With China locked down to slow the spread of the deadly nCoV outbreak, VeChain’s main office in Shanghai began working remotely, with each member completing their tasks from their own homes.

The biggest announcement was from ShareRing, which announced the VET would be a payment method on their upcoming travel platform. This opens up payment options for up to 2.5 million hotels in 190 countries, according to the ShareRing website.

Recently, VET as a payment token has gathered more steam after Jur announced users paying in VET would receive a 5% discount for buying luxury property in Cyprus. The ShareRing platform is set to launch on February 8th of this year.

Another third-party project Real Items also made their presence felt with the announcement that “mass adoption” would begin on February 22.

Real Items is a SaaS platform that allows companies to tokenize and tag products with 2FA QR codes, establishing ownership of and sharing product information with consumers. They recently announced their plugin was live in Shopify, one of the most common eCommerce portals online, used by over 1 million businesses.

Another third-party partner, Fresh Supply Co, was active on social media with the founder David Inderias announcing that “Big things [are] developing”. In the past, he has spoken often about his work with large producers in Australia and New Zealand. Fresh Supply Co’s solutions tag natural products like avocado, crabs, and honey, which they then consume locally or export to regions like China. Inderias is a big believer in presenting blockchain solutions with an attractive user-friendly style, including data, media, and additional info that makes the consumption process more engaging.

Our last third-party of the roundup is board game producer PlayTable and 8Hours Foundation, creators of tabletop digital board game consoles. PlayTable announced they were nominated for the Innovation in Connecting People Award at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. SXSW is one of the biggest cultural festivals in North America, showcasing the biggest contributors to music, film, and entertainment.

This caps a busy few weeks for PlayTable and the 8Hours Foundation, who recently announced the addition of Guitar Hero founder Kai Huang as an advisor. Their consoles have begun shipping, with the first pre-ordered batches beginning to arrive.

Before we go, a quick teaser for next week: VeChainstats.com Founder Fabian and Vesign.io’s Marcel are set to release their latest dApp – a manager dApp compatible with Ledger Nano. Users will be able to send funds, manage nodes, transfer, sell… ah never mind, just wait till next week to get the exhaustive list of features.

Did I forget anything? Let me know on Twitter.