“BRI reaches as much as 65% of the world’s population, while covering half of world gross domestic product (GDP), 75% of all known energy reserves, and a quarter of all cross-border goods and services trade.” ~ Deutsche Bank

The digital yuan could be weaponized as a tactical or strategic weapon. As it expands across the new Silk Road, China would be able to implement total surveillance over the economic activity of more than half the world’s population, tracking everyone’s spending habits and relationships. By holding authorization keys, China could freeze transactions it doesn’t like or seize digital assets by locking customers’ mobile wallets at will. Precursor systems are already rolling out in China, where a “social credit” system punishes or rewards individual behavior. It has already blocked millions from buying airline tickets.

Image source: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/ca5720/chinas_social_credit_system/

Quantum Computing & Cryptography

If blockchain can be broken by quantum, all cryptography can be broken. And that’s a much bigger societal risk. Think about your bank, your browser, your smartphone or your laptop — computing has been integrated into all levels of our life. All those levels rely on existing cryptographic algorithms and are vulnerable in one way or another.

One of the promising aspects here is that quantum actually makes excellent cryptography. There’s a thing called quantum cryptography, and it’s very different from our understanding of how classical cryptography works. Quantum cryptography is used today in a small amount of applications. Some interesting research in this field shows that while quantum can break existing cryptography and make it useless, it actually introduces a different forum which could be used to fix the problem. I think it’s fascinating that the very thing that breaks cryptography also fixes it.

“…We could see quantum cryptography be the answer and even be actually integrated into future versions of blockchain, making blockchain a quantum-based system itself…Humans are awesome. We will come up with other ideas. It won’t just be quantum fixing the same problems it creates. And I’m also very confident that blockchain will evolve in the decades ahead.” ~ Dr. Jonathan Reichental, CEO of Human Future, a global business and technology education, advisory and investment firm.

Akoin

What to do after lighting a million homes in Africa?

One Africa. One Koin.

Akoin is a cryptocurrency powered by a marketplace of tools and services fueling the dreams of entrepreneurs, business owners, and social activists as they connect and engage across the rising economies of Africa and beyond; created by visionary global artist, change-maker, innovator and humanitarian, Akon.

Read the Akoin whitepaper.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Further Reading:

(1) China’s Digital Yuan Is an Economic Cyberweapon, and the US Is Disarming

(2) Talking Digital Future: Quantum Computing and Cryptography

(3) AKoin

The post Digital Yuan, Quantum Computing & Cryptography, AKoin appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

Banking in 2020

(1) From Paper Money to Digital Currency

As blockchain technology is able to bring down borders of financial products as defined in the conventional way of doing things, it is a matter of:

How do we define money in the new paradigm?

(2) Data Is The New Oil

One of the capabilities of Blockchain and its practical applications would be to turn data into currency, something coined as datanomics – data + economics.

(3) The Dawn of Crypto Bank

Looking at the three phases of cryptocurrencies, we are now slowly moving into the stage of corporate currency implementation. CBDC is happening anyhow.

So, where is the big deal?

Blockchaining Sukuk

Blockchaining Sukuk, crypto is the future.

News from CoinTelegraph

As reported by Cointelegraph, information related to blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the banking industry within the past 48 hours at the time of writing:

Billing itself as the next step in the challenger bank concept, the all-digital account will allow multiple currencies, both fiat and digital, to be held in the same account- HODL, exchange, spend.

According to a Technical Assistance Report paper released Dec. 30, 2019, the IMF’s Philippines mission encouraged the central bank to start exploring the possibility of collecting data on these crypto exchanges for its macroeconomic analysis, particularly in regard to international financial flows using crypto assets.

A CBDC is a new type of legal tender which will expand the public’s digital access to central bank accounts, which is limited to commercial banks today. As a result, this tool will combine the digital nature of bank deposits with the classic advantages of cash in daily transactions. A key point to carefully consider, though, is,

To what extent is this the case?

Would the new currency take the form of a personal account at the central bank that can pay positive interest rates, or that of an anonymous digital token without interest, like classic cryptocurrencies?

The central bank’s tests are ongoing – while China has not yet set a formal release date for its CBDC, which will be the first state-backed cryptocurrency on the world stage, the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress in China passed the crypto law on Oct. 26, 2019.

It divides passwords at large into three distinct categories — passwords, common passwords, and commercial passwords — and aims to facilitate China’s transition to blockchain technology.

Mayo predicts that the financial sector is ripe for big advances over the next 10 years. That decade of thriving banks will be technology-enabled.

Following the announcement of plans for a national blockchain infrastructure, Turkey has seen steady growth in blockchain projects, both in the public and private sectors.

Turkey’s Istanbul Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank) announced that its blockchain-based, physical gold-backed transfer system enables participating banks to transfer digital assets representing a quantity of physical gold.

This platform distinguishes itself from many similar projects in the world by allowing the use of blockchain technology to transfer digital assets based on physical commodities, not having any value of its own, and ensuring full compliance with existing regulations.

The post Eyes On Technology And Banking appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

Digital Assets Exchange (DAeX) is a platform where people trade assets in digital forms, or digital forms of representation of real world assets. Currently, majority of digital assets traded over the virtual world are in the form of tokens (be it assets backed or not) or cryptocurrencies. Think of it as something similar to conventional stock or forex market, only this time, it serves the digital assets developed mainly via Blockchain or DLT based solutions.

Nation-state backed / regulation compliant DAeX (Digital Assets Exchange) – the ship is sailing.

Another industry progress log to Blockchain Insider’s article: Two Monetary Worlds & Three Phases of Cryptocurrencies

As the regulators steps in, we start seeing the formation of institutional or corporate backed cryptocurrencies in the making. The center of the universe will be the exchanges, where transactions happen and interoperability is in progress.

Related industry progress as reported by Cointelegraph between 24th and 28th March 2019

Study: 14% of Major Crypto Exchanges Are Licensed by Regulators

In the study, Coinfirm evaluated the exchanges into seven categories of risk, including license and authorization, Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, sanctions, senior public figures, jurisdiction, and negative and adverse media.

Japan Green Lights 2nd Crypto Exchange for April Launch as Data Shows Huge Interest

“With the concept of ‘connecting and exchanging all values and making transactions simple,’ DeCurret aims to become ‘a major financial servicer for digital currency’ that sets standard [sic] for secured and convenient digital currency transaction,” DeCurret summarized in the press release.

Tagomi Holdings’ Subsidiary Gets BitLicense from New York DFS

The firm’s parent company, Tagomi Holdings, was launched by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm in December 2018. The company represents an electronic brokerage for digital assets offering cross market execution, capital management, post-trading reporting, as well as settlement and custodial services.

With that, Tagomi Trading is an institutional-grade aggregation platform for trading virtual currency assets and executes trades across multiple liquidity venues, the DFS’ statement explains.

New Partnership Purports to Create First Approved Crypto Exchange in Vietnam

The collaboration is designed to facilitate the production of digital currency and the creation of a cryptocurrency exchange in Vietnam, to which the companies have supposedly received an appropriate license. The establishment of an authorized cryptocurrency exchange could be a large step for the industry in Vietnam, as the government has previously taken a hard line against digital assets.

E-Commerce Firm Rakuten Readies Cryptocurrency Exchange for April Launch After Name Change

Rakuten, which follows several major Japanese tech players in entering the crypto exchange market, renamed its product from Everybody’s Bitcoin earlier this month. The company had acquired the exchange under the former name in August last year for 265 million yen (at the time $2.4 million).

Japan: Yahoo!-Backed Cryptocurrency Exchange Set for May Launch

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Taotao (formerly BitARG) will start trading a limited range of cryptocurrencies in May. The plans originally came to light in March 2018, when Yahoo! Japan announced it would acquire a major stake in the exchange through its subsidiary, YJFX. At the time, sources suggested the purchase had cost the company around 2 billion yen (then $19 million).

US Institutional Crypto Exchange Seed CX Expands to Asia With New Partnership

United States-based institutional cryptocurrency exchange Seed CX has partnered with Singapore-based fintech company Hydra X to offer its trading service in Asia. Seed CX is a licensed digital asset exchange for both spot market and U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated derivatives. As Cointelegraph reported at the time, Seed CX closed a $15 million funding round led by alternative investment firm Bain Capital in September last year.

LocalBitcoins Announces Supervision by Financial Supervisory Authority of Finland

International peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchange LocalBitcoins will soon become supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Finland. On March 18, LocalBitcoins launched a new account registration process, and is now working on a more efficient and safe identity verification process. The company noted that corporate accounts will undergo a separate verification process. Along with the regulatory announcement, LocalBitcoins also stated that it is developing tools to increase compliance with regulators.

Featured Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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