How Blockchain crowdfunding could soon kill off the ICO
The words Blockchain and ICO might go together like sausage and mash but there’s a good reason, it generated nearly $8 billion in funds raised in 2018. Impressive but still only a tiny fraction of the global crowdfunding industry and already this year we’re seeing a sharp decline. Whereas in the traditional crowdfunding arena the odds are better, the industry is expected to hit $300 billion by 2025, with over $34 billion raised to date. Besides the staggering money raised, crowdfunding promotes product innovation, provides access to capital to founders, and leads to job creation. However, there are downsides in the industry. It is reported that nearly 78% of all crowdfunding campaigns fail to […]
JPMorgan Chase to create digital coin using blockchain
JPMorgan Chase plans to launch its own digital coin, called “JPM Coin”, that customers will be able to use for instant transfer of payments over a blockchain network. The largest US bank by assets said customers, on depositing money at the bank, will be issued the cryptocurrency that can be used for transactions over the network with other JPMorgan clients. The coin can be redeemed for a US dollar, so its value will largely remain stable, the bank said. When one client sends money to another over the blockchain, JPM Coins are transferred and instantaneously redeemed for the equivalent amount of US dollars, reducing the typical settlement time, the bank […]
IBM Blockchain Platform now live in Melbourne
IBM has made its blockchain platform available out of the IBM data centre in Melbourne, allowing customers to run their applications on the company’s cloud and abide by data sovereignty requirements. The platform will also be available via the data centre in Sydney by the end of March, with head of blockchain and consulting practice leader for IBM in Australia and New Zealand Rupert Colchester saying the reason for a second location is largely for availability and redundancy. “By its very nature, it’s a distributed ledger technology so often ledgers are running in different locations and the demand for two is through clients and customers in this geography wanting to […]
Will the Samsung Galaxy S10 come cryptocurrency-ready?
If you need a smartphone that will also work as a mobile cryptocurrency wallet, Samsung may have a handset for you. Photos tweeted by leaker Ice universe on Wednesday purport to show the Samsung Galaxy S10 with support for cryptocurrencies and sporting a Blockchain KeyStore. Text on the handset’s screen calls the KeyStore a “secure and convenient place for your cryptocurrency.” Blockchain is an encryption technology best known for underpinning bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But investor ardor over bitcoin has waned in the past year, with the cryptocurrency trading for about $3,555 on Wednesday after being worth more than $17,000 in December 2017. Samsung is widely expected to unveil the Galaxy S10 at an […]
Swinburne launches global Blockchain Centre of Excellence
Swinburne University of Technology has launched a new global Blockchain Centre of Excellence in partnership with Capgemini, a world leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation. The Centre of Excellence was launched in the heart of San Francisco at Capgemini’s Applied Innovation Exchange. The event was attended by stakeholders from the local innovation ecosystem, from leading financial institutions to global corporations, local startups and venture capital firms, all interested in applying and leveraging blockchain technology. Blockchain technology uses the power of a distributed ledger to allow data and transactions to be verified accurately and efficiently. The centre will focus on advancing blockchain technologies, platforms, assets and systems to develop […]
Faster, cheaper: blockchain breeds competition
Blockchain technology has the potential to provide superior post-trade infrastructure to investors. Fund managers will soon be enjoying faster and cheaper transactions than what monopoly incumbents such as the ASX offer, thanks to competition, a tech company boss predicts. The post-trade world is “very, very expensive relative to the work that is performed”, says Peter Randall, president of technology company SETL. SETL has built institutional payment and settlements infrastructure based on blockchain technology, which could emerge as competition to a blockchain-based platform the ASX is now developing to replace its legacy Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) infrastructure. Randall will speak at Investment Magazine’s upcoming Investment Operations Conference, to be […]
HSBC used blockchain to settle $250B worth of trades
HSBC has settled $250 billion worth of forex trades using blockchain in the last year, it said on Monday, suggesting the heavily hyped technology is gaining traction in a sector until now hesitant to embrace it. The bank has settled over three million forex trades and made over 150,000 payments since February using blockchain, it said in a statement. HSBC would not give data on forex trades settled by traditional processes, saying only that those settled by blockchain represented a “small” proportion. Still, the data marks a significant milestone in the use of blockchain by mainstream finance, which has until now been reluctant to start using the technology at any […]
ASX says shock departure of blockchain guru won’t affect its rollout
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) said its plans to switch over to blockchain technology are on track despite the surprise departure of high profile chief executive Blythe Masters from its tech partner Digital Asset Holdings (DA). Ms Masters, the high-flying JPMorgan Chase executive who was part of the team credited with the creation of credit default swaps (CDS), has played a crucial role introducing the blockchain startup’s technology to the financial sector. Digital Asset said Ms Masters had stepped down for personal reasons but added she will remain involved with the company. DA chairman AG Gangadhar will act as interim CEO until a replacement is found. “Working as part of […]
