The strain placed on healthcare teams and networks over the past few months has been severe, pushing dedicated medical professionals to the limit as they work tirelessly to combat COVID-19 in communities around the world. The crisis has permeated every facet of society, shining a spotlight on the glaring inefficiencies within the traditional global healthcare system and illustrating the inherent need for technology-driven initiatives that can alleviate pressure on healthcare professionals and ensure patient data collation is as streamlined and secure as possible. As someone who has long championed the potential of blockchain technology to be a transformative enabler of …

DLT supply chain firm Everledger is partnering with local Chinese diamond sellers to ensure customers only receive genuine gemstones. In an Aug. 25 announcement, Everledger, a global digital registry for diamonds, said it would be working with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com as well as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to implement a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based supply chain capable of verifying the authenticity of individual stones. Due to the restrictions imposed on businesses during the pandemic, many buyers have turned to purchasing diamonds online, where it’s difficult to assess the quality and authenticity. In China, “digitally competent millennials” reportedly …

The nation of Qatar is a World Bank “high-income economy,” backed by the world's third-largest natural gas and oil reserves. It has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world (by purchasing power parity), with very high human development. Similar to other Gulf Cooperation Council states — which also include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain — Qatar has had to deal with the decline in global oil and gas prices after they first collapsed in 2014, and the situation has been made even more difficult by a Saudi-led embargo of the nation that started in …

Professional services firm KPMG has published a report predicting that blockchain will be one of five emerging technology sectors to see increased investment from enterprises over the next 12 months. Titled Enterprise Reboot, the report was compiled by KPMG International and HFS Research. It draws on a survey of 900 executives from organisations on the Forbes’ Global 2000 list of the largest public companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. While it found investment in blockchain fell by 63% due to the pandemic, the report predicts that the sector, along with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, 5G, and process …

The more time you spend in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, the more you encounter some fairly arcane technologies and their accompanying terminologies. Blockchain technology, which started out as a simple immutable record composed of blocks of data, is constantly evolving. Although the broader tech world operates similarly, the blockchain and crypto sector moves at a much more rapid pace. We are all racing to create the fastest, most efficient protocol or scalable and resilient app, and must build and improvise along the way. In such a competitive atmosphere, these races force innovation. When scalability is limited, alternative technologies must …

Blockchain firm HashCash Consultants claims that banks are "chief arbiters" of people's identities, and need blockchain technology to do it better. According to an Aug. 11 announcement, “accurate identification of an individual is central to banking activities which makes them the chief arbiter of people's identities.” Still, the current system is not without its issues: “The existing manual processes make identification time-consuming and susceptible to errors. HashCash aims to streamline the process by helping the partner bank create digital identities for the customers over a decentralized network, where the customer data will be recorded on an immutable ledger, eliminating any …

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed amending its rules on organic products to include implementing blockchain technology to trace its supply chain. According to an Aug. 5 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), the agency said it expects electronic tracking systems, including digital ledger technology (DLT), will play an “essential role” in the traceability of its supply chain of organic products. “DLT can provide secure, verifiable, transparent, and near-instantaneous tracking at the item level in complex supply chains,” the report stated. “Critically, DLT can also protect confidential business information and trade secret information …

Satoshi Nakamoto years ago envisioned an ecosystem that would be independent of the centralized financial system that dominates the global economy today. His creation sparked a global community of enthusiasts and an entire industry surrounding blockchain — the solution enabling individuals to turn their money away from centralized legacy institutions and toward transacting on a decentralized, distributed ledger. The ultimate goal was a world in which people could pay for goods and services with these novel financial instruments. Many payment companies and exchanges already claim to offer services that enable crypto users to buy goods and services with cryptocurrency. Upon …

From performing simple commands on smartphones using Alexa or Siri to high-end technical operations in big tech firms, one thing is sure: Ease is a necessity in the modern human experience. The 21st century has marked a rapid advancement of technology in every aspect of human life and interactions. Despite being around for many decades, the replication of human intelligence in machines — artificial intelligence — has now become popularized. With many tech companies rushing to adopt the technology, the market size is expected to grow to $126 billion in 2025. Similarly, distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrencies have exceeded everyone’s …

Coke One North America, or CONA, a partner of the largest United States-based Coca-Cola bottling company, will use The Baseline Protocol to enhance transparency and reduce friction in “cross-organization supply chain transactions.” The project will see CONA partner with distributed ledger technology firms as well as Baseline Protocol founding members Unibright and Provide to establish a “Coca-Cola Bottling Harbor,” allowing streamlined transactions among both internal bottler-suppliers and external suppliers of raw materials. Coca-Cola bottlers expand blockchain adoption On Aug. 3, Unibright announced CONA’s plans to expand its use of blockchain technology across its supply chain. The announcement notes that the …

COVID-19 is the most devastating plague to ravage humankind this century. Every day, the number of patients infected with the coronavirus is rising globally and taking the highest human toll in the United States. The highly infectious virus was first contracted in November 2019 in Wuhan, the capital city of China’s Hubei province, through horseshoe bat-to-human contact at the Huanan seafood market. Many of the initial COVID-19 patients were either stall owners, market employees or regular visitors of the market, who rapidly developed a severe respiratory illness. Despite the market being shut down on Jan. 1, 2020, the virus has …

Chinese content generation platform TikTok, a video-sharing app that has been called the fastest-growing social networking service in history, has been in the spotlight since early 2019 and now surpasses 800 million users. Despite the fact that the app’s data security breaches are raising controversy worldwide, more and more young people are using it as the go-to social media for the new generation, with a reported 69% of TikTok’s global audience being between the ages of 16 and 24. Despite its overwhelming success and rapidly growing user base, the truth behind the worldwide sensation is that “the new Instagram" is …