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IBM Reveals Blockchain Supply Chain Trial with Singapore Port Operator A major port operator in Singapore has inked a deal to work with IBM and a regional shipping firm to test a new blockchain-based supply chain network. Announcing the news, PSA International, which operates ports in Asia, South America and Europe, said today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with IBM and Pacific International Lines (PIL), one of the largest liner services in the world. The three firms will "work together to explore [proofs-of-concept] using technologies like blockchain," according to an  announcement  published today. The goal of the trial is to automate the flow of documents between trading partners, providing transparency along the way. Tan Chong Meng, group CEO of PSA, said of the deal: "Blockchain has the potential to reduce inefficiencies and gaps within the supply chain, promote more cost-efficient transactions and facilitate the continued g...

AMD Releases New Software Package for Cryptocurrency Mining Graphics card (GPU) maker AMD is rolling out a new software driver geared specifically toward cryptocurrency mining. As detailed on its  website , the "Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition Beta for Blockchain Compute" is described as a beta-level driver aimed at improving the performance of GPUs that are being used for mining. Mining is an energy intensive process by which new transactions are added to a blockchain, creating new tokens as a reward along the way. AMD's release comes amid  a period of growing demand  for GPUs, which is being driven by elevated prices in markets for cryptocurrencies like ethereum. Indeed, both AMD and rival chip maker Nvidia have been taking advantage of the boom for graphics cards. Both   companies  have issued statements on the subject in recent days, though in the case of AMD, the company has taken a somewhat bearish stance on the future of the cryptocur...

Lawmakers Want to See Bitcoin Become an Official Currency in Australia Lawmakers in Australia are reportedly pushing for the recognition of bitcoin as an official currency. According the  Sydney Morning Herald , representatives from the country's centre and left-leaning political parties are behind the ambitious initiative, one that comes amid a broader call for the government to better accommodate  blockchain technology  and its evangelists. Leading the effort are Liberal Senator Jane Hume and Labor Senator Sam Dastyari, who are arguing that Australia should be more proactive about both cryptocurrencies and blockchain. As part of those efforts, Hume and Dastyari have formed a group, dubbed Parliamentary Friends of Blockchain, to advance the issue. Also among the proposals is a call for Australia's central bank to consider the launch of its own cryptocurrency. "This will be a revolutionary leap for ...

Wikileaks is Now Accepting Zcash Donations Non-profit media group Wikileaks has announced that it is now accepting donations in the privacy-oriented cryptocurrency zcash. The information sharing site  revealed  that it would take the new payment option in a tweet earlier today, making zcash the third cryptocurrency it will accept for donations following bitcoin and  litecoin . Zcash was notably included as one of the options in  a poll  the nonprofit held on Twitter at the start of the month. Of the options presented – monero, zcash and ethereum (misspelled as "etherium" ) – zcash garnered 11 percent of the 12,204 votes submitted, compared to 21 percent for monero and 45 percent for ethereum. Twenty-three percent opted for "other." Wikileaks, which gained notoriety for its release of materials including footage from the Iraq War and the emails of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,  began accepting bitcoin  b...

Bitcoin Cash Eases Mining Difficulty as Blockchain Adjusts Bitcoin Cash adjusted its mining difficulty over the weekend, a move that comes just under a week after the alternative version of the bitcoin blockchain was created. As a result of both blocks ( 478,647  and  478,648 ) having a Median Time Past (MTP) that was 12 hours greater than the six blocks prior, each block adjusted difficulty down by 20%. A special rule to the network, Bitcoin Cash implemented the measure as part of its hard fork  last week . As a result, Bitcoin Cash is now 16.7% as difficult as bitcoin to mine. This has lead  more blocks to be found , both because it's easier and because more bitcoin miners are now mining Bitcoin Cash. Since the difficulty adjustment, Bitcoin Cash is averaging about 18-minute blocks, implying a hash rate of around 650 PH/s. At this rate, we can expect another difficulty adjustment in about 13 days, at which point, the network should have roughly 1...