Crypto roundup: VeChain to Cyprus, KPN joins NEO, HTC blockchain phone

VeChain moves into Cyprus

The VeChain Foundation and CREAM, a US-based blockchain advisory firm, have signed an MoU with Invest Cyprus (the country’s national investment partner) to collaborate on the creation of a framework to oversee the development of blockchain technologies in the Republic of Cyprus.

This MoU suggests VeChain will play a key role in blockchain development on a national and government-recognized level within Cyprus. According to an official press release, VeChain and CREAM will form a joint venture to advise Invest Cyprus on how to apply blockchain technology to the country’s current infrastructure and financial services while maintaining compliance with KYC, AML, and EU laws.

VET is available for trading on Liquid.

HTC announces a blockchain phone

On October 24, HTC announced the launch of Exodus, which is basically the company’s flagship U12 phone with a secure enclave to hold users’ private keys for BTC, ETH, LTC and supported ERC-20 tokens. The secure enclave is independent of the main Android OS and handles storage, encryption, and decryption of private keys.

This way, apps running in the Android environment are unable to access the private keys in the secure enclave. Instead, apps can make a request to the secure enclave for encryption and decryption. The concept of a secure enclave is not entirely new. Apple has been using a similar method to store biometric information for Touch ID and Face ID on iPhones and MacBook Pros for a few years now. However, HTC is the first to store private keys for cryptocurrencies.

In doing so, HTC has created a crypto storage solution that sits between cold storage and a typical mobile wallet in terms of absolute security. In a world where people are afraid to store and spend crypto on mobile phones, HTC has just managed to make mobile wallets a whole lot more secure - something that is 100% necessary for mainstream adoption of crypto.

Would you be interested in buying a blockchain phone?

KPN joins NEO as a mainnet consensus node

NEO has been making steady progress on the decentralization front since the launch of its mainnet two years ago. Earlier this week, NEO announced that KPN, a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, has been voted in as a mainnet consensus node.

The NEO network is only comprised of seven mainnet consensus nodes, so KPN taking control of one of the NEO Foundation’s nodes is definitely a positive development. It’s interesting to note that SwissCom, a telecommunications company in Switzerland, is currently running a consensus node on NEO’s testnet.

Could SwissCom be next on the list for a mainnet consensus node as NEO continues its decentralization efforts?

Neo is available for trading on Liquid.