Decentralized finance (DeFi) markets may have cooled down over the past year, but the technology powering these applications continues to advance. In particular, smart contract platforms that enable transactions to take place across DeFi applications are maturing to meet enterprise requirements. While it’s notable that enterprises have previously shown interest in DeFi use cases, smart contract limitations have hampered adoption. A report published by Grayscale Research in March puts this in perspective, noting that “Despite handling millions of transactions per day, smart contract platforms in their current state would be incapable of handling even 10% of the worlds’ internet traffic.” …

Working on their national crypto framework, the amendments to the law “On virtual assets,” the Ukrainian regulatory community actively collaborates with international experts. The list includes the international consultancy firm Ernst&Young and the USAID Financial Sector Reform project. On Dec. 1, the Advisory Council on the Regulation of Virtual Assets, organized by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, held its first meeting. The regulatory experts discussed the amendments to the law "On virtual assets", which should adjust the National Tax Code to crypto regulation. The event was attended by representatives of the President's Office, the National Bank of Ukraine, …

The Brønnøysund Register Center, a Norwegian governmental agency, partnered with the Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) to step into the metaverse with a new virtual office location. The center is responsible for managing numerous public registers for Norway, along with systems for the government’s digital exchange of information. According to the announcement, the agency is choosing to create a metaverse location because the “future users of public services are there,” and it wants to connect with the younger generation that utilizes its services. Magnus Jones, Nordic innovation lead at EY, told Cointelegraph: “More and more authorities see …

A recent report from the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) highlights how the Ethereum ecosystem has matured to a point where the network can be used by businesses to solve real-world problems. From supply chain management use cases to payment solutions utilized by companies like Visa and PayPal, the report demonstrates how the Ethereum network has grown to become one of the most valued public blockchains. Although notable, the EEA report also points out that the rapid growth of the Ethereum ecosystem has created a number of challenges for companies, specifically regarding energy consumption, scalability and privacy. For example, the document …

As the blockchain space continues to mature, enterprises are starting to realize the technology’s capabilities. A major promise of blockchain is its ability to connect industries that typically operate in silos, bringing about new opportunities for data-sharing and increased transparency. While private blockchain networks are efficient for sharing sensitive data between network participants, public blockchain networks like Ethereum are gaining traction for organizations seeking data integrity. A report by Big Four firm Ernst & Young published in November 2019 found that the number one use case for enterprise blockchain adoption is data integrity, stating: “By default, any on-chain data is …

Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY) has launched a private beta test version of its new Smart Contract Analyzer tool for the public Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The news was announced in an EY press release on April 16. The tool is described as a testing and security service that will allow companies and individual investors to assess smart contracts and associated tokens for known security risks. Developed by the EY Blockchain Security Lab in Israel, the tool works for tokens and contracts either prior to their launch or after they have gone live on the public blockchain. EY …

Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY) has released two new blockchain developments, a new version of its Blockchain Analyzer and a zero knowledge proof protocol. The company revealed the products in two separate press releases on April 16. EY has launched the second generation of its analytics tool EY Blockchain Analyzer. While the first generation of the product was available to only EY audit teams facilitating gathering companies’ entire transaction data from multiple blockchain ledgers, the upgrade made the analyzer accessible for EY teams and non-audit customers as a business application. Paul Brody, EY Global Innovation Leader for …

Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) has argued that the now-shuttered Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX should be placed in bankruptcy instead of being restructured as part of ongoing creditor protection proceedings. EY proposed the course of action in its “Fourth Report of the Monitor” filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on April 1. As previously reported, QuadrigaCX reported it had lost access to its cold wallet holdings following the death of its founder, Gerald Cotten, in December 2018 — Cotten having ostensibly been the sole person with access to the wallets’ corresponding keys. With the reportedly …

Big four auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is the top recruiter for blockchain-related jobs on recruitment platform Indeed, search results showed at press time on March 30. At press time, PwC is responsible for 40 blockchain-related job offers on the platform. Other big four auditing firms are apparently recruiting professionals in this niche on the platform: more precisely, Ernst & Young posted 17 such announcements, while Deloitte posted 10. This leaves KPMG as the only big four auditing firm not recruiting blockchain professionals on the platform. Tech giants IBM and Oracle posted ten job offers related to blockchain as well, while …

The United States is the world’s leader in blockchain-related jobs, according to a research by The NextWeb (TNW) published on March 8. To prepare the report, TNW gathered information from job and recruiting site Glassdoor, finding all the job offerings that had the term “blockchain” in the job listing in countries around the world. The results reportedly showed that the U.S. is leading the world in terms of blockchain-related jobs, having about half, or 2,616, of a total of 5,711 blockchain jobs listed on Glassdoor globally. The U.S. is followed by the United Kingdom, with 1,015 blockchain-related job ads, while …

The widow of the founder of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has asked the court for $225,000 in compensation for legal costs, Bloomberg reports on March 4. Jennifer Robertson, the wife of late QuadrigaCX founder Gerry Cotten, is seeking repayment for financing used to help the crypto exchange acquire court-approved protection from creditors. After $145 million in crypto assets went missing following Cotten’s death, Robertson provided interim financing for legal proceedings. According to Bloomberg, Robertson paid CA$300,000 (~$225,000), which covered Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young’s (EY) appointment as a monitor to the legal proceedings, in addition to fees associated …

Big Four auditing and professional services firm Ernst & Young EY) has launched a tool for accounting and preparing taxes on cryptocurrency holdings, according to a press release published on Mar. 4. The new tool called EY Crypto-Asset Accounting and Tax (CAAT) is designed to improve accounting and tax calculations for digital currency transactions by both institutional customers that have cryptocurrency on their balance sheets and individuals who trade crypto assets on a smaller scale. The service will be available for those who use EY TaxChat and to EY Private Client Services clients. The EY CAAT can reportedly get information …