IBM has signed a five-year AU$1 billion ($740 million) deal with the Australian government to use blockchain and other new technologies to improve data security, Bloomberg reports Thursday, July 5. The major contract will see IBM provide technology such as blockchain, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to Australian federal departments, including defense and home affairs. IBM’s Asia Pacific head, Harriet Green, told Bloomberg that the new partnership will give Commonwealth citizens access to the “world’s greatest technologies” “across many, many government agencies.” The new partnership will catapult Australia to “the top three of digital governments in the world,” she suggested. …

European blockchain trading platform we.trade confirmed it had completed its first live operations today, July 3, involving twenty companies and five major banks. The blockchain platform, which claims to provide a “more efficient and cost effective way” for banks and businesses to trade worldwide, uses IBM’s Blockchain Platform, powered by Hyperledger Fabric. Part of various blockchain solutions currently under appraisal by the banking sector, the platform counts Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale and UniCredit as its founding members. Together, according to Dutch institution Rabobank, the collaboration highlights the banks’ ability to “innovate.” “These trade(s) represents …

Co-founder of BitMEX crypto exchange and an Oxford graduate Ben Delo has become Britain’s youngest self-made billionaire, Daily Mail reports July 2. Aged 34, Delo, who founded BitMEX in 2014, told Daily Mail that he used to spend 18 hours a day to build his platform. His work has apparently paid off, as BitMEX is currently one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world with a daily trade volume of around $2 billion, according to data from Coinmarketcap. “I have had my nose down in a start-up for the past four years. I was doing 18-hour days at one …

Walmart and nine other companies have partnered with IBM in order to release a blockchain for tracking food globally through its supply chain, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports June 25. The Food Trust blockchain, which includes Nestlé SA, Dole Food Co., Driscoll’s Inc., Golden State Foods, Kroger Co., McCormick and Co., McLane Co., Tyson Foods Inc. and Unilever NV, have been collaborating with IBM on the initiative since 2016, and began conducting trials of the product in August of last year. The WSJ states that the Food Trust’s goal is to improve the companies’ ability to identify issues involved …

The Philippines’ RIZAL COMMERCIAL Banking Corp (RCBC) announced plans to launch blockchain remittances to Japan June 20 in a partnership with two Japanese banks. Quoted by local news media outlet Business World, First Senior Vice-President Manny T. Narciso said the scheme, which will form part of IBM’s global blockchain pilot, aims to serve Filipinos who work in Japan and send money home. “We want to serve the [overseas foreign workers] in Japan through this technology and we’re doing it in partnership with two Japanese banks,” he said. “For the OFWs in Japan, [this service] will make remittance faster and cheaper …

IBM iX has partnered with software supplier Mediaocean to launch a blockchain-powered tracker for digital media transactions, the company tweeted June 19. IBM iX is the business and tech consulting wing of international technology giant IBM. According to IBM iX, the main purpose for applying blockchain in the media ecosystem is to “clean things up” in the media buying industry. "The promise of #blockchain will scale the opportunity to clean things up [in media buying]." @rmaster of @Unilever during the announcement of a major partnership between IBM and Mediaocean to integrate blockchain across the media ecosystem. #CannesLions #ReinventMarketing pic.twitter.com/S9Hd8f7JAV — …

PwC Australia, the Port of Brisbane, and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry have partnered to release a blockchain-based supply chain management proof of concept (PoC), according to PwC’s press release published today, May 29. The Trade Community System digital application will connect commercial operators across a supply chain for international trades. The press release notes that 9 mln containers are moved from Australia’s 5 major ports each year, with the number set to grow to 15 mln by 2025. According to Bryan Clark, the Director of Trade and International Affairs, Australian Chamber, “the current inefficiency across Australian supply …

The mining pool of HDAC, a Korean blockchain-based IoT platform and issuer of the Hyundai-DAC token (DAC), has been hacked. This forced the company to temporarily halt withdrawals, TokenPost reported Thursday, May 24. HDAC’s founder Chung Dae-sun is the nephew of the CEOs of Hyundai Group and Hyundai Motors, the globally renowned car manufacturer. HDAC’s ICO was launched in 2017 by a conglomerate that includes Dae-sun’s software and construction firm Hyundai BS&C and its fintech and blockchain subsidiary HyundaiPay. According to TokenPost, HDAC’s mining pool server was breached by attackers who gained access to the pool’s internal system. In the …

Transport and logistics company AP Moller-Maersk (a.k.a. Maersk) has begun using blockchain platform Insurwave for maritime insurance, Seatrade Maritime News reports Friday, May 25. Developed by EY and Guardtime, Insurwave uses distributed ledger technology from cloud platform Microsoft Azure and follows global insurance standards. At the beginning of May, Microsoft Azure had announced the release of its blockchain app creation service, Azure Blockchain Workbench. In the first year, Maersk will use Insurwave to manage 1,000 vessels and support over 500,000 digital ledger transactions. Lars Henneberg, the head of risk and insurance at Maersk, told Seatrade Maritime News that since, “marine …

IBM CEO Virginia Rometty has announced that in the next two years the company is planning to create 1,800 jobs in France in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT), Le Monde reported May 23. The announcement was made at the Tech for Good summit in Paris, which was hosted by the President of France Emmanuel Macron. Pursuing the idea of making France a “center of excellence” dedicated to artificial intelligence, the tech giant is looking to hire 1,800 specialists in France in areas including blockchain, AI, and IoT. This includes at least 400 …

Top Stories This Week Circle Partners With Bitmain For Planned Release Of USD-Backed Stable Coin Circle Internet Financial Ltd. has finished a $110 mln investment round with led by Chinese mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain as part of their project to create a US-dollar backed stable coin. The Circle USD Coin, which will function as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum network, will reportedly be integrated into the Circle Pay payment app and in Circle Trade, as well as traded on the Poloniex exchange. Microsoft’s Bing Joins Facebook, Twitter In Crypto Ad Ban Search engine Bing will be blocking crypto-related advertisements …

Economist Alex de Vries, who published an article on “Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Problem,” yesterday, May 16, in scientific journal Joule, told the Independent that Bitcoin (BTC) mining will use 0.5 percent of the world’s energy by 2018. De Vries concludes that as the BTC network currently consumes about 2.55 GW of electricity and moves towards consuming 7.67 GW in the future (for reference, Ireland consumes 3.1 GW and Austria 8.2 GW), the network “has a big problem, and it is growing fast.” However, he does note that solutions like the Lightning Network “may alleviate the situation.” Bitcoin mining requires energy …