The cryptocurrency market struggles to gather momentum as Bitcoin (BTC) faces severe resistance above the $8,500 level. At the time of writing this article, the number one crypto with a market cap of $149.88 billion was trading almost flat at $8,350 levels. Ether (ETH) was trading at $186.02, representing a gain of 2% in the past 24 hours. XRP, which was trading at $0.2954, fares better with a gain of 4.3% in the last 24 hours. Other major altcoins which have gained in the past 24 hours include EOS (EOS-$3.13, 0.1%), Bitcoin Cash ($226.38, 0.4%), Huobi (HT-$3.67, 4.7%), Cosmos (ATOM-$3.12, 4.6%), Cardano (ADA-$0.0415, 0.2%), Binance Coin (BNB-$18.53, 1.0%), OKB (OKB-$2.41, 4.4%), Litecoin (LTC-$56.92, 0.3%), Dash (DASH-$71.70, 1.2%), Tezos (XTZ-$0.9341, 3.6%), IOTA (IOTA-$0.2851, 2.4%), Stellar (XLM-$0.0652, 7.1%) and ChainLink (LINK-$2.58, 3.3%) . The altcoins which have lost ground in the past 24 hours include Ethereum Classic (ETC-$4.76, -0.3%), Tron (TRX-$0.0166, -0.1%), Monero (XMR-$52.90, -0.2%) and LEO (LEO- $0.9818, -0.6%).
Government level initiatives
SimplyVital Health looking at incorporating Nexus with Graphene
SimplyVital Health, Inc., an England-headquartered blockchain firm, has been awarded $225,000 by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore the incorporation of its covenant Nexus with the Graphene protocol. The NSF’s grant is one among several initiatives under the Small Business Programs, which backs unique startups and small businesses with annual funding of $200 million.
SimplyVital will give the grant for research, development, and integration of Graphene protocol into its blockchain protocol, Nexus, which claims compatibility with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The Graphene protocol is designed to reduce bandwidth to distribute blocks to other nodes in order to improve blockchain performance and cut its costs at the same time.
In particular, SimplyVital Health is looking for options to minimize healthcare expenses by paving the way for data access via blockchain technology. Andrea Belz, division director of the division of industrial innovation and partnerships at NSF, explained how the organization assists in the creation of innovative solutions: “NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by funding the most creative, impactful ideas. With our support, deep technology startups can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.”
Private sector initiatives
Alfa-Bank and others trialing remittance on Marco Polo network
Alfa-Bank and Novolipetsk Steel Company (NLMK), in partnership with Commerzbank and Vesuvius GmbH, are conducting a trial of payments between Russia and Germany on R3’s Marco Polo network. Specifically, Alfa-Bank has stated that it is conducting the trial of an overseas trade finance transaction utilizing R3’s Corda-based Marco Polo Network, with cooperation from Commerzbank, NLMK, and Vesuvius GmbH.
Alfa-Bank claims to be the largest Russian financial institution by total equity, total assets, loan, and deposit portfolios. The trans-border payment trial intends to create a digitized end-to-end trade funding and supply chain finance system on a blockchain-powered platform.
Marco Polo network, which was established through a partnership between technology firms TradeIX and R3, intends to present a broad range of global trade finance solutions.
Head of Trade Finance at Alfa-Bank, Dina Merkulova, detailed the bank’s progress with regard to the implementation of blockchain-powered systems. “We launched our first distributed ledger technology in trade finance as early as 2017. Since then, corporate blockchain solutions have been considerably elaborated, and earned our clients’ confidence, and proved their applicability to real business processes. Projects such as Marco Polo create added value for clients ensuring more international trade transparency and manageability thanks to integrated bank payment, finance, and discount instruments.”
Last month, the Bank of America had become a member of R3’s Marco Polo Network to manage trade finance issues.
IBM launches Sterling Supply Chain Suite
International software behemoth IBM has introduced a new integrated supply chain solution based on its own blockchain and Watson AI. Dubbed Sterling Supply Chain Suite, the latest IBM solution facilitates hybrid cloud-based information integration between manufacturers, network participants, and vendors, offering better reliability, security, and transparency.
IBM is one of the tech giants involved in the trial of blockchain-based systems for handling supply chain and logistics.
In particular, the extent of integration flexibility offered by the system permits companies to overhaul and enhance their supply-chain systems as per their business requirements.
IBM has pointed out that the open-architecture abilities of Sterling Supply Chain Suite services are fortified by the company’s recent takeover of Red Hat, an enterprise-level open-source solution provider. IBM bought Red Hat in July 2019 for $34 billion.
In particular, clients can choose where the workloads are run and integrate them with other value-added services in the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite. For example, after certification, IBM Sterling Order Management modules for Red Hat OpenShift will permit customers to continue running their software in any cloud facility or in their own datacenter.
Miscellaneous
The IRS includes a query on crypto ownership on 1040 form
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has added a query on crypto ownership in the regular 1040 income tax return form for the upcoming tax season.
A format of the “Additional Income and Adjustments to Income” section of the latest 1040 form released on October 10 included an amendment. The latest 1040 form includes the following additional query: “At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?”
The query anticipates a plain ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and no further information is demanded. The IRS had published new rules for filing returns by those who are beneficiaries of cryptocurrency airdrops and hard forks.
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