None of the 21 founding members of the Libra Association, except Facebook, have yet committed any money to support Libra, according to the BBC. $10 million investment initially required Since the announcement of the Libra Association Council in June 2019, no financial agreement for the founding partners has been made to date, BBC reports Oct. 23, citing several unspecified sources. Alongside the release of the Libra whitepaper in June, Facebook announced that each of the founding members was required to make a minimum investment of $10 million in order to seal the position and secure a vote on the council. …

Second-layer blockchain scaling platform Celer Network has partnered with customer relationship management (CRM) startup Cere Network to launch a decentralized CRM solution. Low-cost CRM platform for business inclusion According to a news release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 7, Cere Network’s capacity will be increased “to provide for the world’s largest enterprises with a low-cost, fast, and accurate CRM platform” as a result of this partnership. Co-founder and CEO of Cere Network Fred Jin added: “Current CRM solutions are facing poor business inclusivity, low employee participation, and mostly require costly custom implementations. [...] We’re excited to be partnering with Celer …

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has broken its partnership with Bittrex in a reorganization of its Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) markets, local South Korean news outlet Decenter reported on Sept. 25. Previously it had a shared order book arrangement, with Bittrex orders being visible in the Upbit bid windows. Upcoming reorganization of markets In a notice to customers, Upbit announced its intention to introduce changes into its BTC, ETH and USDT markets. These changes include the introduction of market orders, limit orders, and stop-limit features, although no further details of this are given. The notice did, however, …

Alipay operator Ant Financial has partnered with pharmaceutical giant Bayer Crop Science, Monsanto’s owner, to develop a blockchain solution for the food and crop industry. Letter of intent Enterprise blockchain news outlet Ledger Insights reported on the partnership on Sept. 26, also noting that the two firms signed a letter of intent to develop their solution to increase traceability and transparency. Per the report, the initiative was announced at this week’s Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, China. Ant Financial also reportedly informed the public that it intends to extend its partnership with Hyperledger to work on interoperability, standards and blockchain applications. …

Decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) firm SingularityNET and tech conglomerate Cisco have partnered to develop applied artificial general intelligence (AGI) technologies. AGI is one aspect of AI technology that concentrates on learning the intellectual tasks of which humans are capable. Sometimes referred to as “Strong AI,” AGI emphasizes a machine’s ability to reason in uncertain situations, solve puzzles, plan and communicate in natural language. Goertzel also said that the scale of Cisco’s AGI deployments will be a major driver for the firm’s development, stating: “The work we’ve done with Cisco on smart traffic analytics using OpenCog’s logical reasoning and deep neural …

Huobi University, the research and education arm of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, announced its collaboration with the University of Gibraltar on various blockchain initiatives. On Sept. 5, Houbi Group, the parent company of both Huobi University and Huobi exchange, announced what the firm describes as its “first formal collaboration with a Western university.” As Cointelegraph reported in October 2018, the Government of Gibraltar in collaboration with the University of Gibraltar have created an advisory group focused on the development of blockchain-related educational courses. An official partnership Per the release, Gibraltar's Minister for Commerce Albert Isola signed a memorandum of understanding on …

SK Securities, a branch of South Korea's largest telecom SK Group, has partnered with a local blockchain firm for a digital real estate beneficiary platform. The securities operator has signed a business agreement with Kasa Korea, a Seoul-based startup developing a digital securities blockchain platform for thereal estate market, Korean news outlet Yonhap News reported on Sept. 4. SK Securities and Kasa Korea agreed to collaborate on a digital platform for distribution of real estate beneficiary securities. Based on real estate securitized beneficiaries issued by real estate trust companies, Kasa Network’s digital property shares will allow investors to trade pieces …

Luxembourg-based crypto data supplier and crypto wallet Blockchain.com has partnered with blockchain interoperability protocol Polkadot. Driving decentralization On Aug. 20, Blockchain.com announced it will integrate its Blockchain Wallet with the Polkadot Network in order to drive the adoption and decentralization of Polkadot tokens (DOTs). Once the integration is complete, users of Blockchain.com will be able to store, send and receive DOTs — and vote on proposed amendments to council members and the network protocol. The new partnership aims to promote the idea of decentralization. Peter Smith, co-founder and CEO of Blockchain.com, said Polkadot is “exactly the type of purpose-driven network” …

Huobi Group is jointly developing a new public blockchain for decentralized financial (DeFi) services, according to a press release on July 1. Major global digital asset financial service provider Huobi has partnered with Chinese blockchain startup Nervos enabling companies to deploy their own blockchains, tokenized assets, as well as DeFi services, according to the announcement. The joint initiative, provisionally called “Huobi Finance Chain,” is targeting enterprises, financial institutions, as well as exchanges, and is set to operate as a regulatory-compliant financial blockchain network. Specifically, Huobi is planning to enable regulators to access the network and contribute to it as validators. …

Crypto asset manager Bitwise has partnered with Swiss fintech startup Amun AG to launch another multi-crypto-based exchange-traded product (ETP), according to a press release on June 26. Bitwise’s index calculation subsidiary, Bitwise Index Services, has licensed “The Bitwise 10 Select Large Cap Crypto Index” to Amun AG to bring a diversified crypto ETP, the announcement says. The index will act as the benchmark index for an ETP product called “Amun Bitwise Select 10 Large Cap Crypto Index ETP” operating under the ticker symbol KEYS, according to a report by crypto media outlet The Block. The new ETP product will reportedly …

Bitcoin (BTC) rewards shopping app Lolli has expanded its business by adding major booking service Hotels.com to its partners, the company announced in a blog post on June 25. With the new partnership, the New York-based firm now has two of the world’s top three travel websites including Booking.com and Hotels.com, Lolli said in the announcement, citing data from traffic analytics service SimilarWeb. Founded in March 2018, Lolli allows users to earn Satoshis (sats), the smallest unit of bitcoin currency worth of 0.00000001 BTC, while shopping online. The firm claims to be the first bitcoin rewards application with over 500 …

Non-profit blockchain organization Iota Foundation has teamed up with digital food safety management firm Primority to track food allergens via blockchain, Iota tweeted on June 20. The new partnership aims to reduce risks associated with potentially fatal food allergens, targeting 220 million people with food allergy worldwide, as Iota noted in the tweet. The collaboration includes the development of a prototype of an application that would enable consumers to check food products for allergens, particularly those that go under usual radars for a number of reasons, including cases when products share production lines with allergen-containing products, according to a blog …