The supreme audit institution of the United States, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), posted two job positions with its Innovation Lab concerning the development of prototype applications for blockchain technology during March. Cointelegraph spoke to Chuck Young, the managing director of public affairs at GAO, to find out more about the agency’s interest in distributed ledger technologies, or DLT. GAO to refine auditing processes for blockchain Young stated that GAO's primary application for blockchain will be as “a digital financial ledger” — indicating that the chief auditor is planning to use blockchain to move value. GAO has also identified “supply …

The United States Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Innovation Lab posted ads for job positions to develop “use case prototypes” for blockchain technologies in late-March. GAO is the supreme audit institution of the U.S. government and provides evaluation and investigative services for Congress. GAO to explore prototype applications for DLT The two positions seek an ‘Interdisciplinary Computer Engineer/Computer Scientist’ and an ‘Interdisciplinary Assistant Director, Computer Scientist/Engineer’ to explore “emerging technologies” including blockchain. Both roles will be overseen by GAO’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics (STAA) Team’s Innovation Lab. The listings show that the lab is creating a unit to “[i]dentify, develop, …

A new blockchain course offered by the Australian National University (ANU)’s law school commenced this year with support from Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). Cointelegraph spoke to Lauren Weymouth, the senior manager of the UBRI’s University Partnerships Program, and Scott Chamberlain, the academic running the curriculum, to find out more about how blockchain can disrupt the legal industry and the partnership between the ANU and UBRI. Chamberlain will be working alongside the developer behind the Toast XRPL Wallet, Richard Holland, to develop and deliver the course. ANU law school launches blockchain course Chamberlain states that the first unit will …

The head of the digital innovation and blockchain unit at the European Commission (EC), Pēteris Zilgalvis, explained the concise benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in an interview to The Banker, a subsidiary of the Financial Times. In the interview, published on April 3, Zilgalvis talked about the benefits and challenges of the technology. According to him, blockchain provides a powerful framework for data sharing, something that can't be done by normal databases: “We think that it presents an excellent technology for situations where different stakeholders need to collaborate but, due to competition or legal reasons, they do not want …

Four of Brazil’s financial regulatory institutions are collaborating to build a streamlined blockchain-based data-sharing platform to perform background checks on political representatives and corporations. The platform, dubbed PIER, was developed by Brazil’s central bank Banco Central do Brasil (BCB). The platform saw initial participation from the BCB, the Brazilian private insurance superintendent, and the local securities regulator to inform its database. Brazil’s social security supervisor is set to soon participate in the program too. The Brazilian government is also contemplating incorporating data collected by the country’s judiciary, trade boards, and international financial bodies into the PIER system. Brazilian regulators use …

The Australian National University (ANU)’s law school will roll out two new courses in its Masters program this year exploring the impact of blockchain on the legal field. The courses are being developed with the assistance of Ripple’s Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) — a program that seeks to collaborate with universities to examine emerging trends and developments in distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrency and digital payments. ANU is offering courses examining the intersection between blockchain and law, as do a number of other Australian universities. The University of Melbourne and The University of Southern Queensland offer courses explicitly concerned with DLT …

Overstock’s blockchain accelerator, Medici Ventures, announced a global expansion of the distributed ledger technology (DLT)-powered agritech platform GrainChain. Medici Ventures published a press release on March 27 announcing that GrainChain’s expansion will be executed in collaboration with fintech company Symbiont — with GrainChain set to transition from HyperLedger Fabric to Symbiont’s enterprise blockchain platform, Assembly. Medici is a shareholder in both GrainChain and Symbiont. Medici Ventures plots global expansion of GrainChain GrainChain seeks to speed up and remove friction capital circulation in the agricultural market through the use of smart contracts. Farmers can also track their produce as it moves …

The World Health Organization (WHO) has partnered on March 28 with major blockchain and tech companies to launch a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based platform for sharing data concerning the coronavirus pandemic. The platform, MiPasa, is built on top of Hyperledger Fabric and seeks to enable “early detection of COVID-19 carriers and infection hotspots. MiPasa has been launched in partnership with technology company IBM, computer firm Oracle, enterprise blockchain platform Hacera and IT corporation Microsoft. WHO launches blockchain-based platform to fight COVID-19 The platform purports to facilitate “fully private information sharing between individuals, state authorities and health institutions.” The project cross-references …

On March 18, Attestiv, a firm combating digital fraud and deep-fakes using blockchain technology, announced that it had secured funds exceeding $2 million in a seed offering. Cointelegraph recently spoke to Attestiv’s CEO, Nico Vekiarides, to analyze his thoughts on blockchain’s role in combating fake news and digital fraud in the insurance industry. Cointelegraph: Can we get an overview of how the Attestiv platform works? Nicos Vekiarides: Attestiv provides authenticity for digital photos, videos, and documents by registering a fingerprint to a blockchain when a digital asset is captured. While it does not contain the asset itself, the digital fingerprint …

Major European financial institutions are jointly launching a blockchain-based platform for the investment fund industry. The system was initially incubated by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and its affiliate Fundsquare, which, alongside Clearstream, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Natixis Investment Managers, have announced a Series A investment round for “FundsDLT.” FundsDLT for cost reduction According to a March 17 announcement, the FundsDLT platform is based on Ethereum’s (ETH) blockchain and allows asset managers, distributors, asset servicers, and the supply chain to reduce costs. The cost reduction is achieved by removing redundant activities while providing transparency and allowing digital fund distribution. A …

On March 7, three monetary and cryptocurrency experts discussed the challenges and prospects of central bank-issued digital currencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Bitcoin Expo 2020. The panelists acknowledged that distributed ledger technologies (DLT) could improve the existing global monetary system, however, argued that significant challenges persist regarding the privacy, interoperability, and scalability of blockchains. IMF official: central banks must not rush to adopt DLT Sonja Davidovic, an economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warned central banks not to rush to implement blockchain systems without properly vetting the technology first. She stated: “What we've seen a lot …

Update Feb. 29, 02:30 EST: A previous version of this article stated that the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) posted a warning notice against NAGA Markets for being unauthorized to target Cypriots. This information is false as CySEC has issued a warning notice against the unauthorised domain naga-markets.online. NAGA Markets Ltd is regulated by CySEC and is not connected to naga-markets.conline in any way. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) recently published a report discussing the ongoing activities of its Innovation Hub — a cooperative entity that was launched in October 2018 as a platform for engagement between …