Philately? If you are a millennial, there is a good chance you used Google to find out that there is a word dedicated to collecting and studying postage stamps. This same search also paints the picture of a hobby in decline, as younger generations are increasingly preoccupied with their screens and the constant stream of dopamine hits served up by TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and other popular social media platforms. Two European postal services have looked to capitalize on the popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in recent years to reinvigorate the philately sector. Cointelegraph caught up with Netherlands’ PostNL and the …

The Lightning Network (LN) just got a bit faster, as the suitably named Bolt Card now enables Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasts to pay for goods and services using contactless technology. A data analyst at the company behind the card, CoinCorner, took the Bolt card on a trial run on the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea. “MSW” — as he is known — tapped to pay at more than eight point-of-sale (PoS) devices during his lunchtime investigation. It worked like this: For any PoS device showing a Lightning invoice, MSW simply hovered the NFC-enabled Bolt Card …

The University of Glasgow’s Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre, or SUERC, is joining forces with supply chain company Everledger to tackle counterfeiting within the whisky industry, according to a Dec. 18 post. The market for collectable single malt Scotch whiskies reached over £57 million ($77 million) in 2018. However, SUERC researchers estimate that up to 40% of bottles currently in circulation could be fake. Using radiocarbon dating, and unprecedented access to rare whisky samples, SUERC has developed a method to determine the age of all types of vintage whiskies, accurate to within a couple of years. Through this method SUERC …

South Korea’s Buyeo County, located in the rural province of South Chungcheong, has been witnessing strong interest in a local blockchain-powered stablecoin since its creation in early 2019. According to a report published by Donga, most of the county’s population is made up of elderly residents. Census data indicates that around 75,000 people live there in total. In 2019, the county created a local token named “Goodtrae Pay” at a cost of over $267,000. Launched to increase contactless payments As of press time, around $48.5 million in tokens have been used in an effort to strengthen the adoption of contactless …

Keycard is a new credit-card sized hardware wallet featuring near-field communication (NFC) to authorize cryptocurrency transactions. At launch, it features integration with combined private messenger/wallet/DeFi browser, Status App, although further integrations are planned. The Keycard team has also released an open application programming interface (API) and software development kits (SDK) for Android, iOS and Go, so that developers can build Keycard functionality into any app requiring authorization or other user authentication. Secure storage and communication of private keys Security is key. In fact, when it comes to cryptocurrency security, it is literally all down to the private key used to …

Piedmont winery, Vigneti Massa, is launching the 2018 vintage of its wines with near-field communication (NFC) and blockchain-enabled caps. As reported by The Drinks Business on Jan. 22, Vigneti Massa is the first winery in Europe, and the second globally, to adopt Guala Closures Nestgate technology. Guala developed the technology with Luxembourg-based software company, Compellio. By tapping an NFC-equipped smartphone against the bottle’s screw-cap, consumers can get information about the wine-growing region, the vineyard, and the vine that the wine came from. The platform also provides tasting notes and expert reviews. Additionally, the authenticity of the wine can be verified …

Dutch bank ABN AMRO announced that it is launching a blockchain inventory tracking platform dubbed Forcefield in a press release published on May 17. Per the announcement, the platform is an Internet of Things solution that allows the monitoring of physical trade inventories with sensors and near-field communication chips. Forcefield was developed over the past year as a stand-alone product and became an independent company following a successful proof-of-concept that was conducted with consulting firm Accenture. The bank claims that the system can lead to more secure physical handling processes and a reduction of costs in the management of commodities …