EBay Tells World It Will Accept ‘Virtual Currency’
Cryptocurrency users were celebrating fresh rumors about a major adoption push this week after suggested eBay might accept Bitcoin and altcoins. At Consensus 2019 conference in New York, eBay, which has 180 million users, is actively pursuing crypto payments. One of the annual event’s major sponsors this year, it would appear the giant online marketplace is deliberately targeting attendees’ imagination. “Virtual Currency. It’s happening on eBay,” one placard reads, without giving any further information.
World Bank, CommBank Team Up for ‘World First’ Blockchain Bond Transaction
The institutions announced Wednesday that their successful recording of a secondary transaction for bond-i, a blockchain-operated debt instrument, on a distributed ledger shows the “vast potential” of the technology, and marks the first bond to have both issuance and trading recorded on a blockchain platform. Bond-i was first issued last August by the World Bank, with the CommBank being a sole arranger. The experiment helped the World Bank raise $81 million at the time. World Bank vice president and treasurer, Jingdong Hua, “Enabling secondary trading recorded on the blockchain is a tremendous step forward towards enabling capital markets to leverage distributed ledger technologies for faster, more efficient, and more secure transactions.” “Blockchain has the potential to streamline processes for raising capital and trading securities, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance regulatory oversight.”
Reuters: Banks to invest $50 million in digital cash settlement project
The previously disclosed project, known as the "utility settlement coin," was first proposed by Swiss bank UBS Group AG and London-based technology startup Clearmatics in 2015. It aims to develop a system to make clearing and settlement in financial markets more efficient. A dozen banks are investing in a new entity called Fnality which would run the project, one of the people said. Banks that had previously disclosed they were working on earlier phases of the project include UBS, Banco Santander, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, State Street Corp, Credit Suisse Group AG, Barclays PLC, HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG. “We are a member of the USC Project and can confirm that the Research & Development phase is coming to an end,” a spokeswoman for Barclays. Banks and other financial institutions have invested millions of dollars to test new blockchain systems aimed at reducing the costs and complexity of cumbersome processes. These include securities settlement and international payments.