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distributed ledger technology

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Ubitquity, LavaTrust aims to open up networks and key opportunities for both to participate in the restructuring of outdated technology and business processes with greater efficiency of DLT-based solutions.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

Source

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 04 2021

Justin Mart, Ryan Yi from Coinbase take a Closer Look at Ethereum, DeFi Growth, Also Review OCC, FinCEN Developments

Digital asset exchange Coinbase recently published its Around the Block #11: “A snapshot of decentralized finance (DeFi) and two sides of the crypto regulatory spectrum” (report), which aims to cover important issues in the crypto and blockchain industry.

In this latest edition, released on February 3, 2021, Justin Mart and Ryan Yi take a close look at the current state of DeFi and the evolving digital currency regulatory space.

During the current crypto bull market, DeFi has “continued its strong rise,” the report confirmed. It pointed out that starting in the summer of last year, DeFi initiatives experienced dramatic growth in Total Value Locked or TVL (as tracked by DeFi Pulse and many other sites).

Coinbase’s report noted that DeFi’s meteoric rise is still “spurred” by the yield farming phenomenon. According to the US-based exchange, this includes “a virtuous cycle: Yield farming mechanics induce participants to add capital → which increases TVL → which drives governance token valuations → which increases yield farming subsidies → which continues the cycle.”

As stated in the report:

“Nevertheless, true zero-to-one innovations in DeFi cannot be discounted as part of the growth story. These are things like synthetic assets (e.g. Synthetix, UMA, and Mirror), increased capital efficiency in financial products (e.g. Aave, Compound), open financial access (including flash loans and emerging remittance use cases), and composable protocols that layer DeFi projects together like Yearn.”

Total Value Locked in DeFi protocols (TVL) currently stands at over $32B at the time of writing, a remarkable 2700% growth year-over-year. Meanwhile, the number of DeFi users has grown to exceed 1.2M, as “defined by the number of unique addresses accessing DeFi services,” the report revealed. It also noted that mainstream protocols such as Uniswap and Compound now claim around 200–500K users, with “most other DeFi apps between 25–50K users.”

DEX (or decentralized / non-custodial crypto exchange) volume has also maintained its steady growth since July 2020. Total DEX volume has “surpassed most centralized exchanges, topping $10B per day in January 2021,” the report confirmed. It also mentioned that volume has been “driven by growth in DeFi, but also tailwinds from broader crypto bull markets and sustained traction in categories where DEXs enjoy competitive advantages.” These include “access to the long-tail of novel DeFi tokens; and efficient swaps between highly correlated assets (e.g. stablecoins),” the report added.

But DEXs today settle trades on the Ethereum mainnet, and are subject to “oppressive” gas prices during periods of increased activity. This “drives continued interest in scaling solutions, with a notable milestone as Synthetix has launched on Optimism (a rollup-based scaling solution),” the report added.

The report further noted:

“DeFi is moving too quickly for any single person to keep track.”

But some major themes include:

  • DeFi projects are embracing composability: New DeFi projects “either introduce new primitives, or bundle existing primitives to create net new products.” Think of these primitives “as lego bricks, 6 months ago we were designing and building single bricks.” Today we are “combining these bricks into cars, planes, and castles.”
  • Composability is “extending into DeFi versions of partnerships: DeFi projects are wrestling with key questions around moats, defensibility, and top-line growth.” Most projects seem to “embrace open community collaboration, believing communities create moats (you cannot fork a community).” This exact vision “initially led to the governance token and yield farming phenomenon, and today is evolving into creative partnerships and collaborations, most notable in Sushiswap’s 2021 roadmap.”
  • Scalability is “becoming a bottleneck, but solutions are coming: As the base Ethereum chain struggles under scale, several protocols are openly exploring integrations with Layer-2 networks or other blockchains.” Look for “significant progress in 2021, especially in Ethereum rollups.”
  • Regulatory uncertainty impacts development: “In tandem, the SEC lawsuit against Ripple and CFTC lawsuit against BitMEX demonstrate that regulatory bodies are paying close attention to crypto, and not afraid to charge the largest players in the space.” It’s reasonable to “expect increased attention on DeFi based projects, and this uncertainty continues to impact feature development in regulated jurisdictions.”

During the last quarter, FinCEN and the OCC have introduced several crypto regulatory policies, the report from Coinbase noted. While both are under the purview of the US Treasury Department, the guidance appears to be on “the opposite ends of the spectrum toward crypto friendliness,” Coinbase claims.

They explained that FinCEN is responsible for ensuring that companies follow applicable KYC/AML regulations, which are really important for digital currency exchanges (or VASPs — virtual asset service providers) such as Gemini, Kraken, Coinbase, among others. Digital asset exchanges must verify their users’ identities (KYC) and use blockchain or DLT forensic tools to examine digital currency transactions to ensure deposits don’t come from illicit sources.

FinCEN has proposed an amendment to the Bank Secrecy Act’s FBAR regulations, which is specific to cryptocurrencies or VASPs. The new amendment will require US residents to report their cryptoc-asset holdings and transfers valued at more than $10,000 regardless of where these assets are being held.

The amendment could require US citizens to report crypto holdings in excess of $10,000 that are maintained in overseas accounts, and also require exchanges or digital wallets to store client details related to any transfer valued at more than $3,000, and also report these details to FinCEN for any transfers valued at over $10,000.

The public notice only had a 15-day comment period over the recent US holiday break, which made it quite challenging for VASPs to respond properly.

Many crypto firms (Coinbase, Fidelity, Square, CoinCenter, ErisX, among others) have issued strong responses which have noted that the suggested rules may create issues. These companies or organizations have also criticized the rushed nature of the proposal. Since then, the US Treasury decided to extend the comment period, but the future still “remains unclear given the new administration,” Coinbase claims.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau in the Treasury which is responsible for assisting with the “charter, regulation, and supervising banks,”  appears to have “come out on the other end of the spectrum with recent guidance,” Coinbase stated in its report.

  • Federal Banks are allowed to operate public blockchain infrastructure (January 2021]
  • Federal Banks are permitted to engage in stablecoins (September 2020)
  • Federal Banks are allowed to custody crypto-assets (July 2020)

Coinbase added:

“It’s clear that national banks may now participate in the crypto economy through custody and settlement. Notably, Jan 2021 guidance which legitimizes public blockchains as settlement infrastructure, placing blockchains on par with ACH or SWIFT. … federal banks can serve as large validators on blockchains (e.g. miners), or more practically, banks may ultimately settle transactions on Bitcoin, Ethereum, or through stablecoins.”

The exchange further noted:

“This is the first step in regulatory action required to bridge the crypto economy into traditional financial infrastructure. … while the OCC is the federal regulator, it is not the only regulator. There will be an interplay between the interpretation of this guidance from the state vs federal level.”

The report concluded:

“Separately, adoption will take time — blockchains are still relatively new and lack some core features (e.g. privacy, scalability), but this is a promising development. To their credit the Treasury has since extended the comment period, and the proposal potentially hangs in limbo with the incoming Biden administration.”

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2020, 2021, Aave, Adoption, Apps, Banks, Biden, bitcoin, BITMEX, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, blockchains, Bull Market, cars, cftc, coinbase, Community, Compound, Cover, crypto, Crypto Holdings, crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, Currency, custody, decentralized, decentralized finance, defensibility, defi, DEX, digital, digital asset, digital asssets, digital currency, digital wallets, distributed ledger technology, dlt, economy, ethereum, exchange, Exchanges, Federal Banks, Fidelity, finance, financial infrastructure, FinCEN, Fork, Future, gemini, Global, html, identities, Infrastructure, innovations, Kraken, KYC, KYC/AML, lawsuit, linkedin, Mainnet, market, markets, milestone, miners, more, occ, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), other, Politics, Legal & Regulation, Privacy, Products, Regulation, report, research, Research Report, ripple, scaling, SEC, Space, square, stablecoins, step, story, synthetix, token, tokens, Traction, Transactions, transfers, uniswap, United States, us, vasps, virtual asset service providers, Wallets, Yearn

Feb 01 2021

Blockchain tech makes sustainable development goals more achievable

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres estimates trillions of U.S. dollars per annum is needed to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The question is: “Where would it come from?” Official development aid, philanthropy and public finances cannot suffice, which means the needle is moving toward private capital to fund sustainable development projects.

Related: The UN’s ‘decade of delivery’ needs blockchain to succeed

But the gap between financing and the environmental impact does not exude the confidence of private investors to fund development projects. India, a center of sustainability risks and innovative interventions, offers an example of this gap. Between 2014–2015 and 2018–19, corporate social responsibility, or CSR, spent by the approximately 1,100 listed Indian corporates grew at a rate of 16%, while India’s score on the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index grew by roughly 1% compound annual growth rate, or CAGR. Ironically, most CSR spending by Indian companies goes to education and health — the very sectors the HDI index focuses on.

It is time for blockchain tech

Can blockchain technology be a workable solution? It can because development projects conduct measuring, reporting and verification, or MRV, processes measure the outcome and impact of projects. Most readers are aware that distributed ledger technology stores data batches in blocks on the network, and the need for independent verification from the network’s users makes the records transparent, secure, verifiable, and immutable. These are the very attributes by which blockchain can improve the MRV processes, thus improving data auditability and reducing misreporting/fraud of data. This can incentivize private capital to consider investing in this space.

Moreover, if we must identify the precise activity of a typical development project where blockchain technology can be leveraged, then it would collect and time-stamp project-level data for monitoring purposes. The challenge is many resource-crunched development projects, especially in developing countries, still collect field data by hand, which can lead to inaccuracies, mistakes and fraud. With a blockchain, such data can be collected and reported in a secure, transparent and verifiable manner.

What also adds adverse effects is the local institutions in the developing countries that implement such projects often lack the systems to ensure the data they report is verifiable. Weak regulations in such countries make it difficult to hold such local institutions to account. Add to this the distance between foreign investors and these local projects, and it becomes harder to stay on the same level.

Blockchain can reduce the data risks of local-level institutions, improve the validity of the data they report for impact, and instill confidence in foreign private donors/investors to fund such development projects.

Blockchain and MRV processes

What this implies is more financing flow can be committed to the local level. Back in 2017, the International Institute for Environment and Development estimated that only 10% of the $60 billion in public and private climate finance is directly committed to the local level, which is partly due to such perceived data risks. Using blockchain to improve MRV can facilitate greater access to capital for local-level institutions.

With blockchain enabling local projects to report verifiable performance as part of their MRV processes, local development institutions can gain a greater supply of capital. The Amazon in Brazil is an example. The Rainforest project uses blockchain and the Internet of Things to record and transfer data from electrical meters, robotic appliances and emission monitors on the environmental impact. Remote sensing satellites independently verify the status of patches, upon which blockchain smart contracts directly reward the farmers who preserve their rainforest patches. The outcome data is verifiable, and the exclusion of intermediaries while transferring incentives minimizes administrative costs and the siphoning of funds.

Blockchain-enabled MRV processes help disintermediate the intermediaries in a social or sustainability bond issuance, thus reducing issuance costs and making it possible for small enterprises to access the bond market or aggregate smaller assets into bonds. Already, leading Spanish bank BBVA uses blockchain to structure green bonds and loans.

As long as limitations such as internet capacity and technology literacy can be overcome, blockchain’s revolutionary role in improving the MRV processes around data can mobilize more private capital investments for development projects executed by local-level institutions in developing countries.

This article was co-authored by Sourajit Aiyer and Jae-Hoon Kwak.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Sourajit Aiyer is a consultant at South Asia Fast Track Sustainability Communications. Previously, he worked with traditional and sustainable finance organizations. He has written three books, over 160 articles for 60 publications, given over 30 guest-talks at various universities and conferences, and curated 20 webinars with over 50 international domain-experts.

Jae-Hoon Kwak is the CEO at Pan-Impact Korea, a company focusing on social impact via innovative technologies.

Blockchain tech makes sustainable development goals more achievable

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: 2017, amazon, article, Asia, blockchain, bond, Bonds, books, Brazil, ceo, company, Compound, data, Developing Countries, distributed ledger technology, dlt, Education, Environment, environmental, finance, fraud, fund, green, health, human, index, India, international, Internet, Investing, Investments, Korea, Ledger, market, more, opinions, report, reward, smart contracts, social, Space, sustainability, sustainable, tech, Technology, u.s., United Nations, verification

Jan 22 2021

YIELD App, Created by Fintech and Cybersecurity Experts, to Expand its DeFi focused Digital Banking Solution to Avalanche

YIELD App is getting ready to expand its decentralized finance (DeFi) banking solution to Avalanche.

According to a blog post published on January 22, 2021 by Ava Labs, which supports the ongoing development of Avalanche, a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-focused platform and project, this new integration will allow YIELD users to more easily gain access to new opportunities within Avalanche’s evolving DeFi ecosystem so they can “maximize their crypto returns.”

As confirmed in the update, the YIELD App will be expanding to Avalanche following the completion of the integration during the second quarter of this year. The initiative will aim to take advantage of the “rapid growth of opportunities” in Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem.

As noted in the announcement:

“YIELD App is led by an experienced team of capital markets, Fintech, cybersecurity, and crypto professionals, and adheres to internationally recognized standards under global financial, regulatory, and licensing best practices.”

The YIELD App’s main product combines two major components its team believes were not found in the majority of DeFi apps. They include a “proprietary” portfolio management engine on the back-end and a digital banking and wealth management app on the front-end.

By leveraging all these capabilities, the app can regularly monitor and assess/evaluate the overall profitability of strategies across the DeFi space, such as liquidity mining, arbitrage, liquidations, margin and collateralized lending, and various other income-generating methods.

It employs an advanced risk management solution, allowing consumers to “achieve their optimal risk/reward ratio.”

YIELD App users are able to generate a “minimum of 12% APY and up to 20% APY–returns are maximized by eliminating gas fees and paying interest daily,” the announcement noted.

Tim Frost, CEO of YIELD App, stated:

“DeFi’s growth has been undeniable, but in order to bring it into the mainstream, hybrid crypto financial services providers, DeFi project owners, and innovators must collaborate to build better, more accessible products and services. This collaboration with Avalanche provides an opportunity for YIELD App to work with a best-in-class DeFi protocol developer and blockchain pioneer to make it easier for all investors to acquire digital assets and participate in DeFi services.” 

YIELD App’s user-friendly application and web platform allow users across the globe to generate fairly  high returns from various DeFi products “without having to go through a lengthy, complex, and often costly learning process.”

YIELD provides an investment fund that’s managed by a team with considerable experience in the Fintech and cybersecurity space.

As noted in the update, at “the core of its strategy is the YLD token, which rewards community members and allows them to boost their APY from 12% to 20%.”

As previously reported, Avalanche is an open-source platform for creating DeFi apps and enterprise-grade blockchain or DLT deployments in “one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.” Software engineers who create solutions on Avalanche are reportedly able to develop robust, reliable, and highly-secure software and customized DLT networks with “complex rulesets” or build on various private or public subnets (sub-networks).

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: Crowdfunding · Tagged: 2021, AIM, Apps, ava, ava labs, avalanche, Banking, blockchain, Blockchain & Digital Assets, blog, Capital Markets, ceo, Community, crypto, cybersecurity, decentralized, decentralized finance, defi, digital, digital assets, digital banking, distributed ledger technology, dlt, Fees, finance, financial services, fintech, fintech apps, fund, Global, Go, integration, investment, Ledger, lending, markets, mining, more, other, portfolio, product, Products, returns, risk, Risk Management, Software, Space, Strategy, Technology, tim frost, token, Wealth, work, yield app

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