Elliptic A Crypto Forensic Startup Raises 23 Million USD

Elliptic, A Crypto Forensic Startup, Raises $23 Million USD

Elliptic, a British startup firm aimed at tracing suspicious crypto activity,

has raised $23 million USD in a funding round led by SBI Holdings.

Elliptic to Expand into Asian Markets

The Series B funding round was led by Japanese financial institution SBI Holdings and will enable Elliptic to continue expansion into Asian markets where it has recently opened an office in Singapore and will open another in Japan this week. Elliptic CEO and founder James Smith cited Asia as a highly attractive market for the company due to its prominent crypto community and the fact that Asian regulators tend to be more technologically advanced than elsewhere in the world.“The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Japanese Financial Services Agency are very well-versed in crypto. Japan has its own licensing scheme for exchanges; I think all that is really key to the growth of crypto because once you set the ground rules, then businesses can engage and innovate,” Smith told CoinDesk.

SBI to Incorporate Elliptic’s Technology into VC Trade

Elliptic has developed artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies that are capable of tracing and locating suspicious transactions on blockchains. The company was founded in 2013 in London and had previously raised $12 million USD in five funding rounds. SBI was keen to get involved with the company as it has a number of crypto assets under its portfolio, including an exchange called VC Trade, which will incorporate Elliptic’s technology.

Elliptic is also looking beyond expansion into Asia with this investment, as it also has plans to develop a monitoring service for Facebook’s under-fire Libra network. Libra has received heavy criticism and scrutiny from regulators who question how they are meant to trust Facebook given the social media giant’s recent history of data misuse. Elliptic hopes to give somewhat of a helping hand to Libra by providing added transparency and security to the network.

Article Produced By
Caileam Raleigh

Caileam Raleigh is a financial content writer from Dundalk, Ireland who is currently working in Vancouver. Having graduated with a BA in Journalism with French from the Technological University of Dublin in 2019, he is currently a full-time contributor for PotStockNews, MicroSmallCap, CryptoCurrencyNews, and StreetSignals. Caileam cites music and football as his two great passions in life and is a fan of Liverpool FC, his beloved hometown Dundalk FC, and the sounds of Mr David Bowie.

https://cryptocurrencynews.com/elliptic-funding-round/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Walmart Deploys Blockchain Technology: Things You Need to Know

Over the past few years, blockchain technology has become synonymous with cryptocurrencies,

but it is important to note that the technology in itself has a wide variety of uses. Plenty of companies that have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies are now exploring ways in which to incorporate blockchain technology into operations. Walmart is one of those companies.

Important Update

In a new development, it has emerged that retail behemoth Walmart (NYSE:WMT) is now deploying blockchain technology in order to improve the system for food traceability. The whole system is based on proof of concept, and the company has tested the whole system twice.The testing has been on done on two separate projects. The whole point of the use of such a system is to trace the origin of the food products that are being sold at Walmart. Considering the sheer size of Walmart’s operations, the use of such a system could prove to be a huge boost for the company. The first project was engaged in tracing the origins of all the variants of mangoes that were being sold in Walmart stores in the United States. The other one was to trace the source of pork that the company brings in from a range of Chinese outlets. Since the whole project is about food, traceability is a hugely important factor for the safety of the consumers.

However, the company has now expanded the whole project significantly and the system, known as Walmart’s Hyperledger Fabric, run on blockchain, can now trace as many as 25 different products. Moreover, the system can trace it from as many as five different suppliers. Walmart had been trying to install a traceability system for years, but it had not been able to do so, and now it seems that blockchain technology has come to the company’s rescue. The company is now going to incorporate all of its vegetable suppliers into the new system.

Article Produced By
Ankit Singhania

Based in India, Ankit is a financial content writer and stock market analyst. He has worked for almost a decade on several financial projects related to the stock market news, fundamental research and technical analysis for several websites. He obtained his Masters Degree In finance (MS – finance) from ICFAI. Currently, he serves as a financial consultant and technical analyst at Tradersinsights.com.

https://cryptocurrencynews.com/walmart-deploys-blockchain-technology/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

OKEx Reached Partnership with BitBns as the First Step into India Crypto Market

OKEx, the world-leading digital asset exchange,

established itself as a reliable and stability focused entity is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with BitBns, India’s leading exchange to bring the global brand experience of secureness and reliability to Indian crypto traders. This strategic partnership with BitBns marked the entry of OKEx into Indian crypto ecosystem, which not only enhances OKEx’s position in the Indian crypto industry but also restores the lost faith in Indian crypto community by maximizing the crypto trading experience and resources.

Being the world’s leading digital asset exchange, the Malta-based crypto exchange OKEx already caters to over 20 million users from over 100 countries with business centers scattered across the world, including Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco, Luxembourg, and Seoul. OKEx provides a safe, reliable, and stable environment for digital asset trading globally, providing comprehensive digital assets trading services including Fiat-to-Token Trading (OTC), Spot Trading, Margin Trading, Futures Trading, Perpetual Swap (1x-100x), with the aim to enrich the investment choice of users. Currently, the exchange offers over 400 token and futures trading pairs, enabling users to optimize their strategies, as well as 24/7 local customer service to provide

a perfect experience for traders.

“This announcement with India’s largest exchange, BitBns is the first solid step in our journey to build on our vision to serve Indian crypto community,” according to OKEx official. “OKEx has been very dedicated to supporting blockchain development around the globe and we respect regulation in all the countries. To cultivate the blockchain ecosystem, we are always happy and open to share our experience and insight with the local regulator in order to prompt the regulatory environment.”

OKEx upholds the openness and win-win strategy to accelerate globally business layout and achieve the widespread adoption of Blockchain technology. Towards this end, OKEx is establishing a local team & executing localized operations by partnering up with authoritative crypto entities, including prime projects, crypto exchanges, and tech startups in developing underlying technology.

In the future, the company will fully open up to accumulate the resources in India, as well as share ecological dividends and user traffic. OKEx will work with high-quality blockchain projects to integrate Indian market resources and help local exchange with global liquidity to accelerate and extend their capabilities, with the aim to promote positive development for blockchain industry by building a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

Article Produced By
Ishan Garg

Ishan is a cryptocurrency trader and a journalist. He is the founder of Blockmanity. He trades cryptocurrencies and holds some but he prefers holding USDT.

https://blockmanity.com/news/okex-reached-partnership-with-bitbns-as-the-first-step-into-india-crypto-market/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

US Banking and Remittance Firm PNC Now Utilises RippleNet

US Banking and Remittance Firm— PNC, Now Utilises RippleNet

According to a recent report, a leading financial institution PNC

has become the first bank to provide international remittances service in the United States using RippleNet after it remitted $4.3 billion as revenue in the first quarter of 2019, and had $385.9 billion in average assets. The bank now uses Ripple’s chain of banks and financial institutions which is referred to as RippleNet to transfer funds overseas.

The released publication stated that:

“As the first US bank to process these payments in real-time, PNC offers commercial clients in the US with the ability to receive a payment from an overseas buyer against their invoices instantly, transforming the way they manage their global account receivables and allowing them to better manage their working capital.”

The partnership between PNC and Ripple was firstly revealed in September of 2018 during which PNC stated that:

“As the global economy becomes increasingly digital, the need for real-time payments globally is critical. We are focused on providing our clients with capabilities that enable making secure digital payments in an instant, whether they are sent across the street or across the world.”

With the new partnership, PNC’s commercial clients will be able to receive real-time invoice payments from their buyers who are not based in the United States.

The Senior Vice President of Customer Service at Ripple, Marcus Treacher said that:

“For far too long, the technology underlying cross-border payments has been opaque, slow and costly. PNC, as an innovative and forward-thinking institution, understands the promise of emerging technologies like blockchain,” “Quite a few payment providers have joined RippleNet recently, so it’s great to see one of the major U.S. banks come on board as well,” he added.

Also, PNC is probably utilising Ripple’s payment messaging system xCurrent to carry out cross-border transactions because xRapid is still encountering some regulatory issues in the United States.

Article Produced By
Joshua T.

Olanrewaju Joshua is a Freelance writer, who loves to write about anything related to technology. His interest in Cryptocurrency started in 2015, and it has not stopped since.

https://coindoo.com/us-banking-and-remittance-firm-pnc-now-utilises-ripplenet/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Blockchain Centre of Excellence Launching Ceremony in Beijing Concluded with High-Level Officials in Attendance

DECENT, a leading blockchain technology company headquartered in Slovakia,

announces the successful conclusion of the launching ceremony for the newly established R&I center for blockchain, named China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence. The event took place on August 28, 2019, in Beijing, China. In attendance were state officials from both China and Slovakia, and the event featured a high-level dialogue by the representatives from the Chinese government and embassies of CEEC.

The Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (China-CEEC), also known as the “17+1” initiative, was founded in 2012 to promote business and investment relations between China, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. During the 8th Summit of China-CEEC in Dubrovnik, Croatia, it was agreed and transposed in the official summit guidelines that an establishment of the “China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence” would be conducted under the Slovak Republic’s leadership—considering the country’s prominent position in the initiative.

The endeavor was pointedly undertaken by DECENT, in partnership with the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, to establish the China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence along with partners from China and CEEC countries. The goal of the blockchain center is to become a leading research and innovation center for blockchain and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) to be applied in industrial applications across numerous verticals such as energy, finance, aerospace, manufacturing, logistics, commerce, media, government and others.

On August 28, DECENT organized a special launching ceremony jointly with ICI-761 C·Space, a business support service provider, in Beijing, China. The international participants included the Slovak Republic Ambassador to China, Dusan Bella, higher officials from the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office for Investments and Informatization of the Slovak Republic, the Beijing Science & Technology Commission, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau, the Zhongguancun Xicheng Park Administrative Committee, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the China Internet Finance Association and others. In addition to the high-level dialogue, the event featured a seminar focused on topics such as privacy, data protection and supervision, application scenarios for blockchain and technical standards pertinent

to the technology.

“To receive the opportunity to partake in not only promoting expansion and business opportunities between China and the countries of CEEC but also making sure that blockchain technology plays a key part in this development is a great incentive for current technological and industry standards,” commented Matej Michalko, Chairman, CEO and Founder of DECENT. “We sincerely believe that the establishment of the China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence will help to productively integrate blockchain into real-world use cases,” added Michalko.

The China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence plans to maintain a strategic long-term mission that will run for a duration of 10 years. Those interested in becoming members of the China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence to benefit from shared learnings, experiences and resources can visit the initiative’s website.

About China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence

The China-CEEC Blockchain Centre of Excellence is primarily focused on research effort on blockchain and DLT technologies. The center’s primary mission is to support the thriving ecosystem by developing new technologies needed to advance the field as well as to support the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

About DECENT

Founded in 2015, DECENT is a blockchain innovator with its own platform, DCore, empowering users to rapidly create and migrate business-ready, scalable and decentralized applications. DECENT is dedicated to building a strong ecosystem of projects to encourage the successful realization of the benefits blockchain has to offer for organizations and customers across multiple industries.

About 761 C·Space

761 C·Space (Beijing) Technology Development Co., Ltd (“761”) is a professional international technology transfer and business support service provider, a subsidiary of the 2nd largest Beijing-based state-owned corporation, Beijing Electronics Holding Co., Ltd.

Article Produced By
Bitcoin Garden

This content is brought to you by the Bitcoin Garden staff.

https://bitcoingarden.org/blockchain-centre-of-excellence-launching-ceremony-in-beijing-concluded-with-high-level-officials-in-attendance/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Alexa Ranks Electroneum among Top Five Cryptocurrencies Ahead Of XRP Tron

Alexa Ranks Electroneum among Top Five Cryptocurrencies Ahead Of XRP, Tron

In spite of the pullback witnessed on the market table,

Electroneum is proving that it is not a dead project. Electroneum continues champion the record of project with the largest initial coin offering (ICO) with over 115K participants. The support garnered from the community birthed another blissful development. Report has it that Alexa, an offshoot of Amazon.com company, rated Electroneum among top 5 cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Stellar. According to Alexa, Electroneum saw 322,000 average visitors and 1.78 million pageviews last month, making it rank among top cryptographic projects ahead of the likes of Tron, XRP

and others.

“We aim to run a fully transparent project and continue to undertake initiatives towards this goal. It’s for this reason, last year, we installed Alexa certified metrics code onto our website”, Electroneum CEO Richard Ells clarified. “We’re incredibly proud that Alexa continues to rank our project in the top five cryptocurrency projects by website visitor numbers, amongst other leading projects including; Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Stellar.”

Electroneum project’s transparency is also a backbone behind this success. Within the space of two years which the crypto had existed, its user-base had reached 3.2+ million worldwide.The engagement of the blockchain project has also increased by 150% since July with 122,000 followers.

Article Produced By
Khalid Lawal

I am a lifetime Entrepreneur, Contributor @Thrive Global, @Oracle Times, @Coin Gape. Khalid Lawal is a lover of Blockchain technology and a junior analyst. • Hopes to be a venture capitalist one day.

https://todaysgazette.com/alexa-ranks-electroneum-among-top-five-cryptocurrencies-ahead-of-xrp-tron/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

15 Days Challenge: Tron Goes Live On Uphold With 24 Hours Zero-Exchange Fee on TRX

The team behind Tron blockchain technology and its supporters

have just made the crypto ecosystem perceive their commitment towards the growth of the cryptographic project and its token TRX. Tron (TRX) has just gained attendance on a renounced crypto trading platform which has presence in over 184 countries of the world, Uphold. The development was announced by Uphold with respect to a 15 days challenge between cryptographic projects.

The declaration affirmed that Tron is the first coin to emerge from the latest challenge. Furthermore, the trading platform averred that it would celebrate the achievement alongside Tron and its community by initiating 24-hours of ZERO exchange fees for buys on TRX.Uphold, after the announcement, praised Tron (TRX) blockchain technology for its scalability and speed, describing it as a necessity in the entertainment industry.Founder Justin Sun also acknowledgment the news by declaring his excitement for the realized success. While the challenge continues, 14 other coins are expected to land on the platform.

Tron Surpasses $80 Million Transaction

According to Tronscan, the total number of transactions performed on Tron blockchain network has surpassed $80 Million after reaching 80,086,992. Increased transaction volume and user-base have been a major focus of the team behind the blockchain network. However, Tron continues to make huge stride in the Dapp industry as the blockchain network incessantly features on headlines. The latest report from the industry reveals that the volume of transactions performed on Tron in the last 7 days doubled that of EOS and Ethereum.

Article Produced By
Khalid Lawal

https://todaysgazette.com/15-day-challenge-tron-goes-live-on-uphold-with-24-hours-zero-exchange-fee-on-trx/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Ethereum Foundation Unveils 2M Worth Funding for Development of Serenity ETH20

Ethereum Foundation Unveils $2M Worth Funding for Development of Serenity (ETH2.0)

As reported, the very first stage of the transition from Ethereum network’s to Ethereum 2.0

is expected to take place on January 3, 2020. As we near the launch of Ethereum’s Beacon Chain, the open-source blockchain developer unveiled grants of over $2M. The grants are to be allocated to development teams worldwide aiming at furthering the Serenity (Eth2.0) project. According to a blog post from the company, it has partnered with Protocol Labs and ConsenSys for the allocation of the grants. The announcement says that significant awards will be granted to the leading client development teams, who, at the moment, have been currently tasked with creating long-standing multi-client Test Networks (Testnets) as the launch of Phase 0 draws near.

The said funds are going to be distributed among nine companies and researchers. Companies that have received funding for client development include Harmony ($189K for Harmony beacon chain development), Prysmatic Labs ($725K for Prysm client development), Status ($500K for Nimbus client development), Sigma Prime ($485K for Lighthouse client development), Chainsafe ($217.5K for Lodestar light-client and javascript development), Whiteblock ($184K for ETH2.0 testing), Status ($500K for Nimbus client development). Status has also received $150K for nim-libp2p development. The team is creating a native nim-language implementation of libp2p for use in Nimbus and other projects.

The Ether Foundation, alongside these awards, has also declared allocation of 5 ETH bounties (or 1,000 units of DAI, USD-pegged decentralized stablecoin) for any technical recommendations that will enhance the functionalities of ETH 2.0 before the chain is launched. A series of bounties have also been offered for the Legendre pseudo-random function, which is expected to be a part of the forthcoming proof of custody scheme in Phase 1 of ETH 2.0. The winners of the StarkWare hash (SFH) challenge will also be rewarded. The challenge aims at evaluating the security of currently proposed SFH functions. It is proposed at four security levels: low-security, medium-security, target-security, and high-security in multiple scenarios.

Cryptocurrency analyst Dmitry Khovratovich was awarded $10K to present a report regarding the security of some aspects of the first version of ETH 2.0. Also, Chainsafe received $217.5K for developing its Lodestar light client and javascript. A lot of other initiatives have also been undertaken by Ethereum Foundation towards the development of decentralized protocols and tools that empower developers to produce avant-garde decentralized applications (dapps) that would result in an internet that’s more globally accessible, freer and more trustworthy.

Article Produced By
Trevor Holman

Trevor Holman follows crypto industry since 2011. He joined CryptoNewsZ as a news writer and he provides technical analysis pieces and current market data. He is also an avid trader. In his free time, he loves to explore unexplored places.

https://www.cryptonewsz.com/ethereum-foundation-unveils-2m-worth-funding-for-development-of-serenity-eth2-0/39188/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Dogecoin Suffers Under Market Pressure Price Hovers Around 00026

Dogecoin Suffers Under Market Pressure; Price Hovers Around $0.0026

Dogecoin has continued the downtrend in the market.

The coin is seen battling the market pressure but could reach above $0.0026. The entire altcoin market is seen dealing with the bear from the opening hour. There are not many expectations from the coin. The traders might be seen having a low day. Yesterday, Dogecoin was witnessed touching a high at $0.002829 and a low at $0.002640. The volume noted in yesterday’s chart was $22,974,750. Let’s have a look at how the DOGE is performing today.

Looking at the Dogecoin chart, we can observe a slight fall in the price of the coin. Yesterday, the Dogecoin price started dealing at $0.002666. The price jumped from $0.002666 to $0.002738 by 2.69%. The coin immediately slipped from $0.00273 to $0.00258. The regression marked was around 6.18%. DOGE price managed to return back to $0.002685 with a slight upside movement of 0.72% during the day. Today, the coin opened with a fall. The drop is noted to be of 5.52%. Dogecoin price changed from $0.002685 to $0.002537. DOGE has booked a fall of 1.43% from the opening price till now. The coin is currently dealing at $0.002651.

Current Statistics of Dogecoin:

Particulars	Dogecoin
Price	$0.002651
ROI	370.23%
Market Cap	$317,942,748
24-Hour Volume	$22,077,826
Circulating Supply	120,953,861,298 DOGE
Total Supply	120,953,861,298 DOGE

Dogecoin is started moving downwards due to current market pressure. Well, the downfall doesn’t seem to pass anytime soon. The intraday traders might be seen suffering today. Dogecoin has a high future prospect. Altogether, DOGE would give a high return on investment to the long-term traders.

Article Produced By
Trevor Holman

https://www.cryptonewsz.com/dogecoin-suffers-under-market-pressure-price-hovers-around-0-0026/39187/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Japan Wants to Rival SWIFT With a Cryptocurrency Network

Japan is a prominent country for blockchain and cryptocurrency activity.

So much even that government officials are building a new type of infrastructure. It is labeled as the “SWIFT of cryptocurrency”, although living up to those expectations won’t be easy. This new network will be used on an international scale and aims to thwart money laundering.

Japan Doubles Down

Over the past few years, Japan has become a key region for cryptocurrencies. It is one of the few countries to openly embrace this form of money and legitimize it. Several of the country’s biggest stores accept Bitcoin payments directly as well. This further goes to show Japan firmly believes Bitcoin is here to stay. Regarding altcoins, the situation is a bit less clear. Alternative markets are always hit-and-miss in every part of the world. To improve upon the existing situation, a new project is under development. The Japanese government confirmed it aims to build an international network for cryptocurrencies. This network is designed to mimic SWIFT in terms of cross-border partnerships and access. However, it will seemingly have little or nothing to do with traditional banks in that sense. It is evident that this new project will be very different from what the world has seen to date.

Global Collaboration

Based on the little information provided to us, it seems the goal is to develop this project in conjunction with other countries. Which countries those would be, has not been communicated at this time. The Financial Action Task Force of Japan will set up a team dedicated to monitoring the development of this new network. How all of this infrastructure is designed to operate, remains a big mystery. Not too many details are known at this time. We do know the FATF approved a plan to establish a new network in June of 2019. At that time, there were rumors regarding the involvement of cryptocurrencies. Those rumors have now been confirmed. By claiming this network will rival SWIFT, high expectations are associated with it. Delivering on those expectations will not be easy by any means.

Legitimizing Cryptocurrency One and for all

One thing is adamantly clear. Japan wants to push global cryptocurrency adoption to a new level. The main focus lies on bringing more security to this nascent industry. By actively addressing money laundering concerns, a crucial first step is taken in the right direction. Japanese officials also hope this network will stimulate economic growth in the country and beyond. Regulation and cryptocurrency make for an interesting combination. A lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts aim to keep these apart as much as possible. Others see merit in regulating this industry. How this SWIFT rival will factor into all of this, is a guessing game at best. It is certainly something worth keeping an eye on in the years to come.

Article Produced By
JP Buntinx

https://themerkle.com/japan-wants-to-rival-swift-with-a-cryptocurrency-network/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden