The world’s largest retailer goes crypto with its drugs
Deepening its involvement with blockchain technology, Walmart has joined MediLedger, which uses an enterprise version of the Ethereum blockchain to track the provenance of pharmaceuticals. Given that Walmart already utilizes IBM's Food…
Earn free cryptocurrency!
Coinbase users in more than 100 countries can now earn cryptocurrency by completing crypto-related educational tasks such as watching tutorials, answering quizzes, trying new decentralized protocols, and more. The platform, Coinbase Earn,…
Facebook’s new fintech firm
It was revealed last week that Facebook set up and registered a new financial technology company named Libra Networks in Geneva, Switzerland. According to records, the fintech firm will focus on "investing, payments, financing, identity…
A truly decentralized credentials system by Microsoft
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced an update to its plan for a scalable decentralized identifier system, which the company laid out last year. This would allow users to, for example, use a security key to access various accounts…
Approaching Bitcoin bit-by-bit
In an interview last week, PayPal's CFO John Rainey stated that while the company has "teams clearly working on blockchain and cryptocurrency," he thinks "it's a little early on right now" for PayPal to incorporate cryptocurrency in its…
Facebook is garnering support for its coin
Last month, we reported that Facebook may possibly be seeking $1 billion to fund its digital coin. Last week, WSJ substantiated this by reporting that the company is talking to Visa, Mastercard, and First Data about potential support. All…
Ready to flip a Samsung Coin?
Samsung is becoming increasingly active in the cryptocurrency space. In addition to investing $2.9 million in Ledger, a popular cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer, Samsung's blockchain task force is currently developing a…
Coinbase filed to terminate its PAC in less than a year
Coinbase, a major US-based cryptocurrency exchange that has been featured on Forbes' Blockchain 50, filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to close its PAC on 4/3/2019. Its PAC had been formed in June 2018 and became a founding…
Quasi-cryptocurrency
The IMF and the World Bank have jointly launched "Learning Coin," which many refer to as a quasi-cryptocurrency. It will only be accessible within the two organizations and has no monetary value. Instead of serving as an actual…
Facebook may be seeking venture capital investment for its digital coin
News of Facebook's coin has been around for some time, alleging that it will be used for transferring money across the Facebook ecosystem, which includes WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. Facebook's recently issued patent that tracks…
Singaporean blockchain accelerator partners with Intel and others
Tribe Accelerator, a Singapore government-supported blockchain accelerator, announced on 3/22/2019 that it has formed strategic relationships with BMW Group Asia, Intel Corporation, and Nielsen for knowledge sharing. These engagements…
Visa seeking a crypto expert
Visa is looking to hire a technical product manager for its "Visa Crypto team." According to the listing, the new full-time employee will be responsible for executing Visa's product strategy within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The new…
North Korean visas on sale
A group of North Korean dissidents, called Cheollima Civil Defense, began selling visas to a future free North Korea. They are the ones responsible for the raid on Pyongyang's embassy in Madrid on February 2019, as well as the 2017 rescue…
Is PayPal waging war against cryptocurrency?
MercadoLibre, a Latin American e-commerce giant, announced that it will ban cryptocurrency-based listings, pre-paid gift cards, and digital assets used in games from its platform on 3/19/2019. MercadoLibre's stock recently saw a rapid jump…
IBM is approaching the crypto custody space
Shuttle Holdings, an investment firm in New York, will launch the beta version of a custody solution for digital assets built on IBM’s private cloud and encryption technologies. The companies won't be storing cryptocurrencies and…
Samsung launches its cryptocurrency wallet
Along with its new Galaxy S10, Samsung launched its Samsung Blockchain Wallet, downloadable only from…
IBM launches a new blockchain testing service
IBM announced on 3/5/2019 that its security team, X-Force Red, has launched a new blockchain testing service…
Nasdaq launches Brave New Coin’s Bitcoin and Ethereum liquidity indices
Nasdaq is storing and sharing transactional data using distributed computing systems. On 2/26/2019, Nasdaq launched Brave New Coin's Bitcoin and Ethereum Liquidity Indexes (BLX and ELX) on its platform, which hosts 4,000 global…
J.P. Morgan announces JPM Coin, the first US bank-backed digital currency
On 2/14/2019, J.P. Morgan announced its JPM Coin, the first US bank-backed digital currency. Some speculate that large corporations that use J.P Morgan's treasury services, such as Honeywell and Facebook, will use it to replace funds in…
The Disruption of Cryptocurrency by Quantum Computing is Coming: What Can We Expect to See?
Quantum computers (QCs) are on their way to being readily available in the next few decades. QCs pose many threats to the cryptocurrency world since they will be able to run algorithms at lightning speeds compared to the PCs of today,…
Mastercard Fined $650 Million for Inflating Fees
Patent data shows that Mastercard is developing a method to add blocks to permissioned blockchains using an efficient consensus mechanism, bloom filters, and audit guarantees. Mastercard was fined $650 million by the European Union on…
Intuit and BitcoinTaxes Partner for Cryptocurrency Taxes
Intuit provides financial, accounting, and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants, and individuals. Patent data show that Intuit is currently optimizing the management and security of digital assets…
Coingate Integrates Ripple (XRP) Payment
Ripple Labs provides and operates a blockchain-based payment network, which connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges, and corporates to send money globally. Its native cryptocurrency is called Ripple (XRP). Patent data…
Nasdaq invests in blockchain technology.
Nasdaq has been actively developing and patenting blockchain technologies for financial services. For instance, this week we see Nasdaq has two patent applications published related to tracking, storing, and securing transaction data.…
Alibaba is implement blockchain-based cross-border remittance systems.
Alibaba has been actively investing and developing blockchain technologies. This week, it has four patent applications published that focus on blockchain-based data processing for improving data security, storage reliability, and…
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