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IBM Signs 6 Banks To Issue Stablecoins and Use Stellar's XLM Cryptocurrency (coindesk.com)

IBM is taking its banking clients a step closer to cryptocurrency. From a report: Announced Monday, six international banks have signed letters of intent to issue stablecoins, or tokens backed by fiat currency, on World Wire, an IBM payment network that uses the Stellar public blockchain. The network promises to let regulated institutions move value across borders -- remittances or foreign exchange -- more quickly and cheaply than the legacy correspondent banking system. So far three of the banks have been identified -- Philippines-based RCBC, Brazil's Banco Bradesco, and Bank Busan of South Korea -- the rest, which are soon to be named, will offer digital versions of euros and Indonesian rupiah, "pending regulatory approvals and other reviews," IBM said. The network went live Monday, although while the banks await their regulators' blessings, the one stablecoin running on World Wire at the moment is a previously announced U.S. dollar-backed token created by Stronghold, a startup based in San Francisco.

17 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Just about everyone here by peragrin · · Score: 1

    The best part of crypto coins is anyone can have one.

    Me I am only putting my money is the slashcoin. Where you gain value by posting + comments and lose value with - comments.

    As the moderation needs block chain.

    To date every single coin has fallen by the way side. Their ideas and reasons for existing as stupid as the number soft people paying for them.

    Investment? Nope not unless you can deal Keith gold Rush. But long term all of them trend downward unless you get a big enough Spike to prop them up.

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  2. Re: Just about everyone here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Crypto currency is inefficient, therefore it will die

  3. Re:Just about everyone here by stonecypher · · Score: 2

    Sure, sure.

    Enjoy your Flooz and eCash fortunes

    --
    StoneCypher is Full of BS
  4. IBM is a year late to the blockchain hype party... by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...the cops have already been there and all the booze is gone.

    So we have a handful of traditional, regulated banks trading tokens pegged to real currencies that are already traded around the world... on a blockchain!. Does that need to exist? Of course not! But it does, because in late 2017 Bitcoin was headed for $20k and one of IBM's many consultants told them that coinz were going to be the next totally tubular gotta-have-it thing.

    --
    0 1 - just my two bits
  5. Re:Just about everyone here by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    In case you missed something: this IS bank controlled. This is just a new way to transfer money using a payment processing network. What you are talking about is nonsense (speculation). And just because "Youtube" cofounder/Netflix developer are involved doesn't make it more worthwhile.

  6. Re:No stablecoins in Federal prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, good riddance to those democrats and liberals.

  7. International Bitcoin Marketers by xack · · Score: 1

    The downfall of the leader of the mainframe and personal computer is complete.

  8. Re:Just about everyone here by bistromath007 · · Score: 2

    you could not possibly be more obvious about the fact that you're selling this shit

  9. Re: Just about everyone here by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I used to think that IBMs block chain offerings were trash, and just a marketing name for "cryptography" or "public key signing" or even just "asset tracking." Now I see they are large enough to convince banks to play along with their game, and that gives their coin clout where others have failed.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  10. Re:IBM is a year late to the blockchain hype party by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I work for one of the banks yet to be announced and I think this will actually be quite a major shake up. The reason that IBM is getting market share regarding this is mainly down to the belief that they provide additional security,

    I understand why you'd need blockchain for that, but not why you'd need cryptocurrency. If it's pinned to and backed by the USD anyway, why not just use blockchain to track transfers of normal currency? Like by serial number...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  11. Re:Just about everyone here by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Any of you old-timers remember Beenz?

  12. Re:Just about everyone here by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Is wrong about crypto currencies. They are here and they are growing and if you aren't in on them now you will be extremely sorry soon enough.

    I am already sorry. Or rather I feel sorry for the utterly dumb fucks that just do not get it. Like you.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  13. lol by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    Quick, everyone invest in them! Oh wait...

  14. Re:IBM is a year late to the blockchain hype party by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

    XLM isn't a cryptocurrency. It is issued by the network via inflation. Its purpose is to provide a basis for securing a stake in the network, and is not meant to be traded for value. Instead, the Stellar network (of which XLM is the base currency) allows defining and trading of assets. These assets can represent anything the issuer desires, and it is up to individual account holders to trust an asset.

  15. How many bits in stablecoins secret? by ElitistWhiner · · Score: 1

    Anyone know if it is below the 16 bit threshold?

  16. Lightning doesn't route by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Stellar has a few nice improvements on Ripple, but they're planning to scale using Lightning, which remains pre-alpha because it depends on open topics in Computer Science being solved to route effectively.

    see: https://lightning.fail/ for more detailed explanations and analysis.

    Meanwhile Ripple developed Cobalt because they need to scale today.

    These national banks got snookered by IBM, sadly, but IBM can't control Ripple so they're not going to back it.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  17. Re:IBM is a year late to the blockchain hype party by coofercat · · Score: 1

    It's true we don't need this per-se. However, the tokens are the important bit of this - it means that those banks are no longer using actual currency, but are using tokens. It potentially paves the way for tokens not tied to an individual currency, but perhaps to a basket of all the currencies in the group, or maybe tied to some other thing (or not tied to anything at all).

    A 'banking currency' alters the global power base quite a bit. It means that banks start to run national economies directly, rather than 'by extension' as they do now. It means that any one countries economic policy doesn't necessarily impact the working and profitability of the banks using these tokens (so they can compete internationally, regardless of their local economic policies). It also provides a possible route to transfer 'value' between countries without having to pay the payment networks. Thus, the older, more entrenched and legacy banks lose a bit of power, whilst the smaller ones gain a little bit. That might not sound a lot, but as I say, it's s shift to global power.

    This is indeed small potatoes today, and is largely pointless as it stands. However, it's a 'proof of concept' and if it proves to be workable, then others will join, and then there'll be the option to directly buy and sell each others tokens in local currency, or to speculate on fluctuations or create options, ETLs and all the other weird financial products we already know and love. They might be private to banks for the foreseeable, but they'll provide a whole new 'revenue stream' for those involved and provide other 'benefits' too. This is all 'value' moving from place to place without any of the traditional systems, charges and oversights that exist - as I say, a change in the balance of power.

    One other point of note: IBM are making this happen. That's basically a "tech company' making a global currency and getting into banking. They're shifting away from a crappy mainframe provider, expensive internal IT support and whatnot to being an actual financial services provider to the banks (without needing a banking license). That too is quite a big shift in the 'way of the world' that I'll bet Silicon Valley would love to replicate, and something governments will struggle to understand.