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Crypto and blockchain: What the Brazilian market can expect for 2021

January 22, 2021 by Blockchain Consultants

2020 will be remembered as one of the most difficult years for contemporary societies: Countries and entire populations have faced lockdowns and economic crises, financial markets still suffer from the severe impacts of the economic recession, and more than 2 million lives have been taken by COVID-19.

Despite this, other sectors have been impacted in other ways during the severe global health crisis — which still seems far from over, even though vaccines are beginning to be distributed in wealthy countries. Economies have radically digitalized, hedge assets have attracted mistrust, and the crypto market has had one of its most important years since 2009, the year of Bitcoin’s (BTC) launch.

In fact, the crypto and blockchain markets have stood out in the face of a crisis that has spared almost no sector. Cryptocurrency funds are among the most profitable of the year, Bitcoin and the biggest altcoins reach new historic highs, large institutions and investors in the financial markets have allocated investments in Bitcoin, and blockchain technology has broken down barriers in the financial sector and in the production chains of the most varied of sectors.

Faced with a year of profound changes, what is to be expected for the future? Cointelegraph Brasil invited some of the country’s top crypto and blockchain experts to chart the next steps for the market.

Institutional investment

Institutional investment was highlighted in 2020, finally reaching the cryptosphere, and it promises another year of growth in 2021.

According to Rodrigo Borges, founding member of the Oxford Blockchain Foundation, large Bitcoin contributions by institutional investors — which have even bought more BTC than the production capacity of miners — will intensify in 2021: “Regarding Bitcoin, I imagine that there will be an increase in demand for institutional investors, enabling the emergence of new products with exposure to Bitcoin,” analyzed Borges. He also sees “2021 as a year of consolidation and strong development in the sector.”

As for Tatiana Revoredo, MIT blockchain expert and Cointelegraph Brasil columnist, the custody of cryptocurrencies by traditional financial institutions and the adoption of stablecoins will be key in the new year:

“In the financial sector, we will see applications for custody of crypto assets being launched in Brazil, with the possible participation of the traditional market. And if the regulatory authorities allow it, stablecoins will have an expressive role in the Brazilian market, with the turnover being able to quadruple in size.”

Crypto markets

Crypto markets experienced a year of extreme optimism — or greed, as demonstrated by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Bitcoin reached a dramatic bottom close at $3,800 in March, and it beat its 2017 historic high of $20,000 on Dec. 16. In Brazil, the currency set a new historical record in November when it reached $106,000 Brazillian reals.

Cointelegraph Markets reporter Marcel Pechman highlighted the behavior of the market despite the setbacks suffered during the year. He recalled: “The Bitcoin and Ethereum markets developed in 2020 as never before imagined, both in terms of trading volume, price and the contribution of renowned investors like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller.”

Pechman said that despite the crypto market suffering some setbacks, the impact of those setbacks on market performance was not so significant: “We had, for example, the US Department of Justice suing BitMEX — at the time, the largest derivatives exchange — and KuCoin’s $280 million hack, and none of those affected the market.”

Pechman also recalled that the 2020 DeFi race led to expensive transaction costs on the Ethereum network but did not impact market sentiment.

OriginalMy CEO Edilson Osório agreed with the promising future of the DeFi sector, but he cautioned against fraud:

“This is an experimental and very promising market, but it must be given extra attention because of malicious groups applying scams and fraud in general. As it is a very new market, platforms may have problems with hacks, and due to the great centralization that exists (even with many platforms presenting themselves as decentralized), there is still a risk of exit scams.”

About 2020’s innovations, and the digitalization imposed by the COVID-19 crisis, Pechman also said that it will go even deeper in 2021:

“Successive innovations, which include Taproot, Schnorr and Lightning Network in Bitcoin, in addition to the launch of Ethereum 2.0 phase 0, pave the way for the next wave, with increasingly larger, scalable applications, and interconnected with traditional finance. The final proof? Fidelity offers loans covered in cryptocurrencies.”

On the domestic markets, Osório is betting on the tokenization market in Brazil, which is already used by the country’s largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin. According to him, 2021 will be a year for “maturing the security tokens market.”

“Existing protocols are beginning to be well regarded by regulators, since most of them provide for greater participation and visibility on the part of the regulator itself and allow the mitigation of various risks inherent in this market. In this race, there is a great chance that Brazil will gain prominence because the local regulator has established a regulatory sandbox and the first projects are already beginning to mobilize to have their applications running in a more legally secure environment,” – noted Osório.

Another player at the Brazilian crypto markets, João Paulo Mayall — head of operations at QR Asset Management — is also optimistic about the tokenization market in 2021. He highlighted the role of regulators in the sector’s expansion in the South American country: “I believe that the future is the tokenization of assets, debentures, court bonds, government debts. Brazil is very advanced in its banking system and we will have many surprises in this sector, so I am very optimistic. Tokenization is a billion-dollar market, but it lacks the infrastructure. Innovation came in front of the regulators, but I think they are open to listening and working on it. I think [the regulation] will happen next year, even before March 2021.”

Finally, blockchain expert Tatiana Revoredo argued that crypto adoption in Brazil, which saw its currency melt in 2020, will intensify, with Bitcoin once again asserting itself as an economic-protection asset. She believes that the crypto markets will see “an increase in the interest of Brazilians, with consequent increase in the Brazilian market, with a prominent role for Bitcoin being adopted as a protective asset.”

CBDCs and national governments

The digitization of economies has placed the discussion of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, at the center of debates by financial authorities around the world. One of the countries that has definitely entered this race is China, which is already conducting real tests of the digital yuan in the country. Its main geopolitical rival, the U.S., announced that for the time being, it does not intend to digitize the dollar, but it is already seeing internal pressure from not following the Chinese leadership in the sector.

The Central Bank of Brazil has also commented on the transformation of the Brazillian real into a digital currency a few times, although there are no concrete plans for that in the short term.

Osório believes the European Union will join the hype soon, further accelerating the global race for CBDCs: “Although China appears to be leading the CBDC race, other countries are also beginning to move in this direction. Among them, Estonia, which recently started an internal consultation for the launch of its currency in the digital version. In particular, I believe that in Europe a more comprehensive and organized movement should take place in this sense, given the incentives promoted by the European Union.”

Many experts try to predict the impacts of CBDCs on economies — one of the main concerns of economic regulators. Governments, which largely study the adoption of blockchain in their public processes, should also enter the debate on privacy and the digitization of money.

According to Tatiana Revoredo, “in the government sector, the forecast is for the growth of [blockchain] applications in document registration and health applications, as well as a greater concern, by the citizens, regarding the relationship between privacy and CBDC.” She also claims that payments processors should closely monitor this innovation:

“Those who should be more attentive to these movements are the means of payment, such as PayPal and their peers. They will have to look deeply into their business models as soon as governments start issuing their currencies digitally. ”

Blockchain adoption

Governments have also viewed blockchain technology through a positive lens. In Brazil and Latin America, several state entities already use the technology to certify documents, including customs and notary offices. Big companies are also adopting blockchain to certify production, with use cases that are only expected to grow going forward.

Borges said that the acceleration of blockchain adoption by large companies and governments can positively impact crypto assets:

“Within the scope of blockchain technology, I see the development of interesting solutions, with the increasing involvement of traditional players, especially in the financial and agribusiness sectors, which may result in increased liquidity for certain assets.”

Revoredo agreed and highlighted the advancement of technology in the agricultural sector: “There has been a significant advance in agribusiness, with use in the identification of devices (drones, for example), integration with IoT and artificial intelligence to provide greater reliability and certify quality of agricultural production.”

Osório defended the growth of the blockchain market in 2020 and its prospects for the near future: “When we look at advances in blockchain with applications beyond digital currency, we see a growing market in the area of ​​decentralized digital identity, including with the approach of governments. We have seen movements in governments in the US and Japan, interested in modernizing their digital governance models. And the pandemic has certainly helped to accelerate and advance discussions on the issue around the world, as it understands that the digitization of analog and traditional services is a necessity.”

The end of 2020 was a milestone that closed out one of the most dramatic years in the history of contemporary societies, but it also revealed ways to combat global economic and health crises.

Blockchain technology has helped societies fight corruption, adopt more transparent processes and even contributed to the certification of medicines and vaccines during the most serious health crisis of the last 100 years, in addition to helping companies to improve procedures, products and services.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has strengthened as an economic protection and investment product, has attracted institutional investment giants, and — together with other crypto technologies — has even laid the foundation for central banks around the world to start implementing their own digital currencies.

We still do not know the depth of the revolution we are experiencing with the digitalization of societies and the weakening of national currencies around the world, but by the end of 2021, we will certainly know many of the answers to the questions that still plague us at the beginning of this new year.

Crypto and blockchain: What the Brazilian market can expect for 2021

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Filed Under: blockchain, blockchain technology Tagged With: Adoption, altcoins, america, artificial intelligence, Bank, Banking, Banks, Bitcoin, BITMEX, blockchain, blockchain expert, Bonds, brazil, btc, Business, CBDC, Central Bank, ceo, China, Companies, COVID-19, crypto, crypto exchange, Cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, Currencies, Currency, Custody, decentralized, DeFi, department of justice, derivatives, Digital, digital currencies, digital currency, Environment, ethereum, Ethereum 2.0, Europe, european union, exchange, finance, Financial sector, fraud, Go, government, hack, hacks, head, health, index, Infrastructure, innovations, investment, Investments, iot, Japan, latin america, leadership, lightning network, Market, Market Sentiment, Markets, MIT, money, other, Oxford, payments, PayPal, Privacy, Regulation, scams, security, Stablecoins, Study, Technology, Tokens, Trading, u.s., us, world, Yuan

Kickstart Your Career in Blockchain Space: List of Best Specialization Courses in 2021

January 22, 2021 by Blockchain Consultants

Kickstart Your Career in Blockchain Space List of Best Blockchain Specialization Courses in 2021

2020 has been a year of Blockchain. The high package salaries of such professionals indicate that this technology is no more a new buzzword. Tech giants and enterprises have started adopting technology, and for that, they are hiring skilled professionals. The major reason why jobs in this domain are paid so highly is because this space is young, and people with any experience in the space are rarely few.

If you are looking for the most-demanding certifications in this space, you have landed on the right page. This article includes the details of the most popular, top-rated specialization courses ideal for beginners and professionals looking forward to pursuing a professional career in this domain.

Best Specialization Courses to Become a Blockchain Professional in 2021

With any further delay, let’s enlist the best specialization courses that will help you acquire a futuristic career in 2021.

This is another comprehensive online course and training program to become a Certified Professional in law domain. This particular training is primarily directed to guide an individual in creating solutions that can influence all the aspects of the law and deals with the assimilation of knowledge on how technology can be leveraged to speed up and streamline the process of tracing digital documents for evidence and automate the agreement process using smart contracts. You’ll be benefitted from:
complete fundamentals of DLT

  • its advantages in law
  • its use-cases such as Chain of Custody, Litigation, and Settlements, and much more.

As technology poses incredible benefits to HR professionals in talent management, verifying the accreditation of potential hires, safeguarding employee health records, and performance evaluation, this certification is in huge demand. Tech giants and organizations are looking for skilled HR professionals who understand this technology profoundly. 

This is another comprehensive and hands-on course to learn this technology in the HR domain. The course provides a complete overview of this technology, technology’s impact on human resources, and its varying use-cases. It educates learners to gain an accurate picture of the employees’ overall performance and business, in general, using this futuristic technology. The best thing about this specialization course is that it covers almost every vital concept needed to become a pro in this particular sector. 

This is a globally acknowledged certification that helps learners to gain an in-depth understanding of the Blockchain for KYC Procedure and implement skills to optimize KYC Procedure. After completing this course, you will be able to implement Blockchain’s understanding to speed up and simplify the process of digital identity verification, cross-border payments and to identify frauds in banking and other financial sectors. Acquiring this certification in your resume of the LinkedIn profile will help you showcase your skills and experience.

Informative and well-structured, the course is ideal for all those whose interest revolves around digital marketing. 

This is a unique training and certification specially designed to demonstrate how this technology can revolutionize digital marketing. This course covers all its fundamentals such as blocks, wallets, and addresses, public and private keys, Merkle Tree, and hashing, cryptography and algorithms, and much more. Moreover, it teaches how digital marketing will benefit from this technology and its various use-cases. The course will render expertise on eliminating digital marketing middlemen, eliminating online ad fraud, building trust, and transparency while giving customers full control of their information with the use of DLT.

This Digital Marketing Professional training will prove your USP and act as a catalyst to accelerate your career growth.

Through this outstanding course, you will be able to learn how DLT has the power to bring about a major breakthrough in the healthcare industry, especially in terms of Health Information Exchange, by improving data integrity, regulatory compliance, and privacy. The course details various problem statements such as Drug Counterfeiting, Clinical Trials, and Healthcare Records Management, focusing on technology fundamentals and its various use-cases in the healthcare domain. The course will help you learn about healthcare business needs, technology’s role in healthcare, and how to build DLT-based healthcare systems.

Although anyone can avail this certification, this is best suited for system administrators, architects, developers, network security architects, cybersecurity experts, and IT professionals.

This certification aims at imparting a complete understanding of Blockchain’s inherent security features and associated risk, in-depth knowledge of best security practices for DLT infrastructure, exploration of known cyber-attacks, ability to differentiate between various cyber-attacks and threats, and teaching how to transfer or mitigate security risk.

This program will solidify your basics and advance your knowledge in the featured topics and make you capable enough to handle relevant complex issues. This course enables you to implement your skills in any applications and build your own Blockchain enterprise with acquired knowledge. 

We all know that DLT has its implications in the supply chain domain for a long time. At present, the demand for DLT-based supply chain experts is surging. Such experts implement the understanding of Blockchain to increase revenues and decrease costs while improving overall quality.

This certification will offer you an in-depth understanding of the mechanism for blockchain technology functioning that will help you integrate this technology with supply chain management. By the end of the course, you will be able to create solutions that can impact all the facets of the Supply Chain.

This training is primarily directed to guide an individual in creating solutions that can influence all aspects of finance and deals with the assimilation of knowledge on how this technology can be leveraged to speed up and streamline the procedure of cross border payments and to reduce the cost undoubtedly.

Here are the key things you will learn in this program:

  • Overview of financial management and challenges in the financial system 
  • Understand the core concepts of technology and its ecosystem
  • Role of this technology in Financial System 
  • Vendor Perspective about Blockchain and its advantages in finance services
  • Use-cases including cross border payments, syndicate lending, digital identity verification, and trade finance 

Concluding Lines 

The Blockchain Specialization courses mentioned above are crafted by Industry Experts to make the scholars efficient in handling the different verticals of blockchain technologies. The best part about these courses is that they require no prior knowledge. After completing, learners will be proficient enough to engage with business executives and offer practical solutions for their specific needs. 

Blockchain Council gives you an opportunity to learn from top experts around the world, and courses are uniquely curated for professionals by premiers of multifarious industries. These are self-paced training ranging from 4 hours to 6 hours that require your attentiveness. It is as easy as it sounds.

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council. 

Kickstart Your Career in Blockchain Space: List of Best Specialization Courses in 2021

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Filed Under: blockchain, blockchain technology Tagged With: article, Banking, blockchain, blockchain info, blockchain updates, blockchain-technology, Business, Career, Compliance, cryptography, Custody, cybersecurity, data, Deals, developers, Digital, DLT, Enterprise, exchange, finance, fraud, health, healthcare, hiring, information, Infrastructure, Jobs, KYC, Law, linkedin, marketing, other, payments, Privacy, security, smart contracts, Space, supply chain, tech, Technology, world

Bitstamp says its users are now covered against a broad web of crime

October 15, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

Digital asset exchange Bitstamp has beefed up its insurance measures to combat the inherent uncertainties associated with the crypto space.

“The policy covers an array of crime-related cases, such as employee theft, loss while the assets are stored at any premises, loss in transit, loss caused by computer fraud or funds transfer fraud, and loss related to legal fees and expenses,” an Oct. 15 statement from Bitstamp detailed with regard to the firm’s updated insurance measures. 

Cryptocurrency offers added freedom when compared to traditional finance, allowing users to transfer the assets they own with greater ease and self-sovereign control. Such advantages can also make theft more viable, however. To combat this, a number of crypto exchanges now boast various forms of customer insurance, including Binance, with its Secure Asset Fund for Users, or SAFU for short.

Bitstamp’s new insurance policy is likewise tailored specifically for crypto. It is made possible through the involvement of a number of players, including U.K.-based Paragon International Insurance Brokers. “Our crime insurance policy is designed with the specifics of digital assets in mind,” Paragon’s senior vice president, Jeff Hanson, said in the statement, adding:

“Traditional insurance policies do not translate directly into digital assets, which is why we’ve created and placed a policy to fit the bespoke requirements of highly respected and forward-looking exchanges such as Bitstamp, which value the safe custody of their customers’ funds above all else.”

Bitstamp’s added coverage stacks on top of insurance that BitGo, a digital asset trust and security company, provides to the platform. As part of their offering, 98% of Bitstamp’s crypto holdings are kept securely offline using the BitGo platform.

Bitstamp says its users are now covered against a broad web of crime

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Filed Under: blockchain technology Tagged With: Binance, bitstamp, crime, crypto, cryptocurrency exchange, Custody, Exchanges, finance, fraud, insurance, security, Space, Vice President

The need for a dialogue between crypto businesses and regulators

October 3, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

This year has been a strong one for digital asset markets, highlighted by growing institutional inflows and a propitious shift in the regulatory environment. Witness the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s September letter that says crypto exchanges that comply with SEC Rule 15c3-3 (the Customer Protection Rule) are free to trade digital asset securities. 

With more than 50 million people around the world investing and trading in crypto in meaningful volumes, Goldman Sachs has recently appointed a new global head of digital assets, as did JPMorgan in February. Goldman’s move was a noted reversal following a May earnings call in which one of its analysts questioned the legitimacy of Bitcoin (BTC) as an asset class.

The timbre of digital asset markets is changing from primarily speculative in nature, driven by high-frequency individual traders riding waves of volatility, to longer-term buy-and-hold activity. For instance, Yale and Harvard have both made waves in recent months with SEC filings revealing multi-million-dollar investments in crypto funds as the asset class continues to gain momentum.

Related: Ivy League universities set to boost the crypto industry with an injection of institutional investment

Visa, Mastercard and PayPal have made recent announcements that they, too, are embracing the digital asset markets, with Visa recently writing on its blog:

“Digital currencies have the potential to extend the value of digital payments to a greater number of people and places.”

Indeed, a growing number of organizations and governments around the globe are embracing digital assets for trading, investing and non-intermediated payments. As proof of this momentum, the World Economic Forum established a consortium to govern digital currencies this year, including government-issued stablecoins, which central bankers have increasingly embraced.

As of mid-July 2020, according to the Bank for International Settlements report, at least 36 central banks have published retail or wholesale central bank digital currency work. At least nine countries have undertaken CBDC pilots; 18 central banks have published research on retail CBDCs; and another 13 have announced research or development work on a wholesale central bank digital currency.

Regulatory clarity has been slow to materialize as a major impediment to adoption by traditional investors and service providers, however, change is undeniably underway.

In addition to the recent SEC move, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently announced that national banks can provide crypto services, including holding private keys for customers and other custody solutions. And crypto businesses enthuse at the prospect of a harmonized patchwork of state and federal money transmitter rules. Such developments are making markets more palatable for participants entering this space.

Related: US banks get crypto custody nod, but instant demand surge is unlikely

According to a new report by Fidelity Digital Assets head of research Ria Bhutoria:

“The OCC’s July 2020 interpretive letter represents a major step forward in increasing the comfort of traditional institutions with digital assets. To the extent that institutions regulated by the OCC actually provide digital asset custody services, a greater number of investors and users may also be more comfortable trading, holding and engaging with digital assets via intermediaries held to the strict regulatory standards of a federal agency in charge of administering the banking system in the United States.”

That being said, it’s a chicken-and-egg quandary: Progress with the regulatory and infrastructure development required to support digital asset markets has not kept pace with activity in these markets.

Does regulatory uncertainty remain?

As rules and regulations continue to be introduced and refined, a host of questions remain:

  1. Will banks store customers’ digital asset keys and facilitate transacting on crypto platforms, and, if so, how; or will they require customers to engage another provider to de-risk that function?
  2. Particularly given the increase in crypto block trading, what prime service offerings can reduce or eliminate the potential for broken trades and theft of assets?
  3. How can crypto businesses manage the fragmentation of instrument pricing and reporting?
  4. How can crypto businesses navigate the rapidly changing and complex regulatory landscape?

The extent to which banks will custody private keys and act as fiduciaries or lay off the risks to other qualified providers is unclear. A growing number of crypto prime service providers have emerged to provide essential trading, lending, clearing and settlement functions, and the battle to compete in this underserved segment has ramped up significantly in recent months. The emergence of credible and capable prime service providers in the crypto world is critical.

As the market for digital assets grows, the number of trade breaks and security breaches may rise if the infrastructure doesn’t mature, making security and compliance existential priorities for trading venues. For instance, there was also a massive Bitcoin selloff on the BitMEX exchange in March: Nearly $200 million was chaotically liquidated with overleveraged traders unable to move money between networks in time to unwind their positions. And according to the Fidelity Digital Assets report, there were 11 exchange hacks in 2019 resulting in $283 million in digital assets stolen. While the total amount stolen has declined year over year, which indicates security improvements, the number of hacks has increased.

In the eyes of U.S. regulators, crypto businesses are virtual asset service providers that will soon be required to collect the names of transaction senders and receivers. They also must have AML policies and procedures in place. Indeed, crypto businesses have their work cut out to reconcile the morass of changing state, federal and cross-border rules. As market oversight remains fragmented and in flux, counterparties can be left holding the bag if a transaction goes awry.

Related: Slow but steady: FATF review highlights crypto exchanges’ struggle to meet AML standards

Other industry-wide issues remain sticking points for institutions on the sidelines.

For one thing, digital asset identifiers aren’t consistent across platforms and exchanges, and there are often different tickers for the same instrument. In the absence of a central crypto market-data repository, trying to process transactions in downstream systems for valuations, pricing, accounting and reporting can create a host of problems. Indeed today, it is virtually impossible for investors and other stakeholders to consistently and reliably calculate true realized crypto gains and losses.

What are the industry needs now?

As this market segment grows and bigger blocks need to move between buyers and sellers, market participants need, more than ever, accurate market data and quality prime services such as lending, custody, margin, clearing and settlement to ensure customers have a safe environment in which to do business. More financial institutions will become active in this space once such concerns about regulatory uncertainty, market transparency, execution quality and capital efficiency are addressed. Fortunately, we are seeing evolutionary forces in crypto data management, rulemaking and reporting.

A host of new providers are creating systems so consumers of decentralized crypto data, such as banks and other institutions, can more easily and accurately reconcile accounting and reporting. Additionally, watchdogs are beginning to apply traditional market protections to the digital asset ecosystem. For its part, the recent OCC guidance is a blueprint that other agencies can follow to usher standards and safeguards that will enable these burgeoning markets to thrive in the months and years ahead.

Crypto businesses can navigate the rapidly changing business and regulatory landscapes by joining a number of highly active trade associations that are now shaping policy and industry change.

It behooves market participants to become as active as they can in these associations as policymakers define digital assets and how they should be regulated. There’s strength in numbers, so engaging with other crypto businesses in dialogue with regulators affords the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on this rapidly evolving segment before a policy is set in stone.

Keeping tabs on the nuance of change underway not only makes markets safer for all but can help financial services firms roll out potentially lucrative lines of business competitors may be pursuing, such as stablecoins for cross-border payments and crypto trading services. Eventually, today’s steep curve of market structure evolution will flatten, and digital assets will be commonly embraced. When that happens, those of us working diligently together now will be gratified to look back as agents of change.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Kristin Boggiano is the president and a co-founder of CrossTower and was formerly the chief legal officer of crypto exchange software provider AlphaPoint. Before that, she served as a structured products lawyer at Schulte Roth where she handled cases related to CDOs, CLOs and credit derivatives. Kristin has also worked as a regulatory lawyer on Dodd–Frank policymaking and rulemaking, as well as cases involving hedge funds and other institutions invested in digital assets. Kristin is the founder of the Digital Asset Regulatory Legal Alliance for general counsels.

The need for a dialogue between crypto businesses and regulators

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Filecoin is Taking a Phased Approach to Launch its Mainnet Soon

September 29, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

After obtaining millions of dollars with an initial coin offering in 2017, Filecoin, a decentralized data housing network, now plans to unleash the mainnet. According to the latest announcement, Filecoin mentioned that it is entering into the Mainnet Ignition Phase and getting ready for Filecoin Mainnet Liftoff. 

Rather than launching its phases all at once, Filecoin, like other popular Blockchain networks including Polkadot, NEAR, and others, is launching its Blockchain into multiple stages.

Filecoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer storage network with built-in economic incentives to ensure secure storage of files over time. The network facilitates open markets for storing and retrieving files where anyone can participate.

Filecoin Currently Heading to Mainnet Ignition

As launching a Blockchain is a lengthy process, Filecoin is taking a phased approach to launch mainnet. With different groups and communities onboarding onto the network, the Filecoin network is currently heading into Mainnet Ignition. The report mentioned that within the Filecoin community, various groups, including miners, clients, applications, and others, will onboard onto the network in advance of Mainnet Ignition.

Filecoin report mentioned that Mainnet Ignition (pre-liftoff phase) would give network participants time to initialize, understand, set up their systems, and optimize their deployments. 

The report also explained that apart from all this, still, a lot of preparation is needed to set the network up for an amazing launch. Even though the network is completely functional, along with regular software updates beyond Mainnet Liftoff, the report mentioned that “we expect the group to continue developing and expanding the Filecoin network.”

Filecoin predicted a launch date for the mainnet on October 15, 2020, mentioning technological overwatch in the following days. Between Oct 19 and 23, the project will then host many commemorative activities.

Filecoin Faced Multiple Delays in the Past 

In 2017, Filecoin raised $257 million during its ICO, and at that time, Filecoin was recognized as the top five biggest ICOs. In 2019, Filecoin Testnet was expected to be launched in December and mainnet in Q1 2020, but since then, the network has suffered a number of delays in its development and progress. After facing multiple delays, in February 2020, the project released a schedule pointing toward a third-quarter mainnet launch date. It was mentioned that Filecoin is looking toward a mainnet launch in Q3 2020, which will be supported by a Gemini exchange custody solution.

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.

 

Filecoin is Taking a Phased Approach to Launch its Mainnet Soon

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Filed Under: blockchain, blockchain technology Tagged With: blockchain, blockchain certification, blockchain council, blockchain courses, blockchain-technology, Custody, data, decentralized, exchange, filecoin, ICO, ICOs, initial coin offering, Markets, other, Polkadot, Software, storage

US Federal Banks Can Now Hold Stablecoin Reserves

September 22, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

US banking regulator recently authorized federal banks in the country to hold stablecoin reserves. A Monday letter from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has signaled towards a new range of crypto related changes for national banks.

What does the letter say?

The letter reads,

“We conclude that a national bank may hold such stablecoin ‘reserves’ as a service to bank customers.”

Brian Brooks, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, noted that banks are already making stablecoins a part of their activities. He stated,

“National banks and federal savings associations currently engage in stablecoin related activities involving billions of dollars each day.”

US Federal Banks Can Now Hold Stablecoin Reserves

The Office has been clear on the fact that only stablecoins pegged 1:1 to a fiat currency will be allowed as reserves in national banks. Stablecoin that are connected with a basket of currencies like Libra and Saga could be excluded from this list. Tether could be one example of a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to USD. It is also the largest stablecoin in the market but has been marred in controversy over the years. It has been named in crypto price manipulation scams and is currently fighting a legal battle with the New York AG over a loan given to its sister concern, crypto exchange Bitfinex, to help cover its multi-million-dollar losses.

OCC becoming more crypto friendly

Brian Brooks is the former head of the legal department at Coinbase. Since he joined OCC has its acting head in March this year, he has been working to expand the crypto capabilities of American banks. In July, the OCC stated that the federal banks can start providing custody for crypto assets. In both its orders, the OCC has maintained that crypto-focused entities can only be carried out if the banks comply with know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and other federal requirements as they normally would.

It also warned investors to do a proper risk assessment and liquidity, compliance checks before entering into a relationship with a crypto company.

US Federal Banks Can Now Hold Stablecoin Reserves

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Filed Under: blockchain Tagged With: Bank, Banking, Banks, Bitfinex, coinbase, crypto, crypto exchange, Currencies, Currency, Custody, exchange, Federal Banks, fiat, head, Libra, Market, New York, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), other, Regulation, scams, stablecoin, Tether, us

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