MicroStrategy Building ‘Decentralized ID’ on Bitcoin

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Volta Raises $4.1 Million in Seed Funding For Institutional Platform

2) MicroStrategy Building ‘Decentralized ID’ on Bitcoin

3) Chainalysis Helping Tether Monitor Secondary Market For Illicit Activity

4) Altruist Becomes Unicorn With $169M Series E Fundraise

5) Former Thomson Reuters Exec David Larson Named Feedzai’s CFO

Volta Raises $4.1 Million in Seed Funding For Institutional Platform:

• Volta has secured $4.1 million in seed funding to develop Volta Circuit, a crypto platform designed for institutional investors, featuring a multi-signature, non-custodial architecture that aims to enhance speed, security, and compliance.

• The platform plans to integrate smart contract wallets to ensure scalability and performance, with features that include direct on-chain enforcement of governance and flexible wallet configuration through open signature standards, facilitating rapid transactions and asset management directly by users.

• The funding round, led by Fika Ventures and Haven Ventures, also included participation from Soma Capital, Dispersion Capital, and Uphonest Capital. Volta’s development is seen as a response to the finance industry’s shift towards digitizing real-world assets and adopting distributed architectures to give institutions greater control over their assets..

MicroStrategy Building ‘Decentralized ID’ on Bitcoin:

• MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor introduced the MicroStrategy Orange Decentralized Identity protocol, an open-source project aimed at enhancing digital identity security by anchoring it to the Bitcoin blockchain.

• The protocol is designed to generate unique decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and public/private key pairs, using a service cloud for issuing identifiers and a software development kit for integrating these capabilities into applications. This system allows for secure communications, like email, where messages are signed using Bitcoin-based keys.

• The decentralized identity protocol is part of a broader vision to integrate digital identities with a verifiable credential ecosystem, potentially enabling new use cases in social media verification and the authentication of documents such as college degrees and medical records, all anchored securely to the Bitcoin blockchain.

  

  Source: Cointelegraph

Chainalysis Helping Tether Monitor Secondary Market For Illicit Activity

• Tether has partnered with blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis to enhance the monitoring of its stablecoin in the secondary market, aiming to gain insights and identify wallets linked to illicit or sanctioned addresses. This new capability will include tools for sanctions monitoring, illicit transfer detection, and analysis of large USDT holders.

• Despite these efforts, Tether has faced criticism for its alleged role in criminal activities and terrorism financing, with specific accusations from U.S. politicians and a United Nations report highlighting concerns about crypto's role in financing crime in East and Southeast Asia.

• In response to criticism, Tether emphasizes its collaboration with authorities in 43 jurisdictions to tackle illicit activities and defends the traceability of USDT, although it has also been scrutinized for financial transparency issues.

Altruist Becomes Unicorn With $169M Series E Fundraise:

• Altruist, a modern custodian tailored for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), has raised $169 million in a Series E funding round led by ICONIQ Growth, bringing its total funding to over $450 million and valuing the company at more than $1.5 billion. New investors like Granite Capital Management and existing backers such as Adams Street Partners and Sound Ventures also participated.

• The company has experienced significant growth, with a 550% revenue increase in 2023 and a doubling of assets under management for two consecutive years, positioning Altruist as the third-largest custodian for RIAs, only behind Schwab and Fidelity.

• Altruist is planning to launch new products and enhance existing services in 2024, such as the Altruist Cash account and improved tax management features, as part of its mission to provide RIAs with superior software, service, and tools for better client outcomes. The company's innovative approach includes eliminating software fees for advisors and adopting a transparent fee schedule.

Former Thomson Reuters Exec David Larson Named Feedzai’s CFO:

• Feedzai, an anti-fraud and financial crime software firm, has appointed David Larson, a former executive from Thomson Reuters, as its new CFO. Larson will manage the company's global financial activities and report directly to CEO Nuno Sebastião.

• Larson's background in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and his experience with operational dynamics in large corporations are considered key advantages for Feedzai as it aims to scale and potentially consolidate in the fintech sector.

• Feedzai, established in 2011, operates a RiskOps platform that leverages machine learning and big data to prevent and detect financial crime for financial institutions. Larson's appointment is seen as crucial as the company prepares for further growth and explores more M&A opportunities.

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