The centuries-old, paper-based trading process of the oil and gas industry was overhauled last year , courtesy of the blockchain and an industry consortium originally including Shell, BP, ABN Amro, ING, and Societe Generale.
The industry platform, called VAKT, announced yesterday that a host of new petrochemical and oil giants – including Chevron, Total, and Reliance – are joining the likes of Shell and jumping aboard the energy trading platform, Reuters reports .
Traditionally, the buying and selling of energy commodities is paper-based, meaning that credit notes and invoices have to be completed manually, and then emailed, faxed, or even posted to the relevant parties.
VAKT’s creators believe that putting the process on the blockchain will make it a faster, cheaper, and more secure way of trading commodities.
At first, VAKT was available only to the original members of the consortium. With the new additions it appears that a full market wide roll out could be in the platform’s near future.
Bitcoin scammers texted victims informing them they’d been conned out of $30,000
Normally, you won’t immediately know when you’ve fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam. You might start to wonder where your money has gone and why no one is responding to your questions. Eventually though, reality will set in after you recognize that scammers have made off with your money and are nowhere to be found. Well, some cryptocurrency con artists are taking a different tack and have actually told their victims they’ve been had.
After being duped into putting more than AUD$43,000 ($30,000) into fake Bitcoin investments, Canberra, Australia-based couple Nick and Josie Yeomans received a WhatsApp message telling them that the whole thing was a sham, according to ABC news .
The Yeomans’ had been investing in Coinerg, a company that claims to manage cryptocurrency and forex investments for its clients. But according to the message the couple received, it “is a scam.” It seems the Coinerg website is still live and still appears to be legitimate, displaying links to cryptocurrency news sites, and price tickers.
“Everything and everyone involved are the same. Don’t bother about trying to get your money,” the message continued. “Adam, myself Claudia even the customer service is scam [sic].”
Mr Yeomans was introduced to Coinerg through a Facebook group, and was initially skeptical. Even so, he decided to risk his money anyway on what he said he was “expecting to be a scam.”
While it may have turned out to be a scam, Coinerg appeared to be playing the long game. Mr Yeomans initially invested AUD$1,400 ($984), and six months later Coinerg produced a AUD$3,700 ($2,600) return.
Given the promising outlook, Mr Yeomans quit his job, and he and his wife became reliant on their Coinerg earnings.
Though, seemingly out of nowhere, the Yeomans were blocked from their money, and Coinerg began demanding additional fees to access their money. This was the first in a string of excuses given to the couple when they began querying what was happening with their money.
Unfortunately by this point, the couple had already invested their savings, quit their jobs, taken out loans, and sold possessions to pay the fees that Coinerg was demanding. After begging for their money back, Coinerg sent the Yeomans the WhatsApp message and ceased all contact.
ABC noted it tried contacting the WhatsApp accounts that were dealing with the Yeomans’ accounts, but did not hear back. While the phone number that contacted the Yeomans’ could help locate the scammers, it’s unclear if police are investigating this incident.
Hard Fork also tried to contact the phone numbers listed on the Coinerg website, all are out of service, at the time of writing.
Cryptocurrency scams appear to be growing in Australia. In 2018, Australians lost $4.3 million to cryptocurrency scams, a 190-percent increase over the previous year.
By May 31 2019, Australians had reported more losses to cryptocurrency scams than they had for all of 2018, according to the report.
Moonday Mornings: 30% of cryptocurreny startups failed in 2018
Another weekend has come and gone, meaning there’s blockchain and cryptocurrency news to catch up on.
Thankfully, you’ve got Hard Fork’s weekly wrap-up, Moonday Mornings, to take the stress out of it. Let’s get down to business.
1. The Brazilian Court of Justice in São Paulo has dismissed an appeal made by Spain’s largest bank, Banco Santander, against cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado Bitcoin. Banco Santander originally closed the exchange’s account, claiming it had breached the bank’s policy. The bank will have to return nearly $350,000 after the appeal was dismissed unanimously, a local cryptocurrency news outlet reports .
The irony that cryptocurrency startups rely on banks needs no explaining, but the fact that the courts sided with the startup in this case is unique. Earlier this month, the Times of Malta reported that, despite gunning to become a “blockchain island,” startups are still struggling to get support from traditional banks.
2. SPACE10, a research and design lab supported by IKEA, has launched a project to explore whether solar power and blockchain can work together. The design lab’s SolarVille project will be using blockchain to help facilitate “electricity microgrids,” smaller community-based off-grid energy infrastructures, that can help provide a stable and affordable power supply for those in energy poverty, Power Engineering International reports . Let’s just hope we don’t have to assemble it ourselves.
3. German authorities have made their move on regulating blockchain-based securities, according to a Federal Ministry of Finance document published last week. The document states that regulating electronic securities should be technology-neutral; basically, regardless of the technology the security token is based on, the laws governing it should remain applicable. According to the report, “crypto-tokens” will not fall under the remit of current securities regulation, but initial coin offerings (ICO) will as they pose potential risks to investors.
As one of the world’s top economies, Germany’s move into regulating tokens as securities could mark the start of more countries passing security tokens regulations. Smaller nations tend to hold off passing financial regulations; and when they do they usually look at how larger countries regulate for inspiration. We’ll just have to wait and see.
4. Forbes reports that 1,811 of the 9,000 blockchain-based companies that have posted code to GitHub are no longer doing so. Twenty percent of the blockchain companies one active on the code repository stopped showing signs of life in 2018, “and many simply vanished entirely.” Forbes claims some were outright scams and Ponzi schemes, while others were just mismanaged, or thwarted by “shifting regulations.”
The report further outlines that the most promising sector for blockchain development is education and academia, where only 10 percent of companies have failed. Not surprisingly, with the prolonged “crypto-winter,” 30 percent of cryptocurrency startups failed. If this trend continues, 2019 could be the year we see the less legitimate blockchain startups fail
5. US lawmakers at the Texas House of Representatives have introduced a bill to ban the use of anonymous cryptocurrencies in the state, Finance Magnates reports. The bill proposes that individuals must be properly identifiable when sending or receiving cryptocurrencies. If the bill is successful, the law will come into effect on September 1, this year.
While a blatant shot across the bows of coins like Monero and Zcash, there is still a long way to go before this law could be passed. The bill states, anyone using a “verified identity digital currency” will be exempt, as they will be known to the state. But what constitutes a “verified identity digital currency” is not clear. Indeed, it’s not the first time that US authorities have stuck their nose into privacy coins. In December last year, the US Department of Homeland Security began soliciting for firms to help with forensic analysis of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies .
Another week, another Moondays. See you next week.
Did you know? Hard Fork has its own stage at TNW2019 , our tech conference in Amsterdam. Check it out .
