A multinational supermarket giant is helping take IBM's food blockchain into production.

Good evening. I'm Mark Hoxstein, and this is late confirmation from CoinDesk, bringing you the top

stories from Monday, October 8, 2018. On today's show, a side chain-focused startup may bring ICOs to Bitcoin.

Crypto exchange Bitfinex is pushing back against claims that it's insolvent.

A stealth startup is hoping to use celebrities to promote its upcoming token sale and platform.

And Venezuelans must now use the country's crypto token to buy their passports. IBM announced Monday that it was taking its

long-running food trust blockchain program live with French-basedbased supermarket giant Carrefour in tow.

Coming on the heels of Walmart's announcement that leafy green suppliers must use IBM blockchain

to track products, Carrefour's endorsement means products in France, Spain, and Brazil will be

traceable back to their origin, at least in theory.

Carafor, which runs 12,000 stores in 33 countries, intends to expand the number of nations

utilizing the platform by 2022. And it's not alone, top co-associates, representing 15,000

stores, and Wakefern, representing 344 stores and 50 member

companies, are also signing on, along with suppliers' beef chain, Denick Fruit Source, and

Smithfield.

A blockchain startup, known as RSC, intends to facilitate initial coin offerings on Bitcoin by the end of the year.

The company has been working on developing a side chain for other startups to launch ICOs

with since 2016, one which can power smart contracts and support a cryptocurrency pegged to Bitcoin called

the smart Bitcoin.

Scott Yun, the CEO of a South Korean startup called Temko, says the company intends to launch

an ICO on Bitcoin rather than Ethereum because of the former's superior scalability and

security.

...