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mayo 15, 2018

Blockchain

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Blockchain

Blockchain

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mayo 15, 2018

 
 

As the price of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have fluctuated wildly over the last year, bitcoin, and blockchain, the underlying technology that powers it, have captured the popular imagination.

Blockchain at its heart is a distributed-ledger technology that employs cryptography to ensure the integrity of the data it stores. For all its hype, blockchain is basically just a novel approach to database architecture where control of the data is distributed among all the parties using it. This architecture is enabled by cryptography and the use of tokens (i.e., cryptocurrencies) as incentives for participants to perform the work to ensure the data’s integrity.

What makes blockchain so disruptive is its shared ledger eliminates the need for intermediaries to establish trust and authenticate identity between two untrusted parties who want to transact.  As a result, blockchain has the potential to cut out the financial middleman. In particular, cryptocurrencies are gaining traction as a form of payment for e-commerce transactions where there is a high risk of fraud and/or chargebacks. While blockchain technology can be adopted by existing financial institutions to facilitate transactions, it has the potential to enable a new set of payment rails that circumvents the existing financial establishment. 

It is still unclear if bitcoin will become a lasting piece of the financial firmament or is just a passing fad.   

While it has the potential to become as ubiquitous as the internet over time, there are nevertheless many issues to be addressed. As with the internet, we will probably see a mixture of both blockchain native companies as well as companies adopting the technology to improve their existing business processes and to attack new market opportunities afforded by these new capabilities.  We believe blockchain is a technology that will continue to garner increasing mindshare in the years ahead.

 
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Risk Considerations

There is no assurance that a Portfolio will achieve its investment objective. Portfolios are subject to market risk, which is the possibility that the market values of securities owned by the Portfolio will decline and that the value of Portfolio shares may therefore be less than what you paid for them. Market values can change daily due to economic and other events (e.g. natural disasters, health crises, terrorism, conflicts and social unrest) that affect markets, countries, companies or governments. It is difficult to predict the timing, duration, and potential adverse effects (e.g. portfolio liquidity) of events. Accordingly, you can lose money investing in this Portfolio. Please be aware that this Portfolio may be subject to certain additional risks. In general, equities securities’ values also fluctuate in response to activities specific to a company. Investments in foreign markets entail special risks such as currency, political, economic, market and liquidity risks. The risks of investing in emerging market countries are greater than risks associated with investments in foreign developed countries. Privately placed and restricted securities may be subject to resale restrictions as well as a lack of publicly available information, which will increase their illiquidity and could adversely affect the ability to value and sell them (liquidity risk). Derivative instruments may disproportionately increase losses and have a significant impact on performance. They also may be subject to counterparty, liquidity, valuation, correlation and market risks. Illiquid securities may be more difficult to sell and value than public traded securities (liquidity risk).

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