The Maltese government has awarded 19 students blockchain scholarships worth a total of 160,000 euro ($179,000), local publication the Malta Independent reports May 23. The scholarships were granted by Silvio Schembri, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, using the $351,000 scholarship fund that was set up by Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MITA) and the University of Malta in August 2018. According to the Malta Independent, all the awardees will further apply for a Master's degree in blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT), with separate groups of students specializing in blockchain studies relating to law, finance, business, and …

This interview has been edited and condensed. Hyperledger, an open source project hosted by the Linux Foundation, was created in 2016 to support the development of blockchain-based, enterprise-grade distributed ledger frameworks and tools. All the members of Hyperledger — including such major actors as Intel, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Alibaba Cloud, Citigroup, Deutsche Telekom and many others — find their interest in blockchain technology and discuss it with Marta Piekarska, who is in charge of the project’s ecosystem. We met Marta at the Anon Blockchain Summit in Vienna and talked about computer science, conservative vs. progressive sectors of economy, …

Turkish Bahçeşehir University (BAU) has reportedly opened a blockchain center at Boston's Northeastern University (NEU) to provide informational support on blockchain technology, Daily Sabah reports on May 7. Apart from informational support, the BAU–NEU Blockchain Laboratory's objective is to apply for funds in the United States, the European Union and Turkey, thus boosting Turkey's presence in the blockchain market and attract specialists in the field. Commenting on the cooperation, Chair of the BAU Board of Trustees Enver Yücel said that he would also like to start blockchain-related master and doctoral education programs in partnership with the Turkish Exporter's Assembly. Bora …

Students from 18 educational institutions in Singapore will receive blockchain-based digital certificates starting in 2019, local tech news agency Tech in Asia reports on May 3. The initiative is a part of a Singapore government-level project called OpenCerts, which was co-developed by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Government Technology Agency (GovTech), as well as national educational movement SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and higher learning institution Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP). Powered by the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, the OpenCerts open-source platform is expected to provide a reliable way to issue and verify certificates, boost the security of data, the efficiency of issuance and …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have jointly issued an alert warning investors against fraudulent websites purporting to operate advisory and trading businesses. The alert, issued by the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy and the CFTC’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach, was published on April 24. The warning states that staff from both agencies have recently observed crypto-related investment scams where bad actors are touting “digital asset or ‘cryptocurrency’ advisory and trading businesses,” in some cases claiming they can invest clients’ funds in special crypto trading systems or …

The National University of Colombia is joining the global blockchain consortium for science dubbed Bloxberg, Mauricio Tovar Gutiérrez, co-director of the research group at inTIColombia told Cointelegraph en Español on April 15. Bloxberg is a blockchain initiative formed by 12 research organizations from 10 countries and led by the Max Planck Society, with the National University of Colombia to be the only institution from Latin America. The parties reportedly aim to establish an infrastructure that “broadens the scientific landscape of regionally and nationally governed blockchain networks to become the first truly globally maintained decentralized network by scientists for science.” Tovar …

Two South Korean universities will develop an entire Blockchain Campus with its own cryptocurrency, local English-language daily news outlet Business Korea reported on April 3. Yonsei University, which already has an active blockchain community, will partner with Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) for the initiative, which should launch in the second half of 2019. A dedicated research center, entrepreneurial program outreach and other plans are already in the pipeline, while a student-centered project aims to increase day-to-day cryptocurrency usage. Postech is developing a blockchain-based knowledge sharing system called Engram, which will feature a rewards system using a bespoke …

Tron and BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun has donated $1.5 million to the Hupan University established by Alibaba’s co-founder Jack Ma, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on April 8. The Hupan University was launched in 2015 by Ma in a bid to help entrepreneurs and business owners learn core business skills needed for further development and promotion in the Chinese market. Sun’s contribution will purportedly support the next class of 41 students from 14 industries, with about half representing the Internet sector and half the traditional sector. Commenting on the importance of the university to professional development, Sun …

Chris Larsen, co-founder of San Francisco-based technology company Ripple, and his wife Lyna Lam have donated $25 million in XRP to a university in California, according to an official announcement on April 5. Larsen and Lam contributed $25 million worth of XRP tokens to San Francisco State University’s (SFSU) College of Business through RippleWorks, a private foundation that provides practical support to promising social entrepreneurs. The university will direct the funds to support students studying global entrepreneurial and fintech ecosystems. According to SFSU, the donation is the largest single contribution made in cryptocurrency to a university in the United States. …

The Ethereum Foundation has awarded a grant to researchers at Columbia and Yale universities for the compilation of a new smart contract programming language into the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The development was announced in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on March 6. The beneficiary of the grant is a smart contract R&D project called DeepSea, spearheaded by Professor Ronghui Gu, an assistant professor of computer science at Columbia, in collaboration with researchers at Yale. Gu is also the co-founder of blockchain security firm CertiK, which is also one of the participants in the project that raised “several millions” …

College campuses are the second largest cryptocurrency miners across industry verticals, according to research by tech conglomerate Cisco published in PCMag on March 5. Cisco’s security researchers reportedly investigated cryptocurrency mining activity across various industry verticals. The research was carried out with Cisco’s security product Umbrella, which monitors clients’ network connections to screen malicious activity, including possibly dubious crypto mining. Per the report, university campuses are ranked the second biggest miners of digital currency across industry verticals at 22 percent, second only to the energy and utilities sector, with about 34 percent. Cisco threat researcher Austin McBride reportedly explained the …

The education units of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony and IT equipment services firm Fujitsu are to trial blockchain technology for improving the integrity of course records and grade data. The news was officially reported in a press release from Fujitsu today, Feb. 27. The pilot comes via a joint venture between Sony Global Education, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Research Institute and Human Academy Co., Ltd. — the latter being a language school for foreign students in Japan. Prospective foreign students participating in the blockchain trial will complete a course, “Nihongo Dojo,” which prepares them to pass the Nihongo Kentei, a …