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Taiwan is known as a hub for semiconductors and technology, but not finance. While neighboring Hong Kong has HSBC, and Singapore to its south has DBS, Taiwan’s financial sector — mighty on paper in its own right with approximately $1 trillion in financial assets on the books — lacks the global cachet of its neighbors. […]

Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency faced strong political headwinds from U.S. lawmakers. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, demanded Facebook stop development of Libra, the cryptocurrency the company unveiled on Tuesday. “Given the company’s troubled past, I am requesting that Facebook agree to a moratorium on any movement forward on developing a […]

The specter of Facebook clicking “like” on Bitcoin adds fuel to what can best be called a resurrection rally. Left for near dead a few months ago, the best-known crypto asset boomed partly on reports Mark Zuckerberg would unveil a digital currency. Now that Facebook’s Libra is out, it could be stellar news -– a […]

Armonk, NY — IBM, KPMG, Merck, and Walmart have been picked by the United States Food and Drug Administration to develop a blockchain system to improve drug safety. The four corporate giants will work together on a solution to track and trace some prescription medicines and vaccines as they move through the supply chain. Each company […]

Key Highlights In lieu of being open source, Hedera Hashgraph aims to bring stability to its platform Hedera Hashgraph’s cryptocurrency is called HBAR Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part II But Hashgraph in of itself is patented… Hashgraph is an algorithm, correct. The IP for Hashgraph is privately owned. […]

Key Highlights Hashgraph is an alternative to blockchain Hashgraph optimizes both security and performance Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part I In conversation with Mance Harmon, Co-Founder and CEO of Hadera Hashgraph, and also a course director for cyber security at US Air Force Academy. He’s also a Program […]

Key Highlights Fundraised $100M at a $6B valuation Hedera Hashgraph has proposed a new regulatory language Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part III Well, it’s very exciting in the space. You raised 100 million dollars on a 6 billion dollar valuation. What are you doing with 100 million dollars? […]

Key Highlights Hedera Hashgraph will devote capital from the fundraise to grow enterprise sales and double down on regulatory The governing body for Hedera Hashgraph was designed to be distributed and representative of all constituencies from a global perspective Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part IV Liquidity and market. […]

Key Highlights Hedera Hashgraph is focused on enterprise solutions of distributed ledger technology (DLT) adoption Several large brands, including Nomura, Deutsche Telekom, Swisscom, and DLA Piper are already users of Hashgraph Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part V What’s the road map for you? Testnet, Mainnet, what do we […]

Key Highlights The market of players will consolidate over time to a handful of large players Hedera Hashgraph will continue to start with enterprise applications in an effort to become the leader in that space within distributed ledger technology Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part VI Can you co-exist […]

Facebook today unveiled its long rumored cryptocurrency, which will be known as Libra, and you won’t need a Facebook account to use it. That’s because Facebook says it wants to help those without bank accounts. “Libra holds the potential to provide billions of people around the world with access to a more inclusive, more open […]

Key Highlights Hashgraph is an alternative to blockchain Hashgraph optimizes both security and performance In lieu of being open-source, Hashgraph aims to bring stability to its platform Hedera Hashgraph’s cryptocurrency is called HBAR Fundraised $100M at a $6B valuation Hedera Hashgraph has proposed a new regulatory language Hedera Hashgraph will devote capital from the fundraise […]

Hong Kong – The fallout from a controversial extradition bill proposed by Hong Kong’s pro-China Chief Executive Carrie Lam has reportedly triggered capital flight and Bitcoin trading at a premium in the city. Massive demonstrations against the bill, including one that saw an estimated 2 million of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people march on Sunday, […]

Calgary — The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) will be the first post-secondary institution in Canada to issue digital diplomas through blockchain. More than 4,800 graduating students in SAIT’s Class of 2019 will receive blockchain-based documents along with their traditional parchments. Fittingly, the idea was inspired by a group of students. “Last year we […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) is resuming its uptrend after spending the first 2 weeks of H219 consolidating in the ~7500-8500 range, with BTCUSD bulls now eyeing the next major psychologically key whole figure level of 10k.  Although overbought on the weekly and daily Stochastics, the upsloping weekly MACD suggests any dip this week towards uptrend/ascending wedge support […]

Legal & General, Britain’s largest manager of corporate pensions, today announced the launch of the first reinsurance platform driven by blockchain. Known as ‘estua-re,’ it will initially be used to handle bulk annuities, which involve L&G taking over companies’ defined benefit or final salary pension schemes. “We believe that blockchain is uniquely suited to the […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Credit card giant Visa has launched its blockchain-powered business-to-business payments service B2B Connect. B2B Connect can now be used by businesses seeking to make payments to 30 markets, with 90 more expected to be added by the end of this year. To start, it’s available for B2B transactions of $15,000 and up, which […]

Key Highlights The Kik case is the first case that the SEC has brought in litigation that has been contested by the company where there are no allegations of fraud “The SEC has made clear that virtually all ICOs are going to be treated as offerings of securities.” Even if a company is offering ICOs […]

Washington, DC — The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the agency tasked with preserving the U.S. government’s colossal archive of historical records, wants to use more blockchain. Of immediate interest to NARA, verifying tamper-free versions of documents to guard against deep-fake videos, which are created by machine-learning algorithms that can manipulate images and audio […]

Ethereum (ETHUSD) continues consolidating just below the psychologically key 250 level after a torrid H119 bounce.  Significantly, although ETHUSD remains positioned to resume pushing higher later this month, ETHUSD appears to be vulnerable to more profittaking this week as it tests upchannel support (on the weekly chart).  Note that the two breaks below upchannel support […]

Minneapolis, MN – The world’s biggest brewer is increasing its stake in a blockchain trailblazer helping some of the world’s smallest businesses. Anheuser-Busch InBev announced today it boosted its Series A investment in Minnesota-based BanQu (pronounced Bank-You), a blockchain startup working to help entrepreneurs and small-business owners, most in the Third World. Exact terms of […]

LISBON — Portuguese champions Benfica are the first major European football team to accept cryptocurrency. Fans can now use crypto to purchase tickets and merchandise directly from the club. “We recognize that many of our supporters are now digital users first, so we want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting […]

BOSTON — Blockchain voting platform Voatz announced today it raised $7 million in Series A funding, including backing from Medici Ventures, the subsidiary of Overstock.com created to boost blockchain. “Voting is a great application of blockchain technology,” said Medici Ventures President Jonathan Johnson. “Many of the key issues facing the world today cannot be addressed until we have […]

Adding Blockchain Faces to Facebook: the Acquihire of Chainspace Facebook hired the founding team of Chainspace in Feburary 2019. Chainspace is a blockchain startup developing new technology to scale and speed up the execution of smart contracts on the Ethereum platform. The social media giant seems to be more interested in acquiring Chainspace’s talent than […]

Reports say Facebook will announce its rumored cryptocurrency sometime in June, and will allow employees working on the project to take their salary in it. Facebook appointed former PayPal executive David Marcus last year to explore opportunities with blockchain. Insiders say Marcus has focused on a digital currency, which users will be able to store, […]

American insurance giants State Farm and USAA want to use blockchain to speed up auto claims.  They’re focusing on the last part of the claims process called subrogation. Subrogation is the legal right that allows one party (e.g., your insurance company) to make a payment that is actually owed by another party (e.g., the other […]

HONG KONG — Average investors may soon be able to get a piece of the world’s hottest property market. One real estate giant is considering tapping into the world of blockchain for liquidity. It’s just an MoU at the moment, and certainly it is not unique; as many are exploring selling/investing in real estate with […]

Ripple (XRPJPY) is edging higher again as it appears to be readying to play catch up to Bitcoin (BTCUSD) which has outperformed XRPJPY in recent months.  XRPJPY will be less bogged down this week by the somewhat overbought conditions slowing BTCUSD’s torrid advance, and has stronger momentum heading into this week. With massive gains on Bitcoin […]

Move over Facebook, a new kid is on the block. Voice, a new blockchain-based social media platform, will launch promising users more control over their posts and photos. “The truth is, current social media platforms are designed to use their users,” said Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.one.  “By design, they run by auctioning our information […]

To seek diagnoses and treatment, patients have to share with healthcare institutions detailed information, including biological samples from blood tests, scans and other assessments as determined relevant by clinical staff. A patient’s medical history should be a comprehensive collection of such information, kept up-to-date on records secured and accessible to individual patients and their healthcare […]

Cash is not only not a king, but there is increasing realization among cities and states, that the cost of cash is not worth it. From reducing costs of producing physical money, increasing administrative efficiencies, to even reducing cash-related violent crimes — going cashless is where many are going, including Singapore. I stumbled across a […]

Key Highlights Open-sourced platforms face bottlenecks In a truly decentralized community where there is no direction or leading voice, it can be difficult to gain consensus and make progress; establishing governance for a more disciplined and coordinated team can quicken decision-making and maintain quality Creating a bridge between centralized and open-source blockchain is a critical […]

Key Highlights Cardano is now looking at Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia for expansion Hoskinson is thinking about Samsung S10, digital identity, and how to manage a public-private key pair for cryptocurrency Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part V At Cardano, you’re moving towards shaping that part of the […]

Key Highlights Hoskinson says using open-source is a prerequisite to get governments and universities to adopt a system Blockchain allows the producer and the consumer to find each other, and interact as if Uber or Airbnb existed, but without these middlemen  Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part IV The […]

Key Highlights Cardano is both a cryptocurrency and a decentralized computing platform Cardano is often criticized for building its smart contract platform on Haskell, a programming language used mainly in academia in which programmers are difficult to find Hoskinson says Haskell is more precise and helps secure open-sourced blockchain to internet-based platforms Listen to the […]

Key Highlights In Ethiopia, Cardano is training up a team of Haskell developers to work on supply chain pilot for coffee farming  Cardano hopes to expand the model to many different government services like voting services, property registration, and business registration Listen to the full podcast version of this interview Transcript of Part II We […]

How the race to get billions of users onto blockchain has this mathematician thinking about the future of work. Could decentralization be the one thing that actually binds us together. Charles Hoskinson sits down with Angie Lau, in Hong Kong a week after Hong Kong Blockchain Week and shares his vision of how 2019 will […]

Introduction The blockchain revolution is happening so fast, that it too is being revolutionized. Until now, the de facto mechanism to reach consensus on distributed ledgers has been Proof of Work (PoW), in which computers compete to solve fictitious mathematical problems. However, this system wastes a lot of energy and computer power. But now a […]

Key Highlights The regulatory challenge is in how to balance proactively supporting blockchain development while defining the ways in which the regulatory body should protect against downsides Traditional approaches in thinking about regulation from a national level will not be enough; national systems need to work well together and move towards harmonization, even if it’s […]

Key Highlights As of December 2018, UNICEF has invested into six blockchain companies in five countries UNICEF now accepts cryptocurrency donations and allows donors to easily mine cryptocurrency just by visiting their donation site Across UNICEF’s projects, blockchain technology is being used to improve traceability of donations and to better track outcomes of donated funds […]

Risk-averse, regulation-crazy, deflationary Japan was never an obvious epicenter for Bitcoin trading. And yet the government has openly welcomed the crypto industry, betting that blockchain innovation would catalyze a startup boom and create new wealth and jobs. So should the Bank of Japan (BOJ) go one step further and issue its own cryptocurrency? “This will […]

Key Highlights As a non-sovereign, decentralized, and digitally native asset, Bitcoin has a strong value proposition to hedge against any risk of a major currency devaluation Cryptocurrency is censorship-resistant; it’s accessible to everyone, and anyone can acquire it, making it powerful for long-term wealth storage for both companies and individual Quantitative easing and the Federal […]

Key Highlights Introducing digital currencies would allow countries like Japan to incentivize economic behavior, such as putting greater spending power in peoples’ hands Japan’s demographics make it an interesting test case: given its shrinking population and risk-averse culture, what is the balance between harnessing innovative technology like blockchain? Japan currently taxes cryptocurrency gains at 55% […]

Key Highlights Open-sourced platforms have faced bottlenecks in evolution of better technology In a truly decentralized community where there is no direction or leading voice, it can be difficult to gain consensus and make progress; establishing governance for a more disciplined and coordinated team can quicken decision-making and maintain quality Creating a bridge between centralized […]

Edited June 23, 2019 Key Highlights Dec. 9, 2018 — Gerald Cotten QuadrigaCX CEO dies of complications from Crohn’s disease while in India. Dec. 10, 2018 — Jaipur Police release NOC (No Objection Certificate) to Cotten’s widow, allowing her to return to Canada with the body of her husband. Jan. 2019 — QuadrigaCX announces CEO’s death. It […]

This is the first part of an insight series by Tanner De Witt partner, Pádraig Walsh, in which he gives his legal perspective on security token offerings. In this article, he starts from the basics, and asks and answers what are security token offerings and why we should care. What is a token? A token […]

For investors, risk assets appear more attractive, at least in the near-term, as global central banks walk back plans to raise interest rates. The Federal Reserve’s dovish pivot in recent months has fueled a rebound in stocks. Although some people remain skeptical of the recent rally, investors don’t seem to have many alternatives given the […]

Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, sits down with Karim Sabba, Co-Founder of Paris Blockchain Week, to discuss how France is trying to grow its influence in the blockchain industry. In the first released episode of “In Conversation With,” Angie Lau speaks with Karim Sabba, French entrepreneur and co-founder of Paris Blockchain Week who sheds light […]

I Sold My Soul in Bitcoins, by Jake Adelstein Prologue I sold My Soul in Bitcoins, by Jake AdelsteinBefore the police knocked on the door, they called, and a week before they called, they politely leaked to the Japanese press that they would be arresting Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of failed bitcoin exchange, Mt. […]

1. Introducing … JP Morgan Coin? JPMorgan Chase is the largest U.S. bank, sixth largest in the world. It holds over US$2.6 trillion in assets. In the cryptocurrency community its CEO Jamie Dimon is most known for calling Bitcoin a ‘fraud’ and that he’d fire any employee trading Bitcoin for “being stupid.” On February 14, […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) prices fell this week from a 4 month high but remains above the psychologically key $5,000 mark. Longer term investors are increasingly taking advantage of price dips as the overall industry gains more interest from mainstream technology and financial institutions. Facebook is reportedly developing a coin for its WhatsApp messenger app while JPMorgan […]

In this teaser for our upcoming series, “Market Forkast” — an up-to-the-minute crypto market analysis and trends report — Forkast. News talks about some of the real-time arbitrage strategies from an institutional trader’s perspective with Tim Tam, CEO of CoinFi. Recorded October 31, 2018.