This week, a trio of major global firms in the consulting, financial services and cloud provider sectors announced the launch of a blockchain platform targeted for use by consumer purchasers to verify product origins. The platform seeks to empower consumers with reliable information on how products are made and who makes them, and would include a "tipping" feature allowing consumers to send cryptocurrency gratuities to product producers. In more supply chain news, the Russian Ministry of Transport is reportedly planning a trial of TradeLens, the blockchain-based solution for maritime shipping spearheaded by one of the world's largest technology firms and the world's largest container ship and supply vessel operator. Separately, India's largest e-commerce firm recently announced a partnership with Shipnext, another blockchain-based platform for the maritime shipping industry.

In the digital identity space, this week a Turkish telecommunications provider unveiled a blockchain-based solution for identity management that is reportedly designed to ensure compliance with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. According to reports this week, blockchain self-sovereign identity startup Evernym is working with a major global humanitarian organization to implement a program called the Identity for Good Initiative, which is designed to help humanitarian aid agencies take advantage of new digital identity solutions. This week also brought the launch of two solutions for issuing and storing professional credentials on blockchain. One announcement came from a Big Four accounting firm and involves storing accounting credentials on a blockchain. The other announcement, from two major Japanese technology firms, seeks to store educational records on a blockchain.

Some notable statistics on blockchain adoption were published this week and last week. According to a Big Four accounting firm, in a survey of 740 global technology executives, 48 percent of respondents said blockchain will "likely or very likely" change the way their company does business in the next three years. Another survey of the digital marketing industry found that blockchain industry projects have increased from a count of 88 to 290 over an 18-month period. And statistics released by an employee recruitment company show a 517 percent increase in demand for blockchain engineers over a recent one-year period.

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