Napster creator Shawn Fanning’s new company Helium has released its internet of things (IoT) wireless hotspot devices with a blockchain-based incentives program, according to an official blog post by Helium on June 12. According to the post, a Helium Hotspot provides wireless connectivity to the Internet; one node on its own will cover about 1/50 to 1/150 of a city, according to the company’s research. The nodes are intended to support a network of internet coverage, one which is decentralized and powered by individual contributors. Contributors are rewarded by an incentives program on the Helium blockchain, which is powered by …

United States-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase has launched its Visa debit card in six European countries, CNBC reports on June 11. As of today, cardholders in Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands will be able to use the cards, which sync directly to their Coinbase accounts. The card comes as both a mobile app for iOS or Android, and as a physical card that can be used to withdraw fiat currencies from automatic teller machines. Coinbase’s new offering purportedly allow users to spend cryptocurrencies they hold at any merchant that accepts Visa cards. Users can decide …

Swiss forwarding and logistics services company Panalpina has started blockchain pilot projects aimed at optimizing of supply chains, according to a press release on June 11. After joining the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) in May, Panalpina — one of the world’s largest transport and logistics companies, with consolidated profit of $76.3 million in 2018 — has launched two blockchain pilots in the air and ocean freight field with selected customers. One of the projects will investigate blockchain applications in high-tech industrial goods, and the other will deal with office supplies. Panalpina thus aims to digitize trade documents, store them …

Only a limited number of healthcare firms in Europe are aware of the benefits of blockchain applications, according to a survey by American market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) released on June 6. As much as 44% of European healthcare organizations had never heard of distributed ledger technology (DLT), while only 12% of those are related to the tech in some sense, blockchain media outlet Ledger Insights reports, citing the IDC’ research titled “IDC Survey Spotlight.” Only 1% out of those 12% have a certain blockchain initiative in production, while 1% have multiple DLT projects, the report notes. Source: …

Coin Center — a nonprofit research and advocacy center focused on crypto-related public policy issues — has urged Her Majesty’s Treasury not to over-broaden the scope of the United Kingdom’s anti-money laundering/counter terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations. The development was revealed in an official Coin Center news release published on June 10. Coin Center’s central concern regards HM Treasury’s plans to ostensibly “impose data collection and reporting requirements on not only cryptocurrency developers, but all open-source software developers and others who facilitate the peer-to-peer exchange of cryptoassets,” as the news release states. The advocacy center outlined its position in detail in …

Polish cryptocurrency exchange Coinroom has reportedly shut down its operations and disappeared with customer funds, local business news outlet money.pl reported on May 31. Money.pl received an email from one of its readers, who stated that Coinroom — which was registered in 2016 — ceased operations overnight and disappeared with customers’ money in April. Some users say they had up to 60,000 zloty (around $15,790) in their accounts. Before ceasing its operations, Coinroom reportedly sent emails to its customers, containing information about contract terminations. Coiroom customers had only one day to withdraw their money, which was in accordance with Coinroom …

A blockchain project developed to safeguard the integrity and accessibility of digital government records of national archives worldwide will soon present the results of a successful trial deployment in the United Kingdom, Estonia and Norway. The news was revealed in an official press release published on May 29. The project, named ARCHANGEL, involves the U.K. National Archives, the University of Surrey and the U.K. Open Data Institute, with funding from the The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Its trial deployment in the U.K., Estonia and Norway focused on leveraging blockchain and other technologies to tackle the long-term future …

Global securities services provider ABN AMRO Clearing has signed a contract to provide European mobile investment platform BUX with blockchain technology for a forthcoming commission-free stock trading mobile app. The news was revealed in a BUX news release on May 29. According to the news release, ABN AMRO Clearing processed 3.79 billion trades in 2018, and reportedly consistently ranks as a top three clearer for listed derivatives and cash securities, OTC products, warrants, commodities and FX across the majority of time zones. BUX’s new app, dubbed STOCKS, is slated for launch in summer 2019 first in the Netherlands and Germany, …

A European Central Bank (ECB) official highlighted the benefits of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) while stressing caution in a speech published by the Bank of International Settlements on May 27. Vitas Vasiliauskas — Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania and a member of the Governing Council of the ECB — delivered his speech at the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee conference "Managing the Soft Landing of the Global Economy" on April 12. Vasiliauskas specifically considered whether CBDCs should be wholesale, retail, or both. Vasiliauskas stressed that CBDCs should serve as a medium of exchange, a means of …

The European Central Bank (ECB) stated that cryptocurrencies do not have implications on monetary policy or factor into the real economy in a May report. In the report dubbed “Crypto-Assets: Implications for financial stability, monetary policy, and payments and market infrastructures,” ECB looks into the potential impact of digital currencies on economic developments and monetary policy. The bank specifically states that such implications could occur should cryptocurrencies became a credible substitute for cash and deposits, while currently they do not fulfil the functions of money. The bank further says that cryptocurrencies’ deployment remains limited, with a small number of merchants …

Polish-British fintech firm Billon has reportedly sealed an almost €2 million (~$2.1 million) grant from European Commission’s Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Instrument program to develop a blockchain document management system. The news was reported by Billion in a press release on May 14. The Commission’s SME Instrument program provides funding for innovation projects which are close-to-market, and has reportedly awarded Billon a grant under Phase 2 of the program — which provides enterprises with up to 70% of the costs of their proposed project. Billon’s system, dubbed B4TDM (Blockchain for Trusted Document Management), is reportedly a proprietary blockchain-powered solution …

The government of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) announced plans to establish the European Blockchain Institute to research blockchain technology in a press release on May 13. According to NRW Economics Minister Andreas Pinkwart, the European Blockchain Institute will be founded in the city of Dortmund later this year, inside the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML). The press release says that critics of blockchain have voiced concern over the amount of energy consumed by mining bitcoin (BTC). Pinkwart addressed these concerns and praised the benefits of blockchain tech, saying: "This technology can be safe, decentralized, affordable …