DLT
Algorand to support bank and insurance guarantees platform in Italy
Layer-1 blockchain platform Algorand has been chosen as the public blockchain to support an “innovative digital guarantees platform” to be used in Italy’s banking and insurance markets. The Algorand-supported platform is expected to be launched in early 2023. According to Algorand’s Dec. 13 announcement, this is the first time an EU Member State will use blockchain technology for bank and insurance guarantees. A bank guarantee is when a lending institution promises to cover a loss if a borrower defaults on a loan. It’s an alternative to providing a security bond or a deposit to a supplier or vendor. An insurance guarantee is similar but is offered by an insurance company rather than a bank. Algorand said that blockchain technology was ideally suited for the “Di...
Malta prepares to revise regulatory treatment of NFTs
The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is currently reviewing requests to revise the “regulatory treatment” of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) within its Virtual Financial Assets Framework. Under the current regulatory framework, NFTs are included within the scope of the Virtual Financial Assets Act, which also includes virtual tokens, virtual financial assets, electronic money, and all financial instruments built, or dependent on, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). However, the MFSA is proposing to have NFTs removed from the Virtual Financial Assets framework since they’re unique and nonfungible and therefore incapable of being used as payments for goods and services, or for investment purposes. According to the MFSA, “the inclusion of such assets within the scope of the V...
Blockchain interoperability goes beyond moving data from point A to B — Axelar CEO Sergey Gorbunov
Cross-chain communication between blockchains is more than just moving data from point A to B, but how it can connect applications and users for enhanced experiences and fewer gas fees in Web3, outlined Sergey Gorbunov, Axelar Network co-founder and CEO, speaking to Cointelegraph’s business editor Sam Bourgi on Sept. 28 at Converge22 in San Francisco. As the crypto industry has developed over the past few years, blockchain interoperability has seen a surge in demand, attracting venture capital and welcoming players, such as Axelar, which reached unicorn status in February. According to Gorbunov, the company, founded in 2020, started with a premise that cross-chain and multichain capabilities would come to define the crypto space. “The idea is not just to talk about how to...
BIS marks CBDC pilot as ‘successful’ with $22M transacted
A multi-jurisdictional central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot has been marked “successful” by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) after a month-long test phase that facilitated $22 million worth of real-value cross-border transactions. The central banks of Hong Kong, Thailand, China and the United Arab Emirates took part in the pilot program along with 20 commercial banks from those regions. More than $12 million worth of value was issued onto the test platform, which facilitated 164 foreign exchange transactions and cross-border payments between the participating firms totaling over $22 million worth of value, according to a Tuesday LinkedIn post from the BIS. Graphic from the BIS on the CBDC pilot. Source: LinkedIn Daniel Eidan, an adviser and solution architect at the BIS,&...
ETH Merge will change the way enterprises view Ethereum for business
A recent report from the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) highlights how the Ethereum ecosystem has matured to a point where the network can be used by businesses to solve real-world problems. From supply chain management use cases to payment solutions utilized by companies like Visa and PayPal, the report demonstrates how the Ethereum network has grown to become one of the most valued public blockchains. Although notable, the EEA report also points out that the rapid growth of the Ethereum ecosystem has created a number of challenges for companies, specifically regarding energy consumption, scalability and privacy. For example, the document states that “sustainability was cited as one of the main concerns, along with transaction fees, in relation to using the Ethereum Mainnet.” Th...
Celestia: Launching a blockchain to be as easy as deploying a smart contract
Developers and communities will be able to deploy their own sovereign, custom-made blockchains at the “click of a button” says Celestia co-founder Ismail Khoffi. Speaking with Cointelegraph at Korean Blockchain Week 2022 last week, Khoffi said that the project’s vision is to decouple the consensus and application execution layers to unlock new possibilities for decentralized app builders. Celesita is basically a stripped back minimalist layer one blockchain that offers users the infrastructure that makes it easy to deploy their own blockchain, or layer two rollup. in the future, we’ll all be able to have our own blockchains. and it represents one of the biggest social revolutions of our lifetimes. here’s 10 ways it could change technology, finance, work, and entire political systems ...
Blockchain’s potential: How AI can change the decentralized ledger
One reason is that blockchain’s use of a decentralized ledger offers insight into the workings of AI systems and the provenance of the data these platforms may be using. As a result, transactions can be facilitated with a high level of trust while maintaining solid data integrity. Not only that, but the use of blockchain systems to store and distribute AI-centric operational models can help in the creation of an audit trail, which in turn allows for enhanced data security. Furthermore, the combination of AI and blockchain, at least on paper, seems to be extremely potent, one that is capable of improving virtually every industry within which it is implemented. For example, the combination has the potential to enhance today’s existing food supply chain logistics, healthcare record-sharing ec...
Ankr partners with Optimism to provide a fast and reliable RPC service for users
Ankr, a company that provides one-click node deployment and Web3 infrastructure, has announced that it will become a remote procedure call provider for Optimism. Optimism is an open-source Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that focuses on speed and efficient transactions across the network. It has caught the eyes of many in recent months, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. This is a great example of why I’m so proud of @optimismPBC for adding non-token governance (the Citizen House). Optimism explicitly has goals *other* than just “make OP go up”, and the only way to do that long-term is with explicit representation of non-token-holder interests. pic.twitter.com/vofVVx53mC — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 3, 2022 Ankr has assisted many industry leaders...
UN agency head sees ‘massive opportunities’ in crypto: WEF 2022
The United Nations is smitten with distributed ledger technology (DLT). In a conversation with Cointelegraph at WEF 2022, United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) director Sameer Chauhan explained the “massive opportunities” he sees in cryptocurrencies. [embedded content] A former traditional finance executive and head of the UNICC since 2018, Chauhan has seen the rise and fall of cryptocurrency markets. He shared that groups such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) do not want to “miss the boat” when it comes to DLTs. Chauhan explained that cryptocurrencies are neutral technologies: “It’s a tool. You could use it for good or you could use it for profiting—which is not bad. […] In the future, crypto will be a very strong component of how the world interacts a...
Dutch regulator says crypto not yet suitable as means of payment or investment
A Dutch regulator stated that the crypto derivatives market should be restricted to wholesale trade. The reasons are not unfamiliar — lack of transparency, market manipulation and “other forms of criminal activity.” On May 12, the head of Capital Markets and Transparency Supervision at the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM), Paul-Willem van Gerwen, shared his opinion on the crypto derivatives trade at the Amsterdam Propriety Traders Managers Meeting. Van Gerwen highlighted, that despite (or perhaps because of) the market’s rising interest in crypto derivatives trading, the AFM “do regard such trade as entailing risks” and consider this market to be not as mature as the other derivatives markets. A specific problem arising from the volatility of the crypto products, according ...
Buenos Aires to accept crypto for tax payments, launch DLT-backed citizen profiles
The capital of Argentina and an agglomeration with more than 12 million citizens, Buenos Aires will make blockchain a vital part of its digitalization drive. Specifically, the city will accept public financial transactions in crypto. As city Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta revealed in his Steve Jobs-styled presentation on April 25, the 12-step development plan titled “Buenos Aires +” envisions a significant increase in crypto and blockchain adoption. Con Buenos Aires + vamos a dar un paso más en el camino hacia un Estado facilitador que desburocratice y agilice los procesos. Un camino en el que el Estado sea el que se acerca a la gente, y no al revés. pic.twitter.com/yi6fUMmAUI — Horacio Rodríguez Larreta (@horaciorlarreta) April 26, 2022 The city authorities intend to launch a platf...
Applied Blockchain Inc files for $60M IPO
UK-based blockchain infrastructure firm Applied Blockchain has filed an initial public offering (IPO) application on Apr. 8 to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to issue 3,236,245 shares of common stock onto the Nasdaq Global Select Market with the ticker symbol APLD. The firm currently operates a stock on OTC Pink — the lowest of three tiers within the over-the-counter market as per financial volume and the disclosure of company information required — under the same tag with share price of $18.84. The document of application was keen to emphasize that the public offering price would not be determined, or entirely indicative, of the current market value of OTC Pink, but rather by through diligent assessments conducted by themselves and the underwriters. Saying this,...
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