Blockchain technology news

Italy will add another major use case for blockchain tech in supply chain tracking. This time around, the technology will be used to track cod and artichokes. Bofrost, a startup dealing in frozen food products, has adopted to apply the EY OpsChain Traceability solution that is developed on Ethereum’s Blockchain. Among the two products to be traceable using this blockchain system are the Northern Cod Fillets plus the Artichoke Heart Slices, probably early next month.

The Italian professor who heads Consob, the government body responsible for regulating the securities market, revealed that for the country to achieve significant growth, joint action between the private sector and the Italian public is needed to stimulate alternative investments including cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

The Central Bank of Italy, the government authority of Italy accountable for regulating the Italian securities market CONSOB (Italian Companies and Exchange Commission), IVASS (Italian Institute for the Supervision of Insurance) and the Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE), are trying to get the applications of financial technology (fintech), blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial, credit and insurance industry off the ground but within specific rules and regulations.

Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United States startup, Monsoon Blockchain Storage Inc., to enhance the effectiveness of the technology implementation.

Blockchain technology will be applied to tracking the rice supply chain in Italy and this will help promote sustainable agriculture.

The Asia region is known for its contradictory relationship towards blockchain technology plus cryptocurrency and its decentralized nature. Some countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, etc., embrace it for its innovativeness and disruptive potential, while others try to strictly regulate or even ban it.

The update of the agreement for the maintenance of joint accounts between banking institutions regarding the interbank check was finally approved. This allows in perspective the running of the check process in a new way, i.e. using the technology based on distributed registers, the so-called blockchain, starting from March 2020. The financial technology brings new step for banks and other institutions in Italy.

IBM announces the launch of the IBM Blockchain Platform upgrade, which features a novel extension for Visual Studio (VS) Code, a wide range of industry code models and important tutorials, and the capability to effortlessly change rom development to experiment to production from within one console. The malleable blockchain-based platform is designed on a well-fared open source blockchain which can execute in almost any structure.

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), together with the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), recently published a Guidance document for financial institutions creating accounts for financial technologies (fintechs). The aim is to encourage innovations including cryptocurrency and blockchain within the fintech sector, and protecting the integrity of the financial market.