Inshorts

The best innovative urban development project has been determined. Smart Cities Expo and World Congress took place in Barcelona, where the City Project Award was given for the best urban development project. Dubai was considered worthy to receive the City Project Award, among 308 projects. The strategy provides that all government transactions will be conducted on online with the help of blockchain, by 2020. Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai Office (SDO) said: ‘’Now we are working on the development of the first set of international standards based on the blockchain, which will be proposed for consideration by the government.’’

In Miami the crypto currency is increasingly used for real estate purchases. Eric Fernandez, owner of the real estate firm Sol/Mar in Miami listed a penthouse, located in Blue Diamond, Miami Beach, state Florida. The property is on sale for $3.5 mln. Fernandez said, the owners do not accept fiat money only, but also accept bitcoin and ethereum payments. He also mentioned, that he has no doubt, soon cryptocurrency payments in real estate industry will expand.

Cryptocurrency support in mobile payment application. Square, an American technology company, reported the buying and selling bitcoin function in the Square Cash application. Payment for services and transfers to digital currencies will remain unavailable for the time being. Currently, the application is running in the test mode. Sarah Fryar, Square’s Financial Director, said: "Our customers are interested in using the application to buy bitcoin. Now we are studying how to make this process faster and easier, with the help of a small test group. Every day, the crypto currency plays an increasingly important role in the world financial system."

Partnership for modernizing global payment systems. American finance company American Express joined RippleNet. Among the participants of the distributed network of Ripple are: Credit Agricole, one of the largest French banks, Airwallex, the global payment network, Cuallix, the financial organization, Currencies Direct and TransferGo, dealing with money transfers and other well-known companies. It is planned that, thanks to this partnership, Amex, together with UK Santander, may create a transaction channel. Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple said; ‘’Ripple, by adding American Express and Santander into its network, took a big step to solve the problem, that corporate clients experience when making global payments. Money transfers that used to take many days, can now be done synchronously.’’

Government of Moldova discuss to use of blockchain based IDs to prevent child trafficking. Mihail Beregoi, Minister of Internal Affairs of Moldova talked about creating digital documents; ‘’This is a pressing issue and we are eager to find efficient solutions to help us address it.’’ Blockchain based IDs are a convenient way to fight with false identificated as blockchain technology is immutable. According to UNOPS experts, every year a large number of girls and women become victims of traffickers and fall into slavery. Most often, victims of traffickers are rural residents because of the lack of documents.

European Union is looking for using blockchain technology in education, regarding this published ‘’Blockchain in education’’ report. According to the report, the EU explores the benefits and risks associated with the use of innovative technologies in schools and higher education institutions. The report includes eight scenarios to implement the technology in secure certificates, multi-step accreditations, transferring credits, student funding and payments, verifying identities and tracking intellectual properties. The report stated; ‘’The research considers options for involving stakeholders in the creation of a decentralized solution that will simplify and accelerate the processes taking place in the field of education."

Now cryptocurrency transactions are able to make through Hyosung ATMs. South Korean ATM manufacturer company announced that now through their machines it is able to make cryptocurrency transactions. This was made possible through cooperation with the American company Just Cash, which develops mobile applications for the purchase of digital currencies. Now the new application allows to conduct transactions in bitcoins, but in the future it is planned to introduce other cryptocurrencies. Standard ATMs in South Korea have already been replaced with devices that support such service. In the near future, integration will be carried out for ATMs of this company in European countries and the USA.

The first testing of new alternative of blockchain. The main developer of the Mimblewimble protocol, known as Ignotus Peverell (names from Harry Potter) explained, a test network, named ‘’testnet1’’, was put into operation. In the test mode, the network works with artificial Grin tokens, thanks to the research, detection and elimination of errors that are carried out before the full version is launched. Despite the fact, that there is only testing the network, users can already connect it by installing a special application. ‘’This is our first testnet, so we're testing everything that has been developed so far. That includes the peer-to-peer network, the core consensus rules, the cryptography required to run a mimblewimble chain, the wallet software," said the developer.

The trade network that bankers interested. Over twenty banks are expecting to join to the platform of Hong Kong and Singapore, working on blockchain technology, at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The platform was created by Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), together with Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS). It is planned that the platform will establish "new world standards" and will allow tracking trade flows between Singapore and Hong Kong. Executive Director of HKMA, Li Shu-Pui, said that he also expects the accession to the work of this platform and European financial institutions.

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