Bitcoin Daily: NJ Assembles Blockchain Initiative Task Force; IBM Eyes Blockchain Browser

New Jersey’s governor has signed a bill to implement a Blockchain Initiative Task Force.

Bill S2297 explained that the task force will study potential uses for blockchain technology on the state and local level, with an emphasis on medical records, land records, banking, and property auctions as potential applications.

“Blockchain technology is a promising way to facilitate a transition to more efficient government service delivery models and economies of scale, including facilitating safe, paperless transactions, and permanent recordkeeping nearly resistant/impervious to cyber-attacks and data destruction,” the bill states.

The task force is comprised of 14 appointed members and has 180 days to file a study to the governor’s office and the state’s committee on science, tech and innovation.

In other news, IBM recently filed a new patent application for a blockchain-based web browser.

“In one or more embodiments of the present invention, a computer-implemented method records and maintains a record of browser events in a blockchain using a peer-to-peer network,” according to the patent application, which was filed on Aug. 6. “One or more processors detect one or more user’s browser events for a browser on a computer. One or more processors then transmit transactions associated with the one or more user’s browser events from the computer to a peer-to-peer network of devices that create a blockchain, which includes one or more blocks that describe the one or more user’s browser events, such that the blockchain ledgers and maintains a record of historical user’s browser events that occur at the computer.”

Meanwhile, more than a dozen countries are joining forces to set up a system to monitor crypto transactions with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

FATF would manage the project, while the 15 nations, including the G7 members, Australia and Singapore, would develop the system, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Once the system launches within several years, it would be managed by the private sector.

And finally, blockchain technology company Blockstream has announced it is launching “massive” bitcoin mining data centers in Quebec and Adel, Georgia.

Two of their active customers include Fidelity Center for Applied Technology and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

“We firmly believe that bitcoin holders and businesses involved in bitcoin should take part in mining themselves, to help maintain the decentralized security of the bitcoin network,” the company said in a blog post.