Bithumb’s Burrito Wallet holds Partners Day 2024

BNP Paribas Partners With Chinese in Digital Yuan PushThe Chinese authorities continue with their sustained efforts to promote use of the digital yuan, on this occasion by hooking up with French international banking group, BNP Paribas.According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Friday, the partnership will see BNP Paribas collaborating with the Bank of China (BOC) to promote the digital yuan to its corporate clients. The digital yuan or e-CNY is a digital representation of the Chinese sovereign currency, issued by the BOC.Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplashe-CNY system accessAs part of the arrangement, BNP Paribas China will connect into the BOCs system, accessing an e-CNY management system. The BOC has authorized ten banks in China including the four state-owned banks, all of which are domestic lenders, to deal with its digital currency business.The direct e-CNY system access enables straight-through processing, allowing BNP Paribas to offer digital wallet functionality to its corporate clients relative to the digital yuan. Essentially, the system will allow BNP Paribas China’s corporate clients to link their bank accounts with an accompanying digital wallet. Other functionality that will be enabled as a consequence includes access to smart contract applications through the m-CBDC bridge (central bank digital currency).BNP Paribas China CEO CG Lai commented on the partnership: “While this collaboration can supplement the Bank’s offline payment collection capabilities and further optimize our clients’ account structure, this also reinforced the Bank’s commitment to the China market.” Lai outlined that the bank intends to enhance customer service capabilities by pursuing digital innovation that, like in this instance, contributes to China’s economic development.Louise Zhang, Head of BNP Paribas China Transaction Banking claimed that the partnership will “provide innovative, efficient cash management and trade financing services to local and multinational clients.”CBDC developmentThere has been a lot of activity in recent years when it comes to the development of CBDCs. The central banks of most nations have carried out some level of preparatory or investigative work relative to a digital currency. However, China has been by far the leader in its development of a CBDC.The BOC first began research into a digital currency in 2014. The country’s State Council approved the development of the digital yuan in partnership with China’s commercial banks in 2017. Beyond initial development, a testing phase began in 2019 with the project known as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) system emerging as the first version of the digital yuan after a number of years of development.In 2020, the BOC began more extensive testing of the digital currency in four Chinese cities — Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’an. To promote use of the currency at that time, they offered free digital yuan to residents of those cities to spend, in that way, stepping up efforts to popularize the digital currency.Last month, the administrators of the Chinese city of Xuzhou announced that it was in the process of publishing a pilot scheme which will set out a means for promoting China’s e-CNY digital currency. Also in April, the eastern city of Changshu clarified that it is gearing up to commence paying state employees in the city in e-CNY. According to an announcement made by the city’s finance bureau the civil servants will start to receive e-CNY as payment in May.

India’s Jio Financial Services to Delve Into BlockchainJio Financial Services (JFS), a subsidiary of Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL), is gearing up to venture further into the realm of blockchain and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to announcements made by Indian billionaire businessman and Reliance Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani, during RIL’s 46th annual general meeting on Monday.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashBlockchain ambitionsThe Indian billionaire revealed his Web3-related plans, signaling a strategic move for JFS towards blockchain and centralized digital currencies. While addressing the AGM, Ambani emphasized his current caution regarding highly volatile crypto assets. However, he indicated that he aims to have Jio Financial delve deeper into blockchain technology and permissioned digital currencies, particularly the eRupee CBDC, which is undergoing advanced trials within India.JFS will serve as the entry point for Reliance Industries into the Web3 sector. Formerly known as Reliance Strategic Investments, JFS has been rebranded and will now facilitate management services for digital assets.Consolidating payment infrastructureAmbani’s vision for JFS encompasses the consolidation of payment infrastructure, a strategic effort to drive digital adoption throughout India. JFS hit the headlines in July when it was revealed that it was forging a major partnership with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, valued at over $100 billion as of August 18.Ambani’s statement during the RIL annual general meeting highlighted JFS’s objectives: “JFS will consolidate its payment infrastructure further driving digital adoption for India. JFS products will explore pathbreaking features such as blockchain-based platforms and CBDC.”CBDC development has been ongoing through initiatives taken by central banks around the world over the past couple of years. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been no slouch in this respect. It is actively engaged in developing its own CBDC, aiming to modernize online payment systems while reducing reliance on physical cash, thereby optimizing operational efficiency.In July, the RBI turned its attention to the cross-border functionality aspect of CBDCs, experimenting with various use cases relative to international payments. At a governmental level, India is also playing a key role in working towards global regulatory standards for cryptocurrencies. The RBI has contributed to the discussion, citing risks associated with stablecoins in a Financial Stability Report released in June and calling for global regulation.RIL CBDC initiativesNotably, Reliance General Insurance recently announced its acceptance of the eRupee CBDC for premium payments, and earlier this year, Reliance Retail initiated the use of India’s digital rupee CBDC across its Mumbai-based stores. The CBDC is anticipated to outperform India’s successful Unified Payments Interface (UPI) mobile payments system, according to V Subramaniam, Managing Director at Reliance Retail.Ambani’s RIL empire encompasses a diverse range of businesses, including Jio’s network services, retail stores, and fuel stations. Mukesh Ambani’s move to embrace blockchain and CBDCs will likely have broader implications beyond his own companies, given that it signals his intention to drive India’s digital transformation forward.

Socket, a cross-chain infrastructure protocol, and its interoperability bridging platform, Bungee, have restarted operations following a temporary pause prompted by an exploit that led to the apparent theft of $3.3 million.Photo by Anna Tarazevich on PexelsSecurity incidentTaking to the company’s Discord, Socket team hospitality lead Taylor Melvin clarified that it had “experienced a security incident which affected wallets with infinite approvals to Socket contracts.” The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, involved an unknown attacker draining millions worth of stablecoins and other tokens from the Bungee bridging aggregator. The attackers targeted wallets with infinite approvals to Socket contracts, exploiting authorizations for blockchain-based tools that allow applications to access tokens in a user's wallet. Security researcher "@speekaway" was the first to flag the exploit on Tuesday. The attacker's wallet, connected to the exploit, held nearly $3 million in ether (ETH) and $300,000 worth of other tokens. By 2:47 p.m. ET, the attack seemed to have ceased, with the researcher recommending users to revoke approvals for Socket to safeguard their assets. Pausing contractsIn response to the security breach, Socket announced the pause of affected contracts on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. ET. The project's team promptly identified and addressed the issue, taking swift action to mitigate the exploit's impact. @speekaway chimed back in once contracts had been paused, writing:”Think this pause fixed it, very likely no more attacks are possible. So if you are currently freaking out about revoking you can probably relax.” Normal service returnsAs Socket paused activity during the incident, preventing further propagation of the attack, developers worked to fix the issue. Early Wednesday, Socket developers announced that the problem had been resolved, and normal activities had resumed. The team also stated that plans for compensation were in progress. Cross-chain bridges, like Socket's Bungee, facilitate token transfers between different blockchains but remain susceptible to exploitation. Blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield confirmed that at least $3.3 million had been lost, highlighting the need for enhanced security measures in the rapidly evolving blockchain ecosystem. The exploit involved the exploitation of a recently added route, which has since been disabled. The attacker targeted users who had over-approved Socket, draining funds up to the limit of their approval. This incident follows the $81 million hack of Orbit Chain, a cross-chain bridge connecting Ethereum to other networks, earlier in January. Cross-chain tools' complexity contributes to the frequency of such attacks, emphasizing the importance of understanding the security measures in place when utilizing these bridges. In a message to CoinDesk, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, emphasized the need for users to scrutinize the security of their chosen bridge, considering the various levels of cross-chain security. With the complexities involved, users are encouraged to be vigilant and informed about the security spectrum of the bridges they employ. Socket was founded by Indian duo Rishabh Khurana and Vaibhav Chellani. In September, the company raised $5 million, with funding coming from Framework Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.