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ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Dutch Bank ING Reportedly Working on #Crypto Custody Tech #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:15 PM on Friday, December 13th, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

Dutch Bank ING Reportedly Working on Crypto Custody Tech

  • Netherlands-based banking multinational ING is developing technology for the custody of crypto assets, according to Reuters.

By: Daniel Palmer

The news agency said in a report on Wednesday that sources “familiar with the matter” indicated the ultimate aim of the initiative is to provide secure crypto storage facilities for the bank’s customers.

The tech, though still in the early stages, is apparently being built by a team based in Amsterdam.

Responding to Reuters in a statement, ING said it “sees increasing opportunities with regard to digital assets on both asset backed and native security tokens,” and is taking a particular focus on developing blockchain technology to open up the sector for clients.

ING is already involved in a number of blockchain initiatives, with its dedicated development team saying in April that it’s working on privacy technology called “bulletproofs” to potentially conceal client data.

It’s also working on blockchain-based trade finance as part of consortium startup R3’s Marco Polo project and another in partnership with ABN Amro, also a Dutch bank. In January, ING inked a five-year licensing deal with R3 for use of its Corda Enterprise platform.

If ING now moves into custodianship of crypto assets, it will be one of very few traditional finance institutions to have done so.

Fidelity’s digital assets arm launched custody services earlier this year, as did Bakkt, the bitcoin derivatives subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange. A plan by Japanese bank Nomura to offer institutional-grade custody for digital assets was delayed till 2020 in spring.

Otherwise, only a few smaller banks such as Julius Baer and Arab Bank’s Swiss arm have moved to offer the service in a bid to attract clients.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/dutch-bank-ing-reportedly-working-on-crypto-custody-tech

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Four #Crypto Projects to Keep Tabs on in 2020 #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:33 AM on Thursday, December 12th, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

Four Crypto Projects to Keep Tabs on in 2020

Guest Author

The cryptocurrency world has more than its fair share of self-proclaimed clairvoyants. Whether it’s traders predicting great things for a digital token that’s set to launch, or a journalist touting the next groundbreaking Web3 project, future-gazing is a popular pastime.

With so many crypto projects in the offing, and so many supposed psychics pulling you in different directions, it can be tough to know who or what to believe. Even studious observers of the cryptoeconomy have difficulty reaching consensus on the next sure thing. If 2019 has been any indication, however, the following projects are likely to generate even bigger waves in 2020

Saga

Saga is a highly ambitious monetary venture which seeks to position its digital token, SGA, as a truly global currency. The UK-based company has been tirelessly working on perfecting and polishing its monetary and governance models for the past two years ahead of the ERC20 token launch on December 10. Initially backed by a basket of national currencies replicating the IMF’s SDR, the idea is that, as user trust in SGA grows, reliance upon reserves will decrease and SGA will, as it were, stand on its own two feet.

The industry experience of the Saga team certainly nourishes the perception that the project may launch into the stratosphere. Its advisory board includes Professor Jacob A. Frenkel, PhD, chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and former governor of the Bank of Israel, and Professor Myron Scholes, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. With such economic heavyweights behind it, Saga has already attracted $30m of seed funding from a collective of partners including Vertex Ventures. Watch this space.

Fetch.ai

An AI-powered blockchain that launched in 2019, Fetch allows organizations to pose questions about datasets residing on other companies’ servers; payments, meanwhile, will be made with digital tokens. In the Fetch model, Autonomous Economic Agents (AEA) are utilized to connect IoT devices and algorithms, with the net result a form of collective super-intelligence built atop a decentralized economic internet. Got that?

Fetch recently set to work developing a decentralized metals exchange with several Turkish steelmakers. The new DEX will integrate AI-accelerated blockchain solutions to facilitate greater participation and improved liquidity in the trading of steel, base metals and other commodities. It’s yet another example of blockchain/AI tech feeding into traditional industries, and when you consider that Fetch’s goal is to bring smart cities from concept to reality – improving infrastructure like energy utility grids in the process – you can’t help but think 2020 is going to be a massive year for the crypto project.

RSK

RSK is an open-source, Bitcoin-backed smart contract platform. Encompassing multiple components including the Root Infrastructure Framework Token (RIF Token), RIF Open Standard (RIFOS), and Smart Bitcoin (RBTC), the second-layer protocol seeks to become a key player in the development of Bitcoin-anchored decentralized finance, permitting smart contracts and dApps to utilize the ecosystem’s renowned security.

Its parent company, IOV Labs, also acquired Latin America’s biggest social media platform Taringa, and it’ll be fascinating to see what implementations are introduced in the next 12 months. With 30 million users, Taringa has a ready made community for experiencing the benefits of decentralized finance, including open access and trustless trade, wrapped in a user-friendly interface courtesy of RSK’s smart contract solution.

QAN

The threat of quantum computing is certain to intensify in the years ahead. Hell, Google says they’ve already reached quantum supremacy in 2019. In any case, quantum-proof blockchain platform QAN stands in a good position to capitalize. It uses sophisticated Lattice cryptography to future-proof against quantum cyber attacks which could break existing blockchain platforms like Ethereum. The result is a highly scalable, developer-friendly platform that can run smart contracts in all major programming languages.

QAN uses a Proof-of-Randomness (PoR) consensus to ensure low energy consumption and is 100x quicker than Ethereum, with a TPS of 97k for enterprise (POA) chains. The team has been busy shouting about QAN’s many benefits at various crypto events throughout 2019, so expect more of the same in 2020. Particularly since QAN’s IEO is due to commence soon on BitBay exchange, bringing its token to a wider audience of traders and developers.

There you have it: four innovative projects making plenty of noise in the cryptosphere, and unlikely to lower their pitch in 2020. You’d do well to keep tabs on all of them.

Source: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/12/08/four-crypto-projects-to-keep-tabs-on-in-2020/

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – London Startup #Aurus Launches Gold-Backed #Crypto Token, Possibly Opening The #Gold Market To New Investors #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:50 PM on Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

London Startup Aurus Launches Gold-Backed Crypto Token, Possibly Opening The Gold Market To New Investors

  • Stablecoins offer the potential for crypto to be used as day-to-day payments because their value is pegged to an underlying asset, where price stability is more consistent. 
  • Still, the middleman sitting in-between buyer and seller exists to exchange digital assets into traditional fiat currency

By: Robert Anzalone

The idea that crypto coins can be used for everyday goods and services is not a reality, yet. Stablecoins offer the potential for crypto to be used as day-to-day payments because their value is pegged to an underlying asset, where price stability is more consistent. Still, the middleman sitting in-between buyer and seller exists to exchange digital assets into traditional fiat currency. Typically, stablecoins, like Paxos or USDT, are used in the crypto market as hedging instruments or as value stores. Payment pipelines for everyday purchases are essential, and only when seamless integration is a reality can the public reap the benefits of a more streamlined infrastructure, as some blockchain purists promise. When we examine what is under the hood of our payment systems, we can see where blockchain innovation could transform older infrastructure into something better. 

If we look at the evolution of stablecoins as an innovation in payments, how they are regulated and hold value creates new risks for investors. Stablecoins have been criticized over the past year as potentially not being as price stable as believed. However, the market for this type of security has grown significantly and is becoming more crowded with new coins. Are stablecoins something worth integrating into our economy? How does the crypto industry design a way where decentralized technology creates an independent and non-controlled currency that can be used for everyday transactions? Can the reality of digital gold be achieved and utilized as a form of payment? 

Aurus – newly launched – has created a form of tokenized gold, and represents an actual ownership stake in physical gold. This adaptation is an innovation from existing stablecoins that could decrease the middleman footprint and could expand the traditional gold market.

I interviewed Guido Van Stijn, who is the CEO of Aurus. Aurus is a software company that provides tokenization-as-a-service (TaaS) that enables the gold market to autonomously tokenize their gold into AurusGOLD (AWG). Mr. Van Stijn explained that each AWG token is collateralized and redeemable for 1 gram of physical gold. As described to me, AWG will not be controlled by a government and exists as an ERC-20 token. The claim being regardless if Aurus survives as a company, the gold-backed token will survive on as an asset, just as a gold bar would. This is a unique approach to tokenization because each coin is traceable to a specific gold bar registration. Unlike ownership in a gold exchange-traded fund, which is an equity and does not represent physical gold ownership, AWG states that it is actual gold ownership.

Using a tokenized asset like a gold-backed token could be a benefit to the traditional gold buyer. The AWG tokens are sold at just a fraction above the gold spot price. Mr. Van Stijn explained, “Our processes are different than other gold-backed projects. All gold-backed stablecoins currently on the market have a centralized minting process. Meaning the company itself will, at some point, hold the gold. By digitally replicating the traditional gold market, Aurus is the first project to create a self-sustaining ecosystem made up of gold providers, vaults, and distributors that work together to produce a semi-decentralized gold-backed cryptocurrency.”

To allow the self-sustaining ecosystem to exist, Aurus circulates a second hybrid utility token, AurusCOIN (AWX). Mr. Mark Gesterkamp, the Business Development Director for Aurus, said, “AWX is limited to a total supply of 30,000,000 units, deriving transactional fees from the usage of AWG. AWX offers investors the opportunity to buy into the future growth of Aurus.” Mr. Van Stijn said, “As people around the world trade AWG, 70% of all the generated transaction fees are proportionally distributed across all AWX holders (paid in AWG). The remaining 30% of the generated fees are allocated towards the ecosystems’ operational costs as follows: 15% to gold providers, 15% to vault partners.” For the first time, market participants can generate a passive income stream on the bullion they sell.  

Who wants gold when you can have Bitcoin?

There is nothing special about gold-backed stablecoins in crypto. But Aurus has created something different that bridges the gap between traditional gold trading and the crypto world. More importantly, access to the gold market can be achieved without the need for gold brokers. The claim made by Mr. Van Stijn is that his method lowers the barriers of entry for public gold investment.

Tony Dobra, who sits on the Aurus advisory board, formally a general manager of Baird & Co., believes that AWG is unique. Mr. Dobra said, “While it is not the only gold on the blockchain, it is the most truly gold-based trade available in crypto. Via the AWG cryptocurrency, producers, refiners, and traders can tokenize their gold in multiple locations of their choice and trade the underlying gold on several platforms and exchanges. Because there are multiple locations, providers, and traders, the best price can be obtained. You are not limited to just one location or one price provider.”

Aurus expects and is working to achieve a state where AWG will create more liquidity in the gold market. More importantly, the team at Aurus explained their main goal is for AWG to be used for everyday transactions, i.e., have AWG be used like cash for everyday purchases. While there is a long way to go before this is a reality, the Aurus project seems to be a shift in the direction of asset-backed digital currency. If this works, commodity and precious metal trading could be influenced to follow suit. As for use in payments, stablecoins like AWG, still require an exchange mechanism at the point of sale. Time will tell if this style will become publicly adopted.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertanzalone/2019/12/09/london-start-up-aurus-launches-gold-backed-crypto-token-possibly-opening-the-gold-market-to-new-investors/#1049f0027a98

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – 5 Crypto Trends that Appeared in 2019 #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:19 PM on Monday, December 9th, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

5 Crypto Trends that Appeared in 2019

  • The crypto space evolved in 2019, moving a bit beyond the immediate hype of price action.
  • While some trends and approaches failed, other developments came into the spotlight, offering new types of earnings opportunities.

by Christine Masters

The crypto space evolved in 2019, moving a bit beyond the immediate hype of price action. While some trends and approaches failed, other developments came into the spotlight, offering new types of earnings opportunities.

In 2019, the top crypto trends expanded to fill the void of previously defunct models.

Futures Trading: The CME futures trading started back in 2017. But in 2019, the market had grown significantly. The launch of Bakkt futures added to the price discovery of Bitcon (BTC) at the end of 2019. Crypto-to-crypto exchanges also expanded their futures markets in many directions. Some chose to offer futures for the most liquid altcoins. OKEx was among the most innovative markets, adding USDT-settled futures.

The addition of futures also meant that not only BTC owners could hope to trade based on the price risk of the leading coin. Futures markets move by a different logic, and do not need to conform to the expectations of long-term BTC “hodlers”, hence pressures to dump the price are also possible.

Crypto-based Lending: As more altcoins became inactive, the assets had to find a use case. Lending based on locking up the assets expanded in 2019. Ethereum (ETH) was the top collateral asset. Binance, however, became the leader in offering lending products based on some of the leading altcoins.

Custodial Storage and Staking: Staking coins were big even years ago, but for most, this required some technical knowledge and a dedication to keeping an operational wallet online. Now, it is possible to stake coins while making use of custodial services. Coinbase and more recently, Binance, are adding more proof-of-stake coins, redistributing the rewards. The latest asset to be added was Tezos, which has a relatively complex “baking” process.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Part crypto lending, part staking, DeFi is a separate rendition for the usage of stablecoins. Usually based on Ethereum (ETH), those services aim to replicate traditional finance. Maker DAO grew significantly in 2019, finally releasing its multi-collateral DAI in November. Despite ETH price volatility, DeFi only suffered relatively minor liquidations, and trust remained high enough to continue the decentralized lending pattern.

IEOs: Initial Exchange Offerings were the tamer, curated version of token sales. At the lead, exchanges like Binance and OKEx offered independent projects. Binance went the extra mile to build its own Binance Chain and host some of the tokens. Returns from IEOs varied, and some exchanges rode the trend with shady offerings. Bitfinex also used the IEO hype to place its own LEO token, which did not hold a public sale. IEOs were a new opportunity for tokenization and financing selected projects, but most of the tokens were volatile.

For almost all crypto trends, 2020 may see even stricter regulations. But financial innovation is happening in the sector, potentially building new cases for digital assets.

Source: https://cryptovest.com/news/5-crypto-trends-that-appeared-in-2019/

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – 5 #Crypto Projects That Crushed It in 2019 #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:46 AM on Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

5 Crypto Projects That Crushed It in 2019

  • Crypto startups that shrugged off bearish market conditions, community apathy and industry in-fighting, and focused on shipping clean code and great products.
  • There’s a lot of noise in the cryptosphere, but the following projects cut through it like a knife, delivering original solutions with genuine utility.

As 2019 nears its apex, it’s time to take a look back at the projects that crushed it this year. Crypto startups that shrugged off bearish market conditions, community apathy and industry in-fighting, and focused on shipping clean code and great products. There’s a lot of noise in the cryptosphere, but the following projects cut through it like a knife, delivering original solutions with genuine utility. Having killed it all year, you wouldn’t bet against this quintet doing it all over again in 2020.

  1. LiquidApps

EOS scaling project LiquidApps emerged out of nowhere to garner industry-wide plaudits as 2019 reached its crescendo. A lot of this was due to the success of its DAPP Network, which demonstrated that it’s possible to provision off-chain/sidechain scaling without compromising on decentralization. The DAPP Network’s vRAM enables EOS dApp developers to access cheap virtual storage, giving them the ability to scale their decentralized applications without being stung by prohibitive resource costs. That alone would be enough to sustain most crypto projects for a year, but LiquidApps accompanied this breakthrough with a tool for seamlessly onboarding new dApp users, another for linking blockchains into a single dApp, and an oracle service. Impressive stuff.

  1. Remme

Distributed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) project Remme boasts one of the hardest working teams in crypto. After realizing that its PKI-enabled blockchain simply wouldn’t cut it on Hyperledger Sawtooth, the Remme team made the difficult decision to switch chains deep into the project, transitioning to the EOSIO codebase and rolling out its testnet. Rather than letting this throw them off their stride, Remme has charged ahead with its mainnet launch, taking time out to propose improvements to EOSIO where errors were encountered in the codebase, and fine-tuning the workings of its custom Block Producer program.

This year, Remme also succeeded in onboarding hundreds of enterprises to Keyhub, its all-in-one platform for managing SSL/TLS certificates. With its mainnet just weeks away, 2020 is shaping up to be a big year for the Ukrainian blockchain startup.

  1. Matic Network

It would be impossible to review 2019’s biggest breakout successes without including Matic. While the meteoric rise of its token in recent weeks, following its April IEO on Binance, has kept investors happy, that’s merely a symptom of its success in becoming the industry’s blockchain scaling solution of choice.

While Ethereum remains mired in ETH problems, Matic has emerged as a genuinely scalable and production-ready chain that can take the strain. Its adaptation of Plasma enables instant on-chain payments and transactions, making it suitable for everything from dApps to DEXs. Dozens of crypto projects have announced their migration to Matic Network including a number specializing in NFTs such as Battle Racers. In 2020, expect this trickle to transform into a torrent as crypto projects migrate en masse.

  1. Chainlink

If there’s any token, outside of exchange tokens, that investors wish they’d stacked up on in January, it’s LINK. Up 570% in 12 months, LINK will go down as one of 2019’s best buys. As with Matic, however, focusing on price misses out on the broader story. Much of Chainlink’s success comes down to mastering the other P – partnerships. This year, crypto and non-crypto businesses alike rushed to team up with Chainlink, utilizing the smart contract and oracle network for connecting off-chain data feeds and enabling tamper-proof inputs and outputs.

With names such as SWIFT, Google, Gartner, and IC3 all working with Chainlink, the project founded by Sergey Nazarov has become the first crypto startup to transcend the industry and embed itself in the broader business world.

  1. Synthetix

Warranting the accolade of most innovative defi project of 2019, Synthetix is a smart solution whose best is yet to come. Decentralized synthetic assets have long been the holy grail of many decentralized finance advocates, unlocking the ability to permissionlessly trade commodities, forex and cryptocurrency on DEXs. Synthetix is the first project to realize this goal through its pioneering use of ‘synths,’ tokens that provide exposure to assets such as gold, TESLA stock, and AAPL, without liquidity limitations. Up an incredible 1,715% to date, despite being absent from tier one exchanges, the SNX token looks like it has more room to grow – as does the Synthetix Network it powers.

Source: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/12/03/5-crypto-projects-that-crushed-it-in-2019/

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Why Germany’s Friendly #Crypto Bill Is a Big Deal #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:46 AM on Monday, December 2nd, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

Why Germany’s Friendly Crypto Bill Is a Big Deal

  • In November, Germany became the leader of the free world where government acceptance of cryptocurrency is concerned.

By: William M. Peaster

In November, Germany became the leader of the free world where government acceptance of cryptocurrency is concerned.

That’s because last week, a bill was pushed forward by the Bundesrat, the upper house of Germany’s legislature, that would allow German banks to directly sell and custody cryptocurrencies for their clients as of January 1st, 2020.

Next up the country’s 16 states will make a final decision on the bill, though domestic analysts don’t expect resistance to the legislation at the national level.

That means the way is paved for the bill to officially come into law, a development that would mark a watershed moment not only for Germany but also for cryptocurrencies in general.

Crypto Goes Mainstream in Heart of Europe

Germany is one of the largest economies in the world and the EU’s most influential state. To that end, the country often sets the tone economically and politically for many nations in Europe.

With its new crypto bill, Germany’s legislators are signaling to their constituents and to the international stage that cryptocurrencies are to be embraced, not rejected. This dynamic will make Germany attractive to crypto projects around the globe who are interested in having a base in a very pro-crypto country.

“Germany is well on its way to becoming a crypto heaven,” Sven Hildebrandt, the lead consultant at major consulting firm DLC, said last week. In extension, other European countries and beyond may follow in Germany’s stead in passing ensuing waves of pro-crypto legislation. If in one decade’s time more banks than not directly deal with cryptocurrencies, German banks will have been the trailblazers.

Moreover, it cannot be overstated just how much Germany’s new friendly crypto bill does to move in the direction of normalizing and legitimizing cryptocurrencies as another avenue of mainstream finance. If digital currencies do go on to become widely adopted global financial tools, one could look back on Germany’s legislation as one of the important dominoes that dropped along that way.

The passing of the crypto bill comes on the heels of the German government publishing a national blockchain strategy for the first time back in September. The strategy put the country on course toward becoming a hub for blockchain enterprises.

“Germany should be an attractive location for the development of blockchain applications and investments in their scaling,” two government ministries said in a joint announcement at the time.

Germany Is Epicenter for “Digital Euro” Movement

Just like the U.S. Federal Reserve and China’s central bank, Europe’s top financial officials have taken serious notice of the Facebook-backed Libra stablecoin project.

In response, some European leaders have called for tougher restrictions on cryptocurrencies in general, though others yet have argued the European Union should become a hub for crypto innovation.

In that latter camp is the Association of German Banks, a group of 200 private German banks that serve as finance industry lobbyists in the EU’s biggest economy. Weeks ago, the association argued that Europe’s major stakeholders to back the development of a digital euro that had smart contract capabilities, saying they would commit to supporting the effort:

“The German private banks will play their part in establishing a sustainable and innovative monetary system. For this purpose, a programmable account and crypto-based digital euro should be created and its interoperability with book money ensured. The condition for this is establishing a common pan-European payments platform for the programmable digital euro.”

The association’s plea for a digital euro came one month after German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz should create its own public cryptocurrency.

“We should not leave the field to China, Russia, the US or any private providers,” Scholz said.

Source: https://blockonomi.com/why-germanys-friendly-crypto-bill-is-a-big-deal/

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – Zero-Commission Trading Is Coming to #Crypto #Bitcoin #Ethereum $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:32 PM on Friday, November 22nd, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

Zero-Commission Trading Is Coming to Crypto

  • ShapeShift exchange debuts zero fees following user defections
  • Firms are slashing fees as race for market share intensifies

By Olga Kharif

Zero-fee trading first came to exchanged-traded funds and then to online stock and option transactions. Now the strategy is spreading into the cryptocurrency sphere.

Seen as the most profitable sector of digital-asset world, trading platforms are feeling the pressure as industry heavyweights such as Binance Holdings Ltd. and BitMex grab market share with both trading volume and coin prices sagging. ShapeShift, which has operated an exchange since 2014, said Wednesday it’s begun offering free “perpetual” trades.

“Free trading has become a feature of all fintech direct trading offerings, from Robinhood to SoFi and even JPMorgan,” said Lex Sokolin, global financial technology co-head at ConsenSys, which offers blockchain technology. “So it’s not surprising that in a digital race to acquire the most users, execution prices are starting to collapse.”

The practice turned out to be a catalyst for Charles Schwab Corp., which recently reported it opened 142,000 new trading accounts in October, a 31% jump from September, after the brokerage offered zero fees. Fresh income is being generated from interest earned on client cash holdings. Firms in the crypto world are taking notice.

“We’ve definitely seen how people often need very simple messages,” Erik Voorhees, the Denver-based chief executive of ShapeShift, said in a phone interview. “Everyone understands free.”

ShapeShift lost about 90% of its trading volume a year ago when it began checking user identifications to comply with regulatory guidelines, Voorhees said.

Daily-trading volume in crypto overall is about half of what it was in late October, and it’s been sluggish for most of the past few months, according to data compiler CoinMarketCap.com. The percentage of exchanges that are offering no-fee trading has increased to about 10% from 8% in June, data from CryptoCompare, which tracks exchanges.

To execute free transactions, traders will have to use so-called Fox tokens that ShapeShift is rolling out. Every user ShapeShift.com will get 100 free tokens, and the exchange may sell additional ones, Voorhees said. Each token — which are deposited in a user’s crypto wallet and are never spent — provides $10 of free trading volume on a rolling-30-day basis. So the more Fox tokens customers hold, the more free trades they can execute. Voorhees estimates that 90% of the exchange’s users will be able to do all their trades for free.

“We’d rather make a smaller amount of revenue from a larger pool of customers, and get those customers off centralized custodial exchanges,” Voorhees said. “It’s a risk we’re taking, but we think it’s worth it.”

Other, mostly smaller, exchanges are offering zero fees as part of short- and long-term promotions. Liquid.com is waiving costs for traders who have less than $25 million per month in transactions. Zebpay introduced zero-trading fees in February. HitBTC lowered its fees in August. Malta-based Binance — often the largest spot trading exchange — lets users lower their trading fees by investing in its own cryptocurrency, Binance Coin.

“The end result of price wars tends to be consolidation and the starving of smaller players,” Sokolin said. “Already we see this with the dominance of Binance.”

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-20/zero-commission-trading-is-coming-to-crypto-as-boom-times-fade

ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca – ‘Unknown Fund’ to Donate $75M in #Bitcoin to #Crypto, Anonymity Startups Focused $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:47 AM on Friday, November 15th, 2019

SPONSOR: ThreeD Capital Inc. (IDK:CSE) Led by legendary financier, Sheldon Inwentash, ThreeD is a Canadian-based venture capital firm that only invests in best of breed small-cap companies which are both defensible and mass scalable. More than just lip service, Inwentash has financed many of Canada’s biggest small-cap exits. Click Here For More Information.

‘Unknown Fund’ to Donate $75M in Bitcoin to Crypto, Anonymity-Focused Startups

  • An anonymous organization dubbed “Unknown Fund” is planning to give away $75 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to startups that are focused on anonymity and the protection of personal data.

By Ana Alexandre

An anonymous organization dubbed “Unknown Fund” is planning to give away $75 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to startups that are focused on anonymity and the protection of personal data.

In a press release on Nov. 13, the organization — which consists of “ordinary, anonymous people from different countries” —  said it will donate the money to startups which support the idea of anonymity and specifically operate in such fields as the protection of personal information, tools of anonymity, cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

Fighting the misuse of people’s personal data

The idea behind the donations is to fight the manipulation of people by politics, social media networks and other parties who collect individuals’ personal data, which Unkown Fund says has proved to be an “amazing and frightening” tool.

The project supposedly started on 4chan, an anonymous English-language imageboard, and claims to have the support of hacktivist group Anonymous, which it cites as saying:

“Now the main goal of large corporations is to collect as much information as possible about the personal lives of people, and then use it for their enrichment. And they do a great job of it by making ordinary people get poorer. We are ready to fight for change and protect people.”

The Unknown Fund argues that the deployment of blockchain technology and digital currencies could help protect people’s rights and freedoms, and eventually develop a new environment with a trustworthy monetary system.

Blockchain in personal data protection

Many industry players have questioned blockchain’s ability to ensure personal data protection. Speaking with Cointelegraph in August, Timothy Paolini, a board member at NYU Blockchain, stated:

“Blockchains are built around the principles of decentralization, removing the single point of failure risk (think Equifax servers) and cutting out unnecessary third parties by establishing a more direct, peer-to-peer network. This also maintains your privacy and control of your data from third-party apps as data rests at the protocol instead of the application layer.”

Deirdre K. Mulligan, an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information, argued that blockchains do not inherently protect your identity, as they can be manipulated by their architects to be centralized and non-anonymous. Mulligan stated:

“Companies can exert a lot of control over how they design an application, through its architecture, default settings, what it communicates in its privacy policies, and what it does in practice. The value for a consumer concerned about her privacy would depend on the blockchain application and the kind of data collected and processed by it.”

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/unknown-fund-to-donate-75m-in-bitcoin-to-crypto-anonymity-focused-startups

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Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:50 AM on Wednesday, November 13th, 2019

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Canada’s Largest Bank Mulls Crypto Exchange After Bitcoin Ban

  • A Canadian bank, which banned its clients from buying Bitcoin (BTC), could now become the first in the country to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. 
  • As innovation economy news outlet The Logic reported on Nov. 11, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is now rumored to be considering the plans.

By William Suberg

A Canadian bank, which banned its clients from buying Bitcoin (BTC), could now become the first in the country to launch a cryptocurrency exchange

As innovation economy news outlet The Logic reported on Nov. 11, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is now rumored to be considering the plans.

RBC reportedly planning multifunctional exchange

RBC is the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization, with $661 billion CAD ($499 billion) in assets under management.

According to The Logic, the bank is entertaining the possibility for the exchange to function both for investments and allowing clients to make purchases online and in brick-and-mortar stores.

The news follows a previous report that Canada’s central bank wanted to use digital currency in order to better track consumer spending habits. 

“The trading platform would facilitate buying and selling of individual digital coins, including Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), as well as the transfer of funds combining different types of cryptocurrencies,” the publication summarized.

Bitcoin purchases “not allowed”

While little detailed information is currently available, the move would run conspicuously in contrast to RBC’s current modus operandi on cryptocurrencies. Last year, the bank abruptly banned clients purchasing Bitcoin or altcoins with credit and debit cards.

“Effective immediately, RBC will no longer be allowing the use of RBC credit cards for transactions involving cryptocurrency. We regret any inconvenience this may cause,” a notice stated at the time. 

Other Canadian banks had previously done likewise, including TD Bank and Bank of Montreal

Nonetheless, attention has since focused on how authorities will handle the fallout from QuadrigaCX, a local cryptocurrency exchange that imploded in late 2018. While recovery of lost funds is ongoing, users lost a total of around $190 million in deposits.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/canadas-largest-bank-mulls-crypto-exchange-after-bitcoin-ban-report

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Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:27 PM on Monday, November 11th, 2019

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IDK: CSE

Crypto banks getting green light from regulators

New institutions specializing in digital currency are being granted official recognition around the world

By Paul Muir

Traditional financial institutions still have reservations about decentralized cryptocurrencies. A decade after Satoshi Nakamoto unleashed bitcoin on the world in response to the global economic meltdown, they are only just beginning to explore the potential of digital assets. However, a new breed of banks specializing in crypto have been working tirelessly to capitalize on the fiscal trend and are now gaining regulatory recognition around the world, Bitcoin.com reported.

Swiss crypto banks

Switzerland has become a leading crypto-friendly country and several hundred companies are currently operating in Crypto Valley, which is situated in the canton of Zug. The country’s financial regulators are taking an increasingly positive approach to the nascent sector. Traditional banks have been reluctant to serve entities dealing with cryptocurrencies but competition from new businesses focusing specifically on the crypto market is likely to change that.

In August, the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) licensed two companies to provide banking services to Swiss-based crypto businesses and also trade securities. Zug-registered Seba Crypto and Zurich-based Sygnum became Switzerland’s first regulated crypto banks, Bitcoin.com reported. Another entity working with digital assets, Bitcoin Suisse, applied for a banking and securities dealer license this summer. A new Swiss venture called Tallyon expects the green light from Finma to allow it to become a “next-generation” private bank employing blockchain tech and working with cryptocurrencies.

These companies are not restricting themselves to Switzerland. In late October, Sygnum was granted a capital markets services license in Singapore. According to a report by Swissinfo, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has authorized the crypto bank to provide asset management services in the Southeast Asian city-state. Seba Crypto, which is currently focusing primarily on its upcoming launch in Switzerland, is in talks with the MAS but has not yet applied for a license. It plans to enter a number of other markets including Hong Kong, the UK, Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Tallyon plans to expand into Asia after its launch in the alpine country.

In a press release published on its website, Sygnum revealed that its first product will be a multi-manager fund that “allocates investments across a portfolio of managers that tap into the global digital asset opportunity using different and uncorrelated investment strategies.” It will be available to institutional and private qualified investors in Switzerland in the future as well, through the company’s banking platform there. In partnership with the largest German stock exchange and Swisscom, Sygnum is also working to launch a new digital asset trading venue.

Tencent’s ‘virtual bank’

The expansion of the crypto industry in any jurisdiction inevitably creates demand for related banking services. China’s recent focus on blockchain development is likely to have the same effect. Some Chinese companies are already moving to take advantage of the changing environment that creates new business opportunities.

Tencent, the tech and internet giant behind the popular messenger Wechat, was recently granted a license from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) that will allow it to establish a “virtual bank.” Speaking at the World Blockchain Conference in Wuzhen on November 8, Cai Weige, general manager for blockchain at Tencent, revealed the holding is already assembling a team for the financial platform.

According to Chinese media outlets, the forum was devoted to blockchain, digital assets, central bank digital currency, artificial intelligence, and 5G. During his keynote speech at the conference, Cai noted that blockchain and cryptocurrencies receive more attention now that the Hong Kong government has begun to regulate crypto transactions.

The SFC recently established a new regulatory framework that allows crypto exchanges to opt-in to be licensed and regulated. Trading platforms can now apply for a license if they meet certain requirements, including the implementation of measures to guarantee the safe custody of crypto assets.

“The framework will enable virtual asset trading platforms to be regulated by the SFC, a major development which builds on a way forward I outlined at the same time last year,” SFC Chief Executive Ashley Alder said, according to a Cointelegraph report last week.

Source: https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/11/article/crypto-banks-getting-green-light-from-regulators/