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Indian IT Giant Tech Mahindra To Deploy Various Blockchain Solutions

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Blockchain technology has gained colossal popularity amongst prominent companies as well as governments. Several platforms across the globe have been trying to incorporate blockchain technology into various industries. With almost every country exploring the prospects of blockchain tech, India decided to jump onto the bandwagon. The country’s prominent IT company recently revealed the onboarding of blockchain tech.

Tech Mahindra Partners With Amazon Web Services

On Monday, Tech Mahindra revealed that the IT company was collaborating with Amazon Web Services [AWS] to roll out blockchain technology-based solutions. The platform will reportedly utilize the potential blockchain solutions specifically in healthcare, telecom as well as aviation sectors. However, the Indian multinational tech company intends to deploy blockchain solutions for other services including finance, banking, manufacturing, oil, and gas along with retail.

As reported by The Economic Times, Tech Mahindra is said to look into the aforementioned projects in the next 12 to 18 months. Elaborating on the firm’s latest move, Rajesh Dhuddu, the Blockchain and Cybersecurity Practise Leader at Tech Mahindra pointed out the importance of the inclusion of blockchain tech particularly during the time of the ongoing pandemic. He detailed,

“Global businesses are facing sustained headwinds and struggling to collectively navigate and strategize in this new, unchartered territory and facilitate business continuity in the current COVID world. Ensuring supply chain continuity is paramount and needs more attention in the coming times.”

For the aviation sector, the IT firm plans on utilizing blockchain tech during the delivery procedure to track and trace kits. Furthermore, for the medical industry, blockchain solutions would mainly be used to track and verify deceitful medical materials like face masks, gloves, PPE kits as well as sanitizers.

Additionally, Rajesh Dhuddu highlighted the need for platforms to tackle the issues they face via blockchain tech. He added,

“Our collaboration with AWS will support future pandemic preparedness and accelerate an economic rebound post COVID-19 for organizations operating global supply chains and eliminate siloes.”

Tech Mahindra is not new to blockchain tech as back in July, the Indian IT giant rolled out a platform dedicated to the entertainment industry with blockchain-based digital contracts and rights, developed by IBM’s blockchain platform.

Brazil’s Largest Mining Firm Carries Out First Sale Via Blockchain Tech

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The world seems to have finally realized the fruits of blockchain technology. After prominent companies and establishments steered towards the adoption of blockchain tech, countries followed suit. Several countries have been exploring ways to utilize the blockchain technology in various industries. Brazil’s largest mining company, Vale is the latest platform to hop on to the bandwagon.

Blockchain Tech Not Just For Crypto

While several platforms are still contemplating the incorporation of blockchain technology, Brazilian metals, and mining company, Vale has taken a huge leap by making a sale employing blockchain technology. The made the sale via blockchain to Nanjing Iron & Steel Group Internation Trade, a company based in China.

Touting this move as a milestone for the mining company, it revealed that the Letter of Credit was issued via the Contour blockchain platform. It further read,

“The Letter of Credit (LC) was issued through the Contour blockchain platform whilst the shipping documents and the electronic Bill of Lading have handled via essDOCS’ CargoDocs solution – with all actions carried out through a single, interfaced platform consolidated in Contour.”

Vale, one of the largest producers of iron ore in the world reportedly sold a cargo of 176000 tons of Brazilian blend fines [BRBF] to China from Malaysia‘s Teluk Rubiah Maritime Terminal. This transaction was overlooked by Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad as well as DBS Bank.

The platform added,

“It is an important milestone towards the digitalization of the sales and trade process, bringing innovation to the traditional paper-intensive trade transactions and offering a better service to the clients, as well as predictability in the steel value chain.”

Furthermore, the Brazilian mining firm revealed that hassles with paperwork and e-mails were radically minimized during the process.

Brazilian CBDC

While China is already approaching the release of its Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC], Brazil has revealed that its CBDC is underway. Recently, the President of Brazil’s central bank, Banco Central affirmed that the bank would issue a CBDC by 2022. The bank pointed out that it was steering towards reviving the financial system of the country.

Speaking about the need for CBDC, the President of the Brazilian central bank, Roberto Campos Neto said,

“To have a digital currency, you need an instant payment system that is efficient and interoperable; an open system, where you can create competition; and a currency that has credibility, is convertible and international.”

Power Ledger Announces Plans to Create Renewable Energy Credit Marketplace in SE Asia

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Heralded as the next chapter in smart technology, many startups, as well as big firms are now gearing up to unlock the potential that blockchain holds to bolster the shift to green energy.

In recent developments, Australia-based energy trading company Power Ledger and Thai renewable energy company BCPG have announced plans to expand their long-standing partnership with the launch of the Renewable Energy Certificate [REC] market for Thailand and South East Asia.

BCPG is the renewable energy arm of the Thai state-controlled energy firm, the BCP Group which operates in a number of Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia.

According to the official announcement, BCPG will generate RECs based on meter readings derived from Power Ledger’s peer-to-peer [P2P] platform already in use by the Thai company. In addition, the entire process of issuing, trading, as well as retiring RECs will be stored on Power Ledger’s blockchain.

Power Ledger also claims to be able to process high-volume REC transactions, which can help companies meet their greenhouse gas emission targets.

Dr. Jemma Green, who is the Power Ledger Co-Founder and Executive Chairman said,

“Power Ledger and BCPG are creating the first REC marketplace of its kind in Asia, bridging the gap between buyers and sellers by providing an end-to-end solution that tracks REC generation, trading and retirement through one integrated online system without the need for a broker.”

The blockchain energy firm had previously partnered with the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System [M-RETS] in a bid to launch a REC marketplace in the United State. Green further revealed that Power Ledger was looking forward to building on the work in the United States and deploy a similar model in the wider Asian market.

The two firms have previously worked together in a number of initiatives. One such project is the P2P energy trading network in the T77 urban precinct in Bangkok that dates back to 2018.

Similarly, Power Ledger has previously worked alongside Japanese energy firm Kansai Electric Power Company [KEPCO] to promote green energy use by creating and tracking renewable energy certificates along with solar energy trading.

China Initiates Digital RMB Testing to Educate Citizens

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While the United States has often been at the forefront of technological advances, this has not been the case with regard to the digitalization of its national currency. For the most part, policymakers have failed to see the industry in a promising light that has led to the Western Superpower lagging behind its Eastern counterpart.

As the US and China continued to lock horns, in the digital race, it was the latter that appeared to be way ahead. Its trump card? Digital RMB.

The first mover in the space

China has already begun testing the digital Renminbi [RMB] as well as educating citizens about using it. In addition to running trials of the central bank-issued digital currency, it was also reportedly working towards normalizing it across media.

The country has been working on digital RMB for the last six years. It was the growing popularity of Bitcoin that triggered the development. Expanding the “Blockchain and not Bitcoin” narrative, China is all set to increase convenience, security, and anti-counterfeiting level of retail payment, thus accelerating the development of its digital economy.

However, empowering its country’s economy isn’t the only factor that has bolstered the release of its digital currency. One of the many thoughts that Chinese policymakers have in mind is to increase the influence of RMB.

On the other hand, the US is nowhere near with a Digital Dollar. Even the discussions around it were spurred the call to action because of the coronavirus pandemic and Facebook’s Libra.

President of Chamber of Digital Commerce, Perianne Boring, had earlier stated that if the US does not adopt the ” best technology underpinning the country’s financial system and another country leap-frogs their infrastructure, this could jeopardize US’s standing on the world stage.”

Seeking global dominance

With its CBDC, China is set to become the first country in the world to offer a digital sovereign currency. There are candidates already lined up to roll out the CBDC on a large scale, for example, Didi Chuxing the country’s largest ride-hailing platform, food delivery giant Meituan Dianping to name a few.

On the surface, it looks like China is heading for CBDC utilization for domestic purposes. However, it is no secret that China is not quite satisfied with the US Dollar’s dominance and reach in the global financial system.

Let ‘s look at China’s brief timeline overtaking the US over the last decade. It claimed to have “overtaken” the US as the world’s largest trader of goods in 2014. As stated in the book Renminbi Internationalization, China has reportedly implemented a pilot scheme to expand the use of its national currency for trade settlement with the Southeast Asian nation, which later materialized.

However, the main milestone for RMB was when the IMF added the currency to the Special Drawing Right [SDR] basket, an international reserve in 2016.

World Money and Power Politics

One of the most crucial ways in which China seeks to spread the money and rise up as a strong contender to the US Dollar is through the Belt and Road initiative. According to a paper released by Kiel Institute for the World Economy last year, China reportedly holds more than $5 trillion of debt owed by other developing or low-income nations. This is again just an estimation, nearly half of China’s loans go unreported.

While this may bring in repayment failure concerns by the countries in debt, it is one way for China to “internationalize” RMB.

Speculating on the rise of China’s CBDC along the same line, Lucy Gazamarian, Co-chair of the blockchain committee of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong recently stated,

“If [China] wants its currency to flow more freely outside of its own borders, it has the technological capability to do that. There’s so much trade happening in the Belt and Road [Initiative], 60-plus cities, and there is not a universal currency.”

Gazamarian stated that the USD still needs to be translated and most huge transaction need to flow through the USD and further added,

“So there is a case for the CBDC to become a universal payment instrument in emerging countries as part of the Belt and Road, then [maybe] it could rise up as the world’s reserve currency for emerging countries.”

Deputy Prime Minister of Japan Tips Blockchain Technology As A Possible Solution In Combating Rampant Covid-19 Pandemic

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Deputy Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso has come forward and tipped Blockchain technology as a vital tool in global efforts to counter the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Aso, who also serves as the finance minister of the country, talked about this during the Blockchain Global Governance Conference held in Tokyo, the nation’s capital, on 24 Aug. 2020.

Aso, believes that Blockchain technology can precisely be effective during the process of contact tracing.In addition, he adds that the technology could ensure that the privacy of the user is maintained for anyone found to be COVID -19 positive after contact tracing.

Blockchain technology can provide containment measures directives

The outspoken politician also insists that Blockchain technology can help the relevant authorities to have access to the necessary measures that need to be taken to stem the outbreak of COVID-19 in the future. Nevertheless, Aso asserts that any rising differences that may occur between technology users and regulators need to be resolved first to ensure that this venture is effective.

He added that it is worth noting that certain users of Blockchain technology are very unfriendly to regulators. Many of them assume that regulators lack a clear understanding of the technology, and any innovations that may arise may be impeded. Aso also acknowledges the fact that the rate of Covid-19 infections will not subside soon, so a need for a realistic blockchain-based contact tracing solution might be considered as immediate emergency.

The technology adoption is fast gaining popularity across the globe

Many countries around the world are now working towards the integration of Blockchain technology. Nations such as Colombia, through the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, are integrating their 10 sectors into technology. The Ministry believes that the country can benefit greatly from this action when fully integrated. Also in May 2020, the Colombian government joined various nations in signing favorable bills to the law in support of the adoption of Blockchain. They recently signed the ‘Blockchain bill of rights’which will set favorable conditions for the passage of the tech.
Finally, nations such as Estonia, the U.A.E, the U.S. and Canada have all made significant progress following the adoption of Blockchain technology.

Wipro Looks into the Future as Company Builds Blockchain Technology in Cooperation with Germany’s Uniper

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Although cryptocurrencies were still struggling to pick up steam in developing countries, blockchain technology has enjoyed a stellar run in many sectors. Many industry giants now consider blockchain technology to be an integral part of their work because it makes several processes easier and more hassle-free. Indian IT giant Wipro has become the latest organization to tap into the blockchain market by implementing a small-scale, blockchain-based liquefied natural gas trading platform. The platform will be used for the energy behemoth Uniper Global Commodities SE and Liqvis GmbH, its LNG-for-trucks subsidiary.

The Bangalore headquartered IT company has hedged its bets with blockchain technology because it knows how far the technology has progressed over the past few years. Sources have said that the blockchain platform was jointly built by Uniper and Wipro with an aim to change the way the ing market behaves. The consortium model will enable all ssLNG market participants to partake in the latest industry movements.

The latest model will help traders save costs and make them more efficient in a truly uncertain trade climate. Sources indicate that the platform will offer multiple peer-to-peer trading cycle participants, validation of the state of the goods as well as enabling order and supply placements. Given the new platform, Uniper will be able to enable scalability while at the same time bringing visibility and transparency to its products.

Grigory Shevchenko, the Senior Account Manager Gas Supply and Origination, LNG Business Development at Uniper had stated:

“..when we enter more downstream logistics-heavy markets, we encourage the use of innovative technologies to optimize our processes and operations. Blockchain will enable business volume growth without needing a lot of additional headcounts to manage transactions. This will be true for us and our counterparts that will engage with Uniper through the paperless blockchain platform.”

As the world moves towards a contactless setup, it is imperative that technologies such as the one developed by Wipro become a staple. Wipro officials also said that smart contracts used on the platform are automating important processes such as shipment creation, bunkering, settlement, and invoice generation.

This is not the first time Wipro has dabbled in blockchain technology as the company is an important member in the development of Hyperledger Fabric. Wipro also participates in popular blockchain projects such as Hyperledger Indy and Hyperledger Sawtooth.

Here’s How Blockchain-Based ICONLOOP is Helping in Secure COVID-19 Tracing

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COVID-19 has affected all sorts of countries, communities as well as businesses in countless ways. Over the last few months, several initiatives have come up in aid and help deal with the global health crisis. One of the many industries that have been able to master new opportunities to help amid the pandemic is the blockchain technology.

In a bid to revitalize the stagnant economy and help tourism, South Korea-based leading blockchain technology firm, ICONLOOP.Inc announced that it is all set to help in providing private, secure COVID-19 contact tracing. The company will be mainly targeting the country’s most popular domestic tourist destination, Jeju Island, which has nearly 15 million visitors every year.

In the first of its kind initiative, ICONLOOP and the island’s Special Self-Governing Province have signed a cooperation agreement to introduce the COVID-19 disease prevention system.

As per the official document, the visitors will use a mobile app called ‘Zzeung’ and verify their identity using a Korean telecom service which can also be used to check into tourist destinations and businesses on Jeju Island using QR codes in the app. All the data will be kept private unless a COVID-19 case is discovered, in the event of which the island’s crisis response team will conduct “rapid epidemiological investigation” and tracing.

Talking about the latest development, Jong-hyup, Kim, CEO of ICONLOOP stated,

“This cooperation with Jeju Island is opening new possibilities for real-life application of blockchain DID authentication in the post-COVID-19 era. As more users directly experience safe and convenient DID service at scale, we will realize many more new ways that blockchain technology can be applied to their daily lives.”

Blockchain to the rescue

Blockchain can not only help in tracking public health data surveillance for infectious disease outbreaks by helping the agencies to keep track of the virus activity, of patients, suspected new cases, and more, it can also solve major issues pertaining to donation at a grim time such as current one.

Blockchain can further help in assisting global organizations such as WHO and other health organizations to come together and update each other about the current situation, tackling methodologies, breakthroughs and work towards a common goal to prevent it from worsening further.

The World Health Organization was reportedly working on blockchain and other tech companies on a program to help forward data about the ongoing pandemic, named MiPasa. Built on top of Hyperledger Fabric in partnership with IBM, computer firm Oracle, MiPasa is expected to help with early detection of the virus as well as identify carriers and hotspots.

Even cryptocurrency firms were not far behind. Binance was the first crypto-exchange to respond to the global outbreak. The CZ-led platform launched the “Binance for Wuhan” project and committed to a donation of medical supplies worth $1.4 million.

Following its suit was BitMEX’s operator HDR Global Trading Limited, which announced a grant of $2.5 million to help fight the virus. The grant was reportedly directed towards Gates Philanthropy Partners, Nuclear Threat Initiative, OpenMined, and Our World in Data.

The Stellar Foundation, as well as its rival Ripple Labs, announced donations worth millions for the cause.

Additionally, a decentralized AI hackathon launched by the Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Alliance [DAIA] in a bid to support the medical community in providing solutions and brought together global AI and blockchain projects and developers to create intelligent decentralized tools to combat the pandemic and reduce risks from future infectious outbreaks.

Ethereum-Based Blockchain E-voting in 2020 Presidential Election May Not Materialize

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In the technological sphere, the evolution of blockchain has been tremendous and has triggered the start of a new era in the internet and online service. In the most recent development, the United States Postal Service’s [USPS] patent that mentioned the use of blockchain technology in the U.S. 2020 Presidential Election has garnered significant headlines.

The USPS had recently filed a new patent that appeared to leverage blockchain technology to make mail-in voting a secure alternative to physical polling centers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the global disruption, the need for remote voting is real.

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Let’s dive deep into some of the implications. Jeremy Epstein, the Vice Chairman of the Association for Computing Machinery’s U.S. Technology Policy Committee,  stated earlier that blockchain and internet voting were also susceptible to foreign intelligence attacks on the Internet and that the transmission of ballots via the Internet, including e-mail, fax and blockchain systems, continues to be vulnerable.

His main argument is based on the premise that the idea of malware on the laptops of the voters is often ignored. He further criticized the use of it in the voting process and raised concerns about the potential blockchain hack that could reveal the public vote of everyone.

E-voting continues to remain a critical topic. The tech does emerge as a great candidate, and many studies have found that Ethereum appeared to be one of the most suitable ones, primarily due to its consistency, widespread use, and provision of smart contracts logic.

Besides, according to several studies over the years, it was found that blockchain-based e-voting on Ethereum can essentially protect the user identity and preserve transparency and integrity of data.

While E-voting is often perceived as flawed in the security aspect, it would greatly help in advancing from traditional pen and paper election scheme to a less time consuming, secured with cryptography.

Blockchain can essentially help in transmitting a vote securely at the same time verify the correct vote and a tamper-free electronic record of all the votes while reducing the risks of incorrect vote tallies. This, however, does not eliminate the threat of a 51% attack by a bad actor other security concerns such as cryptographic flaws and software bugs.

Despite this, there are several instances wherein the technology has been leveraged. In April, the Utah GOP convention reportedly picked their nominees using a blockchain election platform dubbed ‘Voatz’. Previously in the 2018 mid-term elections, 144 West Virginian voters used Voatz to cast their ballots for the Senate and House of Representatives as well as for state and local offices.

More recently, the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee was also exploring blockchain technology as a potential solution to participate and vote remotely during the COVID-19 crisis.

All things aside, while the patent published by USPS was published keeping in mind the November elections, it is, however, many believe that it is impossible to develop a whole new, secure and robust system in less than three months. Despite blockchain’s popularity, it is still not a household name and hence it is of the utmost importance that the voters understand the mechanism of the electronic voting system which is not achievable in a little over 70 days.

On the brighter side, the USPS patenting for an important event such as the Presidential election using a blockchain-based e-voting system on the Ethereum network is a testament to the evolution of this space and a solution for real-life technology applications.

Telangana, An Indian State to Explore the Blockchain-Based E-voting Platform

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The Telangana State Government has shown an interest in creating a blockchain-based e-voting platform to be used by local and national governments, enabling voters to cast their votes remotely and privately. In his webinar speech dubbed ‘Exploring Blockchain for Remote Voting,’ the  Principal Secretary of Information Technology  Jayesh Ranjan said that e-voting would first be attempted on a small scale and then extended to the national government. The Webinar was hosted by the Tamil Nadu E-Governance Agency and the Election Commission of India. 

Mr Ranjan calls for state governments to team up and improve the technology

In attendance were India’s public engagement site MyGov, Ministry of Electronics and IT, and organizations working in the blockchain sector. Notably, the Deccan Chronicle reported that the meeting aimed to reflect on the likelihood of implementing blockchain technology in rolling out an e-voting platform for Indian states.

In his further statement, Ranjan claimed that state governments could work together with the approval of the Election Commission of India to improve the technology of facial recognition and encryption tools.

He noted that state governments might use their influence to persuade small institutions, such as sports associations, cultural associations, and neighborhoods, to hold elections through a blockchain-based e-voting platform. When there are enough users, they will move on to persuade the national government.

Ranjan indicated that there should be a requirement for this specific type of technology and one needed to illustrate specific shortcomings that can be addressed through a blockchain-based e-voting platform. Besides, he said an example of Telangana state government T-chits that use blockchain to control chit funds across the state.

Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, CEO, and E-Commerce Commissioner Santosh K Misra approved e-voting to be started on a small scale and extended over time.  He noted that there was a need to develop faith among the public in the light of e-voting systems by emphasizing user engagement.

Chinese National Blockchain Network Officially Rolls Out a Global Website for Global Developers

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The first china’s national blockchain network, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN), has officially launched a global website. The new English version of the BSN Global website, launched on August 10, aims at helping to attract global developers to the initiative.

According to the CEO of Red Date Technologies, He Yifan, the new global website will enable international developers to access BSN services and public services through the site. Red Date Tech is a Chinese Firm, one of the founding members of the Blockchain-based Service Network.

Chinese national blockchain network ramping up global expansion

Moreover, Blockchain Service Network now hallmarks live consolidation of six public blockchains as part of its global expansion initiative. The public blockchain networks featured in Blockchain-based Service Network include Ethereum, Tezos, EOS, IRISnet, Nervous and NEO. The integration of these chains allows developers to create DApps, operate nodes via data storage and bandwidth at foreign BSN data centers. 

The new global website suggests that BSN is preparing to deploy the “Interchain Communication Hub “through the IRITA Interchain Service Center and the Chainlink Blockchain Network later in October of this year.

In addition, the new BSN website reveals several high-profile international tech and blockchain companies as partners with BSN. The companies listed as partners include Amazon Web Services, Google as cloud service providers, while Hyperledger is outlined as a blockchain supply partner. According to Yifan, BSN has great support from a number of high-profile cloud service providers because the idea and vision of the blockchain initiative are appealing.

Blockchain-based Service Network aims to integrate 100 public chains

The state-backed BSN network aims to avail tools for developing blockchain applications to developers, acting as a blockchain hosting hub for small enterprises and businesses. The network has already had a substantial effect since its official launch back in April, with more than 6,000 registered users. 

The majority of the users of the Chinese national blockchain network are government agencies, enterprises and people living in China. According to a report by Bloomberg last month, the BSN is determined to integrate over 100 public chains in 2020. The network currently has just six public chains integrated.