Dutch bank ABN AMRO Tests Wallet Service and Bitcoins Custody

Maria Rodríguez
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Dutch bank ABN AMRO Tests Wallet Service and Bitcoins Custody

The name of this product will be Wallie and it would benefit approximately 500 customers who are interested in storing cryptocurrencies

On Tuesday, January 22nd, members of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO announced they are conducting tests so that their customers can store bitcoins on a platform belonging to this financial institution called Wallie. The idea is to get into criptocurrencies’ world and give to their clients this new service.

The investigation to test this bitcoin wallet built by ABN AMRO was confirmed in the Twitter account of a spokesperson that is part of this financial institution. According to the information published in that social network, Wallie is a platform for the storage of bitcoins. In this way, Wallie is being tested by 500 customers of the bank.

According to ABN AMRO’s statements, the intention is to become a “trusted partner” for its clients, who are increasingly investing in cryptocurrencies and, for this reason, the service would benefit those 500 people who participate in the study.

However, the bank based in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, so far has not provided further details on how to ensure the security and storage of cryptocurrencies on its platform, or how it would perform it.

A Growing Trend

Recently, Falcon Private Bank, in Switzerland, launched a transfer and storage platform for four different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ether (ETH). This banking institution is specialized in asset management and financial services and is headquartered in Zurich.

The Falcon cryptocurrency wallet complies with the policies imposed by the Swiss regulators. Among the operations that the bank expects to perform are adjusting its platforms so that users can make transfers, simple commercial operations and safeguard services for different cryptoactives.

Another case of a financial institution that decided to venture into the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology was the Vontobel bank. This banking institution announced its “Vault of Digital Assets” just a week ago, which allows entrepreneurs to store and conduct transactions with cryptocurrencies.

Change the Dynamics

The custody services recently launched by banking institutions generate interest among some traditional banking clients, as they appeal to confidence in their financial infrastructure, while Switzerland, taking into account the events occurred in recent weeks, has shown itself to be a friendly country with cryptocurrencies. However, local sources say that regulators are still “critical” about the offer of financial products based on “unregulated” cryptocurrencies.

Although banks are showing willingness to adopt blockchain technology, some cryptocurrencies users do not consider custody services as a good option, because they prefer to stick to the initial motto of decentralized technology: “Be your own bank”. This is because part of the philosophy that supports the existence of Bitcoin is to be “like a bank” and not to entrust the custody of this digital money to third parties.

One of the characteristics which generate rejection among the community is that custody services generally keep the private keys of the cryptoactive wallets, which gives them access to the cryptocurrencies that someone owns.

By María Rodríguez

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will Create a Cryptocurrency

Maria Rodríguez
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Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will Create a Cryptocurrency

The cryptoactive will be used for the cross-border and commercial exchange of both countries without replacing, for the time being, fiduciary money

The Executive Committee of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council agreed on Saturday, January 19th, to develop a cryptocurrency with the intention of facilitating cross-border payments between both nations.

The news was announced through the official website of the news agency of the United Arab Emirates, Emirates News Agency. “The virtual currency is based on the use of a database distributed among central banks and participating banks on both sides. It seeks to protect the interests of customers, establish technology standards and assess cybersecurity risks”, says the official statement.

As the article expands, this cryptocurrency “will be strictly directed to banks in an experimental phase, with the aim of better understanding the implications of blockchain technology and facilitating cross-border payments”. In addition, the joint cryptocurrency project will also have a research team, which will study the effect of a central currency on financial policies.

It was the first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Coordinating Council of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, held in Abu Dhabi. There the 16 members from both sides participated. The objective of the meeting was “to monitor the execution of the joint initiatives”, among which the projects of economic, social and military integration between both countries stand out.

At the meeting seven agreements pertaining to a “strategic plan of joint initiatives” were signed. The agreements include the creation of an experimental cryptoactive, which will operate exclusively with the participation of the Central Banks and the commercial banks of both kingdoms. This project was approved along with a plan to streamline the binational flow in customs, a common market for civil aviation and a support platform for the PYMI sector (small and medium industry), among others.

In this first phase, the joint cryptoactive will allow the financial sector of both nations to better understand the use of blockchain technology, facilitate cross-border payments and evaluate the impact of a central currency on the individual monetary policies of each country.

“The virtual currency is based on the use of a distributed database between central banks and participating banks on both sides, seeking to protect the interests of customers, establish technology standards and assess cybersecurity risks”, the agency said.

These plans for the development of a cryptoactive for the exchange between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been planned for more than a year. At the end of last year, the project was announced as the first of its kind in that region.

In October 2018 the official announcement of the project was made and in November, Mohsen Al Zahrani, Head of Innovation of the Monetary Authority of Saudi Arabia, the country’s financial regulator, said that the cryptocurrency will be ready by mid-2019 and that the project allows cross-border payments with some banks.

Also in November 2018, Mubarak Al-Mansouri, Governor of the Central Bank in the United Arab Emirates, confirmed that the project entered to the design stage and that it would be ready by mid-2019. Al-Mansouri assured that the cryptocurrency “will not replace fiduciary money, but it will be a new payment tool used by banks and not by individuals”.

The Saudi monarchy is in agreement with the plan, although in August last year the authorities declared the trade with cryptocurrencies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as illegal. The Arab Emirates, on the other hand, has shown greater openness. It accepted the Initial Currency Offers (ICO) as a form of financing for companies and has even submitted Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain projects. The acceptance and construction of the blockchain world in these countries continues in process.

By María Rodríguez

Brazilian Real Estate Company Sells Luxurious Apartments in Bitcoins

Maria Rodríguez
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Brazilian Real Estate Company Sells Luxurious Apartments in Bitcoins

The initiative seeks to facilitate payments with cryptoactives and make possible the acquisition, through bitcoins, of high-profile housing in the most expensive neighborhoods of Sao Paulo

A Brazilian real estate company specialized in the commercialization of high-end ventures through the Internet and the Warp Exchange platform decided to ally Themselves to sell luxury apartments in Sao Paulo, Brazil, accepting bitcoins, according to what local media reports this Saturday, January 19th.

“Our intelligence will do all the bureaucratic and secure part of the transaction. The seller will receive real instants after the purchase made. We are going to encourage the use of cryptocurrencies as an attribute of purchases and not of investment”, said Mateus Teixeira, CEO at Warp Exchange.

Teixeira added that the technology they will use is “fully traceable” in all phases and by all parties involved in the process, since it is a public data bank, with the aim of guaranteeing “greater security for the buyers because these are high-end properties that move a lot of money”.

Robson Stalyn, founding partner of 3i Digital, also talked about it: “In our real estate we serve clients who are looking for high-end ventures. They are the real estate with the most expensive square meters of the market and we want to provide our clients with different features that the traditional market does not have; that’s why we decided to include payments in cryptocurrencies in our real estate”. 3i Digital currently has five outstanding ventures that can be purchased with Bitcoin.

The 3i Digital association is not the first Warp Exchange. In November 2018, the Brazilian firm Flapper, known as the “Uber” of helicopters and jets, went on to accept BTC as payment after an agreement with the Warp Exchange. Rappi also announced integration with the exchange.

The trading of real estate with bitcoins is taking place in Latin America. At the end of 2018, the Argentine law firm Bildenlex announced that it had made the purchase of a property for which the payment method was the popular cryptocurrency that has already been 10 years old. On that occasion, the contract was signed on the Signature Digital Platform and it was known that the property in question is located in San Luis, Argentina.

To date, real estate has already been sold in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe using cryptocurrencies. In fact, at the end of 2017, cryptocurrencies were offered and accepted as a means of payment for some 75 properties in the United States of America, according to the real estate business page Redfin.

These regions have shown greater openness in the use of this form of payment, but Latin America shows that it does not want to stay behind, despite the legal gaps, volatility, fraudulent schemes, money laundering and speculation surrounding the transactions with cryptocurrencies and blockchain in some countries.

In Costa Rica, it is even possible to pay salaries with cryptoactives, while in countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Peru or Paraguay there is no legal framework that is fully defined to protect transactions made with bitcoins or other cryptographic currencies. Bitcoin and its siblings cryptocurrencies are children 10 years of age or younger and their journey continues.

Those who defend this digital and decentralized payment method expect that commerce will open more and more doors to cryptocurrencies, just as it has happened at a gigantic pace with blockchain technology in many countries and in fields different from the financial world.

By María Rodríguez

BTC Could Eventually Reach $10 Million and ‘Solve the Debt Crisis,’ According To Lucid

Andres Chavez
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At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin (BTC) price was $3,576.47, slightly down (0.35 percent) in the last 24 hours. An asset that was worth nearly $20,000 a year ago is now struggling to break the $4,000 barrier, causing concern among the investors’ community. The bears have dominated the market for months now, without clear signs of a short-term surge.

However, according to Lucid, which is a prominent asset management company, the price of Bitcoin does conduct some long-term allure, as it still holds the potential to reach an important sum even if the market is not quite favorable today.

The Global Debt Crisis Is the “Perfect Opportunity” for Bitcoin

In fact, Lucid observes that the current global debt crisis is a perfect opportunity for Bitcoin. The world’s most influential digital asset has had no shortage of supporters throughout its history: from John McAfee and its $1 million prediction to Fundstrat and its $25,000 target, BTC has received support. However, most of those remarks were made during bull runs. After the bears settled in, BTC has not inspired the same confidence as before.

Lucid, however, forecasts that the Bitcoin price can even reach $10 million one day, become the gold standard, and solve the planet’s debt crisis; quite the prediction in the midst of arguably the worst market collapse in BTC history, excluding the 2015 one.

The firm understands that the ratio of global debt to wealth went out of control, which has originated a “grotesque imbalance” of wealth inequality. As December 2018, the world debt was at roughly $247 trillion, compared to $317 trillion in total world wealth. It is notable that, while the latter is still surpassing the former, the gap is narrowing.

Assessing the World’s Needs

According to numbers provided by Lucid, the global debt has increased 394 % in the last 20 years, while the wealth has only gone up around 133%. Status quo, therefore, would not be sustainable, which would create a need for the world to come up with a solution to solve the debt problem.

Lucid names the five most likely solutions for this: create a new commodity/currency basket, mass Bitcoin investment, the adoption of a gold standard, economic growth, and outright default on sovereign debt. And while Lucid concedes that it may not be the most likely outcome, it categorizes Bitcoin as a permanent fix to the debt crisis.

The report was drafted by Dean Tyler Jenks and Leah Wald, which currently act as Lucid’s President/Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President, respectively. “Is this mass bitcoin adoption feasible? Probably not. But we believe it is possible and we believe it offers the greatest benefits with the least collateral damage to the least number of individuals, corporations, institutions, and countries. Most importantly, it would provide a permanent fix, a quality that none of the other solutions provide,” the text reads.

A Matter of Raw Numbers

If mass Bitcoin adoption is achieved, then naturally its price would experience an unprecedented surge. “Why $10 million? At that level, Bitcoin would provide a sufficient reserve to alleviate the world debt burden. Bitcoin would be worth between $180 trillion and $210 trillion (depending on when that price was reached). Assuming world debt had reached $500 trillion at that time, remember it has grown by 394% over the past 20 years; Bitcoin would represent a 40% reserve against the debt.

To reach $10 million, Bitcoin would have to increase by nearly 285,614.3 percent. The process may not be fast: in fact, Lucid forecasts that the current bear run is not over and that it the value may be lower than $1,000 for the process to start.

By Andres Chavez

Washington County Plans to Build a Blockchain Research Center

Maria Rodríguez
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Washington County Plans to Build a Blockchain Research Center

Douglas County officials drive the development of cryptocurrency mining, due to the energy advantages of the district

Last Friday, January 11th, officials from Douglas County, in downtown Washington, reported that they plan to build a research center to study the use of cryptocurrencies to boost local mining.

The so-called “Campus of Innovation on blockchain technology” seeks to give strength to the market of cryptocurrency in the locality. Douglas County is home to many cryptocurrency enthusiasts, miners and crypto entrepreneurs who saw the small county as an important market opportunity, because electric power is low cost compared to other counties in the United States. This is due to the development of the hydroelectric industry which exists in that place.

However, the flow of mining has recently decreased due to the recent fall in the market and the recession. It is hoped that with the support of county officials mining can be boosted and some of what was lost during the recession recovered. In an interview for local media, Lisa Park, Port of Dulglas County’s Executive Director, commented: “There is more to the story (of cryptocurrencies) than boom and bankruptcy”.

These statements made it known that the county Department of Commerce will invest $ 50,000 to build and develop a campus which will serve as a research and innovation center for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

The boom in mining in the county has brought considerable growth in high-speed computing, experience in cryptoactive and commercial growth, so it is visualized that with the support of the hydroelectric power the community is the national center of crypto-industry. So county officials commented: “We have some unique assets that make our region attractive to that industry. […] Let’s find a way to capitalize it”.

Other Counties are Not So Favorable

Not all the counties around Washington are so supportive for the mining industry and blockchain. It is the example of the County of Chelan, through the Public Services District developed a cost structure to increase the collection of electricity taxes for those who are engaged in mining cryptocurrencies, this due to the high demand that entails the mining.

It was also learned that in the same locality some measures of delay or impediments were carried out by the County officials. The reason for these actions was the improper use of some mining activities without authorization.

Although other nearby counties have taken action to slow down this industry a bit, due to the high energy costs of mining, Douglas County seeks to enact and promote the development of this technology.

Even after the mining company Giga Watt declared bankruptcy leaving a considerable debt to the District. However, an agreement is currently being reached to make the company’s former facilities work as a mining and county development site.

It is expected that in Washington, the called Blockchain Association would be created by Coinbase and Circle as a proyect to awaken interest in the crypto world, in order to achieve more acceptance by citizens.

By María Rodríguez

The Port of Algeciras Joins Tradelens, the Blockchain Platform Created By Maersk and IBM

Andres Chavez
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The Port of Algeciras Joins Tradelens, the Blockchain Platform Created By Maersk and IBM

In August 2018, tech giant IBM and shipping powerhouse Maersk joined forces to form TradeLens, a jointly developed platform to apply blockchain to the planet’s supply chain. The product, enabled by blockchain technology, was developed to serve as a solution to promote efficiency and trustworthiness in global trade, involving several parties to support information sharing and, in the end, achieve innovation in the industry.

The TradeLens platform will have, starting from January 21st, 2019, a new collaborator in the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA,) which signed a pact to help IBM, according to a prominent European news site.

Spain’s Busiest Port Operator

The port of Algeciras is one of the most prominent in the European area, arguably in the top 10. It sees more than 70 million tons of cargo traffic each year, with a container throughput of 4.3 units in 2017 alone.

Thanks to the implementation of the TradeLens platform, APBA will be able to “securely and efficiently exchange information and documentation between partners within a supply chain,” according to a note. The same document also stated that the system will generate “value” for several actors within the industry, including shippers, freight forwarders, logistics operators and shipping companies, among others.

At the moment of announcing the TradeLens early adopter initiative, back in August, Maersk and IBM noted that almost 100 institutions (94, to be more precise) had agreed to take part on the platform.

TradeLens’s Numbers

According to Europa Press, the TradeLens solution had over 100 organizations and 20 port operators on board by December 2018. The initiative has been a resounding success, having registered more than 230 million shipments and processed an astonishing 20 million containers.

Awareness towards the blockchain technology has increased dramatically in the last year. Governments, universities, banks, and other enterprises, like cargo shipment companies and port operators, are beginning to understand its benefits and applications, fulfilling the potential to serve as a solution for trust and transparency at nearly all levels of production.

Blockchain as a Solution for Cargo Shipment Companies and Ports

Some of the world’s most prominent port operators have, therefore, been applying the technology for quite some time now as an attempt to streamline their operations and processes. For instance, the Port of Rotterdam, located in the Netherlands, formed a strategic alliance with widely known bank ABN AMRO and Samsung (through its IT department) to test blockchain for shipping purposes in October.

The United Arab Emirates also performed successful experiments with the blockchain technology in the cargo shipment industry. In June, one of Abu Dhabi Port’s subsidiaries (Maqta Gateway LLC) developed a blockchain initiative named Silsal to improve efficiency in logistics and shipping. Maqta Gateway LLC was the very first organization to come up with such a system.

The Associated British Ports, the most renowned port operator in the Great Britain area, also partnered with Marine Transport International, a digital logistics firm, to take advantage of blockchain as a life-saver when it comes to port logistics.

By Andres Chavez

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