Bitcoin Daily: Microsoft Hops On Hyperledger, IBM Upgades Blockchain

Microsoft announced that it has joined Hyperledger.

“We believe that developing standards and open specifications, as well as collaborating on implementations of them, is critical to removing customer blockers and accelerating blockchain as a mainstream technology. Through our work related to the EEA and TTI, we have identified several opportunities for Microsoft to lean in and contribute code in project areas such as tokens, ledger integration, and developer experience,” Marley Gray, principal program manager of Azure blockchain engineering, wrote in a blog post.

In other news, IBM has revealed the launch of an upgraded version of its enterprise blockchain platform, a “fully-flexible blockchain platform, built around a well-managed open source distributed ledger technology, that can truly run in virtually any computing infrastructure.”

“Clients can now benefit from the next generation of the IBM Blockchain Platform which has been rearchitected to support deployments via Kubernetes. This means you can now deploy the IBM Blockchain Platform on the infrastructure of your choosing. Deploy to public clouds like IBM Cloud, AWS, and Azure, or deploy on-premises in private clouds with secure infrastructures like LinuxOne,” Jerry Cuomo wrote in a press release.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against a defunct British cryptocurrency company, and its former principal, for allegedly stealing at least $147 million worth of bitcoin from more than 1,000 customers.

Control-Finance Ltd and Benjamin Reynolds are accused of “exploiting public enthusiasm” for bitcoin by falsely representing that their “expert” traders could generate profits of 1.5 percent a day, or 45 percent a month, from it, according to Reuters.

In addition, the CFTC accused Control-Finance Ltd of creating “sham” customer account balances and profit statements, as well as creating a “Ponzi scheme-like payments.”

And the Litecoin Foundation is partnering with Bibox Exchange and blockchain firm Ternio to launch a physical cryptocurrency debit card called “BlockCard.”

The card will allow users to spend their crypto funds both online and in physical store locations around the world.

“This is an exciting partnership for us as it furthers the Litecoin Foundation’s mission to create more use cases for spending Litecoin in everyday life. Leveraging Ternio’s BlockCard platform with Bibox’s exchange engine gives Litecoin holders unparalleled access to use their LTC at merchants around the world,” the Foundation wrote, according to Coin Telegraph.