Multinational software company SAP has launched a blockchain-as-a-service platform, SAP Leonardo Blockchain, the company reported Wednesday, June 6. The platform is designed to let corporate customers build applications and networks using blockchain technology. SAP’s official announcement notes that the new blockchain service will support Hyperledger Fabric and MultiChain, and will be built on top of SAP’s SAP HANA data management system. Gil Perez, SAP’s senior vice president for product and innovation as well as head of digital customer service initiatives, explained that SAP will not commit to any one underlying distributed ledger technology in order to be more flexible as …

German securities marketplace and stock exchange Deutsche Börse will be spending 270 mln euro (around $315 mln) on new tech investments including blockchain, Finextra reported yesterday, May 30. The spending plan, part of the company’s 2020 roadmap which will involve 350 job cuts, will also include big data analytics, cloud, computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Deutsche Börse, the ninth largest exchange in the world, notes that the plan also includes the creation of several hundred new jobs in these sectors in the future. In regards to blockchain development, Deutsche Börse is looking into how the technology can “create new lines …

Twenty nine percent of Germans are interested in cryptocurrencies as a form of investment, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported Tuesday, May 29. German bank Postbank came to this conclusion after a survey of 3,100 Germans, which was conducted from the end of February to the end of March 2018. When asked about why are they interested in crypto, 60 percent of women and 51 percent of men cited "independence from established financial systems" as an important factor. The possibility of high returns, on the other hand, especially attracts men: 56 percent against 36 percent of women. For every third potential cryptocurrency …

Prosecutors in the German federal state of Bavaria have sold seized cryptocurrency worth €12 mln ($13.9 mln), the highest such sale in German legal history, local news Der Tagesspiegel reported May 28. The sale reportedly involved 1312 Bitcoins (BTC), in addition to significant amounts of other digital currencies, including 1399 Bitcoin Cash, 1312 Bitcoin Gold, and 220 Ethereum. Cryptocurrencies which were seized during criminal proceedings were sold over the course of two months in 1,600 individual transactions. The prosecutors commented the sale: "Since all cryptocurrencies are exposed to the risk of high price fluctuations or even total loss, the Bayern …

German bank Commerzbank and steel company Thyssenkrupp have completed a €500,000 pilot transaction of a forex (FX) forward on a blockchain, reported Cointelegraph auf Deutsch May 24. The EUR/PLN forward deal worth €500,000 with a one month tenor was initiated by Thyssenkrupp on the Commerzbank's FX Live Trader platform on Wednesday. The transaction was then confirmed directly through Corda, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) of the R3 blockchain consortium. The use of blockchain technology, which underpins the Bitcoin virtual currency, could help reduce delays and manual errors, as well as "significantly reduce operational risks in foreign exchange transactions", according to …

German shares and securities marketplace organizer Deutsche Boerse (DB) said it is “deep at work” examining cryptocurrency integration options, Bloomberg reports May 23. Speaking at an industry event, the company’s head of clients, products and core markets Jeffrey Tessler told audience members that the company was busy “understanding” the technology behind Bitcoin before “moving forward” with it. The progress is a step forward from previous remarks in March, when Tessler implied Bitcoin’s volatility prevented DB from entering any related markets at the time. “Before we move forward with anything like Bitcoin we want to make sure we understand the underlying …

The last four suspects in a two year case against alleged pyramid scheme OneCoin have been prosecuted in China’s Hunan Province, government-supported local news source the Justice Network reports Wednesday, May 23. The Zhuzhou Country Procuratorate of the Hunan Province examined 106 people, publicly prosecuted 98, and recovered around 1.7 bln yuan (around $266 mln) from over 20 provinces across China in the course of the case. Those prosecuted have received up to 10,000 - 5 mln yuan in fines (about $1,500 - $782,000) as well as four years or less of prison time. In 2016, Chinese authorities had already …

One of the largest financial supervisors in Europe met with the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) and other members of the finance sector to discuss cryptocurrency regulation, according to a post on the NBG’s site May 18. According to the post, a representative from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) met with members of the NBG, the international financial institutions (IFI), private sector, commercial banks, brokers, audit, and legal companies to increase awareness of crypto in the country. At the meeting, the participants had a chance to receive detailed information on the crypto industry from the leading financial supervisory authority …

European leaders seem to have finally come to a consensus that the innovative technology underlying crypto-assets “has the potential to improve efficiency and inclusiveness of the financial system and economy more broadly,” as emphasized at the G20 summit in Argentina in March 2018. However, when it comes to regulation, the lack of consensus among global leaders made it impossible to enact broad legislation. Various European representatives pushed for coordinated legislation to restrict cryptocurrencies during the G20 summit with no success. Instead, there was agreement to set a July 2018 deadline for regulatory proposals. The hang-up over regulation may be due …

Update: Thursday, April 19, Savedroid’s CEO posted a video to YouTube claiming that the apparent exit scam was actually a PR stunt the company pulled off to advocate for “high quality ICO standards.” The founder of German-based startup Savedroid has allegedly disappeared after raising a reported $50 mln through both an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and private funding, according to local news outlet WirtschaftsWoche, today April 18. CEO and founder Yassin Hankir apparently left the intention behind his disappearance fairly clear with the following tweet, posted earlier today, apparently in Egypt: Thanks guys! Over and out ... #savedroidICO pic.twitter.com/PMRtjlbEdD — …

Sowa Labs, a subsidiary of Germany’s second largest stock exchange Börse Stuttgart, will release a cryptocurrency trading app later this year, according to the app’s website. The app, called Bison, will be available in September and will initially support trading of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), and XRP. The website states that more assets will be included in the future. Bison also claims that they will charge no trading fees. The app will be available in German, and later in English. Managing Director at Sowa Labs Dr. Ulli Spankowski said, “BISON makes trading in digital currencies easy. It is …

German Camelot Consulting Group has developed a Blockchain-based solution for the management of sensitive medical data, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported Monday, April 9. With its Hypertrust X-Chain data management system, the company aims to offer the healthcare industry a secure digital platform for the exchange of patient data. It aims to provide all actors that are authorized to participate in the therapy process with decentralized data storage based on Blockchain technology. All data transactions are encrypted and stored on an unchangeable Blockchain and will be carried out directly between the authorized participants, the company says. It will also allow the …