Blockchain

[Wildreamz]

World’s First Major Agricultural Trade Using Blockchain Completed, Resounding Success
By Gareth Jenkinson
10 HOURS AGO

https://cointelegraph.com/news/worlds-fi...ng-success

The applications of Blockchain technology are potentially endless - and every year we are hearing more uses in business and trade. Cryptocurrencies remain in the limelight but that hasn’t stopped multinational companies from forging ahead with their own Blockchain solutions in an effort to streamline business.

As it so happens, a new milestone has been reached by mainstream industries in 2018. In a first for the global agricultural industry, a cargo shipment of soybeans has been completed using Blockchain technology. The trade was carried out digitally using Easy Trading Connect (ETC) Blockchain platform, according to Reuters. ETC incorporated a number of contracts and certificates needed for the international trade of agricultural products.

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“We noticed very significant efficiency gains far beyond what we expected.”

[Wildreamz]

BlockChain Funds Get 1,600% Money Boost In One Day
Kenneth Rapoza , CONTRIBUTOR
JAN 26, 2018 @ 04:40 PM

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2...da61e6f313

Two new funds targeting the blockchain world have seen inflows jump by 1,000%, at least, in one day.

It's even more crazy when stretched out over a period of time. Companies working with blockchain technologies, whether they are fairly young startups or corporate titans like IBM, have helped two new blockchain funds get pumped up like bitcoin on anabolic steroids.

On January 17, Amplify launched their blockchain ETF called the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing (BLOK) fund. It didn't need the word bitcoin, crypto, or blockchain it its title. Everyone knew what it was. The ETF started with $2.5 million in seed funding. On day one, it grew to approximately $40 million. As of Jan. 26, it has $175 million in assets under management (AUM), the company said today. The passively managed fund's share price has only gone up around 4%

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Yet another way to capitalise on Blockchain Hype. Keep them coming, more short targets.

[Wildreamz]

Starbucks Chairman Is Hot on Blockchain, Cold on Bitcoin
Annaliese Milano
Jan 26, 2018 at 21:30 UTC

https://www.coindesk.com/starbucks-chair...d-bitcoin/

Starbucks Chairman Howard Shultz said the coffee chain plans to incorporate blockchain technology and digital currencies into its long-term payment technology strategy, and hopes to "expand digital customer relationships."

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"I believe that we are heading into a new age, in which blockchain technology is going to provide a significant level of a digital currency that is going to have a consumer application."

[Wildreamz]

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/08/telegr...n-network/
Telegram plans multi-billion dollar ICO for chat cryptocurrency
Posted Jan 8, 2018 by Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher), Josh Constine (@joshconstine)

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Telegram is understood to be considering raising as much as $500 million in the pre-ICO sale at a potential total token value in the range of $3 billion to $5 billion. However, those figures could change before the ICO, which could come as soon as March. Those figures would make it possibly the biggest private crypto raise to date after Tezos, which raised over $230 million in July.

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Telegram is one of the fastest growing chat app. Millennials should be very familiar. This is potentially a game changer.

Edit: For perspective, Whatsapp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 when they had 400 million users at 19 Billion USD. Telegram has ~180 million users based on wikipedia and has a 50% annual growth rate according to their founder. This is less a bet on crypto but a bet on the service, and founder Pavel Durov who formally founded VK (the Russian Facebook).

[Wildreamz]

Inside Taiwan's Cryptocurrency Push
Published 29th Jan 2018

[Wildreamz]

Bitcoin price BOOST: The 1000 year old business joining Cryptocraze with a KEY difference
By ABIGAIL MORRIS AND ALBERT EVANS
PUBLISHED: 14:56, Tue, Jan 30, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:58, Tue, Jan 30, 2018
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/9...-Mint-Gold

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ripple and ethereum has been met with scepticism by institutional investors, but not everybody is so critical of the mania.

The Royal Mint, which produced the UK’s coins and holds gold, has joined the cryptocurrency bandwagon by creating their own digital token, with one key difference.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Tom Coghill from the Royal Mint’s RMG division, said: “We already sell physical gold through our Royal Mint Bullion business and we sell coins and bars.

“In this sense what we’re doing here is simply making that a digital business and allowing for our clients to be able to hold gold for the first time on a blockchain basis.

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Here is one for the Gold Bugs. For the first time, Gold is truly portable, divisible, and fungible since it is on a Blockchain.

[Wildreamz]

FedEx Moves Forward With Blockchain Logistics Plans
Nikhilesh De Feb 1, 2018 at 03:18 UTC
https://www.coindesk.com/fedex-moves-for...ics-plans/

Global shipping giant FedEx has begun efforts to integrate blockchain-based platforms into its daily operations by joining the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA)

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“We have millions of records a day in our system, and we think of blockchain as a secure chain of custody that could transform the logistics industry. We believe it holds a lot of promise in that space and would streamline all that data exchange in a very secure way."

[Wildreamz]

Cryptocurrency Regulation in 2018: Where the World Stands Right Now
Andrew Nelson 2:42 PM FEBRUARY, 01 2018
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/cry...right-now/

United States
The United States, at the time of this writing, has no coherent direction on its cryptocurrency regulation other than that there will be some soon. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned investors of cryptocurrency investing risks, halted several ICOs and hinted at the need for greater cryptocurrency regulation.

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Canada
The Financial Consumer Agency in Canada does not consider cryptocurrencies to be “legal tender,” excluding all but Canadian bank notes and coins from that definition. The True North, however, is not all harsh on its cryptocurrency regulatory stances. In fact, it appears to be the most transparent country in this list when it comes to understanding laws surrounding the digital currency industry (aside from Switzerland, which wants to be “THE crypto-nation”).

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Venezuela
Venezuela is not a major world economy or a large portion of the cryptocurrency investing community. The country’s regulatory stance on cryptocurrencies, however,  is noteworthy because the government, under the restrictive regime of Nicolás Maduro, is seeking to skirt economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by announcing its own oil-backed “petro” cryptocurrency.

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Japan
Japan isn’t particularly liberal toward digital currency regulation; it’s merely winning the race to attract the best from Asia’s cryptocurrency industry, as China and South Korea have been creating hostile/uncertain environments. Whether or not Japan will allow for a cryptocurrency-themed J-pop band, the Japanese government has certainly been more welcoming of cryptocurrencies than its Asian neighbors.

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China
China has been taking ever-increasing actions to clamp down on all things cryptocurrency. Starting off by banning ICOs, China ordered a bank account freeze associated with exchanges, kicked out bitcoin miners, and instituted a nationwide ban on internet and mobile access to all things related to cryptocurrency trading. The People’s Republic of China appears to be the most stringent cryptocurrency regulator of the major economies regarding cryptocurrencies. This is an odd about-face given that, in 2017, Chinese bitcoin miners made up over 50 percent of the worldwide mining population and that cryptocurrency adoption in China increased at a rate higher than any other country.

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South Korea
Where to begin with South Korean regulation? The country boasted a significant cryptocurrency presence in the past and was initially thought of as the country of refuge from the crackdowns occurring in China late last year. However, discord surfaced in January 2018 amongst top Korean officials on future regulatory actions for the digital currency industry, with declarations, clarifications, misinformation and ultimately some limited implementation. The uncertainty and potential negative regulatory impacts have now been cited as the cause for marketwide sell-offs on Red Tuesday as well as on January 30, 2018, when Korean officials began enforcing a January 23, 2018, rule disallowing anonymous accounts from trading cryptocurrencies.

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Singapore
Until recently, the finance and banking center of Asia has been relatively lax compared to many of its Asian counterparts on cryptocurrency regulation. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), like many financial regulators, warned of risks of speculating in the cryptocurrency markets during the December 2017 peak in bitcoin prices. And Singapore’s International Commercial Court heard a trial that same month over a bitcoin trading dispute, seeming to legitimize the economic stakes in dispute.

On January 9, 2018, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that “the country’s laws do not make any distinction between transactions conducted using fiat currency, cryptocurrency or other novel ways of transmitting value.”

MAS fintech chief Sopnendu Mohanty on January 24, 2018 did state that he does not foresee a Lehman Brothers-like financial meltdown with Bitcoin at this point in time, adding that there is “a great indication that regulators are getting serious about this whole cryptocurrency market.”

Mohanty also stated regulators would need to apply consumer protections for digital currencies like bitcoin for it to continue to grow. While there has been no statement yet from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the $530 million hack that attacked Japanese exchange Coincheck on January 26, 2018, targeted Singaporean-based NEM coins.

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India
India, once viewed as a burgeoning, friendly environment for cryptocurrencies, has been clamping down on cryptocurrencies in 2018. India’s tough stance stems from similar concerns that other, more stringent regulatory regimes have cited: money laundering, illegal activity proliferation, sponsorship of terrorism, tax evasion, etc. While the cash-reliant country is facing stern regulations, participants of the local cryptocurrency industry do not believe India can “ban” cryptocurrencies through regulations in the same way China has.

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Australia
In the wake of the August 2017 financial scandal surrounding the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Australian government sought to follow in Japan’s footsteps by strengthening its anti-money laundering laws and regulating digital currencies. This differed slightly from the view in 2015 that the Aussie government would seek a “hands-off” approach to cryptocurrencies. Still, the lack of more concise regulation has purportedly had a negative impact on the country as the end of 2017 saw Australian cryptocurrency brokers halt Australian dollar deposits. December 2017 also saw an issuance from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) which hinted at the way potential future regulation could go.

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United Kingdom/European Union
While Brexit is scheduled to force the U.K. and the European Union to part ways in March 2019, the United Kingdom and the EU remain united in their plans to regulate cryptocurrencies. On December 4, 2017, The Guardian and The Telegraph reported that the U.K. Treasury and the EU both had made plans aimed at ending anonymity for cryptocurrency traders, citing anti-money laundering and tax evasion crackdowns.

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Switzerland
Switzerland, known for its progressive attitudes toward individual rights in banking, has kept a similar attitude toward cryptocurrency regulation. The Western European country is conspicuously absent from the European Union and appears to have an open attitude toward the cryptocurrency industry.

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Russia
Russia, like South Korea, can’t seem to decide how it wants to handle cryptocurrency regulations. In September 2017, Russian Federation Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina said the central bank was against regulating cryptocurrencies as currency (as a payment for goods and services) and against equating them with a foreign currency. This statement seemed to indicate a progressive hands-off approach was in store for the cryptocurrency industry in Russia.

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Nigeria
Last year saw Africa’s largest economy struggle through a recession that caused a “crunch” to its fiat currency. Bitcoin trading boomed as Nigerians used cryptocurrencies to end-run currency controls restricting access to the dollar put in place to curtail the recession. January 2017 started off with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) seeming to ban cryptocurrencies, only to have CBN Deputy Director Musa Itopa Jimoh walk back the position by stating, the “Central bank cannot control or regulate bitcoin. [the] Central bank cannot control or regulate blockchain. Just the same way no one is going to control or regulate the internet. We don’t own it.” Bitcoin trading boomed by 1500 percent during 2017.

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Ghana
The governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, stated on January 22, 2018, that “Bitcoin is not yet legal tender” at a media briefing. While there is a bill before Ghanaian parliament which will allow for the use of cryptocurrencies (seemingly with companies registered as “Electronic Money Issuers” by the government), the current stance of bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) is, according to Graphic Online, one of “six countries that have outlawed [bitcoin].” Addison’s statements come weeks after a recommendation from the Ghanaian investment bank, Group Ndoum, suggested that the Bank of Ghana invest 1 percent of its reserves in bitcoin.

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South Africa
South Africa is relatively progressive on the subject of cryptocurrencies compared to others on the list. While the 2014 position paper on virtual currencies issued by the South African Reserve Bank seemed promising for the industry, the South African government began in July of 2017 to work with Bankymoon, a blockchain-based solutions provider, on creating a “balanced” approach to bitcoin regulation.

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[BlueKelah]

The Japan part need to update, I believe the authorities there will definitely start clamping down on Crypto after this recent crash. It will be interesting to see what they dig up with the investigations of all the crypto exchanges. Probably a lot of fund transfers done by underworld elements... On another note, many Japanese probably preparing to jump off high buildings after heavy losses in crypto trading, this will prompt further scrutiny and regulation from authorities.


https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/0...ges-japan/
Financial Services Agency orders internal inspections of all cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan
The Financial Services Agency has ordered all cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan to submit internal inspections based on a checklist of 43 items, including their business management systems, Jiji Press has learned.

The FSA issued the order in the wake of the high-profile theft of ¥58 billion in cryptocurrency from the Japanese virtual currency exchange operator Coincheck Inc. in a hacking incident on Jan. 26.

The 43 items include details of systems to manage customer assets and measures to counter cyberattacks, sources said Friday.

[Wildreamz]

Singapore Airlines to Launch Blockchain-Based Loyalty Wallet
Wolfie Zhao Feb 5, 2018 at 12:00 UTC
https://www.coindesk.com/singapore-airli...ty-wallet/

Singapore's largest airline operator is turning to blockchain technology to boost spending of its loyalty program miles.

In an announcement on Feb. 5, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it will launch a digital wallet for its frequent-flyer KrisFlyer program in six months that will be powered by a private blockchain.