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Hong Kong Blockchain Startup Bitspark Announces Closure Amid Coronavirus Outbreak and Protests

Bitspark, a blockchain remittance startup based in Hong Kong, recently announced its abrupt closure, stating internal restructuring issues.

The company was co-founded by Bitspark CEO George Harrap and COO Maxine Ryan, a college drop-out in 2014, and quickly became one of the major blockchain-based financial services firm in the Asia Pacific region, serving countries such as Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia. Ryan was also named as one of the 30 under 30 in the Asia Finance and Venture Capital category in 2018 by Forbes.

Harrap emphasized the company’s excellent performance a year prior, with the release of its Cash Point product, which has seen 400 percent month-over-month growth.

Although the company mentioned the reasons behind the closure was due to internal restructuring issues, Harrap added, “While the HK protests and now virus epidemic haven’t affected us much, it hasn’t helped either.”

Ryan announced her intention to step down as her position as the Chief Operation Officer. She stated that she made the decision a month ago, she explained, “This paired with the landscape of Hong Kong with protests and the coronavirus where Bitspark HQ is located. The team and shareholders decided this was the best way forward to prevent integrity decay of the company.”

Bitspark users would be able to withdraw their cryptocurrencies from Feb. 3 to Mar. 4, as the company stated that its platform would be available during this period. After this period, account logins will be disabled, and users will only be able to withdraw their funds using the Bitspark customer support.

Image by Tim Mossholder via Unsplash

RippleNet Expands Access to Cross-Border Payments in the Asian Market with Thai FinTech Partnership

A Thai FinTech startup, DeeMoney, specializing in remittances and cross-border payments for users, has partnered with RippleNet for global payment. Bangkok-headquartered DeeMoney has joined hands with RippleNet to enable it to process faster and cheaper money transfers to its customers.

New Partnership to Support Fast Cross-Border Payments

Through RippleNet, an enterprise blockchain-based payment solution provider, which already has attracted over 300 financial institutions across the world payments network, DeeMoney is offering more efficient international money transfers at the best rates and lowest fees. DeeMoney is the first non-bank institution in Thailand to make use of Ripple’s blockchain-based solutions.

The competition to offer cross-border payments has driven non-banks and banks to introduce faster and lower-cost international transfer channels for workers. Via RippleNet ,the Thai FinTech Start-up can process inbound payments into Thailand from various nations, including Indonesia, Middle East and Gulf regions, Israel, South Korea, and Singapore. It is currently estimated that there are about a million Thai nationals working globally who are transferring money back home. The company plans in the near future to leverage RippleNet for outbound transfers from Thailand to other countries.

Marcus Treacher, Senior Vice President of customer success at Ripple, stated that the digital banking revolution is a significant trend taking Thailand by storm and recognized DeeMoney as a major player in this revolution. He elaborated that by using RippleNet payment solutions, DeeMoney redefines the rules and boundaries of engagements by offering efficient international transfers at low transaction fees.

Ripple Keen on Global Expansion

Ripple, the California-headquartered firm, is aggressively focused on its global expansion in the Asian market by making major moves along remittance corridors in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Ripple partnered with Azimo, London-based remittance service, to provide cheaper and faster payment in the Philippines. Furthermore, Ripple joined hands with three remittance firms (WireBarey, Hanpass, and Sentbe) in South Korea to process money transfer real fast in the neighboring countries. Ripple also entered Japan and Vietnam markets to make efficient cross-border money transfer to clients.

The recent partnership with DeeMoney enables Ripple to continue positioning itself as a leader in cross-border crypto payments. The new development aims to support payments in the Asian market as both Ripple and DeeMoney focus on building capacity and ensuring that they expand their presence.

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Western Union Makes Offer to Acquire Cross-Border Payments Firm MoneyGram

Financial giant, Western Union is in discussions to acquire cross-border payments company MoneyGram according to a June 1 article by Bloomberg.

Western Union Co. is seeking to acquire MoneyGram International Inc. in a transaction that would bring together two of the largest US providers of cross-border payments. The news comes via an anonymous Bloomberg source, who the publication cannot identify as the matter has not been made public – according to the source familiar with the matter.

Officials representatives from both companies have declined to comment on Western Union’s alleged takeover offer for cross-border payments company MoneyGram.

COVID Climate and FinTech Competitors

MoneyGram’s business has been in decline as more and more people lean towards online payments. Financial Technology (FinTech) payment services are now offering solid competition to the established cross-border payments companies and policymakers are intent on bringing down fees associated with moving money around the world.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic disruption has put MoneyGram under further duress and the cross-border payments company has been forced to close many of its operations around the globe.

Earlier this year, Ripple made an initial investment of $30 million in MoneyGram equity at the same time that it signed the commercial agreement with MoneyGram for cross-border settlement using digital assets. After this most recent $20 million investment, Ripple now owns 9.95 percent of the outstanding common stock of MoneyGram, and approximately 15 percent on a fully-diluted basis including non-voting warrants held by Ripple.

The deal seemed to be motivated by the FinTech competition and online trends of consumers during COVID, MoneyGram attempted to boost its digital remittance services but according to their first quarter report for 2020, digital cross-border remittance only made up just under 20% of their business.

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Ripple (XRP) Check Feature May Soon See the Light of Day

Value addition remains the hallmark of technological innovation especially as it relates to blockchain technology. Projects without a new offering are bound to lose their market share to competitors. In line with this, Ripple (XRP) is being positively featured in the news as Brad Garlinghouse held a closed-door meeting with officials of the Brazilian Central Bank to discuss institutional adoption of the technology. The real-time gross settlements system and remittance network is also on the right path to get the nod for its Check feature which was introduced in February 2018.

The Check Issuance Delay May Be Over Soon

All XRP’s new innovations are registered on the Ripple Ledger (XRPL). The Ledger undergoes frequent changes with either the upgrade of existing features or the addition of new ones. Fundamentally, when there is a new amendment to the ledger, it is put up for voting by existing validators on the network. For this amendment to be implemented, it must attain 80% votes for two consecutive weeks.

The XRP check feature has been stalling at this voting stage since it was introduced as it has failed to win the required majority votes. This delay is about to end as UNL validators removed a veto, bringing it only one vote away from the majority. Should this be achieved, the Ripple Check feature may be in use in the months to come.

What This Means for us All

The Ripple Check will facilitate an asynchronous exchange of funds using a process that is familiar to the banking industry. Once implemented, Ripple will encourage the community to find a new and creative use for Checks to give better flexibility and value. As it stands, Ripple Checks have superiority over paper checks as it helps institutions comply with financial regulations. This is possible with the deposit regulator available on users Ripple Ledger Accounts which will prevent inflows of unauthorized transactions. In all, the system will empower crypto investors as it will offer financial transaction independence.

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Turkey Leveraging Blockchain to Break US Dollar and SWIFT Dominance

In an effort to break economic ties with the United States and escape the US Dollar dominance of the global markets, Turkey is adopting blockchain and cryptocurrency at a greatly accelerated rate.

As Turkey’s economy teeters on the edge of a potential recession, the people and the government in the nation are seeking alternative solutions in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain.

The Turkish people are looking to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a path to financial autonomy, while the Turkish Government is accelerating blockchain and cryptocurrency services development to pull the nation out of the path of the coming recession.

According to a recent article by Forbes, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency adoption is on the rise in Turkey as the nation’s economy hits a state of free fall. Turkey’s financial reserves have been depleted and there is rising economic tension with the US—sending the Turkish Lira to the lowest level in its history.

Turkey has dramatically increased resources directed towards the development of blockchain infrastructure and cryptocurrency technology to save the economy from recession. Along with experimenting with a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Turkey is investing in blockchain research, encouraging youth education into blockchain tech and giving more support to tech startups—all in an attempt to save the economy without relying on external resources and the United States’ support.

Breaking Turkish Dependency on Swift systems

Turkey’s interest in blockchain and a fast transacting CBDC is due to their reliance on SWIFT remittance.

Emre Aksoy, a strategic advisor to Turkish government bodies on crypto adoption and regulation told Forbes, “The Turkish government are trying to figure out alternatives to the SWIFT system. This is public knowledge.”

More than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in over 200 countries use the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (“SWIFT”) to execute international money transfers, making it an integral part of global cross‑border banking transactions. Aksoy explained, “3-4% of all countries’ GDP is being wasted on transaction costs and banking intermediaries. Cryptocurrency technology will cut these costs and reduce our reliance and dependency on other nations. Turkey now has a real shot at saving its economy.

As a consequence of Turkey’s reliance on SWIFT for remittance, the government is creating large scale blockchain infrastructure and developing their own central bank digital currency.

Blockchain-based systems hold a unique advantage over SWIFT which is a centralized service, while a blockchain is decentralized. This matters significantly because, in the case of SWIFT, you must rely on centralized financial institutions for every payment or transaction, which means that all transactions incur higher fees as the money must first be sent through the centralized system and then on to the recipient. In addition, as each transaction must be verified by the central authority, SWIFT payments can take days. Blockchain potentially enables safer, faster, and cheaper transactions.

In addition, the Turkish government is exploring CBDCs while also investigating potential membership of the Russian version of SWIFT, known as SPFS. New tech like blockchain and cryptocurrencies naturally are being looked at simultaneously. Despite traditionally having strong ties to the United States, the government is now showing some real aggression—making it known that there are other ways for them to do business. Turkey now realizes the strategic significance of their country in the global market and are making a stand against the US influence on their sovereignty.

Aksoy shared his belief that blockchain and cryptocurrency can help both the government and the Turkish people find a united path forward, one which can be mutually beneficial. He said, “This isn’t a quick make money scheme. It has the potential to protect the people and the wealth of the nation if implemented and welcomed with open arms.”

Turkey’s Population is Ready for Crypto

Over the last year, relations between the US and Turkey have dropped to an all-time low. Although the two countries have been NATO allies for nearly 70 years, that partnership has greatly deteriorated mainly over security concerns and the impact of the Syrian War.

A 2019 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed 73% of Turks had a negative view of the United States, with only 20% having a positive view, the lowest among countries polled. The same study also showed only 11% of Turks had confidence in the current US leader, President Donald Trump, with 84% having no confidence in him.

Moving away from SWIFT and the US dollar is the most effective and potent way for Turkey to destabilize the United States’ influence in the region and the population are ready. Turkey has evolved into a thriving crypto-friendly nation and a theater of commerce for exchanges and blockchain businesses.

Turkey has a young population with a median age of around 30 years, so adoption of new tech is higher than most of Europe. More than 90 percent of adults have a smartphone and mobile internet users are north of 50 million. As such, Turkey’s population is a part of the rapidly growing cryptocurrency adoption.

In a recent interview with Ciara Sun, Head of Global Business Development & Partnerships at Huobi Group, was amazed at the rate of adoption and potential for cryptocurrency to thrive. Sun remarked, “We are 100% confident in Turkey—Turkey is a really great market. I was really surprised to discover that 20% of the population owns cryptocurrency, and the Lira is the fifth most popular fiat currency for crypto pairing in the world.”

Bangladesh Records First Blockchain-Based Remittance with Standard Chartered Bank

Bangladesh has recorded its first blockchain-based cross-border remittance service. The feat was made possible as a result of a partnership between Standard Chartered Bank, bKash of Bangladesh, and Valyou of Malaysia.

Per the announcement as gleaned from the Daily Star, the blockchain remittance service was facilitated by the blockchain technology from Ant Group. Through the service, Bangladeshi ex-pats in Malaysia can send wage remittance via Valyou to a beneficiary in Bangladesh who is a bKash wallet user.

Standard Chartered Chief Executive Officer Naser Ezaz Bijoy:

“Remittance is an important driver of our economy, contributing vital foreign currency to the national exchequer while supporting the livelihoods of millions of families […] we are delighted a new-generation technological solution that will make the remittance experience simple and faster, by presenting the service available 24×7, including from the convenience of the remitters mobile phone. We hope this new service will benefit the end-users and contribute to the growing utilization of formal remittance channels.”

Bangladesh Blockchain Potential

The development and growth of blockchain initiatives appear slow in Bangladesh when compared with other Asian nations including China, Japan, and South Korea. Recognizing this slow pace, Bangladesh seems to be building its capacity to shore up its blockchain potential for the near future through training and development initiatives. One of such ways the country is doing this is by sending its graduates abroad for blockchain training with the nation’s Industrial Trust Fund.

In what appears to be a tilt to ride with the flow with the coming fourth industrial revolution, Bangladesh High Tech Park Authority, a government autonomous organization working under the ICT division of Bangladesh is now working to establish 28 high tech parks and software technology including blockchain and data centers for the country.

Image source: blockchain.news

MoneyGram Continues to Receive Millions in Development Fees From Ripple

Ripple continues to pump money into MoneyGram remittance services in market development fees.

Blockchain payments firm Ripple has invested a further $9.3 million in market development fees to MoneyGram remittance services.

According to MoneyGram’s financial results for Q3 2020, after a deduction of $0.4 million in transaction and trading expenses, the money sender saw a net benefit of $8.9 million come from Ripple.

In 2018, MoneyGram became one of the biggest firms to publicly say it was piloting Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency in its remittance services.

The latest investment from Ripple—which provides various payment products and services to financial institutions—follows a $50 million investment in November 2019 and a further $15.1 million in Q2, 2020 from the blockchain payments firm to MoneyGram.

All investments from Ripple to MoneyGram have the stated purpose of “market development fees” which MoneyGram says are compensation for providing liquidity to Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) network.

Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) network is the blockchain firm’s payments product that focuses on cross border payments leveraging Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency.

Alex Holmes, MoneyGram Chairman, and CEO spoke on the partnership with Ripple in a release last November.

Holmes said:

“Our partnership with Ripple is transformative for both the traditional money transfer and digital asset industry – for the first time ever, we’re settling currencies in seconds […] Partnerships with companies like Ripple support innovation and allow us to invest in creating better customer experiences. I anticipate furthering our growth into new corridors and exploring new products and services.”

In 2018, MoneyGram became one of the biggest firms to publicly say it was piloting Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency in its remittance services.

Ripple to Cash In One-Third of its Stake in MoneyGram

Leading blockchain payments company Ripple plans to sell a third of its stake in American money transfer firm MoneyGram. Ripple currently has a stake of $6.22 million or 8.6% of outstanding shares in MoneyGram as published by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Pumping Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity into MoneyGram

The SEC further expounded that Ripple has a warrant to purchase additional shares amounting to 5.95 million. As a result, the total equity stands at 12.2 million shares. Based on this information, Ripple is cashing in nearly 4 million shares or nearly 33.3% of its whole stake. Nevertheless, once the deal is sealed, the blockchain payments giant will still own 4.44% or about 3.22 million shares of MoneyGram.

In November 2019, Ripple finalized its $50 million equity investment commitment. It purchased the newly-issued equity from MoneyGram at $4.10 per share and paid a significant premium on MoneyGram’s market prices. The funding was to support MoneyGram’s operations as the company continued to increase the volume and use of On-Demand Liquidity, Ripple’s product that leverages the digital asset XRP.

Ripple continues making headway

Despite the sale of a third of its stake in MoneyGram, Ripple has previously pumped in huge investments in this company. For instance, Ripple invested $9.3 million in market development fees to MoneyGram remittance services. Precisely, after a deduction of $0.4 million in transaction and trading expenses, the money sender saw a net benefit of $8.9 million come from Ripple.

After emerging from the shadows with its bullish run, Ripple’s XRP token more than doubled in price within a week span. As a result, outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) because it surged by 110% on CoinMarketCap.

On a monthly perspective, the cryptocurrency has more than tripled in value, as it began the month of November at lows of 20 cents. In comparison with Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have both recorded weekly gains of 10% and 20%, respectively, Ripple has had the best run of the three cryptocurrencies.

Furthermore, Ripple’s blockchain-powered XRP ledger is touted to be superior to the SWIFT financial network adopted by banks worldwide because it is more secure, cheaper, and more transparent.

Ripple Powers Remittance Corridor between Malaysia and Bangladesh with RippleNet

Ripple has signed a deal with Malaysia and Bangladesh to provide a seamless cross-border remittance corridor between the two countries.

Malaysia’s Mobile Money wallet will connect directly to Bangladesh’s bKash, the largest provider of mobile financial services which serves over 45 million users through RippleNet.

RippleNet is the digital network based on the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) that banks and other financial institutions can join to facilitate communication and payments with one another. RippleNet uses distributed ledger technology to provide financial solutions for institutions and is run by validators who ensure that each transaction follows the RTXP protocol. Ripple authorizes a group of validators to act as trusted and permissioned nodes to update and confirm transactions on the ledger if they are all in agreement that the transaction plays by the rules.

Through this partnership, Malaysia hopes to increase its user base in Bangladesh by at least 20%. In South Asia, Bangladesh has the third-largest remittance flows and Malaysia ranks as one of the top five sources of remittance for it. Worldwide, Bangladesh ranks eleventh in terms of receiving the most transfer of funds through remittance.

Despite having a target on its back in the United States for XRP, Ripple’s operations as a cross-border remittance network have continued as usual worldwide. Navin Gupta, the Managing Director for Ripple in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, said:

“Ripple is keen to bring greater connectivity and convenience for the Bangladeshi population, and provide them with a more streamlined, frictionless cross-border payment experience. As Ripple is bolstering our presence in South Asia, we are excited to contribute to the infrastructure of the region to transform the way cross-border payments are executed.”

Ripple’s DLT-based payment network, RippleNet, has been rapidly expanding and has already been leveraged in more than 40 countries as of now.

Maiar Wallet Makes Sending Money as Easy as Sending a Text

In a time where privacy and self-sovereignty appear a relic of a past age, a new system is emerging to re-establish the rights people cherish so dearly. While banks and remittance companies wring every cent out of their customers, they also exclude billions who are unable to access banking services. Solutions to this problem are mercifully now arriving, with the latest coming in the form of Maiar Wallet, a decentralized, non-custodial, low fee, multi-currency digital wallet built on Elrond to empower everyday users.

Considering that most blockchain-based applications require a relatively high amount of technical knowledge to use, adoption is low, with mainstream users deterred from participating. Maiar has been designed to solve this problem in several ways. For instance, it doesn’t require wallet users to have a private key, backup phase, username, or password; all that is needed is a phone number. Through Maiar’s digital identity layer that maps a wallet address directly to a phone number, the entire process is radically simplified for the end-user, resulting in a product that makes sending money anywhere as easy and fast as sending a text message.

Wallet Launch Is Only the Beginning

Powered by the Elrond blockchain, Maiar has already accumulated 37,000 unique wallet addresses and 148,000 transactions in the first 12 hours of its soft launch. The entirety of the growth was organic, showing that users who love the app appear eager to share it with their peers, friends, and family. Offering extremely low transaction fees (around $0.01) using the platform’s native cryptocurrency, EGLD, Maiar has already become the wallet of choice for many Elrond network users and many others interested in cheap, borderless, and instant transactions.

The wallet’s soft launch enabled the Maiar development team to identify small, last-minute bugs while improving bandwidth limitations and scaling speeds. By addressing these matters, which Elrond CEO and founder Beniamin Mincu states will take place in the immediate future, Maiar will be on track to implement 100x network scaling speeds moving forward.

On day one of its release, Maiar’s current adoption rate reached about one new account per second, an impressive feat. However, adoption needs to grow dramatically for Maiar to reach one billion users, a goal of the wallet team. To achieve this, Maiar will need to onboard ten accounts per second over the next 3+ years, pointing to a long road ahead. As more people understand the possibilities that Maiar allows compared to legacy financial systems, it may experience a cycle of hypergrowth.

Maiar Enables Anyone to Be Their Own Bank

Sending money instantly is one thing, but the Maiar wallet offers many features that make the transactional platform more akin to a traditional bank. Using the wallet, all you need is a smartphone to earn and stake your funds, providing a yield and passive income to anyone who downloads the app and deposits. For the billions who are unbanked but have access to internet services, Maiar offers a non-custodial, non-confiscatable alternative used to preserve wealth over time.

Some other digital wallets provide this feature, but by building on Elrond, Maiar can offer users the option to earn and stake on various currencies, not just the native platform’s cryptocurrency. The financial revolution is already underway, and applications like Maiar represent another blow to the elites as the masses begin to understand that they now have the tools and means to manage their wealth.