Amid the ongoing craze around decentralized finance, or DeFi, a blockchain startup in China is launching a global DeFi initiative. Conflux Network, a permissionless blockchain startup, has launched a new DeFi-focused association focused on international cooperation of major industry players. Called “Open DeFi,” the new alliance aims to connect Eastern and Western DeFi markets, uniting China-based blockchain leaders and global DeFi startups to streamline cross-border market growth, sustainability and innovation. According to a Sept. 3 announcement, the new alliance is supported by the Chinese government through the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee. Initiated by Conflux Network, Open DeFi comprises a …

Singapore Exchange (SGX), a major investment holding company in Singapore, has issued its first digital bond powered by blockchain technology. As officially announced on Sept. 1, SGX deployed its digital asset issuance platform to conduct a 400 million Singapore dollar ($294 million) 5.5-year public bond issuance for major local food and agri-business company, Olam International. Focused on Asia bond markets, the new digital bond was enabled by cooperation with SGX’s established blockchain partners like HSBC Singapore and investment firm Temasek. As part of the joint initiative, HSBC provided its on-chain payments solution allowing instant settlement in multiple currencies to handle …

After teasing the upcoming blockchain in April, Binance has launched the mainnet of its Smart Chain — a smart contract-enabled blockchain running in parallel to Binance Chain. Binance Smart Chain comes with an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible environment, which allows Solidity developers to move into the new chain with almost no friction. The new blockchain will be interoperable with Binance Chain, which will remain live for the foreseeable future. The Binance DEX will likewise remain in its old home. Binance promises that the blockchain will have cheap transaction fees “as low as 1 cent” and a 3 second block time. The …

Sberbank, the largest state-owned bank in Russia, is working with a major domestic airline company to introduce a blockchain-based ticket sale system. Russia’s largest bank is reportedly collaborating with S7 Airlines on a new ticket sale platform that will enable corporate clients with instant settlement through smart contracts and tokens. According to an Aug. 26 report by local newspaper Kommersant, the new system is planned to roll out in September 2020. This would be the first time virtual tokens are used for payment and settlement in Russia, the report notes. As reported, the new system is only targeting corporate clients …

The latest upgrade to the Algorand network shows that the project is eyeing the burgeoning DeFi space. In a Cointelegraph interview, Algorand’s head of product Paul Riegle emphasized the three key features of this upgrade: the addition of stateful smart contract functionality to the base layer, “fast catchup” and “rekeying”. The Algorand team believes the new features make it a viable competitor in the DeFi space. He pointed out what makes Algorand’s stateful smart contracts different from its brethren on other platforms is their integration into the base layer, which allows them to run extremely fast: “They do it at …

Experimental DeFi protocol Yam Finance all but collapsed last week following the discovery of a fatal error, but the project has since gained $200 million in total value locked. According to a report from crypto analytics firm Messari, Yam is still the 7th largest Defi project according to total value locked (TVL). TVL is calculated by multiplying the total number of tokens held by a protocol by their value in USD. Messari reported Yam’s TVL has doubled from $200 million to $400 million since the protocol collapsed on Aug. 13, and trading activity is up in the last 24 hours. …

The Neutrino protocol, a price-stable multi-asset protocol running on major blockchain platform Waves, is introducing the Neutrino dollar (USDN) on Ethereum. The Neutrino dollar, an algorithmic stablecoin collateralized by the Waves (WAVES) native token, is now available for all Ethereum users as the token has been ported to the Ethereum blockchain, Waves announced on Aug. 18. With the porting, Neutrino USD becomes accessible on Ethereum, enabling Ethereum users to stake rewards by just holding USDN in their Ethereum wallets, Waves CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov told Cointelegraph. The new integration also allows Ethereum developers to use USDN in their decentralized …

Thailand’s central bank is looking at smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) implementations for its national digital currency, the digital baht. Vijak Sethaput, senior developer for the Bank of Thailand’s (BoT) central bank digital currency project Inthanon, discussed the country’s CBDC progress in an interview hosted by a global think tank for central banking, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, on Aug. 13. Sethaput was joined by Sky Guo, CEO of New York-based enterprise blockchain firm Cypherium, which is focused on global CBDC implementations and interoperability. In the interview, Guo said that global jurisdictions can borrow from the DeFi …

The now notorious project, Yam.Finance, was launched without a proper code audit just like many other projects in the space. Richard Ma, the CEO of blockchain security company Quantstamp, told Cointelegrpah that many DeFi projects are launched unaudited in order to capitalize on reverse psychology: “Not having an audit is currently seen as a good way to use reverse-psychology to do marketing.” He added, “It creates the perception that these projects are so in-demand, and that you're getting in on it at the ground floor, before other people have heard of it.” According to Ma, many popular projects like Yearn …

In a recent Cointelegraph interview, Aparna Jue, a product director at IOHK, the Cardano (ADA) development company, opined that even at the current stage of its development, the platform is much more than just a wallet. Cardano recently migrated from the Byron to the Shelly era, ushering in decentralization through the introduction of staking pools. However, the platform does not yet have smart contracts or a decentralized governance module. While Charles Hoskinson promised that smart contracts will be implemented before the end of 2020, Jue told Cointelegraph that even now, she considers Cardano a success. She noted that Cardano is …

Chainlink (LINK) introduced a new community grant program focused on making smart contracts “the dominant form of digital agreement”. Chainlink’s positive feedback loops. Source: Chainlink. Dominating digital agreements The grants will be awarded to projects that are “accelerating two positive feedback loops.” Such loops include the increased availability of on-chain data and increased security guarantees for users. The eventual goal is to make smart contracts a dominant form of digital agreements. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov elaborated on these points in a statement to Cointelegraph: “We are accelerating the adoption of smart contracts as the dominant form of digital agreement, by …

As interest in smart contracts surges, some Bitcoiners are asking: why can't Bitcoin (BTC) become the foundation for smart contracts too, instead of Ethereum (ETH)? Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Blockstack open-source platform, believes that the best way to bring about a user-owned internet "is to anchor applications and smart contracts to the Bitcoin network in a way that uses Bitcoin as a reserve currency and its powerful blockchain as a security mechanism." In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Ali stated that Bitcoin has been the king of blockchains for more than a decade, as most people have come to …