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DBS Bank pilots blockchain-based government grants

The blockchain-based solution builds on DBS Bank’s participation in Project Orchid, an effort by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to test the benefits of tokenization.

Singapore’s DBS Bank launched a solution that uses blockchain technology to streamline the disbursement of government grants.

DBS Bank announced that in the pilot, it collaborated with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore and the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA), which promotes financial technology in the country.

DBS Bank uses smart contracts to disburse government grants
During the pilot, the SFA disbursed government grants to 27 members. DBS said that its pilot showed how blockchain-based programmable grants can improve efficiency, enhance governance and allow businesses to have faster access to government grants.

With DBS’ permissioned blockchain, ESG and its intermediaries, like the SFA, can determine the conditions of the programs and govern grant disbursements. According to DBS, this includes disbursements to approved recipients upon fulfilling certain business conditions.

Once the conditions are fulfilled, smart contracts will verify that they are met. After this process, the grants will be disbursed automatically to the beneficiaries.

According to DBS, the solution enhances governance control and reduces the need for intermediaries to manually process cash handling. This allows businesses to receive their cash payouts from the government much faster.

Furthermore, the bank’s permissioned blockchain gives full visibility of the process, giving greater transparency to the organizations involved.

Permissioned blockchains are networks with an access control layer that allows participants only a pre-approved level of authority. Even though they use distributed ledger technology, these blockchains are only partially decentralized.

Results of MAS-led Project Orchid
DBS Bank also noted that the programmable grants pilot applies what the firm has learned from participating in Project Orchid, a digital currency initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The initiative tests the benefits of tokenization with local stakeholders.

DBS Bank also previously collaborated with digital payment provider Ant International on a blockchain-based treasury and liquidity management solution. On Aug. 13, DBS launched its treasury tokens, which Ant will use for liquidity and treasury management. The tokens are within the bank’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) permissioned blockchain.

The solution was created using systems developed during the company’s participation in another MAS-led effort on digital currencies, Project Guardian.

@ Newshounds News™

Source:  CoinTelegraph

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Hong Kong’s crypto ambitions tested by licensing issues: report

Hong Kong’s crypto hub ambitions face hurdles as more than a dozen exchanges struggle to secure full licenses due to regulatory concerns.

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong seem to be grappling with challenges in securing full licenses as the city pushes to become a crypto hub, per a Bloomberg report, which cites people familiar with the matter.

The city’s Securities and Futures Commission has reportedly identified unsatisfactory practices during on-site inspections of 11 “deemed-to-be-licensed” exchanges, raising doubts about their ability to meet full licensing requirements. The investigation revealed that some exchanges were overly reliant on a small number of executives to manage client asset custody, while others are not “properly guarding against cybercrime risks,” the report says.

The exchanges under scrutiny reportedly include big names such as Crypto.com and Bullish as well as local trading platforms like HKbitEX and PantherTrade.

So far, only two platforms — OSL and HashKey — hold full licenses in Hong Kong. While the SFC aims to issue additional licenses by the end of 2024. the process has already led to the withdrawal of 12 applications, including those from Bybit, Huobi HK, and OKX.

Hong Kong scrutinizes regulation for crypto exchanges
The SFC’s findings emerge as the regulator intensifies its efforts to enforce strict compliance among crypto platforms, with a particular focus on safeguarding client assets and enforcing robust know-your-client protocols.

This heightened scrutiny follows a scandal involving JPEX, an unlicensed crypto platform accused of defrauding over 2,600 victims of more than $200 million. The SFC previously reported that JPEX and crypto influencers had made false or misleading claims on social media, falsely suggesting that the exchange had applied for a virtual asset trading platform license in Hong Kong.

However, the regulator later highlighted that JPEX had not submitted any such application, despite its assertions of being a “licensed and recognized platform for facilitating the trading of digital assets and virtual currency.”

@ Newshounds News™

Source:   Crypto News

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Can Tether’s Dirham Stablecoin Drive Crypto Adoption in UAE?

Word in the crypto world has it that the UAE is set to launch a Dirham-pegged stablecoin in partnership with Tether. According to a press release shared by Tether today, the new stablecoin will be launched in partnership with UAE-based Phoenix Group PLC and Green Acorn Investments Ltd.

Paolo Ardoino Tetser’s CEO says, “Tether’s Dirham-pegged stablecoin is set to become an essential tool for businesses and individuals looking for a secure and efficient means of transacting in the United Arab Emirates Dirham whether for cross-border payments, trading, or simply diversifying one’s digital assets.”

Tether’s Dirham Stablecoim sets stage in UAE
Since Gary Gensler took over the US SEC, many crypto businesses have left the United States. The UAE took that opportunity to rebrand the nation as the next crypto global hub. Since the start of 2023, the UAE has taken steps to ease crypto use in the country, with many crypto execs like CZ moving to Dubai.

In 2023, financial regulators in the UAE reached an agreement to officially allow and support crypto trading in an economic-free zone in Dubai. After that, on October 19, Ras Al Khaimah ruler Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi launched the new RAK Digital Assets Oasis (RAK DAO), an economic free zone committed to helping companies working in digital and virtual assets, blockchain, Web3, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Also recently, the UAE’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) issued consultation paper No. 7 of 2024, which contains proposals to improve its regulatory framework to allow the ADGM to issue fiat-referenced tokens (FRTs) and invites public feedback and comments on the proposals.

According to the statement, FRTs are a type of stablecoin that is backed by high-quality, liquid assets denominated in the same currency as the FRT and may be liquidated quickly with minimum negative price impact.

FRTs are designed to be used as a form of payment and share some similarities with Stored Value. In other news, on August 16, the Dubai Court of First Instance approved crypto as a legal salary payment method.

Irina Heaver, a partner at UAE law company NeosLegal, noted that the verdict in case 1739 of 2024 marks a shift in the court’s approach, which earlier disallowed recognizing cryptocurrencies as valid salary payments due to their lack of precise valuation.

@ Newshounds News™

Source:  CryptoNewsz

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IOTA Plays a Key Role in Preventing Data Breaches and Improving Efficiency in IoT Vehicles

According to a research paper, the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) ledger of IOTA could be tailored to meet the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) needs for effective traceability, throughput, and security.

IOTA is reported to be able to identify attacks and could be a “major fabric” in offsetting the issues of security breaches in IoV.

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) – a network of connected autonomous vehicles that share data over the internet for secured and efficient means of transportation. Data breaches have threatened their growth in recent times. This is confirmed by a report by a non-profit organization, Consumer Watchdog, disclosing that most connected vehicles share similar vulnerabilities.

In the report titled “Kill Switch: Why Connected Cars Can Be Killing Machines And How To Turn Them Off,” researchers alleged that automakers reveal high risks of such breaches to investors while keeping them away from the public. This is evident in Ford’s disclosure in a 10K filing to the Securities Exchange Commission, citing that its suppliers have been victims of malicious attacks.

In another research report titled “Malicious Data Traceability and Throughput Optimization Using Blockchain (IOTA Smart Contracts) for Next Generation Internet of Vehicles,” it was stated emphatically that traditional centralized networks fail to contain these attacks due to their limitations in scalability, latency, and security.

Fascinatingly, the author, Malka N. Halgamuge, at the Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics, RMIT University, Australia, noted that the decentralized blockchain architecture could be the best alternative.

More on the Role of IOTA in IoV and Other Use Cases
Admitting that conventional blockchains also have limitations, the research suggested the need to develop an architecture based on the IOTA’s Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) ledger. According to the study, this can be tailored to the IoV’s needs for advanced traceability, throughput, and security.

We propose an IOTA-based model using smart contracts for malicious data/user tracing and timing side channels for attack detection. We adaptively schedule data to optimize throughput based on traffic conditions. Our simulations compare throughput, latency, and attack detection across varied scenarios. Our results demonstrate that the architecture enables automated security via decentralized consensus, avoiding centralized failures.

The research paper explained further that smart contracts facilitate real-time threat tracing and mitigation. With that, IOTA’s ability to identify attacks through a low latency fluctuation is revealed in timing analysis. The research paper also mentions that resorting to IOTA’s innovation, smart contract, and integrating reputation systems would boost security, scalability, and efficiency compared to centralized and blockchain IoV networks.

This work advances IoV security by outlining a comprehensive blockchain solution leveraging IOTA’s unique capabilities. The decentralized mechanisms enhance traceability and trust while optimizing performance tailored to vehicular demands. This establishes a foundation for reliable and safe autonomous driving through innovations in distributed ledger technology.

As we previously reported, outside the framework of IoV, IOTA has also become an important part of music and film. It recently launched a solution prototype that is revolutionizing the industry by leveraging DLT to streamline intellectual property rights management.

At press time, IOTA was trading at $0.134 after surging by 0.55% in the last 24 hours. However, the price had declined by 21% in the 30 days and 41% in the last 90 days.

@ Newshounds News™

Source:  Crypto News Flash

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