The government of Austria is supporting a U.K. cancer research company using blockchain to detect the disease. The government’s support comes as part of its drive to promote the technology, a press release shared with Cointelegraph confirms Nov. 10. Lancor Scientific, which has developed a device to detect multiple cancer types and record screening results with smart contracts on blockchain, plans to open a research laboratory in the city of Graz. Like Google’s Lymph Node Assistant, the cancer screening tool released in October using artificial intelligence (AI), Lancor Scientific’s offering aims for 90 percent accuracy. Lancor will additionally work with …

Private blockchains, such as interbanking platforms set to share information on customers, could be compatible with new E.U. privacy rules, according to research published Nov. 6. The study was conducted by Queen Mary University of London and the University of Cambridge, U.K. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act, a recent legislation that regulates the storage of personal data for all individuals within the European Union, came into effect this May. According to the law, all data controllers have to respect citizens’ rights in terms of keeping and transferring their private information. In case a data controller fails to do …

Industry experts say that financial institutions will have to replace their existing internal IT infrastructure for greater adoption of blockchain and digital currencies, Scotland’s national news outlet the Scotsman reported Nov. 9. Delivering a speech at the ScotChain18 conference in Edinburgh devoted to blockchain technology impact on commerce, Jeremy Drain of cryptocurrency-focused software company Libra reportedly stated that “there’s an assumption by some companies that their current infrastructure will accept crypto and blockchain.” Drain further explained that those firms’ data is too different, so their systems are unable to work with blockchain and crypto. Other participants like Deloitte’s Risk Advisory …

The vast majority of British people - 93 percent - have heard of Bitcoin (BTC), but only 4 percent claim to have bought it, according to a recent poll by UK market research company YouGov published Nov. 7. According to the survey, conducted this month, nine out of ten Brits have heard of Bitcoin, however, they report not understanding it. Only 4 percent of those surveyed claimed they understand Bitcoin “very well,” while 23 percent state they know it “fairly well,” with men almost three times as likely as women to say so (33 percent against 12 percent). Younger Brits …

Spain’s second largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), has carried out a blockchain-based syndicated loan of $150 million, U.K.-based global financial news agency Finextra reports Wednesday, Nov. 7. The syndicated bank transaction has been conducted on a private blockchain network through a group of three funding banks including French banking group BNP Paribas, Japan’s bank holding Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), and BBVA. Acting as the sole underwriter of the transaction, BBVA also secured the participation of a partly state-owned Spanish company Red Eléctrica de España, as well as two legal advisors, U.K.-based multinational law firms Linklaters and Herbert …

The Indian subsidiary of major global banking and financial services firm HSBC and India’s holding giant Reliance Industries (RIL) have completed a blockchain-enabled trade finance transaction, Indian business newspaper The Hindu Business Line reports Sunday, Nov. 4. The blockchain-powered letter of credit (LoC) transaction, reportedly the first of its kind in India, involved export by RIL to U.S. client Tricon Energy, which sufficiently reduced both the time and costs of processing documentation. The new system represents a significant improvement in global export market interactions by bringing all parties together on one platform, The Hindu Business Line notes. According to the …

Crypto finance company Circle has joined the Global Digital Finance (GDF) industry body as a founding member to develop a global “Code of Conduct” for crypto, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Wednesday, Oct. 31. Circle has confirmed participation with the GDF on Twitter, stressing the company’s commitment to developing standards for the industry in order to promote the acceleration and adoption of digital assets. Other industry players in the group purportedly include Coinbase, ConsenSys, DLA Piper, Diginex, and others. Today the GDF released the Code of Conduct and Taxonomy for Cryptographic Assets after approval by the …

The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said it will consider whether to ban the sale of cryptocurrency-based derivatives, the Financial Times (FT) reported Oct. 29. Unlike crypto spot market activities, trading, transacting and advising on crypto derivatives such as contracts for difference (CFDs), options, and futures currently falls within the FCA’s regulatory perimeter and requires its official authorization. In a statement published Monday, the watchdog is reported to have said it will now launch a consultation in the first quarter of 2019 into whether or not to place a ban on their sale in future. The regulator’s remarks came …

The U.K. Cryptoassets Taskforce has released a report Oct. 29 that proposes some changes for cryptocurrency regulation and raises concerns over how digital assets are traded and used. Launched in March, the Cryptoassets Taskforce is made up of of the Bank of England (BOE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is charged to regulate and support crypto technologies. Since there is no widely agreed definition of a cryptoasset and given that cryptoassets significantly vary in the rights they provide to their holders, the Taskforce has developed a framework that considers three types of cryptoassets. Those include cryptoassets used as …

U.K. businesses and analysts have hit back at government plans to regulate cryptocurrencies and related technology, describing them as a “blunt instrument approach,” British daily news outlet the Telegraph reported Monday, Oct. 29. Calls to step up the level of power the country’s finance regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has over cryptocurrency — which Cointelegraph reported on in September — allegedly focus on consumer protection and anti-money laundering (AML) policy. Now, a joint report from the British Business Federation Authority (BBFA), venture capital fund Novum Insights, and fintech expert Hazem Danny Al Nakib has urged caution about overly far-reaching …

Her Majesty’s Royal Mint, the institution responsible for producing physical coins for circulation in Britain, has been unable to launch its gold-backed cryptocurrency after the government vetoed the project, Reuters reports Oct. 25. As reported, the Royal Mint had first unveiled it project to issues as much as $1 billion worth of digital gold tokens, dubbed Royal Mint Gold (RMG), back in 2016, which were to be traded on a blockchain-based platform run by U.S. exchange CME. Blockchain tech firm BitGo was set to be responsible for developing RMG’s multi-signature crypto wallet. The project had been pitched as an easy …

On October 20, The Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) deputy governor, Masayoshi Amamiya, repeated his negative stance towards central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDC), claiming that such digital currencies are unlikely to improve the existing monetary systems. The concept of CBDC, or national cryptocurrencies, has attracted many governments across the world. Some of them have already rolled out their virtual currencies, some keep researching their economical impact, while others — like Japan — have decided to dismiss the idea altogether. Here’s what the concept entails, and why major governments choose to implement or deny it. What’s a CBDC? CBDCs, or national digital …