• BY J. Mark Waxman
• Kyle Faget
• Ben Daniels

Blockchain technology originated in 1991, and was conceived as a secure way to timestamp digital documents akin to how a notary timestamps physical documents. The true value lies in the fact that once stamped, the document cannot be backdated.

Since then, the application of Blockchain technology has evolved and has the potential to transform and improve healthcare. 

This article examines three possible areas for blockchain application in healthcare—the drug and device supply chain, medical staff credentialing, and electronic health records (EHRs). What is a blockchain? 

Blockchain is an open distributed ledger, meaning that anyone provided with the requisite credentials can access and add to the ledger. When data is added to the blockchain, it is done chronologically. Each block contains the relevant encrypted data, which is referred to as a hash, and the hash of a previous block.

The kind of data contained within a block depends on the type of blockchain being utilized. For example, a bitcoin block might contain information about a specific transaction occurring between two entities, e.g., the sender’s identity, the recipient’s identity, and the amount of points being transmitted between the entities.

Each block also has a unique hash that identifies the block and its contents. Any changes made inside a block will cause the hash to change. Each block also has a hash of the previous block such that each successive block points to the immediately preceding block. 

The first block, known as the “genesis block,” cannot have a hash from a previous block, by definition. The hash system offers security because altering the data in a block alters the hash of a block. Once altered, the hash of an altered block no longer corresponds to the previous hash found on the successive block.

When the hash of one block does not correspond to the previous hash of the successive block, the chain is invalid, and the chain rejects the invalid new block.

Theoretically, algorithms could be deployed to recalculate the hashes on the blocks following the altered block, which would validate the chain anew and undermine the major utility of blockchain.

However, blockchains have proof-of-work, which is a built-in mechanism that makes recalculating the hashes a formidable process.Blockchains are also distributed, which means that a single entity does not manage the chain.

The chain is managed by a peer-to-peer network whereby every member of the network is allowed access to the blockchain.  Each new member of the network gets a full copy of blockchain, which can later be used to validate the entire blockchain.

When a new block is added to the blockchain, each member of the blockchain network gets the new block and will individually validate the new block (proof-of-work). Once each member of the network has validated the new block, consensus is achieved. 

It is the use of consensus that allows tampered-with blocks to be identified and rejected. Importantly, blockchain can be programmed to record and track almost anything, and the technology offers a potential solution to a number of the challenges facing the healthcare industry.

Solution for the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)
In 2012, a nationwide meningitis outbreak was traced back to a compounding pharmacy, New England Compounding Center (NECC) that engaged in drug manufacturing in violation of its state license.  (See 21 U.S.C. § 353a.) 

Specifically, NECC shipped contaminated steroid injections across the country resulting in 753 patients becoming ill and 64 patients dying.In response, Congress established a national standard for drug security by expanding the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) oversight of compounded drugs through the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA), which includes the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) in Title II.

The purpose of DSCSA is to improve tracking, detection, and removal of counterfeit, misbranded, or potentially harmful drugs from the drug supply chain.

The DSCSA establishes a national standard for drug security, as opposed to the varying state requirements that had been regulating the space, by mandating the development of a prescription drug traceability system encompassing the full supply chain from manufacturer to dispenser for pharmaceuticals distributed in the United States.

The system essentially mandates a blockchain-like verification system whereby drug supply chain stakeholders are required to verify upstream information about a product (e.g. who manufactured the product, when it was sold, who it was sold to, etc.) and provide downstream information (e.g. passing along the same information to the next entity in the chain). 

Specifically, the legislation outlines a 10-year plan for developing an electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace prescription drugs as they move through the U.S. supply chain.

The law includes several provisions requiring implementation, including: product identification, tracing and verification, suspect drug detection and response, notification of illegitimate drugs, wholesaler licensing, and third-party logistics provider licensing.

The law also requires the FDA to develop standards, issue guidance documents (many of which have already been issued), implement pilot programs, and conduct public meetings as part of implementation efforts.

Blockchain as a Possible Solution for DSCSA
One of the core requirements of the DSCSA is that each package and homogenous case of product must contain a product identifier, which will be used to identify a product at any point in the drug supply chain.  Pinpointing a product’s position in the drug supply chain requires an accurate accounting of a product’s chain of custody. 

Currently, no one source has all of the information about product transfers as a product moves from manufacturer to dispenser (e.g. hospital, pharmacy, physician’s office, etc.). 

The ability of blockchain to track and store data chronologically across a peer-to-peer network makes the technology particularly well suited to solve for the traceability requirements imposed by the DSCSA.  In addition, blockchain is uniquely secure, which could reduce common issues in drug supply, such as drug counterfeiting. 

For example, if a product is presented at any point in the supply chain without the correct hash, the distributed network can identify and reject the product as counterfeit.     

Because blockchain offers such an elegant solution to DSCSA compliance, vendors are already piloting blockchain solutions to DSCSA requirements.  For example, the MediLedger Project initiated by a San Francisco-based company, Chronicled, is developing a blockchain system that can demonstrate DSCSA compliance.

Similarly, a supply chain consulting group, The LinkLab, is working with industry partners to design and develop pilot blockchains that can meet DSCSA compliance requirements. 

Solution for medical staff credentialing
Medical staff credentialing can be a costly and time-consuming effort that conducted via phone calls, faxes, and snail mail. Because blockchains can be verified and updated incrementally, the technology may be well suited for the credentialing process. 

Blockchain encryption applications and access limitations create a secure database that can be accessed across all those participating in the chain.  Each data contributor may be granted access to the entire ledger, or access can be restricted. 

Another possible blockchain application is a credentialing “smart contract," an agreement to participate in a “living” credentialing database specifically designed to use blockchain technology as its infrastructure.

The concept is that a practitioner’s credentialing information would be continually updated within a single database, with both inputs and access provided by those who have entered into a Blockchain Credentialing Process Agreement.

In this fashion, it would not be necessary every time there was a need for credentialing information spanning the time period from completion of college through the most recent credentialing relevant events, to seek the information from the multitude of repositories where it resides.

Instead, it would be instantly available, with access granted to view the information by the practitioner, directly, or through a direction given to the entity that maintains the database.

The savings in time and cost from this type of approach would be significant as credentialing is a repetitive process where delay inevitably is costly. In 2017, a pilot program involving the Hashed Health Consortium was initiated.

The Hash Health Consortium consists of a group of healthcare industry stakeholders who work together to identify industry challenges that are potentially solved by blockchain technology applications.

The goal of this early effort was to create a blockchain-based registry containing a reliable record of certifications and credentials. In 2018, Hashed Health launched a provider credentialing product that leverages blockchain to securely exchange information related to a clinician’s permissions to practice at a certain level or location.

Possible Solution for EHRs
Simple coordination of care has created the need for an EHR platform that allows multiple healthcare providers can view, edit, and share reliable patient data.

The sensitive nature of health data, the ongoing challenges posed by interoperability, patient record matching, and health information exchange, make a potential solution to the management of patient health records in electronic format invaluable.   

Blockchain is a platform that can securely store medical records, is amenable to real-time updating, and can be securely accessed by anyone given access to the chain.  In this case, a single chain would represent a single patient’s medical record. 

Each new piece of health data would be visible to each member of a patient’s care team as the data is entered into the chain.  Moreover, a single, national blockchain-based approach would allow patients to become the owners of their data and allow the information to travel with them.

Use of blockchain as a solution for EHRs is already being piloted at some of the nation’s premier medical institutions.  For example, Medicalchain, a London-based startup that develops blockchain technology for storing EHRs, has a working agreement with the Mayo Clinic to explore different distributed ledger initiatives.

Massachusetts General Hospital has engaged MediBloc, a Korean blockchain startup, to pilot new storage and exchange mechanisms that complement its existing EHR system.Industry resistance to adopting blockchain
Perhaps the embryonic nature of the technology or its ties to bitcoin have made blockchain suspect to industry players. 

Fears about complete reliance on a decentralized computerized system may also be at play in keeping blockchain from being deployed to solve complex issues such as DSCSA compliance. 

Adoption of blockchain requires having confidence in a store of information without reliance upon a trusted intermediary to authenticate a transaction, which causes healthcare organizations to hesitate when it comes to storage and processing of highly sensitive healthcare data. 

If blockchain consensus is reached, then a transaction is authenticated. In some arenas, such as EHR, where quality of care and care coordinating are the central drivers, industry can pilot programs and adopt blockchain technology at their leisure. 

 However, because FDA is already actively enforcing DSCSA, stakeholders are under pressure to bring their operations into compliance. Pilot programs will likely have a high bar to demonstrate DSCSA compliance before industry will adopt the technology.

The upside to being under such pressure is that DSCA compliance may pave the way for further blockchain adoption in the drug supply chain industry.     

Conclusion
Like any new technology there will be development and adoption fits and starts over time. But in the case of blockchain, there appears to be a concerted effort to move the technology forward.

Other potential applications include: informed consent management, clinical trial data management, FDA regulatory new drug and device application processes, and insurance coverage, preauthorization and claims adjudication. Over the next two to five years we will likely see success stories that will prove that these early stage investments were worth the effort.

Mnuchin's serious concerns regarding the growing misuse of virtual currencies by money launderers, terrorist financiers, and other bad players, comes days ahead of representatives of Facebook will go to the Capitol Hill to discuss the proposal for its recently-announced cryptocurrency, Libra.


Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, had been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, human trafficking, Mnuchin said. (Reuters)


The Trump administration has came out openly against cryptocurrencies, asserting that bitcoin had been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cyber crime, tax evasion and ransomware.

“This is indeed a national security issue,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at a hurriedly-convened news conference at the White House on Monday.

Mnuchin’s serious concerns regarding the growing misuse of virtual currencies by money launderers, terrorist financiers, and other bad players, comes days ahead of representatives of Facebook will go to the Capitol Hill to discuss the proposal for its recently-announced cryptocurrency, Libra.

Also read: Higher taxes threaten India’s fledgling hedge fundsIndia, meanwhile, has throughout maintained that cryptocurrencies were illegal and it did not recognise such activities. The Treasury Department has expressed very serious concerns that Libra could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers.

Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, had been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, human trafficking, Mnuchin said. “Many players have attempted to use cryptocurrencies to fund their malign behaviour.

This is indeed a national security issue.”Asserting that the United States had been at the forefront of regulating entities that provide cryptocurrency, Mnuchin said the administration would not allow digital asset service providers to operate in the shadows and would not tolerate the use of the cryptocurrencies in support of illicit activities.

“Treasury has been very clear to Facebook, bitcoin users, and other providers of digital financial services that they must implement the same anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism, known as AML CFT safeguards, as traditional financial institutions,” he said.

Given the international nature of cryptocurrencies, the official said the US was also going to great lengths to ensure that effective regulation does not stop here at the US border.

Last month, led by the United States, the Financial Action Task Force, known as FATF, the global standard setter for AML CFT, adopted comprehensive measures on how countries must regulate and supervise activities and providers in this space.

This was a major step towards harmonising international regulations concerning crypto currencies, he said. “We have also had extensive work at the G20, and I will be addressing this again this week at the G7 finance ministers in France.

To be clear, the US welcomes responsible innovation, including new technologies that may improve the efficiency of the financial system and expand access to financial services.

That being said, with respect to Facebook’s Libra and other developments in cryptocurrencies, our overriding goal is to maintain the integrity of our financial system and protect it from abuse,” Mnuchin said.

In an apparent suggestion to Americans not to invest in cryptocurrencies, Mnuchin said they should be clear why they were investing in them.

“There’s a lot of good things to invest in, obviously, we know about, but you know, our number one issue is that one, we don’t want bad actors using cryptocurrencies, and that’s our number one issue,” he said.

“I think to a large extent; these crypto currencies have been dominated by illicit activities as backup speculation. We’ll make sure that the general public and investors understand what they’re investing in and, whether it’s the SEC or other regulators, there’s proper disclosures,” he added.

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The buzz around digital securities (or security tokens) has never been higher in the financial industry, and neither has the confusion and misinformation been more evident.

With Facebook’s recent announcement to create a cryptocurrency, a blockchain, and also do a security token offering (STO) all at the same time it’s more important than ever to clarify what a digital security is, and what it is not.

The issue for those of us in the digital securities industry is that the lack of knowledge and understanding stifles needed progress and breeds unwarranted confusion and distrust.

To truly capitalize on the promise of digital securities the industry players and the public need a clear understanding of what they are and how they’re poised to dramatically change the securities markets for the betterment of all players involved. 




First, let’s establish some clarity around nomenclature for “digital securities." Depending on their underlying technology, they are also referred to as “digitally formatted securities,” or “security tokens.

” One reason for the variations is linked to our industry’s effort to distinguish itself from the unregulated realities of the cryptocurrency and ICO world.

Cryptocurrencies exploded on the scene several years ago as an entirely new asset class leading to a wave of unregulated crypto offerings and ultimately resulting in a crackdown from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Traditional securities have been around for centuries in an analog form. Digital securities are simply traditional securities that have been digitally formatted so they can be issued, traded, and tracked much more efficiently.

Digital securities formatted using blockchain technology are called security tokens or tokenized digital securities.

And yes, blockchain technology facilitates the issuance, management, and trading of both cryptocurrency and tokenized digital securities, but the similarities end there.

Market participants don’t have to be crypto-savvy to issue, buy or sell digital securities, and they also shouldn’t expect the boom (and ensuing bust) the crypto market experienced.

Because these securities are fully regulated by the SEC, the growth of the provider ecosystem and market volume will be more deliberate and ultimately, more stable.

In essence, digital securities are merely a format update to a massive, long-established, but traditionally inefficient segment of the regulated securities market.

Digital securities typically represent an interest in private and non-listed securities like real estate, venture capital and private equity, but they are not a new asset class, and they are most definitely not cryptocurrencies.

The move from legacy private securities to digital securities does not change the outcome of the transaction, but how easily it takes place. Digital securities bring automation and blockchain-based efficiencies to a marketplace that’s been virtually untouched by innovation.

While current cryptocurrency discourse has created confusion about the role of digital securities, it’s time to shift the conversation.

Instead of being seen as a novelty or the next iteration of crypto offerings, digital securities should be seen as the natural next step in the evolution of private and non-listed securities —finally guiding alternative assets into the digital age.

A growing number of governments have responded to Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans including China, France, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the U.K., and the U.S. Several intergovernmental organizations have also weighed in such as the European Central Bank and the Bank of International Settlements.

Also read: G20 Leaders Issue Declaration on Crypto Assets – A Look at Their Commitments

Facebook’s Libra Project

Facebook unveiled its plans last month for newly formed subsidiary Calibra which aims to provide financial services via the Libra network. “The first product Calibra will introduce is a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology.

The wallet will be available in Messenger, Whatsapp and as a standalone app — and we expect to launch in 2020,” the social media giant announced. Calibra has been providing information to central banks worldwide regarding its Libra plans to create understanding and exchange information, according to Calibra CEO David Marcus.

Regarding which countries Calibra will be available in, a Facebook spokesperson told news.Bitcoin.com on July 9 that “Calibra won’t be available in U.S.-sanctioned countries or countries that ban cryptocurrencies,” elaborating:

The Libra blockchain will be global. It will be up to custodial wallet providers to determine where they will and will not operate.

United States

Lawmakers in the U.S. have been actively taking initiatives in response to Facebook’s Libra announcement. During his semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on July 10, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said:

Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability.

He added, “I don’t think the project can go forward” without addressing those concerns, noting that the Fed has established a working group to follow the project and is coordinating with other central banks across the globe.




Jerome Powell“Facebook has a couple billion-plus users, so I think you have for the first time the possibility of very broad adoption” of cryptocurrency, the Fed chair continued, emphasizing that any problems that could emerge through Libra “would arise to systemically important levels just because of the mere size of Facebook.

”Five Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, sent a letter to Facebook executives on July 2 “requesting an immediate moratorium on the implementation of Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency and digital wallet,” the press release posted on the government’s website details. The announcement reads:

Because Facebook is already in the hands of over a quarter of the world’s population, it is imperative that Facebook and its partners immediately cease implementation plans until regulators and Congress have an opportunity to examine these issues and take action.

The letter continues: “During this moratorium, we intend to hold public hearings on the risks and benefits of cryptocurrency-based activities and explore legislative solutions. Failure to cease implementation before we can do so risks a new Swiss-based financial system that is too big to fail.”





The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is holding a hearing on Libra on July 16, followed by a House Financial Services Committee hearing the next day. Calibra’s Marcus is scheduled to testify before both committees. According to him, the subsidiary has applied for state money transmitter licenses and is registered with the U.S.

Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.In addition, more than 30 groups including the Consumer Federation of America, the Economic Policy Institute, and the U.S. PIRG have asked lawmakers to intervene with the project. “We call on Congress and regulators to impose a moratorium on Facebook’s Libra and related plans until the profound questions raised by the proposal are addressed,” their July 2 letter reads.

China

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is paying “high attention” to Libra, said Wang Xin, director of the central bank’s research bureau, South China Morning Post reported on July 8. According to the news outlet, the director warned that Libra could have a major impact on monetary policy and financial stability, elaborating:

Facebook’s plans to create its own cryptocurrency have forced China’s central bank into stepping up research into creating its own digital currency as Libra could potentially pose a challenge to Chinese cross-border payments, monetary policy and even financial sovereignty.

Mu Changchun, deputy director of the PBOC’s payments department, said that Libra “must be put under the oversight of monetary authorities,” Bloomberg reported the same day. He told the publication that, as a convertible cryptocurrency or a type of stablecoin, Libra “will not be sustainable without the support and supervision of central banks,” asserting:

In the longer term, the yuan will be damaged by Libra if it’s not convertible.

He further revealed that the central bank’s research team tested Libra’s code and found that it’s “still in an initial stage and the quality of the code isn’t stable,” and there are also questions such as whether Libra would use blockchain technology, the publication conveyed.

India

India is currently deliberating on the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, which was drafted by an interministerial committee headed by Finance Secretary and Secretary of Economic Affairs Subhash Chandra Garg. Bloomberg reported him as saying in an interview on July 6:

Design of the Facebook currency has not been fully explained … But whatever it is, it would be a private cryptocurrency and that’s not something we have been comfortable with.

Subhash Chandra GargThe Indian government has not announced the crypto regulation, which has led to rumors such as a draft bill to ban cryptocurrencies. Further, the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has prohibited regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses since September last year.

The country’s supreme court is scheduled to hear a number of writ petitions against the RBI ban on July 23.In the meantime, the Facebook spokesperson confirmed to news.Bitcoin.com on July 9:

There are no plans to offer Calibra in India.

Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published its answers to questions from Parliament regarding Libra on July 8. “It is in the early stages of development, with a number of issues to be worked out around its features, use cases, and governance arrangements,” the central bank wrote.


“Like other regulators around the world, MAS will make an informed assessment of the potential benefits and risks of Libra once these details become clear.”




In Singapore, the Payment Services Act (PS Act) covers cryptocurrencies, as well as e-money, and domestic and cross-border fund transfers. The MAS clarified:

Depending on its nature, Libra may be regulated under the PS Act, and be subject to requirements on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism imposed under the MAS Act.

“As for personal data privacy, all entities operating in Singapore that collect personal data are subject to the requirements of the Personal Data Protection Act,” the central bank continued. “MAS will continue to engage Facebook on its plans for Libra, and consider appropriate regulatory responses once they are clear.”

Thailand

Facebook has requested a meeting with the Bank of Thailand (BOT) to seek authorization from the central bank to integrate Libra into the Thai financial system, according to Siritida Panomwon, Assistant Governor for Payment Systems Policy and Financial Technology Group at the BOT. Thailand has approximately 50 million registered Facebook users.

At press time, the meeting has yet to be confirmed.Panomwon told the press on July 5 that a committee has been established to examine Libra. It comprises experts from the central bank’s foreign exchange, payments and legal teams, Xinhua reported. She was quoted as saying:

The BOT will study Facebook’s whitepaper … because consumer benefits and risks incurred from the digital currency are the central bank’s main focus.

Other than security concerns, the BOT will look into the stability of Libra’s value, currency model mechanism and public protection against fraud, she revealed. The bank has also set up a working group to study Libra, and is in discussion with the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other related parties on the subject.




Praoporn Senanarong

On July 8, SEC Assistant Secretary-General Praoporn Senanarong confirmed that the commission is preparing to discuss guidelines for Libra with the BOT since it is both an asset and a medium of exchange. She clarified that Libra is not under the supervision of the SEC based on the country’s current regulation for digital currencies.

Japan

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is concerned that “the difficult-to-regulate coin will pose a risk to financial systems while exploiting their existing structure at no cost,” Nikkei reported July 3. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters that he intends to “keep careful watch” for whether cryptocurrencies would gain acceptance as a method of payment, as well as how they might affect financial and payment systems.





BOJ Deputy Governor Masayoshi Amamiya explained on July 5 that digital platform operators such as Facebook must comply with regulations on money laundering and risk management, Reuters reported. Noting that Facebook’s crypto plan is still sketchy, he urged central banks to be vigilant to the impact such moves could have on their country’s banking and settlement systems, emphasizing:

As for Libra, we must bear in mind that the potential global user-base could be enormous.

Meanwhile, Japan’s top financial regulator overseeing crypto exchange operators, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), is leaning on the view that Libra “is likely not to be a crypto asset,” Nikkei reported. The FSA previously told news.Bitcoin.com that under current regulations, stablecoins are not considered cryptocurrency.

South Korea

South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), published a report on “Understanding Libra and Related Trends” on July 8, Yonhap reported. The regulator explained:

We have seen that Libra is more likely to be commercialized than existing virtual currencies … Libra will have a big impact on the existing financial system, banking industry and financial consumers.

The report raises concerns that much of the detail about Libra is still unknown and there is a possibility that personal information will be leaked. Moreover, it notes that “If bank control is not achieved, Libra may turn into a money laundering solution.”

Russia

Cryptocurrency is currently unregulated in Russia, but the country plans to adopt the bill “On digital financial assets” which will regulate the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that Russia will not have a separate regulation for Libra, Interfax reported on July 1. He described:

There will be rules for all cryptocurrencies that are being traded.

“That is, it will be possible to buy, sell, store it, but it cannot be used, in fact,” Moiseev was quoted as saying. “No one is going to ban. A large number of businesses ask when it will finally be possible to legally conduct an ICO transparently, this will definitely be regulated, permitted, and that’s all,” he added.




Alexei Moiseev

United Kingdom

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and other regulators have met Facebook representatives to discuss the plans for Libra. Christopher Woolard, the executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, has highlighted a series of potential issues with Libra, from consumer protection and privacy concerns to financial market stability, the Guardian reported. Woolard asserted:

Its size and scale will pose questions for society and government more generally about what is acceptable and desirable in this space.

He clarified that the regulator would look at whether Libra and other crypto assets functioned in similar ways to other regulated investment vehicles, adding that “The issues raised here require deep thought and detail.”





Commenting on Libra at a meeting in Portugal, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said that “Anything that works in this world will become instantly systemic and will have to be subject to the highest standards of regulation,” Bloomberg reported.

France and the G7

France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Libra would be fine if its use is limited to transactions, emphasizing that Facebook shouldn’t be allowed to create a sovereign currency, Reuters reported.France currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7.

The country’s central bank governor, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said on June 21 that a G7 task force will be created to study how central banks ensure cryptocurrencies like Facebook’s Libra are governed by regulations ranging from money-laundering laws to consumer protection rules. It would be led by European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure. Villeroy told finance industry officials:

We want to combine being open to innovation with firmness on regulation. This is in everyone’s interest.

ECB and BIS

Several intergovernmental organizations have also weighed in on Libra. European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said on July 7 that “Financial regulators must act fast to prepare for the push by U.S. tech giants such as Facebook Inc. into the financial system,” elaborating:

It’s out of the question to allow them to develop in a regulatory void for their financial service activities, because it’s just too dangerous … We have to move more quickly than we’ve been able to do up until now.

Coeure believes that the development of digital currencies is exposing deficiencies in existing regulation and the failure of the banking system to adopt new technology.

He was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, “All these projects are a rather useful wake-up call for regulators and public authorities, as they encourage us to raise a number of questions and might make us improve the way we do things.

”Meanwhile, the Bank for International Settlements, the Basel-based financial institution owned by 60 central banks, said last month that “Politicians need to quickly coordinate regulatory responses to new risks as Facebook and other tech firms move into finance.

”What do you think of the governmental response to Facebook’s Libra so far? Let us know here on Bitcoin.com 

How the US 'Keep Big Tech Out of Finance’ Draft Bill Targets Facebook's LibraFacebook’s digital currency plans have caused concern among bureaucrats worldwide and members of the U.S. government seem fearful of a giant tech establishing itself as a financial institution.

Prior to the U.S. congressional hearings and the upcoming G7 finance meeting, a U.S. discussion draft bill, the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act, hopes to stop large tech corporations from “maintaining, or operating a digital asset.

”Also read: How 10 Countries Respond to Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency

Members of Congress Want to Keep Big Tech Out of Finance
Immediately after Facebook disclosed that it plans to launch a new digital currency called Libra, politicians around the world began to complain.

Currently Facebook’s subsidiary startup Calibra faces the upcoming U.S. Senate Banking Committee on July 16, the House Financial Services Committee on July 17, as well as the G7 Finance Ministers meeting in Chantilly, France on July 17-18. Prior to these hearings on Thursday, President Donald Trump said on Twitter that “Facebook Libra’s ‘virtual currency’ will have little standing or dependability,” adding:


If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new banking charter and become subject to all banking regulations, just like other banks, both national and
international.



Facebook aims to launch Libra and the Calibra digital currency wallet in 2020.The following day, a U.S. draft discussion bill discovered by the publication The Block shows that U.S. leaders may take action against Facebook’s digital currency attempt.

The Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act would be a law enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives to rein in big tech forays into the financial field.

“A bill to prohibit large platform utilities from being a financial institution or being affiliated with a person that is a financial institution, and for other purposes,” explains the discussion bill’s header.

“A large platform utility may not establish, maintain, or operate a digital asset that is intended to be widely used as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, store of value, or any other similar function, as defined by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” the bill details.

The House of Representatives discussion draft also warns of harsh penalties for big tech firms that disobey the congressional statute if it gets enacted into law. The draft bill states:


Any large platform utility or financial institution that violates subsection (a) or (b) shall be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000,000 per each day of such violation, in an action brought by the appropriate Federal financial regulator.


According to The Block’s source who is familiar with the matter, the discussion draft has been making rounds within the House Financial Services Committee. The latest discussion bill follows the House of Democrats request that Facebook stops developing Libra until Congress researches the risks involved.

Skeptics Believe Libra Will be Centralized and Privacy-Invasive
House Democrats are requesting Facebook halt development of its proposed cryptocurrency project Libra. Alongside this, congressional leaders want the company to stop developing its digital wallet Calibra until Congress and regulators have time to investigate the possible risks it poses to the global financial system.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, wrote a letter with other members of Congress asking Facebook to pause operations. Senator Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, emphasized in a statement:


Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy. We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new cryptocurrency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight.

There’s no doubt that Facebook’s proposed digital asset scares U.S. leaders as some of them wholeheartedly believe: “[Libra] could pose systemic risks that endanger the U.S. and global financial stability.” Mihai Alisie, cofounder of Ethereum, thinks Facebook is trying to dupe financial regulators by pushing a centralized digital currency into the economy.

Alisie explained in an interview that the social media giant is claiming the new coin will not be centrally controlled, but he thinks they are misleading regulators and the general public with these promises.

“[Facebook plans] to mislead the regulators who have learned in the last few years that blockchain is not something that can easily be regulated … It should be treated as an entity trying to create a centralized currency,” Alisie insisted.

“This has implications on so many areas, from the economic to the political to the technological to surveillance and data privacy — [Facebook] is actively manipulating the behavior of people on a global scale.”

John McAfee✔@officialmcafee

Blow to "Bitcoin" as Fed warns about Libra??? There is no fv[
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2019/07/11/blow-to-bitcoin-as-fed-chair-jerome-powell-issues-stark-facebook-warning/ …9824:14 AM - Jul 13, 2019 · CubaTwitter Ads info and privacy



Blow To Bitcoin As Fed Chair Jerome Powell Issues Stark Facebook Warning
Bitcoin has been rallying hard so far this year, largely due to the interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies sparked by social media giant Facebook's much-hyped Libra cryptocurrency project, which...forbes.com

292 people are talking about this

There are some pretty alarming tactics that Facebook uses to track the website’s visitors. Many people believe that adding a digital asset into the mix with 2.38 billion active Facebook users is dangerous.

For instance, Edin Jusupovic, a programmer and CSIS certified cybersecurity researcher, demonstrated on July 10 how Facebook embeds tracking data inside photos you download. 

Jusupovic called his findings a “shocking level of tracking” and asserted that Facebook could “potentially track photos outside of their own platform with a disturbing level of precision about who originally uploaded the photo (and much more).

” To many Libra skeptics, privacy-invasive tactics like Jusupovic’s example beg the question: If Facebook can track pictures with extreme precision then what stops them from tracking a digital currency’s movements in the same manner?




A photo of metadata that tracks photos after they’ve been downloaded from Facebook.

The Possibility of Stimulating Fedcoin
Libra’s attempt also follows other large blockchain projects and crypto consortiums like Hyperledger, R3, and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance which have yet to produce any meaningful products. Facebook’s digital currency is aiming to be a stablecoin backed by U.S. dollars, but a few people are skeptical of how long the backing will last.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz foresees the possibility of Libra dropping the USD peg at some point in the future. Despite the fear U.S. government officials and worldwide leaders have toward Libra, some pundits believe the project could spark a Federal Reserve-backed cryptocurrency.

Stanford Law professor Joseph Grundfest thinks it would be quite ironic if the U.S. government copied Libra’s solution if it becomes successful.

[It would be a] delicious irony if Facebook’s Libra proposal stimulates the United States government to develop functionality that operates like Libra, backed by U.S. dollar deposits, but operated by the U.S. government.

The drafted discussion bill involving the House Financial Services Committee indicates that certain bureaucrats are determined to stop big tech companies before they even start a crypto project.

If the act were to become law, a fine of $1 million per day for starting a digital currency project would make any corporation think twice.What do you think about the discussion draft bill floating around the House Financial Services Committee?

Why do you think the U.S. government wants to keep big tech out of finance? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

A proposal to prevent big technology companies from functioning as financial institutions or issuing digital currencies has been circulated for discussion by the Democratic majority that leads the House Financial Services Committee, according to a copy of the draft legislation seen by Reuters.

In a sign of widening scrutiny after Facebook’s proposed Libra digital coin aroused widespread objection, the bill proposes a fine of $1 million per day for violation of such rules.

Such a sweeping proposal would likely spark opposition from Republican members of the house who are keen on innovation, and would likely struggle to gather enough votes to pass the lower chamber.

Even if it were to pass the full house, it would still have to pass the senate which would also likely be an uphill struggle.Nevertheless, the draft proposal sends a strong message to large tech firms increasingly eyeing the financial services space.

The draft legislation, “Keep Big Tech Out Of Finance Act,” describes a large technology firm as a company mainly offering an online platform service with at least $25 billion in annual revenue.

“A large platform utility may not establish, maintain, or operate a digital asset that is intended to be widely used as medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, or any other similar function, as defined by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” it proposes.

Facebook, which would qualify to be such an entity, said last month it would launch its global cryptocurrency in 2020. Facebook and 28 partners, including Mastercard, PayPal and Uber, would form the Libra Association to govern the new coin. No banks are currently part of the group.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Libra and other cryptocurrencies and demanded that companies seek a banking charter and make themselves subject to U.S. and global regulations if they wanted to “become a bank.

”His comments came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers that Facebook’s plan to build a digital currency called Libra could not move forward unless it addressed concerns over privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability.

Facebook Inc.’s foray into digital currencies risks reversing gains in privacy and user sovereignty won by computer-networking pioneers, according to one of the co-founders of Ethereum, the blockchain of choice for most business and finance projects.

Facebook has received pushback from politicians including President Donald Trump and regulators since announcing its plans to develop Libra, a digital asset backed by cash and short-term securities, that could be sent between the company’s more than 2 billion customers with the help of blockchain.

David Marcus, head of Facebook’s Libra subsidiary Calibra, will appear next week before Congress. The company has already drawn lawmakers’ ire for a series of stumbles including major data breaches and allowing Russians to hijack its platform during the 2016 election to push Trump’s candidacy.

Now the criticism is coming from a leader in the computer science world that’s fiercely protective of the structural independence created by Bitcoin in 2009 and Ethereum in 2015.

A key aspect of distributed computing systems that make up a blockchain is the inability of any one party to censor transactions or control who can and can’t be a part of the network.

No person or corporation owns the underlying systems, similar to how the internet is free for anyone to use. Facebook threatens these blockchain tenets with Libra, said Mihai Alisie, a co-founder of Ethereum.

“This has implications on so many areas, from the economic to the political to the technological to surveillance and data privacy,” he said in an interview. Facebook has prioritized growth over user privacy, as was seen in the Russian election meddling, he said. “It’s a very well-oiled machine of surveillance," Alisie said.

"It is actively manipulating the behavior of people on a global scale.”


Mihai Alisie

Photographer: Paolo Dutto/13 Photo/Redux

Alisie, 32, is among a group of programmers, entrepreneurs and designers who created Ethereum in 2014 and 2015. Invented by Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum -- or variants of it -- has become the blockchain used by companies ranging from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to Toyota Motor Corp. as they seek to streamline day-to-day operations.

Alisie recruited Buterin to help him create Bitcoin Magazine after reading the teenage programmer’s writing in an online publication. A native of Romania, Alisie struck up a friendship with Buterin and traveled with him through Spain in 2013 as Buterin was formulating his idea for Ethereum.

Alisie has more recently founded the Akasha Project, an Ethereum powered social-network based in Zug, Switzerland.So far Facebook has partnered with Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. along with more than 20 other companies.

Marcus said by the time Libra is available 100 companies will be in its network. The risk Alisie sees here is that Libra users will anger one of these huge corporations and have their transactions reversed or blocked, something that’s impossible on the Bitcoin or Ethereum network.

"Should they be in a position to control what you post from your device?" he said.

The phase where Libra is supported by 100 or so companies is a necessary stepping stone to a future where many more users and organizations are running the nodes that form the backbone of the network so it can be trusted and scale in ways Bitcoin and Ethereum have failed to, Dante Disparte, head of policy and communications at the Libra Association, said in an interview.

With Bitcoin, he said, "the adoption curve hasn’t hit billions of people." In five years, Libra will be "totally permissionless and totally decentralized," he said.


Earlier this week, Facebook stated that Libra’s purpose is to create a secure and low-cost way for consumers to move money around the world.

In a letter released by the Senate panel Tuesday, Marcus said Facebook has reached out to regulators across the globe, and will ensure that consumers are protected and that the role of central banks and governments with Libra is “appropriate.

” He also said that Calibra has applied for state money transmitter licenses and is registered with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which tries to detect money laundering and other financial crimes.

Facebook, which is ostensibly just one member of a larger Libra Association, has taken the lead on reaching out to regulators and stakeholders to lobby for the digital currency.

But Marcus said in the letter that the group, which includes payments giants like Mastercard and Visa, will continue Facebook’s outreach role as the association grows.

“We understand that big ideas take time, that policy makers and others are raising questions, and that we can’t do this alone,” Marcus wrote in the July 8 letter. “We want, and need, governments, central banks, regulators, non-profits, and other stakeholders at the table and value all of the feedback we have received.

”A day later, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell raised major questions about Libra that he said must be addressed before the plan moves forward. “Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability,” Powell told lawmakers at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington.

Fed's Powell Has 'Serious Concerns' About Facebook's LibraJerome Powell discusses the Federal Reserve’s concern about Facebook Inc.’s plans for its Libra cryptocurrency.

Calibra will build and maintain the company’s digital wallets and work on the Libra cryptocurrency. Marcus has said Calibra will store this financial data on separate servers, and won’t share it with Facebook. But Alisie is concerned the information flow will go in the other direction.

"Will Facebook share personal data with Calibra? Based on what I’ve read, I think that will be the case," he said. Being a Facebook user isn’t the only way to access Libra, Disparte said. "If you don’t trust Facebook, opt out and don’t use the Calibra wallet," he said.

Still, he added that Facebook’s global nature and platform for raising awareness of cryptocurrency will greatly increase its acceptance. "This project will help drive mass adoption of cryptocurrency more so than anything to date," he said.

Read More: Crypto Chiefs Novogratz, Allaire Say Facebook Coin Bullish Sign

That’s what Alisie fears. He said Facebook is asking regulators to pass judgment on it not in its current state, but in five years when it promises to be decentralized.

That’s intended "to mislead the regulators who have learned in the last few years that blockchain is not something that can easily be regulated," he said. "It should be treated as an entity trying to create a centralized currency."

Ethereum was built to allow anyone to design applications that work on top of the network with no one being able to affect the protocol. The debate now with Libra is similar to net neutrality, Obama-era rules that banned internet service providers like Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. from blocking or slowing traffic on their networks.

The Trump administration has reversed those rules."People should be aware this is a danger very similar to net neutrality," Alisie said. "Is it smart to have this infrastructure layer owned by a company?

" The innovation blockchain brought about is that it gives power to individual users because they no longer need to rely on third-parties like Facebook or Verizon, he said.

"This is not an upgrade, this is a downgrade for what blockchain means," Alisie said.— With assistance by Austin Weinstein, Jesse Hamilton, and Kurt Wagner

Donald Trump has criticized Bitcoin, Facebook’s proposed Libra digital coin and other cryptocurrencies and demanded that companies seek a banking charter and make themselves subject to US and global regulations if they wanted to “become a bank”.

“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks, both National and International,” he added.

Trump applauds far-right provocateurs during 'social media summit’

Facebook, the White House, the Federal Reserve and the treasury department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s comments come one day after the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, told lawmakers that Facebook’s plan to build a digital currency called Libra cannot move forward unless it addresses concerns over privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability.

Powell said the Fed has established a working group to follow the project and is coordinating with other government’s central banks. The US Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of regulators that identifies risks to the financial system, is also expected to make a review.

Facebook announced last month it would launch its global cryptocurrency in 2020.

Facebook and 28 partners, including Mastercard Inc, PayPal Holdings Inc and Uber Technologies Inc, would form the Libra Association to govern the new coin. No banks are currently part of the group.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the largest US bank by assets, plans to launch its own digital coins.

Bitcoin, the best-known digital coin, was created in 2008 as an alternative to currencies controlled by governments and banks, but crypto trading and digital currencies remain largely unsupervised.

The market has also faced allegations of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Anchorage, the cryptocurrency custody provider for institutional investors, has raised $40 million in Series B funding, according to an announcement on Wednesday. 

Payments giant Visa and venture firm Blockchain Capital have backed the round, with participation from existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Crypto).

It is interesting to note that Anchorage, Visa and Andreessen Horowitz are all validator nodes for Facebook’s upcoming cryptocurrency Libra.

However, that is not the reason Visa invested in Anchorage, the custodian told The Block.

The investment will go toward supporting “all digital assets and crypto-native features,” including staking and on-chain governance; integrating custody service with other financial offerings; and investing further in auditing and compliance measures, Anchorage said. 

Accounting, tax preparation and auditing are “major pain points” for institutional investors who want to add digital assets to their portfolios and solving these issues will speed up adoption, according to the firm.

“Our mission at Anchorage is to advance institutional participation in the digital asset class, and this funding will improve our ability to do precisely that,” said co-founder and president Diogo Monica.

Anchorage came out of stealth mode earlier this year, and claims to offer a “smart storage” solution superior to “hot wallets” and “cold storage” solutions.

The firm recently said that it has incorporated a “custom logic” in its hardware security module (HSM), which processes a given transaction only by following “multiple layers” of biometric authentication.

This approach allows clients to use their keys for transactions, audits, staking, voting and more, “in real time and without ever being removed from safe storage.

”Anchorage rivals Coinbase and BitGo, on the other hand, custody clients’ assets in cold storage. Custody is a tough space to be in, Sam Jernigan, Co-CIO of Wakem Global Opportunities Fund, a macro hedge fund that trades digital assets, told The Block recently.

“Just since the summer of 2018, we’ve seen the cost of custody decline anywhere between 50 and 100 basis points,” he said. 

Wednesday’s investment round brings Anchorage’s total funding to $57 million, having previously raised $17 million in a Series A round led by a16z, with participation from Khosla Ventures, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin’s SciFi VC and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, among others.

The 'BlocKit', which includes items such as plastic tubs, clay discs, padlocks, envelopes, sticky notes and battery-powered candles, is aimed to help people understand how digital blockchains work and can also be used by innovators designing new systems and services around blockchain.

A team of computer scientists from Lancaster University, the University of Edinburgh in the UK, and the Universiti Teknologi MARA, in Malaysia, created the prototype BlocKit because blockchain -- the decentralised digital infrastructure that is used to organise the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and holds promise to revolutionise many other sectors from finance, supply-chain and healthcare -- is so difficult for people to comprehend.

"Despite growing interest in its potential, the blockchain is so novel, disruptive and complex, it is hard for most people to understand how these systems work," said Professor Corina Sas of Lancaster University's School of Computing and Communications.

"We have created a prototype kit consisting of physical objects that fulfil the roles of different parts of the blockchain. The kit really helps people visualise the different component parts of blockchain, and how they all interact.

"Having tangible physical objects, such as a transparent plastic box for a Bitcoin wallet, clay discs for Bitcoins, padlocks for passwords and candles representing miners' computational power, makes thinking around processes and systems much easier to comprehend.

"The BlocKit consisted of physical items that represented 11 key aspects of blockchain infrastructure and it was used to explore key characteristics of blockchain, such as trust -- an important challenge for Bitcoin users. The kit was evaluated as part of a study involving 15 experienced Bitcoin users.

"We received very positive feedback from the people who used the kit in our study and, interestingly, we found that the BlocKit can also be used by designers looking to develop new services based around blockchain -- such as managing patients' health records for example.

"The work is outlined in the paper 'BlocKit: a Physical Kit for Materializing and Designing for Blockchain Infrastructure', which was presented at the DIS '19 conference in San Diego.

The paper's authors are Irni Eliana Khairuddin, of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Corina Sas of Lancaster University, and Chris Speed of the University of Edinburgh.

Traditional identity management has typically involved the storing of user credentials (e.g., passwords) by organizations and third parties, which often results in concerns over interoperability, security, and privacy.

However, a possible solution has emerged through the use of blockchain technology to create novel identity management approaches with built-in control and consent mechanisms.

This can potentially transform data governance and ownership models by enabling users to control their data and share select personal information, while helping businesses streamline operations by relying on verified user information without having to maintain the infrastructure themselves.

NIST announces the release of a Draft Cybersecurity White Paper, A Taxonomic Approach to Understanding Emerging Blockchain Identity Management Systems (IDMS), which provides an overview of the standards, building blocks, and system architectures that support emerging blockchain-based identity management systems and selective disclosure mechanisms.

The document considers the full spectrum of top-down versus bottom-up governance models for both identifier and credential management and addresses some of the risks and security concerns that may arise.

The terminology, concepts, properties, and architectures introduced in this work can facilitate understanding and communications amongst business owners, software developers, cybersecurity professionals within an organization, and individuals who are or will be using such systems.

A public comment period for this document is open until August 9, 2019. See the publication details for a copy of the document and instructions for submitting comments.

An out-of-the-box solution says it enables anyone, even with no experience, to build their own blockchain in under 10 minutes.

According to Nuls, businesses are going through a similar evolution as they did with the early internet, when every company wanted their own website: They now want their own blockchain.

And although these firms may not fully understand how to deploy blockchain technology, they are aware of how their business may benefit from it.

Nuls aims is to “dismantle some of the biggest barriers” that are stopping individuals and companies of all sizes from creating their own blockchains. Hurdles for adoption include the need to ensure that networks are fully secure and the sheer cost of bringing them to fruition.

 On top of this, it can be an incredibly time-consuming process — not least because there aren’t enough skilled developers to keep on top of demand.

The future

The team behind Nuls believes that the future of blockchain will see plenty of third-party providers that simplify the process of establishing a blockchain network. 

One of the company’s solutions, known as ChainBox, allows developers to take their applications and deploy them to a new blockchain in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee.

Nuls hopes that this approach will enable entrepreneurs to focus on the product itself rather than the time or money it takes to deploy their applications onto a chain.

Nuls describes its ChainBox feature as language agnostic — giving developers more choices and making it easier to integrate existing systems with blockchain technology.

The platform also says it is keen to ensure that users can personalize and enhance blockchains in line with their specific needs. An upcoming solution known as Chain Factory will allow users to add extra functionality and features through additional module applications that can be automatically downloaded for an instant upgrade.

The benefits

According to Nuls, the fact that major corporations such as Facebook, Amazon, Walmart, ING, IBM, Anheuser-Busch and JPMorgan Chase are creating or exploring their own blockchains powerfully illustrates an “inevitable trend” in which demand for chain-building will increase.

Worth noting is that Visa, Mastercard, Uber and others will create nodes on Facebook’s Libra to run their own consortium chains. The platform says one of the most powerful benefits it can offer through its straightforward service is the ability to bring innovative products to market up to a year early, in addition to allowing partners to receive ecosystem support through consortium chains.

NULS IS AVAILABLE HERE

The company also places an emphasis on “ensuring that the blockchains its platform creates are flexible and scalable,” meaning that they can be adapted in line with growing demand and customized to deliver a better service to end-users.

In addition, cross-chain transactions are supported and will be built to convert Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Binance Coin (BNB) and more. 

Hackathon

Nuls seeks to illustrate how effective ChainBox is through an online hackathon that invites developers to build modules for “the world’s most adaptable blockchain” — even if they haven’t worked with these networks in the past. 

These modules can be built in any coding language the developer desires, and prizes of up to $500,000 are up for grabs. The top prize is reserved for applications that would solve a practical problem and be in substantial demand in a commercial setting.

The winning project will enjoy incubation and a full range of business support, including funding and potential exchange listings, according to the team. The hackathon is scheduled to take place online from July 8 to Aug. 29.

The company has dual headquarters in the Chinese city of Chongqing and in San Jose, California.

Nuls adds that it has an ever-expanding team of developers throughout Europe, as it pursues a vision of bringing an open-source, instant blockchain-building platform to the world.

Learn more about Nuls

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.

It seems like every day another major corporation is finding new use cases for blockchain technology. And investors, intrigued by the industry's tremendous growth potential, are pouring capital into blockchain start-ups.The following developments help to illuminate both of these global trends.

Nestle wants you to know where your food comes from

Food titan Nestle (NASDAQOTH: NSRGY) announced a partnership with blockchain platform OpenSC that could help it better track its supply chain. 

"Through this collaboration, Nestle becomes the first major food and beverage company to announce that it will pilot open blockchain technology in this way," the company said in a press release.

"This is part of Nestle's journey toward full transparency."OpenSC says its blockchain platform gives "anyone, anywhere access to independently verifiable sustainability and supply chain data.

"The initial pilot program will trace milk from farms in New Zealand to Nestle's facilities in the Middle East. Nestle will then extend the program to other products in order to test the scalability of the new tracking system.

Nestle first began testing blockchain technology in 2017, when it joined International Business Machines' (NYSE: IBM) food-safety blockchain project Food Trust as a founding member.

With ever more consumers demanding to know where their food is produced, it appears that Nestle is doubling down on its blockchain-based food-tracking efforts. And given its status as an industry leader, Nestle's foray into blockchain technology could spur industrywide adoption in the coming years.

"This open blockchain technology will allow anyone anywhere in the world to assess our responsible sourcing facts and figures," Nestle executive Benjamin Ware said. "We believe it is another important step toward the full disclosure of our supply chains ... raising the bar for transparency and responsible production globally."



A dollar sign and an arrow pointing to the right
Image source: Getty Images.

Capital continues to flow into the industry

Nestle isn't the only company investing in blockchain tech. Blockchain start-ups raised a combined $822 million in the first half of 2019, according to a report by Outlier Ventures.

The venture capital firm said that out of 279 projects that received funding during this time period, 159 were seed-stage deals, "indicating that new entrepreneurial talent is still flowing into the space.

" And while the total amount of capital invested to date has declined compared with 2018's levels, Outlier Ventures noted that "the ecosystem is more robust and becoming increasingly professionalized.

""Unlike the hubris of 2017, the nature of tokens that are seeing traction today have better-defined ecosystems associated with them, trading infrastructure has evolved substantially, and regulatory compliance has become easier for institutional giants," the company said.

As such, blockchain-based businesses are likely to remain a key area of focus for venture capital investors in the years ahead.More From The Motley Fool

• Crypto, Blockchain & Bitcoin Articles

Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool is short shares of IBM. The Motley Fool recommends Nestle. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Fidelity International, the renowned provider of investment services, has begun exploring blockchain as well as the way customers perceive digital currencies.

This endeavor has been undertaken by the company’s Asian and European branches where they have introduced the latest trading simulator particularly designed for the crypto assets.

It must be noted that the move comes after Fidelity USA revealed its decision of taking steps towards launching crypto trading services.The simulator game launched by Fidelity International is presently available for its staff. The game allows these users to make crypto trades with fake currency (up to USD 12,500).

The participants have to anticipate the movements in the market and increase their holdings accordingly. As per the reports, out of the staff of 8,000 people, over 1,200 are participating in this simulator game.

According to Teana Baker-Taylor, executive director of the Global Digital Finance, the move suggests that the conventional financial investments in crypto assets are going to grow in all probability.

That’s because they want to offer their diverse range of clientele, from pension and mutual fund customers to institutional and private investors, access to these digital assets.

Anne Richards, Fidelity International’s chief executive, in a statement said that they have an internally used trading game on bitcoin which enables them to teach people about DLT as well as digital tokenization, as ultimately both these technologies would be playing an important role in the entire financial system in the future.

It is worth to consider that Fidelity Investments has become the first ever institutional custody player to offer digital currency custody along with trade execution operations after they launched Fidelity Digital Assets in the previous year.

SF Blockchain Week brings together entrepreneurs, startups, academics, and global corporations to discuss and collaborate on the future of blockchain and cryptocurrencies

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 9, 2019–The second annual San Francisco Blockchain Week, one of the world’s leading events focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, has been announced for the week of October 28.

The week will feature talks and debates from global leaders, developer events, job fairs, local meetups, hackathons, and more – highlighted by a three-day hackathon hosted by leading blockchain interoperability project, Cosmos.

The purpose of SF Blockchain Week is to create a platform that bridges the different and often disconnected groups that are vital to the development of the nascent blockchain technology industry.

By bringing together entrepreneurs, academics, financial institutions, startups, students, governments, regulators, and global corporations within one forum while set against the backdrop of innovation in the SF Bay Area, SF Blockchain Week is a landmark event for the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

“Like the early days of the internet with disparate protocols all existing in silos, blockchain platforms have technical, and sometimes political problems communicating with one another,” said Ronen Kirsh, Managing Partner of Dekrypt Capital.

“Similarly, the innovators behind blockchain from the academics to the coders to the government agencies need a common forum to communicate and discuss the future of our industry. SF Blockchain Week 2019 is about connecting the pioneers and innovators and setting the ultimate vision that drives our industry forward.

”One of the highlights of SF Blockchain Week 2019, a week of meetups, hackathons, and major events across the Bay Area, is the Cosmos ‘DeFi HackAtom’ Hackathon on November 1-3 in San Francisco. Cosmos is a new “3rdgeneration” blockchain platform that allows startups and developers to create their own complete blockchains that are interoperable with one another.

 The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) HackAtom will bring the leading blockchain developers in the world together to create powerful interoperable applications.Here are the major events for SF Blockchain Week 2019:

• CryptoEconomic Security Conference (CESC), October 28-29, UC Berkeley.
• Blockchain Career Fair, October 30, UC Berkeley
• SF Blockchain Week Epicenter – the main event for the SF Blockchain Week conference, October 31 – November 1, San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
• Cosmos “DeFi HackAtom SF” – November 1-3, San Francisco.

Conceived in 2018 by Dekrypt Capital and Noris, the first annual SF Blockchain Week attracted over 5,000 attendees, 60 sponsors, and was regarded as one of the biggest blockchain events of 2018, attracting the leading global minds in the world of blockchain.

As the industry grows, major global companies are beginning to move into blockchain, and academic research is accelerating. SF Blockchain Week 2019, highlighted as one of 20 conferences you can not miss in 2019 by Inc.

Magazine, is coming at a critical time for blockchain and cryptocurrency and looks to be one of the most important events in the history of the industry.For tickets and more information visit: https://sfblockchainweek.io/View source version on

businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190709005359/en/

Media Contact for SF Blockchain Week:

Addison Huegel

addison@blockpr.io

Today it was revealed that tech giant LG’s tech subsidiary, LG CNS, is planning a food traceability blockchain. In partnership with SayIT, a Korean IT service provider, the platform will provide traceability information on food served at school canteens.

According to ZDNet, the information on the food’s production, processing, distribution, acquisition, and consumption will be stored on a public blockchain. It will enable parents and carers to check on what their children are eating at school, for their health and food sustainability.

LG CNS and SayIt plan to monetize the blockchain by allowing food producers to promote their products. There’s a suggestion that firms could send online ‘mobile flyers’ to users of the platform.It will run on the tech firm’s dedicated blockchain, Monachain, launched last May.

The platform is based on HyperLedger Fabric, with which LG CNS announced a collaboration.

Back in 2017, it partnered with R3. But according to Korean site BChain, Kim Ki Young, the LG CNS blockchain project lead explained “In the past, we had joined the finance sector-dedicated R3 consortium to exploit the technology, but licensing the technology proves costly and it was extremely difficult to catch up with it.

This helps explain why we have developed our own homegrown Monachain.

”The Monachain platform was developed for use in authentication, digital identities, and supply chain management. LG CNS plans to release a blockchain project each month.Last year LG developed the first public blockchain platform in its native Korea for KOMSCO, a currency minting and security printing firm.

The aim was to issue digital vouchers or community currencies for use on campus or for local government services.In a separate partnership with KB Kookmin Bank, it is working on the Magok Community Currency Platform.

This is a blockchain-based payment system which is currently being used in-house and will be extended to the local science park.

LG CNS has also developed a traceability blockchain for electric car batteries. Knowing how much battery life is left and its history allows for more efficient recycling.

Sister companies within the LG group are also on the governance council of blockchain initiative Klaytn, by Korean messaging firm Kakao.

In the first five months of 2019, there were almost as many blockchain job listings as for all of 2018, TeQatlas research has shown.The post Blockchain job offerings growing consistently, research shows appeared first on The Block.

In the first five months of 2019, there were almost as many blockchain job listings as for all of 2018, TeQatlas research has shown. The company has analysed the data on open vacancies for blockchain-related positions, looking into disclosed salaries.

It also provided the list of the top-15 blockchain employers, with IMB grabbing first place with 335 blockchain vacancies, followed by Oracle and pwc. The rise in blockchain job offerings is nothing new—the number of blockchain-related positions has been growing consistently since the inception of blockchain.

Between  2013-2018, it noted 139 per cent CAGR growth. By the end of May, there were already 2,300 vacancies open—while there were 2,577 vacancies altogether in 2018.

With the growing number of open positions, disclosed salaries also present nicely.

While the salaries range from $17k up to $271k per year, the majority of job offerings—404 offerings—place between $81k-$144k. Therefore, an average blockchain salary is more than double the U.S. average, equaling $105k annually as opposed to $49k.

However, globally, London is the leader when it comes to job offerings. "London is Europe’s leading city in terms of Blockchain related job offerings occupying 26% of the worldwide amount.

Unsurprisingly, the US leading cities are New York and San Francisco with 19% and 13% respectively," report reads.

Blockchain has given birth — OK, that’s hyperbole, but news has emerged of the first “blockchain baby” born earlier this year in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The news underscores the role that digital ID and blockchain can have in humanitarian efforts, an area where those technologies are taking on more responsibilities.

The development in the Africa country comes courtesy of what one report described as a joint effort between Irish AID:Tech and Dutch PharmAccess, and it reflects the goal of using “blockchain technology in facilitating the delivery of aid and sharing of data, with the common aim of implementing support as efficiently as possible.”

Blockchain baby exemplifies how digital ID helps humanitarian groups

More specifically, according to another report, “in what was a world’s first, the digital identity of a baby born in Tanzania was added to this digital ledger, making the infant entitled to imperative care and fund allocation that would otherwise prove difficult to track and source.

”The overall project uses digital ID and blockchain to ensure access to vitamins. As well, the technologies enable humanitarian authorities to cut down on fraud and potentially keep better track of program costs.

The project in Tanzania uses digital ID and blockchain to ensure access to vitamins

It’s not just one “blockchain baby,” though — reports indicate two other babies, siblings, also are having their digital IDs buttressed by blockchain technology. And that is just the beginning.

This effort in Africa is just one recent example of blockchain and digital ID in larger-scale humanitarian efforts.

 Evernym, a company using distributed ledger technology for identity, said it working with the Red Cross and four other global nonprofit groups on a project designed to boost the use and power of digital ID for humanitarian purposes.

Through a program called the Identity for Good initiative, or ID4G, the Red Cross and the other organizations will get ‘free access to the latest tools, technology, and expertise surrounding self-sovereign identity through the Evernym Accelerator Program,” according to the program’s website.

The program normally charges an annual membership fee of $50,00 per year. Besides the Red Cross, other organizations taking part in the program are iRespond, DECODES, Tykn, and Rohingya Project.

The SEC is stepping up their requirements for public blockchains. Newly-released requirements released makes it so that all data must be sourced from hosted nodes rather than blockchain explorers. 

The SEC has just released some new requirements for all public blockchains. From now on, all public blockchains must source their data from the hosted nodes themselves.

These stipulations especially pertain to Bitcoin and Ethereum, but also to Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Zcash, NEO, and XRP. The SEC also says that, as new blockchains gain prominence, these criteria will expand.

The new requirements come at a time when Facebook is set to release the Libra. Data sharing and compliance is a key focus for the SEC during these complicated times. The regulatory body says that more data provided from blockchains will ensure compliance, inform future policy, and also allow for proper risk assessment.

In the future, the SEC will also be looking at more data such as hashing algorithms, hashing power, mining difficulty, coin supply, and blockchain size.

All data is expected to be sent from the hosted nodes through an encrypted feed and must be synced with the existing network.

This will ensure that the data collected is accurate and meets the requirements of any standard financial audit.

The SEC has been getting more and more precise in their position on the cryptocurrency industry.

In April, the regulatory body released a new set of guidelines for security tokens. There’s also an indication that they will be speeding up approvals for pending projects.

Do you believe the SEC will soon green-light many new cryptocurrency projects? Let us know your thoughts below. 

The French asset management association has called for regulators to make it easier for people to trade digital assets through investment funds in a bid to “kick-start” Paris’s role as a financial centre.

The trade body, whose goal is to both promote France as a leader in European asset management and foster the competitiveness of the industry, recommends that new European regulations be created as quickly as possible to regulate activities in digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, qualified as financial instruments.

The French asset management association (AFG) also called on the French market regulator, the AMF, to support the use of blockchain technology in mutual funds, in particular for developing a distributed-ledger system governing the purchase and sale of shares in funds.

“To make France more competitive, the financial sector itself has to be more competitive,” Éric Pinon, president of the AFG, and Jean-Pierre Grimaud, chief executive of OFI Asset Management, said in a joint statement.

According to the association, France’s share of the asset management industry in Europe (excluding the UK) is estimated at 27%, with €4tn of assets under management and 85,000 employees.

“At a time where the capital markets union is being set up in Europe and as Brexit becomes uncertain, these characteristics represent a competitive advantage,” the senior executives add.

The AFG’s report on competitiveness, published on July 9, includes recommendations to promote investment in small and medium-sized enterprises and unicorns (start-ups valued at more than $1bn).

It also recommends reforming the fiscal and accounting framework in France to make it more attractive to foreign businesses.

The report, which blamed Brexit on “the fruit of tensions in the Conservative party and historical ambiguities between the continental and British views of the European Union”, arrives as the prospect of a disorderly UK exit from the EU looms large over the City.

Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and favourite to be the next prime minister, has said the UK will leave the EU by the October 31 deadline “do or die”.

Both the French capital and Frankfurt have been vying for the attention of financial services companies and other businesses that may wish to relocate their European operations after Brexit.To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Bérengère Sim

Bitcoin and other crypto-assets have long divided traditional economists and bankers with some warning over their instability and others praising their ingenuity.

The bitcoin price rebound so far this year has caused some to change sides, though many continue to warn bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will be a mere flash in the pan.

Earlier this year, Christine Lagarde, who has just been nominated to replace Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), warned that cryptocurrencies are "shaking the system"—something that could signal a change in the ECB's approach to bitcoin and crypto and potentially spur adoption.





International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has been nominated to take over from European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi—and her attitude towards bitcoin and cryptocurrencies could be important. 

"I think the role of the disruptors and anything that is using distributed ledger technology, whether you call it crypto, assets, currencies, or whatever ... that is clearly shaking the system," the 63-year-old Lagarde told CNBC in April.

"We don’t want to shake the system so much that we would lose the stability that is needed," she added.Those comments earlier this year follow an interview with Lagarde in 2017 where she warned the power of cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology should not be dismissed.


Meanwhile, the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community has largely welcomed Lagarde's nomination to the top job at the ECB, with some expecting her openness to crypto to be "good for the industry.

""Several people have pointed out to me already is that the next ECB boss is incredibly crypto friendly," Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at brokerage eToro wrote in a note to clients this week.

"Indeed, Christine Lagarde who is set to replace Mario Draghi on 1 November is extremely pro digital assets.""Not bitcoin, of course, but she has advocated already for state-backed cryptocurrencies as well as settlement tokens like XRP and JPM coin.

We can expect that someone so crypto friendly in such a position will be good for the industry as a whole."






The bitcoin price has been charging higher so far this year, pushed on by tech company interest in crypto and blockchain. 


Lagarde appears to have a different opinion of bitcoin and crypto to that of outgoing ECB president Mario Draghi, who earlier this year said cryptocurrencies are not currencies, but "highly risky" assets, distancing the ECB and other central banks from crypto experimentation and the responsibility of regulating cryptocurrencies.

Elsewhere, Lagarde's background as a politician has caused some to predict she will take a radically different approach to running the ECB than that of her predecessors, all of whom have been traditionally trained economists over the ECB's 21-year history.

As the likes of social media giant Facebook and Wall Street banks including J.P. Morgan get stuck into bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, it will become more difficult for institutions like the ECB to sideline them—and Lagarde might find bitcoin and crypto requires more of her attention than she expects.


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Billy Bambrough 

Contributor

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported ...Read More

The agency is asking for quotes from companies that offer a window into what’s happening on blockchain ledgers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to buy a commercial off-the-shelf subscription source for blockchain ledger data to better observe the landscape, according to a recently released request for quote. 

The agency plans to utilize the subscription “to support its efforts to monitor risk, improve compliance and inform Commission policy with respect to digital assets.

” Though the original solicitation was launched in late June, it was amended this week to update the deadline for responses from July 9 to July 11, among other changes. 

Blockchain, a record-keeping technology, validates information on a decentralized public ledger. It’s distributed globally through a network of devices that compute and store data. These computers represent specific “nodes” of the network and are equipped with their own files that legitimize transactions on the blockchain.

Government spending on the new tech is anticipated to grow in the coming years. SEC wants its new subscription to source all blockchain data directly from those hosted nodes (as opposed to secondary sources) and to also include blockchain ledgers’ complete data from inception to present. 

“The subscription shall include all on-node data for each supplied blockchain, in its entirety,” the RFQ requirements said. “At a minimum, the subscription shall include the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. In addition, the subscription shall include as many as possible of the following blockchains: Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Zcash, EOS, NEO, and XRP Ledger.

”The service should also support adding new blockchains, as technology inevitably evolves and new players enter the space. Further, the vendor that’s chosen must run their own node for each supported blockchain, SEC said. 

The contract will last for a year, followed by four 12-month option periods. Any business making an offer must have an active registration in the System for Award Management. Both a written technical quote and a separate price quote are required for the solicitation.