The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have signed an agreement to cooperate on the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Switzerland. Two major projects According to a news release on Oct. 8, the BIS’s first three innovation hubs will be established in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore. The Swiss center will initially focus on two research projects — integration of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into a distributed ledger technology infrastructure, and analysis of the rising requirements for tracking fast-paced electronic markets by central banks. The first project will be conducted as part of a collaboration …

The global blockchain technology market is set to surpass $16 billion by 2024, according to a recent report from market research firm Global Market Insights, Inc. The report In a Sept. 20 news release, Global Market Insights provided highlights from its 180-page, concisely named report entitled "Blockchain Technology Market By Providers (Infrastructure Provider, Application Provider, Operators), Application (Smart Contract, Payment & Wallet, Digital Identity, Exchange, Compliance & Risk Management), End-Use (BFSI, Government, Healthcare, IT Service, Media & Entertainment, Transportation & Logistics), Regional Outlook, Competitive Market Share & Forecast 2024." According to the analysis, the key factor contributing to the global …

NASA is looking to hire a data scientist with crypto and blockchain expertise. Crypto and blockchain considered a plus According to a LinkedIn job listing posted on Sept. 20, NASA has a vacancy at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, whose primary function is the construction and operation of planetary robotic spacecraft and conducting Earth-orbit missions. Among the high number of required qualifications, NASA listed knowledge in one or more related fields including big data, machine learning, Internet of Things, analytics, statistics and cloud computing. In a separate line, the agency sought experience with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, stating that …

There are mixed indicators regarding the current progress or stalling of blockchain adoption throughout the enterprise world. Research has indicated that investments have dropped by over half over the last year, contrary to other research showing a growing sentiment toward the vitality of blockchain adoption as an innovative technology. For example, Research by CB Insights in 2019 indicates that there may be a separation between corporate adoption and corporate investments into blockchain companies. As reported previously by Cointelegraph, blockchain investments have dropped by up to 60% since 2018. However, this decline does not seem to have affected the positive outlook …

The supply of crypto mining machines failed to meet market demand in Q2 2019 despite the surge of mining hardware prices, new research says. Popular suppliers ran out of stock in Q2 Bitcoin (BTC) miner market saw significant inflation during Q2 2019, with the majority of miners from various suppliers experiencing shortages, according to Q2 2019 cryptocurrency mining industry report by crypto analytics firm TokenInsight. In the report, released on Sept. 13, the San Francisco-based crypto data supplier wrote that the mining equipment market still performed quite well in Q2 as some popular mining hardware like Antminer S17 were out …

The Cointelegraph Analytics team have released a summary of the most anticipated upcoming events for major coins including EOS, Tron (TRX) and Neo (NEO). EOS to have its first hard fork on Sept. 23 EOS, the seventh-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, is expected to have its first consensus upgrade on Sept. 23, as EOS block producers (BPs) have agreed to activate EOSIO v1.8 on the EOS mainnet on this date. According to EOS Nation, a major BP, the upcoming event is the largest upgrade to the EOS network since it was launched. It is also the first update to require …

Blockchain technology will most likely be standardized by 2021, according to American business and financial services company Moody's. Per the research report published on Sept. 5, these standards will probably be established in the blockchain industry by 2021 and will be positive for “future securitisations using the technology.” The company claims that this could result in time and cost savings, automation and faster data availability. Blockchain interoperability to come Furthermore, Moody's Investors Service states that the industry standards could also bring better interoperability and other operational efficiencies. Senior research analyst at Moody's Frank Cerveny noted: “Standardisation of blockchain technology would …

SIS International Research, a global market research firm headquartered in New York City, has set up blockchain division called SIS Blockchain. Enterprise blockchain will be vital After two years of consulting clients on blockchain applications in various industries including finance, supply chain and real estate, SIS Research established a separate blockchain consulting team, according to a press release on Sept. 4. Michael Stanat, vice-president of global operations at SIS Research, noted that the company has worked with key education, healthcare and supply-chain firms on their specific needs for adopting blockchain. SIS Research believes that enterprise blockchain will become an important …

Global revenues for blockchain technology are expected to hit $10 billion by 2023. Tech market advisory firm ABI Research published its findings regarding global revenues from blockchain technology on Aug. 28. Per ABI, investments in the space continue to swell despite the decrease in initial coin offering (ICO) activity, due in large part to venture capital (VC) funding blockchain infrastructure development. Venture capital funding a major factor ABI says that VC is catching up to ICOs as a form of funding, with 620 rounds totaling $3.1 billion last year, up from 153 rounds at $850 million the year before. ABI’s …

Chinese crypto exchange Huobi has seen the highest number of withdrawals from the alleged crypto Ponzi scheme PlusToken to date, according to new research. Chinese exchanges prevail New York-based blockchain infrastructure firm Elementus released a study on Aug. 23, claiming that almost 50% of the total number of PlusToken withdrawals were sent to Huobi. As Cointelegraph reported earlier in August, PlusToken apparently began a mass sell-off of Bitcoin (BTC) that may have been to blame for a $400 dip in BTC’s price over a matter of minutes. According to the research, PlusToken withdrawals on Huobi amounted to over 4.3 million …

Despite all of the bad press that the digital asset industry continues to receive on an almost daily basis, it appears as though the overall sentiment of the online communities in regard to this burgeoning domain is still pretty positive. For example, Comparitech — a research firm that provides its consumers with a host of specialized data that allows one to make more informed decisions — recently used a machine learning-based analysis tool to study more than 48K Reddit posts to determine which cryptocurrencies were viewed most favorably by the masses. Not only that, the study also took into consideration …

The effect of block reward halvings for both Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (BTC) mining could be mitigated by merged mining, according to a report by a research arm of major crypto exchange Binance released on July 12. Following Charlie Lee’s prediction that some miners may shut down Litecoin mining after the halving, which is expected to take place on Aug. 5, 2019, Binance Research analyzed the potential of so-called merged mining to retain incentives for crypto miners. Merged mining is a practice of using the work done for one blockchain, or parent blockchain, on other smaller child blockchains by implementing …