On Dec. 13, Quanta Plc., owner of Quanta Technology Limited, a blockchain lottery operator, announced it had signed contracts to acquire a stake in International Lottery and Gaming Limited (ILGL). As Quanta reports, this is ”the world’s first deal to reform traditional lottery.” The companies say that Quanta’s blockchain-based lottery technology will help increase the transparency and fairness […]

New York State is officially launching a cryptocurrency task force aimed at helping the state understand cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill last month creating the task force to study cryptocurrencies, other forms of digital currency and blockchain technology, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman […]

Customs authorities in Saudi Arabia have concluded a pilot scheme linking its cross-border trade platform FASAH with IBM and Maersk’s TradeLens blockchain platform. A press release from Dec. 26 reported the pilot’s conclusion. TradeLens, which IBM and Maersk created in August last year, is intended to be a basis for digital supply chains and launched with almost 100 entities willing to take part in the pilot. For […]

Samsung Next said it has backed nine projects that use decentralized ledger technology, or blockchain. The company has given each of those startups a Stack Zero Grant, through a non-equity program that supports early-stage teams building decentralized technologies by providing funding, expertise, and access to the Samsung Next network. The Stack Zero Grant arose from the company’s […]

Look at the crypto services you regularly use. Admit it: you aren’t in love. Some of them are OK, most of them are terrible – you know it. I’m not referring to the cosmetic allure of those products, which most of the time feel like pre-dial up era, but about how they work, how the […]

Senior executives at United Airlines (UA) and logistics giant UPS think 2019 will not be the year blockchain goes mainstream, the Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 28. Speaking to the publication, UPS chief engineering and information officer Juan Perez and UA’s executive vice president of technology and chief digital officer Linda Jojo remained level-headed on blockchain’s prospects. “We have a […]

The Italian government has published its list of 30 blockchain high-level experts to further its integration of the technology at state level, Cointelegraph Italy reported Dec. 27. The result of a four-month hiring and consultation process, the group will work for free advising authorities how to create a “national strategy on distributed register and blockchain technologies.” The project is being convened by the […]

The U.S. Department of Defense says blockchain technology has “enormous” potential in helping improve disaster relief efforts. The Troop Support division of the Defense Logistics Agency held a meeting earlier this month in Philadelphia to understand how blockchain could have helped its already “successful” efforts assisting in Puerto Rico after the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. The meeting […]

Bank of America (BoA) has filed another blockchain patent, documents with the USPTO reveal. The American multinational investment bank stated that it would use blockchain, the underlying technology which powers the world’s leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin, to handle some portions of its cash handling devices. The patent, titled “Banking Systems Controlled by Data Bearing Records, mentioned blockchain around […]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is looking to join the list of leading destinations for blockchain-related businesses in 2019 due to promising new crypto legislation. Experts commented on the situation to the UAE’s daily newspaper The National on Monday, Dec. 24. As the UAE has announced a new legal framework for initial coin offerings (ICO) and hinted about possible regulation for crypto […]