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November 1, 2022 Bitcoin.com

South Korean crypto exchanges to follow Coinone in verifying private wallets

December 30, 2021 Coin Telegraph

AML

South Korean exchanges will require users to verify their third-party wallet addresses to help the country comply with FATF travel rule guidelines.

Major South Korean crypto exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb and Korbit, will follow Coinone’s lead in banning transfers to non-verified wallets, industry analysts said.

On Wednesday, Coinone announced that it would reject deposits from unverified private wallets starting Jan. 24, 2022, to reduce the risk of money laundering. All Korean exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit and 20 others, are expected to have implemented similar or identical measures as Coinone by or before March 25. The Korean government set the deadline for exchanges to track coin transactions on and off their platforms accurately.

Korean blockchain industry analyst Jun Hyuk Ahn told Cointelegraph, “Korean exchanges are creating their own Travel Rule solutions in order to meet the requirements to operate post-March.”

“All the Korean exchanges are going to have to use some travel rule system by March because that’s when the government has set a deadline for them. Coinone just did it first.”

The rule for exchanges will also help the East Asian nation come into compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule.

According to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance service Sygna, the Travel Rule stipulates that national governments must “ensure domestic exchanges share real-identity information with transmittal counterparties or face increased AML/CFT monitoring.”

These compliance stipulations for exchanges are part of a long series of regulatory restrictions for crypto exchanges that started with the real-name bank account requirement for all users. Before that rule was implemented in 2018, crypto exchange accounts could be linked to a bank account owned by multiple individuals.

By September 2021, exchanges had been required to have Internet Security Management System verification and a single domestic bank partner, which would issue real-name accounts. Exchanges that were unable to meet the requirements were forced to remove Korean won pairs from trading or suspend services altogether.

The country has grappled with global FATF compliance issues related to nonfungible tokens (NFT) as well. Financial regulators flip-flopped on their policy direction regarding NFTs until the latest statement from the Financial Services Commission stated on Nov. 24 that it would explore its options to regulate and tax NFTs.

Globally, South Korea’s exchanges are the outliers in complying with the rule. As of now, there are no other major crypto spot exchanges that require users to verify their private wallets.

South Africa’s financial regulator issues warning against Binance

September 3, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Africa

South African authorities are the latest to warn against using Binance, saying the exchange is not authorized to operate in the country.

South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has warned the country’s public against dealing with crypto exchange platform Binance.

In a statement issued on Friday, the FSCA stated that Binance Group, an “international company” domiciled in Seychelles, was not authorized to render financial services in the country. Binance is indeed headquartered in The Cayman Islands and Seychelles.

As part of the warning, the FSCA indicated that South Africans were using a Telegram group to gain access to Binance’s crypto exchange services in the country.

In addition to the warning against using Binance, the financial regulator also reminded South Africans that crypto investments are not regulated in the country. “As a result, if something goes wrong, you’re unlikely to get your money back and will have no recourse against anyone,” the FSCA statement added.

The FSCA also enjoined the South African public to confirm the registration status of entities in the financial and investment space before doing business with such companies.

Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comments on the matter.

The statement by the FSCA is only the latest in a series of warnings and outright bans against Binance by financial regulatory authorities in several jurisdictions.

On Thursday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore ordered Binance to stop offering services in the country over a potential infringement on payment regulations.

Back in August, the Dutch central bank alleged that Binance was operating illegally. The crypto exchange giant has come under intense scrutiny from regulators in places like Italy, Japan, Thailand, the United States, and the United Kingdom, to mention a few.

Binance for its part has stressed its willingness to cooperate with regulators and has even enacted a mandatory identity verification scheme for all users.

New Samsung service Paperless adds document disposal to enterprise blockchain

July 13, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Samsung SDS has launched a new cloud-based blockchain service called Paperless to address forgery and falsification problems in documents.

Samsung SDS, the information and communication technologies (ICT) arm of Samsung, launched a new service named Paperless to provide reliability and transparency of documents in a cloud environment.

Launched as a cloud-based blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) solution for enterprises, Paperless manages sensitive documents such as contracts, consent forms and certificates on blockchain to prevent forgery and falsification. According to the official announcement, the new service can be used in various fields such as voting or tasks that require various proof documents.

Paperless also enables the management of documents that need to be disposed of after a certain period by encrypting and storing sensitive or large-volume data at a separate server, only keeping the hash value of each data on blockchain.

Since all data history such as the creation, revision and disposal of documents is recorded on the blockchain in real time, this design combining on-chain and off-chain technology addresses “the slowdown of blockchain’s transaction speed due to massive volumes of data,” the announcement reads.

Samsung SDS added that the company applied its Paperless service to its salary contracts for employees, company-wide voting and certificate management to streamline complex processes.

The ICT subsidiary of the South Korean tech giant is a known explorer of blockchain technology. Last year, Samsung SDS announced that it would conduct a series of pilot projects to test blockchain-powered medicine distribution management to guarantee transparency in tracking pharmaceutical drugs.

Samsung itself is also a participant in the blockchain race. The company previously filed a patent for a programmable blockchain solid-state drive (SSD) and switch, although this patent is yet to bear tangible fruits.

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