FinTech Weekly Roundup of News

China’s ICO ban makes more sense in light of its history with Fintech

China’s decision to freeze fundraising through initial coin offerings continues to roil markets, but the regulatory decision may not be as controversial as the response from the bitcoin community would lead observers to believe.

On Monday, the People’s Bank of China announced that it was implementing a freeze on fundraising through ICO’s on Chinese exchanges. The move by China’s central bank, which is roughly equivalent to the Fed in the US, looks at first blush to be a blunt response to a nuanced issue.

Many in the US have chided the PBOC for its apparent overreaction. AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant called the policy a “huge gift to Silicon Valley and its resident financiers.” VC Fred Wilson penned a thoughtful post comparing China’s approach to that of the SEC in the US, opining that “We needed a cooling off period and if China’s actions are that cooling off period, then I welcome them. However, a blanket ban on ICOs seems like bad policy to me.”

The news is ultimately, like all things blockchain, speculative. ICO trading has been frozen on exchanges, and exchanges are complying with government demands to offer refunds. The PBOC is mulling freezing bank accounts tied to ICOs. Local regulators have a list of 60 major platforms they plan to inspect. And, in a partial walk-back, “a Chinese official has clarified the position saying that China will look to resume ICOs in the future after establishing licensing regulations.”
Full story at http://tcrn.ch/2x6vzAd
Source: TechCrunch

Saxo Bank joins Copenhagen Fintech Lab

Together with Copenhagen Fintech Lab Saxo are opening the door to connect and foster relationships with Fintech startups on a global scale.

In September Copenhagen based online brokerage provider Saxo Bank celebrates it 25 year anniversary and, after reporting a nice 4% increase in August trading volumes, the company just shared that has become a sponsor of Copenhagen Fintech Lab.

Saxo Bank joins Copenhagen Fintech Lab to support the Fintech environment in Copenhagen and to provide a platform on which Danish Fintech’s can build their international partnerships through Saxo Bank’s vast experience and expansive network of international client relationships.

Saxo Bank sees a wide range of new partnerships as the next disruptive factor in the financial industry and expects to see increased collaboration between fintechs and established institutions.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x6qUhi
Source: https://www.leaprate.com

SC’s ‘fintech bridge’ to spur greater cooperation in facilitating and regulating innovations within the digital finance industry

KUALA LUMPUR: Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has signed series of innovation cooperation agreements – or ‘fintech bridges’ – with several regulators in major financial centres.

The move would spur greater cooperation in facilitating and regulating innovations emerging within the digital finance industry, according to SC.

Chairman Tan Sri Ranjit Ajit Singh said the fintech bridges with major markets in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East form part of SC’s digital strategy, and build on the already well-established relationships with these regulators.

“Such efforts will promote innovation within capital markets, and enhance the cross-pollination of digital finance concepts which will benefit financial services institutions, startups and investors alike,” he said in a statement released today.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x6kFu8
Source: https://www.nst.com.my

This 35-year-old banker left Goldman Sachs to start a fintech inspired by his mother — 5 years later Goldman gave him £100 million

LONDON — Goldman Sachs has invested £100 million in a fintech startup founded by two of its former bankers that lets people borrow money and repay through their salaries.

Neyber, founded in 2014 and launched in 2015, partners with employers to let their staff borrow money at attractive rates.

Repayments are then deducted from future salaries, lowering the risk for the lender and hopefully helping staff manage money better.

Goldman’s investment in the UK-based fintech startup is a mixture of debt and equity. It comes alongside an extra £15 million of lending capital for Neyber from existing investors, led by former Deutsche Bank COO Henry Ritchotte and Gael de Boissard, the former cohead of Credit Suisse’s investment bank.
Full story at http://read.bi/2x6jHOu
Source: Business Insider

SteemJS

First found on Steemit

Endangered African Animals

Eland vulnerable, mountain reedbuck endangered: IUCN

The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN highlighted five species of African antelope that have seen their numbers decline drastically in recent years, largely due to poaching and habitat degradation.

“Our activities as humans are pushing species to the brink so fast that it’s impossible for conservationists to assess the declines in real time,” warned IUCN chief Inger Andersen, urging increased efforts to save species teetering on the edge.

The world’s largest antelope, the giant eland, which is native to central and western Africa, was for instance previously assessed as having a sound population. It is now listed as “vulnerable”, with fewer than 10,000 mature animals remaining.

And the mountain reedbuck has seen a 55-percent drop in its South African population over just 15 years, placing it on the “endangered” list, IUCN said.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x6qRC8
Source: https://www.timeslive.co.za

Smoked elephant, or will it be monkey?

Yaounde – Restaurant owners flock to Cameroon’s Elig-Edzoa market daily in search of something different.

As little as five years ago, its stock in trade, like markets across Africa, was fruit and vegetables and conventional cuts of meat such as lamb, chicken or beef.

Today, it is the penultimate stop in a food chain that could spell disaster for the central African nation’s wildlife. “Cameroon’s national animal heritage is in danger of disappearing,” Environment and Forestry Minister Sylvestre Na’ah Ondoa warned in August.

Bushmeat, as Elig-Edzoa’s new stock in trade is quaintly called, is likely to be poached – in all senses of the word. For diners who fancy a walk on the wild side, it is a source of endless opportunity. For the restaurant owners, some of them abroad, it is big business.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x6frP5
Source: https://www.iol.co.za

Another North Korea Crime: Pushing African Rhinos Toward Extinction

CALABAR, Nigeria—The first ever legal auction of rhino horn began in South Africa late last month. John Hume, the owner of the world’s biggest private rhino herd, an online auction in which 264 horns were up for sale, and he will carry out a physical auction this month to sell even more. All this perfectly legally and in the name of funding conservation.

But one particularly notorious trader in the black-market bits of endangered animals could reap major benefits from this project: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The cash-strapped hermit kingdom often operates outside the laws and norms of the international community, whether launching missiles, building nukes, or churning out counterfeit currency. And numerous cases show us that North Korean officials in southern Africa have a huge appetite for the region’s endangered species. They’ve been involved in illegal poaching and selling of rhino horns in the area for decades—long before Kim came into power.

But the business appears to have grown dramatically since Kim Jong Un succeeded his father and grandfather as Supreme Leader in 2011. One major seizure occurred in October 2012, when a North Korean diplomat named Kim Jong Guk was caught by Mozambican customs officials as he tried to smuggle around 130 pieces of ivory, valued at around $36,000, out of the country.
Full story at http://thebea.st/2x6x956
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com

Asean unites on illegal wildlife trade

Authorities from 10 Asean members and China have pledged to join forces to combat the illegal wildlife trade.

The authorities in charge of suppressing the trade announced Wednesday their commitment to crack down on it in Asia at the three-day 4th Regional Dialogue on Combating Trafficking of Wild Fauna and Flora hosted by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

About 100 representatives from Asean countries, China and international organisations such as USAID Wildlife Asia, Interpol and the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) attended the conference, which ends Friday.

They presented a progress report and agreed to work more closely in curbing the illegal trade.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x5M7If
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com

Found on Steemit

S_T

Sep 15

Top news and views about Steemit Curated for 15 Sep 2017

HOW TO TAKE BETTER PHOTOGRAPHS OF DANGEROUS ANIMALS

For me, even though the capabilities of technology are incredible, it still can’t always produce the best results. The zoom feature on a camera is provided to give the effect of being closer to the subject being photographed. However, I believe that for the best results, actually being closer is better.

In my opinion, a photograph looks better when it was actually taken up close, rather than from far away with the camera lens adjusting the image to make it appear like it was closer. Others may have their own ideas about this, but that is how I feel about it

If you are able to understand exactly what is the “safe range” around a dangerous animal, then you can understand how close your camera can actually be. This will allow you to have to zoom much less, which may enhance the quality of your photographs.

Hopefully this answers the rest of those questions about how I get the photographic results that I do. I don’t consider myself to be a “photographer” and if I am, I’m an amateur. However, I think that each of us have the opportunity to take some amazing photos as we live our lives, so why not make them the best that we can?
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x5RgAc
Source: Steemit

Steemit More Info 0.9.1 – Chrome Extension + Firefox Extension

If you use steemit.com, you may have notice that it is lacking a lot of functionalities. That’s why you need to use tools like https://steemd.com/, https://steemdb.com/, https://steemstats.com/, https://www.steemnow.com/, … A lot of tools!

So why another tool???

Because this is a Chrome and Firefox extension that you install on your browser, and then all the informations you need will be available to you directly on steemit.com!

Please take into consideration that this is a new project that I just started, and the features are limited to just a few so far! I’m planning to add more and more features in the next versions. Every suggestion and idea is very much appreciated!
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x6cRIU
Source: Steemit

eSteem server upgraded

This is short notice of recent upgrades on notifications, image upload and other services running behind the scenes.

These servers slowed down due to growth and increase in concurrent operations from eSteem.

To give you better mobile experience with eSteem, this weekend worked on server code to separate logic between notifications and other services. It will allows each service to grow separate from each other and eSteem to stay performant on backend. You probably will notice upload times and bookmarks, images, drafts faster than before as of today.

Next release of eSteem has also improvements for better usage and performance. Before we roll out upcoming release, we had to fix major hiccups so we can continue to scale and allow more users to enjoy their eSteem experience.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x5MaDV
Source: Steemit

Will The Concept of Jobs Be Obsolete In The Future?

One of the perks of being an intelligent species is that we can take the matter of evolution in our own hands. Both biological and of our civilisation.

From hunters and gatherers to the modern humans, our journey has been a long one and it has entailed countless evolutions of all the different aspects of our civilisation like, societal, economic, political, technological and so on.

Perhaps technological advancement has had the most profound and wide reaching impact on our species, catalysing major shifts just in the last few centuries alone, so much so that someone from 100 years ago, wouldn’t even recognise today’s world.

Well, it seems like we are on the cusp of yet another major shift as we begin to traverse deeper into the 21st century. And this one is about how we work. This shift in particular has always been happening, but this time, it might make it obsolete altogether.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2x71y37
Source: Steemit

Joan Stewart –Finding Leads 4 U

Blogging – Social Media – Mobile: Mobile Website, Mobile QR Advertising, Mobile News. Tools, Tips & Tricks Included.

FinTech Weekly Roundup of News

Endangered African Animals