Weekly News
As we get closer to the winter holidays, it is important not to fall out of the working schedule and keep focused on the recent updates and upcoming trends for the year 2020. We at 482.solutions try to focus on new projects, partnerships, and events. To help you maintain a steady working rhythm, we have collected all recent news from the world of blockchain technology in our weekly news digest:
Two Blockchain Companies received Awards from Swiss Regulatory Authority
It has always been a real struggle for financial companies based on blockchain technologies to break into the traditional finance and banking industry. But as a business sphere gets more familiar with the decentralized system solutions, European government institutions start to make the first steps towards accepting blockchain-based banking. In particular, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) awarded banking licenses to two blockchain firms that are focused on money laundering. FINMA is responsible for general control over the Swiss financial market and all processes that take part within the national banking industry.
The two companies that received banking licenses are:
Both companies provide various solutions for traditional banking services, including wealth management, asset management, and transaction banking services. They are registered broker-dealers, specializing in different financial blockchain sectors.
This issue will for sure change the overall FinTech industry, not only in Switzerland but also in other regions. As now two blockchain firms have received their award, FINMA underlined the importance of strict following the Anti-money laundering (AML) that they have to follow.
Twitter Launches a Project to Create a Blockchain-based Platform Version
Yes, you’ve read it right: one of the world’s social media giants, Twitter, has just announced they are going to move to the blockchain-based platform. CEO of the company, Jack Dorsey, has announced they are going to develop an open decentralized standard for social media that will be first implemented into the Twitter platform.
The project will be developed by Bluesky team that will consist of five specialists. Twitter CTO, Parag Agrawal, is looking for a specialist to lead the group. He was recently tweeted that the perfect candidate for this position will require the experience of working “in the open on the blockchain” and will be able to coordinate and guide a team of five skilled professionals: architects, engineers, and designers.
A lot of attention is paid to either work with the existing decentralized social media standard, Like Steem, or create a new one from scratch. These issues will be discussed by Twitter experts to provide their recommendations to the Bluesky team.
One of the main reasons why Dorsey make this step was his dissatisfaction with the existing centralized system and global policy that “address abuse and misleading information is unlikely to scale over the long term without placing far too much burden on people”.
“Existing social media incentives frequently lead to attention being focused on content and conversation that sparks controversy and outrage, rather than a conversation which informs and promotes health.”
Jack Dorsey said he was partly inspired by Mike Masnick, founder of TechDirt, and his approach to free speech is a long-term advocate of “protocols, not platforms” for digital projects that highlighted the ability of decentralized system to overcome the main problems of social media.
This is a huge step forward for the social media market in general, and for now, the question is how it might impact the future of the social platforms in general, starting from Twitter and its monetization. But Dorsey sees this shift as an opportunity to concentrate their attention on innovation and engender healthier online discourse.
Nike Gets a Blockchain Patent to Tokenize Shoes On Ethereum
Another exciting innovation for the sportswear market leader: Nike has just received a blockchain patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office to create digital shoe versions. This will allow Nike customers to securely trade their tangible shoes and even “breed”’ the new versions of their digital copies.
The patent gives Nike customers the ability to register the purchase of their par of shoes with the unique ID number. After that, the digital copy of the shoes will be created through a cryptocurrency wallet that will be connected to this unique ID. Thus, all information about this pair of shoes, their authenticity, and their place of origin can be easily accessed and verified.
Moreover, the digital pair of shoes will also contain a cryptographic token based on Ethereum platform that will contain additional data about the shoes, such as their color, material, series, manufacturing and “eco-sustainability”. Using all this information, customers will be able to trade their shoes, having access to verified information about each pair.
Another feature of shoe tokenization is the ability to “breed” the new digital versions of shoes, similar to Ethereum based game CryptoKitties. User can intermingle his own shoes, or arrange with another user to create the “offspring” of their pairs. This new pair will combine features its “predecessors”, getting a unique design and features.
Nike will create a physical version of the “offspring” pairs, which is a subject to “manufacturing restrictions”. The owner of the digital pair will be able to limit the production of real pairs of shoes based on their digital “offspring” or its clones, giving them the control over the uniqueness of this product, according to their patent.
The cryptographic token with all data on the pair of shoes will be called CryptoKick, and it will be possible to sell it together with the physical pair of shoes, while all CryptoKicks will be associated with users’ digital assets that can be stored in a “Digital Locker” — an app, similar to crypto wallet. This opens a lot of new opportunities for Nike customers not only in breeding, selling and trading their shoes, but creating new shoe models and applying their digital assets in a completely different way.
