Inshorts

Meet Penny Schiffer, entrepreneur, consultant, strategist, manager and admirer of fintech. Schiffer has 15 years of experience in financial field. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology field from Bangor University, UK; master’s degree in the same field from Osnabrück University, Germany. Also she has an MBA degree from both University of Würzburg and University of Boston. Schiffer began her career in a prestigious firm, Accenture AG, worked there as project manager. Later she worked at Swisscom as innovation manager. Currently she is working at Swisscom as Head of StartUp Initiatives, also at Go Beyond as angel investor.

Meet Stefan Thomas, web developer and entrepreneur. Thomas has attended to study at Berufsakademie Stuttgart in 2005, but did not graduate and aborted his education and attended The Open University and qualified for a diploma in business studies. After his graduation he has worked in several companies as CTO. After that he founded company WeUseCoins in cryptocurrency field. Later he created Justmoon AG, an IT company that provides services in the field of intellectual ownership rights protection. In addition, currently he is working at Ripple, providing global financial settlement solutions, as CTO.

Japanese corporation Fujitsu announced the development plans to unite p2p money transfer platforms on blockchain between 3 Japanese giant banking institutions: Mizuho, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial. This year Japanese government already developed a growth strategy and developing fintech. The aim is increase the level of digital payments to %40 over the next decade. And the new p2p platform based on blockchain may be an additional incentive for developing the fintech strategy in Japan.

Cryptocurrencies in New Zealand equated to securities. The Financial Supervision Authority of New Zealand (FMA) issued an official statement that equated operations with digital currencies to securities transactions. "New Zealand companies that provide services using crypto-currencies must comply with the requirements of the relevant law of 2008, which includes registration in the register of financial service providers for each category of service, payment of commissions, compliance with requirements related to combating money-laundering received illegally, etc.", - said the statement of the financial controller. The FMA emphasizes that the law on financial market behavior does not deal with crowdfunding issues and holding ICOs.

Rewarding with the help of blockchain. The travel and merchant company American Express has filed a patent application for the development of customer reward systems based on a blockchain to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Information about the customers that is used to reward them for using the services of the company will be stored and updated with the help of blockchain, which will provide the keeping information more secure and protected.

Using Blockchain technology for fundraising. Charity Stars, an online fundraising auction platform, launched a sale. The lot was evening meal with football star Cristiano Ronaldo. For the first time the lot was paid by bitcoins. The price of the meeting was thirty-six thousand dollars. The money from this auction will be donated to the Forever Dream Foundation, the association that helps childrens from fairy families.

Through Mojaloop, Gates Foundation will help millions. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation knocks the door of blockchain based Ripple to develop a mobile payment system to help about 2 million people that have no access to basic banking services. The announcement appeared on the Ripple’s official site. Mojaloop, an open-source software for financial services, will be the solution along with the interledger protocol (ILP) of Ripple. Stefan Thomas, CTO of Ripple commented, that enabling poor to make payments anywhere via a mobile wallet is a good way to improve the inner economy and Ripple is honored to be the part of this project.

Blockchain partnership in transport industry. R3, an enterprise software firm that developed Corda, distributed ledger platform designed specifically for financial services, makes partnership with Bolero, a UK based cargo shipping company. R3’s Corda will provide bill of lading, a document issued by a carrier to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment for shipping company, based on blockchain technology. David Rutter, R3’s CEO commented on partnership, said, like so many of the processes and systems banks are forced to use today, the infrastructure that supports trade financing is extremely outdated and prone to risk and error.

One of the major universities will issue diplomas through blockchain. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launches a pilot program for receiving diplomas through smartphone app, which based on blockchain technology. The partner company of MIT will be Learning Machine, which will provide an app for students to receive diplomas easilly and quickly. On the first stage, 111 graduates will have he opportunity to get their diplomas in the framework of pilot project. Mary Callahan, Registrar and Senior Associate Dean, said that this project will enable students to own their records and allow to share them in a secure way with whomever they want.