Day: October 10, 2018

BMW-Backed Blockchain Competition Offers Token Prizes for Auto Tech

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The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) has launched a development “tournament” to explore how vehicles will communicate, co-operate and transact in the smart cities of the near-future. The 4-month MOBI Grand Challenge kicks off on October 12, with a public demonstration of winning technologies to be hosted by BMW Group in Munich, Germany on next February. The prizes come in the form of blockchain tokens, which will drive next-generation mobility and data sharing: Ocean Protocol, a blockchain enabled data exchange protocol, has committed $1 million worth of token prize; and…

ICO’s blog on its international work

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Colleagues from across the organisation share their experiences and involvement in the ICO’s ongoing contributions to the upholding of information rights across the globe. 23 October 2018 Elizabeth Denham announced as the new chair of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) Elizabeth Denham was announced as the new chair of the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) on 23 October 2018. She said: “In the age of borderless data flows, there has never been a more important time for global coherence in data…

Former NASDAQ Subsidiary Exec Joins Crypto Exchange Gemini’s Client Service Team

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Former COO of major U.S. stock exchange NASDAQ subsidiary Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto has joined crypto exchange Gemini, the company revealed in a Medium post on Wednesday, Oct. 10. The U.S.-based Gemini, launched by the Winklevoss twins back in 2015, has hired Hightower-Sellitto as a managing director of operations to lead its client services team. As per the release, she spent 13 years as a chief operating officer at the International Securities Exchange, transforming the startup into a major exchange purchased by NASDAQ in 2016 for $1.1 billion. According to financial magazine…

How Adoption Could Help With UK–EU Relations

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Blockchain has one new supporter: the UK finance minister Philip Hammond. Quizzed at the Conservative Party conference on how the UK government might solve Brexit’s UK-Irish border issue, he suggested that blockchain technology may be a solution. “There is technology becoming available […] I don’t claim to be an expert on it but the most obvious technology is blockchain.” He didn’t go into any further detail, but in raising distributed ledger technology (DLT) as one way of facilitating ‘frictionless’ movement between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he sparked…

China Should Consider Launching its Own Stablecoin, Central Bank Expert Says in Op-Ed

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The Chinese government should consider launching its own yuan-backed stablecoin despite the current ban on cryptocurrencies, an op-ed in Chinese financial journal CN Finance reports Tuesday, Oct. 9. An expert from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Li Liangsong, and professor of Fudan University Wang Huaqing wrote an article called “Analysis of Digital Stable Coins” for CN Finance — a bimonthly journal affiliated with the PBoC. In the opinion piece, the authors provide a brief review of USD-backed coins, such as Tether, the Gemini dollar, and Paxos Standard. The researchers…

New Google Joke Advertisement Questions the Validity of Cryptocurrency as Money

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Google entered the cryptocurrency-as-money debate on Tuesday, Oct. 9, arguing over its validity during an introductory video for a new feature from its Google Assistant tool. While demonstrating how its Call Screen caller ID function works, two Google presenters enter into a brief discussion about cryptocurrency in a spoof argument. The Call Screen shows the identity of an incoming call as being from the “electric company,” and the call’s purpose — Call Screen’s other feature — as one presenter’s “bill being super high.” “Cryptocurrency mining takes a lot of energy,”…

Crypto Exchange Hack Losses Already 250% Higher Than 2017, Q3 Report Shows

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Losses caused by cryptocurrency exchange hacks hit $927 million in the first nine months of 2018, already 250 percent higher than throughout all of 2017, Reuters India reports October 10. Reuters cites a Crypto Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) report for Q3 2018 from crypto intelligence firm CipherTrace, which pitted the $927 million figure against last year’s $266 million total. According to the report, “smaller” thefts of crypto worth between $20-60 million are also steadily rising, hitting $173 million in the third quarter. Reuters interviewed CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans, who is also chairman…

Japanese Technology Conglomerate GMO to Unveil Yen-Pegged Crypto Stablecoin

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Japanese internet giant GMO Internet has announced that it will launch a stablecoin pegged to the yen next year. According to the founder and president of GMO Internet, Masatoshi Kumagaii, the stablecoin which will be known as GMO Japanese Yen (GJY) will be issued in Asia. It is expected that the assets backing the stablecoin will be stored in Japan where the tech firm already has banking licenses. Cross-Border Transactions Besides aiding GMO Internet in branching into the remittance and settlement business, the yen-pegged stablecoin will be instrumental in helping…

New data protection self-assessment checklist for sole traders

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The ICO has today launched a self-assessment checklist that will help sole traders and self-employed individuals to assess their compliance with new data protection laws. The checklist is aimed at improving understanding of data protection and making sure sole traders are keeping people’s personal data secure. The new Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May and the self-assessment checklist is part of a range of resources to raise awareness within the sole trader and self-employed community. It shows sole traders how…

Hacked Japanese Crypto Exchange Zaif Releases Financial Support Plan for Customer Assets

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Hacked Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Zaif has announced an official plan to provide financial support for affected customers’ assets, in an official notice posted today, October 10. As previously reported, the exchange suffered a security breach Sept. 14, resulting in total losses of cryptocurrencies worth 6.7 billion yen (around $59.7 million). At the time, Zaif operator Tech Bureau Inc. indicated it would be working with Fisco Digital Asset Group to draft a joint support plan. Today’s notice clarifies that the terms of the basic agreement between the two firms have been…