Projects & Observations
We are focused on the social trends that could shape the future and the tech tools that may drive it. Our projects are informed and influenced by our engagement with experts across the research, tech and design spectrums. In this space, we share what we’re learning, what’s inspiring, and what’s next.
Blockchain
BY: ALE VIGILANTE AND LAUREEN OUELLET | March 16, 2023
Fintech’s Third Wave—the use of tokenization and smart contracts to rebuild the infrastructure, processes, and business models underlying fiat money and traditional assets—is well underway. The transition to this blockchain-based infrastructure for our industry will likely follow a path of least resistance, with different products and processes charting their own paths.
Article
03/14/2023
BLOCKCHAIN
BY: Travis Beaulieu | January 27, 2023
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a nascent but rapidly growing area in the crypto industry, and many protocols have seen steady usage despite a significant decline in token prices. Hacks from code vulnerabilities, scams, and centralized exchange malpractice have harmed the industry’s reputation, and looming regulation should not be overlooked. As DeFi matures, however, these challenges can be overcome through innovation to provide a more secure, user-friendly experience for the next wave of crypto users.
Article
01/27/2023
FCAT Crypto Brief™
BY: Matt Ehlers | January 17, 2023
Jason Ward didn’t need to take on the booms, busts, structural complexities, regulatory uncertainty, and energy-consumption concerns of the blockchain and its attendant technologies.
Article
01/17/2023
Blockchain
BY: Vanessa Kargenian | January 13, 2023
Why even use a private blockchain, wouldn’t a database suffice? It’s a question that’s colored most enterprise technology inquiries surrounding blockchain infrastructure adoption since Bitcoin launched in 2009. And it’s even more timely now as both layer 2 scaling solutions that enhance privacy and speed, as well as newer interoperable chains are making public chains more appropriate for enterprise use.
Article
01/13/2023
Blockchain
BY: Travis Beaulieu | October 10, 2022
Before its historic collapse, Terra became one of the highest valued crypto ecosystems with a strong community of developers. But with a relaunched chain and a damaged reputation, are these developers still committed? An analysis of GitHub code contributions indicates an ecosystem in decline.
Article
10/10/2022
Blockchain
BY: Travis Beaulieu | September 16, 2022
Bitcoin’s revolutionary design offers a new approach for financial inclusion, distributed ownership, and enforced scarcity. As it has grown in value, however, new narratives surrounding bitcoin’s utility have also emerged. A rocky performance year-to-date and sensitivity to macroeconomic indicators suggest that bitcoin is still finding its footing.
Article
09/16/2022
Blockchain
BY: VANESSA KARGENIAN | August 10, 2022
Built on public blockchains, Web3 aims to diminish single point of failure risk and afford users more opportunity to be fairly compensated for their contributions. It’s only beginning to emerge, but once fully operational, Web3 has the potential to unleash a new era of value creation and innovation.
Article
08/10/2022
Blockchain
BY: David Bracken | May 5, 2022
Over the past year Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have emerged as a much hyped yet intriguing new way to organize communities online. Owned and run by their users, these digital-native collectives operate transparently via smart contracts on the blockchain. While still in an experimental phase, DAOs early use cases provide a glimpse of their potential.
Article
05/05/2022
Blockchain
BY: Kristin Kanders | February 1, 2022
I’d never heard of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – digital proof of ownership enabled by the blockchain – until 2021. Like many, I came to them through mass media, through the likes of Kevin Roose of the New York Times auctioning off his column as an NFT and the artist Beeple selling an NFT of his artwork for $69 million at Christie’s. What was this new phenomenon all about?
Article
01/25/2022
DESIGN
BY: KSENIYA GALPER & LUKE PAXTON | February 1, 2022
FCAT’s Luke Paxton and Kseniya Galper are responsible for the unique artwork accompanying this year’s Priorities Report, created using digital and physical techniques. The results of their collaboration will be included in a set of limited edition NFTs which will serve as prizes for the winners of a Play&Learn game based on the report. Visit the NFT Experiment to learn more!
Article
01/31/2022
The FCAT Files
BY: Nicole Dodes and Robert Hoffman | January 26, 2022
Crypto currency is drawing more attention than ever before. Amid this high interest, FCAT recently hosted its fourth annual Cryptoasset Portfolio Challenge in late 2021. The event provides an opportunity to create and manage a mock $1 million cryptoasset portfolio, educating associates on digital assets while also encouraging a healthy competition.
Article
01/26/2022
Blockchain
BY: Kevin Kelly | January 6, 2022
The following is excerpted from an interview with Whit Gibbs, the Founder & CEO of Compass Mining. Compass recently authored the North American Mining Index.
Article
12/21/2021
Blockchain
BY: Parth Gargava | November 10, 2021
The following is excerpted from an interview with Jameson Lopp, a bitcoin engineer and the CTO of a crypto start-up, Casa. In this interview, Jameson discusses some of the trends seen in custodial and non-custodial wallets and talks about ways to manage coins without the aid of an intermediary. The interviewer is Parth Gargava, a senior software engineer in FCAT’s blockchain incubator.
Article
11/01/2021
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
BY: David Bracken | October 26, 2021
Blockchain-based video games promise to accelerate the adoption of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and greatly expand the digital asset ecosystem. By making in-game items NFTs that are embedded in the blockchain, players can take ownership of the digital assets they accumulate while gaming and then sell or trade them for real-world value. Such functionality could restructure the economics of the $175 billion gaming industry and turn legions of gamers into digital asset investors.
Article
10/26/2021
Blockchain
By: DAVID HILL | August 11, 2021
A new version of DAT, the Digital Asset Tracker, has been released, giving users the ability to connect to more exchanges than ever.
In the digital assets landscape, a few elements remain constant: new coins, new ERC20 tokens, and new smart contracts are all launched regularly, along with the attendant complexity required to manage the details. There is no perfect solution for the management problem yet and, depending on when you entered the crypto space, the process for monitoring and aggregating your crypto holdings can vary greatly.
In the digital assets landscape, a few elements remain constant: new coins, new ERC20 tokens, and new smart contracts are all launched regularly, along with the attendant complexity required to manage the details. There is no perfect solution for the management problem yet and, depending on when you entered the crypto space, the process for monitoring and aggregating your crypto holdings can vary greatly.
Article
08/09/2021
BLOCKCHAIN RESEARCH
By: SIMON BROWN | July 7, 2021
Scalability has always been an issue for public ledgers, this is old news. It’s a problem that engineers have been trying to solve for a number of years now. The issue has become more of a pressing need in the last 12 months with an increase of activity on public ledgers, and this has been reflected in transaction fees, sometimes seeing over $40 USD for common contract interactions on Ethereum.
The two main approaches to solving this issue have been a) scaling at the base layer, using techniques like sharding and novel consensus protocols, and b) layer 2 scaling techniques. Both approaches have been successful in different ways. Read more.
The two main approaches to solving this issue have been a) scaling at the base layer, using techniques like sharding and novel consensus protocols, and b) layer 2 scaling techniques. Both approaches have been successful in different ways. Read more.
Article
07/06/2021
BLOCKCHAIN
By: Sam Abbassi | May 5, 2021
The following is excerpted from an interview with Nik Bhatia, Adjunct Professor of Finance and Business Economics at USC Marshall. Nik recently authored Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Central Bank Digital Currencies. In this interview, Nik discusses trends that affect Bitcoin’s role globally, the role of incumbents as it relates to Bitcoin, and the impact of the Lightning Network.
Article
05/03/2021
BLOCKCHAIN INCUBATOR
By: ADAM SCHOUELA AND KEVIN VORA | April 30, 2021
Digital assets continue to display tremendous growth, as investment banks, private equity groups, financial advisors and commercial banks grow more comfortable considering crypto as a potential investment opportunity and eventually a more widely accepted medium of exchange.
Article
04/29/2021
BLOCKCHAIN RESEARCH
By: SIMON BROWN | April 13, 2021
I’m attempting to learn the Rust programming language, and for me, the only way to learn something is by trying to solve a problem. I’ve decided to try to implement my own digital signature library for educational purposes, and hopefully share a little knowledge along the way. Read more here.
Article
04/13/2021
Blockchain
BY: BRIAN WRIGHT | February 11, 2021
The following is excerpted from an interview with Apolline Blandin, Research Affiliate of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). The findings from Apolline’s research on the Bitcoin mining industry were published in the 3rd Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study in 2020. In this interview Apolline discusses some of the most important trends in Bitcoin mining including cost structure and hashrate dispersion across geographies, use of renewable energy sources, and treasury management strategies. The interviewer is FCAT’s Brian Wright, senior manager of Bitcoin mining.
Article
02/10/2021
BLOCKCHAIN INCUBATOR
BY: RACHEL J RYBARCZYK | December 9, 2020
The composition of the block header is an intricate and highly consequential process. If Bitcoin is a living, breathing organism, then the block header is the heart of the entire machine. The “block” in the Bitcoin blockchain is what moves and settles millions of dollars of value every 10 minutes and in the block. The block header is what notarizes the funds in a block, votes on consensus decisions and ultimately directs and defines the movement and legitimacy of Bitcoin transactions.
Article
12/09/2020
BLOCKCHAIN INCUBATOR
BY: SIMON BROWN | November 5, 2020
The following is excerpted from an interview with Carmit Hazay and Muthu Venkitasubramaniam. The two are experts in the fields of lightweight scalable protocols for secure multiparty computation (MPC) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), as well as co-founders of Ligero. The moderator is FCAT’s Simon Brown, principal blockchain software engineer in the blockchain incubator.
Article
11/04/2020
Blockchain Incubator
BY: PARTH GARGAVA | OCTOBER 14, 2020
As the world inches closer towards realizing the true importance of privacy, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in ways data is collected. In our pursuit of reimagining financial systems with cryptocurrencies and blockchain, an open forum for discussion of upcoming ideas and trends around Privacy and Crypto was hosted by Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT).
Article
10/14/2020
BLOCKCHAIN INCUBATOR
BY: SAM ABBASSI | September 29, 2020
In this article, we describe Bitcoin transactions, restricted transactions called Covenants, and our own research into secure Bitcoin custody using a type of Covenant called Vaults.
Article
09/29/2020
Blockchain Incubator
BY: THE BLOCKCHAIN INCUBATOR TEAM | September 8, 2020
FCAT launched its blockchain incubator in 2015. Since then it has been our mission to fully understand Bitcoin and blockchain technologies and their impact on money and the modern financial system.
Article
08/26/2020
Blockchain & Digital Assets
July 9, 2020
For philanthropic institutions, the emergence of Bitcoin has presented a unique set of issues. Donors enjoy the efficiency and tax savings of being able to donate non-cash assets directly to organizations such as Fidelity Charitable®, a public charity.
Article
01/03/2020
