global - Pwim.Net

Venezuela’s Central Bank Considers the Potential of Bitcoin and Ethereum

Anonymous sources have offered direct insights into the Venezuelan’s Central Bank’s consideration of adopting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) payment systems.

According to an article by Bloomberg, the central bank of Venezuela is open to potentially storing cryptocurrencies. At the heart of the issue is the difficulty experienced in receiving payments from international clients to state-run and oil gas company: Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PSDV). Adding to the transactional difficulties are the US imposed sanctions against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s current regime.

Several other sources have also said that PSDV will implement transfers of Bitcoin and Ethereum to the Venezuelan central bank and then have the central institution repay suppliers in these cryptocurrencies. 

For the Venezuelan economy, tackling isolation from the global financial systems remains the biggest issue. As a result, Venezuela’s Central Bank is running internal tests to determine whether it can hold cryptocurrencies in its coffers that would equal the country’s international reserves, which are valued at a 30-year low of $7.9 billion.

Image via Shutterstock

The Coffee Board of India Views Blockchain-Driven Platform as the Holy Grail

At least 30,000 coffee farmers have signed up for a blockchain-driven electronic-market platform since it was launchedby the Coffee Board of India (CBoI) in March.

Realistically, during its inception, this platform only attracted 23 farmers, and only 100 tonnes out of the country’s 320,000 tonnes of coffee generated in the 2018-19 period were sold through this framework. The response was lukewarm, but this has substantially changed because, by the end of October, nearly 30,000 farmers had registered on the blockchain-powered system.

The technology officer at CBoI, YB Venkat, stipulated: “There is a huge global market for Indian coffee. We are pushing farmers to join the platform so that they get better rates for their produce. Blockchain technology will help in this.”

Blockchain platform open to Indian coffee stakeholders

Various Indian coffee stakeholders, such as exporters, farmers, international buyers, roasters, and curers, have the liberty to register and trade on the blockchain platform. Nevertheless, complete registration happens after personal details of participants are verified by CBoI officials.

Expressly, data about any interaction on the platform is added to the blockchain after being converted into blocks using a hash, an encrypted code.

The adoption of the blockchain framework has been propelled by the unmatched traceability, efficiency, accountability, and transparency on the coffee supply chain. Moreover, middlemen are eliminated in the entire process, making farmers get value for money.

Image via Shutterstock

Official State-Run Publication Reports Blockchain Development in China to Reach $2 Billion In 2023

Chinese publication, Xinhua, reports that blockchain technology will reach $2 billion in 2023, and blockchain development in China is expected to increase by a compound annual growth rate of 65.7% from 2018 to 2023.

A study conducted by American intelligence firm, IDC, stated that a large proportion of China’s blockchain spending was headed towards the banking sector in 2019. Other industries where expenditure was high included manufacturing, retail, professional, and process manufacturing.

Research at IDC suggested the recognition of such growth in official reports will further blockchain application and accumulate spending rates in the sector. On a larger scale, reports earlier in the year highlighted that blockchain solutions spending in the Asia/Pacific regions with the exception of Japan would obtain $2.4 billion by 2022.

Following on from the forecasts of stable growth rate for blockchain, Xinhua equally published another industry report revealing to millions of Chinese people to Bitcoin, claiming it to be “the first successful application of blockchain technology.”

Chaintope Establishes Public Blockchain Protocol to Overcome Governance Challenges

Chaintope, a Japanese blockchain startup, has developed a public blockchain protocol known as Tapyrus to tackle some of the governance issues currently being witnessed in the blockchain space. For instance, some of the challenges noted in public blockchains include privacy concerns and sluggish transaction speeds.

These considerable constraints have, therefore, made many companies opt for private blockchains that have a limitation of permissioned participants. Nevertheless, public blockchains are technically advantageous because they are transparent and resistant to data falsification.

Tapyrus to mitigate governance issues

Tapyrus has been designed in such a way that it will avert governance difficulties. Expressly, it has the capability of instigating data transparency and permissionless participation even if selected federations operate it.

Through the Tapyrus platform, the network participants are able to view and verify transactions stored on blocks. This, therefore, averts federations from manipulating data or protocols within their network.

The public blockchain protocol will also permit new functionality to be incorporated depending on specific business requirements.

Hideki Shoda, Chaintope’s CEO, acknowledged: “We hope that Tapyrus will be a successful model for tackling the long-standing governance issue on public blockchains. Combining Tapyrus with the other tools that Chaintope offers on layers one and two, our focus is on taking a holistic approach to the mass adoption of blockchain technology and overcoming current technical limitations.”

Tapyrus has been developed in such a way that a multi-layer protocol is formed and this improves transaction speeds and traceability, as well as tackling governance challenges.

Image via Shutterstock

Beware Of Impostors: China Has Not Issued or Released A Date For Its Digital Currency

It has come to the notice of the People’s Bank of China that some online platforms have been spreading fake news claiming that China has issued its digital currency, “DC/EP” or “DCEP,” and as such, have established online trading platforms to process transactions. Owing to this, a statement released by the People’s Bank of China on October 13, warned the general public to beware of such fake platforms and organizations as they are not related to the Bank of China.

China’s digital currency is called the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DECP). An online website decpapi.com has been parading as the official website for launching the currency and has thus featured an API with a countdown, which indicates that the currency would go live on November 20. However, DECPAPI.com’s server has gone down at press time.

Following this, the People’s Bank of China issued two sound warnings to the general public who might fall victim to these impostors and fraudsters. First, the bank warned that it is yet to release any digital currency and has not approved any trading platform. Hence, the current market transactions “DC/EP” or “DCEP” are illegal coupled with inaccurate issuance time.

Second, the intention of DECPAPI.com may be fraudulent and may involve pyramid schemes. For the sake of preventing damage to interests, the public is asked to be careful in associating with the site.

As contained in the statement, the People’s Bank of China claimed it has been examining the legal digital currency since 2014 and is still researching and testing things out.

Image via Shutterstock

Iran Government Offers Up To 20% Reward To Anyone Who Exposes Illicit Cryptocurrency Mining In The Country

As stated by a news report on October 13, Iran just offered a reward to anyone who exposes illicit cryptocurrency mining in the country. This proposition arose as a result of new regulations by regulators which stated that the rate of electricity used by miners of cryptocurrencies should be calculated. Hence, individuals, corporations and companies are meant to report non-compliance to the new rule as it is expected that all cryptocurrency miners in the country should not use subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

In accordance with the report, a spokesman of Iran’s Energy Ministry, Mostafa Rajabi made the announcement in an interview, saying that anyone who reported defaulters would go home with up to 20% reward from the recovery of the damaged caused on the power sector by the said defaulters. As at press time, police had started hunting in places where the rate of electricity usage is subsidized.

The said spokesman claimed the new regulations that the activities of miners who use the national electricity distribution would be stopped during peak hours of usage which is roughly 300 hours per year.

More than three months ago, Iran launched a crackdown on illegal use of exorbitantly low electricity for miners of digital currency. And now, the new regulations have come to nail it.

Those who establish their own mining plants would receive incentives from the government and the national network would support plants that use renewable sources if they have a failure while attempting to generate power.

Image via Shutterstock

Chinese Firms Hold Overwhelming Majority of Global Blockchain Patents

Chinese firms have been stockpiling blockchain patent applications leaving other nations behind and outpacing the United States 3 to 1.

As reported by Nikkei on Nov.20, between the years of 2009 to 2018, Chinese companies submitted roughly 7,600 applications which is close to three times as many as U.S. firms.

Blockchain Applications Skyrocket

Blockchain applications have skyrocketed in the last few years, according to Tokyo-based research firm Astamuse, with the cumulative tally for the U.S, China, Japan, South Korea and Germany reaching roughly 12,000 for 2009 through 2018. In this period, China’s patent applications account for over 60% the total applications made. Comparatively, South Korea submitted around 1,150 and Japan submitted less than 400 applications over the same time frame.

Alibaba Group Holding leads the corporate pack in with 512 applications according to rankings compiled by Japan’s NGB which is based on data from Innography. Second in corporate applications was United Kingdom-based nChain with 468 patents submissions and followed by IBM with 248 applications.

China Answers Xi’s Call

Last month, China’s President Xi Jinping made a public call for the country to view blockchain technologies as central to innovation and the country has responded enthusiastically. In his speech, Xi stressed that the implementation of integrated blockchain technologies is key in promoting technological innovation and transforming the nation’s industries. The People’s Bank of China has set up a cryptocurrency research lab, which is developing new technology with an eye on patents.

Image via Shutterstock

Partner at Proof of Capital Presumes That China’s Digital Currency Could Go Live in No Time

In her view, Edith Yeung, fund manager, and partner at Proof of Capital, a blockchain-based venture capital fund, presumed that the Chinese Government could launch their digital currency, virtual yuan, in no distant time, assumably, within the next six to twelve months.

While speaking to reporters at East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou in China on Wednesday, Yeung stated that China has been working on creating its digital currency for the past few years.

“So I think definitely within the next 6-12 months,” she excitedly presumed. Yeung maintained that even though the US dollar remains the major global currency, the upcoming Chinese yuan has the possible potential to challenge it.

Yeung then said that she believed the Chinese government is being quite strategic in bringing about the adoption of the digital Yuan, which would make many countries to want to work with China.

“I think the Chinese government is being really smart about driving the adoption of RMB (renminbi, another name for the Chinese yuan),” Yeung said. “Can you imagine, especially for the One Belt One Road initiative, they (start) to lend all in virtual RMB? Many of these countries will want to work with China to start adopting virtual RMB.”

She then offered the United States to come up with better policies and strategies that will lead to the creation of a digital dollar. “I really think that the United States needs to hurry up to have strong thinking and policy, at least a direction for virtual USD,” she said.

Image via Shutterstock

Amun AG Obtained Approval from Swedish Regulator for ETP Offerings in EU

A press release issued early December confirms the approval given to Amun AG for a Base Prospectus it has filed with Swedish finance regulator, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (SFSA). The regulatory approval has allowed the firm to promote its various exchange-traded products to retail clients within the EU. The president of Amun AG, Ophelia Snyder adds, ‘We recognize that the regulatory framework in Sweden has been supportive of such initiatives and we welcome its deliberation.”

Furthermore, Snyder’s belief is that “The combination of strong demand for ETPs in Sweden – especially in crypto assets – among private investors and institutional clients and our strong expertise in these product categories create ideal conditions for Amun’s entry into the Swedish and European Union markets for ETPs.” Equally, Cointelegraph reported, “Amun has played a crucial role in the expansion of Switzerland’s crypto offerings both internationally and domestically.”

Image via Shutterstock

Coinbase Partners with DustAid for Crypto Donations During Christmas

In a recent blog post, Coinbase announced its charitable endeavors to help DustAid by allowing its customers to donate Crypto to three other charities, during the Christmas period. DustAid is an organization that supports projects globally. The partnership will give way to Coinbase users within the UK to donate crypto to important causes promoted by organizations such as NSPCC, a British children’s charity that keeps young people away from abuse as well as the Little Edi Foundation, which supports and provides grants to rural communities in Romania, which are struggling, and Space for Giants, who endeavor to protect the future of elephants and their habitat.

Louise Corden, the Lead Digital Producer for NSPCC, adds, “Raising funds via cryptocurrency highlights how the NSPCC is continually exploring new ways to enable people to donate to the charity and contribute to our fight for every childhood. We are really grateful for the backing we have received from DustAid and Coinbase, and we now hope that users of cryptocurrency go to their platforms to make a festive donation to Childline.”

In addition, the managing director also believes in the meaningful impact blockchain technology can have on people, on a global scale. To quote, “DustAid’s mission is to make giving a simple, easy, and transparent part of our daily lives. We are really proud to be working with leading organizations like Coinbase and NSPCC to make this a reality and to help children be heard this Christmas.”

Image via Shutterstock