Europe has been running a legislative framework for electronic signatures and digital identities since 1999. In 2014, the European Parliament introduced a significant upgrade by presenting electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market, or eIDAS, regulation. In light of recent initiatives in Australia to improve legislation for doing business remotely, this experience is valuable because the European community was among the first in the world to introduce electronic signatures, and it developed a unique legal and technological framework that many other countries borrowed. Though the experience is full of pitfalls and drawbacks, which are also …

Digital asset security firm Ngrave announced sales for its flagship product, the fully offline hardware wallet Ngrave Zero, will launch next month. The devices will be made available for purchase on Indiegogo from May 26 and are slated for shipping in October. Ngrave claims the first EAL7-certified crypto wallet Ngrave’s co-founder and chief executive Ruben Merre told Cointelegraph that its product introduces “a number of innovations compared to existing solutions,” stating: “The Ngrave Zero is 100% offline, and features extreme tamper-proofing. It’s the only blockchain wallet with EAL7 security certification, which is the highest security certification in the world.” The …

Infinite Fleet, a space adventure game, is partnering with blockchain marketplace STOKR to launch a security token offering (STO). In an April 20 blog written by Infinite Fleet, the gaming company announced it would use the tokens issued by Luxembourg-based STOKR to raise funds for its development: “We are making the foray into capital markets and we believe this will offer our supporters the opportunity to own a piece of equity in Infinite Fleet itself… our team has a wealth of experience across both the gaming and crypto industries, and we have always been strong proponents of a new digital …

Facebook’s Calibra is looking to create 50 new roles for its workforce in Ireland, as the firm seemingly bucks the trend of private-sector layoffs during the coronavirus crisis. An Irish Times report on April 20 revealed that Calibra’s small team in Dublin is set to be significantly expanded this year, with Facebook noting that its Irish operations are “critically important” for its roadmap. Calibra’s Irish expansion still depends on regulators’ cooperation Based in Ireland since 2009, Facebook employs 5,000 people in the country across its various partner firms, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Founded in 2019, Calibra has been at …

Blockchain’s varied applications are becoming more useful for global banking institutions with each passing day. Yesterday, Polish retail banks rolled out a blockchain-based customer data platform developed by the Polish Credit Bureau, also known as Biuro Informacji Kredytowej, or BIK. BIK, the biggest credit bureau in Central and Eastern Europe, has enabled banks in Poland to send notifications of commissions and fees changes on blockchain via its new document management product. Polish Credit Bureau and Billon were developing the platform since 2018 Developed in collaboration with Polish-British fintech firm, Billon, the BIK Blockchain Platform has been in development since the …

The president of the Swiss Crypto Valley Association, or CVA, said that the Coronavirus pandemic had a major impact on the local crypto ecosystem. A recent report claims that the representatives of nearly 80% of crypto valley’s firms said they will most likely go bankrupt over the next six months. Crypto Valley Association president Daniel Haudenschild explained to Cointelegraph what the survey means for the Crypto Valley Startup ecosystem, he said: “The information has been built from a smaller sample size however it certainly seems to mirror the sentiment that we feel in the market.” A dire situation The report …

An Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain specialist and a healthcare data firm have teamed up to devise a solution for fighting the pandemic that complies with European data privacy laws. On April 17, IoT blockchain startup Ubirch and Nasdaq-listed Centogene announced their partnership on a solution for securely handling the results of COVID-19 mass testing. Volkmar Weckesser, CIO for Centogene — which has collected epidemiologic, phenotypic and genetic data for 500,000 patients worldwide to date — said that when combined with Uirch’s blockchain portal: “[SARS-CoV-2] test results can be accessed everywhere in a forgery-proof manner ─ spearheading a return to …

The European Parliament has published a study identifying a number of legislative blind spots pertaining to crypto asset oversight in the European Union. The report identifies stablecoins, token-based fundraising, and the threat of money laundering through crypto mining among recent industry developments necessitating a regulatory response. Crypto mining identified as money laundering risk The report asserts that cryptocurrency mining may be used as a vehicle by criminal organizations to “create clean cash”: “Newly mined coins are by definition ‘clean’, so if someone (e.g., a bank) is willing to convert them into fiat currency or other crypto-assets, the resulting funds are …

As the European Commission finished its public consultation on cryptocurrency assets in March, France’s major financial regulator stepped in to express its stance on the matter. The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the stock market regulator in France, has published an official response to the EC consultation, outlining some basic proposals regarding their own vision for crypto assets within the EC’s approach. It’s too early to establish a classification of crypto assets In an April 7 statement, the AMF argued that the classification of crypto assets should be based on the existing categories in order to differentiate between crypto assets …

In response to the growing demand for cryptocurrency trading, Dutch retail brokerage platform BUX launched its commission-free cryptocurrency trading platform BUX Crypto. In a statement published April 8, the company announced that BUX Crypto is now available across 25 European countries. BUX stated that its new offering aims to bring new traders into cryptocurrency markets by simplifying the crypto trading process. BUX CEO and founder Nick Bortot said: “We see BUX Crypto as a natural extension of our current lineup, which is focused on offering products that make it simple and affordable for even the newest investor to get into …

Most of the fundraising in the cryptocurrency space shifted from the Americas to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific regions (APAC), according to a recent report by Big Four auditing firm PwC. According to PwC's 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report, during 2019, fundraising efforts in the crypto space obtained 18% less funding, while funds in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the space decreased by 40%. As funding decreased overall, APAC and EMEA's share of the pie got larger. While APAC and EMEA saw 44% of combined fundraising and M&A deal value in 2018, …

The European Union, or EU, mentioned blockchain technology as part of social services digitization efforts to keep Europe up to speed with the changing times. “As in the case of the services sector, the use of blockchain technology is in an early phase of adoption in health and social care, where it has been used to pay benefits in cash and to monitor pension contributions,” the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, or Eurofound, an EU agency, said in a 2020 report. The EU agency sees blockchain benefits and use cases Highlighting the technology’s benefits, the …