We are now ERC-1400 compliant

On 30 July 2019, Polymath announced a major milestone, with the release of v3.0 of the Polymath Protocol. With full ERC-1400 compliance, Polymath v3 leads the way in improving interoperability and communication within the security token ecosystem.

BRIXCORP was initially created using the first release of Polymath’s protocol, then upgraded to v2, and we are pleased to announce our upgrade to v3.

The Importance of ERC-1400 Compliance

The ERC-1400 specification consists of an interoperable library of security token standards developed through a collaborative process involving stakeholders from across the security token ecosystem.

Using standardised interfaces for the core functionality helps reduce friction for third-party services (e.g. KYC providers, custodians, exchanges, wallets, block explorer) to integrate with a security token. Adoption of the ERC-1400 standard is important for ensuring the future liquidity of BRIXCORP.

Being ERC-1400 compliant also allows us to give regulators such as the Labuan FSA comfort with our issuance of BRIXCORP and future plans for capital raises and listing.

Access to Additional Features

As well as being fully ERC-1400 compliant, the Polymath v3 release contains many new features designed to make tokens easier and more flexible to manage.

One of the core features of Polymath’s architecture is the ability to add functionality to a token through modules, meaning that a token can be fully customised to a specific asset and jurisdiction, and allow for extension and future-proofing of the functionality associated with your the token. As well as improving the core token, the v3 release includes updates to existing modules, and exciting new modules.

Whilst the ability to add and remove modules from a token has always provided a lot of future-proofing, following the v3 release both core token functionality and individual modules can now be upgraded in-place.

New BRIXCORP Contract Address

The upgrade from v2 to v3 means that we have a new BRIXCORP contract address, 0xf9f3458db4e753bb511834275ecf60817234e77e.

We have issued 100,000,000 BRIXCORP from the new contract address to Treasury, and have burned all 100,000,000 BRIXCORP from the old contract address. We have also contacted Etherscan to start the process of updating the new token details and deprecating the old one, to reduce any potential confusion.

We will shortly be issuing BRIXCORP to existing shareholders and investors. Please direct any queries to [email protected]

BRIXCORP Token Upgrade was originally published in BRIX International on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The latest report by Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC, on “Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2019”, has concluded that Melbourne is the best prospect in the region for real estate investment in 2019. The report includes development trends, outlook on the Asia Pacific real estate investment, finance, and capital markets, and trends by property sector and metropolitan area. According to the report, the top five markets for real estate investments and development in 2019 are Melbourne, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Osaka.

1. Melbourne

The reasons Melbourne is the top real estate investment market in Asia Pacific include its constrained office supply pipeline, yield over the cost of debt and sovereign bonds, a deep and liquid core market, and good prospects for rental growth. Research has found out that Melbourne’s rental growth has been significant, with yields running around 4.5% for prime office and retail and 5.5% for industrial space. Price is another factor, being slightly more reasonable compared to Sydney, and therefore seeing a shift to the centre of attention during 2018.

2. Singapore

Although Singapore did not take out the top spot, the lion city has actually climbed from third to second place. According to ULI director Pauline Oh, “The improvement in Singapore’s office market has seen the city-state comprehensively reiterated by respondents, after falling to 21st place in our 2017 report.” PwC has observed that a number of major office deals were sealed in the past 12 months, with domestic investors amongst the highest buyers. At the same time, due to the Central Business District (CBD) not seeing any supply until 2020, there will be more new office openings in the decentralised office markets in 2019. According to PwC, Singapore’s residential market has managed to recover with solid economic growth, significant number of visitors supporting rents and yields from prime retail spaces during 2018.

The report also highlighted that Singapore is the largest source of APAC outbound real estate investments in the first half of 2018 where US$9.06 billion of capital has been deployed. Starved of yield and opportunities at home, Singapore real estate investment trusts (REITs) and developers have been buying overseas, especially in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Europe.

3. Sydney

Sydney has ranked third in investment and also third in development. The factors positioning Sydney in the top rankings are similar to those giving Melbourne the top spot. Due to relatively high returns and being seen as a “safe” play, Sydney has become a favourite city for global investors. Competition for assets has helped to sustain high pricing, while low vacancies and growing demand for space has suggested that the rents will continue to increase in the future.

4. Tokyo

It’s a surprise that Tokyo managed to rank in fourth position after last year’s drop. Its jump in the rankings can be attributed to institutional buyers taking advantage of cheap finance, attractive leverage, a good spread over interest rates, and lastly a large stock of investments-grade assets.

5. Osaka

Since there is lack of reasonably priced core assets in the capital, this has led investors to look elsewhere in Japan, where local economies are now progressively more stable. Supply is tight in both residential and office sectors, making Osaka the best market outside Tokyo.

Conclusion

APAC will continue to grow in the coming years, with economic growth well in excess of rates seen in the United States and Europe. Australia should continue to outperform in the core office and logistics markets, and Japan is expected to post high-single-digit levered returns due to the low cost of finance and improving economic prospects. Lastly, Singapore will once again to poised for a cyclical recovery due to improving global economic trade.

Top 5 Asia Pacific Cities for Real Estate Investment in 2019 was originally published in BRIX International on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Problem of Cryptocurrency Volatility

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control as opposed to central banking systems. The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.

Cryptocurrency market and its volatility

Cryptocurrency is becoming a wide spread topic nowadays that has expanded to a more diverse audience compared to the limited early stage adopters that valued privacy, globalization and decentralization above all else. The technology underlying cryptocurrencies have powerful applications in various sectors ranging from healthcare to media.

The benefits that cryptocurrencies can bring has sparked interest in the mainstream market — with regards to both technological advancement and popularity. Investors flooded to achieve gains when the value of Bitcoin increased in price exponentially. There was a massive gain potential from trading digital currencies, given the semi-regulated market, and many took advantage of it in a speculative way. However, the extreme speculative nature of crypto market created the recent digital currencies downturn that many didn’t expect.

Triggered by the plunge in Bitcoin’s price change due to various reasons (such as ongoing ETF approval from SEC), according to the Bitcoin (BTC) Volatility Index as of Dec. 9, volatility levels on the BTC-USD market have risen threefold on the month.

Handling volatility is nothing new for institutionalized investors. Financial derivatives, stocks, bonds or forex are all prone to swings, but the problem is that cryptocurrency volatility is off the charts. Investors in cryptocurrency are often new to the game and have not experienced the range of swings before — watching their money both grow, and shrink substantially by the hour can prove as being challenging even for the strongest at heart.

Many would ask why is this asset class more volatile than any other liquid asset in the market? Here there are some reasons listed by Cointelegraph:

1. No intrinsic value — Without any concrete fundamentals to base the price, value, supply and demand, we can only rely on market sentiment.
2. Lack of regulatory oversight — With governments trying to understand the industry, regulation is still in its early days. This allows for market manipulation which, in turn, introduces volatility, and discourages institutional investment.
3. Lack of institutional capital — Most of the institutional capital is still on the sidelines, lacking a large trading desk that has the potential to introduce efficiency and soften market volatility, or a mutual fund buying on behalf of their investors for the long term.
4. Thin order books — Most of the tradable supply is not on an exchange order book but in off-exchange wallets. A large market order can eat into an exchanges order book on the way up or down, causing “slippage”. Because of the capacity for large traders to move the market in either direction and employ tactics to encourage this, volatility goes up.
5. Long term vs. short term — Current crypto market is formed by speculators mostly, that are focusing on earning the sell-buy margins.
6. Herd mentality — When the market goes down, the traders will dump the asset at the first sign of trouble. Since this is a reactionary behavior, they will generally lose money before getting out of the market. When the market starts surging up, they will buy with the money they don’t have creating some sort of synergistic effect.

Stablecoins growth in adoption

Stablecoins have showed massive growth in adoption in the past several months, as a solution for the current market need for stability.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to minimize the effects of price volatility. Stablecoins are used as stores of value or hedge, as well as in other use cases where volatile cryptocurrencies may be less desirable.

According to Diar, a large increase of 1032% in on-chain transactions with stablecoins took place in November vs. September breaching the $2.3Bn mark at the close of November.

Looking at the trend, we could anticipate a massive surge in stablecoin creation moving forward but the question is: how stable are the stablecoins? It is essential that users understand the core of stablecoins and the great benefits that this could bring if it’s pegged to the right value and backed by the right asset.

Conclusion

The cryptocurrency market has felt the ill effects of an unstable market, as many investors continue to exit the market due to fear and uncertainty about how low the market may drop. Perhaps the changes in the cryptocurrency market will force investors (speculators or hedgers) to study the market and understand the cycles, creating a more mature and safer ecosystem that everyone could benefit from.

But most importantly is to create trust in crypto world, advancing the technology and community engagement to its full potential while building the public confidence necessary for mainstream adoption. Stablecoins will help in this process.

The Current Problems of Cryptocurrency Volatility was originally published in BRIX International on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.