A Canadian Government Body Has Built an Ethereum Blockchain Explorer

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced Monday that it has built an ethereum blockchain explorer.

The organization wrote in a news release that its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) is now hosting the explorer on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) through services provided by Bitaccess, a blockchain startup.

Read the entire story here
https://www.coindesk.com/a-canadian-government-body-has-built-an-ethereum-blockchain-explorer/

US Border Officials to Test Blockchain for Certificate Tracking

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to trial blockchain technology to verify North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) certificates.

CBP Division of Business Transformation and Innovation head Vincent Annunziato said the agency was beginning a "live fire testing" of a blockchain platform to certify that imported products originated where they claim during CBP's 2018 Trade Symposium in Atlanta, according to the American Shipper.

The new system, which will launch in September, is going to help CBP verify information about imported goods and check how foreign suppliers act toward American importers, he said. The system can also be used to authenticate trademarks and check on an item's physical properties.

"I can even go in and say, 'hey, I need a little information on the stitching,' or, 'I need information on what colors are viable,'" Annunziato said.

Annunziato said the blockchain system could be used in a mobile app, which would replace a paper-based manual process for verifying such information, thereby streamlining the agency's work.

He also provided an update to the agency's work with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC). As previously reported by CoinDesk, COAC formed a special group advising the Secretaries of Treasury and Homeland Security on the agency's commercial operations last November. The body was said to focus on emerging technologies in general and on blockchain in particular.

This week, Annunziato confirmed that the committee was working to develop a proof-of-concept blockchain platform to verify intellectual property by confirming the relationship between licensees and licensors. The technology could ultimately eliminate paper processes, manuals and databases, CPB hopes.

The CBP press o

https://www.coindesk.com/us-border-officials-to-test-blockchain-for-tracking-import-certificates/

Ether Price Dropped, But Ethereum Growing Rapidly With dApp Adoption

Martin Köppelmann, the founder of Ethereum-based prediction market platform Gnosis, said that despite the decline in the price of Ether, the Ethereum network is growing rapidly.

According to Köppelmann, the most important metric to consider in analyzing the growth of Ethereum is the performance of decentralized applications (dApps) and the interconnectedness of dApps on the blockchain.

read teh entire article here:


https://cryptoslate.com/ether-price-dropped-but-ethereum-growing-rapidly-with-dapp-adoption/

Vitalik Buterin On The State Of Ethereum, The Future Of Blockchain And Google Trying To Hire Him

Cofounder of Ethereum Foundation and Bitcoin Magazine Vitalik Buterin shared his thoughts on the future of blockchain, the state of ethereum and more during a small, private event held in San Francisco last week. Hosted by the Blockchain at Berkeley student-run organization, Origin and Steve Chen, cofounder of the Modernist social club, Buterin’s fireside chat with Jason Hsu provided insights into major topics currently facing the crypto community.



Read the full article here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwolfson/2018/08/15/vitalik-buterin-on-the-state-of-ethereum-the-future-of-blockchain-and-google-trying-to-hire-him/amp

Using blockchain technology to build India’s economy

For India to realize its goal of a $5 trillion economy by 2025, it must adopt blockchain technology for international remittances.

Remittances from non-resident Indians (NRIs) are vital to the everyday livelihood of tens of millions of people in India to pay for things like food, rent and other necessities. They also make up a huge portion of our country’s balance of payments and help to stimulate domestic consumption levels in India, which in turn, supports many different industries and businesses. And yet, the average cost of remitting money to India is 5.63% of each transaction, well above the Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%. When you consider that India is the world’s largest recipient of remittances (at about ₹4.6 trillion a year), the need for a more efficient method for inbound remittances is clear.

If the government is serious about building India’s economy and bringing prosperity to all its citizens, it needs to fix the remittance problem. It can do so by adopting blockchain technology and digital assets for faster, low-cost, efficient remittances.

read the entire article here:
https://www.livemint.com/Technology/HYeJAIqv6LEsbXtAepob4N/Using-blockchain-technology-to-build-Indias-economy.html

Microsoft’s New Ethereum Blockchain Product Gets Rid of Mining

Software giant Microsoft has debuted a new Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) product that allows businesses across industry verticals to deploy a flexible instance of Ethereum tailored specifically for enterprise environments.

Announced on Tuesday, Ethereum Proof-of-Authority on Azure allows enterprises to build applications on an Ethereum blockchain that is not secured by a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm and consequently does not require mining — features that are better suited for networks in which participants do not trust one another.

PoW “works great in anonymous, open networks where cryptocurrency promotes security on the network,” said Azure Global software engineer Cody Born. “However, in private/consortium networks the underlying ether has no value.”

Born explained that, since all participants on an enterprise blockchain network are known and reputable, governance can be separated from network operation.

Read the entire article here
https://ccn.com/microsofts-new-ethereum-blockchain-product-gets-rid-of-mining/

West Virginia to Offer Blockchain Voting for This Year’s Midterm Elections

West Virginia is rolling out a blockchain based mobile voting app so American troops overseas can cast their votes in the upcoming elections, CNN reports.

The state had previously used the mobile voting platform, called Voatz app, in a pilot for deployed troops and their dependents in two counties for the state’s primary elections. Secretary of State Mac Warner at the time said the plan was to extend the pilot to the state’s 55 counties for the midterms in November once the pilot was successful.

read the full article here:

https://www.ccn.com/west-virginia-to-offer-blockchain-voting-for-this-years-midterm-elections/

Germany's No. 2 Stock Exchange Unveils Crypto Trading App

for those of you who are into cryto in euro ------

The fintech arm of Germany's second-largest stock exchange is set to launch a cryptocurrency trading app later this year.

Sowa Labs, a subsidiary of Börse Stuttgart, unveiled the app on Friday, which it said would be available for use in September and will initially offer trading support for bitcoin, ether, XRP and litecoin. According to the app's official website, "more assets [are] coming soon."

The app, called Bison, will be free to download and, according to its developers, won't charge trading fees at launch. A prototype of the app is being demoed during a trade show in Stuttgart this week.

Read the entire article here

https://coindesk.com/germanys-no-2-stock-exchange-unveils-crypto-trading-app/

Tech Mahindra to open groundbreaking blockchain district in India

Tech Mahindra hopes to make India the 'blockchain capital of the world' after announcing its plans to create a major new hub in Telangana.


Read the full article here
https://gigabitmagazine.com/fintech/tech-mahindra-open-groundbreaking-blockchain-district-india

IBM Unveils Blockchain Marketplace for Banks

IBM is launching a new digital ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure for banks called LedgerConnect. The private permissioned network, in collaboration with CLS, which produces settlement, processing and data solutions, is based on the IBM Blockchain Platform and Hyperledger Fabric technology. LedgerConnect will be designed for regulated enterprises.

read the entire article here:

https://dailyhodl.com/2018/08/02/ibm-unveils-new-digital-ledger-infrastructure-to-overhaul-banking-solutions/

Delaware, Blockchain Technology & the Future

 Stock represents ownership in a corporate entity and is given in exchange for a paid-in capital contribution to a business. Ownership of stock does not entitle the holder to specific property or assets of the company but rather provides the holder with a portion of the entity’s profits and gains, normally through the receipt of dividends paid to the shareholder.

The specific benefits or advantages of the stock can vary depending upon a company’s Articles of Incorporation and the terms governing specific classes or stock. 

Corporations in Delaware are required to keep a stock ledger. This ledger is not filed with the state of Delaware and is not part of the public record. Delaware corporations are required to record the stockholder’s name; the stockholder’s address; the number of shares registered to the stockholder; and all issuances and transfers of stock. 

Recent changes to the Delaware General Corporate Law expressly permit the keeping of corporate records in the form of electronic networks and databases.  These changes permit a corporation to maintain the required stock ledger using distributed-ledger technology, more popularly referred to as blockchain technology.

As recently discussed in the news, the various potential applications of blockchain technology are said to potentially disrupt a wide array of established markets and business methods. Blockchain is most commonly examined in the context of the creation, documentation and trading of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.

While all cryptocurrencies involve the use of blockchain, blockchain applications are not limited to cryptocurrencies. Blockchain is a decentralized, widely-distributed digital ledger technology in which transactions are recorded across many computers worldwide. 

As a result, recorded transactions cannot be changed after the fact without the alteration of the record stored on the various systems which received the distributed ledger. 

Using blockchain technology to maintain a stock ledger could help to ensure the accuracy of the ledger and the appropriate documentation of transactions. Often, ledgers in smaller corporations, particularly closely-held corporations, are loosely maintained in an Excel spreadsheet, and a failure to maintain the ledger in a timely way or catch inaccuracies in data entry can often lead to errors or omissions.

An automated ledger recorded and verified in a distributed ledger creates the promise of an easier way to maintain a reliable and up-to-date ledger.

Errors in a stock ledger can create significant issues under the securities laws and the Delaware General Corporate Law. These errors or omissions can create significant legal ramifications for a company. For instance, errors in ownership amounts or outdated rosters of stock ownership can lead to failures to comply with voting rights and the required delivery of corporate materials to shareholders.  

The Delaware Division of Corporations has embraced the many benefits of the Blockchain technology by exploring the use of the technology relating to the ownership. Blockchain technology may bring enormous benefits to the industry, but only time will tell.