Curation Corp Newsletter 19/10/2017

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Thank you for coming across this, I spend a lot of time at work completing a news briefing on the latest stories about digital currencies and blockchain, as well as a plethora of other topics which you can receive to your inbox. It's a nice job, I enjoy it.

Here is the briefing that went out on the 19th October. If you think I should continue posting these (a few days after our subscribers get them) then please do say so.

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Thank you, enjoy.

The latest stories read and summarised by our curators.

3-Star

PBoC complete trial of digital currency supply algorithms
Byzantium hard fork goes live on ethereum
Princeton graduates funded by blockchain leaders for 'basecoin'
Bitcoin Lightning software released for public testing

2-Star

Ethereum hard fork leads to break-offs and new chains
Australian university offers campus-shop cryptocurrency rewards
Australian fintech firms pitching to create tokenised AUD
Blockchain-backed insurance policy market in development
Popular crypto-exchange Bitfinex announces withdrawal of US support
Digital Assets raises $40m in series B funding for DLT platform
JPMorgan launches payments blockchain network
IBM partnership eyes blockchain to speed international payments

1-Star

'Cryptoruble' rumoured to be in the works for Russia

3 Star

PBoC complete trial of digital currency supply algorithms

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has successfully completed a trial of algorithms needed for digital currency supply. China's central bank has designed a prototype that can regulate the money supply, paving the way for PBOC to be the future sole regulator governing the value of digital fiat currency, said Yao Qian, director-general of the Institute of Digital Money at the PBOC. China has no timetable for the introduction of the currency.
Sources: China Daily
Tags: Digital Currencies, China, People's Bank of China, Payments disruption

Byzantium hard fork goes live on ethereum

Developers are celebrating as Byzantium, the long-awaited first of two hard forks of ethereum, has taken place. Those behind the first phase of the upgrade said they experienced difficulties ahead of the hard fork, with bugs encountered in the code, prompting some to consider postponing the activation. Ethereum rose to $348 after the upgrade, with no sign of minority forks or consensus issues. It is not known when phase two, Constantinople, will be deployed.
Sources: CoinDesk
Tags: ERC20 tokens, Blockchain, Ethereum, Hard-fork

Princeton graduates funded by blockchain leaders for 'basecoin'

Blockchain start-up Intangible Labs has attracted several investors to the pre-sale of its digital currency basecoin, according to Intangible Labs CEO Nader Al-Naji. Investors include Digital Currency Group, AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant, Bain Capital Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. The firm, founded by Princeton graduates Al-Naji, Lawrence Diao and Josh Shen, is developing a stable digital currency which operates in the same way as the federal reserve, a concept based on Al-Naji's blog post about a cryptocurrency which could shrink and grow its supply.
Sources: Rueters
Tags: Cryptocurrencies, Intangible Labs, Blockchain, Digital Currency Group, Basecoin

Bitcoin Lightning software released for public testing

Bitcoin Lightning has begun a two-week public test of demo wallet Desktop App for lnd. Powered by Neutrino, the Segwit-enabled Lightning Desktop App relies on client side filtering, resulting in less active load on full nodes and greater privacy, among other benefits. Once synced, Bitcoin Lightning said the app will automatically manage channel opening within the network, driven by heuristics.
Sources: Lightning
Tags: Bitcoin, Lightning Network

2 Star

Ethereum hard fork leads to break-offs and new chains
Public blockchain Ethereum has been hard forked, enabling upgrades that will make its processes faster and more effective for developers. As a result, new blockchains and new “ethereums” such as Ethereum Vega and Etherite have been created that refuse to use the updated version of the original. The two new branches are intended to offer an alternative to the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 649 upgrade, which has left some miners concerned that they will earn less money. However, the success of these new break-offs is yet to be determined.
Sources: CoinDesk
Tags: Ethereum, Hard-fork, Software and services, Diversified financial services, Blockchain

Australian university offers campus-shop cryptocurrency rewards

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has partnered with start-up LoyaltyX to offer cryptocurrency as part of a customer loyalty programme at its Sydney campus shops. The 500 students who agreed to participate in the Unify Rewards scheme will earn Ether tokens with every 10 transactions made in the stores. "Last month, the value of Ether rose by 30%, so we're excited to see how members respond to this type of loyalty currency versus traditional approaches," said LoyaltyX MD Andrew Lowe.
Sources: Coin Desk
Tags: Ether, Digital Currencies, University of New South Wales, Education technology, EdTech Strategies

Australian fintech firms pitching to create tokenised AUD
star-rating
A group of fintech firms are seeking to create a government-backed Digital Australian Dollar (DAD). Presenting their case to the Reserve Bank of Australia and the federal treasury, the companies argued that a DAD pegged to the Australian dollar could compete against cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. The country's government has not publicly mentioned the idea of creating an Australian cryptocurrency, but has introduced legislative changes to make digital money more mainstream.
Sources: Australian Financial Review
Tags: Digital Australian Dollar (DAD), Blockchain, Fintech, Payments disruption, Australia, Digital Currencies, Token-as-a-Service (TaaS)

Blockchain-backed insurance policy market in development
star-rating
Singapore-based start-up fidentiaX is developing an exchange for insurance policies, backed by blockchain. The company's goal is to create a trusted marketplace for policyholders to trade policies without the need for multiple intermediaries to get involved. The company is planning an initial launch of the marketplace in Asia with Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore the targeted jurisdictions.
Sources: Enterprise Times
Tags: Disruption in Insurance, Blockchain, Life insurance, Other stories of interest

Popular crypto-exchange Bitfinex announces withdrawal of US support
star-rating
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is putting an end to trading with US individual customers who use its peer-to-peer financing platform. Customers in the US are already prohibited from getting finance from other Bitfinex users, and will also no longer be able to offer financing from 9 November. Individual US users must also arrange to withdraw their digital tokens by the same date.
Sources: Bitfinex
Tags: Consumer finance, Cryptocurrencies, Diversified financials, Bitcoin, Exchanges, Digital Currencies

Digital Assets raises $40m in series B funding for DLT platform

New York-based Digital Asset Holdings (DA) has raised $40m in a series B funding round, led by Jefferson River Capital. DA founder Blythe Masters has also appointed Clyde Rodriguez, formerly of Microsoft, as the company's CIO and CTO for engineering. DA has been working on a distributed ledger settlement platform for investor the Australian Securities Exchange, which will decide in December whether it will adopt the system.
Sources: CoinDesk
Tags: Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Digital Asset Holdings, Blockchain

JPMorgan launches payments blockchain network

JPMorgan has launched the Interbank Information Network (IIN), which aims to bring blockchain technology to global payments. The bank says IIN plans to make payments cheaper, quicker and more secure by cutting the number of participants needed for compliance and data-related queries. Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group are the first two banks signed up to the network, with others expected to join soon.
Sources: Reuters
Tags: JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Quorum, Blockchain

IBM partnership eyes blockchain to speed international payments
star-rating
IBM has partnered with KlickEx Group, Stellar.org and several banks to develop a blockchain-based solution to making cross-border payments cheaper and more efficient. International transactions using several currencies can take up to several weeks to clear, but IBM's single-network solution, already being used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, operates in real-time and could reduce clearing and settlement times to seconds.
Sources: IT Pro Portal
Tags: Stella.org, Payments disruption, IBM, Blockchain

1 Star

'Cryptoruble' rumoured to be in the works for Russia

Russia is rumoured to be launching its own cryptocurrency, the cryptoruble. The currency will not be available for mining but will be created and tracked by the Russian government. The cryptocurrency seems to be based on blockchain technology and could be used to protect against online fraud. Rubles and cryptorubles will be interchangeable, though confirmation on how has not been given. The currency could support the online economy without requiring foreign money markets or third-party brokers for transactions, with the currency expected to require proof of origin to guard against money laundering. Undocumented cryptorubles will reportedly have a 13% tax applied when exchanged.
Sources: CoinTelegraph, TechCrunch
Tags: Digital Currencies, Russia, Diversified financials, Diversified financial services, Cryptocurrencies