Utah County is the latest governmental entity to pilot Voatz, a blockchain-based mobile application for voting. According to reports, the county will offer the blockchain-based voting platform to active-duty military, their eligible dependents and overseas voters during its August municipal primary election. To date, Voatz has conducted more than 40 pilots, including municipal elections in Denver and two primary elections in West Virginia.
Early this week, a German multinational automotive firm announced plans to partner with Riddle & Code to create a hardware wallet for automobiles. According to reports, the wallet creates a cryptographic identity for vehicles and could offer autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles the ability to relay traffic patterns in real time, integrate with smart city infrastructure, transfer accident information to authorities and insurance providers, and verify vehicle maintenance.
Also this week, a major American newspaper, in conjunction with a multinational technology firm, launched the News Provenance Project, a research initiative that evaluates the use of blockchain technology to track and validate the provenance of digital media. The initiative reportedly aims to build an immutable record for each image published by an established news organization. The record will reportedly include metadata, detailed tamper-evident history, and a "visual signal" that will link to the original source, context and full journey of the image.
A recent report on blockchain patents indicates that the compound annual growth rate of blockchain-related patents from 2013 to 2018 is estimated to be 285.6%. As of April 30, 2019, reportedly 14,035 blockchain-related patent applications are on file, with roughly 62% of the applications originating in China and roughly 22% of the applications originating in the U.S.
To read more about the topics covered in this week's post, see the following:
- Utah County to Offer Blockchain Voting App in Municipal Elections
- Daimler to Produce Crypto Hard Wallet for Automotive Industry
- The New York Times, IBM explore blockchain as a means to verify trustworthiness in digital media
- Revealed: the countries leading the race for blockchain patents
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