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On Sept. 13, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire gave a rousing speech about innovation and technology at the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum in Paris.  It was a robust defense of the role of government not only in regulating and taxing technology, but having a strong say in how it is developed. Among the […]

Incorruptible. Improved funds flow. Transparency and traceability. These are all promises of blockchain / digital technology to help the modern-day issues of cash-based economies. But should this responsibility be held by companies or governments? David Shrier, author of upcoming book from MIT Press in November 2019, “Trusted Data,” dives into the debate of a digital […]

Ethereum (ETHUSD) slid this past week back below the psychologically key 200 whole figure level, but remains well positioned for a more sustainable bounce as hinted by the bottomish weekly and daily RSI, Stochastics, and MACD.  Nevertheless, before bulls get excited, most will want to first see ETHUSD reclaim the September high.  Any successful break […]

For many people, cryptocurrencies remain an abstract idea removed from everyday life. Most people aren’t even aware of the technology. But one application that can push cryptocurrencies into the mainstream is payments. Making it easy and safe for consumers and businesses to pay bills, buy and sell stuff, and deposit and withdraw funds offer significant […]

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney recently called for a global digital currency, expressing a desire to move beyond the US dollar hegemony as the world’s reserve currency, but also avoid having another national currency, such as China’s renminbi (or their newly announced digital currency), replace it. While some might point to private sector initiatives such as Libra […]

In just one year’s time, it appears that global policymakers and regulators have woken up to blockchain in a serious way. Caroline Malcolm, new in her role as Head of OECD Blockchain Policy Center, shares key highlights from this second global blockchain policy forum held by OECD in Paris, Sept. 12-13, 2019. In this candid […]

Ethereum (ETHUSD) bounced this past week back above the psychologically key 200 whole figure level.  Bulls are beginning to feel emboldened as seen by the bottomish weekly RSI, Stochastics and MACD, but should watch out for a bit more healthy profit-taking in the next day or so as hinted by the drooping daily equivalents.  Further […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) continued consolidating this past week just above the psychologically key 10k whole figure level, and appears to be near completion of a descending triangle (on the daily and weekly chart).  The daily and weekly chart triangle can be described as being a part of a bull flag about to resume higher, with any […]

Key Highlights “[A central bank’s digital currency is] a huge database using the hash function, chain technology. There’s no distributed ledger portal.” “[The People’s Bank of China] have been working on CBDC for about four years now.” “One of the areas where I really think blockchain could help is on trade finance. When I say […]

What are the rules? For most blockchain companies and projects, the complex landscape of regulation and policy creates business risk, which impacts not only innovation but also ultimately, mainstream adoption.  But at OECD’s second Global Blockchain Policy Forum, regulators are increasingly becoming aware of the need for concerted efforts at every government and agency levels. […]

Why would tokenization of real estate be attractive? Fractional ownership will allow part of an asset to be made available by tokenization. This provides the asset owner with different choices on how to approach the market. For instance, an anchor investor could hold a 40% interest, 30% could be released to other key investors, and […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) spent the past week back above the psychologically key 10k whole figure level, continuing an ongoing 2 month plus consolidation around 10k.  BTCUSD is increasingly close to resuming a bull flag (on its weekly and daily chart), with any resumption of the bull markets since the November low likely coinciding with Ripple (XRPUSD) […]

Facebook executives announced not long ago that they would launch their own cryptocurrency, Libra, next year. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has likened his vision for the ease of peer-to-peer cash transfers to sending photos, and now it seems as if the company may be able to bring that vision to life with cryptocurrency. And beyond […]

Listen to the podcast Full Transcript Angie Lau: Welcome to Word on the Block, the series that takes a deeper dive into the topics we cover right here on Forkast.News. I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau and today we dive into what many are seeing emerging in blockchain, that Asia could soon be taking the lead from […]

Listen to the podcast In its genesis, blockchain was designed with the intention of it being a decentralized peer-to-peer network. However, these networks can either require permission by a controlling entity (a private blockchain) or be truly permissionless and everyone can make modifications (a public blockchain). But when it comes to enterprises and businesses, which […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) spent the past week continuing an ongoing 2 month plus consolidation around the psychologically key 10k whole figure level.  While bulls see BTCUSD resuming an upchannel or bull flag (on its weekly and daily chart), they should closely monitor Ripple (XRPUSD) and Ethereum (ETHUSD) in their ability to reclaim (after breaking several weeks […]

Initial coin offerings (ICOs), initial exchange offerings (IEOs), and security token offerings (STOs) are a worldwide phenomenon. After all, a coin or token that has no physical existence apart from some computer code can be easily sent around the world to anyone with an internet connection with a few clicks of a keyboard.   While the […]

2019 is proving to be a challenging year for central banks and financial institutions across the globe. Global economic growth is slowing and a whirlwind of macroeconomic factors like the US-China trade war, diminishing demand for commodities and global monetary easing are casting a shadow over the economic health of the global financial sector.  To […]

Key Highlights There is a huge demand [for stablecoins] out there. When we look at the global economy, we’re suffering as a result of the US-China trade wars. The trade fluctuations this year have been defined by this growing tension between the US and China. Stablecoins are something that people inevitably will look at. We’ve […]

Much has been made of the clear divergence between Asia’s embrace of blockchain innovation versus the West. But three seemingly disparate storylines this month suggest the gap might be widening as we speak. The first is South Korea creating a special enterprise zone for cryptocurrency trading and initial coin offerings. China’s fast-accelerating timetable for issuing its […]

In this episode of Word on the Block, Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Kevin Kelly of Delphi Digital to explore the recent trends in the market has seen for Bitcoin given monetary policy. Kelly recently published a piece, The Perfect Storm for Bitcoin. Is the global macroeconomic environment creating an opportune moment for cryptocurrency? […]

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to be a complete game-changer for many industries, including supply chain. With the rise of globalization, supply chains are now much more complex than ever before in history. Consequently, the time is ripe for a disruption of this process; blockchain is one possible instigating factor. With distributed […]

Trade wars. Slowing global growth. Weak inflation. $14 trillion of negative-yielding debt. Unprecedented monetary policies. It’s easy to get lost in the mayhem of markets when these are just some of the notable trends investors face today. Amid the chaos, the narrative surrounding Bitcoin has shifted quite dramatically since the beginning of the year as […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) pushed higher for the 2nd straight week last week as it appears close to completing its month plus consolidation, and resuming its uptrend since December.  Nevertheless, while bulls see BTCUSD resuming its upchannel or bull flag (on its weekly and daily chart), they should closely monitor Ripple (XRPUSD) and Ethereum (ETHUSD) as they […]

As the saying goes, “ignorance of the law excuses no one.” It is a legal principle that holds even in the murky space of cryptocurrency trading. With securities and commodities regulators almost unanimously asserting jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies under the theory that such products are securities or commodities, it follows that insider trading abuses in the […]

Listen to the podcast Key Highlights “Within the G7, within the G20, there’s a lot of concern among governments, and I think that some of the concerns are valid. I mean, some of the concerns have to do with control, of course, but they also have to do with money laundering, and I also think […]

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) appears to be struggling to find support after the Saturday plunge, but on the shorter 4hr timeframe chart (not shown) is showing tentative signs going into the European Sunday morning of bottoming.  BTCUSD’s break below upchannel support (on the weekly and arguably on the daily chart) seemingly suggests stronger selling this week, but […]

Facebook just did the unthinkable in the Donald Trump era: give America’s Republicans and Democrats something on which to agree. Same with the Group of Seven nations taking a dim view of the social media giant minting its own money. US President Trump declared that Libra, Facebook’s proposed virtual currency, “will have little standing or […]

It wasn’t even on the agenda last year. Ling Wu, Founder and CEO of TBCASoft, tells us why blockchain is taking the Shanghai Mobile World Congress 2019 by storm. Wu is the Chairman of the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) Consortium, an initiative between TBCASoft and SoftBank to build a cross-carrier blockchain platform with leading global telecom operators. […]

It wasn’t even on the agenda last year. Ling Wu, Founder and CEO of TBCASoft, tells us why blockchain is taking the Shanghai Mobile World Congress 2019 by storm. Wu is the Chairman of the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) Consortium, an initiative between TBCASoft and SoftBank to build a cross-carrier blockchain platform with leading global telecom operators. […]

This week, NEO, an open-source blockchain platform based in China, announced “a partnership to build an open cross-chain platform and establish the foundation for next-gen Internet.” Both NEO and Ontology were founded by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang.  Interoperability is significant in world of blockchain because the future of the distributed web lies in the ability […]

Trustless payment methods were the first disruption blockchain brought to the financial industry. The second wave of disruption came about when the ICO boomed in 2017 as a way to reach a larger market of investors through crowdfunding smart contracts on Ethereum. In 2017 alone, ICOs raised around $7 billion. More recently, we’re seeing the […]

Taiwan faces an existential threat. It is a nation that is dependent on exports, but like other developed nations, recognizes that in order to survive, it needs to champion high-technology industries as labor-intensive industries leave for nations with cheaper workforces like Vietnam or China. Could blockchain and cryptocurrency be part of the answer? Jason Hsu […]

Taiwan faces an existential threat. It is a nation that is dependent on exports, but like other developed nations, recognizes that in order to survive, it needs to champion high-technology industries as labor-intensive industries leave for nations with cheaper workforces like Vietnam or China. Could blockchain and cryptocurrency be part of the answer? Jason Hsu […]

Is Asia gaining ground in the technology race? Edith Yeung, advisor at 500 Startups, partner at Proof of Capital, and author of “China Internet Report” (link to new 2019 report below) shares why Asia is the place to be for blockchain adoption. For a VC who spends half her time in Silicon Valley, she recognizes […]

Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, is one of the most influential figures in cryptocurrency / blockchain circles. From flipping burgers at McDonald’s to getting his computer science degree at McGill University, to now Founder and CEO of Binance; CZ has built one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. In this unreserved 40-minute conversation, CZ […]

Ever since the discovery of blockchain technology, we’ve heard a lot about inefficient systems that it can fix. From the internet to advertising, healthcare, the voting system, and the supply chain; the list of things that aren’t working optimally is long and laden with overpromises. Blockchain is not a panacea for all the world’s ills, […]

The Libra, potentially a welcome addition to the financial system A consortium led by Facebook recently announced the introduction of a new cryptocurrency, the Libra. Compared to most existing cryptocurrencies the design of the Libra is relatively well supported economically One of the goals of the Libra is to connect the billions of people who […]

There are very few events market participants are watching more intently than the ongoing trade disputes between the world’s two largest economies. In one corner, the Trump administration has recently stoked the trade war fire with threats of additional tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports, on top of the $250 billion worth of Chinese […]

Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Peter Lin, CEO of AAX at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai for this episode of “In Conversation With” Lin is about to launch a new digital asset exchange using London Stock Exchange trade-matching technology to provide an institutional grade platform to attract investments from hedge funds and […]

TALLINN, Estonia – Innovative trading platform Geco.one launched its Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) today. Geco.one is novel because lets users invest with a professional cryptocurrency trader. Any user can select a trader on the platform and let that trader manage their assets. The trader combines the assets with their own trades. The company says since […]

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Committee (FSC) has recently released guidance on STO rules. What does this mean for the regulation in Taiwan, particularly as it emerges as a hub for blockchain growth and development? Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News sits down with Sam Reynolds to learn more. Read the related piece from Sam Reynolds: Innovation versus […]

Greenwood Village, Colorado — Many of the world’s largest telecoms will team-up to launch a blockchain-based platform to make contracting and payments between themselves faster and cheaper. Known as the Communications Blockchain Network (CBN), it will go live in the coming months. Currently, 11 carriers have agreed to join: A1 Telekom Austria, China Telecom Global, […]

Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, sits down with Andrew Fai, CEO of Asia Blockchain Summit, to talk about the upcoming summit in Taipei in July 2019. Use our special discount promo code ForkastNewsABS to get 30% off ticket prices. Read Related Innovation vs Conservatism: Taiwan’s Big Blockchain Conundrum

Key Highlights Osaka may be the “Crypto Bretton Woods” in terms of significance to the global economy Unlike the current economic system, crypto is “rising from the ground up” and is being forced on the global elites “Science-fiction is becoming fact and happening in a way they [governments] can’t ignore.” In the latest episode of […]

Ripple (XRPUSD) is bumping up against ascending triangle resistance (on the daily chart) and the psychologically key 0.5 whole figure level. A break above this multiple resistance zone in the next week or so will likely be quickly followed by a test of the psychologically key 0.75 level. XRPUSD is a prime candidate in the next few […]

The recent move by the U.S. government to blacklist Huawei has been causing a lot of commotion.  The decision by the U.S. to ban Huawei has invited speculation as to the reasoning, although the main point cited by the Trump administration is the issue of national security. While the whole situation is multi-faceted, the trepidation […]

“Knowledge is power” is a phrase you may have heard once or twice in your lifetime. Today, I’d like to propose a bit of a 21st century twist on the saying — “data is knowledge and knowledge is power, therefore data is power.” Easy enough, right? We are living in a time where our data […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“What is a coin?” Lawyers who work in the digital assets space have become very familiar with multiple variations of that question over the last few years. “It depends” is the answer with which issuers have become equally familiar.   There is much legal confusion about the exact nature of a coin or token. This […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]