Bitcoin and other CryptoCurrencies have been on a tear for most of this year as focus has turned to the advancements and innovation blockchain, the underlying technology that powers these digital currencies. Recently however, blockchain technology has many more potential use cases and applications other than just serving as the fuel behind Bitcoin. Active companies in the markets today include: NovaTeqni Corporation (OTC: NVTQF) (TSX-V: NTQ), HIVE Blockchain Technologies LT (TSX-V: HIVE), Digatrade Financial Corp. (OTC: DIGAF), MGT Capital Investments, Inc. (OTC: MGTI) and Glance Technologies Inc. (OTC: GLNNF) (CSE: GET.CN)
NovaTeqni Corporation (OTCQB: NVTQF) (TSX-V: NTQ.V) is continuing to examine areas of its business where the use of blockchain will reduce costs, improve security and provide efficiencies beyond current processes. Novateqni’s extensive experience in biometrics and voter registration, validation and voting systems uniquely positions the Company to take advantage of the efficiencies and security offered by the use of a blockchain. In examining current and future projects, the Company has decided to commence the development of a new version Farmer’s Management System using blockchain to increase functionality, and specifically to create a highly flexible, generic identification and transaction system. Read this and more news for NovaTeqni Corp here.
The Company’s current Farmer’s Management System which was first launched in Malawi includes government quality biometrics, fixed offices, wireless and land line communications, cloud-based computing, and mobile biometrics systems. Farmers were issued secure contactless smart cards containing biometrics data to allow instant identification. The system contains administrative functionality such as financial reporting and crop related reporting which led to an improvement in efficiency and capability within the important farming sector. The use of the blockchain adds an additional security layer to further distribute encrypted ledgers. This will allow for the safer and more secure storage of the biometrics and biographical information of users. Local biometrics matching when required will also be possible such as match on device or match on card once developed the upgraded system can be used by a variety of enterprises.
The new system will be customisable to work for different standard and non standard product applications such as Know Your Customer, student registration, access control, time and attendance, health plans, drivers licenses, voter validation, voter registration, and money transfers. Novateqni is also pleased to announce it has completed the prototype and first demonstration to sales partners of its finger print based door access system with fully integrated virtual reception and time and attendance functionality. An iris based version of the access system will be available by the end of this year and a robust version targeted at construction sites will be launched in 2018.
In other industry news and market performance of note:
Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSX-V: HIVE.V) recently entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by GMP Securities LP, pursuant to which the underwriters have agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis, 20 million common shares of the company at a price of $1.50 per share, for aggregate gross proceeds of $30-million. The president’s list is expected to make up 25 percent of the purchase. In connection with the offering, the company may pay a cash fee of up to 6 percent of the gross proceeds of the offering, payable at closing. The offering will take place by way of a private placement to accredited investors in such provinces of Canada as the underwriters may designate, and otherwise in those jurisdictions where the offering can lawfully be made on a private placement basis. All shares issued under the offering will be subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period from the date of issue in accordance with applicable securities laws in Canada, and potentially additional restrictions under the laws of other jurisdictions in which the offering may be made.
Digatrade Financial Corp. (OTCQB: DIGAF) came to a close up 2.41 percent on Tuesday with a volume north of 400,000. The company recently announced the execution of a Letter of Intent “LOI” for its Initial Coin Offering “ICO” with No Limits Consulting Limited based in Hong Kong. The project deck, currently under development, will include the leadership team, development team, new Digafund ICO platform & launch date, legal & accounting, regulatory compliance partnerships, white paper, token structure, use of proceeds and user guide registration for token activation among other items and requirements. As previously announced Digatrade is currently integrating the Ethereum Coin “ETH” onto the Digatrade platform to enable Digatrade customers and shareholders first access to register for the token release.
MGT Capital Investments Inc. (OTCQB: MGTI) recently announced the commercial launch of its Sentinelnetwork intrusion detection system. Orders will be accepted via this link. The MSRP per unit is $2,499, inclusive of one year of monitoring, and will ship on November 1, 2017. The Sentinel system, composed of a passive hardware device connected to each subnet, monitors network traffic for suspicious activity using sophisticated algorithms, generating an alert and deploying countermeasures when triggered. John McAfee, Chief Cybersecurity Visionary of MGT, and head of the design team of Sentinel, stated, “Every day hackers are growing more sophisticated. Organisations are vulnerable, and the old-world model of reactive security is not equal to the challenge.
Glance Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: GLNNF) (CSE: GET.CN) closed up over 24 percent on Tuesday on the OTC Markets with over 700,000 shares traded by the market close and closed up over 29 percent at $0.60 trading over 2.6 Million shares on the CSE Canadian exchange. The company announced that Netcoins Inc., who enables approximately 4,000 stores to become bitcoin teller locations through virtual ATM software, has entered into an alliance with Glance Technologies. Netcoins Inc. provides an easy way for people to buy bitcoins whereas Glance will allow users to spend their bitcoins quickly and easily via Glance Pay. According to blockchain.info the price of bitcoin has increased over 600 percent during the past year, making the current market capitalisation of bitcoin over $72 billion USD. This means there is 6 times as much purchasing power in the bitcoin community versus just 1 year ago, with still limited opportunities to spend bitcoins compared to traditional currencies.
