TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Consumers will be able to exchange bonus points using Blockchain, says IBM

By TechTaffy Desk

Consumers will be able to exchange bonus points from among any of the banks they do business with to select the rewards they want, said IBM in a statement. IBM China Research Lab and China UnionPay E-payment Institute have created a business platform on IBM Blockchain, that uses the Hyperledger Fabric to create a permissioned network for the exchange of bonus points, as part of a pilot project.

This joint effort also integrates online and offline channels using blockchain. As a result, it will be possible for China UnionPay card holders to go to any offline supermarket or mall equipped with intelligent point-of-service (POS) devices, to exchange bonus points for commodities by direct scanning.

It is anticipated that bonus points from flight mileage, mobile phone bills, gas cards and food and beverage purchases can be freely exchanged and swapped in the future.

China UnionPay is a core transfer, settlement and clearing organization in China’s bank card industry, and its transfer, settlement and clearing network operates in over 150 countries.

[Image courtesy: IBM]

Just in

Series A

Tembo raises $14M

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Tembo, a Postgres managed service provider, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
Around the web

Raspberry Pi is now a public company — TC

Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate, writes Romain Dillet. 
Fundings

AlphaSense raises $650M

AlphaSense, a market intelligence and search platform, has raised $650 million in funding, co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.
Around the web

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to take on OpenAI — VentureBeat

Confirming reports from April, the series B investment comes from the participation of multiple known venture capital firms and investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, writes Shubham Sharma. 
IT

Capgemini partners with DARPA to explore quantum computing for carbon capture

Capgemini Government Solutions has launched a new initiative with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate quantum computing's potential in carbon capture.