Facebook Looks to Bolster Crypto Team, Even After Libra’s Launch

Facebook’s Growing Crypto Squad

As first spotted by CoinDesk, Facebook’s crypto division is embarking on yet another hiring spree. This comes just weeks after reports suggested that the Silicon Valley darling’s so-called “Blockchain” division has already 100 staffers, led by PayPal Mafia member David Marcus and former Instagram executives.

Per a search for “Blockchain” on Facebook’s careers portal, the firm still has 26 openings for this branch. While the listings cover a wide array of roles, including designers and software engineers, one interesting posting mentions Facebook’s need for a blockchain finance program manager.

This position will best be filled by someone with eight years of project management experience, coupled with some knowledge of blockchain technologies. Responsibilities include managing Facebook’s relationships with Libra partners (Uber, Spotify, Booking Holdings, Visa, PayPal, etc.), risk analysis, and leading teams within Facebook.

Interestingly, one responsibility mentions compliance with tax laws, the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and other pertinent regulations. This confirms that unlike its fully decentralized counterparts like Bitcoin, Libra will abide by all relevant rules and regulations.

As mentioned earlier, this is the latest of many of Facebook’s attempts to secure talent. Earlier this year, for instance, the firm revealed that it was looking for an individual with knowledge of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This single listing seemingly confirmed the then-rumors that the social media giant was hard at work on a crypto asset and blockchain.

By now, it may be fair to suggest that Facebook Blockchain is one of the biggest employers of industry professionals, despite the fact that it has yet to launch its first consumer-facing product.

Fears Grow About Libra

While Facebook has continued to trudge ahead, going against a U.S. politician’s call to stop the development of the project immediately, some government representatives, crypto executives, and technologists have begun to overtly question Libra.

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has pledged that Libra will be heavily scrutinized and regulated, citing the cryptocurrency’s potential to be widely adopted from the get-go.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire followed suit with a similar comment, claiming that under no circumstances should Libra “become a sovereign currency.” Le Maire elaborated that he is worried about how this new digital asset can be used to harvest data, launder money, and finance terrorism:

“This money will allow this company to assemble even more data, which only increases our determination to regulate the internet giants.”

Indeed, in the aforementioned report, Coindesk claimed that its sources revealed that privacy concerns led Stellar, Tendermint, and Mobilecoin to decline to work with Facebook on this project. Even Joseph Lubin of Ethereum and ConsenSys fame has claimed that he is worried about Libra’s centralized nature, dubbing the project a “centralized wolf in a decentralized sheep’s clothing”.

If so-called “crypto natives” are concerned about the project’s conformity to morals and laws, is there much hope for Libra to be decentralized and not susceptible to exploitation?

Original article written by Nick Chong and posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site.

Article posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

This is Why Colorado Signed the Pro-Blockchain Digital Token Act

That the crypto wave is sweeping across the US is true. From presidential candidates from both sides of the divide supporting cryptocurrencies and accepting Bitcoin or ETH donations, tthe once demonized coin now stands to be in held in the same breath as the USD. Well, after a disastrous Non-Farm Payment Roll came in at just 20,000 crashing expectations of 180,000, something has to be done—quickly. A slowdown in job creation points to a weakness in the overall economy but there is an open window where blockchain and crypto provide endless opportunities.

To that end, Colorado is following the Wyoming route and with the ever vibrant, pro-blockchain Governor Jared Polis signing the Digital Token Act on the Friday of Mar 8, he heralded a new era where blockchains are free to roll their products aware that they are except from the state’s security laws unless otherwise.

Similarly, liquidity creators as crypto broker dealers and salespersons need not to be licensed under limited circumstances. The question now is, why is the state taking such a drastic and news grabbing decision? Is Jared seeing an unexploited opportunity that places his state ahead of the pack? From what we can glean, the decision was taken after the state’s general assembly determination.

Reason for Signing the Digital Token Act

After extensive commenting and deliberation, the state find that:

• Crypto-economic systems operating off decentralized platforms form an important component of the blockchain technology. In turn, blockchain as a technology has the potential to create the web 3.0 which obviously has several advantages over existing internet systems.
• Because of the advantages of blockchain and crypto-economic systems, Colorado is increasingly becoming a hub for blockchain companies. As a result, there is need to open up funding channels for these projects and the fastest way of doing that is to reduce consumptive regulatory requirement under Article 51.

Since the advantages of restricted market investment are many and outweighs the “costs and complexities of state securities registration”, there is need to eliminate regulatory uncertainty especially for Colorado businesses keen on utilizing blockchain and issue utility tokens.

“hereby promoting the formation and growth of local companies and the accompanying job creation and helping make Colorado a hub for companies that are building new forms of decentralized “web 3.0″platforms and applications.”

Applicable Rules for Exemption

However, there are rules for exemption, clear for token issuers. They include:

1. The issuer must file a notice of intent with the SEC
2. Token must be a utility, used for consumptive purposes
3. The token must not be marketed in any way or used for speculation
4. The token must be rolled out and find use within six months after initial sale or transfer
5. Buyers must provide proof that they are buying the tokens for use and not for speculation
6. Initial buyers must not transfer the token until after 180 days have elapsed

The act will be enforceable beginning August 2 and it is clear that not only is the Governor keen on creating new jobs but wants to create a blockchain hub out of Colorado where investors can legally invest in crypto projects. It also came as a surprise because not long ago, the SEC filed 12 cases against blockchain projects after the ICO Task Force determined that they fraudulently raised funds.

Original article written by Dalmas Ngetich and posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site.

Article posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Questions JPM Coin Usability

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of blockchain-based startup Ripple, has once again called into question the purpose of the JPM Coin.

In mid-February, Wall Street giant J.P. Morgan Chase announced plans to create the JPM Coin, a pseudo-stablecoin that would function to improve its internal payment network. Following the announcement, some analysts were quick to say that the JPM Coin would be a death sentence for payment protocol competitor Ripple. However, Garlinghouse fired back at his detractors, making the claim that banking coins “still aren’t the answer,” and that JPM Coin “misses the point.” Garlinghouse went on to compare the announcement by J.P. Morgan as similar to that of AOL and Netscape, with the bank predictably reneging its stance on cryptocurrency, albeit in a clumsy way.

On Mar. 6, speaking in an interview at the 4th Annual Washington D.C. Blockchain Summit, Ripple’s CEO continued to share more of his thoughts on J.P. Morgan’s stablecoin project. Specifically, Garlinghouse honed in on the lack of interoperability in a JPM Coin, i.e. that a rival bank such as Morgan Stanley or Citigroup would be unable to benefit from the internal payment network created by J.P. Morgan, thereby limiting its appeal,

“This guy from Morgan Stanley was interviewing me last week, and I asked him, so is Morgan Stanley going to use the JPM Coin? Probably not. Will Citi use it? […] Will PNC? And the answer is no. So we’re going to have all these different coins, and we’re back to where we are: there’s a lack of interoperability.”

Given the lack of reach that an internal payment stablecoin would have beyond J.P. Morgan clients, Garlinghouse questioned the purpose of developing the project at all. According to Garlinghouse, the bank would be better of just using the U.S. Dollar, and implied that JPM Coin fails to provide any real-world solution,

“Let’s think about this. [JPM] announced the JPM Coin for institutional customers. If you give them a dollar as deposit, they’ll give you a JPM Coin, that you then can move in the JPM ledger. Wait a minute, just use the dollar! I really don’t understand […] what problem that solves.”

Last week, Binance Research published a new report contending that J.P. Morgan’s stablecoin would be unlikely to compete with Ripple or XRP, and cited the lack of interoperability between institutions as a serious drawback to the coin’s adoption. While Garlinghouse’s comments echoed much of the same as Binance’s researchers, the CEO did concede that JPM Coin could boost the popularity of cryptocurrency. Despite J.P. Morgan’s Chief Executive Jamie Dimon having a negative stance towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrency over the years, Garlinghouse pointed out that JPM Coin represents a shifting landscape for banks,

”for the blockchain and crypto industry to have players such as JPM leaning in…That’s the one good thing I’ll say about this.”

As previously reported by EWN, the last two weeks have been a roller coaster ride for both Ripple and the XRP coin. While XRP was able to make its way onto popular U.S.-based exchange Coinbase, the price movement aftermath left investors disappointed. In addition, the parent company Ripple was accused by some community members of paying for the coin listing. However, on Monday, the San Francisco-based blockchain company was named a Top 20 place to work in the Bay Area, and represented the only blockchain or crypto-based company to make the cut.

Original article written by Michael Lavere and posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site.

Article posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Is JPM Coin A Serious Threat To Ripple?

Frances Coppola, Senior Contributor
Banking & Insurance
I write about banking, finance and economics.

On February 14, the giant bank J.P. Morgan announced plans to issue its own digital “coin," to run on its in-house Quorum blockchain. The coin will be pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, with J.P. Morgan using the considerable heft of its balance sheet to guarantee the peg, so will not suffer the wild fluctuations in value that can make cryptocurrencies unreliable for payments. It is thus what in the crypto world is known as a “stablecoin”, not a cryptocurrency – a digital token that represents a fiat currency.

Exactly what impact “JPMCoin” will have on the cryptocurrency landscape is unclear. Opinion is divided between those who think that JPMCoin is a serious threat to Ripple and, to a lesser extent, Bitcoin and Ethereum, and those who think it is a non-event. Who is right?

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JP Morgan logo is seen on an android mobile phone. Photo credit: LightRocket via Getty Images GETTY

Well, it all depends how the coin is used, and who uses it. In a useful Q&A, Umar Farooq, J.P. Morgan’s head of Digital Treasury Services and Blockchain, explains how J.P. Morgan’s customers would use the coin:

"When one client sends money to another over the blockchain, JPM Coins are transferred and instantaneously redeemed for the equivalent amount of U.S. dollars, reducing the typical settlement time."

This sounds much like Ripple’s xRapid, which uses the cryptocurrency XRP as a bridging currency. To send money using xRapid, a customer exchanges fiat currency for XRP, the XRP is transferred, then the recipient redeems the XRP for fiat currency. The difference is, of course, that XRP is not a stablecoin. It is a traded instrument whose price can – and does – fluctuate widely. In today’s fast FX markets, the price can change even in the 3-4 seconds that it takes to execute the payment. J.P. Morgan is clearly promoting its coin as having exchange rate stability that XRP, like other traded coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, does not have. So is J.P.Morgan trying to kill xRapid?

It’s not immediately apparent that this is its goal. Firstly, JPMCoin will – at least to start with – only be used for payments entirely in U.S. dollars, unlike xRapid which can handle multiple currencies and cross-currency payments. Secondly, JPMCoin is – again to start with – only available to J.P. Morgan’s institutional clients. They can use the coin to send money between themselves, but not to retail customers or to non-customers. It’s thus a very limited enhancement to J.P. Morgan’s in-house payment rails.

This tends to support the argument that JPMCoin is merely marketing hype. After all, payments between J.P. Morgan’s customers are really only transfers across its own books. It seems a bit sad that cash-strapped IT departments have to say "look, it's blockchain" to persuade board directors to throw some money at settlement plumbing, always a pariah compared to fancy front-office systems. But from the point of view of J.P. Morgan’s customers, this is simply a long overdue improvement to the bank’s extremely expensive and very clunky cross-border payments systems. As Farooq observes (quoted in CoinTelegraph), this could be particularly beneficial for a large institutional client with overseas subsidiaries, which at present can only move money around its organization using external payment rails:

"Money sloshes back and forth all over the world in a large enterprise. Is there a way to ensure that a subsidiary can represent cash on the balance sheet without having to actually wire it to the unit? That way, they can consolidate their money and probably get better rates for it."

It's completely ridiculous that customers of J.P. Morgan have to use SWIFT and Fedwire to move money around within their own organizations. J.P.Morgan should have sorted this out long ago. As should other major banks.

Nevertheless, JPMCoin is a slap in the face for Ripple. Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, is on record as saying he expects “major banks” to adopt xRapid, along with the XRP token, in 2019. Now, J.P. Morgan – unquestionably a major bank – has told Ripple “no way are we using xRapid or XRP.” And it doesn’t mean only for internal transfers. The bank’s Q&A says it intends its coin eventually to be used for payments in multiple currencies and across other blockchains. That would make it a solution for cross-currency payments to non-customers – exactly the market that Ripple is aiming for.

Even if the coin remained limited to J.P. Morgan’s institutional clients, JPMCoin would still threaten Ripple’s plans. According to J.P. Morgan’s Farooq, “pretty much every big corporation is our client, and most of the major banks in the world are too.” The U.S. dollar is used for the majority of global transactions. If JPMCoin can corner the market in U.S. dollar transactions between most of the world’s large corporations and major banks, where does that leave Ripple?

Even before JPMCoin hit the news media, Ripple's plans to recruit major banks looked over-optimistic to the point of incredulity. Major banks currently control international payments. Why would they hand that privilege over to a third party, when they could develop their own blockchain-based payments network? And the need for such a network to facilitate payments between customers of different banks is no obstacle. Banks will cooperate when it is in their interests to do so. Indeed, that is how SWIFT came to be, and the FX bank CLS, and in the UK, the LINK network of ATMs. So it's entirely possible that banks might cooperate to create their own blockchain-based international payments network. In a particularly nasty twist of the knife, the major banks could even use Ripple's own innovation.

Ending Ripple’s dreams of world domination, and those of other digital coin issuers, might therefore be exactly what J.P. Morgan has in mind. It will be interesting to see how this little stand-off develops.

Original article written by Frances Coppola and posted on the Forbes.com site.

Article posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe