VeChain, together with Avery Dennison Intelligent Labels,showcased various advanced "Blockchain + IoT" solutions in front of enterprise attendees around the globe.

The Challenge Of Food Industry In COVID19 Era

Behavioral changes that have arisen due to COVID19 have brought higher demand for safe and traceable food on ecommerce platforms and raised public awareness of health and safety in general. According to an IBM study, 71% of consumers are willing to pay an additional average premium of 37% for companies offering full transparency and traceability. While the food supply chain is one of the most complex and fragmented supply chains, 70% of firms have "visibility gaps" between the initial supplier and internal clients' systems.

Under such conditions, end-to-end visibility within the supply chain should be a top priority for businesses seeking to build trust with consumers, where blockchain and IoT will make a major impact. According to a recent report by Cointelegrah Consulting, "Blockchain + IoT" solutions could save more than $100 billion for the global food industry annually.

Blockchain is expected to support 10% of the total food industry products tracked globally by 2023.. Real-time traceability could be achieved with the combination of data from IoT devices and blockchain technology.

Avery Dennison + VeChain Showcasing ToolChain Enabled Solution

Guided by the vision to solve real business needs, VeChain has developed the capability to provide business-oriented technology for enterprises of any size or scale. Through built-in food traceability templates and customizable tools, the one-stop data BaaS platform VeChain ToolChainTM can be implemented almost immediately into existing supply chains of all types of food manufacturers, suppliers and retailers.

Products that include fresh produce, dairy products, vegetables, imported food and more can be tracked using the VeChainThor public blockchain with minimal technical development and implementation efforts.

As one of the largest global packaging solution providers, Avery Dennison pioneers in IoT solutions that connect the real products with digital identities.

By integrating Avery Dennison's smart label products and solutions with VeChain ToolChainTM, the advanced Blockchain + IoT combination can effectively enable the food company to realize transparent end-to-end digital lifecycle management for products. This in turn makes the food supply chain smarter allowing for more valuable connections to be cultivated and increased trust between consumers and brands.

Moving Forward With Value-Driven Digitalization Using Blockchain

The silver lining to the new normal in the COVID19 world is that it brings new opportunities and demand for more transparent and efficient solutions, accelerating the need for digitalization. Disruptive technology like blockchain and IoT will be the most critical "accelerator" for the food industry.

VeChain, together with Avery Dennison Intelligent Labels will be committed to collaborating with partners to provide full value chain digital solutions from assessment, consulting, integration and implementation to optimization services, helping food enterprises of different development stages and sizes to easily commence their digital transformation.

About VeChain

As a leading enterprise friendly public blockchain platform, VeChain began in 2015 and aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing enterprises with blockchain solutions suitable for their business needs and to build a trust-free and distributed business ecosystem platform for business value. With VeChain ToolChain, a one-stop data BaaS platform, VeChain will continue to promote the large-scale application of blockchain technology, help enterprise clients in digitalization transformation, and eventually realize the long-term vision of enabling the real economy.

VeChain is the pioneer of real-world business applications, with international operations in Singapore, Luxembourg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, America, Italy and San Francisco. With strong independent development capabilities, and the professional compliance guidance of our strategic partners, PwC (one of the world's top four accounting firms) and DNV GL (a leading global assessment and certification society), VeChain has established partnerships with many leading enterprises in various industries, including Walmart China, Bayer China, BMW, BYD Auto, PICC, H&M, ENN, Shanghai Gas, LVMH, D.I.G, ASI etc.

For more information, please follow Twitter @vechainofficial or visit the official website http://www.vechain.com

About Avery Dennison Intelligent Labels

Avery Dennison is a global materials science company specializing in the design and manufacture of a wide variety of labeling and functional materials. The company's products, which are used in nearly every major industry, include pressure-sensitive materials for labels and graphic applications; tapes and other bonding solutions for industrial, medical, and retail applications; tags, labels and embellishments for apparel; and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions serving retail apparel and other markets. Headquartered in Glendale, California, the company employs more than 30,000 employees in over 50 countries. Reported sales in 2019 were $7.1 billion.

As the world's largest UHF RFID partner, Avery Dennison Intelligent Labels brings advanced efficiency, reliability, and accuracy to our customers' global supply chains with our industry-leading solutions and technologies. When businesses choose to work with us, they get a partner with deep understanding of what it takes to make each and every RFID application successful, and access to experienced engineering and technical resources; advanced research and testing capabilities; and most importantly, our field-proven inlay products.

More information: rfid.averydennison.com

SOURCE VeChain

https://www.vechain.com

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VeChain And Avery Dennison Intelligent Labels Showcase The Joint Blockchain Enabled Food Supply Chain Solution on IOTE 2020 - PRNewswire

Chinas blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), the countrys nationwide blockchain project, has just launched an official international website.

Appearing on Aug. 10, the new english-language BSN website aims to help bring global developers to the project.

He Yifan, CEO of Red Date Technology, a local private company and a founding member of the BSN, told Cointelegraph that the new website allows developers to use BSN services and public chain services via the portal.

As part of the new global effort, the BSN now features live integration of six public chains including Ethereum, EOS, Nervos, Tezos, NEO and IRISnet. This allows developers to build decentralized applications (DApps) and run nodes through the data storage and bandwidth at overseas BSN data centers.

According to the website, the BSN project is planning to launch the so-called Interchain Communication Hub via IRITA interchain service hub and decentralized network Chainlink in October 2020.

Additionally, the new website features a number of major global tech and blockchain firms as BSN partners. Google and Amazon Web Services are listed as cloud service providers, while Hyperledger is noted as a permissioned blockchain supplier. We have good support from several of the major cloud service providers because they really like the idea and vision of BSN, He said.

First piloted in October 2019, Chinas BSN network is a government-backed blockchain initiative that was initially positioned to help small to medium-sized businesses build and deploy blockchain apps on permissioned blockchains. The program was officially launched in April 2020 for global commercial use.

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Chinas National Blockchain Network Launches International Website - Cointelegraph

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Skuchain, Inc. announced today the launch of the ECO system for precious metals trading, a jointproject with Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan Ltd., the minerals trading subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation. ECO is powered by Skuchain's proprietary EC3 Platform for blockchain-based supply chain management and finance. From a base of some of their most valued customers, Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan will expand ECO to their wider supply chain ecosystem.

ECO facilitates trade verification by generating, managing and executing invoices and confirmations between counterparties. In the precious metals industry, suppliers, traders and customers manageinformation about transactions and commodities independently. ECO aims to securely share this information among industry players and eliminate redundant operations. Because entire transactions are digital, including necessary seals and wet-ink signatures, trade execution becomes far more efficient and can be done anywhere. ECO has launched just as international trade is urgently finding ways to innovate and avoid disruption from external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

ECO will add features on a regular basis to solve the most pressing trade and supply chain pain points of companies in the industry. As ECO's functionality expands and more data is shared on the blockchain, Skuchain's technology for data sharing with field-level encryption will allow counterparties to distribute their data while maintaining granular privacy control over commercially sensitive information.

ECO is an important milestone in Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan's leadership in offering the industry's cutting-edge solutions. Skuchain is honored to be Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan's blockchain partner on this journey.

Quote from Skuchain"ECO represents a major breakthrough in the use of blockchain for high-value enterprise transactions. It took a company of Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan's vision, determination and scale to bring such a platform to fruition. We are eager to see our EC3 Platform help transform their business and support their long-term commercial ambitions." Srinivasan Sriram, Founder and CEO of Skuchain

Quote from Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan"ECO is an entirely new challenge for us to create a digital network shared directly with our customers. Trade verification is the just first step and we will optimize ECO as a channel with customers. We are pleased to be able to provide a new technology solution to our customers through ECO." Takehito Nagashima, General Manager of New Business and DX Office in Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan

About Skuchain, Inc.Skuchain is the blockchain company behind the liquid supply chain. Its EC3 Platform powers value chains that leverage data and capital to achieve optimal resilience and flexibility. Skuchain's solutions have been adopted across mining and minerals, food and agriculture, electronics, auto and finance in Asia, Europe and the US. Learn more at http://www.skuchain.com.

About Mitsubishi Corporation RtM JapanMitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan, a Subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, is a metals and mineral resources trading company that deals in a wide spectrum of general metal resources and materials, including ferrous raw materials and non-ferrous metals.

SOURCE Skuchain

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Mitsubishi Corporation RtM Japan Goes Live With ECO, Powered By Skuchain's Blockchain-Based EC3 Platform - PRNewswire

Another crypto hedge fund is winding down, Huobi launched a new unit to invest in DeFi and the Twitter hacker is reportedly a bitcoin millionaire.

Youre readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why theyre significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesksnewsletters here.

Top shelf

Fund DownNeural Capital, a crypto hedge fund, has closed,having lost half its money since launching in 2017.Three people familiar with the matter said the funds crypto-assets were liquidated in December and the fund is in the process of refunding leftover money to investors, a process taking longer than expected. At its height, Neural Capital managed over $13 million from over 40 investors, including Greylock partner Joshua Elman and Expa partner Hooman Radfar. It joins several funds founded in 2017 that have announced closures in 2020, including Adaptive Capital, Prime Factor Capital and Tetras Capital.

Banana FundU.S. prosecutors are seeking toreturn $6.5 million in bitcoin to victims of the Banana.Fundcrowdfunding project, which the government described in court papers as a Ponzi scheme. In a forfeiture suit against the cryptocurrency account storing the funds, prosecutors allege Banana.Funds unnamed administrator admitted to investors his project had flopped, promised to return $1.7 million to them and then failed to do so. The operator then pivoted to a laundering and refund scheme that ultimately resulted in the U.S. Secret Services (USSS) seizure of 482 bitcoin (BTC) and 1,721,868 tether (USDT), court documents show.

Twitter HackerThe 17-year-old thought to be behind the recent Twitter hack reportedlyowns more than $3 million worth of bitcoin.The alleged hacker, Graham Ivan Clark, stands accused of 17 counts of communications fraud, 11 counts of fraudulent use of personal information, one count of breaking into an electronic device and another for organized fraud. His bail was set at $725,000. Federal officials are also charging Nima Fazeli and Mason John Sheppard withaiding in the intentional access of a protected computerand conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, according to criminal complaints published Friday.

DeFi LabCrypto exchange operator Huobi Group is forming a newfund to invest tens of millions of dollars of its own capital in the decentralized finance(DeFi) space. Huobi Group said in an announcement Monday it has launched a new business unit called Huobi DeFi Labs to manage the fund. The group will focus on research, investment and incubation of DeFi-related projects, and has brought on former banker Sharlyn Wu to lead the initiative.

Hacker EffectsA Spanish cryptocurrency payments app and card issuer has admitted itwont be able immediately to repay users affected by Fridays $1.4 million hackand has offered a compromise instead. Madrid-based 2gether said Sunday it hadnt been able to find the funds to reimburse all users the 1.2 million stolen by hackers 26.79% of the firms total funds on Friday evening. The firm has offered to reimburse investors in native 2GT tokens at the issuance price of just under $0.06. We can assure you, with a great deal of chagrin, that if we could face this theft with our own funds, we would, the announcement reads.

Market intel

Tokenized BTCThe supply oftokenized bitcoin grew more than 70% in July.More than 20,000 BTC (~$225 million) are now tokenized using Ethereum-based protocols. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) represents over 76% of the total tokenized bitcoin supply with over 15,500 BTC tokenized. The total supply grew by roughly $96 million in July, following Junes record growth.

Dex VolumeJulytrading volume on decentralized exchanges set its second consecutive record high,rising 174% from June, according to data from Dune Analytics. Aggregate trading volume on decentralized exchanges reached $4,32 billion in July, up from $1.52 billion in June. 41% of Julys volume came from Uniswap, on which traders speculate on assets ranging from a better Bitcoin to a coin named after fried chicken.

Opinion

Value JudgmentsCrypto is inherently disruptive. In this weeks Crypto Long & Short newsletter, CoinDesks Galen Moore asks whether decentralization and its attendant change making creates or destroys value within the crypto space.The Robinhood Effect may represent a threat to crypto from stocks, which also seem to now trade unencumbered by fundamentals, via onramps that broaden access, he writes.

DeFi Defines EthereumDeFi Dad, an organizing member of the Ethereal Summit and Sessions and DeFi super user, thinks Etheruem has found a narrative it can latch onto.Five years ago, you could argue Ethereum was attempting to do too much. Even two to three years ago, that was still a valid hypothesis, with stagnant adoption, he writes.

Podcast Corner

Bitcoin, Sex and FeminismChaturbate is among the few traditional porn sites that has integrated crypto in a meaningful way. COO Shirely Lara joins CoinDesks Leigh Cuen for anin-depth discussion about bitcoin, sex and feminism.

Who won #CryptoTwitter?

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Blockchain Bites: Hedge Fund Down, Banana Bets and the Twitter Hack Fallout - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Latest Study explores the Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry Market Witness Highest Growth in near future

The 'Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry market' research report now available with Market Study Report, LLC, is a compilation of pivotal insights pertaining to market size, competitive spectrum, geographical outlook, contender share, and consumption trends of this industry. The report also highlights the key drivers and challenges influencing the revenue graph of this vertical along with strategies adopted by distinguished players to enhance their footprints in the Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry market.

The Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry market report comprises of the key trends which influence the industry growth with respect to the regional terrain and competitive arena. The study highlights the opportunities that will support the industry expansion in existing and untapped markets along with the challenges the business sphere will face. Besides this, the report also offers an intricate analysis of case studies including those of COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim to provide a clear picture of this industry vertical to all shareholders.

Request a sample Report of Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry Market at:https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/2836584?utm_source=news.marketsizeforecasters.com&utm_medium=AG

Pivotal pointers from COVID-19 impact assessment:

Highlights of the Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry market report:

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Analysis of the regional terrain:

Major Highlights from Table of contents are listed below for quick look up into Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry Market report

For More Details On this Report: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/covid-19-outbreak-global-blockchain-technology-in-healthcare-industry-market-report-development-trends-threats-opportunities-and-competitive-landscape-in-2020

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Latest Study explores the Blockchain Technology in Healthcare Industry Market Wi - News.MarketSizeForecasters.com

A tool developed by Frazer-Nash Consultancy demonstrates how distributed ledger technology could be used to help shape the UK energy distribution network

Systems, engineering and technology consultancy, Frazer-Nash, has been working with the Energy Innovation Centre and three of the distribution network operators (DNOs): SP Energy Networks, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, and UK Power Networks, as well as Cardiff University, to imagine the future of the distribution network.

The company has developed a demonstrator tool that is helping the DNOs to explore Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) more broadly, as a potential solution for solving new challenges posed by their transition to being Distribution System Operators (DSOs), such as contracting with distributed energy resources (DERs).

Frazer-Nash Renewables and Future Networks Consultant, Tom Bransden, explains: DNOs will have to manage high levels of distributed generation, flexible loads and energy storage, as part of the transition towards DSO. This more active role may require large numbers of contracts with DERs, and multiple transactions for multiple resources to be approved at high frequency over the course of a day. The DSO will need effective, accessible and neutral technology solutions to help them do this.

Distributed ledger technologies offer a potential solution, and could enable data sharing in line with the aims of the Energy Data Taskforce. As part of a Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) funded project, weve developed a prototype flexibility platform that uses Blockchain to show how these multiple contracts could be managed. Our work illustrated the benefits and challenges associated with the technology.

In short timescales, we leveraged Microsoft Azure, Serverless Infrastructure and an Ethereum-based Blockchain to create a smart-contracts based flexibility procurement platform demonstration. We modelled a future stage of power system for 2030, using National Grids Future Energy Scenarios, including quantities and market prices for DERs. Our model focuses on two areas of the UK and four sample daily periods that show very different peak demand and generation levels, two from winter and two from summer. This allowed simulation of future Electricity System Operator (ESO) and DSO services on a single platform.

Based on the Energy Networks Association (ENA) Open Networks World A[i], this system demonstrates a novel framework that enables secure contracting via a distributed ledger to thousands of DERs. These DERs include a range of low carbon technologies, and reflect the decentralisation of demand through new load types that are being seen on the energy networks for example, smart charging electric vehicles, residential battery storage and demand side response with electric heat pumps.

As part of the UKs green recovery while enabling remote working, leveraging cloud technologies to develop and share projects between collaborators is key to rapid development, deployment and scalability of solutions.

Ben Oxley, Project Manager and Software Lead, continued:

There are still a lot of misconceptions in the marketplace surrounding Blockchain technologies, misconceptions like high energy usage, lack of control and poor frequency of updates/throughput of transactions. Through this project we demonstrated that this is not a limitation of the technology, just of some implementations. Using a Proof of Authority consensus mechanism we demonstrated fast block mining and high rates of transactions.

We have drawn upon our understanding and experience with a whole range of cloud technologies in order to develop and deploy this project on the short timescales demanded. The solution uses Ethereum Blockchain, Solidity Smart Contracts, React, Azure App Service, Signal R, Event Grid, ASP.NET Core, Azure Devops, Docker, Azure Active Directory in fact, over 20 different individual applications are integrated to deliver the demonstrator.

Potentially, suggests Tom, a Blockchain solution could increase participation in the flexibility markets:

In the current UK flexibility markets, energy resources are typically procured through auctions: DER providers provide bids to deliver power to the network, in terms of megawatt quantities and prices for those megawatts and time windows during the day. These are generally set in advance for contracts over months and years. The long duration of these contracts may reduce the participation of smaller demand users in these flexibility markets, and limit liquidity. Moving to more of a spot pricing market could deliver significant cost savings, and allow operators to respond more directly to demand on a minute-by-minute basis.

With individual contracts required with each supplier, there can also be a significant administrative cost on both sides. While not completely replacing formal contracts, providing computer-generated smart contracts between parties can reduce administrative burdens and decrease contractual costs, potentially opening up the flexibility markets to increased participation.

But operators have to be certain that any new solution will offer benefits when compared to existing systems, and these will have to be weighed against the risk of implementation. With this in mind, Tom outlines the benefits found from comparing the demonstrator Blockchain solution against a conventional flexibility platform solution.

Through undertaking a cost-benefit analysis, we found a number of benefits in terms of lower upfront costs, lower costs of contracting, transparent security reviews, and the potential for peer verification of transactions without a trusted third party. The latter could open the door for true peer-to-peer trading between network users.

Ben concluded: Were looking forward to continuing to support the energy industry in navigating the DSO transition, and exploring the potential benefits that distributed generation can bring to the networks of the future. Our work on this project has shown that Distributed Ledger and Cloud Technologies could equally be applied to solve the challenging problems faced by our customers across a range of sectors, and were excited to be investigating this innovative and pioneering approach.

Glossary

[i] The Energy Networks Association Open Networks Project investigated a range of potential future worlds, in which a DNOs and DSOs would have different responsibilities, functions and roles. In world A, DNOs transition to being DSOs, which have high levels of responsibility and coordinate flexibility at the distribution network level. The DSO would also be responsible for boundary flow limits between distribution and transmission at the grid supply points.

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Blockchain demonstrator helps energy companies explore the potential of distributed ledger technologies - The Engineer

Enterprise-focused blockchain company ShareRing has launched a blockchain based contact tracing solution it will offer to 2.6 million hotel and activity providers that currently use one of the companys services. The anonymous e-passport app hopes to solve the privacy issues facing similar tracing apps.

ShareRings app, which focuses on tourisms $9 trillion tourism industry, allows users to upload important documentation, such as e-visa on arrival (eVOA), passport information, travel insurance, flight and accommodation bookings and a negative COVID-19 test result.

When a user of the app subsequently tests positive to the virus, the app will anonymously send the necessary information to the government, allowing others to be notified if they have been in contact.

The app can also integrate with eVOA systems, travel insurance companies, airlines, hotels and other relevant organisations, allowing companies to scan the app to reveal test results without revealing any personal information. ShareRing Co-Founder Jane Sadler-Kidd explained that documentation and personal information does not leave the device:

When someone signs up for a ShareRing ID, we take their photo, video selfie, name, DOB, address, etc and store it in an encrypted file that never leaves the users device. We also take a fingerprint of the data and documentation and store that on the blockchain.

In order to speed up adoption, ShareRing enables governments and businesses to integrate the passport app on existing solutions without using the ShareRing brand. Kidd added the Covid-19 passport was low-cost, and appealing to consumers.

It encourages adoption among the population by building it in a way that provably safeguards their privacy.

Contact tracing is not the only front that companies are utilizing blockchain to fight the global pandemic. The worlds third largest pasta producer, De Cecco is adopting the Infection Risk Management solution My Care built on VeChain to help ensure the safety of employees and operators throughout Italy.

In March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a blockchain based platform MiPasa to facilitate fully private information sharing between individuals, state authorities and health institutions.

The Netherlands is also using the blockchain platform Tymlez to map and analyse the countrys medical supply chain, while a similar application is being used in the United States and Canada in collaboration with IBM.

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Can Blockchain E-Passports Help Save the Tourism Industry? - Cointelegraph

The Kyber Network, a decentralized, on-chain cryptocurrency exchange, has just listed the Ethereum-compatible pLTC token a new cross-chain token developed by pTokens project.

Announcing the news to Cointelegraph on Aug. 3, Kyber Network said that pLTC tokens will be accessible through KyberSwap and other decentralized apps, or DApps. They will also be available on platforms powered by Kybers on-chain liquidity protocol.

The news comes shortly after pTokens launched pLTC token on the Ethereum mainnet on July 29. Similar to other pTokens, pLTC token aims to unlock cross-chain decentralized finance, or DeFi, liquidity by connecting the underlying asset to any blockchain. pLTC is pegged 1:1 to Litecoin (LTC), making the legacy asset fully compatible with Ethereum.

Shane Hong, marketing manager at Kyber Network, explained that the new token listing enables users to utilize yet another asset for decentralized finance on Ethereum.

Hong said:

"pLTC provides Litecoin holders a convenient way to explore the world of decentralized finance on Ethereum. Kyber is glad to help the Provable team support pLTC liquidity via our Fed Price Reserve.

Hong added that users can also trade pLTC against any other token supported by Kyber, including pBTC.

In March 2020, pTokens introduced its pBTC token on the Ethereum mainnet. As reported, pBTC is pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin and is compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem.

Litecoin, which launched in 2011, is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies. It is ranked as the seventh biggest crypto by market cap as of press time. Inspired by Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin is very close technically to Bitcoin, albeit a faster and cheaper alternative. As of press time, Litecoin is trading at $59 with a market cap of $3.8 billion.

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You Can Now Trade Litecoin on the Ethereum Blockchain With Kyber - Cointelegraph

Ontology (ONT), a high-performance or high-throughput blockchain platform for enterprises, has teamed up with the developers of the NEAR Protocol in order to speed up the development and deployment of secure decentralized identity solutions.

The Ontology team will offer technical support for NEARs Decentralized Identifier (DID) from a regulatory perspective. The DID solution will have various smart contract features and will go through W3C registration.

NEAR is a decentralized application (dApp) platform that is secure enough to handle high-value assets such as money or identity and performant enough to make them practical for daily use. The NEAR project aims to put the power of the Open Web into everyones hands or reach.

NEAR has received $21.6 million in funding from giant VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Electric Capital, and other major investors. The platforms mainnet has also been launched

Erick Pinos, Ontology Americas Ecosystem Lead, stated:

Teaming up with NEAR broadens our remit considerably when it comes to delivering decentralized identity protocols. We share common objectives in terms of broadening the accessibility of enterprise-grade blockchain applications and decentralized identity solutions and look forward to working together.

Ontology aims to continue to focus on offering fast, user-friendly, intuitive solutions with a unique infrastructure that can handle or facilitate cross-chain collaboration. Ontology offers software tools that allow businesses or company owners to develop their own blockchain-enabled solutions in a secure manner.

Erik Trautman, CEO at NEAR Foundation, remarked:

We are excited to leverage the technical acumen of the Ontology team, particularly in relation to their ONT ID 2.0, a decentralized identity solution designed for streamlined cross-chain interoperability. Following our successful MainNet launch, we are keen to strengthen our partner network, and look forward to extending the power of Ontologys solutions to our growing customer base.

In June 2020, blockchain infrastructure developer Bison Trails added support for the NEAR protocol, a sharded proof of stake (PoS) blockchain and app development platform that can power open finance solutions.

As reported recently, $150 million in ONT tokens are being staked on Ontology. There are also more than 70 decentralized applications (dApps) being supported by the blockchain development platform.

Binance, the worlds largest crypto exchange, has reportedly been paying great attention to Ontologys blockchain governance and economic model. It might consider becoming a node on the chain.

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High-Performance Blockchain Platform Ontology Partners NEAR Protocol to Speed Up Development of Decentralized Identity Solutions - Crowdfund Insider

While retail industry innovation efforts may be paused during this unprecedented time of social distancing and economic turmoil, a study involving blockchain, radio frequency identification (RFID), and global data standards provided a glimpse into the potentially remarkable capabilities of emerging technology to help solve supply chain challenges.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the Auburn University RFID Lab, GS1 US and several leading retail companies launched the Chain Integration Project (CHIP). The groundbreaking proof-of-concept demonstrated the effectiveness of using blockchain in combination with RFID to gather serialized product information. Three brands, Nike, PVH Corp., and Herman Kay, as well as two retailers, Kohls and Macys, contributed live data to the project.

Though blockchains potential is still undefined in retail, CHIP represented a small but important step in helping to solve supply chain challenges that have plagued the industry for decades. Here are three reasons why the findings from CHIP provide insight into the potential of blockchain in this sector:

CHIP participants named claims and chargebacks as one of the costliest problems for brands and retailers (it costs them roughly 1 percent of total retail sales, according to the Department of Commerce). There's simply little to no communication of serialized data between the stakeholders involved. Claims are often settled in the absence of sufficient shipment information on both brand and retailer sides.

Though blockchain technology can hold them accountable for their agreements and create more order transparency, trading partners need to focus on the basic tenets of supply chain visibility to fully maximize blockchain for this purpose. Companies pursuing blockchain should have globally unique product identification in place (not proprietary identification numbers) as well as a uniform way to capture how the product changes hands throughout the supply chain, such as RFID. Without supply chain visibility and data completeness, order accuracy cannot be improved.

The term serialized data in the apparel industry refers to product data carried by RFID tags or QR codes that help users identify and trace individual items throughout the supply chain. While the collection of serialized data has grown in recent years, the overall benefit of item-level visibility is hindered when data isn't shared between trading partners. Doing so can help complete the visibility cycle, improving forecasting and leading to a more transparent and real-time supply chain.

CHIP was an important test for blockchain, as is could not only spur more data sharing, but it could also cast a spotlight on the importance of creating a standards-based foundation to make that achievable. Specifically, CHIP proved a GS1 data-sharing standard called EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) enabled more flexible transactional data sharing, as it records the what, when, where and why associated with supply chain events.

According to the research, the automation of serialized product data exchange using blockchain can potentially eliminate manual labor associated with legacy systems, increasing the productivity and efficiency of the retail supply chain. Legacy systems also typically dont allow for item-level visibility, so trading partners end up forfeiting much of the granular product data enabled by serialization. Blockchain supports smart contracts, meaning the automated execution of terms, conditions and business rules, and incorporating serialized data into smart contracts could enable a more resilient and responsive supply chain. For retail, this could mean fewer item substitutions, more certainty around what's being shipped and when, and fewer discrepancies downstream. Improved reconciliation is a valuable benefit when consumers are demanding more supply chain transparency and want access to trustworthy information about a products journey.

However, because not all companies are going to select the same blockchain technology partner, GS1 Standards are essential to streamline the transmission and interpretation of data. Using standardized product data to uniformly capture traceability events, for example, can enable consumers to verify that shoes from their favorite designer are genuine.

Ultimately, CHIP participants examined various problems that exist in retail today and explored blockchain as a potential tool to solve them. Overall, while the findings showed blockchain was viable, the participants were only successful in sharing data when they used blockchain and RFID in combination with GS1 Standards such as EPCIS. Through further exploration, the team hopes to continue to evaluate the addition of this technology to the transformation of the larger retail ecosystem.

Susan Pichoff is senior director, community engagement, GS1 US, astandards organization supporting and educating businesses and industries in the use and adoption of GS1 Standards to improve business processes.

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Apparel Industry Puts Blockchain to the Test to Solve Persistent Challenges - Total Retail

Ample Market Research has added a detailed study on the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market which provides a brief summary of the growth trends influencing the market. The report also includes significant insights pertaining to the profitability graph, market share, and regional proliferation and SWOT analysis of this business vertical. The report further illustrates the status of key players in the competitive setting of the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market, while expanding on their corporate strategies and product offerings.

Further, the report also takes into account the impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market and offers a clear assessment of the projected market fluctuations during the forecast period.

The research study concisely dissects the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market and unearths valuable estimations pertaining to the profit projections, market size, sales capacity, and numerous other crucial parameters. Also, the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market report appraises the industry fragments as well as the driving factors impacting the remuneration scale of this industry.

The report is an exhaustive analysis of this market across the world. It offers an overview of the market including its definition, applications, key drivers, key market players, key segments, and manufacturing technology. In addition, the study presents statistical data on the status of the market and hence is a valuable source of guidance for companies and individuals interested in the industry. Additionally, detailed insights on the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and market shares for key vendors are presented in the report.

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Competition landscape

-Business Strategies of Leading and prominent market players in COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education.

-Product offering and development analysis.

-Market share & positioning analysis.

-SWOT analysis of the prominent market players.

-Industry-wide business strategies and trends.

Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers: IBM, odem.io, LiveEdu, Blockcerts, RecordsKeeper, Oracle, Gilgamesh, Open Source University, DISCIPLINA, Learning Machine.

The COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market has been segregated into various crucial divisions including applications, types, and regions. Each market segment is intensively studied in the report contemplating its market acceptance, worthiness, demand, and growth prospects. The segmentation analysis will help the client to customize their marketing approach to have a better command of each segment and to identify the most prospective customer base.

Market Analysis By Applications:

University, Personnel Recruitments, Digital Rights Management, Others

Market Analysis By Type:

Credentials Verification, Expanding MOOCs, Digital Rights Protection, Open Source Universities, School Assets Tracking & Management, Others

Market Analysis By Regions:

North America (Covered in Chapter 7 and 14), United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe (Covered in Chapter 8 and 14), Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia

Some important highlights from the report include:

-The relevant price and sales in the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market together with the foreseeable growth trends for the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market are included in the report.

-The report also covers the market share accumulated by each product in the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market, along with production growth.

-Extensive details pertaining to the market share garnered by each application, as well as the details of the estimated growth rate and product consumption to be accounted for by each application have been provided.

-The report also covers the industry concentration rate with reference to raw materials.

-The report also suggests considerable data with reference to the marketing channel development trends and market position. Concerning market position, the report reflects on aspects such as branding, target clientele and pricing strategies.

-Impact Analysis of COVID-19 on COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market

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Reasons for Buying this COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market Report:

-Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market.

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-The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long-term strategies.

-Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.

-Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.

-Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation, and industry verticals.

To conclude, the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education Market report will provide the clients with a high-yielding market analysis assisting them to understand the market status and come up with new market avenues to capture hold of the market share.

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Major Points Covered in TOC:

Overview: Along with a broad overview of the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market, this section gives an overview of the report to give an idea about the nature and contents of the research study.

Analysis on Strategies of Leading Players: Market players can use this analysis to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market.

Study on Key Market Trends: This section of the report offers a deeper analysis of the latest and future trends of the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market.

Market Forecasts: Buyers of the report will have access to accurate and validated estimates of the total market size in terms of value and volume. The report also provides consumption, production, sales, and other forecasts for the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market.

Regional Growth Analysis: All major regions and countries have been covered in the report. The regional analysis will help market players to tap into unexplored regional markets, prepare specific strategies for target regions, and compare the growth of all regional markets.

Segmental Analysis: The report provides accurate and reliable forecasts of the market share of important segments of the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market. Market participants can use this analysis to make strategic investments in key growth pockets of the COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market.

You can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report versions like North America, Europe or Asia or Country like US, UK, China and other.

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COVID19 Outbreak Blockchain in Education market maintaining a strong outlook heres why - Levee Report

By Marc Kavinsky, Editor at IoT Business News.

There are two technologies weve heard discussed a lot in recent years, blockchain technology and the Internet of Things. Both have been promising to revolutionise the way we live, making the world more convenient, safer and more decentralised.

The Internet of Things has been rolled out to both businesses and consumers. Smart home devices like internet-connected thermostats and lights are great examples of this. While businesses regularly use IoT devices to monitor the efficiency of processes in production and logistics.

The most prevalent example of blockchain technology is in cryptocurrencies. These digital alternatives to traditional currencies take some of the qualities of gold and combine it with a decentralised mechanism for governing and policing its operations.

With no central bank, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethererum and Litecoin have a public ledger listed on the blockchain. Instead, computers, or nodes operate around the world process and verify transactions.

These cryptocurrencies can be used in a small but growing number of places for day-to-day commerce. For example, its now possible to buy your morning caffeine fix from Starbucks or new stationery and furniture from Office Depot. Enthusiasm for crypto is beginning to gather pace, with many blogs and crypto news sites reporting on the latest developments.

But can these two revolutionary technologies be combined to extract the benefits from both at the same time? Market Research seems to think so. It has forecasted the two could be worth $254 billion by 2026.

The Internet of Things has been held back by the inherent security issues that come with having many devices connected to a network. Theyre attractive targets for computer criminals who want to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks since they can launch many simultaneous attacks when infiltrating a single network. IoT devices have (traditionally at least) been harder to secure than computers and other devices.

Smart refrigerators, WiFi routers and connected thermostats are all common targets for this kind of attack, particularly when they are left with their default password.

Blockchain technology can be used to tackle this security challenge. Firstly, the distributed ledger is immutable, as in tamper-proof, meaning trust between each device doesnt need to be established in the same way. Data leaks can also be more easily identified since they are recorded permanently in the ledger.

Additionally, blockchain provides better encryption and an additional layer of security, making it harder for hackers to infiltrate a network.

As networks of Internet of Things devices grow, it can be difficult to authenticate and authorise each device on a centralised network due to the high levels of resources required. Traditionally, this would mean you need huge numbers of powerful services to meet the demands.

With blockchain technology, these issues can be addressed by allowing all the devices on the network to undertake authentication. This means other IoT devices could perform some of this role, spreading the workload over the entire network and removing the need for huge gateway devices.

A decentralised network spread out across many Internet of Things devices would also allow blockchain systems to be sped up. Blockchain technology, particularly cryptocurrencies, are currently held back by the slow speed at which they process transactions.

By utilising the Internet of Things, this could be addressed by adding significantly more decentralised processing power to the network.

In tandem with improved speeds, decentralised blockchain processing on the Internet of Things could help to reduce costs. Large number-crunching computers can be prohibitively expensive but could be much cheaper when spread out over many smaller devices.

Current IoT networks often have a central gateway that all the devices communicate with. This creates a single point of failure vulnerability that could be attacked, resulting in the entire network being taken down. While you can use backup and redundancy limits to prevent or limit downtime, they can be expensive.

Using a blockchain would distribute both authorisation and authentication over an entire network, thus removing the single point of failure.

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Can the IoT Benefit from Blockchain Technology? - IoT Business News

Proof of Health to Travel

As the lockdown wears on and travel and tourism, a USD$9 trillion industry in 2019, continue to be restricted, ShareRing is one company that has been innovating to use blockchain technology to solve the issue. ShareRing is a platform that wants to take the hassle out of travel, with its all-inclusive travel app for both businesses and consumers led by CEO and Founder Tim Bos along with the other 5 founders including Jane Sadler-Kidd. The team recognized the potential to disrupt the fragmented sharing economy with blockchain technology and launched an enterprise-ready blockchain geared towards the travel, sharing and on-demand economies. According to Kidd ShareLedger is a custom-designed, immutable blockchain database built on top of the Tendermint blockchain. Its fast, highly scalable and extremely flexible compared to existing platforms such as Ethereum.

Imagine stepping off the plane and knowing all your travel needs can be securely booked and managed from your phone. No more juggling handing over passports, travel documents or bank cards. ShareRings travel app will create a more cohesive customer experience by bringing all the necessary activities and bookings into one ecosystem, including hotel check-ins, flights, visa and tourist applications, Covid-19 tests, self-sovereign digital identity cards, mobile wallets, payment solutions and vehicle rentals.

They are also launching the world's first anonymous contact-tracing passport that can be integrated with e-visa on arrival systems (eVOA), travel insurance companies, airlines, hotels and retail shops. While contact-tracing applications have undergone harsh scrutiny since the pandemic began, with studies showing many tracing applications lack adequate security, are manual and expensive to execute. ShareRings self-sovereign identity storing model overcomes the major hurdle of securing data integrity by ensuring data privacy through anonymous distributed ledger cryptography.

Travelers Proof of Health is tied safely to a QR code which is scanned by airports, hotels or shops to reveal the status of their test, allowing for more freedom of movement and interaction with customers. Identity information is never stored on the blockchain and cannot be altered, preventing falsification and fraud where other contact tracing apps had third party storage of data. According to Kidd When someone signs up for a ShareRing ID, we take their photo, video selfie, name, DOB, address, etc and store it in an encrypted file that never leaves the users device. We also take a fingerprint of the data and documentation and store that on the blockchain. The file is encrypted with your public key, so only you can access it. You can also back it up to your Google Drive, or other cloud storage. If any information is changed it will not be recognized by the blockchain and the user will be forced to recreate their ShareRing ID. When you use one of our services like the COVID-19 app, the app will send only the necessary information to the government (anonymously) to allow others to be notified if they have been in contact with you. This is critical while many governments are considering mandating, and some have, health certificates in order to ease lockdown measures and re-open borders and struggling economies safely. As Kidd explains We have designed this application with government, tourism and health regulator requirements in mind. Our Covid-19 passport is perfectly suited to their standards, very low-cost, built to be easily integrated into any application, and encourages adoption among the population by building it in a way that provably safeguards their privacy. This should enable them to safely screen travelers and keep their essential workers protected in the event of an outbreak.

The app is part of a broader ecosystem of blockchain products the company has built. ShareRings application has already been integrated with more than 2.6 million hotel and activity providers around the world and they already have a sharing marketplace removing middlemen like Uber and AirBnb. SharePay is their stablecoin which 'hides' the confusion of cryptocurrency from the end-user. The payment of services and goods between user and service provider will be made in SharePay.

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ShareRing Uses Blockchain To Solve Self Sovereign Identity And Proof Of Health Simultaneously - Forbes

Front gate of South Korea presidential office is also known as The Blue House due to its blue color ... [+] roof tiles, Seoul, South Korea.. (Photo by: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Cheongwadaealso known as the Blue House for its blue roofis the official residence and executive office for the President of South Korea. In a bid to overcome the crises, South Korean President Moon Jae-in addressed business leaders from 9 key industries. In an unofficial translation on the Office of the President, President Moon Jae-in said, For its part, the Government will strive to nurture future technology professionals while supporting Korean companies efforts to innovate. We are expediting the training of experts in such new industrial areas as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain technology, future cars, drones, intelligent robots, smart ships and biomedicine.

I am confident that if businesses, the Government and the people all join forces, we will be able to surmount the industrial crisis caused by COVID-19 and be reborn as a powerhouse in an era of the digital economy, said President Moon Jae-in. In light of global economic uncertainty, Korea is taking ample measures to foster blockchain innovationnot only from a legislative stancebut also from a progressive stance towards cryptocurrencies as a whole.

A short background of Koreas viewpoint

South Korea was not always pro-crypto and this can be traced back to the crypto bull run of 2017. During the bull run, a large percentage of South Koreans invested, in so much that, South Korea became one of the biggest markets for bitcoin. The term bitcoin zombies emergedreferring to people addicted to checking the price of bitcoin.

When the bull market took a massive dive in 2018, many South Koreans lost a lot of moneyand some even lost their houses in the process. It didnt take too long for the Korean government to intervene and blacklist ICOs. Government intervention was also likely to be largely influenced by other cultural aspects, such as:

Suicide: According to the World Health Organization, South Korea has the fourth-highest suicide rate in the world.

Gambling: South Korea is home to 23 casinos. By law, only one casino is available for South Koreans to gamble, located in a remote area in the countryside.

Given that cryptocurrencies are high-risk volatile investments, plus factor in high suicide rates and the South Korean governments conservative attitudes towards gamblingthen, it becomes easier to see why the South Korean government was anti-crypto. Fast forward to 2019, Korea began introducing new regulations and has since changed its stance on crypto.

Regulations on virtual assets

The South Korean government has been working with local blockchain advocates to help introduce more concrete legislation surrounding the treatment of virtual assets. Simon Kim, CEO of proprietary blockchain venture fund Hashed, is one such advocate. Hashed is a significant backer of Asian blockchain projects including Klaytn and Terra. Kim is a director of the Korea Blockchain Association and is also involved in government initiatives around cryptocurrency regulation.

In an interview, Kim told me that the Korean Financial Services Commission does not regulate proprietary funds (a fund that invests with their own capital) in the same way that the SEC regulates US-based venture fundsproprietary funds are not required to submit periodic fillings via the FSC, Form Ds or disclose their information to the public. Depending on a funds registration status, it can either be launched under the FSC; or the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS). However, publicly listed companies are required to submit similar information to that of U.S. companies and disclose periodic filings.

July 2020, saw the rollout of a new tax ruling that will tax gains on cryptocurrency at a rate of 20%. Kim also advised the government in the drafting of a March bill that ensures Korea complies with FATF guidelines regarding virtual assets (VAs) and virtual asset providers (VASPs). This includes legal definitions, and the requirement of virtual asset service providers such as cryptocurrency exchanges to report to the Financial Intelligence Unit.

Speaking of the move towards a more regulated blockchain landscape for Korea, Kim said Although lack of clear regulation brought certain freedoms, it has ultimately been a bottle neck for blockchain related businesses in Korea. The new regulations mark a fresh beginning for Korea as it takes its first step to create a more hospitable environment for VAs and VASPs.

Kim also believes that this approach is helping Asia to spearhead blockchain innovation, in comparison with the often draconian approach of the US SEC. He added: While western projects such as Telegrams TON have been cancelled and Facebooks Libra delayed, Asian platforms have successfully launched and continue to onboard users. Among these are Samsungs blockchain integration into its Galaxy smartphones, and Terras Chai mobile payment initiative.

The one-step model

The South Korean government has also been experimenting with various blockchain legislative initiatives. In April last year, the government set up 14 special regulation-free zones with 84 regulation-related exceptions. Out of these zonesthe Busan crypto regulation-free zone, modeled after the Swiss town of Zugrepresented a major shift in government attitude towards cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. However, this didnt come without speculation, with some accusing the government of choking innovation.

In relation to these special regulation-free zones, President Moon Jae-in said earlier this year, Now tests related to such new industries as telemedicine, blockchain and the hydrogen economy can be conducted, and innovative industries are being created through the strengths of provincial areas.

This month, Haeundae Beachone of the most popular locations in the Busan crypto regulation-free zoneis expected to begin accepting crypto payments such as bitcoin and ethereum for watersport fans. The intention is to turn Haeundae Beach into a crypto beach, however, these plans are likely to be delayed as the Busan area was recently hit hard with an intense monsoona common occurrence during the months of July and August.

Furthermore, President Moon Jae-in went on to say that, The Government will further accelerate regulatory innovation while enhancing the strengths of local areas through decentralization. In regards to decentralization, the South Korean government proposed an amendment to the Local Autonomy Act, that if passed, will transfer administrative authority from central to local governments in these special regulation-free zones.

The decentralization experiment has been dubbed as a one-step model. The idea behind itif there is a mechanism for compromise in place that supports small concessions to take a large step forwardthen this will lead to a breakthrough in regulatory innovation. In light of this one-step model, last month, the South Korean government revealed that it granted the South Korean province Gyeongbuk, a permit to run a Special Industrial Hemp Free Zone. The zone will allow the province to industrialize medical hemp on the blockchaina major shift from conservative thinking to progressive.

The global race for CBDCs

In response to Chinas CBDC, the U.S, Australia, the Philippines, the European Central Bank, and many other countries are now considering rolling out CBDCs. This may bode well for crypto; however, not all are in agreement. Some have speculated that central bank digital currencies have nothing to do with cryptocurrenciesand are just a solution for a cashless society.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) originally had no interest in creating a Korean central bank digital currency (CBDC). Since then, it has now changed its tune. In March this year, the BOK began reviewing the issuance of a Korean CBDC and is now working on a 22-month pilot scheme that will see a build and test of the CBDC pilot system in 2021.

With economic uncertainty, inflation concerns, quantitative easing, governments racing towards CBDCs in reaction to the looming Chinese digital Yuanwhen looking to the future, how will the 2020s be remembered: As COVID-19; the black swan stock market crash; a global currency war; or the golden era of bitcoin?

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The Blue House Is Taking Initiatives To Position South Korea As A Blockchain Hub - Forbes

In a highly competitive and rapidly digitizing business ecosystem, advertising plays a major role in a brands success. So much so, that according to MarketingDive, global ad spending was expected to grow at 5%, reaching $600 billion by the end of 2019, nearly half of which was to come from digital ads.

Apart from the direct use of technology, the boom in social media has significantly contributed to this growth. After all, advertisement is all about getting a brand in front of people: the more targeted, the better. With an expected 3.43 billion global user base by 2023, social media platforms are some of the best resources to do so.

But despite rapid growth and rising importance, there are dark sides to traditional models of advertising.

The Pitfalls of Traditional Advertising

According to Juniper Research, by 2020marketers around the world could be losing around $44 billion to ad frauds by far, the biggest problem with traditional advertising. This is largely due to the fact that the industry is highly centralized and opaque.

Advertising agencies often act as intermediaries between advertisers and their audiences. Often, advertisers have to pay a hefty initial fee and a monthly subscription for running their advertisements. The advertiser has very little to no control over where their ads are placed or who clicks on them. Consequently, they bear the cost of the agencys ineffective placement, while the overall advertising cost also ends up being significantly high.

While social media is a major space for running ad campaigns, traditional methods do not encourage the platforms users to participate. The end-users of social media are seen merely as consumers and not contributors. To a great extent, this limits the scope of ad campaigns on platforms that mostly run on user-generated content.

The Promise of Decentralized Advertising

Most of the shortcomings of traditional advertising are due to the industrys centralized nature. In this context, Distributed Ledger Technology, especially blockchain, enables a more user-centric approach to advertising.

In blockchain advertising, advertisers can directly interact with end-users who, in turn, can contribute and monetize content and efforts towards an ad campaign. Before trying to understand this better with an example, lets briefly outline the main benefits of using blockchain for advertising.

First, the elimination of intermediaries results in reduced costs. Usually, a major share of ad spending pays for the fee and other charges of the intermediaries. By using blockchain, advertisers dont need to rank high on Google, alleviating thevicious cycle of having to consistently invest time and money into ranking high on Google search. In turn, this also significantly widens the scope as advertisers are no more dependent solely on certain agencies or oligarchies.

Second, with blockchains inherent transparency and security features (such as smart contracts), its possible to reinstate the consumers trust in advertising. Most importantly, this makes ad fraud virtually impossible, while making the industry more accountable as a whole.

Third, in blockchain advertising, consumers have complete control over the data that they share with advertisers. Further, blockchain technology ensures that advertisers cannot use this data in any other way than what has been previously agreed upon.

A Perfect Blockchain Advertising Case Study: The SaTT Platform

The SaTT solution was developed byAtayen, Inc and is an Ethereum-based platform that uses smart contracts and an ERC20 token to facilitate advertisements transactions. Apart from safe, instant, and automated transactions, the decentralized platform employs robust applications to transparently quantify campaign results.

Using this incentivized platform, advertisers can launch campaigns in which other users can participate by sharing related content on their social networks. In return, they are rewarded with pre-determined SaTT tokens, which are based on several KPIs such as views, likes, and shares.

All users on the application are eligible to apply to promote a product or service they like and get rewarded in SaTT tokens and play the role of an influencer.

Story continues

As companies are very attentive to their most engaged followers on social networks, SaTT is positioning itself as a revolutionary solution to reward them and considerably increase a company's exposure on social networks, without depending on a centralized entity.

Centralization, opacity, and high costs are some of the major problems with traditional advertising. Also, theres a serious lack of user participation. Using blockchain technology, innovative startups are coming up with innovative solutions to these problems, ultimately helping revolutionize advertising.

As any user with a substantial social network following can create and monetize content for ad campaigns, these blockchain-based platforms also enable a paradigm shift in influencer marketing.

Disclaimer: Please consult your financial advisor before investing in any cryptocurrencies as they are volatile and pose risks for the average investor. This post is informational in nature and does not constitute financial advice. The writer of this article does not hold and has never held any position in SaTT.

See more from Benzinga

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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What Can Blockchain Really Do for Advertising? A Perfect Use Case With SaTT - Yahoo Finance

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, together with key thought leaders from the region, has launched a new training program on blockchain technology targeted at government innovators, demonstrating the Commonwealths commitment to supporting the blockchain revolution.

Blockchain technology has been recognized as one of the key emerging sectors to further strengthen the Massachusetts technology and innovation economy by the Baker-Polito Administration. Blockchain was included as a key sector in the states 2020 economic development bill, along with other emerging fields such as fintech, robotics, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. While blockchain is best known as the technology behind bitcoin, it is increasingly being used in a variety of applications, from tracking the spread of Covid-19 to the creation of more efficient and transparent global supply chains.

Leading the development of new technologies is a fundamental part of growing the Massachusetts economy, and that includes blockchain, said Damon Cox, Assistant Secretary of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. With our rich and diverse innovation ecosystem, we are well-positioned to become a leading destination for blockchain companies of all sizes.

As with any new transformational technology, education and building awareness are crucial steps to understanding the opportunities that blockchain provides. In this virtual education series, government leaders throughout the Commonwealth will learn the fundamentals of blockchain technology, real-life applications from other governments around the world, and specific applications that can be used during this time of rapid financial and political change. The first of three educational sessions were held in May, while a second session is scheduled for the end of July. The third session is in the early stages of planning and scheduling. During the sessions, participants learn how to identify new opportunities for blockchain to streamline government processes, create efficiencies, and ultimately generate new jobs in the Massachusetts economy.

A fundamental understanding and awareness of the capabilities and attributes of any new emerging technology are a conditioned precedent to any adoption strategy, said Pat Larkin, Director of the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. We are pleased with the opportunity to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology through this awareness and education campaign for enlightened municipal leaders being conducted by the local blockchain community.

Media Shower, a Boston-based media and communications company, was awarded a $31,500 grant from the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to run the training sessions. Media Shower works to connect local blockchain companies, investors, and enthusiasts. The companys flagship publication, Bitcoin Market Journal, is one of the major independent online news sources devoted exclusively to blockchain investors. The blockchain experts at Media Shower are actively engaged in the Boston Blockchain Association, a community of innovators, collaborators, and entrepreneurs with a mission to build an ecosystem that supports and educates on blockchain technology, and establishes Greater Boston as an international blockchain hub.

Blockchain sits at the intersection of finance and technology, just like Massachusetts, said John Hargrave, CEO of Media Shower. This partnership will power our next wave of financial growth and technology jobs.

State and municipal officials interested in participating in an education session should email the Innovation Institute at MassTech via engage@masstech.org or submit their interest online at https://innovation.masstech.org/contact. Please include Blockchain Education RSVP in the subject line.

About the Innovation Institute at MassTech

The Innovation Institute is the entity that advances a core mission of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative: improving the conditions for innovation and cluster growth across the Commonwealth. Created in 2003, the Innovation Institute intervenes in the economy in the following four ways:

For more information, visit https://innovation.masstech.org/.

About Boston Blockchain Association (BBA)

Boston Blockchain Association is a community of innovators, collaborators, and entrepreneurs excited about the promise of blockchain technology. Its mission is to build an ecosystem that supports, educates, promotes, and advances blockchain technology, establishes Greater Boston as an international hub for blockchain innovation, and supports and connects entrepreneurs with useful resources.

For more information visit: https://bostonblockchainassociation.com/

About Media Shower

Media Shower is the Massachusetts-based media and communication company that simplifies complex technologies, providing training and education to a wide audience. As award-winning specialists in blockchain technology, Media Shower works with a wide variety of financial and technology firms from State Street Global Advisors to Intuit.

For more information at http://www.mediashower.com/

Read more here:

Massachusetts Explores Opportunities Around Blockchain - Business Wire

Covid-19 tracking blockchain platform BeiYo can be integrated with Aarogya Setu

The blockchain-powered platform can be used issue certificates for Covid-19 clinical records and immunisation certificates on blockchain at a cost price of INR 20

Coca Colas bottling supply chain company Coke One North America (CONA) services to leverage blockchain to enhance efficiency

In a bid to tackle Covid-19 pandemic in India, an IIITB-IMACX Studios incubated startup YoSync has partnered with Malaysia based global blockchain company BelfricsBT, where it has developed blockchain-powered Covid-19 tracking platform called BelYo in collaboration with Indian Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) and funded by Mphasis F1 Foundation.

BeIYo uses the BelfricsBT Belrium blockchain platform to convert Covid-19 related clinical and vaccination data of citizens from the physical form into digital assets which can be retrieved by any contact tracing apps, including Aarogya Setu via APIs. The company in a press statement said that one can use these APIs to retrieve data.

For instance, users can scan and retrieve data (i.e colour coded results) through a QR code and the process is said to be 100% contactless and seamless at any point of entry during and post the Covid-19 crisis.

Further, the company said that the platform is currently being tested in a few clinics where it is enabling the authorities to track details of their Covid-19 tests that are being conducted. In the next couple of weeks, the platform aims to reach out to ICMR approved 730 government labs and 270 private labs.

The cofounders Praveen Kumar and Satish Shekar said that their platform could be tweaked to suit the vaccination plan of the government in the shortest time possible and they also feel that their API could be a great contribution to Aarogya Sethu during such a nationwide vaccination exercise. Most importantly, the platform is said to simplify the tracking of all the Covid-19 patients in India, from symptoms stage to vaccination certificate in a decentralised manner, without compromising the privacy of the data, shared Prof Sadagopan, Director-IIIT Bangalore and Chairman of IIITB-IMACX Studios.

Optimistic about BeIYo, Praveenkumar Vijayakumar, founder and CEO of Belfrics Group said that they are looking to onboard more testing centres, including hospitals and private labs by the end of 2020. Going forward, the platform looks at 5% market share by 2023 of the total 100K clinical labs in India, which would help us to reach a gross revenue target of $200 Mn by 2025, he added.

The cofounders said that its platform will issue certificates for Covid-19 clinical records and immunisation certificates on blockchain at a cost price of INR 20. The final documentation for Covid-19 would be the vaccination record of citizens. When we reach that stage, then recording and retrieving such data becomes vital for any economic activity, added BeIYo.

According to the PwC Global Blockchain Survey, new industry and territory leaders are emerging each passing day. The report projected that China will be leading the blockchain wave by 2023 at 30%, followed by the US (18%), Australia (8%) and India (6%) among others, compared to 2018, where the US was leading the blockchain race.

The beverage giant Coca Cola owned bottling supply chain company Coke One North America (CONA) services, recently announced that it will be trying out the Baseline Protocol, a public Ethereum blockchain technology targeted at enterprise use cases. With this, it plans to enhance efficiency across the beverage companys supply chain.

In its blog post, it stated that CONA Services has launched this project in collaboration with blockchain startups Provide and Unibright, where it will conduct the trials between the bottler and franchise to bridge the gap in the supply chain. The initial version of the project is expected to be released in Q4 2020.

The United Arab Emirates recently announced that it will be launching a blockchain-based know your customer (KYC) platform. This platform is said to become a nationwide system for exchanging verified customer data. Dubais department of economic development (DED) in partnership with state-run bank Emirates NBD will be rolling out this solution.

According to a press statement, Emirates NBD will be the first bank to go live on this platform. The bank, which already has more than 120 customers, will work with small and medium-sized businesses, where it will be enabling them to onboard digitally, and they will be able to instantly open bank accounts through Emirates NBDs E20 Digital Business Bank.

Texas-based agritech and data company HerdX recently announced its partnership with Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Cho and logistics company UPS to leverage blockchain technology for food traceability.

With this, the agritech firm will be providing its consumers with provenance data from its blockchain partner network using its open-source platform, data collection and analysis capabilities. UPS, on the other hand, which has already built a tool that connects to HerdXs blockchain technology will be providing authenticated data points throughout the supply chain journey. My children will have the ability to know where their food comes from, and how it was made, said Lauren Jones, chief business development officer at HerdX.

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Blockchain This Week: Indias First Ever Covid-19 Tracking Blockchain Platform & More - Inc42 Media

In a highly competitive and rapidly digitizing business ecosystem, advertising plays a major role in a brands success. So much so, that according to MarketingDive, global ad spending was expected to grow at 5%, reaching $600 billion by the end of 2019, nearly half of which was to come from digital ads.

Apart from the direct use of technology, the boom in social media has significantly contributed to this growth. After all, advertisement is all about getting a brand in front of people: the more targeted, the better. With an expected 3.43 billion global user base by 2023, social media platforms are some of the best resources to do so.

But despite rapid growth and rising importance, there are dark sides to traditional models of advertising.

According to Juniper Research, by 2020marketers around the world could be losing around $44 billion to ad frauds by far, the biggest problem with traditional advertising. This is largely due to the fact that the industry is highly centralized and opaque.

Advertising agencies often act as intermediaries between advertisers and their audiences. Often, advertisers have to pay a hefty initial fee and a monthly subscription for running their advertisements. The advertiser has very little to no control over where their ads are placed or who clicks on them. Consequently, they bear the cost of the agencys ineffective placement, while the overall advertising cost also ends up being significantly high.

While social media is a major space for running ad campaigns, traditional methods do not encourage the platforms users to participate. The end-users of social media are seen merely as consumers and not contributors. To a great extent, this limits the scope of ad campaigns on platforms that mostly run on user-generated content.

Most of the shortcomings of traditional advertising are due to the industrys centralized nature. In this context, Distributed Ledger Technology, especially blockchain, enables a more user-centric approach to advertising.

In blockchain advertising, advertisers can directly interact with end-users who, in turn, can contribute and monetize content and efforts towards an ad campaign. Before trying to understand this better with an example, lets briefly outline the main benefits of using blockchain for advertising.

First, the elimination of intermediaries results in reduced costs. Usually, a major share of ad spending pays for the fee and other charges of the intermediaries. By using blockchain, advertisers dont need to rank high on Google, alleviating thevicious cycle of having to consistently invest time and money into ranking high on Google search. In turn, this also significantly widens the scope as advertisers are no more dependent solely on certain agencies or oligarchies.

Second, with blockchains inherent transparency and security features (such as smart contracts), its possible to reinstate the consumers trust in advertising. Most importantly, this makes ad fraud virtually impossible, while making the industry more accountable as a whole.

Third, in blockchain advertising, consumers have complete control over the data that they share with advertisers. Further, blockchain technology ensures that advertisers cannot use this data in any other way than what has been previously agreed upon.

The SaTT solution was developed byAtayen, Inc and is an Ethereum-based platform that uses smart contracts and an ERC20 token to facilitate advertisements transactions. Apart from safe, instant, and automated transactions, the decentralized platform employs robust applications to transparently quantify campaign results.

Using this incentivized platform, advertisers can launch campaigns in which other users can participate by sharing related content on their social networks. In return, they are rewarded with pre-determined SaTT tokens, which are based on several KPIs such as views, likes, and shares.

All users on the application are eligible to apply to promote a product or service they like and get rewarded in SaTT tokens and play the role of an influencer.

As companies are very attentive to their most engaged followers on social networks, SaTT is positioning itself as a revolutionary solution to reward them and considerably increase a company's exposure on social networks, without depending on a centralized entity.

Centralization, opacity, and high costs are some of the major problems with traditional advertising. Also, theres a serious lack of user participation. Using blockchain technology, innovative startups are coming up with innovative solutions to these problems, ultimately helping revolutionize advertising.

As any user with a substantial social network following can create and monetize content for ad campaigns, these blockchain-based platforms also enable a paradigm shift in influencer marketing.

Disclaimer: Please consult your financial advisor before investing in any cryptocurrencies as they are volatile and pose risks for the average investor. This post is informational in nature and does not constitute financial advice. The writer of this article does not hold and has never held any position in SaTT.

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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What Can Blockchain Really Do for Advertising? A Perfect Use Case With SaTT - Benzinga

Robin Zhu, Huobi Global Groups COO, told Cointelegraph at a China Great Bay Area International Blockchain Week pre-event interview on August 3 that lack of defined regulations and infrastructure services are preventing the mass adoption of blockchain and crypto.

Zhu explained that, in addition to concerns about hacking, users are put off by the lack of defined regulations, infrastructure services, and user-friendly asset management systems. He continued that:

Security has always been on the top of the list. Lack of defined regulations and infrastructure services means that it is hard for mass users to entrust their cryptocurrency with most institutions and cooperates in this industry without any doubt.

He says that another key factor is the preconception of cryptocurrencies. He stressed that while Bitcoin has become a household name over the past decade, many still dont know what to do with it, let alone other cryptocurrencies. It will take a long time for the mainstream to figure out unless more robust infrastructures and user-friendly applications are built in the near future.

Blockchain, according to Zhu, has long been highlighted by the government as one of the keys to technological innovation and industrial revolution. Huobi, as one of the biggest crypto exchanges, sees it as an opportunity to provide much needed infrastructure and services.

Zhu says that Huobi University, which provides Blockchain education, has created multi-dimensional course modules for students from a variety of backgrounds. He says more than 100 free lectures are provided to government employees and employees from medium-sized enterprises globally. He added that:

Driven by the supportive policy environment and pouring-in capital, demands for high-quality talents, technology innovation-oriented corporates and commercialized cases grow rapidly over the years. Huobi sees the rising opportunities in training talents, empowering real economy, project incubation and setting industry standards.

Zhu believes that in the future, blockchain and cryptocurrency will change the world. He notes that in the future, global economic activities will become more efficient and convenient thanks to this technology-oriented revolution. Providing examples, he said:

Singapore, London, Hong Kong, and Japan have already begun regulating crypto with defined policies; first-tier corporates like Huobi are dedicated to build up more infrastructures including crypto payment system, digital asset management platform, custody, and etc[...]For the world, the value of blockchain is to change the ways that value circulates and the business model works; for you and me, blockchain is the life-changing opportunity that you wont miss.

As Cointelegraph reported previously, Blockchain is attracting more institutional investors to the crypto space as regulation becomes more clear.

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Huobis COO Thinks Blockchain Regulation Needs to be Better Defined - Cointelegraph

Kadena, a network that unites public applications with private blockchains, has successfully implemented the worlds first crypto gas station on its blockchain. The network communicated the news through a blog post on its official medium channel on August 6. Kadena seeks to resolve the onboarding process of people looking to pay using cryptocurrencies through the creation of gas stations.

According to the post, the most significant barrier to the use of decentralized applications (dApps) is the hectic onboarding process where a user needs to create a wallet and use an exchange to buy the said cryptocurrency with a unit of gas. Kadenas solution to this nightmare is the use of gas stations which is an account that funds gas payments under specific conditions.

In a past post by Kadenas co-founder, Will Martino noted,

The biggest impediment to the broad adoption of decentralized applications (dApps) is the requirement that participants onboard to a cryptocurrency first. Overall, the contemporary dApp user journey is closer to about as painful as opening a bank account when it needs to be as simple as signing up for Instagram.

To implement the project, Kadena has floated two types of gas stations through an open-source for the community to review. The first is a gas guard type which are gas stations where the limit of gas used in a transaction lies within a threshold. The other is dubbed gas payer where only approved accounts are allowed, or certain functions are used. The gas guard concept has been used to facilitate transactions on ZelCore multi-currency crypto wallet. The flexible and user-friendly nature of the gas payer type of gas station displays the power of blockchain.

The innovative concept of gas stations will be a game-changer for how people use blockchain-based apps. Through them, using blockchain wont be limited to tech-savvy individuals but anyone who has access to the internet. dApp creators need to embrace the concept since it will allow users to get pre-paid gas fees which are a low-cost investment that yields high returns.

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Kadena implements the first crypto gas station on blockchain - Invezz