BLOCKCHAIN WATCH 2/06/17

Robo advice, big data/AI and DLT. What do European regulatory authorities think (and intend to do)?

The European Securities and Markets Authority has put forth a framework for working with FinTech firms which is centered on investor protection, financial stability and orderly markets. For now, some think it’s best for regulators to take a wait and see approach to blockchain oversight, because it hasn’t quite reached its peak, says senior regulatory analyst Gianluca D’Imperio in a LinkedIn Pulse post.

Is blockchain the answer to building transparency and trust?

The first ever Global Blockchain Business Council was launched in Davos last week at an event hosted by blockchain firm Bitfury, writes Uschi Schreiber in a post for LinkedIn Pulse. “Blockchains can’t single-handedly create trust where none exists. However, their distributed nature and transparency can act as the foundations of trust and make that trust more resilient.”

Lending Robot combines robo advice and blockchain

The Seattle-based hedge fund will only invest in peer-to-peer loans: LendingClub, Sofi, Funding Circle and so on. LendingRobot publishes every week a detailed ledger of its holdings, down to the value and individual payments made by each note, and a “hash code” signature of the ledger is integrated in the subsequent versions as well as notarized in Ethereum’s blockchain to ensure the data is tamper-proof, according to International Business Times.

How blockchain is helping solve Japan’s ‘Galapagos Syndrome’

Japan wants to set itself apart from the increasingly global economy, but blockchain is slowly changing that. Yoichiro Hirano, co-founder of the Blockchain Collaborative Consortium, says: “The Japanese government wanted to differentiate the new technology from the (rest of the world), so they put their budget to some unique features for Japanese companies. But the other result is bad interoperability, or bad compatibility. So that makes a ‘Galapagos’ product.”