Last week, Colorado lawmakers filed a bill exploring how blockchain technology could be applied to water rights management. Now, California is also studying blockchain for use in water rights management, as reported by Cointelegraph. But coming off a severe drought, which saw water restrictions throughout the state, they are facing a far different set of circumstances than Colorado, as water rights in California have always been a highly political issue. The film “Water & Power: A California Heist” examined how a handful of corporate landowners took advantage of a state-engineered system and gained control of its water, leaving local homeowners …

South Africa’s Standard Bank will soon launch its private permissioned blockchain for overseas exchange trades on behalf of corporate clients, fintech news outlet FinExtra reports Thursday, Feb. 28. The platform, which is set to go live in the second half of 2019, is based on the Hyperledger Fabric — a foundation for developing applications or solutions for enterprise with a modular architecture. The South African bank is also planning to connect its foreign currency trading app, Shyft, to the blockchain platform. The blockchain-driven system is expected to speed up the processing of international trades, foreign exchange payments and settlement. In …

Software development company MonetaGo has switched over from Hyperledger Fabric to R3’s Corda as an enterprise blockchain platform, economics magazine Global Trade Review (GTR) reported on Feb. 26. MonetaGo, which previously had ties with both platforms, will now use Corda as it continues its expansion into Mexico and other international markets ahead of a current trial in India. The company offers blockchain-based fraud mitigation solutions for banks and previously operated as a cryptocurrency exchange before changing direction. “With the new deployments that we have coming up in Mexico, as well in other Latin American countries, the regulators themselves have been …

The IT arm of South Korean tech giant Samsung announced it had developed technology to speed up blockchain transactions, the company confirmed in a press release on Feb 14. Presenting at the ongoing IBM Think 2019 conference in San Francisco, Samsung SDS said its new technology, Nexledger Accelerator, had already passed testing with Hyperledger Fabric. “In order to improve transaction processing speed, which is a key consideration in applying blockchain technology, Samsung SDS has developed its own Nexledger Accelerator, which can be applied to Hyperledger Fabric,” the press release explained: “Samsung SDS tested the Nexledger Accelerator in Hyperledger Fabric last …

Intel has launched a commercial blockchain package based on the Hyperledger ecosystem, according to marketing materials published on Feb. 12. Intel, which is a member of the Hyperledger collaboration — hosted by the Linux Foundation along with IBM and other major financial institutions — has announced that its new product is designed for businesses that want to launch their own blockchain fast and effectively. The ecosystem will be based on the Hyperledger Fabric — a foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture. At the same time, the product will use Intel’s hardware, such as Xeon processors and …

The Italian postal service provider, Poste Italiane, has joined the Hyperledger blockchain community, Cointelegraph Italia reported on Jan. 29. Hyperledger is a collaborative project led by the Linux Foundation which aims to create open-source standards for blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). It includes several industry leaders, including American Express, Cisco, Intel , JPMorgan, Deloitte and Huawei. Poste Italiane stated in a press release that joining Hyperledger is consistent with the service’s Deliver 2022 Business Plan. Part of the plan involves the acquisition and acceleration of new technology in the agency’s operations. The announcement draws particular attention to data protection, …

The Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and major telecoms firm Swisscom have developed an integrated, certified e-signature to legally authenticate blockchain-powered smart contracts. The news was reported by Swiss financial news outlet Cash today, Jan. 29. According to the report, a prototype for an Ethereum (ETH)-based smart contract was created by an interdisciplinary team of lawyers and engineers from ZHAW, together with Swisscom. The prototype was then designed to include an interface with a Swisscom-developed e-signature service, which can be used to replace the handwritten signatures that are required from all contractual parties under Swiss law. Once verified, the …

United States-based agricultural conglomerate Cargill has announced that it is investing digital engineering resources to develop Hyperledger Grid, according to an announcement on Jan. 25. Hyperledger Grid is a recently announced project from Hyperledger that aims to streamline supply chains by using blockchain technology. Cargill — the U.S.’s largest privately held company with $114.7 billion in revenue — states that the Hyperledger Grid can “accelerate development of blockchain and other digital solutions for the global food and agriculture supply chains.” Cargill notes that Hyperledger Grid has provided a suite of tools with which it can address agricultural supply chain issues …

Major tech firm IBM has partnered with MineHub Technologies to deliver a blockchain solution that will improve supply chain management in the mining and metals industry. IBM announced the initiative in a press release published Jan. 16. MineHub is a company that uses technologies including blockchain to develop cost-saving applications for the metals and mining industry. The newly announced mining supply chain platform will be built on the cloud-based IBM Blockchain Platform powered by the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Fabric. The solution targets the inefficiencies of the global mining and metal market — which is estimated at $1.8 trillion. These include …

Global technology giant IBM will use its blockchain platform to monitor and trace supplies of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the company confirmed in a press release on Jan. 15. IBM, which has already used the in-house IBM Blockchain platform built on the Hyperledger Fabric in multiple use case environments, will now target the rapidly expanding supplies of cobalt needed for electric cars and consumer devices. The scheme will run in tandem with motor company Ford, South Korean cathode maker LG Chem and China’s Huayou Cobalt. RCS Global, a multinational responsible sourcing company, will also monitor the proceedings. …

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has proposed an air traffic management blockchain, according to a paper published on the agency’s official website on Jan. 10. The proposed system would employ an open-source permissioned blockchain to enable secure, private and anonymous communication with air traffic services. The document notes: “This framework features certificate authority, smart contract support, and higher-bandwidth communication channels for private information that may be used for secure communication between any specific aircraft and any particular authorized member.” The engineering prototype of the system reportedly employed the Hyperledger Fabric and demonstrated that such infrastructure could …

Hyperledger has onboarded 12 new members, including such major firms as Alibaba Cloud, Citi, and Deutsche Telekom, according to an announcement published on Dec. 11. Launched in 2016, Hyperledger is an open source project created by the Linux Foundation and created to support the development of blockchain-based distributed ledgers. The new members were announced at the Hyperledger Global Forum in Basel, Switzerland. The latest general members that joined the initiative include Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of the e-commerce giant; financial services firm Citigroup, Deutsche Telekom, one of the largest telecoms providers in Europe; and European blockchain trading platform we.trade, among …