Blockchain Company Graft Is Making A Credit Card Network Alternative
One of the Big Four auditing firm, KPGM has recently released a report stating that crypto assets have real potential but are needed to be institutionalized by the global financial services ecosystem.
According to the auditing firm one of the areas that emergent institutions are required is Payment processing.
The current electronic payment landscape is generally seen as difficult and expensive.
Reports have shown that two of the largest Card Companies in the world, MasterCard and Visa, rakes in more than $15 billion in transaction fees annually and with the increasing number of commerce being consummated online, this figure is to trend higher.
Higher fees of payment processors translate to higher cost for consumers and thinner margins for merchants.
The above statement makes the use case of blockchain solutions like Graft more appealing.
By leveraging the powers of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies the Graft Network can offer a secure, reliable and cheaper way of processing payments.
It also enables participants to become beneficiary stakeholders in the Graft’s decentralized blockchain.
Traditional Investors Shifting To OTC Bitcoin Markets
Diar, a research firm, has recently reported that most institutional investors have shifted towards higher liquidity over-the-counter (OTC) physical Bitcoin (BTC) markets.
It also added that there is growing investment in OTC funds similar to what Coinbase is offering.
Coinbase just recently started offering its customers OTC services just last month November and has seen tremendous demand overtaking Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) on OTC funds
According to reports Grayscale has registered a net inflow of $216 million worth of Investment in its Bitcoin Investment Trust for the first three quarters of 2018 which is about 203,000 BTC, over 1% of total Bitcoin’s circulating supply.
This puts into prospective what Coinbase was able to in such a very short period of time.
The move of Coinbase to release OTC services spotlights the increase demand for OTC crypto trading from institutional players.
The American exchange also states that it would immensely benefit their clients to have offer both an exchange and OTC service.
The UAE Bank Federation Mulling Over The Use Of Blockchain
Local news outlets are reporting the possible use of blockchain by UAE Bank Federation members.
The advisory council of the United Arab Emirates Bank Federation (UBF) is now discussing the possibility of applying blockchain in it member banks.
The chairman of UBF stated that that initiative is part o federation’s effort to create and maintain a thriving banking ecosystem.
Aref Al Ramli, the chairperson of UBF’s Digital Banking Committee, presented a study that highlights the benefits of digitizing various business processes in member banks that leverages distributed ledger technology (DLT).
The presentation included the various blockchain-based applications for banking institution.
These applications include cross-border payments, compliance reporting, customer on-boarding and others.
Taking a very friendly stance to emerging technologies like Blockchain, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair the chairman of United Arab Emirates Banks Federation believes that emerging technologies continuous to shape customer needs and expectations putting their banking sector at the forefront of innovation.
He also adds that blockchain can assist banks in creating new revenue streams for a more sustainable business growth.
12 Days of Coinbase Initiative
In an obvious reference to an old Christmas song Coinbase is launching the “12 Days Of Coinbase” initiative.
The 12 Days is reported to be the culmination of its development efforts for 2018.
In this initiative the company will release one important announcement each day.
Last December 17th it has announced the addition of a convert feature which will enable users to trade one cryptocurrency to another on its platform.
This will allow customers to be able to trade crypto-to-crypto instantaneously.
Aside from the convenience of doing straight trades rather than going through available pairs the company reveals that it will incur lesser fees for users.
The feature will gradually be rolled out to other jurisdictions.
With its recent announcement it seems that Coinbase is starting to warm-up with the notion of adding non-Bitcoin digital assets in to its platform.
According to Dan Romero, Coinbase’s general manager crypto is a global phenomenon and being such the company wants to shift to a more global perspective.
Shakepay Enables Users Microinvestments To Crypto
Shakepay, a mobile cryptocurrency exchange and peer-to-peer wallet has recently announced a new product offering that will enable its users to buy crypto with spare change.
The new product offering is called Shakepay Change.
The new service connects the customer’s bank credit and debit card whenever the customer makes some purchase change from the resulting transactions will be automatically be used to buy some cryptocurrencies.
According to their blog-post in medium, deposits and withdrawals will carry no charge however, shakepay charges a 0.75 percent transaction fee for buying or selling cryptocurrency.
Jean Amiouny, Shakepay CEO, expresses his excitement with the new product offering saying that it will enable more Canadian own cryptocurrencies over time.
Shakepay is a licensed money service business which allows it to offer money services in all of Canada provinces and territories.
Its license is given by the Financial Transaction and Reports Analysis Center of Banace (FINRAC).
Aside from having this license it is also partnered with Schedule 1 bank with other banking and credit union partnerships soon.
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