Allianz Risk Transfer and Nephila Capital Ltd. have used blockchain smart contract technology to conduct a natural catastrophe swap in a pilot test, demonstrating that processing and settlement can be accelerated between insurers using blockchain-based smart contracts. The test indicates blockchain-based contracts can also be applied to other insurance and investment transactions. Cat Bonds And … Read more
Sweden could become the first country to have a blockchain-based land registry. A team of technology players is working with the country’s land registry on a system that could possibly go live this fall, according to Reuters. ChromaWay, a Swedish blockchain company, consulting firm Kairos Future, and telecommunications service provider Telia, have developed “proof of … Read more
A Twitter post from someone claiming to be the DAO attacker who has taken 3,641,694 ether has thanked the DAO for this reward, has justified the action as being consistent with the DAO smart contract terms, and is warning that any attempts to deploy a fork in Ethereum would bring legal action. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, … Read more
Banks are exploring blockchain or distributed ledger technology as a way to prevent fraud risk in the $4 trillion trade financing industry. Standard Chartered Plc, having lost nearly $200 million in fraud at Qingdao port two years ago, has partnered with DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to establish an electronic invoice ledger using a blockchain. HSBC Holdings … Read more
The Linux Foundation has named Brian Behlendorf executive director of the Hyperledger Project, a blockchain initiative to create an open distributed ledger platform for the foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to professional, open source management. Behlendorf was a primary developer of the Apache Web server. He is also a founding member of the Apache Software … Read more
Acronis, a provider of backup and recovery software, announced an initiative at its 2016 VIP Partner Summit to develop blockchain technology-based applications for data protection, according to IT Brief, an Australia-based technical news source. I A dedicated research and deployment team will provide “tamper proof” data storage to guarantee privacy and data authenticity. The technology … Read more
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell announced a state initiative to embrace blockchain and smart contract technology to help public and private enterprises lower transactional costs, automate and speed up transactions and reduce fraud. Markell announced the plan to look into blockchain technology while delivering a keynote address at Consensus 2016, a New York technology conference on blockchain … Read more
The hacking heist of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank demonstrates the vulnerability of many banks’ existing financial security platforms that cry for blockchain-based security. Investigators at BAE Systems, a U.K.-based defense contractor, believe the attackers hacked into the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) financial platform that provides the heart of the global … Read more
EdgeVerve Systems’ newly-introduced Blockchain Framework furthers the adoption of blockchain technology by the global financial services sector. A subsidiary of Infosys, which offers the Infosys Finacle universal banking solution suite, EdgeVerve introduced the product at the Infosys Confluence global client summit in San Francisco, Calif. EdgeVerve developed the framework to deliver value-generating solutions based on … Read more
Is the hype over distributed ledger technology (DLT) overblown? Not according to Yves Mersch, a member of the European Central Bank (ECB) executive board. Speaking to the Deutsche Bank Transaction Bankers’ Forum in Frankfurt yesterday, Mersch said in his prepared remarks that DLT might not be a panacea for the financial industry’s ailments, but it … Read more