New blockchain pilots for shipping and property registries were announced this week. A subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports and the Port of Antwerp signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a pilot that seeks to use blockchain to secure transactions, including identification and acknowledgement of cargo documents, and reduce costs at their respective ports. In Australia, the state of South Wales is reportedly partnering with a Swedish startup to build a proof of concept for a blockchain-based land registry system.

In the private sector, one of the world's oldest and most renowned art auction houses recently announced a pilot project with blockchain-powered digital art registry Artory, which will store the purchase history of an artwork on a blockchain, accessible to the buyer via a registration card issued at the time of purchase, thus offering buyers greater confidence in the piece's provenance. Also this week, a major global electronics and entertainment company announced that it is using blockchain technology to streamline rights management of educational digital content, including digital textbooks, music, films, VR content and e-books. The new system will be able to automatically verify the rights generation, such as the date and time the electronic data was created, of a piece of written work. And in the automotive industry, blockchain advertising analytics are helping improve performance in the $15 billion ad market. The auto industry's first-ever blockchain campaign reportedly led to a 21 percent improvement in performance over previous campaigns by leveraging blockchain-based digital ad supply chain data. The project was a result of a partnership between startup Lucidity, a major Japanese auto manufacturer, and a global communications and advertising agency.

In a development for merchants, bitcoin payment processor BitPay announced that merchants will now be able to settle bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash transactions in Gemini Dollars and Circle USD Coin, both 1:1 U.S. dollar-backed stable coins. This new service will help decrease the price volatility that merchants are subject to when settling Bitcoin transactions. And in a recent speech at the GITEX Technology Week Conference in Dubai, Brian Quinentz, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), discussed the challenges of enforcing CFTC regulations in the context of smart contracts applications that trigger automatic payments upon the occurrence of specific events. The commissioner suggested that some applications of smart contract-triggered payments may be considered illegal "prediction markets." Noting the potential for smart contracts to be used to propagate predictive "event" contracts, including those concerning war, terrorism, assassinations or similar events, Commissioner Quinentz stated his view that the coders behind such contracts may be liable under CFTC regulations.

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