Weekly Crypto Digest July 14 – 20

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Weekly Crypto Digest July 14 – 20

Former rock star invests in blockchain startup, MasterCard filed one more blockchain patent, Stellar network passed Shariyah examination, yet another scalability-solution for Ethereum network and messaging app with own token wallet – read the most interesting news of this week in our weekly digest!

MasterCard filed a new blockchain-based patent

MasterCard filed a new blockchain-based patent

Digital payment giants continue their way to blockchain integration. The new step was made by MasterCard – the company filed a patent for consumer protection and payment transactions based on blockchain technology. This new application includes new methods of linking digital assets between fiat accounts and blockchain.

This new public blockchain-based method is going to combine the advantages of both blockchain technology and fiat money operating. With security and privacy of the blockchain and transaction speed of fiat payment systems, this solution can be profitable for both payers and payees.

For the MasterCard, it’s not the first blockchain patent experience. In June the company filed the patent supposed to speed up payments and make them more secure. And even earlier, in April, MasterCard published their proposal for fast-tracking navigation of blockchains via data manipulation.

Stellar network became one of the first Sharia-compliant blockchains

Stellar network became one of the first Sharia-compliant blockchains

Stellar, an open-source decentralized platform for distributed payments, passed the Shariyah examine and obtained Sharia compliance certificate in money transfer and asset tokenization field. The Shariyah Review Bureau has checked the capabilities of Stellar blockchain and released a decree allowing to use Stellar technology in Islamic financial institutions.

This certification allows Stellar to operate in countries, where compliance with Islamic financing principles is required. It opens high-perspective markets for implementation of Stellar technology, such as Southeast Asia and Gulf Cooperation Council.

However, Stellar is not the first player from the blockchain and cryptocurrency world which was certified for Sharia compliance. In late March 2018, NOORCOIN was certified as a sharia-compliant utility token, while Bitcoin (BTC) was recognized as “generally permissible” under Sharia laws in April 2018.

Kik Messenger launched its first token-based app

Kik Messenger launched its first token-based app

Canadian messaging app Kik released the beta version of their first token-related applications. The mobile app, called Kinit, is a wallet with some extra features like quizzes and surveys. Passing this quizzes, the user can get a Kin token, which could be changed for the partner’s gift card or transferred to another Kinit user.

Kik team is going to develop their ecosystem, partnering with world-leading brands and companies to provide users with the best possible offers. As planned, wallet launching allows to spread Kin wider and increase people’s awareness.

“Kinit is the first publicly available app dedicated to Kin. Our goal with Kinit is to get Kin into more consumers’ hands. It’s a major step towards making crypto truly consumer-friendly through fun and engaging experiences, and we plan to learn and iterate based on real-world user behavior”, – said Rod McLeod, Kik’s vice-president of communications.

Final Raiden TestNet was launched

Final Raiden TestNet was launched

The final TestNet of the Raiden Project was launched during the Dappcon in Berlin, Germany. The release includes minor implementation of scaling solutions for Ethereum (ETH) tokens. This TestNet launch is the last one before Raiden is integrated into the MainNet of Ethereum blockchain.

Although there is still no MainNet release date, developers team are quite optimistic and planning to launch Raiden by the end of summer 2018. To speed up this process, devs published API and opened the GitHub, and asked people all around the world to join the TestNet and help find all possible bugs. To award the most active testers, Raiden will launch a bounty program, however, there are no details about its terms and conditions.

Raiden is one of the planned solutions for Ethereum network scalability. The project was in development since 2015 and it’s represented as an analog of Lightning Network for BTC – this overlay allows to establish payment channels and process more than a million transactions per second.

Peter Gabriel invests in food supply blockchain startup

Peter Gabriel invests in food supply blockchain startup

Former Genesis frontman and famous British musician Peter Gabriel invested in the food-supply blockchain startup called Provenance. This London-based company is working on blockchain solutions, designed to track logistics and supply-chains of food products.

Among other investors of the project, there are such companies as Working Group Capital Fund, Digital Currency Group, Merian Ventures, Plug and Play. Provenance is planning to use all the invested funds to increase food sector confidence. The company plans to attract more than 1,000 contractors.

“I am convinced that the service Provenance provides using their blockchain data system is going to find a big role going forward and will be of great use to the consumer and provide a level playing field for smaller, independent producers on which to compete with the big players.”, – said Peter Gabriel.