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You can't sail Today's boat on Yesterdays wind - Michael Noel

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Blockchain and crypto will challenge current finance, Nigeria VP says

Nigeria’s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, delivered a speech at an economic summit on Friday in which he spoke positively of crypto and blockchain. 

“There is no question that blockchain technology generally, and cryptocurrencies in particular, will in the coming years, challenge traditional banking, including reserve banking, in ways that we cannot yet imagine,” Osinbajo said on Friday during the Central Bank of Nigeria, or CBN, Bankers’ Committee Economic Summit. “We need to be prepared for that seismic shift, and it may come sooner than later,” he said.

The Nigerian vice president also noted the broadness of the crypto industry, mentioning decentralized finance, or DeFi, in the mix. “Decentralized finance, using smart contracts to create financial instruments, in place of central financial intermediaries, such as banks or brokerages, is set to challenge traditional finance,” he said. 

Osinbajo’s speech, which included a number of other points, is posted on his YouTube channel. The Nigerian vice president also tweeted out a video clip highlighting of some of his crypto comments from his talk.

“The point I’m making, is that some of the exciting developments we see call for prudence and care in adopting them and these have been very well-articulated by our regulatory authorities,” he said, adding:

“But we must act with knowledge and not with fear. We must ensure that we are in a position to benefit and in a position to prevent any of the adverse side effects, or any of the possible, even criminal, acts that may arise in consequence of adopting or taking any of these options.”

The comments come in contrast to recent developments in Nigeria. Earlier in February, Nigeria forbade banking interactions with crypto exchanges, as per a ruling from its central bank. The CBN’s governor also called crypto assets illegitimate. Bitcoin recently traded at a significant premium in the region.

Blockchain and crypto will challenge current finance, Nigeria VP says

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Celebrating Black Inventors for Black History Month

While Black history should always be recognized and shared every day, for Black History Month, we’d like to give thanks and highlight the many generations of African American inventors and their groundbreaking discoveries that changed the world. Thanks to their contributions, which paved the way for scientific discovery and tech innovations, we saw our daily lives improve throughout the years with everyday inventions.

Get inspired by checking out these Black inventors that helped shape our lives. We’ve been posting about these innovators on the Indiegogo Instagram all month long, and you can click through to see the original social media post for each one.

Born in 1867 as Sarah Breedlove, Madam C.J. Walker was America’s FIRST female self-made millionaire. In 1905, she invented Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, which grew into a line of hair products and introduced a new system of hair care for African-American hair. She wasn’t just a pioneer in the cosmetics industry, she was also a successful entrepreneur. 

By 1913, Walker’s business was earning $3,000 a month (over $50,000 in today’s dollars). A lifelong philanthropist, she also focused her efforts in employing Black women in her community, giving them the opportunity to be financially independent. You can learn more about Madam C.J. Walker by watching Self Made, a Netflix series based on her life.

In 1973, she became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at MIT. She is also the second Black woman in the U.S. to earn a doctorate in physics. Her illustrious career as a theoretical physicist includes leadership positions in STEM across many industries — from academia to public service and government to research.

Most notably, her groundbreaking experiments led to the invention of caller ID, call waiting, touch-tone telephone, portable fax, the fiber-optic cable, solar cells, and many other innovations in telecommunications that we use today. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Dr. Jackson the National Medal of Science, the highest honor in the country for her contributions to STEM and the world.

In 1922, after witnessing a carriage accident at an intersection in the city of Cleveland where he lived, he came up with a new and improved traffic signal. He invented a traffic signal with a warning light that will alert drivers in needing to stop. This T-shaped design was patented and became the precursor of what we now know as our modern three-way traffic light system. So the next time you’re driving and arrive at a stoplight, think of Garrett Morgan!

He also went on to patent more inventions, including a hair straightening product, a sewing machine, and a respiratory breathing device or safety hood which would later become the prototype for gas masks in WWI, protecting soldiers from toxic gas. In fact, Morgan himself would personally demo his invention to fire departments, even leading a rescue mission that saved many lives during the 1916 Lake Erie tunnel explosion.

Dubbed the “Father of Modern Gaming, ” Lawson led the development of the Fairchild Channel F console in the 1970s, which was the first programmable ROM cartridge–based video game console and the first console to use a microprocessor.

But Lawson didn’t stop there. In 1980, he founded Videosoft, a video game development company that made software for the Atari 2600. Atari adopted his cartridge approach and became the top video game console on the market, NBD. He was also one of the only Black members of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of early computer hobbyists that included Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Lawson received numerous awards and honors for his contributions as a video game industry pioneer.

Celebrate Black inventors every day

As we look back at these legacies, it’s up to all of us to do the work and share these stories and contributions with more people. 

Here at Indiegogo, we’re all about giving a platform for new ideas (especially in STEM) to take shape, grow, and thrive with the contributions of crowdfunding backers like you that help bring these innovations to reality. And if you’re an inventor or creator, we look forward to supporting your ideas this year!

Want to explore more Black creators? Show your love and support for Black entrepreneurs and creators in our crowdfunding community.

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SME Lender October Confirms that French Government has Extended State-Guaranteed Loans Program to June 2021

European online lender October notes that in March 2020, the French State had announced a package of €300 billion in State-guaranteed loans (PGE) in order to support small and medium-sized enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the amendment voted on in April 2020, lending marketplaces like October had been eligible or qualified to take part in these French state-guaranteed loans schemes and were offering state-guaranteed loans to qualified borrowers.

Since the introduction of the first state-guaranteed loan on October’s platform in June of last year, 68 French state-guaranteed loans were reportedly funded by institutional and retail lenders for “a total amount of €13,167,000 and new loans will be granted in the coming months, following the government announcement to extend the guarantee program until June 2021,” October confirmed in a blog post.

In December of last year, the French government had also announced a modification or change to the repayment scheme for these initiatives. Companies or businesses that would like to delay the capital repayment of their state-guaranteed loan are now able to request a 1-year “additional deferral to their creditor, who will choose to grant it or not,” the October team noted.

While commenting on the initial repayment scheme, the October team explained that the state-guaranteed loans are different from the standard loans available on their platform. The characteristics of these loans (for instance, the duration, interest rate) have been “set by the French government,” October confirmed.

They also noted:

“French state-guaranteed loans are initially 12-month deferred loans with payment of interest (2%) and principal at the end of the loan. However, what makes the state-guaranteed loan unique is that the borrower can decide to extend their loan after the first 12 months, with a higher interest rate.” 

At the conclusion of this period, the borrower has the following options: loan fully repaid after 12 months; duration extended after 12 months with no capital repayment; duration extended after 12 months with partial capital repayment (Note: for more details on these options, check here.)

While discussing the new repayment scheme, the October team noted that following an announcement from the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance (on December 14, 2020), all firms that had been issued a state-guaranteed loan (regardless of their activity and size) may apply for “an additional one-year deferral to start repaying the capital of their state-guaranteed loan.”

October’s management further noted:

“If a borrower wishes to extend their loan, they can now ask October for the extension of the deferral period for another 12 months, during which the company would repay only interest every month, followed by an amortization period of up to 4 years, during which the borrower would repay both capital and interest (i.e. the maximum duration to fully amortize the loan remains 5 years).”

They also confirmed that the interest rate “applicable during the additional 12-month deferral period is between 3.71% and 4.91% depending of the project rating.”

They also mentioned that when applying for the extension of the deferral period, the borrower will have to “indicate whether they will repay their loan immediately at the end of the deferral or whether they will spread the repayments over several years (in that case, they will also need to state the duration of the amortization).” If the company “decides to spread the capital repayment after the extra deferral period, the loan will be repaid through annuities, with an interest rate comprised between 3.71% and 4.91%.”

The October team clarified:

“Contrary to the extension of the amortization period for a period of 1 to 5 years, this extra deferral period is not granted automatically. October will study the applications on a case-by-case basis and will verify the company’s need to request the extra deferral period by requesting additional documents, studying the impact of Covid-19 on the company’s sector…If the October Committee accepts the application, we will ask the October lenders to vote.”

While commenting on what these changes mean for retail lenders, October noted that if a firm you’ve financed requests the extension of the deferral period for their state-guaranteed loan, then you will be “notified by email and request to vote on the additional deferral period.”

And if the majority of institutional and retail lenders (in volume lent) “votes in favor of the additional deferral period, the extra 12-month deferral will be granted and the company will only repay interest during that time.” The interest rate you’ll get “will be increased.” The new repayments will be “displayed in [the client’s] portfolio, on the Future Transactions tab.” From June 2021 onwards, October confirmed that they would begin receiving “some extension requests from borrowers who were granted a state-guaranteed loan.”

Not all firms may request the “additional” deferral period, but still you should be “prepared in case that happens,” the lender noted. It also mentioned that the platform’s management is available for questions you might regarding this change or update.

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Treasury Secretary Once Again Calls Out Cryptos Role in Illicit Transactions 

Janet Yellen, the new Treasury Secretary, has been put in a central role and is expected to push crypto regulations sometime in the next four years. While she has shared mixed feelings towards digital assets, she maintains that her primary objective is investor protection.

Investor Protection Takes Priority

This week, Yellen appeared in a CNBC interview where she touched several topics, including the prospect of crypto regulations. The Treasury Secretary explained that cryptocurrencies would need a special regulatory environment, as the government hopes to protect investors from their speculative nature and propensity to be used in criminal activities.

The Treasury Secretary recently held a meeting with several other policymakers, including the Federal Reserve Bank, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and New York Federal Reserve – over the GameStop saga of last month and its fallout.

At the meeting, the policymakers agreed that market practices worked reasonably well. However, Yellen remains committed to investor protection as far as cryptocurrencies are concerned.

All Eyes on Janet

This isn’t the first time Yellen will raise the issue of criminal activity in particular. As part of her Senate confirmation in January, she pointed out that digital assets remain a particular anti-money laundering (AML) concern that she hopes to mitigate in her tenure as Treasury Secretary.

“We need to make sure that our methods for dealing with these matters — with terrorist financing — change along with changing technology. Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern. I think many are used at least in a transaction sense mainly for illicit financing and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels,” Yellen said.

Despite this, the policymaker has also pointed out that cryptocurrencies can improve the American financial system. In a written statement to the Senate Finance Committee, Yellen explained that she would look to harness cryptocurrencies’ potential to improve the financial system’s efficiency.

For now, Yellen has yet to adopt any particular policies that could harm the crypto industry. Of course, the Biden administration appears to be focusing on mitigating the coronavirus, and the Treasury Secretary has her hands full with managing its financial implications. However, all eyes will be on her in the coming months as she begins rolling out specific policy proposals.

Treasury Secretary Once Again Calls Out Cryptos Role in Illicit Transactions 

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Congress is blaming Robinhood, not Reddit

Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, very much occupied the hot seat in today’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee over January’s market volatility. 

None of the representatives seemed particularly interested in putting the screws to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and many seemed to give Keith Gill the same props the rest of us did.

These aren’t the market manipulators you are looking for

Gill, in all fairness, was the most likeable character involved, introducing his remarks by saying “A few things I am not: I am not a cat and I am not an accredited investor.” Gill, who really started this chain of events by posting about his investment into GameStop in June 2019, even doubled down on his opinion that GME remains a good buy today, at current prices. This is despite the fact that wild GME trading has attracted criminal investigation.

That lack of scrutiny towards Gill and Huffman does much to quell widespread fear that the events surrounding explosive trading in GameStop (GME) shares at the end of January would kick off probes into social media platforms’ role in potential market manipulation.

This is even as the House Antitrust Subcommittee announced today more hearings to scrutinize the biggest players in social media. Reddit, for now, seems to have flown under the radar.

Congressman Warren Davidson, who sits on the committee, noted this rare area of consensus, telling Cointelegraph: “I was hopeful right out of the gate because early on in the news cycle AOC was sticking up for the Reddit users, saying these people should have a right to trade. And then Ted Cruz, on the other end of the political spectrum said, ‘well, we agree.’”

Tenev’s business model

Though broadly, Republicans were more lenient than Democrats in addressing Robinhood’s activity, and especially the firm’s controversial shut-off of buying but not selling of GME and other high-volatility stocks, everybody wanted answers from Tenev.

The nature of Robinhood’s revenue model, which is based on the sale of order flow, while advertising itself as commission-free, fell under mass scrutiny, as did it’s dependence on a $3 billion injection of capital to meet collateral requirements.

“I believe a vulnerability was clearly exposed in your business model,” said Congressman Anthony Gonzales while questioning Tenev. “We just can’t live in a world where my constituents can have their shares liquidated if you can’t make a capital call.”

Many called out Robinhood’s claims to be busy democratizing finance. Tenev consistently pushed the figure of $35 billion as Robinhood users’ total gains, which Rep. Jim Himes said “you and anybody else schooled in finance know is meaningless without a rate-of-return.”

But while today’s hearing revealed a lot of hostility towards Tenev, it wasn’t all that educational.

Despite Chairwoman Maxine Waters’ admonition that “This is not political theater at all,” there didn’t seem to be any concerted sense of solutions to the epic trading that fueled GameStop’s (GME) meteoric rise at the end of January.

Real-time solution?

Some proposals, including from Tenev himself, as well as Davidson, were that the situation would not have developed at all if the U.S. had trading that settled the day of, rather than two days later — termed T-0 rather than T-2. Tenev noted “The existing 2-day period to settle trades exposes investors and the system to risk.”

Kenneth Griffin, CEO of Citadel, which he described as “the largest market maker in the world,” disputed the likelihood of a real-time system for securities trading in the next several years, saying: “The issue is everything has to work perfectly.” Real-time trading, he said, “requires that every bit of the workflow is perfectly synchronized across the parties.” Davidson disagreed, saying “Clearly in your business the technology exists for trading firms that are engaged in high-frequency trading.”

Davidson noted the potential role of blockchain. The potential of security tokens to solve issues with intermediaries and brokers has been one of the long-promised benefits of blockchain, though that is changing.

Today’s hearing was just the beginning, Chairwoman Waters affirmed. She said the committee aimed to hold two more with different witnesses.

Congress is blaming Robinhood, not Reddit

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