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 HHS, Health and Human Services The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), a division within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has announced the winners of a blockchain research paper contest. The "Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-related Research Challenge", announced last month, solicited white papers that would explore how the technology can be potentially used in healthcare settings. The ONC said that it received over 70 submissions, and that it ultimately chose just 15 to spotlight. National coordinator Vindell Washington said in a statement:     "We are thrilled by the incredible amount of interest in this challenge. While many know about Blockchain technology's uses for digital currency purposes, the challenge submissions show its exciting potential for new, innovative uses in health care." At the time it announced the contest, HHS indicated that it was weighing blockchain tech as part of a broader push for

The value of Monero has more than tripled in the last ten days moving from around $2.47 to $8.10 as at the time of this publication. Described as the new digital currency that online drug-dealers have started to adopt because it enables them to conduct business with more anonymity, the price of two-year-old Monero skyrocketed lately, driven by the announcement of several darknet markets to accept Monero as payment.   AlphaBay, one of the most popular sites for buying drugs like liquid LSD and hybrid cannabis, said last week it has partnered Oasis to begin accepting Monero on September 1. This led to increased media coverage, attracting more speculators towards the currency. Whether the factor behind the quick rise is solely due to darknet markets’ adoption is unknown. However, with the report by RAND Europe that says illegal drug transactions on cryptomarkets have tripled since 2013, with revenues doubling, it couldn’t be far from being a major factor.   The research institute names ve

A member of the European Parliament is proposing that €1m ($1.1m) be spent on a task force that would focus on studying digital currencies and blockchain technology. The push for funding comes months after the legislative arm of the European Union (EU) first approved the task force, proposed by MEP Jakob von Weizsäcker earlier this year. Legislative records indicate that von Weisäcker is now asking for financial support for the measure. In notes, he said that support should be approved in order to position the European Commission – the economic bloc's executive branch – at the forefront of an emerging technology.   The MEP wrote: "This pilot project aims at creating a Task Force, staffed with regulatory and technical experts, in order to build up technical expertise, regulators capacity and develop use cases, especially for governmental applications, in the field of distributed ledger technology (DLT) as proposed in the Resolution of the European Parliament on virtual currenci

Bitcoin has certainly been one of the most audacious financial experiments in the last century. While governments have tried everything from pegging currencies to Gold, a basket of foreign countries and repeatedly meddling with monetary policies, none of them have been able to perfect sustaining base unit value and continuous growth. Additionally, although globalization has bought the world together and helped us interact far faster in terms of trade and investments we have barely been able to brings its benefits to people from all walks of life. Bitcoin, for the first time was able to remove government set barriers and empower individuals to trade and remit money without middle men eating through the fruits of their labour. During its meteoric rise from hacker currency to the love child of innovators, inventors and investors alike the coin has undergone a turbulent period with its founder eventually disappearing from the public. A coin that was once traded by the pennies soared upto t

The launch of Bitcoin in 2008 was more than just an experiment in the financial realm. It was a silent outcry against the injustices committed by the financial elite leading to the recession, scripted in code. Satoshi’s creation laid the foundation for what would soon be the world’s financial future. Unlike earlier, it wasn’t restricted to royalty or the elite to decide how this new financial system would work. Rather, emperors of the new world, the innovators, entrepreneurs and developers with the know how to build upon the blockchain were the ones that pushed this new system to the frontier. Inspite of the massive attention given to it by the media, Bitcoin is predicted to only have around 5 million users, by 2019. Considering a global population of 7 billion, and an unbanked population of 5.5 billion, this level of penetration will barely make a dent in the financial realm. With an intent to solve these problems of market penetration and creating products that are user friendly on t

A pair of entrepreneurs has developed a solution to help banks reduce the risks involved in remittances. Route Trading Ltd., launched by Musa Jammeh and Taimoor Iqbal, will introduce Money Router, a software solution, to London, U.K. banks to prevent illicit money transfers. Money Router, to be introduced in September, is designed to improve the safety of global payments, enabling financial institutions to set parameters in accordance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing regulations. Developed in London by a team led by a compliance officer employed at a major U.K. bank, and a tech entrepreneur with a background in money transfer, Money Router is designed for both banks and money service businesses (MSBs). The banks need to monitor the money coming into their accounts from the MSBs customers. By integrating the bank accounts with the money transfer system, banks can manage the end-to-end anti-money laundering (AML) compliance of the money transfer transactions in one

The R3 consortium has disclosed that it has worked with over 15 of its member banks to complete two distributed ledger technology prototypes. They demonstrate how the technology can address the key challenges facing the $45 billion global trade finance industry. R3 is a financial innovation firm that leads a consortium partnership with over 50 of the world's leading financial institutions. These prototypes validate distributed and shared ledger technology as a faster, more reliable, and cost-effective digital alternative for trade financing. Participating banks designed and utilized smart contracts on R3's Corda distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable (AR) purchase transactions (or invoice financing or factoring) and letter of credit (LOC) transactions. The banks involved in the trials include Barclays, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Danske Bank and ING Bank. Others are Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis, Nordea, Scotiabank, UBS, UniCredit, U.S. Ban

Bitfinex is reportedly offering a reward worth up to $3.6m for the recovery of bitcoins stolen from its exchange last week. The Hong Kong-based startup lost nearly 120,000 BTC in the incident (an amount worth roughly $71m at press time), and now suggests it's willing to offer 5% of these funds (or about 6,000 BTC) as a reward should they be found and returned. The news came social media today in a post by Bitfinex community director Zane Tackett. In response to a question about the existence of such a program, he stated that a bounty would be awarded to anyone who had information that helped the exchange recover the funds. Tackett said: "[Five percent] of recovery and for information leading to recovery (but no bounty if no recovery); if multiple persons lead to recovery, share pro rata." Bitfinex resumed trading earlier today, just over a week after it shut down in the wake of the theft

Bitcoin is coming off a rough week in the community and in the press, but you know what they say: "Thank God it's Friday!" Count me among the many who are looking for a much better story to stew over besides another Bitcoin theft, and Kim Dotcom comes to the rescue, just in time for the weekend. This morning, on Twitter, Kim revealed much more about his upcoming Bitcoin-based Megaupload 2.0 release, so let's see what's coming for the New Year. The launch date has been set Today, Kim set a launch date for Megaupload 2.0 of January 20, 2017. It will come with many interesting little features like offering a white-label option, so you can tie into their hosting service while adding your own domain name for free. Capture obscure files that aren't on your server, but that you are linking to and want to add to your Megaupload account. For those who favor increased privacy, or even anonymity, Dotcom tweets that he has you covered. That is great for the proletariat, b

Brazilian bitcoin exchange Foxbit has acquired payment processor BitInvest in an acquisition worth less than $1m. With the sale, the exchange said it is seeking to acquire new users and reinforce its position in Brazil's nascent bitcoin market. Foxbit said BitInvest founder Flavio Pripas, the former founder of the social network Fashion.me, will serve on its board. All BitInvest accounts will be converted to Foxbit accounts as part of the deal. The acquisition is notable given the early traction seen by BitInvest, which inked a deal in 2014 with Tecnisa, a domestic real estate firm that was Latin America's largest merchant to accept bitcoin at the time. Still, Foxbit chief blockchain officer João Paulo Oliveira said he expects additional acquisitions as the Brazilian market matures. According to data from Bitvalor, Foxbit sees about 310 BTC (or $189,000) in bitcoins trade daily on its exchange, a figure that accounts for roughly 55% of the market. Oliveira said Foxbit aims to c

The question of whether or not bitcoin is really money has gained attention in light of recnt events in the bitcoin world. Even the Torah, the traditional Jewish law, has weighed in on what defines currency, according to a recent post in Chabad.org, a website dedicated to empowering Jews worldwide with knowledge of their 3,300-year-old tradition. Does Judaism consider bitcoins to be money? The question was addressed in an article under that very heading by Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin, who responds to questions posed to the website. Monetary Value Is What Counts As long as something has monetary value, it does not make a difference in Jewish law whether it is actual "currency" or not in most instances, Shurpin noted. The question of how to define currency is addressed in the context of a law governing lending money and merchandise. According to Jewish law, a Jew cannot lend money with interest to another Jew, Shurpin noted. The law applies not only to money, but to merchandise. One i