On Sept. 5, Houbi Group, the parent company of both Huobi University and Huobi exchange, announced what the firm describes as its “first formal collaboration with a Western university.”
Huobi University, the research and education arm of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, announced its collaboration with the University of Gibraltar on various blockchain initiatives.
As Cointelegraph reported in October 2018, the Government of Gibraltar in collaboration with the University of Gibraltar have created an advisory group focused on the development of blockchain-related educational courses.
An official partnership
Per the release, Gibraltar’s Minister for Commerce Albert Isola signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the university, formally launching the collaboration. President of Huobi University Jianing Yu – who also signed the document – commented on the development:
“We are very excited at the prospect of future collaborations between Huobi University and the University of Gibraltar, particularly as a means of accelerating the establishment of high quality blockchain-focused educational initiatives. … Both parties share an ambition to promote high level academic research around the burgeoning DLT landscape, and I look forward to seeing this vision take shape.”
Sharing the innovations
Yu also explained that he is looking forward to the initiative resulting in the mutual sharing of blockchain progress between China and the West. The press release also states that such collaborations could potentially include various academic programs, research projects, and short courses.
Examples of subjects cited by Yu include distributed business models, digital asset investment and wealth management, blockchain interfacing with 5G and Internet of Things, and blockchain application in different fields. Lastly, the company notes that in the future it plans to launch a series of English-oriented courses for entrepreneurs and investors around the world.
As Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 28, a new research conducted by major cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase shows that 56% of the top 50 universities in the world offer one or more classes on cryptocurrency or blockchain tech.
Huobi’s Blockchain Phone to Launch in Southeast Asia Next Week
Chinese crypto exchange Huobi plans to launch its blockchain-powered smartphone Acute Angle in Southeast Asia next week.
Official launch is coming next week
Huobi’s new blockchain phone was already available to some users in China, but the actual launch is scheduled for next week as part of the sixth Huobi Prime launch, according to a Finance Magnates report on Sept. 3.
Priced at around $500, Acute Angle smartphone can be purchased with the exchange’s native Huobi Token (HT).
The new Android-based blockchain phone has reportedly been developed in collaboration with Huobi’s project Whole Network. The product is planned for distribution across Southeast Asia by the end of 2019, the report notes. Huobi is also planning to expand its new product to Europe and the United States if the launch is successful.
Livio Weng, CEO at Huobi Global, stated that blockchain phones are a promising direction for future blockchain industry development, stressing that similar initiatives will only grow in the future.
“As the industry develops and as innovations like 5G become increasingly integrated into our telecommunications systems, we believe more and more crypto communities will want to trade and transact from mobile devices.”
Whole Network (NODE) launch
The news comes amid Huobi’s release of its sixth Huobi Prime project, Whole Network (Node) on Sept. 3. According to the announcement, Huobi Global will launch the project on Sept. 11, 2019.
In the introduction to the project published on Sept. 1, Huobi wrote that Whole Network will be based on the value generated by user behavior, with the help of hardware terminals and user behavior incentives in order to build a «behavioral value» network. Per the announcement, Node’s total supply will be limited to 10 billion tokens, while total prime release will account for 7.5% of total tokens.
Huobi’s ‘Regulator-Friendly’ Blockchain Goes Open Source
Huobi Chain, the regulator-facing public blockchain of exchange Huobi Group, is now open source and publicly available to all developers on GitHub, the firm said Tuesday.
Nervos, a blockchain development startup, is providing part of the technical infrastructure for the project.
The firms are developing pluggable components for the network that could enable regulators to supervise contract deployments, asset holdings and transfers, as well as the enforcement of anti money laundering regulations, Bo Wang, a Nervos researcher, told CoinDesk.
The components will also allow financial institutions, such as banks and regulatory agencies, to freeze assets and accounts in case of emergencies via sidechains, according to Wang.
“Supervision nodes will enable regulators to independently run and maintain nodes, extract data, and participate in the ecosystem’s supervision”, he said, noting Huobi Chain will also provide tools for pre-deployment audits and continuous tracking.
Huobi Chain unveiled the public blockchain in July in partnership with blockchain startup Nervos. It can be used for financial services and applications, including lending, debit services, stablecoins, security token offerings, exchanges and payment services, the company said.
The firm has touted the network as the first financial public chain to support nodes that let regulators contribute to the network as validators.
Huobi Group founder and CEO Leon Li said in today’s announcement:
“If major banks and financial institutions are to fully embrace and adopt permissionless blockchain technology, we need to create a safe and secure environment that makes it easier for them to transition their products and services to the blockchain.”
Nervos is also working with financial giant China Merchants Bank to develop its decentralized finance applications. The blockchain firm completed its $72 million token sale last week, and will launch its Lina mainnet on Nov. 16.
