearly fee within four digits.   Who is Ritablock? Ritablock was founded in 2019 by Consurance, a consultancy company and Inveos, a software company. The idea of Ritablock was born over 4 years ago during a project with a client who wanted to build a flexible interface into their system. When starting this project and developing the software they reached a point where it became too complex due to the need to develop too many interfaces for all the different formats. From the ideas of this project, Ritablock was co-founded by Thomas Jäschke, (CTO) who built a blockchain prototype and Bernd Zimmermann who developed the business solution. Ritablock is built on R3’s Corda. Since Corda was developed by the financial industry the Ritablock team felt it had the necessary security measures in it. Every customer of Ritablock will have a node on the Corda Network where the Ritablock app sits. The reinsurance systems, from the sending and receiving party will connect to Ritablock. Accounting systems like ProRis from Inveos, SAP FS-RI and RAIS are already connected to Ritablock and conversations with NTT Data are already happening.

Fun fact about the episode: Catherine almost forgot to set up the micorphones to record Dan and Chris (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter/status/1207712737431891968?s=20) Guests: Joel Dudley * LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-dudley-613020a3/) * Twitter (https://twitter.com/joeldudley6) Daniel Halstead * LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielhalstead/) * Twitter (https://twitter.com/daniel_Halstead) Chris Rayner-Cook * LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-rayner-cook-84770822/) Host: Catherine Rutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinemrutter/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter) Music by bensound.com Links: CockroachDB (https://www.cockroachlabs.com/) Corda Enterprise 4.3 Announcement Blog by Mike Ward (https://www.r3.com/blog/discover-corda-enterprise-4-3-and-the-power-of-accounts/) Corda Enterprise 4.3 Explainer video (https://www.r3.com/videos/corda-enterprise-4-3-explainer/) Corda Enterprise 4.3 Enhancements Factsheet (https://www.r3.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/R3_CordaEnterprise_4.3_FS.pdf) Ivno Website (https://ivno.io/) Ivno LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/ivno/) Ivno Twitter (https://twitter.com/IvnoDLT) Ivno's Corda Trial (https://medium.com/ivno/ivnos-global-corda-trial-53016c85682) Amazon / Pentagon Drama (https://www.npr.org/2019/11/14/777585675/amazon-appeals-pentagons-choice-of-microsoft-for-10-billion-cloud-contract) Governance through Corda Network (https://medium.com/ivno/ivnos-global-corda-trial-53016c85682)

Catherine sits down with Dave Sutter (TradeIX) and Tobias Nafe (Landesbank Baden- Württemberg) to chat with a beer to discuss the Marco Polo network and how the trade finance industry is evolving! Listen on your favorite podcast app! Guests: Dave Sutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sutterdavid/) Tobias Nafe - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-nafe-709101161/) Important links... First episode with Dave Sutter (https://www.r3.com/podcasts/episode-6-were-not-calling-it-cryptolandia/)Marco Polo website (https://www.marcopolo.finance/) TradeIX website (https://tradeix.com/)LBBW website (https://www.lbbw.de/homepage/homepage_6kyjj4koh_e.html)Corda Network (https://corda.network/) Corda Network Episode with James Carlyle (https://www.r3.com/podcasts/episode-21-announcing-corda-network-anddddd-james-carlyle-was-lost-at-sea-for-a-month-say-what/) Catherine Rutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinemrutter/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter) Music by bensound.com

Ken Marke (B3i) and Ronnie Kher (R3) join the podcast to discuss InsurTech and what B3i is doing in the blockchain space. (This episode was released on Halloween hence the spoooooky). Listen on your favorite podcast app! Guests: Ken Marke - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenmarke/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/kenmarke) Ronnie Kher - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronnie-kher-264b873/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/KherRonnie) Host: Catherine Rutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinemrutter/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter) Music by bensound.com Links: Catherine's Taylor Swift costume last year (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter/status/1057684590004002823?s=20) Catherine's Taylor Swift costume this year (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter/status/1189909409570467841?s=20) InsurTech Challenge information (https://www.r3.com/insurtech-challenge/) Trustlayer (https://trustlayer.io/) CordaCon (https://www.cordacon.com/events/cordacon-london-2019/event-summary-48e259ee8ab5479ba457a3deed777252.aspx?5S,M3,48e259ee-8ab5-479b-a457-a3deed777252=) Corda Network (https://corda.network/) Corda Open Source (https://www.corda.net/) Corda Enterprise (https://www.r3.com/download-corda-enterprise/)

This is your weekly roundup for the week ending September 13, 2019. The Libra Association stays firm on launching, despite rejection in the EU, KyberSwap introduces a fiat on-ramp, and Binance US is preparing to launch next week. ☕ Buy Me A Coffee: https://glow.fm/mota   Libra Adds Singapore Dollar To Basket Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it added the Singapore Dollar to it’s Libra basket of fiat currencies. According to bloomberg, Facebook wrote in response to concerns from Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner, telling U.S. senators that the initial basket of currencies that will back its Libra cryptocurrency will likely include the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen, the British pound and the Singapore dollar. Facebook also left open the possibility that the Libra Association might launch Libra outside the U.S. even if regulators inside the U.S. still have concerns. Libra Seeks Swiss License Then, FINMA confirmed that they received a request from the Libra Association for an assessment of its Libra project under Swiss supervisory law. FINMA released new stablecoin guidelines, noting an increase in stable coin’ projects since 2018.  FINMA will treat stable coins just like existing blockchain-based tokens, with a focus on the economic function and purpose of a token. FINMA stated “The requirements under supervisory law may differ depending on which assets (e.g. currencies, commodities, real estate or securities) the ‘stable coin’ is backed by and the legal rights of its holders.” The Libra Association is seeking a swiss payments license, as they asked FINMA for an assessment of how they would classify the planned Libra project and issuance of a ‘stable coin’ under Swiss supervisory law. According to Reuters, the Libra Association stated “We are engaging in constructive dialogue with FINMA and we see a feasible pathway for an open-source blockchain network to become a regulated, low-friction, high-security payment system.” France To Block Libra Project Then at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference on cryptocurrencies, finance minister Bruno Le Maire strongly opposed Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency stating “I want to be absolutely clear: In these conditions, we cannot authorise the development of Libra on European soil.” Le Maire reportedly expressed concerns that Libra may “substitute itself as a national currency” and potentially cause financial disruption. Libra Stays Firm On Launch Despite regulatory scrutiny, the Libra Association is staying firm on the launch of the Libra cryptocurrency. In an interview with French publication Les Echos, Libra managing director and COO Bertrand Perez addressed the concerns of regulators about Libra posing a threat to financial stability, stating that “It is their monetary policies that will influence the Libra through the basket and not the other way around.” He added that the reserve will be invested in the basket currencies and in very short-term government debt. He also said that the reserve would amount to no more than $200 billion. Perez readdressed that the U.S. dollar should have at least half the weight of the basket and that “If there is a catastrophe on a currency or a crisis between now and the Libra [launch], we could remove it from the basket, but this decision should be put to the vote and taken by a two-thirds majority of the members of the association.” Perez ended with saying that the Libra Association is firmly maintaining their launch schedule, between Q3 and Q4 2020. No Crypto-Crypto Tax in France According to Bloomberg, France will not tax crypto-to-crypto trades, but will tax gains when they are converted back into traditional fiat currency. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire stated “We believe that the moment the gains are converted into traditional money is the right time to assess tax,” Mastercard Pilots Cross Border Payments Blockchain Mastercard has partnered with enterprise blockchain software provider R3 to pilot a new blockchain-powered cross-border payments solution. The project aims at connecting faster payments schemes with banks backed by Mastercard’s clearing and settlement network. According to R3, the platform will be built on Corda Enterprise, the commercial version of R3’s open-source Corda Network.  KyberSwap Introduces Fiat On-Ramp Non-custodial exchange KyberSwap has announced a partnership with Coindirect to provide a fiat to crypto on-ramp. KyberSwap users can use credit and debit cards to purchase Ethereum, but will incur a 3.5% fee. KyberSwap says there will be no complex KYC for purchasing small amounts. The platform currently supports Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.  Coinbase Fund Coinbase has launched a USDC Bootstrap Fund. The fund invests USDC directly into decentralised finance protocols. The USDC is tied up in a smart contract protocol and is available for borrow by any counterparty willing to provide crypto collateral and pay a floating interest rate. The first investment will be $1m USDC for Compound Finance and $1m USDC for dYdX protocol. EOS Hard Fork v1.8 The EOS network is expected to undergo a hard fork on September 23rd at 13:00 UTC. This is the first consensus upgrade that requires a hard fork on the EOS network. Block producer ColinCrypto says “EOSIO 1.8 enables many positive features, such as the Voice social platform and a reduction of inflation from 5% to 1%. As such, this is a very important update.” According to block producer EOS Nation, 29 of the 30 top block producers have committed to upgrading. Binance US To Launch Next Week Binance US is planning to open registration and deposits next week on September 18th. After registration, six cryptocurrencies will be available for deposits including bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and tether. The new U.S. exchange will not offer services in New York due to the ‘BitLicense’ regulatory requirement. As of August, Binance had not yet applied for the license. The launch of Binance US comes after the exchange banned U.S. customers in June following regulatory uncertainty. Binance Launches BUSD Stablecoin Binance is opening trading for its new stable coin BUSD starting September 16th. BUSD was created in partnership with the Paxos Trust Company, which already issues its own dollar-backed and gold-backed stablecoins. The new stablecoin has obtained regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Binance has already issued stablecoins pegged to bitcoin (BTCB) and the British pound (BGBP). BUSD will be backed by U.S. dollars on a 1:1 ratio Cryptocurrency Adoption In Cuba A report from U.S. News suggests early signs of cryptocurrency adoption in Cuba, as one of the first Cuban crypto exchanges Fusyona is becoming active. The U.S. trade embargo cuts Cubans off from many of the financial services available in the West and Cubans cannot obtain credit or debit cards for international use. Some Cubans have turned to cryptocurrencies to make online purchases and investments. Jason Sanchez, a local Cuban who uses Bitcoin, to purchase parts from an online Chinese store told U.S. news “This is really opening new doors for us.” Fusyona currently has 1,300 users on the exchange. Interstellar Gets New CEO Interstellar, the company behind the stellar blockchain is getting a new CEO. Current CEO Adam Ludwin is stepping down to work on Pogo, an app-focused company targeting interoperability between mobile wallets. Pogo will be structured as a subsidiary to Interstellar. Zelle co-founder Mike Kennedy will be the new CEO starting September 15th. Zelle is the mobile payments network owned by several large U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Bank of America. Kennedy, has been an advisor to the Stellar Development Foundation since 2017. Lubin Joins Hyperledger Board Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin is joining the governing board the Hyperledger project by the Linux Foundation. ConsenSys recently became a Hyperledger premier member, saying it will work on interoperability between blockchains and promote standards to support enterprise-grade blockchain environments.

Often not considered as “sexy” in the blockchain world, but building effective governance is probably one of the most important tasks in building a resilient blockchain ecosystem. For this podcast we were very privileged to have James Carlyle, Head of Network and Operations at R3.   What is blockchain? Blockchain is a distributed ledger system that makes a fundamental promise which is “what I see, is what you see”. The idea being that although people share a common view, they actually have their own copies of data and that matter for numerous reasons such as the one of control. . It means with a copy of their own data and the promise that what they see is what the other side sees, that they don't need to rely on intermediaries.   What is governance? I always say if you haven't figured out who is in control, it's because you haven't been looking hard enough; there is someone there Governance is about control first and foremost. What had initially attracted James to Ethereum was the idea of an unstoppable world computer where no one was in control. The initial bitcoin and Ethereum community were people who believed in small government or not government and perhaps they thought that these systems came without control. However James view is “I always say if you haven't figured out who is in control, it's because you haven't been looking hard enough; there is someone there”.   R3’s initial governance for running a consortium In R3’s early days it was solely focused on running a consortium and the consortium was there to explore how blockchain technology could be used in finance. Right from the start R3 set out to encourage participation and collaboration, which is absolutely fundamental for blockchain, and thus governance became important from the very start. In its early days R3 had a steering committee that decided what it should focus on. A steering committee had representation from every one of the 42 initial bank members of R3. One of the first things the steering committee decided to do was for example to set up an architecture working group and the architecture working group had its own governance. The architecture working group’s governance was comprised of leading and chief architects from banks thinking about the right technology choice for distributed ledger's in banking. But governance has always mattered with these collaborative and heterogenous groups.   The Corda Network When Corda was first designed its founder imagined a platform in which people could use Corda to manage agreements with each other for any business between any businesses and at any time… ie. the corda network. This can be thought of as an internet of Corda nodes. Corda nodes that are connected together and across which business transactions can take place. In the initial days of Corda most groups of banks and other companies wanted to deploy their blockchain software together in the form of many consortiums who weren’t necessarily connected. Corda’s original vision of a corda network couldn’t be achieved in this manner. The reason is because each network per application has its own boundary of trust and that means that what happens in that network is trusted within the network itself, but it isn't trusted by anyone else. Each network has a “trust route” where all of the digital signatures and so on can be traced back and it's not possible easily at least to bring the advantages of blockchain across the boundary of one network to another. That's because the provenance for example which is supported by things like the digital signatures and the hash chains and everything else, that provenance doesn't move across boundaries very easily. If we take the analogy of two villages who want to trade with each other. In the real world what they need is a common trust boundary and that trust boundary is provided by things like language, a set of laws and currency. For example, they can trade together,

Guests: James Carlyle - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescarlyle/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/jwgcarlyle) Catherine Rutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinemrutter/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter) Music by bensound.com Links Corda Network press release (https://www.r3.com/news/corda-network-launches-with-new-governing-foundation/) Corda Network website (https://corda.network/) Corda Network Foundation document history (https://github.com/corda-network/corda-network.github.io/blame/master/about/index.md) James Carlyle's blog (https://medium.com/@james_85389/e5ced4287123) Special Guest: James Carlyle.

Guests: Todd McDonald - Twitter (https://twitter.com/Mcdtv) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddvmcdonald/) Kevin Rutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-rutter-1b109235/) Richard Gendal Brown - Twitter (https://twitter.com/gendal) - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gendal/) Catherine Rutter - LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinemrutter/) - Twitter (https://twitter.com/breadandrutter) Music by bensound.com Links: Blog posts: The Emergence of Enterprise Tokens (https://medium.com/corda/the-emergence-of-enterprise-tokens-99f6be65a3ba) Todd McDonald Corda and Settlement: Let's get atomic - (https://medium.com/corda/corda-and-settlement-lets-get-atomic-1cee1d896a9b) Todd McDonald Asset Tokenisation: An idea whose time has come but not for the reasons you might expect (https://medium.com/corda/asset-tokenisation-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-but-not-for-the-reasons-you-might-expect-ac4d0feab9e1) Richard Gendal Brown Corda Top Ten Facts (https://medium.com/corda/corda-top-ten-facts-all-in-one-place-d41a1b371b64) Richard Gendal Brown (Catherine particularly likes this blog post so just read it!) Corda Network mailing list Corda development mailing list (https://groups.io/g/corda-dev) Corda announcement mailing list (https://groups.io/g/corda-announce) Check out our meetups (https://meetup.com/pro/corda/) all over the world Corda network discussion group (https://groups.io/g/corda-network) Show notes: 00:00 - 17:48 ** Todd McDonald talks about his recent blog posts on tokens and teaches Catherine about the latest on stablecoins **17:48 - 53:28 Recorded a few months ago, Richard Gendal Brown and Kevin Rutter join Catherine in the studio to chat about the Corda Enterprise release this summer, the Corda Network, governance, WYSIWYG, WYSIWIS, and more ( 17:48 - 39:09 ) - and he also teaches Catherine more about tokens ( 39:09 - 53:28 ). Is she a token pro now? Prob. Special Guest: Todd McDonald.