The Global blockchain Association (GBA) has entered a 5-year partnership with Africa Blockchain Institute currently operating in Rwanda. The deal aims to roll up ground for the emerging technology behind the Bitcoin network.

GBA is a global community helping governments and organisations around the world to understand, implement, and benefit from blockchain technology. Ghana-based, Africa Blockchain Institute in January opened in Rwanda, becoming the first institution to offer professional courses on blockchain in the country. Its Executive Director, Kayode Babarinde said the partnership will scale up blockchain infrastructure across Africa, starting from Rwanda. “The infrastructure is already being set-up, with experts working around governance and understanding of Blockchain.

Now the deal is to extend activities to Africa, being the major benefactor of Blockchain Technology, with focus on governance systems and operations,” Babarinde said.

Described as an open, distributed ledger, blockchain is a record-keeping technology which ensures more transparency and decentralization for transaction of value.

Striving to spearhead the penetration of digital technology on the African continent, Rwanda becomes the partnership’s centerpiece because it knows some corners of the house, said the blockchain expert.Currently, a handful of projects are known to run through this technology in the country.

 They include mineral tracing and Spenn, a money transaction mobile app. This paper has learned that other projects are running in the pipeline under the ICT ministry, including a blockchain-based gorilla trekking mobile game.

Despite moderate developments, however, some countries have been criticized for being slow in unlocking the opportunities that blockchain has to offer.

Jean Bosco Ahorukomeye, a Rwandan lecturer at Zigurat Innovation and Technology Business School, University of Barcelona, Spain, points out the latency results from insufficient skill set among policy makers and implementers.

“You cannot leverage opportunities blockchain offers if you don’t know what it is capable of doing,” Ahorukomeye said in a phone interview.Ahorukomeye further said the technology is so disruptive that it can erase all unnecessary costs one faces, for instance, while making money transactions between countries - exorbitant currency exchange rates, transaction fees, transport among others.

Meanwhile, Lilian Uwimana of Kipya Big2Big Ltd, a Uganda-based fintech company involved in trading of cryptocurrencies, says many people are excited about blockchain, but are blocked by a negative attitude towards the technology due to the little knowledge about it.Yet, blockchain is peer-to-peer.

It removes all the above middlemen - banks, forex bureaus, and central banks. As a blockchain expert, Ahorukomeye argues that governments are afraid to surrender the control.

On a bright side regarding money, he finds a take-or-leave alternative: central bank digital currencies.

Like China, governments can digitize national currencies which will be stable, regulated and controlled by central banks, yet carrying blockchain pillars of transparency (open to everyone) and immutability (inability to be tampered with).

Besides the above cases, blockchain technology can be used to register anything of value, medical records and digital identities, which cut out many sorts of document forgery and related cyber frauds.

Very few countries in the world have established their stance on this technology. Tech analysts believe that a country that will lay out a regulatory framework before Libra, Facebook’s hyper-disruptive crypto, hits the road, will attract a pool of investments.

“Looking at the ICT map [of Rwanda], Blockchain is the 6th core technology needed in the country, however slow the government is, they can't escape Blockchain. It is our job to get them on the know,” Babarinde observed.

[email protected]

The Cryptoverse is in an uproar, arguing over money, hypocrisy, and morality.

This comes after The US Small Business Administration (SBA) published the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) data, per which dozens of blockchain and crypto-related companies have taken millions from the government in payroll loans.

Per SBA's website, PPP is a loan meant to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.

Among the companies from the crypto and blockchain industries who've received the loans are ConsenSys, crypto exchanges Bittrex, ShapeShift, bitFlyer USA, company behind Cardano (ADA) IOHK, Polychain Capital, Circle, Celsius Network, Messari, The Block, and others.

Though specific amounts are not available, some received several hundred thousands, while others collected several millions, with ConsenSys being in the highest range (USD 5m - USD 10m).

Unsurprisingly, the news has caused a major discussion in the Cryptoverse about the industry's very nature, what is / should be legal, and even if legal - what is moral?

Wealth advisor Kevin Prendergast claimed that he talked to small business owners "in the "real economy"," and these don't hesitate to apply for PPP.

He asked why a prudent business owner would "turn down low/no cost source of capital in this challenging environment.

"Former Goldman Sachs trader and the founder of liquidity provider B2C2, Max Boonen, argued that even if a company's survival doesn't depend on a grant, it's still a matter of competitiveness to pursue it. "One can argue that it's "noble" to decline but does that make it "vile" not to?

"This has brought another matter into light, which Boonen noticed himself - possible hypocrisy within the industry.

"Contemptible if your public persona is built around banging the “all tax is theft” and “who needs government when you have Bitcoin” drums," said Senior Research Analyst a Decentral Part, adding: "Fair game otherwise."

And while some wondered if the companies that earn money by selling tokens (like TRON) or those that provide grants (like IOHK) should even be eligible for a program like this, others said it might be better for them to collect that money than distribute fewer grants.

IOHK CEO, Charles Hoskinson, came to the defense of the company's decision to take the government money, saying it "is a small business that employees Americans" and also invests in universities, helping create jobs there.

Meanwhile, according to economist Michael Stepner, as quoted by CBS, "the program spent vastly more money than the number of jobs it saved.

" A paper Stepner co-authored found that c. 90% of "workers whose paychecks were paid out of the fund were not at risk of being laid off in the first place."

Also, back in May, TRON and its CEO Justin Sun found themselves in hot water following the reports that the company received more than USD 2 million from the US COVID-19 small business relief fund.

Bitfinex, a state-of-the-art digital asset trading platform, has launched paper trading, a demo account service that enables users to practice strategies without putting funds at risk in a live account.

Paper trading, which will be available on newly-created sub accounts, will enable users to trade Bitcoin in a simulated market environment without the need to deposit real funds.

As an exchange built to serve professional trading strategies, the addition of paper trading will enable users to explore the rich features of the platform without putting funds at risk.  

Trading pairs available for paper trading include: TESTBTC:TESTUSD, TESTBTC:TESTUSDT, TESTAAA:TESTBBB.

In addition, paper trading is available for margin trading, funding, derivatives and over-the-counter (OTC) trading.“Paper trading will enable our users to hone their trading skills in a fun and safe environment,” says Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex.

“Trading – especially at leverage – is not a game. Paper trading lets users perform a test run of strategies before risking capital in a live account. As an exchange that serves professional traders and those executing more sophisticated strategies, the launch of paper trading forms part of our commitment to ensuring our users are well educated and informed.

” To enable a paper trading account, users should take the following steps: log in to your account, navigate to the Sub-Account section and create a new sub-account that you wish to set up for paper trading.

For additional information on the paper trading feature, please visit our knowledge base: Paper Trading - test, learn and simulate trading strategies.

Bitfinex is leveraging its position as a one-stop-shop for crypto trading, offering a variety of services, including margin trading with up to 5x leverage. 

It’s been an interesting few days for digital payments, blockchain finance and cryptocurrencies in Switzerland, with several companies and projects announcing developments.

At the tail end of last month, budding crypto bank Mt Pelerin said was applying for a Swiss fintech license, aiming to join the only recipient of that category so far – Yapeal. But more interesting still, was that Mt Pelerin held its first shareholder meeting on the blockchain.

Mt Pelerin is one of the most interesting blockchain start-ups that I’ve been tracking for some time. In 2018, it claimed to be the first company in Switzerland to issue shares in the form of digital tokens that are recognizable under Swiss law.

On June 26, shareholders were, for the first time, able to wield those tokens to good effect by voting on agenda items.

The company said the AGM went without hitch with shareholders able to follow the event on their smartphones via their Bridge Wallets – a technology that Mt Pelerin plans to develop into an industry standard for token creation, distribution and management.

The main drawback for tokenized securities at present is their lack of liquidity. Holders can trade them over the counter, but a secondary market of stock exchanges that can handle the likes of digital shares are still works in progress.

Mt Pelerin says ownership of its shares are recognised by Swiss law. But as I’ve pointed out in previous newsletters, the law is currently being updated to adapt to the new world of digital asset trading. Until that process is complete, by the start of 2021 at the earliest, there remains scope for doubting whether blockchain shares have the same legal footing as normal company stocks.

On the digital payments front, fintech firm Neon has announced a deal with British financial services company Transferwise to allow Neon account holders to transfer their funds abroad at a lower cost.

Bridging the two fintech companies is Hypotherkarbank Lenzburg that will handle the transactions over its Finstar open banking platform.

Credit Suisse has announced it will onboard Google Pay for its Swiss credit card clients from mid-August while Switzerland this week switched to QR payments for household bills, concluding a process by SIX Group that has taken a few years to bring online.

It may be a bit premature to predict the death of cash payments in Switzerland but the coronavirus pandemic appears also to have given digital payment systems a boost.

“Over the last 12 months, the proportion of contactless card payments in Switzerland has more than doubled, while cash withdrawals from ATMs have declined.

This proportion of contactless card payments is likely to continue rising sharply compared to cash payments, not least because of the pandemic,” said Credit Suisse.

Finally, the transaction bank InCore said this week that it is now offering banking services for clients of the giant cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.

InCore will act as a bridge for investors who want to get into crypto or expand their portfolio.InCore had previously announced a partnership with Maerki Baumann bank, which is no surprise given that InCore is a spin-off from the Zurich private bank, which itself is making a play in the digital assets sector.

The gap between the traditional financial world and crypto is narrowing all the time.

I’m told there were efforts to get some major crypto exchanges up and running in Switzerland a couple of years ago, but these efforts were stymied by the financial regulator.

Partnerships like InCore/Kraken may prove a useful workaround.

Zimbabwe is an underdeveloped country that is suffering from the last few years due to the destructive condition of its economy. If we take a brief review of the last few years of the Zimbabwean economy then it can be seen that the main source of income of the country is its agricultural output which is also has decreased by 51%.

GDP per capita dropped by 40% also industrial production has encountered a downfall of 47%. The depriving state of the country's economy suggests introducing a better technology that can revive the economy.

Economic analysts and futurists recommend some basic changes in the economic sector in terms of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is a distributed general ledger that allows two parties who are willing to perform financial transactions securely without any involvement of a third trusted party like any bank.

The transactions which can be performed by blockchain technology involve the transfer of money, assets, and information. The blockchain technology includes digital money systems out of which bitcoin is the first-ever application to be used worldwide. Blockchain is successful in Africa.

The bitcoin era in South Africa has a success score of 96%. After observing the success score of blockchain technology in the rest of Africa, Zimbabwe also looks forward to its economy to shift to blockchain technology.

Shifting to blockchain technology will have several benefits for the economy of Zimbabwe which can be briefly explained as follows:

As it is already known that by using blockchain technology the users can securely transfer their finances anywhere in the world without even involving any kind of intermediary party i.e. banks.

When the users of blockchain technology are not involving any banks, it means that they are not using any banking services which makes the transactions even more fast and efficient.

By using blockchain technology one can decrease the costs on their transactions. Even making transactions worldwide is almost free of cost. When there is a free of cost option which is even fast and efficient then definitely the general public is going to shift from old banking ways of making financial transactions to blockchain technology.

It's not only finances which can be transferred by the blockchain technology but different crypto assets can be transferred by this technology. Even the energy can be traded by blockchain technologies allowing its users to sell excessive energy, to the people living close to them.

Usage of this advanced technology helps the residents of Zimbabwe by removing the controls from utility companies.Blockchain technology not only allows its users to perform transaction free of costs but also it is secured.

Blockchain technology is a distributed general ledger which means all the transactions done by this technology are recorded in a ledger which can be verified and accessed by the people involved in the transactions at any point in time.

As it is mentioned earlier that blockchain technologies are also used to transfer confidential information which contributes not only to research fields of the country but also to the medical and health care department of Zimbabwe. In the healthcare sector, all the valuable and confidential reports of patients can send them by using this platform.

Different application developers are making efforts to develop some really easy to use and user-friendly applications based on the idea of blockchain technology.

The availability of these kinds of applications makes it easy for users to make financial transactions. Because of this easy to use feature of this technology the general public is more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies which will help to thrive in the Zimbabwean economy.

Blockchain technology promotes decentralization in the country which means transferring more control to the general public which promotes new entrepreneurs to start new businesses which eventually helps in reviving the Zimbabwean economy.

By the passage of time the blockchain technology will evolve tremendously and the fact that how the central banks are also taking part in exploring the new technologies show the chances of incorporation of blockchain technologies into the financial system of the country as a whole.

Blockchain technology promises to resolve the basic problems of the online system. It's a secure, efficient, fast, and cheap way of performing transactions that convince the residents of Zimbabwe to come and invest in cryptocurrencies by using blockchain technology which will evolve Zimbabwean economy.

Read the original article on Zimbabwe Standard.

Blockchain startup Block.one opened its blockchain-powered social network Voice over the weekend to limited public access with a promise to reward users for quality content.

Announced in 2019, Voice is pitched as a blockchain-based social media application designed with users of the platform in mind. Offering a “more transparent social media platform for the world,” users of the service are rewarded for their content through the Voice Token cryptocurrency.

Users verified on the service obtain tokens based on their participation that they will eventually be able to convert to money.

The service has evolved in testing from being Twitterlike earlier in the year to being somewhat closer to a mix of Facebook and Medium. Posts made on Voice can either be short-form or long-form with a preference for long-form as part of the push by Voice for quality content.

Voice is built on Block.one’s EOSIO protocol best known for the EOS token. EOSIO launched in 2018 with a promise of offering an operating system that allows scalable decentralized autonomous communities with the support of asynchronous smart contract communication.

Arguably EOSIO’s and Block.one’s biggest claim to fame is holding the record for the largest initial coin offering in history after raising $4.2 billion from investors.

The ICO gained the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which claimed that the tokens in the ICO were offered as an unregistered security.

Block.one settled with SEC for $24 million in September.Voice was originally scheduled to go public later in the year. The current access is partial in that though content on Voice can be read by all, signups require a request for early access. The ability to invite others to Voice will be available starting Aug. 15.

“We were prepping for a big reveal in the fall — but things changed. The world changed,” Voice Chief Executive Officer Salah Michael Zalatimo wrote in a Voice post Saturday. “So, we’ve decided to open up our platform now and invite the community to be a part of the building process.

”Zalatimo added that the current environment has “fully exposed the corrupt social spaces created by Big Tech. It’s time to break away and put humans first. We need your help. It’s time for social as it should be.

”Exactly what Zalatimo means by that isn’t exactly clear.

When it was announced in 2019, Block.one described Voice as “a more transparent social media platform for the world, where the value of good content gets circulated right back into sustaining the community, not corporate bottom lines.

”Rewarding creators for participation is certainly not a bad thing, but it’s an idea that has already been tried with little success.

Minds.com and Steemit are two examples and although both have a carved out a niche audience, neither has grown to the point where it has entered the mainstream.

Voice has the advantage of being backed by Block.one and its ICO funds, but it needs to differentiate itself if it has any chance of mainstream success. So far, aside from not being evil and rewarding users, there’s nothing that stands out, but that could change with time as the service continues to be developed.

In Sunday’s City AM it was reported that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering plans to hand £500 to every adult and £250 to every child to spend with businesses that are most affected by COVID-19 lockdown.

The initial proposals include making these payments available via vouchers, travel cards or mobile phone credits.How could the government deploy these vouchers?

How would it be possible to validate merchants who were accepting the vouchers? Would all of the transactions be in fiat?

And how would merchants reconcile all of these vouchers back into fiat currency?Recovery vouchers present a fantastic opportunity for the blockchain community to come together and provide a solution.

Numerous areas make deploying this voucher system challenging. There are issues of potential fraud, personal data, misuse of the credits and redeeming the vouchers back into fiat currency. 

Starting at the top of the process, merchants would need a simple way to register themselves and their businesses. Any system would need to check existing business registries and make an instant decision if their business was eligible to receive vouchers. Once registered, merchants can be approved. Redeeming vouchers is limited to approved merchants.

The general public would need to have a means of securely receiving the vouchers and ensuring that there were no double claims.

The general public would need to have a means of securely receiving the vouchers and ensuring that there were no double claims. Ideally, the system will grant vouchers without the need to share excessive personal data. Public blockchains are well established in providing pseudonymous access. 

If provided on a public blockchain, the entire system would be accessible by anyone wishing to check the efficiency of distribution of the funds. The ledger could also contain data related to the redemption of the vouchers.

Using blockchain for this solution has all of the core functionality of maintaining balances, preventing double-spend and full audit capability built-in. 

Once redeemed by the public, merchants would have instant access to funds which they could submit back to the government to be converted back into currency and deposited into their accounts if they wanted to.

Although I’m sure the Chancellor might initially object, the funds collected from vouchers could even be used immediately to return to employees.

Or the funds could be used to pay other merchants in their supply chains. Every transaction would be recorded on the blockchain so there would be no opportunity for tax evasion. It would substantially accelerate the liquidity in the market and get help to the businesses who needed it in a low friction way.

It would be possible to use an existing public blockchain (like Ethereum), or it could be that an entirely new public blockchain was created just for this purpose. Who would run that blockchain, and why? In a public blockchain, there are incentives to the people who maintain the ledger.

The same could apply here. Thousands of blockchain enthusiasts would sign up to be part of a project like this and would, in turn, earn a small amount from every transaction for their efforts. The merchants would bear the costs, but they would far less than the fees they pay to the current credit card network.

The idea of using blockchain to support this system isn’t without its challenges.

The idea of using blockchain to support this system isn’t without its challenges. An estimated 5% of the British public does not own a mobile phone.

There would need to be a method of giving these people access to the vouchers safely and securely.

Fortunately, the idea of a paper wallet already exists and could be easily adapted for this program. Using blockchain would also address the estimated 4.7% of the British public who are unbanked.

A significant obstacle to the adoption of bitcoin has been the user experience. There are issues of managing private keys, lack of customer support and more. None of these issues goes away in this system – and some of them become more exaggerated. However, with mass adoption comes real opportunities to learn and of course, to innovate.

As the blockchain would be public, there would be opportunities for anyone to check their voucher balance on a public blockchain explorer. These could be accessible via web, mobile phone app or even through some form of a kiosk. It would also be possible to integrate into existing payment systems like PayPoint or Payzone. 

Renewals of the voucher program on a blockchain system simplify future disbursements. Extending the idea beyond vouchers to spend in the hospitality industry, new amounts could be distributed on a separate set of smart contracts to cover everything from housing benefit to winter fuel allowances. 

Promotion and marketing of this system are one of the most critical aspects. For that reason, the words blockchain and cryptocurrency should never be mentioned.

The focus must be on the value the system brings to the public, merchants, the government and the economy – not on the blockchain.As I have said before, blockchain is best when it is invisible.




Get in touch with us [email protected] / Twitter @igetblockchainTroy Norcross, Co-Founder Blockchain Rookies

Kevin Chou, CEO and co-founder at blockchain ecosystem Rally, believes that blockchain technology could lead the charge toward a virtual economy in the web 3.0 era.

Speaking at Unitize on July 6, Chou, who is also involved with the firms Kabam, Forte and Gen G, said that content platforms should move away from the old business model of web 2.0 that consists of the platforms taking a large portion of the revenue.

Instead, companies should create a new and decentralized business model that favors influencers, creators, and “give away the governance to the community," said Chou.

He added, “The web 2.0 era of business models was very much about how I build a very large platform and give away the service for free but collect a bunch of that data. […] I’m surprised, and there are many great value services that have been created, but we’re also seeing the drawbacks to that today with the lack of privacy, lack of control of your own data, and lack of control over the economics because it’s primarily advertising-based.

”“I think a lot of the new blockchain projects and web 3.0 projects are all about how we create something that will eventually be decentralized. I think the space started with everything that needs to be decentralized from the beginning,” Chou concluded.

Bitcoin pioneering the concept of decentralization

Chou believes that Bitcoin (BTC) “did a great job of pioneering” the discussion about decentralization by making people and businesses aware that decentralization is feasible, adding, “But we also see now that there’s a path established by projects like Compound and Maker, and a lot of other DeFi projects."

The latest venture from Salesforce co-founder and CNET founder Halsey Minor looks a lot like an attempt to recreate the legacy monetary system on a blockchain.

• Launched commercially last week, Public Mint says its "fiat native" blockchain makes transactions efficient and accessible.

• The platform is described as a programmable blockchain with fiat funds held in insured banks, enabling users to create their own "digital money systems."

• Users would transact in regular U.S. dollars using their smartphones, while the funds are held centrally by custodians.

• Companies using the platform can accept dollars via credit card, wire transfers and more whether or not they have a bank account.

• Support for other fiat currencies is expected to be added in the future.

• Public Mint is a fiat layer that is claimed to be supported by more than 200 banks – although they aren't named in a press release.

• The platform could be a solution for cryptocurrency firms that have had trouble accessing the traditional banking system, the firm says.

• Reportedly taking two years to build, it was founded by Halsey Minor, who was also behind CNET, Salesforce and crypto trading platform Uphold (formerly called Bitreserve).

• VideoCoin, another Minor venture, became one of Public Mint's first corporate users in late May.

KPMG has launched a cryptocurrency management platform designed to accelerate institutional crypto adoption.

KPMG’s patent-pending tool aims to bridge traditional data and crypto systems, integrating key use cases of cryptocurrency, including custody, wallets, and anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring.

KPMG’s Crypto Suite

KPMG LLP announced on Monday that it has launched a “New platform [that] addresses global regulatory concerns for strong system controls and processes for crypto and digital assets.” Called KPMG Chain Fusion, the new cryptocurrency platform aims “to help manage crypto and traditional assets over public and private blockchain networks,” the announcement details.

KPMG LLP is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International, one of the Big Four accounting firms, which has more than 219,000 professionals working in 147 countries and territories.

The firm described this product as “a patent-pending suite of advanced analytics capabilities built on leading cryptoasset data and technology products to streamline the ability for financial services companies and fintechs to offer cryptoasset services on an institutional scale,” adding:

KPMG Chain Fusion is designed to accelerate trusted adoption of core cryptoasset capabilities through a consistent data architecture.

The new cryptocurrency platform “enables advanced analytics” for key use cases of cryptocurrency, including custody, wallets, “proof of reserves (asset position reconciliation), and AML transaction monitoring,” the firm outlined.




The new KPMG cryptocurrency management tool, Chain Fusion, aims to accelerate the adoption of core crypto capabilities.

While many financial service institutions and fintech firms are already offering crypto services, KPMG emphasized that an increased number of traditional businesses are now offering crypto services on “both public, permissionless and permissioned blockchains.” The firm’s website elaborates:

The operation of a successful cryptoasset business at institutional scale hinges on the ability to efficiently and effectively integrate blockchain data alongside traditional data infrastructure.

Sam Wyner, director of the KPMG Cryptoasset Services team, noted that while leading crypto technology solutions “can address process and control requirements within their own systems, the greater challenge is making sure systems can work together.

” That’s where the firm’s new crypto management platform comes in. According to Wyner, “KPMG Chain Fusion addresses those challenges by bringing these systems together with the required processes and controls under one roof.”

Contrary to popular belief, privacy is not for those with something to hide but with everything to lose. Authoritarian governments across the globe are increasingly using surveillance to control their citizens at the expense of personal freedoms and civil liberties.

The privacy of one’s financial transactions is intricately linked to one’s personal liberty. Without privacy (and financial means), true freedom is at risk. We are rendered powerless to resist oppression.

The promise of cryptocurrency is that it is uncensorable and unseizable money for the people. But Bitcoin (BTC), which was supposed to be like peer-to-peer digital cash, lacks privacy, which is essential to enabling these properties. In an increasingly connected and data-driven world where surveillance and data harvesting is the norm, we must treat privacy as a fundamental human right.

If we believe in the original tenets of cryptocurrency as a decentralized and self-sovereign form of money, we need to fight to maintain our right to be private.

Privacy-shy 

Some cryptocurrency projects seem to be apologetic for being privacy-focused, given the current regulatory climate and common misconception that privacy coins are used by criminals to hide illicit activities. Consequently, we see other projects in the space, such as Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH) or even Bitcoin adopting opt-in privacy models, which clearly do not work. 

Low usage means low privacy, as indicated by Chainalysis’ findings that 99% of Zcash transactions are partially traceable and that the firm can perform successful investigations into Dash’s PrivateSends. Other studies also indicate that despite Zcash’s advanced technology, many users who did not completely understand how its privacy worked used it improperly and made it traceable anyway.

Yet, the fact is: No matter how advanced the privacy technology employed, it is meaningless if it is not used. Privacy likes being in a crowd. Privacy needs to be easy-to-use.Various explanations have been given as to why these privacy cryptocurrencies do not seem to want to encourage greater adoption of private transactions.

The primary reason being that they need to play nice with regulators, who are uncomfortable with the idea of private transactions.

Despite its early origins being one of the first privacy coins, called Darkcoin, Dash goes to great lengths to distance itself from being called a privacy cryptocurrency, including with a published legal position that in terms of privacy, it is no different than Bitcoin.

These timid approaches do privacy a great disservice, characterizing it as something shameful.

A better, bolder approach is privacy-on by default, with transparency opt-in.

Offering the privacy protocol Lelantus, which automatically anonymizes funds in a wallet, but also allows for the option of turning it off when needed, serves to maintain easy adoption for exchanges and wallets that do a high volume of sends but don’t necessarily want the overhead of privacy transactions. 

Since the exchange knows your identity anyway, there is no need for sacrificing anything but gaining the benefit of large anonymity sets and fast, lightweight transactions for exchanges and ease-of-integration with the larger crypto ecosystem that is used to dealing with Bitcoin-type coins.

This is especially important when integrating into decentralized exchanges or for interoperability for DeFi transactions.Related: Blockchains Are an Excellent Solution for Privacy, Part 1

Playing nice with regulators 

Privacy coins are concerned about their survival in an increasingly hostile regulatory environment, in which it is easier to maintain opt-in privacy for compliance reasons. While significant pressure against privacy coins comes from banks or concerned regulators, there is no outright statutory or common law against them.

Even the revised “travel rule,” or FATF rules that impose additional obligations on disclosure, as well as Anti-Money Laundering rules for exchanges and custodial wallets, do not ban privacy coins. Virtual asset service providers, or VASPs, can still disclose sender identity, as they already know who you are regardless of blockchain privacy mechanisms.Related: Blockchains Are an Excellent Solution for Privacy, Part 2

Privacy for all 

We strongly reject the common argument that privacy technologies enable illicit activity. Recent studies such as the Rand Corporation’s report states: 

“While privacy coins may intuitively appear likely to be preferred by malicious actors due to their purported anonymity-preserving features, there is little evidence to substantiate this claim.” 

Related: Blockchains Are an Excellent Solution for Privacy, Part 3

The traditional fiat world continues to make it easy to launder money without having to resort to the complexities and volatility of cryptocurrencies.

For example, trade-based money laundering is still simple to do and hard to detect. Additionally, the “National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment” report published in 2018 continues to cite the banking system and complicit money services businesses as the primary way that terrorist funding is facilitated. 

Many of these reports indicate that the right way to combat these is through robust international regulation and law enforcement, as well as improved coordination between the public and private sectors.

None of these reports suggest the banning of privacy technologies or cryptocurrencies.

Any cryptocurrency that wants to remain true to the original purpose must include privacy.

With the development of blockchain technology, we are at the precipice of a self-sovereign financial system in which we have complete control over our assets.

We envision a system in which the freedom and opportunities of true economic equality, and not just financial equality, are guaranteed for everyone.

To reach these lofty goals, privacy is essential to preserving our rights and the freedoms therein. The cryptocurrency industry must come together to champion privacy and work to further its wide-scale adoption.

Our goal is to change public perception and make privacy a value worth fighting for.The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Earlier this week PlusToken, one of the largest scams in the cryptocurrency world, tried to move 789,500 Ether (ETH), but the movement of these stolen funds were temporarily held up by congestion issues within the Ethereum network.

The $186 million transfer came from a known Ethereum address and was later split into 50 different transactions, possibly as an attempt to disguise the activity. 

Whale Alert first spotted the transactions which have since been processed but little information on the funds’ destination has been reported. Just two days before this latest development, PlusToken also moved $67 million worth of stolen EOS.

PlusToken sales lead to ETH and BTC corrections

Despite being dismantled last year, PlusToken is still causing damage to the crypto industry by liquidating holdings and holding large amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) and other assets like Ether and EOS. 

PlusToken still holds a significant amount of stolen crypto-assets and these funds continue to pose a threat to spot markets as large market sales can impact Bitcoin and Ether’s price across various exchanges. 

While some believe that the March 12 crash was caused by PlusToken dumping Bitcoin on spot markets, this theory was quickly dispelled by data from blockchain analysis firm, Chainalysis. According to Chainalysis, BTC movements from PlusToken to exchanges slowed down heavily before the Black Thursday crash, which shows the two events were not related. 

While this particular crash was not related to PlusToken, many still believe the group is responsible for some of the accentuated drops in the Bitcoin price, namely in December 2019. As crypto options and futures continue to grow in popularity, the danger of an accentuated drop caused by a large sell-off becomes bigger as it could potentially trigger a long squeeze for Ether. 

Chainalysis head of research Kim Grauer agrees that a PlusToken triggered sell-off is a real risk. Grauer previously told Cointelegraph:

“We found in the past that large inflows to exchanges, such as those from PlusToken last year, tend to increase the price volatility on exchanges. This problem can potentially be exacerbated by trading bots that pick up on those on-chain movements and execute trades, not to mention the highly leveraged positions on derivatives exchanges that can get liquidated rather quickly. But overall, prices tend to bounce back quickly from those one-off events.”

Exchanges raise security to ward off scammers

In this instance the Ethereum network acted as a temporary bottleneck for the scammers as the transaction was stalled due to network congestion, which is ironically a very small silver lining in the current scalability issues being faced by the second biggest blockchain network. However, the biggest deterrent for the liquidation of PlusToken funds should be exchanges' KYC (know-your-customer) standards.

KYC requires users to divulge their identity which, if done right, could lead to the arrest of the person or people selling the assets. As previously reported, a large portion of the BTC sell-offs conducted by PlusToken took place in the Huobi and Okex exchanges where the KYC and AML policies were not sufficient enough to stop the scammers.

To be fair, Huobi has worked to improve its security standards since the last wave of PlusToken BTC sales. The exchange recently launched an on-chain monitoring tool called Star Atlas in order to identify “crimes like fraud, money laundering and other problematic activities” on their platform. 

Peer-to-peer exchange Paxful also recently partnered with Chainalysis to increase monitoring around illicit transactions.While it’s hard to tell what the PlusToken scammers will do next, traders will be keeping close watch on the upcoming Ether options expiry and the spot price at exchanges to see if the scammers try to dump on open markets after the expiry. 

The investment guru who said Bitcoin was in a bubble as early as 2017 recently speculated that all cryptocurrencies will be gone eventually. 

In an interview with the Asahi publication AERA dot on Friday, investor Jim Rogers said cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) “will be in decline eventually and everything will go to zero.

" "Those who use cryptocurrency think they are smarter than their governments,” Rogers said to AERA dot. “In fact, I think they are correct. But their governments have something that crypto people don't have.

That is guns. The reason why I think cryptocurrency will be gone eventually is that it is not based on the armed force of governments' power." There has been some unproven correlation between the rising and falling prices of cryptocurrencies and governments acting more authoritarian.

When United States President Donald Trump ordered the forced dispersal of peaceful protesters near the White House grounds on June 1, the price of Bitcoin surged more than 8%.

Crypto is "just gambling"

Cointelegraph reported in November 2017 that Rogers said BTC “looks and smells” like a bubble. This was prior to the cryptocurrency reaching its all-time high price of over $20,000 in December 2017.

”Cryptocurrencies didn't even exist a few years ago, but in the blink of an eye they became 100 and 1000 times more valuable. This is a clear bubble and I don't know the right price. Virtual currency is not an investment target. It's just gambling.”

Along with billionaires such as Warren Buffett and George Soros, Rogers is considered one of the largest investors in the world. His views in the AERA dot interview echo those of Buffett, who said “cryptocurrencies basically have no value” in February.

Online-payments giant PayPal Holdings is looking to explicitly unleash cryptocurrencies onto its client base that reportedly boasts over 320 million people.

According to a report by CoinDesk, three sources have confirmed to the crypto industry publication that PayPal and its affiliated platform Venmo will allow their users to “directly” buy and sell several cryptocurrencies, though which coins they will support are yet to be revealed.

The Most Diverse Audience to Date at FMLS 2020 – Where Finance Meets Innovation “They are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there,” one source said, adding that he expects the company “would be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity.

”While PayPal declined to comment on the rumors, another source told CoinDesk that PayPal plans to roll out its crypto offering “in the next three months, maybe sooner.”

PayPal favors blockchain over cryptocurrencies

As the mainstream payment industry has woken to cryptocurrency its related industry, PayPal has finally been forced to take note. Until recently, PayPal’s stance on the entire ecosystem was that they are much more pro blockchain but not fully vested in the cryptocurrency side of things.

“We have teams clearly working on blockchain and cryptocurrency as well, and we want to take part in that in whatever form that takes in the future — I just think it’s a little early on right now for bitcoin,” PayPal CFO John Rainey said last year.

These ambitions, however, took a blow after PayPal was the first company to pull out of the coalition of companies involved in a Facebook-led cryptocurrency initiative, Libra Association.

At the time, PayPal did not give a reason for leaving the project, but shortly after there were a few pieces of evidence to suggest that the payment giant is showing interest in getting involved in cryptocurrency.

A prime, and recent example of PayPal’s involvement in the space was the firm’s investment in cryptocurrency compliance and risk management platform TRM Labs.

PayPal also filed many related patents including one to speed up bitcoin transaction processing times through a faster cryptocurrency payment system.

PayPal is also competing with its rival Square on more fronts, including the digital assets which the latter was one of its early adopters. Square Inc., a payments company founded and run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, was awarded last year with a coveted license to deal in cryptocurrencies in New York.

On the eve of the new season, F1 has launched the #WeRaceAsOne initiative, aimed at tackling the biggest issues facing the sport and global communities – the fight against COVID-19 and the condemnation of racism and inequality.

During the race weekend in Austria, teams and F1 partners will be saying thank you to key workers and individuals by displaying rainbows on cars and around the circuit.

There will also be visual displays of support in the fight against racism, with F1 set to announce later this week clear pledges to increase diversity and opportunity in the sport, and the setting up of a Formula 1 Task Force.

The details in full

As Formula 1 returns after a four-month break, we believe we must return with added purpose and determination to tackle the major issues that we as a sport, but also society, are facing. Those issues are important to the longer-term future of our sport, but equally have a major impact on the communities we race in and countries around the world.

Last November we launched our sustainability strategy to make our sport net zero carbon by 2030, improve diversity and inclusion in Formula 1 and to support communities.

Recent events have reinforced the importance of those issues and the need for us take action to make our sport better, improve opportunity and to have a positive impact on the world we live in.




In recent months, the whole world has come together as one collective community in the fight against COVID-19 and it has brought out the best in human nature. In recent weeks people from all walks of life have united in their condemnation of racism and inequality, something that has no place in our modern world.

We believe that as the first international sport to return we can make a difference and use our voice to address these vital issues.

As a member of the global FIA motor sport family, we acknowledge its Fundamental Principles Statutes, including the fight against any form of discrimination.

That is why today, ahead of our season start, Formula 1 announces our new #We Race As One initiative, in support of the #PurposeDriven Movement launched by the FIA last week.

This initiative will be the platform for the priorities set out above and is aimed at tackling the biggest issues facing our sport and global communities. It will not be a one week or one-year theme that disappears as issues disappear from headlines, it will underpin the Formula 1 strategy to make a tangible difference in our sport and society.

Recognising the two major issues dominating society’s consciousness at this time, COVID-19, and inequality we will use our opening race to thank people around the world for the incredible strength and fortitude they have shown against a global pandemic.

Everyone from key workers through to families and individuals that have endured lockdown to tackle the virus deserve our thanks and gratitude.

Equally we want to use our restart to show that we as a sporting community stand united against racism and are doing more to address inequality and diversity in Formula 1.




An example of how the #WeRaceAsOne rainbow will feature on the McLarenTherefore, ahead of our first race in Austria on 3-5 July and with the support of the teams and our partners Formula 1 will be saying thank you to key workers and individuals around the world by displaying rainbows on the Formula 1 cars and around the race circuit with the hashtag #We Race as One.

The rainbow has been chosen as it has become a symbol used internationally in the recent crisis to bring communities together. We believe this important gesture will encourage our fans to join us in saying thank you. The rainbow initiative will continue throughout the season.

During the race weekend in Austria we will take a stand against racism. This will include visual displays of support in the fight against racism. In addition to the visual display of support we will also announce later this week clear pledges to increase diversity and opportunity in our sport.

This will include setting up a Formula 1 Task Force that will listen to people from across the paddock, including the drivers, as well as externals and make conclusions on the actions required to improve the diversity and opportunity in Formula 1 at all levels.

Further details of the Task Force will be set out in the coming weeks and the visual displays of support at the first race will be seen for the first time during the race weekend.

Chase Carey, Chairman and CEO of Formula 1, said:

“Our first race in Austria at the start of July is a big moment for our sport after nearly four months of no racing. While it is an important moment for the Formula 1 community it is also a time to recognise the issues that are bigger than any one sport or country.

The #WeRaceAsOne initiative we have launched today, in support of the #PurposeDriven Movement launched by the FIA last week, is our way of saying thank you to the bravery and unity everyone around the world has shown during this unprecedented time. It will also be a platform for Formula 1 to come together and achieve results against the most important issues facing us as a sport and the world.

That is why at our first race in Austria Formula 1 will stand united to say loud and clear that racism must end. We will show our full support in fighting inequality throughout the weekend and accelerate our own efforts to make Formula 1 more diverse and inclusive.

As a global sport we must represent the diversity and social concerns of our fans, but we also need to listen more and understand what needs to be done and get on with delivering.”

Jean Todt, President of the FIA, said:

The “New Deal” I propose for motor sport in the context of COVID-19 pandemic means laying the foundations for the recovery and a sustainable future for Formula 1 and other disciplines. It includes new rules to reduce costs as well as initiatives to increase the popularity and accessibility of motor sport.

Importantly, it shall also harness the positive contribution motor sport brings to society, covering all sectors from health, safety, economy, environment, education, inclusion and diversity.

This is the intention of the #PurposeDriven Movement we launched last Thursday, and I am very pleased to welcome the #WeRaceAsOne initiative as part of this collective effort.

With Formula 1, we have already been committed for many years to helping to protect the environment with, for example, hybrid engines and the signing of the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework.

The FIA is guided by the Fundamental Principles of its Statutes, including the fight against any form of discrimination and notably on account of skin colour, gender, religion, ethnic or social origin. We must promote diversity in motor sport.”

Authorities are testing a new kind of money in four cities.

People in China are no strangers to digital payments—if anything, it’s easier to move around and shop in Shanghai or Beijing with an Alipay or WeChat Pay smartphone app than it is bearing a pocketbook filled with yuan notes.

 Now the Chinese government has begun a pilot program for an official digital version of its currency—with the likelihood of a bigger test at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

Some observers think the virtual yuan could bolster the government’s power over the country’s financial system and one day maybe even shift the global balance of economic influence.

Most money that gets swapped around electronically is just credits and debits in accounts at different banks. China’s digital cash is designed to be an electronic version of a banknote, or a coin: it just lives in a digital wallet on a smartphone, rather than a physical wallet. Its value would be backed by the state.

But virtual cash would be quicker and easier to use than the paper kind—and would also offer China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.

The program started small in April, with a limited rollout in the cities of Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Xiong’an—a new “smart” city in the making, southwest of Beijing, conceived by President Xi Jinping. Local media have reported that some of the money was distributed in the form of transport subsidies paid to individuals in Suzhou.

One thing authorities have to be careful about is that the digital currency doesn’t start crowding out other forms of money, such as bank deposits. Banks need those deposits to extend as credit to borrowers.

The system would also potentially compete with two of China’s most successful tech giants, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., which back Alipay and WeChat, respectively.

That might be part of the point. Payments for consumption using big tech companies’ mobile apps represent 16% of gross domestic product in China, compared with less than 1% in the U.S. and U.K. Policymakers have expressed some concern about too much of the country’s financial plumbing being in the hands of a few companies.

“Those big tech companies bring to us a lot of challenges and financial risks,” People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said during a conference last year. “You see: In this game, winners take all, so monopolies are a challenge.”

The rise of independent cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, meanwhile, have created the danger that a huge swath of economic activity will occur out of the view of policymakers.

China, in recent years, has cracked down on the use of such coins but was quick to see some potential in the basic idea—as long as it had some control.

China started studying issuance of its own digital unit as far back as 2014. “This has very strong political will behind it,” says Andrew Polk, co-founder and head of economic research at Trivium China, a Beijing-based consultant. “They see an opportunity of being a global leader here.

”While a digital currency is likely years away from a national rollout, China’s moves have triggered concern about a new threat to U.S. financial dominance.

Aditi Kumar and Eric Rosenbach of the Harvard Kennedy School, writing in May for Foreign Affairs, argue that the digital version of the renminbi, as China’s currency is officially known, could eventually allow Iran and others to more easily evade U.S. sanctions or move money without it being spotted by the U.S. government.

That’s because it might one day be possible to transfer the digital currency across borders without going through dollar-based international payments systems.Not everyone is so worried.


Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has written, also for Foreign Affairs, that despite China’s plans, the threat to the dollar’s status as the world’s preferred currency is “not a serious concern.” Even if a digital yuan proves to be highly mobile around the world, the dollar is widely trusted, and oil and other key commodities are still priced in it.

When the new denomination is up and running, individuals will be able to exchange it using digital wallets. They won’t need to have bank accounts. That could make it accessible to the 225 million people in China who have no access to the banking system. In rural areas, electronic distribution and exchange of money could help bolster development and reduce fraud by making cash easier to track.

The PBOC, China’s central bank, would be able to see where the money goes. The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are “whitelisted” for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out.

“China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,” argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.

Even if digital currency takes off nationally, it’s still unclear whether it would be allowed move across borders.

There could be great appeal for a secure international payment method with instantaneous transfers. Foreign-exchange transactions currently can take a business day or two to clear.

A widespread digital yuan could also encourage countries and people overseas to get on board with China’s technology—and eventually, its currency.

“It’s very possible that other countries adopt the China framework, and then a first-mover advantage turns into a strong network effect,” says Matthew Graham, chief executive officer of Sino Global Capital, a Beijing-based consultant on blockchain, the technology behind many cryptocurrencies.

“This is the best-case scenario for China.”At the same time, China will likely be wary of any circumvention of its capital controls, which aim to keep people from moving significant amounts of wealth out of the country.

These controls were significantly tightened after a messy exchange-rate devaluation in 2015. Da Hongfei, founder of blockchain platform Neo, says the central bank could split part of the digital currency for use outside of China, much as it did with the offshore version of the yuan in currency trading.Once a national rollout begins, things could move quickly.

More than 80% of smartphone users in China regularly pay for transactions on their devices, the highest rate in the world, according to UBS Group AG. And Chinese consumers are eager adopters of appealing new financial tech. One money market fund offered via Alipay, Yu’E Bao, became so popular after its 2013 launch that it was at one point the world’s largest money fund.

It drained so much, so quickly, from the country’s bank deposit system that in 2017 the central bank stepped in to restrict it.

The test will be whether Chinese consumers trust the new cash technology—as well as the power behind it. —Chris Anstey, Lulu Chen, Heng Xie. Assistance from Yinan Zhao, Daniela Wei, Olga Kharif, and Zheping Huang

Zoom Video stock rallied again on Monday — this time by nearly 9% to set a new record high — valuing the incumbent video conferencing app well beyond the likes of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Uber.

Indeed, Zoom’s market cap swelled to hit $67.43 billion yesterday, buoyed by continued market optimism for ‘stay-at-home’ stocks that also drove the wider NASDAQ 100 (NDX) index up 1.17%.

[Read: United Airlines just got kicked out of the NASDAQ 100 by a company that helps you sign PDFs]

But to say that Zoom has simply outperformed the market is a severe understatement.

The company’s stock is up 250% since the start of the year (from $68.72 to $239.02) and has returned 45% in the past month alone.

For scale, the chart below includes fan favorite Tesla, whose stock has surged 130% in 2020, a stellar performance in its own right. Tesla’s pumps almost look silly compared to Zoom’s mega-surges.





Tesla who?Despite the controversy surrounding Zoom‘s interactions with China, it’s of little surprise that markets love it. After all, it offers a widely accessible free product, and despite its shortcomings, it still managed to serve as the technological backbone for much of the world’s transition into remote work and education during the coronavirus pandemic.

Zoom’s revenues have also skyrocketed, driven by a growing base of enterprise customers. Last quarter, the company generated $328.2 million, up 169% year-on-year.

Zoom is worth more to the market than General Electric

Still, despite being just shy of Booking.com, Zoom Video’s current market value now exceeds that of computer hardware giant AMD, which sits at a touch over $64 billion.In fact, Zoom has grown bigger than giants from a wide variety of sectors: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals ($66.4 billion); Unilever ($64 billion); General Electric ($63.33 billion); CME Group ($62.6 billion); and Colgate-Palmolive ($62.4 billion).

And if Zoom’s market value continues to grow as it has all year, it will soon surpass Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs, and mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto.

But even industry analysts aren’t exactly sure how to value Zoom moving forward. In April, a Credit Suisse analyst effectively advised clients to start selling their Zoom shares, but the stock would go on to increase by more than 130% since then. Damn.

The leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, will launch a trading platform in the United Kingdom this summer, a recent report informed. It will allow both retail and institutional investors to use the platform, which will be regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

Binance Goes To The UK

According to today’s Reuters report, the popular cryptocurrency exchange will begin operations in the UK this summer with up to 65 digital assets initially and more to be added in time.

The UK-based platform will allow deposits and withdrawals for buying and selling cryptocurrency directly through bank transfers via the UK Faster Payments Service and the Single Euro Payments Area network.

“Interest and participation in the UK digital asset markets are growing, not just in-depth with its current participants but also in breadth. As crypto services mature and evolve, we are able to create new options and capture interest from a wider audience with varying risk appetites, such as products that earn a yield for participation, like staking and passive savings.” – Said Binance UK Director Teana Baker-Taylor.

The company also outlined the increasing interest coming from institutional investors. The report cited Binance by informing that their number has grown by nearly 50% in Q1 2020 compared to Q4 2019.

A recent survey compiled by Fidelity supported this narrative as 36% of all institutional investors participating had noted that they own Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, the percentage was higher in Europe than in the US, which could also urge Binance to open a UK-based platform.

United States engineering firm KE International awarded Senegalese-American singer and entrepreneur Akon with a $6 billion contract to build a cryptocurrency city in Senegal.

According to a June 4 announcement, KE International secured $4 billion from investors for the first two phases of Akon City’s construction. Akon first announced plans to build the city in January. The firm has now confirmed the deal and added more details about the project.

A crypto-driven city

The first phase of Akon City’s development is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. By the end of this phase, the complex will include a mall, residences, hotels, a police station, a school, a waste facility, a solar power plant, and a hospital campus.

The second phase is expected to be completed in 2029 and is expected to deliver a complete city entirely running on the Akoin cryptocurrency. As Cointelegraph reported in mid-March, Akoin is a cryptocurrency designed for entrepreneurs in developing countries such as Africa.

KE International is also managing the construction of the $2 billion Mwale Medical and Technology City in Western Kenya. The project started in 2014 and is expected to be completed at the end of the year.

The complex is already 85% complete and includes a 5,000-bed hospital, which opened to the public last year. Interestingly, this hospital also partnered with Akon to leverage its Akoin cryptocurrency for transactions.

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 — Zoom just gave free users frightening news.  Zoom announced this past week that those who use the video platform for free will no longer have encrypted calls and that this new change will happen sooner than later.

The reasoning behind this change —according to the company — is that they want to be able to comply and work with local law enforcement agencies as well as the FBI in the event that Zoom would be used for malicious reasons.

Those who use Zoom for free merely need to provide an email address, therefore not providing adequate information in order to help verify the identity of somebody.

This new roll out will only provide that end-to-end encryption to individuals with full verifiable accounts. (Source: ZDNet)Why this is important for your business:

Hmm…or maybe Zoom could ask for the same info from their free users and give them the same encryption as their paid users?

You may disagree, but this seems more like a marketing tactic than a compliance concern and for that reason I’m beginning to become just a little more wary of Zoom.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great platform. But considering their handling of past security concerns – and more importantly how they’re addressing these concerns – you may want to consider other communication platforms for your small business as well.

This is a response I received from Zoom:
Zoom has used – and continues to use – encryption technology on its platform for all users. AES 256-bit GCM encryption, which is one of the most secure encryption standards used today, is currently enabled system-wide and is available to all users – both free and paid.

Regarding contacting law enforcement, Zoom only responds to valid law enforcement requests. When we receive a request for information, Zoom's policy is to comply only if the request follows a valid legal process and there is proper jurisdiction.

Zoom's policy precludes responding to requests where there is inadequate legal process, for example when authorities lack jurisdiction or when requests are overbroad.A Diverse Approach To Scale Contact TracingZoom does not eavesdrop on users’ meetings. We also do not let law enforcement listen into meetings. Any reports to the contrary are categorically false.

Zoom does not proactively monitor meeting content and we do not have backdoors where anyone — including employees — can enter meetings without being visible to others via the meeting participant listAs for end-to-end encryption, this is still a work in progress. We are currently listening to feedback from child safety advocates, civil liberties organizations, encryption experts, and law enforcement, and will provide an updated white paper incorporating this feedback soon.

2 — A small business recently paid the $150,000 ransom after an attack.

A small Kentucky business recently found themselves to be victims of a ransomware attack and ended up paying the $150,000 ransom in order to regain control of their PCs and get their information back.

The company — which is only made up of 8 computers — simultaneously received messages on their screens stating that the hacker group had control of their PCs and they needed to pay in order to get their files back. Working with a third party contractor to help handle the ransom — after paying the $150,000 demand which was originally $400,000 — regained control of their computers and received all of their information (Source: Tech Republic)  

Why this is important for your business:

So there you have it: 150,000 reasons to make sure you’ve installed security and online backup software, paid for training and verified that everyone’s running the most up to date operating systems.

3 —Cash payments have plummeted thanks to the pandemic.   

Research released in Australia this past week revealed that — since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — the use of cash payments has greatly decreased. A survey conducted by RBA showed that — last year — one-third of participants did not use cash, while only 10% of those participating in the survey used cash consistently.

Similarly, the use of checks has gone down by 20% each year and increased to 40% during the pandemic. (Source: ZDNet)

Why this is important for your business:

Yeah, yeah…it’s just Australia. But look, those guys know how to live life and what I’m seeing there is going to continue to spread worldwide. It’s likely that the decline is due to an overall spending decrease coupled with individuals staying home and doing more online shopping.  But I think it’s something else. Thanks to the virus, people are using less cash than ever. They’re paying with mobile apps and credit cards. And once many realize these benefits they’ll never go back. It’s a significant trend and your business needs to be prepared to accept payment from any source.

4 — MIT’s tiny artificial brain chip could bring supercomputer smarts to mobile devices.  

MIT has announced that their research team recently published work detailing an artificial brain chip that could potentially allow mobile devices to perform at the level of a super computer. (Source: Tech Crunch)Why this is important for your business:Think about the future power of the smartphone and tablet.

The chip — which would be even smaller than one speck of confetti — would be able to assist in developing technology that could adequately handle higher-order AI calculations locally on devices but still be little and efficiently use power, all while negating the need to connect to data. The research team is hoping to replicate bigger, more involved AI networks that now exist with great GPU power and make it possible to house it in smaller devices.

5— YouTube is trying to become more transparent with an in-depth guide to monetization.

YouTube is working to operate in a more transparent manner when it comes to how channels are able to make money while providing stricter guidelines on the kind of content advertisers will be more willing to pay to have ads on.

Historically, YouTube has allowed videos that contain malicious content to contain advertisements. However — due to past and recent events — YouTube has implemented many changes to their guidelines concerning advertising and content, including an “ineligible for advertising” portion of the guidelines based off of hateful content alone. (Source: The Verge)

Why this is important for your business:

If your business is trying to monetize YouTube it’s important to stay up to date on their latest guides and announcements. I’m doing the same for my YouTube site and am quickly discovering that it’s almost a full-time job. I guess if it were that easy everyone would be doing it.

More blockchain companies set up shop in Hong Kong in 2019 than firms from any other fintech sub-sector, according to a report from the region’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau.

Representing 39% of the 57 fintechs that InvestHK, the government-owned inward investment advocate, wooed last year, blockchain outgrew the wealth tech, payments, cybersecurity, regulatory tech, credit tech and insurance tech sectors as Hong Kong’s foreign fintech relocation engine.

The growth figures depict a region savvily courting firms across the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem. Since 2018, authorities have offered immigration incentives to blockchain job seekers, launched a blockchain trade finance platform and brokered industry ties. 

Those efforts appear to be paying off in more ways than one. Hong Kong had four times higher than average demand for blockchain professionals in a 2019 LinkedIn report, which ranked blockchain as the region’s top rising skill set. 

Diversity in blockchain focus

Hong Kong’s heightened interest in blockchain jobs and firms spreads across the industry, the Treasury report shows. 

Of 2019’s newcomer blockchain firms, 45% were enterprise blockchain companies, 27% built digital asset trading platforms, 14% were digital asset custodians and 9% focused on trade finance settlement.

An additional 5% were “exploring the area of security tokens” according to the Treasury report. That cautious wording may be a function of security tokens’ nascent regulatory status. Hong Kong’s financial regulator issued guidance on security tokens in March 2019 and rules for the exchanges who trade them in November.

But the Securities and Futures Commission’s trading platform rules are only an “interim solution,” according to the report. It called for legislative action on the matter.

Blockchain firms represented 27% of InvestHK’s newcomer fintechs in 2018, the report said. 

Hong Kong has continued to attract crypto ventures and investments in 2020, including capital from institutional players. In February, Fidelity International invested $14 million in the company running crypto exchange OSL, which is based in Hong Kong.

More growth is likely on the way. Cyberport, a government-owned fintech business park and partner to Hyperledger, plans to keep fostering its blockchain cluster, according to the report.

Despite being small in size, Liechtenstein is actively exploring and developing its blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.

Its government is highly promoting friendly policies for cryptocurrencies, ICO and distributed ledger technology (DLT), a thing that is rapidly making it a powerful blockchain hub.

The country follows in the footsteps of Switzerland to position themselves as cryptocurrency, ICO and blockchain-friendly fulcrum.

Since the country is small in size and has limited resources and territories for companies such as manufacturing and heavy industries to grow, it has been easing regulations on tax evasion business and online gambling business for a long time, thus, attracting foreign companies.

And now it seems that they are taking an open attitude to the ICO to explore new opportunities in the blockchain industry.

Trending to friendly policy

Liechtenstein became the first country to have a comprehensive legal system for distributed ledgers and cryptocurrencies by resolving the so-called 'Act on Transaction Service Providers Based on Token and Trust Technology'. And the law was finally implemented on January 1, this year.

This law was enacted to protect investors, to prevent money laundering, and to increase industrial transparency.However, the small European country showed interest in developing innovative technologies even before. Back in 2018, Prime Minister Adrian Hasler proposed for the adoption of ‘The Blockchain Act’ aiming at creating advantageous conditions for fintech, DLT and cryptocurrency businesses.

The PM believed his country could serve as a global hub for not only blockchain but also a wide range of financial solutions and application development. 

The country’s supporting policy resulted in offering digital currency sales services at post offices nationwide.

The service has been available since February 2019. The reason for such an upgrade of post offices was the obvious global trend for digitization and lack of demand for traditional post services. Besides, such a combination of traditions and innovations was believed to boost the interest and perhaps the adoption of cryptocurrencies by the common folk. 

Crypto industry is growing

The past seven months have seen a significant increase in the number of blockchain startups within the country. As of now, over 80 companies started their operations in Liechtenstein, which shows that the industry has become more stable and mature. The 50 top DLT firms managed to raise more than $4 bln in investor funds.

Banks and large financial institutions from the traditional sector are also showing interest in this innovative field. In August of last year, Union Bank AG, Liechtenstein's central bank, unveiled plans to become the first bank to issue its own securitization tokens. In addition, in cooperation with the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange (LCX) has been developed into a platform capable of transborder digital currency trading.

Some of the companies operating within Liechtenstein's cryptocurrency industry even try to work outside the country. For instance, a digital currency exchange Nomisma secured a license for the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II license (MiFiD2) and was qualified to run a DLT and blockchain-powered multilateral trading facility (MTF).

This license allows the exchange to operate in the entire European Union.Generally, Liechtenstein is a good example of how a small country can boost its potential using innovative technologies.

The one lacking strength needs to be smart. Liechtenstein proves that by growing its innovative potential, actively exploring the fintech sector and its practical application. 

ChainLink serves as a general bi-directional computer-enabled connector that connects the online and offline systems.

David Miller, a ChainLink Community Factsheet coordinator, expresses that Chainlink IS NOT a new blockchain, it’s not even meant to be a cryptocurrency.Further stated that smart contracted blockchains do have the power to run certain actions under certain inputs, however by definition – he clarifies that blockchains are not able to connect to the real world.

Therefore, to unleash the full power of smart contracts, it is important to have a way to connect to the outside world. These are known as Oracles. Typical oracles have been 3rd party corps that offered that info via APIs.

When it comes to clarifying the question of “The Oracle Problem,” it stated that ETH, Tezos, or others make use of a centralized ORACLE, which breaks the whole paradigm.

This is known as the “The oracle problem.” Chainlink resolves this oracle problem in a decentralized way.  Also, “It’s blockchain agnostic = all blockchains can use it to feed inputs.”

Sydney Ifergan, the crypto expert, tweeted:  “ChainLink (LINK) has been facilitating sustainable price feeds for the oracle, thus empowering the growth of blockchain DeFi applications.”

Chainlink clarifies that Link is not a cryptocurrency.  Further states that it is not created to be spent anywhere; however, it does have value.The Link tokens were created to make use of the oracle network. 

The Link is further used to pay for the nodes which process the transactions.  Thus, Link acts as an incentive to provide access to data.

ChainLink (LINK) Token-Powered Digital Interchange

ChainLink News recently announced the launch of the Interwork Alliance, which is “a platform-neutral, non-profit organization dedicated to creating the business-level standards and tools needed to build distributed applications.

”The Interwork Alliance have formally launched their operations as a platform-neutral, non-profit organization who focus on creating the standards frameworks required to improve innovation across the token-enabled ecosystems.

It is expected that this alliance will simplify the world of the Token-Powered Digital Interchange.  

Secure and transparent price determination is crucial for exchanges to ensure true decentralization.  Chainlink is providing the technology required to empower the same.

They are progressively working on their algorithms to provide the best quality data to ensure price transparency and authenticity. 

ChainLink, in reality, is writing the pages of authenticity and reliability in terms of price data feeds, which is obvious from the growing numbers of clients who subscribe to their price feeds.

Google Chrome is the world's biggest internet browser with a staggering near-60% market share but new rivals are gaining ground amid rising privacy concerns.

This week, podcaster Joe Rogan, who has recently been thrust into the limelight after he signed a major deal with streaming service Spotify, revealed he uses the cryptocurrency-powered Chrome rival Brave to avoid internet ads and Google's overzealous tracking.

MORE FROM FORBES

Crypto-Powered Brave Browser has Google Chrome In Its SightsBy Billy Bambrough




Podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently signed a major deal with streaming service Spotify, has said he ... [+] GETTY IMAGESMost Popular I

n: Crypto & Blockchain

• Second Round Of Stimulus Checks Would Be Paper Or Direct Deposit Again

• Bitcoin Could Be About To Surge To $100,000 After Stock-To-Flow Update Revealed

• Blow To Bitcoin As Coinbase Crashes In Sudden Meltdown

"There's so much value in knowing what you're up to; knowing where you're going, what you're buying, what you're saying," Rogan told his podcast guest Reggie Watts, an American musician, actor and comedian in a wide-ranging discussion lasting over two hours.

"If you want to use Instagram or if you want to use Facebook, you're getting tracked," Rogan said, pointing to a recent $5 billion lawsuit filed against Google for tracking users without their consent.

Rogan, who has claimed that his podcast gets as many as 190 million downloads per month and is thought to have made $30 million last year, according to recent Forbes estimates, railed against ads that appear to follow users around the internet before admitting he uses Brave after it was mentioned by Watts.

Brave, an open-source internet browser that aims to protect users’ privacy by blocking ads and website trackers, has seen a surge in popularity in recent months.

Brave this week revealed it added 1.5 million monthly active users in April and May, taking its total to 15 million.

The Brave Ads program, which rewards users with the Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) cryptocurrency for voluntarily watching ads from partner brands such as Amazon, Verizon, Chipotle and PayPal, has also grown with its number of ad campaigns climbing from 255% to over 1,500 from October 2019 to May 2020.

MORE FROM FORBESBlow To Bitcoin As Coinbase Crashes In Sudden MeltdownBy Billy Bambrough

Brave, which launched in 2017 following a massive $35 million initial coin offering fundraiser, expects to do well from the trend toward data privacy and hightened security concerns.

"People have had a long time to acclimate to Chrome but users don't like a lot of things about it," Brave's chief executive and former head of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, said previously.

"I'm going to everything I can to protect myself," Watts told Rogan, saying he goes as far as possible "without being paranoid.

""The future is distributed," Watts added, in an apparent nod to the kind of web3 decentralization that some think has been made possible by bitcoin's blockchain technology.Ironically, Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, is entirely funded by ads both on YouTube and as a downloadable podcast.

Square's Cash App is a major sponsor and is regularly touted by Rogan as "the best way to buy bitcoin," introducing many millions of people to cryptocurrency over a number of years.


Follow me on Twitter. 




Billy Bambrough

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported… Read More

Tencent, the creator of messaging service WeChat, is investing 500 billion yuan ($70 billion) into “new infrastructure” based on emerging technologies over the next five years, according to market sources.

Tencent is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company founded in 1998. Its subsidiaries specialise in various Internet-related services and products, entertainment, artificial intelligence and technology both in China and globally.

The Most Diverse Audience to Date at FMLS 2020 – Where Finance Meets InnovationI

n an interview with state media Tuesday, Dowson Tong, Tencent’s senior executive vice president, confirmed the company had also earmarked investment for sectors such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.

The sources said that it isn’t clear how much of the $70 billion investment Tencent will ultimately set aside for blockchain, nor has it elaborated on what specifically it will be investing in.

They added that the firm has acknowledged that its cloud offerings have been hit by the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown as the nation starts its return to normality.

BSN

The move comes a month after China’s Blockchain Services Network (BSN) was rolled out for commercial use. Blockchain is a critical part of the country’s tech strategy, and the government hopes BSN will form the backbone infrastructure for services that leverage the technology all around the country.

China’s steadfast support for DLT is paying dividends, Haipo Yang, founder and CEO of Chinese crypto exchange CoinEx, said in an interview.

He explained this unambiguous approach has helped create a “good environment for blockchain technology,” improving China’s credentials as an innovation hub and leading to the emergence of a vibrant blockchain investment scene.

Last year, Tencent launched a DLT-powered invoice system and received permission from the Hong Kong regulator to start work on a blockchain-based virtual bank.

Along with a number of its competitors, the firm also became a member of a new national committee to help set industry standards for blockchain technology.

Shopify's (NYSE:SHOP) platform allows its merchants to accept payments in bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and over 300 other types of cryptocurrencies.

It recently expanded that reach by partnering with cryptocurrency payments processor CoinPayments, which helps merchants process 1,800 types of cryptocurrencies.

Shopify claims the partnership will "make cryptocurrency transactions easier and more accessible while reducing transaction fees." CoinPayments CEO Jason Butcher declared the partnership would deliver a "seamless process for anyone looking to do business using cryptocurrencies.

"CoinPayments has processed over $5 billion in cryptocurrency payments since its founding in 2013 and provides clients with various APIs, shopping cart plugins, and digital wallets. Shopify's cryptocurrency expansion isn't surprising, but will this new partnership widen its moat?

How many people actually use cryptocurrencies for payments?

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have gained a lot of attention among speculators in recent years. However, the broad price swings -- which have ranged from about $500 to $19,000 for bitcoin over the past four years -- made them tough to accept as mainstream payments.

Last year, a survey by the Foundation for Interwallet Operability (FIO) found that only 30% of cryptocurrency owners actually used the coins for payments. The vast majority held the coins as investments.

A more recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit and digital payments platform Crypto.com found just 34% of cryptocurrency users primarily used digital currencies for online payments.Crypto Radar recently claimed 6.2% of Americans owned bitcoin, and 7.3% planned to buy some in the future.

Yet the overwhelming majority (64.8%) didn't own any bitcoin and had no plans to buy any coins in the future. Another 21.8% hadn't even heard of bitcoin.

Those percentages indicate cryptocurrency payments don't appeal to mainstream shoppers yet. Nonetheless, many major companies -- including Microsoft, AT&T, and Expedia -- already accept bitcoin payments, though it's unclear how many customers actually choose those options.

Another part of its cryptocurrency expansion

Shopify also recently joined the Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)-led Libra Association, which wants to serve underbanked markets with its Libra cryptocurrency. That decision was surprising, since Libra had already lost many of its top members after regulators opposed its development.




IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

However, Libra is being developed as a "stablecoin" which is pinned to fiat currencies instead of mining algorithms. That stability could make Libra a more viable payment option than bitcoin and other volatile cryptocurrencies, and tethering them to Facebook's Calibra digital wallet, Messenger, and WhatsApp could quickly expand its reach.

CoinPayments also processes payments in other top stablecoins like TrueUSD, USD Coin, and Gemini Dollar (GUSD). These currencies could be more appealing to merchants and shoppers, who can sleep easier knowing the value of their payments won't plummet or skyrocket overnight.

Shopify's partnerships with the Libra Association and CoinPayments could pivot its merchants from bitcoin toward less volatile cryptocurrencies. That process might be glacial and won't move the needle anytime soon, but it could enhance its broader platform -- which already serves over a million businesses in more than 175 countries.

Shopify's cryptocurrency partnerships should also widen its moat against Adobe's (NASDAQ:ADBE) Magento, which recently partnered with cryptocurrency payments platform Utrust to provide its crypto transactions to over 250,000 merchants.

Magento is arguably Shopify's toughest competitor since it's tightly integrated into Adobe's other cloud-based analytics, marketing, and advertising tools.

Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini), a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, announced on Thursday it is collaborating with Samsung Electronics to power the Samsung Blockchain Wallet and bring crypto to the fingertips of Samsung Blockchain Wallet users in the U.S. and Canada.

Gemini claims it is the first U.S. crypto exchange and custodian to partner with Samsung.

“Samsung is committed to establishing a simple and secure gateway for more individuals to enter the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem. The Samsung Blockchain Wallet is a convenient and secure crypto-wallet that allows users to self custody their crypto directly on Samsung Galaxy Phones. By connecting their Samsung Blockchain Wallet to Gemini, users can buy and sell crypto, view their Gemini account balances, and also transfer their crypto into cold storage with Gemini Custody for the highest level of security.”

While sharing more details about the partnership, Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini, stated:

“Crypto is not just a technology, it is a movement. We are proud to be working with Samsung to bring crypto’s promise of greater choice, independence, and opportunity to more individuals around the world. Now, Samsung Blockchain Wallet customers can buy crypto in a simple, elegant and secure way on Gemini.”

The Samsung Blockchain Wallet and the Gemini Mobile App are available in the Samsung Galaxy Store for select Samsung Galaxy Phones.Founded in 2014, Gemini describes itself as a next-generation cryptocurrency and custodian that allows customers to buy, sell, and store digital assets such as bitcoin and ether. 

“Gemini is building a bridge to the future of money. We offer an industry-leading suite of crypto-native products and tools for individuals and institutions; enabling them to grow, manage, and use cryptocurrency holdings with world-class security, compliance, and customer experience.”

No doubt, the Blockchain technology, along with the adoption of cryptocurrencies, is getting bigger. The business end of the market is expected to reach $21 billion over the next five years.

Expectedly, professional services giants are now taking a larger role in tackling new challenges in the market, the Big Four firms and other leading brands are working with several crypto and blockchain firms on ways to combat interoperability, regulatory challenges and development of the technology.

Henri Arslanian, PwC’s global crypto leader, told Cointelegraph that the Big Four firms majorly have a vital role in the advancement of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, saying:“Although Bitcoin was designed with a trustless ideology, the reality is that the industry still requires trusted entities to catalyze the development of the ecosystem.

READ ALSO: Positive outlook as Africa FinTech attracts over $100 million in investments


Arslanian added that when he first joined PwC years back, few people took crypto seriously. However, he saw an increasing demand for crypto assets, with some businesses starting to accept Bitcoin payments from clients.

“Over the last couple of months, we’ve expanded our work. We recently closed the first-ever crypto fundraising deal at PwC, in which we led a $14 million Series A round for a Swiss-based crypto firm with Asian family offices. We are also the auditor for BC Group, a publicly listed crypto company in Hong Kong.”

BC Group CEO, Hugh Madden, also said that BC’s vision was to make use of crypto assets in Asia’s financial market. In turn, BC Group must set standards for compliance, security, and performance. Madden buttressed on the role of audits play by saying:

“Auditing, like regulatory clarity, provides confidence to all stakeholders that companies are operating transparently and adhering to expected industry standards. As the business of digital assets continues to grow and mature, and compliance and regulatory standards become more robust, auditors will continue to play a pivotal role.

”READ MORE: Blockchain technology expected to tackle Africa’s challenges across industries


KPMG United States blockchain audit leader, Erich Braun, further contributed by saying that a business’s blockchain system should be developed with the intent to meet both accounting and operational needs to meet with accounting standards:

“SEC issuers will want to design blockchain technologies to support the entity’s internal control over financial reporting. Being able to prove how these technologies achieve their aims in a well-controlled environment is critical to a successful blockchain strategy.

If the technology is not auditable, the immense benefits it brings, such as increasing efficiencies and cutting costs, may not be realized.”Henri Arslanian, added in his closing remarks that the Big Four firms are indeed the most important players for the crypto asset space.

He said:

“I believe the Big Four firms will serve as the bridge between the crypto ecosystem and the institutional world. It is good for both the crypto ecosystem and for professional services firms like ours as a new source of clients that we can help.”

China has been well aware that to become and remain a technology powerhouse, it needs to remain at the forefront of new technologies.

Blockchain, as one of the promising possibilities, dovetails with Beijing's current strategy of encouraging Chinese companies to seize the opportunity offered by digital technology.

Understandably, Beijing is creating its own world-leading and government-regulated digital currency.

People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday that internal pilot tests of the country's central bank digital currency-DC/EP, or digital currency and electronic payment-have been conducted in several locations, including Shenzhen, Guangdong province; Suzhou, Jiangsu province; the Xiongan New Area in Hebei province; and Chengdu, Sichuan province.After years of preparation, the tests were launched in April when the COVID-19 crisis stimulated digital economic operations.

The development of DC/EP was aided by the country's biggest State-run banks, including Agricultural Bank of China, which made the digital wallet app.

After top-level design and standard-setting, the DC/EP trials can check it for theoretical reliability, system stability, convenience, applicability and risk control. However, Yi said there is no timetable yet for the launch of a digital currency.

The digital yuan is structured on a two-tier monetary system-a central bank-issued digital currency for commercial banks and a commercial bank-issued digital currency focused on the public-and is intended to replace some of China's monetary base, or cash in circulation.

For those who might have reservations about this, it is important to point out that even US franchises that are established in China, such as McDonald's, Starbucks and Subway, are among the first to accept the DC/EP, and some government employees will be paid in digital currency in the four cities participating in the pilot program.

This State-regulated digital currency will have two main advantages. First, it will allow China to create an important soft-power tool; second, it will help China to control or minimize its shadow banking system. Shadow banking refers to financial activities outside the formal banking sector that are subject to lower levels of regulatory oversight and higher risks.

An additional benefit for the government is that a digital yuan would reduce its money printing costs. For commercial banks, DC/EP could facilitate more money transactions with lower costs. For the public, the digital currency would save on indirect transaction fees for interbank transfers.

The introduction of DC/EP shows that the country's plan to "seize the opportunity" of blockchain technology is not just talk but an actual plan in progress.

Even though it is too early to know whether the tests will be successful, the digital currency will be viewed as a breakthrough that will quite likely be imitated by many other governments.

 fact that the country is promoting blockchain technologies will present golden opportunities to many companies in its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. As an international banking and financial hub, Hong Kong is ready to embrace blockchain technology and become a leader in financial technology.

Hong Kong is developing itself into a leading fintech hub in this regard. In March, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the issuance of the first virtual-banking licenses.

Hong Kong's fintech industry has the potential to develop much faster now if it can leverage its involvement with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development plan.

When it specifically comes to DC/EP, Hong Kong can exploit its many advantages to create a regional digital currency. Former Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Norman Chan Taklam proposed in mid-April a new regional digital currency based on a basket consisting of the Hong Kong dollar, the yuan, Japan's yen and South Korea's won.

China, Japan and South Korea are pushing for a trilateral free-trade agreement this year, and that, according to Chan, would lay the foundation for a regional digital currency.

This new currency would be different from bitcoin because it would be fully backed by the underlying fiat currencies. Specifically, the digital currency would be issued and redeemed against the four currencies according to a predetermined formula of calculating respective weights.

Blockchain offers many opportunities to both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. If DC/EP proves to be viable, China will become the first country to introduce a state-run digital currency, bringing about a more digital and convenient future.

The author has been a business analyst for a Hong Kong publicly listed company and holds a doctorate in Hong Kong real estate law and economics. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

According to an announcement on Tuesday, Facebook subsidiary and Libra wallet provider Calibra has now been rebranded to Novi – a portmanteau of the Latin root words, “novus” meaning new and “via” meaning way.

The first wallet product from the firm is intended to hold Libra’s various digital currencies, once the Facebook-led initiative goes live.

Novi also comes with a design revamp that is said to represent “the fluid movement of digital currencies,” but maintains an element of the Libra icon in its logo.



The Novi logo (Credit: Novi/Libra)


“While we’ve changed our name from Calibra,” Novi said in a statement, “we haven’t changed our long-term commitment to helping people around the world access affordable financial services.” Just in case you were worried about that.

See also: Libra’s Long Road From a Facebook Lab to the Global Stage: A Timeline

Novi also provided a little insight into how the product will work. The digital wallet will operate as a standalone app, as well as providing interoperability with Facebook’s social messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp.

Aimed to make sending funds to friends or family as “easy as sending a message,” transactions with Novi will arrive instantly, according to the announcement, and will contain no “hidden charges.” Novi didn’t offer any detail on what any standard transaction fees might be.

All Novi customers will need to be verified using government-issued ID, while “fraud protections” will come baked in. The wallet will initially be rolled out to a limited number of countries.

The release date still remains unclear, but the project hopes to introduce “an early version of Novi when the Libra network is available.”

The wallet and future financial services for the project will now be operated by a new entity, Novi Financial – a Facebook subsidiary that, it said, will operate independently from the social media giant at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters.

The Libra project has suffered a series of setbacks as regulators and governments set off alarm bells over the perceived risks of the project in terms of financial crimes, some even calling it a threat to monetary sovereignty.

In 2019, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said his company, which leads the Libra Association, would quit if the project were released prematurely.

In the face of all the pushback, the Libra Association’s original model for its digital currency – a stablecoin pegged to a basket of fiat currencies and government bonds – was restructured in mid-April. The project will now issue a number of stablecoins based on individual national currencies in different markets.

Libra still has plans for a multi-currency stablecoin but it will be backed by the new stablecoins and not directly by fiat currencies.

There have been other issues too. In June 2019, major firms including Uber, PayPal, Visa, Stripe, MercadoLibre, Bookings.com and Mastercard were all reported to be backing Facebook’s new crypto project.

See also: Facebook Affirms Libra Commitment With 50 New Job Openings in Ireland

However, pressure from U.S. regulators and lawmakers in October prompted Visa, Mastercard and Stripe to withdraw their affiliations with Libra. It’s been adding more new members since then, though, including its first state-owned entity, Temasek.

Checkout.com also joined the project last month.

Libra has notably been on a hiring spree of ex-U.S. government officials – presumably to help smooth its regulatory path to launch – having signed up two former staffers at FinCEN in recent weeks