WiV Technology enables clients to trade bottles and cases of premium wine, with the origin, quality and value of assets certified on a constantly updated blockchain.
A blockchain-based fine wine investment trading platform has selected Big Four auditing firm EY to provide technology services as its development continues.
In a news release on Aug. 12, EY said that wine will be tokenized through the use of non-fungible ERC-721 tokens on the platform.
Saving cost and time
Smart contracts are used to track wine ownership and transaction history, and the properties of every wine case are stored as detailed metadata.
The wine is secured in a bonded warehouse, and it is believed investors will be able to trade and sell these assets “at a fraction of the cost and time required previously.” Tommy Nordam Jensen, the CEO and founder of WiV Technology, said:
“Fine wine is a fully tradeable asset, and it is vitally important that provenance is protected, because provenance is the only way to prove a wine’s true value without actually opening the bottle. Currently, many wine trades often slow to a crawl because the extensive paper trails must be manually checked at every step of the process, massively reducing the potential size of the market.”
In May, EY also began providing its proprietary blockchain solution for a major new platform helping Asian consumers determine the quality, provenance and authenticity of imported European wines.
EY Launches Blockchain Tool to Help Bring Accountability to Public Finances
Professional services giant EY (Ernst Young) is using blockchain tech to assist governments in improving transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.
The firm, one of the Big Four accounting firms, announced the news Wednesday, saying its new “blockchain-enabled” EY OpsChain Public Finance Manager will compare government spending programs with the results of the expenditure, even when the money has passed through different layers of government and public service agencies.
It’s claimed to track finances in real time and “create a single source of integrated financial and nonfinancial performance information to support decision-making.”
Mark MacDonald, EY’s lead of Global Public Finance Management, said in the announcement that transparency, accountability and sound evidence for decision-making are vital in managing public funds. The firm’s new tool is aimed to help those in charge of public finances to “assess and improve” their systems, he added.
The product has already been trialed around the world, the firm said, citing one pilot in Toronto where the city used the finance manager solution to track how reconciliations and fund transfers between departments are managed.
The system is built on EY OpsChain, a blockchain platform launched in its second iteration in April with claimed support for up to 20 million transactions per day over private networks. The firm is eyeing a range of use cases for the blockchain platform generally, including in healthcare, the food industry, supply chain and financial management.
South Korean Crypto Projects Look to Leave the Country
The number of South Korean digital currency projects leaving the country to list their products on foreign exchanges is increasing, experts say.
South Korean news outlet Business Korea reported on Aug. 19, that industry experts have noticed a surge in cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused projects seeking to list their early-stage products on overseas platforms.
Experts define reasons behind projects’ departure
Experts named several key reasons that local projects are leaving, including stricter domestic cryptocurrency exchange market conditions, wherein investors are not able to make or withdraw deposits in the Korean won on Korean exchanges. Another reason named is low transaction volume.
According to experts, about 200 smaller exchanges cannot open real-name virtual accounts, and 97% of local exchanges are in danger of going bankrupt due to low transaction volume.
New norms for cryptocurrency exchanges
In late July, Cointelegraph reported that South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone and Korbit will have to comply with new, stricter norms to successfully renew their banking partnerships following the FATF guidance released in June.
The new FATF guidance has invited criticism from privacy advocates in the industry. One aspect that received particular vitriol was the travel rule, which requires that virtual asset service providers collect and transfer customer information during transactions.
In August, the Financial Intelligence Unit of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission revealed plans to bring cryptocurrency exchanges under its direct regulation. The South Korean government plans to introduce a crypto exchange licensing system, as recommended by the FATF. This will purportedly enhance the transparency of cryptocurrency transactions.
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