The digital yuan, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), is being used as a security element in car prepurchase payment settlements. According to local media reports, a pilot test that allows customers to pay for their cars with digital yuan was established in early February in Shenzhen, and several customers are already purchasing their vehicles […]
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Nonprofit Open Ordinals Institute CEO Erin Redwing joined Albert Liang on the Bitcoin Startup Lab podcast recently as the project seeks to advance the development of the Ordinals protocol, the NFT, and a digital collectibles platform built on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Redwing said a highly anticipated feature called provenance which establishes authorship and ownership of inscribed data. For example, an artist can create a “parent” inscription representing themselves as the author. When they inscribe each NFT in a collection, that transaction also includes the parent inscription, proving the relationship between the author and the individual NFT inscription.
This creates a hierarchical tree structure, allowing collections to be organized under authors and even sub-collections. The tree structure also enables proving when a collection is complete. For example, an artist can send the parent inscription to an unspendable address like Satoshi’s wallet to show no more NFTs can be added to that collection. According to Redwing, provenance provides the core features enabling digital ownership. Artists should prepare by thinking about their hierarchy of parent and child inscriptions before it launches.
“Once we get provenance, the core features of the protocol will be out,” Redwing said. She believes it will accelerate adoption from artists and collectors who want to leverage Bitcoin’s immutability for establishing scarcity.
The nonprofit was formed to fund open-source protocol improvements neutrally. Redwing said the community’s investment via donations creates incentives to keep development unbiased toward any specific group’s interests.
The protocol’s development was kickstarted by the sudden popularity after the release of the inscribing tool in January. Letting people inscribe data into Bitcoin transactions immediately caught attention across the ecosystem.
Redwing explained paying for data inscription is part of what gives the NFTs value as exclusive digital art. However, the nonprofit is considering grants to help onboard artists who want to create collections.
Other improvements aim to optimize data usage. For example, “recursion” reuses previously inscribed data to reduce fees. Artists are also getting creative with compact representations.
Donations fund the core developer Raph’s full-time work and other improvements planned through community input. Redwing said the nonprofit provides transparency on how funds are used to support the protocol directly.
The Open Ordinals Institute believes the technology has potential far beyond generative art and collecting. Redwing said the right innovations combine Bitcoin’s resilience with creative vision to drive utility. But provenance is the milestone that will push the Ordinals into its full potential.
The post Ordinals upgrade to ‘complete’ core features, Bitcoin NFT ‘Provenance’ to launch this month appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The deal will require Binance.US to submit its operating expenses to the court and the SEC to protect the business as the case progresses.
Binance US and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have agreed to work on a deal that would not require a total asset freeze on the exchange. A Bloomberg report says the deal will allow the SEC lawsuit to continue without hurting Binance or user funds.
According to US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Binance.US and the SEC agree that customers must maintain access to their funds regardless of the problem between both entities. The SEC had requested that the court freeze Binance.US assets after it accused the exchange of misappropriating user funds and violating multiple regulations.
Judge Jackson asked both parties to work on the deal and handed the “nitty-gritty” to a magistrate judge.
Judge Jackson agreed with the Binance.US attorney that a complete shutdown would be disastrous. At the hearing, she said:
“Shutting it down completely would create significant consequences not only for the company but for the digital assets markets in general.”
The Binance.US attorney argued that operating expenses were required at the very least. Regardless of the SEC’s lawsuit, it is still necessary for the exchange to pay salaries, rent, vendors, and other business expenses. In addition, the attorney said freezing assets “…will be misconstrued by banks”.
On the other hand, the SEC’s attorney argued for the asset freeze because the commission fears Binance would transfer user funds offshore. The lawyer also wants Binance to transfer funds to the US and submit them to third-party entities not tied to Binance or CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Furthermore, the SEC was open to allowing Binance.US enough assets to handle its business expenses and operations. It asked the exchange to submit a breakdown of all fees and costs required for operations to continue. Judge Jackson agreed and gave Binance US a Wednesday deadline for the submission.
Last week, the SEC accused Binance of mishandling user funds through a separate entity that Zhao controls. Among other accusations, the SEC also said Binance did not adequately keep US customers restricted to the Binance US platform. According to the SEC, it deliberately allows “high-value US customers” to trade on the parent exchange.
Binance US functions as a separate entity that adheres strictly to US laws on trading and general operations. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement director Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement that Binance and Zhao knew of these rules and deliberately violated them for profits. Furthermore, the regulator said Binance and Zhao consciously risked their customers and investors.
Binance has since responded to the lawsuit, claiming that the SEC was deliberately being difficult. In the response, Binance said it has a history of cooperating with the regulator and answering all pertinent questions. However, Binance expressed disappointment that the SEC sued the exchange instead of continuing with “good-faith discussions” both parties were already having.
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Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
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As part of a government-backed rescue plan earlier this year as well as a bid to prevent any financial market instability, UBS acquired Credit Suisse in a $3.2 billion deal.
The long-awaited conclusion of the Credit Suisse Group AG (SWX: CSGN) acquisition by investment banking giant UBS Group AG (SWX: UBSG) may happen “as early as June 12”.
This will signify the birth of a massive Swiss bank with a balance sheet of $1.6 trillion. All that is left for the deal to be completed is its registration statement and according to UBS, this covers shares to be delivered, being declared effective by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other remaining closing conditions.
Once the take-over process is done, each Credit Suisse stakeholder will be eligible to receive one UBS share for every 22.48 shares they previously held. Also, a restructuring process will see that Credit Suisse shares and American Depositary Shares (ADS) are removed from the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Michael Klien said, “We consider the completion of the takeover to be an important step in initiating what we see as a protracted integration process and getting things done. Although the risk profile of UBS has changed significantly, we see good opportunities for investors.”
Together as a single unit, the new bank will have $5 trillion of invested assets.
The Swiss largest banking firm has been on the acquisition of Credit Suisse for a few months now. As part of a government-backed rescue plan earlier this year as well as a bid to prevent any financial market instability, UBS acquired Credit Suisse in a $3.2 billion deal. At that time, the cost of the acquisition was a 60% discount from the bank’s $8 billion market capitalization.
The deal attracted the attention of the Swiss National Bank, the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). Specifically, the Swiss National Bank pledged debt support to facilitate the acquisition. Shortly after, the shares of both entities plunged significantly but this did not deter UBS as it went further to appoint Sergio Ermotti, UBS Group’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as the new CEO to supervise the takeover.
Also, Ulrich Koerner, the CEO of Credit Suisse was granted a seat on the board of directors of the new venture. The plan was to keep Koerner in charge of maintaining Credit Suisse’s operational continuity and client focus while also assisting the integration process.
The deal was, however, about to take another turn last month when concerns were raised about the volume of losses which UBS could incur upon finalizing the acquisition. As reported by Coinspeaker, UBS was likely to incur a financial loss of around $17 billion from the takeover. Precisely, $13 billion represents liability in fair value adjustments for the rebranded mega financial firm while the other $4 billion was from legal and regulatory costs.
Bearing this in mind, UBS decided to undergo a phased integration which could likely go on for the next couple of years.
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Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalists who relish writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desires to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain based media and sites. Benjamin Godfrey is a lover of sports and agriculture.