Spanish-speaking countries made headlines this week, with cryptocurrency and blockchain-related developments on both the governmental and enterprise level. The Congress of the Republic of Peru spoke about the potential of blockchain tech, blockchain firm Aeternity revealed the development of a network that enables the management of the supply chain of medical cannabis, Venezuela’s central bank explored the possibilities of holding crypto in its coffers, and a subsidiary of Argentinian smart contract platform RSK purchased Latin America’s social media giant Taringa.
Here is the past week of crypto and blockchain news in review, as originally reported by Cointelegraph en Español.
The Congress of the Republic of Peru shows interest in blockchain technology
On Sept. 23, Congressman Francesco Petrozzi, president of the Science, Innovation and Technology Commission, spoke with Marco Esparza Montejo, the COO of Blockchain Life Solutions, about the potential of blockchain technology and the fourth industrial revolution applied in everyday reality.
Esparza proposed the creation of an equivalent Blockchain Supervision at the Congress that would trace bad practices, propose funds to develop initiatives, put them in value and produce associated regulatory frameworks, among other things. He also proposed introducing digital training at schools, which includes not only learning to program but also seeing how it impacts on life.
Esparza said that, together with Petrozzi, they see the chance to establish a quality certificate: "What we are looking for with the congressman is to create our own certificate of quality digital affidavit."
Uruguay: Aeternity presents a blockchain-based system to track marijuana cultivation
On Sept. 24, decentralized application-focused blockchain Aeternity entered into an agreement with Medicinal Cannabis Uruguay to build a blockchain-based network that enables the management of the entire supply chain of the medical cannabis produced by the company.
The proposed system will consist of sensors installed along all the fields that will be connected on the Internet to record any action that is done within any particular plant.
Venezuelan Central Bank is Considering Holding Bitcoin and Ether
Venezuela’s central bank began exploring the possibilities of holding Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in its coffers, according to anonymous sources who reportedly have direct insights into the matter.
The state-run oil and gas company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PSDV), requested that the central bank look into the matter after the oil producer ran into difficulties receiving payments from international clients due to U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s current regime.
Spanish Facebook Rival Taringa Is Sold to Smart Contract Dev RSK
A subsidiary of Argentinian smart contract platform RSK, IOVlabs purchased Latin America’s social media giant Taringa, gaining exposure to 30 million users.
Taringa will purportedly reward users for active participation in its communities with IOVLabs’ RIF token (RIF), a crypto token operating on the RSK Smart Bitcoin platform. At press time, RIF’s market cap amounts to over $57 million, while the token’s price is up about 0.11% over the past 24 hours, according to Coin360.