Blockchain & Digital Assets

May 04 2021

Uppsala Security Conducts First Virtual Assets AML Training Program for South Korean Government Agency Compliance Officers

Uppsala Security has reportedly conducted the very first “Virtual Assets AML Training Program” for partners and government agency compliance officers.

Uppsala Security, the provider of tools for Crypto Risk Management and Cybersecurity, revealed on May 4, 2021, that it has begun its Virtual Assets AML Training Program via the Crypto Incident Response Center (CIRC).

As mentioned in the announcement:

“The Training Program was initiated as a consequence of the implementation of more exigent special law revisions in South Korea beginning with March 2021. Government agencies and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) attended the training program and already obtained certified licenses.”

Uppsala Security also noted that at the end of last month, Park Jung-sup, Senior Researcher at the Center for Virtual Asset Damage Response (CIRC), had carried out a 3-day training program for Compliance Monitoring Officers of government agencies in its Korean branch office.

The training covered the following key areas:

Basic understanding of blockchain-based virtual assets suspicious transactions
Analysis of the flow of stolen funds and the suspected wallet
Improvement of tracking capability and real case practice

As noted in the announcement, the courses are divided into UCCA (Associate), UCCP (Professional) and UCCE (Expert), “depending on the training’s level of depth, and upon the training’s completion, trainees can also obtain an Uppsala Certified Cryptocurrency Incident Analysis certificate and license.”

A representative of the Coin&Coin Exchange, which has signed an AML contract with Uppsala Security and also took part within the CIRC training, stated that this was a good opportunity for them to gain an understanding of why AML solutions “specializing in virtual assets are important in order to comply with the special law revision.”

The representative added:

“We are looking forward to learning how to use Uppsala Security’s complex product suite for the swift tracking of alleged cases and to write STR’s evidence for suspicious transactions in next quarter’s training.”

Patrick Kim, CEO of Uppsala Security, remarked:

“I understand that the Korea Federation of Banks recently distributed a draft of ‘Guidelines for Issuing Real-Name Accounts’ to each bank in South Korea, including information on identifying and evaluating Money Laundering risks. Considering that this is a draft related to the Risk-Based Approach (RBA) recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), exchanges should eventually conduct continuous monitoring (RBA) on virtual assets separately during the VASPs’ business registration period. This means that Crypto-AML and its monitoring training for law-abiding virtual assets exchanges is also essential. We will continue to provide the best service to customers in order for them to fulfill their obligations and comply with current regulations by preventing Money Laundering through continuous operation of education programs.”

Uppsala Security provides virtual asset AML solutions to Samsung Blockchain Wallet users in 19 different countries. It also offers these solutions to Bithumb, Coin&Coin Exchange, Danal Fintech and Hexlant

Uppsala has also helped with “the identification and arrest of a virtual assets fraud suspect through a swift cooperation with the Bithumb Exchange.” Uppsala Security is based in Singapore and maintains business offices in Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan.

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May 01 2021

Ocean Protocol Reveals that its Market Now Features Compute-to-Data, a Privacy Preserving Way to Exchange Data

The developers at Ocean Protocol (OCEAN), which allows software engineers to build marketplaces and other apps to privately and securely publish, exchange, and consume data, have revealed that Compute-to-Data has landed in the Ocean Market.

According to the Ocean Protocol team, Compute-to-Data “enables buying and selling of private data while preserving privacy.” As explained in the update, this “resolves the tradeoff between the benefits of using private data and the risks of exposing it.”

As mentioned in the announcement:

“With Compute-to-Data, data never leaves its owner’s premises. Data owners can monetize data while preserving privacy and control, yet data buyers can create value from it with analytics, AI modeling and more. All via the Ocean Market interface.”

Some of the Compute-to-Data benefits that AI practitioners can take advantage of:

They can “access valuable, private data that was previously unavailable, which can lead to more accurate AI models. And without liability – they don’t see the data.”
They can also “publish and monetize algorithms” and can “even stay private.”

Businesses and entrepreneurs are able to quickly launch their own Ocean-powered data marketplace for their particular vertical. Ocean Compute-to-Data assists them with “further preserving their sellers’ privacy and support more compute and AI flows.”

Compute-to-Data in Ocean Market is “a major milestone in our 2021 roadmap & a big step towards our vision of data as a new asset class,” the update noted.

As reported in February 2021, Ocean Protocol had announced the second round of OceanDAO (distributed autonomous organization or DAO) grant results.

The developers at Ocean Protocol, who are focused on building the new data economy, confirmed that the OceanDAO Round Two has officially concluded (on February 5, 2021).

For people who might not be familiar with OceanDAO, it’s a grants DAO that’s curated by the Ocean community, for “growth and long-term sustainability” (more details here).

Ocean Protocol noted in a blog post that proposal submissions for OceanDAO Round Three had been “officially open.” And last month, the OceanDAO — Round Three Grant results were announced.

As mentioned in the update, OceanDAO Rounds are “monthly, with project proposals due on the first of every month.” During Round Two, the top 9 highest-voted grant proposals from the “snapshot ballot” were chosen to receive 10,000 OCEAN (valued at just over $9,100 in February of this year) in order to “foster positive value creation for the overall OCEAN ecosystem.”

The Ocean ecosystem “becomes self-sustainable” as the Web 3.0 (an evolving set of standards for the Internet of the future) data economy builders leverage Ocean Protocol to develop products, services, and resources that the community may find useful or valuable.

As covered in January 2021, Ocean Protocol Founder Bruce Pon had explained how crypto became a reliable asset class and store of value in 2020.

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Apr 27 2021

CoinShares Reports that “Poor Sentiment” for Bitcoin led to Low Inflows of $1.3M, “Masking Improving Appetite” for Ethereum

James Butterfill, Investment Strategist at London-based CoinShares, a digital asset manager focused on expanding access to the cryptocurrency ecosystem while serving as a “trusted partner” for its clients, notes in a blog post published on Tuesday (April 26, 2021) that “poor sentiment” for Bitcoin led to “low inflows of $1.3 million, masking improving appetite for Ethereum.”

Butterfill further noted that flows for digital asset investment products “slowed to their lowest weekly figure since October 2020 at just $1.3 million.”

He added:

“Worries over Bitcoin mining issues in Xinjiang, China, spooked the market with assets under management (AUM) $10 billion lower than the previous week. AUM now sits at $54 billion. The low inflows overall mask varied flows amongst the digital assets. Outflows were primarily focused on Bitcoin with $21 million, being the largest weekly outflow on record.”

Butterfill pointed out that this outflow needs to be taken into context as “it represents only 0.05% of AUM, while weekly inflows this year average 0.6%.” He also mentioned that trading volumes amongst investment products “did now challenge the bitcoin market, remaining at a low 5% of total bitcoin volumes.”

He also noted that outflows were seen in XRP where, “following a record week of inflows, saw outflows of $17.5 million.” Meanwhile, Binance “saw outflows of $4.6 million.”

The report also noted that Ethereum “bucked the trend with investment product inflows of $34 million.” Inflows year-to-date of $792 million “represent 8% of total AUM, the recent rise in weekly inflows highlight a renewed positive sentiment amongst investors.”

You can check out the complete report here.

As covered last week, CoinShares had revealed that XRP had seen inflows of $33M, which had almost doubled its AUM.

As reported earlier this month, CoinShares had reached $5 billion in AUM.

The milestone came less than two months after CoinShares announced the launch of a new physically-backed ETP, CoinShares Physical Ethereum (Ticker: ETHE). According to CoinShares, ETHE will be the second product released on the firm’s institutional-grade ETP platform and will launch with approximately $75 million in assets under management.

CoinShares further revealed that ETHE will initially be listed on the regulated SIX Swiss Exchange and has a base fee of 1.25%, establishing ETHE an attractive option for institutional investors looking for an accessible ethereum investment vehicle with a fee below the industry standard of 2%.

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Apr 18 2021

Danial Daychopan: CEO at Plutus Explains how Financial Services Provider Is Bridging Worlds of Fiat and Crypto

We recently connected with Danial Daychopan, CEO and Founder of UK-based Plutus, a financial services provider that aims to bridge the gap between traditional fiat currencies and “upcoming” cryptocurrencies.

Plutus says it offers the “best of both worlds,” which includes centralized fiat and non-custodial crypto, “under one intuitive banking-like app.”

To stay true to the “decentralized” culture of crypto, users may attach their personal crypto wallet to the app and interact with it alongside their fiat current account “without ever revealing the private keys,” the Plutus team notes. A “custom-built” decentralized exchange (PlutusDEX) allows users to “swap between the two asset types without having to trust a 3rd party,” the company explains.

The Plutus app comes with a Plutus Debit Card which users can load with fiat and converted cryptocurrency in order to spend at more than 60 million merchants, “circumventing the need for mass adoption and making crypto payments a reality now!.” With 3% “crypto back built-in,” Plutus claims it’s one of the “most secure” and “rewarding” accounts available. Our conversation with Danial Daychopan is shared below.

Crowdfund Insider: What are the main products and services that you offer at Plutus?

Danial Daychopan: We are essentially looking to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance, but in a way that stays true to the cypherpunk culture of cryptocurrencies. We offer traditional banking features such as a UK Sort Code & Account Number, or a European IBAN depending on where you live, and then allow users to connect any personal cryptocurrency wallet they like to this account.

Almost all services out there require users to use a centralized wallet which the company has access to, so I think the ability to connect any wallet of your choice whilst retaining the private keys is of huge significance. Ownership of the private keys is what gives crypto value, and the rest of the market seems to be moving increasingly further away from that. The app also includes a decentralized exchange (DEX) so you can seamlessly convert crypto for fiat and vice versa without having to trust a 3rd party, and a Plutus Visa Debit Card awards users 3% in crypto rewards every time you spend with it.

Crowdfund Insider: Many more people have been using investment apps and other types of Fintech apps following the COVID outbreak.

Have you seen more people sign up to use your products as well? What’s been the response overall from consumers this past year?

Danial Daychopan: We have definitely seen a surge in customer acquisition across the last 12-months and exceeded our EOY target of 25,000 accounts. However, I believe there are a huge number of contributing factors other than COVID; the bull run experienced at the start of 2021 was by far the biggest driving force for us.

Crowdfund Insider: What are the benefits of using all-digital Fintech apps to conduct transactions?

Danial Daychopan: I think the core benefits of all-digital FinTech apps lie beyond just transactions, it’s the whole financial experience. Creating an account in just 2-minutes without having to visit a branch; efficient customer support outside of your traditional 9-5 working hours; a thorough breakdown of your expenses and instant notifications. Traditional banks are overly reliant on outdated tech, and given the size of these corporations, the risks of implementing alternative technologies are remarkably high and extremely costly.

All-digital Fintech apps, on the other hand, are much more adaptable and able to develop innovative features that really cater to what users want – they have a much more customer-centric approach.

Crowdfund Insider: The crypto market recently surpassed the $2 trillion mark. Do you feel we are at the beginning of what could be a much larger ecoystem in the next 5 to 10 years?

What can we expect to see in the coming years in terms of cryptocurrency adoption?

Danial Daychopan: Absolutely, depending on the research study, between 4–10% of the population currently own cryptocurrencies, which means there is a super-majority out there that are yet to adopt crypto.

Whilst there could be several market cycles over the next decade, I am certain the overall trajectory will be increasingly higher adoption. I imagine we will also see further institutional investment into the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, followed by the release of a centralized cryptocurrency by the federal reserve bank. Users will have the option of a centralized fiat currency, or the decentralized alternatives such as Bitcoin, and hopefully the smart money will choose the latter.

Alongside that, I am sure the tech will become progressively more user-friendly to accommodate the mass market. The rate of development in this sector is phenomenal.

Crowdfund Insider: What are your plans as a company for 2021 and beyond?

Danial Daychopan: In the immediate term, there will be two major product releases. We are adding Bitcoin to our list of supported cryptocurrencies, meaning you can connect any Bitcoin wallet you like to your Plutus Visa Debit Card which is a world’s first – previously our card was more ETH-focused. We are also launching our own Plutus Wallet. This is non-custodial and follows a similar format to MetaMask, except users can interact with both BTC and ERC-20 tokens from the same browser extension.

Major events to look out for later this year include our launch in both Asia and Latin America which will help rapidly expand the product, and we also aim to attain a full banking license in 2022 which would allow us to offer a much wider range of financial services.

Source

Apr 14 2021

Venice, California based UNA Blockchain Introduces a DLT focused Ecosystem for the Automotive Industry

UNA Blockchain, a subsidiary of Hopium, the car manufacturer that develops “high-end” hydrogen sedans, is launching its new blockchain ecosystem.

Based in Venice, California, UNA Blockchain aims to position itself as a leader within the automotive sector, according to a release shared with Crowdfund Insider. The ethos of the business is “based on security, sustainability, transparency and ethics,” the announcement noted.

UNA intends to leverage partnerships with key players in the tech sector like IBM Hyperledger. The firm will also be backed by Hopium, its “genesis” partner that carried out an IPO in December 2020, resulting in its current valuation of more than $250 million.

As explained in the release,

“The [UNA] ecosystem will use IoT hardware to record unaltered data on a blockchain and a way of measuring emissions and assessing the impact of each vehicle on the environment. … UNA will actively participate in answering climate change issues while maintaining optimal data security.”

The release added that drivers will be able to create their own “digital passport” as well. By writing “individual” preferences to a blockchain or DLT-based platform, they’ll be able to seamlessly switch between vehicles without losing any settings or preferences by pulling the previously stored profile from the ledger.

As mentioned in the release, a test-drive will “instantly feel like home and driving a rental will no longer feel like a rental.” The announcement also mentioned that “not only does this remove pain points from the user, but also enables the company to study aggregate user preferences and learn about consumer [preferences and behavior] over time.”

The announcement added:

“UNA’s core value of transparency begins before the vehicle has been manufactured and shines a light on the supply chain leading up to the finished product. By tracing parts through the supply chain, UNA ensures partners and suppliers take environmentally-friendly … approaches to the manufacturing process, along with the added guarantee of high quality materials and workmanship. By keeping this detailed ledger, owners know exactly what went into their vehicle and have guarantees on each individual part in case of damages or failure.”

UNA’s ecosystem will offer improved security. As explained in the release, ownership of a vehicle may be recorded on a blockchain or DLT-based system. And access by “unauthorized” parties will “automatically be rejected,” the release noted while adding that user profiles may be managed via the blockchain.

This means that a family will have the option to assign several different users to the same vehicle. This concept of authorized users “extends to include both a ‘guest mode’ and a ‘child mode’ to grant access to specific individuals for set time periods,” the announcement noted.

As stated in the release, this “first chapter” of UNA’s history is part of a “greater vision to balance and decarbonize both the blockchain and the automotive industry.”

Launched in 2021, UNA is a US-based blockchain firm and subsidiary of Hopium, the hydrogen car manufacturer founded by racing driver Olivier Lombard.

UNA aims to embody the “next era” of automotive and claims that it is “poised” to take a leadership role within the automoble sector. With “an emphasis on security, ethics, transparency, and sustainability, UNA is leveraging ‘next-generation’ technologies to build a blockchain ecosystem capable of exceeding expectations,” the announcement noted.

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