[FinTech Magazine] - The UnOrdinary Edition, Supply chain & Blockchain

FOREWORD

PHAN NGUYEN KIM LONG

FOREWORD

Good bois read Play Boy

... But cool kids read FinTech Magazine

Hello everyone, it’s your guy, Long. The FinTech and Blockchain Industries have always been a hot topic. Many people want to know more about this field yet barriers such as “Where do I even begin”, or “This is so overwhelming” always come up. Well guess what, this FinTech Magazine project is about the change the game! This Magazine Project is going bring latest, hottest, most captivating of in-field knowledge to FinTech lovers like you and me. You want reliable, informative news? Magazine. You want to know about the RMIT FinTech Club and the abundance of amazing things we do? Magazine. You want nothing less of a spectacular reading experience? You guessed it. Magazine! It is my pleasure to welcome you to our sixth publication of the FinTech Magazine! In this publication, we hope that you will have wonderful time learning about our club and what we do, and the collection of FinTech and Blockchain content that we have so dedicately prepared for you. … And many thanks to the content team: Minh Anh, Duc, Nam, Dung, Bao Tran, and to the design team: Thuy Anh, Khanh Linh, Thien Kim, Gia Huy, and Quang Vo. We also appreciate our lovely supervisor for this Magazine, Phan Thanh Lam. Without all of your support, this FinTech Magazine could never be completed with this level of quality and love. Much love my muchachos <3

Mission

Develop a community of FinTech enthusiasts beyond the RMIT community and expand the club’s presence among uni versity and highschool students in Vietnam. To build viable FinTech products with potential commercial use. To create an environment that would equip my members with the technical skills, knowledge, network, and most importantly, the confidence to engage with the FinTech industry beyond the scope and boundaries of our university walls. That is what I must do. Not to adhere to my responsibilities but a promise coming from my genuine passion and dedication.

MESSAGE FROM GREAT EXECUTIVE

Vision

My vision to to create an envirment that would incubate stu dents, turning them from FinTech enthusiasts to future lead ers within the FinTech space. From expanding our club connec tions with companies to building innovative FinTech products, I wish to create many opportunities for the members to not only learn but also expand their connections within the space. This would allow the members to build the confidence they need to interact and pursue a career within the FinTech Industry.

“Be happy when you’re criticised because you don’t learn from compliments”

FinTech Club through

What do you think about our current club’s vision?

I think our club’s goals are fairly long-term targeted and practical, which shows a lot of determination. And dare I say quite “ambitious” at this moment. Members joining the club have achieved a lot of insightful information, had a chance to expand their relation ships. Moreover, as most of our members are from SBM and SSET, our club’s objective to create commercial products is especially helpful in providing critical thinking skills, pushing them to selfstudy, research more market demand, trends, cutting-edge tech nologies and combine these knowledge with their creative ideas.

“FinTech not boring and talented also very

What do you think about the new EB, as an oldbie?

As an oldbie, there have been trouble in the management in Sem A was still fresh, so some changes didn’t work out But there were substantial improvements in Sem B, as the improved their problem-solving skills and their recruitment However, I still feel some disconnection between departments, President and the HR department have come up with plans this issue within the next semester. Overall, I’m really excited next semester.

What do you say about FinTech future?

The club’s visions are practical and forward-thinking. With the creativity, enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn more about these changes and commitment of the EB and members, there is no doubt that our club cannot achieve goals.

through the lens of..

“FinTech Club is an academic club but it is boring because there are professional talented people with lots of energy, very fun at the same time”

oldbie? Is it good or bad?

OldBie Tuong Le

FinTech Club through

“RMIT FinTech is a great community for all of the Tech Gurus to develop showcase their technical prowess.”

through the lens of..

What do you think about our current club’s vision?

community develop and prowess.”

One of the visions from the current Executive Board that I love is to build a viable product with potential commercial use. This realistic vi sion is crucial in expanding the club’s presence and allowing members to stay relevant in today’s fast-paced digital world. I have had many chances to gain hands-on experience in the club’s projects, and enjoy interacting with people, sharing knowledge and learning from others.

What do you think about the new EB, as an oldbie? is it good or bad?

In the short future, after being through 2 semesters and gather ing many experiences, I believe the following semester will witness a significant change, and the FinTech club will accomplish many outstanding achievements. Especially with the new 2k4 fresh man generation, joining the club the following semester is worthy and can’t be missed. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

What do you say about FinTech future?

In the long-run, the club might run through a little “chaos” with the change in generation with new visions and ambitions. We must accept that things change quickly and the situation can and will get worse — Murphy’s Law al ways invites itself to the table. However, this would also be another valuable chance for all members to develop. Once a crisis is in motion, turning it into an opportunity often requires new ways of seeing, thinking, and responding.

FinTech Club through

What do you think about our current club’s vision?

One of the visions from the current Executive Board that I love is to build a viable product with potential commercial use. This realistic vi sion is crucial in expanding the club’s presence and allowing members to stay relevant in today’s fast-paced digital world. I have had many chances to gain hands-on experience in the club’s projects, and enjoy interacting with people, sharing knowledge and learning from others.

“This

What do you think about the new EB, as an oldbie?

In the short future, after being through 2 semesters ing many experiences, I believe the following semester ness a significant change, and the FinTech club will many outstanding achievements. Especially with the generation, joining the club the following semester and can’t be missed. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime

What do you say about FinTech future?

In the long-run, the club might run through a little “chaos” with the change in generation with new visions and ambitions. We must ac cept that things change quickly and the situation can and will get worse — Murphy’s Law always invites itself to the table. Howev er, this would also be another valuable chance for all members to develop. Once a crisis is in motion, turning it into an opportuni ty often requires new ways of seeing, thinking, and responding.

through the lens of..

is not just a club, it is family.”

oldbie? Is it good or bad?

and gather semester will wit will accomplish the new 2k4 semester is worthy once-in-a-lifetime experience.

OldBie Son Le

The FinTech Magazine project was a project with the objective of promoting the FinTech industry amongst the student community and to spread the enthusiasm for this booming industry. As such, the FinTech Magazine project aims to bring the lat est news and trendy developments within the industry along with what RMIT FinTech Club is currently doing in accelerating the FinTech spirit with university students across Vietnam. Through the member’s passion and dedication, the project was able to produce a handful of editions such as the Au gust 2021 Edition, the July 2021 Edition, the September 2021 Edition, the January 2022 Edi tion, the Special Edition: Immersive FinTech News, and

Participants are provided with hands on experience of a start-up with workshops covering both the business and technical side of blochain featuring 5 professionals guest speakers from Kyber Network, Binance, RMIT and Ad - Colony. In fact, two of which are

live streamed publicly to promote this new knowledge area to the Vietnamese community. RFBC also collaborated with 11 judges and mentors, who came from popular Blockchain businesses, to support to teams to deliver their best solution at the final pitching.

Besides the popularity of the judges and mentors, the marketing effort throughout 3 months also helped RFBC to stay strong un til the end. Voting for the “People’s choice award” really helps to regain the interactions after a while of marking the white papers from the students.

PREVIOUS OUTSTANDING PROJECTS

Featuring Cardano Project Catalyst Vietnam

The objective of the project is to introduce the participants to the elements that would constitute a good blockchain project and the Catalyst Fund; a treasury of the Cardano Blockchain Platform. The participants are guided on how to write their blockchain project proposal, find support and feedback from the Cardano community, and ultimately find fundings for their projects to elevate it from just an idea into something tangible!

TAKING THE BLOCKCHAIN INITIATIVES

“The project gives me more uate a good blockchain project. Fund, they also give us much

Self Development

This project was the guide for club members from making their transactions on a blockchain network to deploying their DAPP! As such, the members were taught about the fundamentals working of a blockchain network, how to use their first cryptowallet and deploy their smart contract through Remix, the Solidity programming language, Web3.js, and tools such as Truffle and Hardhat!

DAPP DEVELOPMENT

more knowledge on how to create and evalproject. Since this is taught by the Catalyst much useful insight of the project.” - IVP

RFBF 2023

The RMIT FinTech Blockchain Forum 2023 will be focused on provid ing employability opportunities, knowledge, and connections with the student communities. The forum will also act as a platform for the various student-led initiatives to showcase their research and activities to attract and connect with the larger student community as a whole while also promoting the industry’s growth. Students will also get the opportunity to provide their CVs, interact with company representatives within the field, and bridge the distance between being just an enthusiast and being a talent within the growing field.

AWS FinTech Blockchain Day

In collaboration with AWS, RMIT FinTech Blockchain Day is coming up hot this November of 2022 brimming with excitement. From trendy topics such as the Ethereum Merch to interesting applications imple ment both cloud computing and blockchain technology. In addition, the event will also touch on the foundation behind decentralized fi nance (DEFI) as well as examining cryptocurrency markets and in vestment opportunities in the near future. With high profile speakers coming from a variety of different big players within the industry such as the Ethereum Foundation, AWS, Dragon Capital, Coin98 Ven tures, and more, this is the event that you wouldn’t want to miss!

3

Star Up Competition

Bringing back the entrepreneurship spirit from one of the club’s most successful project, the Collaborative Project. he Star Up Competition is similar in nature in the sense that our business and technology depart ment members will work together to create innovative FinTech projects. Through various workshops with invited guest speakers, mentorships, and guidances from industry professionals, the members will learn not only enrich your knowledge about the field but also applying it to create sustainable business models, built functional prototypes.

Etherium Merge: The Next Big Thing For Cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrencies, the buzzword in the tech industry nowadays; with loads of benefits but also comes with tons of controversies: One of those visiable concerns appeared is the massive power consumption. Take Ethereum for example, the largest smart contract platform, consumes around 85 terawatt-hours of electricity annually –comparable to Finland; CO2 emissions and carbon footprint produced as large as Norway's.

Luckily, Ethereum plans to solve this with the Merge. What this does is to reduce the computer hardware involvement and the carbon emission released. Once the new technology is put into use, the electricity requirement for Ethereum’s function would drop by nearly 99%. Etherium Merge Project has been successful since many environmentalists applauded the decision and after the launch, the price of ETH pump for a short period.

Google Wallet Vs. Google Pay: Why The Change?

In May 2022, Google announced its new Google Wallet at I/O Developer Confer ence. However, this is not the first time Google Wallet was introduced, nor is it the only wallet from Google. In fact, Google Wal let has already existed for over a decade but was quickly replaced.

Google Wallet was launched in 2011 as a mobile payment service app. However, ear lier versions of it were, well, a bit lacking. First, it was only available for Nexus phones. Second, the app only accepted Citi Master Card accounts or Google Prepaid Card. So it’s easy to understand why it wasn’t popu lar, so it was replaced by Google Pay, while it was repurposed as a peer-to-peer payment service, like PayPal. But now, Google Wallet has returned stron ger than ever, with a new look and a whole set of features like allowing users to store debit and credit cards, or tickets. The new Wallet app has completely replaced Google Pay in 39 countries.

Infamous “Crypto Queen” Wanted By Fbi

Recently, the FBI has just added Ruja Ignatova, the one behind the One Coin scam in 2017, to the top 10 most wanted list. So it sounds really bad, but how bad was it that it is called “One of the big gest scams in history”?

OneCoin was a crypto scam that debuted in 2014. It was advertised as a “better Bit coin”. However, to call OneCoin a cryptocur rency is not exactly correct, because One Coin was actually centralized, and not like pretty much every other cryptocurrency.

The coin’s value was artificially manipulat ed.

In October 2017, she was supposed to give a speech in Portugal, but she just dis appeared, and no one has ever seen her since. But the fraud stopped in 2019 when her brother was arrested after taking over the business. It is said by US prosecutors that the global revenue from the scam was almost $4 billion.

The scam happened when most people didn’t know much about cryptos therefore, people were easily tricked into investing in OneCoin. So the takeaway from this is that you should be well educated and consider investing in any assets, especially crypto currencies.

Blockchain And Digital Identification For Vietnamese Labor

Can blockchain help businesses? Well apparently, it can, and it’s happening right here in Vietnam.

Blockchain is used to digitally identi fy housekeepers in the project “Applying blockchain technology in solving laborer-re lated issues”. This project is a collaboration between The Asia Foundation, Vietnam Blockchain Corporation (VBC), and JupViec. vn - a website for hiring housekeepers. The system has connected around 2,000 housekeepers to potential customers via its website and mobile app.

The system automatically updates the workers’ digital identifications to the block chain, so the data is secure and transpar ent. The system will have a record of the workers’ information, which helps custom ers see the workers' profiles, and workers themselves can use the record as evidence of their experience. Mr. Michael DiGregorioThe Asia Foundation's representative hopes laborers can use their digital identity to gain access to social security services.

The Future of Fintech and Traditional Banks

It is estimated that digital transformation can save banks up to 70% of operating cost.

The banking industry in Vietnam is ac tively transforming their model to digi tal banking, partly due to the increasing growth of the Fintech industry creating pressure on traditional banks. Therefore, many experts believe that a collaboration between Fintech companies and banks is needed for both industries to grow to serve their customers better.

Cake by VPBank is a digital bank created by VPBank and BE Group to suit the diverse needs of customers. After 20 months, Cake has had 2.3 million customers, which is an extraordinary number for a tradi tional bank. The partnership also allows BE drivers to lend from VPBank, and the credit card co-branded by BE and VPBank has gained popularity thanks to being con venient and easy to set up.

How

Bornyakov.

did cryptocurrencies help Ukraine during the war?

It is a great achievement of the government that we have young leaders; we are more enthusiastic and willing to accept changes."

Alex

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has caused the Ukrainian economy to suffer greatly. “Our banks were limited, there were restricvtions on our use of fiat currencies and we were rapidly running out of supplies.” Alex Bornyakov - Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine on IT industry development. So now the country is looking for cryptocurrencies as the solutions to these problems.

Interestingly, Ukraine had been adopting cryptocurrencies even before the war even happened. Thanks to a young and tech-native

government, the country ranked fourth in the world for crypto adoption among its citizens.

Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has been accepting cryptocurrencies as donations, and the country has managed to raise over $100 million worth of cryptos. The government plans to be the first developed country to release its own NFT collection.

With a working title of Meta History: Museum of War, each token will be an artwork about a news story from each day of the war. The tokens will be used to raise money and “provide an immutable record to record and reflect on the conflict”.

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND

TThe stunning fall of the Terra stablecoin made the overall crypto mar ket unstable, wiping out more than $200 billion in space. The value of Luna coin plunged about 80 percent, making the coins worthless. 1 UST has been pegged almost exactly to 1 US dollar since its release, but on May 9 it crashed, and it is now worth just about $0.11 Stablecoins are cryptocur rencies usually pegged to a fiat currency, such as the dollar. Any developed stablecoin has to be backed by collateral to stabilize

its price. There are three types of stablecoins: crypto-backed, where the token is collateralized by cryptocurrencies; fiat-backed, in which the to ken is pegged to either USD or Euro; and algorithmic coins that rely on algorithms to maintain their supply and demand and maintain their price to a dollar. A common notion is that stablecoins are not expected to be wild price fluctuations and overall crypto volatility, making them a more secure investment. This wasn’t the case with Terra.

Luna Was a Ponzi scheme following ? scam scam

Other debates about Ponzi scheme

So with these signs in your mind, was Luna a Ponzi scheme? Most would say yes, and I would agree. But what about some other assets that we're more familiar with? How about gold? Some would argue that gold is a Ponzi scheme, but at least gold has actual value because of its scarcity, and it can be helpful in many situations. What about social security retirement? Well, that's a bit more controversial, as the system uses the current workforce wages to pay current retired workforce income, betting workers on continuing to pay retirees through generations. Can this be considered as using new investments to pay for old investors? That's a whole other case to discuss and argue about.

scam scam

Betrand Perez, CEO of the Web3 Foundation, likened the current state of the market to the early internet era and said there were lots of “scams” and many “were not bringing any value.”

All Ponzis are scams, but not all can be considered Ponzi scams. So what is a Ponzi scheme to be exact? should steer clear.

Pay old investors with new investor money

Ponzi schemes work by encouraging people to invest, and they would use that same investment to pay a return for the previous investor. So unsuspected investors would just think that they made a return on their investment. In the case of Luna, the value of the entire Terra ecosystem is actually in the investors’ money. Even the LFG reserves the money backing the system was built on Luna token deposits made valuable by investors.

Be insolvent (Can’t pay back the debts)?

The whole concept of Ponzi scams means that they can’t pay off their debts as the system relies solely on investor’s money. There was a point when the promoters had enough money in the system to back everything, but everything would collapse if they tried to pay off the debt.

Other signs to keep an eye on

If the promoters promised ridiculous returns, like how the promoters of Luna promised a 20% APY returns when depositing TerraUSD (UST). 20%? For a stable coin? Yep, sounds ridiculous to me. Furthermore, a Ponzi usually discourages withdrawals and fake promises to be a real business with a questionable leader.

Another big no-sign is when the leader makes questionable statements and judgements as such

By my hand $DAI will die”

What I said was having fun staying poor” 95% [of coins] are going to die, but there’s also entertainment watching [them] die too.”

Continue in poverty ser”

In September 2021, El Salvador was the first country that adopt Bitcoin Cryptocurrency as a legal trading method. This surprising decision was made by the well-known president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who strongly supported the crypto market and believed in the cryp tocurrency of Bitcoin. He said: “It’s game over for dollar, Bitcoin is the future”. The whole economic salvation was bet on Bitcoin with the hope as it will successfully pay off in the future. However, more than half of 2022 has passed and the gamble seems doesn’t pay off as well as El Salvador’s government hoped it would.

A factor worth mentioning for this bold decision; according to World Bank, is that El Sal vador was heavily dependent on remittances, which made up 20% of the country’s GDP in 2019 - before the “Bitcoin revolution”.

Moreover, 70% of the citizens don’t even have bank accounts and cannot live with the avai lable remittances brought to the country. Also, El Salvadore Colons is extremely un dervalued and volatile against the US Dollar. Therefore, the change to Bitcoin would be a relief solver for any mentioned turmoils. Proving the belief

the president put on Bitcoin, Nayib Bukele tweeted: “What has been ca lled by international organizations as “The Bitcoin Experiment”, is no thing more than the world watching how mass adoption changes a coun try’s economy. If it’s for the good, it’s game over for fiat,” adding that, “El Salvador is the spark that ignites the real revolution.” “Bitcoin is the future. Thank you for selling cheap”. The initiative involves buying Bitcoin with public funds and launching a national virtual wallet called “Chi vo” that offers no-fee transactions and allows for quick cross-border

“The app, which stores and exchanges Bitcoin, saves Salvadorans fees on the $6 billion sent to the country from abroad each year and boosts the economy,” - Nayib Bukele.

accept the cryptocurrency. With such integration, sending money and receiving money is completely trust-less .No risk, no firms involved!

The experiment also involved buil ding a nationwide infrastructure of Bitcoin ATMs across the country and requiring all businesses to

Making Bitcoin legal tender in other countries allows for a more decentralized economy, owing to the fact that bitcoin is nigh-impossible to hack, and it cannot be influenced by a single entity or organization, which removes the poten tial for bias or manipulation of the system. Furthermore, Bitcoin helps bringing investors to the country, eventua lly boosting development and employment and making civilians happy.. With more and more projects like Bitcoin City to even mine for Bitcoin further for the future of El Salvador to finance the country in the long term (Mining in Geothermal plant, harnessed from volcanoes to power Bitcoin mining).

Nayib Bukele: President of El Salvador

THE FUTURE CAN BE PREDICTED

“Some people are worried or anxious about the #Bitcoin market price. My advice: stop looking at the graph and enjoy life. If you invested in #BTC your investment is safe, and its value will immensely grow after the bear market. Patience is the key,”

- Nayib Bukele

MiningBitcoin in this facility will make it che aper, totally clean, and expected to increa se the Bitcoin supply on a large scale. According to Bukele, the residents of Bitcoin city won’t have to pay any income, property, capital gains, or even payroll taxes. The city would be built with attracting foreign investment in mind. The country also allows Bitcoin mining to everyone.

The president of El Salvador still believes in the future of Bitcoin and still purchases additional Bitcoin even though Bitcoin is crumbling. He wants to go bigger with the trust of most people and the whole government system. However, According to CoinDesk data based on Bukele’s announcements, El Salvador is 55.03% down on its Bitcoin bet. From September to date, the country has acquired 2,301 coins for $103.9 mi llion, but its portfolio is currently worth $46.6 million. El Salvador loses half of its investment in Bitcoin as the market plummets.

Furthermore, there is a possibility that all the public money in investment can one day be gone, thus creating concern for the citizen. Peo ple are “forced” to accept, But then people trust the president’s decisions of Bukele’s firm belief.

However, some still disagreed greatly with this change and even went for several protests against this.

After a few weeks of adopting Bitcoin, in Sep tember, thousands of people gathered in El Sal vador’s capital Wednesday for the first mass march against President Nayib Bukele, who pro testers say has concentrated too much power, weakening the courts’ independence, and may seek re-election. Some Salvadorans even say he is becoming “a dictator”. “The time has come to defend democracy,” said one of the protesters, former Supreme Court justice Sidney Blanco. “This march is symbolic, it represents weariness with so many violations of the Constitution.” Bukele’s New Ideas party won a congressional majority this year and immediately after taking its seats in the National Assembly. Regardless, Recent public opinion surveys in El Salvador have said that most Salvadorans oppose ma king it an official currency. Still, Bukele says there are now a half million users of the digital payment system in the Central American nation.

THE DARK SIDE OF

The very first thing we need to dig into is the NFT mechanism, what exactly it is and how it operates. I can guess 90% of you will think NFT is digital art or digital property, but guess what? You’re total ly mistaken. In short, NFT is actually a digital receipt of a transaction which points at something off-chain. Si mply, when you buy a digital art work, you practically buy a unique location on the Ethereum blockchain which leads to the pub lic text file, and inside the text file contains the URL that has the picture on the internet. Hence the NFT is considered to be a “physical evidence” demonstrating that you have bought that digital artwork. Here is one example: the Bored Aped Yacht Club ( BAYC ) - one of the most expensive NFT monkey pictures. The URL of that NFT will be found from the tokenURI function, all you need to do is to enter the NFT ID in Open Sea and there appears the URL.

Then, once you finally get access to the URL, you will witness all the attributes making up a monkey image from the code line { “trait_type”} All of those characteristics of a monkey, including “Spiner hat”, “sleepy” eyes, “Bored Par ty Horn” mouth,... are automatically randomly generat ed by a computer, but some of the attributes are ad vertised to be less available meaning rarer, meaning scarcity. This fundamental has contributed to the astronomical value com pared to other monkey pictures, not be cause of some deep philosophical art value.

“NFT IS ACTUALLY A DIGITAL RECEIPT OF A TRANSACTION, NOT A DIGITAL PROPERTY”

F DILEMMAT FinTech Magazine:

ROBERTSON ROBERTSON

ROBERTSON ROBERTSON NFT COPYRIGHT IS STILL A TOTAL MESS

ROBERTSON

bly nothing, at least nothing that the law can protect. Under some circumstances, for example the Bored Ape can adjust the condition and without notifying to the “illegal” buy ers and restrict some benefits, hence the NFT reference work can be changed beyond your acknowledgement and you can get rug pulled. Consequently, the vague NFT purchase with the lack of contract law and the sense of ignorance to terms of conditions would leave you nothing but a waste of money.

Apparently, the actual thing when you buy an NFT is a contract between the buyers and sellers since NFT is hypothet ically a digital receipt. Nevertheless, a rudimentary conundrum has emerged : in practice there are rarely any contracts between the initial buyer and secondary buyer, and all of the downstream buyers later. In other words, not a piece of con tract is materialized between the sec ondary buyers and the original owner of NFT. So if you buy an NFT without any sale terms, what have you purchased? Proba

Another controversial issue is the copyright law. Nor mally, NFT is bound by the rules of the copyright law. Un der most conditions NFT does not abide by the original sales terms, thus the attachment of copyright some times is not available when it comes to purchasing NFT. For example, NBA Top Shot, a NFT marketplace for sports fans to buy sell and trade basketball video clips, does not give you the copyright of the original videos and restricts user’s licenses to access to videos in extremely limited places. Without copyright, buyers cannot enforce against someone displaying that NBA videos which they bought somewhere else, or NBA can prevent them from revealing the particular clips if they display it in a way that conflicts with the NBA top shop license.

Therefore, buyers do not have the legitimate rights to be protected since copy right issues are of paramount importance in accordance with digital arts, that’s the only right the law recognizes. you have nothing with the defi ciency of copy right. ironically, copyright is a scarce resource when it comes to digital arts. There was such a special case that the US court declared the only regconization for a copyright was art being created by human

TS ome of us might heard of the Ninth Circuit Case, a handsome monkey took a selfie with the photographer’s camera and the photographer tried to exercise the copyright law in the artwork. Peta, on the other hand, entitled the copyright to the money. Paradoxically, the court an nounced no one has the copyright as only humans can create art. So… a masterpiece coming from a machine cannot be exercised the copyright and it seems to be a feature of NFT (automatically programmed by AI or computer). Since physical token is not available and no copyright is attached to digital arts, you’re getting nothing that is protectable under the law, and selling or trading can be regarded as “illegal”. If you are not buying the copyright for digital art work, what are you legally buying? And what’s the point of spending a bunch of money to buy such a “useless” thing?

Let’s put all the negativities aside since the investment in NFT is more than just digital arts. NFT fashion has put itself on the map for the intro duction of digital clothes, Crypto Fashion Week and “Phygical” fashion which sells both tangible clothing together with NFT items. Even famous and luxurious brands including D&G, Gucci, Burberry… commence on releasing NFT collections. This can be the first step for the preparation of the Metaverse since many companies and individuals have already acquired digital assets. And isn’t it cool imagining your Metaverse avatar get dressed up in those unique outfits!!

OTHER THAN

Apart from fashion, an interest in owning digital land has proliferated since Facebook changed its name to Meta. Well, people are now really buying real estate on the internet. Weird, right? You must think “Why on Earth would anyone buy digital land? And what can they do in it? Online camping?”.

As a matter of fact, it resembles buying real physical land, not to mention its simplicity. Platforms such as The Sandbox, Decentraland, Earth2 allow you to access to digital land. Thanks to the power of NFT, each piece of land is unique and has value, therefore you can easily sell it to another owner. Plus, assuming that the metaverse will be a thing soon, you can generate profit from your land by leasing or setting up virtual stores.

JUST N F T ART THAN

Another incredible use of NFT is the NFT tickets. Wait, can we have that too? That’s new, but what’s the difference compared to the traditional one? Probably it can be generated faster and need no intermediaries to distribute the tickets. One extraordinary aspect of NFT tickets is that it cannot be faked with the uniqueness and the smart contracts related to NFT system.

So, what is supply chain?

First, a supply chain is a network of organizations, people, information, activities, and resources involved in delivering a service or product to a consumer. This network typically spans multiple countries and connects many stakeholders:

• Producers — source raw materials, manufacture parts and assemble the final products

• Transportation companies — move the products to other organizations

• Warehouses — store the products until they are needed Distribution centers — supply the products to retailers

• Retailers — sells the products to the end customer

As the supply chain becomes more complex and global, the need to integrate business processes across the entire global supply chain resulted

in the idea of supply chain management. Supply chain management (SCM) works to design and implement the most efficient and cost-effective process possible. SCM relies on companies and corporations involved in the chain to exchange accurate and up-to-theminute information about the market demand, sales, internal production, internal inventories, or distribution. This allows for better-planned overall production and distribution, which cuts costs and delivers products to the consumers more efficiently, thus generating better sales.

Even a small fluctuation can lead to numerous problems, such as lost and delayed goods, reduced productivity, or lost profits. The increase in visibility thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) and advancing technology has reduced the cost of purchases by granting the stakeholders quick access to the necessary information. However, IoT is still vulnerable to IT errors and hacking. The benefits and potentials of IoT are evident and obviously outweigh the downsides as many supply chains rely on IoT devices.

What is blockchain all about that people keep talking about right now?

Blockchain could be seen as a distributed ledger: a chronological chain of 'blocks' where each block contains a record of valid network activity since the last block was added to the chain. Each block could be defined as an encrypted piece of information. Theoretically, anyone can add data to the chain of blocks by transacting in the network, anyone can review this data at any time, but no one can change it without adequate authorization. As a result, a blockchain is a complete and immutable history of network activities shared among all nodes of a distributed network.

Blockchain makes it possible to build applications where multiple parties can execute transactions without a trusted central authority. It eliminates the need for third-party intermediation or control and helps

remove friction in all types of value exchange that can arise from costs, risk, information, and control. In a typical blockchain interaction, trust among a distributed network is possible due to the validation or mining process where each new transaction is verified by the whole network before being added to a blockchain. Incorporating blockchain technology in the supply chain can significantly enhance the transparency and traceability of supply chains while simultaneously reducing costs. Since supply chain participants have their own copies of the blockchain, they can review the status of transactions, identify errors, and hold counterparties accountable for their actions. As a result, blockchain provides a complete, trustworthy, and tamperproof audit trail of activities in the supply chain.

LOGISTICS

HOW BLOCKCHAIN CAN HELP IMPROVE THE SUPPLYCHAIN?

1. Authentication and quality check

2. Improve transparency

B

lockchain technology enables efficient tracing of the origin of goods from a store to a specific manufacturer or producer. The data is highly accurate and credible as each batch of products is equipped with a tag that effectively monitors the location of the goods and the interactions between participants of the supply chain.

Each supply chain participant can check the information for each ship, container, or cargo at any given time, as all the import ant data is stored on the blockchain. This also reduces discrepancies in the documentation. Transparency also offers an opportunity to regulate the delivery process at the micro-le vel, which can drastically reduce fraudulent activities and inaccuracies.

3. Improve delivery process

Blockchain technology creates a digital docu ment in the cloud infrastructure that allows supply chain participants to accurately track the location of cargo and products. A growing num ber of vehicles are lost due to inefficient tracking and loss of sight of conventional systems, and blockchain can help overcome these limitati ons. Functions such as invoicing, payments, and physical movement of goods can be made more cost-effective, easier to audit, and automated through smart contracts and self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement bet ween buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code [4]. Transactions with smart con tracts are trackable and irreversible; therefore, the distributed ledger can reduce errors, shorten delivery times, and flag fraudulent activities.

4. Improve billing and payment process

Blockchain can automate the process of invoi cing and payment, ensure accuracy and ti mely calculations, eliminate the need for paper work, guarantee compliance with transactions, and accelerate the overall process.

Example to demonstrate how the technology can be used in the supply chain network

Consider a medicine supply chain where a medicine has to be supplied from manufacturer to patient via the packaging, shipment, and retailer.

This medicine must be kept under -5 degree Celsius at all chain stages.Many issues could arise in the chain from the initial manufacturer to the shipment and, finally, the customers, such as late shipment and inadequate packaging. How difficult is controlling the supply chain in medicine?

"There are several main reasons for drug shortages. The primary one is a disruption in the supply chain; by supply chain, we mean all the things leading up to that drug appearing in the hospital pharmacy or the outpatient pharmacy. And these supply chain issues include problems with manufacturing and problems with quality control of the manufacturing" - Dr. Janet Woodcock. In the traditional system, any organization involved could deny taking responsibility if any issue occurred. Using blockchain technology, we can make the information of each

stage in the supply chain transparent and undeniable. In this example, everybody in the blockchain system has to provide information such as:

Received date and time

• Delivery date and time

• The temperature of the medicine when received

• The temperature of the medicine when delivered

• The private ID of the organization

• Hash of all the above information

If there is a problem with the temperature of the medicine, for example, it arrived at the retailer with a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. The manager, who has all of the private keys and instructions of the system, can reproduce the hashes to find where the problem occurred. (The manager can review the history of the chain, which is a decentralized document. They can find which member has caused the problem) Theoretically, the problem occurred when the medicine was in the shipment department's procession, and they denied the responsibility. They might lie about the information in their block. The manager can check the hash of the retailer since tampering with the values in other blocks will change the hashes of both shipment and retailer.

WALMART

By digitizing the entire food supply chain process, Walmart is utilizing Blockchain technology to add transparency to the food supply ecosystem. With the help of hyperledger fabric, the company can make the process transparent, traceable, and reliable. Employees can track products for their origin, and it only takes a few seconds to scan dozens of products to know where the fruit came from and where it is stored. Technology helps Walmart employees track the origin of food in just a few seconds instead of days. Moreover, it reduces paper waste, automates the entire process, and accelerates supply chain transparency.

3 COMPANIES ARE CURRENTLY

FORD

In late January 2020, it was announced that Ford Motor Company is preparing to utilize blockchain to trace cobalt supplies. Cobalt is considered to be an essential component of electric car batteries. Ford, with IBM, plans to track its raw materials like cobalt from the suppliers. Utilizing blockchain, the motor company wants to ensure that they get an authentic product to maintain its quality. When cobalt is mined, it will get on the ledger, and the company can track where it's going.

CURRENTLY USING BLOCKCHAIN SUPPLYCHAIN

UPS

UPS, which stands for United Parcel Service, is another one of the companies using blockchain in the supply chain. In November 2018, this logistics giant joined the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA) to increase supply chain transparency among all organizations. In March 2019, it was announced that UPS and e-commerce technology company Inception collectively rolled out a blockchain-powered platform to enhance merchant supply chains. Apart from that, UPS has also filed a patent for a blockchain system that would store package destination, movement, transportation method, and other crucial information, thus ensuring efficiency and transparency.

SyncFab - $17 Million

Blockchain startup SyncFab is a distributed manufacturing platform that uses blockchain technology to securely track the creation of parts and simplify and improve the process for OEM hardware supply chain buyers. It primarily serves the supply chains for OEM parts in the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries.

CargoCoin - $5 Million

CargoCoin is a decentralized system built on the blockchain that links logistical operations and smart contracts to enhance payments for supply chain firms. It entirely removes the need for physical papers and replaces them with the use of smart contracts due to its own cryptocurrency and worldwide marketplace.

EverLedger - $4 Million

The U.K.-based blockchain startup EverLedger offers a free platform that delivers a safe, permanent digital record of a product's ownership, qualities, and place of origin. It assesses 40 different characteristics of a diamond and records them on the blockchain so that any stakeholder may verify the legitimacy of the seller and the product's authenticity. It also provides aid in the detection of risk and

RoadLaunch (Factr)

- $5 Million

Canada-based startup RoadLaunch: a digital wallet integrated with the company's RoadLaunch Intelligent Digital Logistics platform that allows cargo carriers, shippers, and financing partners to conduct transactions more efficiently and make decisions based on transaction history and digital records.

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