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• Millions of people use public transport, ride-sharing services, e-bikes and e-scooters every day and reduce their environmental impact. VeChain’s blockchain tool ReCircleRewards now creates the technical basis for such behavior to be rewarded in the future.
• VeChain has long been promoting personal environmental protection in everyday life. The new ReCircleRewards application measures and verifies environmental impact Everyday mobility based on submitted receipts, the data of which is scanned and processed via blockchain.

Vechain’s new ReCircleRewards system consists, among other things, of a multi-stage verification process that checks submitted transport documents. Participants can upload screenshots, PDFs and email tickets etc., regardless of how different layouts, languages ​​and regional standards may be. An OCR scan, followed by a standardization process, brings diversity into a uniform format.

Verification through plausibility checks

An integrated duplicate check prevents the same trip from being submitted multiple times. In addition, cross-field validation checks whether information such as date, route, price and provider fit together logically.

This technical framework is intended to ensure that the mobility data generated is trustworthy and can later be used for partner programs, for example in the area of ​​sustainability or corporate mobility concepts.

Onchain transparency without technical hurdles

Verified trips and the resulting potential rewards are stored on the VeChainThor blockchain. This means they remain transparent, tamper-proof and permanently available. VeChain emphasizes that the participants themselves do not need any knowledge of blockchain, as all technical processes take place in the background.

The application presents itself as a classic app with the blockchain in the background. ReCircleRewards fits into a number of projects in which VeChain digitally secures sensitive processes. VeChain ToolChain was recently integrated into Decent’s service to document security and compliance data in the work environment in a forgery-proof manner.

More providers and more precise classification

The developers have announced that they will significantly increase the number of supported mobility providers so that the number of participants can grow worldwide. At the same time, the classification accuracy should improve so that even complex, very unstructured documents can be processed reliably.

Image created with AI by ChatGPT (DALL-E)

With ReCircleRewards, VeChain once again shows itself as an actor that combines environmentally friendly behavior with digital incentive mechanisms. Mobility, sustainability and Web3 technology are brought together in a practical, mass-market product, and blockchain technology creates the practical benefits.

What the project doesn’t show – at least not so far – is probably not entirely unimportant for potential participants in the ReCircleRewards system: What are the rewards for the laborious collection and uploading of whatever receipts?

VeChain is silent about this.

• The Dutch gaming authority banned Polymarket, which claims to be the largest prediction market in the world, from operating on the grounds of violating gaming law.
• Polymarket, in fact, does not have a gambling license anywhere in the world, but it happily offered bets on real events, including election betting, which is generally banned in the Netherlands – even with a license.

An agency official was able to easily place an election bet on politician Rob Jetten. After this factual evidence, the authorities intervened and ordered this Operating ban for Polymarketcombined with a penalty of 420,000 euros per week, but a maximum of 840,000 euros.

The authority said it had previously contacted Polymarket, but there was no response. The measure now imposed is intended to ensure that Polymarket packs its bags immediately. One or two suitcases of money might also be there.

Head of the authority becomes clear

Ella Seijsener, director of licensing and supervision at the NL Gambling Authority, left no room for interpretation in her statement:

“Prediction markets are on the rise, including in the Netherlands. Such companies offer bets that are fundamentally not allowed on our market – not even for license holders. In addition to the social risks of such predictions, such as the possible influence on elections, we note that this is illegal gambling. Anyone who does not have a license has no place in our market. This also applies to these new gambling platforms.”

The authority also pointed to a lack of consumer protection, a lack of transparency and unclear dispute resolution mechanisms. These factors would increase the risk for consumers and are incompatible with the Dutch regulatory framework.

EU states are tightening their course towards forecast markets

The Netherlands is not the first EU country to take action against Polymarket. In recent months, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Romania, France and Hungary have already taken measures against Polymarket, ranging from functional restrictions to a complete ban on operations.

A clear picture emerges: the EU states view prediction markets as games of chance that are subject to regulation – and also tax – and react accordingly in a restrictive manner.

For Polymarket this de facto means the loss of the EU market. The company received a fine from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (CFTC) in the USA as early as 2022. Now it is once again the focus of national supervisory authorities, who also don’t understand fun.

Prediction markets will show their colors or disappear

The Dutch approach is likely to consolidate the legal classification of forecast markets in the EU. While proponents emphasize their “informational value”, regulators see above all the danger of manipulative incentives and the potential influence on democratic processes.

The question for Polymarket now arises as to whether the company will adapt its business model and call a spade a spade, or whether it will have to withdraw from further European markets.

In any case, the development shows that EU states will not allow themselves to be fooled by companies that want to transform pure gambling into something more serious by simply calling it a “prediction market”.

Just a few days ago, Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin warned about exactly this.

• In a pilot project, the French bank BNP Paribas has shares in one for the first time Money market funds issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
• It is seen in the industry as a signal that banks will also view public blockchains as a basis for regulated financial products in the future.

BNP Paribas, created in 2000 from the Banque Nationale de Paris and the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, is a global universal bank for private customers, companies, institutional investors and government organizations.

As part of their blockchain pilot project Shares of a money market fund as digital tokens on Ethereum pictured. Although the blockchain is public, access is restrictive. It is only available to specially authorized investors.

The technical implementation is carried out via the in-house AssetFoundry system. BNP Paribas Securities Services takes on the role of transfer agent, including wallet setup and storage of private keys, while BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking is responsible for tokenization and connection to the blockchain.

The aim is to digitally map the entire life cycle of a fund share, from the issue through register management to the final settlement.

Banking on public blockchains

The decision to use Ethereum as infrastructure is something fundamentally new for major banks. While they have so far relied almost exclusively on private networks based on the distributed ledger technology DLT, BNP Paribas is now showing that public blockchains are also suitable for displaying sensitive financial instruments.

The project follows an earlier successful tokenization of a Luxembourg money market fund on a private blockchain and represents the bank’s new multi-chain strategy.

More efficient with new market structures

Money market funds are considered an ideal use case for tokenization because they are highly liquid, standardized, and are at the heart of institutional cash management.

By mapping them on a blockchain, transactions can be processed in near real time, compliance checks can be automated and transparency can be increased for all authorized parties.

With its project, BNP Paribas joins other global players such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and JPMorgan, who have been evaluating tokenized funds on public chains for some time.

Expanded opportunities

The pilot project fits the bank’s strategy, which is also open to experiments with wholesale CBDCs. A combination of tokenized fund shares and digital central bank money could lead to completely digitalized financial processes in the future.

For European fund issuers, BNP Paribas’ move is a clear indication that the tokenization of classic financial products will become increasingly important in the traditional banking sector in the future.

• The IOTA Foundation has established an expert council as a new permanent institution. He is tasked with driving forward TWIN, the project’s international trade initiative.
• He should act as an active mediator between technology, regulation and industrial implementation and accelerate the introduction of IOTA trading logistics.

IOTA’s Trade Worldwide Information Network TWIN aims to anchor digital identities, forgery-proof documentation and automated compliance processes in international trade structures.

It should the new expert council ensure that the applications in question are not only technologically robust but also regulatory compatible.

The pressure on companies and authorities to introduce interoperable standards is growing, particularly in the areas of digital trade documents, customs processes and supply chain transparency. IOTA offers an open, scalable and fee-free infrastructure that is suitable for government and institutional applications.

International expertise for operational implementation

The expert council is made up of experts with experience in global trade, logistics, standardization and digital transformation. Your task is to evaluate existing pilot projects, identify opportunities for cooperation and take real economic requirements into account.

IOTA emphasizes that the integration of external expertise is crucial to closing the gap between blockchain innovation and operational implementation in complex trading networks. Close cooperation with the respective industry partners should also create new use cases that demonstrate the benefits of distributed ledger technology in international trade.

Importance for IOTA

The expert council was also founded with a view to IOTA’s strategic focus on “real economy” processes and institutional acceptance.

While many blockchain projects remain predominantly speculative objects, IOTA pursues an approach that is aimed at long-term infrastructure development.

The TWIN initiative is considered one of the key growth engines because supply chain operators, customs authorities and trading platforms are increasingly looking for trustworthy, interoperable digital tools.

The expert council is intended to help meet this demand and establish IOTA as a technological standard in digital commerce.

• Dubai Land Department and Web3 company Ctrl Alt have begun phase two of their tokenization project, which will enable trading of tokenized real estate shares.
• After the first project phase, in which the technical foundations were laid and regulatory issues were clarified, the next step is integration into the real estate market.

The focus of the practical phase is on building an infrastructure in which investors can buy and trade tokenized real estate shares. The offer is intended to be open to institutional investors and qualified private investors.

Tokenization should not only enable fractional ownership of real estate, but also accelerate processing and increase the transparency of the transfer processes.

The Dubai Land Department as the responsible authority, sees this as a tool to establish Dubai as a global hub for digital assets.

Secondary market as a growth driver

With the introduction of a secondary market, the project goes beyond pure tokenization and takes care of perhaps the most important prerequisite for the acceptance of digital real estate products: liquidity.

In the future, investors should be able to trade their tokenized shares flexibly, without lengthy sales processes.

This will – or so one hopes – open up Dubai’s real estate market to new sources of capital and further increase its attractiveness for international investors.

At the same time, the partners emphasize that all transactions take place in a regulated environment to ensure market integrity and investor protection.

Dubai is increasingly using Web3 technology

The initiative fits into Dubai’s comprehensive digital assets strategy, which aims to integrate blockchain technologies into key economic sectors.

In recent years, the emirate has already created regulations that enable innovation and at the same time set clear compliance standards.

With the launch of the second phase of the tokenization project, Dubai is moving closer to becoming a leader in the Web3 system.

For the real estate sector, it is a further step towards efficient, transparent and internationally accessible markets.