Japanese asset manager SBI Holdings leads funding boost for Taiwanese crypto-security firm CoolBitX
Financial conglomerate SBI Holdings Inc. has led a group of investors participating in a Series B, $16.75 million funding round for CoolBitX, a Taiwanese blockchain security company offering services to help crypto-exchanges comply with more stringent international standards for the collection of user information. With ...
Cryptocurrency exchanges across China halt services amid crackdown
China's latest crypto-crackdown is already claiming its first casualties. At least five local exchanges have halted operations or announced they will no longer serve domestic users this month, after regulators issued a series of warnings and notices as part of a cleanup of digital currency ...
Ethiopian coffee farmers are betting on blockchain to make trade fairer and boost business
On a bustling street near the shiny new international airport in Ethiopia's capital is a small coffee roastery with big dreams. Nearly 40 Ethiopians — a third of them women — sift, roast and package prized Arabica beans for export to Europe under the Moyee ...
A new online voting system based on the My Number identification system and blockchain technology has been introduced in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. Tsukuba, well known as a center for scientific research, is the first in the country to start using such a voting system, according ...
Tokyo blockchain conference looks to uses of technology beyond headline-grabbing cryptocurrencies
The rise of cryptocurrencies has shone the spotlight on their underlying technology, which is known as the blockchain. A wide number of startups are now pitching services using the technology, which is often touted as the next major development since the internet. This trend was visible ...
Bitcoin for otaku: Tokyo startup to launch cryptocurrency to serve communities
Cryptocurrencies may be making worldwide headlines as high volatility assets that have seen dazzling stretches of growth and stunning falls, but the CEO of Tokyo Otaku Mode Inc. believes they have a different kind of potential. Naomitsu Kodaka says cryptocurrencies can serve as cross-border digital ...
IBM ties up with Asahi Refining and others on blockchain tech to track jewels from mine to store
IBM Corp., a group of four gold and diamond industry companies, and an independent laboratory are developing a blockchain network for tracing the provenance of finished pieces of jewelry from mine to store. The TrustChain Initiative, which will run on IBM's technology, includes precious-metals refiner ...
As regulators play catch-up, internet firms curbing crypto ads, fearing damage from scams
A growing number of internet companies are banning cryptocurrency advertising, fearing reputational damage if their users are duped or left penniless, even as regulators struggle to get to grips with the fast-emerging industry. Twitter on Tuesday began blocking crypto ads, becoming the latest internet giant ...
Time to welcome our robot overlords?
"Hello World — For the Post-Human Age" at Art Tower Mito looks at developments in art in the context of digital technology and artificial intelligence. It starts with a lightly comedic farce, in the form of Cecile B. Evans' 2016 multimedia installation "Sprung a ...
IBM breaks patent record with 25th straight year in top spot
IBM Corp. was once again awarded the highest number of U.S. patents in 2017, as the company pushes into blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies. IBM received 9,043 patents in 2017, breaking the record it set in 2016, the company said Tuesday. A lot of the ...
Pachinko parlors are losing their balls while Japan considers a cashless economy
With the Diet's passing of a law last December that will legalize casino gambling, many are wondering how this development will affect the few forms of tightly controlled gambling and gaming that have been permitted up to now — like pachinko (a type of ...
