Category: Blockchain

Mobile Phone Retailer Joins China’s Blockchain Land Grab With US Startup Investment

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Dixintong Technology Group, whose parent company, D.Phone, is one of the largest smartphone retailers in China, has entered the blockchain space by acquiring a minority stake in a U.S. startup called Monsoon Blockchain. The two companies confirmed to CoinDesk that the purchasing agreement was signed on Jan. 7, but declined to disclose any financial terms on the deal. However, people familiar with the matter said the deal values the blockchain startup at over $100 million. The partnership between the two companies comes at a time when China is encouraging enterprise…

Dish Network Files Patent For Blockchain-Based Anti-Piracy System

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One of the largest U.S. television providers has published a patent application for a new “anti-piracy management system” that uses blockchain to enable owners to track how their content is being used. Dish Network’s application outlines a system that allows owners to embed an identification mark into the content’s code that can be stored and regulary updated using a distributed ledger. Published Thursday, Dish says the proposal can better monitor and enforce ownership rights, alerting platforms to when content is used without permission. According to the filing, one of the…

Asian Conglomerates Lead $31M Round for Blockchain Remittance Firm Lightnet

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Lightnet, the company behind the Velo Protocol, recently raised $31.2 million in a Series A round. The funding was led by major financial and business groups including UOB Venture Management, Seven Bank, Uni-President Asset Holdings, HashKey Capital, Hopeshine Ventures, Signum Capital, Du Capital and Hanwha Investment and Securities, according to a press release on Monday. UOB Venture Management is the investment arm of Singapore-based multinational United Overseas Bank, while Seven Bank is part of the group owning the 7-Eleven franchise in Japan. Further adding to the notable roster of backers,…

Ultimate Guide to Miami Blockchain Week and TNABC 2020

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Ultimate Guide to Miami Blockchain Week and TNABC 2020 January 12, 2020 by Art Rozenbaum TNABC 2020, the North American Bitcoin Conference, is coming back to Miami for the ninth straight year. TNABC dates back to the early days of Bitcoin, and continues to be a premier event that draws thousands of crypto enthusiasts and professionals from all over the world. In addition to the usual roundup of presentations and networking events, this year, TNABC has also teamed up with the Blockchain Center – Miami. Blockchain Week Gets Kicked Up…

Thomas Carter: The 2 Keys That Will Unlock Mass Adoption of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain in 2020

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by Thomas Carter Blockchain technology saw exponential growth in 2019, unprecedented adoption and interest by governments and institutions around the world validating its utility. But here’s where things get really interesting from an investor’s perspective. 2020 is indeed shaping up to be the tipping point towards the widespread adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency. From a global macro level, the stage is set. “At the end of the ICO craze in 2018 what was apparent was that raising capital with digital tokens was efficient and viable. What also became apparent was…

Why China Is Banning Crypto But Is Bullish on Blockchain

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This post is part of CoinDesk’s 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Flex Yang is co-founder and CEO of Babel Finance.  Babel Finance is one of China’s largest financial service providers.  The firm works with crypto mining companies to fund the volatile industry and products including crypto-backed loans, deposit services, margin trading and derivatives. Since July 2018, Babel has issued $110 million in crypto-backed loans with a balance of $88 million outstanding. Before pivoting to crypto,…

Blockchain Vendor R3 Scores Its Second Patent in a Week

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Enterprise software vendor R3 has won a patent for a blockchain-based record system designed to make corporate information-sharing more efficient. Awarded Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent describes a “system and method for managing transactions in dynamic digital documents” that would provide companies with a shared distributed ledger to supply relevant parties with the same immutable data record. The award comes just over a week after R3 received another patent, that one for a new decentralized payments system that doesn’t have to use a blockchain. Awarded…

Blockchain Bandwagon Company Longfin CEO Settles with US SEC for $400,000

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Venkata S. Meenavalli, an Indian ex-CEO of a once Nasdaq-listed American fintech firm Longfin, has settled with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for conducting a $27 million accounting fraud scheme to inflate the revenue of the now-defunct cryptocurrency company in order to get it listed on the Nasdaq. The company’s share price jumped some 2,500 percent in 2017 after jumping on the Blockchain bandwagon and announcing a blockchain pivot during the height of the bubble.  The Longfin CEO has agreed to pay $400,000 in disgorgement and penalties to…

Measure Protocol Backed with £2m in New Funding for Blockchain-Powered Person-Based Data Marketplace

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Blockchain-fueled data marketplace Measure Protocol has received £2 million in additional funding led by Dynata and Blockchain Valley Ventures (BVV), with Medicys Limited also joining the round. Owen Hanks, CEO of Measure Protocol said: “The new investment is a clear illustration that the industry is starting to pay attention to consumers’ needs, both from a practical and ethical standpoint. The super-power of blockchain is its ability to build trust in a marketplace, and provide a foundation upon which to meet the consumer’s needs for privacy and transparency – whether they are aware of the…

China May Soon Have Its First Blockchain Exchange-Traded Fund

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China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country’s financial watchdog, has recently received an application for listing an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will track blockchain-related stocks as underlying assets. Dubbed Penghua Shenzhen Stocks Blockchain ETF, the application was filed by Shenzhen-based asset management firm Penghua Fund and was accepted by the CSRC on Dec. 24, according to the regulator’s disclosure. The proposed ETF aims to track and reflect the performance of Shenzhen-listed public stocks that have businesses in the blockchain industry. Based on a report from Shanghai Securities News on Thursday,…