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Review "Blockchain" Initiatives Meeting 6 Tue 15 Jan 2019				             REF:UNBACA61

ZIG/ZAG:	UNB - European Commission [EC] - "Blockchain for Social Good [BSG]" Challenge

	3	Update on "Blockchain" Initiatives

		f 2019/01/05 Future of "Blockchain" in Australia - 5 predictions for 2019
		e 2019/01/04 Chilean Treasury "Blockchain" platform for Public Payments
		d 2019/01/03 Thai Gov Agency develops "Blockchain" Tech for Election eVoting
		c 2019/01/02 New York forms "Blockchain" study task force
		b 2018/12/12 Inaugural Meeting of Hyperledger provides impressive new members
		a 2018/05/15 Veridium uses IBM Blockchain to create Soc & Env Impact Tokens

REVIEWED BY DATE PUBLISHED

a 2018/05/15 Veridium uses IBM Blockchain to create Soc & Env Impact Tokens

The full article can be reviewed here

EXTRACTS

IBM announce "Veridium is to use IBM Blockchain Technology to transform the 
carbon credit market  with the goal of making it easier for companies to offset their 
environmental footprints

IBM's "Blockchain" platform "enables clients and developers to engage in Social and 
Environmental Impact Tokens that can be redeemed and traded on the Stellar 
network with less friction"

IBM is an early member of Hyperledger (along with Microsoft, SAP and Accenture)

"For years, we've been trying to mitigate environmental impacts at every point in the 
value chain, however previous solutions still presented significant complexities and 
costs. 

Our work with IBM is the first step in dramatically simplifying the accounting and 
offsetting processes, and therefore ultimately helping reduce costs," said Todd 
Lemons, CEO & Co-Founder of Veridium. 

"Our digital environmental assets are designed to help companies and institutional 
investors purchase and use carbon credits to mitigate their environmental impacts 
today, and even hedge their potential carbon liabilities risks in the future."

"By using a public, permissioned blockchain network, we can help Veridium create a 
new sustainable marketplace that is good for business and good for the world," 
said Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Industry Platforms and 
Blockchain. 

"This is a great example of how industries are being reinvented by blockchain, in this 
case establishing a far more efficient and transparent approach to carbon accounting 
and offsetting that will empower individuals and companies to play a role in improving 
our environment."

Many companies purchase third party carbon credits. 

But the process of measuring those emissions throughout a complex supply chain 
can be confusing and costly. 

Purchasing these financial instruments is often equally complex.

Blockchain based digital assets, or tokens, can enable innovative ways to buy and 
use the underlying carbon offset since they can move and settle swiftly across 
networks

b 2018/12/12 Inaugural Meeting of Hyperledger provides impressive new members

The full article can be reviewed here

EXTRACTS

SAN FRANCISCO AND BASEL, SWITZERLAND - (December 12, 2018) - 

Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry 
blockchain technologies, today announced Alibaba Cloud, Citi, Deutsche Telekom, 
we.trade and 12 more organizations have joined the project. 

This news came during day one of the inaugural Hyperledger Global Forum in Basel, 
Switzerland.

About Hyperledger

Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry 
blockchain technologies. 

It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, 
supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. 

The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger under the foundation. 

To learn more, visit: https://www.hyperledger.org

Hyperledger supports an open community that values contributions and participation 
from various entities. 

As such, pre-approved non-profits, open source projects and government entities can 
join Hyperledger at no cost as associate members. 

Associate members joining this month include Association of Blockchain Developers 
of Saint Petersburg, Business School of Hunan University, Sun Yat-sun University 
and Wall Street Blockchain Alliance.

HealthVerity

"HealthVerity is honored to join Hyperledger to help build and advance the 
development of open source blockchain technology within the healthcare industry," 
said Andrew Kress, CEO of HealthVerity. 

"We've successfully used Hyperledger Fabric as part of HealthVerity Consent, our 
platform that allows organizations to aggregate and manage all individual consumer 
and patient preferences in one central location to comply with evolving privacy 
requirements.

As we continue to transform how the modern healthcare enterprise makes critical 
and defining decisions, we look forward to the support and technical foundation from 
the Hyperledger community."

c 2019/01/02 New York forms "Blockchain" study task force

The full article can be reviewed here

EXTRACTS

New York State is officially launching a cryptocurrency task force aimed at helping 
the state understand cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill last month creating the task force to study 
cryptocurrencies, other forms of digital currency and blockchain technology, 
according to a press release issued Wednesday by the bill's sponsor, Assemblyman
Clyde Vanel.

The task force will be composed of technologists, consumers, institutional and retail 
investors, representatives of enterprises and academics; the members will be
 "appointed" by Cuomo, as well as the state Senate and Assembly. 

The panel will be required to submit reports on the technology by Dec. 15, 2020.

These reports will include proposals on how the state may best regulate, define or 
utilize cryptocurrencies, as well as sweeping overviews of the space, including the 
energy cost of mining cryptocurrencies, how cryptocurrencies are being traded within 
the state, how these trades may be affecting tax collection and a number of other 
aspects.

New York has already developed its own landmark regulation around cryptocurrency 
businesses in the form of its controversial BitLicense.(introduced by Benjamin 
LAWSKY when he was the New York Superintendant of Financial Services in 2014) 

Only 14 licenses have been granted since the regulation was introduced in 2014.

d 2019/01/03 Thai Gov Agency develops "Blockchain" Tech for Election eVoting

The full article can be reviewed here

EXTRACTS

Thailand, South Korea, Japan city Tsukuba and US State West Virginia are cited as
rolling out "Blockchain"-based eVoting applications for the elimination of election
fraud although this is contested by Richard STALLMAN

 "Chalee Vorakulpipat, head of the cybersecurity laboratory at NECTEC, was quoted 
as saying in the report:

Nectec developed blockchain technology for e-voting that can be applied to national, 
provincial or community elections, as well as business votes such as the board of 
directors. 

The goal is to reduce fraud and maintain data integrity"

At this stage, the agency is looking to test the blockchain system on a smaller scale, 
such as for elections in universities, provinces and communities, and is seeking 
partners for the test.

For large-scale implementation, such as for general elections, the agency will require 
more time as "every voter needs to have an affordable mobile internet connection 
and identity verification," Vorakulpipat said in the report.

Several countries have been looking to use blockchain technology for more efficient 
voting processes. 

Back in November,South Korea announced that it was set to test a blockchain 
system in an effort to improve the reliability and security of online voting.

In August, the municipal government of Japanese city Tsukuba tested a blockchain-
based system that lets residents cast votes to decide on local development 
programs.

The U.S. state of West Virginia also planned to roll out a blockchain-based mobile 
voting app to all of the state's 55 counties so that military personnel stationed 
overseas can more easily cast their ballots in the 2018 midterm elections.

e 2019/01/04 Chilean Treasury "Blockchain" platform for Public Payments

The full article can be e 2019/01/04 Chilean Treasury "Blockchain" platform for Public Payments">reviewed here

EXTRACTS

The Chilean General Treasury of the Republic (TGR), which oversees tax collection 
in the country, has launched a "blockchain" platform to process payments, according to 
a press release published 19 Dec 2018.

TGR - a dependent institution under the Ministry of Finance - reportedly first 
met with the Digital Government Division of the Ministry General Secretariat of the 
Presidency of Chile to discuss the pilot in October, 2018. 

At that time, officials announced they would create a blockchain platform to connect 
citizens, financial intermediaries and suppliers.

According to the December statement, the pilot for the platform has now been 
launched. 

The platform stores transactions that are processed by Chilean public institutions - 
such tax payments or patent fees - on blockchain. 

Before recording the transaction, all nodes participating in the process are obliged to 
approve it.

TGR reports that it hopes a common database used both by government, institutions 
and banks will help to eliminate data discrepancies, reduce time spent on payments, 
as well as cut operational costs, while providing the necessary level of security for 
personal data.

The Chilean government is exploring blockchain in several areas, including the 
energy and finance sectors. 

In April, Chile's national energy regulation organization "announced" the launch of a 
project based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain to record data from the nation's 
energy sector.

The Chilean Parliament is now examining a bill on blockchain adoption that 
was "presented" by local MPs in October. 

The proposal suggests carrying out studies on the advantages of blockchain-based 
security and energy solutions.

f 2019/01/05 Future of "Blockchain" in Australia - 5 predictions for 2019

The full article can be reviewed here

EXTRACTS

In the first week of January, 2019 the number of active coins or crypto currencies 
"traded" is in excess of 2000!! 

Apparently, everyone who saw the meteor rise have jumped into the bandwagon, 
hoping to make it big one day or the other. 

Does that make a good story line for human enterprise vs. Avarice? 

There are many arguments that support the future of crypto currencies, but the fact 
remains that they are on marshy ground and can hardly grow the roots to sustain.

On the other hand, Blockchain, the technology behind crypto currencies is 
distinguished from the currency itself. 

Australia has launched great initiatives in adapting blockchain technology for a wide 
range of use cases. 

The 13th largest economy in the world has established itself as the innovation centre 
for block chain technology. 

The talent pool is also deepening quickly with an entire district devoted to blockchain 
innovation in southern Australia. Restaurants, driverless buses, meetup spaces, 
open space put together, is rising to be the Silicon valley for Australia. 

This is a clear demonstration of how the Australian government is taking block chain 
seriously for the benefit of Australians, Australian businesses and governance

In the last one year, Australia has been in the forefront on ISO with regard to 
development of standards for distributed ledgers and blockchain around the globe. 

During the same period Brisbane Airport also became the first crypto friendly airport 
and nearly every retailer in the airport is accepting different types of crypto assets.

On that note,"Blockchain Australia" is now looking at how 2019 will pan out for 
Blockchain initiatives in Australia

Stablecoin

Stablecoin is expected to be launched pretty soon in 2019. 

This will also be first digital currency tied to the Australian dollar. 

The regulatory environment in Australia is very favourable and with Stablecoin tied to 
a fiat currency, we can expect it to garner widespread acceptance by different market 
participants as soon as the coin is launched. 

With new local exchanges expected to be available to Australians soon, it will help 
the ecosystem and encourage adoption of more digital currencies and facilitate 
trading of such securities on a broader scale. 

Launch of stablecoin can also make it significantly easier for crypto currencies to 
come under regulatory framework.

Enhanced Regulation

With crypto exchanges receiving higher regulatory understanding "enhanced 
regulation" is expected to become easier. 

It is also essential that regulator like the ASIC are able to strike a right balance 
between consumer protection and innovation, particularly in the context of new ICOs 
opening everyday to investors in Australia. 

ASIC has repeatedly demonstrated its keenness to work closely with the blockchain 
community. 

Their latest guidelines released in October last also meant that Australian start-ups 
seeking to raise funds via an ICO can have a closer understanding of the obligations 
under the ASIC Act and the Corporations Act. 

This initiative has come in the wake of a new approach adopted by senior 
stakeholders in the government and ASIC leading to digital currencies spared of 
double taxation setting blockchain standards internationally. 

ASIC also launched a publication on MoneySmart to educate consumers on ICOs.

Crypto Focused ETF

The SEC in the United States has been consistently turning down attempts for 
introduction of a crypto focused ETF and this has happened for the last nine times. 

However, a general consensus appears to be in place that approval may be granted
to a fund that has physical backing. 

There can be no doubt that ETFs as a low cost investment for passive investors is 
rising in popularity. 

The SEC is also on record that it could approve a Bitcoin ETF subject to the proviso 
that adequate and correct controls are put in place to prevent and deter 'manipulative 
and fraudulent acts'. 

This calls for a regulated market that is significant in size relative to Bitcoin. 

If the SEC approval does come forth, Australia may follow suit, specially if larger 
institutional investors are also willing to step in.

Crypto Space is Attracting More and More Institutional Investors

Large institutional investors like Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and Blackrock have already 
evinced keen interest in jumping into the crypto bandwagon. 

In the days to come, we might well see institutional platforms that are dedicated to 
bring crypto currencies for institutional investors. 

Institutional investors have already pumped in as much as $248 million dollars into 
crypto currencies as at June 2018.

Use Cases Will Be More Interesting As The Sector Matures

Some 13% of Australian fintech is already operating in the crypto currency and 
blockchain space according to census data provided by EY Fintech Australia. 

Many solutions based on the blockchain technology have already risen to the 
forefront because of their ability to improve public services delivery and trust for the 
public sector. 

In July last (2018), the Federal Government has partnered with IBM in a $1 billion deal in
order to accelerate blockchain adoption, quantum computing and artificial intelligence 
in public sector enterprises.

While these initiatives are in different stages of adoption/implementation, a major 
hurdle is the lack of appropriate policy settings and standards for transitioning in to 
the permissionless environment that distributed ledger presents.

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