• Chris Skinner, Chairman at The Financial Services Club


• 22.11.2016 07:45 am
bitcoin

I’m a big fan of Kraken, the digital currency exchange in California, as it’s my main exchange for investing in digital assets.  If you want to know more, checkout their general overview at the end of this blog.  I’m also a fan of their blog, which regularly sends me interesting stuff and they’ve just launched a competition to see who the world thinks will be the digital currency of the future.

The competition is:

If you had $1 million to invest across bitcoin and ether today, knowing that you cannot touch your investment for the next 5 years, how much of that $1 million do you invest in each and why?

Kraken, in partnership with The Economist, asked MBA programs from around the world the question and each of the thirteen participating teams produced both a 5 minute video and a detailed, analytical paper explaining their answer and reasoning. Watch the short videos that each team presented to argue their case. Then help determine the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners of the contest by voting for your favorites below. $18,000 in total prizes go to the top 3.

Review the school presentations

Playlist of all videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1fKlftNZ_xEJFfEgz6obng-VkypH1OaK

BYU Marriott School of Management (78% bitcoin / 22% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dESOtEY_2M

Full solution: http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/the_digital_asset_of_the_future__team_byu.pdf

Creighton University, Heider College of Business (70% bitcoin / 30% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysfYDWmX0M0

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/creighton_university_kraken_case_study.pdf

FIA Business School (70% bitcoin / 30% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4EmC1eEm4

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/fia__the_navigators__kraken_investment_case_analysis__full_submission.pdf

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (50% bitcoin / 50% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NuD4BGbm2E

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/carey_business_school_submission.pdf

Middlebury Institute of International Studies (70% bitcoin / 30% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA4CVn32X6w

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/written_submission_middlebury.pdf

Porto Business School (20% bitcoin / 80% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpnzitDi5mA

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/pbs_economist_squad_20161017.pdf

Rutgers Business School (20% bitcoin / 80% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBTffHGeujI

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/economist_2016_case_competition_rbs_final_report.pdf

Ryerson University, Ted Rogers School of Management (69% bitcoin / 31% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alhyMgAm1o8

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/the_future_of_cryptocurrency.pdf

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (91% bitcoin / 9% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOE4_9Hme8

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/investment_case_study_competition_2016__tuck_school_of_business_at_dartmouth.pdf

Tulane University, Freeman School of Business (67% bitcoin / 33% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWSYFZ2Fbno

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/tulane_university_report_kraken_investment_case_comp.pdf

University of North Texas (60% bitcoin / 40% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7LiA7UJQNg

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/unt_case_study_submission.pdf

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Robert A. Foisie School of Business (100% ether)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PBSw0BmNaU

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/economistcasestudywpi_final.pdf

Ivey Business School at Western University (No investment recommendation)

Video summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwe-E660GQ

Full solution:
http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/economist_case_comp_ivey.pdf

See Kraken’s investment challenge on The Economist website:
http://www.economist.com/whichmba/mba-case-studies/investment-case-study-competition-2016

How to vote

Vote by filling out this anonymous form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdHgcEM8BYJp0OQx4pk6ALlUAFz3VZr8YLeKvXA5v6DaxnClw/viewform

An overview of Kraken

Kraken, based in San Francisco and founded in 2011, lets you exchange multiple currencies and buy bitcoins on its platform.  Currencies traded include bitcoin, Ripple, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ven, U.S. dollars, the euro, and the Korean won. Using the International Standards Commission’s abbreviation for bitcoin, Kraken uses XBT rather than BTC. The X designates a decentralized currency. This San Francisco Company offers a quick platform for customer exchanges, the website itself is well planned, and the designers incorporated a light-hearted look to the website itself.  This review by SteveIQ sums it all up nicely from a users’ viewpoint:

Kraken is a great exchange focusing on the experience of the investor. I love that they have 21 different types of currencies on the exchange making it easy for investors to diversify and they have ranges of fees available in plain sight.

The company uses innovation and good security to structure a safe and viable trading platform, and integration with Bloomberg terminals in 2014 provided greater visual access for this company.   Equally when Mt.Gox imploded, the mess has gradually been sorted out with users being redirected to Kraken as the preferred exchange to file a bankruptcy claim.  As a result, it is the key player in the bitcoin world, and has acquired many other similar exchanges in its path towards global supremacy, including the Dutch Exchange Clevercoin and the North American Exchange Coinsetter.

An example of the Exchange’s leadership is that, according to data from Kaiko, Kraken posted more than 6,000 BTC in EUR/BTC volume on 17th January 2016, at a time when competing exchanges BTC-e, Coinbase and itBit recorded 856 BTC, 512 BTC and 49 BTC in volume, respectively.