Summary:
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Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and IBM pilot a blockchain system across value chain
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Ethereum core developers set a point for hard fork
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Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) bounces off around $3200
The cryptocurrency market has begun another week with losses, but the scale of them could be described as moderate compared to previous days. Bitcoin has lost nearly a 1%, Ripple (RIPPLE on xStation5) has declined around 2.5%, and Ethereum (ETHEREUM on xStation5) has experienced over a 1.5% drop. The capitalization of the whole market stands around the $113 billion mark whereas Bitcoin accounts for 55.0% of this value.
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On Friday, Bitcoin declined to around $3200, but then it bounced off. The cryptocurrency is trading a little below the $3500 handle at press time. Source: xStation5
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced on December 9 its collaboration with US tech giant IBM. The companies will pilot blockchain-based system across value chain. According to the ADNOC’s press release, blockchain “will reduce the time it takes to execute transactions between ADNOC’s operating companies and significantly increase operational efficiencies across its full value chain”. Additionally, the company declares this technology will improve the reliability of production data providing better transparency.
Recent weeks have not been successful for the third largest cryptocurrency. However, Ethereum has begun the new week with a slight drop. Source: xStation5
Ethereum core developers agreed about the point of next hard fork on Friday during the biweekly developers meeting. Developers proposed a block 7,080,000 as an activation point for Constantinople, a long-awaited code change. This implies that Constantinople is expected to go live between January 14 and 18. This change will give users the option to update the blockchain with additional features. On top of that, developers also discussed Ethereum 1x, another upgrade that is currently targeted for proposal in 2019, concluding that progress of work is an early stage.
