As the first vaccines against COVID-19 roll out, governments and institutions across the world are scrambling to figure out how to provide proof that someone has been vaccinated. Paper certificates, PDFs, wristbands and mobile apps have all been suggested — and the former director of the Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden, and international human rights attorney Aaron Schwid urged the adoption of digital “immunity passports” as a way to reopen the world. In theory, their idea is great. In practice, it’s terrible. Or, as the Daily Beast put it: “Vaccine Passports Are Big Tech’s Latest Dystopian Nightmare.” As a …

Public distributed ledger network Hedera Hashgraph is being used by a United Kingdom-based digital asset tracking provider called Everyware to provide the country's National Health Service with a system for managing its COVID-19 vaccine storage. Several of the widely-used COVID-19 vaccines being administered at present require ultra-cold storage conditions in order to remain effective, presenting a significant challenge for public and private health services around the world. To ensure that COVID-19 vaccine maintenance can be securely and transparently monitored by participants in the distribution process in the U.K., Everyware will provide several NHS facilities with its asset tracking and monitoring …

The coronavirus pandemic created exceedingly challenging trading conditions for businesses in 2020 — putting global trade under immeasurable strain. But one company says blockchain technology has helped alleviate the challenges of COVID-19 by allowing enterprises to modernize and digitize their supply chains. Sustainability has become one of the most important buzzwords of the decade. Now more than ever, customers are looking for brands to prove they are environmentally friendly — and want greater levels of information about the products they buy. Over the past year, GoChain entered into a series of high-profile partnerships that enabled manufacturers to put traceability at …

Jeju Island, a major tourist destination in South Korea, is introducing a government-backed, system for tracking COVID-19 contacts based on blockchain technology. On Jan. 14, the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and blockchain technology firm Iconloop announced that the blockchain-based contact tracing system is now fully operational. Called “Jeju Safety Code,” the project was initiated in August 2020 to enable COVID-19 contact tracing for Jeju Island’s 15 million annual visitors. The project has been developed jointly by Iconloop and Jeju Island through a public-private partnership agreement. Since August, the local government and Iconloop have been implementing the system at public institutions …

Early on in the coronavirus pandemic, the heightened need for various biosurveillance measures sparked interest in the relevance of privacy-enhancing technologies such as blockchain that could protect public health data amid the crisis. A Twitter user claimed last week that Frankfurt Airport's coronavirus testing center appeared to be using Iota blockchain technology to manage passengers' health stats, and this fact has now been confirmed to Cointelegraph by the technology provider. Ubirch, a blockchain-based cybersecurity technology provider based in Cologne and several other locations, has developed the IT infrastructure for a solution it calls the "Digital Corona Test Certificate." The solution …

Americans who received their second coronavirus stimulus checks on Dec. 29 have already gained 12% — if they invested it in Bitcoin (BTC). As the United States government rolls out another round of “free” money to eligible residents, attention is fixed on how many will choose to invest their $600 in cryptocurrencies. April stimulus recipients now have $5,600 The handouts began last week and are expected to be completed by Jan. 15. According to a dedicated monitoring resource, those who received the money on the first day and who immediately swapped their U.S. dollars for BTC are already up around …

It would be fair to admit that after 2020 and all it has put us through, making any predictions for the upcoming year is most likely to be a game of blindfold. Meanwhile, I am certain that humanity has much to learn from its past transgressions, and will move forward by correcting our mistakes and weaknesses. That’s what we always do. Undoubtedly, the major driver of our development this year was the COVID-19 outbreak. The effects of the ongoing global pandemic on every aspect of our lives will form our future, and there are some tendencies we started last year …

Without any doubt, the year 2020 was unlike any other year in the 21st century: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, global governments unstoppably printing money, “lockdowns” and “social distancing” becoming the new normal, protests against racial discrimination and police brutality, and so on and so forth. It even made some claim it to be “the worst year ever.” But as they say: In every storm, each cloud has a silver lining. The most important thing is to learn from what we’ve been through and to improve our world and our future, as there are some problems that we have to solve …

The COVID-19 pandemic dominated the news in 2020, affecting myriad sectors — health, economics, social justice, politics and trade, as well as the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. As country after country locked down to halt the virus’s spread, governments seized upon stimulus payments to preserve economic life. While necessary, these measures raised the specter of global inflation. This, in turn, pushed many traditional investors and institutions to take a new look at cryptocurrencies as an alternate store of value, especially Bitcoin (BTC), the top crypto. Following a March 11 dip, BTC went on a tear, reaching record levels by year …

2020 has been a year of upheaval throughout the world. Overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the events of this year brought forth new challenges no one was prepared for, upending the way we live, work, and transact. Early this year, global financial markets took a severe hit as stocks, commodities and even cryptocurrency prices fell. Against the backdrop of economic uncertainty and the declining value of the U.S. dollar, crypto assets are moving higher up the radar screens of commercial banks, hedge funds and other institutional investors. As we approach the end of a tumultuous year, it would be timely …

It is hard to imagine that just two years ago, the general discourse around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, was mainly focused on the potential and possibility of issuing them. Even in 2019, the question was about whether we need state-owned cryptocurrencies, with only 70% of central banks worldwide studying the potential of issuing a CBDC, according to a survey published by the Bank for International Settlements at the beginning of 2019. But this year, everything is indeed different. 2020 started with a major event within the financial world: the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the WEF released …

It has been a blazing start to a new decade, with 13% more large, uncontrolled wildfires around the world this year compared with 2019. This has spelled dire consequences for CO2 levels, which have made worse a terrible COVID-19 pandemic that has led to unprecedented worldwide lockdowns that have rapidly pushed the economy toward digitization. Related: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the crypto space? Experts answer As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have been forced to focus on integrating blockchain technology into their financial services. At the 75th anniversary of the United Nations General …