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Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

October 15, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

P2P trading platform Paxful recently partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Bityard to provide fiat on-ramp services in Singapore. It will provide users access to more than 300 different payment options.

Kiosk available on Bityard

Paxful’s web-based Virtual Bitcoin called Kiosk will be available immediately to Bityard users. It will be accessible to all new and existing customers of the platform. Paxful’s peer-to-peer trading network can be used to buy Bitcoin with 160 different fiat currencies. With this integration, Paxful will act as a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp for Bityard customers. It provides access to more than 300 different payment methods for cryptocurrency purchases.

Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

The feature will help cryptocurrency exchanges in onboarding people who are new to digital currencies by enabling the purchase of supported coins using local currency. The platform will support domestic wire transfers, bank transfers, online wallets, gift cards, etc. The platform will support various fiat currencies like Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), Russian Ruble (RUB), Mexican Peso (MXN), and Argentine Peso (ARS).

Paxful existed in the Venezuela market

Though Bityard has other fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, it provides one of the most diverse ranges of payment methods, even in countries that follow restrictive banking rules. In such countries, people can use gift cards to buy Bitcoins using Paxful. Bityard also comes with an additional capability of allowing users to buy and sell crypto using Tether via a number of currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

The Virtual Bitcoin Kiosk from Paxful lets users match with sellers instantly if they meet the criteria of the trading needs like payment method and currency. After its launch in 2015, the company has expanded its reach from Bitcoin and now comes with Tether (USDT) support as well. Despite its expansion plans, Paxful recently stopped servicing the Venezuela market, which is the largest in the Latin American region in terms of volumes. The company apparently decided to pull off the market because of US sanctions on Venezuela.

Paxful To Provide Fiat On-Ramps to Singaporean Crypto Exchange Bityard

Source

Filed Under: blockchain, cryptocurrency Tagged With: Bank, Banking, Bitcoin, bitcoins, Bityard, crypto, crypto exchange, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency exchange, Cryptoexchange, Currencies, Currency, digital currencies, ethereum, exchange, Exchanges, fiat, Litecoin, Market, other, p2p, Paxful, russian, Singapore, Tether, Trading, us, Venezuela

Earth needs Bitcoin as economy hits ‘debt saturation point’ — Keiser

September 22, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

The world now has so much debt that, for the first time ever, it is impossible to add more, says Max Keiser.

On the latest edition of his Keiser Report TV show on Sep. 22, the RT host warned that central banks were responsible for global debt reaching a new “inflection point.”

Keiser on debt: “We’re at saturation point”

Together with co-host Stacy Herbert, Keiser referred to comments from Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which last week warned that copying economic recovery methods after World War Two would not work in 2020.

Central banks worldwide have intervened in markets, buying equities and other assets in a highly controversial move designed to limit the economic impact of Covid-19 and its lockdowns.

“First, it’s quite obvious that you can’t keep increasing your debts,” MAS chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam said.

“But I don’t believe that the new higher levels of debt that many countries are now moving towards are going to be sustainable without imposing significant costs on growth as well as equity within their societies.”

The United States’ national debt alone has ballooned to $26.7 trillion this year, up $4 trillion since June 2019.

“There is no capacity for the Earth’s economy to carry any more debt; we’re at the saturation point,” Keiser summarized.

Regarding the consequences for increasingly indebted countries, he said that ordinary consumers would simply foot the bill from now on:

“Now, every dollar that these central banks print will go directly into consumer price index inflation — and you’ll see it at the cash register immediately, and that’s going to incredible social unrest[.]”

In the 1940s, states which had built up debts from combat were able to inflate them away. This time, Herbert said, there were so many insignificant gig economy jobs that wages would not follow price rises, leading to the kind of gap between the elite and the rest of society that Keiser has termed “neo-feudalism.”

Federal Reserve balance sheet 10-year chart. Source: Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve balance sheet 10-year chart. Source: Federal Reserve

MicroStrategy and Bitcoin low-time-preference business

Keiser has long championed Bitcoin (BTC) as an escape route from the knock-on effects of fiat inflation.

With its fixed, unalterable emission and decentralized network, Bitcoin represents the antithesis of centrally-controlled money. 

BTC/USD has shown to rise in step with central banks’ inflating balance sheets, but remains susceptible to U.S. dollar performance, Cointelegraph reported.

“Bitcoin, like Gold, is inversely correlated to the USD — *not* the stock market,” Keiser pointed out on Sep 22. “Don’t be fooled by randomness.”

Beyond its technical prowess, Bitcoin also promotes so-called low-time-preference living — saving money, safe in the knowledge that its value will not be inflated away over time.

As Saifedean Ammous explains in his popular book, “The Bitcoin Standard,” this ultimately allows for better and quicker advancement of society in time than simply spending money as quickly as possible on as much as possible.

Keiser and Herbert noted that MicroStrategy’s decision to put over $400 million of cash reserves into Bitcoin was proof of the low-time-preference mindset encroaching on big business.

Earth needs Bitcoin as economy hits ‘debt saturation point’ — Keiser

Source

Filed Under: blockchain technology Tagged With: Bank, Banks, Better, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Price, Business, Central Bank, chairman, COVID-19, debt, decentralized, decentralized network, economy, equity, Federal Reserve, fiat, Fiat Money, gig economy, Go, gold, index, Jobs, Market, Markets, Max Keiser, money, other, Singapore, stock market, u.s., War, world, youtube

Blockchain-Based App to Make Travel During the Pandemic Easier

September 16, 2020 by wpengine

Wondering what role blockchain can play in containing the coronavirus pandemic? How can a blockchain-based app make travel easier? This article will answer all these questions. 

Table of Contents 

  • Blockchain and COVID-19 Outbreak
  • Blockchain- An Essential Tool During Pandemic 
  • ICC AOKpass to Verify COVID-19 Results Instantly
  • Conclusion: Blockchain is More Than Bitcoin

Blockchain and COVID-19 Outbreak

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected countries, communities, and individuals in infinite ways. During this, various advanced technologies have sprung up to deal with the crisis worldwide. One such technology is Blockchain. Blockchain and Covid-19 pandemic may not go together, but it holds potential in putting the pandemic behind us.

Blockchain is a peer-to-peer, decentralized, distributed ledger technology that acts as a tamper-proof public ledger. It is an essential tool for establishing a secure, transparent, and reliable healthcare business model based on complete accuracy. These characteristics assist countries looking into speeding up their ways of responding to the pandemic. 

Want to become a Certified Blockchain Developer? Get enrolled in the Blockchain Council now!

Blockchain- An Essential Tool During Pandemic 

Talking about the challenges associated with COVID-19, tracking a vast population of infectious patients is one of the major issues. There are some areas where Blockchain is used to resist the pandemic effects and aid in the recovery process. Technology can help prevent pandemic by enabling fast-tracking drug trials, early detection of epidemics, and allowing citizens to prove their health status to travel abroad or return to work.

Blockchain, due to its decentralization and increased transparency, results in efficient responses and more accurate reporting. Furthermore, due to its rapid processing of data, technology helps in the early detection of symptoms before they grow to the level of pandemics.

In June 2020, VeChain announced that its blockchain-based medical data management platform had gone live in Cyrus Hospital that will help in storing pandemic testing results. 

René Seifert, Co-Head at TrueProfile.io, believes that Blockchain-based immunity passports can be seen as a viable solution in dealing with the deadly coronavirus. The basic idea behind immunity passports is to link the individual’s identity with their Covid-19 test status, which will ensure that person is immune and cannot get contaminated again. 

Interested in knowing the various use cases of blockchain technology and becoming a blockchain expert? Get started today! 

ICC AOKpass to Verify COVID-19 Results Instantly

As governments are trying their best to handle COVID-19 crises in their respective regions, in some parts, they are still hesitant in reopening their borders. In tough times like these, it is crucial to use advanced technologies like Blockchain to solve pressing issues. 

According to the recent announcement, International SOS and Singapore-based Energy Drilling have launched a blockchain-based app, ICC AOKpass, to make travel during the pandemic easier by allowing users to verify their COVID-19 status instantly. This easy-to-use mobile app is designed for verifying pandemic results, which further allow individuals to return their workplaces.

Dorjee Sun, CEO of blockchain firm Perlin, believes that presently there lacks a common technical standard for digital health passports. He further explained how this new blockchain-based app could be useful for all.
In his words, ICC AOKpass “uses a common global standard that can be deployed and used anywhere in the world today. It can adapt to the rules of any given country and allows users to instantly verify their COVID-19 compliance status anytime, anywhere.” The best part is that several companies have successfully tested the app, including International SOS’ own Singapore-based employees.

Juliana Gim, managing director of International SOS Singapore, also expressed his view about how this app can help people in varying their COVID-19 pandemic results and resume their travel.

“The successful pilot of ICC AOKpass with Energy Drilling is encouraging as it marks an important step in our journey and the aim of implementing a trusted and standardized global system to facilitate the return to work across many industries. In time, we hope that this will see widespread adoption to facilitate a fast, safe, and secure return to work.”

Conclusion: Blockchain is More Than Bitcoin

Blockchain has proven to be effective in different use cases, including finance, supply chain, healthcare, digital identity, eCommerce, voting, among others. Its potential to offer transparency, immutability, and decentralization makes it popular to enable faster transactions and handle and protect confidential information. Last month, in August 2020, ShareRing, which is an enterprise-focussed blockchain company, launched an e-passport app with contact tracing to revive the $9 trillion global tourism industry.
Moreover, during the coronavirus pandemic, several blockchain-based firms and crypto startups have started adopting cryptocurrency. The pandemic has even forced people to stay indoors and go for cashless payments. Thus, the contactless payment transaction is becoming a new norm.
From the above discussion, it is clear that blockchain technology holds great potential in various COVID-impacted scenarios, including other major sectors. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and learn more about online blockchain certifications and become a blockchain expert, check out Blockchain Council.

Blockchain-Based App to Make Travel During the Pandemic Easier

Source

Filed Under: blockchain, blockchain technology Tagged With: article, Bitcoin, blockchain, blockchain certification, blockchain certifications, blockchain council, blockchain developer, Business, ceo, Companies, coronavirus, COVID-19, crypto, cryptocurrency, data, decentralization, decentralized, Director, eCommerce, energy, finance, Go, health, healthcare, information, Ledger, Mobile, mobile app, Model, other, payments, Singapore, Startups, supply chain, Technology, us, view, voting, world

Gaming Industry Adopting Blockchain to Bring a New Era

September 13, 2020 by Blockchain Consultants

There is nothing more exciting to look forward to than new games. Isn’t it? What about blockchain-based games that offer a completely safe environment for gamers.

So let’s get started to see how Blockchain can transform the gaming industry.

Table of Contents

  • Why Blockchain is Booming
  • How Blockchain is Giving a New definition to Gaming Industry
  • Digital Entertainment Asset can Tackle Flaws in the Pay-to-Play Model
  • How Blockchain-Powered Gaming Platform ‘Ultra’ can Give New Definition
  • Concluding Lines

Why Blockchain is Booming 

Blockchain is a peer-to-peer decentralized distributed ledger technology that mitigates the dependence on a centralized authority. Blockchain developers are pushing towards this technology because it offers immutability, transparency, privacy, and complete security and allows everyone to create a verifiable digital record.

Technology has the potential to revolutionize almost all industries, including finance, supply chain, eCommerce, digital identity management; the gaming sector is no more an exception. Blockchain platforms use powerful data encryption techniques to secure crypto token transactions. Moreover, it ensures that hackers can’t edit or modify existing transactions stored in the Blockchain network.

How Blockchain is Giving a New definition to Gaming Industry

Centralized servers are more prone to attacks and hacking. This is because if hackers break the encryption, they can have complete control over the assets stored on the server. But Blockchain allows players to securely store their digital collectibles in their crypto wallets.

Unlike pay-to-play games, which involve central authority, Blockchain-based games allow players to own their in-game assets. This is because Blockchain uses smart contracts functionality whose results are recorded in a decentralized and immutable way; hence no one can change the ownership of the in-game assets.

Digital Entertainment Asset Tackling Flaws in the Pay-to-Play Model

The current market relies on gamers/players who purchase in-app items that become ineffectual shortly, and then players are left regretting how much they spent on expensive games.

According to the latest announcement, a blockchain-based entertainment platform, Digital Entertainment Asset, DEA has the potential to transform the present gaming industry and aims to offer “a highly entertaining and intuitively usable platform.”

Established in August 2018 and headquartered in Singapore, DEA claims to offer three elements: Playmining, Digital Art Auction, and DEAPcoin.

To deal with existing issues, DEA claims to provide a viable solution by rewarding players, meaning users get something in return for adventure and exploration instead of getting charged, known as Playmining. Such assets can then be used in the Digital Art Auction platform. Digital Art is managed by a blockchain that allows buyers with authentic ownership and guarantees that the creators receive full compensation for their works. The team explained that the earned points and reading manga will be free for all players and can be exchanged for digital currency.

The Digital Art can then be purchased using a DEAPcoin, which is specially created for the DEA platform.

DEA also explained that each digital asset would initially offer an illustration by famous Japanese manga artists, and with time, other variety of assets will be added for players.

‘Ultra’ can Give New Definition to Gaming Industry

Ultra, a well-known blockchain-based gaming platform, aims to revamp the gaming industry by putting the power into the hands of developers and players.

Recently, the Ultra gaming platform announced that it will integrate Theta Network’s live-streaming technology that will allow users to preview games in action before making a purchase and earn rewards to spend in the Ultra ecosystem for sharing streams.

Theta Network is a decentralized video delivery network, running on a dedicated blockchain, powered by users.

This is how their integration service will help players. When a user hits a game’s landing page, the game will be played live through Theta streaming technology directly within the Ultra platform, which will allow gamers to earn rewards of both tokens: Theta (TFUEL) and Ultra.

Concluding Lines 

Blockchain was considered a disruptive technology once it became clear that Bitcoin wasn’t it’s only use case. Technology is revamping the gaming industry by enabling open communication between players and developers. Moreover, it can also be helpful in creating decentralized gaming systems where no single authority controls the gaming system. Blockchain aims at enabling gamers to play, discover, compete, and socialize with zero friction.

Thus Blockchain technology can bring a revolutionary change in the gaming industry.

What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comment section.

To get instant updates about blockchain certifications and become a blockchain expert, check out Blockchain Council.

Gaming Industry Adopting Blockchain to Bring a New Era

Source

Filed Under: blockchain, blockchain technology Tagged With: art, Bitcoin, blockchain, blockchain certifications, blockchain courses, blockchain developer, blockchain expert, Creators, crypto, Currency, data, decentralized, developers, digital currency, digital-art, eCommerce, encryption, entertainment, Environment, finance, Games, Gaming, hackers, Hacking, identity management, Ledger, Market, other, Privacy, security, Singapore, smart contracts, supply chain, Technology, us

Elliptic banks $23M to shrink crypto risk, eyeing growth in Asia

September 4, 2019 by Blockchain Consultants

Crypto means risk. To UK company Elliptic it also means business. The startup has just closed a $23M Series B to step up growth for a crypto risk-management play that involves selling tech and services to help others navigate the choppy darks of cryptocurrencies.

The round was led by financial services and asset management firm SBI Group, a Tokyo-based erstwhile subsidiary of SoftBank . Also joining as a new investor this round is London-based AlbionVC. Existing investors including SignalFire, Octopus Ventures and Santander Innoventures also participated. SBI Group’s Tomoyuki Nii and Ed Lascelles of AlbionVC are also joining Elliptic’s board.

Flush with a sizeable injection of Series B capital, Elliptic is especially targeting business growth at Asia — with a plan to open new offices in Japan and Singapore. It says client revenues in the region have risen 11x over the past two years.

We last spoke to Elliptic back in 2016 when it had just raised a $5M Series A.

The 2013-founded startup began by testing the crypto waters with a storage product before zeroing in on financial compliance as a pain-point worth its time. It went on to develop machine learning tech that screens transactions to identify suspicious patterns and, via them, dubious transactors.

Now it offers an integrated suite of products and services for financial institutions and crypto businesses to screen volumes of crypto-flows that sum to billions of dollars in transactions per day — analyzing them for links to illicit activity such as money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, and other financial crimes.

It’s focused on selling anti-money laundering compliance, crypto forensics and cryptocurrency investigation services to the private sector — though has also sold tools direct to law enforcement agencies in the past.

Billions of dollars in financial services terms is of course just a tiny drop in a massive ocean of money movements. And growth in the crypto risk-management space has clearly required more than a little patience, from a startup perspective.

Three years ago Elliptic’s first blockchain analytics product had 10-20 Bitcoin companies as customers. That’s now up to 100+ crypto businesses and financial institutions using its products to shrink their risk of financial crime when dealing with crypto-assets. But the more three than year gap between Elliptic’s Series A and B is notable.

“To date, we’ve focused on product development and assembling the right team as the market has matured. This new funding will help us expand in the right way, namely by making the push into Asia without diluting our focus on the US and EMEA,” says co-founder and CEO James Smith when asked about the gap between financing rounds.

He declines to comment on how far off Elliptic is from achieving breakeven or profitability yet.

“We provide best-in-class transaction monitoring products for crypto-assets, which are trusted by crypto exchanges and financial institutions worldwide,” he adds of its product suite. “Our products are used as key components of larger compliance processes that are designed to minimise money laundering risks.”

With the addition of SBI Group to its investor roster Elliptic gains a strategic partner in Asia to help push what it dubs “bank-grade risk data” at a new wave of established financial institutions it believes are eyeing crypto with growing appetite for risk as larger players wade in.

Larger players like Facebook . Elliptic’s PR name-drops the likes of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, Line Corporation’s LINK and central bank digital currencies, as markers of a rise in mainstream attention on crypto assets. And it says Series B funds will be used to accelerate product development to support “an emerging class of asset-backed crypto-assets”.

Regulatory attention on crypto — which has been rising globally for years but looks set to zip up several gears now that Facebook has ripped the curtain off of an ambitious global digital currency plan which also has buy-in from a number of other household tech and fintech names — is another claimed feed in for Elliptic’s business. More crypto implies growing risk.

It also points to the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force’s global regulatory framework for crypto-assets as an example of some of the wider risk-based requirements and now wrapped around those dealing in crypto.

The focus on Asia for business expansion is a measure of relative maturity of interest in opportunities around crypto-assets and localized attention to regulation, according to Smith.

“Revenue growth is certainly very strong in this region. We have been working with customers in Asia for a number of years and have seen first-hand how vibrant their crypto-asset ecosystems are. Countries such as Singapore and Japan have developed clear crypto-asset regulatory frameworks, and businesses based in these countries are serious about meeting their compliance obligations,” he says.

“We have also found that traditional financial institutions in Asia are particularly keen to engage with crypto-assets, and we will be working with them as they take their first steps into this new asset class.”

“We believe that crypto-assets will play an increasingly important role in our everyday lives and are shaping the future of banking. Our investment in Elliptic is a further commitment to this belief and to SBI Holding’s appetite to help build the digital asset-related ecosystem,” adds Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO of the SBI Group, in a supporting statement.

“Elliptic’s pioneering approach is enabling the transparency, integrity, and trust necessary for this vision to become reality. We are seeing a growing demand for their services across our portfolio of crypto-assets related companies and view Elliptic as best-placed to meet this considerable opportunity.”

While Elliptic’s business is focused on reducing the risk for other businesses of inadvertently transacting with criminals using crypto to launder money or otherwise shift assets under the legal radar, the proportion of transactions that such illicit activity represents in the Bitcoin space represents a tiny fraction of overall transactions.

“According to our analysis, approximately $1BN in Bitcoin has been spent on the dark web, so far in 2019, on items ranging from narcotics to stolen credit cards. This represents a very small share of all Bitcoin activity — less than 0.5% of Bitcoin payments over this period,” says Smith.

Not that that diminishes the regulatory risk. Nor, therefore, the business opportunity for Elliptic to sell support services to help others avoid touching the hot stuff.

“Crypto money launderers are continually developing new techniques to cover their tracks — from the use of mixers to transacting in privacy coins such as monero,” Smith adds. “We are also constantly innovating to keep pace with this and help our clients to detect money laundering. For example our work with researchers from MIT and IBM demonstrated the application of deep learning techniques to the identification of illicit crypto-asset transactions.”

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/03/elliptic-banks-23m-to-shrink-crypto-risk-eyeing-growth-in-asia/

Filed Under: digital currency Tagged With: Asia, Banking, Bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, Cryptocurrencies, dark web, decentralization, digital currencies, Elliptic, facebook, financial services, financial technology, Japan, Line Corporation, London, machine learning, MIT, Money Laundering, Octopus Ventures, Singapore, Softbank, Tokyo, United Kingdom

Crypto exchange Binance prepares to add margin trading soon

May 27, 2019 by Blockchain Consultants

Binance, the world’s most prominent crypto exchange, says it is close to adding a much-anticipated margin-trading feature to its service following weeks of speculation.

The company tweeted confirmation of the upcoming feature in a screenshot that subtly teases the imminent arrival of margin-trading options. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (pictured above) first revealed the feature was headed to Binance during a live stream following a hack earlier this month that saw Binance lose around $40 million in Bitcoin.

TechCrunch understands that margin trading has been beta tested among select users. A Binance representative declined to comment on the specifics, but did confirm that margin trading will be available on Binance.com “soon.”

Dark mode 🌚 or Light mode 🌝? #Binance pic.twitter.com/pGSb1np4yp

— Binance (@binance) May 24, 2019

Margin trading, which lets traders use their balance as collateral to super-size their buying power, is seen by many as an important growth vector for crypto trading. Binance is often the world’s largest exchange based on daily trading volumes — though it is currently ranked second, according to Coinmarketcap data — but it has avoided margin trading to date. Instead, exchanges like BitMex, Huobi Pro, Poloniex, Kraken and Coinbase’s GDAX have run with the ball and offered the functionality. Coinbase has also considered adding it for regular, retail customers.

The new feature is part of a number of expansions from Binance as it aims to broaden its reach. The company has added support for purchasing crypto using fiat currency in three countries — Jersey (for the U.K.), Uganda and most recently Singapore — while it also released an early version of its “decentralized” exchange (DEX) to offer further trading options.

Despite that hack, which saw Binance pause withdrawals and deposits for a week, the crypto market remains bullish on the company. Binance’s BNB token passed a $30 valuation this week for the first time in its history. Its worth is up 8% over the last 24 hours — that’s better than Bitcoin (5%), Ethereum (6%) and XRP (4%), which are crypto’s three largest tokens based on “coin market cap.”

There’s been excitement around Bitcoin’s rally in recent weeks, which saw its price briefly pass $8,000 a coin this month, but BNB has been the pick of crypto’s top tokens in 2019. Its value has increased more than five-fold since January 1, when it was worth $6. Today, it trades at $33, as of the time of writing.

Binance’s BNB token has been a standout performer for crypto investors in 2019 [Chart via Coinmarketcap.com]

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/24/binance-margin-trading/

Filed Under: cryptocurrency Tagged With: Binance, Bitcoin, ceo, coinbase, Cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency exchange, digital currencies, Huobi, kraken, Singapore, Uganda

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