Sony's European subsidiary is the latest company to join the validator program of the Theta Network, a decentralized blockchain-based video protocol. Sony Europe’s research and development group, the Center Europe Brussels Laboratory, has joined Theta’s enterprise validator and governance council program, the company announced Tuesday. As part of the development, Sony will operate an enterprise validator node located in Europe to validate network transactions on Theta’s proof-of-stake consensus protocol. Sony Europe will also act as a member of the governance council to participate in strategic technology planning and ensure the network’s security and stability. The validator program includes major technology …

Decentralized finance is quickly maturing. While the total value locked in DeFi is over $45 billion, financial institutions and large corporations are starting to implement DeFi concepts to automate business processes. This is known as “enterprise DeFi.” For instance, invoices and other financial products can be tokenized to ensure that transactions are valid and should be processed for payment across multiple parties. Coke One North America is one of the first large corporations to demonstrate this. CONA is leveraging the Baseline Protocol — a project that coordinates confidential workflows between enterprises using messaging, zero-knowledge cryptography and blockchain — to tokenize …

While the price of Bitcoin (BTC) continues to reach record-breaking all-time highs, the hype around enterprise blockchain adoption may seem like it’s dwindling. Enterprise blockchain started gaining traction in 2017 when Bitcoin’s price hit a high of nearly $20,000. It was during this time that blue-chip companies, such as IBM, JP Morgan and Walmart, announced plans to incorporate blockchain networks into business processes like supply chain management. A number of innovative startups also began building their own blockchain networks for enterprise use. One of these startups was Insolar, a company founded in 2018 with the aim of bringing transparent and …

Leading global business intelligence firm MicroStrategy is hosting an online seminar this week to explain the legal considerations for firms seeking to integrate Bitcoin into their businesses and reserves. A Feb. 3 tweet from MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor, said that representatives of more than 1,400 firms have already signed up for the event — which is dubbed “Bitcoin for Corporations: Legal Considerations.” If you are interested in the legal considerations firms face while integrating #Bitcoin into their corporate strategy, you are not alone. We have professionals from more than 1400 firms joining us tomorrow for this discussion. There is still …

Amazon has announced today that founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is planning to step down as CEO, and Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy — who oversaw Amazon’s crypto product offerings — will replace him. In his letter to employees, Bezos said that he would be transitioning to the role of executive chair of the Amazon board, where he would “focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives.” The transition is scheduled for later in the year. Bezos also noted that Jassy “will be an outstanding leader, and has my full confidence.” The crypto world’s attention now …

A little-known altcoin known as Metacoin (MTC) surged to 486% gains in just 24 hours on Jan. 18, after Bittrex Global announced it would be listing the coin against Bitcoin (BTC). Metacoin is built on the Hyperledger network, an umbrella project of open-source technologies focused around building permissioned blockchain ecosystems for large cross-industry enterprises. Metacoin became the first cryptocurrency of Hyperledger’s to achieve mainnet status when it went live in 2018. Hyperledger was founded by the Linux Foundation, and is overseen by a host of “premium members”, comprising leading technology and finance companies, such as IBM, J.P. Morgan, Fujitsu, Hitachi, …

The year 2020 has been monumental for the blockchain sector, especially in regards to financial markets. Yet, while the price of Bitcoin (BTC) reached new all-time highs this year, the enterprise blockchain space also welcomed in public networks, open-source code and a number of other elements not seen in previous years defined by private, closed networks. Listed below are five enterprise blockchain trends seen in 2020 that can drive mainstream adoption of blockchain moving forward. Tokenization will drive the internet of value “The Internet of Value” is a term coined by Don Tapscott, author and founder of The Blockchain Research …

January will mark 12 years since the Bitcoin genesis block. In that time, blockchain technology has made many significant strides forward. The launch of Ethereum in 2015 introduced smart contracts and token minting. Subsequent years saw developments in areas, such as transaction privacy with the launch of Zcash (ZEC), platforms such as EOS and Tezos attempting to compete with Ethereum on scalability, and dozens of use cases being explored. In particular, 2018 and 2019 were difficult years. Following Bitcoin’s fall from its all-time high in December 2017, it’s fair to say that the general appetite for blockchain and cryptocurrencies waned …

Blockchain for supply chain management is one of the most practical business applications for large, multi-party sectors seeking trust and transparency across daily operations. As such, the mining and metals sector has now started to leverage blockchain technology to effectively track carbon emissions across complex, global supply chains. This month, the World Economic Forum launched a proof-of-concept to trace carbon emissions across the supply chains of seven mining and metals firms. Known as the Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative, or MMBI, this is a collaboration between the WEF and industry companies including Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, Eurasian Resources Group, Glencore, …

Enterprise blockchain started gaining traction in 2017 shortly after Bitcoin had reached its all-time high of nearly $20,000. Since then, enterprise blockchain has mainly been defined by private blockchain networks used by businesses for things such as supply chain management. The enterprise blockchain space has changed quite a bit since 2017. For instance, 2020 has brought in a number of enterprise blockchain use cases that leverage public networks rather than private ones. The COVID-19 pandemic has also driven many companies, both large and small, to use blockchain for guaranteeing proof-of-health or to revive tourism. Finally, some blockchain companies this year …

In my two-decade career at Microsoft, leading .NET platform architecture, visual studio .NET development, application platform, enterprise strategy and Microsoft Digital, I have been part of building technologies for multiple waves of platforms: the early web, service-oriented architectures, the so-called Web 2.0, and more recently, the Cloud. While there is no doubt that previous waves of platform technologies have delivered substantial benefits, their impact has been limited because they are “passive” stacks that serve as plumbing for applications and infrastructure. For the most part, with previous waves of platforms, cost savings have been the primary and sometimes singular quantifiable element …

Enterprise Ethereum is beginning to show its impact as some of the largest companies in the world start to leverage the Ethereum network to solve complex business challenges. For example, tech giant Microsoft and Big Four firm Ernst & Young announced the expansion of Microsoft’s blockchain-based solution to extend to gaming rights and royalties management. Paul Brody, blockchain lead at EY, told Cointelegraph that Microsoft’s blockchain solution for this particular use case is being conducted on a private Quorum network based on Ethereum. Brody noted that this expansion will provide a financial system of record for royalty agreements, allowing Microsoft's …