The government of Hunan Province, China, will create a blockchain special zone in an industrial park, reports Chinese media outlet VOC. The media outlet says it has learned that the central Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has approved the construction in Wanbao, a small rural town on the outskirts of the city of Loudi. The province is already home to 788 blockchain-related companies, with more now expected to relocate to the new zone.
Contour, a blockchain-based trade finance platform developed by eight banks, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, is set for commercial launch in the second half of 2020, following over USD 30 million worth of letter-of-credit transactions during its trial period last year, reports South China Morning Post. Letters of credit using blockchain have reportedly helped companies to continue their commercial trade during the current coronavirus epidemic.
The Auburn University RFID Lab in the U.S., working with information standards organization GS1 US, completed a proof-of-concept that demonstrates the effectiveness of blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies to improve serialized data sharing in the retail industry, says their press release. Participating companies included Nike, PVH Corp., Herman Kay, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Mojix, Avery Dennison, SML, IBM, and Collaboration, LLC, while the findings confirmed that a blockchain network was capable of sharing item-level data encoded in RFID tags between the participants. The findings are available in a new white paper.
Digital asset custody company BitGo is now offering institutional digital asset lending services, following a several-month private beta. The press release states that, with BitGo’s lending, customers get to work with regulated custodian BitGo Trust, while BitGo platform is SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Chinese cryptocurrency lending startup Babel Finance reported that their outstanding loan balance broke new record high, reaching USD 380 million on February 18, 2020. According to the startup, they have added to their business matrix a capital management platform for VIP clients and a private banking service that has attracted dozens of high-net-worth clients to sign up, with total net asset value over 50 million USDT.
Square Crypto, the Bitcoin-focused division of U.S.-based major payments company Square, has awarded two more grants on Wednesday, following two previous ones. The team also provided interested parties with steps, rules, and examples of projects they might support, which could help a Bitcoin project get funded by the company.