Singapore opens to blockchain and launches its first smart bitcoin banknotes

If, as it’ s expected, North America will dominate the overall blockchain market in the near future — a market which, according to the research firm Netscribes, is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 42.8% and will reach nearly $14bn by 2022 — is the Asia-Pacific region that will adopt it at the fastest rate. And at the head of this vibrant and competitive revolution is Singapore, that has already announced its intention to promote a much more open environment for this technology to grow and for cryptocurrencies to increase.

“Singapore’s stance on crypto business showcases its open-mindedness and forward thinking, and its confidence in maintaining a proper, pragmatic regulatory framework while not hindering the growth of a budding business”. Word of Mr. Shawn Tham, Advisor of IIIBTC Blockchain Technology Pte Ltd, a strong blockchain development service provider designed to cater to an extensive pool of investors. The IIIBTC trading platform, that will be launched this September, allows for the mining and exchange of multiple cryptocurrencies. IIIBTC is a MAS approved ICO issuer. “We strive to serve crypto investors from China and other parts of the world with our secure, stable, efficient and transparent trading platform, under the governance and guidance of the Singapore regulatory bodies. We hope that our platform will benefit the blockchain investors in the long term”, he added. “We are excited to launch the platform in Singapore, an international financial hub with a strong reputation in its adequate financial regulatory framework.”

The regulation and compliance situation around blockchain in the country is indeed so profitable to have the real potential to change the global financial structure. “Lack of proper regulation and governance has resulted in several undesirable phenomena in the blockchain space” declared Mr. Clarence Guo, a lawyer at Tzedek Law LLC, the first consulting firm in Singapore to provide advisory services related to Blockchain technology “The industry needs a regulatory framework to grow to the next level, and it’s commendable that IIIBTC is willing to comply with laws and regulations to grow its business in Singapore and provide a credible crypto exchange”.

Late in May the digital asset banknote manufacturer Tangem — with headquarters in Switzerland’s cryptovalley Zug and Hong Kong, and offices in Russia and China — announced the launch of smart bitcoin banknotes at the Megafash Suntec City store in Singapore.

Designed to make owning and circulating cryptocurrencies as easy as using paper money, they are currently available in denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC and they have already improved the simplicity and security of acquiring, owning, and circulating cryptocurrencies for both sophisticated and incoming users.
The company, that has already delivered a first shipment of 10,000 production notes to prospective partners and distributors around the world for commercial pilots, declared “No special infrastructure, no complicated applications — just touch the banknote with an NFC-capable smartphone to be 100% sure it has valid assets. No transaction fees, no need to await confirmation blockchain. Physically hand over the whole wallet together with the blockchain private key”

The company says banknotes are equipped with high-grade EAL6+ protection for all cryptocurrencies: this means that their irretrievable private keys prohibit replication of wallet and its assets. The company claims to offer “the first hardware storage solution on the market with its entire electronics and cryptography certified to the Common Criteria EAL6+ and EMVCo security standards.”

That Singapore is taking the lead in innovative technologies has been particularly evident by the last February, when Singapore Airlines has launched KrisPay, a digital blockchain wallet that lets members of KrisFlyer, the carrier’s frequent flyer program, convert their air miles into digital currency: members can use as little as 15 KrisPay miles (equivalent to US$0.07) to pay for items at the airline’s 18 partner merchants in the city-state, including gas stations, beauty product retailers, as well as food and beverage outlets.

The success of the operation has led many other flight companies all around the world to open to blockchain technology: US-based Surf Air unveiled plans to accept cryptocurrencies for ticket payments, while Lufthansa and Air New Zealand are both working on projects with Swiss startup Winding Tree to build blockchain-based travel apps.

Another Singapore-based company which is proving to be at the forefront is SMC Nutrition: with food security becoming a key priority in the face of a growing number of food contamination cases around the world, the company has decided to launch a system that provides suppliers, distributors, retailers and consumers with information about its supply chain, from the provenance of raw materials to delivery of products. This information, captured by IoT sensors, are then uploaded to a distributed ledger hosted on the blockchain service, to which consumers can access by scanning QR codes. In this way, SMC Nutrition is able to guarantee the authenticity of organic or halal offerings, to improve the quality of its products through the Certis service, which surfaced anomalies — such as changes in storage conditions — within a shorter time period, enabling it to take corrective measures sooner and to remove the risk of fraud, since only suppliers and distributors are granted control and access to the information on the blockchain-based service.

Singapore seems really to be the promised land for blockchain enthusiasts: if we take a close look to blockchain startups founded in the last two years in the so-called “Lion City” we would discover that at least 15 of them raised a lot of money from investors via token sales and venture capital rounds. To mention just a few: TenX, which makes cryptocurrencies spendable in real life through a debit card, estimated US$81M, Qtum — which provides a Turing-complete blockchain stack, able to execute smart contracts and decentralized applications — and KyberNetwork, a system which allows the exchange and conversion of digital assets by providing rich payment APIs and a new contract wallet that allow anyone to seamlessly receive payments from any token, both estimated US$52M, followed by Aelf, a decentralized cloud computing blockchain network, and Wanchain, a new distributed financial infrastructure connecting different blockchain networks to exchange values, that are under US$40M

With those premises and numbers, Singapore is ready to host, on August 28th, the World’s Largest Dedicated Blockchain Event for Business Leaders, a
1-day conference and exhibition connecting over 700 industry leaders, business decision makers, tech innovators, and investors. An unrivaled opportunity to discover, throughout roundtable discussions, hosted networking sessions, and cutting-edge case studies new exceptional networking opportunities across industries like finance, insurance, logistics, utilities, media and entertainment, and other sectors you can’t even imagine.