China to Lead the Way for Blockchain Usage

Industry experts have said that China is set to lead the way with the use of blockchain as it reinforces the development of digital intelligent services, reports the South China Morning Post.

According to the report, this development is running alongside plans by the country’s telecommunications industry as it works at rolling out 5G mobile services by 2020.

Vijay Mayadas, the vice-president of corporate strategy and head of blockchain strategy at Broadridge Financial Solutions, said to the South China Morning Post, that:

When 5G, the Internet of Things and autonomous driving start to get more prevalent then blockchain could potentially become the underlying ledger to record transactions and maintain trust in those applications.

Even though China has been slower to adopt the technology compared to other countries, it’s certainly making up for lost time. It’s doing this through its banks, which are hiring experts and developers to keep up-to-date with the technology-driven landscape.

Despite housing four of the world’s five largest banks by capital, the Chinese banking system still relies on paper and faxes. However, it is attempting to make the leap to a paperless, secure, auditable, and tamper-proof system through the blockchain as the technology gains pace.

In 2016, 86 percent of companies surveyed in China reported fraud, according to Kroll, a business intelligence firm. As the use of the blockchain gains in popularity for different use cases, Chinese regulators are beginning to see the technology as the ideal solution to stopping fraud.

Other global banks are also turning their attention to exploring blockchain to prevent fraud risk in the $4 trillion trade financing industry.

Not only that, but a survey from IBM, which looked at 200 global banks, found that 34 percent of those surveyed believed that blockchain would occur and ultimately envelop their banking services by 2020.

Digital Currency Interest

China’s boost in blockchain applications is highlighted by its increased interest in digital currency.

At the beginning of the year, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced that it had completed a trial run of digital currency based on blockchain technology. According to the report, it revealed how the government plans on setting up the digital payment infrastructure when functional and ready for deployment.

Such a move clearly demonstrates the country’s commitment to staying ahead of competition and the fact that it understands the benefits that the blockchain can produce in the long-term. With its advancements, it’s set to become the global leader in the technology’s usage.

Source: Cryptocoinsnews

Blockchain Will Be Commercial in 2019, Says CEO of Russia’s Largest Bank

Noted blockchain advocate, bitcoiner and chief executive of Sberbank, Herman Gref, has stated that the commercial applications of blockchain technology in Russia will take shape in two, or two-and-a-half years from now.

According to regional news publication Prime, the chief executive of Russia’s largest bank by assets opined that the timeframe, while optimistic, is likely to be achieved. Gref points to a special working group headed by Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov toward exploring blockchain applications as a “huge step forward” toward development and the plausible deployment of blockchain technology across a “virtually all industries”.

In quotes reported by the publication, Gref added:

Maybe they are a bit optimistic, but 2-2.5 years – is the horizon within which we can speak about the application of blockchain technology in commercial applications.

Sberbank was previously in discussions to join the country’s first financial (private) blockchain consortium spearheaded by the Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank. The central bank’s interest in exploring blockchain applications were first revealed in early 2016, when it established a working group to that end.

Meanwhile, Sberbank has previously expressed its interest to join the banking blockchain consortium led by R3, as early as 2015In late 2016, Sberbank joined the open-source Hyperledger blockchain project, led by the Linux Foundation.

For his part, Gref has publicly stated his support for blockchain-based innovation and poured scorn on the previously proposed and now-defunct bitcoin ban bill proposed by the Russian Finance Ministry. He argued that banning bitcoin would hinder Russia’s own technological progress and will persuade blockchain technology experts to move away from the country to friendlier jurisdictions.

Further, Gref also revealed that he used to trade virtual currencies, specifically bitcoin. Speculating on their value, the banking executive revealed that he exchanged them to rubles and back to bitcoin, speculatively investing in the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency.

Source: Cryptocoinsnews

New Blockchain Partnership Proposes Solution for Remote Voting

Two Boston-based companies have teamed up to fast-track the implementation of secure, remote voting in elections through the blockchain.

After a year exploring the potential of protected voting, Voatz, Inc. and Clear Ballot Group, Inc., have decided to go ahead with the partnership in a bid to tackle the issue of remote voting.

Through an open source blockchain platform, Voatz has designed a secure platform for high volume remote voting designed for smartphones and tablets. Clear Ballot, a voting system company, has provided Voatz with knowledge of the election industry, market requirements and a rich sample election dataset. This gives the Voatz team the ability to understand and build support for the difficulties and scale of actual elections taking place.

Nimit Sawhney, co-founder and CEO of Voatz said, however, that the companies need to realize that several questions must be addressed before remote voting on a large scale is possible.

“These include end-to-end verification, voter anonymity, authentication, security, cost, ease of deployment, scalability, user experience and most importantly – public trust.”

The two companies are hoping that this advance in remote voting through the blockchain will bring convenience and added trust to voters when it matters most all through an app on their smartphones. With a sample ballot on their smartphone a voter will only need to bring their phone with them when the polls open; however, it’s projected that through an app built on the blockchain voters won’t have to make the trip to polls in the future.

Voting on the Blockchain

Using the blockchain to secure voting is not a new thing.

In the past there have been several organizations launching blockchain voting services aimed at tackling the issue of voter confidence in elections.

In October of last year, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) developed an e-voting platformbased on the blockchain technology. Through this service it gave shareholders of listed companies on the exchange the opportunity to vote during annual general meetings.

New York University Tandon School of Engineering also unveiled a blockchain voting systemafter concerns were raised over whether the 2016 election was pushed in President Donald Trump’s favor.

While at the beginning of 2017 Nasdaq too has emerged with its own e-voting platform using the blockchain technology.

Voting for millions of people around the world is the one time they can democratically vote for who they believe will be the best leader for their country. If, however, they have no confidence in the voting system, what’s stopping them from not voting if they feel the systems are being cheated?

With the blockchain, though, it provides an answer to maintaining the integrity of voter confidence when its needed the most.

Source: cryptocoinsnews

Austria’s Biggest Utility Company to Test Blockchain Energy Trading

Wien Energie, Austria’s largest regional energy company, is joining a group of others from the industry to participate in a blockchain pilot with the aim to cut down costs related to energy trading.

The energy giant will use Canadian blockchain firm BTL’s proprietary Interbit platform. Launched in early 2016, Interbit is a multi-chain remittance platform based on distributed ledger technology that was developed to enable faster and significantly cheaper transfers of funds and assets.

Wein Energie’s Chairman, Michael Strebel stated:

Blockchain technology is a further digitization trend in the energy industry. As Austria’s largest energy service provider, we want to actively make use of the technology and its chances for our customers and us.

Wien Energie provides electricity, natural gas and heating to a nearly 2 million people in Austria. The company is reliant on decentralized generation and energy services, while producing electricity and heat from renewable energies as well as waste recycling and cogeneration plans.

The pilot project will also see the participation of consulting firm Ernst & Young Austria and will run for three months, from March to May 2017.

Having already participated in decentralized energy offerings via direct citizen investment models, blockchain technology could bring rise to entirely new business models, according to Wien Energie managing director Peter Gönitzer.

The executive added:

Through different experimental arrangements with the technology, new insights into the use of blockchain in the energy business are to be gained and possible process optimization and cost savings are to be explored.

The viability of future commercial applications and strategies of blockchain-based energy trading will be discussed after the trial.

The pilot is only the latest example of a growing number of industry efforts among utility and energy providers to trial blockchain technology.

A majority of energy companies in Austria’s neighbor and European giant Germany were revealed to be exploring or implementing blockchain technology in a survey toward the end of 2016.

Electron, a UK-based startup created an Ethereum blockchain platform to demonstrate significantly faster energy transfers (20x) with notably lowered costs by simulating data from 53 million metering points from 60 energy providers.

Late last year, Spanish energy giant Endesa opened a blockchain-specific lab to explore applications after labeling the innovation as an “almost incorruptible digital ledger”.

A recent endeavor in Russia sees regional Fiintech firm Qiwi launch a distributed ledger trial to track energy transactions as a part of an energy project in Crimea.

In Australia, a Perth-startup announced trials to buy, sell or exchange excess solar energy on a decentralized ledger, rather than a traditional grid.  Further examples of how blockchain energy can be used toward a distributed energy grid can be found here and here.

Source: cryptocoinsnews

France’s Central Bank to Launch a Blockchain Innovation Lab

The Banque de France has revealed that it is opening a blockchain innovation lab as it seeks to work more with blockchain startups.

In a speech [PDF] presented by Banque de France governor Villeroy de Galhau last month at the Paris FinTech Forum, and published recently, the central bank explained that more work needs to be done with the blockchain.

According to Galhau, ‘the digital revolution is creating challenges but also incredible opportunities that are just waiting to be seized, whether by FinTechs themselves, by the entire financial system or by the French and European economy as a whole.’

In a bid to boost the FinTech sector within the country, the governor said that officials are opening a new blockchain innovation lab. According to the French central bank, it has already welcomed over 100 key innovators since the creation of its FinTech Innovation Unit. It has also set up a FinTech Forum with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) to increase the bank’s interaction with innovators.

By doing so, it plans on working alongside startups giving them the freedom to think outside the box.

Galhau understands that the digital revolution is disrupting traditional banks with its customers’ needs. So much so, that according to the French bank, in 2007 62 percent of French people visited their branch several times a month. In 2016, that number had fallen to as low as 20 percent with 13 percent belonging to the 18-34 age group.

He said:

Beyond customer relationships, financial companies need to take a more comprehensive approach if they are to succeed in the digital transition – placing innovation at the heart of their strategic management, as well as rethinking their business models.

Despite not providing more information as to when the blockchain innovation lab will launch, Galhau finished by saying:

“Rest assured we are fully mobilised towards this goal.”

French Bank Conducts Blockchain Experiment

In December, the central bank revealed details about a discreet blockchain experiment that it had undertaken in October.

The bank announced that it had tested the distributed ledger to understand the consequences of decentralizing ledger managing functions of SEPA credit identifier, a simplified version of cross-border Euro transfers within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

It was conducted in partnership with Parisian FinTech startup Labo Blockchain and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, which is a French public sector financial institution under parliament’s control and seen as the investment arm of the French government.

Source: cryptocoinsnews

New York City Law Firm Experiments with Blockchain Smart Contracts

A law firm in New York is reviewing how the use of the blockchain technology can remove many of the manual steps that are required when it comes to executing smart contracts.

The law firm, Hogan Lovells, is considering how smart contracts and the blockchain can automatically execute agreements without the need for human interaction, thus helping to free up lawyers time.

In a blog from the Wall Street Journal, the use of smart contracts will ensure that terms of a contract are enforced in a faster time; however, this also means that there needs to be a closer relationship between the lawyers, clients, and the computer programmers who will be writing the smart contracts.

According to Ted Mlynar, a partner at Hogan Lovells, there is currently a big divide between those involved.

He said:

The programmers think in terms of bits and bytes, while the contracting parties have been doing these types of agreements for years. They don’t understand each other.

To solve the issue of traditional contracts and smart contracts requires a lawyer or lawyers who are able to present the necessary expertise regarding a deal in addition to the technical expertise to understand the code within the smart contract and how they can work together.

For now, though, paper contracts are likely to remain in place for years to come. However, while lawyers are still experimenting with smart contracts, if done right they could potentially present the ideal answer to helping free up lawyers time when it comes to agreements between parties.

Could Smart Contracts Threaten Jobs?

Of course, many think that the use of blockchain-led smart contracts could threaten thousands of jobs.

In June, one of Australia’s top law firms, sent a report to its clients informing them that the future of the business model that lawyers profit from due to an absence of trust in organizations working with each other was under threat from the blockchain and smart contracts.

Others were preparing themselves that the technology was likely to threaten jobs and the role of lawyers intermediating negotiations and disputes.

Another factor to consider is the fact that the use of blockchain and smart contracts brings its own legal issues.

These include how terms are interpreted, how they are written, and how smart contracts interconnect with legal areas already established. It requires lawyers to have the expertise to go through a area, such as the laws governing insurance contracts, and understanding how a blockchain smart contract would work.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the role of smart contracts will be applied in law firms or whether paper contracts will remain the contract of choice.

Source: cryptocoinsnews

American Express Wants “Full Advantage of Blockchain”, Joins Open-Source Hyperledger Project

Credit card giant American Express has joined the Linux Foundation-led open-source cross-industry blockchain working group, the Hyperledger Project.

In yet another noted example of the traditional financial services industry turning to Fintech’s poster child in blockchain technology, American Express has joined the Hyperledger Project as a ‘Premier’ member.

In a statement, American Express information chief and vice president Marc Gordon said:

We’re excited to join Hyperledger, as we’re looking to take full advantage of blockchain to deliver new and innovative products for our customers and partners, while transforming existing business processes and applications.

With a $250,000 annual membership fee, a premier member will directly contribute the development process of creating open-source enterprise blockchains. Notable examples of premier members providing code to the project include contributions from technology giant IBM & New York-based blockchain startups Digital Asset and R3. The ‘Hyplerledger’ name was previously owned by Digital Asset before it was donated to the Linux Foundation.

“[W]e’re expecting our expertise and global reach to help advance this open source blockchain ecosystem,” Amex executive Marc Gordon added.

Payment Card Giants Tapping Blockchain Tech

The global third in credit card transaction volumes only after Visa and Mastercard, American Express has unsurprisingly paid attention to blockchain technology’s most-known offering, bitcoin. Ken Chenault, chief executive of the payments giant noted bitcoin as a competitor, much like any other payment offering, as early as 2014.

In late 2015, American Express became an investor in Abra, a bitcoin startup and payments network that uses the cryptocurrency for transactions.

Meanwhile, Visa, in December 2015, claimed blockchain technology and bitcoin as a method of payment were “more real than ever” and has since set up an exclusive blockchain development lab in India. More recently, Visa announced its intention to deploy a blockchain-based interbank payments network between European banks.

The world’s largest payments network has also deployed VisaB2B, a blockchain-based solution developed in partnership with industry firm Chain Inc that will challenge the traditional SWIFT messaging network with large volume cross-border transfers.

Not to be left behind, Mastercard unveiled its own set of blockchain APIs in late 2016, after the company’s operations chief revealed ongoing interest in the innovation.

Source: cryptocoinsnews