Blockchain in Action : Round-up of blockchain stories from July 2017

The blockchain journey for most enterprises starts with a curiosity to learn and understand more about the blockchain, how it works, its relevance for the enterprise and how it can potentially transform and impact the business technology landscape through Blockchain Education. Next, enterprises move to Blockchain Experimentation in which they try to test the technology on specific industry use cases through a blockchain proof-of-concept - typically in a test environment. Next comes the phase of Blockchain in Action in which enterprises build a blockchain solution for a specific business processes and go-live with the same to operate on live customer data.

As a trend, in last few months a number of companies across the globe have crossed the chasm between Blockchain Experimentation to Blockchain in Action. In July 2017, the number of news bytes of Blockchain in Action appears to be at an all time high. In this post, I have curated a list of all the caselets that I have read about Blockchain in Action for the month of July 2017. What is interesting is that it covers all parts of the world and all industries. Read on

German Chemical Company Pilots Supply Chain Blockchain 

German chemical giant BASF has revealed it is investigating blockchain's potential in tracking supply chains. It's the first known instance in which the chemical giant has explored the use of blockchain, which the firm said arose from a broader process of looking at new technologies for potential applications.

Ambrosus Implements Blockchain in Food Industry

Ambrosus, a blockchain company, is on its way to further revolutionize the food industry by creating a decentralized system to track produce. Launched last week, Ambrosus is a Swiss startup that has been working on the project for over a year now. The company is building its solution over Ethereum protocol. According to the company, the platform makes use of sensors and smart contracts over blockchain protocol to create a publicly verifiable, community-driven ecosystem to assure the quality, safety and origins of food

Japanese Online Giant GMO Launches Open Source Blockchain Project

Internet giant GMO Internet Inc. of Japan today announced the launch of the GMO Blockchain Open Source Software Project (GMO Blockchain OSS). The system will allow users to develop programs using blockchain as open source. In a first attempt by the company using this platform, the company has developed an open source medical record sharing system and launched it on July 6th, 2017.

London Stock Exchange Group is Using Blockchain to Record Unlisted Securities

A subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group is using blockchain to help unlisted small businesses tap resources previously only available to larger, public companies. Developed by London Stock Exchange subsidiary Borsa Italiana, the blockchain platform, built with IBM Blockchain, is being designed to digitize both securities ownership and the capital structure of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

A Russian Airline Is Now Using Blockchain to Issue Tickets

Russia's biggest airline is now issuing passenger tickets on a blockchain with support from the country's largest private bank. According to a local report by the media outlet Kommersant, the airline S7 and its ticketing agent S7 Ticket reportedly began the sales on the ethereum blockchain this week. Lending support is Alfa-Bank, Russia's biggest private banking institution.

Luxembourg funds industry completes first live blockchain transaction

Investors have completed the first live share purchases over a blockchain-powered fund distribution platform. The cash for share transactions were executed for Natixis Asset Management funds using a platform co-developed by Luxembourg Stock Exchange subsidiary Fundsquare, InTech and KPMG.

BNP Paribas loads first share registers on to blockchain platform

BNP Paribas Securities Services and crowdfunding outfit SmartAngels have loaded the share registers of five of their clients onto a new platform designed to allow private companies to issue securities on the primary market and give investors access to the secondary market using blockchain technology.

Anonymous Deliveries: Canada Introduces Blockchain, Tor-Based Delivery System

Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and Concordia University in Quebec have introduced a Blockchain-based system which utilizes onion routing techniques to facilitate anonymous deliveries

ANZ and Westpac put bank guarantees on the distributed ledger 

ANZ, Westpac and IBM have successfully completed a trial run of distributed ledger technology to update the decades-old process of issuing, tracking and claiming on bank guarantees.

Mizuho completes DLT-based trade finance transaction

Mizuho has completed a trade finance transaction between Australia and Japan, digitising all necessary documentation and sharing the data with multiple participants across a distributed ledger.

Do you think that blockchain has finally arrived? Are there any other stories of blockchain in action that you have read or seen in July 2017? Leave a comment / link below.

NOTE: Content in this post has been curated from the links referenced in the original article