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Standard Chartered Digs Its Heels Into Blockchain With Contour Partnership

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The barrier for entry for mainstream companies to enter the cryptocurrency space has always been high due to the regulatory atmosphere. With the advent of better rules, several institutions are taking the plunge into crypto and blockchain.

Standard Chartered, one of the world’s most popular banks has decided to invest in a blockchain company to further its network developments.

On January 29, the bank announced that it will be investing in Contour to digitally create, approve Letters of Credit for the company. A letter of credit is issued by a bank to another bank to serve as a guarantee for payments made to a specified person under specific conditions.

Standard Chartered is slated to work with Contour to make the financial ecosystem faster and much more secure. Lisa Robins, the Global Head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered stated:

“Our investment into Contour underscores our commitment to forge partnerships and solve common industry challenges – taking paper out of the process while improving speed and accuracy. With our footprint across the world’s fastest-growing trade corridors, we have the unique opportunity to support our clients in achieving a more sustainable supply chain, by improving access to financing through paperless trade and simpler processes.”

Standard Chartered chose Contour because of its prowess to digitize the LC process from end-to-end. Contour will also be involved in the issuance, confirmation and documentation preparation for all LCs. At the same time, the bank will utilize its smart guarantee feature to enable the digitization process.

The blockchain startup stated that they will be approaching more banks to streamline their requirements. Contour is built on R3’s Corda blockchain and will also take the required help from the R3 team to bolster development. Apart from Standard Chartered, Contour also has partners in HSBC, ING Bank, Bain & Company among several others.

Contour had also conducted pilot tests in 14 countries where over 50 major banks and corporates participated. During the tests, it was discovered that the processing time for Letters of Credit had reduced by over 90 percent. This meant that the time for the final output reduced from 5 to 10 days to just under 24 hours.

Standard Chartered had run a program with Contour [then known as Voltron] back in August 2019. The bank had executed a pilot transaction with the PTT Group in Thailand that involved the first cross border LC in the oil industry.

Akon Is Officially The Owner of The Crypto City ‘AKON’

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Akon, the pop star who has remained an icon in the music industry, revealed that he had finalized the plans to build his namesake “Akon City”

The singer had first made news about the city back in 2018 when CNN first reported it. Since then the plan has been progressing slowly but steadily, with construction having started in March of last year. The development was quickened for the current week when he was given permission to build on the land given to him by Macky Sall, Senegal’s President.

Akon claimed that the entire ecosystem will be completed following a proposed 10-year plan. This included a stage 2 construction phase that will begin mid-2025. The singer initially talked about the designs to construct such a city along these lines, that it could stay reasonable and add to Africa’s economy He envisioned that using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology would give the power back to the people.

The Akon City will operate solely using his cryptocurrency, ‘Akoin’

Akoin. Apart from functioning as a mode of currency, the Akoin is also expected to serve as a way to establish credit, borrow money, access government services and much more. The officials close to the development of Akoin had earlier stated the cryptocurrency’s whitepaper would be launched soon. According to the hit churning singer:

“Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology offer a more secure currency that enables people in Africa to advance themselves independent of the government. I come with the concepts and let the geeks figure it out. I think that blockchain and crypto could be the savior for Africa in many ways because it brings the power back to the people.”

Akon’s vision for Akoin comprises making the cryptocurrency available in all 54 African countries soon. According to the website run by the organization, Akoin was called the “uniting crypto-currency of Africa” with a promise to “empower Africa”. The singer has also repeatedly talked about how the project will not be a standalone one, but rather something that works through collaboration.

Many celebrities like Akon have delved into crypto for their own causes. In this current instance, it was Africa’s hunger for growth that was reflected in Akon’s vision. This was evidenced when he commented that Akon City would be like the fictional city of Wakanda, portrayed in the Chadwick Boseman starring Black Panther.

‘Google Coin’, Libra and Big Corporations Foray into Digital Currency

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‘Google Coin’: The media space is currently enthralled by the idea of big corporations venturing into digital currency. Facebook led the way for the big four internet companies (Amazon, Netflix, Google and Facebook) with plans for launching the Libra stablecoin. While Bitcoin had a rough 2019 ending, the blockchain ecosystem entered into a hectic 2020 start. 

Price swings are not that frequent and at best, no more Initial Coins Offerings and scams to wade of industry attention. The fact that it’s so hard to predict tomorrow gains with digital assets, positioned institutions, and corporations as mere observers. However, the sublime of events into a subtle crypto sphere is shifting attention towards the development of fresh projects. 

While it is Bitcoin that sparked the digital money revolution,  established internet firms and central banks will create the future.

Speaking about digital money, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss highlighted the Big Four, will each have at least one digital currency project by 2021. Headlines of Google attaining Quantum Computing Supremacy in late 2019 voiced alarm on the future of Bitcoin. Later on China would join the space with claims of working towards quantum computing technology. 

This technology breakthrough raised more fear than fun among blockchain communities, given that quantum technology could easily affect Bitcoin’s key features.  If quantum computing falls in the hand of cybercriminals, they could easily hack cryptocurrency ledgers and take control of the blockchain.

Following Google’s breakthrough, the search giant entered into a partnership with Citigroup for launching a fully-fledged smart checking bank account through Google Pay. This announcement piled pressure on Bitcoin developers and the blockchain community to enhance Bitcoin’s user experience and mass adoption. 

Or else Google wipes cryptocurrencies to redundancy. 

The Internet mogul code-named its planned bank account to Cache and anticipates to enable users to implement  Google’s analytic tools in traditional banking products. The firm expects to launch the payment service by the end of 2020, alongside Facebook’s Libra coin. Two projects that pose a major competition for Bitcoin. 

Google Coin Compliance Debate

Regulators in the United States are still concerned that Facebook’s Libra could potentially bypass the US dollar. In addition to as well bypassing the traditional banking system. Meanwhile, with China hot on heels to launch its digital stablecoin, Mark Zuckerberg believes Libra is the only saving grace for the US dollar in the currency wars.

Moreover, Google executive Caesar Sengupta in an interview with the Wall Street Journal noted that Google Pay’s approach is to partner with the existing financial ecosystem.

It might occur that Facebook is the only tech giant struggling with data privacy concerns, yet numerous user privacy controversies have plagued Google as well. For at least half a decade now. 

Google’s Ad Data Aggregation Could Fuel Google Coin

Majority internet scholars argue that Google is an ad company and not a consumer software firm. Hence to make possible its outreach, the search engine collects exhaustive amounts of user data to render its service.

Achieving the full capability of targeted ads calls for an extensive understanding of browsing habits, user background, purchases and several other preferences. All of which Google has the ability to cling to through data aggregation and analysis. 

Unlike Facebook, Google plays its role in protecting user data from hackers and phishing attempts. However, the internet giant’s model needs to collect as much online data as possible for cross-correlating between your offline persona and your online preferences. 

Ben Smith, a Vice President of Engineering and a fellow at Google admits that ads contribute a significant amount of revenue for the company. An amount averaging at least $33.7 Billion per year.

 

The revenue does play a big part in driving Google’s core mission to provide value to everyone. It’s not every day that a company provides top quality products to worldwide users at no monetary cost.

Thanks to the ad revenue, Google can afford to develop expansive user security solutions for free. Yet here is the big question: are these services free in the actual sense, or does Google provide them for free at the expense of user privacy?

Let find out, because;

If Facebook’s Libra gives you worry, Google coin should definitely give you a migraine.

Here are six good reasons.  

Google Coin Data Privacy Concerns

  • Tracking – Tracking and providing user information to advertisers around the world gave Google a whopping $95 Billion in 2017. The internet company tracks through its various applications, from Gmail to Android phones. 

 

  • Incognito – The incognito mode on Google’s Chrome browser tricks users into thinking they are anonymously surfing the net. However, this method is only meant to bar Google from tracking your information. Nonetheless, other websites on the internet can easily track you. 

 

  • Gmail – It is common to find targeted ads a few seconds into using Google’s search engine. The firm combines its native tracking capabilities with the search engine and Gmail to win sufficient user information. 

 

  • Cookies -These are such a crafty way of accumulating user data. Besides Google, hundreds of thousands of internet businesses use them to collect user information. The worse thing is that cookies are stored on a user’s device. 

 

  • Data Leaks – Despite the company admitting to setting aside massive resources for deploying security and privacy checkups, there is always the chance of bug leak. In 2009, at least 0.5 percent of google doc users had their data leaked following a bug leak. 

 

  • Association with National Intelligence (CIA & NSA) – Google has partnership ties with In-Q-Tel, an investment subsidiary of the CIA. The subsidiary provides cutting edge technologies to Intelligence. Which means they can easily acquire user data from Google if they wanted to. 

 

While it is not that Alphabet Inc (Google’s Parent Company) is an unethical company to just sell your privacy; there lies a formidable risk with such a company owning your financial data. Well if Google coin launched today,  who knows the amount of financial data we would provide them with. The fact is we provide too much data to Google and that would pose a great risk to users of Google Coin.

Tim Draper believes that the fiat to cryptocurrency usage ration will become 50-50 after digital currencies become cheaper and frictionless to operate. He added that the attainment of this ratio will make spending and investing of Cryptocurrencies easier and convenient than it is with dollars. 

With Google, Facebook and other tech companies joining the race to digital money, the ratio outlook is by far possible sooner than later.  A situation that also validates that digital currencies are here to stay. 

Sengupta said: 

“It may be the slightly longer path, but it’s more sustainable. If we can help more people do more stuff in a digital way online, it’s good for the internet and good for us.”

The biggest concerns around Libra and Google Coin lie within regulatory compliance, digital security and data privacy. While data privacy is a growing concern with Facebook,  and Google positioning itself as the ethical outlier of “Never be Evil”; users still have not been able to abandon the consumption of their services. Meanwhile,  Google Coin poses a bigger threat against Bitcoin than Quantum computing. 

When you start with Bitcoin and crypto investment, there are a few important things you should learn, such as market capitalization, trading volume, secure cryptocurrency storage, where you can buy crypto in 2020, etc.
Investing in Bitcoin today is widely considered to be a very risky undertaking. But as per my understanding Investing in cryptocurrency does not have to be difficult or risky. Before taking action, investors clearly need to have a strategy and each responsible trader always does its own research before making an investment in any asset. Make sure yours is done!

 

Binance’s Fiat Gateway Wing Banxa Secures Millions in its First Funding Round

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Binance crypto exchange’s fiat gateway partner Banxa to create the U.K.’s Faster Payment Scheme for transferring Pounds (GBP) following the successful completion of the funding round. The funding further aims to strengthen Euro (EUR) and the Australian Dollar (AUD).

Essentially, Banxa provides fiat gateway infrastructure for the cryptocurrency exchange. The firm successfully raised $2M in its 1st round of investment, led by NGC ventures, one of the top ten most active investors in the blockchain and crypto space, and Thorney Investment Group, an Australian company.

As per the company’s founder chairman, Domenic Carosa, the fresh funding will be utilized to build businesses with different payment gateways, try and add more local currencies and licenses for future benefits. Mr. Carosa further said that they are planning to expand their businesses in Europe, Africa, and Asia. More so, Banxa is intending to add new features for exchanges and wallets.

Reportedly, Banxa serves around 20 million users which also includes few notable crypto clients such as Binance and OKEx. Moreover, the firm is currently supporting 12 different fiat currencies and expecting to include additional currencies in the near future. He confirmed that there are nearly 50 new companies waiting to join Banxa.

Banxa
Credit: Banxa Facebook

The firm is run by 25 unique people divided into their offices in the Netherlands, Australia, and the Philippines. Notably, there were just 15 people working at the start of the year 2019.

How is Banxa positioned presently?

As per Roger Lim, the founder partner of NGC Ventures informed in one of his interviews with media;

“Banxa is well-positioned within the Crypto economy. It fundamentally supports the ever-evolving financial choices of the present contemporaries.” He also added that “Banxa provides the best user experience to the freshers by providing the necessary financial assurances that are required for their safety on this digital asset.”

The Banxa founder further confirmed that their firm will soon list its IPO onto the Toronto Stock Exchange and consequently, the pre-IPO session will be rolled out immediately.

“Banxa is in the process of launching an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada. We are soon going to launch the pre-IPO round.” – Domenic Carosa said.

United Nations Warns Against Attending North Korea Cryptocurrency Conference

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In recent years, North Korea has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. From doing tests on nuclear weapons to the government sponsoring hackers, the land of morning calm has them all. The nation has been subject to UN’s sanctions since 2006 as a result of its active nuclear and ballistic missile programs. These sanctions among other barriers force nations to avoid “financial transactions, technical training, advice, services or assistance,” in the instance that it could aid in the flourishing of the missile programs or help North Korea dodge sanctions.

Recently, the country announced it will host a cryptocurrency and blockchain conference in February and everyone is invited. In any case, sanction experts at the United Nations have forewarned anybody considering attending the conference to forget about it.

The UN has flagged the February conference as a potential sanctions violation according to a report by Reuters. Moreover, the sanction experts have laid down their advice in a confidential report to be tendered to the United Nations Security Council later this month. The UN has been closely monitoring the Asian state and its utility of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Back in November 2019, the UN claimed that North Korea had been involved in money laundering activity through a shell firm posing as a “shipping and logistics firm run on a blockchain platform.” In addition, the UN has also been watching the nation’s crypto-focused hacking stunts. It claims that the exploits made the country more than $2 billion. However, North Korea denied the claims.

American Ethereum Developer Arrested for Travelling to N. Korea to Discuss Crypto

The warning against attending the conference in North Korea doesn’t come as a surprise given the recent arrest of American ethereum developer Virgil Griffith. Griffith was indicted by the authorities for allegedly conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The Ethereum Foundation researcher traveled to North Korea for its first blockchain and cryptocurrency conference back in April 2019. While there, Griffith and other conference attendees supposedly discussed cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. The United States government asserts that Griffith’s presence could have assisted North Korea to circumnavigate international sanctions.  In addition, the prosecutors in Griffith’s case claims that he had been persuading other United States citizens to take part in the conference.

According to the conference’s website, all are invited except citizens of South Korea, Japan, and Israel. In addition, it claims that the visitor’s passports will not be stamped:

“We will provide a paper visa separated from your passport, so there will be no evidence of your entry to the country. Your participation will never be disclosed from our side unless you publicize it on your own.”

Korea’s Mystery Conference

Moving forward, North Korea first declared it would be hosting a blockchain and cryptocurrency conference in August 2018. The event was planned to take place two months later and the last two days. However, very minimal information was shared. It was claimed that the conference would conclude with a meet and greet between North Korea’s industry leaders and experts.

However, a report emerged that the conference was later postponed. Up to this point, it is not known if the event took place at all.

A year later, news emerged that the Asian nation was planning to develop its own digital currency in order to evade the strict international sanctions. The evidence of this was scanty. Whatever North Korea is trying to achieve with cryptocurrency and blockchain, I don’t believe we need experts to warn us against it.

 

Bitcoin In The Eye Of The Storm as Thai Kidnapping Incident Takes New Turns

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In a recent series of events straight out of a crime thriller, a kidnapping case with Bitcoin as ransom has evolved into something much darker and more sinister than what was expected. In what was thought to be a ransom swap in Thailand, it turned out that a close friend of the kidnapped was the actual culprit.

The kidnapping:

The escapade started on January 9 when Mark Cheng Jin and Lee Wei Kim landed in Thailand to negotiate some business deals with the locals. To reach their destination, both of them took a cab from the airport and later stopped at a petrol station in the Chachoengsao province.

It was here that masked assailants ambushed the two and beat them black and blue. Both men were then hustled into a blacked-out SUV and taken to the Kabin Buri district of Prachinburi province. Cheng reported that the assailants took him to multiple close quarter locations and demanded a ransom of $1 million. He pleaded that he only had $62,000 in Bitcoin with him and that was all he could manage.

According to official reports from the police, Cheng was also shown a gun to his head which he successfully defended and then later fled. At this point, he had no whereabouts of his colleague and was planning to report his missing at the nearest station. Cheng was picked up by passers-by and was driven down to the Ongkharak Police Station where he filed the case.

The reveal:

Once the police complaint was lodged, the Thai police launched a manhunt for the absconding Singapore citizen. Lee was later found in a Bangkok hotel where he confessed to plotting the entire scam to loot the BTC haul. Lee was found with 1.4 million Thai Baht all paid in BTC and was charged with robbery, illegal detention, assault, and illegal firearms possession.

The net spread further than expected as the car used for the kidnapping belonged to a popular soap star from Thailand. Cheng, who himself has been embroiled with the law earlier was shocked at finding out that his colleague was the culprit. He said:

“I did not expect my friend to be involved. I really dont know who I can trust now.

Cheng, despite being the victim here has been under police scanners for some time now. He was charged in Singapore last year with dishonest misappropriation of over $300,000 from an investment company in 2014.

 

Bitcoin Based Organizations are Now Pumping SEA Economies, Claims Deloitte Report

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Bitcoin and its use cases have now created such a movement that it has started contributing to Southeast Asian economies. 

According to the Deloitte Innovation report, the Internet economy in the Southeast Asian economies market has been developing appreciably in size.

The Indonesian market is anticipated to grow to $100 billion within the subsequent 5 years which changed into at just $27 billion two years back. Malaysia changed into next on the list projected to grow to $21 billion through 2020.

The Philippines came in third beating out burgeoning SEA economies consisting of Thailand and Vietnam. The Philippines has been a growing economy in the Fintech sector and companies that are involved in cryptocurrencies contribute a massive part to it.

The Philippines has been one of the foremost Southeast Asian economies dabbling with cryptocurrencies and corporations which includes Grab is a high example of that influx.

If fund-raising for SEA unicorns are taken into consideration then Grab was the primary decacorn for the vicinity beating out unicorns consisting of Lazada, Gojek and Takopedia.

One business enterprise within the Philippines that carried the torch for the cryptocurrency enterprise became Coin.Ph. The enterprise provides mobile wallets and financial services such as remittance, mobile air time top-ups, bill payments and more.

Fintech corporations make up almost 15 percent of Manila’s startup, providing an interesting area of interest to explore. This become completed by energetic participation from the country’s government, which passed several acts to strengthen the enterprise.

This blanketed the creation of the Philippine Startup Development Program, Startup EZones and “startup visas” for owners, employees, investors.

 

 

Bitcoin [BTC/USD] Price Analysis: Price booms as 2020 continues to shower its fortunes

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Bitcoin [BTC/USD] Price Analysis: Price booms as 2020 continues to shower its fortunes

 

Bitcoin [BTC/USD] Price Analysis: Bitcoin‘s performance in 2020 has been the talk of the cryptocurrency town and many naysayers have now begun to backtrack on their comments about the digital asset’s fall.

The second week of 2020 has been quite fruitful for Bitcoin as its price hit its highest point since November of 2019. This event has been quite clamorous for the space as multiple proponents came forward to praise the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

At press time, Bitcoin’s price was $8293.33 with a total market cap of $150.51 billion. The market cap too has risen to one of its biggest markers since last October, another win for the currency. It is easy to say that the price rise has been random but a technical analysis will give us a deeper look.

1 hour:

Bitcoin [BTC/USD] Price Analysis:
1-hour Chart
The hourly chart for Bitcoin’s price showed multiple green candles shooting for the sky. The immediate price support for Bitcoin was lifted to $7762 after a continuous price hike for 6 days.

The Parabolic SAR was strongly below the price candles. This indicated that Bitcoin’s price would continue to stay in the bullish territory.

The Chaikin Money Flow indicator was another friend to Bitcoin’s price. The CMF was way above the zero line which meant that the capital coming into the Bitcoin market was much more than the capital leaving the market.

The Awesome Oscillator was showing burgeoning green signal after the recent bullish run. The bump in the AO meant that the Bitcoin market pressure was at a long term high.

The short term indicators all showed bullish signs, which may indicate a strong bull run for the next couple of days including a mix of price flatlines.

1 day:

Bitcoin Price Analysis:
1 Day Chart

 

Bitcoin’s daily price chart had begun to reflect the currency’s performance in the short term. The green candles had begun to take over with the last 6 markers staying green throughout. The immediate support on the daily chart was at $6626.3.

The CMF had spiked to the upper strata strongly for the first time since the middle of October 2019. The climb meant that investors were regaining their faith in Bitcoin.

The Awesome Oscillator signalled green for the first time in 2020. Together with the CMF, we can speculate that institutional investors were increasing their ramp up towards the Bitcoin industry,

The Parabolic SAR for Bitcoin’s long term price also remained bullish, a positive sign for traders. The markers remained below the price candles and assured holders that the atmosphere was bullish.

Bitcoin’s price prediction has always been tricky with analysis, with multiple factors affecting its movement. The above-mentioned Bitcoin price charts and indicators have all in tandem stated that Bitcoin’s strong start to the year will bring its dividends soon.

 

Crypto Exchange Huobi Launches Fiat-Currency Gateway for Indonesia

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Huobi Global recently announced that it is launching a fiat-to-crypto gateway for its Indonesian subsidiary, Huobi Indonesia. Accordingly, Indonesians can now access crypto services by using the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) via Huobi Indonesia.

Huobi Sets Up Fiat-To-Crypto Gateway in Indonesia

Announced on December 27, Huobi Global is tapping the Indonesian crypto market as the exchange said that users can use IDR and Tether (USDT) to trade over 250 cryptocurrencies directly via Huobi Indonesia.

As per David Chen, senior director of Huobi Cloud, the new fiat gateway is a part of the company’s global expansion. He went on to add;

“By continuing to add new fiat/crypto pairs for Huobi Cloud 2.0, we want to make it frictionless for investors anywhere in the world to trade digital assets on a trusted and proven platform said, David Chen. The new fiat gateway reflects our ongoing commitment to working with strong local partners in key markets across the globe,”

According to Huobi, Indonesia presents “a major opportunity to contribute to the growth of the greater blockchain community and help drive crypto adoption globally”.

However, Xiong Dan, CEO of Huobi Indonesia says that the new fiat-currency door is “an exciting milestone” for Huobi’s Indonesian team. More so, he also adds that the exchange will continue its effort to “expand the Indonesia market, consolidate and improve service quality”.

Huobi has been on top bulletins with the new expansion quite often this year. The exchange has also begun its crypto effort to the Turkish crypto market as a part of its global expansion.

Moreover, it was said that Turkey is a promising prospective market for Huobi exchange and the exchange’s CEO Livio Weng had elaborated his view to bringing the Huobi ecosystem there. In fact, the exchange has also hired a crypto veteran, Alphan Gogus as a new general manager for Huobi Turkey.

Ripple founder reiterates that crypto and fiat working together would create wonders in financial ecosystem

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Ripple has been one of the few companies in the cryptocurrency industry that has stated that instead of fighting against banks, cryptocurrencies can be used to make the fiat process faster and the financial ecosystem much more streamlined. During a recent Ripple Drop interview with Chris Larsen, the billionaire founder of Ripple reiterated the fact that the company was building a foundation upon which multiple layers of technology could work.

Larsen claimed that Ripple focused on moving value with the help of the distributed ledger in a bid to make transactions faster and more transparent. The founder said:

“What we are planning to achieve is analogous to the internet protocol. Digital assets are impossible without the all important blockchain technology and these assets in turn play an important role in reducing liquidity, overall costs and greasing the value of other assets like the dollar and the pound.”

Chris Larsen also admitted that fiat currency will remain the dominant form of capital but what crypto and blockchain can do is to supplement that growth. The founder was further asked about the situation of regulatory clarity in the United States and what should be improved. According to the Ripple official, the key word is ‘clarity’ because that is what is missing in the States. In his words:

“There are way too many inconsistencies in our rules with way too many question marks about basic aspects of regulations. This is what is holding back innovation and developments in the space which truthfully has to boom. We at Ripple advocate that the best system that can be opted by the government will take into consideration the customer first.”

Larsen urged governmental agencies such as the FINCEN and the Treasury to work together so that cryptocurrencies can be fostered in an environment of safety and innovation. The best part is that the advantages of using such a technology will be felt positively across the board, he said. Ripple’s founder was frank in admitting that even though the United States may not have crypto laws like Singapore or Switzerland, it still needs their regulatory clarity.

Ripple had another reason to rejoice yesterday as its native cryptocurrency, XRP saw its liquidity index hit an all time high on Bitso, a popular cryptocurrency exchange. The XRP/MXN pairing on Bitso scored an all-time rate of 6.254 million, beating the previous ATH of 5.993 million.