The Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee has approved the Ursa project, a modular cryptography software library, according to an official announcement Dec. 4. According to the statement, as Hyperledger has matured, projects “have started to find a need for sophisticated cryptographic implementations.” The post describes Ursa as a shift from having each project implementing its own protocols to collaborating on a shared library. Ursa is meant to avoid wasted work on duplicate projects, enhancing security by simplifying analysis and making it “less likely for less experienced people to create their own less secure implementations.” Furthermore, the project is supposed to grant …

Sberbank and Interros Group have carried out an over-the-counter OTC foreign exchange repurchase agreement (repo) transaction employing smart contracts on a blockchain, Reuters Russia reports Nov. 30. The Interros Group is a Moscow-based private equity firm founded by Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin in 1990, with stakes in Norilsk Nickel, pharmaceutical company Petrovax Pharm, and ski resort development firm Rosa Khutor. Head of global markets department and vice president at Sberbank, Andrei Shemetov, informed Reuters that the transaction is real, legally binding, and has been “concluded in electronic format using a smart contract and digital signatures through the IT platform of …

Retail giant Carrefour, headquartered in France and operating in more than 30 countries, is deploying a blockchain food tracking platform based on Hyperledger in its Spanish network, a press release states Tuesday, Nov. 20. The food tracking solution, initially developed by U.S. tech corporation IBM, will be used to track free-range chickens branded as “Calidad y Origen” (“Quality and Origin”) that were raised in the northern region of Galicia without antibiotic treatment. Each package in the Spanish network will be marked by a QR code providing detailed info on the chicken’s date of birth, type of nutrition, packing date, and …

Forex exchange (FX) settlement giant CLS will launch its IBM blockchain-powered netting service within “a matter of days,” according to Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Alan Manquard. The CSO made the announcement at the IBM Think Tank conference in London Nov. 14, as reported by tech news source Computer Business Review (CBR). CLS Group, which reportedly settles on average $5 trillion in payment instructions daily, is a U.S. FX settlement service supplier with high-profile members that include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Barclays, and Citigroup. A netting service entails offsetting and determining the value of multiple positions or payments that are due to …

IBM and data storage firm Seagate have announced a joint initiative to fight counterfeit hard drives using blockchain technology, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph Nov. 8. The project will reportedly use IBM’s Blockchain Platform to help manufacturers, integrators, and business partners better authenticate the provenance of hard disk drives. IBM and Seagate’s solution will work by updating the IBM Blockchain Platform on the IBM Cloud with product authentication data based on Seagate’s security solution Seagate Secure Electronic ID (eID), the latter of which creates a unique identifier at the point of manufacture that can later be used …

Spain’s second largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), has carried out a blockchain-based syndicated loan of $150 million, U.K.-based global financial news agency Finextra reports Wednesday, Nov. 7. The syndicated bank transaction has been conducted on a private blockchain network through a group of three funding banks including French banking group BNP Paribas, Japan’s bank holding Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), and BBVA. Acting as the sole underwriter of the transaction, BBVA also secured the participation of a partly state-owned Spanish company Red Eléctrica de España, as well as two legal advisors, U.K.-based multinational law firms Linklaters and Herbert …

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, is enhancing its Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering outside China, the company announced in a press release on Oct. 24. Following the roll out of its BaaS platform in China, Alibaba Cloud will expand its enterprise-level blockchain service to major international markets including Europe, the U.S., and South East Asia. Based on two blockchain network implementations — Hyperledger Fabric and Ant Blockchain — Alibaba Cloud’s BaaS is now targeting global enterprises, enabling them to set up secure and solid ecosystem for blockchain developments, the press release notes. The blockchain solution …

The central bank of Germany, Deutsche Bundesbank, and securities marketplace organizer Deutsche Boerse (DB) have successfully completed the trial of a blockchain solution in the settlements area, DB’s report reveals Thursday, Oct. 25. According to the report, the trial of blockchain based settlement technology research, or Blockbaster, started in 2016. The main point of the joint research was to conduct on blockchain the full lifecycle of bond issuance, settlement, corporate actions, and redemption, as well as cash transfer including the provisioning of digital coins, transfer between market participants, and settlement of cash payments, the summary states. The transaction volume and …

The Chinese Financial Blockchain Shenzhen Consortium (FISCO), led by multinational telecommunication company Huawei and tech giant Tencent, will soon present its coinless blockchain FISCO BCOS, as revealed in a press release Tuesday, Oct. 18. FISCO consists of more than 100 financial entities including major players such as WeBank, a digital bank initiated by Tencent, and Shenzhen Securities Communication. The consortium is going to present the new platform at the Singapore Fintech Festival, which will take place from Nov. 12-14. FISCO BCOS is described as a set of applications aimed to serve the general public. Per the release, the main strength …

Global management consultancy firm Accenture revealed a new blockchain tool in a press release Oct. 22, its second in a month focusing on interoperability. A week after announcing a supply chain partnership with Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, Accenture said its latest offering facilitated existing enterprise blockchain systems to integrate with one another. Specifically, blockchain platform Digital Asset can now work in tandem with R3’s Corda platform, while Hyperledger Fabric and JPMorgan’s Quorum form another interoperable pair. Discussing the two separate solutions, which the company has already tested, managing director and Global Blockchain Lead David Treat described them as a “game …

Rwanda has partnered with a U.K.-based blockchain startup to trace the mining of the conflict metal tantalum in the country, according to the startup’s press release, published Oct. 16. Rwanda is the world’s leading producer of tantalum, the mineral used in consumer electronics such as smartphones and computers. By using blockchain technology in partnership with startup Circulor, the Rwandan Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board plans to make the production of tantalum more transparent. The press release states that blockchain tech implementation will help “companies comply with the internationally mandated efforts to eradicate sources of funding for conflict minerals.” According to …

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) and Hyperledger announced October 1 they would join each other’s organizations as “Associate Members” in order to support enterprise blockchain adoption. The EEA, an enterprise blockchain organization created in March 2017 by Santander, JPMorgan, and a variety of other members, focuses on improving the privacy, scalability, and security of Ethereum (ETH) blockchain applications. Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger at the Linux Foundation and Ron Resnick, Executive Director of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, explained the impetus for the decision to join together in a blog post: “This will enable more active and mutual cross-community collaboration …