Blockchain News

Blockchain Master’s Degree Now Available In Schools In Malta

Published

2 months ago

October 20, 2019

Blockchain master’s degree is now available at the University of Malta where more than 35 students have already enrolled in the program. Let’s check out the study guide in the blockchain latest news today.

The ‘’Blockchain Island’’ has now a government authority to certify the distributed ledger platforms and regulations to manage smart contracts including a framework for launching ICOs. The University of Malta is now offering a Blockchain Master’s degree and Distributed Ledger Technology course which began its inaugural semester this October with more than 35 students enrolling in the island’s nation only DLT-specific program which offers these programs as a part of the very few countries which offer the same. This is one of the latest changes in the Malta education system by including blockchain degrees which marks the effort keeping the title as one of the best places for blockchain technology development in the world.

The lawmakers in the country started passing blockchain-friendly laws and many high-end industry players such as Binance and OKEx moved their headquarters to the island. In less than one-year crypto companies started moving ashore and more businesses joined later. The master’s program director Joshua Ellul who also heads the Digital Innovation Authority of the country explained that in addition to the 15 companies who have already reached out to the DLT students, there is also a high demand for the government-run blockchain projects, initiatives, and contracts.

Last year, the Maltese government granted 300,000 EUR to fund program scholarships. The course will train the students in blockchain law and regulation, finance and blockchain but also information and communications technology. The students will listen to the program for three full semesters and will gain exposure to two other fields. Ellul explained that the academic diversity prioritizes a broad base of knowledge and the Blockchain professionals were also experts in the sector of the industry but very few can tie the other strands together. He explained:

“We noticed a huge problem between techies and lawyers and business professionals. There was a communication disconnect between us. We thought: ‘this would be the perfect place to have a master’s, one serving the multidisciplinary purposes of the different specializations.”

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Stefan

Stefan is a full-time member and has been a Bitcoin Specialist for over 6 years. Providing daily news and updates for DC Forecasts.

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Blockchain News

TikTok Owner Launches Blockchain Venture With Chinese Media Group

Published

15 hours ago

December 14, 2019

Stefan

The owner of the major social media app TikTok, ByteDance, is apparently launching a joint venture with the state owned Chinese media group and ThePaper.cn operator Shanghai Donfang Newspaper in order to develop business models which will include blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). The reports about the TikTok owner were first issued on Bloomberg.

"A unit of ByteDance has 49% of the new firm, which has registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million); Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper Co. owns the rest, according to a statement on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, an official business registration website," the publication wrote.

As they show, the joint venture was launched in the capital of eastern China - specifically the Shandong province Jinan - on December 10. There was a registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.43 million) where ByteDance owns 49% and the rest of the venture is owned by the Chinese media group.Meanwhile, TikTok is a giant and a social network with more than 500 million monthly active users. As such, it is the second most downloaded app in the Apple App Store in the United States. The short video feed is completely managed by a purpose-built AI which predicts and delivers content that the user will likely prefer.Even though it is still not clear how the TikTok owner ByteDance could benefit from the blockchain technology, a possible use case shows that the collaboration might extend to digital media data verification. For instance, the US law enforcement Axon Enterprise aims to test blockchain for its body cameras and fight deepfake AI-generated videos.Meanwhile, recent reports in the blockchain news today show that the technology is rapidly maturing and seeing wide adoption in China. As we reported before, earlier this month the Bank of China issued 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in blockchain financial bonds as reports showed. China is also expected to conduct the first real world test of its central bank digital currency in the near future.All in all, TikTok is a major player and since it taps into a technology like blockchain, we can expect many new developments and potential use cases for the tech that is backing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the future.

Blockchain News

Robinhood Users Can Now Purchase Fractional Shares Of Equities

Published

1 day ago

December 13, 2019

Stefan

The Robinhood users with the help of the stock-trading company recently declared that its customers will in near future have the opportunity to buy fractional shares of a range of equities, so let’s find out more about the latest service by the company in our latest cryptocurrency news.Robinhood achieved to build its reputation in the six years of its operating in several distinguished ways. First, it enabled traders to trade stock while not churching them a fee. Now, it also announced that it will also enable customers to trade with small fractions of shares.In the blog post, it was declared that the company is introducing the Fractional Shares which come as a novelty in the world of investing. The company notes that there are a variety of stocks and ETFs that cost gruesome amounts of money; indeed, it is not rare to see the price per share thousand dollars or more. Fractional Shares, where everyone can invest in as little as $1 in many of the important major companies. Any amount of money can now serve for a first investment and the official start of the new feature is planned for next week.According to Robinhood, the ones who will sign up early will also get early access. In the meantime, investing in fractional shares will be intuitive, real-time and free of any commission just like traditional share trading. By investing smaller amounts the Robinhood users will have even more opportunity for diversifying portfolios, by choosing among several companies to invest. At the same moment, additional features will be introduced by Robinhood that was requested for some time by traders and investors.Beginning in early 2020, the Robinhood platform will be additional backing for Recurring Investments and Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP). This will give the opportunity to investors to automatically reinvest dividends int their ETFs and the stock of their choice. Further traders will have the possibility to schedule recurring investments. Robinhood ends its announcement by stating that the revolutionary commission-free investing, which was the cause of why it drew so much attention at the start, was only the beginning. Fractional shares are the next step in the process to make investing accessible and cheap with the goal to be possible to be done anywhere and by anyone.

Blockchain News

Chainalysis And Bitfinex Partner For Privacy-Safe Compliance

Published

1 day ago

December 13, 2019

Stefan

Chainalysis and Bitfinex announced their new partnership for the completion of a full AML solution applied to the exchange. The latest analysis is becoming the next frontier of verification as the FATF rules will be unrolled from next summer of 2020.Following the latest crypto news and analysis, Chainalysis and Bitfinex are two institutions that start to scrutinize blockchains themselves and the startup started offering its approach to proving the origin of the funds for multiple coins and tokens. Jason Bonds who is the Chief Revenue Officer at Chainalysis commented:‘’Bitfinex is known as a destination for cryptocurrency traders seeking liquidity across various cryptocurrencies, and that volume requires an automated blockchain analysis solution in order to comply with regulations across the world…We are thrilled to work with Bitfinex as we mutually invest in supporting multiple cryptocurrencies’’Bitfinex is not going without controversy and has faced multiple explorations into their activities. The market operator also had significant problems with the banking services and has gone through periods of non-transparent banking. However, the exchange I staking up a lot of reporting efforts. Chainalysis already tracks some of the biggest blockchains as well as ERC-20 tokens covering 41 top assets and a lot of other tokens. The Chainalysis KYT system allows the monitoring of multiple chains for suspicious activity.Peter Warrack who is the Chief Compliance Officer at Bitfinex, stated his approval of the platform’s latest partnership by saying:

‘’Chainalysis is a top-of-the-line, comprehensive and privacy-safe compliance solution aligned with what we were seeking to keep bad actors off of our platform, while protecting the privacy of our users.’’

The solution does not include information about the users’ ID which is kept strictly in-hour. The company noted they are very excited to work alongside the Chainalysis team and to build a safe and robust platform for the users. The transaction tracking has been done voluntarily but it seems limited. The exchanges have ended up liquidating coins that originated from hacks or other malicious activities and there are a lot of unknown wallets where funds from Ponzi Schemes reside.Bitfinex has left its spot as a top exchange and does not carry a lot of amounts as the activity tanked by 97 percent but the operator remained prominent and is concerned about transparency.

Blockchain News

PayPal Will Sue US CFPB Over New Rules Regarding Digital Wallets

Published

1 day ago

December 13, 2019

Stefan

PayPal will sue the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because of the new rules requiring stricter reporting for the digital wallets as we are reading further in the blockchain latest news.The leader in online wallet payments PayPal will sue the CFPB at the same time when the agency announced a campaign to regulate the so-called prepaid cards to make sure no money laundering is committed. The lawsuit claims that the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, that the rules for prepaid cards have been incorrectly applied to the digital wallets which usually run on an entirely different principle.The rules for the prepaid cards were updated back in April and ran under the ‘’Prepaid Accounts under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.’’ Besides that, PayPal claims that the rules should not apply to digital wallets that transact totally differently and the regulation will lead to a long reporting and unnecessary limitation for the users. The regulatory regime is ill-suited to PayPal's digital wallets and will likely mislead or even confuse the consumers. The rule says that PayPal should make disclosures concerning the fees that PayPal does not charge.The digital wallets allow the users to link their bank accounts and cards and also use them in a much faster way in a web environment. PayPal accounts also provide the possibility to store additional funds which according to the CFPB will create a similar case to prepaid cards. PayPal also complained that the reporting that was required by the regulators was incomplete and confused most of the users.Right now, it is still uncertain whether the lawsuit will have repercussions for the actual wallets that are related to crypto coins and tokens. Currently, the wallets are not used in a transfer of money but the crypto companies offering cards could expect to see their activities monitored more closely. The prepaid cards offer an opportunity to store a limited amount of funds and to potentially avoid the money-laundering laws. PayPal can also be used in a similar manner but there are restrictive limitations for the funds sent.The new rules restrict the usage of funds through digital wallets and now PayPal faces competition from other payment platforms such as Robinhood and Abra which combines fintech solutions with access to crypto.