Combatting Deforestation With 3D Printing

Environmental pioneers must celebrate the news of 3D printing disrupting deforestation and the timber industry.

A new method for growing material similar to traditional wood possibly eliminates all deforestation while enhancing the already broad uses for 3D printing. 

Currently, industrial forestry eliminates roughly 10 million hectares of forest each year, obviously leading the charge against global deforestation. Therefore, this newfound capacity to create custom “timber” from a lab-based setting reduces waste while enabling forests to remain untouched. 

Scientists at MIT demonstrated how this material is grown from cell cultures, tailored to meet specific property requirements. Like how we have oak, birch, and mahogany, wood-like materials can be grown on demand.

3D Printing “Wood” to Stop Deforestation

In the first stage, the scientists extracted cells inherent to the leaves of young elegant zinnia plants. Then they grew in a liquid base for two days before converting into a gel.

In this second gel stage, the hormones of these cells are adjusted to provide them with specific physical and mechanical properties like density and stiffness. As a result, they behave similar to stem cells, according to our MIT researchers. 

Using 3D printing, or bioprinting, these plant materials could be grown into artificial shapes, sizes, or other forms impossible to achieve through traditional methods. We eliminate deforestation by growing new “wood” and the waste associated with manufacturing and carpentry. 

In other words, manufacturers specify the exact parts needed and their quantities. These materials are then grown to meet specifications, such as strength, durability, color, shape, texture, etc. Again, there is no cutting involved–no second stage beyond transportation. 

“The idea is that you can grow these plant materials in exactly the shape that you need, so you don’t need to do any subtractive manufacturing after the fact, which reduces the amount of energy and waste. There is a lot of potential to expand this and grow three-dimensional structures,” said Ashley Beckwith, the lead author behind the research paper published by Materials Today.

Upgrading On Demand Manufacturing

In this context, a 3D printer produces the gel solutions in their desired form through a petri dish. Thereafter they incubate for three months at a rate roughly double the speed of a tree’s natural growth. 

Lower hormone levels within the culture generally result in plant materials with lower density, while higher hormone levels yield denser and stiffer materials. 

The researchers at MIT acknowledge that this a pioneering study. More research is required to understand how the plant materials can be made more wood-like. In particular, if and how extraction could happen from sources beyond the common zinnia plant—such as the commercially valuable pine.

Sustainable Finance and Global Equality

Conclusions extracted from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, demonstrate that sustainable finance disproportionately supports high-income countries, increasing global inequality throughout the world. 

This not only widens the financing gap for meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); it adds to the current crisis of global inequality. In this vein, “sustainable finance” becomes non-ESG. Put another way, the irony is profound, lost or found. 

The push for sustainability and sustainable finance inadvertently amplifies inequalities as 97% of new sustainable investment funds concentrate upon higher-income countries. Lower-income countries consequently obtain fewer resources to spend on their recoveries and development plans. 

This is because policies avoiding non-sustainable sectors (and regions or countries) avoid low-income nations still heavily reliant upon activities that produce relatively more carbon dioxide. And these nations often use these carbon-intensive activities due to lack of alternatives, which require capital and some existing income if support is unavailable. 

How More Action Can Help

A secondary cause is the lack of available data necessary to demonstrate compliance with sustainability standards. Otherwise viable investment opportunities remain hidden, exacerbating current biases in investment decision making, and continuing the mismatches between needs and offers with sustainable finance packages. 

Third, there also remains a lack of a structure supporting low-income or developing countries. For example, the ESG and sustainable finance communities contend with “more than 200 sustainability initiatives or coalitions of actors.” Both low- and high-income countries must navigate through hordes of individual requirements and taxonomies, depending on which investors they intend to solicit. 

By placing the sole emphasis upon rules without considering the natural limitations inherent to developing nations, global equality increased through a key global mechanism—sustainable finance—designed to combat it. An independent, competent third party must answer the call by transparently and objectively connecting deserving nations to sustainable investment funds.

A Lithium-Ion Battery Now Gets 60% Charge in 5.6 Minutes

A team of China-based researchers who published their groundbreaking work on Science Advances completely transformed electric vehicle charging stations from something akin to full afternoon siestas to quick pitstops by revamping the standard lithium-ion battery.

For example, it’s well known that it takes 45 minutes on average to charge a lithium-ion battery within a Tesla to 80% from 40%. The bottleneck hampering this charging derives from the battery’s anode. So, when it comes to electric vehicle news, this is nothing short of extraordinary. 

During discharge, lithium ions shift from the anode (negative electrode) to the cathode (positive electrode) through an electrolyte separator. Historically, the anode was constructed first using coal, which was then shifted to graphite to prolong the charge. 

The Problem With Graphite in a Lithium-Ion Battery

Yet as energy demands increase and electric vehicle charging stations become more widespread, graphite fails to keep pace. In addition, the slurry of the graphite anode is typically disorganized and inefficient at passing electrical current. 

Therefore, our researchers conducted particle-level theoretical models redesigning and optimizing the spatial distributions for different sized particles while also considering electrode porosity. With their findings, they coated a standard graphite anode with copper and included copper nanowires into the slurry. Then by heating and cooling the anode, this slurry further compressed, increasing its efficiency. 

By using this copper anode in place of standard, disorderly graphite, they increased the charge efficiency by roughly 50%. Their control battery reached 40% charge in 5.6 minutes, whereas their copper-infused battery reached 60% in the same time. In 11.4 minutes, their battery reached 80%. 

While the solution seems simple—heating and compressing while using copper—the ramifications remain profound. This eliminates the need for gas stops for most urban and semi-urban commuters and further paves the way for mass EV adoption. 

Going Green With Fossil-Free Steel

For centuries, artisans, crafters, and smelters created steel by mixing coal and iron at temperatures surpassing 1,600°C. By using coal, this process inevitably contributes to carbon dioxide production and global warming. Calls for going green include steel production as well. 

For example, McKinsey & Company found that every ton of steel produced in 2018 contributed, on average, 1.85 tons of carbon dioxide, or 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions for that year. Enter: Hydrogen. 

What Is Green Steel?

Swedish start-up Hybrit is now answering the going green call through “green steel.” Instead of using coal, they add hydrogen to manufacture sponge iron. Sponge iron offers little utility, except that it is ultimately processed into steel. 

Their demonstration facility for this hydrogen-based is due to be constructed in Vitåfors, Sweden, by 2026. Currently, Hybrit is researching the best location and design to minimize their future environmental impact. 

The necessary hydrogen is produced on-demand through electrolyzing water and adding it to the reduction shaft. This eliminates coal, its carbon footprint, and its associated transportation. 

Hybrit’s new process produces less than 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions relative to traditional steel production. 

The carbon-conscious and electric vehicle worlds are eagerly looking forward to further news on Hybrit’s demonstration plant as they lead the charge into green manufacturing.

Banking Meets Blockchain

Initially, the banking industry ignored the world of blockchain. Blockchain’s origins were in direct opposition to the banking system and the control that banking has over our lives.  

As the blockchain industry gained momentum and investors earned their profits, the banking industry noticed. And when Ethereum and other crypto assets added smart contract functionality, the innovative vanguard of the industry saw massive potential. 

It’s unwise to bet against the banks. Banks operate through their incentives to invest and adapt, and fight tooth-and-nail to keep their customers. While a minority of investors believe that blockchain could lead to a revolution displacing the power of large financial institutions, this is unlikely. 

Prior to Covid in 2018, Deloitte conducted its Global Blockchain Survey and spoke with 1,000 banks. The survey demonstrated how much interest the financial world already had in blockchain technology. More than 95% of respondents confirmed they were investing or planned to invest in distributed ledger or blockchain technology. 

Graph courtesy of the 2018 Deloitte Global Blockchain Survey

As we move forward into mid-2022, and after wrestling with the pandemic, the initial curiosity seen in Deloitte’s study has manifested into realized projects. 

A Need for Change

Many banking services are costly and slow, while other sectors are moving ahead quickly. They are replacing antiquated products and services with new versions. 

Phones, cars, computers, and even lightbulbs are being reimagined–becoming more functional and efficient. Much of the too big to fail banking system is in no hurry to evolve, mainly due to fees.

As they are for-profit organizations, they want to optimize returns. Banks earn spreads on their deposit interests paid versus the interests collected from loans. Depositors receive low-interest rates (fractions of a percent), but banks lend at higher rates:

  • Today’s 30-year Lending Interest Rate = 4.921%*
  • Student Lending Interest Rate = 4.5–7.3%*
  • Average Credit Card Lending Interest Rate 19.53%*

Rates at this time of writing*

Banks easily found customers because there were limited choices. Debtors rarely complained, accepting their situations. With blockchain, debtors access lower rates from more competitive lenders. 

Retail Banks Circumventing Competition

As blockchain evolved, more users learned that distributed ledger technology enables real-time transfers; no middlemen and no fixed costs.  

Consumer finance players now realize that blockchain projects pose significant threats to their similar services. They understand that they will lose their customers if they fail to evolve.   

How do banks fight back? They create blockchain-based solutions at prices low enough to prevent consumer switching.   

In Deloitte’s most recent Global Blockchain Survey, they found that many organizations were investing in projects across the board.  

Data courtesy of 2021 Deloitte Global Blockchain Survey

Representing only a portion of the industry, financial institutions understand the need to connect with non-financial blockchain projects growing in parallel to them. Defining these necessary projects or solutions and integrating them effectively is crucial.  

The Central Bank Movement Has Started

Globally, even slow-moving governments and central banks are beginning to create or overhaul their digital infrastructures.

The Biden administration made its first public announcement through an executive order recognizing the popularity of cryptos and their potential to destabilize traditional finance. This same order directed the federal government to create a crypto regulation plan, including the creation of a digital dollar.   

Data courtesy of 2021 Deloitte Global Blockchain Survey

Other nations’ central banks are adopting blockchain-based innovations and are overhauling their digital infrastructures to address complex operational challenges. Some central banks have already incorporated these technologies into their daily operations. 

In 2019, the Bank of England undertook a proof-of-concept test determining how real-time gross settlement (RTGS) could evolve with blockchain. RTGS is a funds transfer system allowing for the instantaneous transfer of money and/or securities. 

In 2017, they synchronized the movement of two different currencies across two different real-time gross settlement systems using Ripple. Great Britain has actively researched digitizing its economy’s governance and investigated a blockchain-linked pound sterling.

The BoE’s report says that a number of opportunities for achieving their financial and monetary stability objectives are possible with digital currency.  

Returning Power to Central Banks

With national digital currencies, central banks can counter the dominance of Visa, Mastercard, and others over private networks by lowering transaction costs for users and small businesses. A “Digital Dollar,” “Britcoin,” or the “CDBC” (digital yuan) will each accelerate the creation and adoption of other national digital currencies.  

Beyond Cost Savings

Banks look to blockchains for more than cost savings or improvements to their network efficiencies.  They see blockchains as foundations to RTGS revolutions worldwide. 

Through blockchain’s benefits, banks can increase the security of digital transactions and prevent errors, double counting, confusion, and fraud. Bookkeeping and auditing are examples of industries overdue for disruption by blockchain.   

Distributed ledgers also address the world’s new realities. Global populations, particularly in Asia and Africa, were already reducing their use of cash before the worldwide pandemic. Still, reductions have quickened, and the use digital payments reached $5.4 trillion, growing by 16% year-over-year from 2020.

Much of the growth was seen in Europe and the United States, but they are far from catching up to China, which was almost $3 trillion (over half of all digital transactions) in 2020 and may become cashless soon.  

The Digital Yuan

China is aggressively pushing the use of its “digital yuan” (the CDBC). It has gifted millions of the digital currency to its citizens in order to evaluate the feasibility of going cashless. While the initiative is not a true blockchain innovation as the CDBC is controlled by the central government and not decentralized, it demonstrates an increased use of digital infrastructure within the global financial system.

China’s mission is to ensure that any commercialization inherent to a blockchain-driven digital world matches its political makeup. Through the CDBC, China is playing a bit of a shell game: giving digital currency to users while maintain tight, centralized control. This is not the idea underpinning a decentralized, distributed ledger technology. 

However, democracies want transaction transparency, and more of them are demanding that the costs of transactions be reduced. An open blockchain achieves both objectives as it has the five following traits: 

  • Open
  • Permissionless
  • Transparent
  • Provides both finality and immutability of transactions
  • Maximizes on-chain liquidity

These features create more intelligent, compelling solutions.

Continuing Evolution

More businesses will utilize blockchain as it continues to evolve. However, not all blockchain projects are the same. Successful winners must meet the demands of excessive data and transaction use.  

Bitcoin presents many solutions. It reduces cost, increases trust, bypasses third-parties, and prevents sources of inflation inherent to centralized, fiat currencies. 

Tall orders, yes, but Bitcoin successfully delivers, albeit with some limits. It suffers from a seven transactions per second limitation. Layer-2 solutions (like its lightning network) add additional throughput and functionality. Other layer-1 solutions however, solve this too. 

Any successful blockchain project must be cost-efficient, stable, and scalable (what layer-1 Bitcoin lacks).  In October 2020, the Italian Banking Association introduced its “Sputna nodes network,” intending it to be cost-efficient, quick, stable, and scalable. 

Sputna integrates most of the country’s banks, quickly processing transactions. This interbank cooperation creates a transparent landscape and standardizes Italian banking sector activities. 

Moving Forward

The current state of blockchain and crypto feels akin to the mid-90’s internet boom. Blockchain is still not fully understood, and there will be a mix of successful (i.e., RTGS) and unsuccessful projects (i.e., Pets.com). 

However, consumer banking must evolve to keep its customer base given the alternatives already presented by blockchain-based solutions. Central banks will have a similar task of creating digital systems balancing governmental desires with those of their citizens. 

Disclaimer: The author of this text, Jean Chalopin, is a global business leader with a background encompassing banking, biotech, and entertainment. Mr. Chalopin is Chairman of Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The co-author of this text, Robin Trehan, has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in international business and finance, and an MBA in electronic business. Mr. Trehan is a Senior VP at Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or its employees. This information should not be interpreted as an endorsement of cryptocurrency or any specific provider, service, or offering. It is not a recommendation to trade. 

Asset Tokenization Explained 

The advent of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and tokenization brings a new world of opportunities for issuing and managing investments. 

The technology behind nearly all cryptos, blockchain, is an immutable distributed ledger. This fits perfectly with the changing financial landscape wanting single assets subdivided into smaller parts, enabling proportional ownership and enhanced liquidity. 

Subdividing provides democratized investing and liquidity to historically illiquid assets, such as art, real estate, digital media, and collectibles. The secret behind the democratization: tokenization. 

It calls for transparent and highly functioning markets. It holds the potential to change every asset class we know. So, what is tokenization? 

Tokenization Explained

The tokenization of assets reflects to the process whereby an issuer creates digital tokens and places them on a blockchain or similar type of distributed ledger. These tokens represent either physical or digital assets.  

The underlying blockchain confirms ownership of assets, matching them with their respective tokens. No authority can change or alter this ownership (its immutable) other than the owner with their private key. It’s explained best with an example. 

Suppose you own a property in Chicago, Illinois, worth $1,000,000. Through asset tokenization, this asset is converted to 100,000 tokens, each representing 1/100,000th of the property. Let us next assume you have another opportunity and want to borrow $100,000.  

You would rather not sell the property outright because you need a place to live, but you still need the funds. You decide to instead issue tokens on a public distributed ledger, the largest being Ethereum.  

When someone buys a token, they are purchasing 0.00001 of your home. If they were to buy 100,000 tokens, they would be the owner of your home. Since your home’s tokens are on a distributed ledger, which is immutable, no one can erase a buyer’s ownership of your home’s tokens once the transfer is complete. 

Tokenized Asset Types

If we are to focus on how tokenization works, and how tokens are constructed, we find that there are two specific types:

  1. Fungible
  2. Non-Fungible

Let’s go through the specifics of each.

Fungible (Asset) Tokens

Fungible assets have two primary characteristics. 

Interchangeable. Each unit of a tokenized asset will have the same market value and validity. Our home example is fungible; Bitcoins are all exactly equal and fungible. They have the same market value and can be exchanged freely. Your 0.01 bitcoin (or fungible token) is worth the same as all other 0.01 bitcoin.

Divisible. A fungible crypto or other token can be subdivided into as many parts as was configured during token issuance. For Bitcoin, a satoshi is 1/1,000,000th of a bitcoin and is the smallest valid denomination available. It has the same value as any other satoshi.  

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) 

NFTs represent the opposite to fungible tokens. 

Unique. They cannot be replaced with tokens of the same type because each one holds a unique value with unique attributes. If you really did sell your house piece by piece, then the front entry tile would be an NFT. 

Non-divisible. NFTs generally are not subdivided. However, there are F-NFTs providing fractional ownership of NFTs, and these are used for fine art investment or for commercial real estate.

Which Assets Are Tokenized?  

With tokenization, the opportunities are endless because tokenization allows for both proof of ownership and fractional ownership. Traditional financial assets such as shares in venture capital funds, commodities, and real estate show only the beginning. 

Exotic assets are now possible with fractional shares of racehorses, sports teams, artwork, and even a celebrity’s earnings. There are four main types of tokens. 

Assets. These are items of value which the owner can divest into cash. Assets are further divided into two smaller classes: 

            Personal: personal assets, including cash and property

            Business assets: those which appear on a company’s balance sheet.

Funds. Investment funds can be tokenized. These tokens represent shares of the underlying fund. Each investor would be provided tokens that, in total, are of equal value to their share in the fund. 

Equities. A company’s (or other entity’s) equity shares can be tokenized. These assets are in the digital form of security tokens and are stored in an online wallet

Services. To raise funds or conduct its business, a supplying firm can offer goods or services in token form. Investors can use the tokens to purchase the related goods or services the supplier provides. 

The Benefits of Asset Tokenization

We will break these advantages into two perspectives:

Owner

Liquidity

The owner of a piece of art worth $500,000 needs $50,000 but does not want to sell the work to raise funds. The owner tokenizes the artwork into 500,000 security tokens, each valued at 0.0002% of the total. They sell 50,000 tokens without the selling the art itself, but ensures it is a liquid asset.  

Fair Value

Assets that are not regularly sold have unestablished market prices. When this is the case, a seller needs to provide buyers with various incentives like an illiquidity discount, reducing the asset’s price. With the tokenization of assets, their liquidity is increased because it facilitates fractional ownership and eliminates illiquidity discounts. 

Reduced Management Costs

When the ownership of a unique asset is transferred today, the process requires third-party intermediaries such as lawyers who will handle the paperwork and broker the deal.  This trust-building takes extra time and may not be real if the intermediary is acting in the best interest of only one side of the transaction.  

With the tokenization of the same asset the use of a decentralized blockchain and smart contracts automates several parts of the sale/transfer process, which saves that time and cost.  

Investor

Liquidity Increased

It’s now possible for retail investors to invest smaller amounts of money in a work of art, much like the fractional shares which have become popular on various online trading platforms.  Retail investors can now buy fractional shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, a transaction that would typically require an investment of over $470,000, but a fractional share is available for as little as $1. 

Tokenization allows these same retail investors to diversify their portfolios into assets like fine art, benefiting from the increased liquidity. They could easily invest a sum of $5,000, which in the past was not possible without significant paperwork raising the cost and time needed for such a transaction.

Shortened Lock-Up Periods

Investors are restricted from selling assets during lock-up periods. The lock-up is usually implemented because the asset is large and illiquid. 

The higher the liquidity of an asset, the more desirable it becomes. Tokenization potentially shortens or eliminates lock-up periods. 

Transparency

Since the immutable nature of blockchain underlies asset tokenization, the history of an asset remains unchanged, preventing owners from making it look more attractive. Investors may the full history of an asset, allowing them to make more informed decisions.

Identity Security

With decentralized identity (DID) and ownership details maintained on a blockchain, the buyer’s public-private key pair is used as a digital signature to ensure their authenticity. This system can also be utilized for KYC/AML processes, and a standardized DID identifier ensures acceptance across different blockchain networks and platforms. 

Tokenization and the Future

Tokenization is transforming finance. 

The investor’s perspective may seem the same even as the investment options presented to them increase. Yet what happens behind the scenes remains revolutionary; that is, democratization through tokenization. 

The primary obstacles standing in the way are regulatory and legal issues, given the variety of its applications. For example, digital trading cards have different hurdles to cross relative to works of art. The legal bridge between an asset and its blockchain requires the cooperation of knowledgeable legal and tax professionals who can solve cross-jurisdictional issues.  

Bringing online other industries and its professional may take longer than expected, yet we expect new solutions to arrive as such fluency issues are resolved. We feel certain that tokenization will change investing for years to come. 

Disclaimer: The author of this text, Jean Chalopin, is a global business leader with a background encompassing banking, biotech, and entertainment. Mr. Chalopin is Chairman of Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The co-author of this text, Robin Trehan, has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in international business and finance, and an MBA in electronic business. Mr. Trehan is a Senior VP at Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or its employees.

Bitcoin’s Taproot Upgrade

Taproot is groundbreaking because it’s the first upgrade to Bitcoin in four years.

It was approved by the cohort of Bitcoin miners in early June of 2021 and went into effect the following November. The upgrade means greater transaction privacy and efficiency, and most importantly, the potential for smart contracts. With this article, we’ll discuss what Taproot is and what its implications are for Bitcoin, its users, and investors. 

What Does Taproot Do for Bitcoin?

Finally, with Taproot, Bitcoin is compatible with basic smart contract functionality. This is due to two overarching back-end code changes. Specifically, a change in the network’s cryptography method and new support for Merkelized Alternative Syntax Tree (MAST) script execution (we will go deeper into this below).

Because of the complexity of these improvements, and with many investors lacking in-depth knowledge of blockchain, Bitcoin’s price will not readily take into account these upgrades. For all investors, it’s still vital to understand Taproot.

The Upgrades in Detail

Bitcoin’s blockchain network carries as its main function a direct peer-to-peer payments system for transferring value. Our cryptocurrency layering article discussed Layer 2 capabilities, like those offered with the Lightning Network.

However, due to a lack of functionality and scalability issues, Dapps and smart contracts cannot be built on the Bitcoin Layer 1 network. Taproot provides a workaround and eliminates Bitcoin’s code limits to increase real-world uses on the network.

Taproot gives app building, combined with increased scale, privacy, transparency, and fungibility. These changes should increase Bitcoin’s adoption worldwide and, with it, its price.   

Schnorr Signatures

The most fundamental change Taproot brings to Bitocin is a rehaul of its cryptography method. It previously used an Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, used ECDSA to produce a public key (i.e., a public ID) from a private key. Supposedly, he chose this method due to its lack of popularity.

ECDSA signatures are, however, vulnerable to exploits such as lattice attacks. Worse still, they cannot be compressed, slowing transaction processing speed and throughput. With Taproot, Bitcoin is shifting to Schnorr signatures.

These can be compressed. They will also improve the privacy of more complex smart contract transactions, while enabling simultaneous signature processing (batched validations).

Image courtesy of bitcoin.com

Merkelized Alternative Script Trees (MASTs)

The second change Taproot brings: MAST. These scripts feature a similar function to Schnorr signatures. They minimize on-chain data transfers.

MAST scripts compress transactional conditions into their simplest forms, called Merkle roots. Merkle trees are data structures used in computer science apps. In the case of Bitcoin, Merkle trees encode blockchain data efficiency and securely.

The MAST idea in a nutshell is that you have alternative scripts or script fragments stored as leaves in a single Merkle tree. Those leaves not used can be pruned away, saving space.

Merkle Tree Diagram

Image courtesy of Investopedia

Compare MAST to P2SH (Pay to Script Hash), where the entirescript must be hashed and then revealed on the blockchain when spent. This brings block space efficiency (and lower transfer costs) and numerous privacy benefits. 

With MAST, Bitcoin transactions of greater complexity, such as Bitcoin DeFi apps, are compressed into only one hash each. This minimizes memory usage and increases scalability. MAST enables Bitcoin developers to write more complex scripts requiring less gas (less usage for processing) .

Image courtesy of Stephen Tuttle

The Valuable Combination

Combing Schnorr signatures with MASTs is significant. Taproot means that Bitcoin now has a value beyond a simple Store-of-Value (SoV), like with gold. Bitcoin’s network now has the capability to develop an ecosystem of applications like Ethereum.

As Ethereum continues to grow and accommodate more complex apps, Bitcoins and its players understand the need to compete.

Bitcoin’s Possibilities

For an investor to feel secure with Bitcoin as a portfolio constituent, it’s crucial to understand the possibilities for development that will result from Taproot’s code changes. This understanding requires some technical knowledge, but this relatively simple understanding will still surpass that of the typical investor. 

Lightning Network’s Improvements

Our Bitcoin layers article introduced the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a Layer 2 solution that takes Layer 1 bundles and deals with them off-chain, providing Bitcoin with enhanced functionality. This is how Bitcoin has been able to have smart contract functionality in the past.

With Taproot, Lightning Network nodes which minimize memory usage and gas fees of Bitcoin payments by computing the transactions off-chain, shall gain scalability and privacy improvements. The two technical reasons for these improvements are due to Schnorr signatures:

  1. Switching to point-locked contracts
  2. Batched validation

These improvements should make Lightning Networks more intuitive and cost-effective for their users.

Lightning Network Applications

With Taproot’s upgrade increasing the efficiency of the Lightning Network, it will also provide for additional development of applications on the Lightning Network. This is an ecosystem of dApps intend to expand the uses for Bitcoin. 

Besides Blockchain developers, few people are aware of Bitcoin’s improved functionality. The primary source network of smart contracts and DApps has been Ethereum.

With “Layers,” we learned that Bitcoin’s Base Layer uses its Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, Lightning is the Layer 2 of Bitcoin, and to it, we can add Layer 3 DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and dApps.

Taproot Risks

There are risks involved when a blockchain of any kind upgrades. Bitcoin, being the world’s most valuable decentralized network, certainly has many eyes on them. Yet this attention is a double-edged sword. It brings both expert hackers wanted to exploit protocol vulnerabilities, as well as brilliant computer scientists working against them.

Though Taproot should make Bitcoin more secure, there are always potential unforeseen errors, whether during or after Taproot’s implementation. The amount one chooses to invest should mirror their confidence in the upgrade.

Bitcoin’s New Core Function

Before Taproot was released, there was a September 13th Bitcoin Core 22 release hat helped prepare the Bitcoin Core for Taproot. A Bitcoin Core decides which blockchain contains the valid transactions. One of the key upgrades to the Core was Multisig, or coins that require signatures from multiple private keys in order to be spent.

Multisig is used for several purposes. For example, it’s used to secure funds from several devices. Even if one device becomes compromised or lost, the coins remain safe and accessible.

Multisig can also share control over funds between several users but requires cooperation (multiple signatures) to spend the coins.

Summary

The list of technical improvements coming to Bitcoin with Taproot is too long for a single article. Beyond Schnorr signatures and MAST scripts, there are discrete log contracts, script-less scripts, ring signature functionality, and other privacy increases.

The important takeaway, however, is that continued development is coming to Bitcoin. Taproot expands on its single use as a SOV and becomes a platform for dApps and DeFi. This change alone completely reimagines Bitcoin by linking it to Layer 2 and 3 solutions, and the future itself.

Disclaimer:  The author of this text, Jean Chalopin, is a global business leader with a background encompassing banking, biotech, and entertainment. Mr. Chalopin is Chairman of Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The co-author of this text, Robin Trehan, has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in international business and finance, and an MBA in electronic business. Mr. Trehan is a Senior VP at Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or its employees.

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network

As Bitcoin’s popularity continues to rise, so too does its global count of transactions.

All blockchain technology is at its core a shared database that is “distributed” among the nodes, allowing anyone to see all the transactions recorded on the chain. Transactions that are recorded on a blockchain network are unsurprisingly called “on-chain” transactions.

This builds trust and security. However, Bitcoin suffers from an issue of scalability. It has a limitation to how many transactions it can process in one second and in one block.

The Lightning Network is a potential solution to this problem. We will discuss the Lightning Network, how it solves the scalability issue, a few issues the lightning network itself must overcome. 

What is the Lightning Network?

At its heart, the Lightning Network is a system allowing network participants to transfer their bitcoins between each other without any fees (or with minimal fees) by using their digital wallets. A payment channel is created between the two users (sender and receiver) so they can transact “off-chain” with each other. The Lightning Network is a layer on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain network to process smaller payments between participants. 

This system means that on-chain transactions will be fewer, and the total processing time will be reduced

Image courtesy of RAKESH SHARMA

With the Lightning Network, funds are transferred as quickly as the users’ wallets can communicate on the net. When business is concluded, there is a “closing transaction” on the main Bitcoin blockchain (layer 1) to settle all of the transactions.

The Bitcoin blockchain will not know how much each Lightning Network user owes until the bill is settled. Because transactions are generally not between trusted users when payment channels are opened, both sides place deposits of equal to higher values than the transactions themselves.

Is It Safe?

If, at any point, either user of a transaction wishes to back out, they can easily take their deposit and leave without consulting the other party. With such a one-sided withdrawal, the leaving side is required to wait for 1,000 block confirmations (approximately one week) to get their deposited bitcoins back. The party who did not leave will receive their security bitcoins instantly.

There are fraud measures built into Lightning. If one party tries to avoid paying the other, then the former suffers a penalty of forfeiting their whole deposit. 

The Lightning Network also allows users to jump through connected payment channels. These “network channels” allow indirect connections of payment channels through intermediaries. This is how the creation of unnecessary payment channels is avoided as scale increases.   

Ultimately, the lightning network works well for small transactions. Even if there are hypothetically over 1,000 transactions between users, the main blockchain shows only transactions: the first opening the payment channel and depositing money, and second closing it and settling the bill. All the transactions in between were feeless and instant.

Why is the Lightning Network Needed?

The general structure of Bitcoin’s network means that, when a transaction happens, it’s added to the newly created block once verified. The blockchain structure shows us that all its nodes each have a copy of the transactions for the vilification process.

In Bitcoin’s structure, these nodes are miners. Miners can only process a certain number of transactions per block, averaging 1,609, and there is only one block produced every 10 minutes. The network does lag down if the transaction volume becomes excessive. This leads us to Bitcoin’s scalability issue, where the network slow down significantly when it tries to process many transactions simultaneously. 

This also leads us to increased transaction fees, chipping away at a central, founding tenet of Bitcoin. And users can occasionally offer to pay a higher fee to have their transactions processed sooner, similar to traditional wire transfers. Small transactions will suffer greatly from these fees.

The purpose of the Lightning Network is to cut away these transaction fees through scale and enhanced processing capacity. For Bitcoin to compete competing against the likes of Ethereum or Tether, it must improve its scalability.

Problems with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network

However, there are a few issues which the Lightning Network still does not solve.

There Are Still Fees

While Bitcoin’s congestion is one of several factors influencing its transaction fees, the cryptocurrency’s own fee is still a significant component of the Lightning Network’s overall costs. 

There are also opening and closing fees which must be paid. The opening fee and its required deposit must be made on-chain. Once open, users process several transactions between each other or through network channels. But to settle a bill, the closing transaction is resolved on-chain as well. The deposited capital is tied up so long as the payment channel remains open. 

There is also a separate routing fee occurring when there are payments between payment channels via other network channels. These fees are low, and the idea is to have them be low enough to attract more uses, but they are still required. 

Let’s not forget the possible catch-22. If the fees via Lightning are too low, there may not be an incentive for nodes to facilitate these payments. As businesses adopt the Lightning Network, they may begin to charge fees for using it and negate its economic benefit. Some blockchains have already created solutions to this problem, allowing for cheap transactions through master nodes

The Lightning Network is Susceptible

While there is cold storage available for use by funds on the Lightning Network, its nodes are required to be online all the time to send and receive payments. The involved parties must remain online and use private keys to sign in. The computer storing the private keys is vulnerable to hacking.

If a user is offline for an extended period, they are also susceptible. As stated above, the leaving side is required to wait for 1,000 block confirmations to receive their deposit. If one side closes the channel while the other is away for eight days or more, this is a fraudulent channel close, and nothing can be done to recover the lost deposit. 

Network congestion due to a malicious attack also renders participants vulnerable to unreturned deposits. A forced expiration of many transactions could result and is a systemic risk recognized in the Lightning Network’s white paper.

A malicious party could overwhelm the capacity of a block by creating numerous channels that all expire at the same time. This situation would give the attacker the ability to steal funds from parties unable to withdraw them due to congestion. 

An Unstable Bitcoin Price

While the Lightning Network is supposed to make small transactions possible, there is still ample room for growth and improvement. The current increase in on-chain transactions is from trading volume. 

The added attention adds growth but volatility as well to the price. This volatility makes using Bitcoin as a payment tool difficult for merchants dealing with static inventory and planning accordingly with suppliers. When a company receives an invoice, it is often given 30 days or less to pay. If Bitcoin’s price drops 17.58% in 30 days, the supplier will be receiving an equivalent of 17.58% less fiat currency for their products. 

Graph courtesy of Google Finance

This could create the need for an entire market of futures for nearly every product, or for a “frozen” market price detailed on an invoice. A similar risk exists for consumers who use bitcoins to purchase goods or service while receiving incomes in other currencies.

The Lightning Network’s Future

As of January 2022, the Lightning Network had a capacity of 3,300 BTC, up from 2,000 in August 2021.  Arcane Research believes that up to 700 million users could be on the Lightning network by 2030.

The decentralized finance industry may help with this acceptance and use. Kraken stated at the end of 2020 that it would be making use of the Lightning Network in 2021:

We expect to allow clients to withdraw and deposit Bitcoin on Lightning in the first half of 2021, which will allow clients to move their Bitcoin instantly and with the lowest fees.

There may also be a solution for the automatic fraudulent channel close we discussed earlier in this article. “Watchtowers,” which are third parties running on Lightning Network nodes, could monitor off-chain transactions and prevent such transaction closes.

Summary

The Lightning Network represents a solid solution to a few of Bitcoin’s most significant issues. First and foremost, it encourages smaller transactions and widespread use.

If the security issues and malicious susceptibilities Lightning has can be solved, it will be a great addition to Bitcoin. More work is needed to improve Lightning. Yet it does give Bitcoin the opportunity of operating as a staple currency worldwide.  

Disclaimer:  The author of this text, Jean Chalopin, is a global business leader with a background encompassing banking, biotech, and entertainment. Mr. Chalopin is Chairman of Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The co-author of this text, Robin Trehan, has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in international business and finance, and an MBA in electronic business. Mr. Trehan is a Senior VP at Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or its employees.

AI and Aviation

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stated that passenger numbers in 2021 were down by 49% from 2019, resulting in an expected loss of gross airline passenger operating revenues of $324 billion. But the market is expected to rebound in 2022, with an anticipated rise in passengers by up to 47%.

The previous two years demonstrated that neither airlines nor MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) companies may depend on their previous triumphs. As a result, they face an unstated mandate to proactively future-proof their companies from top to bottom.

There are several ways AI, data, and technology can help the aviation industry recover.

Predictive Maintenance

The rapid adoption of predictive maintenance in the aviation industry remains a key driver of digital transformation for 2022.

Prior to the pandemic, only the top 10% of airlines implemented predictive maintenance. Yet in a recent opinion polls conducted by IFS, predictive maintenance revealed itself as the most frequently cited benefit of digital transformation.

Source: https://www.prometheusgroup.com/posts/reactive-vs-preventive-vs-predictive-maintenance

Predictive maintenance forecasting algorithms–powered by AI (artificial intelligence)—are used by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), airlines, or MROs to gather real-time and accurate data about every onboard system and sensor-connected component in their fleet.

For engines, which are relatively self-contained units, this practice is well established and produces a 30% performance efficiency gain over traditional techniques. It allows for a maintenance team to efficiently service and maintain aircraft components while maximizing their life spans.

As more flights arrive on time and without incident, this will benefit an airline’s passengers and its bottom line. There will likely be a significant increase in the number of airlines utilizing predictive maintenance soon.

Data and Analytics

The theme is to use data in new ways and enable organizations to better understand how well they are serving their customers. Data and analytics help determine the allocations of funds and budgets.

Given Covid-19, one of the most vital topics remains aeroplane air quality even as the virus abates in parts of the world. Managers consider new data as necessary. Data freshness will continue to be crucial for competing after the virus.

Platforms such as Google Cloud’s AI and ML technologies interpret data in timeframes that enable real-time decision-making. Data alone is useful, but sometimes insufficient. With sufficient context, data becomes powerful tools for strategic planning. 

For example, AirAsia uses Google Cloud to optimize pricing, improve revenue, and enhance the customer experience.

AirAsia started using an AI Platform in March 2018 to sort and predict demand for ancillary services such as baggage, seats, and meals, laying the groundwork for using machine learning to optimize pricing across a range of services. Other features include a digital health pass powered by AI.

Source: https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2020/11/25/airasia-develops-digital-health-pass/

Operational Performance

Passenger processing now bears a consistently larger impact on departure times due to the pandemic.

Travel restrictions, screening procedures, and available spaces frequently change, sometimes resulting in chaos. Passenger flow patterns can be modelled using machine learning to predict gate arrivals, passenger crowding, and the varying times it takes to leave different airports. Automated systems can reduce late gate arrivals and improve turnaround times.

Recently, the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) announced that they are teaming up to predict (and reduce) crowding and improve the passenger experience.

Generative Design

Aerospace engineers and designers create components using generative design principles and AI. These principles give AI a set of parameters and enables it to generate a few possible designs. Then the results are manually improved upon for a final product.  

Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/how-generative-design-could-reshape-the-future-of-product-development

These more efficient components are then quickly created using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques that learn from the guidelines laid out by the designers.

When it comes to creating new designs, generative design uses machine learning logic. Parametric modelling design in CAD software lags AI. Using generative design software yields a variety of possible solution combinations made possible by simply entering the relevant design parameters. The result is often thousands of variations of the same design, each achieving iteratively better outcomes. 

Fuel Efficiency

Even a tiny reduction in aircraft fuel consumptions significantly impacts a company’s bottom line and emissions through the power of volume. Aerospace companies place great importance upon fuel quality.

240 litres of fuel are used every second, and 14,400 pounds of fuel are used per hour on a typical commercial flight. We can reduce fuel consumption from 5% to 7% with the help of AI.

Practices powered by AI reduce fuel consumption. For example, machine learning aids pilots in optimizing their climb profiles before each flight. Safety Line data shows each flight can save 5% to 6% of its climb fuel without compromising passenger safety or comfort.

When applied to an airline fleet, this could reduce CO2 emissions by several thousand tonnes per year and operational costs by several million dollars. Optimizing the ascent process alone saves a staggering amount of fuel.

Customer Experience

Commercial aviation places a high value on customer satisfaction and service quality. Artificial intelligence in the airline industry improves customer service and engagement. Automated platforms powered by AI converse with customers in real-time and with human-like manners. Online chatbots save customers both time and effort by automating customer service processes such as:

  • Automating flight searches and bookings
  • Updating flights
  • Assisting with check-ins
  • Refunding flights and processing claims

Examples abound in the airline industry. Gol is the leading Brazilian airline and one of South America’s most important airlines. Gal, the company’s chatbot, assists passengers in booking and modifying flights, as well as with checking flight statuses.

Source: https://www.inbenta.com/en/blog/8-airline-chatbot-use-cases-youll-want-to-implement/

Around 35% of Gol customers finalize their check-in using WhatsApp.

Keeping customers happy remains one of the airline industry’s biggest challenges. One bad experience causes a passenger to switch to a rival airline.

Customers who remain loyal to one airline may do so because of cost or convenience, or for miles they’ve accrued. All airlines prefer to see an increase in revenue per passenger and increased customer loyalty.

When it comes to increasing airline revenue per customer, airlines have traditionally relied on direct marketing and promotions. However, thanks to advances in AI, customer service and sales functions are mergeable.

In the event of a customer service call, the AI can recommend future trips or flights based upon the passenger’s past travel patterns (once the issue is resolved). After the service interaction, the AI may wait for days or weeks for the best time to contact the passenger, based on its analysis.

Summary

Artificial intelligence is beginning to take off in the aviation industry. Compared to other technologies, this one is still in its infancy. As its adoption spreads however, we’ll undoubtedly see more uses of it. Right now, we’re only seeing the beginning, and we’re eager to watch how it all plays out.

Disclaimer:  The author of this text, Jean Chalopin, is a global business leader with a background encompassing banking, biotech, and entertainment. Mr. Chalopin is Chairman of Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The co-author of this text, Robin Trehan, has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in international business and finance, and an MBA in electronic business. Mr. Trehan is a Senior VP at Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or its employees.

Web 4.0: The Semantic Web

Imagine a time before Facebook (Meta) and Google, way back in the middle of the dot.com bubble. The real inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, coined the term Semantic Web in 1999. It represents a web of data being processed by machines, especially since the data is uniquely machine-readable. Stating in his book, Weaving the Web

I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A “Semantic Web,” which makes this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy, and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The “intelligent agents” people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

His vision was better outlined in a 2001 Scientific American article, where Berners-Lee described an evolution of the (then) current Web to a Semantic Web. The Semantic Web, or “Web 3.0,” is an extension of the World Wide Web with its standards by the W3C. Because the Metaverse has taken the moniker of Web 3.0, the Semantic Web has been relegated to Web 4.0. 

Critics continue to question Semantic Web’s feasibility. Proponents argue that several applications remain proven, and the original concept is valid. We shall discuss the current and future potential of the Semantic Web. 

What Is the Semantic Web?

So beyond “machine-readable,” what does the term mean? The definition of the Semantic Web differs significantly from person to person, but for our purposes, the Semantic Web is a virtual environment in which information and data are arranged so that they are processed automatically. 

The machines then read content. Meaning, they interpret data automatically. Artificial intelligence (AI) functionality derives itself from these automated machines, now enabling users to interact with them in a “human” way. 

The machines’ goal is to replicate the experience of engaging with another person. They interpret your data, your meaning, through bodily actions, words, or clicks. Two great examples here are Alexa and Siri, both programmed to record your preferences. 

The Semantic Web’s Ongoing Evolution

The foundation of this evolution depends upon data: sharing, discovery, integration, and reuse.

 One of its main components is the creation of ontologies.  The Web is a web: the components draw connections from each other and exist as a compilation of interlinked units.  Starting in 2006, “RDF” (Resources Description Framework) graphs were used to make data sharing organized.

Ontology: a set of concepts and categories in a subject area which shows their properties and their interrelations.

 


Graph courtesy of communications of the ACM

The Linked Open Data Cloud’s RDF graphs represent only a small portion of the 650,000 data documents being used in the ongoing research of ontologies.  

After combining ontologies, it was discovered that they possessed significant limitations. General interest in linked data waned as researchers discovered that utilizing data required much more of it. The result: knowledge graphs, presenting ready-to-share data efficiently. 

 


Image courtesy of Towards Data Science

From this moment, the inner workings of the Semantic Web grew to be increasingly complicated. It is not driven by certain methods inherent to the field, distinguishing it from other data-related areas such as machine learning–which is more focused and easier to improve. 

The Semantic Web is foremost a conceptual vision: that all components far and wide should speak to one another in the same language. Its broad mission but lack of specific focus means it is far less organized than more widely accepted innovations. 

What is Web 4.0?

A good analog is an umbrella. It must combine augmented reality with distributed tech with Big Data, or the major components of Web 3.0, in an overarching web, pun intended. This linking is the essence of Web 4.0. 

Users will have their own avatars, or digital alter egos, for interacting with AI or humans. AI digital assistants do not only respond to requests but remain proactive. 

Let’s take a simple example. You’re on the way to LaGuardia airport, and your driverless Uber is stuck in traffic. Your digital assistant will inform you that with the current traffic patterns, and you’re going to miss your booked flight. However, the assistant already pre-booked a different flight out of JFK airport and can automatically send you there. It changes the route of your Uber, while also informing your family that you will be home only 15 minutes later than expected. All this would be done after receiving your initial “okay.” 

Some may see this is great, while others find it a dystopian future where there is too much access and control over your information. 

Challenges

Despite the advances going into 2022, the Semantic Web remains difficult to implement given current technology. Computers do not yet fully understand the nuances of human languages, such as tones, mannerisms, phrases, changing in pitch, and so on. 

Specific challenges the Semantic Web must contend with are deceit, inconsistency, uncertainty, vagueness, and vastness. Any system will need to effectively deal with all these issues simultaneously.

Deceit: when the information’s producer intentionally misleads its consumer. Cryptography does reduce this threat. However, additional processes supporting information integrity, or lack thereof, are required. 

Inconsistency: when information from separate sources is combined, resulting in contradictions in logic, flow, or meaning. The deductive reasoning employed by computers fall apart when “anything follows from a contradiction.” Two techniques known to deal with this inconsistency are defeasible reasoning and paraconsistent reasoning. 

Uncertainty: computers don’t like precise concepts with uncertain values. Rather, one should be one, nor two or three too. For example, a medical patient might present symptoms belonging to a range of possible diagnoses. Uncertainties such as these can be addressed with probabilistic reasoning. 

Vagueness: imprecise questions such as, “how many grains of sand make up a pile?” or even concepts like tall and young are complex for a computer to deal with efficiently; everyone has their definition.  Matching query terms with different knowledge bases that provide overlapping but subtly different concepts help. Fuzzy logic is as an additional remedy for the issue of vagueness. 

Vastness: With billions of pages on the Web already, it’s difficult to determine what is specifically needed for certain contexts. SNOMED CT dictionary has 370,000 terms, a relatively small amount, yet the existing system has been unable to eliminate semantically duplicate terms. Future automated reasoning systems will have to deal with inputs on the level of billions or trillions.  

While this list does not cover all the issues in creating the Semantic Web, it demonstrates the most critical challenges to be solved first.  

The World Wide Web Consortium’s Incubator Group for Uncertainty (URW3-XG) lumps these problems all together in their report under a single heading, “uncertainty.”  The techniques of possible solutions will require an extension to the Web Ontology Language (OWL) to, for example, annotate conditional probabilities. This is an area of ongoing research which is yet to “solve” anything yet.

Feasibility of the Semantic Web

Companies which have historically invested in the Semantic Web for decades are still hurdles in bringing it to life. Recently, IBM sold off much of its Watson Health program. Sadly, many of the same problems affecting the Semantic Web 20 years ago remain. 

  • Scalability
  • Multilinguality
  • Reducing information overload with visualization
  • Semantic Web language stability

The Semantic Web’s promise virtually ensures mainstream adoption, but not without more efficient data management solutions. AI remains away from reaching the point of human comprehension and interaction. 

Summary

The potential of the Semantic Web is incredible. Semantics is a slow-moving field, and as new discoveries are made, even more pain points will be discovered. Yet we are making progress. Companies have spent fortunes on Semantic Web development and will continue to do so. It will eventually happen. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. We just don’t know the length of that tunnel.   

Disclaimer: The author of this text, Jean Chalopin, is a global business leader with a background encompassing banking, biotech, and entertainment. Mr. Chalopin is Chairman of Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The co-author of this text, Robin Trehan, has a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s in international business and finance, and an MBA in electronic business. Mr. Trehan is a Senior VP at Deltec International Group, www.deltecbank.com.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this text are solely the views of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Deltec International Group, its subsidiaries, and/or its employees.

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