With ERC-20 tokens like WBTC, Bitcoin could now compete in the red-hot DeFi development space

At the end of June, Dune Analytics reported that over $60 million worth of Bitcoin had migrated to Ethereum via various ERC-20 protocols. At the end of July, it recorded an all-time record of $225 million in tokenized bitcoins.

One of the largest ERC-20 contributors to this growth is Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) with a 76% percent market share and 15,500 tokenized Bitcoin.

WBTC is essentially an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum blockchain with its value backed by actual bitcoins.

The protocol was introduced in 2019 with the intention of bridging the gap between the older Bitcoin protocol with more contemporary platforms such as Ethereum while still retaining Bitcoins massive capital pool for liquidity.

Since WBTC is an ERC-20 token, investors could use Bitcoin via WBTC on the Ethereum network to enjoy many of its features, including decentralised applications (dApp), smart contracts and DeFi (decentralised finance) services.

When investors want to convert their Bitcoin into WBTC, a merchant will facilitate this transaction; ownership is validated and the bitcoins are stored away, while new WBTC is minted. When investors require a withdrawal, WBTC will be burnt and bitcoin will be taken out of storage to return it.

Under the management of Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), WBTC is regularly audited and verified on both Bitcoin and Ethereum platforms.

Currently, various tokenized protocols exist, such as WBTC, imBTC and renBTC.

As of the end of July, the total value of DeFi peaked at $4 billion, leading experts to speculate that this might be the result of the amount of stored Bitcoin quadrupling on the Ethereum blockchain.

More and more Bitcoin users are borrowing, lending and investing more in DeFi, leading to an increase in Ethereums value.

Andy Bromberg, the President of CoinList, told CoinDesk that DeFi is, the biggest opportunity for decentralized finances growth today.

Developers have built DeFi applications with WBTC acting as its engine in record time. TokenSet was introduced almost a year after WBTC launched, which allowed users to trade ETH and WBTC autonomously and to profit from gains on both platforms.

Read the rest here:

Bitcoin increasingly 'locked up' in Ethereum blockchain - CoinJournal

Blockchain as a great facility is expected to play a vital role in information and technology in the coming years. It has started to progress more rapidly because more and more organizations now realize the importance of the blockchain. Moreover, its not easy to implement blockchain for several reasons. Blockchain development services support critical system and hardware necessities to attain a significant decrease in attack vulnerability.

Blockchain as a service supplier like IBM, Microsoft Azure and other top companies have researched BaaS to make blockchain execution easier for the industries whose chief capabilities remain in fields than information and technology. It assists enterprises to emphasis more on the main areas, than to focus on the development space.

Blockchain as a service is a blockchain facility that enables consumers to use cloud-based facilities to progress, use and organize their blockchain applications, operation and smart dealings. BaaS comprises a cloud-based facility that manages performance to keep the structure functional and agile. Its still working on some areas to increase its growth across different businesses:Web development company plans and codes applications for online purpose.Industries and businesses both are eager to execute the blockchain feature due to the technical difficulties in generating, functioning and handling the blockchain structure act as problems to its broad adoption. Blockchain, as a service provides solutions to release companies of the complication of new technology.

A BaaS provider organizes and maintains the blockchain technology and arrangement for a consumer. The customer pays some amount to the BaaS provider for arranging and managing blockchain linked nodes on their concern. A BaaS provider maintains the back-end for the customer and their business. The customerprovides money to the BaaS provider for arranging and handling blockchain connected nodes on their concern. A BaaS worker manages the back-end for the client and their industry. It is the duty of a BaaS operator to make blockchain structure work continuously. A Blockchain worker also takes care of theevents like proper distribution of sources, bandwidth controlling and organizing requirements. By using BaaS procedure, customer can concentrate on more of the main fields and the working of blockchain without worrying about the arrangement issues.

The different method to organize your website on any web hosting provider such as Amazon Services or Azure, and they will handle all maintenance and set-up difficulties.Blockchain as a service performs similarly to the second procedure, thus releasing you from the burden of handling structure of a blockchain application.

Microsoft is one of the first sellers to offer BaaS when it created Azure blockchain services in 2015. They grouped up with the industries to progress Microsoft azure services. The administration purposes of following designers and trades consumers to test with blockchain technology and development. Microsoft Azure BaaS also permits its customers to generate private, public, and association blockchain setting with industry context and bring their blockchain applications to the market. Blockchain App Development Company helps with diverse blockchain platforms to improve business efficiency, effectiveness, and growth.

However, by incorporating the artificial intelligence-based support system, many large companies help its customers understand and execute dispersed ledger technology.

Features of Microsoft Azure

Like other industries, Amazon has also come up with its BaaS facility known as amazon managed blockchain. Amazon managed blockchain is a complete facility that provides its customers to arrange and maintain an accessible network with just a few hit. The amazon managed blockchain assists two famous blockchain expansion contexts, making its simple for the customer to handle both approved and public blockchain systemsthrough a particularcontrolledservice. Therefore, amazon managed blokchain provides you with the procedure to choose the proper sources for your workload.

Features of Amazon Managed Blockchain

The blockchain platform as an administration provided its R3 facilities that offer industries access to the one-click organization of cloud-based nodes.

Maintained R3 platform decreases the organization time of blockchain nodes for a few minutes permits industries, R3 associates and governments to organize the Corda system in just three clicks. Created on the latest release of Corda, designers can advance their private systems for verifying and install CorD applications on the private network. It decreases efforts and sources and provides flexibility over a shorter period. Designersno longer need to concentrate on the management of systems.

Features of R3 Corda Service

R3s unique feature permits designers to function with more than one element at a time.

Smart Agreements Integration

You need a smart deal instrument to combine business ideas into your blockchain solution. Smart deal not only comprises the instructions like typical deals but also applies penalties in case any part breaks the norms. However, the BaaS platforms are enduring; it makes proper testing of smart deals quite complex for designers. It is vital to consider that the BaaS Company offers you the intelligent deal combined with the organization.

Identity Access Management Platforms

An authorized system permits consumers to access precise data or layers. Combining a managed platform will make the blockchain system properly secure, and you will be capable of giving permissions to individuals.

Different Runtimes and Frameworks

Some BaaS workers only assist one kind of enterprise blockchain organization. Guarantee to select a BaaS that offers a wide range of contexts. It will help bring scalability to your enterprise necessities.

Blockchain as the administration is a promising offering that helps industries become flexible solution created on the blockchain technology. SaaS Development Company is an enterprise that organizesa feature and makes it accessible to consumers over the internet.

More here:

Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) is a term that has been floating around a lot lately - Customer Think

Steve Treagust, vice-president, industries program management at IFS, discusses the role blockchain plays in supply chain management

Blockchain is an increasingly important cog in the supply chain management wheel.

Some organisations associate blockchain with cryptocurrencies or the dark web but not as having relevance for general supply chain operations. Others, however, understand that it can be disruptive technologies that solve logistical problems in complex supply chains among larger groups of organisations.

One example of a visionary team is found in Maersk and IBM, who together launched TRADELens, the worlds first blockchain-enabled shipping solution. More than 90 organisations signed up to take part in this open standard blockchain-driven platform, including more than 20 port and terminal operators and customs authorities in the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Australia and Peru. Added to that list more recently is India where, starting in July 2020, the first trials will begin of the electronic bill of lading. The solution enables organisations to interact seamlessly and securely, sharing real-time access to IoT and sensor data such as temperature control or container weight, as well as providing standardised protocols and processes.

Access to data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT) can be difficult to control, but how can companies go about achieving this safely? Read here

Blockchain today is making halting inroads into settings where trading partners want to share a distributed ledger to facilitate and track transactions. The Farmer Direct Platform, which provides traceability of food products back from farm to fork, is partnering with Smuckers Folgers brand to use blockchain to provide enhanced supply chain visibility to customers. In most manufacturing and industrial supply chain settings, blockchain remains on the horizon however, although it has strong potential to support processes including 3D printing, where it can help enforce intellectual property, supply chain management and the Internet of Things (IoT).

As more sophisticated supply chains go into production with blockchain-enabled supply chains, others may consider whether the technology solves problems for them as well. Theres a lot of buzz around blockchain, but many organisations and individuals still dont really understand where it fits into their technology stack, due in large part to the association with the cryptocurrency use case.

Some data security and trust concerns still exist around the idea of running a mission-critical supply chain in blockchain, although cryptography-secured chains were shown to provide very high levels of security. All these concerns and misunderstandings can be addressed with education. There is nothing that spurs faster learning than having to compete with an organisation already successfully using blockchain to reduce supply chain costs.

While enterprise and supply chain technologists may not trust blockchain yet, it is somewhat ironic that a lack of trust in the banking industry after the 2008 financial crisis was the original incentive for blockchain. In fact, blockchain was born as the channel to deliver Bitcoin, allowing organisations to avoid banks.

Now, a lack of trust in these same digital assets is the main hurdle to mainstream use. There are two addressable elements to improving trust in blockchain. First is education around the value of cryptography and blockchain technology. Second, when others begin to successfully use blockchain, this will also provide a platform for trust.

The ultimate benefit that blockchain brings to supply chain management very much depends on the type and size of the supply chain. I outlined six business benefits of blockchain in a 2017 blog post, including efficiency, auditability, traceability, transparency, security and feedback. Any of these six could be the number one benefit depending on the business and their individual goals.

If I was to pick one benefit that most applies to all supply chains, it would be traceability. Being able to enable a trace of supply at any time during and after the chain has been completed can provide a competitive advantage, allowing organizations to comply with ever-changing regulations and create overall efficiencies.

Kevin Curran, IEEE senior member, security professor at Ulster University and editor of the Journal of British Blockchain Association (JBBA), explains how blockchain has transformed industry and society. Read here

The next step for blockchain in supply chain management is broader adoption. Its not a case of if this will happen, but when. In my opinion, to boost trust and provide stability, organisations must work together to establish trust-based relationships, creating diverse communities intent on delivering positive value from the blockchain ecosystem. This would also require enforceable regulatory control enough to curb the worst of human behaviour in free markets, but not enough to stifle blockchain innovation.

More here:

The state of blockchain in supply chain management today - Information Age

The Report Titled On Blockchain in Banking and Financial Services Market includes Market Size (Production, Consumption, Value and Volume), Upstream Situation, Market Segmentation, Blockchain in Banking and Financial Services Market Segmentation, Price & Cost And Industry Environment. In addition, the report outlines the factors driving industry growth and the description of market channels. The prime objective of this Blockchain in Banking and Financial Services market report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its Definition, Segmentation, Market Potential, Influential Trends, and the Challenges that the Market Is Facing.

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Blockchain in Banking and Financial Services Market Research Report Explores The Trade Trends For The Forecast Amount | 2020 2026 - Owned

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed on July 29, 2020 that its planning to award a single-source contract to blockchain security firm CipherTrace, a Menlo Park, California based business that recently introduced real-time predictive risk scoring for cryptocurrencies.

The SEC said that CipherTrace had been awarded the contract because its the only known blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) forensics and risk intelligence tool that can trace Binance Chain and Binance Coin (BNB) transactions. Both Binances native token, BNB, and Binance Chain are used extensively by the leading digital asset exchange.

Last year, CipherTrace teamed up with Binance in order to launch various anti-money laundering (AML) tools specifically for Binance Chain, which is used to host the trading platforms BNB token, one of the largest crypto-assets with a market cap of around $3 billion. There are reportedly 189 other crypto tokens that are associated with Binance Chain.

Dave Jevans, the CEO at CipherTrace, has previously emphasized that regulatory authorities are increasingly demanding greater transparency. Samuel Lim, the Chief Compliance Officer at Binance, had claimed in November 2019 that the exchanges operations were in line with global regulatory standards.

However, this does not appear to be the case because regulators in many different jurisdictions have issued warnings against Binance.

The Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia, which recently warned residents about facing lengthy prison sentences and fines for operating unlicensed Cryptocurrency ATMs, has specifically mentioned that Binance is not authorized to offer services in the country.

The Malaysian SC warned that Binance is operating a recognized market without authorization. The exchange provides fiat-to-cryptocurrency and peer to peer virtual currency trading services. Binance also supports transactions with the Malaysian ringgit, all without having authorization.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in Brazil has also warned its consumers that Binance is not permitted or does not have authorization to offer services in the country. The nations regulators stated that Binance or any other digital asset exchange must not offer any type of cryptocurrency-based derivative products to locals.

In March 2020, Maltas regulators also issued a warning noting that Binance is not authorized to offer services in the island nation.

To quote the Malta Financial Services Authority:

Following a report in a section of the media referring to Binance as a Malta-based cryptocurrency company, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) reiterates that Binance is not authorised by the MFSA to operate in the crypto currency sphere and is therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the MFSA.

Many lawsuits have also been filed against Binance and other exchanges. Earlier this year, the law firms of Roche Cyrulnik Freedman and Selendy & Gay filed a squadron of class action lawsuits targeting multiple crypto exchanges as well as token issuers.

Kyle Roche, a lead partner on the cases, had stated (earlier this year):

The cases allege that exchanges and issuers failed to comply with federal and state securities laws intended to protect investors from unscrupulous behavior in the rush to capitalize on this enthusiasm.

Binance had also been an aggressive promoter of the controversial initial coin offerings (ICOs) and now more recently, initial exchange offerings (IEOs). However, the vast majority of these offerings have been non-compliant token sales that have led to huge losses for unsuspecting investors. Many scams have been orchestrated over the years under the guise of ICOs or IEOs.

An extensive report on IEOs, published earlier this year, revealed:

All TOP-15 IEOs from the class of 19 are still struggling in keeping their token price higher than it was during the IEO, and 74% out of them are still in a red zone providing investors with the negative ROI (in avg. -53%).

It added:

IEOs and ICOs did show that almost anyone can launch a project and get millions of dollars in funding from retail investors simply by having a good idea, a solid team, a vibrant community and convincing arguments why the token price will grow after listing.

Earlier this year, Chainalysis reported that Binance, Huobi, other major exchanges were used to transfer $2.8 billion in Bitcoin to criminals in 2019.

A recent report from research firm PeckShield (released in July 2020) noted that Binance and other crypto exchanges including Huobi, OKEx, BitMEX, Bithumb, Coinbase, Gate.io, Luno, Huobtc, and Zb exchange had accepted funds from suspicious digital currency addresses

See more here:

US SEC Awards Contract to CipherTrace because its the Only Known Blockchain Forensics Tool that can Track Binance Chain Transactions - Crowdfund...

Terry Greer-King, vice-president EMEA at SonicWall, discusses looking past the hype when it comes to blockchain and cyber security

A boundless model can lead the way towards blockchain-powered cyber security.

Within the cyber security industry, there is perhaps no technology that polarises opinion quite as strongly as blockchain. For some, its decentralised model is the future, protecting every node across a network. For others, the hype is outweighed by a limited functionality and, up until now, a limited uptake. But, when we look at the distributed IT model that businesses are now forced to operate in, it becomes clear that blockchain has an important role to play moving forwards.

With businesses scattered into remote workforces during the Covid-19 pandemic, vendor collaboration in the cyber security industry is essential. Read here

Traditionally, enterprises have been shielded by a security perimeter around the corporate network, which kept out malicious actors. But this model has drastically changed, and has instead been replaced by a boundless model: enterprises now need to operate in a always on IT landscape, where everyone is remote, mobile, and therefore less secure. The previous perimeter-based system is essentially no more, changing into a multitude of endpoints spread across geographies. Meanwhile, malicious actors have continued to diversify their attacks, becoming increasingly invasive and targeted.

Blockchain is far from perfect, and it is certainly not as embedded in enterprise security portfolios as other technologies but, looking forward, there is a strong chance that it will take centre stage, as security continues to emphasise PKI cryptography over flawed human-centric decision-making.

With the blockchain, every transaction is instantly identifiable and time-stamped. From a cyber security angle, this provides organisations with additional reassurance that the data is authentic and has not been tampered with, ensuring its integrity throughout the transaction, and the confidentiality of the blockchain makes sure that data is off limits for external parties.

A central theme of blockchain-based cyber security, particularly around the traceability issue, is: how does it fit in with todays complex regulatory landscape? The GDPR principle around the right to be forgotten is a particular challenge, because the blockchains immutability means that data is not deleted or altered. A solution to this would be to encrypt data stored in the blockchain before it is subsequently hashed into the system. This ensures that, if the encryption keys are destroyed, the data is rendered unprocessable and void.

Blockchain is by no means a perfected technology, and there is still obvious room for improvement. Crucially, changes must be made to design a blockchain that not only effectively secures data but also upholds regulatory compliance.

Blockchain technology, in its core design, is structured so that data is not stored within a central entity. Data is never stored in a single physical location, which could be vulnerable to malware intrusions. Because every single node across a single blockchain is democratically controlled, a single compromised node would render the entire system unexecutable.

Jrgen Resch, energy industry manager at COPA-DATA, discusses how blockchain optimises profits within the energy sector. Read here

For example, if your motorbike has a punctured tyre, you would stop, and ensure that it is fixed. If your vehicle does not alert you, and you carry on as normal, you remain at risk. The same goes for business security. If you do not know that your system is compromised, how do you know where to start making it right? How do you know that you need to improve security? Looking back to Marriotts first data breach, for instance: the system was first infiltrated during 2014, only for the breach to be revealed to the public four years later. In that time, up to 500 million customer records were leaked. If the perimeter had been protected by a decentralised system of nodes connected in a blockchain, this would not have happened, as the second a hacker attempted to tamper with the data, the system would have analysed each and every block, identifying the outliers and excluding them from the chain.

When external interfaces of the blockchain, especially for the inserting or reading of data, are secured, data is protected across the whole transactional route. Looking forward, companies like Marriott would be able to implement secure systems and avoid the 99 million fine handed out in 2019 by the Information Commissioners Office.

Blockchain as a technology is still in a period of development, and we are only just breaking the surface of what can be achieved with it. In a sense, it is designed for the very era that we are now entering: the era of boundless computing, where distributed IT has become the norm. A multitude of devices can be secured by blockchain PKI, distributed enterprise networks can be secured at the edge, organisations can tackle the challenge of remote working, and decentralisation ensures tampered systems are discovered and intruders stopped.

Read more from the original source:

Blockchain and cyber security: seeing past the hype - Information Age

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are emerging as a very popular blockchain trend in gaming, as they're also now being used in the sports industry (ticketing), financial services, and as a way to sell and transfer property, highlighted Craig Russo, director of innovation of an investment firm and startup ecosystem, Polyient Games.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Russo explains that NFTs first captured the attention of the mainstream crypto community in 2017 with the launch of Ethereum (ETH) collectibles game, CryptoKittie.

Since then, Russo believes that the NFT market has come to represent one of the most attractive opportunities across all digital assets, with immediate use cases already being found within the art, collectibles and even the gaming industries

Polyient Games director of innovation explained further about the role of NFTs within the gaming space and its steadily popularity:

One reason gamers are gravitating towards blockchain is that - unlike traditional games - blockchain environments permit players to gain true ownership of their in-game items. This means blockchain games, driven by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles, are unlocking an entirely new economic system that enables gamers to earn real money while they play. Fueled by these applications, the collectibles market has reached $370 billion.

Russo states that we are also beginning to see NFTs emerge as a standalone asset within decentralized finance (DeFi), including lending and fractional trading, and companies within the industry such as Polyient Games are bullish on NFTs in DeFi.

However, Russo told Cointelegraph about the major hurdles that NFTs adoption is facing currently:

A lack of understanding about NFTs from both the publics perspective as well as mainstream media is probably the biggest hurdle, but - based on the feedback weve gotten so far - were seeing more and more mainstream interest daily.

COVID-19 has altered how people interact, travel, communicate, work and conduct business, says Russo, but its also reshaping the entire gaming industry. He quotes figures that reveal in April 2020 alone, U.S. consumers spent a record-breaking $10.5 billion on in-home gaming:

This renewed passion for gaming has also caused a spike in gaming stocks. As people continue to social distance, this trend will continue. And - as players discover blockchain games, powered by NFTs and digital collectibles, which offer an entirely new, fully-immersive gaming experience - they will continue to embrace blockchain games.

See the original post:

Spotting the Potential of NFTs in the Blockchain Gaming Industry - Cointelegraph

Five years ago this week, the first general-purpose blockchain went live on a mainnet. Ethereum paved the way for a whole new use case for blockchain technology untethered from Bitcoins original vision as electronic cash.

CoinDesk marked the milestone with a special series of stories, live-streamed conversations and even a pop-up newsletter. These charts first appeared in the newsletter, one for each day.

Here are five charts for understanding Ethereums evolution.

Part 1: A Bloodless Secession

Not one year after the launch of Ethereum, a seminal event split the community in two.

So acute was the disagreement between these two subcommunities that the row resulted in the creation of a new cryptocurrency called ethereum classic, cloned from the original Ethereum codebase.

Ethereum classic was created July 20, 2016, after $60 million worth of ether (ETH), Ethereums native cryptocurrency, was stolen from users of a dapp known asThe DAO. At the time, The DAO was the only dapp of its kind where users could pool funds and vote on which projects the money would be invested in. The DAOs vision (before it was hacked and drained of a significant chunk of its finances) was to be an investor-guided venture capital fund.

After weeks of deliberation, Ethereum developers reached a consensus that they should turn back the clock reverse The DAO hack transactions and restore users lost ETH. The changes could only be implemented through a network-wide upgrade, also calleda hard fork. Those who opposed the change argued in favor of retaining the integrity of the original blockchains history of transactions and balances hacked funds and all.

So, on July 20, 2016, when the upgrade to restore user funds was executed, the Ethereum blockchain split in two. The portion of the community that retained the original log of transactions and balances from The DAO hack and did not upgrade the software created a parallel network, Ethereum Classic.

Since the split, the Ethereum network has hard forked seven additional times, though none of these subsequent upgrades have reached the same level of controversy as The DAO Fork of 2016.

Part 2: Those Darned Cats

The first dapp on Ethereum to gain real user traction was a collectibles game known as CryptoKitties. Launched in November 2017, the digital cats became so popular they were covered by news outlets around the world includingThe Financial Post,BBCandThe New York Times.

At the height of their popularity, tokenized cats were trading on Ethereum for upwards of$200,000. However, the influx of users and a high volume of transactions from this one viral dapp clogged the Ethereum blockchain to unprecedented levels. A backlog of30,000 transactionshad piled up by December 2017, meaning that users would have to wait days for their transfers of ETH to be confirmed.

The developers behind CryptoKitties hastened to help stem the tide of new usersby increasing game fees. Shortly after CryptoKitties launch, Ethereum saw the highest total for daily transaction fees in its history, on Jan. 10, 2018. Over $4.5 million was collected in fees by Ethereum miners that day. The same month, CryptoKitties reached250,000 registered users.

In many respects, the CryptoKitties craze was the rude awakening that reminded Ethereum developers of the platforms technical limitations. How could Ethereum become the world computer when one viral dapp was enough to overwhelm it? If the developers wanted to be serious about onboarding not thousands but millions of dapp users, they would need to come up with a concrete plan to increase throughput.

Part 3: Testing the Limits

The need for Ethereum 2.0 and its expected benefits to network efficiency as well as scalability has only grown stronger since the CryptoKitties craze of 2017. The popularity of initial coin offerings (ICOs) a way to crowdfund early stages of a cryptocurrency project by dollar amount raised reached its peak in 2018. A total of$7.8 billionwas raised for over1,000 projectsthat year. According toICObench, over 80% of all ICOs rely on the Ethereum blockchain to create their tokens and issue them to investors.

Trends like the ICO boom of 2018 are indicative of the ways blockchain technology can be leveraged in more ways than simply peer-to-peer electronic cash. Ethereum, as the worlds first general-purpose blockchain platform, has become the central hub where dapp developers congregate to build any and all types of use cases for blockchain, be it gaming- or finance-related.

As a result, despite the technical limitations of the platform, dapp developer activity on Ethereum continues to thrive. The latest trend dominating user traffic and transaction volume on Ethereum isdecentralized finance (DeFi). The DeFi movement currently sweeping Ethereum is made up of dapps modeled after traditional financial players such as lending services, exchanges and derivatives markets. As of July 29, 2020,$3.68 billionworth of crypto assets are locked by users into various DeFi protocols.

Part 4: Dapp Dominance

Ethereums vision since its inception has always been to be the world computer on top of which decentralized applications (dapps) and assets of any kind can be freely created and deployed.

To this end, Ethereum developers pioneered new technology in the emerging space of blockchain called smart contracts. A new programming language called Solidity was invented to help code dapps on Ethereum. In order to ensure interoperability between different dapps on the network, common frameworks were developed like the ERC-20 and ERC-721 token standards.

These innovations have blazed the trail for other general-purpose blockchain platforms to emerge since Ethereums birth in 2015. EOS, Stellar, Tezos and Tron are four cryptocurrencies in the top 15 by market share that also feature dapp creation and deployment. Despite the growth in the number of alternative dapp platforms, Ethereum remains the most popular general-purpose blockchainboth in terms of number of users and dapps,as shown in the chart above.

Ethereum hasnt fulfilled its vision yet, however. Developers are convinced that the current blockchain infrastructure is wholly inadequate to handle an influx of millions, if not billions of users around the world. This was always the suspicion of the early founders of Ethereum, includingVitalik Buterin. Five years after releasing their creation into the wild, Buterin and others have worked out a roadmap called Eth 2.0 to bring Ethereums development to completion. Eth 2.0s first step is expected to launchsometime this yearor early next.

Part 5: The Long Road to 2.0

Ethereum hasnt fulfilled its vision yet.

Developers are convinced that the current blockchain infrastructure is wholly inadequate to handle an influx of millions, if not, billions of users around the world. This was always the suspicion of the early founders of Ethereum such as Vitalik Buterin. Five years after releasing their creation into the wild, Buterin and others have worked out a roadmap called Ethereum 2.0 to bring Ethereums development to completion and it is anticipated to launch sometime this year or early next.

The Ethereum 2.0 roadmap is almost as ambitious as the original one which brought the first dapps into existence. While the launch of this technology is forthcoming, an important part of understanding Ethereums five-year history lies in studying the many iterations that Ethereum 2.0 underwent in its years of planning.

Originally, Ethereum 2.0 in 2015 was thought of as the final development phase for the project and dubbed Serenity. Serenity was tentatively expected to be rolled out 16 months after initial mainnet launch (which would have been November 2016). The upgrade would transition Ethereum from its reliance on a computationally intensive process for block production inherited from Bitcoin, known as mining, to a more energy-efficient process of validating.

To this end, developers created what is called the difficulty bomb to slowly but surely encourage this transition away from mining. The bomb, which was activated on March 14, 2016, increases the difficulty levels for miners to find an Ethereum block over time. This schedule at which this bomb slows block production has been delayed three times over the course of the last five years as developers re-worked plans for launching Ethereum 2.0.

The most recent delay to the difficulty bomb occurred on Jan. 2, 2020. This may be the last time the difficulty bomb is pushed back as tentative estimations by some developers suggest the transition to Ethereum 2.0 could begin officially sometime this year and replace the existing network by late next year.

While there is no telling what new technologies and standards of blockchain practice will be innovated as a result of Ethereum 2.0, looking back at the first five years of the networks development does give some indication. In that time, Ethereum has undergone network-splitting upgrades, faced crippling technology bottlenecks, advanced new forms of fundraising for crypto projects and formalized a launch plan for migrating to Ethereum 2.0.

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.

Go here to read the rest:

Ethereum History in 5 Charts - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

]]]]]]>]]]]>]]> Sonoco is a diversified packaging company. Credit:fempreneurstyledstock.

Sign up here for GlobalData's free bi-weekly Covid-19 report on the latest information your industry needs to know.

Sonoco ThermoSafe, a subsidiary of Sonoco, is developing a vendor-neutral blockchain platform to deliver improved transparency and traceability across the pharmaceutical supply chain.

PharmaPortal, the platform, is being built on IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply.

The platform is built in response to the growing needs to trace assets across different supply chain participants and record truth on all events generated through the journey.

It will integrate these data with other businesses across an industry-scale network.

Sonoco president and CEO Howard Coker said: Only through the collaborative efforts of all members of the temperature controlled pharmaceutical distribution process can we achieve the safety and efficiency that the world needs from us in this critical time.

An effort of this magnitude requires a high level of industry engagement to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people around the world. IBM has had success working across a number of sectors where implementing blockchain networks transformed the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain, and we see the same opportunities in the pharmaceutical space.

PharmaPortal will initially focus on end-to-end traceability of temperature-controlled drugs, including vaccines and provide an audit trail of environmental condition monitoring.

Under this initiative, Sonoco will collaborate with industry leaders to enhance the safety and efficiency of global temperature controlled pharmaceutical distribution.

A PharmaPortal Advisory Council will be appointed in the coming months with the increasing network growth. It will comprise willing representatives from the pharmaceutical industry.

Recently, Sonoco announced plans to upgrade its corrugated medium machine in Hartsville, South Carolina, US, with an investment of $83m.

See more here:

Sonoco Thermosafe to develop vendor-neutral blockchain platform - Packaging Gateway

This is a guest post for the Computer Weekly Developer Network written by Brad Robertson of Polyient Games.

Roberton launched Polyient Games, a spinoff of Polyient Labs, his early-stage blockchain-startup incubator with offices in Phoenix and San Diego.

A specialist in emerging technologies, Robertson asserts that blockchain is about to completely disrupt games programming as it will allow gamers to earn money from gaming (that can be spent elsewhere) for the first time. The impact of this change could have implications for the way programmers build games software in the future.

Robertson writes as follows

In 2017, the gaming industry generated about US$116 billion (91 billion); by 2025, industry analysts predict it will be worth $300 billion.

This growth trajectory confirms the power of video games to capture and hold the publics attention.

Dont take my word for it. In 2019, in a letter to shareholders Netflix told investors it wasnt concerned about competing against other streaming services. Instead, Netflix said, it was concerned about competing against Fortnite, a game valued at $15 billion and boasting 80 million users.

This was undoubtedly welcome news in the boardroom of Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite. But Epic didnt rest on that success. Instead, Epic announced it was getting into blockchain gaming.

Not to be outdone, earlier this year Ubisoft the company behind Assassins Creed, a video game franchise valued at $300 million announced it too was investing blockchain technology.

Why are these gaming giants climbing aboard the blockchain bandwagon? Because they recognise blockchain technology is about to upend the entire multi-billion-dollar gaming software industry.

I come at this conclusion from two perspectives: one, I have been an entrepreneur in the tech industry for more than 25 years.

Two and maybe this is more relevant I am a father of five gamers.

Being a gaming parent means my understanding of the industry has been shaped by 15+ years of real-life gaming experience. This includes my own days of dabbling in rudimentary diversions such as Pong and PacMan. But, beeyond that, Ive watched as my kids got swept up in a wide variety of nearly-addictive games over the years.

I watched as they were captivated by Sims (which may be the most popular game of all time based on unit sales).

Later on, when first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty became the rage, they took over the imaginations of my sons. As I watched one child outgrow a game and put his or her controller down, I saw the next kid become infatuated with Minecraft and Halo and others. And, of course, this meant that our family saw all of the major gaming consoles Sony Playstations, Microsoft Xboxes and Nintendo Wiis rise and fall in popularity.

So, when it comes to gaming, Ive paid my dues. Ive seen first-hand how certain games won over new players and transformed the gaming landscape. Thats why I know blockchain-based games are about to disrupt the gaming industry.

The reason is simple. In every hit game Ive mentioned, gamers were confined to a single gaming environment and a single gaming experience. If a gamer won something in Call of Duty, those winnings only had value in Call of Duty.

Blockchain gaming changes all of that. Blockchain games, powered by non-fungible tokens, digital collectibles and even VR can deliver an entirely new, fully immersive gaming experience. Hard-earned rewards won in one game can now transfer to another game. This transferability means gaming rewards for the first time can accumulate genuine value. They can be bought and sold in blockchain-supported marketplaces for other tokens of even cryptocurrencies. This also means for the first time gamers (and their parents) can even earn real money by playing games.

This isnt some far away idea. CryptoKitties a blockchain game launched in 2017 that allows users to create, trade and sell digital felines already has more than 1 million users who have completed $40 million worth of transactions. And thats just the beginning.

The success of CryptoKitties only explains half of my enthusiasm for blockchain games the tech entrepreneur half. The other half comes from watching my 16-year old daughter become enthralled with another new blockchain game Axie Infinity. She was captivated and I knew I was watching the future of gaming.

Approved image use source: Polyient Games.

Read the original post:

How blockchain will disrupt games software development - ComputerWeekly.com

LONDON, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --EY today announces it has been ranked third in HFS Research's annual Top 10 Enterprise Blockchain Services Report, based on the organization's bold public blockchain market vision and software development-led go-to-market strategy. HFS, a technology analyst firm focused on defining the future of business operations, assessed 13 leading blockchain service providers on core criteria, including ability to execute on blockchain engagements, scale and growth, innovation, and voice of the customer, recognizing the top 10 providers that best met these standards.

EY was also ranked a top-three performer in innovation as it relates to developing blockchain solutions. In the ranking, HFS recognizedEY for its strength in deep integration of business process designs with audit, tax and compliance requirements, noting that the global organization's blockchain solutions include the capabilities that help enterprises transact securely, safely and in full regulatory compliance on both private and public blockchains. HFS also noted that the singular global team structure of the EY blockchain practice differentiated the organization from other consulting-led organizations within the report.

Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader, says:

"It is great to be recognized for our ground-breaking work in core blockchain technology and how we have industrialized the security and privacy tools needed by enterprises for processes like product traceability and procurement. We are advancing our vision of how public blockchains will give integrate business ecosystems with the same efficiency and power that ERP did inside the enterprise."

The report highlighted the EY OpsChainand EY Blockchain Analyzerplatforms, as well as EY investments in tools for emerging technologies and privacy protocols for public blockchains, tokenization, the testing of smart contracts, tokens and identity verifications.

Saurabh Gupta, HFS Research Chief Research Officer, says:

"The fourth-generation EY OpsChain solution provides an enterprise-grade secure and collaborative environment that will help drive procurement and significantly increase the number of transactions, allowing procurement professionals to focus on becoming a strategic collaborator."

For more information about EY blockchain services and solutions, please click here.

Note to editors

About EYEY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. For more information about our organization, please visitey.com.

This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

About HFSHFS' mission is to provide visionary insight into major innovations impacting business operations, including automation, artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital business models, and smart analytics. To learn more about HFS Research, please email [emailprotected].

Kailyn SmigelskiEY Global Media Relations+1 973 715 3624[emailprotected]

SOURCE EY

http://www.ey.com

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EY announces that it has been named as a top enterprise blockchain service provider in annual HFS Research report - PRNewswire

The Uganda Communications Commision (UCC) recently announcement that it will be piloting SIM card registration and verification via the blockchain.

UCC was also recently ranked 4th in Africa on the regulation of ICT, according to the ITU global ICT regulatory Outlook 2020 Report.

SEE ALSO:The Uganda Communications Commission to Pilot Blockchain for SIM Card Registration and Verification

BitcoinKE had a chat with CryptoSavannah, one of the companies partnering with UCC in the pilot project.

Here is the exclusive Q&A chat with CryptoSavannah:

Question: What informed the decision by UCC to consider blockchain?

Answer: Through a series of discussions and understanding their pain points particularly with SIM card registration, we agreed with UCC that this would best be solved by a blockchain because of the security the technology would bring, transparency giving them industrywide visibility into the SIM registration and validation process, something they didnt have.

Blockchain would also alow them to leverage the massive KYC the industry has to offer to other industries being able to share this KYC data without compromising privacy something blockchain does well.

With these benefits UCC was convinced that blockchain was the way to go.

Question: When can we expect the deployment to roll off?

Answer:We launched the pilot phase which will run for about 7-8 months after which UCC will plan for a mass rollout of the platform.

Question: What is CryptoSavannahs comment in regards to this partnership?

Answer:CryptoSavannah is excited to showcase the power of technologies like blockchain in solving real world challenges.

We are glad to partner with UCC as one of the first government institutions to leverage the technology in a real world usecase.

We are also glad to be working with FSD Uganda, who actively support innovation and are driving a more inclusive financial sector.

Follow us onTwitterfor latest posts and updates

Open aPaxful Bitcoin Trading Accounttoday!

The rest is here:

Uganda Communications Commission to Pilot Blockchain - A Q&A Chat with CryptoSavannah - bitcoinke.io

Last year, the Luxembourg legislator had already amended the law of 1st August 2001 on the circulation of securities and other financial instrument (the 2001 Law) by a law of 1st March 2019 in order to clarify that account keeping institutions such as banks could offer securities accounts operated using distributed ledger technology and a number of related items, including confirmation that successive registrations of securities using distributed ledger technology have the same effects as transfers between securities accounts (e.g. regarding transfer of ownership).

The purpose of the new draft bill is essentially to introduce two changes:

1. Clarification that issuance accounts for dematerialised securities may also be kept using distributed ledger technology

When issuing dematerialised securities, it is necessary to keep a record of the number and type of securities issued in a so-called issuance account in order to enable the central account keeper or liquidation organism to verify that in securities accounts there are not more securities in circulation than securities issued. The issuance account is not a securities account, but simply a record kept for the purposes of making the aforementioned reconciliation verifications. The central account keeper or liquidation organism whose duty it is to make these verifications will be able to keep these records using distributed ledger technology. As a result all elements linked to an issuance of dematerialised securities can be kept using distributed ledger technology in the future, i.e. not only securities accounts (already possible since 2019 by virtue of the 2001 Law) but also issuance accounts.

2. Broadening of type of entities able to act as central account keeper for debt securities

Currently, only certain regulated Luxembourg service providers can act as central account keepers under the 2013 Law. Moreover, they require a specific additional license in order to be able to perform this function. This situation will remain unchanged in relation to equity securities. However, for (non-listed) debt securities, the scope of regulated service providers able to act as central account keepers will be broadened. In the future this function can be performed by any credit institution or investment firm authorised in a Member State of the European Economic Area, provided that they have appropriate control mechanisms and IT security arrangements for the purpose of keeping issuance accounts and performing the relevant tasks linked thereto such as the aforementioned reconciliation verifications. As a result issuers of non-listed debt securities governed by Luxembourg law will have a larger choice of service providers for this aspect of an issuance.

Read more here:

Issuance of dematerialised securities using blockchain technology - New draft legislation published! - Lexology

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., July 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonoco ThermoSafe, a unit of Sonoco (NYSE: SON), the largest global provider of temperature assurance packaging for pharmaceutical distribution, is building PharmaPortal, a vendor-neutral blockchain platform for use by pharmaceutical manufacturers and carriers. Built on IBM Blockchain Transparent Supply, PharmaPortal intends to address the industrys needs to trace assets across many different supply chain participants, record a single version of the truth on all events generated on a packages journey, integrate this data with that of other businesses across an industry-scale network, and provide access controls to help ensure each data owner maintains control over who can access it on the network.

The openly governed blockchain network built on open source technology will initially focus on end-to-end traceability of temperature-controlled drugs, such as vaccines, and provide an audit trail of environmental condition monitoring to help protect the efficacy of these lifesaving, life-extending and life-enhancing medicines. To help drive its development, Sonoco will invite industry leaders to collaborate on the initiative to optimize the safety and efficiency of global temperature controlled pharmaceutical distribution.

Only through the collaborative efforts of all members of the temperature controlled pharmaceutical distribution process can we achieve the safety and efficiency that the world needs from us in this critical time, said Howard Coker, president and CEO of Sonoco. An effort of this magnitude requires a high level of industry engagement to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people around the world. IBM has had success working across a number of sectors where implementing blockchain networks transformed the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain, and we see the same opportunities in the pharmaceutical space.

Despite improvements, the $230B cold chain pharmaceutical distribution market still suffers from inefficiencies, which cause value losses estimated at nearly $35B. These encompass lost product inventory, root cause investigation costs, clinical trial opportunity losses, product replacement costs and redundant logistics. Multiple handoffs across contracted and sub-contracted handling agents across continents create a crucial need for trusted, end-to-end visibility of pharmaceutical shipments, conditions and documents.

IBM offers deep expertise in blockchain to the pharmaceutical industry to help establish this transformational network led by Sonoco ThermoSafe," said Raj Rao, general manager, Blockchain Platforms. With Blockchain's inherent ability to track drug provenance and create an immutable record of the lifecycle of a drug and how it was handled, this open industry initiative addresses the challenges the pharmaceutical industry faces, both in sourcing and distributing drugs.

This neutral ecosystem will be especially helpful in fostering trust in the pharmaceutical air cargo market by enabling all parties in the supply chain to give and get relevant data in a highly secured, permissioned way.

As the convener of the network, Sonoco ThermoSafe intends to create a permissioned platform for the industry that will ultimately create more visibility and transparency across the pharmaceutical supply chain. With network growth in the coming months, a PharmaPortal Advisory Council will be appointed and comprised of a range of pharmaceutical industry representatives willing to participate in its development and adoption and help openly govern the network so that the solution benefits all.

About Sonoco ThermoSafe Sonoco ThermoSafe, a unit of Sonoco (NYSE: SON), is a leading global provider of temperature assurance packaging for the safe and efficient transport of pharmaceuticals, biologics, vaccines and other temperature-sensitive products. Sonoco ThermoSafe shipping solutions mitigate risk for customers and ensure product efficacy throughout the extremes of a supply chain.With operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, Sonoco ThermoSafe has a vast product offering featuring industry-leading technology that encompasses refrigerated, frozen or controlled room temperature applications.In addition, Sonoco ThermoSafe's ISC Labs deliver individualized design and testing services and innovative packaging solutions along with qualification and validation services to meet all regulatory requirements. More information can be found at http://www.thermosafe.com.

About Sonoco Founded in 1899, Sonoco (NYSE: SON) is a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging and displays and packaging supply chain services. With annualized net sales of approximately $5.4 billion, the Company has 23,000 employees working in approximately 300 operations in 36 countries, serving some of the worlds best known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is committed to creating sustainable products, services and programs for our customers, employees and communities that support our corporate purpose of Better Packaging. Better Life. The Company ranked first in the Packaging sector on Fortunes Worlds Most Admired Companies for 2020 as well as Barrons 100 Most Sustainable Companies. For more information, visit http://www.sonoco.com.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/05c8976e-af08-4061-9d56-3fa0211f6559

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4ad74521-b162-44e1-99d6-11ae2713d073

More here:

Sonoco ThermoSafe Creating Industrywide PharmaPortal Platform Using IBM Blockchain Technology To Help Deliver Improved Transparency and Traceability...

Blockchain technology has recently become a phenomenon in various areas of the economy, driving innovation, fostering growth and bringing added value. Among the most noteworthy of these sectors is the gaming industry. Gaming is a use case that drives true adoption of blockchain technology by taking the incentive for the user from pure speculation to transactions on a blockchain platform. This drives innovation in development as well as consumer adoption.

The first true blockchain gaming application was Cryptokitties. While the platform itself is a technology demonstrator for collectible items, it quickly rose to prominence as the application representing the majority of transactions made on the Ethereum platform. Since its inception, the number of apps leveraging blockchain technology in gaming has exploded, with categories ranging from adventure games and card games to action games, role-playing games and casinos.

Blockchain use cases in gaming are mainly constrained by the transaction capacity of blockchain platforms in case of Ethereum. Current blockchain applications in gaming, therefore, are experimental tickets, with collectible platforms and mobile games leading the pack.

Card games are among the first games to use blockchain technology in gameplay. The unique feature presented by collectible cards is that the cards themselves, as nonfungible tokens, become tradeable items. Most of the time, the NFTs are traded on OpenSea. One of the most popular collectible card games using blockchain technology is Gods Unchained.

Related: Overview and Market Trends of Crypto Games in 2020

Real-time strategy, or RTS, and massively multiplayer online, or MMO, games are ideal genres for testing blockchain technology in gaming, as the gameplay allows for the creation of multiple asset types and smart contracts governing the rules of the games themselves. While successful titles in gaming are increasingly massively multiplayer, online and feature group dynamics, the application of blockchain technology in gaming is probably going to gain significant traction in this segment.

Pixelmatic, a studio based in Shanghai and Vancouver that was founded by Samson Mow current chief strategy officer of Blockstream and former director of production at Ubisoft is working on a space-based MMO game with elements from the RTS genre and Eve Online and featuring a cryptocurrency for an in-game medium of exchange. While Eve Online features a marketplace for in-game goods, theres no news yet about the further development of crypto-assets concerning in-game items. This is still pretty encouraging, and the game is the first step toward wider acceptance of cryptocurrencies among industry players in mainstream gaming.

Related: Investing in Blockchain Gaming: Why VCs Are Betting Big

On Ethereum, games running on the blockchain risk spamming the network with transactions, increasing gas fees. Regardless, an increasing number of games are being developed to run on public blockchains themselves, creating an incentive to develop solutions to mitigate the subsequent flooding of the network. Proof-of-stake blockchains, sidechains and state channels may provide solutions to solve the issues underlying limited transaction speeds on proof-of-work blockchains currently deployed.

The leading blockchain games this year are mostly card games, according to EsportsBets, with RTS games following closely behind. Big-ticket items are still either under development or being considered by larger studios, leaving a lot of room for garage studios to use their first-mover advantage and make their name before competition enters the market.

Casinos have been among the first applications in gaming to adopt blockchain technology, with online casinos leading the pack. There are quite a number of blockchain-based online gambling sites, most of which offer superior quality and probability for the player compared with traditional, fiat-based casinos and gambling sites. Gambling is probably the most mature segment in blockchain-based gaming, and it is very likely to offer serious competition to traditional markets.

With the appearance of senior developers and mostly open tools, blockchain gaming is unlocking previously unimaginable value for creators and gamers alike. For the first time, a truly open entertainment economy can be built.

Speculation on platforms that may find blockchain applications and tokens useful in gaming is on the rise, and the platforms are often listed on top exchanges shortly after being released. With the continued development of easy-to-use user interfaces, standards for blockchain applications using relevant technologies to move transactions from PoW platforms to ones offering greater transaction speeds, and the release of items capturing the attention of audiences acceptance by the mainstream is only a matter of time.

Blockchain technology is especially suited for gaming, and gaming can directly benefit from blockchain technology, both technically as well as in unlocking value from in-game items, tournaments, character development and gamer recognition. This paves way for esports being a leader in the sports and entertainment sector, much like the internet is now. Today, traditional media is mostly run on the internet, so perhaps through blockchain technology, all sports could one day contain elements of esports.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Artem Kabanov is an entrepreneur with more than six years of experience. He has been a crypto investor since 2016 and is the founder of four online companies, crypto project X-token and a number of traditional businesses. Artem is a professional speaker and a member of Club-500.

View post:

Gaming Industry Use of Blockchain May Lead to Mass Adoption - Cointelegraph

Despite Washingtons pushback against China's ambition to lead the world in building emerging technologies such as 5G, Beijing next month will launch a global effort in developing blockchain, a distributed database that experts say could reshape businesses around the world.

Starting August 10, China will roll out the international version of its blockchain infrastructure, the Blockchain Service Network, or BSN. The network gives developers tools and access to blockchain technology through BSNs overseas data centers so that they can build applications for businesses and smart cities.

As the BSN takes hold in worldwide countries, it will become the only global infrastructure network that is innovated by China, whose gateway access is controlled by China, the BSN Alliance declared in a white paper last year.

Blockchain is a kind of distributed database with trustworthy record-keeping that makes possible cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as well as new types of products like digital identification. The technology has the potential to create decentralized, more transparent digital networks.

U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a congressman who holds a doctorate in physics and is a leader of a group of American lawmakers studying the technology, has called it a disruptive technology that will change the way we do business in almost every sector.

Blockchain technology can create more transparent record-keeping with open-source code to create trustworthy databases. But Chinas system is a more centralized alternative overseen by the BSN Alliance, a group of state-owned companies that designs its digital architecture and maintains control over the databases.

China hopes that this managed network, which it says offers cheaper costs and better interoperability over other competitors, will become the preferred option for businesses and governments trying to use the technology.

Backed by the Chinese government, BSN already is the worlds largest blockchain ecosystem that is expected to serve as the backbone for massive interconnectivity both in China and around the world. It already has more than 100 city-nodes, or physical devices running on the network, stationed on six continents. The network hopes to deploy up to 200 more by the end of this year.

A Chinese national priority

Just as the countrys aggressive international expansion in other major emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, China declared blockchain a national technology priority in 2016. It was mentioned twice in the Chinese State Councils 13th five-year economic plan that was released that year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized blockchain as an important breakthrough, and promised that China would seize the opportunity during his speech in October at a so-called "collective study" session held by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

In Xi's words, China will take the leading position ... occupy the commanding heights of innovation, and gain new industrial advantages. The meeting had only one agenda on the table: the current status and trends of blockchain technology.

"China is the most active major national government in the world in blockchain development. China is one of the few countries that sees blockchain as a strategic emerging technology, alongside areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G wireless," Kevin Werbach, a professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told VOA.

China now has more than 700 blockchain projects registered since last year with the countrys Cyberspace Administration. According to a white paper on Chinas blockchain patent application released last Friday, China holds more blockchain patents than any other country in the world. Eric Jing, Chairman at China's tech giant Alibaba's Ant Financial Services, told reporters last week that users of its blockchain service are uploading 100 million digital assets a day mostly records of transactions.

A blockchain with Chinese characteristics

BSN was born last spring while the world was struggling to deal with catastrophic social, economic, and political challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of Beijing's grand strategy to lead the digital transformation of the world economy, the plan is to make the network so effective and low-cost that it becomes the dominant provider for blockchain cloud computing services.

"The concerns are that more developer and customer mindshare will shift to Chinese platforms and that China will push technical standards to reflect its policy positions," said Werbach, who once served as a consultant for the CIA on a blockchain training program.

Werbach said that is why its essential to the Chinese blockchain system is different from the open models that emphasize decentralization.

The geopolitical implications of the technology depend on who designs and implements the technologies, argued Werbach, who has written extensively on emerging technologies such as blockchain. "China is focused more on permissioned blockchains for enterprise applications, and on Chinese platforms that build in the capability for oversight and compliance that the Chinese government requires," said Werbach in an email to VOA.

Two days after Xis speech last year, a blockchain initiative announced by the CCP enabled party members to pledge their loyalty to Xi, by immutably recording it on the blockchain ledger.

As Chinese leaders press the countrys engineers to forge ahead on the technology, companies overseas are sounding an alarm that the United States is ceding its role as the internets leading innovator.

A recent white paper co-authored by Amazon Web Services, IBM, Deloitte, and others noted that U.S. military is falling behind China and Russia in a blockchain arms race.

"While China and Russia have invested millions of dollars worth of research and development (R&D) into the technology, the policymakers of our country are still trying to understand what the technology is," said the paper that was released last May.

A report published last year by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania also warned about Chinas blockchain dominance: "By all counts, China is leading the world in the use and development of blockchain technology.

"We are way behind China when it comes to blockchain technology," Chris Larsen, executive chairman of Ripple Labs Inc, a U.S.-based leading blockchain company, told The Wall Street Journal recently.

Werbach said if U.S. policymakers and companies do not compete for blockchain business, "blockchain with Chinese characteristics will become more of the norm."

On the other hand, some analysts remain skeptical that China is leading the world on technology. Larry Wortzel, a commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission of the U.S. Congress, pointed out in an email to VOA that IBM and other American companies have the technology and use it. "I do not believe the US is losing a Blockchain race,'" said Dr. Wortzel.

In the top 50 blockchain company list compiled by Forbes last year, Amazon was ranked number one with Ant Financial of China's Alibaba second. Among the top 5 companies, two are Americans, two are Chinese ones, and one is from England.

Martin Chorzempa, a research fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA that most of the money China is pouring in would be wasted. "As we can see from the recent global pushback against Huawei, especially in Australia and Europe, I do not see it as plausible that the world will adopt on Chinese blockchain infrastructure."

Read more here:

China Pushes for Blockchain Dominance But Will the World Trust It? - - VOA Khmer

Despite Washingtons pushback against China's ambition to lead the world in building emerging technologies such as 5G, Beijing next month will launch a global effort in developing blockchain, a distributed database that experts say could reshape businesses around the world.

Starting August 10, China will roll out the international version of its blockchain infrastructure, the Blockchain Service Network, or BSN. The network gives developers tools and access to blockchain technology through BSNs overseas data centers so that they can build applications for businesses and smart cities.

As the BSN takes hold in worldwide countries, it will become the only global infrastructure network that is innovated by China, whose gateway access is controlled by China, the BSN Alliance declared in a white paper last year.

Blockchain is a kind of distributed database with trustworthy record-keeping that makes possible cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as well as new types of products like digital identification. The technology has the potential to create decentralized, more transparent digital networks.

U.S. Representative Bill Foster, a congressman who holds a doctorate in physics and is a leader of a group of American lawmakers studying the technology, has called it a disruptive technology that will change the way we do business in almost every sector.

Blockchain technology can create more transparent record-keeping with open-source code to create trustworthy databases. But Chinas system is a more centralized alternative overseen by the BSN Alliance, a group of state-owned companies that designs its digital architecture and maintains control over the databases.

China hopes that this managed network, which it says offers cheaper costs and better interoperability over other competitors, will become the preferred option for businesses and governments trying to use the technology.

Backed by the Chinese government, BSN already is the worlds largest blockchain ecosystem that is expected to serve as the backbone for massive interconnectivity both in China and around the world. It already has more than 100 city-nodes, or physical devices running on the network, stationed on six continents. The network hopes to deploy up to 200 more by the end of this year.

A Chinese national priority

Just as the countrys aggressive international expansion in other major emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, China declared blockchain a national technology priority in 2016. It was mentioned twice in the Chinese State Councils 13th five-year economic plan that was released that year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized blockchain as an important breakthrough, and promised that China would seize the opportunity during his speech in October at a so-called "collective study" session held by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

In Xi's words, China will take the leading position ... occupy the commanding heights of innovation, and gain new industrial advantages. The meeting had only one agenda on the table: the current status and trends of blockchain technology.

"China is the most active major national government in the world in blockchain development. China is one of the few countries that sees blockchain as a strategic emerging technology, alongside areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G wireless," Kevin Werbach, a professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, told VOA.

China now has more than 700 blockchain projects registered since last year with the countrys Cyberspace Administration. According to a white paper on Chinas blockchain patent application released last Friday, China holds more blockchain patents than any other country in the world. Eric Jing, Chairman at China's tech giant Alibaba's Ant Financial Services, told reporters last week that users of its blockchain service are uploading 100 million digital assets a day mostly records of transactions.

A blockchain with Chinese characteristics

BSN was born last spring while the world was struggling to deal with catastrophic social, economic, and political challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of Beijing's grand strategy to lead the digital transformation of the world economy, the plan is to make the network so effective and low-cost that it becomes the dominant provider for blockchain cloud computing services.

"The concerns are that more developer and customer mindshare will shift to Chinese platforms and that China will push technical standards to reflect its policy positions," said Werbach, who once served as a consultant for the CIA on a blockchain training program.

Werbach said that is why its essential to the Chinese blockchain system is different from the open models that emphasize decentralization.

The geopolitical implications of the technology depend on who designs and implements the technologies, argued Werbach, who has written extensively on emerging technologies such as blockchain. "China is focused more on permissioned blockchains for enterprise applications, and on Chinese platforms that build in the capability for oversight and compliance that the Chinese government requires," said Werbach in an email to VOA.

Two days after Xis speech last year, a blockchain initiative announced by the CCP enabled party members to pledge their loyalty to Xi, by immutably recording it on the blockchain ledger.

As Chinese leaders press the countrys engineers to forge ahead on the technology, companies overseas are sounding an alarm that the United States is ceding its role as the internets leading innovator.

A recent white paper co-authored by Amazon Web Services, IBM, Deloitte, and others noted that U.S. military is falling behind China and Russia in a blockchain arms race.

"While China and Russia have invested millions of dollars worth of research and development (R&D) into the technology, the policymakers of our country are still trying to understand what the technology is," said the paper that was released last May.

A report published last year by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania also warned about Chinas blockchain dominance: "By all counts, China is leading the world in the use and development of blockchain technology.

"We are way behind China when it comes to blockchain technology," Chris Larsen, executive chairman of Ripple Labs Inc, a U.S.-based leading blockchain company, told The Wall Street Journal recently.

Werbach said if U.S. policymakers and companies do not compete for blockchain business, "blockchain with Chinese characteristics will become more of the norm."

On the other hand, some analysts remain skeptical that China is leading the world on technology. Larry Wortzel, a commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission of the U.S. Congress, pointed out in an email to VOA that IBM and other American companies have the technology and use it. "I do not believe the US is losing a Blockchain race,'" said Dr. Wortzel.

In the top 50 blockchain company list compiled by Forbes last year, Amazon was ranked number one with Ant Financial of China's Alibaba second. Among the top 5 companies, two are Americans, two are Chinese ones, and one is from England.

Martin Chorzempa, a research fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA that most of the money China is pouring in would be wasted. "As we can see from the recent global pushback against Huawei, especially in Australia and Europe, I do not see it as plausible that the world will adopt on Chinese blockchain infrastructure."

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China Pushes for Blockchain Dominance But Will the World Trust It? - VOA Asia

The lack of gender and racial diversity in the tech space is no longer a secret. According to data from Statista, while the percentage of employed women across all job sectors in the United States has grown to 47%, the five largest tech companies on the planet Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have a workforce of only about 34.4% women. This misrepresentation extends to the C-suite as well, with 31% of large tech companies lacking any women of color as executives.

Its clear that the tech workforce today doesnt fully represent the communities in which we live or the consumers or customers we serve. But the renewed attention given to diversity and inclusion has resulted in positive reactions from leaders in the tech sphere that could change that.

In June, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian voluntarily resigned as a member of the Reddit board of directors, asking to be replaced by a black candidate. His vacancy was filled by Michael Seibel, a partner and the CEO of Y Combinator. Just last week, Facebook announced a program to measure how well their executives are handling diversity and inclusion initiatives, tying them to bi-annual performance reviews. And Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently said the company will add more black and underrepresented employees to leadership positions, promising a 30% increase in diversity by 2025.

Major tech companies like Google, Facebook and Reddit, among many others, have announced these efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in their organizations. So, what are we waiting for in the blockchain space? The point is, we dont have to wait, given the newness of our industry. If we take action now, we can address these issues faster, more comprehensively and more directly.

Related: Cointelegraph Talks Recap: Challenges and Opportunities on the Road to Diversity and Inclusion in Crypto

The blockchain industry is revered for its willingness and effectiveness in challenging legacy systems and old school thinking. For many, our open-source, transparent nature is a point of pride. What that means to me is that not only should our code be open but organizations should function in the open as well.

There is no better time than now to confront traditional organizational structures and help mold our community into one that prioritizes diverse leadership and new voices.

A LongHash report from December 2018 analyzed the top 100 blockchain startups and found that of the 1,062 listed team members, just 14.5% were women. The report also found that 7% of those blockchain startup executives were women, and 78 of the 100 startups listed had no female executives. Only one startup from the list had more than one woman in an executive role. While we can assume and hope that those figures have improved, they paint a pretty dire picture in terms of female representation. In an industry where provable facts and figures are invaluable, we can actually point to quantifiable benefits of diversity and inclusion.

Related: Women in Blockchain: Has Gender Distribution Come to the Crypto Market?

A study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that the most diverse enterprises were also the most innovative. Companies with above-average total diversity had both 19 percentage points higher innovation revenues and 9 percentage points higher EBIT margins on average. The blockchain industry often seeks to create unique solutions that help underrepresented groups of people. By involving those with diverse backgrounds and expertise in the decision-making processes, it not only reflects the global nature and needs of the blockchain industry generally (particularly involving solutions for the marginalized in the financial system) but it also avoids groupthink and helps to identify blind spots.

The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, which examines trust in business, government, media and NGOs found 92% of employees surveyed said that they expect their employers CEO to speak up on one or more issues ranging from income inequality to diversity. 73% of employees expect a prospective employer to offer the opportunity to shape the future of society in a positive way.

Its our turn to show leadership here.

The tangible energy behind recent social justice movements has reignited the dialogue around equality and inclusion. Having difficult conversations about the need to implement change is a great first step.

I hope to see these discussions continue to take place, but I also hope to see companies showcase their commitment to change through concrete action. Whether that is by supporting organizations that are placing an emphasis on including underrepresented voices, or reflecting on current representation in leadership and making changes to include more diverse perspectives in executive positions, our industry must work toward a more inclusive future.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Denelle Dixon is the CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation a nonprofit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source blockchain network that connects the worlds financial infrastructure. Previously, she was the chief operating officer of Mozilla and also used to serve as general counsel and legal advisor in private equity and technology.

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It Is Time for Blockchain to Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion - Cointelegraph

At the India Ideas Summit, Modi highlighted how technology is playing a massive role in the country

ChitMonks launches two new products ChitFunds 2.0 and ChitPe

Huawei files patent for blockchain-related storage method and device

At the India Ideas Summit, hosted by the US-India Business Council, last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the prominence of blockchain, where he endorsed it as an opportunity in frontier technology, as he pitched it to the global investors, reminding Indias tech capabilities, alongside highlighting the countrys half a billion connected internet users.

In an attempt to set the post-pandemic economic recovery agenda, PM Modi invited US businesses to invest in various economic sectors in India, including agriculture, civil aviation, healthcare and fintech among others.

He said that opportunities in technologies abound in the frontier technologies of 5G, Big Data analytics, quantum computing, blockchain and internet of things.

Meanwhile, Unicorn India Ventures-backed blockchain startup ChitMonks recently launched two new products for the unorganised chit fund industry, ChitFunds 2.0 and ChitPe. With this, the company looks to partner with chit fund companies as well as customers across India.

Prior to this, the company had launched a blockchain-based product called T-Chits, which allowed Telangana state government regulators to administer chit fund operations. In a local media report, Pavan Adipuram, the cofounder and CEO of ChitMonks said that the new products are an extension of its existing product that it had developed for the state regulators. With this platform, we want to make chit fund companies digitally ready and it will prove to be extremely useful at a time when offline relations are all going online, he added.

At present, the chit fund industry in Telangana alone stands at INR 19K Cr annually, and about 1.5K companies are operating in this unorganised sector. Overall, in India, the number stands at INR 1.5 Lakh Cr, the report added.

According to Delliots Blockchain Survey, only around one-fifth view cybersecurity concerns alone prevents them from advancing blockchain strategy, indicating some balancing of concerns, while 58% of the participants said that cybersecurity issues are among several kinds of issues that figure into their blockchain strategy.

Chinese tech giant Huawei recently announced that it has applied for a new patent related to blockchain technology that deals with storage techniques and devices. Besides this, Huawei has previously filed patents related to blockchain-based settlement platforms. In addition to this, the tech giant has also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Peoples Bank of China. However, the details of the agreement are yet to be disclosed.

The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) announced that it has launched a central blockchain securities lending platform. The new platform is said to enable direct lending among all the major financial instruments. Also, it serves a unified platform for all securities lending activities, thereby giving access to larger securities transactions within shorter timeframes, alongside short-term transactions. Orly Grinfeld, EVP and head of Clearing at TASE said that the blockchain technology platform will present a new level of safety for securities lending and will support growth for transactions.

In a bid to bring in transparency and trust in the industrial processes, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba launched a new blockchain solution called AntChain. The new platform is said to be built on top of Ant Groups blockchain technology, which combines artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), among other technologies, as reported by South China Morning Post. Li Jieli, the general manager of blockchain solutions and innovations at Ant said that the applications of enterprise blockchain technology is still at a nascent stage and the new platform will support digital transactions, reduce cost across industries, as the digital economy takes shape.

The rest is here:

Blockchain This Week: PM Endorses Blockchain, Calls It An Opportunity In Technology & More - Inc42 Media

As hospitals adjust to the new Health and Human Services (HHS) platform called the Coronavirus Data Hub to report critical Covid-19 information, HHS Chief Information Officer Jos L. Arrieta confirmed that the agency is using blockchain technology to track Covid-19 hospitalization data. In an interview today, Arrieta stated how this will allow for faster clinical trials, protect citizens and flatten the curve on this pandemic, so we can recover from this pandemic using blockchain technology, a distributed ledger technology.

Earlier this week, Arrieta noted how HHS Protect, a platform for authenticating data, is more comprehensive than that previously provided by the CDC. At HHS Protect, every day, every data element we receive is hashed with a time-stamped record of the parcing and curation and sharing of that data element. Arrieta, who is well-known for championing the benefits of blockchain technology within the U.S. Government, explained blockchain will ensure the data for Covid-19 hospitalizations is accurate and traceable.

N95 Respirator With Stethoscope On American Flags

Arrieta confirmed that the blockchain system being used with HHS Protect is an enterprise version similar to those supported by the Hyperledger organization and companies such as IBM IBM as opposed to the bitcoin or ethereum blockchains. He declined to disclose the exact name of the platform.

The blockchain HHS uses is not the blockchain of the anarchists and disruptors, but rather as a fresh step forward where thousands of users on the platform are accessing data sets, stated Arrieta. According to the CIO, HHS Protect coordinates data from 6,200 hospitals across the United States, including numbers of ventilators, hospital beds, ER admittance, and discharge, lab test data across the U.S., warehouse implications, and nursing home data.

As a result of using blockchain technology with HHS Protect, the U.S. government can now, as Arrieta explained, share with the general public how the results were generated because you have a record that is immutable. Exactly how this would be accessed is unclear.

He added: Science is about proving something and then sharing the steps of how you proved it. Creating time-stamps in an immutable record is truly empowering and allows for complete transparency from a data perspective. Arrieta noted blockchain technology will enable HHS to, allow clinical trials faster, protect citizens better, and best allow the country to recover from this pandemic.

Asked if he believed the move of Covid-19 data from the CDC to HHS with the data protected by blockchain technology should provide more comfort to Americans about the accuracy of the data provided, Arrieta responded, Absolutely, this is extremely important. Americans now have a public record of how the data was received with time-stamped steps where people have access to the data elements. It is important to note that the CDC, HHS, providers, and the American public are able to see the data element at the exact moment it was shared as a result of blockchain technology.

As reported by ABC News, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield forcefully defended the change in a call with reporters, insisting that the federal governments effort to create a single database run by HHS - linking an estimated 4 billion disparate data elements on everything from testing to the race and ethnicity of patients to hospital supplies and bed space instead of through the CDC can only help the CDCs efforts.

According to Arrieta, for something as critical as Covid-19 data, trust and transparency is needed for data in real-time with large data sets, which the blockchain provides. With this technology, we are able to do it and I am super excited, says Arrieta.

While at the General Services Administration (GSA), Arrieta helped build from the ground up a blockchain working group that meets weekly and still meets every Friday. This working group, run by the the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council, (ACT-IAC), a non-profit public-private partnership dedicated to improving government, has helped develop a blockchain playbook that U.S. agencies can use to in determining if blockchain should be used for a particular use case and how to implement the technology.

The group allows for an ongoing dialogue between government and industry on ways of adopting blockchain technology. From the European Union to China, the entire world increasingly seems to be increasingly seeing this technology as the next version of the World Wide Web, or Web 3.0, and is racing to adopt it.

Blockchain technology concept. Chain in form of pc circuit board with cpu on blue futuristic ... [+] background. 3d illustration

Prior to today, there was no highly visible blockchain technology being used by the U.S. Government, causing a general concern that America was falling behind China and others in the blockchain race. However, the confirmation today of the technologys application to Covid-19 to help reduce the rate the virus spreads, or flatten the curve, as it is widely described, will likely show the U.S. is turning a corner on the technology at a critical time in our history.

Arrieta, in his current role as the CIO at HHS, had previously noted, back in January, that the HHS Accelerate program, focused on using the technology to streamline and improve the procurement process, will save HHS somewhere around $33 to $40million over the next five years. However, HHS Protect was an opportunity to use the technology for its true purpose, says. The core for this technology is around sharing and transparency, using hashes and time series and being able to share the data with the integrity to allow the American public to ensure the underlying data is accurate, he says.

According to Arrieta, blockchain will be the anchor in the marketplace, at an individual, company, agency, and national level. The technology is transformative and how it is used takes time, he says.. While saving taxpayer money was a good achievement with HHS Accelerate, Arrieta believes, the use of blockchain with Covid-19 will be truly impactful in demonstrating the usefulness of this key new technology.

See the rest here:

U.S. Health Department Chief Discloses Functioning Blockchain Project To Track Covid-19 - Forbes