RETAIL ENTRY: Retail giant Target has recently open sourced its blockchain-powered supply chain management solution, calling it ConsenSource. The company has also pledged to support the Hyperledger Grid project, a supply chain framework that has already seen participation from Cargill (one of Target’s suppliers), as well as Intel and Bitwise IO. The retailer has been working on a proof-of-concept for its blockchain tool since mid-2018, with a primary focus on the certification of suppliers for the company's own paper manufacturing processes. Full story FATF AFFIRMATION: Finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 nations committed to aligning with stringent standards for anti-money laundering and countering the funding of terrorism that the Financial Action Task Force is expected to finalize this month. The FATF published the draft guidelines for virtual asset service providers in February which, if implemented, would require exchanges and other crypto startups to go beyond the standard know-your-customer rules most crypto startups currently abide by. Full story VANISHING ACT: Polish cryptocurrency exchange Coinroom appears to have shut down, taking customer funds with it. The exchange’s owners and president Tomasz Zbigniew Wiewióra have been unreachable since. The apparent exit scam was first discovered on May 31, though the shutdown itself appears to have occurred on April 2. The exchange told its customers in April that they would have exactly one day to withdraw their funds before their accounts were to be shut down. Customers who did not follow the procedure in time lost their assets. Full story ROCK THE VOTE: Blockchain voting mechanisms are becoming increasingly mature, but as with any new technology, they continue to hit speed bumps along the way to mainstream use. Decentralized applications (such as MakerDAO and Aragon) and blockchain networks (like Tezos and Cosmos) have already seen token holders complete multiple rounds of voting, enabling several protocol-level changes for their respective projects. However, “whale” voting – where one massive token holder can decide the outcome of a vote – is still an issue to be dealt with. Full story LIGHTNING WALLET: Samourai Wallet, a mobile bitcoin wallet project, is partnering with French hardware retailer Nodl to launch a bitcoin and lightning node wallet app with a focus on privacy. The app will let individuals use the mobile wallet without needing to tap into Samourai’s servers, a previously contentious facet of the project’s services. The new node devices will be available later this year, while current Nodl node owners will be able to add Samourai Wallet’s Dojo software. The software will include a tool to batch bitcoin transactions, obfuscating fund origins. Full story BITFINEX’S (OLD) THEFT: Nearly 175 bitcoin (roughly $1.37 million) were shifted from a wallet which previously held funds stolen from Bitfinex in its infamous 2016 hack. While Hard Fork theorized that the move was related to Bitfinex’s LEO token, spokesperson Anneka Dew said the exchange was not involved in the transaction. The 2016 hack, which took $60 million, remains unsolved. Full story | 
