Sue Britton, Advisor, Corporate Innovation & Partnerships
September 26th, 2018
Sue Britton is CEO & Founder of FGS (FinTech Growth Syndicate) – Canada’s leading FinTech innova[...]
How AI and Blockchain Have Changed Canada’s Business World
Guest post | Marie Fincher | Oct 26, 2018
The international business market is filled with the implementation of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. Professionals trained in their industries fear the day when AI will be sufficiently developed to swap places with them.
Canada is a powerhouse in this regard and given the nature of government and organizational legislations already in place, pieces are slowly falling into place. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how AI and blockchain technologies have changed the face of Canada’s business world and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
The State of AI and Blockchain
Before we introduce the potential of these technologies in perspective to Canada’s growth, let’s clear them up a bit. Artificial intelligence represents a step towards a utopian future where people focus on personal and professional development, while automated machines do the rest for them. We see this trend in factory manufacture, web development and even GPS systems. It is most commonly seen in social media and other internet platforms in a form of a chatbot, a constantly-learning algorithm capable of customer support and rudimentary communication.
See: Cannabis & blockchain: Bad romance or a perfect match?
In terms of blockchain, the technology is widely used to track cryptocurrency exchange across the public and dark web. It was introduced in necessity and with noble intent. This initial role was quickly transcended when businesses saw the potential of tracking their own, internal data with blockchain. Soon the proverbial cloud was filled with financial documents, business reports and HR paperwork. The technology continues to provide a cleaner, quicker and cheaper way of doing business for willing participants. But how do these technologies fare in terms of Canadian economy and business industry?
AI in Canada’s Business Development
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have become a mainstay in numerous industries. Things such as AR apps, chatbots and self-driven vehicles are not a thing of hypothesis anymore. Canada’s own development in that respect has received global praise, given the open nature of their dealings.
Foreign investors continue to add their contributions to the proverbial table and continue to accelerate Canada’s AI breakthroughs. With the USA and China and their continuous inward spiral, Canada is poised to emerge as the leader in terms of technological development and infrastructural expansion across the globe.
As global support continues to rise for the North American country, so does the government and union support. Canada’s lawyers association expressed their thoughts on the potential of both AI and blockchain in the country’s economic development. With this level of support, both small startups and large enterprises are encouraged to seek new innovations.
The Blockchain Aspect of Canada’s Development
Even though blockchain started as a means to track cryptocurrency exchange, its presence and potential cannot be overstated. The technology can now be applied to financial tracking, maintaining of documents as well as networking between companies. This opens the door for international partnership opportunities which were impossible only a few years ago. Canada’s numerous industries, including renewable energy, have already expressed their interest and desire for blockchain implementation.
See: How Blockchain Can Help Marketers Build Better Relationships with Their Customers
This mentality serves to prove the open-minded nature of Canada’s CEOs towards pioneering new ways of doing business. Imagine a Canada in which law enforcement, formal education and even home security are all interconnected through blockchain technologies. The safety of individual citizens as well as their professional development potential would effectively skyrocket as a result. However, such an endeavor would mean a nation-wide effort, both from government and private sectors. Whether or not this is the blockchain future we will see in the coming years remains to be seen.
What the Future Holds (Conclusion)
It’s hard to talk about the future and AI development without sounding too optimistic. Global initiatives based in Canada have already begun developing joint technology based on AI and blockchain. This tech aims to improve the business decision-making and development of the consumer loans market across Canada.
Toronto’s stock exchange has already seen a surge in popularity of blockchain when it comes to public stock trade. The aim is to have this technology present in everyday stock trade in order to streamline the processes and ensure that more exchange takes place each day. Businesses and stock owners have responded positively to this change of pace, which bodes well for blockchain in Canada’s trade scene.
See: Why FinTech needs 5G
Make sure to keep an eye out for announcements, news coverage and social media reception of Canada’s business world to AI and blockchain. No matter where you stand personally in regards to autonomous technologies in public use, fact of the matter is that Canada is leading the charge. The country has seen a spike in popularity both from overseas investors and ambitious youth ready to disrupt the industry and bring about a technological change. All that is left is to wait for the inevitable country-wide implementation of blockchain technology and AI to gauge the public interest and utility of the project.
* * *
Marie Fincher is a content writer at Trust My Paper with a background in marketing, technology and business intelligence. She frequently writes about data science, BI, new marketing trends and branding strategies. Marie gradually changed her focus from working in marketing to writing about it.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Crowdfund Insider | Helena Murphy | Feb 20, 2019 The world of business equity raising is still dominated by men. Melinda Gates wrote in ReCode back in 2017: “We like to think that venture capital is driven by the power of good ideas. But by the numbers, it’s men who have the keys.” Gates argued that this was “more to do with historical inequalities than it does with innate ability.” At the time of Gates’ comments, a U.S. analysis found that just 2% of venture capital finance went to start-ups founded by women, and with women comprising just 9% of the decision-makers at U.S. venture capital firms, the lack of female VC representation seemed a compelling reason as to why. The situation a year on shows no sign of improving. Recently, a UK VC & Female Founders report for the Treasury discovered that for every £1 of VC investment, all-female founder teams get less than 1p. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss said it was “incredible” that in 2019 men had a “virtual monopoly on venture capital.” See: Meet the women who are making sure blockchain is inclusive Even within the more disruptive, and arguably progressive, realms of crowdfunding, women are underrepresented – Crowdcube found ...
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Read More
Read More
CNBC | Hugh Son | Feb 14, 2019 The first cryptocurrency created by a major U.S. bank is here — and it's from J.P. Morgan Chase. Engineers at the lender have created the "JPM Coin," a digital token that will be used to instantly settle transactions between clients of its wholesale payments business. Only a tiny fraction of payments will initially be transmitted using the cryptocurrency, but the trial represents the first real-world use of a digital coin by a major U.S. bank. While J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon has bashed bitcoin as a "fraud," the bank chief and his managers have consistently said blockchain and regulated digital currencies held promise. The lender moves more than $6 trillion around the world every day for corporations in its massive wholesale payments business. In trials set to start in a few months, a tiny fraction of that will happen over something called "JPM Coin," the digital token created by engineers at the New York-based bank to instantly settle payments between clients. See: Do Banks Even Want to Go Blockchain? J.P. Morgan is preparing for a future in which parts of the essential underpinning of global capitalism, from cross-border payments to corporate debt issuance, ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Alejandro Cremades | Aug 2018 Is debt or equity fundraising smarter for startups? There is more than one way to fund a new business venture and fuel its growth. For almost all, it is going to require bringing in outside money at some point. Even if that is only to multiply what is working or to create a source of emergency capital. The two primary options are to either leverage business debt financing or fundraise for equity investors. Each method can carry its own pros and cons. It is vital for entrepreneurs not to blindly follow the herd just “because everyone else is doing it.” Discover which is best for you, at your stage in business, and stack the most advantages in your corner. Once you have decided the course of action and have a lead investor covering at least 20% of your financing round you would typically also include in the pitch deck the form of financing in which you are raising the capital. I recently covered the pitch deck template that was created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) where the most critical slides are highlighted. Debt Financing We’re all familiar with debt. At ...
Read More
Read More
Financial Post | James McLeod | Feb 9, 2019 The Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister gives the Financial Post an early look at Ottawa’s report card on innovation that will be released next week Navdeep Bains wants Canadians to know that things are happening. Lots of things. The Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister has a big job on his hands, hauling Canada’s economy into the 21st century by embracing artificial intelligence and a panoply of digital technologies to boost productivity and keep us globally competitive. But the federal government’s innovation agenda is still very much a work in progress. One of its pillars, the five marquee superclusters spaced evenly across the country, is mostly just an idea at this point, although $950 million in funding is beginning to flow. Does Canada feel more innovative than it did four years ago? Are we future-proofing our economy and seizing the jobs of tomorrow? Bains certainly thinks so and that belief will probably be part of the Liberal’s pitch to voters when the country goes to the polls later this year. Next week, he will release a 100-page government report called Building a Nation of Innovators that mostly serves as a ...
Read More
Read More
Modern Consensus | Leo Jakobson, February 4, 2019 Move is latest series of steps by regulator to bring clarity and less confrontational approach to regulations enforcement The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants to know if the technology to help it monitor major cryptocurrency blockchains for risk and regulatory compliance issues exists. The SEC is not looking to buy big data analytics tools at this time, but characterizes its interest as “conducting market research to determine the availability and technical capability,” of the tools presently available on the market, it announced in a notice on Jan. 31 What the SEC wants to know about is the “ability to provide the requested data but also an overview of the processes used to extract the data, convert the data into a reviewable format, and the verification steps to ensure there is no loss in data completeness and accuracy due to the data transformation tools and processes applied.” The software it wants would also make the data easy for SEC staff to read and understand on an ongoing basis, and would provide insights about that data—notably identifying who the data belongs to—as well as a way of ensuring the data is accurate and ...
Read More
Read More
NCFA Canada | Feb 8, 2019 Ep24-Feb 8: Re-imagining Philanthropy with Daryl Hatton About this episode: On this Episode of the Fintech Friday's Podcast, our host Manseeb Khan sits down with Daryl Hatton the CEO of Connection Point. They chatted about microprojects, saving little girls and puppies and how to get hooked on Philanthropy. Enjoy! Focus on value and avoid the complicated terminology when growing new innovative markets Branding customer segment-focused funding products, white labeling collaborative uses cases Crowdfunding for good at the intersection of technology, people and impact Host: Manseeb Khan, NCFA, Fintech Fridays show host Guest: DARYL HATTON, Founder and CEO, ConnectionPoint / FundRazr (linkedin) BIO: Daryl Hatton, CEO of award winning international crowdfunding company FundRazr and of the innovative sponsored crowdfunding company Sponsifi has founded multiple start-ups and helped bring one to a successful NASDAQ IPO in 1999. He actively serves as board member or advisor to handfuls of other hot companies in Canada. In addition, he is a Director and Crowdfunding Ambassador for the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada. As a social media guy and frequent public speaker, his Twitter tagline includes words like “#KingOfGastown, entrepreneur, cardiac survivor, foodie, whisky nut, philosopher, mentor, father and friend.” * Senior Business and Technology ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Michael del Castillo | Feb 4, 2019 It’s a balmy 80 degrees on a mid-December day in Singapore, and something is puzzling Allen Day, a 41-year-old data scientist. Using the tools he has developed at Google, he can see a mysterious concerted usage of artificial intelligence on the blockchain for Ethereum. Ether is the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency (after bitcoin and XRP), and it still sports a market cap of some $11 billion despite losing 83% of its value in 2018. Peering into its blockchain—the distributed database of transactions underpinning the cryptocurrency—Day detects a “whole bunch” of “autonomous agents” moving funds around “in an automated fashion.” While he doesn’t yet know who has created the AI, he suspects they could be the agents of cryptocurrency exchanges trading among themselves in order to artificially inflate ether’s price. “It’s not really just single agents doing things on their own,” Day says from Google’s Asia-Pacific headquarters. “They’re forming with other agents to have some larger group effect.” Day’s official title is senior developer advocate for Google Cloud, but he describes his role as “customer zero” for the company’s cloud computing efforts. As such it’s his job to anticipate demand before a product ...
Read More
Read More
Bloomberg | Doug Alexander | Feb 4, 2019 Without digital keys, clients lose access to coins, funds Board said last week that it was seeking creditor protection Digital-asset exchange Quadriga CX has a $200 million problem with no obvious solution -- just the latest cautionary tale in the unregulated world of cryptocurrencies. The online startup can’t retrieve about C$190 million ($145 million) in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether and other digital tokens held for its customers, according to court documents filed Jan. 31 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nor can Vancouver-based Quadriga CX pay the C$70 million in cash they’re owed. Access to Quadriga CX’s digital “wallets” -- an application that stores the keys to send and receive cryptocurrencies -- appears to have been lost with the passing of Quadriga CX Chief Executive Officer Gerald Cotten, who died Dec. 9 in India from complications of Crohn’s disease. He was 30. Cotten was always conscious about security -- the laptop, email addresses and messaging system he used to run the 5-year-old business were encrypted, according to an affidavit from his widow, Jennifer Robertson. He took sole responsibility for the handling of funds and coins and the banking and accounting side of the business and, ...
Read More
Read More
Forbes | Jeff Kauflin | Feb 4, 2019 This article was updated on 2/4/19 to include Ripple, the fourth-most valuable private fintech company in the U.S. Financial technology startups continue to attract a growing amount of attention and capital. In 2018, valuations of the biggest private companies bulged, and at least six new fintech unicorns were minted in the U.S. U.S. fintechs raised $12.4 billion in funding, or 43% more than 2017, reports CB Insights. That growth outpaced the 30% increase in venture investments across the entire U.S. market. And fintechs will need those dollars—they tend to burn about two to three times as much cash compared with other startups, according to an analysis by Brex, likely due to factors like regulatory hurdles. Here are the 10 most valuable private, venture-backed fintechs in the U.S.: 1. Stripe, $22.5 billion Originally a service to help small online sellers process payments, today Stripe serves tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, too. In 2018 the company announced three new high-profile products, including credit card issuing technology, point-of-sale software and a billing platform for subscription businesses. Cofounders: CEO Patrick Collison, 30, and president John Collison, 28. Irish-born brothers, dropouts from MIT (Patrick) and Harvard (John) ...
Read More
Read More
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