Bitcoin Daily: Target Ventures Into DLT For Supply Chains; Overstock Evaluates Blockchain Opportunities In Africa

Retail giant Target revealed that it has been working on a blockchain-powered solution for supply chain management since mid-2018, and has recently pledged to support the Hyperledger Grid project, which is a supply chain framework that has seen participation from food giant Cargill, one of Target’s suppliers, as well as Intel and blockchain startup Bitwise.io.

In addition, Target is looking to hire a blockchain engineer and systems developer to contribute to both projects and create “distributed ledger systems, protocols, smart contracts, CLI’s, and RESTful APIs in an open source environment,” according to a job posting.

“I’m proud that Target will support the Hyperledger Grid project, and that we’re committing dedicated engineering resources to build out components in the Grid architecture,” Joel Crabb, Target’s vice president of architecture, wrote on its corporate blog.

In other news, Overstock announced that its Medici Land Governance blockchain subsidiary signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Liberia’s Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, which will lead to a pilot to explore the potential digitization of existing government services, as well as the development of eGovernment platforms in the country.

“Medici Land Governance’s work is a major component of Medici Ventures’ goal to create ‘a blockchain tech stack for civilization,’” Ali El Husseini, PhD, CEO of Medici Land Governance, said in a press release. “Liberia is well-positioned to explore implementing a blockchain backbone for eGovernment, which connects the various government ministries as their services are digitized and brought online. This pilot project is an excellent opportunity for Medici Land Governance to demonstrate how we can tailor our products and services to the needs of Liberia’s government and economy.”

The community behind bitcoin app Wasabi Wallet worked together to carry out a “CoinJoin” transaction on bitcoin.

“There wasn’t any service created to do such large CoinJoins,” zkSNACKS CTO Adam Fiscor told CoinDesk, adding that it was “the largest practical CoinJoin that can be done on the bitcoin network.” He did note, however, that it’s “possible” that Blockchain’s SharedCoin has done one as large, “but I’m not sure if it’s relevant.”

And startup Bitwage, which helps companies pay their employees in cryptocurrency, announced that it has added Ether as a payroll option.

“Since 2017, we have been experimenting within the Ethereum ecosystem. We created a system that allows companies to fund payrolls and other fiat obligations in Ether. We also launched Blockchain technology and consulting services firm  Inwage, which built several projects on the Ethereum blockchain. This includes the Moria ICO, which raised $50MM, and a pilot project for a major insurance company that leverages Ethereum for audit trail capabilities,” Jonathan Chester, CEO of Bitwage, wrote in a blog post.