Top Stories Around Blockchain This Week — An Unstoppable Force, Bank of America & IBM
July 25, 2019
In the past week, the Blockchain/DLT/DApps landscape witness a sharp increase in attention thanks to Libra. Which paved a path for other enterprises like Bank of American, IBM, and Oracle to showcase their latest projects and activities in the industry. We also saw more conversations around new blockchain implementations at the civil, food, and pharma levels being rolled out, along with the stablecoins and decentralized applications (DApps) continuing to gain louder voices in the industry. To keep you up to speed, here’s a snapshot of the top stories this week around the industry.
📖 Bitcoin And Crypto Suddenly Branded A ‘National Security Issue’
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has added his voice to the assault on bitcoin, Facebook’s planned Libra crypto project, and other cryptocurrencies warning they pose a “national security” risk to the country. He further stated that Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, and human trafficking,” adding that Facebook’s Libra “could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers… read more
📖 3 Stablecoins Enterprise Executives Need To Know And Why
The digital asset space is undergoing a transformation and is trying to adapt to new and wider interest from large non-financial companies like Facebook, Samsung, Walmart, BMW, Shell, and Nestle. Those companies, along with large financial services institutional players like J.P. Morgan, UBS, and Fidelity, create enormous demand for tradable assets running on both public and private blockchains… read more by Biser Dimitrov
📖 Bank of America To Utilize Ripple Blockchain For Interbank Communication Application
Bank of America has registered a new patent filing, according to the patent BOA will use the Ripple Blockchain for a new interbank communication and settlement system. The newly patented application is aimed at facilitating real-time settlements and communications thereof between banks, which will allow in faster cross border transactions…read more
📖 IBM Triples Number of Blockchain Patents in US Since Last Year
Tech Giant IBM has tripled the number of its blockchain patents. That makes IBM’s growth in US patents the largest of last year. According to data gathered by PR blockchain company IBM reportedly filed 143 patents during this period, still clocking in at the number one application spot… read more
📖 State of Blockchains Q2 2019 from Outlier Ventures
Markets and the weather hold one common attribute — they function in cycles. The token economy has suffered a prolonged winter throughout 2018 to Spring 2019. However, things have been looking increasingly positive throughout the second quarter of 2019.…read more credit to Joel John
📖 Oracle Uses Blockchain To Solve A Billion-Dollar Food Industry Problem
Oracle in partnership with Hive Network will use the blockchain framework to develop a “BeeMark” label to show that honey is being produced sustainably. The Hive Network remotely collects data through interconnected beehives using IoT sensors. The data is then fed into Oracle’s Cloud, which uses analytics tools including artificial intelligence (AI) and data visualization, to provide researchers with new insights into the relationships between bees and their environments… read more
📖 The State of the Ethereum Network: 2019
Five years ago today — on July 22, 2014 — the Ethereum crowd-sale went live, kickstarting years of developer, startup, entrepreneur, and enterprise fervor. Five years later, the blockchain ecosystem is diverse, global, increasingly decentralized, and growing in importance, recognition, and prominence…read more from ConsenSys
📖 Blockchain Platform Enables Trading of Digital Assets in Mobile Games
Itam Games has created an ecosystem, which includes a store and exchange, in which users can trade their in-game digital assets or nonfungible tokens (NFT). The users can try Itam’s system with its new blockchain-based role-playing game Dark Town. The players can pick up NFT during the gameplay, gain ownership of the collected assets as well as keep, transparently trade and manage them on their personal blockchain wallet…read more
📖 Bitcoin an ‘Unstoppable Force,’ US Congressman Tells Crypto Hearing
U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry, who represents North Carolina’s 10th District, told lawmakers directly that attempts to stop Bitcoin were unsuccessful. He further added, If it were possible to shut it down, an adversary would have already done so at some point since its 2009 inception. We should not attempt to deter this innovation; governments cannot stop this innovation, and those that have tried have already failed,” he continued…read more
Libra Watch
📖 Facebook’s regulation dodge: Let us, or China will
Top executives at Facebook have each claimed that if the U.S. limits its size, blocks its acquisitions or bans its cryptocurrency, Chinese company’s absent these restrictions will win abroad, bringing more power and data to their government. The message Facebook is trying to deliver is that cryptocurrencies are inevitable. Blocking Libra would just open the door to even less trustworthy actors controlling the technology…read more
📖 Meet Morgan Beller, the 26-year-old woman behind Facebook’s plan to make its own currency
Morgan Beller is one of three people all Facebook employees listed as a co-creator of the proposed Libra digital currency, alongside Vice Presidents David Marcus and Kevin Weil. Beller is head of the strategy for Calibra, Facebook’s digital wallet that will be used to store Libra…read more
📖 Facebook’s Libra Is Already Ahead Of Ethereum, Litecoin, And Ripple’s XRP — But Not Bitcoin
New research, carried out by U.S. brokerage eToro, has found that while 58% of the U.S. adults have heard of bitcoin, the first and largest cryptocurrency, Facebook’s libra is already known by 16% of people just a month after it was unveiled. Bitcoin has been around for a little over a decade, while its biggest competitors Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP have been knocking around for between seven and four years…read more
📚What I’m Reading Now
We’re seeing a lot of great books around blockchain being released this Summer and upcoming Fall. While I’m not yet reading the soon to be released, Enterprise Blockchain Has Arrived book, the authors, Jorden Woods and Radhika Iyengar-Emens, dropped some serious knowledge at our Enterprise Blockchain Summit this past June. In the book, they present their tour-de-force enabling executives and entrepreneurs to benefit from blockchain’s transformative power. Drawing on real-world examples and the experiences of many key thought leaders driving blockchain adoption, their book illustrates the best ways to embrace enterprise blockchain technologies and strategies for maximum benefit.
Needless to say, I’m excited to get a copy and dive in!
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