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Blockchain technology has grabbed the interest of investors globally as it has quickly grown into one of the most exciting areas due to its wide variety of application across industries. This is why Reality Shares, an asset management firm, is launching China’s first blockchain ETF, which gives investors access to Chinese companies at the forefront of the blockchain revolution.

According to the company, the Reality Shares Nasdaq NexGen Economy China ETF (Nasdaq: BCNA), which tracks the Reality Shares Index, will focus on China-based companies that are fully invested in blockchain technologies. Created as a joint partnership between Reality Shares and Nasdaq in January, the fund will “identify and invest” in such companies that are applying blockchain technology as the “first native digital medium of value.”

For a business to qualify for the BCNA index, they must score high on Reality Shares’ proprietary Blockchain Score methodology, a rules-based quantitative process used to evaluate the potential of blockchain businesses.

“We wanted to build an objective measurement system to identify the key companies that are truly innovating in the blockchain space, and separate out the hype in the industry,” Reality Shares CEO Eric Ervin told Bitcoin Magazine. “To do that, we created a rules-based, objective measurement system to determine which companies are actively working on blockchain initiatives, and which are just faking it.”

The companies are evaluated across key factors that include patent applications, blockchain technology development, blockchain economic impact, their role in the blockchain ecosystem, product stage and a host of others.

“We look at how much each company spent on research and development vs. the firm’s total budget. Both of these factors signal that a company is committed to moving the needle in their blockchain efforts,” Ervin said.

Reality Shares’ methodology is intended to allow the fund to identify blockchain-based businesses that are expected to grow the most, based on operational efficiencies, increased economic profit and transformational business practices. The fund, which is made up of 31 constituents, will rebalance semi-annually.

Reality Shares has a blockchain advisory board in charge of “advising the firm and the index committee on how to score each company.” These include cryptocurrency heavyweights such as Shapeshift AG founder Erik Voorhees, Jeff Garzik of Metronome, and Matthew Roszak, founder of Tally Capital.

Investors can purchase BCNA through a financial advisor or by using Reality Shares’ trading platform, which connects to a wide range of online brokerage accounts.

A sideways market has many bitcoin investors wondering if the downward volatility has finally subsided. As stated in our previous discussion of the bitcoin market, the $6,425 support level was a very important level to hold. A failure to maintain support at that price level would undoubtedly cascade the market into a test of deeper support values. Fortunately, the week started off with a decent bounce off the support level:

Figure 1: BTC-USD, 1-Day Candles, Support Level

Although the volume was not the best, the price managed to rally decently on a fairly wide spread. Currently, the price seems to be bound within a pseudo-trading range of sorts where it is meandering around, testing both support and resistance. Right now, it’s unclear whether this trading range is an accumulation or redistribution trading range, but it beginning to take form as the price ping-pongs around:

Figure 2: BTC-USD, 2-Hour Candles, Current Trading Range

At this moment, there is no discernable volume trend that would hint toward accumulation or distribution, which, for me, puts this in a no-trade-zone. If we zoom out to a higher timeframe, there is a strong argument that, because we broke out of such a prolonged symmetrical triangle, this is actually stepping-stone redistribution that will ultimately lead to a continuation of the down trend. We could even argue that current trading indicates a pretty sizeable bear flag:
Figure 3: BTC-USD, 12-Hour Candles, Bear Flag

This current trend has all the hallmarks of a bear flag: consolidating volume, a weakening upward trend and a downtrend that leads into the consolidation pattern. A flag of this magnitude would have an approximate measured move of $1,700 in the downward direction — an ultimate destination in the mid $4,000s.

Summary:

1. The current market trend has managed to find support on the prior lows.
   
2. However, the support seems to be on shaky ground as it is current trending in a pattern known as a bear flag.
   
3. If the market manages to break out of this bear flag, we could reasonably see a test of the mid $4,000s.

Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Media related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTC Media and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

According to statistics from the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are 25.4 million refugees in the world and some 3.1 million asylum seekers. On this year’s World Refugee Day, we’re reminded of the perpetual crises that plague our international communities and the displaced individuals they create.

For those in the blockchain industry, today may also serve as a reminder for how the new technology may provide a solution. With the ability to keep consistent, immutable tabs on digital identities, blockchain technology could rewrite how we record state-issued IDs in a digital age.

To Joseph Thompson, the co-founder of AID:Tech, a company using blockchain technology to “provide enterprise level solutions to international NGOs, governments and corporates to help them tackle some of [the] most entrenched issues in their fields,” refugees are in need of an identity solution.

“Refugees, especially those in protracted crises, are vulnerable, particularly when we look at the challenge of identity. Not only do refugees need to reformulate their personal identity to secure a sense of belonging, but also it’s imperative from a legal, social, and political perspective. Needless to say, the issue is more complex than simply assigning each individual an identity card, as global crises happening throughout the world are different and varied with refugees and their situations,” he said in a statement.

The UN, Thompson claims, “has highlighted identity within the Sustainable Development Goals with the World Bank introducing guiding principles on how identification systems should be designed.” These are “encouraging signs,” he believes, but says that there is still “significant progress to be made” to address issues surrounding identity for the vulnerable.

“An effective identity solution needs to be flexible, reliable and sustainable while also accommodating the transitional circumstances often faced by refugees. This is particularly crucial and alarming when we consider that refugee children are being born with the risk of missing out on legal identity — the foundation for access to formal services, including healthcare and education.”

These missing identities, especially for those children born in transitory states, could find legitimate identification on the blockchain. Blockchain-based identity verification would not only give refugees access to secure, verifiable identities, but could also be transferred anywhere. Unlike current digital identity protocols, those built on the blockchain are not tethered to a single program or system.

“Self Sovereign Identity, a key-based, on-chain decentralized digital identity, for example, can potentially help iron out the inefficiencies associated with the issuance of government paper-based IDs, allow people to reclaim control of their own information, and provide international protection for refugees and the ‘invisible population’ (the stateless or those who don’t have IDs),” the co-founder and chair of the Social Alpha Foundation, Nydia Zhang, believes.

The Social Alpha Foundation is a nonprofit, grant-making platform that funds blockchain startups focused on social betterment and humanitarian work. Digital identity solutions like Self Sovereign Identity could better serve the “invisible population” of refugees who don’t have the legal protections or formal guarantees that a verifiable identity entails.

Bruce Silcoff, CEO of the Shyft Network, believes that holding a verifiable identity “is a right, not a privilege.” He and the team at Shyft are building a blockchain-based identity platform to ensure that those with tenuous IDs have access to basic necessities, especially those who are at risk and fleeing conflict.

“We are evolving into a world where geography increasingly defines destiny, and that has to change. We are witnessing millions of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers crossing borders to escape violence and build better lives for themselves and their families, only to run into institutional barriers, unable to access basic services and participate in the global economy,” Silcoff stated.

Identity, Silcoff suggests, should be cross-border, uncoupled from the bureaucracy of centralized entities and approval processes. And for those who don’t have access to government-issued forms of ID, it should be accessible and transferrable all the same.

“[Shyft is] breaking down walls and silos to build bridges that transcend borders, and working with established and up-and-coming organizations to disrupt the way identity is assessed and managed. Given the extent of the global identity crisis, it has never been more important to work on solutions that will help build a more fair and inclusive future for everyone.”

These statements seem to implicity hone in on the humanitarian crises we’ve become accustomed to seeing in the Middle East, and with good reason: the bulk of the world’s refugee population is escaping a tumult of terrorism, civil wars and government oppression in this area of the globe.

As the United States’ immigration woes continue to inflame political tensions, U.S. residents may view these comments in a more domestic context. As Latin American and Mexican immigrants flee conditions in their homelands, they are also greeted with a multitude of institutional barriers.

Blockchain-based identities could partly offer the U.S. a better management solution for the influx of refugees and immigrants, legal or otherwise, that have come to its border.