Companies Receive Support from Telefónica’s New Program to Implement a Blockchain

Willmen Blanco
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Companies Receive Support from Telefónica’s New Program to Implement a Blockchain

The startups will be able to develop blockchain use cases during the next six months. A total of 15 companies are already part of the Blockchain Activation program.

Wayra, the accelerating network of the Spanish group Telefónica, is developing the Blockchain Activation program. Through this initiative it is proposed to help companies that wish to incorporate this technology into their businesses to optimize processes and applications.

In a statement published on October 4th in its corporate blog, the company indicates that emerging companies wishing to join the Blockchain Activation program can register for free and test, for about six months, the modules implemented in the Telefónica network. In this way, they gain access to services and tools that make it easier for them to integrate the properties of blockchain technologies into their projects.

In this regard, it is explained that the key component of the program is TrustOS, a middleware-layer solution. This software is located between an operating system and the applications that run on it to allow communication with other applications, programs or operating systems.

The use of this layer makes it possible to help those who do not have much experience in blockchain developments so that they can execute their projects. In this way, TrustOS becomes the operating system that enables participants to use the Telefónica blockchain through different modules.

The company also offers startups the possibility to join Telefónica’s innovation ecosystem, as well as to communicate with Wayra’s innovation hubs. These centers are located in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, in Europe; and in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, in Latin America. Startups will also be provided free access to Amazon Web Services.

Different Blockchain Use Cases

It is also informed that fifteen startups, which are already part of Blockchain Activation, will be developing different blockchain use cases during the next few months.

These cases will include the certification of documents, transparent management of assets, registration of evidence found in production networks, and the appropriation of audiovisual content without a license or the approval of the owner.

There are also more unusual blockchain use cases, such as the application of technology for traceability of the parameters that influence the conservation of works of art. Projects related to the “advantages offered by tokenization within a gamification ecosystem to reward certain user behaviors or attitudes” are cited.

To participate in the program, companies must complete an online form in which they have to explain both their proposal and the way that they intend to incorporate blockchain technology. On the basis of these data, the most appropriate selection will be made, depending on what Telefónica considers to be most innovative and disruptive.

With this initiative, the Spanish company maintains its policy of support for the development of new technologies. Recently, the open innovation platform Telefónica Open Future announced that is seeking startups that want to promote projects based on blockchains, industry 4.0, artificial intelligence or videogames, for example. The selected ventures will be driven and supported with free advice.

By Willmen Blanco

SEC Secures Restraining Order against Telegram and Halts Development of the Gram Token in USA

Andres Chavez
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SEC Secures Restraining Order against Telegram and Halts Development of the Gram Token in USA

When it looked that everything was ready for Telegram to thrive in the crypto world with its gram token, a significant roadblock is now on its way, at least in the United States. A development occurred this week that will make the famous privacy-oriented messaging app to halt the development of its coin in American soil.

The United States’ SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission,) one of the most prominent financial watchdogs in the country, has secured an emergency restraining order that will make Telegram and its TON network stop the issuance of the token in the nation, over irregularities in its $1.7 billion ICO (Initial Coin Offering.)

The financial regulator announced in the last few hours that after filing for the emergency restraining order, it was granted it on Friday night. Telegram will now be unable to sell or distribute its gram tokens in American territory. The initial plan was for the network to be up and running on October 31st, but it is now unclear if that date will be met, as Telegram has not yet published its stance.

Telegram “Did Not Register its Offer”

According to the complaint, Telegram failed to register its offer. The company sold nearly 3 billion gram tokens (2.9 to be precise) “at discounted prices to 171 initial purchasers worldwide,” per the release. Of that total, more than a third (1 billion) was sold to American investors.

Stephanie Avakian, who is currently the Co-Director of SEC’s Division of Enforcement, issued a statement in which she observed that the measure taken in the last few hours is “intended to prevent Telegram from flooding the U.S. markets with digital tokens that we allege were unlawfully sold.”

According to Avakian, Telegram did not offer information to investors about its own operations and the gram token. Steven Peikin, another SEC co-director, also weighed on the matter and said that the law must be followed, so Telegram cannot operate in the United States.

“We have repeatedly stated that issuers cannot avoid the federal securities laws just by labeling their product a cryptocurrency or a digital token. Telegram seeks to obtain the benefits of a public offering without complying with the long-established disclosure responsibilities designed to protect the investing public,” he explained.

More than a Year of Development

The TON network and the gram token have been in the works for more than a year, and the industry was already expecting its launch. The first whispers about the ICO began to swirl around in January 2018. Whilst, reportedly, the goal was to raise $600 million in a pre-sale and an additional $700 million in a public offering, the company managed to raise $1.7 billion.

And whilst speculation about the TON blockchain network and the gram token was in full fledge for months, the company has been very secretive about the details, only publishing the code in the last few weeks and only confirming its launch date to investors in an email.

The network is not yet functioning. On the other hand, a secondary market for the gram token has already been developed. Some specific, small crypto exchanges and OTC desks trading platforms are making promises to investors that they will have the tokens the moment they are issued. However, at least in the United States, that is not happening anytime soon.

By Andres Chavez

Coinbase Custody Will Offer Support for Telegram’s GRM Token

Andres Chavez
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Coinbase Custody Will Offer Support for Telegram’s GRM Token

Coinbase, one of the most influential cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers in the world, revealed that it will offer custodial support for Telegram’s upcoming crypto project. Telegram is an instant messaging app known for its encrypted and privacy-driven nature.

The piece of news was reported by Coinbase itself via a blog post in recent hours. In the text, the company made it known that Coinbase Custody, its digital assets custodian product designed for institutional clients, will be supporting the Telegram Open Network, or TON, and its associated coin, the token Gram (GRM) once it is up and running.

After its most recent announcement, Coinbase will now offer support for the secure storage of a trio of future tokens: the mentioned GRM, Sola (SOL) and Orchid (OXT) starting from the moment of the launch of each one. Included in the custodial support is offline storage and insurance benefits for GRM token holders, per the blog post.

The “Fastest Growing Crypto Custodian”

“Over the last year, our industry leading security combined with our native ability to support participation and OTC trading for assets held offline has led Coinbase Custody to become the world’s largest and fastest growing crypto-native custodian. As our client base has grown we’ve been busy adding new features and support for the assets that our clients need. The primary factor we consider when deciding which assets to support is clients demand — particularly around new network launches,” the exchange explained.

“Today, we’re announcing that Coinbase Custody intends to support the secure storage of GRM, SOL & OXT at each network’s respective launch,” the blog post read.

According to the exchange, its Custody department is considered a limited-purpose trust firm that is chartered and properly regulated by respective authorities, in this case the New York Department of Financial Services. As a result, it reunites all the requirements to be a qualified custodian, per the U.S. Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

It can be read in the blog post that “as more networks launch tokens, institutional investors face a critical challenge in finding ways to securely hold each new unique asset,” implying that support will be made available at the outset of a specific ecosystem’s launch.

Other Companies that Will Support the Asset

Coinbase Custody is not the first company and/or project that publicly announced its support for Telegram’s newest asset, as Anchor Labs’ digital asset custodian branches Anchorage Hold and Anchorage Trust Company already did it a few days ago, on October 8.

Those two companies, however, have not yet registered with the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC,) and the support for the GRM token won’t be offered in the state of New York and its local clients, at least at first.

After weeks of speculation in the press and in the crypto community, it was revealed that the incredibly anticipated TON network will launch close to the end of the month. Telegram itself made the announcement on October 2nd.

The news clearly stated that investors will need to offer Telegram a public key created through specialized software in order to get their GRM tokens by October 16th.

Telegram has been very active lately: just a few days ago, in late September, it came up with a wallet for its upcoming token in the app’s alpha version for the iOS operating system.

By Andres Chavez

Liechtenstein Parliament Unanimously Approves Blockchain Act

Maria Rodríguez
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Liechtenstein Parliament Unanimously Approves Blockchain Act

The “Token Law” contemplates measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing since it forces service providers to follow the required regulations.

The Parliament of the European country Liechtenstein unanimously approved a Law related to Tokens and Entities ProvidingServices Based on Trusted Technologies (TVTG), better known as the Blockchain Act.

This law, which will enter into force on January 1st, 2020, seeks to create a legal framework that encourages financial technology companies (FinTech) to establish themselves in the country and develop blockchain-based technology solutions.

“This law empowers companies to interrupt old processes, innovate in areas that have been outdated for decades and create better ways of doing things for ordinary people. This small country is taking a big leap towards disrupting the financial services market”, Sascha Ragtschaa, CEO of the blockchain company WeOwn, said.

Total Regulation

The central objective of the law is to improve the protection of investors, combat money laundering and establish clarity. Thus, Liechtenstein would be, according to its Parliament, the first country to have complete regulation of the token economy.

The newly passed law will regulate civil rights; protect customers and their assets, whilst establishing adequate supervision of the various service providers in the token economy.

Thus, there is legal protection for token holders, real estate properties, shares in a company or some other type of assets. All this would now be guaranteed by the State. This is known as the “Token Container Model”.

“An essential element of the government’s financial center strategy is implemented with TVTG and Liechtenstein is positioned as an innovative and legally safe place for token economy providers”, the country’s Prime Minister, Adrian Hasler, said.

Token Economy

The model law serves as a “container” for rights of all kinds, regardless of whether they are rights to shares, real estate or licenses.

Mauro Casellini, lawyer and CEO of Bitcoin Suisse in Liechtenstein, stressed the importance of the blockchain law. He said the positive decision without dissent from the Government demonstrates the importance of the blockchain law.

“The TVTG not only creates legal certainty for all market participants, but also announces a new era, the token economy. With its pioneering role, Liechtenstein demonstrates, once again, that it is the ideal place for FinTech and blockchain companies and, therefore, also for us, in the heart of Europe”.

Liechtenstein is at the forefront of Western countries that have adopted blockchain technology, as is happening in Latin America and North America.

This friendly approach has already attracted several blockchain companies. Bittrex, the cryptocurrency trading platform recently announced its new trading platform, Bittrex Global.

Since this country is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA), companies can enjoy better access to the European market and also work with blockchain.

Other nations that have understood the value of blockchain technology and are trying to create their legal framework are Estonia and Belarus. Now, other European countries will be able to follow the example of the regulation established by Liechtenstein.

By María Rodríguez

The United States’ CFTC Identifies Ether as a Commodity

Andres Chavez
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The United States’ CFTC Identifies Ether as a Commodity

One of the few issues of digital assets over time, and one of the primary obstacles for regulators, has been correctly identifying the nature or the type of each one. After all, different categories should not be considered the same under the law.

Recently, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (US CFTC) made it public, through its chairman; said commission thinks Ether (ETH) should be considered a commodity, and that ETH futures trading is coming to fruition.

Per a report from Yahoo Finance, Heath Tarbert said so at the All Markets Summit that took place on October 10th. Tarbert recently substituted J. Christopher Giancarlo, back in July, as the US CFTC chairman.

Bitcoin Was already Covered

The development is news worthy because by now, everyone was clear about the CFTC’s stance towards Bitcoin (an asset that is also considered a commodity by the organization) but there was not any public announcements regarding Ether up to this point. It is the first time that the institution has offered his vision on the asset, which happens to be the biggest altcoin judging by market cap.

Tarbert observed that “we’ve been very clear on bitcoin: bitcoin is a commodity. We haven’t said anything about ether—until now […] It is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity.” Short, concise, but very clear words about a relevant authority.

That leaves the industry with a clearer landscape regarding the two most prominent cryptocurrencies and their treatment by the CFTC. However, many investors and specialists are wondering how should they view other similar assets?

What about the Rest of Altcoins?

The report by Yahoo Finance offers some answer regarding that. Tarbert, quoted by the site, concedes that there are uncertainties about the status of most altcoins. He said that as long as they are similar assets than Bitcoin and Ethereum, they should be treated like those two.

Going with a more in-depth analysis, Tarbert stated that forked crypto assets, those that were born after a split from the original underlying blockchain (Bitcoin Cash, or BCH, and Ethereum Classic, or ETC, are two prime examples) need to be addressed in a similar way as the original one.

The Status of Forked Coins

However, that is not the end of the analysis and the hypothetical cases. For example, Tarbert observed that the status of a forked asset may change if the fork itself “raises some securities law issues under that classic Howey Test.”

Tarbert expressed that “it stands to reason that similarly assets should be treated similarly. If the underlying asset, the original digital asset, hasn’t been determined to be a security and is therefore a commodity, most likely the forked asset will be the same.”

The CFTC, back in December, revealed its objective of releasing a Request for Information with the intention of acquiring public comments and further guidance regarding the Ethereum blockchain. The main goal was to correctly identify the characteristics, similarities, and differences between Ether and Bitcoin.

By Andres Chavez

According to Forbes Editor in Chief, BTC is Useful as a Mean to Fight Authoritarian Regimes

Andres Chavez
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According to Forbes Editor in Chief, BTC is Useful as a Mean to Fight Authoritarian Regimes

Bitcoin started as an experiment near the end of last decade, and now, it has cemented its place as a store of value, a payment method, and the present and future of money. It is the most valuable of all cryptocurrencies, and it is not close. Investors all over the world are now seeing BTC as a resource to hedge their funds and protect them.

But according to a high-profile individual, its uses and applications can further expand. The editor in chief of renowned business and finances publication Forbes, Steve Forbes, recently referred to Bitcoin as a “high-tech cry for help” that is continually fed by a lack of trust in traditional currencies.

As Trustworthy as Gold: Is it Possible?

The executive expressed his thoughts whilst speaking to Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood at her firm’s podcast. There, Forbes observed that Bitcoin has a challenge in the medium and long-term: becoming as trustworthy as gold, something that has been very difficult to achieve given that gold has earned its place and done it for centuries.

Forbes correctly observes that the price of Bitcoin tends to fluctuate a little too much for most people’s tastes, saying that the asset is considered “steak one day, dog food the next.” However, he showed a great deal of knowledge about the world’s premier crypto asset and hot it could fit in the future of finances.

Forbes added that Bitcoin has “performed a very important role in helping people in distressed situations around the world: getting around governments that want to control you and starve you and hurt you.”

Authoritarian regimes can affect the everyday’s life of their citizens, but until now, those societies have come to learn quite a lot about Bitcoin. For instance, BTC is a big deal in Venezuela despite the current political unrest; this is because it provides a way to own one’s finances.

A Positive and Surprising Stance

Forbes’ thoughts about cryptocurrencies and digital assets were mostly positive in his presentation, which is mildly surprising given that he made his fame in a more traditional setting. That kind of support for crypto assets is not commonly seen from a person that thrived in a different, older financial landscape.

At the moment of writing this piece, the price of Bitcoin kept sliding and was exchanging hands at $8,151, which would be a decrease of 1.74 % considering its value in the last 24 hours.

A Similar Forecast

According to a prominent news site specialized in crypto assets, another financial institution, in this case BayernLB (a bank from Germany) implied that BTC would be making a giant leap next year, which is music to investors’ ears. The cryptocurrency surpassed $13,500 at some point this year, but is now under $9,000 in its latest correction. However, the surge could be bigger in 2020.

The financial institution recently published a research in which it detailed that the upcoming BTC halving effect has not been considered in its current price yet. It also said that a “vertiginous price of around USD 90,000” is a possibility in 2020.

By Andres Chavez

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