If you are following our latest blockchain news, you have probably seen the name Chainalysis pop up often. According to new rumors, the New York based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis is looking for new partners in a new program aimed to expand the firm's operations. The intelligence firm apparently wants to broaden its capabilities. As one of the leaders in this industry, Chainalysis is looking for new partners that will join in and expand the investigative tools that enable firms, governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor the blockchain transactions and track all the suspected illicit activities. The chief revenue officer at Chainalysis, Jason Bonds, spoke recently and explained that the program would be dedicated to collaborations with several categories of partners. The first of them would be the key crypto infrastructure providers, which would help Chainalysis and the wider industry to “broaden cryptocurrency transaction monitoring via simpler integrations.” As the new reports show, Chainalysis is looking for partnerships with firms specializing in compliance in order to integrate their offerings for clients. Aside from that, the firm is seeking new distribution partners, too - two of them have recently been identified. As Bonds said, the partnership program “is global and we already have partners in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.” Chainalysis is looking for partners in the cryptonews, and wants to broaden its own intelligence capabilities by partnering with data providers. These could include specialists in ransomware, bolstering the labelling of suspect addresses. M.Tech's chief financial officer Rayson Lim recently stated:

"In the APAC marketplace, we are noticing increased demand from law enforcement for cryptocurrency investigative software. Our partnership with a top tier company like Chainalysis will help fill this demand."

As the reports show, further information on the program including a partner directory will be made publicly available in the weeks to come. Alongside its work on blockchain intelligence, Chainalysis is conducting regular research into the crypto sector as a whole. Recently, we saw the firm publishing its results of the analysis of changing Bitcoin (BTC) consumer habits during the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic downturn. In a webinar last month, they also shared data which shows that only 1.1% of the over $1 trillion transactions in 2019 were found to be illicit.

Meet GoChain, a blockchain application ecosystem which recently announced the addition of Lenovo Global Technology (United States). Basically, Lenovo and GoChain entered a partnership where the first would be a signing node operator for the GoChain blockchain network. Even though the deal was inked in January, there hasn't been much of an update regarding the process. What we know from the cryptonews is the fact that as a signing node, Lenovo will be one of up to 50 enterprises and organizations which would run specialized services and facilitate the Gochain network and its Proof of Reputation (PoR) consensus algorithm. They are also validating the blocks of transactions produced on the blockchain network. As such, the Lenovo blockchain signing node is the first of its kind to be operated in a liquid immersion data center for cooling. When it comes to the server immersion cooling technology (which was developed by Midas Green Technology) - it is currently being used by Blockchain Resources Corp. in order to build "green" data centers which will house the Lenovo node. For those of you who are not following blockchain news or do not know the technicals, immersion cooling data centers are basically centers which reduce energy usage through the elimination of the expensive air cooling infrastructure. This includes server fans, air-circulation fans, ductwork, A/C compressors, air handlers, anciliary systems, etc. Another thing worth noting is that the Lenovo and GoChain partnership is not the first venture into blockchain technology for Lenovo. The company have already adopted blockchain technology in product development activities before. They worked to apply it to internal processes as well. In March 2018, Lenovo launched the new smartphone named Lenovo S5, which uses blockchain tech in order to make payments more secure. In June 2018, Lenovo joined Hyperledger. The CEO of GoChain, Jason Dekker, commented on the new partnership between Lenovo and GoChain, stating:

“We are extremely proud to not only welcome Lenovo as a Node signer, but to be part of a pioneering effort in green technology. GoChain was founded with a focus on driving adoption of technology for the betterment of society and we strongly support their commitment to reduce energy usage with liquid immersion cooling technology.”

Currently, GoChain's GO token sits at the 333rd place on the market cap, trading at $0.008.  

Genobank is one of the blockchain projects that are in the focus of the cryptocurrency news today. As reports show, Genobank and other blockchain firms are working on a private testing app which would help people in accessing anonymous coronavirus testing. The EOS news show that the app would be made in coordination with the EOS-based blockchain platform Telos. A recent announcement from the Telos Foundation also shows that the app will also allow users to share that information with healthcare organizations. The open source app named Agerona stores the test data on the Telos blockchain, while Genobank will introduce a token that enables information sharing. In that manner, the app is expected to launch this month. According to some authorities, there is concern that undocumented workers and individuals living in countries without permission could avoid treatment or diagnosis over worries that they would be arrested/deported. The blockchain firms are working on the project, and Agerona will facilitate purchases from partner test suppliers. Similarly, users can scan a unique barcode on each test and associate the results with an anonymous account on Telos controlled by the user. Speaking of which, test kits for COVID-19 would then be sent to a partner lab for analysis, and the results will be anonymously uploaded to the Telos blockchain. If it is provided, the data will include the user's country and postcode in order to track the spread of the coronavirus. According to the CEO of Genobank, Daniel Uribe, the main mission is to provide people with a way to access coronavirus tests in a private and secure way. “People have the right to know if they have the coronavirus without violating their privacy,” he said. Genobank and Telos blockchain firms are working on this project as the main companies leading this initiative. They initially partnered in order to develop the testing service for use in the United States, but the project now has contributors in the United Kingdom, Israel and Iran. Their hopes are to expand into more jurisdictions soon. The project is also slated to develop a "mobile app for users, a processing interface for laboratories, a privacy-ensuring blockchain architecture, and sourcing and logistics solutions for low-cost COVID-19 tests and processing.” As the blockchain news now show, Agerona plans to soon launch another experimental feature where artificial intelligence (AI) based diagnostic tools will be used to analyze sound clips of people coughing.

The latest crypto regulation news show that Brazil is upping the game on regulatory efforts and is now working on creating a new platform that will perform background checks on political representatives as well as corporations. Four of the largest Brazilian regulators (institutions) are now collaborating to build this streamlined data-sharing platform based on blockchain. The platform is dubbed PIER and has been developed by the central bank of Brazil, Banco Central do Brasil (BCB). The platform saw initial participation from the BCB, as well as the Brazilian private insurance superintendent and the local securities regulator to inform its database. As we can also see from the blockchain news, Brazil's social security supervisor is also set to participate in the program too. The Brazilian regulators are ready to push things forward, and the government of the country is also contemplating incorporating data collected by the country's judiciary, trade boards and additional financial bodies into the PIER system. According to Daniel Bichuette who is the deputy head of the BCB financial system organization department, the streamlining of inter-departmental data is "drastically reducing" the time to evaluate the financial background of an entity. Moreover, institutions querying this PIER database are also able to quickly access data "from punitive processes and restrictions from companies and administrators," an entity's "history of performance in the financial system" - including technical capacity and organization conduct, and "information on the participation of individuals and legal entities in the share capital and shareholding control.” The Brazilian regulators are describing the partnership as a "fruitful endeavour" which paved the way for "important synergies" between the participating regulatory authorities. According to one software specialist with the BCB named Eduardo Weller, using distributed ledger technology (DLT) for PIER allows the use of a “decentralized, tested technology, whose native functionalities mean that there is no need to build the system from scratch.” Weller also emphasized that digital signatures are what guarantees the “authenticity of messages exchanged"; the “integrity of data recorded,” and “eliminates a single point of failure [and] central entity that can defraud data.” PIER has undergone even two years of development - it was initially revealed by the central bank in June 2018.