German-based SolarisBank has launched a platform for servicing European crypto and blockchain companies. The program is called ‘Blockchain Factory’ and it will help create what the bank claims to be a "hybrid future".
Why it is important
- Openness on the part of financial institutions creates a favorable landscape in the country for the development of projects.
- As an example, Switzerland, is become a "Crypto Nation", even creating a real "Crypto Valley" in the canton of Zug. However, blockchain-startups are almost completely cut off from traditional banking systems, as Swiss financial institutions categorically refuse to process their accounts.
Within the framework of this platform, a bank will open accounts in fiat currencies for day-to-day needs of blockchain companies. The bank is confident that the ‘Blockchain Factory’ can tie together the banking sector and the world of distributed ledger technology (DLT).
"There is high demand from the blockchain world for a licensed partner that forms the technological and regulatory bridge to traditional banking" says Roland Folz, CEO of SolarisBank.
The bank also launched the “Automated trust accounts” that allows crypto-exchanges from all around the world to buy and sell fiat. The report also says that the next strategic step for SolarisBank will be to provide services in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. At the same time, the bank's representatives declare that they are acting within the legal framework and are very demanding when it comes to possible partnership relations.
Despite some trying to move closer to the crypto world, the idea of central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) is considered too speculative by the German Federal Ministry of Finance to enforce. At the moment the Finance Ministry does not see any “convincing reasons” for digital central bank money to be issued in Germany and the EU. They go on to claim that in their opinion CBDC has "a number of risks that are not well understood," and such benefits as high-speed transfers are achievable by other means.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova