October 05, 2020
- Bitcoin on the Rise in Egypt Amid Economic Recession
- Shenzhen Stock Exchange to Launch Blockchain-Powered Trades
- Estonian Central Bank Launched Digital Currency Research Program
- Singapore’s SGInnovate and Accredify Launches Blockchain Health Passport
Bitcoin on the Rise in Egypt Amid Economic Recession
The global economic recession has left millions losing their jobs, and people are seeking alternatives to profit in a financial market, as seen in Egypt. The Egyptians are turning into mining Bitcoin to profit as an alternative source of income.
According to the Arabic news website, Al-Monitor, an increasing number of young people are interested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
“Many young Egyptians started investing in small amounts despite the increase in the value of the bitcoin. They started mining Satoshi, which is 100 millionth of a bitcoin, and on a daily basis they are making profits of 4% to 5% from the difference between buying rates during the timing of demand decline and selling rates at the time of peak demand, besides some quarterly or yearly profits from unexpected hikes in bitcoin rates.”
As recorded by the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, more than half a million of Egyptians have lost their jobs to date, jumping from 7.7% during the first quarter to 9.6% by the second quarter.
The new normalcy brought about by Covid-19 has also increased accessibility to Bitcoin – Working from home for many means more flexibility in managing time for Bitcoin study and investment. However, legislation is still crucial for mass adoption as at present, without proper regulations, Bitcoin traders and investors have become easy targets for hackers or fraud.
Source | Cointelegraph
Shenzhen Stock Exchange to Launch Blockchain-Powered Trades
One of the biggest exchanges across the Asia-Pacific region, Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SSE) launched a blockchain solution to allow trading with unlisted private-sector companies – Created as part of the Beijing Regional Trading Center.
Costs of information asymmetry will be reduced, and corporate equity management standardized to enhance market equity financing by the blockchain platform, co-piloted with Beijing Fourth Board Market (BFBM).
The China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved blockchain-powered equity markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shenzhen. Inspector of the Information Center of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Ge Yimiao states:
“We expect to get credibility, to reduce the cost of information asymmetry, standardize corporate equity management, and better leverage the function of market equity financing to lay a solid foundation for non-listed companies’ share transfer transactions. Also, it expects to implement equity financing and the future to a higher level of capital market.”
Ge further disclosed that both SSE and BFBM has intentions to offer custody services.
Shanghai’s exchange also states that the platform has built enough infrastructure to achieve on-chain functionality under its financial watchdog.
Source | Cointelegraph
Estonian Central Bank Launched Digital Currency Research Program
In partnership with technology companies SW7 Group and Guardtime , Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, has announced a research program on building a digital currency infrastructure.
The research program’s goal is to analyze whether a keyless signature infrastructure (KSI) blockchain solution can run its virtual currency program. Presently, KSI blockchain technology is already utlised in Estonian’s government e-services. The project will also look into new payment solutions, including paying with electronic IDs.
Expected to last two years, the project will run through several phases beginning to analyse the platform’s security and practicality. Head of the bank’s Payment Systems Department, Rainer Olt stated:
“As a small central bank, Eesti Pank carefully chooses which development projects of euro area central banks we can make a meaningful contribution to. Over the years, Estonia has developed unique know-how on how to maintain a secure, private and efficient e-government. Estonia’s unique wealth of experience provides a good impetus to launch a project with technology companies SW7 and Guardtime to explore technological opportunities. The latter is Estonia’s long-term cooperation partner in the field of the blockchain and a complete top in the world in its field.”
Estonia remained resilient towards adopting blockchain technology despite the recent scam incident by its e-residency program to keep up with times and its citizens’ needs.
Source | Cointelegraph
Singapore’s SGInnovate and Accredify Launches Blockchain Health Passport
Singapore has turned to blockchain technology in this pandemic to allow personal medical data to be stored in a blockchain-powered digital wallet – a digital health passport. This project was developed by government-owned investment firm, SGInnovate and startup, Accredify.
The project started in May this year. A pilot run in July has proven the capabilities of the blockchain-powered health passport in managing and verifying digitized healthcare documents that include COVID-19 swap tests and discharge memos.
First rolled out as a new feature by Singapore Manpower Ministry’s for its FWMOMCARE app, the health passport has progressed to monitor and report migrant workers’ daily health status in Singapore.
Developed by GovTech, Singapore’s government’s CIO office, the digital health passport was built on the Open Attestation platform (an open-sourced framework) for notarising documents with blockchain technology.
Simon Gordn, deputy director of SGInnovate states that they have identified a gap in the management of large-scale medical records and want to create a solution to enable a trusted authentication process.
As reported in a joint statement by SGInnovate and Accredigy,
“Digital Health Passport leverages blockchain technology to generate tamper-proof cryptographic protections for each medical document. Users can automatically verify the digital records via a mobile app and present it to officials via QR code, for a quick and seamless verification process.”
The advantages and benefits of blockchain have been widely acknowledged by organizations globally, with many exploring blockchain solutions for various purposes, including digital health passports.
Source | Cointelegraph
