FinancialBuzz.com News Commentary

NEW YORK, September 18, 2018 — (PRNewswire) —

Data compiled by Esticast Research and Consulting indicates that the global blockchain market was valued at USD 216.1 Million in 2016 and is projected to reach USD 9.6 Billion by 2024. The market will witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60.8% during the forecast period. The private blockchain sector has dominated the market, holding more than half of the total market share, while the public blockchain system is expected to grow at a faster rate during the forecast years. Based on sectors, the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) held about 75% of the total blockchain market share in 2016 and is expected to maintain its rapid growth throughout the forecast period due to growing demand for transaction processing. Victory Square Technologies Inc. (OTC: VSQTF), Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE: HPE), Seven Stars Cloud Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSC), Pareteum Corporation (NYSE: TEUM), Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT)

North America had more than 40% of market shares in term of revenue, while APAC blockchain market is expected to grow at the highest rate. The report states: "Emerging market Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) could deploy blockchain as a tool, by which corporate actions could be complemented and trade settlements will be speeded up. However, lack of technical understanding about the blockchain concept and lack of awareness about the Blockchain and uncertain regulatory status is supposed to curtail the overall market growth."

Victory Square Technologies Inc. (OTCQX: VSQTF) is also listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker (CSE: VST). Earlier this month, the Company announced breaking news that, "one of its portfolio companies, PayVida Solutions Inc. ("PayVida"), an emerging global payment processor and card issuer, has become the exclusive partner and preferred vendor of British Columbia's Alliance of Beverage Licensees ("ABLE BC").

ABLE BC is the united voice of and a powerful advocate for British Columbia's private liquor industry. Its 1000+ members include private liquor stores, pubs, bars, nightclubs and hotel liquor licensees.

'ABLE BC selected PayVida over other merchant service providers because of its instant application approval process and innovative payment technology,' said PayVida CEO Ryan Strauss. 'We anticipate reducing transaction costs for our members, while growing our membership base through our new partnership.'

PayVida's partnership with ABLE BC creates a direct channel into a network of BC's private hotels and pubs. ABLE BC's Executive Director Jeff Guignard recently completed a 10,000 kilometre, 20 city, 250 liquor licensee tour of BC. Discussions included recent and pending changes to BC's liquor policies and the emerging licensing framework for cannabis retail stores.

'PayVida is more than a payment processing company,' said Guignard. 'This is an opportunity for us to collaborate with an innovative financial technology company, giving our members point-of-sale integrations and same day funding.'

B.C. currently has 670 private liquor stores and 195 government locations, generating over $3 billion of alcohol sales and several billion dollars of indirect economic activity. (Source: https://ablebc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Member-Handbook-Updated-April-2018.pdf )

'ABLE BC is a hub to 1,000 thriving businesses that understand the importance and the power of a highly scalable FinTech and payment processing solution to accelerate their business growth. After reviewing other competitors, ABLE selected PayVida to partner with because of the value they place on leading solutions in the payments industry,' said Victory Square Technologies CEO Shafin Diamond Tejani.

Tejani continued, 'PayVida is helping to innovate the FinTech community and Victory Square remains confident that they will continue to make significant strides in this industry and stands fully ready to help support and fuel their growth.'

About Victory Square Technologies Inc. - Victory Square Technologies is an emerging technology accelerator. Victory Square portfolio companies are using blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and virtual and augmented reality to disrupt established technology and create completely new industries. Victory Square has a proven process for identifying game-changing entrepreneurs and providing them with the partners, mentorship and support necessary to accelerate their growth and help them scale globally."

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE: HPE) helps customers use technology to slash the time it takes to turn ideas into value. Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced that it plans to invest USD 4 Billion in Intelligent Edge technologies and services over the next four years. This strategic organic investment will be focused on helping customers turn all of their data - from every edge to any cloud - into intelligence that drives seamless interactions between people and things, delivers personalized user experiences, and employs AI and machine learning to continuously adapt to changes in real time. For example, Aruba and HPE Pointnext services are helping Gatwick Airport achieve its goal of becoming the most technologically advanced airport in the world. HPE's Edge systems are helping Texmark create the refinery of the future which will make the manufacturing of chemicals safer and more efficient and is helping Streamr grow their marketplace for data monetization by collecting and storing data from an individual car on a blockchain, ultimately giving control of the data to the driver. "Data is the new intellectual property, and companies that can distill intelligence from their data -whether in a smart hospital or an autonomous car-will be the ones to lead," said Antonio Neri, President and Chief Executive Officer, HPE. "HPE has been at the forefront of developing technologies and services for the Intelligent Edge, and with this investment, we are accelerating our ability to drive this growing category for the future."

Seven Stars Cloud Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSC) (to be renamed Ideanomics), is determined to become one of the most prominent global digital asset companies. Ideanomics (Seven Stars Cloud Group, Inc.) recently announced its agreement to acquire the secure communications and information platform FinTalk. Ideanomics Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Bruno Wu, "FinTalk is a symbiotic addition to the Ideanomics family, as it will enable next-generation communication, collaboration, information consumption, and consulting outreach interactivity for the financial services community in the digital economy. FinTalk's innovative platform and forward-thinking service delivery is aligned with Ideanomics' objectives of empowering and enabling blockchain-based asset digitization, and it will serve as a primary channel for easy-to-use, secure, information exchange and decision-making between investors and financial services professionals. We are extremely excited to have them onboard as an integral part of Ideanomics fintech family, which will complement our joint venture with Asia times as well as enable us to meaningfully penetrate retail-based consumer financial services and product distribution."

Pareteum Corporation (NYSE: TEUM) is a rapidly growing Global Software Defined Cloud company with a mission to connect "every person and everything." Pareteum recently announced that a U.S. mobile marketing technology company has signed a 3-year USD 8 Million agreement to utilize Pareteum's Global Software Defined Cloud (GSDC). Through the Pareteum enabling software and mobility platform, the Company's new customer will facilitate mobile services to advertisers, businesses, and service vendors. Hal Turner, Pareteum's Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer, said, "Pareteum continues to innovate by applying data science and modeling to our Super API. Through our Cloud Enablement software and platform, we are delivering analytics and insights, that are trustfully secured with blockchain technology for the benefit of our customers and their end-users. Applying these powerful solutions to benefit marketers means better value and services to customers, through the power of our cloud and our software… another step toward the vision of 'anytime and anywhere' now coupled with 'and, customized for my needs'."

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. Wipro Limited recently announced that it has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) to spearhead the development of blockchain standards and drive blockchain adoption in the transportation industry. BiTA is an industry group dedicated to establishing blockchain standards for the freight industry. It was formed by experienced technology and transportation professionals to create a forum for the development of blockchain standards and education for the freight industry. The group provides a platform to develop and embrace common frameworks and standards using which industry participants can build innovative blockchain applications. Wipro intends to use this platform to help ideate platform-agnostic blockchain standards for the logistics and transportation industry. Srini Pallia, President, Consumer Business Unit, Wipro Limited said, "Our membership with BiTA is reflective of our commitment to be an integral part of blockchain-driven transformation in the transportation industry. We will collaborate with BiTA and our customers to take a business use-case approach and leverage blockchain to solve complex new-age logistics and transportation issues. We also look forward to actively contributing to the standards for the use of blockchain in the transportation and logistics industry, and working closely with our global customers to bring these standards to action in their blockchain journey."