Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Falon Fatemi Today's business landscape is demanding that companies spearhead large-scale changes in order to survive and remain competitive. In an ever-changing political, social, and economic climate, constant organizational change is the new normal. Few advancements promise to help organizations cross critical business chasms more profoundly than artificial intelligence. When it comes to business operations, artificial intelligence has enormous potential to catapult companies beyond the status quo and adapt to new dynamics.  1. Enhancing the customer experience According to research by Walker, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2020. The centrality of customer experience in today's business landscape has motivated many companies to adopt a more holistic approach to customer experience improvement. Companies such as Intuit, EMC, and Adobe all have core custom...

Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other innovative techs have significant disruptive potential. Within the course of time, this fact becomes obvious not only for community enthusiasts but also for traditional industry players. That is probably the major reason for world electronic bulls to explore the innovative possibilities to boost their own progress. Microsoft showed interest in blockchain technology back in 2018. They announced their plans to apply the technology behind Bitcoin (the leading crypto by market cap) in its decentralised IDs (DIDs) App. The company was support DLT-based DIDs through Microsoft Authenticator App. However, as of now, the project seems to be frozen.    Unstoppable IBM    IBM, another technological giant, has has shown interest in exploring blockchain and cryptocurrency techs even earlier, in 2015. As of now, the company is known to take part in several related projects.   In January 2019, Ford Motor comp...

By Moris Beracha .- Credit cards are financial instruments that allow users to perform certain operations from an ATM and pay for goods and services in installments. When speaking of credit payments, we must name Visa and Mastercard, two major credit card networks in that global market. Visa has publicly supported cryptocurrency and blockchain as part of the future, while Mastercard has patented in the US a method to “manage cryptocurrency fractional reserves in blockchain”. It means that Mastercard wants to create means for easing payments combined with the benefits of traditional payment systems. Also, it is highlighted that Visa and IBM announced their partnership as part of their new Ethereum payment platform initiative. Their role in what is also known as economy 4.0 can be essential for their development, since payment methods could become quicker, easier and safer processes. The blockchain designers are ready to work with any project requested by...

Ian Allison Online payments giant PayPal has made its first-ever investment in a blockchain technology company.  Announced today, PayPal has  joined the extension of a Series A funding round in Cambridge Blockchain, a startup that helps financial institutions and other companies manage sensitive data using shared ledgers. Neither PayPal nor Cambridge Blockchain disclosed the investment amount, but recent filings with the SEC indicate that Cambridge Blockchain has raised a total of $3.5 million in new equity from several investors over the past nine months. That follows the $7 million close of its Series A in May of 2018, and brings the total capital raised to $10.5 million. That first $7 million consisted of $4 million of new capital plus $3 million of converted notes , and came from several investors, including HCM Capital, the VC arm of Foxconn, which manufactures the iPhone for Apple, as well as Digital Currency Group. The subsequent $3....

William M. Peaster A cryptocurrency custody service entering its beta launch this month will use cloud infrastructure provided by international tech powerhouse IBM. It’s the latest notch in the powerful firm’s cryptoverse belt, as the company has already undertaken a slew of blockchain pilot projects over the last few years. That new custody solution, the Digital Asset Custody Services (DACS), is being launched by investment company Shuttle Holdings. It’s currently unclear the extent to which IBM was directly involved in the creation of DACS. However, it is known the custody platform will rely on the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services suite, which leverages enterprise-grade Linux servers from the tech titan’s IBM LinuxONE offering. IBM had highlighted the capabilities of that suite by allowing Shuttle Holdings to present on DACS at the former’s Think 2019 conference in February. The target market for the service will be institutional investors, as the platform is d...

By Adrian Zmudzinski The vice president of blockchain and digital currencies for IBM , Jesse Lund, said that he expects Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) price to eventually hit $1 million. Lund made his prediction during an interview with comparison and news platform Finder.com, published on YouTube on Feb. 20. Towards the end of the interview, Lund was asked what he expects the price of Bitcoin to be on this new year’s eve. He answered that he thinks it is going to be higher than the current price, clarifying, “I’ll go with $5,000.” He then continued his prediction, adding: “I see Bitcoin at a million dollars someday.” Lund explained that he “likes that number,” given that “if Bitcoin is at a million dollars, then satoshi is on value parity with the U.S. penny.” He noted that at such a value, the whole network would have over $20 trillion of liquidity. He then suggested that such liquidity could change corporate payments and high value payments in general, concluding:...