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JPMorgan Begins Utilizing Blockchain for Collateral Settlements

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JPMorgan Chase & Co, a multinational investment bank, is apparently testing the use of its own private blockchain for collateral settlements.

JPMorgan performed a trial transaction on May 20 in which two of its businesses transferred a tokenized version of Black Rock Inc. money market fund shares, according to Bloomberg.

A money market fund is a form of mutual fund that gives exposure to liquid and short-term assets such as cash, cash equivalents, and debt instruments with excellent credit ratings, making it a low-risk investment.

JPMorgan’s bigger ambition for its private blockchain, according to the bank, is to allow investors to put forth a wide range of assets as collateral that may be used outside of typical market conditions.

“What we’ve achieved is the friction-less transfer of collateral assets on an instantaneous basis.” BlackRock wasn’t a counterparty, but it has been heavily involved in the initiative “since day one and are exploring use of this technology.”

Stated JPMorgan’s global head of trading services Ben Challice

JPMorgan has been into blockchain and crypto for long

JPMorgan has been interested in crypto and blockchain technology for a long time, and in late 2020, it launched Onyx Digital Assets (ODA). The project is a “blockchain-based network that facilitates the processing, recording, and Delivery-versus-Payment (DVP) exchange of digital assets across asset classes,” according to the description.

While it’s unclear whether JPMorgan used the ODA in this case, it’s set up to swap cash for various types of tokenized collateral, provide intraday liquidity, and provide access to the bank’s digital payment infrastructure token JPM Coin.

Tyrone Lobban, head of JPMorgan’s Blockchain Launch and the ODA, said the bank is attempting to foresee a scenario in which a greater range of traditional financial services will be offered.

BNP Paribas, a European bank, completed its first trade through the ODA earlier this week to test tokenized fixed income market trading.

BNP Paribas Global Markets managing director and head of US repo trading and sales Christopher Korpi commented on the decision, emphasizing the importance of being able to optimize its procedures using blockchain technology.

Filecoin Foundation Join Lockheed Martin To Build Blockchain Network In Space

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Filecoin Foundation in association with aerospace corp Lockheed Martin announced to build a blockchain network in space, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on May 23.

Billed as the Interplanetary File System, or IPFS is an open-source network that stores information that can be shared by users.

Joe Landon, VP of advanced programs development at Lockheed Martin Space, said the goal of the project is to develop a program for deploying the IPFS in space.

“We need to develop the technology to support a long-term presence in space without having to rely entirely on Earth-based communications and data storage,” Landon said. 

According to its website, the Filecoin Foundation is a self-funded organization that facilitates governance of the Filecoin network — a blockchain-based cryptocurrency and digital payment system that builds on top of the IPFS.

Noting that today’s centralized internet model “just doesn’t work in space,” Marta Belcher, president, and chair of the Filecoin Foundation said

“Every time you click, that data has to be retrieved from a particular server in a particular place. That means that if you’re on the moon, there’s going to be a multi-second delay while that data travels from Earth, but with IPFS data isn’t retrieved by where it is, but rather by what it is, so it can be retrieved from whatever’s closest to you, eliminating that delay.”

Lockheed Martin and Filecoin plan to pick a spacecraft platform to host IPFS

In the ensuing months, Lockheed Martin and Filecoin will work to establish a spacecraft platform to host an IPFS payload that will transmit data back and forth between Earth and other spacecraft.

“We are starting out with an exploration phase that will include scoping the technical work required and identifying the right demonstration mission,” said Belcher. “Once we have identified the appropriate mission or missions, we’ll have a longer-term timeline.”

In the beginning, the initial payload demonstration is planned for low Earth orbit. 

Further, the announcement post claims that IPFS would allow users to back up files and websites by hosting them across numerous nodes. Landon said this project aims to bring the benefits of decentralized storage systems to space. 

China’s BSN Blockchain Ready For Global Expansion Despite ‘Challenges’

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China’s blockchain-based service network a.k.a BSN is eyeing its first major international expansion, according to a CNBC report. CEO Yifan revealed the firm’s plan to launch a project called BSN Spartan Network overseas sometime in August.

The Hong Kong-based firm boasts itself as a “one-stop-shop” for blockchain cloud applications. It aims to bridge different blockchains together to help businesses deploy the technology.

Even though Chinese President Xi Jinping has doubled down on Blockchain technology, elevating it to a national priority, it is strictly against any cryptocurrencies other than Digital Yuan.

Due to this, the Spartan Network will rely on half a dozen public blockchains that do not operate with cryptocurrencies. One of those will be a non-crypto version of the Ethereum blockchain when the project launches in August.

Yifan also confirmed that the Blockchain transactions fee will be paid in U.S. dollars rather than Ethereum’s related cryptocurrency called ether.

“The purpose of this is to drop the cost to use public chains to very minimal so that more traditional IT [information technology] systems and business systems can use public chains as part of their systems. That is why we are working with other major public chain protocols to convince them the mainstream is non-crypto public chains.”

More hurdles for BSN ahead

Being a blockchain firm and not dealing with cryptocurrencies will have its challenges. The CEO admitted that the initial years will be “difficult to push as most people in the blockchain industry only understand crypto.

Not only that, as it is backed by the Chinese government, foreign firms would likely be a bit hesitant to do business with the firm.

But Yifan begged to differ saying, “People will say BSN is from China, it is dangerous. Let me emphasize, BSN Spartan will be open source … we will not access anything from our end.”

“That is why when we a launch in August we will open-source immediately and we are working with a lot of western companies,” he added.

On the other hand, here is some good news for Bitcoiners.

China’s iron hold over Bitcoin miners from running operations in the country seems to be wavering. Data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index [CBECI] showed that activity has picked up again and the nation is now the second-largest Bitcoin miner, after the US.

Blockchain ain’t no gold chain

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Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman criticized organizations for leaping onto the blockchain hype, in a recent tweet.

People want to cash in on the new catchphrase by flacking “blockchain something.” “Blockchain vitamin supplements next?” a  Netizen joked. Other users mentioned “AI” and “cloud,” among other prominent buzzwords.

In 2017, during the height of the cryptocurrency mania, blockchain was the hottest new thing. Long Island Iced Tea Corp, a tea firm, famously changed its name to Long Blockchain, causing its stock to jump by more than 200 percent. Three people were convicted of insider trading in 2021 after buying the company’s stock before the branding.

Krugman has long been a sceptic of Bitcoin, writing an op-ed in the New York Times in 2011 titled “Golden Cyberfetters” in which he ridiculed the world’s first cryptocurrency.

The eminent American economist did not go ignoring the latest cryptocurrency market correction, which was precipitated by the demise of Terra.

Krugman claimed in a New York Times op-ed published earlier this week that the most recent bitcoin crisis is different, stating that cryptocurrency is essentially a gigantic bubble fueled by fear of missing out.

Blockchain critic takes a swipe at Bitcoin

Krugman cited “uncomfortable comparisons” between bitcoin and the subprime mortgage crisis in January.

Krugman argues that fiat currencies going “to hell” will result in a slew of additional political and societal issues that cryptocurrencies will not be able to solve.

However, proponents of cryptocurrency believe that Krugman’s views are overly narrow since he ignores recent technological advancements in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

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In a Bloomberg Wealth story, he mentions Hungarian-born billionaire Thomas Peterffy’s advice to save up to 3% of personal wealth in cryptocurrencies in case fiat money fails.

Peterffy believes that cryptocurrency prices could skyrocket to millions or plummet to zero, which is why his wager is modest. He said,

“

I think it can go to zero, and I think it can go to a million dollars.

Krugman stated in May that he had given up attempting to foresee Bitcoin’s rapid death, saying that its cult can “indefinitely” persist.

Crypto supporters, on the other hand, believe that, like in the past, the cryptocurrency business will be able to recover after a significant downturn.

Binance Delists LUNA and UST Trading Amid Issues on Terra Blockchain and High Volatility

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Binance delists LUNA and UST. The international cryptocurrency exchange following the catastrophic drop of the algorithmic stablecoin has stopped trading pairs with the Terra ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies.

Binance announced the action on May 13, suspending spot trading for the LUNA/BUSD and UST/BUSD trading pairs. It’s unclear when the withdrawals will resume, as the crypto exchange just indicated that it would wait for the Terra network difficulties to be resolved before proceeding.

Following one of the most major black swan occurrences to impact the industry since the creation of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2009, it is the latest step by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Is it over for LUNA?

Despite promises to save the failing Terra coin and UST, Binance Futures delisted coin-margined LUNA perpetual futures on Thursday. Following the meltdown of the Terra blockchain currency, validators were compelled to take the network offline on May 12 in order to prevent any governance assaults.

On May 10, Terra’s coin and its algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD crashed dramatically as UST lost its $1 peg. The system was meant to maintain its peg to the US dollar automatically. Still, it failed, causing the UST to devalue and LUNA tokens to be created unprecedentedly.

The fall was catastrophic, with the value of LUNA plummeting by 95 percent in a matter of days. Do Kwon, the founder of Terra, has issued a short-term strategy to help the ecosystem recover. The plan called for burning $1.4 billion UST and staking 240 million LUNA tokens in order to keep the UST $1 peg from depreciating.

According to rumors, Crypto.com, a Singapore-based exchange with over 50 million users, halted the coin trade yesterday. Because of the coin’s recent significant market volatility, the decision might constitute a follow-up. The historic downturn has caused investors panic and considerable loss, as many have lost their whole life savings.

Now it seems like almost all the exchanges are letting LUNA go. Will it resurrect? Only time will tell.

Jill Gunter weighs in on the battle between old blockchains and new protocols

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Leading crypto investor Jill Gunter has shared her view on the fierce competition between multiple established blockchains and the arrival of several new protocols.

Gunter’s exposure to crypto began in 2011 during her stint at Goldman Sachs as a derivatives trader. Then she started research on blockchain protocols and worked as a VC at Slow Ventures before co-founding Espresso Systems.

In a recent podcast, Gunter spoke about the three distinct phases of development within the crypto industry that have led it to this moment of heated competition.

The first phase according to Gunter is the era of altcoins. This period was marked by the entry of protocols like Litecoin, Dogecoin, and ZCash, when developers sought to make improvements to the Bitcoin protocol such as changing the block size to increase the throughput of the system, she explained.

“What you came out with was a lot of blockchains and a lot of tokens that had a lot of the same properties as Bitcoin, but changed the feature set,” Gunter said.

The next phase, the entrepreneur claims came with the creation of Ethereum in 2015.

Finally, the modern era of layer-one blockchains began as developers tried to tweak the feature sets of programmable blockchains to address some of the issues with Ethereum that exist today, she said

“Alternative blockchains have not been fully put to the test like Ethereum”-Jill Gunter

Pointing to Ethereum’s high transaction and gas fees as bottlenecks that have left users frustrated. the co-founder then cited the recent Yuga Labs’ metaverse land sale fiasco when people trying to buy NFTs were faced with exorbitant gas fees and failed transactions because of the popularity of the drop.

While alternative blockchains such as Solana and Avalanche offer lower costs and can process transactions much faster than Ethereum, Gunter said these other chains have not been “fully put to the test that Ethereum has been” because they haven’t had to process as many users at once.

What’s more, these newer chains have all “centralized something in some way,” Gunter stated.

Adding that all the layer-one projects out there are “making the right noises,” but have yet to be put to the test by users.

Google Aims To Become The Numero Uno Choice For Blockchain Developers

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Aiming to lead the Web3 space, Google’s cloud division has announced its new team that would be offering services for developers running blockchain applications. This was revealed by Amit Zavery, vice president at Google Cloud, on 6th May adding that “the idea is to make the Google Cloud Platform the first choice for developers in the field”.

“While the world is still early in its embrace of Web3, it is a market that is already demonstrating tremendous potential with many customers asking us to increase our support for Web3 and Crypto-related technologies,” he wrote in an email.

“We’re not trying to be part of that cryptocurrency wave directly,” Zavery told CNBC in an interview. “We’re providing technologies for companies to use and take advantage of the distributed nature of Web3 in their current businesses and enterprises.

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Moving forward, the tech firm is planning to build a system for companies that are looking to incorporate blockchain data easy for people to explore while simplifying the process of building and running blockchain nodes for validating and recording transactions, Zavery said.

He also said that Google’s tools can work in other computing environments, such as Amazon Web Services.

While investors look for a lesser volatile option like cryptocurrencies, enthusiasm surrounding other blockchain-based projects is on the rise.

According to Zavery, these crypto applications have made their way into the mainstream and have increasing relevance in industries such as financial services and retail.

Google might have a competitive advantage?

As the global tech giant fight for market share against fierce rivals like Alibaba, Amazon, and Microsoft, Google intends to provide offer “back-end services to developers interested in composing their own Web3 software.”

In January this year, Google’s cloud unit unveiled a plan for a Digital Assets Team to tap into the NFT market. The firm said it was looking at how customers could make payments with cryptocurrencies.

The search engine giant along with Amazon and Microsoft forms the big 3 cloud providers. Amazon AWS might be leading the pack but the business is growing faster than its core advertising unit.

Google cloud platform Alphabet’s CFO Ruth Porat said last week that the fastest growth in headcount is inside the cloud division.

Blockchain Development and Its Future

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Blockchain first entered the world as the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) supporting the earliest Bitcoin transactions; done by Satoshi Nakamoto themselves. 

Almost sixteen years have passed since then and blockchain development has come leaps and bounds, becoming the cornerstones of multiple markets and its own industry in its own right. The rise of blockchain developer companies, seemingly popping up out of every corner, shows the potential of blockchain technology. 

The crypto-sphere is too often focused on hype coins like Shiba Inu or speculative price analysis. However, the real value is being driven into blockchain development by some of the smartest individuals on the planet with trustless, permissionless, and decentralized values at the cornerstone of their coding. 

In this article, we will discuss Layer 1 vs Layer 2 blockchains, the major blockchain development companies, and what we can expect from blockchain in the near future. 

Blockchain Development Leaders 

Although there are dedicated Blockchain development companies making waves in the industry, more traditional technology companies, such as Microsoft, are also active in the space. In September of 2021, it was declared that Microsoft is shutting its Azure blockchain down due to declining interest in the product and Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS).

Microsoft gave their existing clients a converting solution through ConSensys. 

One of the leading blockchain companies is Chainalysis, a company focused on building trust in blockchains through data. Their clients are not exclusive to Barclays, Commonwealth Bank, and Bitpay; their services monitor over $400bn worth of crypto assets every month. 

Other blockchain development leaders are quickly finding out the unique problems blockchain technology solves, the efficiencies they create, and the services they care for which we once thought were riddled where middlemen.

For example, short-term decentralized car rental systems have been created on the blockchain, which promotes peer-to-peer rental systems without a middleman. 

Lastly, one of if not the biggest companies embroidering blockchain technology is IBM, aiming to bring hyperledger to their client’s businesses. IBM has invested over $200m in blockchain development and is constantly hiring talented blockchain developers to join their company. 

Looking forward

As blockchain development continues to be the spearhead of the crypto community, many wonder what’s next? Many blockchain development companies will focus on two main aspects:● Blockchain as a service (BaaS)

BaaS is the bread and butter for blockchain developer companies, providing blockchain solutions for others wishing to build or use their own apps or smart contracts. BaaS often consists of basic services which the clients then build on top of; granting them a strong foundation on which they build their concept on. 

For example, companies will utilize BaaS companies to help keep their data safe, immutable, and private by using blockchain technology. It is a win-win solution, as customers are more willing to trust a service, knowing it is built on top of open-source smart contracts, instead of a centralized authority. ● Layer 1s Vs Layer 2 Blockchains (L1 VS L2)

With greater adoption already here and more projected in the future, Layer 1 blockchains, such as Ethereum, are all struggling with the biggest problem: Scalability.

Step in Layer 2 blockchains. Layer 2 protocols or frameworks are built on top of the existing chain to solve scalability and speed issues. A great example is Polygon, built on top of the Ethereum chain. 

Once Layer 2 is adopted, much of the grunt-work can be loaded off Layer 1 whilst keeping the security that comes from the chosen consensus mechanism. Adding a second layer is often called an off-chain solution to the problems faced by major L1s. 

These Layer 2 can now focus on speed and scalability whilst they benefit from the security of the L1. A great example is the Polygon Network aimed at helping the Ethereum blockchain scale. One of the greatest benefits of Polygon is the extremely cheap transaction fees compared to Ethereum, whilst utilizing the safety of Ethereum validations. Polygon transactions are often less than $0.01 compared to Ethereum’s $15 average.

On top of this, Ethereum can manage around 14 transactions per second, compared to Polygon’s ability to handle 65,000 transactions per second. 

Further, in the future, we are likely to see even greater development and adoption of L2 solutions to combat the life-long issues that L1 blockchains have suffered. 

Conclusion

Blockchain development is still in its infancy, with some of the biggest blockchains and blockchain development companies yet to even exist. It is an extremely exciting space; one that we hope continues to flourish. 

Only time will tell whether the promises made by large Blockchain developer companies will come true and mass adoption will occur. 

Crypto Startup Blockchain.com eyeing IPO as early as 2022

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Crypto fintech firm Blockchain.com is holding talks with several banks for an initial public offering IPO that might take off as early as this year, as per sources familiar with the matter. The discussions are in their initial stage as they might get pushed back to the next year if there is a change in the company’s plan, Bloomberg reported.

At the time of writing this post, there was no official comment from the representatives of the startup firm.

Conceived in 2011 UK, Blockchain.com began its journey as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer 10 years ago and later transitioned into a cryptocurrency wallet provider that allows users to buy and store digital tokens such as Bitcoin.

Besides that, it also operates a cryptocurrency exchange. The firm is led by CEO Peter Smith, one of its three founders.

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Crypto Startup Blockchain.com eyeing IPO as early as 2022 4

Last month, Blockchain.com said that it was valued at about $14 billion in a funding round. The financing round was spearheaded by Lightspeed Venture Partners with major participation from Baillie Gifford & Co., Blockchain.com said.

If succeeded in going public with an IPO, the firm would be only the second crypto exchange in the U.S. to accomplish the feat. Its rival Coinbase Global Inc became the first crypto entity to go live in 2021 at an opening price of $381 per share of COIN with a valuation of roughly $100 billion.

Crypto Firms Racing ahead for an IPO despite regulatory bottlenecks

Several crypto firms are mulling plans for an IPO but regulatory complications often act as roadblocks. For Instance, Texas-based, Rhodium Enterprises, was the first crypto firm to announce IPO plans this year, filing for its offering in late January, only to postpone it days later.

A few weeks ago, Enterprise blockchain firm Applied Blockchain also filed to sell $60 million of shares in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. It is offering about 3.2 million shares at an estimated mean price of $18.54, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC].

The firm intends to use the money to secure sites for new co-hosting facilities, develop those facilities, and enter into energy service agreements, among other uses, it said in the filing.

How did a $600M Hack of a Blockchain Bridge go unnoticed for almost a week?

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Popular online game Axie infinity’s bridge called Ronin Network suffered an exploit losing more than half a billion funds in one of the biggest crypto attacks to date. The breach took place on March 23 but was discovered only on 30 March, Tuesday, according to the blog, published by Ronin detailing the incident.

So what exactly happened?

Blockchain bridge is software that enables cross-chain communication allowing tokens to be transferred. Attackers drained 173,600 Ether and 25.5 million USDC tokens from the network in two transactions. The stolen funds were siphoned off in two cryptocurrency exchanges, according to blockchain forensics firm Elliptic.

Ronin in its blog said it’s in contact with several cryptocurrency exchanges along with blockchain data analytic Chainalysis to monitor the movement of the stolen funds. The network also stated that it’s working with law enforcement agencies.

Following the incident, the price of Ronin’s token RON took a steep fall of 22%. AXS, of Axie Infinity, too reacted by losing as much as 11%, according to CoinMarketCap.  

Blockchain bridges have some major flaws

The attack highlights how bridges are susceptible to malicious actors. Experts say that these are run by unaudited computer codes, making them vulnerable to attackers. On top of that, the identities of validators/nodes, who run the transactions are not known, which makes it difficult to track suspects.

Expressing surprise, Wilfred Daye, head of Securitize Capital, the asset-management arm of Securitize Inc. said, “The fact that nobody notices for six days scream aloud that some structure should be in place to watch illicit transfers.” Another red flag, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, is the bridge’s centralized architecture.

“In this case, the issue was that the bridge was highly centralized, the theft came as a result of someone hacking the ‘validator nodes’ of the Ronin Bridge. “Funds can be moved out of the bridge if five of the nine validators approve it. The hacker managed to get hold of the private cryptographic keys belonging to five of the validators so that was enough to steal the crypto assets.”

Kelvin Fichter, a developer felt that the Ronin was heavily dependent on validator-based bridges which he termed a “Fundamental error”. Fichter also pointed out that the network’s “minimal monitoring and alerting” system provided the hacker’s a solid ground to launch their attack.