[Links of the Day] 18/07/2017 : Banking API, how Cooperation strategy evolve, Distributing file system images

• Teller : API for your bank account, already support a couple of UK bank. This is nice, however, I wonder how banks will react? Also, EU is forcing bank open their API but UK is leaving the EU, and there is a chance that the UK banking system will try to seize the chance to create its own independent banking API. Creating more barrier to entry for fintech startup. Anyway this is rather cool, however, I am still disappointed that most banks do not expose an API to access your data. 
• How Cooperation Evolves :  the authors looked at evolution as a thermodynamic process and found how cooperation strategy evolve and how they can be manipulated.  
• Casync : A tool for distributing file system images, really cool if you have to update images often and want to have a cheap traffic and storage wise solution. 

Links of the day 06/01/2016: art of ware, data analytic platform, #blockchain in 2015 #fintech

• Qminer : data analytics platform for processing large-scale real-time streams containing structured and unstructured data. Really cool if you want to provide real time classification or sentiment analysis solution within your product. [github]
• The art of ware : great reinterpretation of Sun Tzu classic for creating and marketing IT products. A classic and must read.
• Blockchain 2015: Slidedeck presenting and anlyse of the blockchain in the Finabcial service landscape

Links of the day 14/12/2015 : End of the year startup list for Bitcoin Fintech and Machine Inteligence plus Numa memory challenge

• Challenges of Memory Management on Modern NUMA System : ACM queue article on Numa and automatic memory management system. No surprise here : its hard to manage, and its going to get harder with core dependent process (dpdk ,etc...)
• Current state of machine intelligence 2.0 : machine intelligence and Autonomous systems focused startups landscape
• Global Landscape of Blockchain Companies in Financial Services : title says it all

Bitcoin: the blockchain ecosystem lubricant

As mentioned in a previous post, Bitcoin is a rather attractive solution for self contained market ecosystem. What is really attractive and useful is the underlying blockchain technology. Recently, banking institution and other financial institutions have started looking into the possibility to deploy blockchain technology to implement a distributed ledger system. However, these institutions might want to create a fully private self contained blockchain system, probably without any virtual currency functionality.

Private blockchain

Financials institution have an history of seeking privacy and control over the tools and mechanism they rely on. As a result, they will have the natural tendency to try to deploy their own private blockchain platform. Essentially, instead of having a fully public and uncontrolled network and state machine secured by cryptoeconomics (eg. proof of work, proof of stake), they seek the creation of a system where access permissions are more tightly controlled, with rights to modify or even read the blockchain state restricted to a few users, while still maintaining many kinds of partial guarantees of authenticity and decentralization that blockchains provide. The obvious objective for a consortium or company running a private blockchain is to be able to change the rules of a blockchain, revert transactions, modify balances, etc.

Private does not implies trust

The parties to a transaction have to be 100% confident that nobody can change the transaction. However, since you can change the rules at will there's a risk of manipulation of the system. The potential collusion, and lack of transparency for a system that requires an arbitration system to guarantee fair execution should be concerning for potential customer. Naturally, there is many incentive to have a private systems such that the need to protect the secrecy of transaction. But, you can still deliver such feature by relying on hybrid system where you have dark transaction pool sanctioned by the public infrastructure. Moreover, without a virtual currency to provide an incentive for uninterested third party to participate in the system, accountability remains difficult to ascertain.

Blockchain system lubricant : Bitcoin 

Public blockchain system is tied to a virtual currency, which reinforce its trust-ability while allowing an incentive in selfish participation. The principle is that blockchain consumer recompense participant in a form of tit for tat approach, allowing a more heterogeneous ecosystem preventing the dominance of a single type of participant as well as peer pressure to keep the system trust-able. Without it, the value of the currency will simply vanish and as a result remuneration from participation.

This heterogeneity prevent collusion (think LIBOR scandal) and make the system more robust and accountable. This is where bitcoin is really needed and shine, not for common everyday operations.