The Killer Use Case for Blockchain: Trusted Price Discovery
This is a re work from a recent post of mine you will find here..
Whoa… Heavy Title no? :)
Various Blockchain DLTs tech have the potential to create multiple ‘parallel”, networked, free market economies across the globe and take big market share away from Fiat ‘Command & Control’ Economies. (to get us out of the 2020 Crash mess)
The real question is, “Which forms of Blockchain now being employed will surge forward to make that happen faster”?
A Glimpse of our “Blockchain” Free Market Future?: It’s a Layer Cake of “Value Add”
#Ethereum Paints the Big “SC” Smart Contract Picture,
#IOTA strives for TPS @ Scale for the emerging Machine Economy,
While the above and many other “value-add” Blockchain techs build the new economy and,
#Cosmos and #Chainlink offer early visions and functionality regarding how to network/route all these “Value-add” Blockchain techs together.
Clearly all of the above are essentially built on top of #Bitcoin BTC’s “hard store of value”. (And yeah maybe Lightning scales up with big adoption, maybe..), where growth of the Blockchain “open” Market is driven by investors big and small rapidly moving their de-valued fiat stores of value to to BTC quickly through various exchange instruments (Stable coins, Centralized Exchanges and also DEXs Distributed Exchages of various forms) and again into the other “value-add” hard stores of value as they see fit.
The Fact is, rapid development and refinement of Distributed Public Permission-less Ledger Technology @ scale, such as IOTA, offers much more beyond “hard store of value” and support for IoT and the Machine Economy. Inter-Blockchain Routing/Networking/Settlements solutions are changing the world of Crypto fast.
The Runaway Crypto Tech Freight Train
Crypto’s breath taking rate of change is truly a ‘runaway freight train of creativity’ . However anyone looking into the future any length of time will say “to where and in pursuit of what?”.
Is it all for just Short term gains or, are we all thinking about real fundamental change to fix the current mess we are in, right now here post 2020 Crash? (imo the 2020 post crash “bounce” is still in play as the markets go sideways “over the cliff”).
Thank goodness most of the investors out there big and small playing the “long game” look for, buy into and appreciate “True Value-Add”, at least in a tactical way. (Like doing our browsing with #Brave to earn #BAT while viewing permissioned adds..).
“What we all should be doing?”
Strategically Speaking- The Escape from the Crash of 2020 to a “Blockchain” Open Market will not be easy..
Such “Blockchain” distributed public permissionless implementations of DLT “Distributed Ledger Technology” candidates likely to be key foundational technologies such as IOTA (@ scale TPS for the Machine Economy of IoT, Smart Cities etc..,) do also offer Transparency WHICH CAN BE FASHIONED into trusted price discovery IN BOTH THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SENSE.
Multiple Blockchain Transparency Public and Private Will be Key: Distributed Permission-less Ledgers Private and Public
Transparency is starting to manifest itself as the key “value add” feature in a few, yet VERY key and important use cases facing us in the real world “Main Street”. These key use cases are just getting solved now and need to scale (to millions of users and transactions per second) to really take their place in the world economy along existing fiat “command and control” economies.
eVoting (#AGORA et al..) is one of those few key use cases most touted in the crypto alternative media as one of the best “shining transparency examples” of public crypto (Great for Government accountability at the voter polls, but what about government accountability of spend?). It’s not all that simple to implement today in the “Blockchain” world of DLT tech as the underpinning technology of eVoting generally on the Blockchain does requires “Smart Contract” and external “oracle” gateway connections to existing systems to really enable the users to access such new “value add” Transparency.
10 “SC” Use Cases from Ambisafe — All good, except Trusted Price Discovery of Buy Sell Orders in the Price/Depth Charts of Trading Desk is MIA
It’s important to note yet again, DLT “ Distributed Ledger Technology” comes in several flavours, where some forms are better suited than others for the eVoting Transparency use case, depending on the use case setting characteristics. Are the setting characteristics private (within a closed usergroup like a business or institution with controlled member access) or public where literally anybody can vote on the eVoting issue posted (say a Survey on who likes milk or not?)
Clearly, today’s Blockchain developers looking to build solutions with real value add, which underpin the emerging, truly Transparent Open Market principles, have their solution and service architecture challenges in front of them.
We see glimpses of promise emerging from the list of communities above, all focused on different functional aspects of what would make up a blockchain enabled Transparent Open Market, however I am still searching for the effort going after what imo is the killer use case-
“Trusted Transparent Price Discovery”.
‘Blockchain’ DLT Transparency: The Killer Use Case —
Trusted Transparent Price Discovery
Not what it ought to be quite yet- How to? Trusted Transparent Price Discovery via Smart Contracts
First understand there are DLT choices to be made first before implementing the above Killer use case.
TK note- I am generally a fan of Coinmonks (click on pic above). Maybe Sebastian Wurst, the author of the pic linked post on Medium, will read this and update his Killer Use Case post 9th of April 2019 with this use case?
The differences between trusted “transparency of price discovery” supported by such “DPUB-PlessLT”(sounds like DeePub Plesselt) vs the “command and control” capabilities of Distributed Private Permissioned Ledger Technology “DPRIV-PedLT” (sounds like DeePriv Peddelt) are clear. Keep in mind the latter for example, are being led by communities and companies developing HyperLedger(IBM) and PowerLedger (Australian Private Company) solutions respectively.
When examining both theses quite different DLT Blockchain solutions, the service architect first highlights the extreme “economy model” differences between these two very different and prime technology variants of DLT, then carefully maps out how they might be used to deliver the solution and support the service offered, the so-called “diff” identifies the “pros and cons” of each , measured largely in terms of effort vs. reward keeping in mind business, community and ‘other’ goals the architect has in the context of the team in which he works (Largely most actions are directed by who is paying the bills to get the work done ultimately, so not much room for “altruism here really, unless the investors and or the community and users supporting the project are truly “wired” that way. It’s tough to live on 100% “Kumbuya”. :) )
Quasi “Hybrid DLT”: What is this Beast Anyway? The John McAfee “Ghost” Effect…
Then, there is this ‘other’ beast, a new emerging hybrid called Ghost, operating on what looks to be a Distributed Private Permission-less Ledger Technology, a la #MAIDSAFE (Now testing Vaults on their version) and the #SAFENETWORK, which now in the DEX sense Ghost with the McAfeeDEX. (Note Opening this link in Brave causes you to go to the Brave wallet add screen, just close and keep going to see site) To mix an acronym the Ghost DLT tech can be described like this DPRIV-PlessLT ( and sounds like this DeePriv Plesselt) which is essentially enabling private CUGs Closed User Groups to work over a permissionless distributed ledger tech to get the job done (deals, communications, content viewing etc…).
Placing your buy and sell orders into a DEX on a either a DPUB-PLessLT or, as is the case w/ McAfee, using a DPRIV-PlessLT model to support their McAfeeDEX design makes perfect sense, provided the Smart Contracts are bound to at time limited validity period and Transparent for all to see (within the select CUG) where ‘members’ have authorized access to the DEX, be it public or private, in terms of viewing/sharing that bid/ask info (like you what you find in the price and depth charts of your trading desk app or dapp).
Snuffing the Naked Short: A Blockchain Software Architect Call to Action — Enabling Transparent, Honest Trading, Buy & Sell on DLTs
While the above is relatively easy to do in theory using and transforming community open source one finds on Github, Gitlabs or bitbucket, or even NPM public repositories, there is a lot of design work up front required on the part of the architect and senior developers. Even so, implementing the descirbed functionality would in practice would ‘snuff out’ the abhorrent “naked short” behaviour played out daily in today’s crypto “gambling table” markets, and that IMO is a VERY VERY VERY good thing, foundational to the introduction and rapid adoption of Transparent Open Market Economies.
n.b- Time Stamping the actual creation of the buy and sell orders guarantees the right sequence of order clearing so having a reliable “trusted” NTP “network Time protocol” source operated by a trusted third party which is properly backed up (and EMP “Electro Magnetic Pulse” protected) gets my vote.
There are different forms of market out there which could definitely use an injection of Trusted Price Discovery, with crypto being one of them (all fiat markets suffer the same fate) which quite frankly, these days in the crypto world, is a really competition between different AI driven algorithms looking to build buy and sell walls to rapidly manipulate markets (running on big expensive Data Center Hosted Computing & Networking Gear) up or down to take advantage of P2P contracts (behind the curtains” bets) made largely between speculators at the gambling table “cryptocurrency” of their choice. Not healthy.
Be careful what you wish for- “The Technocracy Trojan Horse”- Neo-Feudalism 21st Century Style.
Given our daily “life’s centre” has shifted to the mobile phone, where we are spending most of our time being updated via apps controlled by a few companies, it’s easy to step back from all this and, see our world today is driven by economic forces under tight central control in corporate form which transcends geo-politics.
Browser and App based Search and Direct Messaging thru a WhatsApp, Direct Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram ‘portal’ (UI-User Interface) are certainly driving “real time’ rt information flow between our brains and other AI and Rules Based systems to satisfy both our information and economic needs in real time. Are we to be reactants and programmed ‘sleeves’ or sentient beings is the real question we should be asking ourselves AND, should we all be having access to markets and systems which are transparent with True(trusted) price discovery when it comes to buying, selling and trading in everyday life? IMO being sentient is fundamental to our ability to transcend the current government directed #cronycapitalist mess in which we currently operate & overseen by the world’s biggest technocrats, transcending on a foundation of transparency we all can trust (True(honest) price Discovery) from “sleeve to sentient” status which will boost GNH “Gross National Happiness” big time, where ever we live.
“Trusted Price Discovery protected with Smart Contracts. When will it show up?”
“True Price Discovery” in the World of Cryptonomics- Does it really exist in Today’s Crypto Markets? Can it be trusted?
Do you really trust the “trade action” visualized in today’s Crypto Trading desks showing the Buy and Sell “walls”? What commitment is indeed behind those price positions and who is driving that commitment.? (AI driven price points set up by Humans or by AI developed by Humans? Whi is realy in control?)
In the fiat world of government directed “Crony Capitalism”, true price discovery is essentially non-existent. Even the price of oil, long considered to still have some form of “open market” driven price discovery, has been measured by recent oil price events to be found wanting. Anyone paying attention understand oil/gas, energy in general is a driven by central decisions in a classic “command and control” fashion, where the real price setters operate in ‘opague’ conditions, feigning “open market” behaviour.
Is there a way to return back to “open market” true price discovery where “bids and asks” truly represent buyer and and seller value assessments, independent of “command and control” interference by governments and those interested in extreme “concentration of wealth” ‘get rich fast’ schemes?
Well in the crypto world the answer is right in front of us, DPUB-PlessLT “Distributed Public Permission-less Ledger Technology” can be fashioned into distributed exchanges “DEX”s with transparent “everybody follows the same rules” price setting and locked-in (prevent naked shorting) price bids and asks over a period of time via Smart contracts,. to clean this big mess we live in right now often referred to, as previously mentioned, “government controlled crony capitalism”. (GC3)
DIVING DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE- Who is running this “GC3” show anyway?
Now if you start to “dive deeper down the rabbit hole” of GC3 (hell we are all technical to some degree right? so we love acronyms?) the obvious question comes up “Who the heck is in control of this mess anyway?”. Well imo, clearly the politicians are not in control these days (and some would say have never been in control, which i tend to agree) . GC3 is really an orchestrated Neo-Feudal Technocracy, where the large tech giants themselves , who appear to be ‘running the show’ are simply puppets managing political puppets, where the former are truly controlled by those with extreme wealth and bigger power exercising complete “command and control” of all markets and related prices as they see fit.
Scale-able “TPS” and “Open Markets” with True Price Discovery- Massively Parallel “Shards” to the Rescue?- Maybe.. IOTA style…
True Price Discovery, so we can start with a solid base line most people will understand, is more akin to yester-years farmer markets, where all items offered are completely self-created from their own resource base cultivated, created and managed by the farmer and priced as a “good” by the farmer at the market, placed on the table and available to anyone near the table, where the price is set according to consumer demand (acquire it for the price offered to quench the need/want) and the “durability (freshness) of the good and, given what ever the scarcity of the ‘good’ happens to be of the within the immediate or timely reach of the buyer (Need/want window if you like).
“Blockchain” tech as we know, in the BTC Bitcoin context can, in theory, “sequentially” handle the “buy and sell” transaction settlement, however, the lack of BTC “Smart contracts” aligned with a “set of pricing engagement rules” like say “FIFO” first in First out settlement of the sell offer with a matching buy offer (best stored in a persistent (immutable) Smart Contract everyone can see(public ledger) and trust(open source, validated by many eye balls) , essentially removes the BTC type of “Blockchain” distributed permissionless public ledger technology out of the running to actually be used to centrally handle settlement of a DEX with “True Price Discovery” @ scale ( hundreds of thousands Transactions per second,” TPS”) , to handle global buy/sell “Open Market” volume with “True price discovery” effectively, in such a P2P Person to Person ‘set” of buy/sell transactions.
Game of Sharding- BTC Lightning Network- An Open Market Price Discovery Solution?- Sans Smart Contracts- NOT.
Oh the Big Battle or debate in Crypto. ETH 2.0 or Lightning?.
Now BTC Maximalists will argue, and rightly so, TPS @ scale will be handled by the Lightning Network quite nicely (once the bugs are ironed out and they con convince 3% of the global herd to adopt “their” way.). That’s “all fine and dandy”, exceptBTC and theit community are quite far removed from what has become a central “command & control” of BTC price partly exercised by centralized “Miner” activity, driven by a few people “behind the curtain” a la Wizard of Oz, managing the moneied interest of others far wealthier, in at best, a translucent way. Given there is really no transparency to the current BTC market and how it actually works, and no resitrctions on naked short placement of buy and sell orders which can be removed at whim (manipulating the price up( a dump) and down (a dump) ) as they like in concert (collusion through the back channel DM whispers, likely using Signal or Telegram a lot) , the Current market we observe, where altcoins track closely to BTC movement, shows how tightly locked (co-dependent) the buy/sell algorithms are operating on their AI driven “trader desk” platforms in today’s crypto market.
Today’s Command and Control Crypto Market- Can it transform to an Open Market with trusted, Transparent “True Price Discovery”
Make no mistake, we are caught in ‘the middle’ of the transition from fiat to true Open Markets with trusted and transparent price discovery, today the crypto market is a “command and control” market 100% AND, there is no real transparency, no real honesty, as far as price discovery goes, as no crypto buy or sell price offered is anything but a naked short.
Stepping back with a “a cold, analytical and critical eye”, those who have “done their homework” know, the current crypto market is mainly one driven by speculation and gaming strategy as that found in Casinos. Each crypto is its own ‘poker game’ with players jumping in and out of each table “game” trying to “out fox” the other players with their naked “backed by no real time/duration price commitment” short , buy and sell positions.
That said, advanced Smart Contract Development integrated with new forms of DEX which allow you to keep your hard value in your own wallet and facilitate P2P trade, buy and sell activities offer new hope “@ scale” to help us all realize a networked multi-blockchain world of Open Markets with Trusted Transparent “True Price Discovery” .
The above described current state of the crypto market does have some real “gems” adding real value which will become foundational pieces in re-creating the new “Main St. Economy”m they just need to go faster IMO given the current post 2020 crash mess we are all in.
Finding the Foundational Crypto Gems on which a Transparent Open Market Market with True Price Discovery Can Be built:
Look for “Main St.” Value Add Characteristics in your Crypto Investments
You can find these ‘value-add” crypto gems peppered among the current plethora of crypto “gaming” tables within the top 200 cryptos listed on coinmarketcap.com (being gobbled up by Binance.com as we speak).
There are also some “dark Horse” innovations “lurking” in the 200 to 4200+ cryptos currently created, many of them riding on Ethereum hard forks private (with centralized control like Brave, as it is a private concern). These newer innovations are able to link/convert (exchangeable/convertible via ERC20 protocol) into Ethereum’s public ledger, which is distributed and permissionless, provided some exchange central or distributed will ante up to essentially “trade” your private ERC20 token with a public ETH ERC coin at some price. (‘the price the market will bear’, ie- a match between a pair of buyer and seller offers).
@ Scale build of the new “Main St.” Open Crypto Markets- the Rise of Inter-Chain Routing and Networking
Linking is now emerging as a networking routing problem which both Cosmos and Chainlink (and others not listed in the TOP 30) looking to serve that market niche as a service with utility tokens bridging ERC20 compatible tokens and coins easily, helping matched buy/sell transactions to settle quickly @ scale (TPS booster through massive settlement path/connection parallelism of transaction settlement traffic over the TCP/IP networks of today, handled by multiple routing networking nodes operating in parallel.) Ok the “network pulmbing” of “Blockchain” is emerging fast, and that is a VERY good development. I say the more crypto variants adding true “Main St.” value the better. However an Open Market needs true, honest price discover and that means transparency of Smart Contracts on the DPUB-PlessLT @ scale.
Current “sharding” models and “sidelink” proposals to scale transaction per second “TPS” performance is all well and good, scaling Smart contract performance is a transparent way is a different mater, and this is where the evolution of DEX capabilities gets really interesting.
The GHOST in the Machine- McAfee Maneuvering is Innovation in It’s Raw Form- Making “Command & Control” models Accountable
Love em, or Hate ’em, 1 Million Twitter follower strong John McAfee does hold sway in the crypto market and, Mr. McAfee is on to what privacy coins really need to scale their use. That is McAfee’s seasoned developer team is re-building/transforming a version of earlier DEX tech with full privacy coin support this time, which i in this case will support his about to be minted “#Ghost” token with ERC20 protocol conformance( an allotment of Ghost token will be 25% Air Dropped in exchange for #EHS on his #McAFeeDEX to holders of EHS on May 23rd 2020, where such drops of Ghost lokk likely to be made concurrently to holders of EHS on IDEX or Mercatox DEXs as well.
OK, so how does this “Ghost in the Crypto Market Machine” make governments accountable? Well first, let me say Ghost and the McAfeeDEX are anything but transparent or accountable and touche’ , neither are governments anywhere in the world (infamous for saying one thing and doing another , having totally earned voter distrust globally these days.)
Call GHOST+McAfeeDEX a reciprocal “bitch slap” of the Fiat Command & Control Economies if you like or, what ever you want.
The fact remains, the creation of the GHOST+McAfeeDEX combination is a seminal “bell weather” crypto market development moment with high “globabl” visibility (antagonizing the private company IRS in the USA for example, trying to collect his taxes and many governments just generally trying to collecttaxes) is a HUGE ‘wake up call’ to action for any political aspirants with the “nads” to take up that implicit call for “government transparency” which is certainly going to get more than a few political types elects on this very old Ron Paul Platform of “Audit the FED” like voter energy.
The Ghost & DEX tech McAfee espouses to be the saviour of the investor, positioned as an order of magnitude change beyond Monero’s privacy offer, gives us architects and developers in the crypto world some direction on how to actually create a Transparent Open Market for Currency trading and the sale/purchase of goods and services on DPUB-PlessLT.
So thank you for that Mr. McAfee! :)
The missing ingredient to help us all transform into a new World of Trusted open Markets (and transparent trusted governance) is IMO, still Trusted Transparent Smart Contracts managing the buy and sell settlement pairs, coupled with DPUB-PlessLT tech to create a world finally of Trusted Price Discovery, whatever the market use case.
Food for thought
TK over and out.
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