starbit-digest

BLOCKCHAIN LAW INCREASES SECURITY FOR INVESTORS   Firms using blockchain technology in financial transactions now have legal certainty in Luxembourg after parliament passed a law on Thursday. Bill 7363 was intended to “provide financial market participants with legal certainty for the circulation of securities via blockchain technology”, the bill document reads, adding: “The bill should provide more security for investors and make the transfer of securities more efficient by reducing the number of intermediaries.” It was passed with 58 votes in favour and 2 against (Déi Lénk). The new legislation builds on the reform of the 1 August 2001 law on the circulation of securities, which in 2013 introduced the generalised possibility to issue dematerialised securities. It goes further in clarifying that securities may also be registered in an account and transferred using secure electronic registration mechanisms, in particular based on blockchain-type technologies...

HSBC forex trading costs cut sharply by blockchain - executive   LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC has reduced the cost of settling foreign exchange trades by a quarter through its blockchain-based system, an executive overseeing the project told Reuters, offering a glimpse of the savings the technology could offer banks. The bank processes between 3,500 and 5,000 trades a day on its "FX Everywhere" system, settling trades worth $350 billion (£273 billion), Mark Williamson, chief operating officer of FX cash trading and risk management, told Reuters. The HSBC platform is a rare example of blockchain technology being put to practical use by a major bank. Last month the London-based lender said it had processed FX trades worth $250 billion on the platform since February last year. The fresh details of the scale of the HSBC project suggest that the potential of blockchain to make significant cost savings in the financial services industry - long touted by its proponents...

Facebook Acqui-Hires Team from Blockchain Platform Startup Chainspace Facebook acquired its first company in the blockchain space, smart contract protocol development and research firm Chainspace. The move was likely made to acquire the company’s team of experienced crypto developers. Chainspace is an 11-person company that was started by five well-credentialed co-founders, including two Cambridge PhDs, several researchers from the University College of London, and part of the core group of people from Vega Protocol—a blockchain public network for trading financial product. The acquisition by Facebook was likely a buyout ...