Author: Staff

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Business

Israel Authorities Arrests 3 suspects in Crypto Scheme

Recently, three people were detained in Israel on suspicion of providing money-laundering services to criminals who defrauded the French state. The operation follows a covert investigation carried out by Lahav 433, Israel’s special crime-fighting unit.

According to the English-language online newspaper, Times of Israel, the authorities believe the detained persons have used various cryptocurrencies to launder millions of Euros, which were then returned to the French clients, for which the Israelis were remunerated. Several other suspects have also been questioned as part of the efforts to unravel the scheme.

In addition to Lahav 433 and the Israel Tax Authority, the State Attorney’s Office’s cybercrime and international criminal sections also participated in these investigations. According to the sources, the Israel Police worked closely with their French counterparts and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol).

The French started their probe last year, while the Israelis began working on the case earlier in 2022. The fraudsters in France took advantage of the government program to assist organizations affected by the Covid-19 pandemic’s negative effects in 2020 and 2021 when the European economy was damaged by lockdowns.

The French criminals were able to apply for and obtain government-approved reparation payments by creating phony companies. Paris sought to disburse the money as soon as possible to help enterprises that were struggling financially and had insufficient control.

They then employed the money-laundering services of the arrested Israelis who bought cryptocurrency with the money and exchanged it through multiple coins to obscure the original source of the funds before eventually buying fiat currency again. Police officials have so far declined to comprehensively explain how the system worked but said that they would provide more details soon.

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Opinions

Web3 Drawing Investors Despite Bear Market

Major players appear to be taking advantage of the bear market to buy as much as they can, according to a report by Cointelegraph Research and Keychain Ventures. However, the average deal size has declined over the past few months as venture investors have become more cautious.

According to the report, since Q1 2022, individual deal activity has increased by 19.9%. However, since April 2022, the rate has slowed. The average deal value also decreased by 16.5%, indicating that VCs are still open to funding initiatives, but with smaller sums of money.

The report also states that in Q2 2022, Web3 dominated practically all metrics. Seed round early-stage investments witnessed the most activity as usual, with $2.18 billion in total capital inflows. In the later-stage investment and expansion rounds, the Web3 industry also marginally outperformed DeFi and CeFi in terms of the number of individual deals.

In Q2 2022, the top 10 most active VCs began concentrating on Web3 rather than DeFi and NFTs in Q1 2022.

Web3 was the top capital allocation sector for 7 of the top 10 most active investors. In Q2 2022, these 7 investors allocated a total of 43% to 75% of their total investing activity.

In 2021 and Q1 2022, the top 10 most active VCs were responsible for 65% of all individual deals. The overall number of individual deals climbed to 621, which is 100 higher than in Q1 2022, however, this percentage decreased to a little over 42% in Q2 2022.

In Q2 2022, Web3 topped the VC funding interest with 43% of all individual agreements. With 16% of capital inflows, DeFi took a back seat, a significant shift from the previous five quarters.

Five acquisitions including GameFi, marketing, and education were a part of Animoca Brands’ portfolio. Animoca Brands entered in Q2 2022 with 72% of the capital concentrated on Web3 out of the 43 distinct agreements.

According to the report, the $2 billion investment raised by Epic Games, led by Sony and Kirkbi, to go towards its metaverse expansion plans, was the biggest deal in Q2 2022.

To find out more about how the Web3 sector is attracting investors despite the bear market, read more here.

Sourced from BitKE

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Business

Crypto.com Signs Pre-Registration Undertaking with The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC)

Crypto.com has announced that it has signed its first pre-registration undertaking with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in Canada. This signing, recognized by the OSC and all Canadian jurisdictions through a joint Canadian Securities Administration (CSA) initiative, makes Crypto.com the first global cryptocurrency platform currently operating in line with this regulatory undertaking in Canada.

In an official statement on its website, Crypto.com said,

“Crypto.com is committed to working with the OSC to offer a suite of products and services in full compliance with Canadian regulations. This undertaking builds on Crypto.com’s existing regulation in Canada under the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) and the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) of Quebec.”

Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com also commented, “Compliance underscores everything that we do at Crypto.com. The North American market, and Canada specifically, represent a significant area of potential growth for the crypto market, and we are proud to work with the OSC and the CSA in providing Canadian customers access to a safe, secure, and reliable global platform.”

The announcement of Crypto.com’s pre-registration also comes with the news of more licenses being established around the world over the past months.

The company recently received in-principle approval for a Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, received provisional approval of its Virtual Asset License from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, and established Electronic Financial Transaction Act and Virtual Asset Service Provider registration in South Korea.

Currently, Crypto.com houses more than 50 million users worldwide and continues to grow and expand. It was founded in 2016 and works to progress the use of cryptocurrency in every wallet globally.

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NFTs

What are Dynamic NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique digital assets that exist as a permanent record on the blockchain. There is a genre of NFTs called living NFTs also referred to as dynamic NFTs(dNFT) that is rarely discussed. These are non-fungible tokens that can shift and mutate over time in accordance with the programmable features encoded by developers.

A living NFT is all about dynamism as opposed to a normal profile picture (PFP) project such as CryptoPunks, which remains static. Living NFTs offer exciting ways for holders to link their behavior and actions on the chain with the NFTs they collect.

Here is how a dynamic NFT differs from a regular NFT. Simply put, a dynamic NFT’s metadata may alter depending on a variety of factors. Time, interactions with other NFTs, or more frequently external data, such as data gathered from sources that track real-world data, like weathervanes or live sports scores, can all be considered examples of this.

All of this is made possible by dynamic NFTs by employing smart contracts to integrate these elements within an NFT’s metadata.

Using an oracle, a dNFT that interacts with web APIs, IoT data, or any other verifiable data provider can be created. For example, Chainlink’s Verifiable Randomness Function (VRF) can provide verifiable randomness, interface with existing systems or trigger cyber-physical systems.

All of this is made possible by dynamic NFTs by employing smart contracts to integrate these elements within an NFT’s metadata. For example, a PFP’s hat might change depending on the weather in France or a sports star might show a different emotion depending on the outcome of their most recent game.

How can dNFTs be used?

Dynamic NFTs are useful whenever metadata has to be continually updated. Here is how they can be used:

Gaming: When an in-game character is deployed for the first time, its traits are stored in the dNFT’s metadata. As the character levels up and evolves, the metadata can easily change to reflect its growth.

Another possibility is transferring dNFTs automatically among players based on game performance. For example, if the current owner loses a sword battle, then the dNFT representing the sword is taken away and possibly given to the victor.

Real estate: This is a market where dynamic NFTs are quickly growing in importance. For example, consider a family home that’s been put up for sale by tokenizing it as a dNFT, where the holder also has ownership of the underlying title deed. Over time, the property value changes, and maintenance is performed. The dNFT’s metadata will automatically reflect these changes.

Sports collectibles: In 2021, professional basketball player LaMelo Ball launched a collection of dynamic NFTs that leverage Chainlink Sports Data Feeds, a service that provides secure sports results. Each of the eight dNFTs released so far tracks a different set of the rising star’s player statistics for example “Red Mars” reflects his total points scored.

Holders can receive special access to raffles and other perks based on LaMelo’s ongoing performance. The “Gold Evolve” NFT was launched with the promise that if Ball won the 2021 Rookie of the Year award, which he did, its avatar image would change.

While NFTs have put a face to the blockchain world, dynamic NFTs bring it to life. Even though they are still a relatively new idea, dNFTs have the potential to alter how owners engage with NFTs and the products they stand for.

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Business

Binance to open a South African bank account

Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, says it would love to collaborate with regional banks to set up a local account in South Africa. This was disclosed by Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, in an interview with MyBroadband.

Sourced from MyBroadband

Zhao was replying to inquiries about whether Binance would consider adding support for Rand deposits and delisting ZAR trading pairs when he shared about Binance collaborating with local banks.

He said, “If there are local banks willing to work with Binance to open bank accounts, we would love to do that because it’s a better user experience.”

He added that although it sounds counterintuitive for banks to work with cryptocurrency exchanges, allowing them to operate together is better for regulators than trying to block them.

“It offers regulators much more clarity and much more data about what is flowing into Binance and what is flowing out,” said Zhao.

“Whereas today, people trade using cash and peer-to-peer bank transfers, and that data is actually very unclear to regulators,” CZ added.

Zhao also emphasized that the best way foreign exchange monitoring boards can enforce their currency controls is to allow banks to work with cryptocurrency exchanges.

In 2020, Binance implemented trading pairs for bitcoin, ether, its own BNB token, and USD tether (USDT) in the South African Rand. But a year later, it abruptly stopped trading the pairings.

According to initial reports, Binance discontinued Rand trading because trade volumes on the relevant pairs were too low. Zhao clarified that Binance delisted its Rand trading pairs in response to a regulatory request.

When asked if the size of the South African market was worth the effort to deal with the regulatory issues in the country, Zhao assured that it was.

“South Africa is one of the most important markets in Africa. It is one of the strongest economies in Africa. It is obviously a very important market,” said Zhao.

Aside from that, Binance recently announced that it has hired Hannes Wessels, a former executive at HSBC South Africa, to serve as its regional country manager.

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Business

SA gaming startup Skrmiish secures $2.5m seed round

Skrmiish, a gaming startup based in Cape Town, South Africa is planning on scaling across the world after securing a US$2.5 million seed round.

The enterprise is offering a mobile play-to-earn (P2E) application that enables gamers of every level to earn cash in every match they play across the AAA+ games they love.

The startup has already acquired over 100,000 players across more than 100 jurisdictions around the globe and has now raised $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including Launch Africa Ventures, the Blockchain Founders Fund, and Stellar to help it accelerate its growth.

Launched in 2021, Skrmiish has developed a feature called MoneyMatch that allows players to earn real cash in every match they play, without having to wait for a tournament or find a peer to challenge.

MoneyMatch combines a conventional sportsbook method with conventional AAA+ gameplay and offers it live throughout the UK and Europe. After syncing Skrmiish with their game accounts, players receive their MoneyMatch Rating (MMR), which is based on their performance data.

Although he founded a sports-specific creative agency, Chris Heaton, the startup’s co-founder and managing director, noted that his expertise is in marketing and advertising.  He also added that he met co-founder Roland Reed in 2017 when creating some content for SA Rugby and its sponsors.

“Roland comes from a production background and was the head of production on that project. We got talking about the world of gaming and esports. Back then, my knowledge of this world was limited, but what intrigued me was how much money was moving from my bank account to my eight-year-old’s account and then onto Epic games and into Fortnite for skins and dance moves, with no skill-based benefit whatsoever,” Heaton said.

He added, “I started to talk to Roland about the Poker Stars model and how they democratized the world of poker – giving any poker player of any skill level the ability to play for fun or for cash anytime, anywhere. Back in 2017/2018, there was not a lot of opportunity for the more casual side of the video gaming market to be able to play for cash. This was limited exclusively to the pros and the million dollar streamers, which make up only one percent of the now US$200 billion market.”

The pair decided to build an inclusive environment with some cool technology that would give gamers everywhere the ability to play-to-earn in the games they already love. A PoC was built in early 2019, with the startup securing some angel investment at the same time. CEO Luke Grob later came on board in 2020, and Skrmiish launched its bootstrapped MVP into the market in January 2021.

While talking about the company’s background Heaton also said, “We realized that we needed to rebuild the product from scratch with all the learnings and the expanded team that we now have. Luke drove a new approach to future proof our financial system with a blockchain-based wallet system, giving users complete control of their funds in the Skrmiish ecosystem and the ability to play-and-earn crypto.”

The free-to-play Skrmiish version two went live in August 2021 and had 100,000 downloads by the end of the year. Its first pay-to-play feature went live earlier this year, and the startup already has 60 percent week-on-week retention of gamers on MoneyMatches. 

Heaton said its seed round has given it two years’ worth of runway to acquire customers and gather the data it needs to build into a proper Series A at the end of next year to shoot the lights out.

The free-to-play features are available worldwide, bar a few black-listed countries, with the Skrmiish MoneyMatch feature available in the UK, EU, and the Nordics to about half a billion players. 

Heaton added that the company will be switching on the US, Latin America, and further in Africa in the next three-to-four months, with Asia shortly thereafter.

Categories
Business

Binance appoints a new country manager for South Africa

Hannes Wessels, a former global banking executive of HSBC South Africa, has been appointed by cryptocurrency exchange Binance to manage its operations in South Africa.

Wessels has worked for HSBC for 22 years, and since 2010, he has held top executive positions.

Wessels will lead the development of business plans and spearhead strategic initiatives for Binance in South Africa, according to the announcement.

Citing a Finder survey conducted with Google,  crypto ownership in South Africa is at 5.2 million which is 10% of the population. Binance is working towards steadily increasing this figure through different strategies.

Wessels commented about his new appointment saying, “I am excited to join Binance at a time when crypto adoption is still in its infancy in South Africa and look forward to playing a leading role in Binance’s growth strategy in South Africa.” 

Wessels oversaw HSBC’s corporate and investment banking operations in South Africa prior to joining Binance.

This included the payments and cash management industry, which was recognized as South Africa’s top payments firm by Euromoney in 2021.

He also served as the Chairman of the bank’s employment equity committee and was a member of the bank’s executive committee in South Africa.

Binance is currently the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Categories
Business

South Africa’s Machankura Offers First Bitcoin USSD Service in Africa

Similar to mobile money services that have grown quite popular on the African continent, South Africa’s Machankura is offering a USSD service that enables users to send bitcoin P2P (Peer-to-Peer) using their phone numbers, the first of its kind in Africa.

According to Wikipedia, USSD also known as Unstructured Supplementary Service Data and sometimes referred to as “quick codes” or “feature codes”, is a communications protocol used by cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator’s computers. A USSD can be used for prepaid callback services, mobile-money services, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network.

A slang term for money used in South Africa inspired the name Machankura. On the lightning network, people can send and receive bitcoin by using the USSD short codes.

As you can see on their website, the service is available in the following countries, Ghana with a short code of ( *920*8333# ), Kenya with a short code of ( *483*8333# ), Malawi with a short code of ( *384*8333# ), Nigeria with a short code of ( *347*8333# ), South Africa with a short code of ( *134*382*382# ) and Uganda with a short code of (*284*8333#)

Kgothatso Ngako, one of Machankura’s developers pointed out that once users dial these shortcodes, they will be presented with a menu where they can select either to learn more about Bitcoin or register an account.

“All you need to register an account is a 5-digit pin, and from there on, you are presented with a different menu – Send and receive Bitcoin,” he said. 

Every registered user of Machankura can send and receive Bitcoin to their phone number from other Machankura users or to their Machankura lightning address.

Users can also create a username so they don’t have to provide their phone number in order to receive bitcoin. Additionally, users can transfer Sats (Satoshis), which are smaller bitcoin denominations.

The Machankura team also indicated that the company will be adding payment integrations soon.

During his visit to Nigeria which was part of his Run with Bitcoin tour, Paco De La India was able to try the service. He used it to share some Sats (Satoshis) with a High school teacher in Lagos and he later shared his merriment in a tweet.

Sourced from BitKE

Categories
Business

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Creates a CBDC Roadmap

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), John Mangudya has revealed that the central bank has a roadmap for the anticipated central bank digital currency (CBDC). This announcement comes after the bank revealed its intention to investigate the feasibility of introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) nearly six months ago.

He asserted that the bank’s development of the roadmap is in line with the Government’s decision on the CBDC which was made last year.

Mangudya did, however, emphasize while launching the second monetary policy statement of this year, that the RBZ is now open to hearing stakeholders’ opinions. He stated,

“The role of stakeholders in the CBDC journey is paramount and in that regard, the Bank has developed a public consultation paper on CBDC to be released soon. The consultation paper is aimed at fostering a broad and transparent public dialogue regarding the potential benefits and risks of CBDC.”

The RBZ states that after the document is made available to the general public, people will have an opportunity to give feedback on the consultation paper. Mangudya also pointed out that this must be done within 90 days after the release of the consultation paper.

In addition to the consultation document, the RBZ will conduct consumer perception studies about CBDCs. The central bank says that the findings from the two undertakings will enable it to engage in pilot programs related to CBDC.

The RBZ governor also noted that Lloyd Crowd Funding and Uhuru Innovative Solutions had been accepted into the fintech regulatory sandbox. Of these two, Lloyd Crowd Funding has already commenced its sandbox operations that will run until 2023 while Uhuru Innovative Solutions already started in May this year.

According to Mangudya, the admission of the two startups and the initiation of regulatory testing is a signal of the Bank’s commitment to promoting responsible innovation.

The findings of the regulatory testing are also anticipated to provide the RBZ with vital information for developing a suitable regulatory framework for financial technology in the country.

Categories
Opinions

Are NFTs the future of creatives or is it just speculation?

A few years ago, people barely knew what NFTs were. However, at the beginning of this year, it was one of the most searched words on Google worldwide. You might know NFTs now because of the famous Bored Ape collection that shocked thousands of people due to its value or the Nyan cat NFT, which sold for 690,000 dollars.

In Africa, the creative economy is an essential part of any country’s economy and creativity and it can be found in many forms such as arts and crafts, performing arts, design and architecture, literature, music, and movies. 

Although most of the creatives in the industries mentioned above are yet to be displaced by blockchain technology, with Africa experiencing tremendous growth in terms of mobile internet users and penetration rates, it comes as no surprise that many of them are turning their attention to this growing market of NFTs.

After all, there is no better way to stand out than capitalizing on a digital niche that is slowly being explored by many.

Recently Skill Haven Africa, a Ugandan crypto learning center hosted a Twitter conversation with Leriq also known as Eric Isaac Utere, a Nigerian music producer and CEO of African Valuables Collective (AVC), and Kweku Essien, co-founder of AVC. The conversation’s topic was “NFTs: The Future of Creatives.”

According to Kweku, NFTs are about creating your tribe and understanding who you are as a creative and your audience. 

He said, “Once you have an audience you can quickly grow financially, your influence can easily grow as well. Your audience provides a myriad of opportunities.“

He also pointed out that studying the aspect of your tribe as a creative in the NFT industry is important as these are the customers that understand your work and want to interact with it, therefore, you can leverage that to monetize your work. He further mentioned that teaching customers that NFTs are something they will be utilizing in the near future given the growing technologies, is crucial.

Leriq also highlighted that NFTs are unique digital marks on products and services. He also believes NFTs are a good way to expose creative works in Africa.

He said, “In today’s world where any artist can create art and put it out in the blockchain, that has given so many artists the international exposure they needed and a global audience to appreciate their work.”

Leriq also talked more about his recent work, Rough Diamonds, an AVC project, which includes digital art and a music EP, that will publicly be on sale on 26th August.

Summarily, the growing popularity of NFTs has given acceptance to digital art and creativity in general globally. Although there are obstacles and downsides, many still believe that this might not only be a lucrative source of income for creatives but is also the future of creatives.