Glasgow digital currency: hope or reality?
Soon many cities around the world will issue their own digital currency.
According to Pavel Bains, in fact, within the next 10 years we’ll see the first city that have its own digital money and that is separates from the national fiat currency.
The Blockchain Role
This could be the right time for cities to exploit the blockchain and adop their own currency.
But for a new digital currency to be adopted quickly it needs the following characteristics, according to Bains (and we tent to agree with him):
- Cheap: fiat currencies are very expensive to produce, manage and distribute. Conversely, a digital currency deletes all those costs and can easily be distributed;
- Secure: as it is digital, cryptographic and based on pure algorithms, the chance of forgery or distrust is removed;
- Safe: a digital currency can be backed by other assets like gold, treasury bills, foreign exchange or equities, just like fiat money;
- Usable: cities such as Stockholm are going purely digital, so a digital city currency could be massively adopted quickly.
The newest Glasgow digital currency
Bains is pretty sure that the first city to adopt a digital currency will be Glasgow.
This because the Scottish city failed to benefit from the England pound and it came close to a recession back in 2015.
Also, Brexit opened a real issue for Scotland’s future with the potential loss of trades. Demand for Scotland’s products is already declining: in that year there was an 11% drop in exports compared to 2.7% for the UK and with Brexit the situation can only get worse.
But Glasgow has the right tools to adopt its own digital currency. These the major reasons according to Bains:
- It has the regional size and population: this could make the difference compared to smaller cities such as Dundee;
- It has a high record of academia, government and business working together. This unity could be great to manage a new-born digital currency
- Glasgow has a thriving financial base, moving to 74th in the world for financial centers and this demonstrates the city has a good base and an educated population to operationalize the new digital currency system.
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Blockchain Tourism: a task force in Hawaii
A new Blockchain Tourism project will be created in the State of Hawaii, where legislators decided to form a new working group focused on the blockchain tech.
If approved, the House Bill 1481 will lead to the creation of a task force with the goal of researching the use and practices related to the distributed ledger technology.
This project is sponsored by Democratic Representatives Chris Lee and Mark Nakashima.
The official bill explained:
“The legislature finds that highly innovative technologies such as blockchain require an educated and measured approach so that regulations do not stymie innovation and growth in this State.”
The long-term goal, the bill states, is to seek ways for the technology to benefit local industries, residents and the State of Hawaii.
Should the measure be approved, the working group will have to prepare a report about the potential use cases specific to the State of Hawaii.
This research would also provide information on how the state itself could leverage the blockchain.
Among the areas of interest, of course, there would be the topic of tourism payments.
The bill also suggests that Hawaii should look to the technology as a way to encoure tourists from abroad to spend, improving the local economy.
“Digital currencies such as bitcoin have broad benefits for Hawaii. A large portion of Hawaii’s tourism market comes from Asia where the use of bitcoin as a virtual currency is expanding,” the bill reads. “Hawaii has the unique opportunity to explore the use of blockchain technology to make it easier for visitors to consume local goods and services and to drive the tourism economy.”
This Hawaiian bill is only one of the latest legislative efforts to be issued regarding the blockchain technology topic.
For example, in 2016 the State of Vermont proposed to modify a few laws of the country to allow blockchain data to be valid during trials.
This Legislative record also explained that the Vermont Senate introduced another bill to edit the country’s financial regulations to account for businesses that work in the digital currencies industry.
Recently we also talked about another project related to Blockchain Tourism: read more about the newest Webject project by clicking here.
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Polish Bitcoin regulators recognized it within the country
Polish Bitcoin regulators decided to recognize the digital currency within the country.
In fact, the country’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) revealed its decision to recognize the trading and mining of digital currencies as an official economic business in Poland.
This is the reason why from now on companies active in the Polish industry are be able to register themselves with the agency.
Businesses who are involved in cryptocurrency trade and production activities can now apply to obtain an official PKD 64.19.Z registration, the GUS explained in a press release.
This news highlights a significant step forward for industry workers in Poland where currently there isn’t an official regulation or legislation about neither bitcoin or other digital currencies.
Earlier this year the Polish Ministry of Finance released a few documents that expressed the status of legality for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.
Also, in a statement published back in November, the finance ministry commented what follows:
“there is a lack of a general, legal definition of virtual currency in international, European and national law”.
This explains that digital currencies are subjected to income tax, even if they are not subject to any separate regulation according to the Polish legislation.
Polish ministry also commented:
“It should also be stressed here that their use in Poland is fully legal.”
Polish Bitcoin studies
To explore the legal and financial implications of the use of the Polish Bitcoin use, government of Poland has created a new group of blockchain and virtual currencies experts.
This Polish Bitcoin task force was established under the surveilance of the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs, and according to thePolish government’s program titled “From Paper To Digital Poland“ that was written by the Cabinet back in June 2016.
This task force will be responsible to prepare analyses for use by other government agencies in their legislative work and the possible chance of a Polish Bitcoin and digital currencies regulation is one of its goals and interests.
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WebJet Blockchain project for travel bookings
Microsoft is working on the newest Webjet Blockchain project to allow users booking travels through the distributed ledger.
Microsoft, in fact, is testing a blockchain proof-of-concept developed together with the Australian travel agency called Webjet for a pilot that will be ready during this year.
During a speech given at the CoinDesk’s annual conference titled Construct 2017, Cale Teeter and Eric Maino, or Microsoft senior software development engineer and technical architect, commented that they think that the project, which looking for make travel bookings easier by using a blockchain-based system, will reach its development status during the next few months.
“Webjet wanted to see, instead of everyone running their own proprietary systems, a system that connects companies they own. They’ve been running their real data through it and they’ve been finding interest discrepancies in the business, and they’re hoping to expand it out,” said Maino.
Revealed in November, the Webjet managing director John Guscic explained that the online booking system has become apt to be developed thanks to the several systems used for its business projects including the hotel room wholesaling.
“Between five and 10% of bookings can be impacted or, in other words, up to $10bn-worth of transactions,” Guscic explained in a previous statement.
Microsoft is not new to blockchain-based project. Earlier this year, in fact, the computer well-known company revealed its project called Manifest for tracking products worldwide. Read more by clicking here.
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Bitcoin Prices are trading above $950
Bitcoin prices are growing more than 3% since yesterday, trading above $950 for the first time in a few weeks.
The average price yesterday reached a high of $959.37 from an open of $920.24, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). This chart shows that the Bitcoin prices haven’t passed $950 for a month, since January 6th 2017, to be more exact.
This Bitcoin prices growth above $950 came after a few days of a almost steady trading, in which the price of bitcoin ranged between roughly $910 and $922, according to trading data.
At the moment, the Bitcoin Prices are between $950 and $970 with a medium rate of volatility.
Chinese markets have climbed about 11%, reaching a high of ¥6,629.34.
Currently the price is about ¥6,608.70 and it represents a growth of 10.7% above yesterday’s open of ¥5,961.77.
This move comes after a big news in the worldwide exchange landscape, as major bourses in China moved to add trading fees.
This is the reason why volumes moved to the remaining markets without any fees.
Anyway, experts now discuss that this trend will have a short life as those exchanges will also add fees of their own for sure in the next future.
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China Blockchain project for a new digital currency
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is working on a China Blockchain project for a new digital currency.
According to an article published by Caixin yesterday, the People’s Bank of China completed a project on 15th December during which it tested how transactions could work by using a custom blockchain system.
The test was held together with major Chinese commercial banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China and WeBank.
The official press release reports:
“The bank suggested the digital currency would not only reduce circulation costs but also increase transparency and curb money laundering and tax evasion.”
Also, the official report just released explained that the new China Blockchain digital currency might be connected to the Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange to create a “national platform for bank bill transactions”.
Together with this new project the PBOC will also open a digital currency research institute for which it is looking for experts in big data, fintech, cryptography and distributed ledger technology.
The official report shared by the PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan in February, also explained that the central bank was considering the distributed ledger as one of a few different technologies that can be allow it to create a new form of digital cash.
Also, this project coincides with the current PBOC’s investigations into the most important bitcoin exchanges of the country, an operation that started in January and that has seen several startups doing a few changes to trading policies.
Read more news about the China Blockchain projects by clicking here.
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Microsoft Blockchain Project for tracking products
A technology originally created for NASA communication now will be used by the new Microsoft blockchain project that will help tracking products worldwide.
Microsoft Blockchain’s Project called Manifest can also help to ensure the origin of the material used and the labor used to build the products, conforming them to company’s standards.
Thanks to a partnership with Mojix, Project Manifest uses Internet of Things (IoT) platform that is currently integrated with the Ethereum blockchain to help companies to track items using a radio frequency identification device (RFID).
This kind of implementation is able to inform each member of the supply chain about the history of a shipped product.
During a recent interview with Microsoft’s strategist Yorke Rhodes, he explained why this partnership was chosen:
“Project Manifest is actually designed to look at the challenges of visibility in the supply chain. One of the reasons why we worked with Mojix is because they already have technology and know-how in supply chains for scanning RFIDs.”
A new database to track products
An early version of the Microsoft blockchain solution now integrates Mojix’s platform, called ViZix, with a smart contracts and it was exhibited during an event held last week at the National Retail Federation in NYC.
The ViZix integration has been designed to exploit the rapidly growing rate that goods are being labelled with RFID, Bluetooth and GPS sensors.
“The consumer would like to be able to see where the goods are to make sure they’re not coming from slave labor and things like that,” said Yorke. “By way of giving consumers the ability to do that we’d like to push certain parts of the data to a public blockchain.”
Microsoft Blockchain creates new partnerships
In addition to the Mojix partnership, Project Manifest also includes work with a standards body and support from the academic sector.
In fact, Project Manifest confirmed that two professors and 10 students from Auburn University’s RFID lab will also participate to the group.
Also, the lab has been engaged with seven brands and three retailers for seeking to create new ways to deal with a recent growth in supply chain data.
This team is studying and testing electronic proof of delivery, vendor scorecarding, anti-counterfeiting, anti-grey market, and data exchange data.
And a report about these researches is expected by the end of 2017.
Read more about Microsoft Blockchain’s project here.
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Shopping with Bitcoin: read the ultimate guide
Today I want to help you to start doing shopping with Bitcoin. Thanks to this method you can buy everything you want online, saving money and time.
Also, you will be able to avoid frauds that are very common on Internet, unfortunately.
First of all, you need a cryptocurrency wallet as a safe place to store your Bitcoin. You can open it now for free here.
Bitcoin Virtual Credit Card
To stard doing shopping with Bitcoin you can easily open a bitcoin virtual credit card on our new platform called HolyTransaction Trade.
Not all the e-commerce platforms you can find online accept Bitcoin, so this is an instant and cheap way to create a virtual credit card with Bitcoin and buy everything you want from your favorite online store.
You can use a virtual credit card everywhere a Visa credit card is accepted among the payment methods.
Also, to read more about all the benefits of a bitcoin virtual credit card, click here.
Shopping with Bitcoin on Purse and eGifter
As you can see on the HolyTransaction.com menu, you can directly open your Purse card from your HolyTransaction Wallet.
You just need to click on “Spend” and then on “Purse” or “eGifter”.
Purse is a fast way to do shopping with Bitcoin on Amazon, also saving from 5% to 15% on millions of products. To do so you just need to create an online gift card on Purse and start doing shopping.
eGifter is another way to do shopping with Bitcoin, buying from hundreds of gifts cards with your favorite digital currency. You can do it directly from our website, by depositing the bitcoins stored in your wallet on the eGifter website.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
The newest Deutsche Börse Blockchain project
A new Deutsche Börse blockchain project was unveiled today as the market operator revealed a new blockchain proof-of-concept to manage bank cash transfers.
The so-called ‘CollCo’ (or, ‘collateralized coin’), is the new Deutsche Börse blockchain project created together with Eurex Clearing, or the clearing house used by the Deutsche Börse.
Using the same code of the Hyperledger Fabric project as a basis, the company wants to obtain a patent approval for this revolutionary transfer solution available thanks to the distributed ledger.
According to the official press release shared by the Deutsche Börse, the next step is to work with customers, regulatory and central banking contacts.
This is the official description for CollCo:
“All peer-to-peer payments based on tokenised commercial bank money are accompanied by movements of collateral between the respective Eurex Clearing members using the [central counter party’s] functionality and rules.”
The press release continues by saying that the idea links together “existing and potential new use cases” as the “handling of margining requirements, credit risk free payments, and delivery-versus-payment asset/value transfer on the blockchain”.
The Deutsche Börse has spent much time during the past year testing several blockchain use cases, including one thanks to a partnership with Germany’s central bank.
Also, in February 2016, the company partecipated at the New York blockchain startup Digital Asset Holding’s $60m funding round.
During a speech given last week, CEO Carsten Kengeter talked about the so-dubbed “Exchange 4.0” powered by next-generation technologies.
“Exchange 4.0 will use blockchain intelligently. Exchange 4.0 will convert data into investment tools. Finally, Exchange 4.0 will be as varied – and perhaps also as easy to use – as an app store,” he explained.
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Blockchain Cybersecurity: read the full report
As explained by a major IT agency for the European Union, financial companies should be careful to blockchain cybersecurity issues if they want to implement the blockchain.
The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), in fact, published a new report on the distributed ledger, highlighting the security issues that large companies might experience if they decide to adopt blockchain tech.
Key management, data privacy and smart contracts are some of the most important topics discussed in the ENISA report.
This is the first time the agency, created back in 2004, published a report on the technology. Last year, ENISA published a glossary on its official website.
On the page there was an overview of blockchain, saying “it is too soon to tell whether blockchain will live up to its promise”.
According to this newest report, financial businesses should give high attention to security issues.
Udo Helmbrecht, executive director of ENISA, explained in an official statement:
“Cybersecurity should be considered as a key element in the blockchain implementation by financial institutions.”
Code review and mechanisms for accessing to distributed networks should be important, commented the report. Also it highlights that banks and financial institutions should think about the blockchain cybersecurity challenges of handling digital asset wallets.
Click on the link below to read the full copy of the report:
WP2016 3-1 4 Blockchain Security by CoinDesk.
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