COVID-19 Safety, Waves Enterprise Voting and Other Blockchain Initiatives

Blockchain technology remains one of the hottest trends among financial, governmental and commercial organisations worldwide. ForkLog magazine offers an overview of the most interesting recent initiatives.

MakerDAO joined Kakao’s Klaytn Governance Council

DeFi project MakerDAO joined Kakao’s Klaytn Governance Council.

Klaytn Governance Council is an international alliance of companies and organizations that is responsible for operating the network’s nodes and fostering ecosystem growth. Members participate in key business and technical decision-making.

Among the 32 private-sector members of the alliance are LG Electronics, the Philippines’ largest bank UnionBank, and cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Huobi.

The mainnet launch of Klaytn took place in June 2019.

Tencent and ShareRing to develop a blockchain-based digital identity system

Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings объединил efforts with ShareRing to launch a new blockchain-based digital identity system aimed at easing international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the partnership ShareRing will combine its distributed ledger technology with Tencent’s cloud services, and will use Tencent Cloud’s text-recognition and facial-recognition technology. In the current version of the app users can book flights and hotels, and also rent cars.

The aim of the initiative is to help Southeast Asian countries open their borders for tourism and recover from the economic hit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was reported that the platform has already attracted interest from various ASEAN government agencies.

Albany International Airport to test a blockchain-based app to track cleanliness

Against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Albany International Airport in New York state began testing a blockchain-based app to track the cleanliness of surfaces and objects in the airport building.

The Wellness Trace app will provide travellers with real-time information about surface cleanliness before they touch them. Visitors to the airport will be able to access this information by scanning special QR-code stickers with their phones.

Wellness Trace was developed by General Electric (GE) in partnership with TE-FOOD and Eurofins. It is built on Microsoft Azure’s corporate blockchain and aims to enhance travel safety during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

The experiment will run for three months. Airport staff will use the app to monitor cleaning protocols for key areas and objects inside and around the building.

Waves Enterprise launches blockchain-based online voting service

The Waves Enterprise launched a blockchain-based remote electronic voting service. The technology is used at all stages of voting, not only for recording the final results.

“A distributed architecture and the absence of a single point of failure guarantee the immutability of information and transparency for any participant in the process. Smart contracts prohibit access by unauthorized participants to voting and verify all user actions for accuracy”,

Cryptographic mechanisms protect the system from external interference. Voters can be confident in the anonymity of their vote and in the counting of votes due to the decentralization of encryption servers and distributed key generation.

The service uses homomorphic encryption, enabling vote tallying without decrypting the ballots, ensuring vote secrecy.

Factorin’s blockchain platform turnover exceeds $1.1 billion

Factorin’s blockchain platform for trade finance amounted to more than $1.1 billion.

Factorin aims to solve document workflow problems, as well as data privacy and security.

Retail networks, as well as 37 banks and factoring companies and hundreds of supplier companies are connected to the platform. Over the lifetime, Factorin has financed more than 665,000 shipments.

Clients include Russian retailers Magnit and Dixy.

Shelf AP launches blockchain-based car trading in Asia and Oceania

Shelf AP, a unit of the decentralised Shelf.Network auction, opened a blockchain trading platform for selling used cars from Japan to Asian and Oceanian countries.

The platform will allow buyers to track the car’s history from manufacture to sale.

“The blockchain contains various data about the car, including service history, mileage, information about past owners and sales. This increases the security of transactions”, said Shelf.Network founder Lasha Antadze.

Shelf AP has already partnered with major Japanese car exporter Be Forward Co. Ltd., dealer network CarSeven Development Co. Ltd. and software developer Broadleaf Co. Ltd. In the future the company will expand services for exporting used cars to 15 countries in Asia and Oceania.

Founded in 2017, Shelf.Network develops a decentralised ecosystem for international secondary car sales. In addition to dealers and marketplaces, it includes transport, inspection and leasing companies.

Airbnb does not rule out blockchain and cryptocurrency support

Airbnb has allowed that in the future it may consider cryptocurrency payments.

As stated in the IPO prospectus the company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), future success will depend on its ability to adapt to new technologies, including cryptocurrencies and tokenisation.

Airbnb does not rule out that blockchain, artificial intelligence and augmented reality could become key development areas. The company plans to devote substantial resources to supporting its own technologies and platforms.

“However, these initiatives may prove more costly than expected and may not come to fruition,” the company said.

Rostelecom calls blockchain a ‘truly mass-market’ technology

Blockchain technology is becoming mainstream and is penetrating all sectors—from logistics to healthcare. The conclusion is contained in Rostelecom’s recent report on digital trends.

According to the document, investments in blockchain have fallen, but that indicates a ‘cooling-off of hype’ and reduced speculation around it, the authors say.

At the same time, the number of scientific publications and patents related to the technology has risen. China and the United States lead in this regard.

Artificial intelligence headed the list of digital trend leaders.

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