Ethereum Watch

Wall Street Journal Completes Study on Over 1,000 ICOs, Finding Almost 20 Percent Had Red Flags

The Wall Street Journal just concluded a study of 1,450 ICO sites and projects. In that study, the WSJ found that 271 of them have red flags indicating the project may be fraudulent — including guaranteed high-rate returns, and celebrity endorsements, plagiarized texts, and/or stock images used for team members and or investors. 111 ICOs were found to have plagiarized entire sections of company white papers.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Building a Blockchain Securities Lending Platform

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) is building a blockchain securities lending (BSL) platform with the help of Accenture, Intel, and The Floor, an Israeli fintech hub. According to CoinDesk, the TASE intends for the platform to be a “one-stop-shop for all securities lending activities, permitting access to larger securities volumes within shorter time-frames, even operating in shorter-term positions.” The BSL platform, using the technology from Hyperledger’s Sawtooth, will almost certainly reduce costs, while increasing security and flexibility for lending activities.

United Nations Development Programme To Provide Moldovan University With Cryptocurrency-Funded Solar Energy

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will launch a program that aims to power the Technical University of Moldova, one of the country’s largest universities, with cryptocurrency-funded solar energy. According to Reuters, the country imports three-quarters of its energy while its energy prices have increased by more than 50 percent over the past five years. The UNDP will collaborate with Sun Exchange, a South African solar power marketplace, to allow people to buy solar cells using a cryptocurrency from ElectriCChain called SolarCoin. The UNDP or one of its collaborators will then lease the solar cells to the Technical University of Moldova.