Global retail giant Auchan is expanding TE-FOOD’s blockchain solution to improve the transparency of products’ history, U.S.-based news agency Cision PRWeb reports today, Dec. 4. The French retail group, which is reportedly the 13th largest food retailer globally with operations in 17 countries, has extended TE-FOOD’s FoodChain solution to five more countries. FoodChain is the international traceability information ledger by TE-FOOD, first applied by Auchan in its Vietnam branch. After a 18-month test of TE-FOOD’s blockchain tool in Vietnam, Auchan has now decided to deploy the products’ traceability solution in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Senegal. The blockchain-powered retail monitoring …

The Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) industry in France represents a minor part of the global ICO market, according to a report on ICOs released by French financial markets regulator AMF (l'Autorité des marchés financiers) today, Nov. 14. According to the recent study, the global ICO market has accounted for 19.4 billion euros ($21.8 billion) since 2014. Having experienced rapid growth since 2016, most of the market share has mainly been concentrated in 2017 and during the first three quarters of 2018, with 13.4 billion euros ($15 billion) raised within this latter period. As the AMF reported, France has accounted for …

Global ticketing giant Ticketmaster has acquired blockchain-focused live events firm Upgraded, according to an Oct. 18 press release. Ticketmaster, a division of the world’s largest live-entertainment business Live Nation, plans to use blockchain technology through the partnership as a way to provide more transparency and better control ticket distribution. Additionally, the company hopes it will protect clients from fraud associated with the existing ticketing system, which works in the form of printed or PDF-based tickets. The blockchain live events company Upgraded will enable Ticketmaster to digitize traditional tickets into interactive units protected by blockchain technology via encrypted barcodes. The press …

“Big four” audit giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has partnered with decentralized lending platform Cred to provide tech expertise in the launch of their USD-backed stablecoin, the company announced on Monday, October 8. In the announcement, the professional services firm claimed that the new partnership is designed in order to boost the current market of U.S. dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies by bringing more trust to investors. PwC is touting their service as a solution to major existing problems associated with the stablecoin market, such as transparency and “substantiation,” which keep a number of investors away from the field. With the partnership, the audit firm …

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has revealed they successfully passed the initial phase of testing their blockchain-powered interbank system, Italian financial media outlet Ansa reported September 29. By applying distributed ledger technology (DLT), the group of 14 Italian banks is planning to improve interbanking processes. Specifically, the association intends to boost the processing time of operations, increase the transparency of banking information, and enable the verification and exchange of information directly within the application. According to local Italian source Corriere Nazionale, the application of blockchain technology will also assist in specific aspects of banking operations that usually involve a number …