A new patent filing suggests that United States retail giant Walmart may be developing its own U.S. dollar-backed digital currency similar to Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency. Walmart filed patent for “Digital Currency via Blockchain” Patent filing number 20190236564, “System and Method for Digital Currency via Blockchain,” was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Aug. 1. The document outlines a method for: “Generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency; storing information of the one digital currency unit into a block of a blockchain; buying or paying the one digital …

Walmart China plans to track food through its supply chain with VeChain’s Thor blockchain, reveals a VeChain press release published on June 25. Per the release, the Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform (WCBTP) will be a joint venture by Walmart China, VeChain, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), cattle company Inner Mongolia Kerchin, and the China Chain-Store & Franchise Association. WCBTP has been reportedly announced at the 2019 China Products Safety Publicity Week Traceability System Construction Seminar jointly organized by Walmart China and the CCFA in Beijing. Walmart China already revealed 23 product lines that the system will track and plans to release another …

Walmart is no stranger to distributed ledger technology (DLT). Back in October 2016, the multinational food retailer began collaborating with IBM on a blockchain-based system that could identify and flag recalled foods. Since then, it has dived into a number of patents and trials — e.g., tracking meat in China, tracking delivery drones, patenting smart deliveries and tracking live food in the United States. And in addition to several other U.S. patents and global initiatives, Walmart has recently announced its latest foray into applying blockchain technology. This is its collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration, which — in conjunction …

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has partnered with four global high-profile firms to apply blockchain in the drug supply chain, tech media outlet ZDNet reports on June 13. The FDA has reportedly teamed up with companies including IBM, Walmart, Big Four auditor KPMG, and the world's oldest pharma firm Merck in order to build a proof-of-concept (PoC) blockchain network to share and track data on distribution of prescription drugs. According to the report, the initiative is connected with the United States Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and intends to assist the FDA — as well as …

Although once confined largely to agriculture, blockchain technology is now making major inroads into the luxury goods supply chain market. Thus, Consensys recently announced a new platform with French multinational luxury goods conglomerate LMVH and the technology behemoth Microsoft to verify the authenticity of luxury goods. Luxury brands trial blockchain Although many products in the luxury goods market are renowned status symbols found in expensive city center stores the world over, the components of their products can originate in the most far-flung corners of the globe. The nature of globalized trade means that raw materials can be sourced in one …

Cryptocurrencies have gone a long way since the day when, nine years ago, Laszlo Hanyecz had paid 10,000 bitcoins for two large Papa John’s pizzas, marking the first purchase of tangible goods for digital money. Although bitcoin is still far from being universally accepted by retailers, thousands of merchants around the world are taking crypto in exchange for goods — and their ranks grow daily. The latest of the big developments in this vein came up at this year’s Consensus conference, as blockchain startup Flexa made public its partnership with a number of major U.S. retailers. Flexa’s payments app, Spedn, …

Global retail giant Walmart is expanding its blockchain expertise by joining blockchain-powered pharmaceutical consortium MediLedger, industry media outlet CoinDesk reports on June 3. Walmart is reportedly planning to roll out a pilot project to track pharmaceutical products using MediLedger technology with the United States Food and Drug Administration in early June. By joining the consortium, Walmart has followed four major American pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer Inc., which joined MediLedger in early May, to collaborate on the development of a blockchain network for the health and pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer, along with McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen Corporation and Premier Inc. officially announced that …

Swiss-headquartered food retail giant Nestle S.A. says that the blockchain-based IBM Food Trust initiative — which counts major global retailers such as Walmart and Unilever as members— is gearing up to onboard new suppliers and retailers this year. Benjamin Dubois, digital transformation manager of global supply chain at Nestle, spoke of the development in an interview with Swiss regional bilingual daily newspaper 24 heures on Jan. 28. As reported, the IBM Food Trust blockchain has been underway since fall 2016, with the first product trials spearheaded by Walmart in China in December 2016. Nestle, for its part, has been engaged …

The adoption of blockchain technology is slowly taking shape across a multitude of industries. At the forefront of the amalgamation of payment systems and logistics is US tech giant International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), which has established itself as a leader in terms of blockchain-based products and offerings. The latest developments aim at the logistics sector – but IBM has been keen on blockchain for over 5 years that reveals a slow and steady approach to the adoption of enterprise-scale blockchain solutions. Exploring the Internet of Things Their beginnings in the space were focused on research on the capabilities of …

U.S. tech giant IBM has officially launched its blockchain-based food tracking network, Food Trust, after 18 months of testing, the company revealed in a press-release Monday, October 8. In the same announcement, the corporation revealed that another major food retailer Carrefour is joining their ecosystem. The France-based company that operates more than 12,000 stores in 33 countries will first test blockchain on their own stores. As IBM’s press release reports, by 2022 Carrefour is planning to expand blockchain to all of its brands around the world. IBM Food Trust was first announced back in 2016 as a blockchain solution that …

Coming every Sunday, the Hodler’s Digest will help you to track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions, and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Google Reverses Crypto Ad Ban, Allows Crypto Exchanges In Japan, US To Advertise The U.S. tech giant Google is set to update its ad policy in October, re-allowing registered cryptocurrency exchanges located in the U.S. and Japan to advertise. According to the official announcement, starting in October, Google will allow registered cryptocurrency exchanges …

U.S. retail giant Walmart and its division Sam’s Club, a membership-only retail warehouse club, will require suppliers of leafy greens to implement a farm-to-store tracking system based on blockchain tech, Reuters reported September 24. The end-to-end traceability system is based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) developed by computing giant IBM. According to the report, Walmart will require suppliers to implement blockchain tech by September 2019. The company’s Vice President of Food Safety, Frank Yiannas, stated that Walmart will require a similar traceability system “for other fresh fruit and vegetable providers within the next year.” Walmart told Bloomberg that over 100 …