Energy company Repsol will Use Distributed Accounting Technology to Reduce Costs

Maria Rodríguez
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Energy company Repsol will Use Distributed Accounting Technology to Reduce Costs

Thanks to the Entrepreneurs Fund of the Repsol Foundation, the alliance between the oil company and the Finboot company materialized

The Spanish multinational company Repsol announced on January 13, through an official report, its plans to use a Distributed Accounting Technology network to reduce operating costs in merchandise certification.

It was mentioned that through the Repsol Technology Lab Research Center, the multinational signed an agreement with the Finboot digital solutions company, in order to develop an application which uses the necessary technology to improve its processes.

Very soon the oil and hydrocarbons multinational will use the BlockLab application and also Marco, a private blockchain that was developed by Finboot. According to the company, the application “uses digital equivalents of the samples to be approved, thereby avoiding inefficiencies and costs associated with double work”.

The application is in its final stages of programming. The Research Center of Repsol Technology Lab’s experimentation manager, Tomas Malango, spoke about the use they plan to give the application once implemented: “Now this type of procedures, in which we handle a large number of samples, are subject to many incidences of ‘rework’ due to mislabeling, loss or incorrect connection of information. Digitization allows us to identify the unequivocal sample throughout its life cycle”.

According to company data, approximately 60,000 merchandise validation orders are handled, this is the most delicate area and in which more employees work for the optimal control of the processes, so the implementation of the blockchain App could speed up, improve processes and reduce costs. Among the great benefits is expected that the company Repsol save about 400,000 euros a year, according to what Malango said.

Repsol has a series of quality controls and certifications in refining products for petroleum, as well as in the petrochemical area. With a series of data and information that can be optimized with the App’s operation.

In the last semester of 2018, some tests and a demonstration were conduct among all the parties involved in the project. “We are in the phase of involving all stakeholders, who have valued the speed, security and accurate reporting of information provided by the tool”.

It was commented that the BlockLab application network could be interesting for other types of customers “such as the Barajas airport, for example, if you want to know at all times the quality of our aviation kerosene”, concluded Malango in September of last year.

The results of the tests that had been brewing since last year are still unknown, but it is believed that these data will be released soon. In addition, Malango explained that by April of this year the new system will be implemented throughout the research center.

The oil company puts its efforts in the digitalization of its processes to involve this technology, even more, in all its phases. Blockchain technology is occupying an important part, from the adaptation of processes that could not have been optimized, to helping in the new businesses.

By María Rodríguez

Swiss Watch Will Have a Cryptocurrency Wallet

Maria Rodríguez
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Swiss Watch Will Have a Cryptocurrency Wallet

According to the company, the price of watches will go from $ 102,000 to $ 153,000, depending on the model and its characteristics

The company A. Favre & Fils, of Swiss origin, announced it will launch a new watch that will have a wallet capable of storing and managing cryptocurrencies. This was announced on January 10th through the official website of the luxury watch manufacturer.

Swiss manufacturers said that the creation of the watch is based on the continued growth of the cryptocurrency market in the world and ensured that the team is in line with the new times. They cataloged the integrated device as a “cold wallet” for cryptoactives and that offers “last generation patented security solution” with the most advanced blockchain technology.

Referring to the security offered by the watch’s built-in wallet, A. Favre & Fils, commented that the company “will guarantee the ultimate in data security and privacy protection.”

In the statement of this company details more information about the piece of watchmaking, the creators of this product claim to be very excited about the progress and be pioneers in adopting the latest in cryptotechnology with its products. “We have developed this first watch with the idea of ​​offering something useful to the cryptographic community, not just something they can spend their money on”.

About the piece of watchmaking, it was commented that they only manufacture high quality pieces with secrets and experiences of ten generations. “The base of the device is a very fine watch, finished by hand and equipped with an internal mechanical movement of manual winding”, they explained.

The model that will go on sale next quarter of this year will have the latest in blockchain technology for its security. The wallet selected has not yet been defined, neither on what platform it will be supported, but it is believed that it will support the most common cryptocurrencies.

Laurent Favre, CEO of the company A. Favre & Fils, expressed his personal emotion by including this new watch for the Swiss market, which he hopes will cause a great impact. He added they will have different models that will go on the market continuously throughout the year and that each piece includes a fine development that is being evaluated by a series of experts from around the world, among which Oliver Bussmann, former CIO of UBS and SAP, mentioned to Stephen Urquhart, former CEO of Omega (another Swiss luxury watch company), and other influential personalities from the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

Recognized company

The company A. Favre & Fils is a luxury watch manufacturer with more than 300 years of experience and uninterrupted growth. Its headquarters is located in Carouge, in the town of Canton of Geneva, in Switzerland. The birth of the company dates back to 1718, when there was an agreement between Abraham Favre and a master watchmaker named Daniel Gagnebin. The idea was to merge their knowledge about watches and preserve them from generation to generation. Over time the brand that is known today as A.Favre & Fils was developed.

Most of the pieces of watchmaking are handcrafted elaborations, in which a large part includes pieces made of white or pink 18k gold.

By María Rodríguez

Coingate Will Carry Out Tests for Litecoin Payments in Lightning Network

Maria Rodríguez
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Coingate Will Carry Out Tests for Litecoin Payments in Lightning Network

The company projects that it will be able to associate more cryptocurrencies to its payment system. Some 4,500 customers will have the option to use Litecoin in their financial operations

CoinGate, the company dedicated to payment processing, announced on past Thursday, in its official blog, it is in the testing phase to launch a platform that will allow Litecoin payments through Lightning Network.

The company announced the start of the system’s pilot test, which is expected to be completed by mid-February, once the platform is ready for launch. The system was developed with the help of Charlie Lee, Litecoin’s founder and part of the team at the Litecoin Foundation.

To conduct the test, the company partnered with the company Surfshark, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service provider that will be the first company to use the platform as a tool in micropayments with Litecoin by Lightning Network.

With this alliance it is expected, in addition, that in the future this way of payment with cryptocurrencies can be used to cancel debts to companies dedicated to providing this type of service. Representatives of CoinGate mentioned in the statement that it will not be the only company to test the tool, since consequently more participants and strategic allies will be added.

CoinGate is committed to the future use of this payment tool and ensures that its creation represents “a crucial step in the further development of Litecoin’s blockchain”, so its representatives say that this new solution will allow users of its platform to make payments and transactions instantaneously and with such insignificant costs that are “practically free” and that, in turn, will reduce problems and barriers between traders and buyers. In addition to generating an environment of more confidence to entrepreneurs, so that in a future they can accept payments in cryptoactives.

In the statement published by CoinGate, the developers of the project comment to feel “proud to be among the first company to adopt the ability of providing work solutions in the cryptocurrency community and merchants around the world”. As they say they have high hopes their Litecoin Lightning Network platform works perfectly as it does with Bitcoin.

In another sense, the VPN solutions company, Surfshark, issued a statement referring to its alliance with CoinGate, assuring it could be an important step forward so that its clients can have the ease of choosing the means of payment they wish. “It is essential that such transactions are conducted in a timely manner, and the CoinGate Lightning Network payment solution will help us to achieve this”, said Magnus Steinberg, Marketing Director of Surfshark.

In the middle of last year, CoinGate tested the service with bitcoins through the support of the same Lightning Network, which turned out to be a success. For that occasion it counted on the alliance of more than 100 merchants, and to date they have made more than 30,000 operations in Bitcoin. This represents greater support and confidence in the cryptocurrency technology. “Recognizing the enormous potential and growing demand, we decided to develop the function, but this time for Litecoin”, reads the statement.

Once the tests have been completed, the company states that they will make available to more than 4,500 customers the option of using Litecoin in their financial operations in an economical, fast and safe way.

Using this platform to make instant payments in Bitcoin and now in Litecoin turns out to be extremely attractive for the commerce sector, which expects to project its business to global markets and offer different payment mechanisms in a diversified economy.

Earlier this year it was learned that Bitcoin’s Lightning Network already had around 5,000 public nodes, 18,000 payment channels and a capacity of more than 500 BTC.

Although this technology turns out to be new, and is still in the development and testing stage, it has been widely accepted in the market, so it is expected that it will continue to grow throughout the year, in order to offer a viable and effective solution for those who want to use cryptocurrencies in their next business.

By María Rodríguez

Blockstream Initiated the Tests for the Blockchain Satellite Service

Maria Rodríguez
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Blockstream Initiated the Tests for the Blockchain Satellite Service

The new system will allow people from all over the world to send any type of information through Bitcoin and pay it in the Lightning Network test

Programming transmissions of data and messages through satellite is now possible. The beta version of the Blockstream Satellite API is now available. The launch was announced and published on January 16th.

“We’re excited to announce the launch of the SatelliteAPI Beta! Pay via testnet Lightning Network to globally broadcast data for exciting new use cases! Mainnet support coming soon. Get started building powered apps today!” said Blockstream through its official Twitter account, @Blockstream.

As a gift to the blockchain community, the company’s service focused on the development and implementation of Bitcoin technology to be free, using the Lightning Network (LN) test for its payments.

The purpose is the expansion of the Blockstream Company’s satellite service, which in December began the transmission of the Bitcoin blockchain (BTC) worldwide.

This idea of ​​taking blockchain technology to outer space has the purpose of freeing the cryptocurrency network from the dependence of a terrestrial connection to the Internet, in order to increase the robustness and efficiency of the blockchain platform, as well as allowing it to reach more people.

A Safe Method

In this development, the size of each message is limited so that it can be sent in approximately 10 seconds. The total speed of processing and sending will depend on the traffic on the network and the commissions paid by the users, as it happens in Bitcoin transactions. Developers must use their own encryption, fragmentation and reassembly of large messages in case they need to transmit large amounts of data.

This Blockstream initiative has some features that seek to improve people’s privacy. In this way developers can use the API with personalized encryption, so that the information sent can only be decoded by its recipients and prevent messages from being violated.

“While satellite communications are traditionally prohibitive in cost, Blockstream Satellite will eventually allow developers to adopt satellite communications in their applications. The new API will make it possible to send ‘Hello World’ to many people, but we believe developers will find something a little more adventurous”, said project leader, Chris Cook in December.

How Does it Work?

Since the product is aimed at privacy, only a specific user or a group of users can decrypt the data received, which is sent from the Internet through a means of dissemination. When it comes to paying for the service, Lightning Network allows an additional level of privacy, disconnecting the source of payment from the destination, explains the company’s announcement.

Other platforms use space technology to send information in a decentralized and secure manner. This week the first Qtum transaction was conducted in outer space after the SpaceChain initiative sent a total of 5 QTUM (a cryptocurrency) from another terrestrial station to another blockchain address. This was possible because the platform launched two satellites into space (one in February and the second in October 2018), which work as a blockchain node.

Satellite API is still in beta, so the company is open to receiving comments and reports of any errors that may occur in the process. After the testing period, satellite API will change to the main network to become one of the first Bitcoin satellite services in the world.

By María Rodríguez

Indian Banks Prohibit Using their Accounts to Cryptocurrencies Trading

Maria Rodríguez
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Indian Banks Prohibit Using their Accounts to Cryptocurrencies Trading

The banking institutions reaffirm that having cryptoactives is not illegal in India. However, they prevent users from using their services in digital asset transactions

Indian banks introduce new contract clauses in their banking services. This was made known to various users through social networks, who are annoyed by the strong measures that banks are taking with respect to transactions that link their accounts with cryptocurrencies. Financial institutions say they are forced to accept the measure.

Some clients of the main banks of the country used the social network Twitter to denounce what they classified as abuses. Through photographs, the people who complained show what the prohibition clause says: “By means of this, I declare that I will not carry out any transaction associated with cryptocurrencies, including bitcoins. I also understand and accept that the bank reserves the right to close my account without offering further details, in case financial transactions for the digital currency trade are detected”.

The measures which seek to exacerbate restrictions on the part of banks, correspond to the ban imposed by the Central Bank of India a few months ago, which prohibited the country’s financial institutions from doing business with cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, users claim that such measures recently taken by banks curtail their free trade rights and endanger investors.

To open new accounts it is obligatory to accept the Indian Central Banks’ clause, so far. Otherwise, Indian people will not have access to the completion of the new account. This was commented by the user @Desicryptohodlr during an interview on the subject.

“Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the largest financial institutions in the country. You have started to show this notice in the forms for the creation of new accounts since last month. This message appears as ‘a last clause’ before accessing banking services, which cannot be omitted or desactivated. Therefore, to create an account in the bank, it is mandatory to accept that message. Otherwise, you cannot use any online service associated with the bank”, he said.

In addition those affected ensure to receive, for some months, messages and emails from banking institutions, warning users that their accounts could be canceled instantly and without notice if they perform transactions with or related to cryptocurrencies. Their credit and debit cards will also be blocked if they are linked to purchases of cryptoactives.

A representative of Instashift, an exchange with branch in India, explained that there is a fear on the part of banking institutions such as Kitak Mahindra Bank, since they are private institutions which operate in the country under licenses issued by the Central Bank and that act in a different way to the imposed prohibitions, they can represent the risk of the revocation of their licenses to operate.

These strong actions conducted by banks against customers that trade with cryptocurrencies represent a risk for businesses that have significant projects or ideas with cryptoactives. This is in addition to promoting an unstable trade environment with unreliable and insecure channels.

By María Rodríguez

Spanish Energy Company Will Use Blockchain to Verify the Origin of Renewable Energies

Maria Rodríguez
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Spanish Energy Company Will Use Blockchain to Verify the Origin of Renewable Energies

Iberdrola also seeks, in the future, to use Distributed Accounting Technology to certify purchase and sale operations in the wholesale markets of energy and natural gas

The largest Spanish energy company, Iberdrola, will start using blockchani technology to track energy sources and certify that it comes from renewable resources. This was announced by the company through a statement published on its official website.

Iberdrola completed the testing phases of the project that tracked and verified the origin of the energy, this through a network which uses blockchain technology to record the information. The team’s objective is to verify that 100 % renewable energy is used.

The company mentioned in its press release that the first tests were conducted thanks to the alliance with Kutxabank, a bank with headquarters in Bilbao, which owns a large part of the shares of the energy company.

For the pilot tests of the system, Iberdrola carried out a detailed monitoring of the energy transmitted by two wind farms and a power plant of the Kutxabank bank. It was found that the energy used by the bank, Cajasur, Córdoba and other communities came from the wind farms of Maranchón (Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha) and Oiz (Vizcaya); as well as the San Esteban Hydroelectric Plant (Orence, Galicia). So it was shown that the energy was 100 % clean.

For the completion of the pilot project, the company used Energy Web Foundation, a platform which uses an open-source blockchain programmed and aimed at modifying the operation in question, as well as the market and test conditions.

As a result, it was discovered that blockchain technology helped to rank and identify energy producers. The use of smart contracts allowed the elimination of all types of intermediaries, reduce important costs and automate the distribution of energy.

In the statement offered by the energy company, after the success of the tests, it is explained that there is a greater degree of traceability and that in turn it offers more transparency to transactions, in addition to recording all the information of the process. So participants can review the data of the entire test phase.

“Innovation shows us that blockchain technology is a key accelerating tool in the decarbonisation process of the economy, providing traceability, security, and speed to transactions. In this case, the supply of green energy is more efficient, flexible and transparent and, with this, the production and consumption of 100% renewable energy is encouraged “.

The tests carried out proved to be totally successful and reinforce the confidence of the company in blockchain technology, which can be the ideal channel to check the origin of the energy, and even develop new distribution technology.

According to reports in the Spanish press, this project is based on the idea of ​​the Kutxabank bank, in which its operations are based on 100% renewable and clean energy. So it seeks to minimize the impact of environmental pollution and direct its steps to a sustainable future.

By María Rodríguez

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