The man who launched a blockchain and cryptocurrency assurance division for PwC in Switzerland is joining Tezos as chief financial officer, the foundation confirmed in a news release on June 11. Roman Schnider is leaving the Big Four firm after 15 years, and Tezos says he is already familiar with the organization, since it was the first major blockchain project to have its finance and business operations audited by PwC. Tezos describes itself as a platform focusing on smart contracts and decentralized applications that offers a protocol governed by stakeholders. Ryan Jesperson, the president of the Tezos Foundation, said: “As …

New York-based global investments company, Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon), has named Subhankar Sinha as the company’s Head of Blockchain, according to a May 13 press release. Sinha’s role in the corporation will be to work on creating and furthering partnerships with startups, accelerators and other businesses in the blockchain field. Sinha previously worked as a director for the London-based international accounting firm PwC, co-founding and co-leading the firm’s American blockchain consulting practice. After leaving PwC, he created a firm to advise startups on business models. BNY Mellon put out a job offer (now defunct) for the role …

The 2018 cryptocurrency bear market cost the median crypto hedge fund almost 50%, a new survey headed by PwC revealed on May 12. According to the findings, around 150 cryptocurrency hedge funds survived last year, which saw bitcoin (BTC) falling from $20,000 to just $3,000. Of those, the median loss came in at 46%, while quantitative funds — which take bets on price drops in bitcoin and altcoins — still managed to achieve overall returns of 8%. The figures underscore a troublesome time for the still-nascent crypto financial instrument economy, which has already undergone a recovery as 2019 sees bitcoin …

Big four auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is the top recruiter for blockchain-related jobs on recruitment platform Indeed, search results showed at press time on March 30. At press time, PwC is responsible for 40 blockchain-related job offers on the platform. Other big four auditing firms are apparently recruiting professionals in this niche on the platform: more precisely, Ernst & Young posted 17 such announcements, while Deloitte posted 10. This leaves KPMG as the only big four auditing firm not recruiting blockchain professionals on the platform. Tech giants IBM and Oracle posted ten job offers related to blockchain as well, while …

Central banks should leave issuance of digital currencies to corporations such as Facebook and JPMorgan, according to a blockchain and financial partner at PwC France, Forbes reports March 22. According to PwC France’s Pauline Adam Kalfon, central banks should stay away from the issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) until large corporations test out the tokenization of fiat currencies themselves. Only when cryptocurrencies are "battle-tested by corporations,” should central banks make a move towards the crypto space, Kalfon argued, adding that it will reduce the likelihood of potentially negative consequences on the economy arising from any central bank issuing …

Renewable energy will not solve Bitcoin’s (BTC) sustainability problem according to a blockchain specialist at Big Four auditing company PwC, Alex de Vries. De Vries presented his argument in a study published in sustainable energy journal Cell on March 14. The research cites estimates from de Vries’ website, according to which Bitcoin consumed anywhere from 40 terawatt hours (TWh) to 62.3 TWh throughout 2018. According to the paper, this is on par with the energy consumption of countries like Hungary (40.3 TWH) and Switzerland (62.1 TWh). De Vries quotes research published in 2014 that estimates that the energy consumption of …

Security token offerings (STO) are becoming more popular, relative to initial coin offerings (ICO), according to a new report by Big Four firm PwC's global consulting subsidiary Strategy&. Released on March 8, the firm’s forth ICO and STO report was developed in collaboration with the Swiss Crypto Valley Association. According to the joint report, STOs “are not fundamentally different from ICOs.” The document states that STOs are “a more mature and regulated form” of fundraising, noting — given the definition of a security — that the tokens sold in an STO can provide investors with various financial rights. STOs, the …

Big Four consulting and auditing company PwC has linked Iranian nationals behind Bitcoin (BTC) ransomware scheme SamSam to the crypto exchange WEX in a recent report published in February. The report is based on information that was previously disclosed by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ). As per the DOJ, two Iranians — Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri — were responsible for creating SamSam. SamSam is a ransomware demanding Bitcoin that reportedly damaged multiple U.S. companies, government agencies, universities, and hospitals. Within 34 months the hackers managed to extort over $6 million in Bitcoin and cause …

Big Four audit and consultancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is conducting a trial of its new blockchain-powered platform for ensuring the integrity of employee credentials. The trial, launched in partnership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), was announced in a PwC press release published on Feb. 28. PwC’s “Smart Credentials” platform, earlier unveiled on Feb. 13, implements blockchain to issue, store and securely share digital certificates for employees’ professional qualifications. For the trial with ICAS, PwC employees, who have qualified as chartered accountants at the Institute within the past two years, are being issued with a blockchain-based certificate …

Big Four audit and consultancy firm PwC Hong Kong has published guidance for financially distressed or insolvent businesses in the crypto sector. The document, released February 2019, tackles the complexities specific to the nascent industry, in particular in regard to asset valuation and multi-jurisdictional operations. PwC notes that the two parameters used to determine a company’s financial viability — cash flow and balance sheet assessment — may be more difficult to ascertain in the case of crypto assets, whose volatility complicates a clear-cut valuation. The document continues: “Further, the lack of clarity on the accounting treatment of cryptoassets and as …

Henri Arslanian, the Asia fintech and crypto leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Hong Kong, has predicted that many institutional players will enter the crypto industry in 2019. Arslanian made this claim during an interview with Bloomberg published on Dec. 24. When asked about his outlook on crypto for the next year, Arslanian said that he thinks “there’s a lot of exciting things that the crypto ecosystem is looking forward to in 2019.” Arslain explained that he expects the next year to be different from 2018 because of the increasing regulatory clarity. Arslanian also declared that he expects “many more big banks” …

Cryptocurrency businesses find it “almost impossible” to get insurance and this is deterring investors, Big Four auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) told Reuters Dec. 20. In comments focusing on the global fintech market, Henri Arslanian — the firm’s fintech and crypto leader for Asia — highlighted the contradictory status quo industry businesses face trying to attract funding. “Most institutionally-minded crypto firms want to buy proper insurance, and in many cases, getting adequate insurance coverage is a regulatory or legal requirement,” he told the publication, continuing: “However, getting such coverage is almost impossible, despite their best efforts.” The paradox is made more painful …