Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 24 May 2017
Cut to the chase with this brief blockchain and Bitcoin round-up. Features Waves Platform, Everex and Bitcoin’s price surge.
Moscow-based Waves has launched its Euro gateway, which will allow users of the platform to deposit and withdraw Euros directly from within the lite client, holding and trading them directly from their Waves accounts as WEUR blockchain tokens. To kickstart and help this process, Waves will deposit €100,000 through the gateway and make these WEUR tokens available by placing orders against BTC and WAVES on DEX. This will make it possible for users to start trading against WEUR “immediately” and to acquire the token without having to deposit funds through the gateway.
Waves offers a decentralised platform for launching crowdfunding campaigns and issuing digital assets. According to the firm, it is the largest blockchain project to originate from Russia. Waves Platform completed its initial coin offering in June 2016, garnering more than $16 million (30,000 BTC).
Over in Singapore, Everex, a blockchain company developing Ethereum applications, says it’s expanding operations towards microcredit and fiat remittance services as it targets the unbanked and underbanked market. With the new product launch, its Cryptocash will be redeemable against its fiat counterpart at ATMs, currency exchangers, and mobile service providers, allowing users to “instantaneously transfer fiat money anywhere at extremely low costs”.
The firm says its remittance system was tested last year, allowing migrant workers to transfer an aggregate amount of THB 850,000 ($24,690) from Myanmar back home to Thailand. The new service will also allow users to request micro-loans in any currency from their mobile phones. The credit scores, necessary to assess interest rates, loan periods and risk, will be generated based on user behaviour, social data, and spending patterns, collected via Everex’s mobile wallet application.
Finally, on the news feeds there has been an interminable glut of stories on Bitcoin’s price surge. People seem to be getting more excited than my eight-year-old niece on receiving a bag of Haribo sweets. Well, maybe they’re right as Bitcoin’s price has just broken the $2,000 barrier for the first time in history. This certainly gives it more attention and more cachet.
Part of this rise may be down to Japan making it a legal payment method in the country – as reported last month. There has also been an increased interest from traders. We’ll keep an eye on developments, but stories every day on the price of Bitcoin probably aren’t necessary.
