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Yearn teams up with Akropolis to boost institutional outreach

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Yearn Finance announced on Monday yet another merger with Akropolis, a multi-product DeFi protocol featuring yield optimization and under-collateralized loans.

Like the Cream Finance merger announced last week the two ecosystems will remain largely independent in terms of their tokens and overall product lines, a shared announcement clarifies. However, like with Pickle Finance, Akropolis will now integrate Yearn vault technology and will publish its yield farming strategies on its Vault V2 platform.

The two development teams will combine and benefit from each others’ expertise. Akropolis developers will be able to build their strategies using tools from the expanding Yearn ecosystem, including Cream’s lending platform.

For the Yearn protocol, Akropolis will offer its business development expertise and institutional contacts, the announcement says. Akropolis will also deprecate AkropolisOS and Sparta, its two other products unrelated to yield generation. These will be moved into open source development mode. Development will then be concentrated on an institutional front-end that would let professional traders access the combined Yearn-Akropolis ecosystem.

Akropolis will also introduce an IOU token to track losses from its recent hack. Platform profits will be redirected into this token’s fund to eventually repay all those who lost money on the hack. The team said it will streamline integration with insurance protocols to let more users benefit from coverage in the future. The Yearn ecosystem now also includes Cover protocol, a DeFi insurance provider.

Akropolis said that calling it a merger “is a bit of a misnomer,” despite using the same word to describe the cooperation in its announcement. Many of the integrations rely on the permissionless nature of DeFi, meaning that Akropolis could have unilaterally decided to integrate itself in the Yearn ecosystem at any previous point.

However, the cooperation between development teams is expected to be very tight and seems to be relying on very specific strengths of each team — Akropolis would seemingly make use of Yearn’s development experience in exchange for facilitating institutional onboarding.

Cointelegraph reached out to Andre Cronje and Akropolis, who both declined to comment.

Yearn teams up with Akropolis to boost institutional outreach

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In a Sign of the Importance of Fintech, Switzerland Finance Minister Ueli Maurer to Address Singapore Fintech Festival

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Switzerland has emerged as a Fintech friendly jurisdiction and home to many blockchain-focused financial services firms. The country  has long been an important banking center and the Swiss government is keen to maintain its status in a world that is going through a digital transformation.

In a sign of the importance of Fintech, Switzerland Finance Minister (Federal Department of Finance) Ueli Maurer will lead the Swiss participation in the forthcoming Singapore Fintech Festival, sponsored by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, that is scheduled to take place next month.

Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) and the Swiss Business Hub ASEAN say that Asia remains an important market for the organization’s clients, internationally oriented Swiss SMEs. S-GE is the official Swiss organization for export and investment promotion supporting Swiss SMEs in their international business and helps innovative foreign companies to settle in Switzerland.

A Swiss delegation will again be present at this year’s Singapore Fintech Festival 2020 with a digital Swiss Pavilion. The goal of S-GE is to enable Swiss and Lichtenstein SMEs to realize their international business potential in new and existing markets. Singapore is, of course, a top Asian Fintech hub.

Maurer will lead the Swiss participation with a keynote speech titled “Fintech, Sustainable Finance and Innovation” followed by a panel discussion on the strengths of the Swiss financial center that includes the participation of: Thomas Gottstein, CEO Credit Suisse Group AG; M Ralph Hamers, CEO UBS AG, and Herbert J. Scheidt, President of the Swiss Bankers Association presenting their views. This session will be telecast “live” from the SIX Convention Point in Zurich on 7 December (5 pm SGT).

Registration for the Swiss satellite event can be completed here and is free to the public.

According to S-GE, seven Swiss Fintech companies will highlight their strengths in financial services technologies including regulation technology (Regtech), blockchain solutions, big data and analytics, algorithm trading and cybersecurity. The event presents an opportunity for Swiss Fintechs and their interested stakeholders in Asia to connect and build business linkages in a seamless manner.

The Swiss Fintech industry is said to be highly interested in Singapore, which is seen as a gateway into Asia. Interest in garnering a greater presence in Singapore arises from the Switzerland’s Fintech cooperation framework and agreements with ASEAN, China, India, Japan, and South Korea.

H.E. Fabrice Filliez, Ambassador of Switzerland to Singapore, says:

“The participation of the Swiss Pavilion at the annual Singapore Fintech Festival is an anchor initiative. In 2020, the participating companies will reflect the robustness of the Swiss finance ecosystem, paving the way for collaborations and partnerships in co-innovation and fresh ventures. With Singapore being Switzerland’s most important trading partner in Asia, Swiss fintech companies view the republic as an important gateway to the wider Asian economic region.”

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Crypto-Focused Educational Web Show Sponsored By Ukrainian Government

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A new web series has been released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, of all things. This series is dedicated to the education of the country’s citizens regarding blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin (BTC) in particular.

The Big Push For Crypto Literacy

The show itself saw its premiere on Wednesday, and was developed with collaborations with firms like Hacken, Binance, and Crystal Blockchain. The entire series itself stands as part of the “Diia.Digital Education” program enacted by the government of Ukraine.

The show itself boasts eight episodes, ranging from 6 to 12 minutes in length. The show itself sets out to explain the fundamentals of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Andriy Onistrat, a former banker and now an entrepreneur, stands as the host of the show, with the main idea behind it being to interview various guests that work within the blockchain industry.

Questions Both Easy And Difficult

The first episode is already out, and publicly available on YouTube. The episode focuses on introducing cryptocurrencies as a concept, highlighting the unstoppable, permissionless transaction ledger behind it. The concept of supply auditability were given special considerations.

Onistrat compared this to the National Bank of Ukraine, who could always print out the Hryvnia to increase the supply, highlighting how this isn’t so easy for cryptocurrencies. The first guest of the series was Ivan Paskar, which stands as the Marketing Manager for Binance’s Ukrainian operations. Paskar gave an explanation regarding Bitcoin and how it maintains an auditable, immutable supply.

The pair discussed more complicated ideas, as well, going into some detail regarding smart contracts, Ethereum, and decentralized exchanges. While the show itself is developed to be friendly to beginners, Onistrat threw in some more complicated questions, as well. A prime example would be the conflicting ideas within centralized crypto exchanges.

Cryptocurrencies were built originally on the ideals of freedom and decentralization, but as the world started to adopt and regulate it, identification requirements and traceability have become a new norm. Onistrat asked Paskar these questions.

Ukraine Working Hard For New Digital Age

Should viewers completely go through all the episodes in this series, they will receive a certificate of completion. While not particularly useful, the initiative itself is sound, as the Ukrainian government is making a hard push to increase the digital literacy within its country.

The Ministry already boasts a number of informative shows: One is dedicated on how to be a YouTube blogger, while the other is titled “Digital Lessons for Teachers.”

Crypto-Focused Educational Web Show Sponsored By Ukrainian Government

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