IBM
Extending beyond just Hyperledger, IBM has announced the launch of its IBM Blockchain Founder Accelerator, an accelerator dedicated to helping enterprises and enterprise developers take blockchain networks into production faster.
Auto/Motor Toyota Considers Blockchain To Collect Data For Self-Driving Technology - On top of helping Toyota achieve driverless technology supremacy, using Blockchain could even have a huge impact on car insurance. The company pointed out that drivers could use the data they uploaded to the ledger network in order to convince insurance carriers that they really are safe drivers.
Papua New Guinea's central bank and the Australian Government are investigating how a new technology could help impoverished PNG villagers engage with banking, finance and the broader economy.
A recent report by Accenture suggests that the implementation of blockchain technology in financial services could save banks up to $12 billion per year. Since the distributed ledger technology can be utilized to improve operational inefficiencies and reduce administrative costs, the report concludes that banks can reduce those costs by up to 30 percent when adopting blockchain technology.
A study by insurance broker Marsh indicates that using blockchain technology could help to save US$300 per container “in terms of labour and the time and money spent processing associated documents”. For an ultra-large container ship (ULCS) carrying 18,000 containers, the saving could amount to US$5.4m, the report stated.
Derivatives giant CME Group and the UK's Royal Mint revealed details about their plans to bridge the worlds of gold and blockchain at CoinDesk's Consensus 2017 conference in New York.
Last year, the two institutions announced plans to put gold on the blockchain to streamline trading, with physical gold being represented by tokens called RMGs (short for Royal Mint Gold). The Royal Mint said in April that it had begun testing the system.
Blythe Masters, chief executive of DAH, recently told the stockbrokers conference it is on track to deliver a "foundational product" by the end of this calendar year, when the ASX plans to decide whether to pursue blockchain as the technology to replace CHESS.
Having built the minimum viable product in March, NEX Infinity will move into production testing with clients in July 2017 for FX and cash equities matching, allocations and confirmations on the distributed ledger.
Two major financial institutions – Citibank and Nasdaq, the stock exchange – wish to tackle liquidity issues in the private securities market. To do this they are leveraging blockchain technology from start-up Chain. According to the firms, a number of successful transactions have already been completed between Citi’s CitiConnect and Nasdaq’s Linq Platform.
Netki, a provider of Open Source and Open Standards compliance solutions for Blockchains, announced the first production platform for Central Banks using its Digital Identity Service. Bitt and Netki provide the solution through a Blockchain based central bank digital currency issuance that has the potential to modernize the financial system of the region, thereby ushering in the establishment of a stronger payment and settlement framework with unprecedented levels of economic growth.
