Huawei Celebrates Association with Blockchain ​​Academy Mexico to Improve Its Processes

Willmen Blanco
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Huawei Celebrates Association with Blockchain ​​Academy Mexico to Improve Its Processes

The association is part of Huawei’s plans to expand its services in Latin America.

As a method to expand its services and its processes, Huawei Cloud, a section that is part of the Chinese giant Huawei, recently announced an alliance with Blockchain Academy Mexico in order to allow, in this way, improve cloud services, which would help to expand the processes with startups and technology companies that are looking to expand their market in the Central American country.

During the event related to these cloud services technologies, the “Empowering Blockchain Ecosystem with Cloud Services”, this alliance that both parties had been developing for a while was announced. They also recognized that this association will help accelerate the growth and strengthen of state and government institutions so that the so-called “new digital revolution” can be promoted.

This new digital revolution is known for promoting a great integration of new technological services. This integration would seek to connect cloud technology with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the 5G telephone network and other services, this would “increase productivity and efficiency by storing, processing and transmitting amounts of data”.

The announcement explained that this would help all Fintech companies improve cloud computing services, as well as any blockchain network that is intended for particular activities.

During the announcement, it was recognized that the market for new technologies in the Central American country rises to more than 50 billion dollars in the sector. It was also commented that good market growth has been achieved since there is a lack of banking in local people.

Some of those involved in the project also announced that the doors are open for all companies interested in this new technology, or those already in the sector could join the alliance to seek the improvement of services. Huawei Cloud spokesmen mentioned that they would “accelerate development and adoption, openly and involve them throughout the region”, he concluded.

At the conclusion of the announcement, he assured that the central theme of the entire project is to achieve “a fully connected and intelligent Latin America”.

The Growth of Huawei in Latin America

Last June, Huawei, the Chinese giant specialized in new technologies, would have announced an expansion of all its technological and telecommunications services throughout Latin America.

The announcement was published in the middle of the year through a report which specifies the possible expansion of all Huawei operations, especially with special emphasis on blockchain services and their products developed by the Chinese company.

About this aspect, an executive of the company commented that the success of this expansion will depend on the demand that blockchain technology may have in the Latin American market.

“Everything will depend on the result of our market analysis and, in case there is a market demand for blockchain, we will make our services available in this area. Today we are focused on storage, 5G and telecommunications”, he said.

Similar to this new alliance with technology companies in Mexico, the signing of contracts with companies in Brazil had already been known to improve its storage of records and the optimization of the 5G network in the country so blockchain is gaining more spaces and new opportunities in Latin America. The development continues.

By María Rodríguez

Christmas 2019 Will Receive Bitcoin with Price in Red Numbers

Willmen Blanco
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Christmas 2019 Will Receive Bitcoin with Price in Red Numbers

The price of Bitcoin is estimated at less than USD 6,700 at the time of writing this article. Losses are also perceived in the prices of the other main cryptocurrencies in the market.

It has been observed that the Bitcoin market has suffered a notable contraction in recent weeks. Although its price has gradually receded since it reached the USD 11,000 barrier by mid-year, the current condition of the cryptocurrency’s quotations in the exchange markets contrasts with many predictions.

On December 16th alone, Bitcoin fell by USD 221.18 (-3.09%). At the time of writing this note, this setback is equivalent to -4.56% in just a 24-hour period, so its price is estimated at less than USD 6,700. The market capitalization is above USD 119,000 million, according to data from the CoinMarketCap platform. On the other hand, its trading volume in the main exchange houses in the world is equivalent to USD 385 million, according to data from Messari.

Due to the fact that the dominance of Bitcoin in the market is above 67%, this contraction in the price of the main cryptocurrency seems to have an impact on the rest of the market. Among the most demanded exchanges, the BTC/USDT pair is the most prominent on platforms such as BitForex, BKEX, Coineal and Hotbit, which account for approximately 15% of these exchanges or about USD 4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Other major cryptocurrencies have suffered a more significant setback than Bitcoin. Among them, Ether is quoted at USD 122 (-8.8%). XRP shows the most drastic decrease in the top 10, with a value of USD 0.18, which is equivalent to almost -12%. Bitcoin Cash drops to USD 175 while Litecoin falls to USD 37. EOS and Stellar are suffering the same fate, trading at losses of -9%.

Predictions versus Facts

Despite the fact that many investors in the ecosystem predicted a notable increase in the price of crypto currencies, the market has reacted with a series of contractions, which leads to thinking that it is necessary to reassess the factors that influence Bitcoin’s current negotiations.

The new trade agreement between the United States and China, for example, could be driving the price of the US dollar, while announcing a relative calm in the yuan markets, which had been affected by the successive administrative decisions of President Donald Trump’s government. This agreement aims to double US exports to China, provided that the latter pays lower tariffs. A strengthening of the US dollar in the different world markets could have an impact on stock trades and cryptocurrency exchanges.

On the other hand, recently disclosed information about Chainalysis studies indicates that it is likely that the criminals who committed the PlusToken fraud could be manipulating the price of Bitcoin to gain advantages. According to the data of this research, those who administered PlusToken have used the victims’ funds to negotiate over-the-count (OTC) positions in exchange houses such as Huobi, which have been influencing the exchange volume over several months.

By Willmen Blanco

Cryptography Is Proposed as a Way of Fighting Threats to User Privacy

Willmen Blanco
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0
Cryptography Is Proposed as a Way of Fighting Threats to User Privacy

An intelligent defense must be created against the violation of privacy by governments. The cost of capturing all private information of people is one US dollar per day.

In recent days, Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos gave a talk on the economy of privacy, in which he suggested reflecting on the low value that people give to their personal data. To protect oneself from micro-violations of privacy, the author of the book The Internet of Money proposed defending and attacking in the same way as powers threaten people’s private lives.

In this respect, the expert asked those attending his talk how much they thought that their privacy cost. He noted that the biggest problem is that most people are willing to give (away) their phone number, date of birth, location and preferences through Internet search engines, just to watch a cat video, for example.

The Internet works with micro-violations of privacy and people are very happy to use that currency. People are glad to watch the cat video, but they do not realize that they gave (away) their privacy, while losing some democracy, freedom and self-determination, all together.

Edward Snowden, cited by Antonopoulos, estimates that capturing all the information that a person has on his or her device through Google would be worth one US dollar per day. If about 7 billion people were monitored, then the privacy market would be getting USD 7 billion.

Usefulness of Personal Data

Antonopoulos explained how acts of micro-violation of privacy are committed and how the personal data and private information of millions of people that governments capture through the Internet are used. In that sense, he said that, while individuals melt watching cat videos, a dog (privacy thief) could assume power.

A person may be giving political information to an uncle in the living room of his or her house, while their conversation is being recorded. This means that governments will be able to keep doing this as long as the human race exists. Snowden says that people often stop trying to maintain their privacy as it is very cheap and easy to record everything that others do throughout their lives.

Antonopoulos’ Plan

To fight threats to privacy, the Bitcoin speaker and educator proposed using cryptography, now that humanity has the same cryptographic tools as superpowers. He recommends that people keep trying to protect their privacy, since this technology can now be applied asymmetrically.

Antonopoulos believes that surveillance monsters (or privacy thieves) can be defeated, at the same time as a certain degree of privacy is maintained to protect people from total monitoring. In that sense, he proposed continuing the fight against the surveillance of all the people on the planet. To do this, he proposed taking two steps: first applying basic defense on Internet stalking and then attacking.

He thinks that it is hard for the victims of surveillance to come together to create an open source application, so he proposes having the photo of each judge, police officer or politician on a blockchain. Now it is possible to have privacy symmetry behind those wanting to impose total monitoring, since there are more people with devices to threaten their privacy faster than they can affect other people.

The Bitcoin expert also calls for the application of a plan that allows protecting the privacy of each individual. To do this, he suggests reducing the access to the necessary technology by producing the strongest cryptography.

By Willmen Blanco

App to Send Bitcoin Decides to Close Due to Strong Regulations by The EU

Maria Rodríguez
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App to Send Bitcoin Decides to Close Due to Strong Regulations by The EU

The European Union required Bottle Pay excessive personal information of its users.

Bottle Pay, an UK company that would allow sending Bitcoin through social networks, decided to cancel its project whose objective was to facilitate the processing of payments with bitcoins, due to some strong regulations imposed by the European Union (EU).

The announcement about the closure of Bottle Pay surprised the crypto community when last Friday it became official its inability to comply with the parameters issued by the European Union. The project, which was being developed for some time, was suspended in its entirety despite it was considered very innovative.

It was known that the project would allow users to send micropayments with bitcoin (BTC) through text messages, using conventional social networks such as Twitter and Telegram. That was one of the benefits of the idea.

Bottle Pay was a company born in England, which, in its period of activity, would have managed to raise up to two million US dollars in a single round of investment collection, last September. Although the project did not raise its most anticipated application, it already had more than 10,000 users who were providing services until the announcement of its closure, last Friday.

The project concluded definitively due to the strong pressure of the European Union to control and regulate the use of cryptocurrencies. In a statement issued by the company after its closure it was known that too much personal information was required of its users, and that, according to its considerations, this would inconvenience their customers and impact their services strongly.

“The amount and type of additional personal information that we would be asked to collect from our users would alter the current user experience so radically, and so negatively, that we are not willing to force this into our community”, says the official statement.

How Cryptocurrencies Are Seen in The World and Their Strong Regulation

The knowledge of this news demonstrates that regulatory excess can greatly affect the crypto community. This happens since although the EU seeks status of legality, it sees with difficulty the complete adoption due to skepticism around these technologies.

In practical terms, cryptocurrencies were born with the objective of facilitating the sending of funds between two or more parties. In this way, the digital currency would be used for the exchange or payment of products and services. This alternative to fiat money could be well adopted if the technology were more easily digestible for influencers.

Currently, these objectives have not been achieved since globalization has somewhat excluded the crypto community due to many factors. Among them is the difficulty of scalability or the low speed when processing transactions within blockchain platforms of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

The closure of Bottle Pay can show the crypto community how difficult it can be to adopt cryptocurrencies, especially in the use of them for the financing of markets outside the industry.

By María Rodríguez

Federal Reserve Considers that Half of Bitcoin Transactions Could Be Related to Crimes

Willmen Blanco
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0
Federal Reserve Considers that Half of Bitcoin Transactions Could Be Related to Crimes

The representative of the US Federal Reserve Lael Brainard said that Bitcoin is being used to perform criminal acts and illegal transactions.

Lael Brainard, governor of the Federal Reserve Board, said that a high percentage of transactions conducted with Bitcoin could currently be associated with criminal acts.

Brainard made her statements during a panel of experts at a monetary policy event in Germany. During a speech delivered in honor of the member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank Benoît Cœure, the official shared some considerations about the current state of the ecosystem of digital currencies and how, in her opinion, they have promoted crime in the different strata of society.

In this regard, Brainard cited a study made earlier this year in which she indicates that Bitcoin has a broad base of users that commit criminal acts. She explained that only a third of the most popular exchanges handle mechanisms to verify users’ identity and address when making deposits or withdrawals. This is worrisome since several studies claim that digital currencies support a significant number of criminal acts.

Bitcoin and Criminal Acts

One of Brainard’s most controversial statements had to do with the volume of operations linked to crimes throughout the history of the main cryptocurrency. The official said that 50% of Bitcoin transactions have in some way violated the legal provisions in force.

However, several analysts say that the official has misconceptions regarding the use of Bitcoin since the anonymity given to financial operations by the network does not mean that it goes against the laws in force. Other studies show that cash transactions are still the main vehicle for perpetrating unlawful acts, while a large number of irregularities in money laundering constantly pass through the hands of major banks, including those operating internationally.

A study conducted by MIT and Elliptic researchers in the middle of 2019, discredits the official’s statements. Of around 200,000 transactions analyzed it was found that only 2% of these could be related to illegal activities. The researchers indicated that these figures occur because, despite the anonymity granted by the digital currency, operations can be perfectly traceable by using different software tools to analyze in detail the data hosted on the blockchain network.

Rise of Stablecoins

Another point highlighted by Brainard is related to the rise of stablecoins, digital currencies whose value is equated with that of fiat currency whilst being backed by reserves in legal-tender money. The official believes that they have grown in popularity and adoption in recent months due to initiatives such as Facebook’s Libra.

Brainard highlighted how digital payment systems have evolved greatly in countries such as China, as well as the Fed’s efforts to develop an almost instantaneous transaction platform by 2023. However, she noted that many people and organizations are interested in the issuance of stablecoins by Central banks. In this regard, she said that there are still many challenges to address in this area, mainly associated with policies against money laundering and the financing of terrorist acts.

Returning to Facebook’s Libra, the official said that this project is far from other “legal” stablecoins such as Paxos or Gemini Dollar, due to the scope and magnitude of the project, which would allow more than 2 billion people the possibility for making payments without any regulatory control. She stressed that stablecoins seek to operate as traditional money without relying on central banks, which represents risks as there would not be an institution that responds in case of irregularities that go against users’ interests.

By Willmen Blanco

The Island Council of Tenerife Could Adopt Blockchain as a Method for Optimizing Public Management

Maria Rodríguez
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The Island Council of Tenerife Could Adopt Blockchain as a Method for Optimizing Public Management

The Director of Innovation said that the proof of concept carried out by the department was successful. Participants called the activity as the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

During the inauguration of the first BOB Alastria-ECO-Blockchain Day, it was announced that the Island Council of Tenerife would have participated through its innovation department.

José Clemente Díaz, who is its Director, mentioned that they take into account the use of blockchain technology as a concrete way to improve public management and optimize administrative processes.

These ecosystems based on Alastria were presented by many of the companies related to the sector that seek to publicize their advantages and give as an example the use of the blockchain for all the companies of the Canary Islands that want to adopt them.

In this way, the highest institutional body in Tenerife confirmed that until now they have already conducted some of the most important tests for the use of this technology in their administration. Some of the companies that joined the conference were: EdoSoft, Open Canarias, Open Data and Blockchain together with Alastria, Canarias Cluster Technology Excellence and Cajasiete.

The BOB or the Alastria-ECO-Blockchain Day was part of the 1st Blockchain Day held in Tenerife and throughout Gran Canaria during December 11th and 12th.

During the day, many of the most important representatives of the sector commented on their ideas and opinions about blockchain technology, as well as suggested solutions to current and future problems for this technology. In fact, most of the actors decided to call this technological movement the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Clemente Díaz also commented that blockchain technology is much more than a technology. He added that using Internet of Value could open a new world of possibilities that was previously unimaginable and that it can be a reality that would help millions of people all over the world.

Diaz decided to emphasize the benefits and the importance of adopting these technologies to expand the financial development of companies and nations, as well as to open a new world market that could be intertwined with a blockchain platform.

“Almost every day we hear about innovation, its importance in economic development, especially in the case of an island, where diversifying the economy is essential for the development as an element of wealth creation”.

In addition, Clemente Díaz said that his innovation department in the Island Council of Tenerife is committed to innovative and disruptive technologies such as blockchain. During his speech, he also took the opportunity to announce that the proof of concept carried out by his department turned out to be a success, although he did not provide details on the results.

Blockchain ​​Projects for The Canary Islands

During the day, the companies that were present used the occasion to offer support if necessary and shared their experiences in the installation of blockchain technologies in their companies.

The development of this meeting shows that the movement of blockchain technology has had a strong impact on Tenerife, as it is the case of Triple O Games, a video game that converts the points acquired in the game and transforms them into real money. This example is a local reference in the use of blockchain and has been praised by crypto companies throughout the Canary Islands.

About the video game designed by Triple O Games, it is expected to have similar updates in the future, as the company considers the creation of a complete tokenization system where players can sell, auction, buy, change or even donate digital assets collected in the game. In addition to being rewarded with tokens, other digital currencies or fiat money.

In another sense, the online educational platform Tutellus, which is specialized in tokenization and blockchain technology, recently announced the activation of its Bootcamp, which would take place next January in all the Canary Islands. This project is possible thanks to the support of the entire center of businesses. The idea is connecting companies that seek to innovate technologically in the future. This program was also presented during the BOB Day of Alastria.

By María Rodríguez

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