This standard contemplates a series of basic concepts and processes of self-management of identity. The UNE proposes to make it a European standard before the standardization agencies.

In recent days, the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE) published the UNE 71307-1 Standard. This is the first block-chain based standard on decentralized digital identity management that people have known in the world. The common language that the technical standards establish is necessary to achieve the digital transformation of societies.

The standard serves as a frame of reference that individuals or organizations can use to establish, manage, and use their digital identity. By managing their information without having to resort to centralized authorities, users will be able to guarantee the security of the processes while protecting their privacy.

The document includes aspects that allow defining the main actors, as well as the characteristics that constitute the structure of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). Similarly, it establishes the duration of DIDs, the requirements for obtaining the credential, and the presentation.

With the publication of the standard, the UNE completed intensive work that began in July 2019. On that date, they created Group GT1 of CTN 71/SC 307, which has been in charge of preparing the standard. This is also a milestone since it is the first European standard based on the standardization of decentralized identity management.

In this regard, the agency has proposed to make the document a European standard. To that end, they presented it to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC). In this sense, work has already begun with the constitution of a standardization group. Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is one of the topics that the world’s governments are exploring. With this, they seek to promote open exponential technologies for the development of societies. Under this model, any person or organization will be able to maintain complete control of their identity without depending on any intermediary. In other words, neither large corporations nor governments will be in charge of collecting, storing, and processing data centrally.

Latin America Promotes Digital Identity on Blockchain

Although the SSI movement is very young, the concept is taking shape and meaning in Spain and Latin America. The projects in question include those from Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia. They predict years of work and countless job opportunities in these countries.

A prominent initiative in Argentina is the DIDI project, which the Bitcoin Argentina Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) lead. In Colombia, the IDEMIA Company has worked to digitize the National Civil Registry and Identification of the population since 2017.

Around 10 Spanish companies, including banks and energy companies, have been developing a self-managed digital identity system through blockchain. The project completed the proof of concept in the first phase in October 2020, with the second phase beginning in November. They plan to start the Dalion project in May 2021, seeking to provide people with a unique self-managed digital identity.

By Alexander Salazar

Ray Dillinger assures that Bitcoin did not accomplish the goals for which it was created. But Adam Back talks about Bitcoin as a currency under a status of infancy and “a new hope for humanity.“

The crypto expert and crypto pioneer Ray Dillinger recently referred to Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency as a failure and a total disaster. He criticized what he calls pseudo-anonymity, mining, second-layer solutions, and the emergence of exchanges and custodial services.

Another pioneer, Adam Back considers that “Bitcoin is a new hope for humanity.” The leader believed that Bitcoin is living its early stages and regretted that “people who should understand its importance are left on the sidelines more than a decade later with disparaging and nonsensical comments.” “They do not understand the value of what is probably the biggest digital innovation from the Internet itself,” he stated.

Dillinger and his Posture against Bitcoin

In his recent statements, posted on a crypto email list, Dillinger came to mention that “the shortage of space on the blockchain led people to reinvent every last feature of the banks they thought they were going to escape from”.

According to Dillinger, some examples of this are the Lightning Network and exchanges and custodial services. He says that these functions are closely related to “fractional reserve banking”.

This pioneer also rose a critic of mining, an activity that, he said, “has encourages corruption over the countries.” He claims that “[mining] is often done using electricity that is stolen from taxpayers, and the governments are involved in such actions.” He also criticized the energy expenditure of mining and the increasing activity in countries like China.

Several participants of the abovementioned email list accused Dillinger, saying that he talks like a non-coiner, someone who has 0 knowledge of bitcoin, its behavior, and its environment.

Dillinger dismissed these ratings, although he did not give any indication of being in favor of this coin. “I want there to be a good cryptocurrency, I want it to be easy to use, I want it to be secure, I want it to grow, and I want it to be at least reasonably private for those who use it without trying to cheat,” he explained. The developer also said that Bitcoin still does not satisfy any of the abovementioned features and that no other cryptocurrency that is built on the Satoshi Nakamoto protocol will. “The shared blockchain as the ledger of all transactions does scale, neither in the network bandwidth nor in the bandwidth of the transactions,” he said.

Adam Black: His Unique and Positive Opinion about Bitcoin’s Design

Adam Back, currently a director of the Blockstream Company and one of the first people to receive an email from Satoshi Nakamoto, responded in disagreement with Dillinger’s statements. “Bitcoin gave the world a more robust form of electronic cash,” he said. He does not consider scalability as a negative thing; scalability can be achieved through second-layer solutions.

Adam Black argues: If anyone can do better you’re welcome, to feel free to brainstorm new possibilities and ways. But keep in mind that it is quite challenging. No one has done it until now and, many brilliant people spent a Bitcoin decade trying.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The value of the bitcoins that the customs authorities seized has multiplied 10 times since they were worth USD 800,000. That public entity will deposit the money that it collects from selling the bitcoins in the Ministry of Finance.

In recent days, the Finnish customs authorities reported that they will sell an amount of seized Bitcoin whose value exceeds USD 80 million. The entity will auction a total of 1,981 BTC, most of which come from a drug case that occurred in 2016.

The customs authorities will sell the 1,666 BTC that they seized four years ago from dark web drug dealer Douppikauppa, according to local media. Besides, they will sell around 300 BTC that come from other cases, and they are waiting for another amount that has not yet received approval for the sale. For that reason, the final amount that the authority will sell could be even higher.

Depending on the price of Bitcoin, the customs authorities could receive up to USD 80 million for the sale of the seized bitcoins. In the past four years, fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin have reportedly benefited the Finnish government. The value of the money seized has multiplied 10 times during that time. The total amount did not exceed USD 800,000 in Bitcoin four years ago, according to Finnish sources. Customs CFO Pekka Pylkkanen confirmed that the entity will be in charge of selling the bitcoins itself. They also discussed that they could transfer the money to a cryptocurrency exchange to facilitate the trade. The customs directive had their reservations when it came to selling the bitcoins since they consider that there was a great possibility that the money would fall back into the hands of criminals.

Dilemma of the Customs Authorities with Bitcoin

Although the customs authorities have planned the auction of the money since 2018, they canceled it as they fear that these bitcoins could have a criminal use. The members of the board of directors thought of turning over the seized money to other government agencies and even destroying it. However, a report from the State Audit Office determined that they should sell the seized property as soon as possible.

According to Pylkkanen, there is still a risk that the seized bitcoins will circulate again on the black market, but he has accepted that he cannot prevent that from happening. After all, even the cash that central banks issue can find use in criminal activities and be one of the criminals’ preferred payment methods thanks to its anonymity.

The customs authorities determined that they will transfer the entire amount of money from the sale of these bitcoins to the Ministry of Finance, despite the concerns and dilemma that they are facing. This move confirms that this retention of almost 2,000 BTC in the last four years has been one of the best investments of the Finnish customs since it would greatly help their country. It is not the first time that the authorities of a country have decided to sell seized bitcoins. Last December, Bitcoin influencer Pierre Rochard had requested US legislators not to auction more than USD 1,600 million worth of Bitcoin.

By Alexander Salazar

The growing rally of Bitcoin has led to an interest in Bitcoin growing as well. The number of user searches to understand this digital asset has been growing, according to Google Trends.

The prices of the pioneering cryptocurrency and most altcoins have seen tremendous growth since the year began. With each passing day, the digital gold exceeds all-time highs and becomes increasingly popular. The action of individuals, governments, and companies has contributed greatly to the notable increase in price. There are a growing number of national authorities that perceive Bitcoin as a solution to some financial problems. At the same time, companies consider the asset to be one of the most interesting on the market.

User Interest in Bitcoin, According to Google Trends

Searches on Google, the most famous search engine in the world, are a parameter to analyze what people are interested in. In this sense, the number of searches for the term Bitcoin has been increasing for a long time. The most relevant point of the first cryptocurrency had been between December 2017 and January 2018. During that period, its price had reached a peak of almost USD 20 thousand, which currently looks a long way off.

Interest in Bitcoin in 2017

The Google table measures interest, taking 100 as the maximum value and 0 as the minimum value. For example, when Bitcoin reached its all-time high of USD 20 thousand in 2017, Mexico showed its interest in the subject with a figure of 100. However, in the rest of the region, only Bolivia and Brazil had the same result.

The approach to the cryptocurrency was 95 in Venezuela and 82 in Chile. Behind them were Colombia (72), Uruguay (72), Costa Rica (68), Peru (59), and Argentina (44). That situation has changed and invites people to think that BTC will continue to have the bullish trend that it has shown since December until now. Optimists consider that the value of the digital asset will reach USD 50 thousand. That fact seemed very unlikely but now it is closer than further away, given that the price of BTC exceeded USD 41 thousand per unit, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Interest in Bitcoin in 2021

After the small disinterest disappeared in a large part of the Latin American countries, everything is a mixture of illusion and great expectations in 2021. Except for Brazil and Bolivia, the rest of the countries analyzed will reach 100 by the end of the month.

Brazil reaches a figure of 87, which is a relevant and conclusive number, while Bolivia barely reaches 40. The reason for this low record is that the Bolivian government is conducting a campaign to discourage the use of crypto assets. They claim that they are scammers’ tools that seek to take advantage of people. The results that Google shows are proof of the sustained growth that the main cryptocurrency in the market has had. There is an exponential growth in the interest of Latin America and the rest of the world. That interest will have a positive effect on the Bitcoin market, which is enjoying its best time.

By Willmen Blanco

Former Facebook executive Palihapitiya thinks that the time for an uncorrelated asset like Bitcoin has come. It is public knowledge that Bitcoin reached USD 41,000, exceeding the market value of Facebook and Tesla.

In recent days, billionaire CEO of Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya, who was one of the first senior executives of Facebook, predicted that Bitcoin will reach above USD 200,000. He mentioned the social circumstances that have driven the value of the pioneering cryptocurrency. Likewise, he explained how the decisions of political leaders have accelerated the process of adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as a store of value. Palihapitiya said on CNBC television that he does not know for sure when Bitcoin could reach USD 200,000. However, he estimates that it could get there within 5 to 10 years. The main cryptocurrency’s bullish rally has allowed it to appreciate by more than USD 10,000 per week. Under these circumstances, predictions about its price become increasingly relevant. The value of the cryptocurrency exceeded the market value of Facebook and Tesla, with a price above USD 41,600 and a market capitalization of USD 775 billion.

Political Factor and Bitcoin

Among the factors that have led to this adoption, Palihapitiya mentions the political crises that have occurred worldwide. He suggests that everything that is happening is because many leaders are not as trustworthy as they used to be. Concerning that, he says that it is necessary to have “some type of insurance” that allows “accessing uncorrelated coverage”. The executive referred to the moment when Bitcoin was born, possibly as a consequence of last decade’s political and economic crises. He believes that “the fabric of society is frayed” and that it is necessary to “have a precious” insurance until learning how to improve that situation.

Future of Bitcoin

Palihapitiya believes that Bitcoin “will eventually become something more important.” However, he considers that while this transition occurs, it is best to have insurance like Bitcoin, which is not related to traditional assets. He adds that no one should pay much attention to those coincidences, which can give a false impression of a close correlation. Last October, he said that the main cryptocurrency on the market “is the complete opposite of the way the financial infrastructure operates.”

Joking with CNBC interviewer Scott Wapner, Palihapitiya recalled that many people on CNBC used to laugh at him. Between 2012 and 2013, he repeatedly spoke about Bitcoin, when the cryptocurrency was trading at around USD 200. The investor bought his first bitcoin in 2012 and has been preaching the virtues of the pioneering cryptocurrency ever since. He says that he invested the equivalent of USD 1 million in Bitcoin when it was trading at USD 80. A year later, his BTC fortune had already amounted to USD 5 million. In 2017, he ventured to predict that the price of Bitcoin would reach USD 1 million before 2037. One of the last things that he recently said is that he would buy @GoldmanSachs and rename them, Chamathman Sachs when, Bitcoin reaches USD 100,000.

By Alexander Salazar