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.
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):
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:
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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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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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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed today its intent to study Blockchain Healthcare Applications.
The American agency who approves and regulates medical products announced its decision in a press release published by IBM Watson Health, that will team together with the FDA.
IBM will study how data from electronic medical records, clinical trials and health data from devices can be better shared and audited by using the distributed ledger.
To do so, it is not clear if IBM and the FDA will use a private blockchain or the Bitcoin one. Details may be published during next months.
Initial tests will be focused on clinical trials and real-world evidence data related to oncological data.
However, the two companies positioned the trial as one that could one day mitigate the potential of patient privacy breaches during electric exchanges.
The official press release revealed:
“By keeping an audit trail of all transactions on an unalterable distributed ledger, blockchain technology establishes accountability and transparency in the data exchange process.”
According to the press release, the IBM and the FDA will work together for a two-years period and their goal is publishing their researches in 2017.
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Today we want to talk about the recent Russian Blockchain interest and the country major announcements related to bitcoin and the distributed ledger.
According to Economic Times, Russia wants to use the blockchain technology to improve its national payment system and to simplify clients’ identification.
The Association of Financial Innovation (AFI) in Russia, in fact, prepared a draft for improving the regulation of its own national payment system.
This draft has been shared for a first discussion on the Association’s official web site. After this discussion, the roadmap will be presented to the Russian Duma, the Ministry of finance and the Bank of Russia.
According to the official article, the roadmap includes the use of the distributed ledger technology for users identification. Here an extract:
“Along with expansion opportunities in the short term transactions under the simplified identification of clients, develop an approach and implement a single identifier (possibly using blockchain technology)”.
The Association for Financial Technologies Development (FinTech Association) was recently setted up by the Bank of Russia.
Its participants will study and test the most promising technologies, including the distributed ledger, open application program interface (open API) and remote identification technologies. Also, the association will create a single payment space both for households and legal entities.
Earlier in 2016, the Bank of Russia revealed its technical prototype for financial messaging, based on the blockchain and called Masterchain.
This tool would allow instant confirmation of data; also it would create a few financial opportunities for the market participants to provide game-changing products and services to their clients.
Recenlty Russia seems to love the Blockchain very much. In fact, the national tax authority recognized Bitcoin as a foreign money, expressing the legality of Bitcoin use and transactions.
Also, Siberia Airlines revealed its use of the Ethereum Blockchain Smart Contract in a few transations.
To read more about Russian Blockchain projects, click here.
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A well-known worldwide seller and another important firm partecipated to the first live transactions using the BNP Paribas Blockchain service, as revealed today by the bank itself.
According to BNP Paribas, in fact, payments were processed between the Italian sports collectible firms Panini Group and the Australian packaging firm called Amcor.
The payment transactions were managed in a few minutes – the bank explained in the official press release – using different currencies to make transactions easier between bank accounts located in Germany, Netherlands and England.
Panini Group treasurer Fabrizio Masinelli commented in a statement:
“This proof-of-concept shows how powerful such technology can be and how it can be utilised as an effective and efficient response to the main issues that treasurers face on a daily basis.”
The transactions were managed by using the proof of concept called Cash Without Borders launched earlier this year after its incubation during a blockchain hackathon.
More Details about the size of the transactions will be revealed in the next future.
Also, the BNP Paribas blockchain service tested the so-called “mini-bonds” for small investments, as well as blockchain crowdfunding prototypes that might see the light next year.
According to the Panini Group’s official website, the company earned 751m euros in 2014 and employs 1,000 people worldwide.
Also, during the same year, Amcor earned $10b in sales and employs 29,000 employees.
To read more about the BNP Paribas Blockchain service click here.
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Today I want to talk about the Denmark Bitcoin position and regulation.
Denmark is a place where its citizens relie on cash less than most other European countries, so it is thinking about digitalizing its national currency.
To do so, the Danish central bank wants to release its own digital currency based on a blockchain and it will be called e-krone.
Governor of the Danish central bank, Lars Rohde. commented that the government doesn’t want to print its own fiat currency in the future.
So Rohde is looking for outsourcing the production of Danish krone and wants to replace it with its independent financial system based on the distributed ledger technology: the e-krone.
In an interview conducted by Bloomberg, Rohde explained that the Danish central bank effort is not related to the blockchain technology or alternative fintech technologies:
“We’re not preoccupied with the technology because we know that issue well. Cash and notes are not an alternative to electronic payments. We went beyond that many years ago.”
Also, the most important problem the central bank is worried about is the anonymity of the e-krone.
At the moment, the Danish bank believes that the e-krone will have a serial number embedded onto its Blockchain, so the government will be able to track the currency thanks to a transparent ledger.
However, another issue about the anonymity of a currency are the predictable complaints by the Danish citizens who expect to be provided with financial freedom and privacy.
“All money held by Danes will eventually end up in the central bank in the event of a financial crisis, and we will indirectly end up doing a bailout because we become a creditor to all the banks.”
But the distributed ledger tech is not applicable to the concept of the Danish central bank, as structurally it cannot be established for the central bank as network moderator.
To read more news about Denmark Bitcoin position, click here.
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Blockchain Copyright will be the major topic to be discussed by the US Commerce Department on Friday 9th November, 2016.
The even is organized by the Internet Task Force department, supported by the US Patent and Trademark Organization (USTPO), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the International Trade Administration (ITA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
This group was created to study a wide range of topics, from blockchain copyright to digital privacy and cybersecurity.
The Commerce Department will be hosting a live streaming of the conference.
According to an agenda published by the Commerce Department, the event is being organized at the Silicon Valley office.
However, the blockchain copyright topic is not so new, as the idea that distributed ledger technology can be very useful in the digital copyright filed is being explored by several startups worldwide.
The idea is that a creative project can be linked to a transaction or digitized asset on an immutable ledger, so its provenance can be traced to its origin, verifying the true author behind it.
The one-day event, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. UTC, will include a panel session on registries and rights expression languages, and a conference that is expected to be focused on the use of the distributed ledger.
The next sessions will be focused on the blockchain and smart contracts as topics of discussion. And while no specific details about projects have been revealed, the conference will include a technology preview.
The department explained during its press release:
“We will discuss the potential for interoperability across digital registries and standards work in this field, and consider the relevant emerging technologies (eg, blockchain technology, open-source platforms). We will also explore potential approaches to guide their adoption and integration into the online marketplace.”
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The uncertainties about the relationship Russia Bitcoin were finally disappeared.
In an official document published a few days ago on November 29th Russia’s federal tax service expressed its new position regarding the legality of Bitcoin use and transactions.
In fact, the document finally explained that there is no legal prohibition of digital currencies in Russia.
For almost three years it was not clear if the Russian authorities wanted to ban or accept Bitcoin and introduce several penalties.
Somewhere during this period, the Russian ministry of finance commented about the possibility of a four years imprisonment introduction for people involved in the Bitcoin use.
Also, even bank officials sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from holding certain positions.
However, Russian authorities changed their idea and gave the ministry of finance a new directive to write a law on Bitcoin.
The federal tax service’s document affirms the legality of Bitcoin and indicates that all trading operations related to Bitcoin and any other digital currency are to be considered as foreign and external securities.
In fact, this document essentially defines the buying and selling of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies a monetary transaction.
However, the document also explained that Russian authorities will investigate about people who use Bitcoin for money laundering and terrorism.
Even if this calls for KYC and AML from exchanges is yet to be clarified by the Russian government as there are more interpretations that are yet to be communicated.
Source: Coindesk.com
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Ernst and Young Bitcoin: the Swiss branch of global professional services firm will accept the cryptocurrency-kind of payment next year.
Starting in January, Ernst and Young Switzerland will allow bitcoin for invoice payments, as the company explained in a new press release.
The Swiss firm will also open a new BTM (or Bitcoin ATM) at its office in Zurich, as well as a wallet option for its employees.
This Ernst and Young project is part of the bigger cultural experiment on bitcoin and the distributed ledger conducted in Switzerland.
Late last month, in fact, Swiss railway service announced that it will sell bitcoin on its nationwide network of ticket kiosks; also the Swiss town called Zug will accept Bitcoin for public services payments, as its major explained back in May.
According to Ernst and Young, this launch fits perfectly with this experimental context created in the Swiss country.
Switzerland’s CEO, Marcel Stalder, commented that the company wants its employees to know digital currencies and the blockchain. This project is to provide ways to access a hands-on education, he said.
Stalder explained:
“We don’t only want to talk about digitalization, but also actively drive this process together with our employees and our clients. It is important to us that everybody gets on board and prepares themselves for the revolution set to take place in the business world through blockchains, smart contracts and digital currencies.”
Ernst and Young is just one of the “Big Four” accounting firms involved in the blockchain sector at the moment.
Recently, the company also decided to open a blockchain-related contest for startups with the goal of “exploring how blockchain technology can tackle challenges in digital rights management and energy trading.”
Learn more about Switzerland and Ernst and Young involvemet in the bitcoin field, by clicking on the links above.
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