Enterprise blockchain builder Digital Asset has seen yet more departures.

First, Sofus Mortensen, product manager for DAML, DA’s open source smart contract programming language, has left the company. DAML or Digital Asset Modelling Language is an important part of DA’s strategy to spread its technology beyond the closed proprietary implementations the firm is working on with the likes of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Mortensen returned to the banking arena, joining Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, as head of architecture and markets IT, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to spending almost two years with DA, he was a chief quant at another Nordic institution, Nordea for close to eight years.

In addition, Sallie L. Krawcheck, CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, and one of the most notable women in financial services, has quietly left the board of DA. Her name was removed from the company’s website a few weeks ago.

Krawcheck joined the DA board almost exactly three years ago, saying at the time that distributed ledger technology (DLT) offered “a once in a generation opportunity to strengthen financial services as a whole.”

Neither executive responded to requests for comment by press time. DA declined to comment.

One of a handful of big enterprise blockchain providers, DA has seen a steady exodus of executives since its iconic leader Blythe Masters suddenly departed the company last December.

Last month saw the departure of Gavin Wells, head of Europe, whose client-facing responsibilities were taken over by Oliver Hugh-Jones, head of business development for Europe.

Also in February, James Powell, CIO and CTO of engineering at Digital Asset, left the software company. Powell’s responsibilities at DA were assumed by Shaul Kfir, the CTO of architecture and a member of the founding team.

The 175-employee DA has also been hiring, however. Zohar Hod, a trading technology veteran, was brought in as its chief strategy officer, coinciding with Powell’s departure. Hod reports to co-founder and chief operating officer Yuval Rooz.

DA is busy replacing the ASX’s CHESS clearing and settlement system. Although the deadline for that project has been pushed back to early 2021, ASX told CoinDesk in an interview last year that Masters’ departure would not affect its timeline.

Sallie Krawcheck image via TechCrunch.

Investors and developers who contribute to the ethereum-based programmatic lending protocol MakerDAO are debating a fourth increase to the amount charged to users of its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin DAI.

As a result of persistent imbalances in the token’s supply and demand since February, DAI has been trading below $1 on exchanges – hitting lows of $0.96 on major cryptocurrency exchange platforms such as Coinbase.

Issued via an open-source software, DAI uses what is known as a“Stability Fee” that charges an outstanding fee proportional to the amount of DAI being returned by the user. The fee can be paid in either MKR tokens or DAI. Holders of MKR, however, also participate in decision-making on how the protocol that produces DAI should function and “stake” their tokens in votes.

MKR holders have ratified three different proposals to raise this fee incrementally in the past few weeks. The last increase, executed on Friday, was by far the largest in the history of the project, raising the Stability Fee to 3.5 percent and prompting some concerns about whether the MakerDAO protocol can support a stable cryptocurrency.

In a weekly governance meeting today, risk management lead at the MakerDAO Foundation Cyrus Younessi noted that DAI prices as a result of Friday’s fee hike were “trending in the general right direction pointing to a chart depicting DAI market value weighted across “several different cryptocurrency exchanges.”

Source: https://dai.stablecoin.science/

However, pointing out that over-the-counter trades of DAI have been unaffected by this fee hike and persist well below the dollar mark, cryptocurrency trader and partner at blockchain-focused VC fund Distributed Capital Partners, Joseph Quintillian, said:

“I’m not seeing good trades above one or even close to $1 … We’re kind of in this $0.95 to $0.99 [over-the-counter range] but nothing over $0.99 yet.”

Echoing this sentiment, head of research at crypto asset manager Wyre Capital, Louis Aboud-Hogben, also said during today’s governance meeting that while “spot prices have moved up a bit … we haven’t been able to clear any trades.”

Aboud-Hogben added:

“It’s important we don’t get lured into a false sense of security here.”

As such, founder of the MakerDAO Foundation Rune Christensen was of the mindset that stronger, more pointed action was warranted by MakerDAO token holders.

“If we’ve seen no effect, I’m of the opinion that we should do a 4 percent increase,” said Christensen, adding that former Stability Fee increases thus far have had only “superficial effects on markets.”

Wanting to move ahead with some sort of actionable vote “as soon as possible,” Christensen suggested a vote for a more measured increase of 2 percent from the current 3.5 percent. The suggestion, however, was regarded as too hasty by some community members.

Pushing back on setting “arbitrary” numerical values to the next potential fee hike without proper data analysis, Richard Brown – head of core community at the MakerDAO Foundation – directed the discussion to be further debated on the community Reddit channel.

“Let’s make sure this debate doesn’t peeter out and that it continues on our Reddit channel … [Our decision] needs to be scientifically-based,” emphasized Brown.

Cyrus Younessi at a former MakerDAO Scientific Governance and Risk Meeting via YouTube

The Bitfury Group has partnered with business payments processor HadePay to bring lightning network-based bitcoin payments to merchants in the U.S., Canada and the EU.

Bitfury announced Thursday that it has integrated its web-based lightning network Peach Merchant API (application programming interface) with HadePay’s platform, allowing businesses to accept payments over the lightning network and “improving the efficiency and lowering the costs” of bitcoin transactions.

After payment is made, merchants can “immediately” convert bitcoins into another currency through HadePay’s platform, Bitfury said.

“By bringing the Lightning Network to HadePay’s payment processing platform, we are making it easier for businesses across the United States to accept bitcoin payments,” said Pavel Prikhodko, head of Lightning Peach, Bitfury’s team of lightning network developers.

Bitcoin payments via HadePay are now available in all 50 U.S. states, Bitfury added.

HadePay runs on a hybrid model, processing both fiat and blockchain payments. The platform can also be used by merchants around the world to accept payments through PayPal, Apple Pay, Square and more.

HadePay CEO and founder Brian Nichols said:

“Bitcoin has always been a good low-cost alternative to fiat payments, but with this integration Bitcoin payments are now equally convenient as our fiat payment processing services, thereby paving the way for mass adoption in commerce.”

It’s worth noting that the lightning network, a second-layer scalability protocol that operates on top of the bitcoin blockchain, is still a beta project (several projects, actually) with some risks attached to its use. Its several iterations continue to develop and see support from the community, however.

Some big name firms and individuals have been supporting the technology in an ongoing experiment known as the Lightning Torch, with financial services giant Fidelity Investments, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey all recently taking part.

Bitfury image via CoinDesk archives 

Court clerks across France will soon be recording changes in companies’ legal status on a Hyperledger blockchain built by IBM.

The National Council of Clerks (NCC) project has already undergone tests involving four court clerks and IT providers, IBM said Thursday, and the system is planned to go into full-scale production in the first half of 2019. The goal is to allow clerks in commercial courts who maintain the country’s Register of Commerce and Companies do their job better and faster.

The clerks will use the system to share regulatory information about the difficulties companies experience, as well as changes in their status, like a change of court office in which a company is registered, name changes, and new branch office openings. When this information needs to be updated, the process can involve multiple regions, so that local registries need to coordinate, and here is where the “single source of truth” afforded by blockchain tech can help.

In a pilot, IBM said, making an update to the registry took one day instead of several days. While enhancing the speed and transparency of the system, the technology can also make the French Commercial and Corporate Registry a technological leader in the European Union, IBM believes.

“This initiative is a first in the justice sector in France and is a perfect example of blockchain’s role in helping regulated professions as they transform,” Vincent Fournier, senior manager for blockchain at IBM France, said in a press release. “Blockchain’s qualities are ideal for this use, improving the clerks’ business processes and adapting to the ever-changing nature of their missions.”

Sophie Jonval, president of the NCC, said the project responds to “the expectations and requirements of today’s multipolar and interconnected economic world,” adding:

“We must be both pragmatic and at the forefront of progress on a technology such as blockchain. The latter represents a major potential technology for our profession and for the modernization of the tools of Commercial Justice, reflecting our status, our mission and our professional rules.”

Image of the French court via Shutterstock 

Bolsa de Madrid (BME), Spain’s largest stock exchange, said it expects to go live by year-end with a blockchain-based system for certifying collateral pledges after testing the technology.

The test “has shown a reduction in the total times of end-to-end processes exceeding 80 percent,” BME said Thursday, as well as the potential to radically improve the participants’ operational and risk management. The system allows market participants to avoid exchanging paper certificates and monitor the process in real time, the exchange said.

The proof of concept (PoC) was developed by BME’s own distributed ledger technology division DLT-Lab, in collaboration with regulators and other financial institutions, BME said, including BME subsidiary BME Clearing; the Spanish central securities depository IBERCLEAR; and investment bank Renta 4 Banco, which pledged collateral to cover customers’ positions.

“DLT technology allows us to reduce times drastically and improve the operation and control of the system, providing legal certainty for electronically generated certificates and maintaining privacy and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation,” Berta Ares, head of digital transformation at BME, said in the press release.

Teresa Sánchez Alonso, head of IT systems at Renta 4 Banco, added that “this innovation project is aligned with the strategy of digitization, automation and continuous improvement of Renta 4 Banco’s customer service.”

This is not the first time BME has dipped its toe into the blockchain world: last summer it contributed to a joint pilot project of several Spanish banks named Fast Track Listing (FTL).

The pilot, testing blockchain tech for registering stock warrant issuances, also included institutions such as the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Banco Santander, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Commerzbank and Société Générale.

Image of Bolsa de Madrid via Shutterstock 

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, has called for an exploration to see if blockchain can make the U.S. government more efficient and transparent.

In a speech before the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress on Tuesday, McCarthy said that blockchain is “revolutionizing” the security of the financial industry and that it can also help transform the “transparency of our own legislative process.”

“Why would we wait around and why wouldn’t we institute blockchain on our own?” he asked, adding:

“As technology continues to change our life, let’s make sure Congress has the same ability to do it … to make this place more effective, more efficient, and most importantly more accountable.”

McCarthy also gave a couple of examples of how embracing innovative technologies through passing new legislation in the past has helped improve government processes.

Such bills, he said, include the Tested Ability to Leverage Exceptional National Talent Act (TALENT) Act, establishing a bug bounty program for the Department of Homeland Security through the Strengthening and Enhancing Cyber-capabilities by Utilizing Risk Exposure Technology Act, and the Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses Act.

“So as technology continues to change our life, let’s make sure Congress has the same ability to do it,” McCarthy said, concluding:

“What I’m looking for is building greater confidence in the institution that we have – utilizing the 21st century technology to make us more customer friendly but at the same time give us greater information that can hold us accountable in this process.”

Last July, McCarthy, along with a group of U.S. lawmakers, also proposed the creation of a blockchain pilot as part of a wider effort to combat infectious fungal diseases.

Kevin McCarthy image via Shutterstock