Welcome to the latest bi-weekly roundup of the most discussion-worthy news content related to the Ethereum blockchain network & its cryptocurrency ETH. Plus a brief look at periodical price movements.
October 1st
Iceland’s Milestone Crypto Invoice, Settled Between IKEA and Nordic Store
It has been announced, via a press release from supply chain payments and marketplaces specialist Tradeshift, that one of the first ever high profile cryptocurrency transactions in Iceland has taken place on the ethereum blockchain.
“Programmable money regulated by governments will become the foundation for e-commerce payments because they enable so called ‘smart contracts.’ Smart contracts have many use cases…
With a ‘smart invoice’ we can issue tokens that represent the future cash flow down to each dollar on the invoice. Whoever holds tokens will get paid upon due date, which makes smart invoices ideal to use for financial-services apps,”
Gert Sylvest (co-founder and GM of Tradeshift Frontiers, of Tradeshift)
The transaction, between Nordic Store and IKEA Iceland, was facilitated by Tradeshift as well as self-proclaimed “only authorized provider of licensed e-money for blockchain” Monerium, using the latter’s “programmable digital cash”.
“A programmable financial supply chain, where trading partners can connect information flows to money flows through smart contracts, will transform how suppliers and customers interact.”
Stefán Árnason, CFO of IKEA Iceland
Tradeshift states that the settlement represents a milestone for the company and blockchain transactions in general, being “the world’s first smart invoice”. A smart invoice is, as the name suggests, a practical evolution of the smart contract principle: being an automated invoice solution which self-completes upon verification from both parties.
“As the first company authorized to issue e-money on blockchains, we are delighted to demonstrate the benefits of blockchains for mainstream B2B transactions using a legal form of digital money…
With Tradeshift, we intend to make international B2B supply chain transactions happen instantly, automatically, and at a fraction of today’s costs”
Sveinn Valfells, co-founder and CEO of Monerium
October 1st
$17.1 Million Raised By SKALE, An Ethereum Scaling-Network
Ethereum scaling solution SKALE has announced that it has successfully raised $17.1 million from a handful of investors including: Hashed, ConsenSys Labs, Arrington XRP Capital, Blockchange, and Winklevoss Capital.
“Over the last year, various scalability technologies have brought thousands of decentralized transactions per second to layer 2, anchored into or bridged into the base Ethereum trust layer.
SKALE is presently the state of the art and represents a quantum leap in scalability for the Ethereum ecosystem.”
Joseph Lubin, Founder of ConsenSys and Co-Creator of Ethereum
According to the official SKALE press release, the team intends on using these funds towards “a primary focus on the long-term growth [and scaling] of its Proof-of-Stake network”.
SKALE, founded in 2017, provides a “decentralized modular cloud” in which its users can run their custom dApps. It claims that it has just completed phase one out of two of its ‘development cycle’ which was to architect, build and test the network.
“SKALE’s recent financing round brings the total number of VCs and prominent angels to over 40 investors spanning the US, EU, China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
This will yield over 750 Nodes live at Network Launch which can support up to 6,000 independent SKALE Chains.”
Jack O’Holleran, CEO of SKALE Labs
Phase two is currently in-progress and will see the team transferring all assets to a new foundation, established recently for the support and growth of the SKALE community.
Back in April, SKALE announced that it had launched ‘NODE’ an acronym which stands for ‘Network Of Decentralized Economics’, a Lichtenstein Foundation. In a 2018 funding found, the company raised a total of $9.65 million from investors which included: Galaxy Digital, Signia Venture Partners, and Blockchange Ventures.
October 4th
Ethereum API Developer Infura Acquired By ConsenSys
Ethereum and IPFS API suite Infura has issued an official announcement detailing its recent acquisition by growing blockchain tech company ConsenSys, referring to it as a follow-up to an earlier investment from the same company dating back to 2016.
The team sees this as an opportunity to join forces with an organisation which they believe shares similar principles regarding Web3 development and beyond.
“Infura has become critical infrastructure for a diverse population of Web3 businesses, including: gaming, collectibles, financial services, exchanges, wallets, and more…
we are pleased to announce that ConsenSys has formally acquired all of the rights to Infura and Infura will continue as a wholly owned business unit within ConsenSys.”
Infura (official statement)
Infura recently released a paid service called Infura+. For free: users have access to the team’s ethereum mainnet and testnets as well as a community support forum, three concurrent projects, 100,000 network requests per day. Starting at a minimum of $50 per month, Infura+ members have access to at least 200,000 requests per day, 10 projects, and enhanced customer support services.
Back in April 2018, ConsenSys described Infura as its “secret weapon of ethereum infrastructure”. ConsenSys is responsible for a range of notable projects including DAOWars (blockchain based computer game) and Blockstack Labs.
Information correct as of 01:51 AM (GMT+1), 19th September 2019
