Benjamin Soh, founder of blockchain development firm STACS, said that institutional players, not business-to-consumer companies, will drive the mass adoption of financial infrastructure built on blockchain technology. During the Unitize virtual conference, Soh said that if they could bring bank institutions to use the blockchain, millions of bank customers will automatically be a part of the blockchain finance infrastructure without them even knowing. Providing bank customers with a blockchain-based wallet while still using the traditional payment gateways will be the necessary first step towards bringing the efficiencies of distributed ledger technology to the financial system, Soh added. Asia is leading …
Bitcoin captured global curiosity when its’ value skyrocketed in 2017. Yet, financial institutions have been slow to add operational value to the crypto market. The common denominator among places where governments and banks have restrained digital markets is the lack of transparency and control they have in exchanges. Many research initiatives launched by global fintech leaders remain in developmental stages, while government officials and financial actors grapple with the learning curve of the new technology. The two biggest crypto concerns of global banks are debt liability from customers who have no protection from market volatility; and security risks associated with …
Speaking at BlockShow Asia 2019, Proof of Capital managing partner Edith Yeung called out American regulators for leaving blockchain-based ventures in the dark. These companies are commonly domiciled in Singapore, Switzerland, or Hong Kong because “they have no idea of what is happening in the US. They don’t want to touch it because of the legal tension.” Some exchanges are in fact leaving the US amid continued regulatory uncertainties. Last month, Poloniex spun out from Circle to form a new exchange that will not allow American customers to trade on its platform. Binance also specifically established Binance US in conjunction …
Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek unveiled his company's 2020 expansion plan in a talk today at BlockShow Asia 2019 in Singapore. The plans include launching its own exchange, shipping VISA MCO cards to almost every region in the world, and launching a non-custodial wallet. With the motto that “it’s your basic human right to control your money, data, and identity,” Marszalek spoke about Crypto.com’s vision to create an ecosystem where people can manage every aspect of their crypto holdings in one place: pay, buy, sell, trade, exchange, fundraise, and so on. He revealed the entire roadmap to get there …
BlockShow Asia 2019 hosted some big names today for a panel on blockchain scalability. All the speakers agreed: people have to choose between scalability and decentralization. The panel included Max Kordek, CEO at Lisk; Matthew Tan, founder of Etherscan; Saranya Sriram, technical lead at Microsoft Azure; and Xinxi Wang, co-founder of Litecoin Foundation. It attracted a large audience for such a super-technical discussion. Speaking about the difficulties of scaling a blockchain to the next level, Kordek said that “blockchain scalability is a tradeoff. You can’t simply scale a blockchain for free. This is why I always laugh when I hear …