Bank of France Finishes Proof of Concept on the Digital Euro

Maria Rodríguez
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Bank of France Finishes Proof of Concept on the Digital Euro

The central Bank of France announced the continuation of more tests in the coming weeks.

The Bank of France issued a statement where it explained that it completed the tests conducted on the use and issuance of the Euro Digital. Spokespersons of the central bank have considered the tests as a success and hope to continue the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project.

The statement detailed that, to conduct these tests regarding the digital currency, the Bank of France collaborated with the investment specialist Bank Societe Generale, which launched bonds in form of tokens that the bank later settled in the digital currency.

According to data from the experiment, the Societe Generale bank established the issue of EUR 40 million, representing approximately USD 44 million in security bonds created since last May 14th. The financial institution settled these security bonds as the digital currency through the blockchain platform that the Bank of France established.

In its test report, the investment bank commented that it has demonstrated the effectiveness of the system and the management of financial securities digitally. “This experimentation was performed end-to-end using blockchain infrastructures (…) It demonstrates the feasibility of financial securities being digitally settled and delivered in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for interbank settlements.”

In 2018, the Generale bank issued a security bond for the amount of EUR 100 million. However, at that time the bank issued these tokens in traditional money. In this sense, the recent change in liquidity is due to the recent digital euro tests, and “it is a new step in the transformation of Societe Generale, using the most innovative technologies, with the aim of better serving its clients.”

On the other hand, the Bank of France assured that, in the coming weeks, it will start with the next step in the digital currency project. Therefore, the most advanced tests of the system will continue. “The results of these experiments will be an important element of the Banque de France’s contribution to the more global reflection led by the Eurosystem on the interest of a CBDC,” the central bank said.

The highest financial institution in France announced these tests previously. The central bank said, last April, that it was very interested in the uses of digital currencies and that its first objective was related to their usefulness to settle security bonds. “Our interest is focused on the clearing and settlement of tokenized financial assets.”

Regarding this factor, the central bank commented that it could use this technology to conduct “wholesale” transactions, which suggests the use of this technology to settle large amounts between countries. The Institution also clarified that the project will not seek to replace traditional money or the use of physical notes and coins.

The Bank of France also commented on other occasions that it expects private companies to develop the necessary technology to make cross-border payments more viable. Otherwise, the financial institution could create, in the future, a project that makes this idea something possible.

By María Rodríguez

To Recover Funds “Stolen by Hive’s Witnesses”, Justin Sun Appeals to Authorities

Alexander Salazar
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To Recover Funds “Stolen by Hive’s Witnesses”, Justin Sun Appeals to Authorities

Justin Sun pulled some strings to take control of the Steem platform. Members of the STEEM community decided to conduct a hard fork to detach themselves from Sun.

The CEO of the TRON Foundation, Justin Sun, stated that he would turn to the authorities, noting that a group of hackers led to the controversial situation that the Steem platform has experienced.

Sun stated that, after the hard fork that occurred on the platform, Hive’s witnesses stole several million US dollars in funds. He has written in his Twitter account that he is working jointly with the authorities. His objective is to take legal action against the alleged perpetrators of the “robbery.”

Vitalik Buterin, Co-founder of Ethereum, commented on the event. He said that “a chain is the responsibility of its maintainers, not their properties.” He added that “this responsibility can be removed in an instant.”

In response to Buterin’s words, Sun said that the Steem community made their own decisions, but he had to express their opinions. He explained that “since Hive took their money, Vitalik Buterin and the misleading media have supported him 100%.” He suggested that “all media covering this information should interview the current witnesses for Steem.”

Last February 23rd, the Steem community conducted a reversible soft fork, as a preventative measure due to Sun’s recent acquisition. The community considered that the fork was necessary to prevent a person, with a large number of tokens, from taking control of the blockchain. At the time, the community believed that Sun, a clever salesman and controversial figure within the industry, had become the owner of a large number of tokens.

After the soft fork occurred, network validators, called “witnesses”, blocked STEEMs held by a set of accounts. This would prevent their holders from voting on who would govern the network and participate in other ways that could allow them to take advantage of that control.

The Battle for Decentralization

The funds discussed, around USD 5 million, corresponding to a type of founder reward that most similar blockchains grant. These funds represent around 20% of the supply of tokens, which would seemingly make it a decisive voting bloc.

After weeks of confrontation between the Steem community and Justin Sun, a hard fork was conducted, giving rise to the birth of the Hive. The new version is a copy of the Steem blockchain, but it has changed in the code to increase decentralization.

Various actions taken at Steem could have led the community to believe that Sun has been using his power and influence to penalize those users who opposed his acquisition of the platform. The community even learned that a group of exchanges, together with Steemit, used funds from their users to control the Steem network.

Sun defends himself by saying that his actions are not related to the fork. However, important representatives of the ecosystem, such as Vitalik Buterin, demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the situation.

By Alexander Salazar

University in South Korea Announces New Blockchain Campus

Alexander Salazar
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University in South Korea Announces New Blockchain Campus

Blockchain companies will be participating in the practical educational process of the students to improve their experience.

Local media in South Korea announced the creation of blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) campus in the city of Daegu. South Korea’s Suseong-gu University reached an agreement, last May 22nd, with the Korean Artificial Intelligence Association (KORAIA) to create this campus.

According to the local media Money Today, the Daegu-based university plans to teach about Artificial Intelligence, big data, and cloud-based technology. Besides, several Daegu-based blockchain companies will provide on-campus training and work experience programs. In this way, students will learn effectively.

The university will implement user-friendly services to allow cohesion between university education and academic administration. The South Korean institution will take advantage of blockchain technology, the report explained.

Positive Stance Towards Blockchain

South Korea is one of the countries that maintain a positive opinion about the use of blockchain technology. Last, April 17th, South Korea’s Deputy Minister for Strategy and Finance, Koo Yun-Cheol, said that blockchain technology is an excellent opportunity for South Korea. The authority also asked private companies to take advantage of blockchain technology.

Besides, two South Korean ministries announced their support for the country’s blockchain industry, last March 17th. These ministries have plans to allocate up to USD 3.2 million in funds to local startups to encourage the use of this technology.

Kim Kun-woo, Director of the university’s Planning and Coordination Division, said the world is changing towards a society based on blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The academic said that the world is more interested in these technologies after the Covid-19 outbreak and the global crisis it has generated.

Some days ago, local media informed that South Korea was working on a blockchain identity platform for autonomous vehicles.

Sejong is the country’s testing ground for major smart city solutions. In early May, Sejong, the planned city of the South Korean government, announced that it would establish a blockchain-based platform to store and verify the digital identities of autonomous vehicles.

According to a Sejong city official, the blockchain-based technology platform “will greatly enhance the credibility of the data by strengthening the security of the information shared by the cars and their control tower”.

With this project, the city seeks to prepare to avoid the illegal cloning of self-driving cars, even though autonomous vehicles are still far from being part of the traditional world.

South Korea is trying to legitimize cryptocurrencies. The government did not know if using cryptocurrencies would be positive or not. Now, it is working on favorable regulations and adopting blockchain technology.

The Central Bank of Korea had launched a pilot program to evaluate the logistics of issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The country wants to study the ground and be prepare, although it has no immediate plans to introduce a digital currency. China, Cambodia, Thailand, Bahrain, and Uruguay are other countries working on their CBDCs so as not to lose space or stay behind this technological development.

By María Rodríguez

Reasons for Steem’s Hard Fork and Its Consequences, according to Changpeng Zhao

Willmen Blanco
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Reasons for Steem’s Hard Fork and Its Consequences, according to Changpeng Zhao

Several weeks ago, Justin Sun made headlines due to a coup within the Steem Blockchain. Many members of the Steem community have abandoned the cryptocurrency since they foresaw Sun’s control over it.

It is impossible to understand this hard fork of the Steem blockchain without first understanding the events that led to it. Of course, this is a reference to Justin Sun’s attempted coup, which Binance and Huobi accidentally supported.

It all started when Sun acquired Steemit, a Steem-based micro-blogging platform, which also provided him with a stock of Steem that gave him enormous influence over the blockchain of the cryptocurrency. This caused fears within the community about possible measures that Sun could implement on the chain.

This is the reason why, some members of the community conducted an upgrade that froze Justin Sun’s funds, preventing him from using them to vote for changes in the blockchain. This caused discomfort to the cryptocurrency tycoon, who called the upgrade an “attack on private property.”

Sun immediately began planning how to recover control over his funds, which he did by convincing Huobi and Binance that Steem was under “attack.” To protect the integrity of the blockchain, it was necessary to vote for new super delegates within the chain, who would block the attackers’ initiatives.

This resulted in the mobilization of the funds of the users of Huobi, Binance, and Poloniex (Sun’s exchange). This would allow voting for the super delegates that Justin proposed within Steem, giving him full control over the chain. However, once Huobi and Binance realized the situation, they decided to withdraw their votes. They left Sun alone and forced a negotiation between the Steem community and Sun.

Changpeng Zhao on Steem’s Division

However, the negotiations did not go well, and Steem divided through a hard fork, which gave rise to the new currency Hive. Binance quickly listed it, which seemed to end the confrontation between Sun and the Steem sector who opposed his influence. This left the original blockchain in the hands of the founder of TRON and would create a new one for the others.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of it as has there is now a proposal for a new hard fork on the original Steem blockchain. If it runs, the balance in the wallets of various users will disappear, leading them to lose the money that they invested in the cryptocurrency. This has led Changpeng Zhao to write a text about Binance’s position on this.

If Binance upgrades its Steem wallet software after the hard fork, that will mean supporting the almost destruction of the savings of dozens of people. If it does not support it, Steem users on Binance will see their virtual currency assets frozen indefinitely, preventing them from withdrawing them from the platform.

Consequences of the Hard Fork

Unfortunately, this hard fork will result in Steem users’ loss of around USD 6 million. For that reason, Changpeng Zhao has offered Binance support for a pre-hard fork that can rescue these funds. However, this seems unlikely at the moment.

Many victims of this new hard fork are members of the community that supported the division of Steem and Hive, after Justin Sun’s coup. It seems that, despite the departure of many members of the community after Sun’s actions, the definitive solution to the conflict is still far from occurring.

By Willmen Blanco

Alliance Between Litecoin and Atari Will Allow Users to Buy Products with Cryptocurrencies

Maria Rodríguez
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Alliance Between Litecoin and Atari Will Allow Users to Buy Products with Cryptocurrencies

Users can acquire the new Atari VCS video game console, using the Litecoin cryptocurrency.

In a recent announcement, the renowned video game development company Atari, informed it celebrated an alliance with Litecoin to use that cryptocurrency in the purchase of the company’s products. Besides, Atari bets on using a token that the video game company created to finalize the purchase within its digital platform.

According to the press report by Litecoin, the cryptocurrency will work as a payment method for the pre-sale of Atari products. Users will be able to set aside these products that will come out in the future. In most cases, these products are special or limited edition articles.

Regarding the alliance, representatives of Litecoin affirm that this advance will allow Atari users to acquire any product of the company. These representatives of Litecoin hope that other companies in the video game industry will soon join the initiative and create a new digital marketing system for these products.

The Atari Token as an Investment

Litecoin’s announcement added that the video game company has big plans for its token. According to Atari, this asset may be an investment method, as well as it will function for the purchase of products and some services that Atari’s digital platform will offer.

Besides, it is worth mentioning that Atari is working on a project to create a casino that would enable digital options in an advanced way. The Atari token would be a payment method and could be integrated, in the same way, with other cryptocurrencies. According to Litecoin, the company hopes this whole system to help improve the gaming experience and make it more dynamic, easy, and safe.

Charlie Lee, Managing Director of the Litecoin Foundation, spoke about this alliance and mentioned that it will be of benefit for both the video game industry and cryptocurrencies.

“Many of us remember growing up and playing games from Atari. It is great to see Litecoin being used in a variety of different ways within the Atari ecosystem, from purchasing the new Atari VCS gaming console to being used as a way to invest in Atari Tokens. The Litecoin Foundation is excited to see the possibilities a partnership like this can have for not only Litecoin and cryptocurrencies but also the gaming industry and lifelong fans of Atari,” Charlie Lee said.

Atari and Cryptocurrencies

According to official data from the video game company, the new Atari VCS game console will be available very soon. This console will have the power to play games of yesteryear, as well as the most modern ones, giving the user wide possibilities of choice. According to the company, the Litecoin cryptocurrency can also allow to purchase this product and receive a discount for using the digital asset.

Press reports in 2018 announced the launch of the Atari’s token. At the same time, Atari acquired a little more than a 17% stake in Infinity Network LTD. This acquisition will allow Infinity Network to use the Atari name in its products. Through this activity, Atari will obtain royalties and direct profits for the use of its name.

Thanks to this action, Atari created a subsidiary company called Atari Chain LTD, which focuses on developing cryptocurrencies for exclusive use in the gaming industry.

By María Rodríguez

Argentine University Offers a Postgraduate Course on Law, Blockchain, and Fintech

Maria Rodríguez
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Argentine University Offers a Postgraduate Course on Law, Blockchain, and Fintech

Universities in Spain, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are using blockchain technology to issue academic degrees.

The Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) will offer a Postgraduate course called “Law & Fintech: Regulatory Framework of Technologies in the Financial Sector,” according to what local media recently reported. This course will work under the virtual modality, from next Thursday, July 16th. The website of that educational institute of higher studies also reported the news.

Dr. Emiliano Carlos Lamanna Guiñazú is the Program Director, and the coordinators are Dr. Ignacio Torino, and Dr. Santiago Eraso Lomaquiz. “In the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina we prepare an executive program so that, together with the leading experts and representatives of the sector, we analyze the regulation applicable to technologies in the financial sector,” Santiago Eraso says.

The planned modules for the students are as follows:

  1. General, legal, and regulatory aspects of the FinTech ecosystem.
  2. Regulatory framework of financial institutions.
  3. Payment methods.
  4. Corporate structures and tax aspects.
  5. Entrepreneurship Financing Methods.
  6. Electronic signature, digital signature, and electronic contracting of financial services.
  7. Online loans and Investment funds.
  8. Personal data protection. Labor aspects.
  9. Crowdfunding.
  10. Crypto assets.
  11. Blockchain and smart contracts.
  12. Criminal aspects and investigations. Digital compliance.
  13. Insurtech. Ecosystem, modalities, technical and regulatory aspects.

In this way, the postgraduate program will have 13 modules. The virtual study plan consists of 40 hours for three months. Almost 25 teachers participate in the program.

Argentina Adopts Blockchain Technology

Other higher education institutes in Argentina decided to use blockchain technology to guarantee reliability in the issuance of academic degrees. The Technological Institute of Buenos Aires (ITBA) began to issue diplomas, using blockchain technology, for all its courses.

Sebastián Mur, Director of the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires, commented: “We are working to digitize all the University’s processes. This novelty helps students to demonstrate their knowledge and helps us to have validated certificates.”

This system, which already works in universities in Spain and Mexico, seeks to offer greater transparency, traceability, and inalterability of the information whilst facilitating access to the degree and streamlining administrative procedures.

Some universities that use this system are the University Carlos III of Madrid (Spain), the University of Murcia (Spain), the Polytechnic School of Cartagena (Spain), the University of Cagliari (Italy), University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), the University of Guadalajara (Mexico), and Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico). 

The advantages that blockchain technology offers in these universities are the verification of authenticity without any possibility of falsification, constant availability, the impossibility of loss or deterioration, ease of sharing the degree on social networks, or from a mobile phone, and the digitization of the degrees.

In Argentina, there is also an initiative called “Blockchain Node,” which seeks to promote a meeting space for those who are interested in using resources related to blockchain technology. In this way, Argentina continues adopting blockchain technology as other countries do around the world.

By María Rodríguez

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