Swiss Bank Will Allow Its Users to Conduct Operations with Cryptocurrencies

Maria Rodríguez
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Swiss Bank Will Allow Its Users to Conduct Operations with Cryptocurrencies

The financial institution hopes to attract new clients and investors who want to project their businesses using cryptoactives

An important Swiss bank, Falcon Private Bank, recently announced through its official website that it added an extension in its financial services for customers who want to do cryptocurrency operations.

Among the operations that the bank expects to conduct, there is the adjustment of its platforms, so that users can make transfers, simple commercial transactions and safeguard services for different cryptoactives.

Through a press release from Swiss official media, the institution informed that the bank expects to operate with the main cryptocurrencies of the global market, and detailed that the bank will support users and other financial institutions to make their operations in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC).

The bank, the digital portfolios of the financial institution, and the fiscal reports will support the operations with these cryptocurrencies. In addition, the bank will allow its clients to exchange the cryptoactives for fiduciary money, specifically dollars or euros.

About these measures, the bank announced through the report published on its website that the incorporation of these new services is part of the growth policies made in the institution, which seeks to adapt to the growing demand of the crypto market.

Part of the report explains that: “Falcon Private Bank reaffirms its position of first movement in blockchain banking by accepting direct transfers of selected cryptocurrencies. With immediate effect, private and institutional clients can directly transfer the cryptocurrencies to the segregated Falcon portfolios, as well as convert them into fiduciary money. This new Falcon offer makes the blockchain assets fully financeable”.

About the security and support that the bank will have for this type of transaction, spokespersons of this institution assured that the assets that will enter their portfolio through the blockchain are “fully fundable”, so that they generate for the institution a verifiable gain, in order to achieve its goals.

In addition, according to the report of the institution, it was known that the team made different development tests to the platform that will be used for the transactions. This space will have a “patented custody solution” that can be audited and verified by experts in the area so that, as they claim, it provides maximum security for the clients.

The bank also stated that it has a legal service section that will verify the regulatory status required by the laws and tax procedures on these assets, in order to avoid tax fraud, money laundering, among other harmful procedures.

Recently it was learned that the important Swiss bank Vontobel launched a platform which allows financial institutions and entrepreneurs to store and carry out transactions with cryptocurrencies.

It is known that the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) authorized the Falcon Private Bank, last July of 2017, so that it can administer cryptoactives and get involved with blockchain technology.

Last December, FINMA reported on a list of requirements that institutions seeking to apply for a Fintech license will be asked to develop their businesses based on blockchain technology. It is expected that these companies can make the formal request to get the license this year.

By María Rodríguez

Thailand Stock Exchange Expects to Approve License for Handling Cryptocurrencies

Maria Rodríguez
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Thailand Stock Exchange Expects to Approve License for Handling Cryptocurrencies

The stock exchange of Thailand seeks to attract the attention of investors and entrepreneurs who want to expand their businesses using cryptoactives

A few days ago, it became known that The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) intends to capture the markets of cryptoactives, when planning the creation of a platform where users can make a free exchange through the stock exchanges of country values.

According to a press release published by local media, the SET is in the process of making the formal request for a license to the Ministry of Finance of the Asian country. In this way participants can make cryptoactives exchange operations legally in the local market and without having problems.

This initiative of The Stock Exchange of Thailand is part of the growing demand that supposes the cryptocurrency market in the country. According to the press report, it was known that many are the investors that are doing this type of operations in the industry and that with this step; they could accelerate their business and even have access to rapid exchange, which could increase the investment amounts to short term in the commercial market of the region.

According to a report offered by SET’s Vice President, Pattera Dilokrungthirapop, it was learned that The Stock Exchange of Thailand also seeks to develop, as soon as possible, a high-tech platform that allows operations to be conducted in the most efficient, safe and comfortable manner as possible. The idea is to adapt these exchanges to the system established for changes of other types of currencies.

The goal is also to create a digital wallet which helps users and customers to perform these operations in the safest and most comfortable way possible, to serve as storage and control of the tokens they manage.

“The stock exchange will have to set up a good operating system and resolve details such as the administrative systems and the electronic wallet for storing the tokens”, said the vice president in the report released on Thursday, January 17th.

These initiatives are carried out to promote clear and transparent management of cryptocurrencies. About this topic, Pattera commented: “For us, digital assets are expected to grow in the future, as investors gain a greater understanding of this asset class”.

On another opportunity, Pattera said that exchange houses are in no hurry to get involved entirely in the world of cryptocurrencies, so they decided to go cautiously, but without stopping. They admit there are certain global markets which use the tokens for their financial operations.

“We (the securities firms) are not in a hurry to enter digital asset trading, as some companies still manage their core businesses, while cryptocurrencies are just one of the asset classes where brokers can adapt their trading platforms to provide buying and selling services to digital asset markets”, said Dilokrungthirapop.

These decisions are the result of a series of measures that the Thai government has applied to digital assets. In the middle of last year it was known that they planned the creation of a type of license that is now granted through the Ministry of Finance to companies that wish to carry out operations with cryptocurrencies.

By María Rodríguez

Ripple Sold $129.03 Million Worth of XRP in Q4 and $535.56 Million In 2018

Andres Chavez
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Ripple Sold $129.03 Million Worth of XRP in Q4 and $535.56 Million In 2018

Year 2018 was a rough year for cryptocurrencies when it comes to price, with a couple of long, sustained collapses that “sandwiched” a brief period of stabilization. Whereas more people got familiarized with the concept of blockchain and digital assets, lots of investors lost considerable amounts of money because of the volatile market in the year that just ended.

However, that does not mean that 2018 was a completely lost year. In fact, some crypto assets in the top 20 according to their market cap can say that their networks hosted a lot of movement, transactions, and money exchanging hands. That is the case of Ripple (XRP.)

According to Ripple’s Q4 (fourth quarter) report, it sold about $535.56 million worth of XRP in the whole year. The numbers were published on January 24th. In the Q4 alone, $129.03 million worth of the cryptocurrency exchanged hands, accounting for around 0.24% of the global XRP volume.

A Positive Outlook

Overall, the Q4 presented positive results: the average XRP daily volume in that timeframe was, according to the report, equivalent to $585.7 million, the highest number since Q1. The last fact is somewhat surprising considering that the year’s second significant collapse started in mid-November, when Bitcoin and top altcoins started to see their price fall after Bitcoin Cash’s hard fork.

About $3 billion XRP were released from cryptographic escrow and $2.4 reportedly were returned during the fourth quarter. The report stated that the remaining $600 million XRP not returned to escrow are currently being used in several ways “to help support the XRP ecosystem, including the RippleNet Accelerator Program and Xpring investments like Securitize.”

Ripple remained a very active and consistent ecosystem: hosting low volatility of daily returns. The number tied to the Q4, roughly five percent, is the lowest on record since the final quarter of 2016. During 2018 Q4, the correlation of Ripple’s price fluctuations “returned to the elevated levels seen through the end of Q1 2018 through early Q3 2018.”

The Messari Report

Before the results of Ripple’s fourth quarter were published, Messari released a report in which it said that XRP’s market capitalization could be greatly overvalued, with the number even reaching $6 billion. Messari is a widely known crypto analytics company.

According to Messari’s piece, the liquid circulating supply of the planet’s second largest coin according to market cap could be overestimated by nearly 50%, with an actual number closer to $9 billion than the reported, “official” $13 billion that CoinMarketCap, the market’s most frequently visited source, currently shows.

The firm made it very clear that exact, 100% accurate statements on the matter were extremely difficult without an official disclosure from Ripple, which had not came by the time the Messari report was made public.

At the time of this writing, Ripple was trading at precisely $0.315977, down 0.58% in the last 24 hours. While it has remained one of the most stable cryptocurrencies amid the “chaos,” it has severely declined in the last calendar year: on January 4th, 2018, each XRP was trading at $3.65.

By Andres Chavez

IBM will Use Blockchain Technology for Medical Records

Maria Rodríguez
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IBM will Use Blockchain Technology for Medical Records

The company will collaborate with Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service Corporation and PNC Bank, which have plans for some 100 million health care plans

The blockchain technology is also revolutionizing the medical industry. Several countries use it to take care of the information of clinics and hospitals, as well as to contribute to an efficient sending and registration of large amounts of data.

On this occasion, IBM presents another initiative to use blockchain as a tool to build development. The company announced that it will collaborate with two of the most important names in the healthcare industry to improve the way in which “sensitive information” is shared and claims and transactions related to health insurance are made using a “blockchain ecosystem”.

Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service Corporation and PNC Bank are other institutions that will participate in this initiative, bringing with them a base of more than 100 million health care and prevention plans that blockchain technology will benefit to function efficiently.

Regarding this point, IBM informed that in the coming months it will join more members of the so-called “Health Utility Network”, which includes health organizations, health products suppliers, startups and technology companies to continue collaborating with the health industry.

Barbara Hayes, IBM’s General Manager, spoke about this initiative: “IBM is one of the founding members, but we all have the same weight and power in this initiative. Transforming this industry requires eliminating waste and inefficiency. In health care, these inefficiencies in clinical and administrative areas are what lead to a bad user experience”.

IBM is not the only technological company trying to implement the transparency of blockchain technology for the healthcare industry. Other recognized institutions such as Change Healthcare, Hashed Health, Guardtime, Gem and SimplyVital have also joined initiatives in this field.

In this type of ecosystem there is a lot of competition. Some projects have been coming up since 2017 and even the end of 2016. For example, in April of last year, Humana and the United Health Group came together to develop a pilot test using blockchain technology to provide information on medical records in an efficient and organized way.

On the other hand, also since November, in the last year, there is a blockchain of health called ProCredEx which is focused on storage and also make a follow-up to the sharing of doctors and dentists’ credentials, this with the aim of saving time and money within the industry. But the main reason is to save time and improve the quality of the service the customer receives, and stands out as one of the best ones in the market.

The hospital of the Medical University of Taipei, Taiwan, also created, a few months ago, a platform for healthcare which uses blockchain technology to maintain, protect and facilitate access to the medical records of their patients, as reported local media.

The initiative, which is called “Healthcare Blockchain Platform” will also improve patient referral services by being integrated into healthcare networks.

This platform involves more than 100 community clinics and was developed in accordance with the policy of the hierarchical medical system requested by the government. By using this platform, patients can access more easily and securely all their records, which include images of medical examinations, laboratory results and health exams with the use of a mobile application.

Undoubtedly, beyond just being the companion technology of cryptocurrencies, Blockchain technology is transforming different fields by becoming a secure storage and organization system to improve the services developed so far by humans.

By María Rodríguez

Point of Sale is Also a Portable Cryptocurrency ATM in Bogota

Maria Rodríguez
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Point of Sale is Also a Portable Cryptocurrency ATM in Bogota

The commissions will be proportional to the number of movements. The device will work with BTC, BCH and DAI without the need to convert from one fiat coin to another

Customers of a candy store in Bogotá, Colombia, will be able to pay with cryptocurrencies and also withdraw money thanks to a portable point of sale that the Panda Exchange platform implemented. The name of the device is XelerATM.

With this hardware, in addition to making payments, customers of the local called “La Tortata” will be able to buy cryptoactives such as Bitcoins (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and DAI.

Typso Sánchez, CTO of Panda Express, was in charge of making the announcement officially through his twitter account. The expert clarified that users will be able to buy cryptocurrencies without having to previously make conversions to foreign currency. The special condition is to respect the limits of 50 thousand and 500 thousand Colombian pesos per transaction (between USD 15 and 150 approximately).

“From today, the first device #XelerATM is in the Tortata, where you can buy #BTC, #BCH and #DAI from @MakerDAO directly with Colombian pesos from 50 thousand (15 USD) to 500 thousand per operation”, announced on Twitter this January 23rd.

XelerATM serves not only as a point of sale, but also as a cryptocurrency ATM, backed by the Wposs manufacturer and the Panda Exchange software.

How does it Work?

Affiliated merchants will receive the payment directly in pesos (in the local currency in each case). Panda Exchange converts one fiduciary currency to another and cancels merchants in the same local currency or even in cryptocurrencies if they wish.

As for the commissions for businesses, these will be proportional to the number of movements and transactions made, as it will not be a monthly rent, but by concept of use.

It is also important to point out that the merchants will be in charge of managing the funds coming from these operations, so there is no official custody service or system, with Panda Exchange being an intermediary only for the conversion of the currencies.

Accepting the use of these devices is a new sign that Colombia is accepting operations with this type of digital assets, especially with regard to their daily use. So far, Colombia has more than 30 cryptocurrency ATMs, which puts it at the forefront of South America, occupying one of the first positions as the country that has more devices of this type installed.

More Details about the Device

XelerATM is a point-of-sale and portable cryptocurrency ATM which works thanks to a software created by Panda Exchange. This exchange house allied with Wposs, a company dedicated to offer payment solutions, which is now responsible for supplying the equipment.

The objective of this company is that the cryptocurrencies and tokens available in the exchange office can be acquired through the point of sale. Taxation, in this case, is done in a traditional way, given that the rates and payments are calculated in Colombian pesos.

Typson Sánchez added: “We want to gradually add other options, but also depending on the adoption of users, if they wish to pay or buy other cryptocurrencies, we will try to add more”. He reminded there is no custody system, because although the technology was developed by Panda Exchange, the merchants handle and receive the funds.

In the coming weeks, the point of sale will allow merchants to sell cryptocurrencies. “The additional device for the purchase of cryptocurrencies will be accepting payments and in the coming weeks will allow the sale of cryptocurrencies”, Sánchez said, adding that the exchange rates come from the market price in Colombia and LocalBitcoins rates.

It is expected that, in the next months, more points of sale will be installed in that city and possibly later in the rest of that Latin American country.

By María Rodríguez

Telegram’s Token Would Be Available Between March and June

Maria Rodríguez
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Telegram’s Token Would Be Available Between March and June

Telegram has more than 200 million active users per month, which is why this project is expected to be very successful

This week, the founder of the global messaging application Telegram, Pavel Durov, announced that the launch of the platform’s token, which will be called TON (Telegram Open Network), is near. Durov commented that the launch is planned for March of this year.

However, the date is not yet fully defined, but it is estimated to occur between March and June of this year. According to the route map published on the official Telegram website, the launch of the mainnet (the special chain of blocks which exchanges cryptocurrencies between users), the token, and its related services would be for the second quarter of this year, so that TON would be available between March and June.

TON is one of the services offered by the mainnet. It is a platform for third-party services that will enable friendly interfaces in smartphones for decentralized applications and smart contracts, so that in this way more and more people are encouraged to enter the world of cryptoactive and blockchain technology.

Knowing its Characteristics

TON payments is a platform for micropayments which seeks to facilitate the realization of instant money transfers between bots of users and other services without having to enter a different blockchain platform.

Telegram ensures its platform is designed so that transactions are as safe as those that would be made within the blockchain.

The official information indicates that there will be the TON blockchain, which will offer a master chain and the power of 92 block chains. One of its most outstanding features is that it will have a protocol called Infinite Sharding Paradigm, in order to achieve scalability.

In this way, the block of chains related to TON claim to be able to “automatically divide and merge to adapt to load changes”, according to Telegram on its web portal.

The official website states that “this would mean that the new blocks are generated quickly and the absence of long lines helps keep transaction costs low, even if some of the services that use the platform become massively popular”.

The Benefits

Thanks to this protocol and to the Instant Hypercube Routing, designed so that the chain of blocks can maintain the maximum speed, and the Byzantine Fault Tolerantant, which increases the speed and efficiency of the chain, Telegram could create a blockchain able to realize a number of high quality transactions, which would allow users to make about 1 million transactions per second.

Last year, Telegram broke a record by reaching close to 1.7 million US dollars in its ICO, which was divided into two (2) rounds of financing. The main purpose of the money received was to finance the development of the mainnet, the token and improve the platform.

Telegram has approximately 200 million active users per month, so it is ranked as one of the 10 most popular instant messaging applications in the world. In the coming months we will observe the acceptance and adoption of the crypto-mining community and the regulars users of this messaging platform.

By María Rodríguez

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