Facebook To Release Its Own Cryptocurrency?

Rumors have it that Facebook is planning to create its own cryptocurrency which will enable billion of users around world to make electronic payments.

This was revealed by a source whose identity was asked not to be indentified due to not being authorized to discuss about it in public.

This initiative will take years before it can materialize and the company would likely need to make acquisitions in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency space to develop its own virtual currency.

This secret initiative was put in the spotlight when Facebook VP in charge of messenger app, David Marcus, revealed that they are exploring means to best leverage Blockchain technology across Facebook.

Some people who are have inside information access said that it is unlikely that the company will hold an Initial Coin Offering.

HSBC’s Blockchain Milestone

According HSBC it has successfully consummated a trade finance transaction using a single Blockchain platform, a first in the world.

The said transaction was done by HSBC and Dutch bank ING for Cargill when a shipment of soybeans was exported from Argentina to Malaysia.

It said that using the said Blockchain-powered system is expected to reduce the risk of fraud on Letters of Credit (LoC) and cut down on the number of steps.

The bank estimates that if they can put Asia Pacific’s trade-related paperwork into electronic form via Blockchain technology it can slash the time to process exporting goods by 44% and cut cost up to 31%.

Currently it takes 5-10 days to process LoCs and creates a long paper trail.

The Blockchain-powered platform is called Corda, which as by R3 a Blockchain consortium of more than 100 banks, regulators and trade associations.

New Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines

There are new cryptocurrency exchanges that will open soon in four Asian countries.

First of the list is Coinbit of South Korea which was launched by game developer Axia Soft Co.

There will be about 50 coins listed initially with many more to follow before the end of the year.

As part of their its launching, they are offering zero commission trades until the end of May.

Another cryptocurrency exchange that just opened is Thailand’s Jibex which is backed by an IT company, J.I.B. Computer Group Co. Ltd, which has around 150 stores nationwide.

There are five cryptocurrencies supported and more will be added later.

Like Coinbit of South Korea they will be waiving their commission which will end in June 26.

The third crypto exchange in Asia is located in Vietnam and headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City. Customers can convert BTC and ETH using its platform.

To celebrate its opening transaction fee will e reduced to 0.2% from 0.4%.

Lastly, Coinvil, which is yet to be operational.

The said exchange is a collaboration between Glosfer and Coinvil building and operating the platform respectively.

Wall Street Talents Migrate To Crypto Startups

It seems that Wall Street is losing a lot of talent to cryptocurrency start-ups.

Steve Hunt is the latest individual that has jump from traditional finance to cryptocurrencies.

He is the former CTO of Jump Trading and has been recently hired by a popular cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken.

This was a smart move my kraken as they needed talent to smoothen out its trading operation which has seen a negative attention due to partially degraded performance.

Steven Hunt will be tasked with keeping an eye on things.

This is not the first time we see cryptocurrency trading firms attract top talents from wall street.

Coinbase, Circle and a slew of up-start cryptocurrency companies have been shopping for talent and Wall Street has been their number one place where they fresh talent.

German Bank Transfers Loans Via Cryptocurrencies Sans Swift

An online bank in Germany, Bitbond, enabled its customers cross-border loan transfers using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

It has been reported that it has been the first to offer transfer of credit in currency internationally.

The accredited bank does this by allowing their clients to hold their loans in cryptocurrencies in a very short period of time before they are exchanged back to fiat currency.

In doing so there is little effect of volatility on its fiat value. By using cryptocurrencies the bank effectively subvert the self-proclaimed world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services- Swift.

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