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Business

Kraken Joins List of Crypto Firms to Comply With EU Sanctions Against Russia

Crypto exchange Kraken confirmed that it will be conforming to the European Union’s new sanctions package.

“Kraken complies with the legal and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions that we operate in. Since the EU’s announcement, we have been working to make the changes needed to comply with the latest package of sanctions against Russia,” the Kraken spokesperson said.

The spokesperson did not comment on whether Russian users had been banned outright from the platform. 

Kraken’s announcement comes after the EU put into play its newest sanctions package, aimed at punishing Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, on October 6.

The most recent sanctions enforce a complete embargo on all transfers made from the EU to Russia, in contrast to earlier penalties from the EU that only set a transaction limit of €10,000 ($9,800).

The ban comes as a wave of other crypto firms move to deny access to users in the country, joining Blockchain.com, Crypto.com, and Local Bitcoins who all announced they are set to shut access last week.

The news flies in the face of prior statements made by Kraken earlier this year, which said it would keep Russian accounts open, dubbing a ban unfair to average Russians who may oppose the war in Ukraine.

In March, former Kraken CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell told CNBC that denying Russian users their account access was “a pretty extreme measure” that is far beyond turning off someone’s access to their music streaming service, or their photo-sharing app.

Kraken is currently the fourth-largest crypto exchange in the world according to CoinGecko, recording around $356 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours.

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Business

Coinbase Implements Commission-free Trading To Increase USDC Accessibility

Stablecoins have recently captured their own distinct fanbase and USDC, USDT, and BUSD seem to be staying at the top of the game. However, Binance has recently decided to de-list all USD coins, including the USDC, TUSD, and USDP. The exchange also auto-converted the deposits to its native BUSD.

Following this, the market share of USDC also dropped as Binance had a majority of USDC volume. However, in a recent announcement, Coinbase has extended its support for USDC by implementing commission-free trading.

Coinbase stated in a statement, “Coinbase will waive commission fees when customers buy or sell USDC via any fiat currency on Coinbase, from AUD to ZAR.“

Coinbase points out that USDC adoption in other countries has been less compared to the US. It highlights that the main reason for this is the high fees that users have to pay for their local currency conversion. To reduce this barrier and improve international adoption, Coinbase has announced commission fee trades.

Coinbase is one of the co-founders of USD along with Circle. The exchange mentions in its announcement that stablecoins, including the USDC, provide much more stability and accessibility.

Since USDC’s value is tied to the US dollar, it experiences much less volatility than the unpredictable cryptocurrency market. Many even think of stablecoins as a backup means of storing wealth since inflation has affected every nation in the world. Additionally, stablecoins have shown to be a far better method of transferring money. This is mainly because international money transfers can now be done more quickly, cheaply, and securely.

Coinbase is one of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. It was established in 2012 and has its own fan following. The exchange has also proven to be the first to pave the way for numerous crypto fanatics. It also has several products, including the Coinbase wallet that caters to millions of users.

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Business

Eswatini Central Bank Partners With German Firm To Explore CBDC

The Southern African nation of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland recently became the latest African country to signal its intention to issue a digital currency, after it was revealed that the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) has appointed a German-based firm called Giesecke Devrient as its technology partner.

According to a statement issued by the technology firm, an agreement to this effect was signed at the recent annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.

The Central Bank of Eswatini stated, “With this agreement, the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) and G+D envisage advancing CBDC research efforts to gain an in-depth understanding of the practicalities of implementing a CBDC in Eswatini. CBE joins other Central Banks and regulators around the world who are exploring the potential of CBDCs to address challenges such as payment efficiency, interoperability, financial inclusion, and payment system resilience.”

The CBE Governor, Dr. Phil Mnisi further stated, “The Central Bank of Eswatini is delighted to have engaged G+D as a technical consultant to walk with us in our journey as we explore and formulate the foundational policy considerations and use cases of a localized CBDC. We are confident that G+D’s technological expertise and their strong regional presence in our continent will allow us to realize all possible advantages of a Digital Lilangeni and ensure we’re fully equipped to issue a CBDC in the future.” 

Dr, Wolfram Seidemann, the CEO of Giesecke Devrient, also suggested that Eswatini was one of the countries on the African continent to take the step towards a retail CBDC. 

Dr. Wolfram Seidemann emphasized, “The Central Bank of Eswatini and G+D have a long history of trusted collaboration that goes back more than 40 years into the early 80s. We are proud to extend this partnership from providing physical currency solutions to research and exploring digital currency services in the future.”

He added, “The Kingdom of Eswatini is among the first African countries to take the step towards a retail CBDC and we are honored to support this journey towards digital public currency with our expertise.”

Seidemann, whose firm has also partnered with the Ghanaian central bank, added that his company was honored to be a part of Eswatini’s CBDC journey.

Because it aims to get rid of the issues with fiat currency systems, the CBE is eager to implement a CBDC, much like its counterparts in certain African nations. 

While several African countries that are keen on launching a CBDC are either studying or conducting trials, the Nigerian central bank is the only institution in Africa to have launched a digital currency.

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Business

The Africa Blockchain Developer’s Call Series Initiative To Host A Blockchain Hackathon in Tanzania

The Africa Blockchain Developer’s Call Series Initiative (ABDCS) has planned a bootcamp for Tanzanian university undergraduates that will start on October 31st, 2022. The bootcamp has been planned to bring in more talent and to groom African developers to the required standards.

The bootcamp is themed “Empowering and encouraging home-grown experts and professionals to create our ideal digitally transformed ecosystem.”

The program will be run by Africa BIoT Labs in collaboration with Sankore 2.0, ICORBP, and six host universities, including the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), Zanzibar University, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), Institute of Financial Management (IFM), College of Business Education (CBE), University of Dar es Salaam (UD) and University of Dodoma (UDom).

According to the Africa BIoT Labs, the program will be held in two different stages, that is to say, a bootcamp and training sessions and a hackathon and pitch sessions.

Additionally, the training will run for at least 3 months after which a certificate of completion will be given. Also, the bootcamp will have physical and online workshops on all blockchain professional courses, and developers’ mentorship sessions.

Some of the courses to be undertaken include, blockchain technology and innovation, applied cryptography, hash functions, currencies, tokens, stablecoins, and consensus mechanisms among others.

ABDC series, a Pan-African initiative targeted at training and certifying 5,000 blockchain professionals and 1,000 blockchain developers from universities, aims to equip developers with the necessary support and encouragement and provide them with various opportunities for either self-sustenance or employment in the space after training, certification, and a successful hackathon.

 The initiative also aims to build blockchain and crypto communities of over 70,000 active participants. 

Sourced from BitKE

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Business

Bitcoin makes its entry into the Guinness Book of World Records

Bitcoin also known as BTC has grabbed the attention of the Guinness World Records. 

Under the “Cryptomania” section, Bitcoin has earned the title from Guinness World Records as the first and most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. 

The GWR authors further detail that the network Satoshi Nakamoto created solved the double spending problem. 

The 2022 GWR record stated, “The Bitcoin network is solving the double spending problem with a trustless mechanism that does not require any third party to verify transactions, and it achieves that with validators.” 

El Salvador also made its entry into the books as the first country to make BTC a legal tender.  NFTs were also included in the Guinness World Records’ list of highlights, and CryptoPunk was given a shout-out as the most expensive NFT collection.

This achievement is definitely a head-turning moment for BTC, marking its successful journey over the years. 

At the time of writing, BTC’s market cap stands at $368,494,538,417.

It should be noted that Guinness World Records has been formally maintaining records of various human achievements and extreme natural events for 67 years. Records show the first edition of Guinness World Records was the top book on the best-seller list in December 1955. 
The book still features a significant catalog and verification of world records tied to numerous acts and record-breaking achievements. The idea of creating a book of records was originally derived from the managing director of Guinness Brewery, Sir Hugh Beaver.

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Social Good

TokenMinds launches Web3 academy for the underprivileged

To address the skill and knowledge gap in the Web3 space, TokenMinds, a top cryptocurrency and NFT agency, recently launched an online learning program for underprivileged communities.

Available in English, the program intends to train millions of people from diverse developing nations in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America who seek to advance their careers in the Web3 space or start their own blockchain or NFT projects.

Dubbed the TokenMinds Academy, the learning program is designed to offer free educational courses on intermediate to advanced Crypto Marketing, NFT Marketing, Blockchain Development, and NFT Development topics and provide learners with online certificates upon fulfillment of the requirements of the course. Learners will also experience exclusive podcasts on Web3 as well as mentors who will guide them in the journey. 

In addition, the new training courses are to be delivered on their TokenMinds Discord Server as TokenMinds kicks off this effort. The lectures are to be delivered by their selected expert team and guest lecturers.

Despite the significant progress made worldwide in crypto investing education, there are no significant free learning resources to actually start a career or project in the space. 

Education is cited as the most significant global barrier to digital assets adoption, according to Gemini’s 2022 Global State of Crypto report. The fast rise and increased usage of digital assets across the globe also demand empowering more people with the right skills and tools.

The free online program is built to educate the underprivileged population, increasing their chances for a successful career or project in the ever-growing Crypto and NFT space.

Since its inception in 2016, TokenMinds has been involved with top projects in the crypto space, such as Gensokishi, CryptoBlades, and IOTW. The crypto and NFT agency also offers end-to-end solutions, including (but not limited to) NFT art creation, NFT marketplace development, NFT staking dApps, and NFT Game Development.

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Business

Mastercard partners with Paxos to aid banks in crypto trading

Over the past few years, a large number of enterprises have entered the crypto-verse. The appearance of prominent payment companies Mastercard and PayPal startled a lot of people. In the midst of this, the bear market encouraged community speculation about these corporations’ impending exodus. However, it appears that Mastercard is intensifying its interest in cryptocurrency.

The firm has recently announced its latest initiative of offering support for financial institutions to offer crypto trading. As per recent reports, the firm is said to oversee regulatory compliance as well as security for banks.

The payments giant has teamed up with prominent crypto trading platform Paxos to carry out its initiative. Mastercard intends to ease the involvement of banks in crypto waters with Paxos through its program that will let the financial institutions offer cryptocurrency trading to their clients.

The payments giant will act as a bridge between Paxos, a crypto trading platform already used by PayPal, and banks. 

Mastercard’s program will handle regulatory compliance and security, two core reasons banks cite for avoiding the asset class.

Jorn Lambert, Chief Digital Officer at Mastercard, noted that 60% of participants preferred to start their cryptocurrency journey with their current banks rather than exchanges.

Mastercard appears to have created its most recent project in accordance with this need. Lambert elaborated on the same, saying,

“There’s a lot of consumers out there that are really interested in this, and intrigued by crypto, but would feel a lot more confident if those services were offered by their financial institutions. It’s a little scary to some people still.”

He added, “It’s hard to believe that the crypto industry will truly go mainstream without embracing the financial industry as we know it.”

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Business

KuCoin Wallet Announces Strategic Partnership With Polygon

Seychelles-based Crypto exchange, KuCoin, recently announced an official strategic partnership with Polygon Network, the leading Layer 2 platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development and one of the largest blockchain infrastructure providers around the world.

The head of KuCoin Wallet, Jeff Haul, commented, “We are excited to work with Polygon, which has been dedicated to building a thriving ecosystem and continuously expanding its technical capabilities. With its scalability, speed, and low network fees, we attempt to provide the best experience for our users.”

He added, “Also, Polygon PoS has emerged as a hub for some of the most important Web3 projects. With Polygon as one of our partners, we can integrate more innovative Web3 features in the future to make users explore the Web3 world in a comprehensive way.”

Additionally, to promote its DeFi experience for the Polygon ecosystem, KuCoin Wallet will be launching the Polygon Ecosystem Carnival in association with Polygon, MM Finance, Meshswap, PoolTogether, Stader, and Zignaly with a prize pool of $35,000 and mysterious NFTs.

Furthermore, the full integration of the Polygon ecosystem will make transactions on KuCoin Wallet faster and cheaper and provide KuCoin Wallet users with easy access to various DApps on Polygon.

Launched in September 2017, KuCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange with its operational headquarters in Seychelles. As a user-oriented platform focused on inclusiveness and community action reach, it offers over 700 digital assets. Currently, it provides spot trading, margin trading, P2P fiat trading, Futures trading, staking, and lending to its 20 million users in 207 countries and regions.

This year alone, KuCoin raised over $150 million in investments through a Pre-Series B Round, bringing the total investments to $170 million with Round A combined, at a total valuation of $10 billion. KuCoin is one of the top 5 crypto exchanges, according to CoinMarketCap.

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DeFi

What is Regenerative Finance?

Several areas where blockchain technology can greatly improve living quality have been discovered since the blockchain’s inception.

Regenerative Finance is one of them and it not only helps individuals save money but also fights climate change. In this article, we define Regenerative Finance (ReFi) and discuss how it is applied to blockchain technology.

ReFi is a concept of regenerative economics that recognizes and rewards individuals for their contributions to society.  It is a new economic paradigm that operates at the intersection of climate action and Web3 communities.

For example, imagine that you own land and that keeping the rainforest alive would bring you more money in the long run than cutting it down for timber, farming, or cattle grazing. Also, imagine that there was money to be made by looking for empty land and putting money into reforesting it.

This method leads to the creation of good land, which brings together the factors of production and gives you more money.

ReFi is anchored in decentralized finance, (DeFi), and the theory of regenerative economics. Regenerative economics focuses on the creation of systems that restore and preserve the physical resources essential for planetary well-being.

There are three steps to follow to make a model of economic regeneration effective. 

1. Assess the worth of preservation/regeneration.

2. Turn it into a tradable asset.

3. Provide liquidity for that asset.

According to the World Economic Forum, today, ReFi is a call to action, galvanized by the need to address both the failure of traditional markets to account for the negative externalities of carbon emissions and the inefficient allocation of resources.

Additionally, it is also a call to action for policymakers to provide legislative direction and support for Web3 innovation in applications as an impetus to positive environmental and social outcomes for all, not just the privileged few. Progress on this latter front is making some headway.

ReFi offers support so that other firms can profit from Web3’s advancements without having to pay additional costs.

Users anywhere in the world with access to the Web3 infrastructure, a wallet, and the DeFi application can invest in, purchase, use, and trade tokens of these natural assets without needing authorization after tokenizing them for ReFi initiatives. The ReFi project’s smart contract opens for the application of decentralized lending and AMM Swap, as well as the tokenization, pooling, or standardizing of natural assets. This improves the ReFi project’s ability to use cash and increases the transparency of natural resources.

Regenerative Finance, in a nutshell, is a movement that combines web3 and the strength of blockchain to combat climate change, safeguard the environment, and improve the sustainability and fairness of the financial system. This offers an opportunity to get engaged in safeguarding the environment.

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Business

African Crypto Traders To Get A Community-Driven Token Created By Community Yield Farming (CYF)

African development-focused platform, Community Yield Farming (CYF) has developed a community-driven token solely for crypto traders in Africa.

Launched on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the CYF community-driven token is deflationary and has a distinctive minting feature and a limited supply of 100T CYF.

According to the press statement, the token provides the following exclusive crypto features:

Rug-pull proof: CYF is 100% rug-pull free; token sales are managed by our sophisticated contract, which automatically locks the liquidity, assigning only 7.5% to project development and expansion.

Community reward: Backed by the community, CYF rewards its community through a unique smart minting that redistributes up to 35% of token sales back to the community.

Self-providing liquidity: CYF utilizes a unique approach to create and grow liquidity through the community reward program. The smart minting (CYF farm) is the self-providing liquidity of this project.

The token has a built-in algorithm that was created to benefit the community while promoting the adoption of cryptocurrencies through a vibrant ecosystem. The token offers its owners advantages like rug pull-proofness, community rewards, and self-providing liquidity, as stated in the press announcement

The token also rewards its holders via a unique smart minting that redistributes up to 35% of token sales to the community. In addition, the token creates and grows liquidity through the community reward program.

In the recent expansion, the digital platform launched a BEP20 token with a unique algorithm designed to provide value to its community while fostering crypto adoption through a vibrant ecosystem.

CYF started as an experimental community yield farming and quickly grew to a fully supportive community of crypto-currency enthusiasts. Their mission is to foster cryptocurrency adoption across borders by addressing some significant factors that affect global cryptocurrency adoption.

With the CYF’s latest token launch, the platform has seen prominent global investors such as Wolf of Congo investing in the project.