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Stellar Blockchain to host EU-Thailand remittance corridor

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Stellar has seen major breakthroughs of late as rivalry with the blockchain firm Ripple continued to escalate. In the latest development, a new cross-border remittance corridor has been opened between the 27 European Union [EU] countries and Thailand on the Stellar blockchain.

According to the official press release, Velo Labs, the company building a global settlement network, has teamed up with TEMPO Payments, the EU anchor for Stellar blockchain payments. The two entities aim to leverage Bitazza which happens to be a Thai crypto trading platform to facilitate the transactions. TEMPO Payments and Bitazza are both licensed financial institutions and have expanded their footing across ASEAN and EU markets, raking in nearly $17 billion and almost 600 million customers.

Stellar blockchain will be hosting the new corridor and leverage Velo tokens and Velo digital credits for the on-chain transactions. All three partner companies aim to perform a faster and cheaper money transfer option between Europe and Thailand by relying on their respective networks and eliminate the inefficiencies in these areas.

Elucidating more on the offering, Mike Kennedy, CEO of Velo Labs stated,

“What we’ve launched today is a validation of our core mission: building a global, decentralized, and interoperable network that will allow businesses and individuals alike to securely and instantly transfer value across the globe. Velo Labs wants to make cross-border transactions faster, cheaper, and more reliable for everyone; this first step starts us down the path of that reality.”

Stellar flying high

The latest news comes after reports of Stellar negotiating to purchase MoneyGram made headlines. The latter happens to be a popular global remittance app formerly partnered with Ripple. The two firms previously enabled large-scale remittances among emigrant communities.

However, things went south when tensions between Ripple and SEC escalated. Several platforms suspended XRP operations. MoneyGram also terminated its partnership agreement with the beleaguered blockchain company. Many in the community viewed Stellar’s reports to buy MoneyGram as an inflammatory move at a critical point in XRP’s timeline.

USDC Goes Live On Stellar’s Decentralized Exchange

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The world’s leading stablecoin backed by Circle and Coinbase, USD Coin [USDC] went live on Stellar’s decentralized exchange, on the 2nd of February. David Puth, the CEO of Centre Consortium, asserted that the partnership of Stellar and Centre would further advance the growth of USDC while strengthening the Stellar ecosystem at the same time.

According to the official announcement, at launch, the Stellar USDC was available on Stellar’s decentralized exchange, accessible to any Stellar account through integrated wallets and tradeable across Stellar’s ecosystem of over 9,000 assets which includes stablecoins such as NGNT, BRLT, ARST, EURT, TZS and ZAR.

Notably, Stellar was previously announced as an official chain of the stablecoin back in October 2020 by Stellar Development Foundation [SDF] and the Centre Consortium, which was co-founded by Circle and Coinbase. ‍

Following the announcement, Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation was quoted saying,

“This integration is going to be a powerhouse for growth in the Stellar ecosystem and a catalyst towards achieving our mission of creating equitable access to the global financial system. It presents significant business opportunities for both new and existing companies to build on the respective strengths of USDC and Stellar.”

Furthermore, the latest integration also aims to benefit businesses and developers from Circle’s scale and liquidity to deliver on the kinds of products and use cases the Stellar especially with respect to cross-border payments and tokenization.

Rise in Circulation of USDC Tokens

USDC was first developed on Ethereum blockchain but with the partnership, Stellar has become the fourth blockchain to support the stablecoin.

Besides, owing to the wider adoption of the cryptocurrency over the last couple of months, stablecoins in circulation have exploded at an astonishing rate. Moreover, the number of USDC tokens in circulation also saw a parabolic rise of more than ten-fold over the last 12 months. Most notably, the stablecoin gained momentum after July when prices of Bitcoin and altcoins picked up the pace.

At the time of writing, USDC’s market cap was found to be at $5.93 billion.

Here’s How Blockchain-Based ICONLOOP is Helping in Secure COVID-19 Tracing

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COVID-19 has affected all sorts of countries, communities as well as businesses in countless ways. Over the last few months, several initiatives have come up in aid and help deal with the global health crisis. One of the many industries that have been able to master new opportunities to help amid the pandemic is the blockchain technology.

In a bid to revitalize the stagnant economy and help tourism, South Korea-based leading blockchain technology firm, ICONLOOP.Inc announced that it is all set to help in providing private, secure COVID-19 contact tracing. The company will be mainly targeting the country’s most popular domestic tourist destination, Jeju Island, which has nearly 15 million visitors every year.

In the first of its kind initiative, ICONLOOP and the island’s Special Self-Governing Province have signed a cooperation agreement to introduce the COVID-19 disease prevention system.

As per the official document, the visitors will use a mobile app called ‘Zzeung’ and verify their identity using a Korean telecom service which can also be used to check into tourist destinations and businesses on Jeju Island using QR codes in the app. All the data will be kept private unless a COVID-19 case is discovered, in the event of which the island’s crisis response team will conduct “rapid epidemiological investigation” and tracing.

Talking about the latest development, Jong-hyup, Kim, CEO of ICONLOOP stated,

“This cooperation with Jeju Island is opening new possibilities for real-life application of blockchain DID authentication in the post-COVID-19 era. As more users directly experience safe and convenient DID service at scale, we will realize many more new ways that blockchain technology can be applied to their daily lives.”

Blockchain to the rescue

Blockchain can not only help in tracking public health data surveillance for infectious disease outbreaks by helping the agencies to keep track of the virus activity, of patients, suspected new cases, and more, it can also solve major issues pertaining to donation at a grim time such as current one.

Blockchain can further help in assisting global organizations such as WHO and other health organizations to come together and update each other about the current situation, tackling methodologies, breakthroughs and work towards a common goal to prevent it from worsening further.

The World Health Organization was reportedly working on blockchain and other tech companies on a program to help forward data about the ongoing pandemic, named MiPasa. Built on top of Hyperledger Fabric in partnership with IBM, computer firm Oracle, MiPasa is expected to help with early detection of the virus as well as identify carriers and hotspots.

Even cryptocurrency firms were not far behind. Binance was the first crypto-exchange to respond to the global outbreak. The CZ-led platform launched the “Binance for Wuhan” project and committed to a donation of medical supplies worth $1.4 million.

Following its suit was BitMEX’s operator HDR Global Trading Limited, which announced a grant of $2.5 million to help fight the virus. The grant was reportedly directed towards Gates Philanthropy Partners, Nuclear Threat Initiative, OpenMined, and Our World in Data.

The Stellar Foundation, as well as its rival Ripple Labs, announced donations worth millions for the cause.

Additionally, a decentralized AI hackathon launched by the Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Alliance [DAIA] in a bid to support the medical community in providing solutions and brought together global AI and blockchain projects and developers to create intelligent decentralized tools to combat the pandemic and reduce risks from future infectious outbreaks.

Smartphone Giants Samsung to Add Support For Stellar Payments Blockchain

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On July 15, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) revealed that it has been working with South Korean electronics giants, Samsung, to link its blockchain to the Samsung Blockchain Keystore. The addition of Stellar payments blockchain to Samsung gadgets aims to allow Stellar users to handle their private keys properly and securely.

The management and storage of private keys have been a major challenge for blockchain users. Indeed, the ability to manage private keys safely and comfortably is a vital barricade that the blockchain industry must resolve if it wants to achieve mass adoption. Although there is software that can store private keys on behalf of users,  they have been faced with security vulnerabilities.

Samsung’s secure and easy to use key management capability

Notably, the safest technique is the use of hardware-grade isolation. A different computer processor that can only be accessed by sanctioned software is used to secure private keys from snoopy individuals. This is the same capacity of security that Samsung launched earlier this year. While launching the new S20 Galaxy model, Samsung stated:

“We created a secure processor dedicated to protecting your PIN, password, pattern, and Blockchain, Private Key. Combined with the Knox platform, security is infused into every part of your phone, from hardware to software. So private data stays private.”

Back in March 2019, Samsung added support for Ether while releasing its Galaxy S10 model. Later in the same year, smartphone giants also integrated support for Bitcoin, opening the way for more than 30 different cryptocurrencies. SDF ‘s move to integrate Stellar payments blockchain with Samsung is crucial, as the electronics company is a terrific global distributor. According to data by Statista, Samsung sold approximately 300 million gadgets in 2019 alone.

Stellar payments blockchain on Samsung smartphones

Capacity to provide smooth and secure key management; is not the only reason Stellar ‘s blockchain payments partnered with Samsung. Stellar ‘s ambition to further expand its global presence is a crucial factor in the new partnership. It provides a platform for Stellar-based companies to create innovative applications for Samsung users.

Furthermore, now that Samsung is supporting Stellar, its developers can now develop blockchain applications and solutions for Samsung Galaxy phones. However, not all of the Samsung gadgets support integration. Supported models include the Galaxy S20 Series, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Note 10 Series, Galaxy Fold and Galaxy S10 Series.

Stellar Lumens Ups Its Game With German Bank Partnership

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Countries in Europe have been open about using blockchain technology in improving their financial spheres. Out of this, Germany has been one of the stalwart examples of a region that has adopted blockchain as well as the concept of cryptocurrencies.

New reports now state that Bank von der Heydt had partnered with Bitbond to release their own euro stablecoin. This is aimed to facilitate financial placements in tokenized securities. 

Sources have revealed that the partnership between the bank and the startup will result in a plethora of developments of updates. The tie-up will utilize the Stellar blockchain which will then be used by institutions as well as private companies. The bank’s official statement read:

“The advantages of digital securities lie above all in virtualization, i.e. the elimination of the previously required documented securitization. As a result, securities can be traded directly without an intermediary, making financing much cheaper and easier to implement. Instead of a share, you get a token that, like Stellar, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Co., is based on the blockchain system.”

The bank added that as of the start of the New Year, the crypto custody business was incorporated into the German Banking Act [KWG] as a separate financial service. Customers now need to gain permission from BaFin to offer custody of crypto values within the German market.

With the latest proposal, investors within the bank will be able to purchase the euro stablecoin that will be issued by von der Heydt. Users integrated into the system will be able to convert their holding euros into stablecoins. The founder and CEO of Bitbond, Radoslav Albrecht stated that digital payment will happen much faster than how it was occurring now.

The main advantages of the tie-up were that the transfers will occur in real-time. At the same time, on-chain delivery versus payment of securities is set to occur in an instantaneous fashion. The banks using the technology does not need to involve a third party paying agent but can provide everything independently.