A Chinese District Will Use Blockchain to Guarantee Quality of Food and Medicines

Maria Rodríguez
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A Chinese District Will Use Blockchain to Guarantee Quality of Food and Medicines

More and more companies are using the chain of blocks to verify the origin of different products and the life cycle of them

In the Yuzhong district of the Chongqing municipality, in the center of the People’s Republic of China, it is being considered to use blockchain technology to guarantee the quality of medicines and food.

For this reason, the Food and Drug Administration of that entity announced, this January 31st, the inclusion of blockchain technology in its operations. The news was covered by the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China: The People’s Daily.

Prime Number Chain Technology Chengdu Co. Ltd. is the name of the company that will provide the blockchain technology for the system to be implemented by the Chinese District Food and Drug Administration.

The procedure to guarantee the quality of food and medicines will be carried out through the monitoring of the life cycle of the different products, which will allow applying measures against counterfeiting. Thanks to this idea, the blockchain-based traceability system will give companies the power to centrally manage the registered tracking information, to consult the chain in case of needing data about certain products.

Deng Ke, CEO of PrimeNumber Chain Technology Chengdu Co. Ltd., said that this new system will not only improve the government’s regulatory measures, but also the efficiency in the supervision of these processes. The traceability system of the blockchain platform will also provide a centralized management of information for companies in order to allow them to consult the information of the products.

Advanced steps in China

Luo Lin, Undersecretary of the Group of the Construction Management Committee of the New Petrochemical District of Yuzhong, also revealed that Chongqing Yuzhong has been the first and only China district to create a blockchain technology promotion committee.

Prime Chain Network, from Chengdu, is a company of industrial applications which works in the design and innovation of products based on blockchain technology. Among them, there are several structures, such as the chain of financial custodian, the chain of data transactions, the chain of credit information, the ABS chain, the integral chain and the logistics chain, directed to the business sector.

The firm already has solidity in that industry, specifically in application and productivity. According to local media, this company has already requested more than ten core patents related to blockchain projects.

Even when the Cyberspace Administration of China introduced new regulations for the bockchain companies that operate in the country, in early January the China’s self-regulatory bank organization and the China Banking Association announced they will launch a block-based platform to improve the efficiency at work where this sector takes place.

The project is called “China Trade Finance Inter-Bank Trading Blockchain Platform” and its objective is to use the blockchain technology to direct the financing of trade, transactions and other financial services.

Successful companies in the world, such as Walmart, are using blockchain technology to verify the quality of different products. The companies that most use this system are those which handle perishable products or the ones that can be altered for resale.

With this advance, the Chinese territory is showing the adaptation and acceptance it has for blockchain technology, which little by little occupies fields that go beyond the world of cryptocurrencies, thanks to its ability to store, safeguard and organize data transparently.

By María Rodríguez

Preliminary Version of Ethereum 2.0 is ready

Maria Rodríguez
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Preliminary Version of Ethereum 2.0 is ready

The platform will have updates until the Serenity phase. The intention is to achieve a higher level of scalability

As it was announced a few weeks ago, Ethereum’s developers announced this January 31st the release of the Ethereum 2.0 preliminary version, which will allow solving errors in the network and achieving a better distribution of hash.

This new version will be known as “Phase 0 of version 0.1” and the evolution of this update will contribute to the improvement of the Ethereum’s scalability and security, as explained by members of this company.

The announcement was made through social networks. Terence Tsao, developer of the Ethereum protocol, was the one who published a tweet this week in which he talks about the release of the Ethereum 2.0 preliminary version, which was published on Github. “Today marks the very first ETH2.0 version release, Congrats everyone!”, he said.

Vitalik Buterin commented this version is “almost” complete to integrate Casper into its code. Casper is a consensus algorithm developed to change the way Ethereum is mined. This system allows carrying out a migration from the current Work Test (PoW) to the Consensus Test (PoS). This is just one of the proposals of the updates of path for the evolution of Ethereum.

This launch is the first of a series of broadcasts that will be made weekly throughout the month of February. Each one of them will register new changes of this preliminary version in each update. The publication also specifies that this first version is “relatively complete and approaching stability”.

In Constant Update

EThereum 2.0 is a term used to designate a series of updates proposed by the developers of this network, which will allow the scalability and mining on the blockchain. The proposal seeks to integrate a group of side chains, such as Plasma, Ewasm and Raiden, in order to improve the performance of the Achereum blockockin. The Casper integration is also contemplated to migrate the participation test consensus algorithm.

This preliminary version of Ethereum 2.0 will allow evaluating, in a separate test network, the participation test algorithm, which will eventually replace the current work test algorithm in the definitive version of Ethereum 2.0. All of these updates have been gradually developed in the Sthereum blockchain and follow the steps of a road map.

Currently, Ethereum is in the way of activating its second fork, called Constantinople, which delayed on safety errors in its implementation and is the next step to carry out the full implement of ETherehec 2.0 with the activation of the last phase called Serenity.

The disseminated code this week is part of the first technical and experimental step to specify Serenity phase which is active for this year 2021. However, there is still no official release date. Serenity will be the final update of the entire system of Ethereum, closing its development cycle which started in 2015 with the launch of its blockchain.

This January 31st was also published the code of the new Gorli test network, an open source initiative that will allow customers developers for Ethereum, such as Parity, Gerth, Nethermind and Pantheon, to synchronize their applications, prepare them for the Ethereum 2.0 version and check their connectivity.

According to the official website, Gorli is “the first customer’s test network cruise of authority” in Ethereum. In this way, it is one of the first test networks to initiate new transaction validators on the blockchain, which will become the “new miners” of Ethereum 2.0 due to the migration of the Pow per algorithm POS.

The key customers for fragmentation in this network may perform tests between the months of February and March with the objective of trying the phase 0 of Serenity (Ethereum 2.0) at a more practical level and give way to the new planned development.

By: María Victoria Rodríguez

Group of Indian Banks Will Use Blockchain Technology in Credit Platform for Small Business

Maria Rodríguez
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Group of Indian Banks Will Use Blockchain Technology in Credit Platform for Small Business

The banking sector of that country seeks to increase the number of financing credits for the benefit of small and medium-sized industries

A considerable group of financial entities in India has agreed to establish an alliance in order to create a blockchain platform which allows the small and medium industry (SMEs) to facilitate the processes of requesting credits. This was reported by local newspapers through a report, on Monday, January 28th.

In order to facilitate the growth of small and medium enterprises, and increase the number of loan applications for their growth, a total of eleven Indian banks signed an agreement that will allow the development of a technological platform based on blockchain. This will allow obtaining better profits for the conglomerate of banks in a transparent and consolidated fashion.

Among the banking institutions that join this proposal are important banks that have agreed to invest in the development of the project, such as Kotak Mohindra Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, among others. Their main objective is to give SME owners the opportunity to receive a loan more quickly. This financing will be also registered in a global system which allows, then, to have access to other future loans.

The initiative comes from a consortium called “Blockchain Infrastruture Company”, which is currently organizing everything required for the development of the platform. When referring to this important advance in the banking sector, Viral Achayra, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), commented, during a conference, that it was complicated for the small productive sector to request loans from financial institutions, due to the little bill that they could register.

“The penetration of credit is low for the sector, in which the size of the notes ranges from 10 lakh of rupees (about USD 14,000) to 1 crore of rupiahs (about USD 140,000)”, said Achayra. It is expected that with the implementation of this platform the entire system that the Indian banking sector has for its approval will be structured, and allow financing being more accessible and practical for the small and medium industrial sector.

In this way, it is expected that India will expand its investments in the use and implementation of blockchain technology in some sectors to boost the commercial guild in the region. This is despite the fact that, up to now, regulations in the country are not completely favorable for the use of cryptocurrencies. However, the adoption of blockchain technology is almost a total fact in different aspects of the industry.

In other relevant information, it is expected that the authorities of that country will soon announce progress in the blockchain project called IndianChain, announced last June. The government of India prepared this idea to create a platform that would allow several State institutions, and some private ones, build a channel through which they can use payment applications and storage systems and record large amounts of information.

Also, it is worth to remember that a few weeks ago, the RBI implemented a prohibition measure on banking in terms of conducting negotiations with cryptocurrencies. Because of this, banks such as Kotak Mohindra Bank took severe measures, such as the cancellation of accounts to customers who use the bank for transactions with cryptocurrencies. The crypto-community still hopes cryptoactives to be legal without problems.

By María Rodríguez

Cryptocurrency Exchange Houses in South Korea Work against Money Laundering

Maria Rodríguez
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Cryptocurrency Exchange Houses in South Korea Work against Money Laundering

These measures are important efforts to prevent illegal traffic of assets, money laundering, hacking and other crimes related to the crypto market and the exchange of cryptocurrencies

In a recent publication, it was reported that several of the largest exchanges in South Korea agreed to make a strong alliance in order to reduce or end transactions with cryptocurrencies that may have a criminal origin.

It was disclosed in a report published by the local press of that Asian country that exchange companies such as Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone, Korbit, inter alia, formed a strategic alliance to be able to face acts that could harm their businesses. The objective is to face unscrupulous people looking to do money laundering, massive theft or significant hacking in the different platforms that operate in South Korea.

One of the main measures taken by these powerful exchange houses is to enable a telephone line that will be available in order to allow any user, company, institution or individual person make a report of a possible misuse of any of its platforms, and so to be able to conduct the corresponding investigation, making a formal complaint to the qualified police entities.

According to the report, it is known that the intention is to reduce suspicious negotiations that are linked to the business of the purchase and sale of cryptoactives, which has become increasingly common in the crypto market. But the main idea is not to penalize transactions with cryptocurrencies, but rather to prevent transactions within this business from occurring where the assets are of doubtful origin. We can find among the most frequent money laundering, hacking, or scams with pyramid schemes.

A source linked to these exchange houses revealed that a system that can monitor all the transactions fulfilled was developed. In this way, it is able to investigate the use of those assets. The intention is to authenticate that the assets are legal and avoid new difficulties.

This platform, which will be used by the exchange offices, will be able to instantly audit the assets which enter its system and review the transactions that may be suspicious of a crime. This is the main process the program will execute.

Approved Audits

At the beginning of this year it was known that the exchange houses which operate with cryptocurrencies had been audited by the regulatory agencies of South Korea and that more than 21 exchange offices were authorized to operate normally.

Among these security audits, companies such as Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit, demonstrated to the regulatory authorities that their security systems are high technology and that they represent an adequate level of protection. Although other companies could not prove the same, it is considered that the largest exchange houses have what it takes to be operational.

On the other hand, it is known that exchange houses like Bithumb, and Upbit were accused of falsifying statistics of volumes, negotiations, purchase and sale of assets, both companies denied the accusations, although Upbit is facing different investigation procedures by the authorities.

By María Rodríguez

Amazon Will Need To Issue Its Own Cryptocurrency, According to Binance CEO

Andres Chavez
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Amazon Will Need To Issue Its Own Cryptocurrency, According to Binance CEO

Amazon, one of the world’s most successful companies and a very interested one in obtaining blockchain-related patents, remains a top candidate to issue its own cryptocurrency in the not so distant future, at least according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

In fact, according to the worldwide known entrepreneur, it will eventually be an obligation instead of a choice regarding Amazon and the development of its own digital asset. The American e-commerce giant is famous not only because of its incredibly high volume of sales, but also for investing in several other fronts, including blockchain.

The Potential Power of an Amazon-Powered Coin

Zhao, a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry, provided his insights regarding Amazon in a Tweet written on February 2nd. An Amazon-powered altcoin would hold significant price and utility potential, in theory.

Binance’s (one of the world’s most widely known crypto exchanges) CEO was discussing the online business industry at length in the microblogging site, and he said that it was not a matter of “if” Amazon creates a cryptocurrency, being instead a matter of “when.”

Certainly, the Jeff Bezos-owned e-commerce platform has made noise in the past few months by acquiring blockchain-related patterns and remaining involved with the technology through investments and adoption. However, up until this point, Amazon’s relationship with cryptocurrencies has been nothing but rumors.

The rumors are found in the press from time to time, and one of them is that Amazon could opt to integrate Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method, a measure taken by dozens of Internet-based services and platforms in several countries.

Easier, Faster, and Cheaper

“For any internet (non-physical) based business, I don’t understand why anyone would not accept crypto for payments. It is easier, faster and cheaper to integrate than traditional payment gateways; less paperwork, and reaches more diverse demographic and geography,” Zhao wrote on his Twitter account.

In another tweet, he added that “Amazon will have to issue a currency sooner or later.” Zhao’s views were published around the same time that Twitter’s CEP Jack Dorsey commented that Internet itself was bound to implement a default currency, which could be Bitcoin.

Dorsey stated in a podcast on February 2nd that while he couldn’t be sure about Bitcoin fulfilling the role, it surely was the most appropriate choice to do so. “It was something that was born on the internet, was developed on the internet, was tested on the internet; it is of the internet,” he observed.

A little bit more about Amazon

The king of online retail stores, Amazon is known as a multinational technology company that focuses in e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It was created 24 years ago in 1994, and it is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

It has a privileged spot in the “Four Horsemen” group, formed by Apple, Facebook, and Google. The company has recently shown a marked interest for the blockchain technology. For example, it won patents for cryptography and distributed data storage solutions in November 2018, and was awarded one for a data streaming marketplace in April.

By Andres Chavez

EOS is Positioned in China as the Best Blockchain Protocol

Maria Rodríguez
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EOS is Positioned in China as the Best Blockchain Protocol

This special technology obtained 156 points in its evaluation, which positions it as the best blockchain protocol, according to the Chinese government

On January 24th, the ranking published monthly by the Chinese government about the best crypto-technologies in the country was released. According to the press report in which the results were reflected, EOS is positioned, again, as the best cryptocurrency, with the best blockchain. Ethereum (ETH) reached the second place, as happened last December.

The Chinese government institution responsible for making the list, studying the market, assessing the growth, changes, and popularity of these technologies, is the Center for Information and Development of Industry (CCID) of the People’s Republic of China, through the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

Since last May, 2018, this institution has made public the list called the Public Chain Technology Evaluation Index, in order to guide foreign investors and local merchants on the most reliable crypto technologies and with the greatest demand in the industry.

For the first publication of this year, the institution returned to place EOS as the best crypto-technology, which holds that position since June of last year, and this time its blockchain has received special interest.

In the case of Ethereum (ETH), this cryptocurrency returns to occupy the second place for a second consecutive month. This happens despite the multiple changes that the cryptoactive has undergone since February of last year. In the third place is Ontology.

Other main cryptocurrencies have had improvements in this last classification, among which Bitcoin (BTC), which last month ranked 18, and in this new edition improved three points to be placed in the 15th place; DASH, which occupies the 18th place this time; IOTA, which is ranked 13th; Ripple (XRP), which is number 20th on the list, among others.

The document published some interesting details. It mentioned Ethereum Clasic caused great concern when it received a cyber-attack at the beginning of this 2019, which affected 51% of its platform.

In addition, the report indicates that the best growing cryptocurrencies were Eota, Super Cash and Dash. However, when referring to “applicability” and management, the five main ones are Ethereum, NEO, Nebula, Ontology, Chain and Quantum Chain. The statement also details that the best cryptocurrencies in terms of “Innovation” are EOS, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Komodo and Dash.

EOS in the First Place

EOS.IO is a blockchain technology protocol that also has its cryptocurrency called EOS. This platform was originally launched on January 31st, 2018. The growth of EOS has been one of the slowest in the industry, but its increase has been unstoppable and a few days ago it has achieved a profit rate of more than 35%, achieving daily increases of more than 8 percentage points.

According to experts, the greater interest in the use of EOS, rather than its cryptocurrency, has been the underlying platform of blockchain. Its system has importantly attracted the attention of investors and entrepreneurs due to stability, which represents a great potential for the businesses that these investors seek to realize. Since EOS ranks first in the Public Chain Technology Assessment Index, published by the Chinese government, its growth has been greater and consecutive.

Although EOS is not the first choice for most entrepreneurs and people interested in this technology, it has had a growing interest increase despite the fact that it emerged a short time ago. Some consider this protocol as “a scam”, because it has had losses of up to one million dollars. For others, this has been a viable solution with great potential for the future of crypto-technologies.

By María Rodríguez

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