The Bank for International Settlements, the central banks’ bank, announced the launch of Project Agorá, a joint private-public initiative seeking to examine the potential benefits of tokenization for improving cross-border settlements. Agorá includes the participation of seven central banks and private institutions to be convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF). BIS to Explore […]
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Ripple Partners With Onafriq to Enable Faster Cross Border Payments to Africa
Ripple and the Africa-focused payment fintech startup Onafriq recently said they are collaborating to enable crypto-based cross-border payments between Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the U.K., and Australia. Using Ripple’s platform helps Onafriq achieve its goal of making borders “matter less when it comes to payment within, to, and from Africa.”
Accelerating Financial Inclusion
Ripple, a provider of crypto solutions for businesses, and the Africa-focused payment fintech firm Onafriq recently said they are collaborating to enable crypto-based cross-border payments between Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the U.K. and Australia. Their collaboration not only brings faster and more efficient international money transfers to Africa but it also accelerates financial inclusion across the continent.
According to a press release, this partnership arrangement makes it possible for Payangel customers in the UK, Pyypl clients in the GCC, and Zazi Transfer users in Australia to send remittances to recipients across 27 countries. Commenting on his firm’s partnership with Onafriq (formerly MFS Africa), Aaron Sears, the Global Customer Success at Ripple, said:
For a number of years, Ripple has supported crypto-enabled, cross-border payments to individuals and businesses, and we are particularly excited to expand the reach of our solution into Africa thanks to our Onfriq partnership.
Dare Okoudjou, the founder & CEO at Onafriq, said using Ripple’s platform helps his firm achieve its goal of making borders that separate countries “matter less when it comes to payment within, to, and from Africa.” He also characterized the partnership, which has already enabled new connections, as the “bold first step for our crypto strategy to leverage blockchain technologies to amplify our impact on people and businesses on the continent.”
As per the press release, Onafriq has one of the largest mobile money movement footprints across Africa and this is evidenced by the fintech startup’s connection to some 500 million mobile wallets across 40 African countries. In addition, it boasts over 1,300 payment corridors on the continent.
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Thailand and Hong Kong in Crypto Collaboration With Cross Border Token Project
Central banks are increasingly looking towards more efficient payment methods and crypto tokens are filling that role. Thailand and Hong Kong have just announced a joint agreement to utilize digital currencies to facilitate quicker payment in bilateral trade.
Cross Border Crypto
Central banks are beginning to realize that the options for cross border payments are woefully dated, painfully slow and ridiculously expensive. Yes, we’re talking about SWIFT.
The explosive growth of the crypto industry, which is really only a few years old, has highlighted how easy, fast and cheap it is to send money across international borders via a secure and immutable distributed ledger.
Nations, especially in Asia, are looking towards crypto to ease the process of sending finances overseas and Thailand and Hong Kong are the latest to embrace the embryonic technology.
According to reports, the two nations have entered an agreement to roll out a two-tier digital token as part of the process to create a prototype for cross-border transfers. The initiative has been dubbed Project LionRock-Inthanon and the first tier involves the issuance of a crypto token to participating banks.
According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the second tier involves the banks distributing these crypto tokens to their corporate customers for settling wholesale payments. The fintech collaboration between the HKMA and the Bank of Thailand was established in May.
The two nations have bilateral trade worth an estimated $US20 billion per year and the new system will give businesses a competitive edge over inflated exchange rate mechanisms between the two currencies.
Project LionRock is focused on streamlining cross-border transfers and payments between banks and companies rather than replacing cash as the People’s Bank of China intends to do with its crypto yuan. HKMA senior executive director Edmond Lau added;
“The prospect of issuing a central bank digital currency for retail purpose in Hong Kong is limited, as we have so many retail payment services (ranging from) credit card, debit card, and (others),”
He continued to state that the HKMA and Bank of Thailand will announce more details on their proof-of-concept study during the first quarter of 2020. Thailand’s central bank has already been researching its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) under ‘Project Inthanon’. The initiative involves banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, and a number of Thai banks including Kasikorn Bank and Krungthai Bank.
The Kingdom has recently opened its doors to crypto currencies by amending regulations to favor the industry and innovation.
Not Using Ripple
The system appears to be similar to that offered by San Francisco based fintech firm Ripple. The company’s loyal followers, also known as the ‘XRP Army’, have been insistent that banks will be using their token. This latest announcement proves that they are more likely to just develop their own rather than rely on one controlled by a third party.
Image from Shutterstock
The post Thailand and Hong Kong in Crypto Collaboration With Cross Border Token Project appeared first on NewsBTC.
Millions in Crypto Is Crossing the Russia-China Border Daily. There, Tether Is King
Tether has a real-world use case Chinese importers of cheap goods in Russia use it to send millions home daily.
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A New Bitcoin Exchange On the Colombian-Venezuelan Border Will Help Refugees
Refugees can use a new POS to purchase goods, food, and services when they leave Venezuela.
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SBI Reports Financial Results, Recognizes Ripple for Cross Border Payments
n Japan finance giant SBI has issued its nine-month financial report, recognizing Ripples potential to lead in the cross-border payments industryn
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The Growing Threat of Cryptocurrency Illiteracy in Border Security
The post The Growing Threat of Cryptocurrency Illiteracy in Border Security appeared first on DCEBrief.
Canada Border Agency to Pilot IBM-Maersk TradeLens Blockchain Platform
n Blockchain could fulfil a role in our processes, says Canadian border agencyn
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Can Blockchain Solve Brexit Border Woes? UK Finance Minister Believes So
Phillip Hammond, the U.K. finance minister, stated yesterday that blockchain technology could help smooth trade across the Irish border after the U.K. leaves the European Union. However, Hammond is the first to admit that he has no idea what he is talking about.
UK Minister Relies on Poor Understanding of Tech in the Wake of Failing Negotiations
There is ever-growing concern about how the U.K. leaving the European Union next year will impact the U.K. itself, as well as their European neighbours. Since it is the only nation to share a border with any of the U.K. and naturally does a huge amount of trading with the departing country, Ireland is thought to be one of the nation’s most heavily impacted by Brexit.
In addressing the growing issue of how Ireland will be able to continue to trade with the U.K. after the leaving date, the U.K.’s finance minister, Phillip Hammond, cited blockchain as a technology that could potentially alleviate much of the concerns. According to Reuters, he said:
“There is technology becoming available (…) I don’t claim to be an expert on it but the most obvious technology is blockchain.”
Such a statement should be of immediate concern to anyone with anything to lose from Brexit or those who understand blockchain technology. Evidently, Hammond falls into the former category exclusively.
The issue is with the Irish border. Years of conflict have raged on either side of that particular line on the map and the uneasy peace established in the late 1990s rests largely on the ability that the Southern neighbour has to do trade with the U.K. to the north.
With so much currently unknown about the nature of a Brexit deal, there is no clear indication if such trade will be able to continue.
For Hammond to claim that a distributed database can in any way improve the fate of Ireland’s trade in the wake of a hard Brexit is ridiculous. Whereas a blockchain can be used to monitor supply chains (the efficiency of using such a system with our current technology over a standard database remains to be seen), there is absolutely nothing about a blockchain that makes them well-suited for reducing necessary border checks on goods in the event that a hard border between the U.K. and Ireland is the fallout from Brexit.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies work on blockchains because they are purely digital. Traded goods are not.
Rather, it seems that Hammond has been sold snake oil by the likes of Reply LTD with their “Blockchain for Brexit” report (cited by the Financial Times), or perhaps is trying to sound like he has a firmer grasp on the situation that he clearly does.
Public blockchains are great for certain things – security and immutability – but that doesn’t mean they are the solution to every problem ever. They are expensive to run in a properly decentralised manner and at the end of the day, most applications touting the tech probably don’t need the level of security afforded by a true blockchain.
The issue with the Irish border isn’t a trust one, it’s political. Blockchain removes the need for parties to trust one another and it does it very well, but at a great cost. To protect a multi-billion-dollar network, like Bitcoin, it’s perfect. There is no reason whatsoever to think it can speed up the process of trading goods across a border.
It’ll be interesting to see how Hammond develops his blockchain solution for the Irish border in the months leading up to the Brexit date. He probably should start by learning what one is and isn’t.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The post Can Blockchain Solve Brexit Border Woes? UK Finance Minister Believes So appeared first on NewsBTC.
US Customs and Border Protection to Test Blockchain Shipment Tracking System
n Customs and Border Protection, one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the U.S., will start a live test of blockchain-powered shipment tracking systemn
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