Digital Currency and Blockchain Weekly Round-Up – October 5th, 2018

US lawmakers introduce new bill to establish common definition of blockchain
US lawmakers have recently introduced a bipartisan bill to the House of Representatives that seeks to establish “a consensus-based definition of blockchain,” CoinDesk reported. Congresswoman Doris Matsui and Congressman Brett Guthrie have introduced H.R. 6913, the “Blockchain Promotion Act of 2018” in September.

European Securities and Markets Authority budgets €1M to monitor crypto-assets and fintech
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has budgeted over €1 million to monitor financial innovation including cryptocurrencies. The regulator has published its “2019 Annual Work Programme” this week, which outlines ESMA’s key focus areas for 2019 and related budget and staffing numbers.

Seoul to go big on blockchain, announces ‎₩100B startup fund, business complexes and more
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Thursday announced a five-year plan to foster blockchain ecosystem, Yonhap News reported. Park announced a number of initiatives that aim to make Seoul a hub for blockchain development and innovation.

HM Land Registry looks to R3’s Corda blockchain platform for faster and simpler services
Her Majesty's Land Registry, a non-ministerial department of the UK government, has announced that it is exploring blockchain technology for faster and simpler services. HM Land Registry has partnered with software firm Methods, which will utilize R3’s Corda for the second phase of Digital Street. Methods will be supported by a team of global experts from R3, Blockchain Digital, and their wider partner network.

Bank of Thailand pilots blockchain technology in savings bond sales
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has announced that it has initiated a pilot of the DLT Scripless Bond Project that utilizes blockchain technology. The central bank said that it has started to look at the benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and selected the savings bond sales processes as its first use case.

Reserve Bank of India denies setting up blockchain and AI research unit
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has refuted recent reports that suggested it established an AI and blockchain technology-focused research unit. In response to a RTI query from Coin Crunch India, the central bank said, “There is no new unit created formally in RBI for the purpose (Blockchain, Crypto and AI) mentioned in RTI query. Therefore there is no information to furnish in the matter”.

Indian government think tank taps blockchain to fight fake drugs
Indian government think tank NITI Aayog is seeking to leverage cutting-edge technologies to curb the rampant distribution of fake drugs in the country, The Hindu reported. On these lines, NITI Aayog has entered into an agreement with cloud services provider Oracle, hospital chain Apollo Hospitals, and pharmaceutical manufacturer Strides Pharma Sciences.

Google to roll out new changes to reduce risk of cryptojacking and hacks
Google is implementing stricter rules for Chrome extension developers – a move that should help reduce the risk of cryptojacking and hacks, CoinDesk reported. In an online post on Monday, the search engine giant announced a number of upcoming changes which include user controls for host permissions, changes to extensions review process, new code readability requirements, and more.

Investments/Fundraising/Acquisition

Blockchain startup SKALE Labs secures $9.65M in funding led by Multicoin
Crypto exchange Binance invests $2.5M in Australian startup TravelbyBit
Crypto mining giant Bitmain acquires bitcoin cash browser wallet Telescope
Korea Investment Partners invests in blockchain startup TEMCO
ConsenSys invests $6.5M in blockchain startup DrumG Technologies
Overstock's Medici Venture backs blockchain startup seeking to tokenize wine industry

Partnerships/Consortiums

Ubisoft, ConsenSys and others team up to form Blockchain Game Alliance
SAP launches two new blockchain consortia
CaixaBank, Erste Group and UBS join we.trade blockchain consortium
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and Hyperledger become each other’s Associate Members
Ripple and others launch cryptocurrency coalition in Washington D.C.
TokenPost launches PUBLISH Alliance to help media industry fight fake news using blockchain technology

Digital Currency and Blockchain Initiatives

Abra launches new token ‘BIT10’ to simplify cryptocurrency investing
Air France-KLM partners with Winding Tree to tap blockchain potential
Ripple-powered payments app MoneyTap launched in Japan
Blockchain startup Ripple’s on-demand liquidity solution ‘xRapid’ goes live
Siam Commercial Bank brings frictionless payments to ASEAN via RippleNet’s “multi-hop” feature
Singapore’s Pacific International Lines, IBM to trial blockchain to create electronic bill of lading
South Korean telecom giant KT to build blockchain-based donation service
Marsh, Evident collaborate on blockchain-based identity and insurance verification solution
Italian interbank blockchain project enters second phase
TRON unveils Project Atlas, aims to bring blockchain and crypto benefits to BitTorrent
LINE introduces five dApps as it unveils plans to launch token economy
Opera, Ledger Capital team up to explore blockchain applications and use cases
JD.com establishes institute to build smart cities using AI and blockchain
Blockchain firm IOHK launches first open source project “Cardano Rust”
Port Authority of Valencia looks to blockchain and big data to create “smart port”
BlackBerry announces blockchain platform for medical data