Bitcoin birthed the concept of blockchain technology, and now even organizations as technologically advanced as NASA are considering its benefits. Yet cryptocurrency is often described as a fad, a bubble, and even worthless. NASA Eyes Hyperledger Blockchain for Air Traffic Management Ronald J. Reisman, an aero-computer engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center, has put forward blockchain to solve...
Swiss Post and Swisscom will take advantage of their trusted reputation in Switzerland to create a blockchain platform for use by themselves and others that will be based on Hyperledger Fabric2. Swiss Post is publicly owned and the country’s second largest employer. It already uses blockchain technology to record temperature data while transporting pharmaceuticals in the national postal network...
Household supplies multinational SC Johnson has announced a pioneering partnership with Plastic Bank, a plastic waste recycling startup, to tackle the threat of global ocean plastics by increasing the rate of recycling across less privileged areas of Indonesia. Plastic Bank, which currently has a successful proof-of-concept program running in Haiti uses a custom cryptocurrency solution running on...
The cloud computing division of China’s largest online retailer Alibaba has announced the expansion of its Blockchain as a Service offering beyond its domestic market. In a statement, Alibaba Cloud disclosed that the blockchain service will now be available in the United States as well as countries in Europe and South East Asia. "Our customers in China have already experienced the benefits from...
Germany central bank Deutsche Bundesbank, and Deutsche Börse have announced the successful completion of a performance test for two prototype blockchain-based securities settlement systems which they developed jointly. In an announcement posted earlier today, it was revealed that the prototype systems support settlement of regular payments, interest payments, securities transactions and repayment...
Visa is integrating open-source blockchain code from the Hyperledger Fabric ahead of the commercial launch of its own blockchain service for enterprise payments in Q1 2019. Visa B2B Connect, the payment giant’s enterprise blockchain platform that enables cross-border payments between businesses, is partnering IBM to integrate the latter’s development of the open-source Hyperledger Fabric...
Financial services giant Northern Trust, which ranks 486th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. companies, has begun to wade into the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Northern Trust Offers Services to Crypto-Curious Hedge Funds Forbes reports that the 129-year-old Chicago-based firm, which caters to institutional investors, corporations, and high net worth individuals, has begun to open up some...
The investment and corporate banking arm of Sberbank and telecom giant MTS have laid claim to conducting Russia’s first commercial bond transaction using blockchain technology. In an announcement, MTS revealed it had placed commercial bonds worth RUB 750 million (approx. $12 million) on a proprietary blockchain platform provided by the country’s National Settlement Depository powered by smart...
New Zealand’s largest bank ANZ, with tech partner IBM, has successfully developed a blockchain solution that will serve as a ‘single source of truth’ for insurance companies and brokers. The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has concluded a successful proof of concept using blockchain technology to make data transfers more efficient with faster, more transparent payment reconciliation...
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced blockchain templates for Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric, providing a fast and easy way to create and deploy secure blockchain networks with open source frameworks, the company announced on its website. Blockchain technology makes it possible to build applications where multiple parties can record transactions without the need for a central authority to...
The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have released a joint report claiming that distributed ledger technology (DLT) can generate new securities settlement mechanisms, such as "cross-chain atomic swaps" among unconnected ledgers. The 52-page report is titled, “Securities settlement systems: delivery-versus-payment in a distributed ledger environment.” DLT's Impact On Securities Delivery...
Early blockchain tech mover IBM and Danish shipping giant Maersk have announced a joint venture to digitize and enhance global trade efficiency and security using blockchain technology. One of the world’s oldest industries that has long been notoriously averse to adopt modern technologies is getting a blockchain revamp. In an announcement yesterday, IBM and A.P Moller – Maersk confirmed their...
Sberbank has piloted the Russian banking industry’s first ever payment transaction over a blockchain. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank by assets, has executed a real-time money transfer over an IBM-built blockchain based on the Hyperledger Fabric – a blockchain software. The transaction involved a money transfer of an unknown sum between a payer and a receiver in two separate banks, facilitated by...
The Linux Foundation-led open-source Hyperledger blockchain consortium has released its first production-ready blockchain software in the formal release of Hyperledger Fabric 1.0. Heralding the release as a ‘huge milestone’ for a community of over 140 members representing a multitude of industries, Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee Chair and technical chief of open technology at IBM Chris...
The maintainers of Hyperledger Fabric, a platform for distributed ledgers supported by a modular architecture that delivers high degrees of flexibility, confidentiality, resiliency and scalability, have published their first release candidate for testing, according to the project's blog. The first release candidate is v1.0.0-rc1, according to Christopher Ferris of IBM and Jonathan Levi of Hacera...
Japan's largest retailer is building a blockchain-powered payments platform with IBM.
SWIFT, the operator of the platform used by the global interbanking system, has revealed details of its blockchain proof-of-concept (PoC) trial that sees participation from a number of global banks for real-time cross-border payments. Swift has chosen the Hyperledger Fabric, a product developed by the Linux Foundation-led open-source cross-industry collaborative Hyperledger Project, as the core...
The National University of Singapore (NUS), the country’s largest university by curriculum offered and student enrollment, is collaborating with IBM to develop educational modules on blockchain technology. Come January 2018, students at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing can expect to be trained on financial technologies with a focus on blockchain and distributed ledger...
Technology giant IBM has developed a blockchain trade finance platform alongside a bank and a commodity trading house to settle deals using the blockchain solution. Singaporean commodities trading house Trafigura and French bank Natixis join IBM in the innovative solution, one that they call as the first blockchain solution in commodity trade finance geared for the US crude oil sector. The...
IBM has laid claim to the world’s first blockchain ‘green asset management platform’ in China to decrease emissions while supporting low carbon emission-enabling technology. Powered by the open source Hyperledger Fabric, the blockchain-based carbon management application is specifically developed for enterprises. The solution stems from a joint effort by IBM and Chinese company Energy Blockchain...
Hyperledger, a Linux-led open source blockchain initiative, announced in a blog that Hyperledger Fabric, one of five of its incubator projects, will be released at the end of the month. Hyperledger Fabric is designed to be used as a foundation for distributed applications. Hyperledger is an umbrella for software developer communities creating open source blockchain and related technologies...
Custody bank Northern Trust has laid claim to a pioneering application of a blockchain platform developed by tech giant IBM in the private equity market. Chicago-based Northern Trust deployed the distribtued ledger system in collaboration with IBM, the financial company stated in an announcement today. The blockchain, based on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric, is being used to manage the...