The time has come.

Institutional investments are coming into the crypto space.

After Microstrategy’s BTC bet, another Nasdaq listed company is making its move into crypto investment.

But what has it got to do with you and me? Or rather, the billion dollar question of

On the way from around USD 300 billion to USD 1 trillion market cap for cryptocurrencies, how much is your portion?

Square (SQ) Invests $50 Million in Bitcoin

Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) announced today that it has purchased approximately 4,709 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $50 million.

Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment and provides a way for the world to participate in a global monetary system, which aligns with the company’s purpose.

The investment represents approximately one percent of Square’s total assets as of the end of the second quarter of 2020.

Square has previously invested in bitcoin from a product, leadership, and legal innovation perspective, and today adds this financial investment.

https://lnkd.in/gt6g-qP

The post Institutional Investors Coming To Town appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

• Celo leverage cryptographic tools and mobile phones to put financial instruments into the hands of the world’s unbanked.
• Compound reduce friction in financial markets, replacing it with speed, efficiency and openness.
• MakerDAO manage to keep something of a stable peg by way of incentives rather than physical backing.

In a way, each new project represents a new and different take on what the financial system can be — or even what it should be.

Centralizatin vs Decentralization – Finance

Further reading:

A better system allows for broad participation, bringing the ideals of open source and decentralization to a new, more fair and more equitable market structure.

How do we avoid simply recreating a new version of the same old system? The answer is part learning from the past, and part joining with and supporting the projects and teams who are truly building the financial future today.

Crypto has a chance to upgrade the legacy financial system

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-has-a-chance-to-upgrade-the-legacy-financial-system

The post ROTD : Decentralized Finance appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

1) MicroStrategy Adopts Bitcoin as Primary Treasury Reserve Asset

2) Facebook is reportedly expanding its banking ambitions with a new division that will run all of the tech giant’s payment projects, including Facebook Pay

3) The Great Chinese Money Experiment Is Over

Reading Notes

MicroStrategy Adopts Bitcoin as Primary Treasury Reserve Asset

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR),
the largest independent
publicly-traded
business intelligence company,

today announced that
it has purchased 21,454 bitcoins
at an aggregate
purchase price of $250 million,
inclusive of fees and expenses.

The purchase of
Bitcoin cryptocurrency
was made pursuant to
the two-pronged capital allocation strategy
previously announced by
the company
when it released
its second quarter 2020
financial results
on July 28, 2020.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200811005331/en/MicroStrategy-Adopts-Bitcoin-Primary-Treasury-Reserve-Asset

Facebook is reportedly expanding its banking ambitions with a new division that will run all of the tech giant’s payment projects, including Facebook Pay

According to a Bloomberg report, the new program will be called Facebook Financial, or F2, and will be run by David Marcus, the cocreator of the firm’s Libra cryptocurrency project.

The new group is one of the company’s latest efforts as part of its broader foray into commerce and finance.

Facebook Financial – or F2 – will oversee all of the tech giant’s payments projects, including Facebook Pay, the service launched in 2019 that allows users to send and receive money on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-financial-new-payments-group-2020-8

The Great Chinese Money Experiment Is Over

I’m fascinated that
China’s long experiment with
atoms about atoms
is almost over and
will soon be replaced by
bits about bits.

This will come about
not because of
Bitcoin or Libra,
Unionpay or PayPal,
but because the PBOC has been

strategic in its thinking and
tactical in its governance.

Their decisions on the topic
for many years
have been measured and consistent.

Digital currency is coming,
and China will take the lead
in digital currency
just as it did
in paper currency.

~ David G.W. Birch, Forbes, Fintech

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbirch/2020/08/09/the-great-money-experiment-is-over/#270823397a90

The post ROTD: Microstrategy Bitcoin Investment, Facebook Finance, Chinese Paper Money appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

TV Review: Open Source Money on Discovery Science

Overall humanity is at a crossroads and the future of money as we know it will be transformed by Blockchain and the new internet of Value.

The only question is, where we will be in the Space Race of our generation when the dust settles?

Open Source Money, a groundbreaking documentary series about the rise of Disney-incubated blockchain company, Dragonchain, and the global evolution of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

UNICEF Crypto Fund to Invest $100K in Humanitarian Blockchain Projects

UNICEF is looking to support early-stage startups with a blockchain prototype that can be transformed and eventually deployed in countries that need the technology the most. For example, during the last funding round, UNICEF invested in blockchain startup StaTwig, a company based in India that uses a blockchain to track the supply-chain of rice being delivered from the Indian government to low income areas.

How Bitcoin Is Becoming Both Resistance Money and a National Security Concern

The implications of a changing geopolitical landscape, where Bitcoin is set to play a role in the upcoming war for tech dominance — while at the same time acting as the key to digitally “exit” from governmental control.

Chinese Courts Use Blockchain for Property E-Sealing

By applying blockchain-powered e-sealing, courts are able to securely monitor a property in real-time with help of video surveillance.

The use of blockchain technology is intended to keep all data recorded and unmodified by involved parties. Law enforcement staff can use the platform to conduct property information queries to check the history of operations on the sealed property.

The post Open Source Money, Humanitarian, Shelter, and National Security appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

On one hand, we see the possibility of the technology to empower people with more freedom and security. On the other hand, we are aware that once appropriated by the authorities or the ruling elites, it will be powerful to facilitate the growth of crony capitalism.

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

The utopian idea of universal basic income — which has been with humanity for at least half a millenia — can become real with digital currency.

Due to the crisis caused by COVID-19, millions of people have lost all or part of their income.

To support them, governments have been giving out money to victims.

Is it possible to make this practice permanent?

And if so, why will we need state digital currencies? 

What is wrong with the idea of UBI?

How will the crypto technologies help?

CBDCs Can Facilitate Crony Capitalism

Once the “authorities” and “ruling elites” understand the power to be (with them):

… the emergence of CBDCs will facilitate the growth of crony capitalism. … if successful, central banks will be able to play favorites without the need for intermediaries.

“If a central bank really wanted to do this, the amount of opacity that they can create for themselves while at the same time, strip mining everybody else’s privacy is ridiculous, so that they could do pretty much whatever they want.”

Further reading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/decred-co-founder-cbdcs-can-facilitate-crony-capitalism

The post The Good, The Bad, And Something In Between appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

Though the Chinese government is working on something called DC/EP (for “digital currency/electronic payment”), as we check out the financial inclusion in the fintech era.

In this article, let’s look at the possibilities of having a cryptocurrency as the alternative reserve currency to what we have now, and the reasons or news trending to this.

The possibilities are there.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest lender by assets, has conducted research and explored integrating blockchains with big data, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and 5G technology since 2016.

ICBC has released a white paper on blockchain technology applications in finance, which is the first of its kind in the banking sector.

It needs to be both a medium of exchange and a store of value.

Jim Bianco, CEO and president of economics and finance analysis company Bianco Research

One of Possible Reasons Behind – Devaluation of Paper Money

Unless you have your head in the sand, you’ve probably realized that governments and central banks can print money out of thin air and in unlimited amounts.

Bitcoin.com

With over $6,000,000,000,000 printed in stimulus, that large of a number becomes hard to grasp. For some perspective, as at April 2020:

A million seconds ago was 11 days.
A billion seconds ago was 31 years.
A trillion seconds ago, there was no written history.

But people are start getting the idea how things may go dwindling down.

JUST IN: US Senate passes stimulus bill equivalent of 69,660,723 bitcoin

— Bitcoin (@Bitcoin) April 21, 2020

Related News (Development)

• Bianco Research CEO Says Next Reserve Currency Will Be a Cryptocurrency
• A Major Chinese Bank Unveils the Banking Sector’s First Blockchain White Paper

Related News (Possible Reasons)

• Printing Money from Thin Air – How the Fed Reduces Purchasing Power and Makes You Poorer
• Americans Are Using Their Stimulus Checks To Buy Bitcoin

The post A Cryptocurrency As The New Reserve Currency? 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.

China Issuing Bonds on Blockchain Is a Sign of What’s to Come, and this prove that Blockchaining Sukuk is something that is possible and could be done.

As reported by Cointelegraph:

“The Central Bank of China has recently issued 20 billion Chinese yuan ($2.8 billion) of special bonds, which it has sold in order to fund small and micro-enterprise businesses, according to the China Development Network.

China’s self-developed blockchain issuance system was put on display for the first time and it will handle the administration and tracking of these two-year bonds with a coupon rate of 3.25%.”

As the writer of the analysis – Nikolai Kuznetsov – pointed out, “China’s ban on blockchain systems now seems that it had little to do with ideology and was more about control. This is a safe guess considering that in terms of both blockchain and cryptocurrency, 2019 saw China launch both the blockchain bond issuance system and its seminal Central Bank-issued cryptocurrency (CBDC).”

Blockchaining Sukuk

This is the edited version of the presentation file during the briefing to World Bank Group Malaysia Global Knowledge and Research Hub. The content is about the potential and possibilities of Blockchaining Sukuk.

Image by sherisetj from Pixabay

Related news:

Forex Reforms Will ‘Deal With Cryptocurrency,’ Says Chinese Government

Central Bank of China Official Says Digital Yuan Will Be Different From Bitcoin

Chinese Internet Giant Tencent Plans to Create Digital Currency Research Group

The post Eyes On China appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

Pardon my English, I grow up in a Commonwealth country under legacy of British education system watching Hollywood movies.

This is more like a compilation of thoughts, notes and interesting points over past year, with some restructuring and put into a more organized way. There is definitely some hidden gems but you may got to work your own way out as you read through.

Last but not least, I accept crypto rewards if you think this work is beneficial and would like to further support my work besides sharing the links of these info out. I am a supporter of cryptocurrency and walk the talk by accepting token of appreciations in crypto form.

Anyhow, I put it up for free views over Slideshare (as embedded below).

Smart Money

This is the best of times, this is the worst of times.

What we have now is truly borderless, programmable money backed by immutable computer systems based on pure logic & mathematics.

– A Century of Technology Innovation
– Two Monetary Worlds
– Three Phases of Cryptocurrencies

From Corporate Currency to Sovereign Cryptocurrency (CBDC, Central Bank-issued Digital Currency), the fundamentals of AI driven, Blockchain based Cognitive resources management system powered by data: Programmable / Smart Money

After all, money makes the world goes round.

The post Smart Money appeared first on Blockchain Insider.

That explains why President and CEO of #MiGHT, Datuk Dr Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman made that newspaper headline of “Malaysia Sasar 2025 Guna Blockchain” (Malaysia to adopt blockchain by 2025) back in year 2017.

I am thankful that I was being introduced to this “Malaysia Blockchain & Distributed Ledger (DLT) Outlook 2019” earlier today, and found that it is indeed a very comprehensive and good publication by MiGHT.

The article on page 25 titled “Cultural Capital – Why Malaysia is Uniquely Suited to an Open-Source Blockchain World” stated well that “Malaysians possess rich stores of cultural capital to navigate the Anglophone world, which remains the foundation of open-source projects.”

Again, quoted from the book:

To fulfil blockchain’s potential will require an environment that allows innovation and experimentation, while also negating the risks of misuse. The Government therefore will have a significant role in creating a policy framework that will address the challenges presented by the deployment and adoption of blockchain.

MiGHT

Since its inception in 1993, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), an Agency under the Prime Minister’s Department has long promoted the use of technology as means to strengthen the nation’s competitive advantage. They are always on the lookout for technology development, conducting the necessary horizon scanning and foresight activities. It is hardly surprising then that blockchain, one of the most significant technology hypes to appear in a long time, would capture MiGHT’s interest and attention.

If you want to know more about Blockchain in Government from the Malaysian perspective, uou can download the full report in PDF format here:
https://www.might.org.my/download/malaysia-blockchain-distributed-ledger-dlt-outlook-2019/?fbclid=IwAR1LioGSoWgdbFAyoBxM3m4-BD9OHdJTnvSe0NHMDcHZrJuhGrXv45arQUA

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