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 …

Blockchain firm QuarkChain has announced a partnership with the ecological department of Northeastern Chinese province Shanxi. QuarkChain and the Shanxi province will jointly develop an environmental governance platform on blockchain (EGPB). This platform will be used by the local administration for construction resource management and trading. QuarkChain stated that, while limited construction materials are mostly located in a specific area, they are widely distributed to many places, creating the need for a management system that can better supervise the development and use of those resources. EGPB will be used for tracking resources along their supply chain. The network’s node operators …

Research from Microsoft reveals that Indonesia had the highest malware encounter rate across the Asia Pacific region in 2019. They conclude that this indicates a surge in cryptojacking and ransomware attacks. The report shows that the region continues to experience a “higher-than-average” encounter rate for ransomware and other malware attacks, posting figures 1.6 and 1.7 times higher than the rest of the world, respectively. Ransomware and cryptojacking attacks on the rise in Indonesia Indonesia had a 10.68% malware attack rate during 2019. While this does represent a 39% decrease, the figures remain two times higher than the regional average, Microsoft …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto have listed a rupiah-backed stablecoin, Binance IDR (BIDR). According to an announcement on June 30, Binance and Tokocrypto users can now trade BIDR against Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Ether (ETH). Users will also be able to directly purchase and redeem the stablecoin at a rate of 1 Indonesian rupiah each ($0.000070). A part of Binance’s expansion plans BIDR is pegged to Indonesia’s fiat currency and runs on Binance Chain. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claims that this is the first stablecoin pegged to this fiat currency …

A report from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, or CSA, shows that the number of ransomware attacks cases rose in 2019, compared to figures recorded in 2018. According to a “Cyber Landscape 2019” study published by the Singaporean government, the entity received 35 reports of ransomware incidents in 2019. This represents a surge compared to the 21 cases that reported in 2018. Most of the attacks targeted the travel, tourism, manufacturing, and logistics industries. Phishing attacks also rose in 2019 Phishing cases also saw a sharp increase. The agency discovered 47,500 related URLs in 2019 — up from 16,100 …

A cybercriminal group has allegedly stolen around $200 million from cryptocurrency exchanges over the past two years. In total, they are believed to have hit 10 - 20 victims across the United States, the Middle East, and Asia. According to research by the cybersecurity firm ClearSky, the gang named “CryptoCore,” known with other pseudonyms like “Dangerous Password” and “Leery Turtle,” has been actively targeting crypto firms since 2018 — specifically exchanges. Source: ClearSky They confirmed that CryptoCore stole $200 million from at least five victims, several of whom were located in Japan. Between 10-20 additional companies could be affected The …

Asia may be the next proving ground for crypto firm Ripple to reach with its cross-border payments corridor. In a June 18 interview on the YouTube channel Thinking Crypto, Adam Traidman, CEO of SBI Ripple Asia—a subsidiary of Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings—said Ripple has started to roll out its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution in Asia. According to Traidman, SBI Ripple Asia has started “limited trial and pilot projects” with various companies for Ripple’s payment corridor, with greater expansion forecast for 2021. “I expect that probably later this year, and into next year, things are going to move into …

In Busan, a private-public consortium in South Korea announced their intention to build a blockchain-powered medical tourism platform. No deadline for launch is currently set. According to Gyeongnam Ilbo, the initiative will be led by Busan Bank. They are looking to establish the platform within the second largest city of the country in terms of population. The group’s main goal is to strengthen the medical tourism sector. The consortium includes Pusan National University Hospital, Dong-A University Hospital, Gosin University Gospel Hospital, Samyuk Busan Hospital, and payment brokerage company Knet Co. Ltd. Banking services offered through the platform The agreement states …

A Japanese judge ruled in support of data tampering charges moved against Mark Karpeles — the CEO of now-defunct crypto exchange, Mt. Gox. At the end of March, Karpeles appealed his conviction on charges of having tampered with financial record data to harm his clients. Now, local news outlet Nikkei reported on June 11 that Tokyo District Court Judge Mariko Goto decided to uphold the previous ruling. Karpeles sentenced to over 2 years in jail The previous ruling sentenced Karpeles to two and a half years in jail for tampering with Mt. Gox data for February-September 2013 and depositing $33.5 …

Major South Korean insurance firm KB Insurance plans to implement a blockchain-enabled mobile message delivery system for its clients. According to a June 9 report by industry news outlet Ledger Insights, KB will use the system jointly developed with local telecommunication firm KT Corp starting next month. The service will at first deliver payment and termination notices to auto insurance customers, but the firm plans to expand it to all its customers. The purpose is to reduce mailing costs and non-delivery of notifications. Blockchain ensures the message delivery The new message delivery solution uses blockchain to send insurance policy changes …

Around 4,000 Chinese bank accounts of cryptocurrency traders have reportedly been frozen by local law enforcement. According to a report Monday by 8BTC, police froze the bank accounts of thousands of over-the-counter traders from the Chinese province of Guangdong. This purportedly comes as part of a wider investigation into illegal activities such as gambling and money laundering, which 8BTC states have been commonly facilitated by crypto OTC trading with the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Per the report, authorities started freezing the bank accounts on Thursday. One retail investor reportedly found his bank account frozen after buying cryptocurrency on a major, credible …

Japanese crypto firm Freessets has announced a new technology to enhance Bitcoin wallet (BTC) privacy. According to a June 8 announcement, Freessets has created a system that allows wallets to request their addresses’ Bitcoin balances without revealing it to the servers from which they request the balances or transaction history. The statement said that conventional Bitcoin wallets explicitly ask servers for the balance of their addresses, which links the balance, transactions and addresses. However, “using the technology Fressets has developed, it is mathematically proven that the servers cannot learn anything from the user’s query.” The significance of the development Adam …