Blockchain This Week: Binance’s ‘Build For Bharat’ Startup Accelerator Programme & More

In a bid to bridge the gap between blockchain and mass adoption, Binance in partnership with Polaris Accelerator Program recently announced the launch of ‘Build for Bharat’ initiative, a platform for startups and entrepreneurs to showcase their products and solutions using digital assets and blockchain technology, including mini-tokens, micro-financing products, blockchain datasets, blockchain-AI solutions among others.  

In a blog post, Binance said that this is its first DeFi-focused hackathon and acceleration program, where it will be focusing on spreading the vision of financial sovereignty and bringing blockchain to all. The startups that have a blockchain-based innovative use case and cryptopreneurs working on a proof-of-concept are eligible to participate in the programme. 

The shortlisted startups will receive rewards from a pool of INR 30 Lakhs and winning teams will additionally get a chance to accelerate at Polaris, Bengaluru, where they will be provided capital and mentoring from leading industry experts, founders and investors, alongside Binance’s blockchain ecosystem, including Binance Chain, Binance Cloud, Binance Launchpad, Binance DEX among others. The last date to submit the application is September 11. 

Optimistic about India’s blockchain technology landscape, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said that India is one of the most interesting countries for them to tap into. Further, he said with the second largest blockchain developer base in the world, India has already kickstarted the revolution of decentralisation and we are here to fuel it.  

Blockchain Graph Of The Week: 

The blockchain adoption has skyrocketed in the recent years and industry experts suggest that it is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. A lot of companies are now looking at ways to leverage this technology to build trust among its consumers and have an edge over its competitors. The below shown graph depicts the growth of blockchain technology and its adoption across industries. 

The blockchain technology market is expected to touch $20 Bn by 2024, as per BDS Analytics. According to Statista, the US spending on blockchain solutions is projected to reach $4.2 Bn by 2020.

Blockchain News Of The Week: 

STPI To Set Up New Centres For Blockchain Innovation 

At an online seminar organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce on the usage of blockchain technology in the agriculture sector, State-owned Software Technology Park of India’s director general Omkar Rai said that the government has planned to set up 21 centres of excellence (CoEs) to incubate new technologies in various sectors. Out of these centres, 12 are already operational. STPI has collaborated with industry stakeholders, investors and education institutions to develop new technologies across industries. “STPI is going to have the country’s largest incubation ecosystem in technology in a year,” he added. 

IBM Partners With NSDC To Offer Blockchain Courses 

IT giant IBM recently announced its partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer a free online education platform focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills. With this, IBM will be curating online courses from Open P-Tech platform and offer it to users via NSDC’s eSkill India portal to empower Indian youth on various skills in emerging technologies like blockchain, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud and internet of things (IoT) among others, for free. At present the courses are available in English, and soon will be available in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil among 10 other Indian languages. 

ConsenSys Acquires JPMorgan’s Quorum Blockchain Technology 

The blockchain technology company ConsenSys recently acquired Quorum, an Ethereum-based distributed ledger open source platform developed by JPMorgan Chase developers. As part of the deal, JPMorgan made a strategic investment in ConsenSys, where it will be an active user and contribute to ConsenSys Quorum. In addition to this, the addition of Quorum into the ConsenSys will enable it to offer a full range of products, services and support for Quorum accelerating the availability of features and capabilities such as digital asset functionality and document management.