More For all the criticism IBM's Blockchain project has faced over the years, its ability to grow - and maintain - its team may be one area where it excels. Although IBM laid off 1,700 employees earlier this month, only a “very tiny, tiny percentage" of them came from the blockchain operation, sources close to the team told The Block. "The product team had no layoffs, there was nothing out of development. It was very limited on the blockchain side," one source who has direct contact with the...

More IBM has launched "Version 2" of its enterprise-blockchain platform, but beneath the technical innovations lies a much-changed pricing model. Until now, IBM offered a single "high value" blockchain service to enterprises at a premium rate. But this has been replaced with a "pay as you grow model," meaning companies will be to access more basic tools appropriate to their size and business model. It also suggests most major enterprises are nowhere near full-scale adoption. Jerry Cuomo, VP...

More Lex Sokolin, a former Partner at Autonomous Research, has joined the ranks at ConsenSys as Global Fintech Co-head, The Block has learned. Sokolin recently left Autonomous after three years following the acquisition by AllianceBernstein. While there, he founded the Fintech practice (Autonomous NEXT), scrutinising the role of crypto assets and blockchain on behalf of a client base made up of institutional investors. He left Lehman Brothers after its collapse in 2008, eventually focusing on...

More January 2018 saw the first four blockchain ETFs break onto the scene in quick succession in the US. They were somewhat of a novelty, tracking the share price of 20 to 50 companies developing or using blockchain in some capacity, for an average 0.75% management fee. Investors flocked to them, pumping in hundreds of millions, hoping to nab a piece of a pie predicted to save banks between $15 billion and $35 billion a year according to consulting firm Bain. However, a snapshot review at the...