1.Storiqa Releases New Crypto Wallet With BTC, ETH and STQ Support
2.Cryptocurrencies in India legal, regulation in final stages, reveals RTI query
3.Iran soon to unveil cryptocurrency with aim to skirt US and SWIFT
1.Storiqa Releases New Crypto Wallet With BTC, ETH and STQ Support
Storiqa (STQ), a blockchain-driven marketplace platform, recently launched its standalone crypto wallet app, Ture, with support for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and STQ.
Ture wallet is a payment application that allows transactions between its users with zero fees. Users can leverage the wallet for budgeting and all transactions come without additional gas or fees. Storiqa also claims transactions are near instantaneous.
“Ture is a synonym for pretty, amazing, awesome. The chosen name emphasizes that we want to astonish people with simplified crypto payments,” added Storiqa CEO Andrian Galkin. “We intend to develop this idea further and make TURE Wallet usable outside Storiqa ecosystem. Just imagine yourself paying for coffee with a crypto wallet. We plan to integrate fiat currencies for crypto-fiat transactions and add more currencies.”
The launch of Ture comes as other major mobile wallets begin to hit their stride. Most notably, Trust Wallet, a crypto wallet that supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and over 20,000 different Ethereum-based tokens, recently revealed that it will become the first native wallet for the upcoming Binance DEX while also supporting the new native Binance Coin (BNB) on the Binance Chain.
The Ture wallet app is now available for download on iOS with plans to launch on Android in the future.
2.Cryptocurrencies in India legal, regulation in final stages, reveals RTI query
The Indian government is in the final stages of formulating regulations on cryptocurrencies, according to an RTI response from the Department of Economic Affairs.
The response was with regard to the RTI filed by Coin Crunch India on December 13, 2018, asking whether the panel on cryptocurrency has recommended a ban on Bitcoin and if they have submitted the report to the Ministry of Finance.
“The report of the Committee is in the finalisation stage, hence, prohibited under section 8(3) of RTI Act, 2005,” the ministry said in its response.Amid rumours that the government may term cryptocurrencies as ‘illegal’ in India, the response suggests that the government is still working on its report.
The government had set-up a panel in December 2017 headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, to examine a framework for regulating cryptocurrencies. Other members of the panel include Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman Ajay Tyagi and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor BP Kanungo.
3.Iran soon to unveil cryptocurrency with aim to skirt US and SWIFT
Iran could unveil its state-backed cryptocurrency at the Electronic Banking and Payment Systems conference in Tehran this week, local English-language news outlet Al Jazeera reported on Jan. 27.
Iran, which has faced fresh sanctions from the United States since November, had previously planned to use blockchain-based financial tools as a way of sidestepping restrictions on its economic growth.
Though a central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC), which could be a rial-backed crypto, it was thought Tehran could forge an alternative to SWIFT, the global settlements system that some Iranian banks cannot access.
Sources remain unsure whether such a large-scale implementation will occur, but more localized uses for the digital currency, such as consumer payments, is likely an option.
“They certainly can’t replace the likes of bitcoin due to their centralised nature, but their existence is harmless,” Yashar Rashedi, a blockchain developer at Iranian firm Radfa, told Al Jazeera. Rashedi added:“Even as [CBDCs] may never find widespread everyday use among the general public, they may be able to offer some new features to startups and developers that had to work with centralised bank APIs before them.”
According to a signatory of the recent Chainpoint blockchain agreement between Iran, Russia and Armenia, the former is already developing a blockchain-based method to replace SWIFT.
“According to our information, an active development of an Iranian version of SWIFT is currently underway,” Yuri Pripachkin, head of the Russian Association of Crypto-Industry and Blockchain said, quoted by Al Jazeera.
In December, U.S. lawmakers warned they would likewise sanction any form of the crypto-rial.
