Rice-based stable coin is being launched in Indonesia

Rice-based stable coin is being launched in Indonesia

MALANG, Indonesia, Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – Penjaga Lilin Nusantara, an Indonesian Cooperative in Malang- East Java is setting up Ricetron.com a Tron based DeFi (decentralized finance) to tokenized rice based stable coin. Ricetron aims to invite crypto enthusiasts to stake Tron and mint RET (Rice Economy Token), a governance token that will fund RIC (Rice Inventory Coin) stable coin.

RET & RIC token logo

RET token holder will benefit from 30% of all transaction fee and profit sharing of RIC DeFi, where once the DeFi platform running will be distributed back as Protégé Dividend to RET token holder wallets.

Total supply is 269,000 RET with only 190,000 RET minted through staking. It is TRC-20 token, using a TRX blockchain where the speed and the fee of transaction are much better compared to ERC based token.

Indonesia uses BULOG (state owned logistic agency) to stabilize staple price, which mostly focuses on rice. Due to lack of data reading skills, BULOG wastes 30,000 ton decayed rice every year, that amounts to almost 30 Million USD/year of Indonesian government budget.

Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM0hoA90T1A&t=6s

“The whole idea came from our meeting with a cooperative chairman named Mr. Steven Henry Raharjo. His cooperative has a rice savings program where with this program, he is able to make price stability for its members. Besides that, rice savers can also get additional rice at the end of the year as well as give zakat and sadaqah (donations) to those around them who need it without having to spend any more money,” says Mr. Victorinus Widyanto, COO of Ricetron.

Thus, the cooperative came up with idea to tokenized premium grade Rice and also taking advantage of the recent cryptocurrency bull run. By creating rice based stable coin, it gives people more access to rice especially BULOG rice. In addition, RIC can also be converted to DeFi savings and collateral, and it guarantees RIC holders to fresh rice at the time of exchange, since it is backed by BULOG’s purchase order (voucher) with no time expiration. 1 RIC cryptocurrency equals to 1Kg of premium grade rice, with more Rice-based stable coins will be launched in the future with different grade.

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This project also benefits BULOG in creating consumers-based data, optimizing the agency rice procurement and the most important thing reducing annual government budget loss.

“Meanwhile RET will also be used as an anchor token for cooperative future projects. So people can participate to fund future projects by staking RET,” says Eka Suwandana, CTO of Ricetron.

Ricetron started the staking program on 15th of January 2021, it is divided in 7 rounds. They also now offering Youtube Staking Contest, where 67.6 RET in total will be given as Prize. Checkout their telegram: https://t.me/ricetron, channel for more information.

SOURCE Cooperative Penjaga Lilin Nusantara

Forget bitcoin, card firms should embrace stablecoin payments - Gartner

Research house Gartner has poured cold water on Visa’s recent move to support bitcoin trading on its network, arguing that the real revolution in payments would see centralised financial companies support stablecoin transactions on blockchains.

Earlier this week Visa outlined plans for the first pilot of its new suite of crypto APIs, following other industry players such as PayPal and Square in embracing the digital currency movement.

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan says that the move is welcome, and increase the “technical rails between consumers, businesses and blockchains, and help prepare the transition to future payment infrastructure”.

However, in a blog, she also notes that it is “hardly a revolution”. Having centralised financial companies that earn revenues by charging transaction fees at the centre of crypto goes against the peer-to-peer ideals of blockchain payments.

“Potential users are left to wonder if, in the future, they will have to pay these centralised services additional transaction fees for moving cryptocurrency across peer-to-peer blockchain networks, defeating the promise of blockchain,” writes Litan.

Her answer to this problem is for card brands and other established players to provide the on and off ramps for payors and payees using stablecoins, without being involved in the actual payment that would occur on the blockchain.

This would mean Visa and its peers would not get a transaction fee but would make money from issuers and acquirers using services such as risk management, onboarding and protections for balances.

Concludes Litan: “The question remains: will these centralised financial services companies go forward in line with the spirit of blockchain peer to peer payments at the risk of cannibalizing their existing central-clearing house based-revenue streams? The answer will depend on whether or not these firms have any practical choice.”

How Mastercard’s crypto strategy is distinct from its new stablecoin plans

The crypto space lit up late Wednesday when news broke that Mastercard was expanding the scope of its digital currency support.

Mastercard said in a blog post that it was moving to enable its systems to facilitate payments in the form of stablecoins directly to merchants who choose to accept them. Such a service will complement Mastercard’s existing crypto card-focused offerings, through which consumers can spend their cryptocurrencies via an issuer’s card – though in the end, the transaction is settled outside of Mastercard and in the form of fiat currency like the U.S. dollar.

The payments firm’s chief financial officer, Sachin Mehra, discussed the expanded offerings during a virtual event hosted by Goldman Sachs on Wednesday, according to a published transcript obtained by The Block. But more broadly – and, perhaps, more importantly – Mehra provided a clear-cut break down of how Mastercard views what he termed “sub-categories” of digital currencies: cryptocurrencies, fiat-backed stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.

Mehra called crypto “an asset class,” adding: “It’s not a payment vehicle as far as we’re concerned.” He spoke about Mastercard’s crypto card program and indicated that such efforts would continue and grow over time. “We’re seeing tremendous growth in that space,” said Mehra, saying later:

“So that’s kind of – and we’ve got numerous agreements in that regard, which are already in play. And we’ll continue to do more and more of those because people want to be able to use that asset class to make payments at the point of sale.”

On the subject of stablecoins, Mehra noted that “we have plans to enable those, regulation pending, across our network.”

Mehra continued:

“So in other words, the delivery of those stablecoins and to allow the settlement of those stablecoins with those merchants who wish to be settling in those stablecoins on a forward-going basis. So we are enabling our network to allow for that to happen yet this year.”

Lastly, Mehra discussed Mastercard’s work in the area of CBDCs, which is perhaps a bit more theoretical given that such currencies remain in their nascent stage. Yet payments firms big and small appear to be positioning themselves as possible service providers should they take off – PayPal being one of those, according to statements from the firm’s leadership – and it seems that Mastercard is no exception.

“We can bring the technology,” said Mehra. “We have – we’re the leader – one of the leaders in terms of the patents we have developed in terms of DLT. And how we can help [central banks] at the infrastructure level and/or the application and services level is something we remain engaged with on numerous [fronts] with several central banks.”

Mehra concluded his remarks by calling the broader crypto sphere “a space to keep an eye on.”

“I think it will ebb and flow depending on what the flavor of the day is as it relates to cryptos. We’ve seen run-ups in crypto prices in the past. But broadly speaking, the use of digital ledger technology is something we will remain focused on.”

One potential conclusion from Mehra’s comments is that whereas Mastercard is interested in capturing value around the interest in cryptocurrencies, the payments firm views stablecoins as worth the investments required to integrate them into its systems. And as for CBDCs, those remain on the horizon – albeit one that might one day constitute an entirely new business line.