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The South Korean government is literally doubling down on its efforts to trial blockchain in the public sector, adding more projects and increasing available funds for 2019. The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) – a sub-organization of the Ministry of ICT – has said it is aiming to increase the number of blockchain pilot projects in the public sector from six this year to 12 in 2019, as CoinDesk Korea  reported on Tuesday. “In the next year, we are considering expanding blockchain pilot projects in the public sector to 12, and plan to support more than three private-led blockchain national projects,” said Min Kyung-sik, head of KISA’s blockchain team. Further, the government agency will also boost the blockchain pilot budget for 2019 to more than 10 billion Korean won, or $9 million, in addition to the previously reported $9 million fund for both 2018 and 2019. In June, the Ministry of ICT revealed a development plan that would see it work with other relevant...

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced Monday that it has built an ethereum blockchain explorer. The organization  wrote in a news release that its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) is now hosting the explorer on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) through services provided by Bitaccess, a blockchain startup. Using IPFS, it said, ensures web applications are both “unalterable and can be accessed far into the future,” regardless of whether the original host is online or not. The explorer allows users to search the ethereum blockchain for proactively published grants and contribution data, according to Bitaccess. The NRC continued: “These are early days, but NRC IRAP’s experiments with blockchain are expected to provide constructive insight into the potential for this technology and how it may be used for more open and transparent operations for public programs.” According to the post, NRC IRAP launched the Canadian government’s first l...

Despite the fact that the overall cryptocurrency market has declined with around 70 percent since January 2018, interest in blockchain-based technology grows stronger. Yet another major company, UPS, demonstrates its serious intentions for implementing DLT in its operations. UPS Boards the Blockchain Bandwagon The shipping giant UPS has filed an application for a patent with the US Patent & Trademark Office. The company seeks legal protection for a system which takes advantage of blockchain-based technology for storing different types of information within a distributed ledger network. The data includes details about the package’s destination, its actual movement, as well as transportation plans and others of the kind. The patent reads: An exemplary method comprises receiving and storing in a distributed ledger service offers for transporting a shipment unit; receiving and storing in a distributed ledger shipment unit data comprising an origin, a destination, and transpor...

Zheshang Bank, one of the largest privately held commercial banks in China, has completed the issuance of $66 million securities to investors by using its proprietary blockchain platform. Based on public documents , the bank filed its prospectus to the Shanghai Clearing House on Aug. 13 with a plan to issue securities worth 400 million yuan, or $66 million, that are backed by a portfolio of account receivables from various corporations. According to a report from China Securities Journal on Monday, the bank subsequently  completed the issuance on Aug. 17 and became one of the first institutions in the country to have facilitated transactions for securities backed by a group of assets via blockchain. The platform, called Lianrong, was designed in-house by the bank with the purpose of allowing registered companies to broadcast their account receivable assets to potential investors and to further let them settle transactions of these invoices as a securities in a peer-to-peer fa...

China’s Communist Party is moving to make blockchain literacy the norm across public offices with the publication of an explainer for officials and members. Released by the publishing house of the People’s Daily – the party’s news outlet – the book is titled “Blockchain – A Guide for Officials”, according to a report from the Daily on Monday. Starting with an explanation of the origin and features of blockchain, the guide moves onto the current and future applications and challenges the tech brings to the business and legal world. According to the People’s Daily, the goal is to help government officials better understand the concept of blockchain as part of a wider effort to facilitate the development and adoption of the technology. Ye Zhenzhen, head of People’s Daily, writes in the book: “The biggest impact of blockchain lies in its operation mechanism … which seeks to achieve consensus as a way to govern a community. It offers us a brand new angle to think about and resol...