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Deutsche Bank Partners With Crypto Fintech Firm Bitpanda To Process Fiat Transactions: Report

Deutsche Bank Partners With Crypto Fintech Firm Bitpanda To Process Fiat Transactions: Report

One of the world’s leading financial service providers is teaming up with Austrian fintech company and crypto broker Bitpanda. According to Reuters, Deutsche Bank is partnering with Bitpanda to provide customers with real-time payment solutions for asset transactions. The partnership will begin rolling out exclusively for German customers. “This means that deposits or withdrawals of […]

The post Deutsche Bank Partners With Crypto Fintech Firm Bitpanda To Process Fiat Transactions: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

Deutsche Bank joins Singapore’s asset tokenization project

Deutsche Bank joined Singapore’s tokenization project soon after reiterating skepticism about transparency about the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether.

Update May 14, 12:35 UTC: This article has been updated to include quotes from Interop Labs CEO Sergey Gorbunov

Deutsche Bank, a German multinational investment bank, is collaborating with Singapore's central bank on asset tokenization.

Deutsche Bank has joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian, which focuses on asset tokenization in wholesale funding markets and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

Blockchain adoption in healthcare faces serious obstacles in Germany

Blockchain technology could enhance healthcare digitalization, but privacy concerns are hampering adoption.

Blockchain technology has expanded beyond cryptocurrency and is now used in a number of applications, including decentralized databases, which can prevent counterfeiting through transparency and security. 

This ability to secure data is particularly valuable to the healthcare sector, where blockchain tech can secure data, enhance data integrity and empower patients to control their data more effectively.

It can also improve transparency in supply chains and verify the authenticity of medicine. Additionally, blockchain aids in healthcare identification and has the potential to enhance biomedical research by simplifying data storage and exchange.

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

MIT, German central bank will research CBDC privacy in new project

The Deutsche Bundesbank is the fourth central monetary authority to conduct research in conjunction with MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative.

The Deutsche Bundesbank is the latest monetary authority to team up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) to study central bank digital currency (CBDC). President of the German central bank Joachim Nagel spoke at the launch of the project about challenges ahead for the digital euro.

Nagel told MIT students that the joint research will focus on designing security and privacy measures in a CBDC. The problem is that private digital payment solutions often use third-party services that gain access to consumers’ payment data, which they can use for commercial purposes. In contrast:

Nagel went on the say the current payments system does not work well. “German bank cards, for example, don’t always work in other euro area countries, even if they contain a payment scheme operated by an international company,” he said.

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

Germany’s Largest Federal Bank To Offer Crypto Custody to Institutional Clients: Report

Germany’s Largest Federal Bank To Offer Crypto Custody to Institutional Clients: Report

The largest federal bank in Germany, Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, is planning to offer cryptocurrency custody services in the second half of 2024, according to a new report. According to Bloomberg, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg is announcing a new partnership with Bitpanda to offer crypto custody services to institutional clients in the second half of 2024. According to the report, […]

The post Germany’s Largest Federal Bank To Offer Crypto Custody to Institutional Clients: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

‘Landmark Year’ for Worldcoin As Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Project Launches in Singapore

‘Landmark Year’ for Worldcoin As Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Project Launches in Singapore

Worldcoin (WLD) has announced its launch in Singapore a week after pausing operations in three other nations. In a new company blog post, Worldcoin – founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – says that its launch in Singapore will cap off a landmark year for the identity verification protocol. “Individuals in Singapore can now verify […]

The post ‘Landmark Year’ for Worldcoin As Eyeball-Scanning Crypto Project Launches in Singapore appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

Taurus starts credit tokenization as an asset class for German SMEs

Blockchain tokenization provides an alternative means for SMEs to raise capital and liquidity while building diversified investment opportunities.

Teylor, a German-based fintech firm specializing in digitizing small business loans, has joined forces with digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus to turn small and medium enterprise (SME) loans into tokenized assets and provide tokenholders with monthly cashflows.

In the partnership, Teylor originates and manages SME loans through its Teylor credit platform. By tokenizing part of this credit portfolio on the Taurus infrastructure and TDX-regulated marketplace, professional private debt investors could participate in the returns through a secure blockchain-based secondary market.

Blockchain tokenization provides an alternative means for SMEs to raise capital and build liquidity while building diversified investment opportunities. In 2021, Italy’s Azimut group tokenized its first portfolio of loans to Italian SMEs through Sygnum Bank.

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

Amnesty International head says AI innovation vs. regulation is ‘false dichotomy’

Amnesty’s secretary-general said the EU has a chance to lead with new AI regulations and member states shouldn’t “undermine” the forthcoming AI Act.

The secretary-general of Amnesty International, Anges Callamard, released a statement on Nov. 27 in response to three European Union member states pushing back on regulating artificial intelligence (AI) models. 

France, Germany and Italy reached an agreement that included not adopting such stringent regulations for foundation models of AI, which is a core component of the EU’s forthcoming EU AI Act.

This came after the EU received multiple petitions from tech industry players asking the regulators not to over-regulate the nascent industry.

However, Callamard said the region has an opportunity to show “international leadership” with robust regulation of AI, and member states “must not undermine the AI Act by bowing to the tech industry’s claims that adoption of the AI Act will lead to heavy-handed regulation that would curb innovation.”

“Let us not forget that ‘innovation versus regulation’ is a false dichotomy that has for years been peddled by tech companies to evade meaningful accountability and binding regulation.”

She said this rhetoric from the tech industry highlights the “concentration of power” from a small group of tech companies who want to be in charge of the “AI rulebook.”

Related: US surveillance and facial recognition firm Clearview AI wins GDPR appeal in UK court

Amnesty International has been a member of a coalition of civil society organizations led by the European Digital Rights Network advocating for EU AI laws with human rights protections at the forefront.

Callamard said human rights abuse by AI is “well documented” and “states are using unregulated AI systems to assess welfare claims, monitor public spaces, or determine someone’s likelihood of committing a crime.”

“It is imperative that France, Germany and Italy stop delaying the negotiations process and that EU lawmakers focus on making sure crucial human rights protections are coded in law before the end of the current EU mandate in 2024.”

Recently, France, Germany and Italy were also part of a new set of guidelines developed by 15 countries and major tech companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, which suggest cybersecurity practices for AI developers when designing, developing, launching and monitoring AI models.

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

German parliament member ’staunch opponent’ of digital euro, all in on Bitcoin

European Union lawmakers anticipate the arrival of the digital euro, but German politician Joana Cotar is pushing back against the currency and fighting in favor of Bitcoin.

The European Union has been actively preparing for what it envisions as the future of money. In the past year, it finalized its landmark comprehensive crypto legislation, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which is due to take effect in 2024 after closing its second consultation in October. 

It has also made progress in its plan to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is coming to fruition as the “digital euro.” De Nederlandsche Bank, the central bank of the Netherlands, has described it simply as an “electronic form of public money - the coins and notes in our wallets.”

Many local regulators are embracing the digital euro and touting its potential benefits, though not everyone is on board. In a recent survey out of Spain, 65% of Spaniards said they were not interested in using the digital euro.

Slovakia’s parliament even passed a measure in June that amended its constitution to codify a citizen’s right to pay for goods and services with cash in the face of the impending digital currency.

In Germany, one local politician is not only against the digital euro but is offering another digital solution for a financial revolution: Bitcoin (BTC).

Cointelegraph spoke with Joana Cotar, a member of the Bundestag — the German federal parliament — and a Bitcoin activist, about her take on the digital euro and why she believes in the benefits of Bitcoin.

Cotar has been outspoken on her stance on the EU’s digital monetary solution, which she told Cointelegraph is that of “a staunch opponent of the digital euro.”

She said a digital euro could allow central banks to set an “upper limit” for payments and ownership, making citizens “helplessly at [their] mercy.”

The digital Euro would also mean that each and every one of us could be totally monitored. As a convinced libertarian, I emphatically reject this. Anyone who is against surveillance and for freedom does not need a digital Euro!

According to Cotar, the Chinese social credit system should serve as a warning of the possibilities of the absence of cash and state-controlled payment systems. “I don’t want the authorities to be able to spy on our private life and misuse this data,” she said.

However, in April the program director for the digital euro at the European Central Bank, Evelien Witlox, said that the “ECB has no interest in users’ personal data.” In October, the EU’s data protection regulators issued a joint statement regarding anonymity in digital euro transactions.

Related: EU finance chief: Don’t rush digital euro before new Commission in June 2024

Cotar is using her platform, among other things, to raise awareness among lawmakers of the potential dangers she believes to be associated with the digital euro. 

While Cotar may not be on board for a digital euro, she is a champion of Bitcoin. She is behind the “Bitcoin in the Bundestag" initiative, which she told Cointelegraph is committed to raising awareness and educating members of the German Bundestag (MPs) about the potential and risks of Bitcoin.

“Establishing a formal Bundestag committee that recognizes the technological differences between Bitcoin and other crypto assets and mainly deals with the importance of Bitcoin for our society is very important for us.”

She said her initiative serves as an information resource for members of the Bundestag and helps them make more informed decisions about Bitcoin specifically.

When she explained her greater vision for bringing Bitcoin into regulators’ consideration, one major change she’d like to see is the allowance to pay taxes and fees paid in Bitcoin and using Bitcoin mining farms to stabilize the power grid.

“We need to promote the freedom aspects of Bitcoin (permissionless access, individual sovereignty) - this includes protecting privacy, ensuring security standards and preventing excessive regulation to maximize the benefits of Bitcoin.

Cotar would also like to initiate a “preliminary examination” for a legal framework that would recognize Bitcoin as a legal tender in Germany. “This includes ensuring the legal security for companies and citizens,” she said.

“We need to combat potential risks such as money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal activities associated with Bitcoin,” she said. "But without stifling innovation and the freedom aspects of Bitcoin.”

The Bitcoin-savvy lawmaker said her ideas for Germany could “easily be transferred” as a framework for other countries. She urges international cooperation to develop a blanket standard for Bitcoin and its cross-border use.

When asked if she feels similarly impassioned for other cryptocurrencies currently available on the market, her response was simply: 

“My initiative is Bitcoin only.”

On Oct. 18 he European Central Bank (ECB) has announced it will begin the ”preparation phase” for the digital euro project following a two-year investigation into the potential EU-wide digital currency. 

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity

Commerzbank granted crypto custody license in Germany

The German bank Commerzbank is the first full-service bank in the country to receive a crypto custody license from local regulators.

The German bank Commerzbank has been granted a crypto custody license by local regulators, according to an announcement released by the lender on Nov. 15. 

Commerzbank says it is the first “full-service” German bank to be granted this license in the country under the legal framework of the German Banking Act (KWG). This allows it to offer custody of crypto assets and will enable it to offer “further digital asset services.”

Dr. Jörg Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz, the chief operating officer of Commerzbank, said that acquiring the license is an “important milestone.”

“This highlights our ongoing commitment to applying the latest technologies and innovations, and it forms the foundation for supporting our customers in the areas of digital assets.”

The bank says its first step now is to establish a platform that is both “secure and reliable” and fully complies with local regulations while supporting its institutional clients through crypto custody services via blockchain.

Cointelegraph reached out to Commerzbank for further information on the development. 

Related: Crypto banking app Bitwala relaunches via new partnership with Striga

This development from Commerzbank follows similar news out of Germany, as its third-largest bank, DZ Bank, revealed its crypto custody offerings for institutional investors on Nov. 6. 

DZ Bank announced its new platform for processing and storing digital financial instruments. It also said it applied for a crypto custody license in June of 2023 to allow institutional investors and private customers to buy cryptocurrencies.

In September, the United States crypto custody firm BitGo received a license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to expand its compliance with local regulations after three years of operating its dedicated local subsidiary.

The crypto-landscape in Germany has gained significant momentum over the last year. In March, the Deutsche WertpapierServiceBank (Dwpbank) launched its wpNex crypto trading platform that began to offer 1,200 banks and savings banks in Germany access to the digital asset industry.

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Michael Saylor Raves About the U.S.’s $10 Trillion World Reserve Digital Dollar Opportunity