Blockchain refers to a shared, public ledger of records or transactions that is open to inspection by every participant while not being subject to any form of central control. It is these very capabilities that align particularly well with the characteristics of the airline industry, according to the 2017 report, ‘Beyond the Buzz: The Potential of Blockchain Technology’ by Accenture.

Cryptocurrencies have been the talk of the town, or rather the region in recent times, especially after bitcoin hit a peak of almost US$20,000 at the end of 2017. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use encryption techniques to secure transactions and to regulate the generation of units of the currency.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) form the sixth largest economy in the world valued at US$2.5 trillion with a population of almost 630 million – 40 percent of whom are below the age of 30. Studies have shown that those within this age bracket represent a key demography of the growing landscape of Southeast Asia’s digital economy.

Will a rose by any other name smell just as sweet? This may be the key question China's Baofeng Nova Co Ltd is attempting to answer when it created its blockchain-based game, known simply as 'The Rose', which is set to launch worldwide by the end of Valentine’s Day. Blockchain is defined as a digitised, decentralised public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions, according to financial education website, Investopedia.

The world of digital currency has gone bananas!Lao based Bananacoin, is the latest edition to the plethora of cryptocurrencies available in the world today. As its name suggests, it is linked to the golden fruit enjoyed by many – bananas.What is Bananacoin?The Bananacoin Project was co-founded by entrepreneurs, Alexander Bychkov and Oleg Dobrovolsky with the aim of utilising blockchain technology to revolutionise the banana production industry.

These days, money launderers have one more avenue to channel their proceeds through: cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Money launderers use Bitcoin because of the anonymity factor, whereupon users are simply identified by a 30-character alphanumeric code, or address which links them to the transactions they perform. No other identification is required to obtain a Bitcoin address.

Bitcoin cryptocurrency has been receiving some bad press in Asia recently because of the lack of a central regulating authority for transactions. While Southeast Asian governments’ have their reservations about Bitcoin, they are remarkably interested in the underlying technology called blockchain.Breaking down the blockchainAt its most basic level, a blockchain is just a data structure combining different technologies into one, depending on an operator’s choice of configuration.

Elaine Ou, a blockchain engineer and Bloomberg View columnist, answered questions about cryptocurrencies from Bloomberg Terminal customers in a TOPLive chat on Tuesday with Julie Verhage, who covers markets for Bloomberg News. Since then, bitcoin has skyrocketed to new heights and Cboe Global Markets Inc. plans to launch bitcoin futures trading on Sunday. Here's a lightly edited transcript.Verhage: Bitcoin and other crypto-assets have had crazy runs this year.