Fintech Daily Digest

The total funds raised by IEO projects globally, since inception, stands at over $1.6 billion dollars with an overwhelming majority of these funds, ~1.4 billion being raised in 2019.

The total number of active correspondent banking relationships and active corridors continues to decline. The year 2018 saw declines in active relationships and corridors of about 3.5% and 2%, respectively. Over the last seven years, active relationships in the global correspondent banking network have declined by about 20% and the number of active corridors has fallen by roughly 10%.

Bitcoin is on track to post its second-highest quarterly gain since 2014. With custodial solutions, exchanges, and institutional trading platforms all reporting an uptick in volume, has institutional capital arrived?

At the interface between the digital (online) and physical (offline) world, the usefulness of Blockchain technology depends on intermediaries to effectively bridge "the last mile" between a digital record and physical assets, businesses, devices or events.

Blockchain firms supporting development pilots are not practicing what they preach - improving transparency - by sharing data and lessons learned about what is working, what isn't working, and why.

In its terms of service, Tether says it "reserves the right to delay redemption or withdrawal" of tether in the event of illiquidity. The company also says that it reserves the right to pay you "in-kind redemption of securities and other assets" held in its reserves.

Whatever happened to Woolf University's plan to provide higher education on the blockchain, with everyone paying and getting paid in WOOLF tickets? Woolf's home page is now devoid of the word "blockchain" and the ICO white paper and info on the token sale have also disappeared...

Two bitcoin cash mining pools carried out a 51% attack on the blockchain in an effort to reverse another miner's transactions aimed at taking coins that they weren't supposed to have access to in the wake of the May 15 BCH network hard fork.

Microsoft's Project ION (Identity Overlay Network) will allow users to mint decentralized digital identities, which aim to act as an immutable replacement for email addresses and usernames, and potentially a vault for sensitive personal data. These identities will be used to seamlessly access online applications without the need to indiscriminately surrender personal data. They could also be used in real-life applications by allowing doctors to cryptographically verify the medical details of patients, or university students to verify their qualifications. To scale to the capacity needed, Microsoft has built Project ION as a Layer 2 network, similar to Lightning but with no tokens and no signatories. Using the underlying protocol Sidetree, ION batches transactions and anchors them with a single hash, increasing efficiency and pushing fees down to what would be just a "rounding error" to Microsoft.

If you are a gift-giving foundation, foreign ministry or development advisor, could sending your aid via Bitcoin be a better way? Bitcoin's peer-to-peer digital payments network could be the future of humanitarian aid.

As more people and places say 'No' to cash, apps like Venmo and Zelle are emerging as the new dominant payment methods in the United States.

A year and a half after cryptocurrency investors started touting the benefits of turning traditional investments into digital "security tokens," progress has stalled.

Facebook plans to test its GlobalCoin crypto-currency and digital payments system by the end of 2019 and launch in about a dozen countries by Q1 2020. Facebook is expected to outline plans in more detail this summer, and has already spoken to Bank of England governor Mark Carney and US Treasury officials about operational and regulatory issues. The firm is also in talks with money transfer firms including Western Union.

AT&T will now accept online bill payments through crypto payment processor. AT&T becomes the first major U.S. mobile carrier to provide a crypto payment option to customers.

The Bank of Russia will review a proposal to create a gold-backed cryptocurrency, which could be used for mutual settlements with other countries, Governor of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said on May 22. More: http://tass.com/economy/1059727"

Mastercard has introduced its Innovation Engine, an API based plug-and-play digital platform that enables issuers and merchants a simplified path to rapidly deploying digital capabilities and experiences to their customers. It will deliver unique and digitally integrated solutions and consumer experiences through a single connection.

Suncorp ran Watson silently alongside its consultants for six months, with the AI returning the most accurate insurance claims assessments.

This paper discusses potential strengths and weaknesses of ML-based credit assessment

Coin Metrics has released a report detailing discrepancies in Ripple's escrow reporting system. The Blockchain analysis firm described these discrepancies as contradictions that required some explanation.

Coinbase Commerce, the crypto exchange's zero transaction fee merchants payments offering, has added support USD Coin. Merchants can accept It without geographical limitations or the need for a traditional bank account.