WHA D BLOCK!? Pt.2 – On d Block (a.k.a. Uses of Blockchain) - Gerard Ferreira

You’ve now read the first installment in this series (RIGHT??). To recap: blockchain is a digital decentralized database that is transparent and immutable (dictionary.com is your friend).
Traditionally equated to cryptocurrency, there is much more to the technology, due to its structural benefits. Below we explore blockchain’s potential!

Cryptocurrency
We have to start here, because of how intertwined blockchain and cryptocurrency are. Blockchain was basically created in response to frustration with traditional banking flaws such as transaction fees, a third-party “controlling” your funds and payment processing requiring days. ⏲️

Cryptocurrencies were created to be the digital assets that serve as a store of value/medium of exchange and are transferred via blockchain.
I.e. a cryptocurrency, e.g. Bitcoin ₿ , is a digital means of payment that is exchanged via blockchain.

Payment processing and money transfers
Don’t let Cryptocurrency fever fool you, friend. Not only can ‘traditional’ currencies and payments be exchanged using a blockchain network, but transaction validation and processing will be *much* 🚀faster.

Supply Chain Monitoring
Most businesses - from your doublesman to Amazon - rely on supply chain management in some form.

Any issue in the chain can lead to great loss.

Blockchain adoption enables materials in the supply chain to be monitored at any point, resulting in inefficiencies being highlighted (and resolved) and quality control to occur at a much faster rate.

Voting
Worried that your political opponent tampered with ballots or voter padded? Blockchain to the rescue!

Blockchain storage of national ID/voter data 🗳️ will allow voting to be done securely and digitally, while inherent transparency allows regulators to easily ensure everything is above board.

And no late-night waiting for results!

Property Ownership and Transfer
With property ownership records on a blockchain, transferring ownership becomes a much easier, faster and more secure process, as title and receiver legitimacy is quickly verified.✅

Removing the paper trail significantly reduces ability to ‘cheat’ the system and thus begs the question - how will ‘smartmen’ adapt and what will families fight over now?

Stay tuned next week, as we dive into the creation of a blockchain!

Celebrities branding pushing 'head' in Caribbean weed industry. - Dave Williams

Well as you may know, American pop stars are diversifying their portfolios with weed agronomy, with celebs putting their names, reputations and cash where their pot mouths are. A new fraternity of actors, musicians and athletes is rising to endorser ranking like Marley, Tosh, Banton and the Ganja Planter himself, Marlon Asher. Shifting legalization in the US is affording degrees of economic legitimacy and consumer confidence that are moving marijuana towards mainstream profits backed by star power.

The opportunity is glaring with the weed market set to explode as legalization in many countries Caribbean and otherwise continues. What the potential for the Caribbean? Former Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson’s California-based branding and licensing company, Tyson Ranch, is set to expand its operations with a weed theme park in Antigua & Barbuda. With new laws and welcoming administration, the territory is attracting more foreign investors to its corner.

Hip-hop icons Jay-z recently dropped US$50M into one of the largest SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) in the competitive California cannabis industry. The superstar and social activist is the company’s Chief Visionary Officer and has put his hard-hitting brand and business savvy behind products ranging from:

• paraphernalia and pre-rolls

• to lozenges,

• gummies and

• body butter.

Even Martha Stewart has launched a new line of CBD products and joins her hoss, Snoop Dogg, in pushing level weed.

Stalwarts like Carlos Santana and Willy Nelson are investing. Can the next big ‘spliff’ be a Caribbean investor branded weed by Beenie Man, Machel or Allison Hinds? The glamorous tension between cannabis and creativity is as old as pop culture itself, which has always smoldered with the draw of artistic freedom and notoriety. But today, cannabis is infused with celebrity in the bong of big business.

Flowing in the other direction on the value chain, Jamaica’s Marley clan has licensed their family name to at least one Californian company boasting conscious farming practices. Many foreign brands borrow even more of our Caribbean identity. The appropriation of the ice, green and gold colours associated with the Rastafarian movement is a prime example.

Celebrity power packs a powerful punch. It’s time to come out swinging.

WHA' the Block! Talking about Blockchain Tech. - Gerard Ferreira

If you’ve been online or around anyone who has been online in the past 10 years, you’ve undoubtedly heard of cryptocurrency and might have heard of the technology that enables its existence – blockchain.

Before we get into crypto though, it helps to have an understanding of blockchain.

When you have that, you’ll realise how much MORE than crypto can be supported, especially aspects of life that are *very* relevant to us in the Caribbean, like voting and land ownership.  😲

Keeping the technical ‘heights’ to a minimum

Blockchain is a series of connected data records, called ‘blocks’,

They are decentralised - kept on hundreds of thousands of computers across the world and regularly updated.

Each block has a storage capacity. Once filled, a new block is created and added (or “chained”) onto the previous block, in chronological order, creating a Blockchain.

Once a block is filled, it’s time-stamped and given its own unique code, called a hash, that includes the hash of the previous block. Because these hashes are mathematically generated and each block is linked together and housed across an ever-growing number of computers, it makes it *REALLY* difficult to change the block’s information after the fact.

To alter any record, you’d have to change that record’s hash on aaaaaalllll, or at LEAST the majority, of the other computers in the network.

Suffice it to say: bobol (i.e. corruption/bribery/cheating the system) REAL HARD to get away with.

As a result of this transparency, security and decentralisation, Blockchain has traditionally been used for e-commerce, financial data, currency and digital assets such as NFTs (article coming soon!) but is increasingly being explored, internationally, for the housing of other valuable info such as landowner, national ID and voting records.

Which means T&T should officially jump on board in about 15 years.

So, like it’s 5pm on the Beetham and yuh just get bless up from a Bobo - that’s blockchain in a nutshell. Tune in next week as we look at the many uses of Blockchain!