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Feb 23 2021

Bancor Lawsuit Tossed: “New York is not a reasonable and convenient place to conduct this litigation”

A New York judge has tossed a lawsuit filed against Bancor, or BProtocol Foundation, that claimed the sale of unregistered securities, according to an Order Granting Motion to Dismiss received by CI. Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the case and the Plaintiff’s offer to re-plead was denied.

BProtocol Foundation (Bancor) is organized under the law of Switzerland, with offices in Zug, Switzerland, and Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2017, Bancor raised about $153 million in a token offering.

According to company representatives, the ruling is decisive as Judge Hellerstein canceled an oral argument that had been scheduled. The ruling may impact other cases that seek to apply US securities law to digital offerings that sold outside the US.

According to the document, the case was filed on behalf of Timothy C. Holsworth. Holsworth, who replaced the initial plaintiff William Zhang, alleged that he purchased 587 BNT digital coins on September 4, 2019, from Wisconsin, on COSS, a digital exchange in Singapore, for an aggregate cost of $212.50.

The lawsuit alleged that Bancor “made numerous false statements and omissions that led reasonable investors to conclude that the BNT tokens were not securities.” The Plaintiff argued that BNT is a security and thus falls under US securities law.

Filed yesterday, the Order said the Plaintiff has not shown that he was directly contacted by Defendants or that he purchased securities as a result of any active solicitations by Defendants. The Order adds:

“Wherever the current business location of Bancor, New York is not a reasonable and convenient place to conduct this litigation.”

Thus the motion to dismiss was granted in favor of the Defendants.

Bancor was represented by Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, a law firm that specializes in litigation and is active in multiple high-profile crypto and Fintech cases.


Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2017, alex spiro, bancor, Blockchain & Digital Assets, bpprotocol foundation, business, company, crypto, digital, exchange, fintech, Israel, Law, lawsuit, legal, New York, Offerings, other, Politics, Legal & Regulation, quinn emanuel, said, securities, security, Singapore, Switzerland, token, tokens, us, Wisconsin

Feb 22 2021

Enterprise Blockchain Platform for Real Estate, Ubitquity, Is Partnering LavaTrust to Streamline Closing Operations

Ubitquity LLC, an enterprise-grade blockchain-enabled platform for real estate and title recordkeeping, is teaming up with LavaTrust Consultancy in order to gain key insights into the US real estate closing sector.

Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada, LavaTrust Consultancy aims to bring its industry expertise and valuable experience in the real estate markets (USA / Canada), as well as the global digital assets sector.

The founders at LavaTrust have reportedly been looking to streamline the real estate sector with the adoption of blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). Now mainly focused on education and consultation, company CEO Joy Case is pleased to have some sort of alignment with Ubitquity, which is an established player in real estate applications for blockchain tech.

Having “vision” and “values” aligned with Ubitquity, LavaTrust aims to open up networks and key opportunities for both to participate in the restructuring of outdated technology and business processes with greater efficiency of DLT-based solutions.

Nathan Wosnack, Founder and CEO at Ubitquity, stated:

“Ubitquity and I are excited to be working with LavaTrust Consultancy. Ms. Case and her team bring a wealth of knowledge and years of experience in the real estate and digital marketplaces. Combining this with our blockchain applications will be mutually beneficial and make a long-term impact on the evolution of the real estate closing industry,”

Wosnack also mentioned that they benefit from leveraging LavaTrust Consultancy’s CEO Joy Case’s “trusted” network developed by taking advantage of 15 years of experience in the real estate sector (residential, commercial and development initiatives). He added that as LavaTrust has “strategic” relationships with Family Offices and various other investors, their potential for new collaborations has “expanded tremendously.”

Joy Case, CEO and Founder of LavaTrust Consultancy, remarked:

“I am excited and grateful to partner with Ubitquity to help galvanize blockchain adoption in the often antiquated processes within the real estate industry. Ubitquity has various blockchain-based products that can serve the industry with enhanced efficiency, increased security in the transaction process, less friction and increased agility in the closing lifecycle, parallel recordkeeping data storage, alternative revenue streams for its partners, future-proofed settlement solutions and so much more.”

Case also noted that with the emergence of more regulatory clarity in the US pertaining to stablecoins and banks now being permitted to custody crypto-assets, she sees Ubitquity offering an “autonomous” future-compatible settlement platform through its SmartEscrow offering to the future decentralized finance (DeFi) real estate industry.

She added that LavaTrust Consultancy is looking forward to working with Ubitquity so that they can keep innovating and offer “real value to the real estate closing industry together.”

Ubitquity has several Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) tools currently available on its “unanimity” platform, that it has integrated across key industries such as aviation and real estate for escrow and title closing support, title abstracting, digital, hybrid, and paper notary support, smart contract management, and secure document management.

Ubitquity can also help out with “regulatory-compliant” digital token sales, integration consulting, and various other services. The availability of each offering “depends on the regulatory body (SEC, FINMA) exemption chosen by its tokenization clients,” the company clarified.

In August 2020, Ubitquity had partnered with Washington-based Rainier Title, which aims to offer the “highest levels” of real property title and escrow services.

Through the partnership, Ubitquity will create a platform for issuing tokenized property titles and parallel records of conveyances for Rainier.

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2020, Adoption, Aviation, Banks, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, business, Canada, ceo, commercial, company, crypto-assets, custody, data, decentralized, decentralized finance, defi, digital, digital assets, digital token, distributed ledger technology, dlt, Education, Enterprise, Enterprise Blockchain, Family, finance, founder, founders, Future, Global, integration, joy case, lavatrust consultancy, Ledger, markets, more, nathan wosnack, other, partnership, Products, Real Estate, regulatory clarity, revenue, SEC, security, smart contract, stablecoins, storage, tech, Technology, token, tokenization, transaction, ubitquity, us, USA, vancouver, Wealth

Feb 18 2021

Blockchain Platform Qtum Teams Up with Blockpass to Provide On-Chain KYC Services

Blockchain platforms Qtum and Blockpass have teamed up in order to deliver on-chain (or blockchain-based) Know-Your-Customer (KYC) services.

As part of the agreement, Qtum will be providing subsidies to “specific” members looking to achieve regulatory compliance through Blockpass’s On-chain KYC solutions.

Adam Vaziri, CEO at Blockpass, stated:

“We’ve known and been fans of the Qtum team and network for a long time, and it’s great to have the opportunity to work closely with them. The Qtum network is innovative, and we’re excited to be able to bring the benefits and possibilities of On-chain KYC to developers and users alike. Facilitating fast, simple and efficient regulatory compliance on Qtum creates more opportunities for everyone, and spreads the phenomenon of On-chain KYC to an even wider audience.”

Qtum Co-founder Jordan Earls noted that on-chain KYC will become a vital component for many different protocols on the decentralized web or Web 3.0. He added that instead of hindering or inhibiting innovators who are focused on complying with regulations while enabling new technologies, the Qtum Foundation would “like to support those builders by backing Blockpass’ expansion to the Qtum blockchain.”

Earls added:

“Blockpass’ solution has exceeded our expectations when it comes to cost, which is an order of magnitude cheaper than traditional services, and its ability to only allow non-sensitive pieces of information to touch the blockchain.”

Qtum is an open-source, public (or permissionless) blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform that aims to leverage the security of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) along with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contracts.

Secured by a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, Qtum has introduced its own Decentralized Governance Protocol (DGP) that allows specific blockchain or DLT settings to be modified, “leading to the possibility of increasing Qtum’s block size without the need for a hard fork” or backwards incompatible upgrade.

Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider that aims to offer a “one-click” compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated sectors. Through the Blockpass platform, users are able to create, store, and manage a “data-secure” digital identity that may be used for a complete ecosystem of services, token purchases and to also gain access to “regulated industries.”

Blockpass is reportedly offering a 90% discount on its services in order to support clients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Blockpass, which claims to be a pioneer of On-chain KYC, is a “fast, comprehensive” KYC and AML screening software-as-a-service for blockchains, crypto, DeFi and other regulated sectors.  The platform offers various compliance benefits such as “pay-as-you-go,” no setup costs, no integration required, free-of-cost testing, and “immediate launch” services.

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Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: adam vaziri, AML, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, blockchains, blockpass, ceo, Co-founder, compliance, covid-19, crypto, decentralized, defi, digital, digital identity, distributed ledger technology, dlt, ethereum, expansion, financial services, General News, identity, identity verification, information, integration, jordan earls, know your customer, KYC, Ledger, more, other, pandemic, platforms, pos, Proof-of-Stake, qtum, Regtech & Legaltech, screening, security, smart contracts, Teams, Technology, token, transaction, verification, virtual machine, work

Feb 16 2021

GameStop and DeFi: Let’s Not Be So Quick To Judge

Fellow DeFi adherents, let’s slow down on the outrage about GameStop (NYSE:GME) and the traditional finance system (TradFi).  

Blockchain and DeFi offer lots of advantages over TradFi, but TradFi is not completely broken and DeFi is not necessarily vastly superior.  Two core characteristics make them look very similar in a way that undercuts the criticism and negative judgments against TradFi. 

First, DeFi and TradFi both require collateralization, they just implement it in different ways. 

Second, just like collateralization can break down in TradFi, DeFi has a significant exploit that lessens the effectiveness of the collateralization requirement.  And away we go!

Short selling has been much debated and criticized in DeFi and blockchain circles in light of the short positions and short squeeze on GME.  All of the points raised by DeFi maximalists are well-founded but are also well-known in TradFi circles, having been the subject of discussion and regulation for decades.  The Securities and Exchange Commission has strict rules on the subject, and market practice not only seeks to enforce those rules but has its own requirements that go further. 

The biggest way that the rules and market practice seek to rein in illegal short-selling (including “naked” shorting) is through collateralization.  Every borrowing of stock must be collateralized and that collateral is subject to loss if the borrow is not returned.  That is, the borrower posts collateral in order to receive the stock to sell short, and the lender keeps the collateral if the borrower does not return the stock upon demand.  Moreover, the amount of collateral required is marked to market every night, so the borrower is constantly posting additional collateral as the stock price rises.  A short squeeze would not be possible without the collateralization requirement and nightly mark to market.  They are why it can become prohibitively expensive to maintain a short position.

On the DeFi side, lots of commentators pretend that everything is free and easy.  In reality, DeFi relies on collateralization, including versions of a mark to market requirements. 

Maybe we can pretend it is different because DeFi often doesn’t use the term “collateralization,” preferring the term “locking” since the smart contract takes the relevant assets and holds (“locks”) them until the relevant activity is complete.  The smart contract refuses to release the assets unless it is certain that the correct, countervailing value has been credited. 

This locking mechanism is the reason that the concept of “total value locked” makes sense as one measure of the success of DeFi. 

Without locking assets, nothing in DeFi works: not DeFi lending, where assets are locked before the loan is made; not automated market making, where the smart contract locks up amounts of each of the pair of assets being traded; not wrapped BTC, which locks Bitcoin in a smart contract before issuing the token representing that Bitcoin; not even trading on a DEx, where the smart contract locks up the tokens being bought and sold before doing an atomic swap or other exchange between accounts.  

We who espouse the benefits of DeFi on blockchain and criticize TradFi need to recognize this parallel.  We need to explain how collateralization in DeFi is better because it is instantaneous and controlled by smart contracts rather than left to manual processes where errors (including failures to post collateral or mark-to-market) are more possible.  We also need to remind ourselves that a badly programmed smart contract can be just as error prone as manual processes, and with potentially irreversible consequences. 

We also should jump down from the high horse of criticizing TradFi for the fact that short interest can exceed total float (that is, there can be more GME sold short than there are GME shares in existence).  DeFi’s Achilles heel is yield farming. 

It is tough to criticize GME’s massive short interest where, for example, your Dai locked at yEarn becomes yDai that you take to Aave to receive aDai that you take to Uniswap to receive its liquidity tokens that you take to another DeFi protocol and so on, earning yield at each step but locking up no new collateral.  This daisy chain all rolls back to the same original locked assets, such that if something happens anywhere along the string, the consequences could be significant.  As such, the chain of assets created in DeFi is parallel to the outsized short interest people are complaining about in TradFi when that daisy chain is not nearly as strong as the blockchain on which it is built.  

Nothing in this article is intended to express a view on whether TradFi stock shorting, DeFi daisy chains, or the collateralization practices and methodologies in each, are good or bad, compliant or non-compliant, or even sensible.  The point is that all of these things exist and everyone should study the parallels before launching their criticisms and especially before participating in the different markets. 

Remember, one definition of DeFi is the use of smart contracts on decentralized blockchains to duplicate the products and services of TradFi.  Perhaps that includes some of TradFi’s more challenging features as well.



Lee A. Schneider is General Counsel at Block.one, one of the world’s largest blockchain companies and creator of the EOSIO blockchain protocol.  In that role, Schneider is responsible for various aspects of the legal function as well as the company’s government affairs initiatives. He joined Block.one after leading the blockchain, Fintech, and broker-dealer practices at two major international firms.  Lee has been recognized as one of the leading voices in blockchain-related regulation and compliance and has played a role in structuring several of the largest and most successful blockchain-related projects. Schneider co-hosts the Appetite for Disruption podcast with Troy Paredes and is the contributing editor for the Chambers and Partners Fintech Practice Guide. He is the contributing editor of the Chambers and Partners 2019 Fintech Practice Guide. All views expressed are in his personal capacity and reflect only his personal views and not those of Troy, Chambers, or block.one or its directors, officers or employees. His views do not constitute legal, investment or any other type of advice.

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Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: Aave, article, bitcoin, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, blockchains, btc, compliance, compliant, creator, DAI, decentralized, defi, DEX, exchange, exploit, Featured Headlines, finance, fintech, GameStop, General News, Go, government, international, investment, lee schneider, legal, lending, linkedin, market, markets, more, opinion, other, perspective, podcast, Products, Regulation, return, securities, Securities and Exchange Commission, shares, Short Selling, smart contract, smart contracts, step, stock, Study, token, tokens, trading, uniswap, view, Yahoo, Yearn

Feb 15 2021

Digital Assets Ecosystem Surpasses $1.5T Market Cap, $60B in BTC held by Public Firms, as First Bitcoin ETF to Launch in Canada

Researchers at Bloqport have confirmed that publicly-traded firms and fund managers now hold approximately $60 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC), which is around 6% of the digital asset’s circulating supply.

Publicly-traded companies and fund managers now hold around $60 billion worth of #Bitcoin, roughly 6% of the circulating supply.

Source: @BTCtreasuries pic.twitter.com/W9Nrvt7gJD

— Bloqport (@Bloqport) February 15, 2021

The team at Bloqport pointed out that just three years back, in 2018, the founding PayPal CEO Bill Harris had said that Bitcoin is “the biggest scam in history.”

Visa CEO Al Kelly had argued back then that Bitcoin is “speculative” and that they would not be handling BTC transactions. Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon had said that Bitcoin is “a fraud.” But now in 2021, every one of these companies has been “forced to recognize” Bitcoin, Bloqport adds.

While sharing other notable digital asset and blockchain industry developments, the Bloqport team confirmed that the total crypto market had surpassed the $1.5 trillion mark for the first time ever, but the market has retraced significantly at the time of writing.

Notably, Canada’s securities regulator has now approved the launch of the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), an investment manager revealed this past Friday. The ETF could offer investors improved access to the digital currency that has seen its price surge dramatically from below $4,000 in March 2020 to nearly $50,000 in 2021.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has cleared the launch of Purpose Bitcoin ETF, according to Toronto’s asset management firm Purpose Investments Inc. The OSC also confirmed that the approval had been made.

Purpose Investments stated:

“The ETF will be the first in the world to invest directly in physically settled Bitcoin, not derivatives, allowing investors easy and efficient access to the emerging asset class of cryptocurrency.”

Crypto investors currently have the option to trade BTC using futures contracts via the CME derivatives exchange. They’re also able to purchase certain closed-end investment funds, like the Bitcoin Fund via the Toronto Stock Exchange.

An ETF might be able to provide certain benefits to traders, like being able to purchase at net asset value instead of paying a premium, according to Arthur Salzer, CEO at Northland Wealth Management.

Salzer added:

“I think the OSC is doing the right thing allowing for an ETF. It gets rid of some of the negatives of the current funds.”

Bitcoin is trading at over $47,000 at the time of writing after recording a high of over $49,500 this past weekend. The flagship cryptocurrency has managed to appreciate around 65% in value in 2021 alone and has surged more than 1,130% since March of last year.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla recently revealed that it has acquired $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and will make preparations to accept BTC as payment.

The move by Tesla has helped the Bitcoin price significantly as many more investors are planning to gain exposure to the digital asset. As reported, the City of Miami has introduced several Bitcoin focused initiatives, as the pseudonymous crypto has managed to onboard 150 millions users globally according to estimates from a billionaire hedge fund executive.

It’s worth noting that in the US, eight companies have made failed attempts (since 2013) to launch a Bitcoin ETF.

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Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2020, 2021, bitcoin, bitcoin etf, Bitcoin Fund, bitcoin investments, Bitcoin Price, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, btc, Canada, ceo, CME, crypto, cryptocurrency, Currency, Derivatives, digital, digital asset, digital assets, digital currency, ETF, exchange, exchange traded fund, exchange traded funds, fraud, fund, Futures, investment, Investments, market, Miami, more, ontario, ontario securities commission, osc, other, payment, said, scam, securities, stock, tesla, Toronto, trade, trading, Transactions, Twitter, us, Wealth, wealth management, world

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