Kimberley Process Inches Closer to ‘Blood Diamond’ Blockchain
A global tracking scheme for conflict diamonds is continuing its internal #blockchain trials, according to a new report.
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Visa Incubator to Test Blockchain for Interbank Payments
#Visa’s London-based innovation lab has announced its latest #blockchain trial will focus on #interbank #payments.
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Visa Europe, BTL Group Partner To Test Blockchain Settlement
It was announced today that #Visa #Europe Collab, part of Visa Inc, will be partnering with the world’s first publicly listed #blockchain company, the BTL #Group, in order to #test out a proof of concept on running interbank settlements through blockchain. Backed by Visa, which has been exploring the potential applicationsRead More
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Startup of the Month: Lykke, a Next-Gen Zero-Commission Trading Platform Powered by Blockchain
#Bitcoin and #blockchain #technology has gotten a major boost in Switzerland as Richard Olsen, the co-founder of OANDA and a former CEO of the North American FX Brokerage, is looking to harness the power of the technology to disrupt digital currencies and assets #trading.
Lykke, Olsen’s latest venture, has just released a mobile app for Android devices, which follows its iOS counterpart released in June. The #Lykke Wallet lets users trade digital currencies and assets, and come with a number of innovative features including instant settlement, direct ownership and zero commission.
Through the app, users can track asset prices in real time, check their balances, transaction history and blockchain details for all transactions, move assets to any bitcoin wallet, deposit and withdraw bitcoins via QR codes with no fees.
“Lykke Wallet, currently in beta, aims to prove the concepts and the technology behind the new global marketplace,” Olsen said in a media release.
Signing up to Lykke is quite simple: you can use your smartphone camera to take pictures of yourself and your identification documents.
Lykke&8217;s technology
Founded in Zurich in 2015, Lykke aims at cutting out intermediaries in financial markets by allowing participants to transact in a peer-to-peer manner.
It uses a technology called ‘colored coins;&8217; tokens that represent assets. &8220;If a colored coin is hacked, the issuer can cancel the colored coin and issue a new colored coin,&8221; explained Olsen in a recent interview with Finance Magnates.
Another interesting feature is the #platform&8217;s use of multisignature (multisig) wallets, which require two signatures (one from Lykke, one from the client) to spend funds from a particular wallet.
The Lykke Exchange itself doesn&8217;t take custody of client funds but also holds one of the two needed private keys. If, for some reason, the Lykke Exchange goes down, there is a &8220;refund mechanism&8221; for the private key held by the company.
&8220;We have solved the cyber security issue that plagues bitcoin exchanges and offer restitution, which is more efficient than a depositor insurance scheme in #banks that is limited to specified amount of money,&8221; Olsen said.
Lykke is building a global marketplace where users would be able to trade all classes of financial instruments issued in the form of colored coins in order to enable direct ownership and immediate settlement on the blockchain.
In May 2016, Lykke closed a second seed funding round, welcoming new investors Marco Brockhaus and Carlo Koelzer, founding partner of 360T&8217;s Group Executive Board and member of Deutsche Börse Group Management Committee.
That same #month, the company announced the addition of Nick Szabo, a Bitcoin pioneer, into its Advisory Board.
Lykke is currently on an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which it plans to begin in September.
&8220;Blockchain is an opportunity for all businesses – literally all businesses can embrace the technology and seize the opportunities, such as issuance of new instruments, explosive growth of transaction volumes, new types of banking, investment management and insurance products – these markets have huge potential,&8221; Olsen said.
&8220;Companies that close their eyes to the new opportunities are at risk – they will be latecomers and will have to restructure, when revenues nosedive – a bad environment to embrace new business models.&8221;
The post Startup of the Month: Lykke, a Next-Gen Zero-Commission Trading Platform Powered by Blockchain appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
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Can Crowdfunding Work in Art Investment?
By now, #crowdfunding is just another #investment tool — like any other, it has its benefits and disadvantages as a source of capital. But the concept of allowing for individual investors of all experience levels has proven its worth, especially as #fintech integrates with other industries: like the art world,Read More
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Apple Pay: Innovation or Repetition
Payments : Part-1
Introduction – Mobile money as a network-operated platform for financial services is playing a huge role in many economies. Like in the past, the emergence of new services and infrastructure (bridges, railroads, electricity, telecommunications, internet, etc.) has had profound effects on human livelihoods. New ways of moving people, goods, reliable energy or access to information can lead to waves of innovation and have transformed markets as existing firms restructure and new firms emerge to capture available opportunities. For more details about my posts, subjects and relevance please read the disclaimer.
While it has often been described as a money transfer product, mobile money is a MNO service for storing and moving money by facilitating the exchange of cash and electronic value between various actors ranging from registered subscribers, businesses, the government and other financial service providers.
Let’s have an elaborate discussion on the Money Transfer System and the Mobile Payments Ecosystem.
Main Story – Apple (As per news 10 Million handsets sold in first 3 days) launching Apple Pay (NFC Solution) from a #technology prospective is neither a new offering nor a game changer. Without a doubt, this launch will set a trend for NBFTC (Non Banking Financial & Technology companies) on how to enter into payments and the so-called banking domain and eat the share. Unlike most of the MNOs which keep on focusing and growing the mobile network in positive way to penetrate this or can say isolated areas, millions of people are now able to connect via a mobile phone. As a result, mobile money has become a viable alternative to traditional bank accounts. The mobile payment relationship between the major #banks and Apple is, to put mildly, a delicate one..
If we compare the underlying hardware on handsets (like to like, apple to apple), the Nexus-4 which was released in November 2012 was exactly the same in terms of specification and most of us must have seen Facebook posts as “Welcome to 2012” and Japan’s FeliCa calls it “Welcome to 2004” as they did all (payment through NFC with fingerprints as signature, pulling money from credit cards and supported with wrist watch) that is claimed by Apple now in June 2004 for Japan and its still running very well even though this technology is still unavailable to most users. As a result, only tech-savvy early adopters have embraced NFC to date. Ultimately, the adoption of a de facto standard and the introduction of user-friendly NFC applications could enable the technology to cross the chasm to gain traction with the early majority and Apple trying to enable NFC-based Mobile Payments to Cross the Chasm.
On the contrary, moving away from the Americas and Japan, looking at Africa, according to ITU (International Telecommunications Union) news; 20% of the adult population in Africa does not have formal bank accounts making mobile money an effective alternative. Thanks to mobile money products, secure and reliable financial management options are now easily accessible. For example, governments – in sub-Saharan Africa especially – are using mobile money to pay pensions and grants.
Apple’s move has the potential to vastly increase mobile payment revenue, which would create a potentially highly lucrative market for banks. But the precise details of early negotiations have the potential to color the nature of those deals for years. As the smoke clears from round one, it appears that the banks chose to start by playing this game the Apple way.
The rise of mobile money – particularly in developing countries – is set to skyrocket but that doesn’t mean that traditional bank accounts will become obsolete. Rather, mobile money and formal bank accounts will work side by side (they have to if banks still need to survive) with many people making use of both simultaneously. While payment methods like cheques may become obsolete, traditional bank accounts will still serve a purpose. Bear in mind that mobile money products are actually owned and operated by banks, or affiliated to them in some way.
The New York Times has reported that Apple Pay could threaten some revenue streams for banks and CC-N (Credit Card Networks), as the technology giant looks to assume a more central role in the financial universe. The eager participation of banks and card companies suggests both Apple’s clout, and the recognition among financial institutions that they face broader challenges from upstart technology ventures, many of which are not as eager or willing as Apple to work with the incumbent financial industry.”
The article quoted James Anderson, the senior vice president for mobile product development at MasterCard, saying: “There are schemes that don’t respect and honour the payment networks. We want to invest in programs that respect our role in the ecosystem.”
The article further stated that banks are hopeful that they will make up for the lower rates by processing new types of transactions that are currently being done with cash or other payment methods. The big CC-N will not have to pay any costs for working with Apple. But some analysts warned this week that Apple Pay could, in the long run, push down the rates that both credit card networks and banks can charge merchants. Credit card fees are largely used to cover the costs of fraud, which are expected to go down with Apple’s fingerprint signature. (New York Times)
Rapid advancements in mobile technology are changing the way we live; from the way we connect with others to the way we manage our finances. Technological innovations have made certain aspects of our daily live that much easier. The advent of mobile money has awarded those who were previously unable to conduct monetary transactions an easy and affordable alternative to traditional bank accounts.
Prior to the emergence of mobile money, many people in developing countries were unable to open a bank account. Lack of infrastructure combined with minimal wages, meant that banking was out of reach for millions of people. The ‘unbanked’ were essentially stuck between a rock and a hard place. They needed money to travel to the bank, but without any way to receive their wages or subsidies from the government or employed family members; this was an impossible task.
Conclusion -: To conclude this article I pose the same question as always, where is the END and which is the way to go when it comes to Mobile payments is developing something existing to uncover the hidden gems already there is useful.
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Deloitte Spin-Off Nuco Partners on Blockchain IoT Project
A distributed ledger startup spun out of #Deloitte has announced its first partnership with an Internet of Things company.
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Insurance Giant MetLife Joins R3 Blockchain Consortium
#MetLife has announced it will join banking #consortium R3CEV.
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Infografik: Kennen Sie das Ertragspotenzial für Banken im Schweizer Firmenkundengeschäft?
#Kennen Sie das #Ertragspotenzial #für #Banken im #Schweizer #Firmenkundengeschäft?
Alleine im Jahr 2015 beispielsweise verzeichneten wir in der Schweiz knapp 41‘000 Neugründungen von Start up-Unternehmen. Der KMU-Markt bietet dank neuartigen digitalen Angeboten eine Vielzahl von Chancen für Ihre Bank.
Nach der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung im Privatkundengeschäft lancieren Schweizer Banken zunehmend digitale Angebote für Firmenkunden. Die Finanzinstitute versuchen dabei u.a. in Kooperation mit #FinTech-Startups bisherige Kernbankservices zu ergänzen und durch weitere Services auszubauen.
Swisscom hat wichtige Fakten zum KMU-Markt Schweiz in einer #Infografik zusammengefasst. Dabei erhalten Sie einen Überblick zum Potenzial des Segments, erfahren die konkreten Anforderungen der Firmen an eine Finanzadministration und lernen die Eckpunkte einer modernen KMU Portal-Lösung kennen.
The post Infografik: Kennen Sie das Ertragspotenzial für Banken im Schweizer Firmenkundengeschäft? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
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Introducing XBRL Week on Daily Fintech
  Its official – #XBRL is boring &8211; just look at Google Trends for XBRL vs #Blockchain. At #Daily #Fintech, we like to dig below the hype to describe those things that are becoming important, even if the media are ignoring them today. So, today’s post describes why we have chosen such a boring subject…Read more #Introducing XBRL #Week on Daily&160;Fintech
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