Canada's Southern Alberta Institute of Technology will grant blockchain-based digital diplomas to more than 4,800 Class of 2019 graduating students along with their traditional paper formats. The virtual diplomas will be issued in partnership with blockchain-powered On-Demand Education Marketplace or ODEM.
Money transfer company MoneyGram International joined Ripple's enterprise blockchain network RippleNet to enable faster and secure cross-border settlements for its customers. The move follows an initial strategic investment of $30 million by blockchain firm Ripple in exchange for MoneyGram equity.
Russian authorities have agreed to join the blockchain-enabled digital shipping platform TradeLens. The solution is jointly developed by Danish transport and logistics giant Maersk and IBM by applying blockchain to the world's global supply chain. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Maersk and Russian Ministry of Transport to enable the official launch of the TradeLens platform.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) selected four industry heavyweights to partner it in its program to explore the use of blockchain in tracing and verification of prescription products in the U.S. IBM, KPMG, Merck and Walmart will assist the regulator in its pilot program, which supports the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).
Facebook has tapped investments from major companies Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber, among others, to support its efforts to build its planned new cryptocurrency, the Wall Street Journal reported. The social media giant is now in deal with more than a dozen companies for its blockchain project for the digital currency, Libra. These companies will invest around $10 million each in the consortium
UK insurer Legal & General partnered with e-Commerce giant Amazon to use a blockchain-based system to handle corporate pension deals. The retail life insurer announced that the blockchain solution will be used for pension risk transfer or PRT through Legal and General Reinsurance, a specialist reinsurer of PRT business. The blockchain system is based on Amazon Managed Blockchain.
The Austrian Post has released the world's first blockchain-based collectible crypto stamp, which is a special stamp block that connects the analog and the digital world. The digital counterpart of the crypto stamp can be authenticated using blockchain technology. Austrian Post has issued 150,000 crypto stamps having a face value of 6.90 euros, which can be found in all of its branches.
National Association of Realtors or NAR, the largest trade association in the U.S., made investments in two blockchain startups.
Propy, a real estate startup, has announced a strategic investment from NAR's real estate technology VC fund Second Century Ventures. Further, Forbes reported that Second...
Retail banking sector has been slow to adopt blockchain technology, Bloomberg reported, citing a research by management consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. Compared to other investment banking counterparts, retail banks face greater challenges in gaining the technology's potential benefits, the report noted. The challenges include strict regulatory environment for consumer finance...