Summary
Pharma Giant Merck Is Using Blockchain To Fight Against Counterfeit Medication; An Artificial Intelligence Read 100 ICO Whitepapers, Then It Wrote Its Own Cryptocurrency Whitepaper; Andreessen Horowitz Is Launching A $300 Million Cryptocurrency Fund
Pharma Giant Merck Is Using Blockchain To Fight Against Counterfeit Medication
According to Coindesk, pharmaceutical giant Merck is seeking to have a patent approved to use blockchain to track goods as they move through the supply chain.
The patent application from Merck outlines a method by which a blockchain could be used to store information about a single object and receive updates as it moves towards its destination. The main purpose of the patent is to fight against counterfeit medication and verifying the authenticity of medication.
Merck explains about the patent:
“Furthermore, the stored information can be accessed wherever access to the blockchain is available. This allows for a safe and distributed storage and access to the stored reading results, e.g. for integrity verification purposes such as checking whether a supplier of a product being marked with a composite security marking, as described herein, was in fact the originator of the product, or not.”
An Artificial Intelligence Read 100 ICO Whitepapers, Then It Wrote Its Own Cryptocurrency Whitepaper
According to CCN, blockchain researcher Clay Space ran a study in which he gave an artificial intelligence (AI) 100 Initial Coin Offering (ICO) whitepapers to read in order to learn the structure, words, and format commonly used so that the AI could create its own whitepaper.
The AI eventually ended up writing a whitepaper that followed the following structure:
Introduction
Problem
Uses of the Token
Purchasing ICO
Use of Funds
Team
To get an idea of the whitepaper, check out a section of the whitepaper that outlines the ICO process:
“[We] will seek to raise 20 million dollars over twenty five days, with a minimum cap of 40 trillion dollars. If the minimum is not raised before the end of the ICO all money will be returned to the team. Investment can be made in Bitcoin but should always be made in Ethereum and from a wallet that you own. Your private keys like to have privacy.”
Andreessen Horowitz Is Launching A $300 Million Cryptocurrency Fund
According to Fast Company, the well-known venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A.K.A. a16z) announced that it is launching a $300 million cryptocurrency fund.
The blog post not only announced the creation of a new fund but also the addition of a new a16z general partner Kathryn Haun. Chris Dixon from a16z wrote that the VC firm has invested in cryptocurrency for more than five years and has never sold any of these positions, and that it does not plan to sell these positions for a while.