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Korean Blockchain Consortium ft. 27 firms

A new Korean Blockchain Consortium has been created by 27 firms and startups with the goal of developing tools to manage trade financial processes.

This Korean Blockchain Consortium is composed with both major companies of the financial sector and technology startups.

According to The Loop startup the Korean Blockchain Consortium was born for this reason:

“Beyond providing the blockchain-based authentication and information sharing system, we collaborate with other technology providers on developing a prototype for financial services in areas of securities trade and post trade, the prototype that is to reduce the cost and operational risk in trade finance and ultimately improve trade efficiency”.  

The Korean Blockchain Consortium includes Daishin Securities, Dongbu Securities, Yualta Securities Korea and Kiwoom Securities.

Some of these members have already worked in the blockchain field with regional startups.

The blockchain project was organized by the Korea Financial Investment Association, or an industry trade group based in South Korea.

This is the second blockchain-related project born in Korea and its creation last week comes after another news about the formation of a consortium spearheaded by the South Korean government.

Also, in October the East Asian government started to create its public-private consortium supported by the most important banks in South Korea and their major regulator, or the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

“With the creation of the consortium, momentum is expected to start for spreahading the development of technology and service in the blockchain field, rather than passively following the footsteps of advanced nations,” explained Kim Yong-beom, chairman at Financial Services Commission.

The government consortium aims at creating a new task force to regulate the technology in the banking sector.

To read more news related to the Korea effort in the Blockchain sector, click here.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio

South Korean Bank to work on the Blockchain

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One of the most important banks in South Korea revealed today an agreement with the most funded Asiatic startup of the bitcoin sector.
KB Kookmin, in fact, announced today that will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Bitcoin startups Circle and Coinplug.
Based in South Korea, Coinplug is also working with the same Korean bank to develop a blockchain prototype that aims at improving international remittance to simplify foreign exchanges.

KB Kookmin: South Korean bank to work on the Blockchain

According to Business Korea, KB Koomkin wants to promote businesses related to the blockchain field.
To do so, KB Koomking recently signed another agreement to work on distributed ledger applications for mobile device certification.
Talking about Circle, recently this startup revelaed a $60m fundraise received from several Chinese investors. This way it became one of the best funded startup in the Asian cryptocurrency market.
“We are excited to work with the top tech companies in London, a hub of the FinTech industry. KB Kookmin Bank will strive to provide our customers with new experience by adopting cutting-edge technologies,” explained a KB Kookmin representative.

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More details will be revelead soon, so stay tuned on the HolyTransaction blog.
In the meantime, you should open your new multicurrency wallet.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
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Korea announces favorable tax policy for Bitcoin

The bitcoin community in Korea is small, but growing, and it seems that governments around the world are taking the US Senate’s recent hearings as a signal to begin determining at least temporary policies regarding our favorite cryptocurrency.

Posted in Korea’s Bitcoin Community on Facebook is a statement from Korea’s National Tax Service stating that Koreans will not be taxed for capital gains on bitcoin for the time being.

While this is clearly good news for the few long-time miners in Korea as well as speculators that have experienced a windfall in the past month, it is important to remember that this is not a good long-term position toward bitcoin. Essentially, the Korean government is taking the stance that bitcoin investments are not real.

bitcoin exchange map

Currently, bitcoiners are happier to be left alone by the governments of the world and such a policy supports this in the long term. But if we hope to see bitcoin rise to a more commonly-accepted and competitive currency, we will need governments to recognize that BTC does, in fact, bear value and follow “safe and sane” regulatory procedures. While this is not the time to hold the argument over how much and what kind of regulation would be appropriate and positive, I think that most bitcoiners will agree that we don’t want it to be seen as monopoly money forever. Near-universal recognition and respect is needed.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi
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Japan eliminates Bitcoin Taxation; Rise in Price expected

Japan government officially eliminates bitcoin taxation after it recognized as legal method of payment a few months ago.

Consumption taxes on the sale of bitcoin will come into effect on July 1st.

According to a Deloitte’s report entitled “Japan: Inbound Tax Alert, 2017 Tax Reform Proposals,” digital currencies including Bitcoin will be exempt from the 8% consumption tax in Japan.

Deloitte’s report explains:

“The supply of virtual currency will be exempt from Japanese Consumption Tax (“JCT”). Currently, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin do not fall under the category of exempt sales, and as a result, the sale of virtual currencies in Japan have been treated as taxable for JCT purposes. Following the enactment of the amended Fund Settlement Law in May 2016, which newly defined “virtual currency” as a means of settlement, the sale of virtual currency as defined under the new Fund Settlement Law will be exempt from JCT. This change will apply to sales/purchase transactions performed in Japan on or after 1 July 2017.”

Bitcoin Industry in Japan

Back in March, the Japanese National Diet approved the tax reform proposed by Deloitte. The bill, which came into effect on July 1st will drastically increase bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading activities within the Japanese digital currency exchanges.

The bill will probably increase bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading activities within the Japanese digital currency exchanges.

On April 1, the Japanese government officially recognized Bitcoin as a legal payment method and currency.

The Japanese Bitcoin exchange industry is well regulated with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) systems. AML policies are very strict in Japan and South Korea, and it is difficult for traders to take advantage of utilizing digital currencies to move large amounts outside of Japan.

Price growth because of bitcoin taxation

Although it could be a coincidence- since Japan has proposed the end of Bitcoin taxation, Bitcoin price increased from around $2,450 to $2,570.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
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Bitcoin demand in Asia is more active than in the US

Back on May 31st, one the major Bitcoin exchanges in China called OKCoin returned to help improving the Bitcoin demand withing the Chinese exchanges after a period of suspension of transactions.

As a result, more bitcoin investors are recovering their interest in bitcoin and they are driving the demand for the digital currency.

So, thanks to the activation of withdrawals, bitcoin is now trading at a premium rate in China.

Also, the Chinese press that talks about bitcoin as digital gold is pushing the recent growth of the bitcoin demand for local traders.

On Friday, bitcoin price was about $2,340 in China. A value that was $50 higher than the US rate.

Of course, there are several other major factors that are driving bitcoin price. For example the legalization of the digital currency in Japan, and the use of ICOs in raising funds.

Experts believe that the increasing demand in Asia is pushing the recent growth in the bitcoin price.

South Korea

In South Korea, Bitcoin price increases up to $3,100 when the price on the US exchanges was about $2,400, so $300 higher than the US.

A few startups are also using bitcoin for sending remittances since it works better and faster than traditional money.

For example, one of these startups is called Bluepan, located in South Korea. This company provides an easy way to send money from overseas workers to their families.

In 2 years, Bluepan has processed payments worth $65 mln and for the past year, they recorded a five-time increase in transactions.

Why in Asia?

That said, it is clear that Bitcoin demand in Asia is increasing and its driving prices, while North America shares only a small amount of all users in any sector.

For example, there are fewer customers in North America who use money transfers than in Asia.

This is maybe due to the fact that the worldwide financial system is based on the US dollar, so remittance transactions are easier between dollars and non-dollar currencies compared with transactions that involve two non-dollar currencies.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
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Bitcoin Airlines: Japanese Peach to accept the digital currency

Peach Aviation is going to become the first Japan’s airline to accept bitcoin for buying any flight.

This move comes after the Japanese decision to regulate bitcoin as currency, becoming a legal method of payment back in April 1st, 2017.

During a recent interview with CEO Shinichi Inoue, he said:

“Now you can travel without your wallet. I think this is innovation; we’ll put all our energy into it.”

Peach is a budget domestic flights company that operates in Korea, China and Thailand.

The firm announced that they will accept bitcoin payments by the end of 2017; also, the firm is looking to install Bitcoin ATMs at airports.

“This is a real first step in partnerships for Japan and we are aiming for more company and service tie-ups,” said Inoue in an interview conducted by Bloomberg.

“We want to encourage visitors from overseas and the revitalization of Japan’s regions.”

Several major retailers and merchants are starting to accept bitcoin in Japan thanks to the recent law on digital currencies, as you can read here.

And this is maybe one of the prominent reason why bitcoin price is growing so much during the latest period.

Also, Japanese traders are driving bitcoin prices as they transacted huge amounts on the exchanges: recent studies revealed that Yen is the major fiat currency being exchanged for bitcoin.

Bitcoin airlines worldwide

There are a few other bitcoin airlines in the world and also several ways to book a flight with digital currencies.

For example, CheapAir and BtcTrip are the first platforms that accept this disruptive method of payment.

Also, Latvia-based airline and Virgin Galactic began accepting bitcoin since 2013/2014,  while if you want to book a private jet, you can do it through JetVizor.

More bitcoin airlines to suggest? Write us a message in the comments! We would be happy to add new companies.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
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Price tripled in 1 year: why you should hold bitcoin

Bitcoin price is nearing its all-time high price of $1,277, maybe because of the impressive growth within the Japanese bitcoin industry. Read here why you should hold bitcoin.

Experts argue that bitcoin price will increase consistently in the mid-term if Japan and the US sustain their growth and if small markets such as India will decide for a massive change related to bitcoin regulation.

Bitcoin price drove by India and Japan

India has always been considered the more important Bitcoin markets because of its poor banking system.

Right now, in fact, 40% of India population can be defined as “underbanked“.

The greatest part of people in India cannot rely on banks and financial institutions to manage their funds.

Recently, the demonetization of 500 and 1,000 bank notes decided by the Indian government led to a national financial crisis, as banks and ATMs ran out of cash to dispense, so Indian citizens cannot obtain cash for their daily basic needs.

Also, PwC explained that 233 mln Indians didn’t have any access to bank accounts since October of 2015 and 43% of adults in India made no deposits or withdrawals in any banks or financial institutions.

Bitcoin hold: why?

Bitcoin exchanges in India – such as Zebpay and Unocoin – began to see a huge growth in their user base and trading volumes.

One key factor that would allow the Indian Bitcoin industry to grow at a rapid rate similar to China, South Korea and Japan is the legalization of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin regulation in India should arrive this summer, according to recent press releases.

This way millions of new users would emerge, and Bitcoin price will rise in the mid-term.

That’s why you should hold bitcoin and store them in a safe place.

Open your bitcoin wallet here on the HolyTransaction multicurrency wallet. You can store more than 10 digital currency within the same account, so it is very easy to manage.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio
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Blockchain voting system: how to vote through the distributed ledger

Recently, a South Korean government used a technology developed by the startup called Blocko to set a blockchain voting system.

The province of Gyeonggi-do decided to use the so-called Blocko’s Coinstack platform to set a blockchain voting system to make decisions on community projects as part of the Ddabok program.

Through this program, citizens can propose their own ideas for aid; then the provincial government can decide to award budgets to fund the best and winning projects.

A few months ago, the same process was conducted by officials in Gyeonggi-do, but holding a vote using traditional methods was too expensive.

But now, thanks to the new partnership with Blocko, Gyeonggi-do organized a blockchain voting earlier this month. This vote was part of a bigger program to look for new alternative methods for approving projects.

Citizens submitted 9,000 votes, in both online and offline voting, selectioning more than 500 community aid projects.

Blocko CEO Won Beom Kim commented:

“We used blockchain and Lua based smart-contracts on our blockchain platform (and) Coinstack to create a dynamic voting process to solve this problem. In this process, offline voters, online voters, and professional representatives all contributed to a fair and deterministic result which resulted in the selection of 527 community projects.”

In a press release, the provincial government celebrated the use of the distributed ledger for the community vote and indicated that blockchain could be used more in the next future.

“We can complement the limits of representative democracy with some direct democracy systems by using blockchains, the technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said governor Nam Kyung-pil.

This is not the first time South Korea uses the Blocko-provided technology.

Also, back in November 2016, the Korea Exchange (KRX), a South Korean security exchange operator, hired Blocko to develop a smart contract with the main purpose of authenticating and verifying documents.

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Amelia Tomasicchio

Samsung will invest in the Blockchain

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The well-known South Korean giant Samsung will invest in the Blockchain, as revealed a few days ago by a IT affiliate of the company.

Samsung will invest in the Blockchain startup Blocko

Samsung, in fact, will invest in a blockchain-related startups called Blocko and Darktrace.
More details will be revealed soon, as well as the investment amount that is not already known.
Blocko use a blockchain-as-a-service platform called CoinStack, according to their website:
“Samsung SDS will increase competitiveness of its cybersecurity business and services by promoting sales of the differentiated cyber threat defense solution by Darktrace to Korean companies, as well as work with Blocko to support commercialization of emerging blockchain technology in various sectors including IoT.”
 
Stay tuned on the HolyTransaction blog to read more details about this investment.
In the meantime, you should create your own HolyTransaction wallet.
Our Universal Wallet – as we like to define it – is a safe and secure place where you can store Bitcoin, Litecoin, Blackcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and more digital currencies within a single account.

Open your smart wallet here for free! 

Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.

Satoshi