Oxfam International, a U.K.-based non-profit with a global reach, just spent a month testing MakerDAO’s stablecoin DAI as a vehicle for helping disaster victims.

The pilot project in the South Pacific Ocean nation of Vanuatu was conducted in partnership with Australian tech firm Sempo and ethereum startup ConsenSys, Australian news outlet Micky reports.

Vanuatu routinely faces a high risk of tsunamis, cyclones and volcanic eruptions, while poverty is high, with around 40 percent of the population getting by on less than $4 a day, according to a World Bank report from last year citing 2010 data.

In the pilot, named the UnBlocked Cash, 200 residents in the villages of Pango and Mele Maat on the island of Efate were given tap-and-pay cards, each loaded with about 4,000 vatu ($50) in DAI, according to Micky. The cards could be used for payments across a network of local stores and schools, with 32 vendors in total.

The vendors, in turn, were provided with Android smartphones with an app allowing them to accept such payments, being able to redeem DAI – which is backed by U.S. dollars at a 1:1 ratio – for fiat currency via Sempo or at other crypto exchanges if they so choose.

Sempo co-founder Nick Williams told Micky:

“As far as we know this is the first time an NGO has used a stablecoin to provide aid anywhere. This is not a one-off pilot. We believe that using a stablecoin to allow the unbanked to access finance will completely change the way aid runs.”

Oxfam has previously distributed help to Vanuatu villagers using cash, but the time taken for ID checks and bank visits was an obstacle, the charity representative said. Onboarding a new user for cash aid took around an hour, signing up for a DAI card takes six minutes, Micky wrote. Plus, it made the whole process more transparent.

“Both donors and NGOs struggle with transparency and the way aid money is used,” Sandra Hart, the Unblocked Cash lead at Oxfam, told the publication. Using a stablecoin brings in end-to-end transparency “ensuring that the people who receive funds are the ones that need it,” she said.

Last year, Sempo conducted a series of similar fund transfer tests in Beirut and Akkar in Lebanon, Iraqi Kurdistan and Athens, distributing DAI and a custom ethereum ERC-20 token. The trials showed that the blockchain tech doesn’t change the main patterns for the use of humanitarian aid and doesn’t really help preventing fraud, but serves instead “as a way to maximize the likelihood that honest systems remain honest,” Sempo wrote in a blog post.

Blockchain tech has increasingly been garnering the attention of the international charity bodies. For example, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) last year reported the successful use of the tech for distributing aid to the Syrian refugees in a refugee camp in Jordan.

The project, named Building Blocks, helped reaching 106,000 refugees in Jordan every month, saving WFP around $40,000 a month in transfer fees, the WFP’s director of innovation and change Robert Opp said last September. He told CoinDesk the organization is going to utilize the tech also for tracking food deliveries in East Africa and in a educational program for Syrian refugee women in Jordan.

Woman shopping in Vanuatu image via Shutterstock

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Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has erased 40 percent of the sell-off seen in the twelve months to December 2018 and looks set to rise above $10,000.

The leading cryptocurrency by market value rose above $9,740 on Bitstamp earlier today, retracing more than 40 percent of the drop from the record high of $19,666 reached in December 2017 to the low of $3,122 hit in December 2018. The global average price, as calculated by CoinMarketCap, is just $150 away from achieving that milestone.

As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $9,840 on Bitstamp – the highest level since May 2018 – representing 31 percent gains from lows near $7,500 seen on June 10.

It is worth noting that bitcoin’s latest leg higher is a accompanied by a rally in gold prices. The yellow metal has risen from 1,320 to $1,411 over the last ten days.

The positive correlation between the two assets contradicts the divergent price action seen in the preceding seven months.

For instance, BTC fell from $6,200 to levels near $3,100 in four weeks to December 14, 2018. During the same time period, gold went from $1,200 to $1,300 and further extended the rally to $1,346 (Feb. 20 high). By early May, the yellow metal was down 6 percent from February highs, while bitcoin was up 76 percent from December lows.

The change from negative correlation to positive correlation, if sustained, could boost bitcoin’s appeal as digital gold. Many including the likes of Tyler Winklevoss, founder of Winklevoss Capital Management, already consider bitcoin as gold 2.0.

It remains to be seen if the two assets continue to move in the same direction in the near future. That said, technical charts indicate bitcoin is likely to extend its ongoing bullish run to levels above $10,000.

Weekly chart

Bitcoin’s convincing move above the widely tracked 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement hurdle of $9,442 has strengthened the bullish case put forward by the higher lows, higher highs pattern, ascending 5- and 10- week moving averages and Chaikin money flow index, which is currently reporting strongest buying pressure in six months with a reading of 0.35.

As a result, the cryptocurrency looks set to test the next major resistance range marked by the April 2018 high of $9,949 and the psychological resistance of $10,000.

A high-volume weekly close above $10,000 would expose the 50 percent Fibonacci retracement resistance of $11,394.

It is worth noting that the cryptocurrency is up nearly 140 percent on a quarter-to-date basis (from April 1’s opening price). The bulls usually take a breather following such stellar rallies.

So, a sudden correction cannot be ruled out. That said, the outlook would turn bearish only if the price violates the bullish higher lows pattern with a move below $7,500.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing

Bitcoin image via CoinDesk archives; charts by TradingView

Crypto mining hardware giant Bitmain Technologies Ltd. is said to be relaunching its initial public offering (IPO) plans, but this time in the U.S. instead of Hong Kong.

According to a Bloomberg report citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” Bitmain is consulting with advisers over a U.S. public listing, potentially in the second half of 2019. The firm – the world’s biggest manufacturer of crypto mining devices – plans to lodge documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July, according to the sources.

Last September, Bitmain filed to IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), however that effort looked to have met resistance and ultimately the firm let its filing lapse in March.

According to one of Bloomberg’s sources, Bitmain may be reducing its previous fundraising target to roughly $300 million–$500 million in the U.S. offering, although that figure is not yet set in stone. It had hoped to raise up to $3 billion via the HKEX share offering.

Bloomberg adds that the preparations for the U.S. IPO are still in the early stages and are subject to change.

Bitmain declined to comment on the news, according to the report.

Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu image via CoinDesk archives

With the recent unveiling of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency raising regulatory questions, France is forming a task force within the Group of Seven (G7) nations to examine the issues.

Reuters reports Friday, that the governor of the French central bank, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, indicated the crypto task force would be headed by European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure and would look at how cryptocurrencies are regulated to avoid money laundering and other problems.

The move had likely been on the cards, with France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, on Tuesday expressing concerns that Libra might grow to replace traditional currencies, and calling for the G7 central bank governors to prepare a report on Facebook’s project for their July meeting.

“It is out of question’’ that Libra be allowed “become a sovereign currency,” Le Maire said at the time. “It can’t and it must not happen.”

In today’s comments, Villeroy said France aims to be “open to innovation” but firm on regulation.

Facebook for the first time provided concrete details of the Libra project on June 18, publishing a white paper and indicating that it has set up a subsidiary, Calibra, and an independent consortium, Libra Association, to develop and govern the cryptocurrency.

Libra will be a stablecoin pegged to a basket of fiat currencies and government-backed securities, and is initially to be used as a means to transfer money across the globe. Ultimately, an ecosystem of financial services is planned.

Villeroy also said the concept of a stablecoin still needs to be defined for regulators.

Since the unveiling, other regulators, including in the U.S. and the U.K. have also spoken of potential regulatory issues around Libra.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing on July 16 regarding Libra.

German European Parliament member Markus Ferber also called for scrutiny, saying companies “must not be allowed to operate in a regulatory nirvana when introducing virtual currencies.”

The G7 is a group of the wealthiest advanced economies as defined by the IMF. It currently includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. France currently holds the rolling presidency of the group.

Francois Villeroy de Galhau image courtesy Bank of France

Coinmine, a cryptocurrency mining device aimed at the hobbyist market, will now give its users the option to be paid in bitcoin.

The device was able to mine monero, zcash, grin and ethereum at launch, a set of cryptocurrencies that had a low enough difficulty threshold to allow for the average miner to see a minimal return. The addition of bitcoin payouts gives miners more incentive to try the $799 ($699 with a special BTC discount) product.

“To get you the most bitcoin possible from your Coinmine One, we had to engineer MineOS to automatically mine whatever crypto converts to bitcoin at the highest rate and then exchange it to Bitcoin for you and put it in your wallet,” said founder Farbood Nivi. “This way you’re getting way more Bitcoin than if the device was mining Bitcoin directly. ”

The Coinmine box won’t make you a millionaire overnight. Nivi sees it as a testbed and experimental tool for those who want to dip a toe into the mining process. Given the resource requirements of high-stakes mining, however, the Coinmine offers users a less energy-intensive option.

“At today’s numbers, your Coinmine One will generate about $15-20/month of bitcoin in USD prices,” said Nivi. “Of course, that number changes based on the future value of Bitcoin. If the value of Bitcoin appreciates, so will the value of what you made with your Coinmine One.”

Nivi also sees the product as a cheaper and faster way to take part in networks like Lightning.

“The time to build and maintain a comparable device with mining and a Bitcoin Lighting Node is about $400 if your time is worth $20/hour and it takes you 20 hours to research and build the hardware and software,” he said. “The parts for a miner and a Bitcoin Lightning Node could cost you $500 easily. That’s $900, and you still would have to control your DIY device from a command line with a monitor and keyboard instead of an app you can just tap on.”

Coinmine is rolling out the BTC update today and users will be able to mine and even “put their crypto to work,” said Nivi.

“We’re also partnering with services like Compound Finance, Cred, and Blockfi so you can put your crypto to work and earn a return on the crypto that your Coinmine makes. We call it Compound Mining. All of this is possible because of MineOS,” he said.

Image via Coinmine

The NEM blockchain project is launching a development studio to support its move towards a major protocol upgrade later in 2019.

According to a press release emailed to CoinDesk, the new NEM Studios is being created by NEM Holdings, the non-profit holding company of NEM Ventures, and the NEM Foundation to help with strategy and backend development for NEM’s planned “Catapult” protocol upgrade.

Catapult is aimed to provide enterprises with a “high speed, configurable and scalable blockchain solution,” the release states.

NEM Studios’ development activities are to be funded by NEM Core, and is now seeking to hire a CTO and a development team to assist with building the Catapult Core protocol and API layer. Chair and trustee of NEM Holdings and chair of the investment committee for NEM Ventures David Shaw – who also advises the Catapult project– will lead NEM Studios as director.

A steering committee comprised of David Shaw, NEM Foundation President Alexandra Tinsman, and Nate D’Amico from NEM’s Project Management Committee will lead the “go-to-market” strategy for the upgrade.

Shaw said:

“We are thrilled to be creating a dedicated team to bring Catapult to life this year and support its development into the future. We will be looking to recruit the best in the business, with deep technology experience, and look forward to creating a more effective and scalable ecosystem for our community.”

Catapult is planned to become the core NEM code supporting both private and public blockchains. As per the press release, it will include smart contract plug-ins allowing a range of capabilities such as digital asset creation, decentralized swaps, advanced account systems and business logic modeling.

The news comes soon the NEM Foundation was forced to make major staffing cutbacks following a shortfall in its finances. Tinsman confirmed in March that the foundation had laid off about 100 people – a mix of consultants and full-time staffers – over a period of a month.

The project was also forced to request that around $8 million of NEM reserves be released in stages to support its continued operations.

Tinsman had told CoinDesk in January that the funding issues were down to “the mismanagement of the previous governance council.”

NEM conference booth image courtesy of NEM Foundation