Counterfeit Made in Italy label protection, Standard Chartered tokenized letter of credit and other blockchain initiatives

Blockchain technology continues to be one of the hottest trends among financial,state and commercial organizations inall over the world. Information on new projects and initiatives in this area is received daily. ForkLog Magazine offers an overview of the most interesting recent initiatives.

In Italy, blockchain will protect the country's fashion industry from counterfeit products

The Italian government has allocated 15 million euros to develop a blockchain solution to protect the label Made in Italy, said a research project dGen.

According to experts, this inscription has long beennot a confirmation of the place of production of the goods, but has become synonymous with luxury and fashion. If it were registered as a trademark, Made in Italy would be the third most recognizable brand in the world after Coca-Cola and Visa.

But the Italian fashion industry, especially the small onesmanufacturers suffer significant losses from counterfeit products. In Italy alone, in 2016, losses from its sale amounted to 12.4 billion euros and cost losses of 88 thousand jobs. The main objects of fakes are leather goods, most often bags, and clothes.

A significant part of the Italian fashion industry is made up of small craft industries. These small labels are responsible for releasing seasonal fashion lines. Counterfeit hits him the most.

Italian government aware of the threatindustry, identified blockchain technology as the basis for solving the problem. Funding has been earmarked for the introduction of digital technology, including the launch of a joint project by IBM in the country and the artisans association.

It is assumed that the use of a distributed registry will be able to provide:

• authentication of goods and raw materials;
• reliable and modern register of intellectual property rights;
• tighter and safer brand and customer relationships;
• affirmation of sustainable and ethical practices;
• after-sales service and authentication certificates.

The industry expects these measures to help curb the growth of counterfeit products and secure the future of Italian artisans.

The fintech sandbox of the regulator of South Korea has created hundreds of jobs in the blockchain industry. Universities begin to train personnel

The regulatory fintech sandbox in South Korea created 380 jobs related to the blockchain and attracted more than $ 110 million of investments. This was reported by Cointelegraph with reference to local media.

The sandbox is controlled by the Commission onKorea Financial Services (FSC). This temporarily exempts participating companies from various provisions regarding financial services, which fosters innovation.

As part of the FSC initiative, it is exploring the usefulness and security of blockchain technology for things like real estate, chatbot services and artificial intelligence based credit scores.

Amid the authorities' support for a new technology industry, Suseong University has entered into an agreement with the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association (KORAIA) to create a blockchain and AI campus.

Daegu-based university intends to teach big data and cloud computing at the new faculty. Admission of students is planned for next year.

Several local blockchain companies have agreed to provide training programs and practice opportunities for campus students.

Large Brazilian bank in addition to STO on Ethereum begins placing security tokens on Tezos

The largest Brazilian investment bank Banco BTG Pactual SA officially launched the ReitBZ security token on the Tezos blockchain for conducting STO.

Earlier, the bank issued Ethereum tokens ReitBZ, secured by Brazilian real estate.

The launch of the new blockchain for STO in Banco BTG Pactual was announced in July last year.

Using the Tezos blockchain will allow for more complex STOs in the future, according to the bank.

«We are confident that the Tezos solution is technically sound, and this release allows us to guarantee more resources to invest in the development of ReitBZ».- said a bank representative.

According to a press release, since the launch of ReitBZwas used to acquire 238 properties in August and another 85 in December 2019. 181 of these objects have already been sold, and the first distribution of dividends on profits is planned for May 2020.

In the near future, the bank intends to launch a secondary market for ReitBZ to provide additional liquidity.

Standard Chartered Bank issued a letter of credit on the blockchain

British banking giant Standard Chartered has successfully completed its first international transaction with a letter of credit on the RMB-denominated blockchain, Coinspeaker reports.

The project was implemented in collaboration withblockchain company Contour, specializing in solutions for trade finance. According to media reports, the bank invested in a project formerly known as Voltron. The amount of investment is not disclosed.

Participated in the transaction with a letter of credit on the blockchainRio Tinto, an Australian mining corporation, and Baosteel, a Chinese metallurgical company. For the latter, this was the second use of tokenized letters of credit.

This bank document, in fact, gives a guaranteeto the exporter that he will be paid for the delivery. Its traditional form no longer meets the modern requirements of international transport and trade due to slow, duplicate processing processes.

A representative of Standard Chartered said that digitizing a bank's letter of credit is an important step towards improving trade management.

VeChain and I-Dante create blockchain platform for medical data management

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the needimplementation of digital technologies in the exchange of medical data between the healthcare system, governments, and employers around the world. In response, VeChain, together with the Italian project I-Dante, developed a blockchain-based health data management platform called E-NewHealthLife.

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The first healthcare institution to implement the solution was the Mediterranean Hospital of Cyprus. It has 300 employees, over the past year she has received 38 thousand patients.

Companies noted that attempts to modernize data sharing in the healthcare sector are facing a number of challenges, including:

• lack of cooperation between different departments;
• technical difficulties of combining different digital recording systems;
• increase in financial costs;
• balance of information requirements from medicine and data security.

Blockchain, which provides secure data storage and effective trusted exchange between several parties, has become an inexpensive and effective solution.

The digital health passport created for E-NewHealthLife is an encrypted NFC card. It allows the patient:

• Automatically identify yourself at the front desk
• check the queue on a mobile phone;
• securely manage your medical records in the app;
• securely share data with the hospital.

The decision is fully consistent with the General RulesEU data protection partners stressed. The application gives the user complete control over the information and, only with his consent, can be used to confirm the state of his health, for example, for the employer.