Weekend recap: ChinaChain opens for commercial use

It’s now just two weeks until the Bitcoin halving and the price is back at levels not seen since the Black Thursday crash. It also looks like blockchain as a technology is beginning to take off, with many of this weekend’s top stories reporting major initiatives from across the globe. Read on.

BSN’s ‘ChinaChain’ launches globally

China’s long-awaited Blockchain Services Network (BSN), aka ChinaChain, was finally opened for global commercial use yesterday. Six months after its beta test, Chinese government officials and various heads of organisations gathered in Beijing to announce the public launch.

The BSN is a global infrastructure to help blockchain projects create and run new blockchain applications for a lower cost. The BSN also aims to accelerate the development of smart cities and the digital economy. The network is financed and built by a consortium of China’s biggest telcos and banks, including China Mobile, UnionPay and State Information Center.

The nodes connect 128 cities across China, with 7 in place internationally, including Paris, Sydney, San Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo, Johannesburg and California (no city was specified.) It’s got promise, but will it fulfil it?

Kentucky-fried blockchain

It’s not just China getting excited for blockchain. The state governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, has approved the creation of a new working group focused on blockchain tech. The bill was originally introduced in the Senate in early January, passing that chamber unanimously in late February. The state’s House of Representatives then passed it with a vote of 87-2 on April 14.

The bill sets out the group’s key objectives: “The working group shall evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of using blockchain technology to enhance the security of and increase protection for the state’s critical infrastructure, including but not limited to the electric utility grid, natural gas pipelines, drinking water supply and delivery, wastewater, telecommunications, and emergency services.”

“The workgroup shall report to the Governor and to the Legislative Research Commission by December 1 of each year. The report shall include the current priority list and a discussion of whether blockchain could be deployed, and any associated cost-benefit analysis,” the bill states.

Monero movie tops box office

With cinemas across the world closed for business, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the box office rankings didn’t mean much at the moment. Indeed, that there is any money coming in at all is probably something of a surprise. However, there is – and it’s a crypto film topping rankings.

Monero Means Money is a self-distributed feature-length film extolling the virtues of Monero (XMR). The film claims to “raise awareness for electronic and financial privacy rights.” Its $3,430 gross may not seem impressive, but still had the film sitting at the top of the box office for a brief moment on 10 April, according to the-numbers.com.

The movie was screened to empty seats at the Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles, before moving to the Tampa Theatre, with additional showings taking place at the Parkway Theater & Film Lounge near Pittsburgh.

Blockchain in supply chain booming

There were a couple of big stories this weekend around the use of blockchain in supply chains.

First, Dole Food Company, the world’s largest producer of fruits and vegetables, set out its plans to use blockchain in its Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report 2020. The report noted that it would “implement blockchain product tagging technology and/or advanced traceability solutions in all Dole divisions by 2025.”

There was also news from blockchain-based supply chain management platform, VeChain. During a recent ‘ask me anything’ (AMA) with Sunny Lu, VeChain’s CEO, revealed that the company is working on a new project with a “fast fashion brand” with which it had previously partnered. There is speculation that the brand is H&M’s high-end fashion label, Cos. Cos has 290 physical shops located in 44 different jurisdictions.

Jack Dorsey quote-about-Bitcoin of the week

Where would crypto media be without Jack Dorsey? The Twitter CEO and co-founder is a fount of Bitcoin quotes, a sluice of bullish sentiment. This week, they were in a flutter about a podcast interview he did with tech researcher, Lex Fridman, in which he referred to Bitcoin’s white paper as “Poetry.”

“I think the Bitcoin whitepaper is one of the most seminal works of computer science in the last 20 or 30 years,” Dorsey said in Fridman’s April 24 podcast episode. “It’s poetry,” he added.

Thanks, Jack.

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