Former World Boxing Champion Mike Tyson Leads Blockchain Project

Andres Chavez
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Former World Boxing Champion Mike Tyson Leads Blockchain Project

Blockchain technology is finally achieving mainstream status, as specialists and experts predicted at the start of the year. With each passing day, more banks, governmental institutions, celebrities, businesses, and even athletes are becoming involved with the distributed ledger.

This time around, American boxing icon Mike Tyson is joining the party, as he is choosing the blockchain for his newest venture. He is in front of a blockchain-powered entertainment platform, made for the newest generation of fighters around the world.

Meet the “Fight to Fame” Entertainment Ecosystem

According to a report from VentureBeat in recent hours, the “Fight to Fame,” which is the name of the entertainment ecosystem, intends to serve as a catapult for upcoming boxers to showcase themselves and their abilities whilst taking advantage of the innovative blockchain technology.

The Fight to Fame project will use blockchain with the objective of showing fighters’ talent via social media, film, reality TV, games, live matches, and even betting. All in all, a curious, but potentially promising way of launching a prospect’s professional career.

The venture actually combines two of Tyson’s most obvious passions: boxing and the cameras. After his sporting days expired in 2005, he showed an interest in acting and even had a couple of roles in specific productions.

“Iron Mike,” as he is often called, will be the project’s chairman and is the founder, with Farzam Kamalabadi, Tim Smithe, and Stan Larimer also in the team. The latter is the crypto and blockchain expert.

Tyson explained the project in a statement: “As a seasoned fighter, I want to mentor future generations, especially future action stars and make sure there’s a path to career success and fair compensation. Building this global platform for them is a passion of mine.”

Fair Compensation

The “fair compensation” point, per Kamalabadi, is powered by the blockchain’s benefits thanks to an ecosystem that “solves the empowerment that didn’t exist in the internet era. This is about wealth generation from the masses, but back to the masses through all the participants and stakeholders. So it is not just win-win. This is multiple wins for all the stakeholders.”

With the goal of driving engagement with the project, the developers will launch a fan token economy. It will also help the fighters enjoy their earnings, but also fans and other companies involved. The team notes that, in the specific case of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC,) the fighters, which are the ones showing their talents for the entertainment business to properly function, are left with just 15% of their cut after fees are deducted.

There are not a lot of details about the digital currency at the moment, but according to the team, there will be in the not so distant future. However, it will purportedly confer voting and betting rights to those who hold it.

Tyson is a former boxing champion. He was once regarded as the undisputed world heavyweight champion and is the youngest fighter to win a belt, at 20 years old. He retired in 2005 with a professional record of 50-6, with 44 knockouts. He is now 53 years old.

By Andres Chavez

Arab Emirates Airline Will Use Blockchain Technology

Maria Rodríguez
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Arab Emirates Airline Will Use Blockchain Technology

The platform will allow corporations and institutions such as airlines and hotels to publish the inventory available to their clients. Additionally, it will lower the current costs that represent the processes of this industry.

The United Arab Emirates national secondary airline, Etihad Airways, which handles travel routes to the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Australia and America, partnered with the Swiss-based Winding Tree open-source travel platform to implement blockchain technology in the services it offers.

The information was confirmed in local news. About this matter, Tristan Thomas, Director of Innovation at Etihad, commented: “Winding Tree is obviously our distribution (platform) and that’s an opportunity for us to disrupt a traditionally market dominated by major distribution systems (…) Very few have chosen to disrupt the distribution world and that’s because those are major players with very significant margins that have acted to keep that kind of a closed shop”.

In addition to Etihad, whose main base is the Abu Dhabi International Airport, other major airlines that are implementing blockchain technology are Air Canada, Lufthansa and Air France. Those companies are interested in developing new services with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

Swiss port service companies and hotels such as citizenM Hotel, Nordic Choice and Airport Hotel Basel have also joined the blockchain world to offer a different service to their users and to know more about how to take advantage of this new technologies.

Technologies Currently Used

One of the technologies that are currently being used by different entities in the travel sector are the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), which allow data about flights and room reservations to be collected for travel agents or those who book corporate trips, without resorting to intermediaries.

GDS works as a real-time inventory technology that allows users to store the most important data that companies in the travel sector need to manage to provide a different service to their customers.

Some of the best known global distribution systems are Amadeus and Saber. GDS is a computerized network system managed by a company that allows transactions between service providers belonging to the travel industry to be executed.

Currently, this system is mainly used by hotels, airlines, car rental companies and travel agencies, as well as websites such as Booking or Expedia.

An Alternative to GDS

However, blockchain technology could also transform this field and also take over the execution of these processes quickly and safely, since one of the main features of blockchain technology is to store information unalterable and that all parties involved in the process (especially the authorized ones) can have access to that data.

In this sense, the blockchain-based Winding Tree platform will allow corporations and institutions such as airlines and hotels to publish the inventory available to their customers, without using GDS systems.

Pedro Anderson, Winding Tree Operations Director, clarified that the new platform is not aimed at retail consumers, due to the characteristics of the platform. However, “the fact that intermediary rates are ultimately omitted means lower costs”, said the executive. This in another benefit of using blockchain technology in the new travel industry.

By María Rodríguez

United Kingdom’s Department for Work and Pensions Is Considering DLT to Accelerate Payments

Andres Chavez
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0
United Kingdom’s Department for Work and Pensions Is Considering DLT to Accelerate Payments

Traditional means and forms of payments used to work in the past, until not so long ago. However, as the world evolves into a place in which efficiency is not only appreciated, but also needed, the speed with which transactions are completed is becoming more and more relevant in the final equation.

The United Kingdom has noticed this changing paradigm, and one of its governmental divisions is taking actions to guarantee that payments are completed at a much faster pace than ever before. The referred public branch is the country’s pensions and welfare division, which is the (DWP.)

Ensuring that 20 Million Customers Get their Money on Time

As it turns out, the division is currently researching about the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT.) The Deputy Director at the DWP’s Digital Delivery Shared Platforms, Richard Laycock, recently wrote in a blog post about the department’s plans.

He stated that they intend to apply the distributed ledger technology to improve the whole DWP payments system, as the idea is to make sure that all 20 million customers “receive their payments on time.”

“As we move our Payment Services forward they need to be efficient, modern, fast, scalable, flexible, innovative and available 24/7,” Laycock wrote. Most of all of those traits can be enjoyed by effectively applying the DLT.

Although it was reported that the DWP is looking at several cutting-edge trends and technologies, they are heavily considering the DLT, as it is one of the fastest-growing systems in the planet and would fit in nicely with the needed updates.

“We are starting to see the first full production [DLT] implementations, such as Santander’s One Pay FX. The benefits include reducing time, cost and failure rate associated with making transactions whilst data is stored on a secure immutable ledger,” explained Laycock.

Among the objectives for the medium and long term is the revamping of the payments architecture, as Laycock explained that the department wants to apply “the biggest set of changes to the way UK payment schemes process payments in years.”

Consolidation and Innovation

A rollout is scheduled for early 2021, and the DWP will not only aim to consolidate the schemes already in place, but it will also reportedly introduce a common payment message standard, not to mention the addition of new “overlay” offerings such as “confirmation of payee” and “request to pay.”

Another way of optimizing and improving the DWP’s current payments service is open banking, in which using open APIs will let third-party developers come up with banking-related apps and services.

Laycock also explained that it is convenient for the DWP to “consider how we can harness the payment innovations coming out of these trends and how we can influence the New Payment Architecture to help shape future of payments across government.”

Besides various technologies becoming more prominent each day, the DLT remains one of the favorite of governments and public institutions around the planet.

By Andres Chavez

Grayscale Assures that Bitcoin Helps Investors Counteract Liquidity Risk

Willmen Blanco
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Grayscale Assures that Bitcoin Helps Investors Counteract Liquidity Risk

According to the Grayscale, Bitcoin has features that allow it to work even in crisis scenarios. The firm evaluated possible scenarios following the commercial dispute between the US and China.

The Bitcoin investment firm Grayscale considers that Bitcoin is also among the coverage options for investors regarding liquidity risk, which could happen in scenarios such as the commercial war that is currently held by the United States and China.

In a report presented by Grayscale on Thursday, August 8th, the firm notes that the dispute between two economies on the scale of the two countries could seriously hinder global growth, thus potentially producing a domino effect of negative consequences that lead to a liquidity constraint.

In the document Grayscale defines the term “liquidity risk” as the possibility of a “real decline in wealth.” It is said that these financial losses may occur due to imbalances existing in an economy, especially with regard to credit and circulating money, in relation to the debt of the economy in question. The report explains that these scenarios can eventually harm investors, depending on how exposed their investment portfolio is to these imbalances.

The firm considers that Bitcoin could represent a great advantage. According to the analysis conducted by Grayscale, the cryptocurrency has some features as an asset that allow it to adapt to different economic scenarios.

It has been proven that Bitcoin has the potential to function well in the course of normal economic cycles, as well as during liquidity crises, especially those that involve currency devaluations like in the case of Venezuela.

Advantages of Bitcoin as an Asset

In its research Grayscale highlights the growth of the cryptocurrency as a means of payment among hundreds of thousands of traders all over the world. The text also mentions that Bitcoin has parity with the main fiat currencies of the world, an increasingly growing adoption and a technology in full swing.

After listing the attractions of Bitcoin as a way of protecting investors’ portfolios in risk scenarios, Grayscale says that they believe that the cryptocurrency deserves a stable strategic position within many long-term investment portfolios.

Grayscale compares the cryptocurrency par excellence with gold, since its value reserve is also based on scarcity. It should be recalled that Bitcoin not only has an issuance limit set in its code of 21,000,000 BTC. Besides, its issuance is reduced periodically through the process called halving, which occurs approximately every four years.

Regarding processes such as the current commercial dispute between the United States and China, the firm claims that it is not yet known to what extent the changes in monetary, fiscal and commercial policies of such world powers will impact global markets. On the other hand, they consider that the increase in tensions and the length of the dispute are risky. This sad reality increases the potential risk of significant contagion for the global economy and financial markets.

In the study conducted by Grayscale it is concluded that Bitcoin could be a useful tool to help investors isolate their investment portfolios from any possible failures and handle these emerging problems effectively.

By Willmen Blanco

Blockchain Allows Identifying True Honey

Maria Rodríguez
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Blockchain Allows Identifying True Honey

Products that use this platform will be identified with the BeeMark label, which will have ecological and scientific information.

The traceability of food products also reached the honey bee production industry. The problem of fake honey occurs worldwide. In some cases, the fake honey is a mixture of rice and corn sweetened with sugar, which is not healthy for people who cannot consume this type of food.

Food Safety News studies have shown that 76% of the honey sold in the United States is not pure honey. In the best cases, this fake honey is ultra-filtered honey. Some of these “honeys” may even contain Chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that is banned in the United States for causing diseases and being related to cancer.

Because of this problem, some people resort to tricks to recognize when honey is pure. Some explain that true honey crystallizes over time, or that if the honey is placed in a glass of water, it does not dissolve. It is also said that pure honey ignites with a match.

But to avoid any inconvenience and that consumers can be surer of the authenticity of a honey, the Oracle blockchain will keep data on the production process of this item.

Important Alliance

Oracle and World Bee Project teamed up to work on this project that seeks not only to take advantage of all the advantages of blockchain technology, but also to ensure that the origin of the honey produced is from ecological and sustainable sources.

“We observe the health of the bees, we observe the temperature of the bees, the amount of honey that has been produced, what they need to be able to spend the winter and then we take the harvest and we can go through the different crushing processes, taking the honey panel, fermenting or purifying that honey”.

In the books of accounting or distributed and unalterable record, each supplier or participant in the honey supply chain must upload the information related to the honey product.

At the end, there should be information about each stage of the production and distribution process. The data collected would help to track honey from its hive to its final destination.

All this verifiable information can help qualify honey as authentic. This would help that when consumers observe the label on the bottle of honey in the store, they will know that the honey is real and know where it comes from.

Features to Guarantee Quality

Simon Potts, global advisor on pollination in the European Union will participate in the project. As part of the innovations, Oracle will take some data into account to help verify honey. Some of these data are: analyze the habitat that surrounds the hives, compare the type of pollen with the pollen of the plants of the locality where the honey was harvested.

In addition, the pollen firm will be registered so that it can be compared with samples taken in the supply chain and verify if there were any changes. In this way, if the honey contains maple pollen and the hive is far from the maple areas, this would mean that the honey was modified.

By María Rodríguez

People’s Bank of China Could Be about to Issue Its Own Crypto Currency

Willmen Blanco
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0
People’s Bank of China Could Be about to Issue Its Own Crypto Currency

The People’s Bank of China accelerates the design of a system in response to Libra’s proposal. The crypto currency would also support the circulation of the yuan and its internationalization.

According to a senior official, the People’s Bank of China is about to issue its own crypto currency.

The bank’s researchers have been working hard since the year 2018 to develop its system. According to what Mu Changchung, deputy director of the payments department of the People’s Bank of China, commented during an event held by China Finance Forum 40, on the weekend in Yinchun, Heilongjian, the bank’s crypto currency is “about to be launched.” Mu Changchung did not give any specific details on when the launch could occur.

Mu repeated the People’s Bank of China’s intention of replacing M0, or cash in circulation, with the new cryptocurrency instead of M2, which would lead to expanded credits and an impact on monetary policy. The cryptocurrency will also support the circulation of the yuan and its internationalization, said the executive.

These data indicate that the People’s Bank of China is slowly moving toward the introduction of its own cryptocurrency, after five years of research. Facebook’s interest in creating the Libra cryptocurrency has caused concern among central banks throughout the world, including the People’s Bank of China. The financial institution said that cryptocurrencies or digital assets should be placed under banking supervision to avoid the potential risks of foreign exchange and to protect the authority of monetary policy.

Sun Tianqi, an official from China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchanges, said in the forum that “Libra should be seen as a foreign currency and placed under China’s Forex management framework.”

Unlike decentralized blockchain-based offers, the People’s Bank of China’s cryptocurrency is aimed at giving Beijing more control over its financial system.

According to patents registered by the Central Bank, customers and companies will download a mobile wallet and exchange their yuan for the new cryptocurrency, which they will be able to use for making and receiving payments. Crucially, the People’s Bank of China will also be able to keep track of each time money when passes from one person to another.

The People’s Bank of China said in a statement released in early August that the bank “will accelerate China’s digital tender research” and it will monitor the trends in the development of cryptocurrencies, both in the territory and abroad, presenting its work plan for the second half of 2019.

Dave Chapman, executive director of BC Technology Group Ltd, explained that “with the announcement of the Libra cryptocurrency, governments, regulators and central banks around the world have had to accelerate their plans and approaches regarding cryptocurrencies.” He concluded that they must consider the possibilities that crypto currencies not issued by governments could “dramatically” interrupt finance and payments.

Once again, it is observed how cryptocurrencies are taking hold of the financial world. Examples like the Fed, with its FEDNow project, and now the People’s Bank of China, make it evident that businesses worldwide are increasingly venturing into the cryptocurrency world.

By Willmen Blanco

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