Maria Jones covers recent crypto developments: Dubai launched a state cryptocurrency, Switzerland created a legal framework for tokenized assets, and IBM and Oracle both released blockchain platforms for trade and cloud services.
Hi, this is Maria Jones at cointelegraph Channel with a rundown of our hottest news stories from across Cryptocurrencies this week Dubai has officially launched the world's first state cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency, named mphash, will be used for payments of both governmental and non governmental services. Ali Bragim, Deputy Director General of Dubai Economy states the token of will be considered legal tender for these services. From daily coffee to children's school fees to utility charges and money transfers, the flexibility and convenience of cryptocurrency makes it win to win for Dubai. The government is strongly pro blockchain and sees it as the next major wave in paradigm changing technologies. Ibrahim continues stating, the fast paced environment and incredible willingness to adopt innovative technology has made Dubai the perfect place for us to do business. This project is just the latest example of Dubai forward thinking adoption. The state is seeking to become a fintech hub for the eastern world and a new cryptocurrency is certainly moving the country's adoption paradigm in that direction. Where has all the money gone? The upsides to this move are companies make no profit from the use of cash. It lacks harvestable personal data and it has to be feasible. In fact, cards are now the main form of payment in the country. The public usually spend three times more than the average European. However, going cashless does have some downsides. One is that it marginalizes those who may not have bank account or a mobile phone. The other is the privacy issues it raises. Every transaction is surveyed and traceable, something that cannot be set for cash. By the way, Bitcoin may provide a solution. It does not require its users to have a bank account and it also allows the user to spend their money, if not totally anonymously, in a way that it's close enough to mimic their anonymous usage of cash. Sweden, along with other Scandinavian countries are committed to going cashless. Whether Bitcoin and the blockchain will be the basis for this change remains to be seen, although it doesn't look like we'll have to wait long to find out. Switzerland's Crypto Valley association has launched a legal framework for tokenized assets. The CBA consists of a number of Bitcoin and blockchain's best known companies. It distributed the paper on behalf of blockchain legal firm MMP and tokenized ecosystem provider Blockhouse. MME partner Dr. Luca Muller explained that a common understanding of the underlying nature of different kinds of cryptographic tokens would allow policymakers to construct thoughtful and and enforceable legal and Regulatory frameworks the scope of the new framework is technically in depth and covers a range of related subject matter. At the heart of this document is the newly coined blockchain crypto property. BCP is essentially digital information that contains all elements of a property right that is registered on a blockchain or an alternative digital ledger which can be transferred via a protocol that may carry out additional functions governed by a smart control system encoded for manual input. TVA's President Oliver Bersman stated MFE BCP concept is an important contribution to the debate. It can be of demand used to both regulators seeking to understand cryptocurrencies and investors looking to evaluate their risks. An agreed upon framework will provide investors and issuers with standard tools to evaluate, mitigate and communicate risks in token design and launches. It will also demonstrate more constructive ways of regulating bitcoins than banned or similar moves. IBM has teamed up with the United bank of Switzerland group to work on a blockchain trade platform for major global banks. The future product Tabbed Protevio, will help banks and their clients automate the trade finance process which is still highly manual and paper based. They have already involved the likes of Jomon's Commerce Fund and Ax the Group bank as well as bank of Montreal and Kaiser Bank. This is another investment in the blockchain by ABM which has already seen considerable success in the space. A tavia's remit remains fairly vague at this early stage. However, it should focus on error reduction by giving all trade finance parties an identical self updating ledger to replace manual in house record keeping. A pilot is expected to take place in Q1 of 2018. Meanwhile, IBM's various blockchain efforts have been earned its pole position in a survey this month which named the corporation as the top two enterprise provider. IBM came first with 33% of the vote and Microsoft a distant second with only 20% of respondents favoring its blockchain solutions New transferred blockchain based cloud platform by Oracle and its leading competitors Oracle has announced the launch of its blockchain based Oracle cloud platform in 2018. The platform would help businesses employ the technology for supply chain management and smart contracts. According to Amit Savari, Oracle Cloud Platform Senior Vice President, the technology has the capability to fundamentally transform how business is intent, making business to business interaction more secure, transparent and efficient. The Oracle cloud platform is designed to offer preassembled tools for business enterprises to use for operations that require contracts, transactions and tracking. The platform is developed on top of Linux Foundation's open source blockchain called Hippo ledger fabric. Hippo Ledger Fabric is a private digital ledger that is designed to be very difficult to tamper with. Oracle has been a member of a Hibber Ledger project since September 2017. Similar moves from the tech giants may just be the very push that Blockchain needs to sustain its growth within the commercial space. For the very latest news and events from the crypto scene, check out out Cointelegraph.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you would like to ask me a question or share your story with us, just leave a comment right here and see you next week.
