CENTRAL BANK OF GERMANY IS WORKING ON A BLOCKCHAIN

According to a public notice published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union, Ocean Protocol, a Singaporean non-profit foundation, was hired to create a decentralized network for Germany’s Bundesbank. Germany’s central bank said that the Ocean protocol, which is a project of relatively limited renown, was chosen because they were the only possible contractor for the job, citing a “lack of comparable competitors.” 

The central bank aims to set a decentralized network approach with this project. 

Bundesbank detailed in its public notice that the project’s main purpose is to set up a “decentralized network approach, which allows participants a permanent, symmetrical data access for the realization of real-time updates of statistics while preserving data sovereignty.” The institution expects to work hand in hand with the Ocean protocol to build a platform for securely publishing, transferring, and consuming public and private data.

Blockchain technology is being utilized in many sectors around the world as regulators and lawmakers acknowledge the potential of this revolutionary tech. It was earlier reported that Germany’s central bank is considering alternatives to a CBDC, so this blockchain project might have something do with it. 

Central banks around the world experiment with CBDCs. 

Central banks in many countries are experimenting with some sort of national digital currencies. Earlier, the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, suggested they are waiting to get the right proposals in place, rather than becoming the first to launch in regard with a CBDC. Several other major central banks, including the Bank of Japan, the Philippines’ central bank, are working on a CBDC.

As reported earlier, the Caribbean island Bahamas became the first nation to launch its central bank-backed digital currency. The central bank of Bahamas partnered with several local financial institutions on the rollout, including electronic payment firm Kanoo, mobile money company Cash N Go and e-commerce platform MobileAssist. ...

GAZPROMBANK GREENLIGHTED TO LAUNCH BITCOIN OFFERING IN SWITZERLAND

Gazprombank Swiss has finally received FINMA regulatory approval to start offering crypto trading and custody to selected institutional customers in SwitzerlandSwiss subsidiary of Russia's largest bank embraces Bitcoin

According to a press release, after two years of effort, Gazprombank's subsidiary in Switzerland has been authorized to offer crypto custody and trading against fiat currencies to selected institutional and corporate customers.

Customers will be able to trade BTC and store their holdings using the bank's corporate custody solutions. The bank intends to add more cryptocurrencies, products and services over time.

Storage of customers' crypto assets will be provided by a bank regulated by Swiss legislation, thus limiting the counterparty's risk.

The bank's CEO, Roman Abdulin, said he expects digital assets to become more important to the global economy in the future, along with a higher inflow of customers that will go for them.

The balance sheet of the bank totals approximately $2 bln (1.8 bln CHF).

Russia expects to launch digital ruble trials in 2021

As reported by U.Today previously, Anatoly Aksakov, a Russian parliament member who also sits on the Central Bank's National Banking Council, stated in an interview that consultations about creating a digital ruble are already underway and he expects trials to begin as early as next year.

He believes that the emergence of the digital ruble in Russia is highly likely. According to Russian media sources, these tests are likely to take off at the end of next year.

Anton Siluanov, the Russian minister of finance, said that the digital ruble will allow business to cut down on expenses related to transaction fees regarding payrolls, settlements and so on.

He added that Russia wants to follow global trends and state-backed digital currency is a major global trend at the moment.

However, the country's general stance on unregulated crypto such as Bitcoin is not so welcoming. The government has already passed a bill that will prohibit users from making and/or accepting payments in cryptocurrencies and allows them to be used only as financial assets....

COINBASE LAUNCHES VISA CRYPTO CARDS

The US-based cryptocurrency firm Coinbase had launched the Coinbase Visa debit card for European customers earlier. The crypto firm also disclosed that the crypto card is now being leveraged in 30 different countries within the U.K. and Europe. This week, the company announced that American residents can now register for the crypto Visa card. The company announced that customers in the U.S. could join the waitlist for Coinbase Card, a Visa debit card that allows crypto to be used for payments and purchases online and in-store. 

Coinbase card will allow people to spend with nine different cryptocurrencies.

According to the announcement, the Coinbase crypto card will allow people to spend with nine different cryptocurrencies. Similarly to competitor cards from firms like Crypto.com, U.S. card users will be able to obtain purchase rewards from Coinbase. The crypto firm revealed that cardholders would be able to earn up to 4% back in stellar or 1% back in bitcoin. American Coinbase card applicants must be fully verified on the system, and there will be a wait time until the firm makes its first approvals. 

“Users can utilize the virtual Coinbase Visa as soon as they are approved.”

The Coinbase card will also provide a virtual card. The firm detailed during the announcement that users can utilize the virtual Coinbase Visa as soon as they are approved. “The first customers will be approved this winter,” the crypto firm disclosed. “Once customers are approved, they can spend with a virtual card right away and will receive a physical card in the mail within two weeks.”

There is no fee required to issue the card, but standard crypto conversion fees may apply, Coinbase noted. The cryptocurrency card is powered by Marqeta, and issued by the FDIC member Metabank....

ETHEREUM UNDERPERFORMS BITCOIN AS MINERS SELLOFF ETHEREUM HOLDINGS

The second leading digital asset has performed woefully in the market in the past few weeks compared to Bitcoin’s convincing performance. Ethereum in recent weeks has traded in the downward zone as it is still struggling to close the gap on its yearly high.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is having a swell time in the market as the bulls have already taken charge, pushing the leading digital assets past a high seen in over a year. The coin will be hoping to break the present resistance to post a high last seen in 2017.

Bitcoin bullish momentum attributed to investor participation

It is no gainsaying if one should say Bitcoin’s current bullish run has pushed Ethreum and other altcoins further down in the crypto market. With investors pulling all their weights behind bitcoin, it is only a matter of time before discovering how it will affect the other coins in the crypto market.

Experts and analysts have predicted that investors would move away from Bitcoin in the coming days, putting their funds in other altcoins like Ethereum. One question that will remain on everyone’s lips is how high the leading digital asset can climb before that happens?

Different analytics platforms have various reasons for the latest happenings in the crypto market, but everything boils down to one common thing, an on-chain trend. Experts have also faulted Ethereum’s lagging on the decision of miners to sell their Ethereum holdings.

With Bitcoin enjoying a swell time in the market, Ethereum has been trying to move past the lower $400 region in the last few days. Ethereum was forced to trade at $380 yesterday after Bitcoin miners sold off a massive chunk of their holdings. But the buying pressure in the market allowed bulls to take charge and send the price back to $400.

Santiment says Ethereum miner’s balance has declined drastically

Experts have said that Ethereum needs to show more effort if it wants the bulls to take charge to send it back to its 2020 highs. Notably, the second leading digital asset needs to reclaim at least 20% of its price if it wants to return to the $490 high set when the Decentralized Finance was still bubbling.

With the release of Phase 0 of ETH 2.0 scheduled to launch any moment from now, analysts have said that might be the catalyst that will make the coin retake the top spot in terms of performance.

Miners have been one reason why the coin has not been able to gather momentum as they have been offloading their holdings in massive amounts in the last few days. Santiment, an analytics platform, reported days ago that Ethereum’s miner balance had dropped significantly over the previous few days.

“The Ethereum miners have been dumping, and it appears that last week’s increased on-chain activity and trader FOMO has slowed,” Santiment said.

Ethereum might continue to underperform bitcoin if miners refuse to stop selling their Ethereum holdings massively. Ethereum is presently up by 4.25% in the last 24 hours and is currently trading at $405....

COVID19 IMPACT ON THE BLOCKCHAIN MARKET

The COVID-19 impact on the blockchain market is supposedly rather pleasant than the various other walks of professional life. The combination of a systemic ledger technology aka Blockchain and Internet-of-Things (IoT) functionality of interlinking instruments through the internet platform have transformed the face of the internet like never before. The considerable amount of risk reduction in terms of tampering and overall depletion in transaction costs have caused the massive rise in implementation of IoT based blockchain across several commercial sectors

COVID-19 impact on the blockchain market in sectors

Involving a number of shareholders, the logistics and supply chain sector has always remained time and traceability sensitive. Failure to produce timely deliveries following a set pattern can cost the firm detrimental losses. With the integration of blockchain and IoT, the availability of real-time consignment information that offers transparency and enriched reliability of the supply chain is a provable game changer.

The automotive industry’s drawback has been in its decentralized network. Blockchain IoT combo can radically impact and offer enhanced customer convenience and efficiency with lower costs in automated procedures like fuel payments, traffic control, smart parking, etc. The COVID-19 impact on the blockchain market in this sector is progressive.

IoT inspired devices alone lacked the abilities to warrant a safe and secure smart home. The conventional central information processing lacked the information ownership module. Through the addition of blockchain technology, smart homeowners experience dual authentication features and, in turn, are able to manage the security and safety of their homes in an elated fashion.

Knock off medicinal versions has been a critical issue facing the Pharmacy industry of today. The traceability and real-time data sharing skills of blockchain in IoT help curb counterfeits by keeping supply chain participants involved and updated through every step from manufacturing through delivery.

The need for digitizing the food industry has increased in 2020 by manifolds due to Covid and post-Covid times’ heightened anxiety. By installing blockchain-enhanced IoT sensors, enhanced reliability will be experienced by producers, deliverers, sellers, and consumers alike....