Ripple Partners With Three Crypto Exchanges as Part of XRapid Solution 8987

Ripple has added three cryptocurrency exchanges to its cross-border payments settlement product, according to a press release published August 16. Ripple has partnered with U.S.-based Bittrex, Mexican Bitso, and Philippine Coins.Ph cryptocurrency trading platforms within its initiative to build a “healthy” ecosystem of digital asset exchange.

The new partners will enable Ripple’s xRapid payments solution to move between XRP and U.S. dollars, Mexican pesos, and Philippine pesos respectively. Ripple explained the operational principle like this:

“A financial institution (FI) that has an account with Bittrex would initiate a payment in U.S. dollars via xRapid, which instantly converts into XRP on Bittrex. The payment amount in XRP is settled over the XRP Ledger, then Bitso, through its Mexican peso liquidity pool, instantly converts the XRP into fiat, which is then settled into the destination bank account.”

XRapid is a liquidity solution for Ripple’s blockchain-based real-time gross settlement system, which is developed to facilitate international fiat transfers between financial institutions. Ripple Chief Market Strategist Cory Johnson said:

“We’ve seen several successful xRapid pilots already, and as we move the product from beta to production later this year, these exchange partners will allow us to provide financial institutions with the comfort and assurance that their payments will move seamlessly between different currencies.”

In May, financial institutions who participated in the pilot of xRapid platform, which tested payments between the U.S. and Mexico, reported transaction savings of 40-70 percent. Additionally, the participants noted an improvement in transaction speed from 2-3 days to “just over two minutes.”

Although the testing showed solid product performance, Ripple chief cryptographer David Schwartz claimed that banks are unlikely to deploy blockchain to process international payments, citing low scalability and privacy problems.

Image via Shutterstock

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Solar Dex to relaunch on Quai Network 3721

While many solutions for blockchain scalability have been proposed, they remain unable to crack the blockchain trilemma, sacrificing security and decentralization. Quai is the first blockchain protocol that is simultaneously decentralized, censorship resistant and infinitely scalable. Quai, in contrast to traditional cryptocurrencies, functions as a network of many interoperable blockchains braided together. Due to a breakthrough discovery that occurred during research on proof-of-work, Quai Network utilizes a new consensus mechanism, proof of entropy minima (PoEM), which eliminates all consensus-based forks and enables all Quai nodes to remain in “perpetual consensus.”

Solar Dex began as the first United States-based decentralized exchange on Solana, and will now be pivoting to build on Quai as one of its first DEXs. Due to a loss of TVL on Solana and many Solana-based projects moving strictly to NFTs, the Solar team has decided to get ahead of the DeFi curve and take advantage of Quai’s low-cost, high-speed decentralized network in order to better position Solar Dex for the next bull run. The team at Solar is building on top of Quai Network to “ensure a more sustainable future for Solar Dex.”

Roy Fardin, chief business officer, said: “After talking to the Quai Network team, we have never been more bullish about a layer 1 with scalability and its passion for growth. It was a clear eye-opener that they care about DeFi and want other projects that utilize this network to succeed. The vision behind Quai brings the best of Ethereum and Solana all together into this new network.”

Solar Dex will be reworking the DEX into several components as it builds on Quai. The DEX will not only support traditional swaps, but also add in customizable swap themes. In addition, Solar Dex’s Solar Sentries NFTs will allow staking as a yield opportunity derived by all exchange fees earned from Sentry Mode projects.

Richard, CEO of Solar Dex, said: “On top of traditional DEX swaps, Solar Dex will be adding limit orders on Quai. “We’re doing a total revamp of the website and DEX which should be very aesthetically pleasing and simplistic to onboard new users to DeFi and also Quai.”

With Quai’s Iron Age Testnet beginning in September 2023, Solar Dex will be prioritizing its deployment on Quai for the coming months. There will be incentives to beta-test Solar DEX on Quai and additional generalized rewards will be provided by Quai for participating in the Iron Age Testnet. On top of this, the Solar team will be adding a surprise feature to the DEX to build excitement for Quai’s testnet launch, as well as utilizing its incentive program to reward holders.

With backing from Polychain Capital and an expert team with backgrounds at Apple, GridPlus, Tesla, Consensys, Circle and more, Quai is excited to usher in a new generation of innovative applications that don’t sacrifice decentralization.

Concordium Enables a New Standard of Age Verification Amidst Growing Privacy Concerns 3959

Concordium, the Layer 1, science-backed blockchain creating a safer digital world, proudly unveils Web3 ID: a cutting-edge identification platform offering age-verification capacities designed to prioritize user privacy for both individuals and businesses. Concordium’s age verification tooling works to protect minors online amidst growing global privacy concerns and explicit data-harvesting from technology organisations.

Web3 ID harnesses Concordium’s Zero-Knowledge Proof technology to offer a novel approach to age verification – without ever compromising user data or privacy. By uploading a government-issued form of identification to their wallet, Web3 ID users can drastically reduce the amount of data they disclose during online identity verification, regaining control over any sensitive information.

Mikael Breinholst, Head of Product at Concordium, spoke to the widespread concern surrounding existing online age-verification tools, stating: “Current age verification tools online are a grave area of concern for many. Age-restricted sites have little to no barrier to entry, exposing underage consumers to a universe of adult themed content. Blockchain technology, and Web3 ID specifically, enable businesses to request proof of an individual’s age, without storing their data or selling it to advertisers. With Web3 ID, users maintain autonomy and safety over their personal information while benefiting from blockchain technology’s inherent security.”

Concordium´s built-in ID layer and Zero-Knowledge-Proof technology ensures a user’s online identity is verified in a secure and decentralized manner, all while maintaining privacy. Only strictly relevant information is requested of users when transacting on the Web3 ID platform, while unrelated details are held on a decentralized wallet. Web3 ID users are also granted an increase in transactional security through Concordium’s compliance-friendly technology. In result, individuals and businesses are empowered with complete control over their information, effectively countering the data ownership issues associated with centralized legacy systems.

Kåre Kjelstrøm, CTO & CPO at Concordium, commented: “Concordium’s Web3 ID is intuitive and easy to build upon, offering seamless usability while being cost-effective, shrinking online identification processes. Further to preventing children from accessing age-restricted sites, Web3 ID is capable of sharing specific medical information without the recipient having access to the entirety of an individual’s medical history, proving a user’s driving credentials, or simply ensuring user data is genuine and not the result of bots. This model addresses many of the shortcomings surrounding ID safety caused by big tech’s data monopoly.”

The creation of a new standard of age verification promotes Concordium’s mission of supporting a regulated future for new and existing organisations building on blockchain technology. This achievement follows recent partnerships such as AI service provider 2021.ai, and carbon offset management platform Aqualibre.

For more information on Concordium’s Web3 ID platform, please visit: Concordium.com

About Concordium

Concordium is a permissionless green layer 1, a science-backed blockchain that balances privacy with accountability through its ID layer and Zero-Knowledge-Proofs. Creating trust with ID is key to scaling businesses. Concordium provides a fast, secure, and high-scale blockchain platform that makes building use cases and using dApps easy. Concordium differs by having verified ID and instant finality with high throughput and low transaction fees pegged to FIAT. With leadership from Fortune 500 companies, Volvo, IKEA, Credit Suisse, Uber, and successful Fintech platforms, the team is scaling the chain to its extensive network of the world’s biggest enterprises. For more information: concordium.com

Web3 Social Platform “Cardano Spot” Unveils New Features to Empower Cardano Enthusiasts 4283

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First all-in-one social media platform for everything Cardano, Cardano Spot, has unveiled a series of innovative features. The platform, founded and developed with direct input from the Cardano community, aims to address fragmentation within the Cardano ecosystem, provide a 360-view, and foster enhanced community interaction.

Desktop Project Library

Latest Enhancements for a More Robust Experience

Cardano Spot has launched its latest features to facilitate the expansion of native Cardano projects and their communities.

Open Access. In its upgraded version you can now access both News Feed and Project Library without being required to sign in.

Multilingual News Feed. Additionally, Cardano Spot provides access to a diverse multilingual News Feed, featuring content from Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Indian community members.

Desktop News List

Simplified Registration. The platform now also provides a number of alternative ways for registration, including Twitter, TikTok, and GitHub accounts.

Explore Page. Offers a better user experience through a simple curated view on the latest information about the Cardano ecosystem.

Refer-a-Friend. The newly launched “Refer a Friend” feature enables users to invite friends through a personalized referral link.

A peek into other features:

  • Community Hub: A customized homepage tailored to individual user interests, empowering content creation, user connections, and discovering like-minded communities.
  • News Feed: A source for the latest Cardano ecosystem news, offering educational content, articles, and videos to expand knowledge horizons.
  • Project Library: A comprehensive repository spotlighting projects built on the Cardano Blockchain, complete with explanations, whitepapers, introductory videos, and essential links for personal research.
  • Events Calendar: A consolidated calendar showcasing Cardano-related events, including webinars, discussions, product launches, and more.
  • Market Status: Real-time insights into native token prices, market trends, and tokenomics.

Desktop Events

Sebastian Zilliacus, Managing Director at EMURGO, explained, “Cardano Spot aims to provide trust, transparency, and accurate information about the Cardano ecosystem. We partner with native Cardano projects to achieve this objective.”

About Cardano Spot

Cardano Spot is the first product from EMURGO Media. This Cardano enthusiasts-focused social network serves end-to-end information for the Cardano community. It provides a user-generated interactive platform specifically designed for investment in, distribution, consumption, and monetization of Cardano content. Cardano Spot solves the issue of fragmented content in the Cardano ecosystem by aggregating valuable, quality content from reliable sources in the Cardano ecosystem to give up-to-date developments in the Cardano ecosystem.

For more information, please visit: https://bit.ly/CardanoSpotWeb3Platform.

SecuX Shield BIO Revolutionizes Crypto Security: Introducing the Ultra-Slim Biometric Cold Wallet at TOKEN 2049 4903

Renowned for its innovative streak in blockchain security since 2018, SecuX is poised to reveal its latest creation, the Shield BIO card-type hardware wallet, at TOKEN 2049 – one of the crypto industry’s marquee events scheduled for 13-14 September 2023 in Singapore. The Shield BIO is emblematic of next-gen crypto security, masterfully combining biometric fingerprint authentication with the handy format of a credit card.

At the heart of this avant-garde wallet is the military-grade Secure Element chip, synonymous with the robust security features of all SecuX hardware wallets, ensuring unparalleled protection for digital treasures. The incorporation of biometric technology enhances this security, ensuring only authenticated users can access their assets.

“Our trajectory in the industry underscores our commitment to pioneering unmatched blockchain security solutions. The Shield BIO Card Wallet is a testament to our unwavering dedication to supreme security, top-notch functionality, and sleek design,” commented Peter Chen, CEO at SecuX.

The breadth of SecuX’s commitment to blockchain security shines through its diverse product lineup. Highlights include the V20 crypto wallet, renowned for supporting a staggering 10,000+ coins and tokens, and the SecuX Nifty – an NFT-display hardware wallet that bagged the prestigious iF design award in 2023. Additionally, the company’s payment terminals are tailored for the ever-evolving crypto sphere; and the XSEED series, offering robust steel cold storage solutions, further elevates its standing in the blockchain community.

2023 has been especially noteworthy for SecuX, marked by key alliances with cybersecurity behemoth Trend Micro, birthing the co-branded W20 wallet, and a collaboration with ASUS Metaverse on the groundbreaking MnemonicX 2048 soul-bound NFT initiative.

“In an ever-evolving crypto world, the demand for robust yet user-centric security solutions grows exponentially. The Shield BIO isn’t merely a product; it’s an assurance of peace of mind,” Peter Chen emphasized.

To delve deeper into the Shield BIO Card Wallet or explore other SecuX innovations, please visit https://secuxtech.com

About SecuX

Pioneering the blockchain security realm since 2018, SecuX consistently raises the bar with its groundbreaking solutions in the cryptocurrency sector. From hardware wallets to cold storage offerings, SecuX stands tall as a paragon of security and design excellence.

One Trading Launch Instant Trade 5544

One Trading, the crypto asset exchange formerly operating under the Bitpanda Pro brand, today announced its new product, Instant Trade.

Having recently raised €30M and fully separated from Bitpanda, Instant Trade is another step forward for One Trading as it diversifies its offering and establishes its footprint as a household name providing crypto assets to both retail and institutional investors in Europe.

With backers including the likes of Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures, One Trading is drawing a lot of attention.

Led by TradFi heavyweight and ex-JP Morgan exec Josh Barraclough, One Trading aims to address the lack of regulated venues in Europe by offering more sophisticated crypto products, including derivatives and spot trading, to both institutions and retail customers. With many traditional finance players lacking experience in the crypto market, there is a significant gap in providing long-term product confidence and success.

The latest product being launched is Instant Trade. Josh had the following to say about Instant Trade: “We’re really excited to be unraveling our latest product, Instant Trade, which brings our OTC product, typically reserved for institutional clients, to all customer types. Our customers can now trade 100+ pairs between crypto-assets and fiat seamlessly with great fiat on and off ramps at the click of a button, and commission-free trading. Most brokers charge a dealing fee when customers buy or sell assets, however, Instant Trade will have 0% commission, meaning there is no additional dealing fee charged on Instant Trade aside from the market spread applied. We’ve built up a deep pool of liquidity with a range of partners over the years, which everyone can access without having to trade hundreds of millions a day or hold ecosystem tokens.

We have a simplified, really easy to use UI and customers can even trade up to ten million euros in one trade. We’ll also be regularly adding new assets and our customers can rest assured that with our VASP license, we are a safe, secure, and regulated service, for anyone that isn’t a customer, you can test out Instant Trade on our website and compare our prices.

We’re really excited to hear feedback from our customers so do let us know what you think via our socials and community channels. We will also be releasing an article on the One Trading blog page specifically about Instant Trade, so keep an eye out for that on the website.”

“We want to make crypto trading safe and accessible for all and bridge the gap to provide an institutional-grade platform for all customer types. We have been rolling out a rebrand and a number of big infrastructure changes. We will be going live shortly with what we believe to be the fastest and most scalable exchange (< 250-microsecond order create/cancel) based on real-world metrics available to a shared retail and institutional audience. We aim to become a utility for large liquidity providers to exchange unlimited amounts of risk under a membership model instead of pay-per-trade and have low fees and deep books for retail with a number of liquidity protections. We will then start listing more products with appropriate controls and vetting as we move into derivatives. Above all we want a regulated, institutional-grade platform where people feel safe to trade with unique product options”. Josh Barraclough, CEO, One Trading.

One Trading intends to operate as a MiFID Trading Venue, which will augment its existing VASP license, and would allow its platform to offer capital-efficient spot and derivative products for all customer types. It also offers a higher level of protection for customers who will be vetted through stringent anti-money laundering (AML) and Know-your-customer (KYC) procedures as well as client appropriateness checks. The full-scale MiFID license will also allow One Trading to list financial instruments – removing the debate over whether a DLT asset is a token or a security – and will permit new products to be designed from the ground up with appropriate vetting, transparency and customer protection in mind.

One Trading’s platform also offers access to a high-touch and secure OTC trading service, enabling high-net-worth individuals and institutions access to a wide range of digital assets, with competitive fees, and deep pools of liquidity.

About One Trading

The One Trading team is based and headquartered in Europe with offices across Amsterdam, London, Milan, and Vienna. One Trading is regulated in the EU and has built its product and venue to meet the needs of European customers. One Trading’s mission is to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional asset trading with a single regulated trading platform for all customer types and all products.

Users can learn more about One Trading at their website: www.onetrading.com

Bitcoin Price at 2011 Levels Returns as Bitcoin BSC Launch Provides Chance to Earn Free Bitcoin Clone Tokens 6082

Back in 2011, the Bitcoin price was $1, but today, following the launch of the Bitcoin BSC coin crypto presale on the BNB Smart Chain, buyers can acquire the token at a similarly low price and earn free Bitcoin clone tokens too.

Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, is struggling right now after bulls were trapped as enthusiasm at the prospect of the SEC spot bitcoin ETFs getting speedy approval receded. The price retraced below the $26k level, but it has been a different story for Bitcoin clone derivative coins.

During the past three months, for example, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork from Bitcoin is up 73%, while Bitcoin has fallen -2.3% in the same time period.

Meanwhile, a similar staking-based bitcoin derivative coin to Bitcoin BSC, BTC20, which launched a month ago, is up 52%.

In fact, BTC20 hit an all-time (ATH) intraday high of $6, equating to a 688% 7x gain on its $1 presale and listing price.

Yet another bitcoin clone derivative, this time BTC2.0, rose to an ATH of $1.06 to register a return of 538x, although the price has retraced markedly from its peak.

Earn free Bitcoin clone tokens with stake-to-earn Bitcoin BSC coin

Bitcoin BSC aims to match, or beat, the success of all of these Bitcoin clone coins, and to achieve that end it has a not-so-secret weapon – staking.

While the performance of BTC2.0, not to be confused with BTC20, since its heights has been somewhat underwhelming, there has been more of a steady-as-she-goes approach by the likes of BTC20.

That’s probably largely down to the ballast effect of staking, which bears down on any selling pressure that may emerge at listing.

In this way, Bitcoin BSC seeks to emulate BTC20 by adopting a similar design and strategy, providing the price with a stable platform for takeoff.

Like BTC20, Bitcoin BSC has staking utility built into its design from the outset.

However, it should be noted that there is one important difference between Bitcoin BSC and BTC20 – Bitcoin BSC is a BEP-20 BNB Smart Chain-compliant token, and BTC20 is an ERC-20 Ethereum-compliant token – hence the BSC in the name.

Staking has been popular in the crypto DeFi space, but enthusiasm waned in the aftermath of high-profile implosions of staking ecosystems such as Terra Luna.

However, the attractiveness of transparent staking that has a clearly defined source of yield, unlike the opaque algorithms in use on Terra Luna, has not gone away.

With $BTCBSC, which runs on the BNB Smart Chain, the yield is paid out over a 120-year period, in line with Bitcoin block confirmations. Altogether, 69% of the total token supply is allocated to distribute as rewards.

Staking provides token holders with a way of earning token rewards in proportion to how many coins of the total pool they deposit into a staking smart contract and the time they choose to stake for.

It is this staking feature that will deliver price support while offering both positive capital returns and income yield to network participants.

Bitcoin BSC staking is operative now, even before the coin lists on the decentralized exchange PancakeSwap.

You can keep an eye on how many token holders are staking by visiting the real-time Bitcoin BSC staking dashboard.

You can snap up Bitcoin BSC at the low Bitcoin 2011 price of $0.99

$BTCBSC can be bought today for $ 0.99 – the same price the Bitcoin was at back in its 2011 early days, and a far cry from the $25,7000 it will cost you to purchase Bitcoin at today’s prices.

Bitcoin BSC’s comparatively low price means contributors to the presale could be sitting on substantial upside potential when the Bitcoin halving bull run takes off.

The four-yearly event that sees block rewards halved on the original Bitcoin network has previously ushered in mind-melting bull runs.

This halving is expected to have the effect of lifting all boats – especially the prices of quality Bitcoin clone derivative coins such as $BTCBSC.

Bitcoin BSC has the same total token supply as Bitcoin – 21 million. Of that total supply, 29% is up for grabs through the presale of 6,125,000 tokens, meaning BTCBSC has an initial market cap of $6,063,750.

Two percent of the supply is reserved for DEX liquidity provision to guarantee smooth trading at launch and beyond.

The remaining 14,455,000 BTCBSC tokens (69% of supply) is reserved for staking rewards, which are paid out every 10 minutes as new blocks are added to the chain.

At that token emission rate, the maximum supply will be reached in about 120 years – the same time frame as Bitcoin.

Presale and post-presale investors can buy and stake tokens at any time with a 7-day lock on withdrawals.

Bear in mind that because BTCBSC runs on the BNB Smart Chain, to buy and stake in the presale, you will need to use BNB for your purchase. However, those buying with ETH today can start staking after the presale ends.

Faster, cheaper, more powerful and expandable than other Bitcoin clones

Still, staking is not the only advantage BTCBSC has over Bitcoin and the larger-cap clone coins such as Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV.

For one thing, $BTCBSC uses a proof-of-stake protocol, which means it runs on a much more scalable blockchain that is also cheaper and more efficient to transact on.

Because BTCBSC is built on the BNB Smart Chain, transaction fees are less than $0.10, compared to around $10 on Bitcoin and approximately $20 on Ethereum, depending on network conditions.

Another advantage BTCBSC has is its fast transaction speeds, which are typically less than 5 seconds compared to 10 minutes for Bitcoin, BCH, and BSV.

BNB Smart Chain is capable of running applications, too, so there’s no limit to future development possibilities for Bitcoin BSC.

Bitcoin BSC has a lot going for it, and with only $3,960,000 being raised in the presale, demand is sure to be robust.

Crypto market prices are generally becalmed, but there are waters where the current is much healthier. In the Bitcoin derivative clone sector, there’s all to play for as far as bagging out 10x gains goes.

Get in early, and the rewards will not just accrue to long-term stakers earning a generous APY, but also to those who want the chance to access life-changing returns.