Chicago based securities rating firm Morningstar has moved ahead of the rest of the securities ratings agencies to begin rating blockchain-based debt securities which are backed by debt assets in the real-world. Being the first time, a rating agency would attempt such a move, the rating firm already has its hands in the cryptocurrency pie as it has been working on building models that provide accurate methods of rating blockchain-based securities.This move is also an indication that the firm...
Read More »Ethereum Ropsten Testnet Splits After the Early Launch of the Istanbul Upgrade
Ethereum testnet Ropsten split following the release of the Istanbul upgrade. This occurred because the upgrade was expected on approximately October 2nd, 2019 and at a block height of 6, 485, 846. The upgrade was released about 48 hours earlier on September 30th at around 3:40 a.m UTC.This, of course, has expectedly caused quite a bit of difference in terms of block confirmation times. Ethereum foundation community manager indicated in a tweet that there is no cause for alarm in this...
Read More »Santander Makes History Solely Settling a $20M Bond Trade on Ethereum Blockchain
Santander, one of the largest banks in the world based in Spain, has issued a blockchain bond and started using a public blockchain to manage all aspects of debt issuance.According to the Spanish banking giant, they used a token on Ethereum to represent the $20 million debt issuance and what is more, settled it with another set of ERC-20 tokens representing cash held in a custody account. As Coindesk has reported, the transaction conducted was a plain-vanilla bond with a one-year maturity,...
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