On Dec. 19, the London-based company Stratis revealed to the public its project that includes sidechains, smart contracts, an ICO and STO platform, and distributed ledger technology (DLT), which simplifies transaction processing. The technology leverages the recently released Stratis C# Full Node, the company’s innovative software, whose codebase is built on the Microsoft .NET Core architecture. The service is aimed to make blockchain solutions mainstream, as developers can use existing languages in the familiar and well-populated ecosystem .NET Stratis recently became a member of the Microsoft Partnership Network, with silver competency as an ISV. The platform is written in the …

Bahamian tech company PO8 has developed a project that aims to register data of excavated sunken artifacts on blockchain, according to a press release published on Jan. 29. PO8’s project addresses blockchain as a unique method to boost the local economy by profiting from sunken treasures in the waters surrounding the island country, which is reportedly worth around $100 billion. As estimated by PO8, the project will contribute $60 million a year to the economy of the Bahamas, as well as create more than 100 jobs at peak seasons. The blockchain-based marine project writes that each excavated artifact will be …

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 …

Blockchain-based smart contracts indubitably fall subject to private international law, a legal expert has argued in a post published to Oxford University’s Business Law Blog today, Jan. 23. Giesela Rühl — a professor of Private International Law and co-director of the Centre for European Studies at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany — entitled her analysis “The Law Applicable to Smart Contracts, or Much Ado About Nothing?” As the title implies, the report argues that the presumed friction between smart contracts and established legal precedent may be over-exaggerated. Professor Rühl opened her argument with the observation that: “[T]he initial …

The value of tokens that over a hundred of initial coin offering (ICO) teams have allocated to themselves has decreased by 54 percent from the initial figure of $24 billion , “due to coin price reductions.” This was revealed in the latest research by cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX published Jan. 16. BitMEX has conducted a research of the ICO market in collaboration with analytics firm TokenAnalyst, looking into treasury balances of more than a hundred projects on the Ethereum (ETH) network. The analysis reportedly made use of machine learning techniques and was based on the interpretation of smart contract data and …

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 …

Blockchain platform Qtum is introducing Bitcoin (BTC) atomic swaps to its mainnet infrastructure, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph Jan. 9. Atomic swaps are a technology that enables the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another without the need for a trusted third party or centralized exchange infrastructure. The implementation of Qtum-to-BTC atomic swaps has been achieved with the use of the Hash Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs) technology and is based on the code of the open-source cryptocurrency Decred. HTLC — according to Qtum’s announcement — are the most secure way of implementing the swaps. The team has also announced …

Blockchain technology has already found its way into local government services in the United States, but Nevada particularly is proactive, the AP reported on Jan. 7. Citing specifically the use of blockchain to issue digital marriage certificates, the publication found that two counties in the Silver State had already integrated the technology or were running trials. In total, 950 such digital certificates, which use smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain for security, had been issued to couples residing both within and outside Nevada since April 2018. However, according to local officials, willingness to automatically accept the new format is mixed. …

Open source blockchain project Qtum has awarded a $400,000 grant to academics at Columbia University to fund the development of a new programming language for Ethereum (ETH)-style smart contracts. The news was announced in an email shared with Cointelegraph Dec. 19. The research and development (R&D) grant will go to a team of two PhD and postdoctoral students, headed by assistant professor at Columbia’s computer science faculty, Ronghui Gu. The R&D will reportedly focus on the design and implementation of a new language named “DeepSEA” and its integration with Ethereum-style smart contracts. An earlier outline of DeepSEA states that the …

Private equity firm GSR Capital has contracted Overstock.com Inc.’s subsidiary tZERO Group Inc. to develop a smart contract token for a sale of cobalt, according to a press release published Dec. 17. tZERO and Hong Kong-based GRS Capital’s partnership is focused on developing an ecosystem in Asia for tokenized commodity purchase contracts that would purportedly improve the supply chain process of rare metals. Additionally, the parties are looking to launch a security token platform in the region, following compliance with relevant regulatory requirements. Per the release, the token will be used for a sale of cobalt, and is expected to …

Coming every Sunday, the Hodler’s Digest will help you to track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions, and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week US SEC Delays Bitcoin ETF Decisions, Changes Deadline to Late February The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has again postponed its decision regarding approval for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) this week. According to a document released by the SEC, the new deadline is Feb. 27, 2019, and they will …

Medici Ventures, the blockchain venture arm of Overstock.com Inc., has purchased $2.5 million in equity in agricultural blockchain project GrainChain, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph Dec. 4. Founded in 2003, GrainChain has developed a blockchain-powered system that enables supply chain parties to track the distribution process of harvests. GrainChain’s blockchain-based financial settlement system allows producers, buyers and sellers to create smart contracts in order to secure funds throughout the grain transaction process. The firm states that their system provides a platform, by which small- and medium-scale farmers can conduct business outside of their immediate geographic area and …