Blockchain Japan Banks: a new Consortium
42 financial institutions created a new Blockchain Japan Banks Consortium focused on decentralized payments.
Created by the financial service called SBI and co-launched with the distributed ledger startup Ripple, this new blockchain consortium includes a wide range of large and small companies and institutions. The creation of this blockchain consortium comes a few days after SBI revealed that it would work to create its own digital currency exchange in Japan.
Members involved in this new program want to share resources and work on a cross-border proof-of-concept, with the goal of creating a new common ground for commercial-scale products in 2017.
SBI explained in a statement:
“The Consortium will promote discussion, from both technical and operational perspectives, on activities required in domestic and foreign exchange services to utilize blockchain and other new technologies, consolidate domestic and foreign exchange services, and build 24-hour and real-time remittance infrastructure, and will try to finish PoC by next March to move forward commercial base.”
Also, SBI explained that efforts to create this blockchain consortium began in August, with the first goal to involve 15 member banks, but the group has rapidly increased its members during the promotional period, the company commented.
This blockchain Japan Banks consortium created by SBI is the latest effort of its kind. Similar groups have been created in recent months among Russian financial companies and European insurance brands. Read more here.
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MasterCard Releases Blockchain API
MasterCard releases Blockchain API, an experiment to work on an emerging technology such as the distributed ledger.
So Visa won’t be the only credit card company to work on the blockchain.
But while Visa is releasing a B2B blockchain, MasterCard releases blockchain API with more collaborative objectives.
The MasterCard website now contains 3 APIs connected to its internal blockchain platform, including offerings based on smart contracts and payment settlement. Those APIs were created by MasterCard Labs, the innovation program of the credit card giant.
MasterCard blockchain lead Justin Pinkham explained that the company created the API platform in October to stoke interest among banks and merchants.
Pinkham explained to CoinDesk magazine:
“This is part of our initiative to publish experimental APIs from Mastercard Labs and give developers the chance to work on emerging technologies that haven’t yet been commercialized by us.”
Also, Pinkham explained that MasterCard company is continuing to work on technology use cases and it is looking for new partnerships that can be useful for the MasterCard’s business.
“We believe that there is a role of blockchain in the future of commerce. This future needs to be developed in partnership with banks, merchants and industry participants,” Pinkham commented.
This news is one of the most important for MasterCard company, who used to criticize bitcoin in the past.
But if MasterCard releases Blockchain API, this means that it is beginning to push some of the work done by its tech lab.
According to Pinkham it won’t be the last, as he said that the company is creating a new foundation for blockchain tech that will be focused on the distributed ledger use cases including inter-bank payments, trade finance, digital identity and also the exchange of know-your-customer information.
This work was possible also thanks to the new partnership between MasterCard and startups through its Start Path Global program, as well as 30 more blockchain-related patents that Pinkham explained the company submitted.
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OverStock Blockchain Stock to open soon
Overstock Blockchain Stock will begin its work in December.
Patrick Byrne, CEO at Overstock, revealed this news today at Money2020, explaining how investors will be able to partecipate to the shares release, as well as the key dates involved in this process.
The initial sale will done as a rights offering, so interested investors will have to hold Overstock stock within 7th November in order to be eligible to receive shares on 10th November.
Then, on 15th November, a subscription period will open, when investors will be able to decide whether they want to take part to the offering.
During his speech, Byrne explained:
“Given our T+3 settlement, you will be a record holder by 10th November… If all goes well, it could be trading by 15th December.”
The announcement comes just a few days after Overstock cryptocurrency group general manager Judd Bagley revealed an upcoming news during a panel session on capital markets. In fact, Byrne suggested that news would be announced in August when he returned to a leadership role at the Overstock company.
Also, Byrne said he believes that the distributed ledger could be a more disruptive force than the Internet.
“My allegiance is not to bitcoin, but the blockchain. Three years ago, I realized the blockchain was going to disrupt a lot of things in our civilization,” he explained to the Money2020 attendees.
At the end of his speech, Byrne also discusses the various technology and business partnerships that allowed Overstock company to create to the forthcoming blockchain stock offer.
You can read more details about the Overstock Blockchain by reading here.
Source: Coindesk
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Yacht with Bitcoin: how to rent it in Europe
A yacht with Bitcoin in Europe? Read this article and find out how to rent or buy it.
A few months ago you might remember about a € 100 000 Tesla sold with Bitcoin in Finland, where Auto Outlet Helsinki Oy managed this transactions for a private citizen.
Users can buy everything they want with digital currencies, thanks to platforms such as OpenBaazar, GiftOff and more.
But from now one people can also buy and rent luxury yacht with bitcoin, as NAMI integrated bitcoin as a payment option.
NAMI is a company that rents luxury yachts and its director, Miika Toivonen is the same person who works for the Auto-Outlet Helsinki and sold the Tesla I previously mentioned.
Now Toivonen is is willing to allow users to buy luxury yacht with bitcoin.
“We’ve always willing to take part on everything that is new, like selling Teslas with bitcoin, so why wouldn’t we also rent yachts as well. So far we’ve sold a nice amount of Tesla electric cars around Europe, so I believe the same thing will work with luxury yachts as well.”, explained Director of NAMI Miika Toivonen in a press release.
With over 100000 merchants worldwide that accept bitcoin as a payment option, Bitcoin is the faster growing payment option and currency in the world.
And Finland, where NAMI works, is one of the top countries on Bitcoin usage if we count the number of bitcoin currency exchanges and BTMs.
“Meanwhile when numbers and numbers financial operators are getting more and more interested about bitcoin, we’ve noticed that demand for expensive luxury brands bought with bitcoin is rising. This is simply because there is more wealthy players on board. We were launching bitcoin payments for Luxury Collection and in the future we want to help more companies to benefit from Bitcoin-teknology and phenomenom.” explained us Aleksi Vitakoski from Bitcoinkaupat.
“In my opinion selling luxury cars like Tesla with bitcoin is some remarkable sales in bitcoin space, in Finnish and in European scale. It’s nice to see that adding one payment option can lead to purchases like that and it’s also very natural move by NAMI to extend bitcoin payments to yachts as well.”, commented Prasos Oy CEO Henry Brade.
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IBM Blockchain to solve delivery issues
Singapore startup FreshTurf is working on a IBM Blockchain project to develop a network for solving issues related to delivery and storage lockers.
According to a press release, the two companies wants to create a network to track delivery shipments and storage lockers through the blockchain with the objective of providing a faster and safer service to the customers.
This way, in fact, users will be able to track their packages more easily thanks to a distributed ledger platform.
This is not the first project for the IBM’s BlueMix garage, a wordwide network of innovators that provides a hub for startups and companies to test and study the blockchain.
The BlueMix is a part of IBM blockchain broader strategy for fintech applications.
The two companies commented in a press release that their goal is providing a system for clients to check the status of their packages in real time.
“Not only can the application of blockchain technology help provide visibility across the fulfilment chain, allowing users to track their parcel and delivery status from the convenience of their phone, it can help stakeholders to conduct shipping transactions in a highly secure and trusted environment.”
This distributed system, currently in development, works through the IBM blockchain.
It is not still clear if the companies will sell the technology for commercial use.
IBM Blockchain and Australian Postal Service
Blockchain has been used for several use cases, including package delivery.
In fact, Australian Postal Service released a report explaining how they could use the distributed ledger to track packages movements. Read more about Australian Postal Service new project by clicking here.
Also, US Postal Service discussed its idea to create a new digital currency called PostCoin.
And this is not the first time IBM works on a blockchain-related project. Read more news about the IBM Blockchain here.
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Illinois Blockchain Strategy: a new working group
The U.S.A. State has created a new Illinois Blockchain Working Group for integrating the technology within the government.
This working group, created at the beginning of 2016, includes several representatives from public agencies, including the Department of Innovation and Technology, Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and the Department of Insurance.
Its main goal is identifying how the distributed ledger can improve government services and making it easier for users doing business with State agencies.
Director of the state’s Department of Insurance, Anne Melissa Dowling says her office is involved in a strong education campaign, to be the first agency in the U.S.A. to use the blockchain.
“Right now we’re trying to determine if we become a first mover in this space by developing a distributed ledger vision for government. But we’re doing a lot of listening and learning.”
During an interview, she explained that the distributed ledger can be used to make it easier relationships among Illinois insurance companies, regulators and policy holders.
So, the state wants to explore how the ledger can help to speed up this process.
“In concept its an absolutely beautiful thing. But we need to have a little more experience we need to spend a little more time with the data.”
Illinois Blockchain and Regulators
William Mougayar, author of “The Business Blockchain”, said that a semi-private blockchain developed by the state would be a strong basis to welcome in market stakeholders. According to him, the real challenge will be getting regulators on board, or the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
“I suspect that the regulatory aspect is a more critical hurdle that will need to be addressed,” he said.
At the moment Dowling and her group are still thinking about the options they have. She explained that she studying the technology and its potential use cases for her agency, so she’s still learning more and more about the blockchain.
As part of that process, Dowling will participate in a blockchain regulatory panel held in Chicago on November 8th and she says that her first goal will be learing as much as possible.
Also, Dowling comments she is observing working models that can explain how blockchain can be implemented in insurance groups.
These were here words:
“These efforts are really on behalf of consumers to ensure we can serve them in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Illinois wants to look at everything possible to achieve that goal.”
Credit: Coidesk.com
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Blockchain Insurance: applications for insures
Five major European companies will work on a blockchain insurance project to provide faster and safer services to their clients.
This project, called the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3I), has the goal of testing use cases that could help the insurance sector.
To do so, in fact, Allianz, Aegon, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich, or the biggest companies of this field, are working to provide a meeting ground to exchange ideas with this objective: improving the insurance service and creating a new method of doing business.
“We want to be at the heart of these developments and see Blockchain as one of those potential catalysts for change. By actively creating partnerships and making strategic investments we can build smarter solutions together with our clients,” explained Mark Blook, chief technology officer at Aegon.
Allianz – which has already explored smart contracts for catastrophe bonds exchange and has already worked with fintech startups – belives that the distributed ledger can allow them to help transparency for their users.
“This initiative, enabling alternative operating models based on the Blockchain technology, can help us increase transparency and efficiency and deliver a better experience to our customer,” commented Allianz Group COO Christof Mascher.
Those 5 companies said they hope that other brands in the insurance and reinsurance industries will join the project with them.
According to a press release, the mai objective is taking advantage use cases “across the entire insurance value chain”.
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Bitcoin Segwit: scaling solution in November
Bitcoin Segwit was announced in December and it was one of the most awaited software versions since the beginning of the bitcoin creation.
And it is likely to happen on November 15th.
The Bitcoin Segwit, in fact, could solve the block size debate as the block size will become bigger and the bitcoin scalability could improve.
Ciphrex CEO and Bitcoin Core spokesman, Eric Lombrozo explained that users can expect an increase of capacity of 1.8 times.
However, bitcoin segwit main goal is to solve the malleability of transactions, one network aspect that has been controversial since the Mt Gox collapse back in 2014, when this “malleability” problem was used as a scapegoat.
Bitcoin segwit could solve a major part of the block debate, without a hard fork of the Bitcoin protocol. Transactions would tell miners that anyone can spend them, no signature required, while also including strings of seemingly meaningless text.
Old nodes confirm these transactions, ignoring these odd directions and gibberish.
Newer nodes would translate the extra text into instructions, telling them to collect signatures and store them in a completely new part of the transaction, called the Segregated Witness.
Lombrozo, in fact, believes that the benefits of switching to segwit are sufficient to encourage developers to adapt their own software to the new segwit solution.
“Not only they will be able to use the increased capacity offered by segwit and pay lower fees, but also they will be able to support other functions that will be enabled later by segwit with minor updates,” he said.
To better understand what the Bitcoin Segwit is, read here an insightful infographic.
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Bitcoin euro: withdraw with ATM machines
Holytransaction Trade is a new platform offered by HolyTransaction wallet for Bitcoin Euro instant conversion.
Holytransaction.trade is useful when you want to convert your bitcoin into euro, by using any ATM machine with Halcash that you can find in Spain and Poland.
Thanks to HolyTransaction Trade you can do this operation in a few minutes, without having to wait a few days as if you use traditional exchanges.
Anybody can convert his own bitcoins into euro from an ATM machine with Halcash, whether he has a wallet on HolyTransaction or not.
Where is the service available?
The Halcash service is available only in Spain and Poland at the moment.
How much fees?
To convert bitcoin into euro with Halcash, this platform holds a 2% fee.
How does it work? Bitcoin Euro instant conversion
Here you can read a step-by-step guide to convert your bitcoin into euro by using HolyTransaction Trade and the 10.000 HalCash ATM you can find in Spain (or Poland).
- Go to Holytransaction.trade website
- To do a transfer from Bitcoin to Halcash you need to select “Bitcoin” on the right and “Halcash” on the left. Then, click on “Continue”.
- Select an amount and your telephone number where the system will send a verification code.
- Follow the instructions and open your wallet to do a transaction to the address on the screen. Of course, you need to send the same amount you selected in the previous window.
- Once you did, the transaction will be confirmed on the blockchain and you’ll receive a message on your mobile with the password to withdraw your funds at a Halcash ATM.
- Then go to a Halcash ATM, enter your password and withdraw your euro. You need to fill all the fields with mobile number, amount, password, reference number (you received it on your smartphone).
- You can withdraw your amount. This whole operation takes only you a few minutes.
Download the HolyTransaction App here for free.
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Bitcoin virtual credit card: how to create it
Holytransaction Trade is a new service to create a bitcoin virtual credit card offered by the HolyTransaction wallet.
Holytransaction.trade to create a bitcoin virtual credit card
You would think that Holytransaction.trade is a service that can be found anywhere on the web to sell and buy bitcoins.
This is not true, because HolyTransaction.Trade allows you to do much more, such as creating a bitcoin virtual credit card, convert bitcoin into fiat currencies and pick them up in an HalCash ATM, etc.
If you have some digital currencies you can create a bitcoin virtual credit card to buy everything you want online.
So, HolyTransaction Trade is not only a platform where you can convert bitcoin into dollars or euro, but also vice versa: in Mexico, Greece and Spain you can convert fiat into bitcoins via PayNet, EasyPay and Teleingreso.
Also, among the options you can create a bitcoin virtual credit card.
This service is available and works in less than 10 minutes and it is also available on Google Play.
Please note that when you create a virtual credit card the 2% from the total value will be withheld as fees.
To use this service you must be either registered on Entropay.com or register after completing the process.
So if you need liquidity, you may want to transfer your bitcoin into a virtual credit card.
Follow these steps to understand how to create your bitcoin virtual credit card with HolyTransaction.Trade.
- In the first column on the right you need to select “Bitcoin” as an input and “Virtual Bank Card” on the left as the “output”. Then click on “Continue”.
- Select the amount and your email address to receive the virtual card’s information.
- In the following page, you’ll find an address on the bottom right, below the “Pay To”.
- Send your the exact amount you selected before to that address, so enter on your favorite wallet and do a transaction with that address as a recipient. You can transfer max 250 euro for each email address.
- Create or login to your account on EntroPay. You’ll receive all the info you need via email.
- Once the transaction is validated and written on the blockchain, within the next ten minutes the amount you selected will be sent to the beneficiary bitcoin virtual credit card.
- Operation Completed!
This is just one of the services available on the HolyTransaction.Trade platform to convert and send bitcoin worldwide.
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