Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 19 May 2017
It was only two days ago since the last blockchain and Bitcoin round-up, but here’s more news to keep you in the loop. Features Ripple, BitGo, Abu Dhabi Global Market, R3 and Corion.
Ripple has enjoyed a good start to the year with ten more financial institutions recently jumping onboard its blockchain network; and deals with BBVA, Bank of England and India’s Axis Bank. Now it has expanded its partnership with blockchain security company BitGo, which will see Ripple’s Digital Asset XRP for interbank cross-border payments listed on several exchanges: Bitso, Coinone, Bitbank and BuyBitcoin. Additionally, AlphaPoint will be adding XRP to their platform, and separately, Quoine’s Qrypto exchange will list XRP in Q2 2017. SBI Virtual Currencies also plans to list XRP later this year.
Ripple says the more XRP is traded against different currencies, such as the Korean won (Coinone) and the Mexican peso (Bitso), the “more liquid it becomes”. Asheesh Birla, VP of product at Ripple, says: “Within hours our customers can get-up-and-running with payments into a new country.”
In the UAE, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has joined the R3 consortium – becoming the “first regulatory body in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region” to be part of the R3 gang. As a member, ADGM will have access to news and developments on blockchain, and collaborate with industry institutions and regulatory bodies. R3, headquartered in New York, has had an interesting year with firms coming and going. JP Morgan Chase finally bid farewell to the consortium to pursue its own interests. That followed in the footsteps of Goldman Sachs, Santander, Morgan Stanley and National Australia Bank (NAB) – who all jumped ship.
But life is about ups and down – and R3 has also had good news via a deal with Acord (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) to launch a virtual “centre of excellence” for distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the insurance industry. Secondly, R3, together with five of its members and financial resource management specialist HQLAX, built a collateral lending solution for liquidity transfers. And, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) became the first US regulatory agency to join R3.
Swiss-based Corion has unveiled a blockchain platform for coin holders. Its system features a stable price point against the USD and relies on demand-based coin emissions within the Corion community, which “offers a helpful contrast to the fixed coin supply and fluctuating rates of cryptocurrencies in the current system”. It says the platform is “especially suitable for beginners”.
The company will also be having a token sale of its Corion Coin (COR) in June.
