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Blockchain Delivers a Glimpse of Future Innovation Today

The media is always keen to report on the latest developments around blockchain and digital currencies and pull in colossal numbers of readers hungry to explore the details behind the headlines. Many commentators are switching on to the reality that, despite the fluctuating price of some coins and utility tokens, the underlying blockchain technology continues to grow in spectacular leaps and bounds.

Blockchain is not just about digital currencies and faster peer-to-peer transactions but part of an advanced ecosystem of emerging technologies encompassing artificial intelligence, robotics, and commerce.

One of the many exciting areas that blockchain will radically evolve is the current energy market by providing a multitude of opportunities that may not yet have even been considered. Blockchain technology will blur the boundaries between cash, energy products and it will also facilitate the surge of crossovers into other commodities, transforming them all into readily tradable digital assets. Let’s map things out a little and put things into perspective and look to the future. Imagine the trading floor in the near future, say five years from now.

It’s a lot quieter; there’s no commotion, there’s no need for the calamity of traders with phones pressed to their ears scrambling for the best rates. Now trading robots are using advanced algorithms to scan the electricity market in real-time, automatically optimizing the search to get the best deal for the customer based on their predicted needs for that period taking into account the weather and past usage, etc.

At home, the customer uses her now old Samsung S10 mobile device to approve the terms of sale, and a smart contract is made, then the trade is executed and immediately recorded on the blockchain. The electricity provider can automatically access the blockchain information, and physical payment occurs daily with the payment initiated immediately through their choice of Digital Wallet.

All activity is now instantly accessible by the seller, buyer, pipeline and the remittance provider – and this is only one example of thousands, if not millions, of use cases of blockchain technology. Businesses will rely on more and more AI systems to act as a translator of their needs and automate their processes while handling enormous volumes of data, all with extremely low transactional costs and reduced risk.

Intermediaries such as brokers are sitting up and taking notice as their entire business models could be affected if they fail to integrate blockchain technology into their ecosystems. These benefits are undoubtedly seductive and hard to ignore, but does this scenario sound a little too far-fetched, especially in the time frame stated above? Perhaps, or perhaps not but who really knows in this exciting, fast-paced hyper-connected world in which we find ourselves.

While we are not able to actually see into the future, the potential of Blockchain technology for allowing remittance to be made to energy providers through a digital wallet is not too hard to imagine. And finally, the use of digital wallets on smartphones continues to raise exciting possibilities for their use in the developing world.

Image via Shutterstock

US Democrats Propose Distributing Covid-19 Stimulus Payments Through Digital Dollars to Unbanked Citizens

As markets across the globe continue to feel the crunch of economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, debate has raged over a massive stimulus package being proposed in the US which could see the IRS send up to $2000 a month to all US citizens until the recession takes a turn for the better.According to a draft of the Covid-19 economic stimulus legislation, House Democrats are proposing the use of digital dollars and digital wallets to expedite the distribution of the emergency funds to unbanked citizens.

Digital Stimulus Payments for Families

In section 101 of the draft entitled ‘Direct Stimulus Payments For Families’, the draft which has been circulating since March 23, specifically calls for the creation of digital wallets for all American citizens which are to be maintained by the Federal Reserve.

The paper defines the term Digital Dollar as, “(A) a balance expressed as a dollar value consisting of digital ledger entries that are recorded as liabilities in the accounts of any Federal Reserve Banks or (B) an electronic unit of value, redeemable by an eligible financial institution.”

The section outlines that every adult in the US earning less than $75,000 a year would receive the $2000 per month stimulus payment, with the payments becoming less and less as the market rebalances.

This latest draft of the bill comes from the office of House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) orginating on March 22, according to Bloomberg.

The Democrat version of the bill has enormous financial implications for the US, is over a thousand pages long and aims at distributing upwards of $1.8 trillion. The Republican version of the bill was immediately blocked when it made its appearance in Congress on both occasions (March 22 and 23) and was criticized for being too focused on helping big business.

Economic Countermeasures

Almost as concerning as the global economies downturn, is the projected inflation aftermath of the stimulus packages and counter measures being imposed by the Central banks and governments that have been fast to respond to the disruption caused by the Coronavirus.

Recent analysis by Bitmex highlighted, “In the US the Federal reserve has lowered interest rates to near zero (0% to 0.25%), announced the purchase of at least $500bn of treasuries and $200bn of mortgage backed securities, and also reduced the commercial bank reserve requirement to absolute zero.”Bitmex believes that there are further measure to come, but it is clear that these attempts to restabalize the broken system are, “the last major throw of the dice from central bankers. Monetary policy will not be enough.”

The Fed and the Infinite Money Pool

As reported by Blockchain.News, in an interview given to CBS’s 60 Minutes on March 22, Neel Kashkari, the President of Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis made a controversial remark after being asked to comment on how the state would deal with it if a situation like the 2008 financial crisis came again due the Coronavirus outbreak.

On being asked whether the Federal Reserve Bank is equipped to provide money to the US banks if they needed to satisfy all incoming panic withdrawals, Mr. Neel Kashkari was quick to respond that this is the reason why Federal Reserve Bank exists.

“Yes. This is the fundamental reason the Federal Reserve exists.”, said Mr. Neel Kashkari. He further added, “If everybody gets scared at the same time and they demand their money back, that’s why the Federal Reserve is here, is to make sure that there’s liquidity and that there’s money to meet those demands.”

Mr. Neel Kashkari further clarified his controversial statement by saying ‘that’s what Congress has told us to do’. He stated that they have been given the authority to print money and provide liquidity in the financial system by first creating it electronically and then printing it with the Treasury Department.

After the interview went live on the internet it received a wave of public criticism, one of the voice was the CEO of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson. He went on to tweet that the comments made by Neel Kashkari gave the US Dollar a real OneCoin Ponzi scam vibe. These sentiments were reiterated by CZ of Binance and Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital who tweeted, “History tells us that this is not sustainable long-term for a currency.”

Twitter Hack Goes Viral as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Biden Hit by Massive Bitcoin Scam

Twitter has gone haywire as news of a Bitcoin scam hack targeting multiple high-profile figures such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and even multinational tech company Apple has broken out.

The scammers that hijacked multitudes of verified Twitter accounts belonging to celebrities and key influential figures issued the same message across all platforms:

“I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.”

This type of promise is a common technique used by crypto scammers to incite people to wire funds straight to their digital wallets.

On Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s account, hackers posted a pinned Tweet entailing that the entrepreneur was going to double any Bitcoin (BTC) amount sent to his BTC wallet address. The multi-faceted entrepreneur is known to possess 0.25 Bitcoins.

Ten minutes into the post, the wallet address displayed on Musk’s Twitter had already received 3.64 Bitcoins, which translated to $34 498 at the time of the reporting. The original tweet was soon deleted by Twitter Support. However, soon after the original post was removed, a new version popped up within seconds, clueing investigators into the fact that the Bitcoin attack was still ongoing.

Donations to another Bitcoin address created by crypto scammers were said to have surpassed $100,000 in collected funds.

After numerous influential Twitter accounts were discovered to be compromised — Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg, Uber, Binance, Coinbase, to name a few— scam tweets were still up and running for more than an hour.

Presidential runner Joe Biden’s official Twitter account was among those that were hijacked by scam artists. The scam was however contained and the post deleted within minutes. Chief executive of cybersecurity firm SocialProofSecurity Rachel Tobac addressed the issue and expressed her surprise as to Twitter not going “completely dark to prevent misinformation campaigns and political upheaval.” However, she said that it was a stroke of luck that the attackers were Bitcoin and money-motivated and not aiming for chaos and destruction.

Twitter support then went on to temporarily prevent all verified accounts on their social media platform from tweeting for about half an hour. They tried to reassure their social media community by tweeting that they were working on the security incident and investigating further to fix the breach. Updates will soon be provided, Twitter Support posted.

Samsung Adds New Crypto Feature to Their Devices with “Stellar” Blockchain

Samsung device users can now securely store the private keys of their cryptocurrency wallet on their phone, with a recent add-on feature by the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF).

Stellar Feature for Samsung

Stellar, an open-source blockchain network developed by the SDF, has now been added to the Samsung Blockchain Keystore. The blockchain platform was developed by the non-profit organization in 2014. SDF’S ultimate goal is to revolutionize the digital economy by empowering Stellar users and making cryptocurrency trades more fluid and markets more accessible for investors.

The Stellar wallet and Blockchain Keystore is restricted to certain regions and only work on certain Samsung Galaxy Smartphones, which are currently Galaxy S20 Series, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Note 10 Series, Galaxy Fold, Galaxy S10 series.

The importance of Private Keys Security

The Stellar platform adopted by Samsung will enable the management of private keys in a more secure and user-friendly way. This is groundbreaking for the blockchain community as well as for Samsung lovers since there has been a gap between technology lovers and cryptocurrency investors that developers have been hoping to narrow. By merging the two markets, finance and technology, cryptocurrency may see a rise in adoption and popularity.

Samsung “Blockchain Keystore”

Samsung GalaxyS10’s launch last March was particularly interesting for the crypto community, as the company introduced the “Blockchain Keystore,” which offered a selection of cryptocurrencies ranging from Ether tokens to Bitcoins.

The newly added crypto features were made available on Samsung S10, Note10, and Note10+ phone models. Their usage availabilities are however only available in certain countries, which are South Korea, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland.

How Secure Are Your Software Wallets?

While software wallets that store private keys have been an available feature for phone and computer ware for quite some time, they have often had issues with proper security, as device sharing is common in the tech industry. Consequently, that can often result in applications “eavesdropping on the software” and stealing private keys. Once that happens, those in possession of the private keys have full control over a given investor’s digital assets. Cryptocurrency funds are from then on forward hard to recover and seldom successful.

China’s Major State-Run Commercial Banks Test CBDC Digital Wallet

China’s major state-run banks are testing out its central bank digital currency (CBDC) digital wallet application. The Chinese central bank, having said that its CBDC, also known as digital currency electronic payment (DCEP), is “almost ready,” is finally moving a step closer to its official launch nationwide.

According to Wang Zongmin, a former deputy chairman of the Social Security Fund Council, the CBDC project has been confirmed to have completed all backend developments.

Employees in state-run commercial banks in China have started internally testing the digital wallet application for transferring money and payment transactions. The Chinese central bank has previously urged the acceleration of its CBDC, for a push on its digital economy.

China’s digital yuan, as explained by the Director-General of the Institute of Digital Currency at the central bank, is a two-tiered system that will soon be replacing M0, Chinese yuan fiat in circulation.

Although China’s central bank governor Yi Gang has said that there is no timeline for the release of the CBDC, the project has made a series of advancements that will fast track its eventual launching. Wang believes the digital currency will present a new format in three aspects.

Wang Yongli, former Chinese banker suggested that a push for digital currencies to substitute all currencies is needed to support monetary operation reforms. He added that China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), also known as its digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) should start with substituting cash in circulation, M0, but should not be confined to just this substitution.

The PBoC previously partnered with seven state-owned institutions to roll out the pilot test of the DCEP. The pilot program aimed to concentrate first on industries including transportation, education, commerce, and healthcare. The pilot program in Shenzhen was aimed to be carried out in two phases, including a small-scale testing period, before the DCEP would be widely promoted in the city this year.

Multinational conglomerate Tencent-backed platform Meituan has been having discussions with the central bank’s CBDC research wing. Blockchain.News also previously reported that the Chinese transportation platform Didi Chuxing and the PBoC have reached an agreement to explore and develop the use of digital yuan in the transportation industry.

LINE Messaging App Launches Digital Asset Wallet and Blockchain Platform to Run Dapps and Tokens

LINE communications app recently launched a new blockchain digital wallet that can be used to manage various crypto assets.

LINE Crypto ‘LINK (LN)’ now Has a Wallet

The digital wallet, dubbed BITMAX, can be used to combine digital tokens coming from different blockchain services into one coin wallet. On top of the new addition, LINE messaging app also released a new blockchain development platform for LINE Blockchain Developers to run tokenized assets, decentralized apps (dApps), and more on the network. The newly offered BITMAX wallet feature on LINE is solely available in Japan, where the communications app is most famous.

It is not the first time that LINE has leveraged blockchain for its benefits. Back in 2018, the company’s crypto and blockchain businesses were already set in place and were managed by LVC Corporation and LINE TECH PLUS PTE. The company had issued its own cryptocurrency token, dubbed LINK (LN) and the digital asset can be used for trading purposes with other major cryptos, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The team in charge of furthering LINK crypto economy is the LINE Blockchain Lab, which was put in place in April 2018.

Furthermore, LINE company is currently in the process of developing its own proprietary blockchain LINE.

Blockchain Development Platform by LINE

As for the new blockchain development platform put in place by LINE to support its own blockchain developers, the main features that can be found on the platform is “RESTful API,” leveraged to easily link services to a blockchain without a smart contract protocol. Furthermore, the blockchain development platform is a fully managed blockchain-fueled network, and the platform can be used to create a “unique token economy.”

Services that issue tokens through the platform can be linked to the ‘BITMAX Wallet.’ In addition to the issuance of crypto tokens, the digital asset wallet can be used in conjunction with established LINE IDs from a user’s contact list. Anyone with a LINE ID can easily send and receive cryptocurrency with LINK friends, making digital transactions highly efficient.

LINE company is one of the few messaging apps that have investigated blockchain alternatives to power its application and enhance its online presence with a decentralized ledger technology. Not only has LINE successfully leveraged blockchain to further its digital growth, but it has also managed to create a native token and progressively gain popularity among online users, boasting of more than 84 million users at the time of writing.

US Department of Homeland Security to Host Blockchain-Based Digital Wallet Event with $25K Reward

According to an announcement by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared with Blockchain.News, DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) will be hosting a virtual event for a Digital Wallets Challenge on Oct 27.

The Digital Wallets Challenge has a total prize of $25,000 that will be awarded in two stages. There will be 3 finalists at the end of Stage 1 who will be awarded $5,000 each. One top winner of the three Stage 1 finalists will be rewarded an additional $10,000.

During the events, the finalists will present their user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designs. Next, government experts and standard communities such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) will provide feedback, insights, and comments. One grand prize winner will be awarded at the end of the challenge.

The digital wallets will be leveraging blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to enhance security, and prevent forgery as well as counterfeiting for the issuance and storage of paper-based credentials.

DHK’s blockchain-based digital wallet is another case that DHK and other government departments are utilizing blockchain technologies. The digital wallet challenge is a practice that invites ideas and solutions directly from the public.

$1 Billion in Bitcoin Moved, Making It the Largest Dollar Value Crypto Transaction in History

On-chain crypto data analytics recently picked up a Bitcoin transaction worth more than $1 billion.

Largest BTC transaction by fiat value

According to Whale Alert, an anonymous cryptocurrency holder has recently moved around 88.857 Bitcoin (BTC), making it the biggest BTC transaction by fiat value ever to be recorded. The move translated to a value of more than $1.15 billion, and what was noteworthy was that the transaction fees amounted to as little as $3.58.

The move originated from a Xapo account and was reported by blockchain analytics to have been transacted in two rounds. Though Xapo digital wallets often transfer Bitcoin amounts in large chunks, the recorded on-chain activity exceeded the regular amount noticeably.

Why move crypto funds?

Cryptocurrency experts have speculated that the Bitcoin transfer may potentially be for safekeeping purposes, to transfer to a cold wallet. Another potential explanation may be that the funds are meant to be swapped for altcoins, such as Ethereum (ETH) or Ripple (XRP) coins.

The Bitcoin move from the anonymous cryptocurrency holder is said to be the largest dollar value BTC transaction up to date, with the digital asset’s value estimated to be north of $13,100.00 at the time of writing. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has been on a bull run as of late.

Although the transaction on the block is said to translate to the biggest fiat sum ever seen from a Bitcoin transfer, it is not the biggest number of bitcoins ever to be moved. That title is attributed to a transaction dating from November 16, 2011, where 550.000 bitcoins were transferred.

Bitcoin whales hit an all-time high

The news comes at a time when the amount of Bitcoin whales have been on the rise, recording a new high as Bitcoin’s price keeps on rising. According to crypto analytics Glassnode, at least 2,230 Bitcoin addresses that held at least 1,000 BTC were detected on the chain. The blockchain analytics firm released a statement on its Twitter that stated:

“The number of #Bitcoin millionaire addresses (addresses holding ≥ $1M worth of $BTC) crossed 20,000. It is the highest value since January 2018.”

PayPal’s Crypto Trading Services Officially Launch in the United States, Driving Bitcoin’s Price Past 16K

PayPal’s crypto services are officially available for use. US PayPal users will now be available to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency assets securely through the payments network.

The crypto services will be available in all states, except for Hawaii. The financial service provider will feature Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, which can all be stored on the application’s digital wallet. The addition of other cryptocurrencies is still to be announced.

Due to high demand, PayPal has also decided to up its weekly cryptocurrency purchase limit to $20K, so that users can now trade up to that amount. The waitlist to leverage PayPal’s US crypto services has also been waived, as of now.

PayPal’s “Cryptocurrency Hub” platform was much anticipated and expected, as many institutional investors worldwide have increasingly added crypto assets like Bitcoin to their agenda. PayPal’s payment rival, Square, figures among the corporate giants who hold BTC in its treasury reserves, with a purchase of 4709 Bitcoins. With that announcement, many have indicated that it was only a matter of time before PayPal followed suit.

Currently, PayPal is working to enable crypto payments across 26 million merchants worldwide. If all goes well, a new form of payment service on PayPal may be available in 2021.

Digital currency adoption is coming

PayPal’s CEO Dan Schulman previously disclosed that the launch of crypto services on the payments platform is designed to bolster the adoption and integration of digital currencies, as the technological wave and shift to virtual currencies is undoubtedly coming. It has also been implied that in the near future, when central bank digital currencies (CBDC) come into play, PayPal will be among those that will facilitate the use of CBDCs on its payments network, as the financial firm has been in talks with central banks.

Introducing a cryptocurrency trading platform may be a small step forward, but whether or not it is a bold enough move to attract investors to leverage the services remains a question. Currently, the terms and conditions of PayPal indicate:

“You currently are NOT able to send Crypto Assets to family or friends, use Crypto Assets to pay for goods or services, or withdraw Crypto Assets from your Cryptocurrencies Hub to an external cryptocurrency wallet.”

What may be interesting for PayPal users would be if cryptocurrencies could be used as a means of payment, since transacting with virtual currencies seem to be an eventuality.

Bitcoin spikes and surges past $16K

Following the news of the “Cryptocurrency Hub” launch on PayPal, Bitcoin’s price rallied higher, pushing past the $16K level. Currently, it is trading at $16,399.30 on CoinMarketCap, as market bulls have responded optimistically to PayPal’s crypto asset integration.

The mainstream cryptocurrency has been performing bullishly this month, although it has been consolidating below $16K for awhile. Bitcoin’s rally has been exciting for investors, as it even managed to push past the $16K mark momentarily. The last time Bitcoin’s price surged past that range was in January 2018.

In response to the news, Bitcoin bulls have tweeted their enthusiasm. Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said, “What I like most about hitting $16K #bitcoin is that it’s been a steady climb. No heroics, just grinding day in and day out.”

Former Ripple Executive Loses Keys to Digital Wallet Holding $240 Million worth of Bitcoin

Former Ripple executive Stefan Thomas may have made a fortune off Bitcoin, but he might never be able to touch it.

The German-American programmer disclosed that he previously had 7002 Bitcoin (BTC) safely stored on a digital wallet, but that he forgot the password to it. Should he fail to remember the code to unlock the hard drive on which his cryptocurrency stash is stored, his BTC fortune will be locked up forever.

Thomas said that previously, he had safely recorded the password on a piece of paper, but that he had lost it. The Bitcoins (BTC), safely stored on IronKey hard drive, would have been valued at more than $240 million with Bitcoin’s current market price.

Thomas shared with New York Times that he only had two guesses left before his cryptocurrency fortune would be encrypted forever and the contents rendered irretrievable. The former Ripple Chief Technology Officer had already used up 8 of the 10 tries that IronKey allocated to its users when the latter forgets their password.

Thomas said:

“I would just lay in bed and think about it. Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again.”

Thomas’ misfortune with forgotten keys is not uncommon. According to cryptocurrency data analytics Chainalysis, around 20 percent of the currently circulating 18.5 million Bitcoin is lost forever, held on stranded wallets that owners have forgotten the digital key to and therefore can no longer access.

Being your own bank with Bitcoin

This illustrates that with Bitcoin, the privilege of managing your own wealth and the removal of a third-party intermediary also comes at an expense – technicalities and mishaps that a banking institution will normally oversee and account for, such as a way to recover one’s password, is not provided with digital assets like Bitcoin.

The idea behind Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin is after all that no central bank or government can regulate the cryptocurrency. Anyone in the world can own Bitcoin by simply opening a digital bank account, thus providing financial inclusion. But what happens when people experience difficulties with being their own bank? Thomas testified to this and said:

“This whole idea of being your own bank – let me put it this way: Do you make your own shoes? The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all those things that banks do.”

Losing one’s own digital keys has been enough to discourage notable investors from owning Bitcoin. Renowned gold bull Peter Schiff is among those who have sworn off Bitcoin, having lost the access to his Bitcoin wallet ages ago.

Luckily for Thomas, he owns Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies which are safely stored on other platforms.