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 Let us take a moment and appreciate the benefits that interconnectivity has brought to the world. Imagine life without the internet back then, if that is too far back, think of life before social media, life before we were all connected. Those days seem sort of dark. While life seemed normal back then we were blind to the potential of a world which is hyperconnected as we currently are. A cognitive bias that holds true with every revolutionary technology, we have to go around a learning curve. Only then can we be able to reap maximum utility. I believe, almost a decade since *Bitcoin* network went live, we are turning the corner with blockchain technology. Application attempts of blockchain technology have been in plenty resulting in more than 1000 cryptocurrencies to date but not much to show for it in terms of mass awareness and usage. Needless to say, we are still early in this race for fronting this new technology. Building on the work of predecessors, I believe *Seele* is the torchbearer in the advent of mainstream industrial application.

**Blockchain Wars and Data Silos**
Today there are multiple different blockchains most of whose applications overlap and a few that get to stand out. There is always that compromise between innovation and tried and tested formulas. Very evident in other fields of business and technology, for every Google, we have to have an IBM, for every new soft drink company we have to have Coca Cola. Tried and tested solutions are more robust in comparison to newer alternatives. The platform field in blockchain space is currently getting overflooded. Sadly, most of the proposals brought forth seek to unseat Ethereum from its perch as the main launching platform for crowdfunding, little in the direction of application of blockchain tech. This has perpetuated the longstanding criticism of the space of the lack of utility in the years since inception of blockchain. Seele proposes a robust all-in-one platform that is able to interconnect various blockchains using cross chains setting transfer of value free. Different blockchains have unique services that can be used universally to try and improve the services we get from blockchain. On a technical level, this would be a very huge breakthrough for an industry whose infrastructure is still under construction. In fact, this might be the ignition for bridging the digital sphere and the real world. 

**Blockchain 4.0**
 Protocols like Ethereum and Bitcoin are struggling to handle the demands they meet every day. This can be largely attributed to the slowness in transactions of requests made. For Bitcoin, it may take up to two weeks for transactions to be completed. With a transaction speed of about 7TPS, such delays are expected. Scalability rears its ugly head again. In conjunction with well known local and international organizations and universities, Seele will be carrying out academic research and technical collaboration.  Currently, performance of trial applications have been in review by collaboration of Seele, Beihang University and China Telecom blockchain laboratory and preliminary results have been very positive. The following are the proposals that Seele believes would help advance blockchain: 
o	A move from the Byzantine Agreement algorithm to a neural network consensus. Scalability is the key challenge being addressed by this move. 
Byzantine Agreement algorithm allows a fault tolerance of 33% of the total nodes in the blockchain. Seele wants this number to go up to increase the chances of its blockchain running efficiently without any downtime. A neural network would improve this percentage by 7% to a fault tolerance of 40%. 
o	The adoption of a heterogenous forest network. Connecting every blockchain would need an architecture that can support different blockchains and their various peculiarities. Integrating their functions and data is also being considered through this proposal. The network would allow for cross platform trading of information and executions of commands made from different platforms. 
o	A low-latency Quick Value Internet Connection based on TCP/UDP which would allow its blockchain to meet the requirements needed for attaining blockchain 4.0. 

Blockchain 4.0 will be possible with the adoption of these changes. Furthermore, a universal blockchain ecosystem will help break further the retrogressive laws that have been placed in specific countries thereby providing universal coverage for the various services provided. 

**Use cases of blockchain 4.0**
Cross platform connections carry with it world changing use cases. Let’s look at a few examples, 
I.  Internet of Value. Blockchain technology has made us aware of limitless possibilities of upending the current status of the Internet. By being able to transact in a peer-to-peer manner we can be able to divert a lot of the income that is owned by middlemen along the system. Online advertising for instance can be rechanneled to focus and reward user attention. Transaction fees can be reduced significantly. User attention can be measured and tracked easily when using online social media applications such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

II.	IoT. The internet of things is going to play a very huge role in the next internet era. A long standing criticism of this is the cybersecurity sorrounding our devices, and the ability of the devices to transfer value across domains. Seele seeks to create a platform that has relevant modules for building applications that can be used in the interoperability space. 

III.	Energy. The race for distributed energy production is on with blockchain technology providing an efficient way of tracking and transacting energy in a peer-to-peer manner. Coupled with the drive for renewable energy, such as solar cells, blockchain technology can also contribute to the fight against climate change. 

IV.	Fintech solutions. Financial companies can gain a lot of benefits by merely moving services on the blockchain. In face, fintech has been the most vibrant arena of blockchain technology. Some of the benefits of building on top of blockchain include increased liquidity, global investor base, 24/7 market and breaking of capital controls. Also, downtimes such as the recent one when VISA was not working cannot happen in decentralized networks. Case in point, Bitcoin network has never failed. 
 
I believe Seele has a very capable team that can ensure important milestones can be able to be achieved. They say nothing is guaranteed in cryptocurrency. With a strong clear vision and capable custodians, I can take my chances


Further information on Seele can be accessed from their website, https://seele.pro/.