New York-based blockchain startup Bison Trails has raised $25.5 million in a new funding round led by major venture capital firm Blockchain Capital. One of the 21 founding members of the Libra Association, Bison Trails is providing blockchain infrastructure solutions for more than 20 blockchain protocols to date, the firm said in an announcement on Nov. 19. The new Series A financing round featured a number of major industry investors including venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, American crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase, Ethereum blockchain firm ConsenSys and crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Other new investors included Collaborative Fund, A …

An executive at the Ethereum blockchain firm ConsenSys is launching a new blockchain-oriented investment firm, Aligned Capital. Sam Cassatt, the chief strategy officer (CSO) at ConsenSys, announced that the firm will be seeking to raise $50 million for its first fund in an announcement on Nov. 15. Cassatt, who has been at the firm for five years, will continue to serve as an advisor to ConsenSys while working full-time as a founding managing partner at Aligned Capital. Apart from blockchain, Aligned Capital will invest in safe AI and innovative healthcare According to the announcement, Aligned Capital will be investing in …

When Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that blockchain and artificial intelligence would “revolutionize war,” as Cointelegraph reported on Nov. 4, did he take things a bit too far? Jet engines have revolutionized warfare, and so have missiles and nuclear weapons — but shared digital ledgers? Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, for one, told Cointelegraph that he agrees with India’s minister when he was asked about blockchain’s possible military uses: “Yes, potentially. Digital technologies have been transforming warfare since the 1990’s so emerging technologies such as blockchain have the potential to define the war industry over the coming …

China’s forthcoming digital renminbi is unlikely to use blockchain, considers Ethereum (ETH) co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin. In an interview for CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Nov. 5, Lubin argued that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has little to gain — for its purposes — from the decentralized aspects of the technology. “There’s no real reason” for China to make use of decentralization As reported, China’s digital legal tender — or central bank digital currency (CBDC) — will be controlled by the PBoC and officials have said they expect the asset to “have lots of positive impacts, including …

The Token Taxonomy Initiative (TTI) has unveiled a framework to standardize the construction of tokens. The initiative has made its Token Taxonomy Framework (TTF) available to the public, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 4. The platform-neutral framework will purportedly provide a set of definitions for tokens in various implementations. The TTI includes a common set of concepts, definitions of tokens and their use-cases across industries, a classification hierarchy, a composition framework and other standards. The TTI’s members include major tech, financial, software and blockchain firms including Microsoft, Intel, IBM, ConsenSys, EY, R3 and JPMorgan. The …

Ethereum 2.0 validators can expect to earn from 4.6% to 10.3% as rewards for staking on an annual basis, a senior ConsenSys exec says. 32 ETH required to become a validator Collin Myers, head of global product strategy at blockchain firm ConsenSys, reportedly claimed that in order to become a validator on the Ethereum 2.0, one is required to maintain a minimum amount of 32 Ether (ETH), which is worth $5,760 at press time. Myers revealed the news at a recent blockchain event Devcon 5, Coindesk reports Oct. 25. Ethereum 2.0 is a major network upgrade on the Ethereum blockchain …

Japan, the second-largest source of traffic for global crypto exchanges to date, witnessed a number of industry announcements this week as the country hosted the major blockchain event Devcon 5 from Oct. 8 to Oct. 11. Organized on an annual basis by the Ethereum Foundation, the recent Devcon conference featured leading figures in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries, including Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin. Here is the past week of crypto and blockchain news in review, as originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan. MakerDAO to launch MCD in November On Oct. 9, Rune Christensen, the CEO of the Maker …

Ethereum venture production studio ConsenSys has selected seven new Ethereum-based projects to support with $175,000 of funding. ConsenSys recognizes “more unique ideas” Speaking to crypto industry media outlet CoinDesk on Oct. 10, the company’s head of experiential marketing Yadira Blocker confirmed the latest round of startups to receive cash. ConsenSys has been funding what it considers to be promising projects since February. Since the launch, the ConsenSys Grants scheme has spent $330,000 on 15 startups. “In Wave 1, we saw a lot of applications but they weren’t super strong. In Wave 2, we started to see more credible teams and …

Ethereum (ETH) venture production studio ConsenSys has announced that it had fully acquired Infura, a blockchain infrastructure provider that the firm previously backed. According to the blog post published on Oct. 4, Infura will continue its operations as a wholly owned business unit within the studio. Infura also noted that ConsenSys’s founder Joseph Lubin was one of the startup’s early investors. Centralization criticism Infura is providing Ethereum infrastructure for building decentralized applications, allowing developers to deploy their solutions without hosting their own full node. In July 2019, the firm launched Infura+ and introduced three new subscription tiers. In March 2019, …

ConsenSys, a blockchain startup founded by Ethereum’s (ETH) co-founder Joseph Lubin, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have jointly launched the Impactio platform to bring transparency into philanthropy. Per an announcement made on Sept. 24, a new partnership between ConsenSys and the WWF resulted in an Ethereum blockchain-based platform dubbed Impactio designed to supervise and fund projects within nongovernmental organizations and standalone companies. The impetus behind the initiative is to trace how companies’ funds are spent within social impact projects. What does Impactio solve? Individuals and companies who utilize Impactio should submit their projects, providing clear objectives for aspects such …

Following the first phase of the Unblocked Cash program in Vanuatu, Oxfam is readying to launch the pilot program’s second phase using the Dai stablecoin to distribute disaster relief. Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph, Oxfam Pacific Cash and Livelihoods lead and co-founder of partner company Sempo Nick Williams discussed the challenges and successes of the program’s first phase as well as the changes planned for the second pilot phase. Oxfam executes first phase of trial Throughout April and May of this year, Oxfam conducted the first phase of its Unblocked Cash program across two communities in Vanuatu. According to WorldRiskReport, Vanuatu …

ConsenSys-backed identity management protocol uPort has entered a partnership with Onfido and PwC to develop blockchain-based identity management in the United Kingdom's financial sector. In a Sept. 23 announcement, the Ethereum-based digital identity platform uPort said the three firms are exploring how portable identity verification can improve the sign-up process for customers and reduce compliance costs for financial companies. PwC executive Mike Kennelly added: “It opens up access to financial services, helps reduce fraud and is instrumental in driving more competition into the U.K. banking ecosystem. PwC analysis suggests technological step changes in the banking sector could bring a boost …