Coronavirus fears are sending markets tumbling. Could tokenized gold, or gold-backed crypto, be the next safe-haven investment in times of economic turmoil?

Welcome to The Current Forkast series with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau and Brian Lio, CEO of blockchain research group Smith + Crown. In this episode we talk about: Lightning Labs raises $10 million in Series A funding and launches Lightning Loop beta, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposes token sale safe harbor, and Zcash votes to allocate 20% of mining rewards to development funds.

Public health coins could be used to incentivize people to interact honestly with the health care system in the case of an event such as the coronavirus epidemic.

The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) is seeking ways to bridge the traditional financial sector to new blockchain-related industries, including ways to open bank accounts said SBA deputy CEO August Benz. Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau sits down with Benz to learn more.

Welcome to The Current Forkast series with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau and Brian Lio, CEO of blockchain research group Smith + Crown. In this episode we talk about: NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie's token release, SEC's warning on Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), Bitwise investor bulletin.

Distributed ledger technology could used by front-line health care responders dealing with the coronavirus epidemic to submit information in real-time around the world regardless of censorship. HashLog, a dashboard designed to publicly track coronavirus developments via distributed public ledger Hedera Hashgraph could mitigate political influence involved in spreading information, according to Hedera Hashgraph co-founder and CEO Mance Harmon.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce is "gravely concerned" about how the U.S. Government is addressing technological challenges and opportunities posed by blockchain according to founder and president Perianne Boring. The U.S. could be ceding technological leadership as well as the dollar's reserve currency status to other nations including China if it does not revamp policies toward emerging blockchain innovation.

As China's digital currency is said to be "progressing smoothly," Indonesia is also working on releasing their own proof of concept this year according to Indonesian Blockchain Association co-founder Pandu Sastrowardoyo.

As China, Singapore, Canada and other countries develop digital currencies in part to facilitate cross-border transactions, Ripple's managing director of South Asia and EMEA Navin Gupta instead said that such currencies' primary usage would be domestic.

Although Switzerland's Crypto Valley may seek to become a global blockchain hub, its government is too slow to adopt the technology even as Facebook's Libra incorporates in the country according to Trust Square co-founder Daniel Gasteiger.