Fintech Enroute: This week’s industry news
Heavy Air Drop: Blockchain offers $125 million to the public for free.
Startup and cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain is offering an air drop of $125 million worth of their proprietary token Stellar Lumens (XLM). Since the tokens are currently worth about $0.25 each, that makes about half a billion tokens on offer by the company. The company cites the encouragement of adoption of cryptocurrencies as viable financial assets as a rationale for the offering.
Issues with scaling, hacking, and appraising the future value of the tokens aside, this particular air drop comes with some pretty concerning strings attached. In order to receive free tokens one must first create an account and wallet with the company and provide extra personal information on top of that by going through Blockchain’s KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure. That means that the company will be attaching personal information to wallets effectively eating away at the autonomy and anonymity for which blockchain technology is so often praised.
Many experts and veterans in the space have criticized the offering saying that it could be considered fraudulent and is not a fair trade. While current holders of XLM praise the air drop and hope to capitalize on it. In a world of increasing fraud and iniquity surrounding markets for ICOs and other crypto-asset offerings this air drop, one of the largest ever, will be interesting to watch.
Read More Here: https://cryptonews.com/news/the-massive-xlm-airdrop-hits-wall-of-criticism-2885.htm
China Tech Conference Roll Call: No one is here.
In 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping began the World Internet Conference series, a series of conferences meant to gather tech leaders interested in bringing their business to China. In 2017, the conference was graced by the likes of Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
However, this year’s version of the conference, ironically named the China International Import Expo was not so star-studded. Chinese tech leaders Jack Ma, CEO of Ali Baba, and Tencent CEO Ma Huateng were absent. To boot, Apple and Google both only sent low-level representatives, with Google mustering only the presence of its regional head.
This lack of attendance is quite telling given the political and business environment in China. Trade disputes with the United States, a lack of intellectual property laws, and the PRC’s attempt to use tech to engineer a totalitarian state all might make it seem that foreign tech is not welcome in China anymore. It is even possible that foreign tech is just not needed in China. In fintech, at least, China is out innovating the United States as Ali Baba has successfully united ecommerce and banking services.
Read more here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-07/china-s-grand-internet-vision-is-starting-to-ring-hollow
Parliamentary Progress: The ban on ICOs in South Korea might be lifted soon.
South Korea’s parliament has begun debating lifting the ban that is currently being enforced on ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) of cryptocurrencies. The East Asian nation’s financial regulator supports the ban wholeheartedly, but would be forced to change its position in light of a parliamentary decision to the contratry.
On its face, the ban seems logical. With North Korean hackers and scam artists just across the DMZ, one can never be too careful. However, critics of the ban say that it has forced major capital outflows to countries that are more crypto-friendly such as Singapore, Malta, and the Baltic states. Given Koreans’ affinity for all things blockchain this may represent a major loss of taxable income in the near future.
Read more here: https://cryptonews.com/icos/it-started-south-korea-parliament-debates-ending-the-ico-ban-2558.htm
