Blockchain Tracker: Edits, Approvals, Music & Bono

Bono once said, “Music can change the world because it can change people.” Blockchain proponents would argue in favor of that concept, especially after this week’s announcement from Ujo Music. The startup has its eyes — or, in this case, ears — on disrupting the $15 billion music industry, which Forbes said could stand to benefit from blockchain.

Artists tend to lose up to 86 percent of the proceeds they arguably should be getting from their music. That’s because musicians typically have to go through deals with several intermediaries, such as record labels, publishers and distributors, in order to make their music available to the masses. Ujo Music has a plan to usurp the two major challenges — payments and accessibility — by building a blockchain-based platform helping artists to own their content and get paid directly by their listeners. No middleman (or woman).

Ujo Music isn’t the first to do this. PeerTracks has a solution that allows artists to interact with their fanbase by acting similarly to a digital service provider. The startup allows users to stream and download music, but it only has a 5 percent fee compared to Apple’s 30 percent fee.

It may seem profound to connect blockchain to music and get giddy about what industries will take on blockchain.

The Bank of England is saying, “Calm yourself.”

While the Bank of England has been aggressive as a central bank in terms of investigating blockchain and related technology, its officials are saying that widespread adoption is far from happening soon.

Andrew Hauser, the central bank’s executive director for banking, payments and financial resilience, said: ”There is no likelihood of such an extreme revolution occurring any time soon. Much more work is needed across a whole range of issues, including speed and scaleability; confidentiality protections; developing common protocols; integrating cash and securities movements; and establishing regulatory and legal norms.”

Recently, the Bank of England released a consultation paper on the role of technology in the future of payments.

That’s your opinion, Hauser.

In fact, Santander may not agree with England’s bank because it wants to offer customers digital money powered by blockchain. How, you ask? Santander said it would grant people the ability to “tokenize” cash to make small payments. Perhaps similar to Venmo, but the digital currency, which is now known as “Cash ETH,” would only be used for smaller everyday transactions, such as a morning coffee or filling up at the pump.

“These tokens are backed by real money in Santander,” Roman Mandeleil, founder of blockchain-based development platform Ether.camp, told CoinDesk.

With the small transactions, it frees up pocket and wallet space that would otherwise be taken up by cash, including coins, considering the transactions are so nominal.

Experts say this is a major change in consumers connecting with blockchain technology. That said, Santander said this wouldn’t roll out for at least more two more quarters, if not more.

Meanwhile, “the land down under” got a “digital fist bump.”

Australia was cleared last week to lead the way towards standards that guide implementation of blockchain technology.

The International Organization for Standardization — knowns as ISO — has reportedly given Australia clearance for its proposed blockchain standards development plan. Standards Australia will head the committee to guide implementation of blockchain technology and the messaging standards. The ISO committee is comprised of members from the U.S., U.K., Germany, Canada, Japan and others, reports said, and is looking to generate a streamlined and standard language for “interoperability among systems, privacy, security and terminology.”

Mini-croissant or mini-bond with that coffee?

French BNP Paribas Securities Services is looking at letting companies issue mini-bonds on its blockchain technology platform.

Marc Younes, head of business management at BNP Paribas Securities Services’ Innovation & Digital Lab, said: “Blockchain technology is particularly suited to the fundraising needs of private companies as transactions volumes are typically lower than for listed companies. This technology could also serve to standardize processes around the trade lifecycle of mini-bonds.”

According to a press release, the mini-bonds are for private company shares. BNP has hooked up with renewable energy crowdfunding companies Lendosphere, Enerfip and Lumo to let private companies issue the mini-bonds through the blockchain technology.

You may remember back in April, BNP Paribas Securities Services announced it was working on a platform designed to enable private companies to issue shares on the primary market and, ultimately, give investors access to the secondary market using blockchain technology. Well, this announcement is the first fruits of its labor.

But the whole point of blockchain may be turned on its head, due to consulting firm Accenture, which said it has developed a prototype to enable a central administrator to edit — yes, edit — private blockchain records.

This announcement to “edit” includes the ability to rewrite and to remove from and tweak blocks from a permissioned blockchain, without making a break in said chain. Accenture even said it has filed for a patent on this “editing” capability in both the U.S. and the European Union.

Seems unorthodox, right?

The benefits, said Accenture, are that there are “extraordinary circumstances to resolve human errors, accommodate legal and regulatory requirements and address mischief and other issues, while preserving key cryptographic features.”

Richard Lumb, group chief executive of financial services at Accenture, bolstered the announcement by stating: “Our invention strikes a balance for enterprise use that preserves the fundamental value of the technology, while enabling enterprise adoption.”

The prototype will allow permissioned users to expunge a record completely, which Accenture said will be helpful to corporates and regulators.

As for JPMorgan Chase, it may be far from its blockchain objectives.

Abhijit Gupta, the multinational bank’s head of science and technology in the Asia-Pacific, said: “Over the past year-and-a-half, the processing time of our system [improved by] 10 times, but in fact, what we need to achieve is 1,000 times. “

Despite that comment, JPMorgan said it is financially committed to the course, along with other initiatives related to technology.

Back in Dec. 2015, JPMorgan revealed it would invest $9 billion in blockchain and robotics technology through the end of 2016.

As for ol’ Bono, he also has said, “The less you know, the more you believe.”

So, now, we know more between music, mini-bonds and editing of blocks within a chain … What’s next to believe?