Alfa-Bank’s Solution for the Self-Employed, Tax Compliance, and Other Blockchain Initiatives

Blockchain technology remains one of the hottest trends among financial, government and commercial organisations worldwide. ForkLog magazine offers a survey of the most interesting recent initiatives.

Alfa-Bank launches blockchain solution for the self-employed

Alfa-Bank developed a service for corporate clients, which enables the automation of work with the self-employed.

The project is implemented in partnership with the open banking platform APIBank and the blockchain platform Waves Enterprise. It unites the Alfa.Corporate applications for companies and “My Income” for individuals.

According to the developers, the service covers the entire business process for registering the self-employed and payments for their services, including registering a person as self-employed, organising payments, automatic verification of the performer’s status, recording their income and paying taxes on it, and revoking receipts in case of refunds.

Self-employed individuals will now be able to receive payments to cards or bank accounts of any bank without visiting a branch.

“Alfa-Bank has implemented the Bank-as-a-Service (BaaS) concept. The service’s flexible architecture allows it to adapt to changes in the tax regime and the needs of both corporate clients and the self-employed,” commented Denis Dodon, Director of the Alfa-Bank Innovation Centre.

The Chief Commercial Officer of Waves Enterprise, Igor Kuzmichev, added that the blockchain provides corporate clients with a fast and secure channel for interaction with Alfa-Bank and simplifies connecting a broad target audience.

A Polish city becomes the world’s first to use blockchain in emergency services

The Polish city of Olsztyn, as claimed, became the first city in the world to use blockchain to help emergency services reduce response times, according to SmartCitiesWorld.

SmartKey’s solution, which connects blockchain with physical assets, enables police, fire services and ambulance teams to access closed premises and any buildings without having to wait for the owner to provide keys or permission. A Teltonika device connected to an Ethereum smart contract is used for this.

“The balance between security and protection provided by entrance gates and vehicle barriers, and the need for our rescue services to perform their duties without obstacles is delicate,” noted Gustav Marek Brzezinski, Marshal of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, whose capital is Olsztyn.

According to him, the use of blockchain and the SmartKey technology seems an ideal solution, giving confidence to building owners and residents, as well as freedom for emergency services.

Oasis Labs CEO Shimon Fedorovich emphasised that when it comes to emergency services, “time is everything.”

“By using blockchain to ensure seamless access to protected zones, we can help save lives,” added he.

Australia and Singapore to trial DLT solution for trade information exchange

The Australian Border Force (ABF), Singapore Customs and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore have jointly begun trials of a blockchain-based system for intergovernmental information exchange, according to Finextra.

The solution was developed by experts from both countries at the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business.

A ABF representative noted that it is intended to simplify cross-border trade between the two states through secure digital information exchange.

During the pilot, the digital verification platform in the intergovernmental registry (IGL), developed by ABF, and IMDA’s TradeTrust application for exchanging electronic trade documents will be tested.

It is expected that companies and regulators will share their experience verifying certificates of origin using both platforms, which are intended to reduce administrative costs and increase trade efficiency.

Participants will include the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group, as well as Singapore-based financial institutions, including ANZ.

Blockchain to be used in Thailand to boost tax collection

The Thai Fiscal Department will use blockchain technology to improve tax collection rather than raise taxes, so as not to affect the country’s economic recovery, according to Bangkok Post.

Head of the Excise Department Lavaron Sangsnit explained that DLT technology would help his department gather information on levies in 2021.

According to him, the revenue and customs departments also plan to implement blockchain in their operations. This will help them determine price, import duties and tax obligations.

Lavaron Sangsnit noted that using the department’s technology would complicate tax evasion, as all three departments will consolidate levy information into a single database.

The plan for verifying oil-export tax declarations on the blockchain is expected to be implemented in the first quarter of 2021, the head of the Excise Department noted. He explained that the priority is because oil exports bring the treasury 200 billion baht ($6.67 billion) a year — roughly two-thirds of the department’s total levies.

Blockchain will also help determine whether the oil is really exported from the country or sold on the domestic market, Lavaron Sangsnit stressed.

Sberbank to launch blockchain platform for purchasing digital assets

Sberbank plans to launch a blockchain platform that will allow users to purchase digital financial assets (DFA). This was stated by Sberbank head Herman Gref during an online presentation as part of Investor Day.

The new platform is planned to launch after the Digital Financial Assets Law comes into force.

“From January 1 the relevant law will come into force. We want to bring to market our new blockchain platform, which will provide DFA purchase services. And there we plan from the very start to offer the purchase of “green” instruments,” Gref said.

Oasis Labs and BMW Group to implement a project on differential privacy of data

Blockchain startup Oasis Labs, in collaboration with German automaker BMW Group, has launched a project to create next-generation data privacy technology.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve launched an early-stage project with @BMWGroup to build the next generation of data privacy technology in the automotive industry. Check it out here: https://t.co/aG8FW3LTAS

— Oasis Labs (@OasisLabs) December 9, 2020

In a statement, the Oasis Labs team noted that recent regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have created significant barriers to data usage that can only be overcome with new technologies.

Oasis Labs is working with the BMW Group on the initial stage of a project to create an innovative data-privacy solution that uses differential privacy.

The solution is designed to ensure that both internal teams at the automaker and external partners gain access to data while complying with regulatory requirements and protecting users’ privacy. The technology uses query substitution to enforce the allowed-access policy. All requests will be stored in a distributed ledger to enable consensus-based auditing.

The differential privacy method guarantees that query results cannot be used to glean personal information or access specific rows in the database. Information is available only in the aggregate, Oasis Labs noted.

Kaspersky Lab creates blockchain voting system for the state

Kaspersky Lab specialists presented a remote electronic voting system based on Russian cryptographic algorithms.

The Polys.GOST system is designed for large-scale government votes with an unlimited number of voters. It keeps the elector registry and voting process confidential.

“Polys.GOST meets regulators’ requirements for cryptographic means to protect information, making its use in government information systems possible,” said Polys project head Alexander Sazonov.

Domestic cryptographic algorithms are integrated into both the blockchain platform itself and the business logic implemented in smart contracts, and in the voting-organiser, voter and observer applications.

Polys’ head noted that the relevance of electronic voting is rising as it saves on organising elections, automates processes and reduces the risk of result manipulation.

On whether, in experts’ view, blockchain can solve the trust problem in election results, read ForkLog’s material:

Why voting on the blockchain will not solve the problem of trust in election results

We also wrote:

• Chinese blockchain platform added support for Polkadot, Oasis and Bityuan.
• SpaceChain received funding for developing its satellite blockchain infrastructure.
• Standard Chartered and UnionBank issued blockchain bonds worth $187 million.

Follow ForkLog’s news on Twitter!