Tag: Blockchain Technology

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Crypto News

Mastercard Considers Adopting Blockchain Technology For Faster And More Secure Payments

Mastercard has submitted a new patent for customer protection and payment operations based on blockchain technology based on a patent filing from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), issued yesterday. The new patent filing features a new form of a blockchain-based open source approach to matching funds between blockchain and fiat accounts.

The Mastercard patent depicts the “management of the fractional blockchain” method of storing fiat money in a primary account and blockchain-based coins in a second account. The new approach would entail a “plurality of account profiles, each profile including a fiat money amount, blockchain currency amount, account identifier and address,” to uniquely authenticate user accounts for trades.

Mastercard points out that the integration of traditional payment systems with blockchain-based coins “can provide consumers and merchants with the benefits of decentralized blockchain while maintaining the security of account information and providing a strong defense against fraud and theft.”

Mastercard is heading towards adopting blockchain technology but didn’t change its position regarding decentralized cryptocurrencies

Mastercard states in the patent application that this new approach enables the evaluation of the probability of fraud or risk related to blockchain payments, since current payment methodologies, such as credit reporting data or demographics, can be supplied by conventional transactions systems.

The patent also establishes that the blockchain-based open approach can shorten the transaction times, while it secures better the user information.

In June, Mastercard had submitted another patent for a blockchain solution to quicken payments and increase their security. The financial services provider had also published a license in April to enable faster triggering of blockchain networks’ nodes.

Even though Mastercard has been progressing in adopting blockchain technology via its patent submissions, it has been increasingly critical in its position regarding cryptocurrency. In the autumn of last year, the company’s CEO described non-governmentally backed cryptocurrency as “garbage.”

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Crypto News

Amazon Getting Closer To Accepting Bitcoin (BTC) Payments And Blockchain Technology

A new rumor emerged on Reddit and created a massive buzz around it. According to it, the giant online retailer and tech company Amazon is up for accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments.

As said on Reddit, the information leaked from a developer at Amazon who asserted that the company discussed accepting BTC many times, but every time it got stuck at the returns and refunds issues as the BTC price is very volatile.

Even though the Amazon’s spokesmen kept the silence regarding the company’s plans on accepting cryptocurrency payments and blockchain technology, lately, the company engineers and devs made some significant steps towards cryptos. On the other hand, the Amazon Technologies, Inc., an Amazon subsidiary, successfully patented a streaming data marketplace the enables customers to view crypto transaction data in real-time, as reported by the Daily HODL.

Amazon getting closer to accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments, as well as other cryptocurrencies

The before-mentioned patent talked about the opportunity to employ Bitcoin (BTC) as a use case, asserting that “a group of electronic or internet retailers who accept Bitcoin transactions may have a shipping address that may correlate with the Bitcoin address.”

On the other hand, Amazon purchased three crypto-related Internet domains, namely, amazonethereum.com, amazoncryptocurrency.com, and amazoncryptocurrencies.com. These come in addition to the already-owned domain amazonbitcoin.com. All these domains redirect to Amazon’s main website.

Amazon Web Services and AWS Blockchain Templates are already used by Amazon to offer blockchain solutions.

Also, some rumors say that Amazon plans to launch its proprietary crypto coin. In fact, they’ve already released a virtual currency, the Amazon Coin. However, it’s not relying on blockchain technology, so the coin is not cryptocurrency, so it didn’t win much popularity.

In conclusion, Amazon, the giant online retailer and tech company, takes significant steps towards accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments, as well as other cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology.

 

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Crypto Finance News

German Companies Are Skeptical Regarding Blockchain Technology And Cryptocurrencies, A PwC Survey Showed

Hardly any German financial services provider intends to move forward as a pioneer in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. These are the results of a PwC survey among managers of 300 banks, insurers and asset managers published this month.

Half of the managers surveyed consider the blockchain technology to be of little or no relevance

Moreover, every second company has little or no knowledge of the blockchain. Technology plays no role in the strategic plan at more than two-thirds of companies. Also, three-quarters of those surveyed invest practically no money or less than 10,000 Euros, in this technology.

In summary, it can be said that the blockchain technology is not a part of the plans of the German companies.

On the other hand, only three percent of German financial service providers already use blockchain technology or want to do so shortly.

With the blockchain, there is a noticeable gap between the public hype and the question of how far the financial service providers are actually already with their plans for a real application.

Dr. Thomas Schonfeld, the PwC Director in Germany

The blockchain technology will change the banking and financial industries within ten years from now

But the blockchain will change the financial sector within ten years from now, especially on issues such as improving information security and fraud detection. One in three companies admits this, according to the PwC survey.

In practice, however, only two percent of those surveyed want to be the first to use the technology productively. Almost half of all managers surveyed are satisfied if they introduce the blockchain at the same time as their main competitors.

Financial service providers are also skeptical about cryptocurrencies

Only two percent of the managers surveyed stated that their company is already dealing with cryptocurrencies. The vast majority want to keep their hands off these digital assets.

However, Dr. Thomas Schonfeld is convinced that companies should already get involved in the topic of the blockchain technology.

The blockchain will change the financial industry – there can be little doubt about that. In this respect, companies are required to gradually set the strategic course for the blockchain era. If you want to be there in five or ten years, you have to start formulating your strategic goals now.

Dr. Thomas Schonfeld, the PwC Director in Germany

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Crypto News

Blockchain Technology At The Base Of An Upcoming Hong Kong Trading Platform

Hong Kong’s de facto central bank will roll out its proprietary trading finance platform based on the blockchain technology, along with other 21 banks, during this August, as reported by the Financial Times (FT) on Sunday, July 15th.

The multi-bank blockchain-based solution aims to reduce bureaucracy and costs of security risks

The joint venture of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Chinese company Ping An Group, a branch of the OneConnect Fintech group, is intended to significantly lower the bureaucracy and cost of security risks for market participants, informs FT.

A primary goal of the 21-party framework is to cut down on the time-consuming activities and bureaucratic work required to enroll new businesses in the banking services. The project means to do that by easing transactions.

With the use of blockchain, several transactions would be dealt with in only one day versus a fourteen-day limit under current procedures, as stated by the Financial Times.

Blockchain technology brings banks together in Hong Kong and China

Announced in November 2017, initially, the move signals the first case of a regulator “bringing banks together” to enhance trading finance market, as outlined by Jessica Tan, the Ping An Executive Vice President. As reported by the Cointelegraph earlier in May, a preliminary HSBC trading finance arrangement was a small-scale affair, with the participation of a single bank.

“Instead of individual banks trying to do this, the regulator is trying to bring the banks together,” stated Jessica Tan for the Financial Times.

Ping An has already deployed blockchain-powered solutions for the Chinese national market and is hoping that the very same technology will be successful beyond borders, as stated by FT. The business, China’s second-largest insurance provider with total assets of 4.7 billion yuan ($704 billion), teamed up with the R3 Consortium centered on distributed general ledger technology through 2016.

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Crypto News

Western Union, Volkswagen, And AT&T Filed The Patents For Apps Based On Blockchain Technology

As a sign of the current exploration of the blockchain technology benefits for big companies, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) publicized, on July 5th, some patent applications based on this technology filed by Volkswagen, Western Union, and AT&T.

Volkswagen adopts blockchain technology for vehicle-to-vehicle communication

Volkswagen’s patent, the Method application, is a digital storage medium for vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The system is an exchange of messages between vehicles, in which every message is connected to the previous one and cryptographically encrypted

In this system, which employs the immutability and encryption of the blockchain technology, no party can modify the previously released data, presenting a complete negotiation.

Western Union patented its own blockchain technology app

Western Union filed a patent application for a system of notifications of recurrent secure transfers and payments. This app, based on blockchain technology, would permit receiving and processing transactions and data transfer in various domains within electronic networks.

The unprecedented thing with this patent application, however, is that Western Union included cryptocurrencies among the assets that can be transferred on its system’s blockchain.

AT&T to introduce a token as a mean of exchange

AT&T launched the “System and Method for Generating a Secure Token from a Service Provider” which debates the generation of a token by an online service provider based on user account information. This token would be employed as a means of exchange between AT&T and the user for upcoming apps and systems which could be related to an online gaming platform.

The document from AT&T refers to the generation of a secure token and suggests other data that the provider will manage, including the user’s account data. Before, the telecommunication company had already obtained the acceptance of another patent. Namely, in June 2017 AT&T got the green light to implement blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in the collection of its domestic services.

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