Blockchain

Blockpass employs Chainlink on mainnet to provide on-chain KYC across multiple blockchains

CryptoNinjas » Blockpass employs Chainlink on mainnet to provide on-chain KYC across multiple blockchains

Published

2 weeks ago

January 4, 2021

Blockpass, the KYC and AML screening software-as-a-service for crypto, today announced its mainnet launch as a data provider on the Chainlink Network, the most widely used decentralized oracle solution in the blockchain ecosystem. This integration will result in Blockpass, via its own Chainlink node managed by LinkPool, providing seamless and secure on-chain KYC data across all of the leading blockchain platforms. The possibilities created by this are expansive and will entail multiple services for proving age, geography, and investor classification, amongst others.

Much like the oracles in ancient times, entities on the blockchain turn to oracles as a source of information that comes from outside their frame of reference – knowledge they could not get themselves. At Delphi, visitors would speak to the Pythia and receive the wisdom of the god Apollo for answers to deep or important questions; on a blockchain, entities such as smart contracts can obtain external information or data from an oracle in order to execute critical on-chain functions. For example, a blockchain-based gaming app could use an oracle to establish the score of a football match before settling a bet, or an on-chain rental agreement may rely on an oracle to notify it when the appropriate payment is made into an off-chain account before unlocking the rental property.

Oracles are therefore necessary to enable blockchains to connect and exchange data with the real world. Chainlink has established itself as the market-leader in blockchain oracles by providing a multitude of guarantees to users, including thoroughly audited and time-tested open-source oracle software, the ability to cryptographically sign data on-chain to prove its integrity as coming from the intended source, reputation systems and listing services so users can verify the performance of oracle nodes, and a blockchain agnostic design that can make data available to all current and future blockchains from a single framework.

Whilst blockchain technology holds vast potential to revolutionize multiple industries, with solutions that generate huge time and efficiency savings for existing business processes or even seed entirely new business models, it has also suffered in the past from a lack of regulation and compliance. Without the security provided by regulatory oversight and the ability to prove compliance, the blockchain industry is still plagued by a lack of trust, which has restricted its adoption by traditional financial entities and left users open to scams and malicious actors. Without a means to identify entities involved in a blockchain application, many meaningful use cases cannot operate in a trusted manner consistent with current regulations. These realizations, and the necessity of identification services, led to the development of Blockpass.

Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider that offers a one-click compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated industries. Through Blockpass, users can create, store, and manage a data-secure digital identity that can be used for an entire ecosystem of services, token purchases, and regulated industry access. For businesses and merchants, Blockpass is a comprehensive KYC & AML SaaS that requires no integration or setup cost. You can set up a service in minutes, test the service for free, and start verifying and on-boarding users.

By combining the two technologies, Blockpass and Chainlink can provide a solution that the blockchain ecosystem desperately needs – automated on-chain KYC in a blockchain-agnostic manner. When Blockpass was first created, the driving force behind its development was providing identities for every component or person on the blockchain in order to facilitate interactions via on-chain identities. Despite this, putting personal information onto an immutable blockchain generates personal and regulatory conflicts, particularly where data privacy is concerned. Through Chainlink’s innovative oracle solution, dApps can use the BlockPass Chainlink oracle to perform KYC and identity verification checks on a variety of blockchains in a simple, safe, and compliant manner, all without ever putting personal data on-chain. Blockpass will also cryptographically sign the data it posts on-chain through the unique private key of our Chainlink node, giving users even greater assurances that it came direct from the source and was not tampered with.

This allows the Chainlink Network to support an evolution in regulatory compliant DeFi applications via Blockpass’ unique KYC Connect solution and verification services.

Speaking on this development, Blockpass CEO Adam Vaziri said: “The opportunity of working with Chainlink was really a no-brainer for us. We share distinctly similar values around the importance of security, the demand for on-chain compliance, and the power of decentralization. This integration will enable us to do what we’ve always been working towards, provide KYC and virtual asset/blockchain compliance data on-chain across multiple blockchains. We first introduced the world to the idea of anon-chain KYC provider, which was why we built Blockpass in the first place – and now with the help of Chainlink it’s finally in production.”

Also commenting on the integration, Head of Chainlink Business Development Daniel Kochis stated: “We’re excited to empower developers around the world wanting to build regulatory compliant DeFi applications by providing them with on-chain access to Blockpass’s KYC/AML services via Chainlink. This expansion in data available to smart contract developers will support a next wave of more advanced DeFi products, particularly those seeking to build or access on-chain financial products with built-in compliance.”

Blockpass has grown significantly in size and use since its inception, both in the number and range of users and companies it has partnered with, and the scope of its work. Blockpass continues to develop its digital identity protocol with updates and additions to improve the compliance experience. Blockpass has seen rapidly increasing numbers of users in the past year as its identity verification solution is used for ICOs, STOs, and IEOs, including supporting a number of successful fundraisers in the past few months.

Source: https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2021/01/04/blockpass-employs-chainlink-on-mainnet-to-provide-on-chain-kyc-across-multiple-blockchains/

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Blockchain

Research: Altseason is Upon Us, But Not For XRP or EOS

Published

1 hour ago

January 20, 2021

Republished by Plato

In its latest ‘State of the Network’ bulletin, industry data provider Coin Metrics has delved into altcoins and their impressive performance so far this year.

It acknowledged that many of the hot altcoins that surged during the 2017 crypto boom are now ‘dead and gone’, and have been replaced by a new breed of DeFi assets. It added that with new capital flowing into Bitcoin and Ethereum, some of that money may start flowing into altcoins.

In this week’s State of the Network @natemaddrey looks at recent altcoin performance. Is a new altseason incoming?

Read the full issue here:https://t.co/pO4mmIPhby

— CoinMetrics.io (@coinmetrics) January 19, 2021

The report acknowledged that institutional investment has largely been behind the current rally and institutions are very wary of altcoins.

“Altcoin investing is largely considered a retail phenomenon. Similar to penny stocks, it’s often driven by individual investors looking for outsized gains.”

XRP and EOS Missing The Party

Looking at returns since the beginning of December 2020, Bitcoin and Ethereum have outperformed most other Layer 1 blockchains, it noted. However several high-cap crypto assets have also performed well hitting their own all-time highs.

There are two notable exceptions to this trend; Ripple’s XRP and Block.one’s EOS.

The glaring red charts for these to former darlings of crypto show that XRP has lost 54.6% since December 1, and EOS has dumped 7.5% over the same period.

Ripple’s problems started when it finally lost the battle with the SEC and the selloff began. Since its late November high of almost $0.70, XRP has dumped almost 60% to today’s sub $0.29 prices. There have been reports of Ripple executives selling their stashes, while Grayscale dissolved its XRP Trust as confidence in the company dwindles.

Block.one’s problems have not been as bad, but they have had them. Company CTO Dan Larimer announced his resignation earlier this month and there has been very little on the development or product front for the project.

Over the past year, EOS has lost 23% on a chart that has been flat for months. Since its February 2020 high of $5.40 it has dumped 50%, and since its giddy all-time high in April 2018 of over $22, EOS has been smashed 87%.

Top Altcoins so Far in 2021

Those that are enjoying the altseason sun include Polkadot, Binance Coin, Chainlink, and of course Ethereum, though it shouldn’t really be termed an altcoin any longer.

Coin Metrics highlighted Cardano, Decred, and Dogecoin as three that have made three figure gains since December one, outperforming Bitcoin itself.

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Source: https://cryptopotato.com/research-reports-altseason-upon-us-but-not-for-xrp-or-eos/

Blockchain

Biden’s US Treasury Secretary Nominee Raises Concerns Over Crypto Terrorism Financing

Published

1 hour ago

January 20, 2021

Republished by Plato

Janet Yellen is keeping true to form as a crypto critic and has linked cryptocurrencies to terrorist financing and money laundering. Meanwhile, another report has emerged showing that virtual currencies only account for an insignificant proportion of global financial crimes.

Yellen Espouses Well-Worn Crypto FUD

Speaking during her virtual confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate, Janet Yellen — President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for the Treasury Department — identified cryptos as a concern in terms of terrorist financing and money laundering.

Doubling down on her anti-crypto rhetoric, Yellen remarked:

“I think many [cryptocurrencies] are used, at least in transactions sense, mainly for illicit financing and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels.”

According to Yellen, if confirmed, her leadership of the Treasury Department will focus on dealing with crypto-related terrorism financing, adding:

“The technologies to accomplish this change over time and we need to make sure that our methods for dealing with these matters, with tech terrorist financing, change along with changing technology, cryptocurrencies are a particular concern.”

As previously reported by CryptoPotato, Yellen is a known crypto critic. Back in 2018, she described Bitcoin as “anything but useful.” She has also countered claims of BTC being a store of value.

Cryptocurrency Crime Grossly Overstated

Yellen’s remarks are a common refrain among members of the mainstream financial establishment. However, the entire record of crypto forensic investigations do not support the claim that virtual currencies are the preferred channel for criminals and terrorists.

As part of the highlights of its upcoming 2020 crypto crime report, blockchain intelligence firm revealed that criminal transactions in the cryptocurrency space fell to 0.34% in 2020. This figure represents an even smaller percentage than the 2.1% recorded in 2019.

Reacting to Yellen’s statements, several crypto stakeholders were quick to dismiss her claims with verifiable data. Morgan Creek digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano tweeted:

“Janet Yellen stated today that cryptocurrencies are concerning because of terrorist financing and money laundering. She forgot to mention that the US dollar is the choice currency of criminals around the world. The large banks launder more money than [the] entire Bitcoin market cap.”

Indeed, in its report from 2020, SWIFT revealed that crypto-related money laundering was only a drop in the ocean compared to the volume of dirty money funneled via banks. Back in May 2020, Chainalysis also issued a report debunking claims that terrorist group ISIS held $300 million in Bitcoin.

Featured image courtesy of CNBC.

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Source: https://cryptopotato.com/bidens-us-treasury-secretary-nominee-raises-concerns-over-crypto-terrorism-financing/

Blockchain

3 reasons Bitcoin abruptly dropped by 7.4% overnight

Published

2 hours ago

January 20, 2021

Republished by Plato

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped sharply from $37,800 to $35,000 overnight, liquidating $572 million worth of cryptocurrency futures positions.

There are three major reasons why the price of Bitcoin declined steeply in the past 12 hours. The reasons are an overheated derivatives market, growing doubt in the market, and the lack of upside volatility.

*BTC/USD 15-minute candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: Tradingview*

Derivatives market was overheated before the correction

Before the pullback occurred, the Bitcoin derivatives market was extremely overheated. The futures funding rate was hovering at around 0.1%, which is 10 times higher than the average 0.01%.

*BTC futures perpetual swaps funding rates. Source: Digital Assets Data*

The futures funding rate is a mechanism that achieves balance in the futures market by incentivizing long or short contract holders based on market sentiment.

If there are more long contracts or buyers in the market, then the funding rate turns positive. If it becomes positive, then buyers have to compensate short-sellers with a portion of their contracts every eight hours, and vice versa.

Almost all major cryptocurrencies saw their funding rates spike to around 0.1% to 0.3%, which meant the market was extremely overleveraged.

When the market is this overcrowded, the likelihood of a long squeeze increases, which could cause many futures contracts to get liquidated in a short period.

Growing market uncertainty

According to researchers at Santiment, there is “trader doubt” in the market on whether BTC would hit $40,00 again. They wrote:

“Thinking face There is an increasing amount of trader doubt that #Bitcoin will revisit $40,000. But according to address activity and trade volume, the long-term trend still looks plenty healthy. Keep a close eye on whether $BTC’s usage rate stays propped up.”

*Bitcoin price causes concern among traders. Source: Santiment*

The fundamentals of the Bitcoin blockchain network, such as address activity and trade volume, remain strong. However, the market sentiment has dwindled in the past week as BTC continues to struggle to break out of the $38,000 resistance area.

Lack of upside volatility

Bitcoin has been seeing weak reactions from buyers throughout the past several days, compared to the initial rally to $42,000 in early January.

During the early phase of the rally, whenever Bitcoin dipped to key support levels, like $35,000, there was often a big reaction from buyers.

However, since mid-January, there have been weaker reactions from buyers at key support levels. This indicates that the expectations of a rally toward the $40,000 to $42,000 resistance area have subsided, at least in the near term.

The selling pressure on Bitcoin mostly came from Asia in the first two weeks of January. But, as shown in the overnight correction on Jan. 19, Bitcoin has started to see weakness in the U.S. market as well.

The combination of limited upside volatility and the lack of upside momentum is seemingly causing traders to become cautious in the near term. This likely means that BTC sees a prolonged consolidation phase until February.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/3-reasons-bitcoin-abruptly-dropped-by-7-4-overnight