Coinbase secures Irish e-money license ahead of Brexit

Crypto exchange giant Coinbase announced Saturday it had won an an e-money license from the Central Bank of Ireland, one of only a few companies in the country to do so. 

The approval from the Central Bank of Ireland marks an expansion for Coinbase’s operations in Ireland, following the opening of its Dublin office last year. It also represents a step forward in securing access to European customers ahead of Britain’s planned exit from the European Union, known as Brexit, which is scheduled for October 31.

Coinbase received an e-money license from the British Financial Conduct Authority last year, granting it access to London, a fintech powerhouse. But Brexit could make it difficult for companies like Coinbase to operate in the space. Depending on the terms of Britain’s trade deal with the EU, European services could find it challenging to make the most of Britain’s tech industry.

BMW and Ford to test blockchain system for paying tolls and parking tickets

Five major auto manufacturers, including Ford and BMW, will next month begin US field tests for a blockchain vehicle identification system that will enable drivers to pay highway tolls and parking tickets automatically, according to a report today by the Nikkei Asian Review.

Other car manufacturers in the partnership, called the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI), are Honda, General Motors, and Renault. 

Vehicles will be registered on the blockchain, complete with service history and authentication of ownership. That means that when cars are out on the road, ticketing systems will be able to automatically identify them for payments such as highway tolls and parking charges, without the use of a specialized tag.

Here are the biggest stories in the cryptoverse:

• Litecoin turns 8, but is it going under? 
• Conference boycotted after it labeled Craig Wright Satoshi.
• 83% of Gen-Z interested in crypto. 
• UNICEF won't convert Ether/Bitcoin donations. 

Traditional asset management typically involves complex legal agreements and lots of paperwork, which makes it all very difficult to track and transfer ownership. It’s a slow and cumbersome system—and one that often lacks sufficient transparency to prevent fraud and other forms of corruption.

Tokenization, while not without its own faults and regulatory hurdles, offers a radical new way of thinking about asset management—a reimagining of what is possible in the financial and technological world. We explore this new idea below. 

Devcon 5: Building a decentralized revolution at scale

What you need to know

Ethereum's supporters—the thinkers, devs, money people, anarchists and everyone else who makes up the community—want to create a better, more utopian financial system. And, based on what else was on display at the biggest Ethereum developer-focused conference of the year, it’s making steady progress.

Why it's important

Many developers are working on more pure forms of finance on Ethereum, known as DeFi. This is the idea of creating financial contracts between any number of people, without the need of a trusted third party. For example, you can lend, or borrow cryptocurrencies on the financial platform, Compound. One of the cryptos you can lend or borrow is DAI, which is itself a great example of DeFi: it’s a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that doesn’t have a third party holding dollars in reserve to maintain the peg. Instead users lock up ether as collateral in smart contracts.

How crypto helps sell CBD

Selling weed is a tricky business. While many states have allowed the growth and sale of marijuana, and the production of Cannabidiol (CBD), what has emerged since legalization is a whole lotta red tape. Different states have different laws, different municipalities have different regulations, and different regulators have different rules on how things should be packaged, bought and sold. Confused? You should be.

That's we sat down with Treum co-founder, Tyler Mulvihill, who explains how blockchain can help ensure companies stay compliant, while the rest go up in (regulatory) smoke.

Read more here.