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Blog & Podcast

Ep 27: China's Digital Currency - A Conversation with Yaya Fanusie

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The Chinese are leading the effort to implement a digital currency. Starting first within China and then expanding to other nation’s around the globe, the People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, is developing a form of digital currency that enables controlled anonymity - privacy between parties involved in a transaction but full visibility of the transaction details by the Chinese state, in real time, of any and all transactions employing this digital currency system.

My guest for today’s podcast is Mr. Yaya Fanusie, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). His research focuses on the national security implications of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Mr. Fanusie explains how this new digital currency system operates, the risks and benefits of this system to both the Chinese state and the commercial participants, and some issues that the US and its western allies need to bear in mind as this system begins to expand around the globe.

You can download a copy of Mr. Fanusie's paper here: https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/chinas-digital-currency

Ep 25: Digital Currency, Blockchain, and China

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In 2013 China announced the Belt Road Initiative, a $1 trillion project to link together countries and economies to form a Chinese-centric economic ecosystem. These linkages include telecommunications systems, physical roads and bridges, and a financial system built around a digital currency that also employs elements of blockchain. To date, over 60 countries accounting for two-thirds of the world’s population have signed on to this project.

In this podcast, we have two subject matter experts discuss what these financial developments mean and could portend for the US. Our first contributor, Mr. Yaya Fanusie, is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). His research focuses on the national security implications of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Our second guest, Dr. Victoria Adams, is the Chief Innovation Officer at the Value Technology Foundation, and founder of ConsenSys, the largest pure play Ethereum blockchain firm in the world.

Ep 22: Understanding China's Threat to the United States

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In 1989 the free world rejoiced as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Cheers went up again as the United States’ cold war adversary, the Soviet Union, collapsed in 1992. Some historians speculated that we had come to the end of history, that democracy and freedom, as articulated by America’s founders, would expand around the globe.

But it was not to be.

Starting with Deng Tse Peng’s pivot to state capitalism in 1979, the rush to outsource manufacturing to China in the 1990s, and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, the world has watched in amazement as China has risen economically to the point of eclipsing the United States as the world’s largest economy.

But this extraordinary economic achievement has not been accompanied by a hoped for pivot to greater freedom for the Chinese people or China’s trading partners. On the contrary, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has cemented its authoritarian control over the Chinese people, implemented frightening Orwellian high tech surveillance, and is expanding its authoritarian values and oppression through its trillion dollar Belt Road Initiative, which now reaches over 70 countries, includes two-thirds of the world’s population, and one third of its economic output.

My guest today is Col. Sean O’Brien, a professor and department head at the National Defense University and a career intelligence officer with the US Air Force. Col. O’Brien offers his personal assessment of the threats China’s poses the United States and its allies as well as his views of opportunities companies have to push back against this totalitarian threat.

Ep 4: 5G, the US, and the Chinese

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In today's episode, we talk with Peter DeNagy, a subject matter expert in telecommunications, a thought leader in the area of 5G (and particularly in IoT applications), an entrepreneur, and a consultant to major organizations. Pete's career in telecom spans nearly four decades.

Pete explains in layman's terms what 5G is, the changes it will bring to business, commercial, and military communications, and the particular challenges the US faces in catching up to the lead the Chinese have developed in 5G.

Pete can be reached at pdenagy@acommence.com

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