October 19, 2020
- Former PwC Partner to Launch New Zealand’s ‘Power Dollar’ Stablecoin
- IBM Helps Firms to Reopen Amid Pandemic with Blockchain
- Leading Chinese Chemical Firm Employs Blockchain to Cut Trade Financing Costs
- The Bahamas to Globalize its Central Bank Digital Currency
Former PwC Partner to Launch New Zealand’s ‘Power Dollar’ Stablecoin
Power Finance, a New Zealand based financial services firm, employs distributed ledger technology (DLT) to launch allegedly world’s first digitized New Zealand dollar early 2021 – Power Dollar.
Led by Dave Corbett, former PwC banking and capital markets partner, Power Finance is backed by Centrality Ventures, a British investment firm.
More akin to a stable coin than a digital dollar, Power Dollar is privately set up and not government-backed. It will be, however, backed against the New Zealand dollar 1-1.
All Power Dollar holders will have their identities verified and transactions recorded. This is to prevent money laundering and fraud, made possible with DLT in conjunction with smart identity technology.
Corbett reminded that the Inland Revenue is not involved in the Power Dollar and further states,
“I see the Reserve Bank every couple of weeks. It’s fair to say they’ve been supportive of what we are doing, but we’ve been stretching their mind about the future of banking looks like.”
Source | Cointelegraph
IBM Helps Firms to Reopen Amid Pandemic with Blockchain
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), leading American tech giant, has developed a new blockchain based app to support global organizations reopen and people return to physical encounters.
The new app, IBM Digital Health Pass, will be launched by IBM Watson Health, a healthcare-focused IBM arm. IBM Digital Health Pass will deploy various data types like Covid-19 swab test results and temperature scans to verify health statuses. The health status verfiication functions will assure individuals to safely access public locations.
Vice president of the blockchain division at IBM Watson Health, Eric Piscini, stressed that the IBM Digital Health Pass is developed to have privacy support as its core function, stating,
“We believe that trust and transparency remain paramount when developing a platform like a digital health passport, or any solution that handles sensitive personal information, and we remain committed to this philosophy as we continue to build solutions to help support organizations during the current public health crisis.”
Source | Cointelegraph
Leading Chinese Chemical Firm Employs Blockchain to Cut Trade Financing Costs
To help the industry combat the rising costs of operations and trade financing, one of China’s largest chemical producers has launched a new Blockchain Warehouse Receipt Platform.
Covid-19 has brought about an increased demand for more environmental and safety measures that had expenses go up in China’s petrochemical trade. Financial instituitions have tightened lending on warehouse financing due to a lack of effective risk control and difficulties in securely tracking transaction processes of bulk commodities.
Using a system that integrates blockchain with Internet of Things technology, China’s first-ever digital warehouse receipt pledge financing transaction was completed on Sept. 27. The development involved state-owned petrochemical giant Sinochem Energy High-Tech, China Construction Bank Inner Mongolia Branch, and Nanchu Management Group. Further, the transaction had Beijing Longrunkaida PEC Products, one of northern China’s largest traders in the lubricant and base oil industries, as its financier.
Sinochem, China’s leading integrated operator in the petrochemical trade, reports,
“From the application for issuance of warehouse receipts to the bank’s appropriation of the loan, it took less than one day with a cost 40% lower than that of common trade finance services in the market,”
China’s petrochemical trade giants have employed blockchain to counter the painpoints in the logistics cycle that have alleviated high financing costs and delays faced by many companies. Vice president of Sinochem, Sun Liming, states,
“The [blockchain] Platform is the first to realize strict correspondence between digital warehouse receipts and stored goods. It uses IoT technology to closely monitor the goods under digital warehouse receipts to ensure that each warehouse receipt directly assures goods’ existence. In addition, the platform realizes swift goods delivery, receipt pledge, as well as integration of ‘four flows’ (the receipt flow, capital flow, contract flow, and goods flow).”
Source | Cointelegraph
The Bahamas to Globalize its Central Bank Digital Currency
The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) is planning on the global launch of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), dubbed the “Sand Dollar”.
CBOB’s assistant manager of electronic solutions, Bobby Chen, states, “At the moment, it is currently only used in a domestic setting, but eventually we are working on a solution that will make it interoperable with other global currencies.”
CBOB’s Head of Banking, Cleopatra Davis, states that the Sand Dollar’s interoperability with other wallets is a vital strategy with real-time integration of gross settlement and Automated Clearing House. Davis also noted that the API card-less onboarding will be crucial for the nationwide rollout, slated on Oct 20.
Source | Cointelegraph
