United States to train foreign service officers on bitcoin and dark web

The United States plans to train officers on digital currency such as bitcoin as well as the dark web and has put up a curriculum in this regard. This was revealed by John Kerry, Secretary of State, Palo Alto, California, at the Virtuous Circle Conference on 10th October.

US Fed explores blockchain use cases with industry participants

The Federal Reserve has established a working group that is exploring financial innovation across the broad range of its responsibilities and engaging with industry stakeholders to discuss the ways in which the payment system could be improved considering the new wave of innovation including distributed ledger technology.

UK Government Actuary’s Department sees potential in blockchain technology

The UK Government Actuary’s Department, in its monthly bulletin for the month of October, has said that blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the current administrative systems used in financial services.

Japan to end sales tax on bitcoin purchases

Japan is planning to end sales-tax collection on digital currency purchases in the spring, which would not only reduce costs for buyers but also relieve cryptocurrency exchange operators of the administrative tax burden, Nikkei Asian Review reported.

Sberbank and FAS Russia launch blockchain-based pilot project for exchange of documents

Sberbank of Russia, along with Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS Russia), launched a pilot project in order to exchange documents using blockchain technology.

ISITC Europe and Oasis to help financial services industry adopt blockchain technology

The International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) Europe is working with Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (Oasis) in order to assist financial services industry in adopting blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and define technical standards, according to reports by banking technology.

Poland holds first public consultation on cryptocurrency and blockchain

The Polish Bitcoin Association, MP Miroslaw Suchoń and the government's "From Paper to Digital Polish" program organized the country’s first public consultation on digital currency and blockchain technology.

Ethereum announces plans for another hardfork

Following the recent sustained DoS attack, Ethereum has announced an imminent hard fork for EIP150 gas cost changes. Ethereum said that “the attacker[s] have been very crafty in locating vulnerabilities in the client implementations as well as the protocol specification.” The hardfork code has been under development for past couple of days and is currently undergoing review and testing.

Digital Currency/Blockchain research studies:

Blockchain an ideal remedy for what ails loyalty rewards programs – Deloitte

Regulatory uncertainty holding back widespread blockchain adoption – Survey

Blockchain-based smart contracts to go mainstream in 2020 - Capgemini

Conferences/ Events:

Applications open for Blockchain Startup Contest

TRUSTECH 2016 event to present conference on blockchain

Moscow to host bitcoin and blockchain conference on November 10

Important deals, partnerships, and more:

BlockCypher and ShoCard join to offer identity management solutions for blockchain

Russian payment processor QIWI joins R3 blockchain consortium

Nasdaq to share blockchain information with Hong Kong stock exchange

EY, Paxos partner to develop blockchain gold settlement service

Wells Fargo and ANZ test blockchain technology for correspondent banking

Fundraising

Blockchain-based marketplace Funderbeam raises $2.6M

Indian bitcoin startup Zebpay seeks $5m series A funding