London Stock Exchange to start using blockchain – ITProPortal

LSEG to start testing blockchain technology to make transactions smoother than before.

London’s Stock Exchange is set to start using blockchain to improve transparency for shareholding information among unlisted businesses.

According to a news report by CityAM, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) will use IBM’s hyperledger tech to make info on private SMEs digital. The end goal is to draw more mature investors.

Borsa Italiana, the Italian stock exchange, will kick off the trial by conducting a small test using blockchain to hold a shared registry of shareholder transactions and records. Only issuers, investors and regulators (authorised personnel) will have access to it.

Even though the LSEG joined the Hyperledger project in 2015, together with IBM and a couple of other financial institutions, this is the first time it began testing the technology.

“We are testing the use of blockchain technology in a financial business network where data segregation and confidentiality is vital,” said chief operating officer and chief information officer of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Chris Corrado.

More at: London Stock Exchange to start using blockchain – ITProPortal

‘Buy Bitcoin’ Sign Raised as Fed Chair Janet Yellen Testifies Before Congress – CoinDesk

As Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen testified before Congress today, one attendee had some attention-grabbing advice: buy bitcoin.

Yellen appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to give remarks on the state of the US economy and field questions from committee members. As chief of the US central bank, Yellen also spoke about a recent semi-annual report delivered to Congress by the Fed.

And while Yellen made headlines by expressing her willingness to raise interest rates amidst a healthier economic climate (following years of near-zero rates instituted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis), it was one attendee who drew notice on social media after he held up a “buy bitcoin” sign two rows behind where Yellen was seated.

More at: ‘Buy Bitcoin’ Sign Raised as Fed Chair Janet Yellen Testifies Before Congress – CoinDesk

Xain AG wins Porsche’s blockchain contest – EconoTimes

German luxury sports carmaker Porsche has announced that Xain AG has won its first innovation contest on blockchain technology.

Porsche said that the startup competed against 100 other applicants and won the contest with its unique business idea. The contest was announced in April.

According to the official announcement, Xain will get an opportunity to collaborate with the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart, along with an award of EUR 25,000. It will also participate in the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management’s Accelerator Program.

“The project is a great opportunity. Together with Porsche, we now want to continue our pioneering work on blockchain technology,” says Leif-Nissen Lundbaek, CEO and co-founder of Xain.

More at: Xain AG wins Porsche’s blockchain contest – EconoTimes

Bolivia Arrests Cryptocurrency Advocates, Calls Bitcoin A ‘Pyramid Scheme’ – International Business Times

It’s still illegal in several countries to mine or trade a cryptocurrency like bitcoin. Bolivia officially outlawed cryptocurrency in 2014 and recently started cracking down on the growing bitcoin community. The Bolivian Financial System Supervision Authority released a statement about 60 cryptocurrency advocates arrested last week because “the only thing these people are doing” is taking advantage of Bolivian people and tricking them in a “pyramid scheme.”

Bolivian authorities warned the public to avoid WhatsApp groups with bitcoin traders. Law enforcement agencies reportedly are monitoring social media groups devoted to virtual currencies like bitcoin. Although the Grant Thornton International Business Report estimated 46 percent of 2016 extortion attacks involved hackers demanding a ransom in bitcoin, there’s no evidence to suggest the Bolivian defendants were involved in this type of cybercrime.

On the contrary, these arrests referred to cryptocurrency exchanges as financial fraud. And Bolivia isn’t the only country criminalizing blockchain currencies.

More at: Bolivia Arrests Cryptocurrency Advocates, Calls Bitcoin A ‘Pyramid Scheme’ – International Business Times

Baseball on the Blockchain? One Fan’s Quest to Merge Two Passions – CoinDesk

Words that start with the letter ‘b’ hold power in our industry.

There’s ‘bitcoin’, the foundation-stone, then there are the ‘banks’. Even ethereum can’t escape the clutches of definitional terms like ‘blocks’ and ‘build’. And there’s that other academic casus belli – the Byzantine General’s Problem that started it all.

Which brings me lastly to an unrelated term. I’m talking, of course, about our national pastime: baseball.

First, I love bitcoin and I love baseball, and it’s with no small mental effort that these two topics have been fused together finally in this piece.

I have nobody to blame. I brought this upon myself.Six months have passed since I lucked into a basic exploration of this topic on the spot, at a snap presentation in Chicago. But resuscitating the memory of those fading words into a cogent story left me directionless.

I forcibly alliterated my way out of this mental barricade, one ‘b’ at a time – could our National Pastime be one of America’s lesser studied beneficiaries of blockchain technology?

More at: Baseball on the Blockchain? One Fan’s Quest to Merge Two Passions – CoinDesk

‘Silicon Valley’ plot news: Creator talks about season 4’s plot – Vine Report

The fourth season of “Silicon Valley” just premiered featuring a total makeover of the video chat app created by Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani).

In the first episode, PiedPiper transformed into PiperChat. With the overhaul, the number of users increased constantly. However, the team was having a hard time funding the app.

. . .

Meanwhile, Gavin (Matt Ross) and Jack (Stephen Tobolowsky) were heading home from China. They successfully made a deal to manufacture Hooli Endframe’s box. Gavin then put Jack in another desk job at Hooli’s data center in a much lower basement.

“This season they make a big move,” executive producer Mike Judge told The Hollywood Reporter. He confirmed that the season will feature Richard’s ambitious goal.

“It’s basically starting a new Internet that’s a decentralized version, similar to the way Bitcoin works, that can’t be shut down by anybody because it’s sharded out over multiple devices and spread out in the block chain model,” Judge explained.

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IBM Deploys 400 Blockchain Projects, But Perspectives Are Unclear – The Cointelegraph

IBM President and CEO Ginni Rometty believes Blockchain technology is far more important than Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning.

At the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (NILF) held earlier this month, an annual event wherein businesses and industry leaders come together to discuss the potential of transformative and disruptive technologies, Rometty stated that Blockchain technology will transform the financial industry as the Internet did for information.

Rometty further emphasized that cognition is much more important and larger than AI, as cognitive technologies like the Blockchain enable individuals to augment and evaluate data within a more efficient and practical ecosystem.

Essentially, Rometty believes AI allows individuals to make better decisions and machine learning helps decipher patterns. However, Blockchain and the IBM Blockchain technology offers more than that she notes.

Rometty stated:

“Cognitive is much more than AI. If I were to look at a cardiogram and see the blood vessels moving while trying to look for a blockage, I would view that more as AI. But if were to take all your electronic medical records, images and all data from Fitbit, etc.—every test that you have done—that is really cognitive because I’m reasoning over that data and dealing with a gray area. I’m making judgments and decisions.”

More at: IBM Deploys 400 Blockchain Projects, But Perspectives Are Unclear – The Cointelegraph