Thailand’s leading cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin Co. Ltd. (BX.in.th) is closing down all of its trading operations. The exchange announced its decision to discontinue trading on Sept. 2. The official website of the exchange states: “Bitcoin Co. Ltd. has decided to discontinue offering digital exchange services and wallet services at our BX.in.th website in order to focus on other business opportunities.” Customers need to withdraw their funds before Nov. 1, 2019. The five-year-old exchange, which was regulated by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, will not seek to hold a Digital Asset Exchange license for the year 2020 and has therefore …

Thailand’s Customs Department intends to use IBM’s Tradelens blockchain solution to track shipping in Thai ports. According to an announcement published on Aug. 28 on the Thai Customs Department’s official website, the country plans to use Tradelens, a blockchain logistics system. Local news outlet Bangkok Post reported the next day that the platform is expected to streamline operations by managing shipment tracking and information sharing. Thailand’s push for innovation The Tradelens platform is the joint project of transport giant AP Moller-Maersk and IBM. The decision to adopt it in the country is reportedly part of a broader Thailand 4.0 modernization …

Artificial intelligence-enabled travel platform Travelport, IBM and travel management company BCD Travel are jointly developing a blockchain platform to streamline hotel commission reconciliation. According to a news release on Aug. 20, the companies are collaboratively working on the creation of a blockchain-based platform in a bid to optimize hotel commission processing. Specifically, the product is designed to track and account for the commission payments that hotels owe when travelers buy services through booking agencies. Travelport and IBM are working within the framework of the IBM Garage — a consultation program for customers who want to experiment with new technologies and …

Public distributed ledger Hedera Hashgraph has announced that IBM and Tata Communications have joined its governing council. In a news release on Aug. 12, the platform described the addition of the two firms as a powerful endorsement of its hashgraph consensus mechanism. Diverse array of council members Mance Harmon, the CEO of Hedera Hashgraph, said IBM and Tata Communications’ presence further decentralizes the platform’s governance, adding: “Our governance model, which includes a robust system of checks and balances, ensures power can’t be consolidated, while at the same time providing a stable and scalable platform on which developers can build.” Up …

American technology behemoth IBM has filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a blockchain-enabled web browser patent. According to a patent application published on Aug. 6, IBM has filed a patent application for a system that stores web browser events on a blockchain. The browser described in the filing collects information during web browsing sessions and transfers it to peers in a peer-to-peer network for on-chain storage of the in-browser events. Examples of data that could be stored on chain include: visited websites, bookmarks, search terms, cookies, geolocation and a record of browser security patches, among others. …

Tech giant IBM and blockchain company Chainyard have jointly developed a new blockchain network for supply chain management. IBM announced the platform in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 5. Alongside IBM, the Trust Your Supplier network’s founding members are also American brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev, tech companies Cisco, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric, British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and telecoms company Vodafone. The product is built on the IBM Blockchain Platform and aims to eliminate manual time-consuming processes and help reduce the risk of fraud and errors. Per the release, Trust Your Supplier creates a digital passport for supplier …

The official announcement and details around Project Libra were provided to the world on June 18, 2019. Firstly, Libra was introduced: a new global reserve-backed cryptocurrency built on top of the new Libra Blockchain, with everything governed by a not-for-profit consortium dubbed the Libra Association. It was clear that each of these products and technologies will play an integral role in the project’s overall mission of creating a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people. Additionally, Facebook also announced the creation of Calibra, which is developing the initial business of Libra and its own product outside …

American tech giant Seagate has entered the pilot stage of its blockchain project designed to fight counterfeit hard disk drives (HDD), Forbes reported on July 30. This pilot is a part of the joint initiative Seagate and IBM launched last November. The project aims to help manufacturers, integrators and business partners to better authenticate the provenance of HDDs by using IBM’s Blockchain Platform. According to Seagate’s data security research group managing technologist Manuel Offenberg, in the pilot IBM “is both the customer of these drives, as well as the technology provider for the underlying Hyperledger Fabric platform.” Seagate’s blockchain is …

Tech giant IBM has tripled the number of blockchain patents secured in the United States since last year, currently boasting over 100 active patent families. That makes IBM’s growth in US patents the largest of last year, according to a report by crypto-related news site BeinCrypto on July 16. According to data gathered by Yuval Halevi, co-founder of crypto and blockchain PR company GuerillaBuzz, IBM’s number of active patent families dwarfs other notable corporations. This includes some primary tech companies, such as Intel, Microsoft, and Dell Technologies: “In just 1 year the number of IBM blockchain patents has grown by …

While we often get to hear about how cryptocurrency adoption is rapidly gaining ground in the West, a number of countries across the Middle East — such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — often tend to get overlooked, despite them having made tremendous strides when it comes to establishing regulatory frameworks that are geared toward the optimal utilization of this burgeoning asset class. For example, a recent report by Asia Times has revealed that the UAE is one of the few nations in the world where the local government has placed special emphasis on promoting the …

As blockchain continues to push for mass adoption, the food and beverage industry is shaping up to be one of the most inclusive destinations for the technology: Just over the past few months, a variety of players — including juggernauts like Nestlé, Carrefour and Starbucks — have reported on their latest blockchain-powered initiatives within the field. Indeed, in 2019, blockchain has been piercing the food industry at an accelerated pace. According to recent research, 20% of the top-10 global grocers will use blockchain by 2025. So, what makes the technology so appealing for the food industry participants, and are there …

Global tech giant Intel has co-sponsored a new blockchain programming project by major blockchain tech firm Hyperledger, according to a Forbes report on July 3. Officially released on June 27, Hyperledger Transact is a new tool that aims to boost the compatibility of blockchain networks by providing a standard interface, or a shared software library for smart contracts execution. Michael Reed, Intel's blockchain program director, said in an interview with Forbes that the main purpose of the company's efforts in blockchain development is to ensure that distributed ledger technology solutions “run well on Intel silicon.” Reed noted that the company …