UK FCA selects nine blockchain firms for second cohort of regulatory sandbox

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed the names of nine blockchain firms among others that were successful in their applications to begin testing in the second cohort of its regulatory sandbox. The nine blockchain firms include BlockEx, Disberse, Nivaura, Nuggets, OKLink, Oraclize, Paylinko, Sabstone, and ZipZap.

US State Department seeks intern for new blockchain working group

The US State Department has announced a new initiative focused on blockchain technology and is seeking an intern to work on the project. Called “Blockchain@State”, the new working group will be overseen by the Office of Global Partnerships, CoinDesk reported.

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation releases digital currency guidance

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has published a guidance that outlines its policy with regard to digital currencies such as bitcoin. Importantly, the guidance expresses the department's interpretation of Illinois’ Transmitters of Money Act (TOMA) and its application to various activities involving digital currencies. It lists the activities that qualify as money transmission as well as activities that don’t.

Vermont Governor signs bill approving blockchain study

Vermont Governor Phil Scott has signed a bill last week that mandates a study and subsequent submission of a eport on how blockchain and financial technology will impact employment, tax revenues, and other benefits in the state, CoinDesk reported. First introduced in March this year, the Vermont Senate Bill 135 was finalized by the lawmakers last month.

European Commission launches blockchain research project

The European Commission has announced the launch of a blockchain project that will explore existing, emerging, and potential applications of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) in non-financial / industry sectors. The initiative, “#Blockchain4EU: Blockchain for Industrial Transformations”, has been launched by the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs (DG GROW). The project will run until February 2018.

National Bank of Kazakhstan develops blockchain app for securities transactions

National Bank of Kazakhstan announced that it is completing the development of blockchain-based mobile application in order to conduct transactions for the purchase and sale of securities. The blockchain pilot project involves the usage of short-term notes of the National Bank. The project will enable citizens to buy and sell the notes of the National Bank online with the help of mobile phone, bypassing intermediaries, namely brokers and dealers, without taxes and commissions, the release stated.

ObjectTech partners with Dubai Government's GDRFA to develop blockchain-based digital passports

UK-based ObjectTech Group has signed an agreement with Government of Dubai for its Immigration and Visas Department (GDRFA - General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners' Affairs) project to develop digital passports by combining biometric verification and immutability of the blockchain technology.

Conferences/ Events:

FINRA’s Blockchain Symposium to take place in New York on July 13

Blockchain firm Everex receives nomination in 2017 Remittance Innovation Awards

Funding/Investments:

Blockchain firm OpenLedger secures $1.6 million in seed funding

Blockchain startup Loyyal closes Series A round led by iNet

Blockchain project Bancor sets new record, raises $150M in less than three hours

Blockchain asset fund TaaS invests $1M in Bancor’s $150M token allocation event

Consortium News, Partnerships and More:

Hyperledger blockchain project sets up Performance and Scalability Working Group

Hyperledger blockchain project releases new beta version for Fabric

WISeKey, RIDDLE&CODE partner to develop blockchain solutions for securing IoT

Blockchain firm Coinsilium signs MoU with HyperChain Capital

Lipscomb University’s College of Pharmacy joins Hashed Health blockchain consortium

R3’s open-source distributed ledger platform ‘Corda’ goes into public beta

Blockchain firm OpenLedger partners with Airbitz to integrate Edge Security

Chamber of Digital Commerce welcomes BNP Paribas and BNY Mellon

Indian blockchain consortium BankChain ropes in Microsoft as exclusive cloud partner

Two climate action startups DAO IPCI and Chooose collaborate on blockchain technology

Digital Currency and Blockchain Initiatives:

Blockchain startup Circle launches free cross border payments for customers in US, UK and Europe

SDiX, Kynetix, Everledger partner for blockchain POC for diamond trading

AIG, IBM, Standard Chartered complete multinational insurance pilot using blockchain

Thomson Reuters to release blockchain tool for market data

Calastone completes blockchain PoC of distributed market infrastructure for global funds sector

MIT’s Enigma launches ‘Catalyst’ platform to build decentralized cryptocurrency hedge fund

Swedish state-owned energy company to test blockchain-based p2p energy trading