Taipei — A Taiwanese start-up led by a former Google employee intends to employ the same technology that underpins crypto-currencies bitcoin and ether to shake up animal husbandry and travel. Darren Wang’s OwlTing has rolled out a system to establish the provenance of stuff: hotel bookings, or pigs from birth to market. The seven-year-old start-up says it’s amassed hundreds of clients across Taiwan and its model enhances not just food safety but also verifies commercial transactions. One of a growing number of fledgling players seeking to bring blockchain technology (sometimes called crypto-chains) to the real world, OwlTing’s ambitions gel with Taiwan’s — an electronics powerhouse that missed out on the internet boom. The island wants to ensure it isn’t left behind as companies from the US to China race to unlock the potential of the blockchain, an open, digital ledger verified by multiple parties that (in theory) safeguards the integrity of all sorts of dealings. "Getting a new, i...
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