Melania Trump launches NFT Platform in First Public Endeavor Since White House
BITCOIN.COM
On Thursday, the former first lady Melania Trump released a non-fungible token called "Melania's Vision" as her first public effort since leaving office. The NFT is the first digital art to be sold and released regularly on her newly established platform powered by Parler. Through this new technology-based platform, children will be taught computer skills including programming and software development to help them after they age out of foster communities. The remainder of the revenue will "assist children aging out of the foster care system by way of economic empowerment and increased access to resources needed to excel in computer science and technology," according to a press release from Trump's office.
Goldman Sachs Says Blockchain Is Key to Metaverse and Web 3.0 Development
COINDESK
Blockchain technology is the only one that can uniquely identify virtual objects and track their ownership. Blockchain tech will establish web 3.0, with less centralized control. The metaverse, another rapidly emerging blockchain application, is an immersive digital world that combines virtual reality, augmented reality, and the internet. One of the most significant endorsements for the metaverse came when social networking behemoth Facebook announced that it will change its name to Meta in order to indicate its future direction. Blockchain has spread from the banking sector to more distributed applications. It is hard to predict the investment implications of blockchain, but companies will likely have a harder time securing user identity.
You Can Now Hold Physical Swiss Gold on The Ethereum Blockchain
FORBES
SEBA, a Swiss Bank, has launched a digital token that allows investors to own physical gold stored in Swiss vaults. The new product from the bank is an ERC-20 token, which means it's housed and traded on the world's second-largest blockchain. This differs from traditional digital gold products, which are not kept on a blockchain and merely act as IOUs from the issuer. Blockchains like Ethereum provide a higher degree of investment security than more traditional databases because they don't require the validation of a third party. Instead, they utilize a decentralized ledger that is accessible by everyone in the network and maintains a single, indisputable record of all transactions. This is then bolstered by Ethereum's multi-party smart contracts - a layer of functionality that, for example, can verify the serial numbers of physical gold bars linked to particular digital assets.
US Senator Urges Regulators to Clamp Down on DeFi and Stablecoins
BITCOIN.COM
Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for regulators to clamp down on stablecoins and decentralized finance programs before it's too late. She began with tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Alexis Goldstein from the Open Markets Institute explained that stablecoins may not always be backed one-to-one as the assets backing those tokens are often not real dollars. Warren points out that Tether's own report shows only 10% of the assets backing their stablecoin to be actual dollars in a bank account, and 90% is something else. Furthermore, she stressed that the document "is not actually verified by a full audited financial statement or validated by any government regulator."
HSBC and Wells Fargo use blockchain to settle forex trades
REUTERS
HSBC and Wells Fargo have begun using a blockchain platform to settle bilateral foreign currency (FX) trades. Baton Systems announced on Monday that two banks are using their DLT to settle FX trades using real currencies and real accounts in less than three minutes. It eliminates the need for a third-party bank. Because settlement occurs so quickly, exposure and settlement risks are substantially reduced. Last month a new blockchain-based digital trading and settlement arm launched its first debt, following the completion of the operation. Speedier settlement implies locking up costly money and liquidity for a lesser duration to mitigate the risk of a deal going wrong.
5 Things Blockchain You Need to Know