Multiple Russian corporate giants, including state-owned Gazprombank, have created a joint venture that plans to develop projects in blockchain and the digital economy, local news outlet TASS reported June 9. Russian telecom company MegaFon, Gazprombank, government corporation Rostec, and the USM Group have created a joint venture – referred to as MF Technologies (MFT) – that is worth $450 mln and has a 59 percent stake in Russian Internet giant mail.ru. The initiative plans to focus on developing digital financial solutions via Gazprombank resources. According to TASS, MegaFon stated that MFT will: “allow partners to maximally effectively implement comprehensive, innovative …

IOTA and Volkswagen are demonstrating a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) that uses IOTA’s Tangle system for autonomous cars at the Cebit ‘18 Expo in Germany today, June 11th. The PoC enables Volkswagen to use IOTA’s Tangle architecture to transfer software updates “over-the-air” as part of the car manufacturer’s new “Connected Car” systems. Tangle is different than blockchain, in that it does not use “blocks” or mining, but rather is built upon a directed acyclic graph (DAG), a topologically ordered system in which different types of transactions run on different chains in the network simultaneously. According to the PoC press release, Volkswagen’s vision …

DNB ASA (Den Norske Bank), Norway’s largest financial services group, and the IOTA Foundation (IOTA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), according to a press release May 31. DNB and IOTA will now reportedly cooperate to explore applications of the IOTA Tangle, a “third-generation” distributed ledger (DLT). According to the press release, the two parties will work together to find new business models across their respective industries. Lasse Meholm, Head of DLT at DNB, said that one goal of the project is better understand the technology and to let those at the bank who work with clients find opportunities …

IBM CEO Virginia Rometty has announced that in the next two years the company is planning to create 1,800 jobs in France in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT), Le Monde reported May 23. The announcement was made at the Tech for Good summit in Paris, which was hosted by the President of France Emmanuel Macron. Pursuing the idea of making France a “center of excellence” dedicated to artificial intelligence, the tech giant is looking to hire 1,800 specialists in France in areas including blockchain, AI, and IoT. This includes at least 400 …

The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has partnered with major U.S.-based cloud delivery platform Akamai Technologies to release a global payment network based on blockchain, Cointelegraph Japan reports today, May 21. Akamai, a Massachusetts-based firm, was able to test the blockchain platform “under realistic business conditions,” showing a capability for processing a million transactions per second and a capacity for finalizing transactions in under two seconds, according to MUFG’s official press release. Tokyo-based MUFG’s and Akamai’s payment network, which will go live starting in the 2018 fiscal year, will include an interface that functions as a communication network, and will …

Yesterday IOTA announced a major platform release allowing data monetization using micropayments through their distributed ledger technology. The data solution has already garnered huge partnerships from Microsoft, Fujitsu, Bosch, Deutsche Bank Telekom, and others. IOTA has already issued its tokens of the same name under their token sale earlier this fall. The company has created what it considers a better option in Blockchain technology evolution called ‘tangle.’ Through this system, the company is creating a way for connected devices to be able to transfer, buy and sell diverse datasets while creating access to data that often sits unused, all with …

The latest thing in the digital revolution is the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is a web of connected devices that communicate with each other and produce data, like wearable devices, smart cars and smart home features. These products are connected to the Internet and are producing data that is being used to make life more comfortable and simple for consumers. However, with all the data streaming from users these days (one estimate is that each person creates 0.77 GB of data per day!), systems are finding it hard to control and use that data for …