Leading Charity Oxfam Launches Blockchain-Based Rice Project

On top of ensuring farmers from within developing nations receive a fair price on the goods they export, the BlocRice project also aims to introduce cashless payments. In collaboration with Acleda bank, the project will assist farmers in their attempt to reach banking services – something than many rural Cambodian regions are currently unable to access.

Source: Leading Charity Oxfam Launches Blockchain-Based Rice Project, Kane Pepi, November 19, 2018

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Can blockchain smart contracts level the legal playing field for SMEs? | finder.com.au

Casey Kuhlman explained. “Almost every interaction between companies (i.e most commercial activity) is underpinned by a legal contract; yet, as commerce evolves there is a growing chasm between the traditional lawyer and the real, networked world. This chasm has come about largely because legal has lacked the technical backbone on which to build relevant digital products for these networked businesses – and that is where blockchain-based systems come into play.”

Source: Can blockchain smart contracts level the legal playing field for SMEs? | finder.com.au, Andrew Munro, November 9, 2018

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Bitcoin’s Blockchain Tech Could Bring Sweeping Innovation to Legal Industry | The Legal Intelligencer

While the days of full-scale adoption may be well off, it would certainly behoove attorneys to stay abreast of developments in both blockchain and cryptocurrencies. As this technology breaks further into the mainstream, attorneys should be prepared not only to counsel clients, but to implement these new tools in a way that elevates the quality and value of our professional services.

See estate planning and land title records use cases.

Source: Bitcoin’s Blockchain Tech Could Bring Sweeping Innovation to Legal Industry | The Legal Intelligencer, Matthew Decker, January 24, 2018

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Smart Contracts: Should you? Can you? Will you? Imagine the possibilities (the easy part). Don’t let the behind the scene complexities discourage you | IBM | LinkedIn

What should be in a CIO’s IT strategic plan?

Bitcoin emerged in 2009 as a revolutionary way to transfer value without a third-party intermediary like a bank. Blockchain technology, in turn, is gaining attention for its promise to enable value and asset transfer across a wide range of industries and use cases — and its potential to disintermediate financial institutions, remittance companies and lots of other transactional middleman businesses. Smart contracts, meanwhile, work hand-in-hand with blockchain technology and have the potential to automate — and also disrupt — processes in many industries. 

Source: Smart Contracts: Should you? Can you?Will you? Imagine the possibilities (the easy part). Don’t let the behind the scene complexities discourage you | IBM | LinkedIn, Hans Casteels, January 24, 2018

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Smart Contracts: Blockchain is the thing that enables the thing | IBM | LinkedIn

Blockchain is not a technology that will enable one organisation to come up with a new category killer product or process that will give it an advantage over its rivals. Rather, its success “will require co-operation among market participants, regulators and technologists”. The greater the number of businesses around the table, the greater blockchains impact will be.

Source: Smart Contracts: Blockchain is the thing that enables the thing | IBM | LinkedIn, Hans Casteels, January 22, 2018

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How blockchain will underpin the new trust economy | Computerworld

“The blockchain/trust economy trend represents a remarkable power shift from large, centralized trust agents to the individual,” Deloite stated. “And while its broader implications may not be fully understood for years to come, it is hardly a death knell for banks, credit agencies, and other transactional intermediaries. It may mean, however, that with blockchain as the gatekeeper of identity and trust, business and government will have to create new ways to engage the individual – and to add value and utility in the rapidly evolving trust economy.”

Source: How blockchain will underpin the new trust economy | Computerworld, Lucas Mearian, December 7, 2017

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The Legal AI ‘Barbarians’ Have Already Taken the Gates |Artificial Lawyer

Strangely, it’s not the legal IT people in law firms who seem to have most grasped just how important AI and automation is, it’s the managing partners. This is because it’s their job to look at the bigger picture, the economic and strategic picture, not just how the machine functions day to day.

Great list of legal Artificial Intelligence providers. Looking forward to “AI and blockchain fusion initiatives.”

Source: The Legal AI ‘Barbarians’ Have Already Taken the Gates – Artificial Lawyer, December 01, 2017, Richard Tromans

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IBM + Integra Ledger Launch World NDA Project in Global First | Artificial Lawyer

The project will take NDAs and place key identifier information onto the Integra permissioned blockchain; for example, the names of the parties, companies involved and other information that may need to be shared according to the non-disclosure document. This will provide a secure, single version of truth for the NDA. IBM Watson’s AI technology will then be applied to deliver insight into that data, covering legal and business intelligence issues.

Source: IBM + Integra Ledger Launch World NDA Project in Global First, 27th November 2017

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How retailers can use Blockchain to get granular | TNW

Giving users a stake in their own data does much to ensure that the data itself is more pertinent, and more organized for those who need it. This notion is integral in retail, which is increasingly reliant on the ability to find users who are spread over many different applications, physical locales, and rungs on the financial ladder. While a few companies can already comprehend the degree of change that their industry is about to experience, like so many asset trading brokers, shoppers too will be caught be caught by surprise when blockchain-based retail services take over their phones, but it will undoubtedly be a delightful one.

Source: How retailers can use Blockchain to get granular | TNW, Andrei Tiburca, November 08, 2017

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Someone Figured Out How to Put Tomatoes on a Blockchain – Bloomberg

“It’s a tool, and you have to apply it to the right set of problems,” he said. “What it tends to be very good for is knowing who owns what and when,” Cascarilla added. “It’s not a magic bullet.”

“There’s a lot of fraud in food origins, especially now that it’s hot,” Myran said. “People say ‘this is local,’ or ‘this is organic,’ or ‘this is grown using certain practices.’ With this system, you can prove it.”

Source: Someone Figured Out How to Put Tomatoes on a Blockchain – Bloomberg, Annie Massa
November 9, 2017

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