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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...

When Adrian Patten, co-founder of FX blockchain project Cobalt, pitches to banks these days, he chooses his words carefully. In a move that may do much to validate Gartner’s finding this week that blockchain hype cycle is entering the so-called “ trough of disillusionment ,” Patten admitted he rarely brings up the technology, choosing instead to focus on the cost savings Cobalt can bring without the benefit of some of the most popular buzzwords of the last few years. “We try not to mention blockchain or DLT too much in case it complicates matters,” he said. In Patten’s view, many financial firms have taken a “me too” approach with blockchain, exemplified by things like the herd of banks joining the R3 consortium. In addition, most are probably invested in too many proofs-of-concept, he said. “They tend to think, if everybody else is in it, they ought to be in it, just in case a board member asks them what they are doing in blockchain,” he continued. The result is that people hav...