The cryptocurrency market is seeing some buying, with Bitcoin (BTC) gaining 2.8% in the past 24 hours to trade at $8,871.18. The uptrend seems to be aided by short-covering by speculators. Nevertheless, crypto enthusiasts will only become optimistic if Bitcoin moves near $10,000 again. Ether (ETH) has gained 5.1% to trade at $230.80. XRP has gained 3.1% to trade at $0.2372. Other major (top 20 by market cap) altcoins which have gained in the past 24 hours includes Cardano (ADA-$0.0487, 4.3%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-$337.50, 6.7%), Monero (XMR-$68.54, 5.3%), Dash (DASH-$89.71, 5.0%), Tron (TRX-$0.0174, 4.8%), Stellar (XLM-$0.0594, 4.6%), EOS (EOS-$3.70, 4.2%), Litecoin (LTC-$61.22, 5.6%), Huobi (HT-$4.75, 2.3%), Ethereum Classic (ETC-$8.45, 7.8%), Binance Coin (BNB-$19.81, 2.7%), Cosmos (ATOM, $3.67, 6.9%), OKB (OKB-$5.59, 1.4%), ChainLink (LINK-$4.24, 8.7%) and Tezos (XTZ-2.73, 3.8%). The only major (top 20 by market cap) altcoin, which has lost in the past 24 hours, is LEO (LEO-$0.9539, -0.1%).
Government level initiatives
Committee on Small Business to conduct a hearing around blockchain’s influence on small businesses
The arrival of blockchain technology is causing a radical shift in the manner in which large enterprises and small firms operate, and governments across the globe are paying attention. This week, a committee comprising of the US House of Representatives will conduct a hearing centered on blockchain’s influence on small firms.
Specifically, the Committee on Small Business will conduct a hearing titled “Building Blocks of Change: The Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Small Businesses,” planned for March 4th in Washington DC.
The Committee, under the guidance of Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), will be concentrating on “using blockchain technology to help small businesses boost productivity, increase security, open new markets, and change the way business is done.”
The list of attendees includes Dawn Dickson, CEO of PopCom; Shane Bigelow, CEO of Ownum; Jim Harper, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Marvin Ammori, general counsel for Protocol Labs.
Private sector initiatives
Mobile voting trial by the Iowa Democratic Caucus not terribly successfully, but the idea is still viable
Earlier last month, the mobile voting initiative was undertaken by the Iowa Democratic Caucus did not yield success. Still, the idea of conducting elections using a blockchain-powered platform continues to garner support in the US. Enterprises that are working on blockchain advancement clearly understand that the products they build using blockchain technology pave the way for the transformation of the global economy and the way votes are cast.
In this regard, last week, Kaspersky Lab, the popular cybersecurity firm tracking the crypto sector and budding cryptocurrencies, disclosed a unique type of blockchain-powered voting machine using Polys, the system developed to facilitate an efficient and safe way to vote online.
Kaspersky has its head-quarters in Moscow and offices in the US and across the globe. Following news reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential Election, US citizens may find these tech advancements as alternative means to cast their vote in upcoming elections.
Several governments across the globe are studying the possibility of averting cheating in an election by implementing blockchain technology-based voting platforms. Of late, India’s Chief Election Commissioner has announced that Indian residents would soon cast their vote through a blockchain-based system.
BTP assists Amazon Web Services clients to deploy smart contracts on QLDB
Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP) has facilitated clients of Amazon Web Services to deploy smart contracts on Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB). Earlier, BTP’s Sextant for DAML (blockchain management platform) claimed compatibility on Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Amazon Aurora, which is the relational database service of AWS. Amazon QLDB serves those who want to develop an unalterable, but not compulsorily decentralized, ledger.
BTP CTO Kevin O’Donnell explained how DAML benefits AWS clients. “There are plenty of scenarios where there is a trusted centralized operator or a natural authority but there is still a requirement to ensure data is not tampered with. DAML on Amazon QLDB addresses these use cases combining the expressive power of DAML with the resilience of AWS.”
Digital Asset, a blockchain software enterprise, made available its smart contract programming language, Digital Asset Modeling Language, or DAML, as open-source in the first week of April 2019. Furthermore, on April 16th, the company revealed the integration of Hyperledger Sawtooth. In June, the firm announced integration with AWS Aurora. Notably, in April 2019, Digital Asset also collaborated with mainstream cloud software giant VMware.
Miscellaneous
Latin American countries facing intense money laundering through cryptos
A recent report indicates that LATAM (Latin America) countries are facing the brunt of the economic slowdown in the form of money laundering aided by cryptos. Specifically, the report published by IntSights, a threat intelligence company, indicates that cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) are being used as a prime tool by established crime syndicates and hackers in LATAM nations.
The document titled “The Dark Side of Latin America” asserts that LATAM nations lead the list of countries with the highest money-laundering acts, while domestic crypto-linked companies supposedly have inadequate Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. To publish the study, IntSights collaborated with top global blockchain security company CipherTrace and LATAM-centered cybersecurity firm Scitum.
As per the study, criminal funding has been increasing in LATAM nations as anti-social elements in the locality opt for cryptos to launder huge sums of money. In addition to money laundering in LATAM using cryptos, criminals supposedly capitalize on the lack of KYC and AML regulation of domestic crypto trade facilities and also global P2P (peer-to-peer) cryptocurrency exchange facilities such as LocalBitcoins.
In particular, the data provided by IntSights’ asserts that a majority of international illegal cryptocurrency funds usually reach Latin American cryptocurrency exchanges. As per the document, LATAM-based transactions typically stand out with “extremely lax” rules. The document reads: “Researchers estimate that after cryptocurrencies have been cleaned on exchanges, 97 percent end up in countries that have extremely lax KYC/AML regulations, with Latin American economies topping the charts.”
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