Japanese tech research firm Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a blockchain-based solution for evaluating user credentials, identity and trustworthiness in online transactions, according to an announcement by Fujitsu on July 4. As reported, the solution considers user ratings, stored on a blockchain, to assign every user a “trustworthiness score.” Users reportedly rate each other when a transaction occurs and the technology evaluates this data to make a guess about users’ relationships with one another. Other users can then see how high someone else’s trust score is before agreeing to a transaction, according to the announcement. Fujitsu claims that this solution has …

Five Canadian banks will be employing a blockchain-based user identification system developed by tech startup SecureKey Technologies, Bloomberg reports on May 1. Per the report, the Verified.Me digital identity system is now available to clients of the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Desjardins Group. The service will soon be available to users of the services provided by the Bank of Montreal and National Bank of Canada as well, while Sun Life Financial will reportedly be the first North American insurer to use the system. Bloomberg quotes SecureKey CEO Greg …

Mainstream media corporation Thomson Reuters was awarded a patent for a blockchain-based identity management system, documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released on April 2 reveal. The patent, originally filed on Dec. 22, 2015, describes a system providing identity services capable of receiving an identity from an identity provider system alongside validated identity data, and then storing it on a blockchain in an identity token. Moreover, the patent also describes variations of this procedure wherein the transaction uses a smart contract, the identity data is hashed, or the access to the system used is restricted and requests authorization …

Russia’s Duma Committee on Financial Markets is considering the adoption of a mandatory identification process for users of digital assets, local news service Izvestia reports on March 7. The committee chairman, Anatoly Aksakov, revealed that the authority is planning to amend Russia’s crypto regulation, aiming to establish a special identification process for users of digital financial assets, including cryptocurrencies. According to the planned amendment, dealing with crypto by unidentified users will become illegal, Aksakov said. The chairman stressed that the new initiative is concurrent with the existing legislation against money laundering, with violation penalties reaching up to 15 years of …

The Thai Ministry of Commerce has begun to conduct feasibility studies on the use of blockchain in copyright, agriculture, and trade finance, English-language Thai newspaper Bangkok Post reports Tuesday, Oct. 9. A Thai official from Thailand’s Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO), Pimchanok Vonkorpon, told the Bangkok Post that the study is being conducted with the help of the British embassy in Bangkok. As per the article, the ministry wants to find out whether decentralized solutions can boost the country’s competitiveness and credibility, especially in relation to small business. Vonkorpon added that blockchain feasibility studies will also refer to processing …

The hardware wallet Trezor has been integrated as a password-less login option to Bitex, Coinpayments, CoinSimple, Osclass, and Strip4Bit. The Trezor login replaces the traditional email/username/password approach, and developers hope that more sites will add Trezor as a login option. BitStamp, Drupal, Slush Pool, and even Wordpress are on the “planning to integrate” list. In addition, Trezor now supports Dash. This addition follows previously supported cryptocurrencies Litecoin, Viacoin, Mazacoin, and colored bitcoins. These coin types are supported via Trezor's integration with the wallets Coinprism, Electrum, Encompass, Multibit HD, and Mycelium (which Trezor staff now calls “Trezor apps”). Marek “Slush” Palatinus, …

More than half a year ago, I became the first citizen on the blockchain, which was the second pilot project of Bitcoin 2.0 platform Bitnation. It was invented by Chris Ellis from World Crypto Network and Bitnation founder Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, who I met at a meetup last October. Citizen of the blockchain With a group of people from the meetup that could confirm my existence in time and space, we documented it with photos, signed it with PGP keys, time-stamped and hashed it, and put it on the blockchain. The PGP encryption and the blockchain make the ID secure. …