The COMET Centers, which are coordinated by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), have approved the Austrian Blockchain Center (ABC) in Vienna, according to a Nov. 29 press release. ABC involves 21 scientific institutions, 54 companies, 17 associated participants, and 16 international institutions and companies. According to the release, the research center will be multidisciplinary and focus on Internet of Things (IoT), finance, energy, logistics, and applications in public administration. Alfred Taudes, academic director and coordinator of the center, and head of the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, said that a multidisciplinary approach …

The government of Austria is supporting a U.K. cancer research company using blockchain to detect the disease. The government’s support comes as part of its drive to promote the technology, a press release shared with Cointelegraph confirms Nov. 10. Lancor Scientific, which has developed a device to detect multiple cancer types and record screening results with smart contracts on blockchain, plans to open a research laboratory in the city of Graz. Like Google’s Lymph Node Assistant, the cancer screening tool released in October using artificial intelligence (AI), Lancor Scientific’s offering aims for 90 percent accuracy. Lancor will additionally work with …

Last week, Austria became the latest government to successfully trial blockchain platforms to issue government bonds. The trial follows in the footsteps of the Australian and Thai governments, both of whom developed blockchain bond issuing platforms earlier this year. Government bonds are debt securities which represent an important way to support government spending and are widely considered to be one of the most risk-free investments available. Government bonds also make up a large proportion of the secondary market, with a total value of $22.116 trillion across the world as of September 2018. In spite of their importance, the process of …

In its new policy brief, the Austrian Research Center International Economics (FIW) has examined the possible effects of digitization, including blockchain technology, on the export economy, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports today, September 28. The report was prepared by Bernhard Dachs from the Austrian Institute of Technology on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and draws a positive image of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Dachs states that blockchain technology could make transactions in exports safer and thereby reduce uncertainty. In addition, decentralized technology could help to "substantially reduce the cost of processing export guarantees". …

Austria’s government is set to use the Ethereum (ETH) public blockchain to issue €1.15 billion ($1.35 billion) of government bonds in an auction next week, local news outlet Kleine Zeitung reports September 25. Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) — one of Austria’s biggest banks with $26 billion in assets in 2017 — will reportedly operate the live blockchain notarization service. During the auction, scheduled for October 2, the bank will issue the bonds on behalf of the Austrian Treasury (OeBFA). Austria’s Finance Minister, Hartwig Löger, noted that the ministry considers blockchain tech “forms a focus on economic policy,” adding: “Through setting up …

The European Union (E.U.) will focus on the development of crypto asset classification and regulatory mapping, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis claimed at a recent meeting of Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) in Vienna. According to Dombrovskis, crypto assets are “here to stay,” and the crypto market still “continues to grow” despite “recent turbulence.” The Commissioner claimed that, in order to address major issues around cryptocurrencies, the E.U. will focus on the main challenge that is how to “categorize and classify” crypto assets this year. He also stated that the organization will consider whether existing E.U. financial regulation …

Board directors of the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), Klaus Kumpfmüller and Helmut Ettl, have have offered proposals for stricter regulations on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs), Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports today, June 29. According to an article published in the Austrian newspaper Die Presse on the June 29, Kumpfmüller proposed a "threshold-dependent" prospectus requirement for ICOs similar to that of securities. The FMA executive committee defined a "reasonable" threshold as two million euros. In addition, according to Kumpfmüller, there should be a concession obligation for distributors of cryptocurrencies and that these "will be treated like securities in the …

The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) has banned the business activities of a Vienna-based cloud cryptocurrency mining company INVIA GmbH, according to an FMA press release published May 29. The company was ordered to cease digital currencies mining operations on the grounds of suspicion of unauthorised management of an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). The procedure concerning the prohibition is still pending. The press release adds the INVIA is neither supervised nor licensed by the FMA. INVIA World, the company behind INVIA GmbH, offers mining of “profitable coins” like Bitcoin and Ethereum through an “intelligent mining system,” paying proceeds from mining …

At the WeAreDevelopers tech conference in Vienna, Steve “Woz” Wozniak compared Ethereum’s platform with Apple and said it could become just as influential, Forbes reported May 18. While delivering his speech at the conference, Wozniak was enthusiastic about Ethereum (ETH), describing it as a platform similar to Apple’s. He said that in the long-term Ethereum can become just as influential as Apple is. He added: “Ethereum interests me because it can do things and because it's a platform.” According to Forbes, Wozniak happened upon Bitcoin and Ethereum in its early days, although he divested from crypto in early 2018. Wozniak …

Bitpanda, an Austrian trading platform for cryptocurrencies is partnering with the Vienna University of Technology to develop an open-source platform called "Pantos" for real-time arbitrage trading between different Blockchain tokens, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported on Wednesday, March 7. In partnership with the Vienna University of Technology, researchers from the Research Institute for Future Cryptoeconomics (RIAT) in Austria are also participating in the project. The research project called "Pantos" aims to solve the problem of the increasing fragmentation of Blockchain tokens and to allow "worthwhile transfers of tokens over several blockchains" for the first time, Bitpanda announced in its press release …