Brave, the developer of a blockchain-powered Internet browser, has teamed up with leading crypto exchange Binance, in order to allow users to trade digital assets through its newly designed tab page.

The Brave browser is an open-source project thats based on Chromium, which is also an open-source software project from Google.

Brave browser users have the option of blocking website trackers and malicious malware programs. The privacy-oriented web browser leverages distributed ledger technology (DLT) to keep track of users online activities in an anonymous or non-intrusive manner.

Brave has developed its own native utility token, called the Basic Attention Token (BAT). The company has also created a digital asset wallet for Ethereum (ETH).

According to a company release published on March 24, Brave said that it will be integrating the Binance widget on its new tab page. This will reportedly give users direct access to Binance and Binance.US websites.

After the widget has been added, users will be able to trade digital currencies, check their crypto wallet balances, and get deposit addresses without having to exit their browsers. Users will also be able to switch off this feature from their browser settings.

The newly developed feature is essentially a native widget that uses Binances API module. It ensures security as it doesnt load any data from the exchange operators servers. This means that Brave browsers users can be ensured that their privacy will be maintained.

An early iteration of this widget is currently available on Brave browsers Nightly desktop version. The official software release is expected to launch next month.

Binance says that this integration will let users easily manage their digital assets in a more secure manner.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO at Binance, stated:

The Binance widget on Braves privacy-oriented browser instills a safer way to buy and sell crypto and also reduces user friction to onboard, trade and interact with the Binance ecosystem. We are looking forward to our long-term partnership with Brave to make it even easier to interact with crypto and encourage more utility in the near future.

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Brave, the Developer of a Blockchain-based Privacy Browser, Partners Binance to Enable Crypto Trading During Web Surfing - Crowdfund Insider

There are many different opinions as to how the novel coronavirus crisis needs to be addressed. Some even claim how blockchain technology can be a valuable ally to the medical supply chain.

It is certainly true that blockchain technology is incredibly versatile.

Its concept can easily be applied to many different business models and points of focus.

Using it to streamline global medical supply chains would certainly be interesting to explore.

Especially when it comes to coronavirus ventilators, the blockchain can help address global shortages.

It would also help remove any lack of compatibility between different regions.

More specifically, requirements in the US and EU are very different from one another.

Now that the demand for resources and equipment is higher than ever before, those conflicting standards need to go.

It is a very interesting option to explore, but it will not happen overnight.

No one will argue that the medical supply chain has trust issues that need to be dealt with.

How blockchain will fit into all of this, is anyones guess as of right now.

Numerous options are waiting to be explored, especially regarding certification, payments, and supplier credibility.

Finding partners who are willing to explore these options, is a different matter altogether.

Image(s): Shutterstock.com

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Is Blockchain a Viable Technology During the Coronavirus Crisis? - The Merkle Hash

Blockchain is one of the most popular technology in todays world, and the credit goes to the brains and efforts behind it, which have ensured the development and efficient execution of all Blockchain applications.

The growing popularity of Blockchain technology needs to be attributed to the people who refused compromise and continued to persevere despite the regulatory uncertainty and criticism.

Blockchain Applaud the Unsung Heroes Behind it Before Appreciating the Technology

The unsung heroes of Blockchain have carried the technology to the ranks of the mainstream prominence that industries currently enjoy are:

Blockchain Leaders and Entrepreneurs Blockchain development has been the foundation of digital payments. The credit goes to the persevering Blockchain entrepreneurs and developers, who have enhanced their coding expertise to execute the Blockchain applications efficiently. Since access to formal education or training in the Blockchain is scarce, the talent pool has been utilizing online communities and resources to self-learn and refine their skills. The industry owes the massive prominence of Blockchain technology and its application to these coding geniuses and Blockchain entrepreneurs.

Crypto Miners The entire Blockchain environment and architecture functions through mining. With the rise of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies era, professional crypto miners have become more prevalent in the industry. Mining is not just a process of digging for cryptocurrencies; it is a process to ensure the decentralized security of the Blockchain. The miners play a crucial role in securing the network and in processing every crypto transaction efficiently without depending on a central authority, like the banks. Miners have played a truly vital role in the mass adoption of the Blockchain technology by recording and validating the transactions on a global ledger. They compete to solve posing mathematical problems created by the hash algorithm of cryptography. It is only after the miners solve a problem that the transaction is validated and deemed confirmed. The efforts of crypto miners are very often forgotten after they receive Bitcoin or another crypto for their efforts, but without the cumulative hard work of miners, ensuring immutable transactions on a distributed ledger, the Blockchain architecture would never be established globally.

Blockchain Marketers Without the rigorous efforts of marketers and communications specialists in the field of Blockchain, the Blockchain community would never be established. Marketers, bloggers, YouTubers, community managers, and other communicators in this field have been instrumental in helping the masses comprehend and adopt the Blockchain phenomenon. Technology alone could be intimidating for the end-users. With the Blockchain professionals collaborating, the masses warm-up for the technology to unleash its real prowess and potential.

AI Reshaping Retail; Adapt the Tech or Die

Blockchain Legal Consultants Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain have always been controversial topics. From fighting the battle for crypto acceptance to looking after its regulations, ethical development, compliance, and deployment the legal experts from the field of Blockchain have been the pillars of support and strength for the technology to grow and bloom globally.

Any technology, whether it is AI, ML, automation, or Blockchain, is only successful because of the efforts taken by humans behind its development and adoption. All technologies are born out of human brains and are aimed to ease out the work of humans. So, before applauding a technology, its important to appreciate the efforts of the people who have actually made it possible.

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Blockchain Applaud the Unsung Heroes Behind it Before Appreciating the Technology - EnterpriseTalk

The Sandbox has raised $2.01 million in cash and cryptocurrency so that it can built out its blockchain-based game world, dubbed The Sandbox.

The company raised the money as TSB Gaming, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, in the third quarter of last year, and its reporting it now as permitted by regulatory authorities. Investors included Square Enix, B Cryptos, and True Global Ventures.

All told, TSB Gaming has now raised $4.51 million to date. TSB is now a standalone company called TSB Gaming, and Animoca is a major shareholder. The company will look for more funding in the future in equity but also in cryptocurrency token (SAND) sales to be used inside the gaming platform, said TSB Gaming CEO Arthur Madrid in an interview with GamesBeat. (Players can use the cryptocurrency to play, to trade in the marketplace, and to stake for governance).

Above: Sebastien Borget is COO and president of Pixowl and TSB Gaming.

Image Credit: Animoca Brands/TSB

Blockchain is the transparent and secure decentralized ledger that can be used to verify the authenticity of digital items. That makes it useful in virtual worlds, where it can verify who created or who owns a user-generated item, and it allows players to take digital items that they own from one game to another.

The blockchain version of The Sandbox (which has existed in non-blockchain form for eight years under Pixowl, which Animoca Brands acquired in 2018) will be a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their own voxel gaming (blocky graphics) experiences on the Ethereum blockchain.

Were targeting a very specific audience that views this as very exciting and unique, said Sebastien Borget, the president of Pixowl and TSB Gaming. Very few people and few companies know about this concept of selling virtual land. But you will be able to play our games without even knowing that it has blockchain features.

Above: Players can make their own assets for The Sandbox.

Image Credit: Animoca Brands/TSB

It is one of the first decentralized, community-driven game platforms, providing users with true ownership of their creations as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). That means they can be verified as one-of-a-kind items.

Our decentralized game platform, our virtual world, a marketplace where we run the presale of land all the different products that weve presented are being developed with our team of 40 people, Borget said.

The game is expected to debut in the second half of 2020. In the meantime, one of the things that blockchain enables The Sandbox to do is sell plots of virtual land. The Sandbox sold more than 10,000 sections of virtual real estate, raising 1,300 Ethereum, a type of cryptocurrency. The value back in December/January was about $400,000, and the company was able to convert that to regular currency. (More recently, the price of Ethereum plummeted so that it would be worth $174,525 today).

Over time, the company hopes to sell about $22 million worth of land.

Eventually, we think players can make money on a secondary market, selling their land, Madrid said.

The next land presale begins on March 31. The Sandbox game originally started with Pixowl, which was acquired by Animoca Brands. The Sandbox game franchise is one of the worlds largest independent user-generated content and gaming platforms, with 40 million downloads and over a million monthly active users. The upcoming voxel-based blockchain version of The Sandbox will introduce new creative and commercial possibilities by allowing users to create voxel items and gaming worlds from the digital equivalent of building blocks.

Above: Sales of virtual land generated 1,300 Ethereum in The Sandbox.

Image Credit: Animoca Brands/TSB

For the world, we have over 50 partners which include brands for gaming companies and blockchain companies, Borget aid. Weve been looking for what comes next after free-to-play games, and we believe that the use of non-fungible tokens (uniquely identifiable) will give players both ownership and the ability to sell scarce items. We hope to bridge the gap between blockchain and traditional gaming.

Where players will notice is with the kind of rewards they can get from gameplay, such as currency that can be converted into something valuable.

And we believe that will make players more engaged, Madrid said. The more you play, the more you earn and the more assets you get. Its like teaching them in the moment that theyre going to benefit from it. By contrast, a lot of other blockchain games are not doing good onboarding right now.

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The Sandbox raises $2 million more to build out blockchain-based game world - VentureBeat

The technology behind the infamous cryptocurrency Bitcoin, blockchain, is becoming increasingly popular as cybersecurity experts look for more ways to fight cybercrime and data breach. Consumers are also becoming more and more proactive in terms of their cybersecurity, opening to alternatives that can promise better connectivity at heightened security.

Dubbed as the new and safer internet, blockchain makes it possible for data to be distributed without duplication, different from the current structure the internet has today. In this article, were going to have a look at how blockchain contributes to cybersecurity.

Blockchain technologyis a decentralised distributed ledger system where you can put any digital asset into the blockchain, regardless of industry. It uses a time-stamped series of immutable records of information managed by a cluster of computers. Different transactions are tracked through these records, separated by blocks, and joined by cryptographic chains. Data is not owned by a single computer or entity, but by multiple users within the system.

Once confirmed, data that has been encoded cannot be altered. They become permanent blocks added to a chain of other validated blocks. Initially devised for cryptocurrencies, the digital community is now seeing the enormous potential of blockchain technology in cybersecurity, as it can be used to prevent cyber attacks, data breaches, identity thefts, or malicious transactions, keeping data private and secure.

The following is a video briefly explaining what blockchain technology is:

For more information on blockchain, check out Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Explained.

Blockchain presents itself as a backbone to different technologies, providing solutions that are beneficial across different industries. Its main characteristics are:

As more and more real-time, on-demand data need to be accessed and distributed, theres also a need for edge computing and fog computing devices and storage. This allows data to be processed and stored closer to the source and consumers. Cloud computing is still being used, of course, primarily to archive data previously processed through edge computing devices. Blockchain is providing a solution to secure IoT and industrial IoT by more rigid authentication, improved data attribution and flow, and updated record management system.

Because it was initially intended to be publicly-accessed, blockchain was made without access controls or restrictions. Today, there are private blockchain systems that various industries are using to ensure data confidentiality and secure access control. The complete encryption of the blockchain makes sure that data is not accessible to external parties, whether in part or whole, particularly while data is being transmitted.

Companies hope to communicate through more secure platforms using the blockchain technology that can be impenetrable to malicious attacks. Whether in personal, corporate or highly-classified communication, consumers can be secured with the confidentiality of such conversations without fear of cyberattacks. It can handle PKI better than encrypted apps; that is why several blockchain private messaging apps are being developed for public consumption soon.

People are more cautious to keep their computer and online credentials safe and secure. And blockchain technology can help in that regard. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) rely on third-party certificate authorities to keep messaging apps, emails, websites secure. These certificate authorities that issue, revoke or store key pairs are usually a target for hackers using bogus identities trying to access communication that is encrypted. When these keys are encoded on a blockchain, it minimises false key generation or identity theft as identities of legitimate account holders are already verified on the app, and any intrusion, deception or identity theft can be identified right away.

A blockchain approach to storing Domain Name Systems (DNS) heightens security comprehensively as it removes that one, single, compromisable target. It thwarts the malicious activities of hackers who can bring down DNS service providers like Twitter, Paypal and the like.

In a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, a target, usually, a server, is attacked by multiple compromised computer systems to deny it of services leading to slowdowns, and eventual overloading or crashing of the system. If you integrate blockchain into the security system, the target computer, server or network will now be part of a decentralised system of machines which can protect against such attacks.

We can develop and adopt multiple measures for security, and yet threats develop and adapt accordingly. However, with blockchain, we have a vast scope of ensuring data is safe.

Smart systems continue to be developed towards the future implementation of smart cities and societies in the future, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is in the middle of all this action. From your coffee maker to AI-powered robots in aid of humans, IoT will have its mark everywhere. As of date, cybercriminals continue to find ways to attack these IoT smart devices. Blockchain technologys immutability will serve well if incorporated into the IoTs defense systems.

Blockchain technology, with its decentralised architecture and distributed ledger, will provide both control and security for remote IoT devices. Smart contracts, which can provide validation for transactions in a blockchain environment, may be used to manage IoT activities and keep devices secure from hackers.

Conclusion: Blockchain Technology is the Future of Cybersecurity

As we continue to deepen our knowledge about blockchains benefits, the technology is slowly maturing. Progress in 2019 indicates that there has been a shift, from being directly linked to cryptocurrencies and their use for illicit behaviour, to an increasing number of use cases across different industries.

Blockchain technology was not just created by the group Satoshi Nakamoto for Bitcoin purposes. Blockchain is a secure and robust technology that can actually do the world of cybersecurity a lot of good once it is integrated into mainstream security measures. As threats in cybersecurity intensify, as hackers find new and better ways to steal and exploit, blockchain technology will likely be at the forefront of cybersecurity in the years to come. When you look closely at blockchain, you are looking at the future of cybersecurity today.

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The Future of Blockchain and U.S. Credit Scores - the blockchain land

North Carolina-based database management firm Flureehas announced a seed extension funding round led by independent venture capitalcompany Engage.

The latest investment, which follows a $4.7 million seed funding round in June, allows Fluree to expand its enterprise data management platform, which acts as the foundation for emerging online architectures that include AI, microservices, machine learning, the semantic web and consortium blockchains. The platform is used by tech startups, government agencies, and Fortune 500 enterprises for sharing, securing and building services upon high-quality, trusted data.

Fluree also recently announced a strategic blockchaindeployment with the United States Air Force.

Brian Platz, co-CEO and co-founder of Fluree, said: Organisations have been striving to secure a data-first approach for nearly a decade, and Fluree finally brings that vision to life. As the semantic web continues to dissolve data silos and build a new framework for harnessing the value of information, Fluree is becoming the backend to power that change.

In Engage, we have the ideal partners to continue our strategic enterprise expansion and further catalyse the next phase of the web, added Platz.

Despite the uncertain climate blockchain-based funding activities continue to take place. Last month, Taiwanese blockchain security firm CoolBitX secured $16.75m in series B funding that will be used to expand the presence of its Sygna product range beyond APAC. Sygna is CoolBitXs first-to-market FATF-compliant solution for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) around the world. The company will continue to innovate and develop its flagship product CoolWallet S, which is a Bluetooth-enabled hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies. California-based Paystand also raised $20m in series B funding that will help the cloud-based PaaS payment network to expand its sales, marketing, success, and engineering teams at its California and Mexico offices.

Photo byMichael LongmireonUnsplash

Interested in hearing more in person?Find out more at theBlockchain Expo World Series, Global, Europe and North America.

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Fluree announces seed extension funding round for blockchain-based data management - The Block - The Block

Many of us are spending lots of time at home during these unprecedented times, so keeping boredom at bay as a result of newfound free time is the task at hand for more than a few folks.

With that said, those of us in the cryptoeconomy are fortunate to have a rising blockchain gaming sector ripe for tinkering with.

The space still has plenty of room to grow to be sure, but there are no shortage of early projects therein that are already trailblazing. If youre long on time and short on activities, consider checking out some of the following cryptonative gaming projects a little further.

Market cap: 154,655 ETH

Which god will you fight for? Gods Unchained is a turn-based, digital trading card game built on Ethereum. Matches revolve around players going head to head with decks of 30 cards each, with cards being secured as unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum. The gameplay is like a mix between Heathstone and Magic the Gathering, so its a natural fit for fans of those projects.

Market cap: 42,649 ETH

Back in 2017, CryptoKitties, the digital cats collectibles game, was one of the first Ethereum dApps to achieve a flash of breakout success. Since then, the game has brought the breeding of NFTs into the cryptoeconomys limelight and has given its creators, Dapper Labs, the fuel to keep advancing innovation in the blockchain gaming arena. Each digital kitty is a one-of-a-kind token and can be bred with other tokens to create new, unique offspring. The digital genes of each collectible is maintained within its associated smart contract, which makes them readily trackable.

Market cap: 6,393 ETH

Can you field an amazing team of skillful pets? Axie Infinity is a digital pet arena game where, like CryptoKitties, new collectible creatures can be created through breeding. The ensuing Axies can be collected, traded, and battled for on-chain prizes. In this way, the project is one of the pioneers in the play to earn movement that is picking up steam in the crypto ecosystem. Youll need at least 3 Axies to start playing the game, so keep that in mind, but where the fun begins is in mixing and matching different pets to field teams with different complementary abilities.

Market cap: 19,815 ETH

If youre a fan of role-playing games (RPGs), then MyCryptoHeroes is likely for you. In this crypto-themed project, players collect heroes and equip them with the best equipment possible in order to battle them head to head. After battles, youll also need to restore your pieces to bring them back to full health for new bouts. The project currently boasts more than 50,000 unique items. Like some other cryptonative games, MyCryptoHeroes offers users both player-vs-player (PVP) and player-vs-environment (PVE) modes. It has also given life to several different character archetypes, including figures like farmers, warriors, traders, and creators. All you need is a wallet like MetaMask to play.

Market cap: 12,050 ETH

Crypto Space Commander is a real-time, massive multiplayer online (MMO) game that is built on Ethereum. Adventure through the cosmos and commandeer new on-chain resources in galaxies far, far away with your own unique starships. The games economy is player-owned, meaning users can set up shop and profiteer however they see fit. Also, players can constantly upgrade their ships and add new abilities, meaning your items can do more after you grind and level up. If youre into sci-fi fantasy games where mining and grinding is key, then CSC might be right up your alley.

Market cap: 4,111 ETH

Etheremon is a Pokemon-like game underpinned by Ethereum NFTs, so you can collect, trade, and battle your digital creatures called Ether Monsters, or Mons in the game all on-chain. Beyond Mons, players can also collect potions and buffs to keep their digital pets in top shape or use them sell optimized Mons on the open market. Overall, the are over 80,000 unique items in the game right now, and the average price of one is around 0.15 ETH. Players can generate value for themselves by mining the EMONT token, an in-game currency that is permanently capped at 20 million units.

Market cap: 87 ETH

Familiar to anyone whos played SimCity before, BlockCities is an Ethereum game that lets players customize their own cities with unique digital architecture. These cities are maintained as NFT tokens, so you can trade them just as you would a regular token. They even become provably rare upon minting, since no two BlockCities will be organized in precisely the same way. Altogether, there are 10 million possible building combinations for users to pick from, so theres certainly no shortage of customization options. The games beta just launched on March 19th, so its one of the newer projects to hit the scene.

Market cap: 6,115 ETH

The Sandbox, a user-generated blockchain metaverse, is a gaming-centric virtual world build atop Ethereum that is comprised of more than 160,000 plots of LAND, all of which are NFT tokens. In the future, the idea is that these plots will host virtual events and a wide variety of games. Users of the game can create and exchange their voxel assets for cryptocurrency or create new in-world experiences using the SandBox Game Maker tool, as seen in the tweet below. The Sandbox has some interesting backers, too, as Square Enix the firm behind the popular Final Fantasy gaming franchise just invested in the project.

Neon District is a free-to-play, cypherpunk-inspired RPG built by the team at Blockade Games. The game is set to be released via the Steam mainstream gaming marketplace this July, so its not out just yet. But if youre doing a deep dive into crypto games in the coming weeks, Neon District is worth looking into because its set to grab some considerable market share in the digital collectibles arena once its live. Every piece of in-game gear is represented by an associated NFT, but Neon District has been created to be friendly to crypto and mainstream gamers alike.

OpenSea isnt an Ethereum game but rather a decentralized marketplace that makes it easy to buy and sell Ethereum gaming pieces and other types of digital collectibles. For now, its the largest one-stop spot in the arena for all your blockchain gaming needs, so if youre looking to pick up your first Axies, CryptoKitties, or even sell your old gaming pieces youre no longer using, its a great place to start. OpenSea also makes NFT analytics easy, as the platform provides a range of market statistics as well as the ability to readily track an Ethereum wallets various NFT activities.

The blockchain gaming sector is surely just starting out, but it has a range of promising upstarts that are already providing lots of fun and bringing lots of value. Its been a bit overlooked in the wider cryptoeconomy to date, but that dynamic has been shifting lately.

Some of the projects listed above have been around for a while like CryptoKitties, while other ones like BlockCities are just beginning. What they all share is a willingness to lean on blockchain technology to create new kinds of gaming experiences and open gaming economies that have never been possible before. Theyre certainly interesting, and expect more projects to follow in their stead going forward.

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Stuck Inside? Here's The Top Blockchain Games You can Play Right Now - Blockonomi

Its an extraordinary moment in the modern world as the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has rapidly become a global phenomenon. Amid the frantic response to the deadly pandemic, entire countries are ordering shelter-in-place measures to keep people at home while restaurants and businesses close their doors.

Essential services remain open in those areas, including doctors offices and hospitals, but social distancing is leaving many reluctant to leave their homeswhile health services in some countries are already feeling the strain under the influx of coronavirus patients. Given the increasing isolation of the worlds population, its no surprise that telemedicine is getting a lot more attention of late.

Telemedicine (or telehealth) is the remote use of telecommunications to deliver carefor example, trading the typical doctors appointment for a private, secure video call with a medical processional. The practice has gradually been on the rise in recent years; a J.D. Power study issued in 2019 showed that nearly 10% of Americans had used a telemedicine service in place of a physical visit over the previous year.

Whether they knew it or not, many of those patients likely utilized telemedicine services that rely on blockchain technology to secure interactionsand in some cases, to allow patients to control their own data. With its immutable ledger and cryptographic design, blockchain is uniquely positioned to power such critical and sensitive services. And with the global COVID-19 pandemic potentially stretching out for months to come, this could be the tipping point that helps normalize telemedicine in the mainstream.

Telemedicine services have reported unprecedented demand in recent weeks, while state and federal governments are clearing some of the previous roadblocks to its expansion. President Trumps administration expanded Medicare benefits for US telemedicine services in the wake of COVID-19, for example, following other telemedicine-friendly moves in the past, while China has opened up the floodgates for Internet-based services. Its a whole new world for telemedicine.

Telemedicine will grow exponentially amid COVID-19 as people are very skeptical about going to a hospital or crowded testing areas to get tested, Blaise Wabo, Associate Director and HITRUST Practice Lead at cybersecurity and compliance firm A-LIGN, tells Decrypt. A lot of states didnt accept telemedicine, [but] the federal government has waived telemedicine restrictions for preliminary tests to be done virtually with a doctor or medical practitioner prior to going for further testing in person.

Wabo has written extensively about the convergence of telemedicine and blockchain in the past, and suggests that blockchain can be a key part of the technological leap needed to deal with a pandemic like this.

We can see that the world is not getting better prepared for medical pandemics, and one would think as technology advances, we definitely should do better, he says. More organized tracking systems are needed to collect and track data during a medical pandemic, and also predict patterns in order to be better prepared to contain wide outspreads and ultimately help with finding treatment quicker. Blockchain technology could be the solution to handling private medical information and interactions.

"Blockchain could be the solution to handling private medical information."

Technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and multiparty computation can add an element of privacy to blockchain's immutable ledger. Eventually, the goal is to enable computations on private data without exposing that data, which has obvious applications in the field of healthcare.

Part of the appeal of telemedicineespecially at this particular timeis the ability to seek professional medical help without leaving the home or meeting face-to-face. Brennan Bennett, founder of Blockchain Healthcare Review and Senior Business Analyst for Intermountain Healthcare, also points to the potential for lower-cost medical assistance via telemedicine.

This crisis will actually put telehealth into perspective in terms of an affordable countermeasure to the rising costs of healthcare delivery, Bennett tells Decrypt. It's not hard to do the math both for the patient and the provider in terms of the value of remote access to diagnostic assessments for basic, and even moderately complex symptoms.

The real question is, how will telehealth advance in such ways that mobile and/or web applications have access to more advanced clinical decision support features powered by technology, such as AI-trained computer vision? he continues. Once this threshold is crossed in a meaningful way on a global level, the intake relief provided to our healthcare system from telehealth can truly experience exponential growth. Most blockchain-based healthcare apps have this benchmark built into their MVPs [minimum viable products].

There are some ambitious blockchain-driven telemedicine efforts out theresuch as startup BitMED, which Decrypt profiled in 2018. The company aims to provide totally free telemedicine to anyone in the world through a platform built around its BXM token. The trade-off, however, is that youll need to share your anonymized medical records, which the company can then lease out for big bucks. However, there are less audacious-sounding blockchain telemedicine startups out there, too.

Several tech companies and startups in the industry have recognized [the benefits of blockchain] and have started building a number of blockchain solutions aiming at tracking drug supply chains, medical supplies, insurance claims, medical diagnosis and symptoms, and managing medical data, adds Wabo. These services could, he explains, provide valuable insight and statistics to help contain disease outbreaks and advise citizens on safety actions and measures.

Wabo points to Medicalchain as an example. The service allows users to access a comprehensive health record and share it as desired with doctors, with a system built on MedTokens. Those tokens can be used on the companys MyClinic.com website, which allows for remote video consultations with doctors.

He also mentioned Docademics Doc.com, which uses the Doc Token for its own blockchain telemedicine service, along with Gainfy, which gamifies healthy living habits and provides rewards to users. Meanwhile, Bennett noted some compelling blockchain telemedicine services that have caught his attention, including tokenized DNA marketplace Encrypgen, AI-driven consultation service Medvice, and virtual visit app PointNurse.

Blockchain wont be a selling point for the average consumer at this point, but with the telemedicine industry set to boom in the wake of the coronavirus, the technology may prove a vital building block for companies enabling and empowering the future of remote healthcare.

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Coronavirus could be the tipping point for blockchain-powered telemedicine - Decrypt

Flureeannounced a seed extension round of funding with participation from Engage.

The investment follows a June 2019 $4.7M seed funding round. The new funds will enable Fluree to expand the market penetration of its enterprise data management platform. Tech startups, government agencies and Fortune 500 enterprises use Fluree as the engine to share, secure and build services upon high-quality, trusted data. Fluree recently announced astrategic blockchain deploymentwith the United States Air Force.

Fluree PBC (Fluree) is a Public Benefit Corporation co-founded by serial IT entrepreneurs and executives Brian Platz and Flip Filipowski in 2016. Built for versatility, the Fluree platform is an enterprise database that acts as the foundation for emerging online architectures that include AI, microservices, machine learning, the semantic web and consortium blockchains.

Organizations have been striving to secure a data-first approach for nearly a decade, and Fluree finally brings that vision to life, says Brian Platz, co-CEO and co-founder of Fluree. As the semantic web continues to dissolve data silos and build a new framework for harnessing the value of information, Fluree is becoming the back-end to power that change. In Engage, we have the ideal partners to continue our strategic enterprise expansion and further catalyze the next phase of the web.

Managed by Tech Square Ventures, Atlanta-based Engage is backed by 11 corporations AT&T, Chick-fil-A, Cox Enterprises, Delta Air Lines, Georgia- Pacific, Georgia Power, Goldman Sachs, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Invesco, The Home Depot and UPS along with leading research institution Georgia Institute of Technology and Invest Georgia. The Engage platform is a first-of-its-kind venture fund and program designed to provide companies access to what they need most: customers and new markets.

Founded two years ago, Engage has invested in over 40 companies from across the country. Engage portfolio companies have created over 1,000 jobs and gone on to raise almost $400 million in additional venture financing.

Fluree is providing a transformative solution to a large problem we see in the enterprise space, rethinking data storage and management, says Thiago Olson, managing director at Engage. We are thrilled to welcome Fluree into the Engage family and begin connecting them with our corporate partners.

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Blockchain Innovator Fluree Secures Investment from Engage in Seed Funding Extension Round - Supply and Demand Chain Executive

Michigan-based, Neogen, creates and markets products focused on animal safety and production including antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, food safety, genomics and toxicology.

The partnership between Neogen and Ripe Technology was intended to connect links within the production system, said Joe Heinzelmann, director of business development at Neogen.

The company works with testing and safety diagnostics along with providing genomics services and producing animal husbandry and insecticide products.

When you think of feeding 9bn people by 2030 not only do you have to safe food, you have to produce it in ways that are sustainable and helps them produce safe food and then youve got to have the efficiency,he said. This trifecta of the diagnostics, ways to help clean things and keep rodents and pest out of the area, and the genomics to help with efficiency is one way to do that and one way to bring these worlds together in a more meaningful capacity is something like a blockchain.

Blockchain

"Blockchain is a form of digital technology that chains together blocks of information in such a way that it creates a permanent, unalterable record. In the food and livestock industries, blockchain could be used to create the history of products and animals as they go through their entire production cycles," says Neogen.

The system also could be used to track the genomic profile of a dairy cow, along with the feed used, the animals medical history and how much milk it produced, the company said. The technology is set to be developed separately from Neogens analytics platform, but the two technologies will be used to provide data-driven insights to customers.

Agriculture provides a perfect environment for the use of digital technology like blockchain because the current system is fragmented, complex and involves numerous people working in analog environments, said Phil Harris, president and co-founder, Ripe.

There is both a regulatory push and consumer interest in knowing more about how food is produced, including the feed used and how the animal product was farmed, he said.

When you put all that together, that is the perfect environment and playground to bring in new software, new technology and new knowhow to help the industry tackle issues around limited traceability, issues with food safety. Those actors that are exhibiting best practices, around sustainability [including] less water usage, animal welfare, animal health and regenerative practices, are given a channel, a means to show and expose those best practices to people outside of the supply chain,he told us.

The use of systems like blockchain could provide support and evidence to value-added claims and production labels, said Harris. Additional digital tools like the use of sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and AI could be used to streamline production.

These four components can create significant efficiencies and optimization inside of the supply chain, so you can tackle those problems around lack of traceability, waste, fraud, spoilage and authenticity issues all of these friction points,he added.

One way that blockchain could be used within the animal production system would be to improve the traceability and safety of feed, said Harris. Before it reaches the producer, feed or feed ingredients move through several steps including going from farm to processing and through a distribution process and testing.

All of these actors are sequentially involved from point A, which is when the animal is born and when it starts to be fed, all the way through to slaughter,he said. When you link together all the actors and all the siloed activities if [the data] was shared more broadly within an application that had the ability to aggregate and provide intelligence, they would be able to be better actors and do a better job.

Taking what had been individual data sets and providing a shared copy could remove friction points, he said. The system also could play a role in tracking livestock development or animals raised in specific ways like without the use of antibiotics.

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Blockchain brings traceability to animal feed, safety and production - FeedNavigator.com

With large swathes of the worldwide population currently confined to their homes and facing an uncertain financial future, finding an additional source of income is on the minds of many. While universalgovernment handouts maybe forthcoming, individuals now also have the option of exploring the monetisation of their own time via theMicrosponsors platform based on the 0x protocol.

The general idea being that creators, website hosts, freelancers, or anyone with a social media presence, can create their own Ethereum-based ERC-721 non fungible token (NFT) to auction specified time slots. These NFTs will guarantee a mention, shout out, or other service for the winning bidder at an allotted time and place.

Last year, Microsponsors began with the lofty goal of rebuilding Advertising Technology (AdTech) and Marketing Technology (MarTech) from the ground up to free people from the large commercial organisations who create walled gardens that are difficult to escape and ruthlessly exploit their behaviour and data to extract advertiser dollars.

The first step on the road to freedom was envisioned to be a self-service peer-to-peer marketplace where niche content creators could dispense with middlemen and directly find sponsors who wanted to connect with their audience or social media circle.

Building upon 0x was a natural starting point and Microsponsors became part of protocols accelerator program in order to facilitate in the free flow of value on the internet.

Minting an NFT known on the platform as a native Microsponsors token (MSPT) has a current low fee of 0.0001 ETH plus the usual network gas fee, and attracts bids from sponsors who interact via Metamask.

Potential sponsors, large and small, are able to browse the market, ask questions and place a bid for any NFT that matches their own criteria.

Read more here:

Monetising Your Time on the Blockchain - ICO Examiner News

The idea of managing your data on a blockchain might sound crazy, but it could actually give you ... [+] more control over what you share.

Public data breaches are everywhere, and despite growing awareness of the need for better data security, they dont seem to be slowing down.

Take the recent hack of Clearview AI: hackers exposed the firms customer list, including many law enforcement agencies and details relating to the searches they conducted using Clearviews data.

In this climate, the idea of managing your personal data out there on a blockchain might seem crazy. But in fact, blockchain does provide a secure method of managing access to data, and using blockchain could put people back in the drivers seat when it comes to controlling what data they share.

Ive already explored some of the unintended consequences of the gig economy, and data ownership is a central factor. Looking more closely at the rideshare ecosystem, one concern is that drivers dont own their reputation. Reputational data including star rating, number of completed rides and distance driven belong to the ride-share platform.

This is a significant worry. If these reputation metrics were recorded on a blockchain, drivers would be able to keep tabs on their standing, benchmark their performance against industry trends, and most importantly, carry their profile over to other platforms to optimize their business as independent contractors. This would let them maximize their opportunities to earn income without being reliant on a single app or platform.

Blockchain isnt just applicable to accessing personal data in the gig economy. Until the Equifax data breach hit the news in September 2017, most of us would have had no idea that credit score companies were systematically collecting, aggregating and selling our personal information, without our knowledge or consent. After all, its our sensitive personal financial data. Its reasonable to assume that when we entrust that information to a third party, particularly one in the financial services business, that they would regard its security as highly as we do! But if we managed that information on the blockchain, we would know that it was secure, and we would have control over who had access to it.

In broad terms, blockchain gives individuals a flexible way to control their data and content. The ability to link to a verified online identity ensures that personal information is both securely stored, and readily available to be shared under the right permissions. Further, smart contracts can be used to control access based on user-defined agreements. The privacy and encryption capabilities of blockchain are improving constantly, with several organizations including The Open Application Network working to develop better privacy protocols for blockchain.

Modern digital platforms pose risks for anyone reliant on those platforms for income; what happens to drivers if their ride-hailing platform is shut down or legislated out of their city? Blockchain eliminates these worries. It offers a flexible way for independent contractors to curate their reputation across a broad marketplace rather than on a singular platform.

It doesnt matter whether youre an Uber driver or someone whose data has been stolen, were all getting tired of the rent-seeking behavior from giant platforms. In a world where efforts to monetize our actions for the benefit of mega platforms have become the norm, whats the solution? We can put individuals back in control of their data, with blockchains decentralized ownership model. That would be a good first step.

Excerpt from:

Want To Regain Control Of Your Data? Blockchains Permission Management Is A Step In The Right Direction - Forbes

Sita, an air transport communications and information tech company, and ULD Care, a trade association, are exploring the possibility of using blockchain technology to save $400M a year in the air cargo industry, according to the March 12 announcement.

Blockchain technology allows air cargo companies to digitally track and record the change of custody for airline cargo containers, or Unit Load Devices (ULDs), as they journey between destinations. These companies aim to bring down industry costs, improve efficiency, drive fewer losses, and prevent damage to cargo.

The proposed blockchain platform will also embed authentication and trust-based functions to reduce the risk of tampering, cybercrime, trade-based money laundering, fraud, and illicit trade. Bob Rogers, vice president and treasurer of ULD Care, added that:

A container travelling from Shanghai to Long Beach could take up to 30 days to finish its journey, but the true travel time on sea or road is only around 15 days, with the remaining time spent on back-office and paperwork. The use of blockchain could revolutionize that process.

Currently, there are up to 12 custodian companies monitoring and tracking the cargo for any given shipments, according to the announcement. Most of these companies depend on paper documents. This makes the process complicated and causes frequent trust and transparency issues.

Blockchains, however, save time and cost, and can address many of the air cargo industrys pain points. Matthys Serfontein, president of Air Travel Solutions for Sita, said that:

We are looking at blockchain very closely and were excited to test the potential of the technology to transform the air cargo industry.

Mathys also pointed out that blockchains potential goes way beyond cargo, and could solve common airline challenges in general.

Cointelegraph reported previously that IBM Indonesia has joined TradeLenss blockchain-based shipping platform. A recent report also shows there are 25 leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, logistic partners, and other representatives of the pharma supply chain who are in favor of adopting blockchain technology to track and trace prescription drugs after completing a pilot program with the US Food and Drug Administration.

The rest is here:

Air Cargo Industry Could Save $400M Per Year With Innovative Blockchain Tech - Cointelegraph

In the midst of the global emergency caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the Argentine government confirmed on March 14 that they suffered a hack on the website of their official gazette (Boletin Official) based on blockchain technology, where false statements regarding the coronavirus were spread.

According to officials quoted by El Cronista, there were direct hacking attempts that failed to enter the newsletter's system. Still, the hackers located a vulnerability that allowed fake news to be spread through edition 34,239 of the bulletin.

Such information mentioned some guidelines that were supposedly adopted for state employees amid the coronavirus emergency in the country.

Due to the security breach and subsequent high traffic, the Boletin Oficial website went offline for several hours.

The Boletin Oficial is a legally valid publication in its printed edition. Laws that have been ratified and signed by the government are published and made official through it:

"The digital edition of the Boletin Oficial acquires legal validity by virtue of Decree No. 207/2016."

Within the resolution, the Argentine government confirmed a measure adopted by the Ministry of Education regarding the management that educational institutions that have suspected or confirmed cases of coronavirus should give it.

The blockchain system used for the Official Gazette is part of the "Blockchain Federal Argentina" project, which is a distributed accounting technology that is used by both state agencies and private organizations.

By this means, non-modifiable information is shared through a network made up of its members, which are private and state entities.

As of press time, the resolution introduced by the security breach is still online on the Boletin Oficial website.

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Argentinean Govt Blockchain Hacked to Spread Fake News on Coronavirus - Cointelegraph

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the identical twins and crypto-entrepreneurs who once alleged that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from them, have launched a new online marketplace to sell limited-edition digital art.

The rebranding of the website Nifty Gatewaya startup that the twins cryptocurrency company Gemini Trust Co. acquired last year, marking their first-ever acquisitionallows artists and collectors to buy, sell, and track ownership of digital art through blockchain technology.

The relaunched Nifty Gateway will enable artists to issue limited-edition works and, if you believe the sites pitch, take better control of the market for their work.Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster, who founded Nifty Gatewayand who, we kid you not, are also identical twinscompare the sites goods to digital Air Jordans.

If I own a pair of shoes and Nike shuts down, I dont expect that my shoes would just disappear, Duncan Cock Foster told the Intelligencer in a profile earlier this month. We expect our items to behave a certain way, and past digital items have not.

Until recently, the best-known objects sold on Nifty Gatewaygrouped under the umbrella term Niftieswere digital breeding cats from the popular novelty CryptoKitties. But the relaunched site encompasses a wide range of digital artwork. (New exhibitions, or groups of work, are released every third Thursday.)

Michael Kagan, an artist perhaps best known for his collaboration with Pharrell Williamss Billionaire Boys Club clothing company, has contributed a quintet of space-themed digital paintings that range in price from $3,000 to $5,000. Lyle Owerko, whose image of the Twin Towers exploding famously graced the cover of TIMEs 9/11 issue, is selling different-colored graphics of boomboxes. A brass-colored boombox goes for $20, while the gold one goes for $2,500.

I havent done anything like this before, which is all the more reason to do this now, Owerko told Bloomberg about the opportunity.

Of course, Nifty Gateway isnt the first enterprise to try to tap into the market for digital artbut it is perhaps the best capitalized. Upstart companies with names like R.A.R.E, DADA, Snark, and ARTBLX have previously branded themselves as the go-to marketplaces for digital art, though none have made a splash beyond the niche world of crypto-investing. (After its launch, ARTBLX later pivoted its business model to selling fractional-ownership shares in investment-grade artworks.)

The Winklevoss twins predict, loftily, that the market for Nifties could become as large as those for art, collectibles, and gaming digital items combined. One hopes that the venture has a better outcome than their last art-related investment. In 2014, the twins announced with fanfare that they had invested in the online auction house Paddle8. Yesterday, Paddle8 filed for bankruptcy.

Read more from the original source:

The Winkelvoss Twins, Bitcoin Billionaires and Foes of Facebook, Are Launching a New Blockchain Art Marketplace - artnet News

What seemed like science fiction a few short weeks ago is now very real. Movies such as Outbreak, Contagion and Virus are looking more like documentaries every day. As we battle COVID-19, a major issue that will only increase is disruption to supply chains.

This disruption has been as devastating as it has been swift. There is unprecedented demand for some products (hand sanitiser has never been so popular), just as production of other products grinds to a halt due to lack of parts.

Our research concerns managing supply chains in a crisis and using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence , 3D Printing and blockchain. These technologies, which also seemed like science fiction just a short time ago, can help the world recover from one crisis and be better prepared for the next one.

There are a number of challenges these technologies can address. One of these is predicting how people respond to unprecedented events. Unexpected surges in demand for hand sanitisers, for example, have led to perfume factories in France switching to the production of hand gels for hospitals to increase supply.

Decision makers struggle to predict where and when the demand will come, as well as how much of it there will be. It is here where AI can help by identifying patterns and predicting what will happen next. It helps decision makers cope with information overload by capturing and aggregating data from a variety of sources. These techniques are helping to identify high-risk patients in Chicago, even when testing is limited.

Another challenge is maintaining supply, especially when supply chains are reliant on one source that is affected by unexpected disruption. Italys battle with the pandemic naturally means supplies of pasta are disrupted elsewhere. This is where 3D printing comes in. 3D printing involves making things layer by layer, directly from digital files. It allows things to be made where and when they are required, without the the expensive tools or moulds that mass production requires. While it might cost more to make a single product, 3D printing can make manufacturing faster and more responsive to changing demand even for pasta.

So if car factories, for example, take advantage of 3D printing then it suddenly becomes a lot more feasible for them quickly switch to making ventilators for hospitals, as is being suggested by the UK government.

However, this assumes they can access reliable designs and parts lists for these specialised and highly technical products. To this end, efforts are underway to create open-source ventilators. Safety testing and certification will be vital or these well-intentioned efforts may do more harm than good.

Fake products and medical equipment have already been an issue during this crisis. So being able to track where things are and where they came from to ensure they are genuine is vital. Blockchain can help because it provides an open, distributed record of transactions. Everyone who needs to be able to see the record is able to but no one is able to either modify or delete it.

It ensures that transactions are transparent and traceable, turning a supply chain into a digital chain of permanently visible blocks. This helps to maintain trust between all relevant parties. For example, in China it is being used to trace and confirm the source of public announcements, helping to eliminate fake information.

Additionally, blockchain enables smart contracts, which automatically transfer funds when specified conditions are met. Brooklyn Microgrid uses smart contracts to allow homes with solar panels to sell energy to their neighbours (every unit is automatically counted and paid for).

Blockchain also helps to minimise price inflation, ensures the right equipment gets to the right people and helps distribute the costs fairly and transparently. This may be vital when privately owned factories make goods for public services and should be reimbursed from taxpayers money.

Individually, each of these technologies can have an important role in managing supply chain disruption. The greatest value, however, comes when they are combined. This requires investment in skills as well as infrastructure. Private investment from a range of companies is driving development, but coordinated government strategies, from Industrie 4.0 in Germany to Made in China 2025 can help by guiding investments, supporting technology adoption and overcoming a skills shortage.

Managing a crisis involves three sets of decisions around preparing, responding and recovering. As the coronavirus pandemic evolves, the focus is now firmly on response. But the recovery may be even more challenging. The unprecedented scale of the impact looks certain to change lives, whether it is how we interact or even having jobs to go back to after self-isolation.

Panic buying of protective masks and hygiene products is symptomatic of a lack of trust in institutions and their ability to keep us safe. Yet just as science fiction movies see humans pulling together to save the world, the response to this pandemic has seen institutions collaborating to share resources from hotel rooms to production lines.

Investing in AI, 3D printing and blockchain can help businesses be more responsive to changes in supply and demand and make their supply chains more resilient. By using these technologies in collaboration, we should also be better prepared to predict, respond to and recover from the next crisis that threatens the world.

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Coronavirus: How AI, 3D printing and blockchain can help overcome supply problems in a crisis - The Conversation UK

Yesterday, research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan awardedChange Healthcarethe 2019 North American Enabling Technology Leadership Award for its blockchain-based healthcare billing and claims solution. Change Healthcare serves as a clearinghouse for insurance claims servicing both healthcare providers and insurers.

Nashville-based Change Healthcare launched the blockchain-powered Intelligent Healthcare Network for claims processing and reducing administrative costs. It connects all stakeholders, such as healthcare providers and insurers on a single platform for better communication and data exchange for claims management.

In 2018, it (Change) commercially deployed the first enterprise-scale blockchain network for healthcare. The network, designed to improve claims lifecycle management, exhibits industry-leading transparency, process integrity, and efficiency for better auditability and traceability around the claims management process, said Kamaljit Behera, Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst.

The companys core systems process 14 billion healthcare transactions every year and more than a trillion in value.

In mid-2016 the company was formed from the merger of the original Blackstone-owned Change Healthcare and McKessons IT activities. Last year the company had an IPO and McKesson has now divested its 70% stake.

The blockchain solution aims to expedite the medical billing process through better communication and real-time exchange of data, cutting down costs for insurers and providers. Traditionally, it takes about 7 to 14 days to check insurance eligibility, which can be reduced to a few minutes using blockchain. Payments are expedited with faster claims processing, allowing healthcare providers to collect payments at the point of care.

The companys (Change) move to further integrate blockchain with RCM (revenue cycle management), clinical data exchange, and patient and caregiver engagement use-cases can enhance market adoption and endow it with a unique competitive advantage, added Behera.

Changes solution is built on Hyperledger Fabric and is capable of processing 50 million transactions per day, with up to 550 transactions per second.

We lastspoke to Change Healthcarea year ago, when it could process up to 30 million transactions a day. At that stage, the network was running in parallel to the core system, logging transactions. The firm was planning to onboard outside service providers, and to enable this, it has now migrated the network from internal systems to the AWS cloud.

Last year, Change acquiredPokitDoksassets, including software and IP, to integrate the latters solutions with its own platform. PokitDok describes itself as an API platform built to streamline healthcare transactions & power the business of health.

Read the original here:

Change Healthcare's claims blockchain receives award from Frost & Sullivan - Ledger Insights

David Katz likes to talk in parables. Its a useful habit, since the organization he leads aims for little less than miracle-making at scale. Lets say you were to walk over a field of diamonds, he begins. Youre struck by the wealth in them, all these beautiful diamonds glimmering in the sun. You want to pick them up, but realize theres no bank you can deposit them in. Theres no store to spend them with and no one would barter for them. Would you pick them up? Probably not.

The diamonds Katz mentions are one of the least valuable commodities on the planet plastic waste. Katz is the co-founder of the Plastic Bank, a Vancouver-based social enterprise that aims to help those in the developing world convert plastic waste into cash and goods, providing an additional source of income for those in the poorer parts of the world while preventing more plastic from entering the worlds oceans.

Its plastic as money, he explains. Were a chain of bank branches. When you deposit plastic garbage by mass, you can withdraw cash or use a digital wallet to pay for the things you and your children need, like dental care, education, books, nutrition, cooking fuel, cell phone minutes Everything you need and couldnt previously afford can now be bought using the garbage beneath your feet.

Katz claims the companys system means the worlds poor can be incentivized to recycle, so that every single home especially in the developing world looks at packaging as a secondary income. Then, its never burned or put into the river or dumped in the streets to begin with. Meanwhile, the blockchain technology underpinning its digital wallets provides an authentic platform for the value of plastic to be revealed, so theres no opportunities for that value to be degraded by middlemen and mafia.

Once the Plastic Banks customers have deposited a load of plastic at their local branch, the company sells it to manufacturers across the world as social plastic, to be recycled into new products. The company is already working with chemicals-maker Henkel AG, CPG conglomerate SC Johnson and retailer Marks & Spencer. Katz says the banks B2B side makes it simple for brands to contribute to the repair of the Earth.

After seven years in business, the bank has helped collect over 8,000 tonnes of plastic waste, which is the equivalent to about 400m plastic bottles, or about a billion coffee cup lids, or 500bn plastic straws. Its now active across the globe, from Indonesia to Egypt to Brazil to the Philippines territories home to stark economic inequality, but also responsible for a disproportionate amount of the worlds plastic waste according to a 2015 report by McKinsey.

Katz tells us that the original inspiration for the Plastic Bank came from his childhood on the western coast of Canada, where hed walk along the beach to school collecting debris brought in by the tide. Over the course of time I discovered that what we called beachcombing was just other peoples garbage showing up.

Later, scuba diving led to a renewed appreciation for the beauty of the oceans. You truly understand the magnetic existence of the ocean when you are in her. To truly understand how powerful and how significant the ocean is, you need to venture into her depths.

Despite the idealism that informs the work behind the bank, Katz also holds respect for plastic itself. Plastic is remarkable. But it has to be stewarded appropriately. We have to get away from single use, from mixed materials in bottles, and we have to make it powerful for people to recycle the material.

Unusually for the co-founder of a company in the thick of the environmental space, Katz readily criticizes the thinness of sustainability. Instead, he argues that brands have business and moral imperatives not only to ameliorate environmental damage but to actively work to reverse it.

We know that brands that stand for the repair of the Earth compared to those standing for more degradation will win. Were entering the regeneration economy.

He predicts that brands will soon be judged on their dedication to environmental repair and notes how unforgiving the court of public opinion can be. Its either going to be Coca-Cola saying it is cleaning the world of Pepsis mess or Pepsi saying it is cleaning the world of Coca-Colas mess. Someone will have that story.

This new generation, Generation Z or as we could call it, the Greta generation went through the Great Recession. They have emerged into adulthood amid insecurity, expecting to see hyperinflation, mass protest and shortages. And theyve been met with ocean acidification, climate change and marine debris. Theyve been living under the products of degeneration, of taking for the self before giving for others. The companies that will win that generation over are the companies that stand for the Earths repair and the benefit of all, not just the rich few.

The Plastic Banks plan to monetize recycling and turn waste products into a proxy currency is the kind of imaginative scheme made for the regeneration economy. Were beyond a tipping point, Katz declares. Theres about 9bn tonnes of plastic on the Earth and all the plastic weve ever made is pretty much still here. If we do something that removes all economic value in the material, itll all make its way into the environment.

This is the very moment that society needs to increase the price of recycled content. This is the very moment that we have to turn it into money for the world. And thats precisely what we do.

Go here to read the rest:

David Katz, the Plastic Bank and battling poverty with blockchain - The Drum

March 18, 2020 / by Crypto.IQ

Sarah Zheng, a journalist from the South China Morning Post, has used the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to bypass government censorship amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

Specifically, Zhang published an interview with Dr. Ai on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. The interview had been so heavily censored that it cannot be found on social media or on any Chinese news websites, but it is now stored on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain immutably forever.

In the interview, Dr. Ai warned that a patient had been infected with the Coronavirus. This was on December 30, well before the world learned about the Coronavirus epidemic in China. Apparently the Chinese government did everything they could to silence Dr. Ai and get rid of the interview to save face.

Aside from storing the interview on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, it has also been stored in a QR code, although this is a less immutable way of storing the interview since it could be deleted.

In the coming weeks and months, amid the worldwide frenzy due to the Coronavirus, the blockchain may be the only way to truly guarantee the preservation of controversial information in totalitarian countries.

Continue reading here:

Chinese Journalist Uses Ethereum Blockchain To Bypass Censorship Amid Coronavirus Pandemic Crypto.IQ | Bitcoin and Investment News from Inside...

Primavera De Filippi, an internationally recognized authority on the challenges and opportunities of blockchains and other decentralized online technologies, will deliver the UB Tech 2020 keynote address

Decentralized technologies such as blockchain raise a number of legal challenges. And studying those challenges and related solutions is where Primavera De Filippis passions lie. She co-authored the book Blockchain and the Law (Harvard University Press, 2018), and is investigating new opportunities for these technologies to enable new governance models and participatory decision-making through the concept of governance-by-design.

A permanent researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research in Paris and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, De Filippi is a member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain Technologies at the World Economic Forum as well as co-founder of the Internet Governance Forums dynamic coalitions on blockchain technology.

Follow her on Twitter inadvance of her talk at UB Tech 2020, which will kick off the conference on June 15. Below, De Filippi shares her perspective with UB.

UB: Your book makes the case that new rules and approaches to legal thinking are needed for this technology to be harnessed productively. Has any movement on this front happened since its 2018 publication, and whats the best way for CIOs and other tech-focused leaders to stay up to date on changes that impact blockchain and their own institutions?

Primavera De Filippi: The blockchain ecosystem has changed significantly since 2018. While the technology was initially seen as a tool for disintermediation that would potentially displace existing institutions, today it is increasingly regarded as an opportunity for both public and private institutions to transition towards a new era characterized by greater transparency and accountability. Blockchain technology is increasingly perceived as a regulatory technology that can contribute to achieving specific policy and regulatory objectives through a series of technological guarantees that can increase confidence and restore trust in institutions.

Tech leaders and innovators should thus start looking at the disruptive potential of blockchain technology not only as a potential threat but alsoor ratheras a competitive advantage that could help them turn their own organizations into more trustworthy endeavors.

UB: Higher ed administrators have generally talked about adopting blockchain first in the student transcripts and credentials space, and while its probably safe to say that its on my institutions radar at this point, adoption is still slow. Why do you think that is?

De Filippi: Upgrading the information system of an existing organization is difficult and slow, especially when there are no direct commercial interests in doing so. Think of Open Data; while most people would agree that public institutions should publicly release their datasetsand some governments even require it by law (e.g. Public Sector Information in Europe)the implementation is very slow because Open Data requires these institutions to ensure that their datasets are sufficiently clean, clear and well-formatted to be publicly exploitable.

The same is true with the use of blockchain technology. While most institutions recognize the value that issued transcripts and verified credentials would bring to students and professionals in the higher education sector, the adoption of blockchain-based solutions often requires a significant upgrade of the underlying information system, which might be difficult to achieve in certain institutions.

UB: At Harvard and elsewhere, what areas are higher ed leaders most excited about in terms of using blockchain technology?

De Filippi: MIT Medialabhas pioneered a system of digital credentials registered on the bitcoin blockchain, in a cryptographically secure and tamper-proof manner. These credentials can represent or recognize different types of achievements, enabling students to collect credits for the various classes they take, as well as for external activities that contribute to their academic career. The European Blockchain Partnership is also working on developing standardized solutions of blockchain-based credentials in order to facilitate student mobility across academic institutions in Europe.

UB: What message do you want campus CIOs and other campus technology administrators to take from your UB Tech keynote address?

De Filippi: The main message I want to convey is that blockchain technology is providing new opportunities to create more transparency and accountability in the field of academic credentials, but also more flexibility and interoperability. A system of blockchain-based academic credentials would not only enable the emergence of a more trustworthy ecosystem but also support the transition towards a more interconnected and interoperable model of academic credentials, enabling students to prove their knowledge and skills by aggregating credentials from multiple sources (traditional university or other actors).

Ultimately, in the longer term, this could lead to a more dynamic model of education that is less centralized around one or few institutions providing a pre-defined diploma but rather would allow for more fragmented curricula to be re-aggregated into ad-hoc diplomas.

Melissa Ezarik is senior managing editor of UB.

Interested in technology? Keep up with the UB Tech conference.

Read more from the original source:

The promise of blockchain and its impact on higher education | - University Business