Malaysian Ministry of Finance Says Blockchain Adoption Remains Low

Maria Rodríguez
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Malaysian Ministry of Finance Says Blockchain Adoption Remains Low

This country has offered work visas for blockchain experts, uses Apps based on blockchain platforms and issues laws related to cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets.

Even when the world talks more and more about cryptocurrencies, blockchain and, in general, all this disruptive sector, the Malaysian Ministry of Finance recently assured that the rate of adoption of cryptocurrencies, both national and global, remains low.

The government entity of that country that has opened its doors to the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology was based on its Economic Outlook 2020 report.

Despite commenting that the adoption of cryptocurrencies has been slow, the Ministry recognizes that firms which belong to key economic sectors have taken steps towards the adoption of digital currencies.

The Malaysian Ministry of Finance knows that some governments in the world have objections to cryptocurrencies. For this reason, it urged global authorities to formulate regulations to address the issue of digital assets and the possible problems they generate. In this way, it would be possible to follow up how this sector is managed.

The report took stock of the work of national financial regulators until now, including the amendment of the Negara Bank of Malaysia to regulations against money laundering and the fight against terrorist financing in February 2018 to include requirements for suppliers of digital asset services.

A Country of Adoption

In January 2019, the Malaysian Capital Markets and Services Order entered into force. This law refers to the prescription of securities, digital currencies and digital tokens.

The intention is to regulate both digital assets and exchange platforms in Malaysia, a country that has opened its doors to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and tokens.

The order determines that any digital asset offered as a form of investment or used as a fundraising method is classified as “securities” in that country. This, of course, includes cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Securities Commission updated its Guidelines about Recognized Markets to implement what will be the requirements and standards necessary for the operation of digital asset exchanges (DAX).

Thanks to this, almost three DAX operators have been registered until May of this year.

Since last May, DAX operators had nine months to fully comply with the regulations that will allow them to be fully operational safely. Now, these operators are the only places that the Malaysian regulator considers as legal to offer digital asset trading.

The report of the Malaysian Ministry of Finance also mentioned the public consultation document regarding the Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) of the Securities Commission, as well as its intentions to introduce formal guidelines in the near future.

Malaysia is a country that has sought to improve some processes through blockchain technology. Recently, the Ministry of Education said they would use Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to prevent the falsification of university degrees.

This will be possible thanks to an application called E-Skrol, which will run through the NEM blockchain platform. The App will work by saving information of each graduate. Then, it will confirm in the data of the universities, his full name, his complete academic record, and the date of graduation. This will be possible when scanning, through the application, a QR code that will be printed on each certificate.

In addition, in June the country announced that it would give a work visa to foreigners who wanted to train more or work in Malaysia. The country continues to make efforts to achieve blockchain adoption and also it invites other countries to do so.

By María Rodríguez

A New Ethereum Token Will Be Backed by Gold and Supported by Australia

Maria Rodríguez
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A New Ethereum Token Will Be Backed by Gold and Supported by Australia

This is not the first cryptoactive that has been backed by gold.

One of the largest refineries on the planet, Mint Perth, recently announced the launch of a new token in Ethereum that will be backed by gold and will be officially supported by the Australian government. This is only another step in the adoption of cryptocurrencies.

It is known, thanks to public data collected by Hard Fork, that now the asset called Perth Mint Gold Token (PMGT) will be the first token classified in this area of ​​public blockchain networks that will be backed by a government constituted as the one of Australia. In this way, users will have a direct livelihood with the State reserves.

Regarding the announcement of the launch, the company informed that it established a new purpose, so this will be a powerful tool which will work as an alternative to certain gold products, helping to negotiate and liquidate quickly and in real time.

“It offers institutional investors a competitive alternative to traditional gold products, such as gold ETFs, with the additional real-time negotiation and settlement benefits, thanks to blockchain technologies”, the announcement says.

A Way to Digitalize Gold

The Perth Mint token, which belongs to the Australian government, has taken this plan to digitize gold to the blockchain field. It sees this opportunity as the most appropriate to protect the campaign.

This gold digitalization project began in the middle of 2018, when an application called GoldPass was launched, something that helped investors interested in marketing gold to buy, sell and transfer gold through the use of digital authentication certificates.

These certificates are no more than an amount of real gold protected by the Australian government. These possession documents will be tokenized by the company and put into operation in the ERC-20 cryptoactive.

Richard Hayes, who is the Perth Mint’s CEO, said that digitizing gold will significantly improve liquidity, in addition to increasing transparency in negotiations with gold, also enabling an option with a great audit system.

“The digitalization of gold through a public account is a natural progression for global commodity markets. It will promote gold as the main asset, improve its accessibility and offer greater liquidity, transparency and auditability of the real assets that support this type of digital token”, he said.

In addition to this, it is known that the token will have a value similar to the one of market. Marketing materials will indicate the value, which will determine the liquidity of PMGT, this will be possible thanks to market designers. It will also be authorized through the GoldPass platform.

Not everything went well for projects similar to the one that Mint Perth has launched, since last June, Hard Fork reported that the stablecoin projects that were started in 2017, that also were backed by gold, resulted to be completely failed.

Every project is different and this is the opportunity to develop a new token backed by gold.

By María Rodríguez

Bank of America Looks for Blockchain Experts for Its Staff

Maria Rodríguez
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Bank of America Looks for Blockchain Experts for Its Staff

These jobs are published even when the bank’s chief technology officer said the bank is against blockchain technology

Bank of America, one of the largest banking institutions in the United States, has begun the search for people with knowledge in blockchain technology. The bank looks for someone able to develop different innovative tools related to this technology.

The job offers which were posted by said financial institution indicate that they are looking for people who are not only able to handle the tools, but also who propose a set of development, research and growth plans to conduct them. The institution plans to do much more with this innovative technology.

According to information collected, currently Bank of America has about 78 patents which are related to blockchain technology, and are mostly plans for developing tools and financial solutions.

The vacancy jobs that the bank, based in North Carolina, offers to those who have specific experience and knowledge in blockchain technology correspond to a possible development and adoption plan. In total, six jobs are offered in order to shape the department of innovative technology and blockchain.

This way, a treasure product manager is requested as well as three technology architects (who will be responsible for the different business payments), and finally two other architects specialized in the area of ​​banking regulation. In the central specifications of the jobs it is highlighted that those interested should have experience in blockchain technology, as well as in methodology to apply these tools and solutions in the traditional banking system.

Recently, the announcement of the job offer was closed on the Linkedin social network. But previously a series of factors that the bank needed for the interested parties were explained, suggesting that the financial institution was interested in applying the payment network that is linked to the Ripple platform ledger.

Likewise, about the vacancy for treasure products manager, it was explained that the applicant for this position should direct the “product management team for the Ripple project”, according to the institution.

In addition, this position of leader for the team related to blockchain technology will have to “boost the strategy and growth of the product, supervise the daily routines of product management, and supervise the development of new initiatives which results in an innovative product offering and highly competitive”.

Despite having announced these job offers, Cathy Bessant, who is Chief Operations and Technology Officerat Bank of America, said, during an interview, that the bank is not interested in blockchain technology.

Nevertheless, they have acquired patents related to this technology with the intention that if the institution need them at some point, it could develop its network quickly and avoid future problems if this field begins to have greater relevance in the global financial markets.

On the other hand, the bank specified, that regarding the jobs for architects that it needed, that it was necessary for the applicant to have experience in what they call “crypto-technologies”, as well as in blockchain technology, and Internet of Things (IoT).

By María Rodríguez

Reasons Why Cryptocurrency Projects Die

Willmen Blanco
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Reasons Why Cryptocurrency Projects Die

The loss of investor interest seems to be the leading cause of death. Cryptocurrency projects called scams comprise the second most affected group.

Halloween is approaching, so it seems appropriate to observe the cryptocurrency graveyard. Even in such a young industry, many projects have already faced death, and websites like Coinopsy and DeadCoins are providing autopsy reports from collective sources.

Recently, data from Coinopsy were studied to learn more about those projects that fail, which led to some interesting patterns.

Coinopsy has over 700 entries extending until eight years ago, which is why this platform is considered one of the best available windows to the cryptocurrency graveyard. However, Coinopsy data are incomplete and come from collective sources, so the information may show inaccuracies.

The website also does not provide its information in downloadable formats or in graphics formats. Consequently, conducting this analysis required that the information be collected manually.

Why Cryptocurrency Projects Die

The data presented in Coinopsy include various causes of cryptocurrency death. The most common was death by abandonment, that is, investors simply stopped trading the token, so the trading volume decreased to zero or close to zero. According to the study, 63.1% of cryptocurrency projects died from this cause.

The next largest group of dead projects was that of the alleged scams, which are among 29.9% of the projects presented in Coinopsy. Most of these alleged scams appeared in 2017, probably inspired by the bullish market. In contrast to previous years, it was observed that the number of scams increased over five times.

Surprisingly, the data also include the names of the founders of some projects, among who are a user called Crunck and someone called Daniel Mendoza. Both names appear related to three different dead projects that were allegedly scams. However, it should be remembered that this information is purged at the suggestions of collective sources and may not be accurate.

Other reasons why cryptocurrencies die include the failure or stifling of some ICOs (3.6%) and obvious “joke” projects (3.2%) such as AnalCoin, BagCoin and BieberCoin.

Number of Existing Dead Projects

It cannot be determined how many cryptocurrency projects have died, and the answer depends to some extent on how “death” is defined. Coinopsy currently includes on its list around 705 dead cryptocurrencies, DeadCoins includes 1,779, and CoinMarketCap over 1,000 projects with a daily trading volume below USD 1,000, certainly placing them in this category.

Obviously, these three sources of information overlap, but there may be a few dead projects not included on any of these lists. Probably, some failed international projects mainly traded in a language other than English are outside these samples, since the three aforementioned websites are primarily aimed at English-speaking audiences.

Survival Length of Doomed Projects

Coinopsy information includes the “starting” and “ending” dates of almost all projects, which allows users a more complete view of how long each project has survived.

Not surprisingly, those “abandoned” projects that had started being successful but in the end lost investor interest tend to last longer, with an average lifetime of 1.7 years. Failed or stifled ICOs had a similar duration, with an average lifetime of 1.6 years. “Joke” projects had an average lifetime of 1.4 years while scam projects had the shortest average lifetime of the entire group, with only about a year.

By Willmen Blanco

Unicef Will Receive Donations in Cryptocurrencies Thanks to a New Digital Fund

Maria Rodríguez
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Unicef Will Receive Donations in Cryptocurrencies Thanks to a New Digital Fund

The fund will serve as a way to save since donations will remain expressed in cryptocurrencies until their use.

Recently, UNICEF ​​announced the launch of its new digital donation fund where it can receive cryptocurrencies for its humanitarian projects. In this way, UNICEF becomes the first agency of the United Nations (UN) to have a fund of this nature.

One of the most important and relevant units of the UN, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched its unique fund with the aim to receive a new type of donations, in cryptocurrencies. The statement expressing the launch of this new collection method specifies that now it would be possible to “retain and disburse donations with Ethereum and Bitcoin cryptocurrencies”.

In the statement of the organization, it announces the tool enthusiastically remembering that, this way, they can help more and more children around the world. “For the first time for United Nations organizations, UNICEF will use cryptocurrencies to finance open source technology that will benefit children and young people around the world”, it says.

This collection tool has become a global fund, so that anyone in any part of the world can make a donation. In this way, the UN has taken another step using this kind of technology, since in previous opportunities the organization would have already conducted research and alliances with companies linked to the encryption industry. In fact, the UNICEF section in France had already enabled the donation option through digital currencies; in addition to many other initiatives with cryptocurrencies that were conducted “hand in hand” with the UN last year 2018. Spokesmen of the organization hope that thanks to this new tool they can increase the number of donations since this year.

According to the specifications of the new cryptocurrency donation fund, the main advantage of this solution is that the money collected in digital currencies will be stored in that type of asset and will only be converted into fiat money when the organization makes a disbursement for any of its projects. In this way, the money collected can fluctuate in value since it will be, in turn, as a savings fund.

In addition to the donation fund for digital currencies, UNICEF has also just installed the website called Hopepage, an online page that will allow the creation of cryptocurrencies using the processing issued by the person browsing the domain.

As additional information, it is known that the cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions company Ethereum will make the first donation for the organization using this new method.

UNICEF ​​understands the importance of innovation in its working methods, since in this way, this platform would be a better performance for its humanitarian projects. This was explained by the executive director of the organization.

“If digital economies and currencies have the potential to shape the lives of future generations, it is important that we explore the opportunities they offer”, the representative said to local media.

By María Rodríguez

The UN Will Combat Poverty Using Blockchain Technology and Chocolates

Maria Rodríguez
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The UN Will Combat Poverty Using Blockchain Technology and Chocolates

The tool will help improve the process of payment for cocoa farmers in Ecuador.

Recently, the United Nations (UN) issued a statement where it informed about its new project to combat poverty using blockchain technology to support cocoa farmers and elaborate chocolate bars. Both things at the same time.

The idea is to sell a chocolate bar called The Other Bar, which will have a unique feature: it is a method to make a special donation. It is known that at the back of the package of chocolate it will have a code. Using it, the buyer can access a platform to make a direct donation to cocoa farmers in countries such as Ecuador. Additionally, the buyer may receive discounts in the next purchases of chocolate.

Guido Van Staveren, who founded the FairChain Company, one of the main collaborating companies of the project, said that although there is a humanitarian goal, which is to combat poverty and precarious conditions of farmers in countries like Ecuador, it is also a project that will seek to boost local businesses using innovative technologies such as blockchain. This is something that in the past was kind of difficult to do.

“This is an experiment about what we can do to boost conscious consumption towards impact objectives. The idea is to use technology to influence consumer behavior, and basically convert each product into a capitalist impact engine”, explained the executive.

The Dutch company FairChain took this strategic alliance to strengthen technology and diversify its branches. This joint work was conducted thanks to the initiative proposed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It is an innovative idea in the chocolate production sector.

As a first step, the project culminated a somewhat limited shipment which will be responsible for evaluating the market and its addition to it. It is known that the first shipment had more than 20,000 units of dark chocolate and milk chocolate, which will correspond as a pilot phase both for the sale and for the collection of donations.

This important initiative arises due to the precarious conditions in which cocoa farmers work in Ecuador. According to data collected, the grower only receives 3% of the sales of the cocoa sold as a product for chocolate, becoming one of the least paid jobs among those engaged in the agricultural sector. In most cases, these people do not receive a salary commensurate to meet their basic needs.

This initiative also promoted by the businessman Van Staveren would reduce the precarious situation of cocoa farmers in Ecuador, fighting in some way, the poverty experienced by these farmers.

Currently, in the South American country, the cocoa cultivated by these farmers is sold to chocolate manufacturing companies at US $ 1,200 per metric ton. Now, with this tool developed FairChain, although it does not eradicate the problem at all, it would improve its situation helping cocoa farmers receive an estimated of $ 2,400 per ton.

By María Rodríguez

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