Category: Companies Overviews

Japanese MoneyTap app Connects 60 Banks with Ripple

1 min read

The payments network Ripple is looking to launch the MoneyTap application with support from the SBI Ripple Asia Japanese Bank Consortium later this year. That will cause Ripple to have a large share of the Japanese currency transfer market, maybe the largest. MoneyTap has officially launched its website which is a major step forward connecting several Japanese banks via Ripple solutions. It said, in March this year, the app would make it easier for banks to settle round-the-clock domestic payments in Japan. MoneyTap App is going to reduce fees associated with traditional money transfer services. The fact is that Japan is residence to a huge market for fintech, or financial technology, particularly in the areas of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The deal between Ripple and the consortium has been planned for a few years.

Japanese MoneyTap app and Ripple

But now it looks like the firms involved are setting the closing preparations to launch the MoneyTap application in Japan. The app which was announced earlier this year, but the website for the service went live yesterday, September, 13th.

The main purpose of the new technologies is to be applied in a wide range of industries to facilitate and enhance a great number of processes. The banking sector is one of the spheres that eagerly adopt new solutions with a view to improving its functioning.

MoneyTap is a kind of a “simple bank transfer application without charge” and “a new bank experience application provided from the consortium for domestic and foreign exchange”.

Speaking about the fund transfer system in Japan, transaction fees are quite high and requires a lot of time to be executed. By implementation of MoneyTap app, the situation will be changed. Via the solutions offered by Ripple, it is planned to reduce fees and to achieve a possibility to carry out reliable same-day transfers.

The application is not ready for download just yet. But, the website going live shows that it will be soon. The projected launch date is autumn 2018.

Ripple’s own blockchain technology is known mainly as the underlying network for its cryptocurrency, XRP, known as ripple too and it is also used for real-time transaction settlements.

Presentation of the new app

The new app, Money Tap will offer a money transfer too, so that will be available on iOS and Android phones. That characteristic place them to be one of the first apps with such functionality that will be used by a number of banks at the same time.

In the beginning, the application will be working in collaboration with three of the members of the SBI Ripple Asia Consortium. The first banks involved are SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank, and Resona Bank. This preliminary launch will be followed by the service for the other 60 plus members.

Ripple hits the center of Japanese money transfer

Ripple are hoping that the move will place them at the center of the huge Japanese international money transfer market. They believe that can offer more affordable transfer than SWIFT is. Money Tap app could be more efficient in transfer smaller amounts of money than was previously feasible with traditional options.

It is interesting that it will also compete with remittance companies like The Western Union Co. (WU). The launch will also support Ripple’s claims of offering a robust and dependable technology platform that can form the strong support of the modern payment system.

Japanese MoneyTap app and Ripple keep the project under the veil

We must say that practically no information on the project has been already revealed, but it is clear that Money Tap will be used by the Japanese Bank Consortium that unites over 60 local banks. That is almost 80% of the country’s banking system.

The CEO of a Tokyo-based Strategic Business Innovator Group (SBI) has once said that they are also examining a possibility to use XRP for bridging currency on the Money Tap fund transfer platform. Now SBI is working with different cryptocurrencies.

Ripple solutions and XRP tokens represent a special interest for SBI. Just a few months ago, the company established its crypto exchange called VCTRADE.

Good news for Ripple, more and more financial institutions are implementing Ripple’s technology to make easier their processes.

But fans of the Ripple project, particularly XRP token, should hold off on celebrating just yet. Like with many of the projects Ripple is working on, it could be that the service exists without using the token itself. Whilst this would likely be positive for those invested in terms of exposure, it would not represent automatically adoption of XRP in itself.

It would make sense for Ripple to sideline their XRP token given that it is still not clear whether global regulators deem it as a security.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

14th September 2018
Costa Coffee sold to Coca Cola!

1 min read

Whitbread, a leisure group taking in coffee shops and hotels, said earlier this year it would spin off Costa Coffee and list it as a separate entity, following pressure from activist investor Elliott.

Whitbread has agreed to sell Britain’s biggest coffee chain to Coca-Cola in a £3.9bn deal. On Friday the company said a sale of the business is now “in the best interests of shareholders”.

Whitbread’s stock rose more than 18% in early trading on Friday.

Leisure group Whitbread says sale ‘in best interests of shareholders’.

Profit of this deal will be used to pay down debt and increase the pension fund. Whitbread said it intends to return a majority of net cash proceeds to shareholders.

Earlier this year it was reported that Whitbread has been got close to a potential buyout of Costa Coffee.

The company said the sale of the coffee chain will allow it to focus on its Premier Inn hotels business.

Hospitality group Whitbread is cutting hundreds of management roles, two months after confirming plans to spin off its Costa Coffee business, The UK Independent revealed earlier in July.

The company will let at least 250 managers go as part of a restructuring of its restaurant business, which is held under the Premier Inn brand.

Employees were told about the redundancies but were given no further detail at that time.

But on Friday everything became clear.

Workers have been concerned that job cuts were appearing since the Costa spin-off was announced, and feel that the process has not been handled well by Whitbread, according to a source close to the company.

Chief executive Alison Brittain said: “This transaction is great news for shareholders as it recognizes the strategic value we have developed in the Costa brand and its international growth potential, and accelerates the realization of value for shareholders in cash. This combination will ensure new product development, continued growth in the UK and more rapid expansion overseas.”

Whitbread bought Costa Coffee, which is now the UK’s biggest coffee chain, for just £19m in 1995. when it had only 39 shops and now has more than 2,400 UK coffee shops, as well as some 1,400 outlets in 31 overseas markets. Costa Express has 8,237 vending machines worldwide.

For Coca-Cola, the transaction represents a leap into the global coffee market, where it has little presence, allowing it to diversify away from fizzy and sugary drinks, which have declined in popularity among increasingly health-conscious consumers.

Coca-Cola chief executive James Quincey told investors on a conference call that Costa was “a winning company that can go global”.

He admits that retail sales were a new area for Coca-Cola, but said Costa already had “a strong management team” and that Coca-Cola intended to “make it attractive for them to stay”

Think the Coca-Cola dividend, its stocks provide a remarkable wealth to investors like Warren Buffett.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

1st September 2018
Steve Wozniak will join a cryptocurrency startup called Equi Capital

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Apple Inc. (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, according to some media, will join a cryptocurrency startup called Equi Capital, concentrated on investments in the digital token collection. Coindesk, www.coindesk.com, reported: ”Speaking to Null Transaction, the bitcoin proponent said this is the first time he has worked with a blockchain company in his career, adding that he ‘was amazed at the technology behind [cryptocurrency]’.”

Equi aims to act as an investment firm, Wozniak said.

According to the startup’s Twitter page, it hopes to help both retail and professional investors purchase equity in companies in an effort to replace traditional investing firms.

Steve Wozniak said:

“Our approach is not like a new currency, or something phony where an event will make it go up in value. It’s a share of stock, in a company. This company is doing investment by investors with huge track records in good investments in things like apartment buildings in Dubai. We have one person in our group who has listed out a whole apartment building for bitcoin.”

Wozniak did not provide details on what his role would be at the startup but he did indicate that the company may register in Malta. Malta is a well-known area which has been working to develop a friendly regulatory environment aimed to attract firms in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

Continuing to promote the potential use cases for blockchain technology, Steve Wozniak said, “I’ve encountered people working in real estate avenues, types of Uber systems, everything we’ve got in our life, especially involving transactions – retail sales, car sales, manufacturing of goods … working on bitcoin applications … and they all have value.”

The tech guru’s choice of first crypto project is a bit surprising.

As reported by The Next Web, Equi has had a pretty rough path so far. At first, they were launching its token via ICO. But because of lack of interest, the sale was canceled and pre-sale investors were refunded.

A follow-up bounty scheme to reward users with tokens for publicizing the project also saw major issues when a partner marketing company soon walked away, indicates the news source. Going the bounty route also raises the thorny issue, according to CoinDesk, that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has indicated that even giving away tokens may break securities rules.

Note: During the weekend, Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency leader, was trading above $6,700 at the time of this writing. The most popular and largest cryptocurrency in the world, the past week showed signs of upward impulse and return to the stability at this price point. Other digital currencies were trading laterally.

Ethereum reached $280, Litecoin was a trading bit under $58 per token.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

26th August 2018
Apple is charging their batteries with Tesla’s employees

2 min read

The personnel flow has been going from Tesla Inc to Apple Inc, the iPhone maker has poached at least 46 employees from Tesla in 2018!

Elon Musk called Apple ”Tesla graveyard”, as his employees are being poached by Apple.

Dozens of current and former Tesla employees have left for Apple since late 2017, according to research conducted by CNBC.

Back in 2015, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Apple serves as the “Tesla graveyard” for staff that left or was no longer needed. “if you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple.”

But Apple Inc seems to have decided to show him that it is a furious playground.

According to several current and former Tesla employees and LinkedIn data, manufacturing, security and software engineers, and, more recently, supply chain experts, are now at Apple.

The Tesla employees that have left Tesla have joined various departments at Apple, not only Project Titan, Apple car development endeavor. And, they are reportedly working on “display, optics, and battery-tech” for the myriad of mobile devices that Apple makes. Apple seems to have employed no less than 46 people that used to work for Tesla since the beginning of 2018.

According to a current Tesla employee who kept in touch with former colleagues, Apple appears to be placing renewed emphasis on manufacturing processes and equipment, the report said.

The company outsources production to firms like Foxconn, but still offers input on new processes and techniques, as well as other areas of manufacture.

Apple is paying bigger salaries than Tesla

Apple can afford to pay 150% of the salaries that Tesla doles out. Multiple sources told CNBC that Apple pays about one-and-a-half times the salary for technicians, software, and manufacturing engineers compared to Tesla. That might be one of the reasons that high-profile talent like Tesla’s VP of engineering Doug Field is now back at Apple, after a few years at the electric car-maker. Apple has hired former Tesla Autopilot, QA, Powertrain, mechanical design and firmware engineers, and several global supply chain managers too. Some employees joined directly from Tesla, while others had been dismissed or laid off before joining Apple.

One Tesla engineer, as their spokesperson, commented on Apple’s poaching that Tesla must be comparatively poor, but work is more meaningful:

”We wish them well. Tesla is the hard path. We have 100 times less money than Apple, so of course they can afford to pay more. We are in extremely difficult battles against entrenched auto companies that make 100 times more cars than we did last year, so of course this is very hard work. We don’t even have money for advertising or endorsements or discounts, so must survive on the quality of our products alone. Nonetheless, we believe in our mission and that it is worth the sacrifice of time and the never-ending barrage of negativity by those who wish us ill. So it goes.”

Runaways from Tesla to Apple

And CNBC reports that the company from Cupertino is on a hiring spree, poaching “scores” of ex-Tesla employees for a variety of projects, citing better pay at the iPhone giant.

All sources come from LinkedIn profiles. Doug Field, a high profile executive who oversaw engineering for the Tesla Model 3 hasn’t updated his profile at that time. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year he planned to take a “six-week sabbatical.” But this month it came out that he took a job at Apple. That means he is returning to the company he had worked for before Tesla. How things look now, Field is working on Project Titan, Apple’s car project. Apple has a team of at least a few hundreds working on autonomous vehicles, with test vehicles driving on streets of California these days.

Tesla’s employees say that, even before Field left, they saw more colleagues voluntarily leaving than they had in prior years at Tesla.

Tesla disputes that more people are leaving than in recent years and says the data does not back it up. The company told CNBC that voluntary attrition has decreased by one-third over the last twelve months, and noted that it has recently added talent from Apple and other companies.

But the truth seems to be somewhere else.

A former Tesla vehicle engineer who was laid off by the company in June said that stock options at Apple would probably be more attractive than they are at Tesla during a rocky time. Many employees at Tesla already sell their options as soon as they are able to in order to make up for the relatively average salaries and the high cost of living around Silicon Valley, he said.

Maybe the panic caused by a large number of employees leaving Tesla and going to Apple has caused Musk to tweet on August 7th that he is considering taking Tesla company private at $420 per share buyout and that he has secured the funding needed to do so.

Tesla has had a turbulent year, with controversies on daily bases, and the stock options that Tesla employees receive may be less desirable given the stock’s volatile price. Compared to Apple, which became the first company to be valued over $1 trillion earlier this month, Tesla is not giant.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

24th August 2018
Facebook seems to be pushing forward with its blockchain plans

2 min read

The head of its cryptocurrency team David Marcus revealed he was leaving his role at Coinbase to focus on the social network’s strategy. Marcus announced Friday that he would step down from his seat on the board of cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.

Marcus gave a statement to TechCrunch explaining his stepping down “because of the new group I’m setting up at Facebook around blockchain,” pointing that “Getting to know Brian (Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase), who’s become a friend, and the whole Coinbase leadership team and board has been an immense privilege. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the talent and execution the team has demonstrated during my tenure, and I wish the team all the success it deserves going forward.”

According to Facebook, this move was made to “avoid the appearance of conflict” between Marcus’ two roles.

Facebook and blockchain plans

It’s not absolutely clear what exactly is going on in Facebook’s developing cryptocurrency division. But according to several reports, something is in progress.

There are speculations about what this might be. Maybe Facebook and blockchain plans are not so unimaginable.

Facebook could build a cryptocurrency wallet.

They could create their own token that could be used for paying things with partnered businesses or through Facebook ads. Blockchain makes transactions free or cheap, so Facebook and its partners could offer users “3% off for buying made with FacebookCoin” or something like that.

Possible Facebook’s cryptocurrency feature could be well-positioned to run such an idea. They have extensive connections with more than six million advertisers and 65 million businesses that have Facebook Pages. The social network could offer less costs of running the program, the transaction fee savings on to the users, and promote partnership with Facebook Crypto as a way to boost sales for businesses. That could get clients to spend more money on Facebook ads because the discounts would increase conversion rates and discounts like this could bring users into.

That could swiftly make Facebook a power player in the global payments ecosystem; or acquiring major blockchain startups, perhaps even Coinbase itself.

Previously, Facebook announced that it won’t be building on the Stellar protocol.

Facebook already lets sending money through Messenger for free, but only with a connected debit card or PayPal account. In the future, they could offer cryptocurrency based payments between friends to let a wider range of users through Messenger. If Facebook Crypto wallet could be fund once with a payment, and with a one-time transaction fee, and then they could send and receive the tokens for free. Blockchain could further increase engagement with Messenger for its 1.3 billion users.

Facebook offered to major banks to integrate financial data into its social platform. That step signaled Facebook’s ambitions to expand its role in finance and e-commerce. But in light of the site’s recent spate of controversies over privacy also raised red flags for many. That incident suggests several potential benefits of applying the technology, as well as some pitfalls. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that technology like blockchain could give users more control, including over financial and other personal data. That could be helpful to moderate future consequences against the platform, which recently reported discouraging user growth.

Why this is so important?

A top problem of decentralized blockchain apps is how you bring your identity with you. Securely connecting your wallet, blockchain-based goods and biographical info to new apps can be a difficult process. Usually, users have to type in long, complex keys that are heavy and annoying to remember. Users of social apps like Facebook Connect, which uses an OAuth single sign-on which provides instantly join apps without creating a new username and password, or filling out a profile and uploading a photo, want this social network because of its simplicity too.

Zuckerberg acknowledged that blockchain systems, which run on distributed swarms of servers, are “harder to control.”

In theory, the first cryptocurrency launched by Facebook would be usable outside of Facebook’s platform, because blockchain-based identity systems could obstruct Facebook’s efforts to gather user data. Even after many years of scandals about privacy, all data continue to exist on Facebook’s core asset. That suggests that any blockchain product have to be very delicate to simultaneously cater to users and shareholders. But Facebook has a strong record of not being traditionally hacked. It wasn’t a massive user data debacle like LinkedIn, Twitter and similar social networks. An openly centralized identity system to connect with decentralized apps might bring the UX comfort necessary to unlock a new wave of blockchain benefits.

Anyway, it seems there are several reasons why David Marcus stepped down from Coinbase board.

And we may guess about Facebook and blockchain plans.

For instance, FB plans to launch exchange or to launch their own payment platform or, which is more possible, to launch its own crypto wallet.

The conflict of interest narrative makes each of these assumptions seems real. Speculations about buying Coinbase are less probably because if Facebook wanted to buy Coinbase, Marcus would have stayed there and brought more of ”his people”.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

13th August 2018
Ripple – All You Need To Know

1 min read

Actually, I have something to admit. For me, Bitcoin remains the king of the cryptocurrency, especially when it comes to increasing prices and media attention. But there are other pretenders on the throne. and one of them is Ripple.

What is it, what is the difference from Bitcoin and why many do not recognize it as a cryptocurrency?

First of all, it should be explained that Ripple is not a cryptocurrency in the usual sense of the word. In fact, this is a settlement system that has become a faster, more transparent and secure alternative to the existing ones (for example, for the SWIFT system used by banks).

XRP, the so-called Ripple coins is used to facilitate transfers in different currencies. In existing settlement systems, the basis for the conversion is usually a USA dollar. That process is associated with additional costs and lasts for a long time and bank transfers between countries, often last up to 3 days.

Converting payments to XRP instead of dollars, the system saves inventory costs, and transaction processing takes a few seconds.

Many banks have shown interest in the new system and have already tested or implemented applications based on it.

How Ripple differs from Bitcoin

XRP is a token used to transfer values to the Ripple network. While bitcoins were created by mining, all 55 billion XRPs (often referred to as waves) were created by founders.

Every month, through a system of smart contracts, the market gets a billion tokens. In that sense, Ripple copes with the mechanism of gradually increasing the offer of bitcoins, but without the huge cost of electricity for mining.

Technically, it does not even use a blockchain in the usual way. The Ripple blockchain is not distributed over the network of computers, but it is stored on servers of trusted partners in the so-called “permitted” network. This means that it is not a decentralized system.

Ripple is not created as a resources of payment. In fact, it’s only purpose is to transfer values when converting other currencies (or commodities, such as gold or oil) through the Ripple network. Every time a bank or other organization uses it to transfer money or assets, a small amount of XRP is maintained.

How to invest in Ripple

Ripple has definitely taken its niche among the cryptocurrency world, and a large list of organizations that use it shows that tokens themselves will eventually get a great value. Last year, it overcame bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies in terms of growth.

XRP is traded on Binance and Poloniex crypto exchange markets. As a rule, they can not be bought for plain money – first, you have to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum, and then convert them to Ripple.
Interest in Ripple from major financial institutions is an important indicator of its future value.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

1st July 2018
Facebook Starts Accepting Cryptocurrency Ads Again!

1 min read

Facebook starts accepting cryptocurrency ads but retains the ban on advertising of ICO projects.

The policy from Facebook now requires cryptocurrency ads to apply to be listed on the platform, so Facebook will be able to examine their eligibility by verification details, licensing and whether the company is publicly traded.

That means, Facebook has changed its policy and allowed the advertising of cryptos, but the ban on advertising of ICO projects continues, the official statement said on Tuesday, June 26th.

On January this year, Facebook announced a new policy banning companies from advertising initial coin offerings (ICOs), binary options and cryptocurrencies on the platform. The ban on cryptocurrency ads stemmed from ICO scams and the lack of regulation.

Green light for cryptocurrency ads

The new statement said the company was looking for the best way to “preset” a ban on advertising cryptos “over the past few months” to “allow some commercials, but keeping in mind that they are safe.”

In Facebook’s changed policy now stands:

“Starting from June 26th, we will allow the advertising of cryptos and accompanying materials from previously approved persons. We will continue to prohibit commercials that promote binary options and ICO projects.”

The new policy requires from advertisers who want to advertise cryptos to submit a Facebook application in order to verify their business. The applicants must have the licenses they have collected, whether they can trade on public stock exchanges and other important information related to their business.

Bearing in mind these restrictions, Facebook acknowledges that not everyone will be able to advertise what they want. The company says it will listen to feedback from users and change the policy as needed. It is also said that the technology behind the cryptos will continue to be researched.

Facebook first banned cryptos in January 2018, which was aimed at “preventing advertisements promoting financial services that are often associated with frauds.”
Facebook states that the initial ban deliberately encompassed all aspects of the crypt of the world so that the company would have enough time to evaluate and isolate dangerous advertisers.

The reversal comes at a time with rumors that Facebook may be looking to acquire Coinbase. If the rumors are true, Facebook’s acquisition of Coinbase would give the industry a one-step closer to its legitimacy.

Facebook starts accepting cryptocurrency ads, what is next?

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

1st July 2018