Tech giant IBM has launched a pilot for a blockchain-powered platform designed to streamline bank guarantee process. In a press release shared with Cointelegraph on July 3, IBM stated that the pilot was launched in partnership with four Australian financial services companies. The pilot — dubbed Lygon — is backed by IBM, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Commonwealth Bank, real estate operator Scentre Group, and Australia’s first bank Westpac. The pilot is set to run for eight weeks for a test group of retail property leasing customers starting today. Essentially, Lygon is a blockchain-based platform that digitizes …

Stuart Popejoy has 15 years experience in building trading systems and exchange backbones for the financial industry. Prior to co-founding Kadena with Will Martino in 2016 and becoming the company's president, Stuart worked at JPMorgan Chase in the new products division, where he led and developed JPMorgan’s main blockchain product, Juno. Stuart also wrote the algorithmic trading scripts for JPMorgan, which informed his creation of Kadena’s simple, purpose-built smart contract language, Pact. The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. IBM is a major player in the …

After struggling to receive recognition of legitimacy within the mainstream zeitgeist during its sophomoric years, distributed ledger technology (DLT) now comprises the driving force behind a new wave of technological creative destruction. Today, we are going to take a look at some of the industries and processes that are most dramatically undergoing a transformation in response to the advent of blockchain technology. Food The opaque nature of global supply chains poses a significant challenge to efforts to ensure that the commodities, labor and inputs required to produce goods are from a safe and ethical origin. In order to tackle these …

Azerbaijan has been a hotbed for a series of ambitious fintech-related announcements over the past several months, as the nation’s authorities were apparently moving to implement a series of innovative technological solutions in banking and e-government systems. Repeated statements by government representatives suggested that at least part of the program relied on blockchain infrastructure. Most recently, as Cointelegraph reported, the chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee revealed plans to implement blockchain technology to build an online-accessible cargo transportation database. Earlier in May, a high-ranking official for the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), speaking at the Fintex summit in Baku, mentioned …

United States tech giant Microsoft and the Ethereum Foundation are among the latest companies to join the ranks of the Hyperledger greenhouse hosted by the Linux Foundation. Many notable names in the tech and wider business fields today are developing enterprise-grade solutions based on the expanding set of tools built on Hyperledger. These institutional blockchain projects cut across both financial and nonfinancial distributed ledger technology (DLT) utilization. Presently, there are pilot projects geared toward identification systems, supply chain management (SCM) and provenance, to mention a few. On the whole, members of Hyperledger appear to be at the forefront of a …

Walmart is no stranger to distributed ledger technology (DLT). Back in October 2016, the multinational food retailer began collaborating with IBM on a blockchain-based system that could identify and flag recalled foods. Since then, it has dived into a number of patents and trials — e.g., tracking meat in China, tracking delivery drones, patenting smart deliveries and tracking live food in the United States. And in addition to several other U.S. patents and global initiatives, Walmart has recently announced its latest foray into applying blockchain technology. This is its collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration, which — in conjunction …

Only a “very, very tiny percentage” of this month’s 1,700 job losses at IBM affected its blockchain division, The Block reported on June 20. Jerry Cuomo, the vice president of IBM Blockchain Technology, told the website that the tech giant is prioritizing blockchain skills when making hiring and firing decisions — adding it was “full steam ahead” for his department. The layoffs have been described as a “realignment plan.” The consulting arm of IBM’s blockchain business experienced some losses of redundant positions, but its engineering side reportedly escaped unscathed. A source told The Block: “The product team had no layoffs, …

Visa has launched a payment system for business-to-business (B2B) transactions partially based on blockchain technology. The United States payment behemoth says its platform, called Visa B2B Connect, offers seamless cross-border payment processing for institutional clients without going through the complex web of third-party intermediaries. In doing so, Visa becomes the latest entrant into the blockchain-based payment processing arena. This move brings the company into direct competition with cryptocurrency startups like Ripple and mainstream players, such as Barclays and BNY Mellon with their Utility Settlement Coin (USC) project under the aegis of the Fnality Consortium. Visa B2B Connect — three years …

IBM has announced upgrades to its Blockchain Platform, according to a report by Ledger Insights on June 18. The new IBM Blockchain Platform will reportedly be able to run on multiple cloud networks, such as major tech corporation Microsoft’s Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is apparently the main upgrade over its previous iteration, which was available solely through IBM’s cloud. The multicloud platform will be available via Kubernetes, a container program that will reportedly allow users to scale their blockchain networks as needed. One of the main upshots of its new multicloud framework is that IBM Blockchain Platform …

Disclaimer: This article has been updated following revisions. Jack Dorsey, the founder of social media website Twitter and mobile payments provider Square, went into depth on his plans for his new team dedicated to improving the crypto sector at Square in an interview with The Next Web on June 14. According to Dorsey, this initiative, Square Crypto, will add to the fiat payment company’s operations by providing an infrastructure for frictionless internet payments. Right now, he says that regulations and partnerships slow Square down — obstacles that he hopes to avoid in the future with an improved crypto infrastructure: “Just …

United States seafood trade association National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is working with IBM’s blockchain supply chain solution Food Trust to trace seafood, food-related news outlet FoodOnline reports on June 11. Per the report, this is the first effort to track multiple seafood species jointly pursued by multiple companies. Furthermore, NFI members representing harvesters, importers, processors, cold storage, foodservice restaurants and retail are all reportedly involved in the program. The project is purportedly funded by the Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF), whose chairman Sean O’Scannlain commented on the development: “Traceability is nothing new to the seafood community but blockchain is [...] …

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has partnered with four global high-profile firms to apply blockchain in the drug supply chain, tech media outlet ZDNet reports on June 13. The FDA has reportedly teamed up with companies including IBM, Walmart, Big Four auditor KPMG, and the world's oldest pharma firm Merck in order to build a proof-of-concept (PoC) blockchain network to share and track data on distribution of prescription drugs. According to the report, the initiative is connected with the United States Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and intends to assist the FDA — as well as …