The trucking industry is one of the most important sectors in the world. According to recent statistics, the global freight trucking market was worth over $2.7 trillion in 2021. In addition, it’s been found that millions of commercial driver’s license holders are employed by trucking companies within the United States, a market that is responsible for delivering 70% of all freight. Given these statistics, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that technology has become a critical component for ensuring the advancement of the trucking industry. Yet while GPS tracking, autonomous driving and other mainstream technologies may be apparent, a couple …

The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, has announced its representatives will be available on a one-to-one basis to discuss financial technology. In a Nov. 3 announcement, the OCC said entities considering fintech products and services, partnerships with banks, or concerns “related to responsible innovation in financial services” have the opportunity for one-hour meetings with its staff between Dec. 14-15. The government office said it will screen requests and proposed topics of discussions and announce virtual meeting times. The OCC announcement followed the department saying it planned to establish an Office of Financial Technology starting …

When programmer Jonathan Silverblood flew to Townsville, Australia from his Finland home for a two-and-a-half-month holiday in August, he had one main task — pay for everything he could using Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The coastal city of Townsville is known as the “Bitcoin Cash City,” a name derived from a conference of the same name that first launched in 2019. It is understood to have a strong number of merchants that accept the Bitcoin-forked token. Silverblood said while attending the conference in 2019, he was intrigued by the number of merchants and vendors offering BCH as a payment option in …

DBS Bank, a major financial services group in Asia, is applying decentralized finance (DeFi) for a project backed by Singapore’s central bank. DBS has started a trading test of foreign exchange (FX) and government securities using permissioned, or private, DeFi liquidity pools, the firm announced on Nov. 2. The development is part of Project Guardian, a collaborative cross-industry effort pioneered by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Conducted on a public blockchain, the trade included the purchase and sale of tokenized Singapore government securities (SGS), the Singapore dollar (SGD), Japanese government bonds and the Japanese yen (JPY). The project has …

As inflation continues to grow, coupled with a looming recession, many tech firms are having to cut portions of their staff. To put this in perspective, data from Layoffs.fyi found that over 700 tech startups have experienced layoffs this year, impacting at least 93,519 employees globally. It has also been reported that tech giants like Google, Netflix and Apple are undergoing massive job cuts. While many of these layoffs are likely due to an economic downturn, this has resulted in an overwhelming amount of talent flocking to early-stage Web3 companies. For example, Andrew Masanto, a serial entrepreneur who has founded …

On Oct. 28, NFT Steez, a bi-weekly Twitter Spaces hosted by Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond, met with Web3 content writer, Julie Plavnik to discuss the importance of self-sovereignty while building a digital identity in Web3. Plavnik references author Gavin Wood when describing Web3 and says that “communication” is a core tenant in the subsequent iteration of the internet. “Web3 is the communication of encrypted channels between decentralized identities,” Plavnik affirms. According to Plavnik, the emerging concept of Web3 placed a magnifying glass on user data and ownership, especially concerning the creator economy. Plavnik describes the creator economy as a …

The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced Oct. 27 that it will create an Office of Financial Technology early next year. The new office will incorporate the Office of Innovation, which was set up in 2016. It will be led a by a chief financial technology officer, who will report to the senior deputy comptroller for bank supervision policy. The OCC describes itself as the U.S.’s “preeminent prudential supervisor.” It is an independent bureau of the Treasury Department and also charters financial institutions. Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said in a statement: “To …

Polygon (MATIC) price could double by the end of 2022 or early 2023 due to a mix of extremely bullish fundamental and technical indicators. Polygon wins high-profile clients MATIC rose by nearly 6.5% four days after Nubank, a Brazilian fintech company backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Softbank, confirmed that it selected Polygon's "Supernets technology" for its blockchain and digital token dubbed Nucoin. "Nubank plans to airdrop the digital token to its customers in the first half of 2023," the official announcement read, adding: "These tokens will be the basis for its customers' loyalty rewards program and will have …

The $9 billion-valuated German fintech N26 launched crypto trading on its mobile app. Starting from Austria and rolling out to other countries in the upcoming months, N26 Crypto will let its customers buy and sell 200 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The Berlin-based fintech announced on Oct. 20 that the launch in Austria addresses “strong local demand,” with 40% of N26 users either actively trading or have expressed interest in investing in cryptocurrencies. N26 plans to roll out its crypto trading service to other key markets in the next 6 months. N26 customers with a verified identity can …

Nubank, a fintech bank in Brazil, announced the creation of the Nucoin token on the Polygon blockchain on Oct. 19, paving the way for a rewards program for its 70 million clients across Latin America. The company said that the token will be available in the first half of 2023, and will recognize customer loyalty and engagement with the bank products without cost or fees for its users. The tokens can be redeemed for perks, discounts in selected products. Fernando Czapski, General Manager for Nucoin at Nubank, stated: "This project is another step ahead in our belief in the transformative …

United States Acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Michael Hsu has expressed concerns that regulators are spending “too much time on crypto," rather than more pressing issues, such as technology and banking. The crypto skeptic OCC head made the comments during an interview with Reuters on Oct. 13, as he outlined a worry that crypto is “occupying a lot of brain space for an awful lot of people” in the regulatory community. Hsu has been at the helm of the OCC since May 2021 and serves as the administrator for the federal banking system and chief economic officer of the …

Some critics deem nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to be totally worthless. They don’t see the point. Why should they? The industry hasn’t covered itself in glory with countless rug pulls and celebrity endorsements with prompt pump-and-dumps. But, this is missing the point. Already most of the digital and physical objects we use in real life are unique, they are not fungible: this means they cannot be copied, substituted or subdivided. Detractors might still say, well, what’s the point? NFTs are immutable and verifiable assets on the blockchain — these sound like industry buzzwords with little meaning. However, they go a long …