It’s been a week about the blockchain and what’s going on in the Bitcoin exchange industry.  To start, the Gemini Bitcoin exchange is offering a new feature, auctions, to put it into the same vein as traditional asset exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq (just without the closing bell). And Bitfinex has updated its repayment plan for customers who suffered losses in the August hacking and had the exchanges losses socialized by cutting into their own accounts (see below for new details).

In blockchain-technology news, fintech consulting company Accenture just patented a blockchain technology that eschews the major capability of having immutable blocks–blockchains run on Accenture’s technology would continue to be distributed ledgers arranged in chains of blocks, but a central administrator could change or delete data in historical blocks.

Finally, Overstock Inc.’s TØ.com, an issuer of blockchain securities, partnered with Keystone Capital Corporation to offer real blockchain-based stocks to customers.

As for the Bitcoin market, the current 24 hour global average is at $599.10 USD per BTC (BitcoinAverage.com). This is only a drop of approximately $10 from last week’s global average price of approximately $610.

The WInklevoss Gemini exchange emerges in New York state, amid BitLicense and increasing regulation on Bitcoin financial ventures.

Gemini Bitcoin exchange opens daily auctions

The Gemini Bitcoin exchange, famous as the exchange launched by the Winklevoss Twins Tyler and Cameron in 2015, just announced the release of a new feature: first-ever daily bitcoin auction.

“Daily auctions are universally implemented by traditional asset exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and Bats,” Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the exchange, wrote in the announcement post. “They increase price discovery and transparency, and they reduce costs across the board by making sure that buyers and sellers don’t miss each other during the trading day. In addition, we are confident that our Auction will bring you the benefits of over-the-counter (OTC) trading without the overhead, hassle, and lack of transparency of these archaic trading venues.”

The daily auction mechanism on Gemini is designed to benefit bitcoin trading customers by providing lower fees, instant settlement and a market-to-market benchmark price. The market-to-market price is by design as the auctions have an official 4:00pm ET end-of-day price. This method also reduces counterparty risk as payments are made instantly from pre-funded accounts, eliminating the risk that the other party may back out of the sale.

Further details are available in the announcement written on Gemini’s website.

Keystone Capital and TØ’s team up to deliver public blockchain equities

Overstock.com Inc.’s cryptosecurity outfit that uses a blockchain trading platform in order to provide stocks and securities TØ.com recently made a deal with Keystone Capital Corporation to brockerage options for clients looking to work in blockchain securities, according to Bitcoin.com News.

“It’s no secret that Overstock’s own financial technology subsidiary, TØ, has been working on a blockchain version of Wall Street,” Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said as part of the announcement, ”and that Overstock desires to demonstrate its system by issuing a security of its own on the technology it is creating. Keystone Capital has aligned with us in this historic effort.”

Steven Capozza of Keystone Capital expressed an interest in the partnership because it would place the company in the position of actually implementing a blockchain product. Something that Capozza suggests many companies claim to research but rarely deliver.

Photo of Richard Lumb, global head of financial services at Accenture.
Picture by Shane O’Neill Photography.

Accenture patents a blockchain without the immutability

Fintech consulting and management service provider Accenture PLC recently announced a patent for a blockchain that describes a chain of blocks, but without the security of immutability. The reasoning behind this modification to the well-known functionality of other blockchain protocols is because an immutable ledger would not provide privacy–after all, if a transaction on the blockchain is permanent and indelible, nothing on that ledger can be forgotten.

“One thing is clear: If the financial services industry is to embrace a new technology, it cannot be one in which mischief and mistakes are immutable and fraudsters can defend their actions on spurious ideological grounds,” Richard Lumb, global head of financial services at Accenture, wrote in a New York Times commentary piece. “Even the smartest contracts can be susceptible to human error, and even the cleverest I.T. architectures will be hit by events that need to be undone.”

However, blockchain-technology experts take a dim view to blockchain protocols that lack immutability.

“An editable blockchain is just a database. The whole thing about blockchain is that it’s immutable, so this just defeats the object,” Gary Nuttall, founder of blockchain consultancy Dislytics, told Reuters at a blockchain conference.

Bitfinex updates repayment plan for losses since exchange hack

Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex (BTXNA Inc.) issued an update to its repayment plan earlier this week via a blog post outlining how it intends to reimburse losses to customers. The plan includes Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) opportunities that will give customers a beneficial stake in iFinex Inc., the British Virgin Islands-based parent company of Bitfinex.

This repayment plan follows the hacking of the exchange in August, which led to losses in excess of $65 million USD. After the hack, Bitfinex responded through trimming customer accounts by 36 percent and replacing the loss with BFX tokens. These tokens would be exchanged back into money during the repayment.

The current plan follows original statements given by Bitfinex in late August including a partnership with bitcoin equity crowdfunding service BnkToTheFuture (Bnk To The Future Ltd.)

According to the updated plans, each BFX token can be exchanged for a beneficial stake in iFInex for $1 per token.

“In the next few days, we will be finalizing a technical integration with BnkToTheFuture enabling a seamless BFX Token conversion workflow,” Bitfinex wrote in the blog post. “In the meantime, please see the BnkToTheFuture pitch for full details and terms. After creating a BnkToTheFuture account and qualifying, users can ask any questions they may have using the Forum section of the pitch.”

The second type of SPV is known as BFX Trust, “an SPV being formed by Alistair Milne to allow certain verified, non-US Bitfinex users the ability to convert BFX to equity in iFinex.” It is to work in a similar fashion to the BnkToTheFuture equity conversion.

Details on BFXTrust are still minimal, but according to Bitfinex they will be posted to the BFX Trust website.

Featured image credit: Bitcoin Logo.