LG next to join Hedera Hashgraph's DLT platform governing council | ZDNet
by Asha BarbaschowThe electronics giant joins the likes of Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, Google, IBM, and Tata Communications on the council.
LG Electronics has joined the Hedera Governing Council, the body charged with overseeing governance of the Hedera Hashgraph distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.
The council is designed to enable "the most decentralised governance model for a public ledger".
LG will work with Hedera and other members of the council to identify ways that distributed ledger technology can benefit consumers and supply chain partners, bringing its home appliance expertise to the table.
"Distributed ledger technology holds the potential to improve customer value and allow enterprises across many sectors to offer new services that take advantage of the trust, security, and speed that it provides," senior vice president of LG Electronics Cho Taeg-il said.
"We look forward to being a part of the Hedera Governing Council and opportunities where we can collaborate with other leading organisations across a wide range of industries to further develop the application of distributed ledger technology to benefit businesses and consumers alike."
The council now comprises a total of 14 members: Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, Magalu, Nomura, Swirlds, Swisscom Blockchain, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), and Wipro.
See also: Is FOMO making enterprises unnecessarily leap into blockchain?
It's expected to comprise of up to 39 global organisations from varying industries that will all run a node on the Hedera Hashgraph public network, and be responsible for approving Hedera's roadmap and updates to the platform's codebase.
Elsewhere in the world of blockchain, Facebook on Monday announced it had rebranded its troubled digital wallet which it hopes people will use to send and hold its Libra digital currency.
Calibra will now be known as Novi.
"While we've changed our name from Calibra, we haven't changed our long-term commitment to helping people around the world access affordable financial services," Facebook said.
"Novi was inspired by the Latin words 'novus' for 'new' and 'via' for 'way'. It's a new way to send money, and Novi's new visual identity and design represent the fluid movement of digital currencies," the company explained.
The social media giant said Novi, once launched, could be used as a stand-alone app, as well as in Messenger and WhatsApp.
"There will be no hidden charges to add, send, receive or withdraw money and your transfers will arrive instantly," Facebook said.
In order to use Novi, however, Facebook would require a copy of a user's government-issued ID for verification and fraud purposes, it said.
"Our hope is to introduce an early version of Novi when the Libra network is available. We'll roll it out in an initial set of countries, with features that will make cross-border money transfers instant, secure, and with no hidden fees," it added.
US lawmakers have expressed widespread mistrust of Facebook's cryptocurrency plan, saying the company's attempt at entering into financial services was troubling due to its "pattern of failing to keep consumer data private", having branded it as a "serious concern".
Read more: Facebook's Zuckerberg questioned on Libra, political ads, and online pornography
Similarly, France in September last year moved to block Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency from being established in Europe, fearing it posed a risk to consumers.
Meanwhile, regulators from Australia, UK, and Canada have jointly called on Facebook to provide further information on its Libra project, particularly around how it was going to ensure it could secure and protect personal information.
When Libra was initially announced, Facebook said it planned for the cryptocurrency project to be launched sometime this year.