data
The virus killer: How blockchain contributes to the fight against COVID-19
On Jan. 30, the South China Morning Post reported that one of the largest Asian pharmaceutical companies, Zuellig, had launched a blockchain-based system to track the quality of COVID-19 vaccines. Called “eZTracker,” it allows any user to “instantly verify the provenance and authenticity” of vaccines by scanning the QR code on the package. Somewhat surprisingly, throughout the pandemic, there have not been many reports of blockchain-based products adopted by big pharma or global healthcare organizations to bolster the anti-COVID effort. Here is a rundown of the major cases of such adoption, along with possible reasons for the limited interest in blockchain among healthcare officials. South Korea: Blockchain vaccine passports In April 2021, the South Korean government became the first...
Blockchain startups grow as global VC funding generated $25.2B in 2021
Last year was impressive for blockchain startups, as research from CB Insights found that venture capital funding reached new heights during every quarter of 2021. According to CB Insights’ “State Of Blockchain 2021” report, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups last year, demonstrating a 713% increase from $3.1 billion in 2020. The report also found that the United States led the greatest amount of funding deals in Q4 of last year, generating $6.26 billion for 157 deals. The document notes that global growth was driven by increasing consumer and institutional demand for crypto-related products and services. VC funding focused on crypto adoption Chris Bendtsen, a senior analyst at CB Insights, told Cointelegraph that CB Insights’ report con...
How to get your digital resilience strategy right
Ian Englebrecht, Systems Engineering Manager, Africa at Veeam The pandemic, which by now is widely known to have accelerated digital transformation across sectors, has vividly demonstrated to organisations the importance of being always-on and that their data is a digital business asset. Nathan Steiner, Senior Director, Systems Engineering, Veeam Software, wrote recently that the availability and access to critical data and applications has reached a new level of criticality, as every sector of business and society accelerate adoption of digital capabilities. This requires a concerted focus on building digital resilience. In Steiner’s words, “Despite growing consumer digital savviness, the optimism around a thriving digital economy is threatened by growing risks to ‘digital resilience’. Th...
Umbrella Network launches $15M oracle accelerator program
Decentralized oracle service Umbrella Network has launched a new accelerator program for projects looking to build data pipelines to the cryptocurrency market, a process that many within the industry believe is necessary to grow the emerging domains of blockchain gaming, DeFi and the Metaverse. The $15 million accelerator program intends to fund companies that are bringing new data solutions to the blockchain ecosystem, Umbrella Network announced Tuesday. Sam Kim, a partner at Umbrella Network, told Cointelegraph that his company is focused on funding projects within blockchain gaming, Metaverse, digital advertising, blockchain-based identity, sports and weather, among others. To date, projects in these and other fields have largely relied on centralized systems for running key compu...
Songs Synthesized From COVID-19’s Genetic Code Can Now Be Purchased as NFTs
Exploring nonstandard methods of music creation has been well on the rise in the age of big data and artificial intelligence. In one such data-driven music project titled ViroMusic, music producers have iterated upon this approach to even begin synthesizing genetic code into songs. The process of developing these songs began with software sifted through the contents of COVID-19’s RNA to identify strands of data which could be turned into music. A proprietary algorithm subsequently translates the data sets into musical notes, leading to a melodic progression that could be played by a musician. ViroMusic call this transformative process DNA Sonification. In total, a series of 10,000 sequences were synthesized into songs, which were then minted as NFTs. Musicians soundtracked the o...
Telkom SA Further Slashes Data Prices for Summer
Telkom SA has launched a new set of postpaid promotional deals and prepaid LTE deals offering more value to its mobile customers. These new data price reductions come not long after the semi-private telco announced its 1GB mobile data bundle reduction to R79 and the introduction of a new and affordable 1.5GB + 1.5GB All Network data bundle at R89. Now, to kickstart summer, Telkom is revealing more Monate value through its Summer 2021 propositions available immediately. On Prepaid LTE, Telkom has introduced: 6GB data at R49 – 3GB anytime data and 3GB night surfer data, valid for 14 days, which replaces the current 2GB + 2GB at the same price; and 15GB data at R99 – 7,5GB anytime data and 7,5GB night data, valid for 61 days for anytime data and 31 days for night surfer, replacing its 5GB + 5...
Businesses Need to Be “Data Driven” for True Digital Transformation says Altron
Image sourced from Planful. Over and above leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud services; it has been widely acknowledged that the key building block for true digital transformation is the need for businesses to become data-driven. Of course, this is a uniquely challenging task for almost every business. Dealing with the Data Challenge At the core of any data strategy lies the need to fully manage and exploit data as a strategic asset throughout its entire life-cycle across the enterprise. This has proven easy for companies born in the cloud, but inherently challenging for organisations that are not. Becoming data-driven requires the will, capacity, resources and discipline to rethink how a business operates from people to processes as well as the technology that glues these e...
+OneX Partners Teraco to Streamline Journeys into the Hybrid Cloud
Sourced from InfoWorld. New-age solutions and systems integrator, +OneX, has partnered with Teraco Data Environments to provide its enterprise customers with access to secure, resilient infrastructure at the heart of Africa’s largest, vendor-neutral data centre and interconnection services provider. +OneX will leverage Teraco’s physical infrastructure and interconnection services to support its customers’ journeys to hybrid cloud and multi-cloud deployments with access to the richest cloud ecosystem on the continent. The partnership builds on and extends an existing relationship between Triple H Cloud Services, a managed private cloud provider that +OneX acquired earlier this year and integrated into its cloud business. +OneX co-locates its private cloud and data services in Teraco’s carri...
How Banking Can be Future-Proofed Through the Power of Data, APIs and Automation
The global pandemic has ushered in a new paradigm for the Retail Banking sector, one which demands quicker transformation to a customer-centric service that is digitised, personal and convenient. A recent Financial Industries panel discussion held by Kearney, a global consultancy, shed light on how the power of data, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and automation could be leveraged to satisfy these expectations and invigorate the sector. Agility is Key Hentus Honiball, Partner at Kearney, maintains that large, traditional banks with complex, cumbersome operating models and legacy technology architecture are now being threatened by agile new fintech entrants. In contrast with the siloed, product-centric approach of traditional players, responsive new players are looking to build c...
Nigerian airlines list conditions for full refund to passengers after two-hour flight delay
Following the pronouncement of the Federal Government that airline operators must refund the full cost of travel tickets to passengers after a two-hour delay, commercial airlines have listed the conditions for such reimbursement. The airline operators made this known in separate interviews with newsmen. The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had, on Thursday at the weekly State House briefing in Aso Villa, Abuja, read out some of the rights of air passengers as enshrined in Part 19 of the Consumer Protection Regulations of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (2015) and charged them to demand their rights whenever they were being trampled upon by airlines. “On domestic flights, for delay beyond one hour, carrier should provide refreshment, and one telephone call, or one SMS, or one e-ma...
NCDC: Confirmed case of Delta variant of coronavirus detected in Nigeria
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Thursday, said it had detected a confirmed case with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, also known as lineage B.1.617.2. The variant was detected in a traveller to Nigeria following the routine travel test required of all international travelers and genomic sequencing at the NCDC National Reference Laboratory, Abuja. The Delta variant is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a variant of concern, given its increased transmissibility. Facts indicated that the variant has been detected in over 90 countries and is expected to spread to more countries. The variant has also been linked to a surge in cases in countries where it is the dominant strain in circulation. According to NCDC, “there are ongoing studies to understand the impact ...
Tanzania to spend $470 million on vaccines, coronavirus-damaged economy
Tanzania will spend $470 million buying vaccines and supporting economic sectors hit hard by the coronavirus, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Monday. Since Hassan took office after the death of then-president John Magufuli in March, the government has changed tack from playing down the pandemic to calling for social distancing and emphasising mask wearing in public. Issuing the first data on infections since May 2020, Hassan said there were more than 100 Covid-19 patients in Tanzania as of last Saturday, with 70 of them being provided oxygen. Half of the cash will be spent on vaccines, protective gear and other medical equipment, Hassan said, with the rest going to stimulate sectors that are reeling from the crisis. She did not give details about the sectors but tourism, one of the t...
