David Durand, Advisor, Innovation and Advocacy
September 9th, 2020
Guest Post | Jan 20, 2021
If you’re new to the world of investing in cryptocurrencies, you might have heard of stablecoins. These are physically-backed assets that differ quite a bit from Bitcoin and other coins. If you’ve heard of them, you’re understandably curious as to what they’re about. This guide can help you with that.
As mentioned, stablecoins are tied to a physical asset. Bitcoin is not. It has its own value backed by the electricity that goes into mining it. Stablecoins like Tether or TrueUSD are tied to the value of the US dollar. These are sold on most traditional exchanges. Otherwise, there are also precious metal-backed stablecoins. Coins like these are more often sold on dedicated platforms like Gold Exchange.
Now, you can probably infer that because stablecoins are tied to the value of physical assets, their value is inherently less volatile than Bitcoin. As you may know, Bitcoin can (and has) risen or fallen thousands of dollars at any given moment.
That volatility might be a boon for some experienced investors, but newer ones might want to avoid them. This is where stablecoins come into play.
Stablecoins like SilverCoin allow users to take advantage of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology without volatility. This way, they can invest in things like silver or gold without hassle, from anywhere in the world.
When buying silver or gold physically, investors have to jump through tons of hoops. Buyers need to validate their identity, income, and other information. They also need to find a proper vendor to buy from and will often pay a premium for doing so. After all of that, they need to wait for the assets to be shipped or go pick them up. Then, they must store those assets. This could be in a safe they buy themselves or paying a company to secure the assets.
In other words, investing in physical assets can be a pain. With stablecoins, investors can buy fractional amounts of an asset instantly. There’s no need to reveal any identity, and the coins are held in a free digital wallet. That anonymity is huge for most investors, especially those interested in cryptocurrency. That, and the ability to buy fractional amounts, is significant for investors with fewer funds. It allows users to start earlier than they would otherwise, putting in as little or as much as they’d like.
However, it’s worth noting that those looking to profit off of crypto might not enjoy stablecoins as much. Because these coins are tied to a physical asset’s value, the coin only raises or lowers its price as its physical counterpart does. For example, those investing in the Tether stablecoin must realize it is designed to sit at $1.00 per coin, give or take a few cents. There’s next to no way to profit from this.
Instead, it’s more for users to convert funds to another type of fiat or move them around the world faster and cheaper than traditional conversions. While some stablecoins can provide a profit, the reality is that’s not what they are designed for.
Technically, neither asset is “better” than the other. Both are great at what they’re designed to do, but each has its own set of flaws. Really, whichever one is better depends on what you’re looking for in a cryptocurrency.
If you’re trying to profit off of your investments, Bitcoin is probably the best option. If you’re more of a traditional investor or need to move funds, stablecoins are your best bet. In fact, central banks around the world are planning to release their own stablecoins for customer’s sake.
Regardless, do your research before investing in any asset. There’s always risk no matter where you put your funds.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Bain and Company | By Mike Kühnel, Thomas Olsen, John Fildes and Karl Gridl | Dec 16, 2020
Despite decades of technological advances, global capital markets remain characterized by fragmented and siloed networks, with limited interoperability between them. Reconciliation between systems requires extra, sometimes manual, steps. Many processes across the financial ecosystem thus continue to be prone to error and high costs. This applies to public markets but even more acutely to private markets.
As a consequence, a consensus across the global financial ecosystem has emerged: Digitized financial assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms will substantially improve transparency of information, automation, distribution and, ultimately, liquidity. Adoption of digital assets—assets and regulated financial securities that are represented digitally and administered on digital platforms—will expand beyond the first niche application of cryptocurrencies, with DLT removing many sources of inefficiency.
Exchanges, banks, technology companies and other financial market firms will need to make decisions soon about how to participate, as it takes time to build an economically attractive business model and the required capabilities and partnerships. Postponing this decision comes with the risk of losing strategic position as early movers gain share and replace or create new market infrastructure roles.
Despite uncertainty around the relevant legislation, dominant technologies and trustworthiness of some emerging firms in this space, we expect that digital assets will increasingly serve as substitutes for traditional financial products―not completely replacing them but rather operating side by side for many years. In the near term, DLT platforms can digitally represent traditional assets on a blockchain ledger to deliver more efficient administration, such as in managing collateral. But digital assets will also make inroads in issuance, trading, settlement, transfer and custody, because current systems for private assets involve expensive, manual tasks done by many intermediaries, resulting in cumbersome, duplicative and nontransparent processes.
In principle, any type of asset can be tokenized, in the sense that related rights of ownership or entitlement to cash flows, along with obligations, can be captured and stored via DLT. We have already seen oddities, such as shares in a professional athlete’s contract or fractional ownership of a painting. Yet while DLT has earned broad attention and support, the biggest opportunities do not lie in public markets, whose current technologies are fairly efficient and would be expensive and complicated to replace in the near term.
To be clear, digital assets are not a miracle that will make very small companies easy (or more desirable) to invest in. Nor will they circumvent retail investor protections by, say, allowing anyone to trade any private asset directly on a mobile app. Rather, the near-term breakthroughs consist of automating workflows and data ranging from capitalization tables to share transfers and dividend or interest payments. Digital asset platforms will bring benefits in efficiency and cost savings, accessibility and transparency. This, in turn, will enable new private capital market innovations to be more:
More Efficient: Digital platforms will allow alternative asset managers to create new, more efficient investment products with portfolios of tokenized private assets. Transfer and trading of private company shares currently have high documentation requirements for new shareholders, creating an administrative burden. Digital assets minimize that burden through smart contracts, where the terms of an agreement are programmable and thereby automated. Instead of settlement processes that take up to two weeks, embedded holder rights and an immutable record will ease verification of ownership, accelerate post-trade processes and remove intermediaries. Digital assets can also unlock more efficient settlement using digital fiat currency tokens and central bank digital currencies, as they become available.
More Accessibile: Automating capitalization tables through DLT will make private assets such as private company equity, debt and real estate much more efficient to administer. Efficiency also allows for new types of private capital products that will be more readily available to a broader set of investors―for example, through 401(k) retirement savings plans.
More Transparent: In the future, such platforms can be extended to help minimize costs and administrative tasks at the individual asset level. Transfer of equity tokens will also feature transparency of price and governance, including right of first refusal, proxy voting and divided payments. Automated administration would allow investors such as pension funds to more easily coinvest in specific parts or assets within a private equity fund portfolio.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Financial Times | OpEd by Brian Brooks | Jan 12, 2021
The writer is the US acting comptroller of the currency In 1961, Popular Science magazine envisioned self-driving cars.
The reality arrived sooner than anyone anticipated, and before safety regulators could adapt. Most automotive laws — on speed limits, giving signals, drink-driving — had been designed to protect against dangerous drivers, not dangerous cars. Autonomous vehicles brought new risks that legacy rules never considered. As one headline on the Wired website put it: “Who’s Regulating Self-Driving Cars? Often, No One”.
Banking is headed down the same road. And it’s being driven by the technology behind decentralised finance, or DeFi. But just as the original rules of the road protected us from other drivers, so our current bank regulations exist mainly to prevent human failings.
At the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, we require every bank to have officers responsible for its safety — such as a chief risk officer and a chief audit executive. We limit how much banks can lend to their directors. We even make some bank employees take a certain amount of vacation so others can sit at their desks and identify potential fraud. We call it bank regulation, but we’re really regulating bankers.
DeFi turns all this on its head. It leverages blockchain technology to deliver services with no human intermediation.
One example is creating money markets with algorithmically derived interest rates based on supply and demand — rates that traditional banks set by committee. Other DeFi projects include decentralised exchanges that allow users to trade without brokers, and protocols for lending that do not involve loan officers or credit committees. Although these “self-driving banks” are new, they are not small. They are likely to be mainstream before self-driving cars start to fly.
However, self-driving banks present the same challenges and opportunities as autonomous vehicles. On the opportunity side, they can allow savers to stop shopping around for the best interest rates by having algorithms do this for them. They can also end discrimination against certain borrowers by having software make credit decisions. They could even eliminate the risk of fraud or corruption by no longer being run by humans at all.
Self-driving banks also present new risks, though. If technology accelerates withdrawal of depositors’ funds, just as high-frequency trading can accelerate equity sell-offs, that could increase liquidity risk compared with traditional banks. Asset volatility could be a concern for similar reasons. And the management of loan collateral could be more difficult if humans are not involved in valuations.
There is also a risk that, in the absence of federal regulatory clarity, US states rush to fill the void and create a patchwork of inconsistent rules that impede the orderly development of a national market. This is exactly what happened with self-driving cars. Federal regulators must therefore determine what a regulatory scheme for self-driving banks should look like. Could they ensure fair treatment of customers by such a bank? Sure.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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HSE | Sarah H. Brennan | Jan 9, 2021
If we put the last quarter of 2020 aside, this year could be marked by the sheer number of SEC enforcement actions and settlements in the crypto space, with more rumored to be in the works. However, the U.S. ended 2020 with a bang in the form of a flurry of proposed crypto regulations in Q4 with varying degrees of controversiality. Notably, the proposed STABLE Act and Mnuchin's midnight rulemaking on self-custody have caused a bit of an uproar, which we touch on in more depth below.
Absent these recent rulemakings, there has been an unevenness in the Trump administration’s approach to the space and the last four years at the federal level haven’t been marked with any significant level of regulatory coordination or cohesive policy at the federal level.
However, to pick upon some themes that we will talk about in this year-end review, regulators have vacillated between: (i) a focus on enforcement vs. prescriptive guidance, (ii) a tech specific vs. tech agnostic approach, (iii) aggressive views of jurisdictional reach vs. deference, and (iv) state, federal, and global coordination and cooperation vs. a more insular agency-specific approach.
These last minute rulemakings marked the last acts of an administration with what could be characterized as an ambivalent view of the crypto space, neither friendly nor particularly enabling. Although the IRS 2014 guidance (Notice 2014-2) classifying cryptocurrency as property was pivotal in pushing the predominant use case (use case follows tax treatment) for Bitcoin and other currency-like crypto assets toward a commodity-like store of value as opposed to a medium of exchange (think gold bar as opposed to dollar bill), other U.S. regulators have doubled down on labeling, and regulating, crypto as a currency-like instrument, among other things.
With Bitcoin crossing $34,000 to hit an all-time high (“ATH”) in early January, Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, Ether (“ETH”), trending close to its ATH from 2018 and the proliferation of stablecoin projects, the U.S. government may now be rethinking previous pronouncements that crypto does not pose a significant threat to the U.S.’s fiat hegemony worthy of addressing.
The most activity on this front is taking place at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S. Treasury (“FinCEN”) (see proposed rulemakings here and as discussed below) as well as Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (see the DOJ Enforcement Framework released in October 2020), as U.S. authorities continue to bring anti-money laundering (“AML”) compliance, sanctions compliance, and terrorist financing concerns to the forefront.
We have also seen significant enforcement actions against BitMEX as discussed below, John McAfee’s arrest for tax evasion related in part to his activities in crypto and the recently announced settlement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and BitGo, Inc. for violations of sanctions programs.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Altfi.com | Aisling Finn | Jan 11, 2021
Fintechs flourished on Seedrs, maintaining the title of the most invested-in sector, with £78m invested in fintechs through the platform.
Crowdfunding platform Seedrs saw investments through its platform top £293m in 2020, hitting a milestone of £1bn invested to date on Christmas Day.
Fintech remained the most invested-in sector, scooping £78m collectively, with other areas seeing huge increases in investment, for instance, healthcare firms saw a 292 per cent jump in investment in 2020.
Seedrs says over 70 campaigns raised over £1m on the platform, with big fintech names such as money management app Snoop, which raised £10mhere have been nearly 14,000 investor exits on its secondary market to the tune of £5m, Seedrs says.
Jeff Lynn, executive chairman and co-founder of Seedrs, said: “Given the huge challenges that 2020 posed for all businesses, it is a source of great pride for the Seedrs team that have come to the end of the year having delivered meaningful growth across all key metrics.”
The record figures come as Seedrs saw losses widen, reporting a loss of £4.7m in the year ending December 2019 and admitting that Covid-19 has caused a “material uncertainty” which “may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
Seedrs’ losses were published no more than one day after its merger with fellow crowdfunding platform Crowdcube was announced.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Crowdfund Capital Advisors | Sherwood Neiss | Jan 14, 2021
These include:
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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KABN North America | Cara Buckspan | Jan 12, 2021
New services empower Liquid Avatar users to receive & share Augmented Reality social messages, rewards, and commercial offers instantly
TORONTO, ON, VANCOUVER, BC, and ERIE, PA / ACCESSWIRE / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2021 / KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. (CSE:KABN)(OTC PINK:TRWRF)(FRA:4T51) (the "Company", "KABN North America" or "KABN NA") and Imagine AR Inc. (IP)(IPNFF) ("ImagineAR"), are excited to announce the execution of a multi-year licensing agreement to launch Augmented Reality ("AR") immersive experiences integrated with Liquid Avatar. Liquid Avatar empowers users to manage, control and gain value from their biometrically verified Self Sovereign Identity and personal data ownership.
Using ImagineAR's licensed AR SDK and cloud-based studio suite, KABN will deliver a series of dynamic AR interactions to Liquid Avatar mobile app users starting in early 2021. Liquid Avatar users will experience immersive consumer AR-based social, event, educational and information-based messages. Commercial enterprises and media companies will present dynamic measurable interactive AR offers to Liquid Avatar users knowing the consumer is real and verified thereby significantly reducing marketing waste and breakage. The range of opportunities are potentially limitless as Liquid Avatar's Self Sovereign Identity platform is addressable to up to 100% of all online users.
Liquid Avatar users will soon be able to create and share interactive 3D greetings and messages that are automatically integrated with their Liquid Avatar icons and can be experienced inside the Liquid Avatar app. Liquid Avatar users will also be able to share AR enabled resumes, invitations, event programs, and other information with their social connections. Additionally, Liquid Avatar is exploring interactive digital wallets, which will allow users to easily visualize all their in-wallet verifiable access and identity credentials, like those for healthcare, gaming, travel, financial services, education, ecommerce, and government services.
"Augmented Reality provides a new way to see the world around us and allows KABN to empower Liquid Avatar's known and verified users to take advantage of this interactive technology to engage with friends, family, and other connections," said David Lucatch, CEO KABN. "ImagineAR's platform provides immersive experiences and an effective way for us to instantly deliver AR opportunities to our constituents, therefore creating revenue and value opportunities for our expanding user base."
Exploring other partnership programs, KABN NA and ImagineAR will enable commercial enterprises and media companies to create and deliver fully immersive AR experiences, allowing users to have a 3D view of products and services, whether they are shopping online, or visiting a specific geo-location like a shop, restaurant, etc. Movie trailers, in-shopping and music videos, online concerts and other media productions, menus, schedules, podcasts and other items can "come alive" online or right at the location, along with any special bonuses, rewards, offerings and incentives.
For the travel industry, users can review immersive experiences directly from printed materials, on locations, venues and resorts. The education and information services sector can create and deliver interactive engagement opportunities to convey information and choices.
"We are thrilled to partner with KABN to provide our AR expertise, knowledge and products to their Liquid Avatar users," says Alen Paul Silverrstieen, Founder and CEO of ImagineAR. "KABN's programs provide engagement with known and verified users, creating the type of value our clients are looking for, and our multi-year agreement allows us to quickly ramp up our programs and create long-term value for our stakeholders."
Industry Information:
According to FinancesOnline.com's - 45 Vital Augmented Reality Statistics 2020 - Market Share & Data Analysis and Digitalintheround.com's report, 21 Amazing Augmented Reality Statistics [The 2020 View]:
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2020 FINTECH DRAFT PITCHING AND DEMO COMPANY WINNERS!![]() ![]() ![]() |