by Tyler Durden , Recently, I wrote about a small $100,000 trade of cheese and butter.This one trade changed 400 years of history in just four hours.Normally, it would take 10 days to handle the paperwork.But this trade concluded in less than four hours.The solution: a blockchain platform that streamlined the entire process.While the trade was small, it was big for the $7 trillion trade finance industry.What exactly is trade finance?It’s when two companies in different countries want to buy and sell from each other.They use a bank to guarantee the transaction… For more than 400 years, trade finance hasn’t changed much.It requires a mountain of paperwork.And all the parties involved spend a lot of time proving that they truly own what they say they own.But that’s all about to change.Today, we show you how the blockchain is changing the inefficient trade finance industry.And we’ll show you how to profit as well.The trend in blockchain and trade finance is accelerating.

In February 2017, a cargo shipment containing $25 million worth of African crude steamed its way to China.The merchants involved sold the oil three times during the trip.Banks, agents, inspectors, and a commodity trading firm were all involved.The traditional analogue solution involved hundreds of documents.And it took at least three hours to complete each trade.But on this trip, each trade took less than 25 minutes.The name of the project that made a 25-minute trade possible is Easy Trading Connect.It’s a partnership between Société Générale and ING.And it works by moving the transactions to a private version of the Ethereum blockchain.This particular transaction involved ING, Société Générale, and commodity trading house Mercuria.Saving time wasn’t the only benefit of the trade.ING reported that trader efficiency improved by 33%.And Marco Dunand, CEO of Mercuria, stated the blockchain reduced costs by 30%.The blockchain is a savior for this manually intensive, paperwork-heavy process.

Physical documents have always been a problem.It opens up transactions to human error, fraud, and delays.With the blockchain, all documents get digitized.That makes documents safer to move around.And it solves a lot of paperwork problems.For example, Mercuria sold the oil heading to China three times before it arrived.coin bitcoin etfBecause of the blockchain, Mercuria, ING, and Société Générale all had access to real-time data.bitcoin faucet euNo one had to go searching for the original source documents.litecoin api exampleFurther, they were able to “auto-check” documents on a computer rather than doing it manually.wiki bitcoin supplyThat makes for a smooth process.bitcoin qt old version

There’s a huge incentive to move to the blockchain.Santander estimates the blockchain will cut trade finance costs up to $20 billion.Easy Trading Connect proves the blockchain works to conduct business.And the benefit of the blockchain in trade finance is obvious.bitcoin kaufen mit handyThis is just getting started.prezzo dei bitcoinVenture capital firms and financial institutions are pouring millions of investment dollars into the blockchain.litecoin rdditRight now, over 50 major financial institutions have in-house blockchain projects or relationships with blockchain startups.bitcoin virus detectionDo you want exposure to the burgeoning blockchain bull market?The simplest way would be to buy a small amount of bitcoin.

Many new blockchain applications base their network on the bitcoin blockchain.And you need bitcoin to buy most other coins.Doug Casey: As you probably know, I've been involved in the investment world going back to the '70s.I've been pitched by "experts" on all kinds of investments.But for the most part, I've stuck to what I know best – investing in precious metals and real estate when I see a bubble forming, and getting out before it pops.So you may be surprised to hear that I've recently become interested in a new asset class: cryptocurrencies.I'm talking about Bitcoin and its offshoots.At a recent investor's conference in Miami, I heard a presentation about this little-known market from a former hedge fund manager named Teeka Tiwari.Teeka is extremely well-connected in this market, traveling all over the world meeting with experts.He explained that over the past year, this market has taken off.Dozens of "cryptos" have shot up 1,000%, 5,000%... even 10,000% or more.I know a bull market when I see one...

It seems to me that a marvelous bubble is building up in this area.And it's one that I would like to take advantage of.Tonight at 8 p.m., Teeka Tiwari will host a free cryptocurrency question-and-answer session.You can submit your questions and watch the Q&A session by clicking here.But you must act soon… Anyone who joins his service by midnight will receive $100 in bitcoin.A report by Infoholic Research LLP estimates the global Internet of Everything (IoE) market at almost $24 trillion within the next four years.The report costs $3,500.Therefore, we asked Research and Markets, the hosters of the report, if they could provide us with a full, abridged or summary version so as to judge its authenticity.Unfortunately, we were informed by Research and Markets that they do not have a full copy, they only host it for sale.They directed us to Infoholic Research as the producers of the report.We enquired whether Research and Markets undertakes any verification or authentication of reports they host, but we have not yet received a reply.

We further asked the same questions to Infoholic, but they have not yet commented.Although all companies do seem legit, we cannot verify the claims of the report.However, in our research, we did find a reputable company, Cisco, and a number of free reports by Cisco, which estimate the IoE market at an incredible $19 trillion within the next decade across the public and private sector.The IoE market is a broad umbrella term for things connected to the internet, such as smart grids, smart homes, smart cities, smart contracts or smart currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.It incorporates cloud data and data mining, gathering and processing.For example, street lightning could be more responsive based on analysis of internet based data, thus reacting instantly to surroundings, in the process saving millions or more.Currently, we are at the stage of building the infrastructure, that is, connecting things to the internet.Things such as the electricity or heating system in one homes, factory or business as well as machines themselves.

According to the Cisco report [PDF], there are about 10 billion things globally connected.A rapid growth from only “about 200 million things connected to the Internet in the year 2000”, but still only a fraction of an estimated 1.5 trillion things that could be connected to the internet.The rapid growth of smart things, due to “the dramatic increase in processing power, storage, and bandwidth at ever-lower costs”, has opened some futuristic opportunities few of us could have envisioned, but now are loudly and openly proclaiming.The most exciting aspect is the monetary automation of daily life, with things seemingly working on their own.For example, rather than paying a monthly electricity bill, the home grid, through a process of smart contracts, cloud computing, data processing and blockchain platforms such as Ethereum could by itself calculate the amount of electricity one needs and instantly negotiate a by the second price with the national grid.Another concrete example, for which the Energy Giant RWE has already built a prototype, is a smart charging station for electric cars where, through the use of Ethereum’s blockchain technology, price is instantly and automatically calculated.

With further advances in this tech we can imagine the charging station becoming a Decentralized Autonomous Organization in itself.Using the back-end of data processing, cloud computing and blockchain technology, the DAO could automate the whole process of price negotiation, entering into instant smart contracts with manufacturers, purchasing new charging stations, completing whole supply cycles, with the involvement of humans only in two aspects.The installation workers who have to install the charging station and at the other end the DAO token owners who decide the amount of profits to be re-invested.There are numerous other examples, such as the fridge ordering your weekly shopping, with self-owned drones delivering it to your door which paints a future of smart automation.A fourth industrial revolution which promises to provide us with the long dreamed free time to use our liquid thinking for intellectual and leisurely endeavours.We may yet see, therefore, a trillion dollar worth company coming out of this space.