Blockchain payments company BitPay has raised more than $40mn in their most recent funding round; the new funds will help the company to support B2B payments and expand to new markets; "We brought on these new investors who can help BitPay scale globally to meet customer demand,” Stephen Pair, BitPay's CEO, said in a press release reported by American Banker. Source.
Data collected by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) showed that China applied for more than half of the 406 blockchain patent applications; patents specific to cryptocurrencies rose by 16 percent in 2017 to 602 overall, cryptocurrency patents are not included in the blockchain category; 6 of the top 9 patent filers from 2012 to 2017 were China based companies. Source.
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond will announce the creation of a task force focused on cryptocurrencies; the task force will include the Treasury, the Bank of England, and Britain's financial watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority; the task force will help manage the risk surrounding cryptocurrencies and better understand how blockchain technology can be implemented. Source.
According to Bloomberg, Google is working on its own blockchain technology in their cloud business; the distributed ledger would allow third parties to post and verify transactions and will also offer a white-label product for companies; Google has also been active in acquiring and investing in startups according to the source. Source
This week’s WeiyangX’s Fintech Review in Crowdfund Insider covers a Reform plan by China to combine the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) & the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) into one entity; Ant Financial struck an agreement with Pakistan’s Telenor Group to acquire 45 percent of Telenor Microcredit Bank for more than $184mn; JD Finance is raising more than $2bn for license acquisition, research and marketing; China is also looking to establish a standardization committee for uses of blockchain technology. Source.
Speaking at the Development High-Level Forum, CEO Eric Jing called Blockchain, “the cornerstone of trust for the digital society in the future.”; while Jing is bullish on the long term outlook for blockchain technology he also curbed enthusiasm stating that it isn’t ready for a “large-scale outbreak”, comparing the current speculation similar to the internet bubble; he also shared that the technology will be more applicable in the next 2-3 years and that there were still some challenges to overcome. Source
American Banker shares several blockchain projects underway in financial services; Includes JPMorgan Chase’s open source ledger Quoram and initiatives from Northern Trust, ING and the DTCC; while there is a lot of interest in blockchain technology many initiatives aren’t in production; various perspectives are shared in the piece as to why adoption hasn’t taken off. Source
Punjab National Bank in India recently was the victim of a fraud that cost the bank more than $2bn; some have argued that if the system in which the bank used was on the blockchain the fraud would not have happened or it would have been detected quickly; banks still operate on systems that don’t always connect or still involve a lot of paper; enlisting blockchain will help to make the process more efficient, transparent and safe; when this could be implemented is a different question as banks have started testing the new technology, it has yet to be widely adopted across the globe in banking. Source.
The 2018 Joint Economic Report included a section dedicated to cryptocurrencies and blockchain for the first time; the report provides an overview of the nation’s economic status and provides ideas for the next year; this is a big sign for the emerging market as the report is put together by members of the House and Senate; the report says blockchain can be used to help fight cybercrime and protect the nation’s economy and infrastructure; it also states that congress, regulators and the public need to better understand the new technologies. Source.
The patent shares how a platform could be built on the blockchain which could generate credit ratings based on a borrower’s behavior; the system would also leverage more data sources than current credit rating systems and provide more transparency to borrowers on how scores are calculated. Source