Singapore's central bank calls fundamental technology & # 39; of the blockchain to change financial services

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Singapore's central bank counts on blockchain, along with artificial intelligence, to serve as "fundamental" technologies that will help transform financial services, according to a senior official.

Deep changes are expected from the adoption of these two technologies, according to Damien Pang, who heads the office of the technology infrastructure at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in his Wednesday speech in an annual blockchain and cryptocurrency forum hosted for the first time by CoinDesk industry magazine in the city state. [19659002] "We take an approach where our regulations are aimed at the purpose rather than at the technological platform itself," Pang said on the stage of the event called Consensus: Singapore. "We aim not to directly regulate a specific technology, because technologies are always improving."

The blockchain environment of Singapore seemed to strengthen its transformation into the world's highest cryptocurrency shelter, after the crackdown in China on the trade in digital currencies and crowdsourcing fund-raising called initial coin offerings (ICO) using cryptocurrencies.

Singapore gains an advantage as a global cryptocurrency hub as the world's largest ethereum portfolio moves in

Chinese start-ups imToken, which developed one of the first cryptocurrency wallet applications to support the blockchain ethereum; Bitmain, operator of the largest group in the world of collective bitcoin mining; and the Huobi Group, which manages the world's third largest cryptocurrency exchange with daily trading volumes, has set up each regional headquartered in Singapore on digital currencies and ICOs in Beijing.

While the Chinese government is trying to adopt blockchain in the areas of record management to computer security, Beijing has made it clear that retail investors do not want to intervene with cryptocurrency trading and ICO schemes because of concerns that these activities would cause instability financial.

Blockchain, the technology of the ledger distributed behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum, was designed to provide greater transparency to its users. The technology enables the creation of an online database network in which multiple participants share and archive transaction records securely and efficiently, according to a white paper commissioned by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Such an online network makes a complete record of transaction history constantly available for examination

China blocks more than 120 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges with the collapse of the crackdown

There were 57 blockchain projects in Singapore that they collected a total of USD 574.8 million through ICOs in the second quarter of this year, according to data compiled by the research company ICORating. In comparison, 14 blockchain projects in Hong Kong raised a total of $ 47.6 million in the same period

Pang reiterated that the MAS, based on guidelines published in November last year, divides digital resources into three groups: utility tokens, payment tokens and securities. The MAS does not plan to regulate utility tokens, which allow users to access a company's products or services, but as of this year, according to Pang, it will enact a law on payment services for payment tokens. He said none of the tokens that the MAS has seen so far were titles.

Singapore's central bank has recently joined forces with the city's stock exchange and with three technology partners to develop a system for composing digital tokens across several blockchain platforms. This is part of the initiative of the authority, called the Ubin Project, which uses blockchain technology for the clearing and settlement of payments and securities.

China sees a six-fold increase in new companies with "blockchain" in the name

Despite repression in China, the second largest economy in the world saw an explosion of companies registered with "blockchain" in their name from January to July 16, almost six times the number for the entire last year.

China is now home to over 4,000 such companies that identify themselves with blockchain, according to estimates made by South China Morning Post on the basis of government data collected by Qixin.com.

In comparison, there are currently a total of 817 companies in the United States and 335 in the United Kingdom using blockchain in their registered names, according to a research on OpenCorporates.com, which collects company registry data from dozens of countries globally .

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