Thanks to Mark for providing this link, I found the following article rather thought probing.  

But frankly, I do not know for sure what to expect when it comes to each nation around the world issuing their version of digital currency individually. There is so much potential for mishaps, it would likely ended up with serious unintended consequences. 

The warning signs for the future of cash
FEBRUARY 25, 201612:27PM

REMEMBER when cash was king? Now cash is more like a minor duke whose stately home is badly in need of repairs. Cheques are nearly forgotten and now Aussies are giving up on the lobster ($20 note), the pineapple ($50 note), and all the rest of them as well. The decline of cash is accelerating.

The number of ATM withdrawals has also been falling fast since 2010, according to banks. Cash lasts a lot longer when you can PayPass your way through each day. Sometimes these days, I find a $20 note in my wallet and I can’t remember when I got it. Probably weeks ago.

While we don’t have as much actual use for cash any more, we still really like it.

On Wednesday, the RBA started talking about issuing digital cash, which would have some similarities with Bitcoin.

“The digital currency would presumably circulate in parallel (and at par) with banknotes and other existing forms of the national currency,” said the RBA’s head of payments policy. He emphasised the RBA “has not reached a stage where it is actively considering this.”

The central banks of England, Canada and China are also looking into digital currencies. They would let you transact using an electronic system, more anonymous and quite separate to your bank account.

But still, the rise of a digital currency instead of cold hard cash frightens a lot of people.

But it could make sense for governments to dump cash.
Cash gives government problems. They have to make it, watch out for counterfeits,recycle the old notes and coins and make sure nobody is stealing them.

Cash also undermines monetary policy, used to boost the economy. If the RBA need to cut interest rates to give the economy a boost, but if interest rates are already at zero, the government has a problem. If they cut interest rates to negative interest rates, we could just withdraw our money and keep it as cash. But without cash, you can’t withdraw your cash and negative interest rates become possible, giving monetary policy makers more options.

And there are more everyday problems — cash lets many dodgy things happen without the government knowing.

Just this week, a woman was arrested on the Hume Highway with $920,000 in the boot of her car. Sure, maybe she was just heading to Sydney to buy the median price house. But those amounts of cash are mainly the preserve of criminals.

In fact, criminal activity probably explains the mystery of the missing hundreds. The RBA keeps printing hundred dollar bills, but nobody seems to spend them, and we’re not sure where they end up.
The reason criminals love cash is however also the reason to be nervous about losing it. Cash is anonymous. If there is no cash, the government can see every little thing you do.

Whether privacy becomes the big issue of the next century is not yet clear. Maybe governments and businesses will know our every move and leave us alone. If they don’t, privacy could become our biggest headache. Until that is clear, there is a very strong argument for keeping cash.

Jason Murphy is an economist. He publishes the blog Thomas The Thinkengine.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/the-warning-signs-for-the-future-of-cash/news-story/2a5607982ba7bbbb679cf058135bbc0e

I agree with Paul Chou's position, "Chou said these are speculative proposals that take out one element in a complex system and have all the advantages of that system. “I don’t think are really correct,” he said. “I think the second you separate bitcoin from some of the other elements the use-cases of the individual elements are unlikely to be proven, in my view.”

There is now way too much "mad money" chasing after the wrong goose. It is becoming a very noisy and confused industry. Five years from now, a lot of that noise will be gone and there will be clarity. Keep it simple and focus on improving the strength of blockchain with a trusted digital currency that everyone worldwide can participate. As an early stage revolutionary technology Bitcoin certainly has room for improvement. We are taking good notes on how a new version DNotes one day can overcome many of the current limitations with a little extra.

Sounds great but a few key phrases caught my attention:

"Private, Permissioned Blockchain"  "Because of its slow consensus time"  "controlled consensus that does not rely on miners"

Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, is a leadership and management thought leader. Though the article is a little dated, it caught my attention because of the emphasis he placed on the strength of entrepreneurs.

When entrepreneurs can focus not just on their only strengths but also that of their employees the company will improve their odds of succeeding. It is important to recognize any weaknesses but work as a team to compliment one other to overcome those shortcomings. The comment that, "we must overhaul corporate mindset so that all people can be leaders" sounded like a quote from my book.

Entrepreneurs: Better Know Your Strengths
Apr 28, 2015


Editor’s note: Jim Clifton was interviewed recently for the National Federation of Independent Business’ Playbook magazine on the strengths of entrepreneurs. Here are the questions and answers.

Why is it so important for entrepreneurs to understand and focus on their strengths? What can this reveal?

Great entrepreneurs have core strengths in common, such as extreme determination and a gift to create successful business models. But outside of these core characteristics, they have more differences than commonalities -- how they grow to success is highly individualized.

Some will get there by being experts, some by being master salespeople. Some become successful as master managers, while others achieve success as extreme individual achievers. Some are driven by an insatiable need to compete, others solely by a mission to change the world.

The more precisely an entrepreneur understands their strengths and weaknesses -- and then builds strategies to maximize their strengths -- the higher the probability that they will build something of significance that creates millions or billions of dollars of value, thousands of good jobs and something that changes the world a little to a lot.

In your experience, are there any particular strengths that you have found to be the most common among the top entrepreneurs?

Rare drive and determination. Confidence and self-efficacy that overrides the presence of risk. A gift to create customers and profitable business models.

Is it equally important for entrepreneurs to understand their weaknesses?

Of course. But weaknesses only need to be minimized, as they never develop into strengths. All the money and success comes from knowing and maximizing strengths. The miracle of human development lies within focusing growth around one’s strengths and making weaknesses irrelevant.  

What advice would you have for small and midsize business owners who want to become better leaders for their organization?

Two things. First, change your current culture to a strengths-based culture for you and all of your employees. Everything will change for the better and your organization will boom to new heights if you do this. A strengths-based culture is one in which every individual knows their strengths and is put on a job where they use them every day.

Second, know this: You are always CEO of customers. The ultimate definition of your career will simply be how many true believers you created for your products or services. Everything else follows that.
***
Jim Clifton is Chairman and CEO of Gallup. He is author of The Coming Jobs War (Gallup Press, 2011).


Comment From:

Monika Black, PhD
Coach | Strategist | Disrupting Leadership

"Yes! In order to integrate into a strengths-based organization we must overhaul corporate mindset so that all people can be leaders, operating in their true strengths, with unbridled authenticity."

Some interesting information. They covered many companies in our industry. Good reference materials. Took me a while though. Thanks for the post, Chase.

More about the book I am writing:

This book is one of the winning strategies of DNotes. It is also a crucial component of CRISP For Retirement and CRISP for Employee Incentive Benefits. Additionally, at $24.95, it is a revenue generator for the new company of which DNotes will own up to 25%. Each project we are involved in is a building block and they are all strategically linked. We are committed to be the best in class and always prepared to go the extra mile, doing things others won't do so that one day we would be in the position to do things others couldn't do. DNotes is a classic case in point to showcase many of the principles and business philosophies mentioned in the book. The book is intended to be of significant help for small business owners and startups.

Consider these:

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau:

There 6 million operating (active) businesses in the United States with the following employment breakdown:

3,791,000     4 or less employees
1,000,000     5 to 9 employees
600,000        19 to 19 employees
500,000        20 to 99 employees
90,000      100 to 499 employees
18,000      500 to 10,000 employees
1,000      10,000 or more employees

 
"America’s small businesses are the engines of job creation. Small businesses create seven of every ten new jobs and they employ just over half of the country’s private sector workforce. (SBA Office of Advocacy)"
Source: http://smallbusiness.house.gov/uploadedfiles/april_recess_small_biz_talking_pts.pdf

“The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the total number of new business startups and business closures per year -- the birth and death rates of American companies -- have crossed for the first time since the measurement began. I am referring to employer businesses, those with one or more employees, the real engines of economic growth. Four hundred thousand new businesses are being born annually nationwide, while 470,000 per year are dying.”

“Because we have misdiagnosed the cause and effect of economic growth, we have misdiagnosed the cause and effect of job creation. To get back on track, we need to quit pinning everything on innovation, and we need to start focusing on the almighty entrepreneurs and business builders. And that means we have to find them,” according to Jim Clifton is Chairman and CEO of Gallup. He is the author of The Coming Jobs War and coauthor of Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder

Source: http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/180431/american-entrepreneurship-dead-alive.aspx

This is great news for our industry. What is good for Bitcoin is good for all of us in our industry

Perhaps a 20 year grace period to to give the industry a chance to take off will be a good thing.

This is good news and should give the industry some stability.


Bitcoin Miners Back Proposed Timeline for 2017 Hard Fork

Stan Higgins | Published on February 20, 2016 at 22:58 GMT

A group of bitcoin miners constituting close to 80% of the network hashrate, as well representatives from exchanges, service providers and contributors to the Bitcoin Core development project, have proposed a development timeline for scaling the bitcoin network.

The statement’s release comes after a more than 18 hour-long meeting in Hong Kong that drew participants from China's bitcoin mining community and members of the Bitcoin Core team.

Some of the letter's signatories were party to a previous statement that voiced opposition to any "contentious hard fork" to the bitcoin network.

According the proposed timeline, Bitcoin Core contributors Matt Corallo, Luke Dashjr, Cory Fields, Johnson Lau and Peter Todd will produce and recommend code for a hard fork to the bitcoin network that would feature a block size increase. The code for this proposal is expected to be made available by July.

Read more:

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-miners-back-proposed-timeline-for-2017-network-hard-fork/

Awesome. You must be a long-term investor.

Here is another good quote:

"The ability to consistently execute large scale strategic plans flawlessly is the hallmark of a best in class business. Make that a worthy goal of your company."

Alan Yong
Feb. 20, 2016

Good article. Thanks for posting.

Nice. I just wanted to get the party going!

Here are a few quotes to get you started, TeeGee:

Quotes from Alan Yong:

"Many can develop impressive strategies on paper, but few can execute them flawlessly; even fewer have gained the mastery of dynamic strategic offset to overcome any surprises."

"You cannot afford to let yourself be blindsided by overconfidence, due to a misguided faith in your ability to excel in just one or two skill sets - or hope that superiority in those areas will somehow mask your mediocrity in every other area."

"As long as you do not give up prematurely, your skills will continue to be honed, and your ability to garner larger and larger victories will only grow over time."

“Trust in financial services is an immensely valuable brand. It must be built step by step with integrity over a sustained period of time so that others can witness the delivery of promises made and gain confidence over the course of time. DNotes’ core mission is to be the trusted global digital currency for everyone worldwide to participate. It is intended to supplement national or fiat currencies worldwide; not replace them.”

‘For any business to be successful, one must first build a model of success and promote it with clear and consistent messaging, like preaching a religion. You want them to think like you and communicate like you, with everyone singing to the same tune - in perfect harmony.”

Hello, fortune-gold. Good to see you again. Your saying is very fitting. By strategic choices, we spent the first two years in foundation building (tree planting). This year we are slowly shifting to a revenue model. With revenue and better clarity where the technology and regulatory requirements are going we will be moving onto the next phase - major development and commercialization. It takes time for the "trees" to grow. 

Thank you, CryptoBroker. We may deserve a little bit of the credit, but we would not have done much without the support of our community members, including you. We always have many helpers working quietly behind the scene. So to all of you - A Big Thank You. 

The following statement is hard to disagree. That happens to be in line with our thinking as we continue working very hard to put DNotes in the best position.

"But so far block chains have consumed too many resources, including both computation and storage resources, and cannot handle the current transaction volume. We need to wait and see whether this problem can be solved in the future.”



China’s Central Bank Governor Says Digital Currencies Will Replace Cash, Regulated as Legal Tender
February 17, 2016

The governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, said in an interview that digital currencies will inevitably replace cash, but they will be regulated if used as legal tender.

Zhou noted that the PBOC has been examining digital currencies for some time. He indicated that physical cash is “low-tech” and that rapid development of Internet-based global payment systems necessitates the creation of digital currency, which he believes will improve financial infrastructure and economic quality and efficiency.

The central bank governor confirmed the PBOC’s recently revealed plans to develop its own digital currency and made it clear that a balance will be struck between “protecting people’s privacy and cracking down on illegalities” in the implementation.

According to Zhou, the design of China’s national digital currency will be “fundamentally different” to bitcoin to avoid its security and anonymity issues. Blockchain may also not be utilized as the technology behind the currency but the currency will likely be based on “advanced cryptographic algorithms that will be continually upgraded”.

Zhou explained that the PBOC has reservations about the blockchain because of what they perceive to be large resource requirements and limited transactional volume.  Zhou told Caixin:

“The PBOC has spent a lot of time and energy researching on the application of block chain technology. But so far block chains have consumed too many resources, including both computation and storage resources, and cannot handle the current transaction volume. We need to wait and see whether this problem can be solved in the future.”

The central banker pointed out that the PBOC did not have a timetable yet for a move to a digital currency. He elucidated that, as a very large country, China would take time to transition from physical to digital money, so a digital currency will co-exist with cash for years before it finally replaces cash. The cost for cash transactions will gradually increase in the later stages. For example, banks do not currently charge any fees for counting physical cash, but in the future they may charge their clients for the service. With the transaction costs of paper money rising, people will be motivated to opt more for digital money.

Source: http://blockchain-finance.com/2016/02/17/chinas-central-bank-governor-says-digital-currencies-will-replace-cash/

Thanks, RJF. I just checked it out. Excellent research and very useful to our team. We are always working on something but have purposely been holding back on major project development. Strategic and perfectly timed positioning is one of the best secrets to business success. I am amazed how much resources have been invested in countless projects that quickly became irrelevant and obsolete. Surprising, it includes many VC funded projects.

We are very strategic, disciplined, and systematic. We will only make our move at the right time. DNotes is a long term investment for those who share our long term vision of DNotes being the trusted global digital currency for everyone worldwide to participate. It will be the digital currency to supplement fiat currency in global commerce but not as a replacement for national currencies.

Good to see you, PEACEOFWAR. We have a very full plate, focusing only on core products and services that provide the best synergies to what we already have in place.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DNotes!!!

Spring is just about a month away for us, and it is my favorite season. Everything looks so perfect and fresh, but still too cold to do any hard work. We will have rabbits running around; no "mother kangaroo and baby grazing about" though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DNotes!!!