Skip to main content

Italy Partners With Algorand to Bring the Blockchain to Banking Systems

Italy has chosen the Algorand blockchain to bring about improvements in the existing banking systems starting in 2023. With this, Italy will officially become the first member nation of the European Union (EU) to mix blockchain with its financial and insurance systems. The blockchain technology, that also makes for the underlying technoloy used by cryptocurrencies, is now being examined by several countries to increase transparency in the banking sector.

Essentially, Algorand will support an upcoming digital guarantees platform in Italy to issue bank and insurance guarantees on blockchain, which is a digital ledger technology (DLT).

Insurance or bank guarantees are commodities promised by banks or insurance firms to mitigate losses in case of a loan default. A blockchain twist to the issuance of these guarantees could make the records more immutable, and hence more transparent.

"Our goal is to help Italy not only recover from the economic impact of COVID-19, but also excel through innovation and leadership. Our ecosystemic projects are meant to help generate strategic platforms supported by Algorand. We selected Algorand because of its unparalleled level of security among permissionless DLTs, and because of its sustainability,” said Federico Rajola, Professor at the Research Center on Technologies, Innovation and Finance of the Catholic University of Milan (CETIF) in a press release.

Members from Algorand, the Bank of Italy, and the Italian insurance authority IVASS met in Milan this week to discuss the use-cases of blockchain in the banking sector. Over 30 financial organisations were also part of this meeting. The official Twitter handle of the Layer-1 blockchain platform announced this development on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Italy's Ministry of Economic Development planned to invest $46 million (roughly Rs. 360 crore) in subsidies for developing projects around blockchain technology as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT).

This month, Italy proposed a draft crypto law bill that would allow the country to levy a 26 percent tax on crypto profits exceeding over $2,000 (roughly Rs. 1.62 lakh).

Italy's Algorand-supported platform is expected to come into existence in 2023.

Released in 2019, Algorand is a green, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. The developers of the blockchain claim to enable the convergence between decentralised finance (DeFi) and traditional finance.

Recently, the blockchain was also chosen by the Maharashtra government in India to store and support health data as NFTs.


Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Adblock test (Why?)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/vjce3UA https://ift.tt/qFgKPRe
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US Defense Chief Austin To Make 'Full Recovery' From Cancer: Doctors

Austin, a 70-year-old career soldier, initially underwent minor surgery to treat cancer on December 22. Washington: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is likely to make a "full recovery" from prostate cancer and his prognosis is "excellent," two doctors said after he was seen at Walter Reed hospital for a follow-up appointment. Austin controversially kept US President Joe Biden in the dark about the cancer diagnosis for weeks, and did not inform either the commander-in-chief or Congress until days after he was hospitalized on January 1 for complications from his treatment. "Secretary Austin was seen today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a scheduled post-prostatectomy surveillance appointment," the doctors said in a statement released by the Pentagon. "He continues to recover well and is expected to make a full recovery. Secretary Austin's prostate cancer was treated early and effectively, and his prognosis is excellent,...

Republic Day Updates: Macron Chief Guest As Delhi Hosts Parade Amid Dense Fog

Adblock test (Why?) from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/yqj8XDV https://ift.tt/zHpGab4 via IFTTT

North Korea Says It Tested New Strategic Cruise Missile

North Korea test-fired a new generation of strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. (Representational) Seoul: North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state. Hours later, North Korea appeared to confirm the firing, saying it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31. Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile. "Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Cruise...