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📮Islamic Financial Institution Partners With Startup to Develop Interbank Blockchain Tools


Saudi Arabian developmental institution the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) has partnered with a Tunisian startup to develop interbank blockchain tools, a press release confirmed Nov. 29.
IsDB, which will conduct the project through its private sector subsidiary, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector (ICD), wants to improve Islamic financial institutions’ liquidity management and increase overall efficiency.

The institution signed an agreement with Tunis-based iFinTech Solutions, a dedicated outfit which describes itself as an “Investment Advisory Firm focused on alternative financial solutions based on Islamic principles.”

The impetus behind using blockchain for the initiative lies in the relative disadvantage Islamic banks have on the worldwide stage, with institutions restricted from funding options provided by international central banks, Reuters noted Dec. 3.

Ayman Sejiny, CEO of ICD, added in the press release:
“IT will always play an important role for the financial system. We will consistently pursue our strategy of service orientation and help our partners with innovative Sharia compliant FinTech solutions.”

Saudi Arabia has traditionally copied many other jurisdictions in maintaining a risk-averse official stance on cryptocurrencies while championing blockchain.
In September, the country saw its first bank join R3’s Corda platform, a month after regulators urged consumers not to trade cryptoassets.

The debate around the industry’s compatibility with Islam also continues, Turkey adopting a conservative stance which, as Cointelegraph reported, subsequently proved particularly unpopular with one U.K. mosque.

Last week, an Abu Dhabi-based bank also announced it had completed the “first” suduk (a legal instrument also known as “sharia compliant” bonds) transaction with blockchain.

​​Ahead of Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork, The Coin’s Competing Visions Vie for Hash Rate


As the Nov. 15 Bitcoin Cash hard fork draws closer, a majority of hash power favors the Bitcoin Cash SV iteration favored by Australian computer scientist Craig Wright’s nChain, data from Coin Dance

According to Coin Dance, 66–77 percent of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) miners are backing the SV network based on currency hash rates, compared to 18–29 percent backing Bitcoin Cash ABC, which is favored by crypto evangelist Roger Ver.

The data is an estimate based on which mining pools have shown support for the coins after the eventual hard fork.

Conversely, Coin Dance notes that of the 2,246 nodes running on the Bitcoin Cash network, 1,079 are Bitcoin Cash ABC nodes, while 166 are Bitcoin Cash SV nodes.


Notably, neither factor is a total indicator of which camp will come out on top after the hard fork. Launching a Bitcoin node is cheap, and in theory, a user could launch several nodes for under a few hundred dollars. While hash rate is crucial for Proof-of-Work (PoW), if a coin is not accepted by exchanges, the hash would be wasted. At press time, Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV are trading on Poloniex at $393 and $107, respectively.

The controversy surrounding the hard fork took a personal turn earlier this week, as arguments from each side’s largest proponents, Ver and Wright, became more strongly worded. Wright — who has previously claimed to be Bitcoin (BTC) inventor Satoshi Nakamoto — allegedly claimed in an email that Ver “hates Bitcoin” and regards him as “an enemy.”

Wright reportedly finished his email by repeating, “I AM Satoshi” and stating “Have a nice life. You will now discover me when pissed off.”

At press time, Bitcoin Cash is down four percent on the day, trading at 508.60, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

​​Azerbaijan Targets Utilities, Justice System for Blockchain, Smart Contracts Use

Azerbaijan is planning to use blockchain and smart contracts in the country’s legal system and housing sector, Central Asian-focused Trend News Agency reported Nov. 2.


Speaking to the publication, chairman of the Azerbaijani Internet Forum Osman Gunduz noted that plans for smart contract introduction in these areas by the country’s justice ministry had “attracted attention” at a meeting held Oct. 30.

“It was announced that in the future, the smart contracts will be introduced in the field of public utilities (water, gas and electricity supply),” he said, adding:

“This refers to the switch-over of existing contracts of citizens for utility services to smart contracts, which will ensure transparency and will allow to suppress the cases of falsification in this area. The citizens themselves will be able to independently control all these processes.”

Gunduz’s comments continue an increasing tendency to preference blockchain as a source of innovation in Azerbaijan.

As Cointelegraph reported last month, the Trend News Agency wrote that an intensive five-year economic plan involving the county’s central bank and IBM would seek to deploy the technology as part of a “digital transformation.”

For the justice ministry, meanwhile, the courts system forms a natural target for improvement, with Gunduz noting that progress had been suboptimal thus far.

“This refers to ‘electronic courts.’ So far, the work in this direction is very weak,” he continued, adding:
“According to my estimates, even more support is needed here.”

The Augur Oracle Platform Is Preparing for Its First Large-Scale Update

On October 5, representatives of the Augur decentralized platform reported on their readiness for the first update of the system. The developers have launched “indicative planned changes” for the deployment of Augur v2, which will be simplified from a technical point of view.

Harvard, Stanford, MIT Endowments All Invest in Crypto Funds


Multiple Ivy League and other prestigious U.S. universities are said to have made investments into “at least” one cryptocurrency fund. The report was published by the technology news site

Citing an unnamed source, the Information reported that the multi-billion endowments of Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of North Carolina had all invested capital in the crypto space. This is “a sign of the asset class’ growing acceptance among institutional investors,” the source said.

Harvard’s endowment is reported to have hit $39.2 billion during the fiscal year 2018, making it “by far the largest university endowment across the globe.” In the wealthiest U.S. college rankings for the previous fiscal year, both Stanford and MIT’s endowments scored within the top ten – fourth and sixth respectively – with Dartmouth College and the University of North Carolina also appearing in the top twenty five.

As reported last week, fellow Ivy League titan Yale has also just been revealed to be a crypto investor. The college is said to have been one of those that helped to raise $400 million for a new crypto-focused fund created by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang, and Charles Noyes, formerly of stalwart crypto fund Pantera Capital.

With news that the world’s leading academic players are backing the emerging asset class, a host of top international universities have also been contributing to skill acquisition in the space by offering blockchain, smart contract, and cryptocurrency-related courses. Institutions such as Cambridge University have conducted substantial research into the crypto-finance field, and Swiss university Lucerne even accepts Bitcoin payments for tuition fees.

⚙️Coinbase’s Institutional Platform Head Leaves Firm After Five Years


Leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase has announced that veteran employee Adam White, head of its institutional platform group, is leaving the firm

Adam White was reportedly Coinbase’s fifth-ever employee, joining “in 2013 when the founders were still working out of a one-bedroom apartment and Bitcoin was trading around $200,” as Bloomberg notes. Prior to his work at Coinbase, he reportedly served in the U.S. Air Force and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

For his most recent post, White served as Coinbase’s vice president and general manager of the institutional business. As of spring 2018, the exchange has been rolling out a series of products targeted at major institutional clients – including custodian services and an Index Fund – which Coinbase considers could “unlock $10 billion of institutional investor money sitting on the sideline.”

While White reportedly declined to comment on his departure, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg that:

“While we’re extremely sad to see him go, we’re also confident in that group’s ability to keep executing on the vision that he laid out to be the most trusted venue for institutional investors to trade cryptocurrencies.”

CEO Brian Armstrong gave his comment, saying:

“Over the past five years, Adam helped us build our exchange business into the largest U.S.-based crypto-trading venue, and was integral to growing Coinbase’s global presence and scaling our culture to multiple offices.”

Coinbase announced Oct. 3 that Jonathan Kellner, former chief executive officer of Instinet, is joining as a managing director of the exchange’s institutional business.

There has been a wave of new talent joining the San Francisco-based exchange, which recent reports have suggested could soon be valued at $8 billion. This week, Coinbase announced that Chris Dodds, a member of the board at Charles Schwab, would be joining the exchange’s board.

In late September, the company hired former Fannie Mae General Counsel Brian Brooks as its new Chief Legal Officer; former Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft employee Tim Wagner also joined Coinbase as vice president of engineering this summer.

Have the DEXs Fallen before Regulators?

Centralized, decentralized, hybrid, and so on. The choice of crypto exchanges today is broad, but it is not simple. Traditionally, the most obvious difference between CEX and DEX was controllability of the regulator. Centralized sites sought to improve relations with the SEC, sacrificing user comfort, while decentralized defended privacy. A new player, however, the decentralized Everbloom exchange, which has already established relations with several financial regulators, wants to break this balance of forces.

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Major altcoin Ethereum (ETH) is about to see a “trend reversal and rally strongly” up to $1,900 per token by the end of 2019, according to Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee, as Bloomberg reported September 27.

In a note to clients of Fundstrat Global Advisors, Lee noted the “overly negative” sentiment on the Ethereum market, which he says will be a basis for its strong rebound in the near future.

In his prediction, Lee has referenced the historical performance of Ethereum, citing that the times when the altcoin “underperformed peers by two standard deviations,” the price trend saw a subsequent reverse.

Lee concluded that Ethereum will reach $1,900 by the end of 2019 — a price point that is at least 40 percent higher than Ethereum’s all-time high of $1,349, recorded on January 13, 2018. The price of Ethereum is $230 at press time, meaning that the altcoin’s price will surge by 726 percent by the end of the year, according to Lee.

In July, Lee reiterated his bull position in regard to major cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), claiming that the cryptocurrency could trade between $22,000 and $25,000 by the end of the year. Most recently, the crypto analyst concluded that Bitcoin “could end the year explosively higher,” citing a correlation between BTC and emerging markets.

Launched on July 30, 2015, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization at press time. Ethereum provides an open-sourced blockchain that features smart contracts and a basis for emerging blockchain-powered applications in a number of industries.

After surging to above $1,300 in early 2018, Ethereum has seen a massive decline, with the current price amounting to just around 17 percent of the all-time high. Ripple (XRP) has twice overtaken Ethereum in terms of market capitalization in September.

Major altcoin Ethereum (ETH) is about to see a “trend reversal and rally strongly” up to $1,900 per token by the end of 2019, according to Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee, as Bloomberg reported September 27.

In a note to clients of Fundstrat Global Advisors, Lee noted the “overly negative” sentiment on the Ethereum market, which he says will be a basis for its strong rebound in the near future.

In his prediction, Lee has referenced the historical performance of Ethereum, citing that the times when the altcoin “underperformed peers by two standard deviations,” the price trend saw a subsequent reverse.

Lee concluded that Ethereum will reach $1,900 by the end of 2019 — a price point that is at least 40 percent higher than Ethereum’s all-time high of $1,349, recorded on January 13, 2018. The price of Ethereum is $230 at press time, meaning that the altcoin’s price will surge by 726 percent by the end of the year, according to Lee.

Kenyan Distributed Ledgers and Artificial Intelligence task force chairman Bitange Ndemo has said that the government should tokenize the economy, local news outlet The Star reported September 25.

The taskforce was established in March by the government of the Republic of Kenya in order to evaluate proposals on how to deploy blockchain technology in the public sector. The working group consists of local blockchain startups, experts, researchers, regulatory bodies, lawyers and other associated parties.

Speaking at an Information and Communication Technology Ministry (ICT) stakeholders meeting with the private sector, Ndemo reportedly asserted that the government should consider tokenization of the economy in order to deal with “increasing” rates of corruption and uncertainties. This move, according to Ndemo, would have the government print less hard currency. The chairman said:

“We must begin to tokenize the economy by giving incentives to young people to do things which they are paid through tokens that can be converted to fiat currency.”

In addition, Ndemo stated that the adoption of tokens could reduce unemployment levels, outlining the necessity of issuing a digital currency equivalent to a fiat currency. The ICT Principal Secretary Jerome Ochieng said that the government will develop relevant policies to process the recommendations proposed by the taskforce.

Notably, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) issued a circular to all banks in the country in April, warning them against dealing with cryptocurrencies or engaging in transactions with crypto-related entities. CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge cited crypto’s prevalence in illegal activities, its anonymous nature, and its lack of centralized control as the impetus for the ban.

In June, decentralized liquidity network Bancor launched a network of blockchain-based community currencies to fight poverty in Kenya. The project seeks to stimulate local and regional commerce and peer-to-peer activity by enabling Kenyan communities to create and manage their own digital tokens.

IBM and members of the U.S. Congressional Blockchain Caucus discussed the use of blockchain for ID systems, payments, and supply chains during a meeting today, September 24, according to a press call attended by Cointelegraph.

IBM recently published a report entitled “The Impact of Blockchain for Government: Insights on Identity, Payments, and Supply Chain” made in collaboration with the U.S. Congressional Blockchain Caucus.

The report summarizes a series of roundtable discussions between U.S. Representatives Jared Polis (author of “The Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act,” which proposes to abolish crypto taxes below $600) and David Schweikert, along with Thomas Hardjono, technical director at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Jerry Cuomo, vice president for blockchain technology and CTO at IBM.

IBM and MIT held three meetings with members of Congress, discussing the need for government funding of blockchain innovation and regulatory sandboxes, in which the state would be able to test different solutions before they are brought to the market.

As Cuomo said during the press-call, experts could study blockchain “the whole day”, but eventually it must be made available to citizens. He stressed that it was “time for the [U.S.] to start acting” on blockchain integration in daily life. “Blockchain is ready for government, let's get government ready for blockchain,” he added.

Rep. Polis, who previously proposed making Colorado a “national hub for blockchain innovation in business and government,” said that the state has only begun to see “the promise of blockchain technology,” which exceeds cryptocurrencies and tokens.

He stressed the importance of creating the best legal framework for innovation and blockchain implementation, which could significantly improve the quality of life of Americans. Polis also added that blockchain might address “the real lack of trust in centralized institutions.”

Polis further mentioned the importance of relevant crypto taxation. “We want to make sure that people using cryptocurrencies won't pay taxes for buying a cup of coffee or a magazine,” he said. However, when later asked on tax holidays for crypto startups, IBM CTO Cuomo said that was “a really big question” that had not yet moved much beyond “small dollar amounts.”

During the call, Rep. Schweikert — who previously urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to clarify crypto taxation — said that medicine and social projects would see the most benefit from blockchain solutions. However, he noted that specific encryption standards should be elaborated to protect data — an aim pursued by the caucus’ partnership with several institutions such as MIT and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, U.S. Congressman and Blockchain Caucus member Tom Emmer announced that he would introduce three bills to support the development of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, as well as establish a safe harbor for taxpayers with “forked” digital assets.

Poland’s largest bank will launch a blockchain solution for its customer documents via a partnership with UK-based Coinform “in the coming days,” the parties confirmed in a press release Thursday, September 20.

Part of a drive to enhance security of customer data, PKO Bank Polski will use Coinform’s Trudatum to provide blockchain-issued paperwork to its some five million account holders.

“Blockchain offers huge potential to increase competitiveness of the Polish banking sector,” am Marciniak, vice president of the bank’s management board commented.

“This is a relatively new technology for which further applications are constantly being found worldwide.”

The plans had originally surfaced in March, with the first issuance set to involve documents relating to the European Union’s PSD2 privacy directive which came into force this year.

The move stands out in the Polish banking industry, which is only beginning to implement blockchain at a time when cryptocurrency businesses in the country continue to complain about hostile treatment from institutions.

“It shows that the Polish financial industry is still open to innovation and sets international trends,” Coinfirm CEO and cofounder Pawel Kuskowski continued.

In May PKO began recruiting startups for its fintech initiative dubbed “Let’s Fintech With PKO Bank Polski!” with the blockchain partnership arising from that initiative.

Executives “search for fintech companies that are ready to pilot their solution and scale their business in partnership with the Bank,” the program’s website explains.

Ripple Could Launch xRapid Solution ‘In the Next Month or So,’ Says Exec

Ripple could launch a commercial version of its payment platform xRapid "in the next month or so," CNBC reported September 17. Head of regulatory relations for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at Ripple Sagar Sarbhai told CNBC that Ripple has been making strides toward the launch of its product xRapid.
The xRapid product is a real-time settlement platform designed to speed up international payments. Built for commercial use and backed by XRP tokens, xRapid addresses the issue of minimizing liquidity costs and making cross-border payment transactions faster. xRapid claims to significantly reduce the capital requirements for liquidity. Sarbhai said in an interview with CNBC:
"I am very confident that in the next one month or so you will see some good news coming in where we launch the product live in production."
Sarbhai also noted that regulators’ approach to cryptocurrencies has been significantly changing from the narrative of “blockchain good, crypto bad," to taking a more tempered approach toward digital currencies and seeing the benefits of crypto.
In August, Ripple partnered with three crypto exchanges — U.S.-based Bittrex, Mexican Bitso, and Philippine Coins.Ph — as part of an xRapid solution to build a “healthy” ecosystem of digital asset exchanges. The new partnership will enable xRapid to move between XRP, U.S. dollars, Mexican pesos, and Philippine pesos.
This spring, various financial institutions participated in a pilot of the xRapid platform, which tested payments between the U.S. and Mexico. The participants reported transaction savings of 40–70 percent. In addition to saving on costs, the parties noted an improvement in transaction speed — from the average 2–3 days to “just over two minutes.”

Bitcoin vs. Sanctions: Will Cryptocurrencies Be Used to Counter the Economic Wars between Governments?

In recent times, the global political forces have been very unevenly distributed. Leading positions and relations between countries can change very rapidly. Economic wars unleashed by the opposing sides can lead to the significant degradation of the financial system of a state. This problem is especially relevant for countries with developing economies. Therefore, it is not by chance that many countries that are unstable from the financial point of view have expressed interest in cryptocurrencies.

What Are Security Tokens?

A crypto token that passes the Howey test is deemed a security token. These usually derive their value from an external, tradable asset. Because the tokens are deemed a security, they are subject to federal securities laws and regulations. If the ICO doesn’t follow the regulations, it could be subject to penalties.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong predicts the number of people in the cryptocurrency ecosystem to grow from the current 40 million to 1 billion in the next five years, TechCrunch reported September 7.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Armstrong projected that the crypto ecosystem and the total number of digital currencies will grow substantially, attributing the growth to commercial organizations which develop their own tokens. The tokens would reportedly function together with equity as an alternative investment system. Armstrong explained:

“It makes sense that any company out there who has a cap table should have their own token. Every open source project, every charity, potentially every fund or these new types of decentralized organizations [and] apps, they’re all going to have their own tokens.”

Addressing the issue of regulation as one of the crucial factors for implementing his vision, Armstrong called it “a big open question,” and noted that it remains to be seen whether the majority of tokens will be recognized as securities. He said that Coinbase does “feel a substantial subset of these tokens will be securities.”

Armstrong added that Coinbase could host hundreds of tokens within “years” and potentially “millions” in the future.

In order to become a fully-regulated broker-dealer and “offer future services that include crypto securities trading, margin and over-the-counter trading,” Coinbase acquired securities dealer Keystone Capital Corp. in addition to Venovate Marketplace, Inc., and Digital Wealth LLC. The acquisition could help the company subsequently expand into non-crypto financial products.

Yesterday, Coinbase announced it will launch trading of four more cryptocurrencies for the U.K. pound sterling (GBP). British customers will now be able to trade altcoins Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for GBP, in addition to the existing Bitcoin (BTC).

Yin and Yang: How Hodling and Mining Affect the Dynamics of Bitcoin Price

Experts of the crypto market still have no common opinion as to which factor has the greatest impact on the price of Bitcoin. Some researchers are sure that these factors are mining and hodling, which have the effect of the opposing "energies" yin and yang on Bitcoin. Why have experts come to this conclusion and where does PPR come in?

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The Ethnamed wallet will allow you to send funds knowing only the e-mail address

In Ukraine, developed an application that will help translate criterion, knowing only the email or username of the recipient. Ethnamed is a plug-in for Google Chrome, its main goal is to turn email into hex addresses. Another significant feature of the solution is the addition of any cryptocurrency to the already existing portfolio in the Ethnamed purse. For comparison, now, to work with a particular cryptocurrency, a user needs to download a purse created for this cryptocurrency. Now you can add absolutely any tokens to the application using pull request on GitHub.