Word on the Block | Forkast.News

The U.S. government's efforts to stimulate the economy don't include a digital dollar, but a director of the Digital Dollar Project said that a central bank digital currency might be better in the long term for the United States.

In this Current Forkast, we bring you top headlines around the world, including how brand names like IBM and Microsoft are using blockchain as a tool against Covid-19, popular video conferencing app Zoom social distancing itself from Facebook, how the Coronavirus is disabling digital farms, and more!

In this Current Forkast, we bring you top headlines around the world, including Binance buying CoinMarketCap, BMW using blockchain to track auto parts, Nodle launching their own network, the Netherlands using DLT in fight against coronavirus, Toilet Paper Token skunking Bitcoin, and how China is pulling ahead in patent race; blockchain and AI in TV and film.

In this Current Forkast, we bring you top headlines around the world, including how U.S. lawmakers propose creation of digital dollar, Coinbase's legal chief heading U.S. Treasury post, Bitcoin-Red Cross fundraiser in Italy, universal basic income, Steem's hard fork into Hive, and more.

As the coronavirus rampages outside of China with numbers of infected rising each day, some experts are advising individuals not to panic, but to practice social distancing, avoid crowds at supermarkets, wear face masks, and to use anti-microbial wipes to clean your hands as the infection could stay for months to come. Dr. Ariane Davison, a Hong Kong-based viral immunologist and director of Global Health Care Consultants explains.

Compliance to international regulatory standards is becoming standard for cryptocurrency-related startups seeking to legitimize their business. Global blockchain security organization CoolBitX's founder and CEO Michael Ou sat down with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau to discuss how compliance with the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) is increasingly important in the cryptocurrency sector.

In this Current Forkast, we bring you top headlines around the world, including how coronavirus batters crypto markets, Covid-19 infiltrating Ethereum events in Europe, Robinhood’s latest woes, Blockchain voting after the stain of Voatz, IOTA limping back after cyber attack, and smart cities and blockchain regulations in China

Asia's blockchain and cryptocurrency projects have more vitality than other regions, according to Cardano Foundation Chairperson Nathan Kaiser.

In this Current Forkast, we bring you top headlines around the world, including India's crypto ban reversal, regulations in South Korea, bitcoin news from France, a new Ethereum protocol and of course, blockchain happenings in China. Read on for the latest on how the coronavirus has affected China’s businesses, as well as Beijing's first blockchain invoice for its citizens and government services.

India's crypto sector saw a major boost after its Supreme Court ruled to lift a ban on crypto trading, paving the way for more blockchain development.

Coronavirus fears are sending markets tumbling. Could tokenized gold, or gold-backed crypto, be the next safe-haven investment in times of economic turmoil?

Welcome to The Current Forkast series with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau and Brian Lio, CEO of blockchain research group Smith + Crown. In this episode we talk about: Lightning Labs raises $10 million in Series A funding and launches Lightning Loop beta, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposes token sale safe harbor, and Zcash votes to allocate 20% of mining rewards to development funds.

Public health coins could be used to incentivize people to interact honestly with the health care system in the case of an event such as the coronavirus epidemic.

The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) is seeking ways to bridge the traditional financial sector to new blockchain-related industries, including ways to open bank accounts said SBA deputy CEO August Benz. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Benz to learn more.

Welcome to The Current Forkast series with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau and Brian Lio, CEO of blockchain research group Smith + Crown. In this episode we talk about: NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie's token release, SEC's warning on Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), Bitwise investor bulletin

Distributed ledger technology could used by front-line health care responders dealing with the coronavirus epidemic to submit information in real-time around the world regardless of censorship. HashLog, a dashboard designed to publicly track coronavirus developments via distributed public ledger Hedera Hashgraph could mitigate political influence involved in spreading information, according to Hedera Hashgraph co-founder and CEO Mance Harmon.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce is "gravely concerned" about how the U.S. Government is addressing technological challenges and opportunities posed by blockchain according to founder and president Perianne Boring. The U.S. could be ceding technological leadership as well as the dollar's reserve currency status to other nations including China if it does not revamp policies toward emerging blockchain innovation.

As China's digital currency is said to be "progressing smoothly," Indonesia is also working on releasing their own proof of concept this year according to Indonesian Blockchain Association co-founder Pandu Sastrowardoyo.

As China, Singapore, Canada and other countries develop digital currencies in part to facilitate cross-border transactions, Ripple's managing director of South Asia and EMEA Navin Gupta instead said that such currencies' primary usage would be domestic.

Although Switzerland's Crypto Valley may seek to become a global blockchain hub, its government is too slow to adopt the technology even as Facebook's Libra incorporates in the country according to Trust Square co-founder Daniel Gasteiger.

Identification on a protocol level could help blockchain become mainstream for blue-chip companies like MasterCard, Volvo and Geely as KYC and AML regulations are met. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau talks to Concordium CEO Lone Fonss Schroder to find out more.

Real-world applications for blockchain outside of cryptocurrency are gaining traction, as startups like SUKU aim to apply the technology to help everyday consumers track where the meat they buy at supermarkets comes from. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau talks to SUKU CEO Yonathan Lapchik to understand how the company uses a “supply chain as a service” blockchain platform.

Safe cities' level of privacy remains a core concern, as indicated by the recent resignation of Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs' Director of Privacy Ann Cavoukian. The application of blockchain to smart cities can protect user privacy, said Vincent Wang, Chief Innovation Officer of Wanxiang Group.

China's blockchain talent pool is increasingly attracting investment from firms such as Blockchain Global, especially in the wake of endorsement from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Blockchain Global Founder and CEO Sam Lee to learn about how the company is tapping into and incubating blockchain talent and enterprise in China.

Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau has an in depth discussion with NEO Head of Development John deVadoss about how blockchain and decentralization can help machine learning and artificial intelligence problems such as bias.

Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, spoke with Gibraltarian Minister of Financial Services and Gaming Albert Isola about how his small jurisdiction became a global leader in blockchain regulation. The conversation covered a range of topics, including the possible effect, or lack thereof, of Brexit on Gibraltarian regulation of cryptocurrencies, the growing importance of Asia in the world of blockchain, and how the industry has brought together experts in finance and experts in technology to create an entirely new space for discussion.

Neo is a cross-platform, code-agnostic blockchain revolutionizing the sector starting with distributed storage. Forkast.News' Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Da Hongfei to find out about the technology and how it will affect various industries in China.

Switzerland is positioning itself to become a crucial hub for the global blockchain industry as investment group Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CVVC) reports that the top 50 blockchain-related companies in the country are valued over US$40 billion in 2019. CVVC Founder and CEO Mathias Ruch told Forkast.News that the country's regulation and policies helped to create an environment which attracted blockchain-related startups from around the world.

Cryptocurrencies have become a new target for investors shying away from politically volatile alternatives. As an on-going trade war between the United States and China and the U.K.’s exit from the European Union threatens the stability of conventional markets, more and more traditional investment entities have started experimenting with decentralized assets. Forkast.News’ Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau talks to Mark Bernegger, Founding Member of Crypto Finance AG to learn how the investment space is adapting to cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain-related startups have dealt with a fair share of challenges and skepticism, especially throughout a tumultuous year where volatility in cryptocurrencies has shaken people’s confidence in the industry. However, investments in blockchain projects has seen continued growth, and incubators like LongHash have sought to harness that potential. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Emma Cui, Founding Partner and CEO of LongHash to find out more.

With Ethereum 2.0’s release just around the corner, co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been busy talking about what to expect from the new system and its use of proof-of-stake validation. Ethereum 2.0 is meant to address a number of issues that the current system has. It is billed as improving scaling, security, and other issues in order to create an environment that bolsters decentralized applications (DApps) as well as smart contracts. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Buterin to find out more about how Ethereum 2.0 will change the industry.

Ron Tucker, Founder and Chair of the Australian Digital Commerce Association, describes his long-running involvement in the industry and the reasoning behind his faith in the technology. As the head of a crypto exchange, Tucker has been involved in navigating and advising the regulatory steps that institutions such as FATF are taking. Contrary to concern about these new policies stymying the growth of the industry, Tucker asserts that the regulation is necessary in providing a safe environment for cryptocurrency to grow.

It may be jarring to consider, but there are currently more slaves in the world now than at any other point in history. According to figures from the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, there were about 40.3 million people who can be considered modern slaves in 2016. That means that one in 200 people in the world is a slave. Forecast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Mark Blick, Head of Government; Blockchain Technology at Diginex to find out more about how they are using blockchain to address the issue of modern slavery.

As the Managing Director, Global Blockchain Lead at consulting firm Accenture, David Treat spends his days engaging with enterprise leaders across various industries about blockchain, from understanding the topic until implementation. Forkast.News spoke with Treat on the sidelines of OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum to find out how these conversations play out, and how Treat manages to open their minds about this technology.

When one thinks of cryptocurrency hotspots, one’s first thought is not of the Middle East. Joseph Dallago, Co-Founder and CEO of Rain, the first Bahrain-based digital currency exchange, aims to change that. Rain provides people with easy access to the world of cryptocurrencies, promising regulatory safety while offering exciting new investments. It targets the Middle Eastern market by being localized to Arabic, providing customer support, and tailoring registration to Arabic documents. Furthermore, it has received a regulatory licence from the Bank of Bahrain, working with the central bank to introduce cryptocurrency to a larger audience.

Incorruptible. Improved funds flow. Transparency and traceability. These are all promises of blockchain / digital technology to help the modern-day issues of cash-based economies. But should this responsibility be held by companies or governments? David Shrier, author of upcoming book from MIT Press in November 2019, “Trusted Data” dives into the debate of a digital currency, sparked by Facebook’s Libra Project, and how governments are reacting with their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)… or is there a third way? Shrier puts on his futurist hat to answer what is a “federated currency” and why this could be a solution of the future.

What is the next big thing? As far as Joseph Lubin, Founder of Consensys, is concerned, we are already experiencing it as you read this. Lubin shares how blockchain is already a killer app, being used globally as a new database technology. He notes cryptocurrency is already enabling cross-border transactions that help facilitate trade and raise money. But how does Lubin respond to questions about governance? In this exclusive one-on-one interview at the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum in Paris, Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau talks with Lubin about the challenges that blockchain faces still, including scalability – a solution that Lubin hints we could be seeing soon from Ethereum.

In just one year’s time, it appears that global policymakers and regulators have woken up to blockchain in a serious way. Caroline Malcolm, new in her role as Head of OECD Blockchain Policy Center, shares key highlights from this second global blockchain policy forum held by OECD in Paris, Sept. 12-13, 2019. In this candid conversation, Malcolm shares how the hype and fear around cryptocurrencies is fading and now evolving into serious discussions about policy and its impact on innovation. From gov tech, stablecoin, central bank-backed currency, to global adoption, policy responses, and best practices -- governments, industry leaders, academics and regulators gathered to discuss what we may see implemented next year.

In anticipation of China Telecom’s new blockchain SIM card project, Director of its Blockchain Research and Development Departments, David Wei Liang, peaks to Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, about the reasoning behind embarking on the project, the product’s uses and implications, and the timeline of its adoption.

France’s Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire made waves last week at OECD’s second annual Global Blockchain Policy Summit Sept. 12, 2019 in his introductory remarks in Paris, targeting Facebook’s Libra project. In no uncertain terms, Le Maire said he wants to block Libra in Europe as he stated that “monetary sovereignty” of nations would be at risk. “In these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil,” Le Maire said. Forkast.News gets a more nuanced view on those remarks from Michael Amar, co-host of Paris Blockchain Week Summit and a serial entrepreneur that leads Chain Accelerator, a blockchain hub incubating blockchain talent in France. Amar shares why Le Maire’s remarks is only the beginning of a more negotiated journey for Libra acceptance in Europe, the U.S., and around the world.

The world of insider trading as relates to cryptocurrency -- what are the rules that govern trading crypto, in the eyes of the SEC, CFTC, and the like? Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief, Angie Lau sits down with attorney and partner, Jason Gottlieb, at NY-based Morrison Cohen law firm to discover the in's and out's of trading.

Just earlier this month, China announced that it intends to launch its own cryptocurrency, specifically one that is backed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) after four to five years of research. Many deemed that this is a response to Libra, a cryptocurrency project spearheaded by Facebook, as central banks around the world have expressed their concerns about the lack of central bank oversight for this specific project. But what exactly has been going on with PBoC’s cryptocurrency — and other blockchain projects, for that matter — throughout their research period? In order to find out, our Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sat down with Professor He Zhiguo from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to unpack this issue from the inside.

Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Isabelle Corbett at the OECD Blockchain Policy Forum 2019 in Paris, France. Isabelle Corbett, R3 Head of Regulatory Affairs and Public Sector Partnerships, says she’s assessing the “tone” of regulators at OECD to understand what is being viewed positively, and what is being viewed with caution, but is not discouraged by Le Maire’s remarks. Corbett says gov tech is a way governments are applying tokenization from land registries to vehicle registrations.

Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief, Angie Lau, sits down with William Pesek to deep dive on his latest piece on why the East, specifically China, South Korea, and Japan, might be making bold moves in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

In its genesis, blockchain was designed with the intention of it being a decentralized peer-to-peer network. However, these networks can either require permission by a controlling entity (a private blockchain) or be truly permissionless and everyone can make modifications (a public blockchain). But when it comes to enterprises and businesses, which one is better? On one hand, a private blockchain is more flexible as the controlling parties are able to mold and amend the network’s rules to ensure optimal workflows. On the other hand, a public blockchain has a higher degree of integrity — multiple parties independently vetting for one piece of information is more reliable than one source dictating what that piece of information means. Tomaz Levak, Co-Founder of OriginTrail, thinks that enterprises need a bit of both for one simple reason: interoperability.

In this last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney made waves in the crypto industry by espousing, as a pillar of traditional banking, an alternative to the very system he heads. At a speech in the U.S., Carney put forward the idea of a “synthetic hegemony currency” - in other words, a central bank-banked cryptocurrency that could replace the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. Michael Every, experienced economist and Head of Financial Markets Research Asia-Pacific at Rabobank, would beg to differ. As a long-time expert on Asian markets, Every does not anticipate that the crucial, closed-off Chinese economy would adhere to the libertarian principles behind blockchain and cryptocurrency.

A month ahead of the launch of Anchor’s stablecoin, its founder and CEO Daniel Popa sits down with our Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau to discuss why the world needs a two-token stablecoin pegged to the global economy — not the traditional US dollar peg — especially at a time where recession looms over investors’ heads. Since 18 months ago, Popa’s team of economists and blockchain developers sought out to create an index named the monetary measurement unit (MMU) to peg the Anchor currency to. The index itself, according to Popa, is a culmination of 190+ countries’ average GDP over the last 25 years, FX indicators, and other factors. As stablecoins are designed to minimize the volatility of a cryptocurrency price, Popa argues that pegging his cryptocurrency to the global economy growth would not only bypass inflation, but also bypass the upcoming recession by preserving the currency’s value or purchasing power over the volatile period. At the end of the day, Popa believes that all investors are seeking a safe harbor, whether it is to hedge their current assets or to invest in an unexplored asset class. As governments and crypto-enthusiasts alike are becoming more aware of this class of cryptocurrency, and that this can potentially bring short-term viability to fiat currencies, Popa is hopeful that this is the year of stablecoins.

In this episode of Word on the Block, Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Kevin Kelly of Delphi Digital to explore the recent trends in the market has seen for Bitcoin given monetary policy. Is the global macroeconomic environment creating an opportune moment for cryptocurrency? What does this inflection point look like? From the negative-yielding debt to long-term currency devaluation, Kelly explains why institutional investors might want to start paying attention.

In this episode of In Conversation With, Angie Lau sits down with Steven Nerayoff, a prolific investor and advisor in blockchain as well as chairman of CasperLabs. Nerayoff compares the blockchain revolution to the boom of the Internet. In its rudimentary form, ARPANET, the predecessor the Internet as we know it, didn’t receive much commercialization until the 90s. The advent of Netscape, however, rendered the Internet a visual experience where it quickly began to spread globally. For Nerayoff, blockchain and digital currencies have this same potential, but have yet to experience its own “Netscape.”

GSMA Senior Policy Manager Paul Ulrich sits down with our Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau to share his expert opinion on governmental and regulatory telecommunications companies’ attitudes towards cryptocurrencies. As the intermediary between governments and other parties, Ulrich is familiar with the inner workings of international bureaucracies. He balances the potential benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency adoption with the risks they pose, in context with individual countries’ circumstances.