News & Views
The regulator and legislator interest in Blockchain continues to grow. It's interesting to see that since the publication of the recent Distlytics Blog Will 2017 be the year that Blockchain is Regulated ? we have seen further announcements by regulators, and even seeing a workshop being held jointly by the European Parliament and European Commission.
Hot news is the #Dcrypt virus / ransomware attack that's ongoing and affecting organisations worldwide. The UK National Health Service has been heavily affected by the virus and there are a number of discussions ongoing about how to make data more resilient against such attacks. Blockchain could indeed be the answer, and it's interesting that this was the subject of a presentation to insurance companies recently: https://www.slideshare.net/GaryNuttallMBCSCITP/intech-breakfast-briefing-blockchain-and-ransomware
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Highlights
The Linux Foundation announced a new software project under its Hyperledger open consortium aimed at creating a collaboration tool for building blockchain business networks -- or smart contracts -- and their deployment across a distributed ledger.
The new project, called Hyperleder Composer, is a modeling language based on JavaScript and with REST API support, that allows non-developers and developers to model their business network. The language also supports modeling of relationships and data validation rules.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3194755/application-development/linux-foundation-to-develop-collaboration-tool-for-building-blockchain-business-networks.html
Software development platform provider PokitDok announced that along with Intel, the company has selected the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Sawtooth as its premium platform in order to record DokChain healthcare transactions.
http://www.econotimes.com/PokitDok-Intel-to-advance-healthcare-transactions-with-blockchain-solution-695212
New protocols/designs
The single biggest challenge for digital identity systems has been to create counterparts to the secure physical identifiers we use today. For instance, there has yet been no effective online equivalent to producing your driver's license at the drug store. And while there are traditional identifiers most people are familiar with online (like the Facebook login), these systems raise key questions about the centralized registries trusted by consumers and the control they have on the systems that secure them.
Now, Project Indy, a blockchain initiative developed by the Sovrin Foundation, is trying to fix this problem using a hybrid distributed ledger platform. As described, the ledger would be public, but in order to interact with it, an invite would be required.
http://www.coindesk.com/why-hyperledger-project-indy-is-using-hybrid-dlt-to-rethink-digital-identity/
France's Government is Beginning a Blockchain Research Effort. The effort is being spearheaded by France Stratégie, a commission that reports to the office of French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. Founded in 2013, France Stratégie acts as a kind of research and strategy development office on socioeconomic issues.
http://www.coindesk.com/frances-government-beginning-blockchain-research-effort/
The Financial Services Development Council of Hong Kong (FSDC) has released two research reports in order to foster the development and application of fintech and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the country.
http://www.econotimes.com/Hong-Kongs-FSDC-releases-two-reports-on-fintech-and-DLT-to-foster-development-691996
Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari announced that “blockchain technology has more potential for being adopted in the future than bitcoin itself”.
http://www.malaysiandigest.com/technology/674215-fed-s-kashkari-blockchain-has-more-potential-than-bitcoin-itself.html
Academia
Seven projects, to look at how Distributed Ledger Technology could transform the energy market, banking and healthcare, have been granted EPSRC funding.
https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/distributedledgertechnologytransformenergybankinghealthcare/
Investments
Coinsilium invests $75,000 in blockchain asset social trading platform CoinDash.
https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2017/05/10/coinsilium-invests-75000-blockchain-asset-social-trading-platform-coindash/
Trading
A UK start-up trying to put the plumbing of the vast foreign exchange market on the blockchain has secured two of the world’s biggest traders, Citadel Securities and XTX Markets, to its fledgling service.
https://www.ft.com/content/f0c4e076-34c6-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3
Payments
Countr POS, a Dutch provider of a tablet based point of sale software for small to medium-sized businesses, announces a strategic partnership with Coinify, leading European blockchain payment and trading service provider. This partnership allows Countr POS to offer a wider variety of alternative payments for their retailers.
https://news.coinify.com/countr-pos-partners-with-coinify/
Citi has joined JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and others in a Series A funding round for distributed ledger technology (DLT) start-up Axoni.
The New York-based capital markets focused firm now has over $20 million from investors including Wells Fargo, NEX Group, Thomson Reuters, F-Prime Capital and Digital Currency Group (DCG), among others, who contributed to the funding round in December. Series A is the first significant round of venture capital funding.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/12/citi-joins-roster-of-banks-investing-in-axoni-blockchain-start-up.html
Other interesting stuff in the news
The European Parliament has published a paper “What if blockchain changed social values? Blockchain technology could shake up many aspects of our daily lives, from the currency we use to the purchases we make. But what is the impact on our social values, and what can policy-makers do about it?”
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2017/603176/EPRS_ATA(2017)603176_EN.pdf
Videos
If you’d like to learn more about Commercial Insurance and the findings of two Distributed Ledger Technology Proof of Concepts then check out the videos at
http://www.distlytics.com/blockchain-video/
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