Day: March 2, 2018

Rabobank, a major Dutch bank, is considering the possibility of launching its own cryptocurrency wallet. #NEWS

Yesterday, Credit Suisse and ING Group completed a 25 million euro ($30.48 million) securities lending transaction using blockchain-based software. The transaction involved the banks swapping baskets of securities through an application from fintech company HQLAx, which was built with a blockchain created by bank consortium R3.

The trade was one of the first examples of a capital markets transaction made possible through blockchain, a distributed ledger that is maintained by a network of computers on the internet. It’s a great move forward for the industry, highlighting the real-world possibilities of blockchain technologies that have faced some skepticism from traditionalists.

By the end of the year the companies expect the application to be live, according to Herve Francois, a blockchain initiative lead at ING. Using blockchain could help make the securities lending process faster and more capital efficient.

“This was far more than a proof of concept in a fenced lab,” Charley Cooper, a managing director at R3, said. “These are regulated institutions in a real market and it is a unique demonstration that blockchain solutions are being deployed in commercial settings.”

Securities Lending

Across the globe, banks have invested millions in developing blockchain applications in the hopes that it can help cut costs and simplify processes like the settlement of securities trades. While many financial institutions have announced developments and experiments using blockchain, the technology is still in its early days and few of these applications are live — though 2018 may be the year that changes.

Typically, securities in securities lending are moved from one account to another. In the new method, digital collateral records are used to transfer ownership of baskets of securities without having to move the underlying securities from one custodian to another. 

Normally, this process takes days; With this blockchain application the settlement is instantaneous. The hope is that this technology will not only help market participants redistribute liquidity more effectively and more cost-efficiently, but also that it will enhance regulatory transparency of collateral chains and mitigate risk by enabling orderly default unwinds.

“The platform gives us an opportunity to make balance sheet and capital usage much more efficient and timely,” Emmanuel Aidoo, head of distributed ledger and blockchain strategy at Credit Suisse said.

Banks have increasingly been joining forces and joining consortia to experiment with blockchain. New York-based R3 is one of the largest consortia in blockchain, with a network of more than 100 financial institutions. It developed a type of blockchain designed for financial transactions called Corda, which was used to build the securities lending application.

The post Credit Suisse and ING Group Complete $30 Million Securities Lending Transaction Using Blockchain Technology appeared first on NewsBTC.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Michael Arrington’s crypto-fund has reportedly been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We are looking at the Bitcoin issue,” says the Labour Party’s sitting Shadow Home Secretary Abbot, stating that the UK government needs to clamp down on the spread of cryptocurrency. #NEWS

Walmart’s patent application for a Blockchain-based delivery tool released. #NEWS

Eleven individuals have been arrested in Iceland over the theft of 600 Bitcoin mining rigs. The thefts occurred in December and January. Authorities are labelling the incident the largest organised robbery in the history of the small island nation.

Mining Rigs Don’t Require Reselling for Criminals to Profit

Despite the fact that three of the four robberies took place last year, and one in January, police in Iceland have thus far refrained from making the details public. Their rationale is that the equipment’s use would alert authorities to the stolen goods’ whereabouts. Such a large number of miners suddenly coming online in the small nation would cause a spike in electricity use. This would allow law enforcement to locate them.

So far, there have been eleven arrests made in connection with the theft. Of these, two people will remain in custody by order of a Reykjanes District judge.

Unlike most thefts, there is a strong impetus for the criminals to keep the stolen goods. Selling them would attract attention and their use can be highly profitable, particularly in a nation with as cheap electricity and as cool a climate as Iceland. Mining rigs consume vast quantities of electricity and this causes them to heat up. Iceland is, therefore, an ideal location for the activity.

Police have been monitoring electricity consumption patterns since the thefts. They have also called upon local ISPs, electricians, and owners of storage units to report any suspicious behaviour.

ABC report Police Commissioner Olafur Helgi Kjartansson of the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula said:

“This is a grand theft on a scale unseen before… Everything points to this being a highly organised crime.”

As the price of cryptocurrencies increases, we are likely to see even greater incidences of mining equipment thefts. Earlier this week, we reported a similar case in Malaysia. In this example, a group of nine were arrested. They’re suspected of stealing over 58 mining rigs. At least five different thefts were made in the area, of which the nine have been charged with two. The identities of the culprits were exposed following their attempts to sell the equipment via a dedicated website and on social media. Local police stated:

“We were acting on information obtained when the suspects attempted to sell the equipment via a website and Facebook… We managed to recover 58 machines worth more than RM500,000(US$127,000).”

Cryptocurrency mining equipment is becoming a highly valuable target for criminal gangs across the planet. The current mining reward for cracking each new block is 12.5BTC. At today’s prices, these are worth around US$137,500. Being such lucrative loot, it is clear why such incidences are on the rise.

The post Iceland: Authorities Hold Two Suspects Over Bitcoin Mining Theft appeared first on NewsBTC.

As much as $50 million may have been lost by an international group of investors after putting their money into a bitcoin investment group.

Linking the old and the new: combining crypto with gold #SPONSORED

Facebook’s announcement in late January that it was banning cryptocurrency and ICO advertising on Facebook and Instagram will have real consequences for entrepreneurs attempting to reach mass audiences in the crypto space.To help blockchain entrepreneurs frame and negotiate this new communications environment, here are four implications of Facebook’s decision…

BitRewards, the world’s first blockchain-based loyalty platform, has successfully been conducting its pre-ICO that started on January 12, 2018, and is close to reaching its soft CAP of $3 million. The company has also announced its main ICO starting from April 1, 2018. Getting excellent ratings from mainstream rating agencies like ICORating 9/10, ICOBench 4.7/5 and TrackICO 4.8/5, BitRewards expects to successfully capture the $20 billion worth of retail market globally through its revolutionary ecosystem.

About BitRewards

BitRewards is a blockchain rewards and loyalty system for e-commerce businesses. It enables online stores to reward their shoppers with a cryptocurrency “BIT”, which helps to increase sales by an average of 17%. Because of the blockchain and its unique business model, this cutting-edge loyalty system is offered to the businesses free of charge. Customers are rewarded for their purchases with liquid Ethereum-based tokens that can be redeemed for future offers, purchases, or transferred to another crypto wallet and used on other products or services.

The Exclusive Benefits

BitRewards enables retailers to make their customers more satisfied with the rewards in crypto and thus gaining their loyalty. A great loyalty program magnifies the retailer’s revenue by a significant percentage. The stores are capturing crypto-enthusiast market, which is active and embraces the attention from regular businesses.

BitRewards offers such expensive and valuable loyalty technology free of cost. The retailers buy BIT in the open market to reward their users. The cost of such software starts from $200 per month, hence many retailers want to connect to the platform. BitRewards, moreover, uses AI-based predictive analytics that helps configure the rewards and actions for every specific business to address its unique target market and maximize ROI for each dollar spent on the rewards.

What is BIT Token & How Does It Work?

Internal BitRewards tokens, called BIT comply with the ERC20 standard. It is an internal currency that will be used to conduct all operations within the BitRewards ecosystem. Customers of the online stores participating in BitRewards Network will get BIT as a cash-back — a specific configurable percent on their purchases, their referral purchases, shares and likes in social networks and other actions. The cash-back will be credited to the customer’s automatically created crypto-wallet connected to the store via BitRewards plugin.

BIT can be redeemed at the same store or with the other BitRewards participating merchants via an online crypto-wallet connected to the participating merchants. The customers can also buy BIT on the open market (e.g. exchanges, etc.) or via the Bancor liquidity smart contract. In most exchanges tokens can be converted into ETH, Bitcoin or fiat.

The Market Competitiveness of BIT

The demand for the BIT tokens most likely will grow because of the limited initial issuance of 2 billion tokens and the increasing number of retailers joining the platform exceeding the supply from the customers who redeem the tokens for purchases or trade them at the open market.

The decentralized rewards management on blockchain makes the platform unique and delivers great value to all platform members and their customers:

• for retailers – a premium blockchain loyalty management system with a value of $200-$2000 per month for free.
• for customers – cryptocurrency rewards, which they can turn into real money or redeem for purchases and which do not expire and tend to go up in price.

The ICO

The Main ICO of BitRewards will start from April 1, 2018 while its on-going pre-ICO is ending soon. To get whitelisted for its upcoming ICO and know more about the platform’s features and technology, please visit https://bitrewards.network/

The post BitRewards, Bringing Blockchain to Customer Loyalty to Gain Top ICO Ratings, Announces Main ICO appeared first on NewsBTC.