Interview: Global Blockchain COO Talks Hyperledger, Stellar Lumens and Kodak Coin
CCN.com correspondent Eric Eissler spoke with Shidan Gouran, president and COO of Global Blockchain about what the company does, Hyperledger’s role in the blockchain industry, Steller Lumens role as a link between enterprise and public blockchains, and the impact that Kodak’s ICO security token will have on the ICO securities market.
Hyperledger: The Enterprise Solution
Hyperledger is going to address the needs of the enterprise space. It’s a Linux-based open- source Blockchain, with substantial support from IBM makes it very promising to companies, which want to adopt blockchain technology. Compared to R3 , the Hyperledger solution is the better of the two, in the opinion of Gouran. This is because of the shared-space-across-other-companies aspect of Hyperledger, whereas R3 is more of a messaging platform and does not offer much more beyond that feature.
“It’s really just a database in the traditional sense with some more receipt functionality and process verification. That’s it.” Gouran continued, “we will be using Hyperledger in a solution that we will be announcing in Summer 2018 and we will be partnering with several state actors within in southeast Asia and the Middle East through the means of a trading platform.”
Besides the benefits of using an enterprise-based blockchain, Gouran stressed the importance of using a public ledger so that consortiums can interact with other consortiums. Which led us to the next topic: Steller Lumens.
Stellar Lumens Linking Enterprise and Public Solutions
Stellar Lumens was the offshoot of an early fork of Ripple. However, despite being of the same blockchain, Ripple is essentially a software company that sells banking software to banks. Gouran said, “Ripple’s ledger is not really being used for anything today. Ripple has nothing to do with blockchains. I am sure that one day Ripple is hoping that banks will adopt their software and currency, XPR. They got where they did today by leveraging the marketing of the hype blockchains.”
Stellar is focused on being an open network with a block-chain based solution, and they are not looking to build a solution for the banking industry. Stellar offers better back-end controls that you cannot find on decentralized blockchains, such as freezing accounts, KYTMLs APIs. Gouran further assets that Steller is going to be a major player in connecting enterprises with the public world.
Two Kinds of Blockchain Models:
- Stellar/Ripple Model: Centralized custodians introducing access onto a decentralized order book.
- Centralized order book with decentralized custodians. Essentially, the exchange does not have control of your actions. Transactions are randomized so that that it is impossible to tell the order of the transactions, preventing the order book from being front run.
He said that many looking to use atomic swaps and the lightning network is considered science fiction today, but will be more viable within the next 18 months, according to Gouran.
Kodak Coin: Properly Registered Security Token
In light of the delays, these are positive steps in the right direction. “They are the ones with the machetes breaking through the jungle of regulations, to make it easier for everyone after them to come into the security token,” said Gouran. Kodak is a trailblazer for ICOs because it is taking the time to pass through all the stages of making its ICO a security token and registering it with the SEC. By doing this, it will be a legitimate investment platform as well as having a business application.
Once it has passed all the requirements set forth by the SEC, Kodak Coin will be one of the first ICO securities on the market. It will have broken down the doors for the future by making the ICO security token registering process easier for others to follow in the future. According to Gouran, 2018 is going to be the year that securities get on the blockchain and that is going to be a big deal. Kodak Coin is going through all the hoops with the regulators, all the way. Be available to a retail audience in a proper way. That is a big deal,” said Gouran. A secure, regulated coin is going to fare much better and will set precedents for future security tokens.
Global Blockchain was founded by Shidan Gouran and Steve Nerayoff. The company evolved since its initial founding, in such that it will spin off its mining operations, which are the largest mining operations by capacity in North America, into a subsidiary company this April, called Global Blockchain Mining Corp. The anticipated combined power bandwidth for mining operations is 175 megawatts (between what is available immediately and what will be made available later). Global Blockchain will remain as an investment firm or incubator for other emerging blockchain- and token-based companies.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
