Day: July 17, 2018

Seven banks including Hong Kong’s banking regulator are to launch a trade finance platform this September using blockchain.

The platform is reported to be one of the largest government-led cross-bank cooperation globally. It will include UK banking giant HSBC and Standard Chartered PLC. HSBC is the seventh largest bank globally by assets and the largest in Europe; Standard Chartered is a London-based bank with businesses across Asia.

Other banks involved are said to be one of Australia’s big four, ANZ, and four Asian banks, BOC Hong Kong Holdings, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia Ltd and Singapore’s DBS Holdings Ltd.

The financial sector has been increasingly under the microscope both by private companies and government bodies, who are beginning to regard blockchain technology as a way of modernizing record keeping and speeding up payments, in what is often described as an overly paper-driven industry, particularly given the technologies available in 2018.

The cross-bank project has been proposed to alleviate exactly some of these institutional operating issues, as Howard Lee deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) explained. The main focus will be the digitalization of documentation and automating processes. Lee added that the group will want to “link up with other trade platforms in other jurisdictions to further facilitate cross-border trades”.

It appears that banks, at one time shunning blockchain due to in part to its connection with Bitcoin and Ethereum, are coming around to seeing the advantages of integrating the technology into upgrading financial systems.

The multi-bank platform will not be the first official blockchain encounter for HSBC. Along with Dutch giant ING, the two banks are reported to have made the world’s first trade finance transaction using blockchain earlier in May.

In China, The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) published a research paper on Tuesday, which analyzed the use of DLT in various stages of a security transaction. The SSE is one of the two stock exchanges operating independently in the People’s Republic of China and is the world’s third-largest stock market by market capitalization.

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After being denied a post-conviction relief extension in February 2018, Ross Ulbricht’s family and legal team filed a Petition of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court based on constitutional violations in the investigation and at sentencing. The petition was supported by 21 organizations, however, the Court denied Ulbricht’s petition on June 28. The fight to free Ross Ulbricht, 33, is now reinforced with a new petition created on Change.org, 3 days ago by FreeRoss.org. There are currently 6,242+ signatures and the petition aims at reaching 7,500.

Also read: Ross Ulbricht Continues to Fight for Freedom With Supreme Court Petition

“It’s Not the End,” Mother Cried at Her Son When Taken Back to Prison Cell

“It’s not the end.” Lyn Ulbricht had cried at her son in the courtroom when a marshal set his hand on his back to signal it was time to return to the cell after hearing the sentence. That was in Manhattan’s U.S. district court in May 2015. That day, Lyn had declared she would never turn away from her son, whom she considers innocent. The fight to seek justice for their son is not over for this family.

“My son, Ross Ulbricht, is serving a double life sentence plus 40 years, without the possibility of parole, for a website he made when he was 26 years old and passionate about free markets and privacy. Ross, an Eagle Scout, scientist and peaceful entrepreneur, had all non-violent charges and no criminal history.” The petition says.

“A Sentence That Shocks the Conscience.”

Ulbricht was accused of being the creator of Silk Road, the infamous international dark site and drug bazaar created in 2011, under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” aka “DPR” and was arrested in 2013.

The physics graduate and alleged mastermind behind Silk Road, described in the petition as “an e-commerce platform similar to eBay, where individual users chose what to list for sale,” was convicted in February 2015 after a four-week trial on all seven counts, from drug trafficking and money laundering to maintaining an “ongoing criminal enterprise.” All to be served concurrently with no chance of parole. A sentence usually reserved to drug kingpins.

Judge Katherine Forrest said she would give Ross “the severest sentence possible.” Restrained by law from issuing the death penalty, she gave him a walking death sentence instead. “Ross’s appeal points out “grotesque disparity” between Ross’s life sentence—which is unheard of for a young man with no criminal history and all non-violent charges, and the sentences of other Silk Road defendants.” FreeRoss.org writes.

Ulbricht’s new legal team, Williams & Connolly, also argue that there have been discrepancies in the investigation, namely with the participation of two rogue agents leading the federal investigation into Silk Road.

“Ross is condemned to die in prison, not for dealing drugs himself but for a website where others did. This is far harsher than the punishment for many murderers, pedophiles, rapists and other violent people.” The petition says.

Ulbricht has been relocated from New York to a maximum-security penitentiary called USP Florence. The family says this prison is meant for some of the country’s most violent offenders and they don’t understand why Ross is being kept there for his life sentence.

Do you think the sentence faced by Ross Ulbricht was fair and do you think the Change.org petition will be heard? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Freeross.org and Shutterstock.

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Building reputation solutions on top of blockchain technology is not easy. It is a venture worth exploring, however, and SpringRole aims to make an impact in this regard. This blockchain-powered profile verification and attestation protocol could introduce a lot of positive changes in the future.

SpringRole in a Nutshell

Using the blockchain to build a trusted verification and attestation platform is rather interesting. It is a very daunting challenge, even though blockchain technology lends itself perfectly to this type of activity. SpringRole wants to introduce this real-world use case to the masses in the coming years. A trustworthy verification and attestation process is something the entire world can benefit from.

How Does it Work?

On the internet, one’s reputation is as good as any form of currency that comes to mind. This is especially true when it comes to doing business or transacting online. Unfortunately, no platform offers cross-platform reputation solutions these days. SpringRole aims to bring a universal model to the World Wide Web with the help of blockchain technology.

In the long run, SpringRole aims to remove the need for resumes and online career profiles. If it’s successful, it will disrupt the way in which people look for jobs on the internet. Right now, finding a job and applying for it remains a very painstaking endeavor which is anything but enjoyable. Adding convenience to the process can only be considered a good thing.

SpringRole’s blockchain platform has two key aspects. First of all, there is the concept of crowdsourced reputations through endorsements. This is similar to how other reputation models work on the internet today. Another feature is the ability to verify and validate one’s professional details through attestation. Attestors include individuals, companies, universities, and so forth.

The Native Token

It won’t come as a big surprise to learn that SpringRole will have its own token. The SPRING token will be sold through an initial coin offering, and there will be 10 billion tokens in total. All actions performed on the SpringRole platform will be linked to this native token. Various use cases will be unlocked for this token in the future, including the referring of new users and companies.

Looking Ahead

Building the SpringRole ecosystem will not happen overnight. It will require a lot of effort to do so, and the team is currently in the process of rolling out its platform. A beta version of the platform is currently available for testing, and it remains to be seen how the community will respond to it.

Blockchain and artificial intelligence will be used by Boeing in the creation of unmanned vehicles and other products

Blockchain (qukualian in Chinese) is fast becoming a byword in Chinese business circles according to the South China Morning Post, as the word now appears in company names with a six-fold frequency compared to last year.

Figures reportedly show that most of this flurry of activity inciting companies to squeeze the word qukualian into company names actually happened since the beginning of the year. This alone seems to indicate the level at which blockchain is taking hold as a technology in China’s fintech space.

There are currently over 4,000 of such companies in China, according to recently published figures by data aggregator Qixin.com. This year, companies using qukualian in their title name has risen from 555 last year to an astounding 3,078.

SCMP suggests that Chinese companies that have filed blockchain related patents applications now represent more than half the world’s total, showing China’s advancement in this technological space. Some 41% of startups at the last count, that is the first quarter of 2018, were blockchain-related companies.

It is clear by these statistics, and by recent official statements regarding embracing new technologies, that China is set to become the world leader in utilizing blockchain technology. The race is being led from the front with the Chinese president Xi Jinping suggesting that the future has arrived with such technologies. He recently stated:

“Since the 21st century began, global scientific and technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of intensive activity. A new round of scientific and technological revolutions and industrial changes is reconstructing the global innovation map and reshaping the global economic structure.”

Calling the arrival of blockchain a “revolution”, however, has encouraged one detractor. Head of the international department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulators, Fan Wenzhong, has suggested that it was a disservice to the technology to promote it with such adulation and using such language only risks mythologizing the space.

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At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the twenty-third installment of my challenge. This week was somewhat quiet, but I did manage to satisfy most of the criteria for my challenge. Let’s get into it!

I went to a small, cozy tea shop recently to start rereading Andreas Antonopoulos’ The Internet of Money Vol. 2 and was approached by another patron who’d noticed my book. They had heard about cryptocurrency last December with Bitcoin’s meteoric rise, but had not really given it much thought since then. It was an excellent opportunity to discuss the original technology and ideology behind cryptocurrency.

Our conversation started where it always tends to start: price and volatility. My conversation partner was put off by its high price and how wildly it had fluctuated in the past. They explained that they couldn’t really see a good way to get into it. I reminded them, however, that the birth of any new asset class will make waves, but that if they did want to get into it, they should only put in an amount of money that they’re willing to lose. A smile appeared on his face when I said this, and he told me that it was refreshing to hear someone say this about any asset.

We moved on to the technology, and I was even able to immediately introduce and cite Andreas since I had his book with me. We discussed how blockchains are, generally, dumb networks that can have smart applications built on top of them – and why this is a desirable characteristic for future-oriented technology. He started to get it, that the idea of trustlessness would be foundational to data and money in the future, and how blockchain can help achieve that. He did express concerns about some of these networks and their ability to scale to serve the entire world, but I told him that the technology was still young and such concerns are being addressed.

I learned that the ideology behind cryptocurrency is more attractive to non-crypto-fluent individuals than I’d previously thought. After explaining how cryptocurrency and blockchain technology empowers individuals by returning responsibility to oneself, I saw this individual’s eyes light up. We spoke for about 10 minutes on this subject alone, and covered the shortcomings of the legacy financial system when it comes to equal and individual empowerment.

My tea was long gone, and I had other items to attend to, so I had to end my conversation with the fellow tea-lover. I actually was using a Dogecoin paper wallet with a trivial amount of Doge on it as a bookmark, which I gave to him. While I felt a little bad about how little I was giving him, he seemed appreciative and I believe he will continue to explore the topic for himself.

Are you participating in the challenge? How is it going for you? Tell us on Twitter or in the comments below!

The UK has all the resources to become a blockchain and crypto leader by 2022, new report says

For all cryptocurrency markets, the next few hours may prove to be crucial. All of yesterday’s positive market momentum is in the books. Right now, it is time to decide if this trend continues or falls apart entirely. For the time being, things are still looking good for the XRP price. The day has only just begun, though, and a lot can change by this evening.

XRP Price Faces A Tough Battle

All alternative currencies, assets, and tokens will be very reliant on the Bitcoin price in the coming hours. Should the world’s leading cryptocurrency begin losing value, it is expected most altcoins will go down with it. Although the XRP price is still enjoying a positive spell, its momentum has begun to wane a bit.

There is still a 1.79% XRP price increase over the past 24 hours. It is a positive development no one can deny at this stage. Even so, there is still plenty of reason to be relatively concerned about what the future may hold in regards to the XRP price. This current situation is not exactly promising for the long-term, although the day has only just begun.

What is perhaps more worrisome is the XRP/BTC ratio. With no changes to speak of, it will be interesting to see how this aspect evolves. The XRP/BTC ratio has undergone a 0.00% change in the past 24 hours, which is rather unusual. Should this ratio dip in the end, it is to be expected the XRP price will see a strong decline in the hours to follow.

Even though all cryptocurrencies have seen a slight increase in overall trading volume, the same doesn’t necessarily apply to XRP. While $265.726m in 24-hour trading volume is not bad by any means, it is not on par with XRP price speculators’ views at this stage. If a bit more volume can be generated, the XRP price should remain at its current level for at least another day.

Bitbank users show a healthy appetite for XRP as of right now. This company’s JPY pair generates 26% of all trades, which is fairly spectacular. Binance’s BTC and USDT pairs come in second and fourth place, separated by Huobi’s USDT market. HitBTC adds another BTC market to the top five. Although there’s only one fiat currency pair, it does generate a lot of volume, which will prove to be beneficial.

The XRP price will mainly rely on Bitcoin’s value throughout most of the day. Depending on how that particular situation evolves, things will either get very interesting or very worrisome later today. Many people expect the Bitcoin price to surge ahead, although it remains to be seen if that is even possible after yesterday’s major gains.

Supply chains and transaction efficiency main focus of Oracle’s blockchain cloud service, which had its general release Monday

Japanese digital services firm GMO Internet has just launched a new web bank that it says will soon use blockchain to facilitate payments.

A recent poll in South Africa on awareness and attitudes towards cryptocurrency has shown that 38% of respondents wished that they had invested in digital currency before, writes Cointelegraph.

The poll was conducted by Pan-African financial services company Old Mutual Limited. The annual Savings and Investment Monitor survey for South Africa revealed that in general, South Africans were currently largely positive about cryptocurrencies.

Along with 38% of people responding positively to the statement “I wish I had invested in [crypto] before”, another statement, “You can make a lot of money with them”, received a huge 71% agreement from the public.

The statement “They are bad news, like a pyramid scheme” seemed to resonate with 43% of respondents, while 53% had no idea how digital currencies actually worked.

Overall, and clearly important for the development of cryptocurrency in the region, according to the poll, more South Africans were unaware of the industry than those who were, with a 60/40 split.

As Bitcoin News reported recently, South Africa is developing its cryptocurrency space. The South African Reserve Bank has recently taken steps to introduce a new non-state self-regulatory body (SRO) aimed at overseeing further developments in the industry. Further to that, the SARB has announced that it wants to build a proof-of-concept wholesale payment system for interbank settlement using a South African rand token on DLT.

Europeans, according to recent statistics, are reported to be far more familiar with cryptocurrencies and take up in some countries such as Switzerland and the UK is significant. A recent ING survey suggested that 66% of Europeans were familiar with crypto and 33%, when prompted, saw it as the future of online spending. The awareness rate was found to be lower in the US with only 57% of respondents having heard of cryptocurrencies.

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