2020-03-25

Date

25 Mar 2020

Attendees

• Vipin Bharathan dlt.nyc

• Kelly Cooper
• Bobbi Muscara
• mani pillai
• Sean Young
• Jim Mason
• Karen Ottoni
• Michael del Castillo
• Danno Ferrin

Goals

Discussion items

Recordings

Minutes

Anti-trust policy

Capital Markets - first every use case is payments. Part of the capital markets umbrella. We formed this group 6+ months ago. The rationale is to discuss different aspects of capital markets and see where blockchain - Hyperledger technologies- apply. Started with a taxonomy - structure of instruments of capital markets. Published on the projects page. Second, different projects people are interested in, some current, some not, some active. Examples, regulations, standards, (see projects page).

eThaler token formula - how it becomes important to think about a token as a composable set of behaviors and, subsequently, what those behaviors turn out to be in terms of implementation. Meaning, to have behavior such as transferrable, you have to finally implement with an interface that has a certain signature. Have to be met - interfaces are contracts (basically) between implementation and outside world. Contract says this particular behavior, to be implemented, must have these functions and the function signature has to be 'x'. Freezes the contract with the outside world. Addresses interoperability. 

Why is eThaler important today? If read House Bill created a couple of days ago (1,400 page document!). Significant QE for the people. And, why is a central bank - digital currency important? Talk about giving a check to Americans, the way to distribute it is with a digital wallet, and blockchain. This first distribution is QE. The concept of CDBC seems to be in view of House Finance Committee. Significant step. Crises product new ideas and acceptance of new ideas that will live on long after Covid 19. 

Article - author argues why do we need a digital currency in US? Thinks differently about central bank digital currency. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblack/2020/03/01/who-needs-cryptocurrency-fedcoin-when-we-already-have-a-national-digital-currency/#1ca5ef8b4951

All deposits are digital, credit card transactions are digital. But, it always comes with an intermediary. That's where the risk is tremendous. Digital cash in your account is protected by FDIC only up to a certain amount. What is standing in the back of all of this, (and it's tied to a bank, if the bank goes bankrupt, currency moves to another bank, etc). FDIC ultimately moves account to other banks, but only to the max amount insured. Difference with CBDC, not any of those things. Backed by the central bank. Backing doesn't change, mechanics do. If you're holding in your wallet, nothing is standing between you and the central bank guarantee. Of course, the central bank can go under (low risk). 

Misinformation - why we have digital cash today or CBDC, the point is many countries are going for it and not all misinformed. They know more than some article authors. 

Current crisis - thousands of dollars to all people - digital wallet great idea for transferring value. Also, in NY, with Big Apps blockchain challenge. Digital wallet alert people to money and services, wallet has powerful repercussions also.

Emergent uses are important. 

== Move to eThaler project.