The crypto market turned slightly bearish yesterday following a statement by the former US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen that Bitcoin cannot be considered as a useful store of value. To support the argument, Yellen pointed out low volumes of transactions, slow processing of payments, as well as issues caused by the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network.
While Bitcoin dropped to $6,300 levels, Ethereum (ETH) hovers around $200. Other significant altcoins have lost about 1% in the past 24 hours. However, compared to last week, most of the altcoins such as Stellar (XLM), Litecoin (LTC), Cardano (ADA), and Tron (TRX) have lost about 7% in the past week.
Government level initiatives
Callaghan Innovation, an institution backed by the government of New Zealand, has awarded a grant of $330,000 to Vimba, a local crypto wallet, and trading service. Vimba, which was previously known as MyCryptoSaver, has received funding for research and development. The grant will enable the crypto startup to expand its range of product offerings while listing more cryptos for trading. The funding will also allow Vimba to offer multi-signature crypto wallets
The grant, according to Callaghan Innovation, funds up to 40% of a project. During the last fiscal year, Callaghan has provided grants to 355 projects.
Auckland-based Vimba platform, established in 2014 as MyBitcoinSaver, enables New Zealand residents to make limited weekly investments in top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Since its inception, Vimba has received two rounds of funding. The firm is planning to launch services in the UK shortly.
Choi Jong-Ku, Chairman of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), has clarified that a banking facility would be offered to cryptocurrency exchanges, provided necessary anti-money-laundering (AML) safeguards are in place and implement strong know-your-customer (KYC) checks.
Earlier in January, South Korea had announced stringent AML and KYC guidelines that exchange operators had to adhere to. The directions were designed to avoid trading with nicknames, and all crypto traders should have their accounts linked to a ‘real name’ bank account.
Choi’s statement explicitly stated that crypto exchanges following adequate security and compliance measures would not face any problem in receiving account service from banks.
Private sector initiatives
The Blockchain technology company, ConsenSys Inc., has bought Planetary Resources, Inc., an American asteroid mining company. The acquisition was made through an asset-purchase deal.
Established in 2009 and previously known as Arkyd Astronautics, Planetary Resources is reportedly involved in the identification, extraction, and refining of materials from asteroids. Planetary Resources was funded with over $50 million from more than 30 investors. It has launched two satellites into orbit during the past six months.
The announcement further clarifies that ConsenSys acquired Planetary Resources in order to bring “deep space capabilities” into the former’s ecosystem. Following the acquisition, Chris Lewicki, Planetary Resources’ President, and CEO have joined ConsenSys.
The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has joined hands with Digital Asset, a blockchain firm, to quicken the post-trade formalities.
In association with Digital Asset, HKEX had been testing a prototype system that will minimize the settlement risk, while accelerating the post-trade process. Through a partnership, referred to as “Stock Connect,” the system was tested by HKEX and the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges.
The Stock Connect project facilitates global and mainland investors to trade in each other’s markets through the platforms offered by the respective home exchange.
The news report also reveals that both parties are planning to release a fully developed platform that intends to fix the issue of disparity in time zones and other clearing and functional problems.
Ernst and Young, one of the “Big Four” auditing firms, has unveiled the prototype of a system that permits secure and private transactions to take place on the Ethereum (ETH) public network.
The system, named EY Ops Chain Public Edition (PE), employs an unorthodox algorithm called zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology for authenticating distributed ledger data. The technology ensures that transacting parties will only provide evidence of validity, while other sensitive information, including identities, remains encrypted.
The prototype is intended for enterprises that prefer to store data related to their dealings privately without using a private network. Paul Brody, EY’s Global Innovation Leader, Blockchain, has elaborated as follows: “With zero-knowledge proofs, organizations can transact on the same network as their competition in complete privacy and without giving up the security of the public Ethereum blockchain.”
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