TLDR; Cryptodus joins the NEMsp Network, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Blockchain Center officially opens, Tapscott Institute signs MOU, Geens will be developing their global ID on NEM, Russia adds VK social media, XEM gets added to KUNA exchange and soon will be added to the Denarii Cash Wallet, JIT Group in talks with NEM and NEM Middle East is finalizing a partnership with Dubai Blockchain Center.

“This week we announced two major milestones for accelerating the adoption of NEM. The first being that the Kuala Lumpur Blockchain Center is officially open and now provides incubating and accelerating startups and companies who need information and expertise on blockchain technology and NEM integration. The second milestone is that we unveiled that Cryptodus joined the NEMsp Network as the first official NEMsp Network partner. This pilot program marks the first of many companies that are leveraging the NEMsp Network as a way to get trained, tested and certified by NEM.” - Kristof Van de Reck, Interim President

Ongoing Planning Efforts:

No updates to last week’s blog post on Tech/Marketing/BD documentation. Strategy plans are still being reviewed and approved by the Council.

New partnership proposals were voted on this week by the Council. Outcomes/announcements from this meeting will be shared in the coming weeks.

Partnerships

NEM signed on Cryptodus to the NEMsp Network program. The NEMsp (NEM Service Partner) Network provides qualified partners like Cryptodus with the technical skills and business benefits to integrate clients on the NEM Blockchain and scale regardless of industry, specialization or experience. More NEmsp partners will be announced in the coming week.

NEM EU is finalizing a collaborative initiative with Geens , who will be developing their global ID on the NEM blockchain. The goal is to open source the tools to create W3C Verifiable Claims and provide an API with the Geens application for the benefit of the NEM ecosystem. More info will follow in the coming weeks. Geens - operating from Belgium - is a nonprofit membership organization that provides information technology services to individuals, governments, and businesses, governed by a legal and ethical data protection control. The platform lets the users save their private digital information securely and share the information with anybody else only on their own will and benefit.

Stephen Chia, Regional Head of NEM SEAsia, presented to one of the largest ICT solutions companies, Just in Time ( JIT Group ), at the JIT Solutions Day held in Sri Lanka on July 4th. His focus was on how blockchain technology can change the way Sri Lankan businesses and government may evolve.

The NEM EU team heads to Vilnius, Lithuania for the Pillar Project ’s “Unconference” to collaborate on next steps for the Pillar/NEM partnership .

NEM has signed an MOU with the Tapscott Institute in Toronto Canada for research.

Klim Geran, Head of NEM Russia, met with representatives of the RA Ministry of Economy and Russia State Investment Agency regarding prospects of cooperation with NEM.

XEM has recently been listed on the biggest Ukrainian exchange, Kuna .

Shin Tatt Wong, NEM Architect and Lead Trainer, is currently in Dubai to do on-site assistance to the Bistox Exchange and a Dubai Government Office. Bistox is a crypto exchange being built on the NEM Blockchain official partnership is yet to be signed between Bistox and NEM. The Dubai Government office is yet to be named until the MoU is signed. The MoU is currently being drafted by the ministry.

Pedro Guiterrez, Head of NEM LATAM, met with a top Colombian franchise consultancy regarding future projects with NEM.

NEM Middle East team is in partnership with Heriot Watt University in Dubai to launch the first university-level blockchain challenge in UAE. The challenge aims to bring around 12-14 universities to participate in the event. MoU is under review by Heriot Watt and to be signed by two parties upon finalizing the details.

NEM Middle East is finalizing a partnership with Dubai Blockchain Center. Details of partnership to follow. The second NEM Technical training in UAE was held in the Dubai Futures Accelerator and was a collaborative effort between NEM Middle East and Dubai Blockchain Center.

Denarii Cash Wallet , a mid-east based multi-currency wallet, added XEM to the currencies they support. It will be available on the next version of Denarii Cash Wallet. The wallet gives way to users the ability to purchase XEMs using fiat.

NEM Middle East is in discussions with Bahrain FinTech Bay to finalize a partnership agreement.

Product Updates

The iOS wallet is testing a release on the testnet that will allow iPhone users to automate Supernodes to delegate harvest. This will simplify the process of harvesting for mobile users.

Global Expansion, New Hires, Notable Events