“This is very fulfilling because when you thought the subject [of privacy and cryptography] must have run its course, it flares up again.” Those words, from cryptography legend Whitfield Diffie, perhaps captured the essence of the first day of CoinDesk’s Consensus 2018 conference. Diffie famously co-authored a landmark paper in 1976 that laid the foundations for public key cryptography, a key element of modern internet security and of cryptocurrencies. During a freewheeling, jovial fireside chat with zcash founder Zooko Wilcox, Diffie praised blockchains and cryptocurrencies, saying the technology represents a…
Tag: Blockchain
Researchers to Create ‘Moody’s for Blockchain’ Global Rankings
A state-owned scientific institution overseen by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has announced that it will produce monthly assessments of blockchain projects. Revealed during a seminar on Friday hosted by the China Electronic Information Industry Development (CCID), the initiative will see the development of an independent rating system – much like a Moody’s or Standard & Poor – for the blockchain space. Dubbed the “Global Public Chain Assessment Index,” the system will initially focus on 28 major blockchain projects, looking at their technological capabilities and use cases. Established…
JP Morgan’s New DLT Lead: We’re Not Done With Blockchain Innovation
As JP Morgan Chase’s new blockchain lead, Christine Moy has big shoes to fill. And a quandary to resolve. Moy took over last month from Amber Baldet, one of the most prominent figures in blockchain, after she left to form an as-yet-unnamed startup. Around the same time Baldet announced her departure, word leaked out that JP Morgan was considering a spin-out of Quorum, the ethereum-based, open-source project that had been the cornerstone of the bank’s blockchain work. To be clear, those deliberations do not mean Quorum is struggling – big…
Microsoft Unveils New Blockchain Tools for Azure
Microsoft announced the Azure Blockchain Workbench Monday, releasing a new set of tools for developers that work with distributed ledger tech. The Workbench provides “the scaffolding for an end-to-end blockchain application,” and can be set up “with just a few simple clicks,” according to the announcement. Put more simply, Microsoft is trying to streamline the method by which companies and their development teams can build apps on top of Azure-based blockchains. “Today, we’re excited to announce the public preview release of Azure Blockchain Workbench, a new offering that can reduce…
PBoC Researcher Touts More Centralized Approach to Blockchain
Giving up absolute decentralization could solve many of the problems facing blockchain technology, according to Yao Qian, the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency research lead. In an opinion article, published by Chinese business news site Yicai on Friday, Yao summarized the current state of development of bitcoin and blockchain technology and offered his view on how the future of the tech should play out. While praising blockchain’s key features of traceability and smart contract functionality, the research director restated his belief that blockchain’s current bottleneck lies in how to achieve greater…
Sony Eyes Blockchain Use for Digital Rights Data
Japanese technology giant Sony is looking at using blockchain to store digital rights data. In an application published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Sony explains that current digital rights management (DRM) solutions that aim for interoperability “may not be very reliable and rely on one unique point of failure. If the rights locker provider or system goes out of business or otherwise fails, the user loses all the acquired content.” A blockchain could store the required identification information to ensure users could watch the products they purchase, according to…
Salesforce Among 12 New Members to Join Blockchain Research Institute
Cloud computing company Salesforce is among 12 new members to the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI), the multi-million dollar global blockchain think tank announced on Tuesday. Devoted to the study of blockchain strategies, applications and obstacles to implementation, the Institute already boasts the membership of government entities, major tech companies, financial industry players and global corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, the Bank of Canada and PepsiCo. “As with other disruptive technologies, blockchain requires deep study from a variety of perspectives to understand its broader implications,” Peter Schwartz, senior vice president of…
‘WordPress of Blockchain’ Startup Seeks to Solve Enterprise Pain Points
Building enterprise blockchains can be a pain in the neck. Since the technology is so new, much of its underlying infrastructure isn’t yet stable or automated, and as such, it demands that developers spend time rebuilding. The executives of Elemential know that headache well, and as such, are using their company to simplify the process of building enterprise blockchains. To do this Elemential, which is based in Mumbai, India, seeks to remove the pain of “blockchain administration” – which translates into the many hours every week that developers must spend…
Cloud Giant Xunlei Claims Blockchain Advance With ‘ThunderChain’
Xunlei, the NASDAQ-listed cloud network provider, has launched its proprietary blockchain platform, despite ongoing class actions over an alleged initial coin offering (ICO). At a press event in Beijing on Friday, the company announced its open blockchain platform dubbed “ThunderChain,” which is designed to enable developers to build decentralization applications. Based on the practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) consensus mechanism, Xunlei makes the significant claim for ThunderChain that it provides processing capacity in the millions of transactions per second. Xunlei explains that the platform combines its proprietary blockchain with its existing…
The Crypto Craze Has Spread To College Campuses | CNBC
Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, MIT and Stanford are just a few of the elite universities offering courses in cryptocurrencies and blockchain. » Subscribe to CNBC: http://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC About CNBC: From ‘Wall Street’ to ‘Main Street’ to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more. Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/ Find CNBC News on Facebook: http://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC Follow CNBC News on Twitter: http://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC News on Google+: http://cnb.cx/PlusCNBC Follow CNBC News…