Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 5 December 2017
Less words to bid farewell to the absurd. Our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up features R3’s Corda and AWS; gambling with McDonalds; XinFin in Singapore; and Cardano Foundation and Z/Yen Group teaming up.
Enterprise software firm R3’s Corda has made its distributed ledger technology (DLT) solutions available to users of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Now available on AWS Marketplace, Corda allows users to develop CorDapps, or deploy example CorDapps from R3 directly from AWS Marketplace.
According to R3, Corda can be built on by third party providers who can then operate and earn revenue from DLT applications using the platform’s common code and protocols to ensure interoperability. The network of companies working with R3 to develop CorDapps numbers over 60 from a variety of industries. These join R3’s wider ecosystem of over 100 banks, firms, regulators and trade associations. R3 recently launched version 2.0 of Corda, “adding functionality” to the core API in version 1.0.
Online bookmaker Betway has waded into the Bitcoin debate (or media circus if you’re feeling cruel) – and reckons people in the UK will be able to use the cryptocurrency to buy junk food at McDonald’s. It’s offering odds of 1/2 and is also providing odds of Bitcoin hitting $20,000.
Who knows what will happen, but back in August, McDonald’s rival Burger King was making headlines as it launched a blockchain-based loyalty programme in Russia. Dubbed Whoppercoin, named after the chain’s flagship Whopper sandwich, the cryptocurrency will be used to reward customers for their purchases.
Singapore-based XinFin has launched its “enterprise-grade” hybrid blockchain – called XDC Blockchain. The firm says institutions “can keep their financial transactions private but still be verifiable by an immutable record on the public state of blockchain”.
With the integration of its new technology – XDC01 protocol – into its hybrid blockchain, XinFin, like many others, is “looking to change the current scenario where no real standardisation of blockchains exist across the industry”. Its protocol will allow real-time settlement with digital wallets and remittances. XinFin adds that it is currently working with several unnamed institutions in energy, travel, aviation and fintech sectors.
Cardano Foundation, the organisation behind blockchain Cardano, has selected city think-tank Z/Yen Group’s Distributed Futures practice as its partner for a research programme into blockchain applications for its Cardano Protocol and its new cryptocurrency, Ada.
The foundation says it will talk with its community of over 15,000 users on an ongoing basis to work out research priorities. The partnership programme will launch between eight and 12 new projects a year, covering proof of concept and pilot testing, and has already published two joint research papers on the application of smart ledgers, one of which the Dutch government has asked to use in its blockchain work.
