The online-retailer Amazon has registered several  domain names with the words “cryptocurrency” and “etherium” in their names. Western media got to know that. They also report the domain names belong to the technological department of the retailer and the  phone numbers are connected to the legal structure of Amazon. The company still does not give any official explanations on the matter.

R3, the international blockchain consortium is testing a service for transboundary payments. Already 22 big banks (Commerzbank, HSBC and Barclay among them) decided to use it.  Corda, the platform for smart contracts will be at the core for this system. It will let the banks not only make fast and safe payments, but also create digital assets. The consortium plans to provide with beta version of the service within next 2-3 months.

Frost & Sullivan research company published a report on investments into blockchain. Thee data of analytics shows that the investment into the technology of the distributed register has reached the number of 500 million dollars during the last year. About 250 international firms are testing their own development based on blockchain and many of them join consortiums and and use startups. The vast majority of blockchain companies work in the IT field. The medicine, the energy and the industry were called the most promising directions.