It sounds like a surefire bet. You lend money to a borrower who puts up collateral that exceeds the size of the loan, and then you earn interest of about 20%. What could possibly go wrong? That’s the proposition presented …
Facebook Inc.’s foray into digital currencies risks reversing gains in privacy and user sovereignty won by computer-networking pioneers, according to one of the co-founders of Ethereum, the blockchain of choice for most business and finance projects. Facebook has received pushback …
The next confrontation between government regulators and a blockchain startup appears set to ensnare a prediction market platform that goes by the name Augur. After going live on July 10, Augur allows anyone to create contracts to predict future events …
Marsh has announced that it has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), an open source blockchain initiative with 400 member companies. The EEA seeks to create open industry standards and frameworks for blockchain applications based on the core Ethereum platform. …
InsurTech startup InsurePal (now known as VouchForMe) is developing an insurance platform that aims to revolutionize the industry’s model for risk selection and fraud prevention by “social proofing” insurance products. (Editor’s Note: When this feature was originally published in February …
A pair of 23-year old students, Hugo Moreau and Paul Nicolet, came out on top in the final round of an inaugural blockchain competition held in Switzerland. The two Swiss masters students at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) successfully …
Smart contracts were supposed to revolutionize finance. So far, however, they have proven adept mainly at helping people lose their money. The digital contracts make use of blockchain technology to get around trusted intermediaries like banks. Let’s say you want …
Etherisc, a Zug-Switzerland-based insurance platform startup, has begun offering blockchain-based flight delay insurance, called Flight Delay, which automates the process of getting an insurance payout in case a flight is canceled or delayed. “The frustration of a flight delay or …
The Hyperledger Project, a group led by the Linux Foundation, has released its first blockchain code that can be used by large businesses to build software. The group, whose more than 120 members include International Business Machines Corp, Cisco Systems …
New York state has approved regulations allowing a new virtual currency called Ether. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and the state’s Department of Financial Services announced the move on May 5. The regulations will govern the new virtual exchange, called …
