Pakistani Fintech Startup Aims to Revolutionize Digital Services for the Unbanked

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July 25, 2017

By Rebecca Campbell on 25/07/2017

A Pakistani-based fintech firm is aiming to provide access to millions of unbanked people in Pakistan by giving them a financial identity.

Located in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, CreditFix was created in 2016 by founder Owais Zaidi after he came into contact with a man who required a 1,000 rupee loan, but couldn’t afford the daily interest on a traditional market loan.

According to the CreditFix website it’s estimated that around 95 percent of Pakistanis lack access to traditional finance as they can’t be profiled through conventional means. In a bid to tackle this problem, CreditFix is using digital data and predictive modeling to accurately figure out a potential borrower’s willingness to pay.

The website states:

This saves consumers from loan sharks and usurious practices of the informal credit market.

In August, the fintech startup is planning on launching a pilot program with 50,000 potential customers. By using work histories and utility payments lenders who utilize the platform will be able to view the credit scores from each customer.

Zaidi said:

The core goal of CreditFix is to facilitate the underserved and unserved segments of the population in getting access to fair credit, primarily for revenue generating assets.

Mobile Phone Use in Pakistan

According to a March report from The Express Tribune, there are 137 million mobile phone users in Pakistan. Data released by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority showed a slight increase from 2016’s 133.2 million.

As a result of this large user base in mobile phone usage, CreditFix have created a mobile app that makes it easier for consumers to access finance and can be done in five simple steps. To enable fair and transparent credit there are four different categories that a user can chose from: livestock finance, smart-grid finance, farm-equipment finance and car finance.

With traditional finance being turned on its head through the advancement of fintech, it is hoped that this platform from CreditFix will provide many people in Pakistan with the access they require to loans that they would otherwise not have access to.

Blockchain Startup Receives US Government Grant for Blockchain Key Management System

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July 25, 2017

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By Joshua Althauser

Blockchain technology startup Evernym has secured a grant worth $794,000 from the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Small Business Innovation Program (SBIR) for the development of Blockchain key management solutions. The project is supervised by the DHS’ Cyber Security Division.

According to acting DHS Undersecretary for Science and Technology, William Bryan, Evernym will design and develop a decentralized key management solution for Blockchain technologies.

“A better, more secure method is needed to safeguard the identity and privacy of web-users. Research in Blockchain holds significant potential to provide a solution that will make it considerably more difficult to hack an online user’s identity.”

Attracting SMBs to participate in government R&D

The DHS’ SBIR program intends to attract small businesses to participate in the federal government’s research and development (R&D) undertakings.

The contract awards program has already provided funds to several Blockchain startup companies in the past for various R&D projects.

Aside from Evernym, the other startups that have obtained funding from the program include Digital Bazaar and BlockCypher.

Federal agencies involved in Blockchain tech

Several US federal government agencies have also advanced programs in the field of Blockchain technology. One of the agencies is the National Science Foundation (NSF). In its grant proposal solicitation in early 2017, the NSF said that it is looking to fund between seven and nine projects of as much as $1 mln per project.

Part of the solicitation reads:

“With the growing amount of remote instruments and the increasing amount of data being collected from multiple, often remote, wireless and mobile sensors, science is increasingly distributed and virtual. Solutions such as the introduction of Blockchain technology are needed to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data as it traverses multiple environments such as mobile, cloud, campus and Internet networks.”

States Blockchain-related projects

When not busy trying to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, the US government is known to discuss and fund Blockchain-related projects that aim to optimize existing processes.

These programs include projects in states of Montana and Illinois. In fact, the State Department has also organized the Blockchain@State working group to research more on the possibilities of Blockchain in the government workflow.

Russian Airline S7 Now Uses the Ethereum Blockchain for Flight Tickets

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July 25, 2017

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By Rebecca Campbell 25/07/17

A Russian airline has announced that it is to use the ethereum blockchain to sell flight tickets with backing from the country’s largest private commercial bank.

In a report from regional newspaper Kommersant, Russian airline PJSC Siberia Airlines, known as S7, and Alfa-Bank begun the project of selling airline tickets on the blockchain on Monday. According to the bank, one of the key advantages of employing the technology was the process of faster payments.

Last December, it was reported that S7 had executed the first of its kind service payment using the ethereum blockchain smart contracts through a letter of credit with Alfa-Bank.

The announcement of this latest project between S7 and Alfa-Bank comes after Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, revealed that it had published a proposal for the introduction of digital currencies and technologies related to it into its operations.

In particular, the airline is considering the possibility of using cryptocurrencies for flight ticket payments. It will examine the demands for the currency as a form of payment in addition to the risks associated to the adoption of them on a larger scale.

The completion of the projects is expected by 10th December, 2017.

Russia’s Position on Bitcoin

Meanwhile, while Russia appears to be looking at the blockchain with favor – in the past ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin is reported to have met Russian President Vladimir Putin – it is still considering its stance toward bitcoin.

In June, it was reported that the head of the Central Bank of Russia had stated that bitcoin was not to be considered as a currency, but that there were plans toward regulating it as a ‘digital asset.’

Elvira Nabiullina, the governor of the Central Bank of Russia, said that the authority was ‘analyzing’ the possibility of regulating the digital currency; however, before regulation could take place more research into the understanding of it would first need to be done.

Yet, she added that there were doubts as to the benefits that bitcoin could bring to the economy.

She said:

We don’t consider that bitcoin can be considered as a virtual currency. It’s more digital assets with the regulation of assets.

Self-Confessed Hacker from Pennsylvania Admits Stealing Almost $40 Mln Worth of Bitcoin

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July 25, 2017

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By Joshua Althauser

Hacker Theodore Price has admitted to investigators from the Northampton Township Police Department in Pennsylvania that he has stolen millions of dollars in Bitcoin.

The discovery of the heist was made after Price was accused of stealing laptop computers owned by the parents of his girlfriend, Brittany Morton.

Caught after report of laptop stolen

Based on federal court documents, the investigators started to monitor the unemployed 30-year-old Price in early July 2017 due to complaints about the stolen laptops. When asked about the laptops Price denied that he took them. Morton, however, was able to find one of the missing laptops to a tech store and the clerks claimed that Price had sold it for $150.

When Morton went into Price’s home, she found two laptops in computer bags, which she thought were her mother’s missing laptop and the rental computer she had gotten for Price. She also discovered a credit card in her father’s name, as well as credit cards in her late grandmother’s name and her former boyfriend’s name in the bags. The bags also contained lists of the names and personal information of strangers.

Diverting funds using a software bought on dark market

After securing a search warrant, the police searched Price’s home on July 12 and confiscated thumb flash drives, computers, some Micro SD memory cards and a notebook listing several names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card numbers.

When they interrogated Price, he admitted that the names and numbers were linked to Bitcoin accounts. He further claimed that he was able to use a software he bought from a vendor on the online black market AlphaBay to divert funds from the Bitcoin accounts to his own accounts.

Increasing number of Bitcoin heists through AlphaBay

As previously reported, Bitcoin heists have been made easier through the dark market where another scammer stole over $1 mln worth of Bitcoin from AlphaBay users. The series of notorious heists only add to security concerns on how to protect Bitcoin funds from hackers.

Delaware Governor Signs Blockchain Bill Into Law

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July 25, 2017

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Jul 24, 2017 at 13:30 UTC by Pete Rizzo

The governor of the US state best known as the home to a majority of the country’s incorporated businesses has officially signed a bill making it explicitly legal for those entities to use blockchain for stock trading and record-keeping.

After weeks of anticipation, Delaware governor John C. Carney Jr. signed the bill on Friday, effectively bringing closure to an effort that began in May 2016 when his predecessor, Jack Markell, launched an initiative to promote blockchain efficiencies in government.

First publicized in March this year and introduced formally in May, the bill, which amends Delaware’s General Corporation Law, saw a swift passage by state lawmakers.

The move further comes weeks after it passed a key vote in the state legislature, a milestone advocates sought to label as “historic” given the state’s history and the increase in experimentation that could result from legal certainty.

Just how impactful could the law be? Industry analysts suggest that by giving the greenlight to experimentation, the law could make it possible for the custodianship, issuance, redemption and trading to take place on a distributed ledger.

Kosovo to Get First Bitcoin ATM, As Its Central Bank Warns Against Cryptocurrencies

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July 24, 2017

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Francisco Memoria on 24/07/2017

According to a report from Balkan Insight, Kosovo is about to be the next country to have a bitcoin ATM.

IT systems firm Albvision Ltd recently distributed a press release in Kosovo and Albania stating that it is going to place one of these machines in the center of Pristina, the country’s capital.

The move comes as interest in bitcoin is booming in the country. According to Telegrafi, so far, this year Kosovo has imported €800,000 worth of equipmentthat went toward the production and assembly of bitcoin mining rigs.

The bitcoin ATM will initially only work with bitcoin, but support for 10 other cryptocurrencies will then be added. According to Telegrafi, the ATM will support the most popular cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin. Albsivion plans on putting bitcoin ATMs in both Albania and Macedonia in the future.

The press release has caught the attention of various organizations and, among them, Kosovo’s central bank, KCB, which warned against the use of cryptocurrencies. The bank pointed out to potential bitcoiners that virtual currencies like bitcoin aren’t regulated in the country.

Furthermore, it stated that, in the Republic of Kosovo, virtual currency users have no reimbursement guarantee if they lose their money. Moreover, Deniz Derralla, the head of the Supervision Department at the Bank of Albania, Albania’s central bank, has in the past stated:

The exchange rate could change very quickly, as it’s an unstable currency with no one responsible for it. Conventional money is emitted by Central banks, while in the case of bitcoin and other virtual ones, there is no institution that takes responsibilities for them.

The Bank of Albania, as recently reported by CCN, had previously warned bitcoin investors that cryptocurrencies weren’t regulated in the country, and that no financial entities – presumably bitcoin exchanges – were licensed to operate in Albania. Moreover, it stated five risks the institution believes the public needs to be made aware of, including volatility, lack of regulations, and potential use in illegal activities.

Bitcoin Companies Defend the Cryptocurrency

Even though both Albania and Kosovo’s central banks seem to be against the digital currency, companies like Bitsapphire defended the cryptocurrency against the arguments the financial regulators presented. Valmir Hazeri, COO at Bitsapphire, stated that the risks are over-stated.

The risk is the same; a user can lose money if they do not know how to use it. But this ATM will create possibilities for bitcoin to have more users. The biggest risk is not knowing how to use it.

Valmir Hazeri pushed for cryptocurrency regulations in Kosovo, and even implied that the country could create its own national digital currency, just like China. He stated:

Should work faster on regulating crypto currency by law – and why not even create our own, as Canada or China did?

His company Bitsapphire has had problems in cashing out accepted bitcoin payments. According to reports, the country’s banks don’t accept cryptocurrencies and as such the company turned to international banks. After using these, however, transferring the money to banks in Kosovo was a challenge, as these reject it because it had an anonymous origin.

Major Startups Whose ICOs Tanked Ethereum Price Will Help Raise It Again

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July 24, 2017

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Several factors would be responsible for the Ether price to rise organically to $400 again or even higher in coming weeks. One of them would be a result of the roles of the startups whose ICOs reportedly brought down the price in the first place.

It is correct to say that the rise of ICOs is a major factor that troubled the ETH price of late. After the Status ICO, for example, there were claims that the crowdsale process contributed to the fall of ETH’s price – considering its effect on the Ethereum network and the scramble to lay hands on some of its SNTs.

Selloffs

The same has been said about Tezos, Bancor etc. These startups have to sell back some of what they were able to gather into the market to achieve their set goals.

Looking at it from this perspective, it would make sense to postulate that in the foreseeable future, the price of the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap will rise again and these startups – depending on their varying use cases – that are having their ICOs now would have a role to play then. Most of these projects are all at their planning stage as they haven’t really launched out the final version of their platforms.

ICO mania

It’s been argued that the developers are the main beneficiaries from ICO maniaas most of them are now better equipped to display and improve on what they do. However, looking at CoinMarketCap, all the promising coins have at least 300 percent increase over a period of three to six months. Icostats also shows that the ROI on many startups to ETH in a year is at least 10x.

It depends on the ICO you chose to invest in as some of these projects tend to look to be more promising than others – not those with just a website, a white paper and a few developers but yet raised millions without a real business model. Some of them were built on the Ethereum network to stand as a platform on their own hosting other platforms rather than serving a singular purpose like what most other companies have been doing.

Regaining strength

At some point, ICOs will subside as only promising projects would be churned out, or there will be a mental form of screening process introduced by the growing knowledge of users. New use case ideas won’t wither completely but the evaluation process would be strengthened and only those with the best to stay the course would be seen through.

By then, Ether’s price will regain strength as major projects – especially those that will also enable non-crypto users – launched on its framework, will actualize their vision and will start disrupting their respective markets.

It is Baby Steps But Bitcoin is Taking Root in Africa

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July 24, 2017

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In Africa, it is Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa that are the pioneers of cryptocurrency, but as the world of Bitcoin spreads, places like Tanzania are starting to show growth.

July growth spurt

According to Coin.dance, a Blockchain information portal that provides up-to-date metrics on various sectors of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Tanzania has shown a big spike in Bitcoin trading with Nigeria also impressing, more so with their figures.

Weekly LocalBitcoins volume has been up in the second week of July as there was 83 mln Tanzanian shillings (TZS) worth of trading in that week.

When converted to USD however, the figure is not impressive at all, coming in at about $37,142.

However, in Nigeria, the growth was good, it wasn’t as dramatic as in Tanzania, but the actual volume was the impressive part.

Weekly turnover for the third week of July in Nigeria hit a new record high at 971,829,166 Nigerian Naira ($3 mln).

Not about the numbers

Of course, Tanzania’s volume pales in comparison to Nigeria’s; it is just over one percent. However, it is the spike in growth that is worth noting as the numbers coming out of the small nation are indicative of Bitcoin spreading outside the African powerhouses and into the more rural nations.

In total, Tanzanians moved around 14 BTC in the second week of July, which is almost a 33 percent increase from the week prior.

Bitcoin BIP 91 Signaling Near 100%

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July 22, 2017

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P. H. Madore on 21/07/2017

Although some leaders like Slush believe that BIP 91 is a bit rushed, more than 90% of the last 144 blocks have signaled in favor of the proposal.

This is a precursor to Segwit activation, and that there is a critical mass in favor comes as no surprise. However, what is receiving a surprising amount of support is blocks signaling for the “New York Agreement,” a proposal which was born in a meeting which disincluded a lot of important people in the Bitcoin world.

BIP 91 plays a critical role in more than one scaling strategy. It was designed to prevent a chain split from occurring should miners disagree about whether to activate SegWit2x or BIP148, a user-activated soft fork. BIP 91 does not rely on set dates to activate its rules, but instead counts on having a certain amount of hash power. Once 80% of blocks are signaling for a significant period, then blocks which are not from pools which support segregated witness will begin to be rejected. If there are any such pools getting blocks, this will be problematic for them, as it appears that BIP 91 is definitely going full steam ahead.

BIP 91 has the later affect of being compatible with BIP 148, which is important, as there has been significant steam across the network in the direction of users taking a bit more control over the network. Full nodes, as a group, have the ability to enforce rules and play a role almost important as miners in this regard. In the end, network consensus is what is important, and it doesn’t begin or end with miners. BIP 91 enjoying such wide support is also encouraging that most miners are listening to the issues being brought up b the rest of the network.

From here, it seems the scaling debate could have reached a final conclusion long before fall. Should this happen, and the Bitcoin network is thus cruising along with higher capacity, the price will probably enjoy a boost as well. This will raise all ships in the cryptocurrency sea, and we could enjoy a few years to come in terms of prosperity for cryptocurrency markets.

These times are often marked by a few important trends to keep track of: scams, legitimate ideas, and disinformation. These are usually the times that the Satoshi Nakamotos come out of the wood work. It’s a time to be more alert, but also to look for opportunities to expand profit taking in the booming ICO market.

Ripple is Altcoins’ King in Second Quarter, Up Almost 4,000%

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July 21, 2017

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By Darryn Pollock

ALTCOIN WATCH

The digital currencies race in the first half of the year has been won by Ripple as its token, XRP that has finished the second financial quarter priced at $0.26, up 3,977 percent year-to-date. At the moment it has dropped to around $0.19, but its growth still seems impressive.

Ripple has boomed across the cryptocurrency marketplace as it recorded $30 mln in new transactions in the second quarter of this year alone, as well as saw the token listed on 25 new exchanges. It also boasts the third-largest market capitalization in the space — behind Bitcoin and Ether.

Partnerships

XRP is different to a few of the other main players in the digital currency space as it is owned largely by Ripple. When the company announced in May that it had plans to structure the sale of its currency the interest spiked.

Miguel Vias, Ripple’s head of XRP markets explains:

“With respect to XRP, we are incredibly focused on international payments, I think we are probably the only digital asset that has a clear use case with respect to what we are trying to do with the asset.”

As for the future, Vias hinted that new announcements may be forthcoming. Vias told CNBC:

“In this quarter, you will see some very interesting developments with respect to our partnership in payments, with respect to XRP in particular.”

Staggering growth

On Jan. 1, XRP was valued at $0.0065, but towards the end of March and at the beginning of the second quarter, the price spiked to a high of $0.35 on May 18. It closed the quarter down, valued at $0.26 and to date has dropped off more sitting around $0.19.

Despite being down, the growth is still admirable. As for Vias, he believes there is still a big future for Ripple despite the volatility of the entire cryptocurrency market.

“What we have seen is an embracing of digital assets broadly by really established institutions. When you have folks like the [Bank of England], which did a [proof of concept] with us, as well as the Bank of Japan coming out and saying, we are considering this as legal tender at some point — when you see those developments, you can’t help but feel that we are on the right path, that interest is going to continue to grow,” Vias added.

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Mobile Phone Use in Pakistan

Attracting SMBs to participate in government R&D

Federal agencies involved in Blockchain tech

States Blockchain-related projects

Russia’s Position on Bitcoin

Caught after report of laptop stolen

Diverting funds using a software bought on dark market

Increasing number of Bitcoin heists through AlphaBay

Bitcoin Companies Defend the Cryptocurrency

ICO WATCH

Selloffs

ICO mania

Regaining strength

July growth spurt

Not about the numbers

Partnerships

Staggering growth

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