Germany Opens Public Consultation to Come Up with National Blockchain Strategy

Andres Chavez
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Germany Opens Public Consultation to Come Up with National Blockchain Strategy

After a surge to start the week, Bitcoin is, at the time of writing this article, finally pushing to break the $4,000 barrier, which would represent a powerful message in a market that has been volatile, to say the least, for months now. And, a Bitcoin starts to heat up, governments and the private sector are intensifying their quest to explore blockchain strategies in an effort to optimize and streamline processes in several industries.

The latest country to make the news because of its intentions to apply the blockchain technology is Germany. The Germans, who currently have Europe’s strongest and largest economy, are joining the party: the government is currently exploring new ventures and roads to apply the technology across several fields, as it has opened a consultation process to form an efficient strategy for the summer.

Berlin, the Perfect Location

 As the world now knows, the blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin, which is by far the largest, most prominent, and important digital asset or cryptocurrency by market cap. And Berlin, Germany’s capital city, is a dream location to apply the blockchain technology, as almost 200 startups have clear potential of benefiting from the strategy.

According to some governmental sources that were quoted by global news hub Reuters, the private sector, including the industrial force and other firms, are among the people being consulted about their views on how to best incorporate the model to help develop the German economy, which is already powerful to begin with.

Despite the current financial and economic stability that Germans enjoy, there is still plenty of interest from tech investors and participants in the market from several fields and industries, especially the automotive, energy, and pharmaceutical ones (not coincidentally, the strongest in the nation.)

Almost a Third of Young Germans are Curious about Cryptocurrencies

Germany has several things working in their favor in its quest to successfully deploy a global, nation-wide blockchain strategy. First, it has the resources, the investors’ interest, and the means to pull such a big project off.

The country, right now, does not have a clear landscape when it comes to regulating blockchain and related assets, but that is not an uncommon problem, and does not prevent people from becoming interested in crypto investments. Among the age groups that have shown most intrigued about Bitcoin and altcoins, young adults are leading the pack.

A survey was conducted in Germany three months ago, in November. The results showed that a whopping 28% of young Germans, aged between 18 and 29 years old, have clearly expressed interest in acquiring digital assets, such as Bitcoin.

 “A survey conducted by the German Consumer Centre shows a growing interest in crypto, with more than a quarter of young Germans saying they are willing to invest in cryptocurrency. It is not surprising that a demographic whose lives have been characterized by smartphones, internet, and social media, see the attractive functionality cryptocurrency provides as an instant and decentralized means of transferring value.”

By: Andres Chavez

Dubai Resort Will Use Blockchain to Manage the Benefits of Its Employees

Maria Rodríguez
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Dubai Resort Will Use Blockchain to Manage the Benefits of Its Employees

Workers will be able to make digital payments through a platform based on smart contracts

In Dubai, the big hotel Caesars Bluewaters will use Lucid’s digital wallet to implement a blockchain solution which will control the credits and discounts given to its staff, according to the employee’s contractual conditions.

Liquid-D created the payment system of Lucid Pay, which will be used to give the resort’s staff an alternative payment option to enjoy the hotel’s facilities. This resource will use smart contracts and wallets to achieve its objective.

The new platform will be integrated into the points of sale (PoS) system of Oracle and Opera existing in the hotel. The wallets will be available on the Android and iOS mobile devices of the staff.

Jejin Joseph, Head of the resort’s infrastructure, told the local press that the ease of integration offered by Lucid Pay made it the “ideal decision” the company could make because the system is “very easy to install and use, because it requires minimal training for the hotel’s current staff”.

Regarding this process, Joseph commented: “As a solution based on blockchain, we have an immutable accounting book. Using it, we can provide a transparent and tamper-proof record for our employee benefits and discounts program”.

These programs seek to reduce fraud and misuse of staff incentives, in addition to coordinating all processes inherent to the same, in order to increase efficiency.

Dubai is a city that advances in the implementation of blockchain technology and in its objective of progressively becoming one of the main cities in the world to operate through distributed accounting technology.

The Caesars Bluewaters is not the first hotel that decided to resort to Lucid Pay and the blockchain technology to conduct a program of this type. The Atlantis resort, also located in Dubai, had already announced that it would implement a similar system for guest payments.

Jawad Riachi, representative of Liquid-D, says he is happy because customers “are beginning to value the platform (of Lucid Pay) and realize its potential in terms of functionality, speed, effectiveness and return on investment”.

During an event about blockchain technology held in London, the creator of EOS and founder of the company, Daniel Larimer, commented that “blockchain will be adopted to a great extent when people no longer speak of blockchain”, this due to “a question to get existing companies and tested business models to update their software and use blockchain due to the security it provides to its users”.

On the other hand, Dubai’s government recently announced its intention to issue a cryptocurrency backed by the State. This cryptoactive will be used for the payment of public services and will be linked to the fiduciary currency of the United Arab Emirates, the Dirham.

The authorities of the principality also aim to register at least half of the transactions conducted by the government in the chain of blocks by the year 2021. In this way, Dubai would become one of the leading “smart cities” in the region, to achieve its goal of using blockchain in the different administrative processes of the city.

By: María Victoria Rodríguez

Public Transport in Argentina Will Be Paid with Bitcoins Thanks to Alliances

Maria Rodríguez
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Public Transport in Argentina Will Be Paid with Bitcoins Thanks to Alliances

The new payment option with cryptocurrencies will be available in more than 37 Argentine locations

On February 6th, Bitex, the financial services company specialized in blockchain, announced through its official Twitter account that it made an important alliance with the electronic recharge company Alto Viaje, to offer public transport users in Argentina the option to pay with bitcoins (BTC).

Increasing payment options were priority for these companies that not only seek to provide users with a better service, but that also generate effective solutions to protect their finances and cope with the rise in prices, due to the recent inflationary crisis that Argentina is going through.

The SUBE service is well known to Argentines. Since some time ago, it provides public transport users with an electronic solution to pay for travel tickets in the bus, subway and train systems in different locations of the country.

Both services will allow Argentines to recharge the SUBE card through the Alto Viaje web platform and select the Bitex option to pay with Bitcoin (BTC).

Regarding this new option for users of public transport in Argentina, Manuel Beaudroit, Bitex’s Director of Marketing, said that it represents a great advance for the city because this alternative means an important technological growth for the common citizen.

“We believe that this type of project has great importance, since it brings a technology such as Bitcoin to the common people, demonstrating the true value and the applications it has in everyday life”, he said.

The option to pay for this service through the electronic platform of Alto Viaje became effective on Thursday, February 7th. Previously, this service was paid using any conventional banking platform and, in addition, having the option to pay using Paypal.

Through the official website of SUBE it was known that a new payment option soon be implemented, using an instant remuneration platform called RapiPago, which will represent the third new option to recharge the SUBE electronic card.

It was also reported that different recharging points of the card will be enabled in all the country. Among the chosen sites, some kiosks are adapted with the appropriate electronic terminal, SUBE charging stations, cubicles in the stations, some bus stops, and at lottery points of sale.

Beaudroit commented why they decided to integrate these new options even when there is not a high demand of bitcoins (BTC) in Argentina. “What we are interested in is bringing small concrete solutions. We do not make big launches without a product, but we offer solutions that work and that are seen”, he explained.

He stressed that due to the high inflation the country is experiencing, many Argentines are using alternative options to safeguard their savings and maintain a sustainable financial level.

The central intention is to offer users all available payment options. Sometime after, it will be verified if this type of payment solutions with cryptocurrencies begins the financial options of the citizen.

By María Victoria Rodríguez

Microsoft Removes Eight Apps from Its App Store that Have Been Found to Mine Monero Illegally

Andres Chavez
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Microsoft Removes Eight Apps from Its App Store that Have Been Found to Mine Monero Illegally

Cryptocurrency mining is an activity that consists of making use of computing/processing power to solve complicated algorithms and, as a reward, the “miner” gets a number of tokens of a determinate digital asset. Not all cryptocurrencies can be mined, but some of them can, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero, just to name a couple of examples.

However, crypto mining can be nightmarish for people that have their devices compromised by mining malware that has been installed without consent or approval. The activity can be detrimental to the computer’s or smartphone’s performance, turning it slow and unresponsive.

Installing crypto mining malware has been one of the most recent forms of making a profit off innocent people’s devices and computers. And more often than not, people do not find out about the issue.

A Version of Coinhive

As it turns out, the Microsoft app store, had up to eight apps that were able to mine cryptocurrency illegally, according to a Symantec report published via a blog post this week. The eight apps allegedly had a version of Coinhive, which is a script used by hackers to mine Monero. The discovery was made by Symantec on January.

In the publication of the report’s results, Symantec informed that they let Microsoft know about the issue, and the online tech giant immediately shut down the problematic apps. They used to run on Windows 10, including the Windows 10 S Mode, which only allows users to download apps via the Microsoft Store.

The apps in question are Fast-search Lite, Battery Optimizer (Tutorials,) VPN Browser +, Downloader for Youtube Videos, Clean Master + (Tutorials,) FastTube, Findoo Browser 2019, and Findoo Mobile & Desktop Search.

The report states that the eight apps were made by a total of three developers. Most of them are related to battery optimization guides, web browsing, web search, and video streaming and download.

 “In total, we discovered eight apps from these developers that shared the same risky behavior. After further investigation, we believe that all these apps were likely developed by the same person or group,” Symantec explained in the post.

Symantec is a software firm based in the United States, most precisely in the State of California. It is of paramount importance to highly that the production of cybersecurity software and related services is its bread and butter.

The Modus Operandi

Once the user downloads the infected apps, they fetch the Monero’s mining JavaScript library thanks to the activation of the Google Tag Manager in their inactive servers. The script is enabled, and it harnesses most of the device’s CPU cycles with the intention mining the digital asset.

 “Although these apps appear to provide privacy policies, there is no mention of coin mining on their descriptions on the app store,” according to Symantec. Sadly, and despite the apps being available for a relatively short period (from April to December 2018,) numerous people were affected by the issue.

Monero is cybercriminals’ favorite cryptocurrency, so much that they have accounted for almost 5 percent of the total supply in circulation. “Overall, we estimate there are at least 2,218 active campaigns that have accumulated about 720,000 XMR ($57 million),” Symantec wrote.

By Andres Chavez

Nvidia Blames Crypto Drop-Off for Disappointingly Low Q4 Revenue

Andres Chavez
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Nvidia Blames Crypto Drop-Off for Disappointingly Low Q4 Revenue

As it happens with most markets around the world, the one for technology companies depends on numerous variables that can change through time. And Nvidia, being such a firm, relies on news and developments in other fronts to achieve a higher number of sales and the highest possible profit.

Since Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPUs,) mainly for gaming and professional markets, but also for cryptocurrency mining, it is natural that a portion of its sales comes from the commercialization of mining-related equipment. And, since the crypto market has been on a downturn (or volatile, for a more accurate term) for months, interest in buying such gadgets has been decreasing.

Nvidia, therefore, explained this week in its report from Q4 (fourth quarter) that the recent decrease in sales to crypto miners fueled a “disappointing” last period, which is not surprising considering the bearish conditions that have surrounded the market for several weeks now.

At the time of writing this piece, Bitcoin (the world’s most popular digital asset) was trading at $3,620.54, up 0.03% in the last 24 hours. However, the number is a far cry from its January 2018’s value (almost $20,000) and even from last November (approximately $6,500) and the markets have shown few signs of a short-term recovery. Those conditions have likely pushed miners away and diminished their interest in acquiring related equipment, since they do not see the activity as profitable at the moment.

A 24 Percent Decrease

The report for the fourth quarter was made public on Thursday, February 14. The period ended on January 27th, and Nvidia informed that its revenue for the Q4 was $2.21 billion, a 24% decrease from last year’s Q4 ($2.91 billion,) and down 31% when compared to the $3.18 billion that it produced in the previous period.

According to Nvidia, the company is struggling to find a way to sell an excess of inventory as a result of the crypto market “snooze.” The conditions have been so harsh that the company has been forced to lower its prices for crypto equipment in an effort to achieve sales.

The firm’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jensen Huang, explained that “this was a turbulent close to what had been a great year. The combination of post-crypto excess channel inventory and recent deteriorating end-market conditions drove a disappointing quarter.”

Clearing the Excess of Inventory

Last week, Nvidia’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress observed that the problem has resulted in reduced shipments, with the intention of letting excess inventory to be cleared from the shelves via sales. According to Nvidia’s forecast, the situation is expected to revert back to normal during Q1.

The numbers for the last full year were also made available in Thursday’s report. Despite the inventory issues, Nvidia made a record revenue of $11.72 billion, which represents a solid 21% increase over the last such period. The gaming, datacenter, professional visualization and automotive areas achieved record annual revenues.

“Despite this setback, NVIDIA’s fundamental position and the markets we serve are strong. The accelerated computing platform we pioneered is central to some of world’s most important and fastest growing industries – from artificial intelligence to autonomous vehicles to robotics. We fully expect to return to sustained growth,” Huang stated.

By Andres Chavez

Luxembourg Passes Bill to Provide Legal Framework for Blockchain Securities

Andres Chavez
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Luxembourg Passes Bill to Provide Legal Framework for Blockchain Securities

Finding common ground towards a universal regulatory instrument has long been one of blockchain’s most critical things to achieve before having the right to be called a truly “mainstream” technology. Once that is crossed off the list, the country or region in question will have a clearer, smoother path to adopt the approach in most everyday scenarios.

The latest country to make strides in that department is Luxembourg. The small, but stable and financially powerful European state just passed a bill that contains the legal framework for securities issued over the blockchain technology.

58 out of 60 Votes

A notice made public on Thursday, February 14th was the source of the positive development. Luxembourg’s parliament passed the bill on that very same day, with a noticeably lopsided result: Out of 60 eligible voters, 58 members chose to support the legal instrument and only a pair decided to vote against it.

The Bill 7363, as it has been titled, will serve as the legal foundation for providing those that participate in financial markets with the legal certainty for securities issuance by using the ever-opportunistic blockchain technology.

According to the country’s chamber, “the bill should provide greater certainty for investors and make the transfer of securities more efficient by reducing the number of intermediaries,” the chamber said.

Six years ago, in April 2013, the nation, a member of the European Union (EU,) passed a bill that made possible to issue “dematerialized securities” legally, as a result of an amendment of a legal instrument that regulates securities, active since 2001.

Since technology has sparked several changes across the legal landscape of countries, it is necessary to revise all regulations with frequency to make sure they include the latest gadgets, models, and tools of mainstream use. According to the chamber, the new bill “updates” the 2001 instrument to include the registration and distribution of securities that use secure electronic registration. A perfect example of that is the “distributed ledger technology and in particular blockchain technology.”

The Article 18a

Specifically, the amendment adds Article 18a to the law, which states:

The amendment in question includes the Article 18a to the instrument: “Account-keeper may hold securities accounts and make registrations of securities in securities accounts within or through secure electronic registration devices, including distributed electronic registers or databases. Successive transfers recorded in such a secure electronic registration device are considered like transfers between securities accounts. Holding of securities accounts within such a device secure electronic registration or registration of securities in securities accounts through such a secure electronic recording device do not affect the fungible nature of the securities concerned.”

According to a document proposing the bill before its passing, blockchain securities are equal, in status, to regular, traditional securities under the bill.

For blockchain securities, “the easiest way today is to use the token concept… This is from the technological point of view a new type of dematerialized security, but to which are attached from a legal point of view the same rights as classic dematerialized securities.”

By Andres Chavez

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