Technology

St. Vincent De Paul Disaster Services Launches Kokua, a Platform for Disaster Relief Disbursements Built on the Algorand Blockchain, to Bring Game-Changing Efficiency and Transparency to Relief Funding for People Impacted by Natural Disasters

Published

4 years ago

November 30, 2022

For the first time, families affected by deadly natural disasters will receive aid through a survivor wallet, integrated with Amazon and developed in partnership with AID:Tech and the Algorand Foundation, with aid funding from the American Red Cross

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services, a leading U.S. aid organization that helps people in situational poverty brought about by natural and man-made disasters, today announced the launch of the Kokua survivor wallet in partnership with A ID :Tech, a provider of Web3 Onchain Reputation & Rewards infrastructure, and The Algorand Foundation. Kokua–which leverages the open, public Algorand blockchain–is a disbursement platform that simplifies the connection of natural disaster survivors to the relief that will aid their recovery. Survivors are able to validate their identity, receive digital aid funding via Algorand’s blockchain, and redeem them for critical items like furniture and other household goods, with orders fulfilled by Amazon–all within the Kokua survivor wallet.

The initial launch of Kokua will serve 100 Tennessee families who were affected by the deadly 2021 winter tornados. Survivors, identified by St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, will receive relief funded by the American Red Cross. Traditional aid distribution is fraught with lengthy identification and verification processes that impedes survivors from stabilizing quickly. Kokua bypasses logistical blockades that are the status quo by connecting to those in need directly via mobile app.

To launch Kokua, St. Vincent de Paul chose to partner with best-in-class technology providers. By leveraging the Algorand blockchain, which is carbon-negative, permissionless, and efficient–capable of processing 6,000 transactions per second with full finality–aid recipients can be sure their redemption transactions are secure, confirmed, and doing no harm to the environment. The novel identity process developed by AID:Tech enables survivors to verify who they are via decentralized identifiers (DIDs). Which are designed to be implemented without the control or inefficiencies of a centralized registry, identity provider, or certificate authority.

“As natural disasters continue to grow in intensity and frequency, blockchain technology is a practical solution to keeping up with the increasing need for aid,” said Elizabeth Disco-Shearer, CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services. “Through Kokua, aid will reach the people who need it most with greater speed, enable more autonomy for disaster victims, and bring greater accountability to the aid space more broadly.”

Taken together, the technology and partners behind Kokua will bring efficiency and transparency to critical disaster relief processes like never before, and serve as a new model for how aid distribution can work in the digital age.

“Oftentimes it is not aggregating resources that impedes disaster relief, it is the distribution,” said Matt Keller, Director of Impact and Inclusion at the Algorand Foundation. “This Algorand-backed survivor wallet uniquely leverages blockchain technology to ensure aid is securely and efficiently distributed to those who need it with unprecedented transparency, as all distributions are publicly traceable on chain.”

“Using Algorand blockchain, we are giving control back to survivors by allowing them to own, control and manage their digital identity,” added Joseph Thompson, CEO of AID:Tech. “Once survivors are verified using our proprietary method, they can use Kokua seamlessly without the hassle of proving their identity to multiple entities.”

Kokua will be accessible to those receiving aid relief on both iOS and Android devices.

About St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services

St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services is a second-responder and a Catholic lay organization that provides person-to-person recovery services to families impacted by man-made and natural disasters across the United States. In addition, local Vincentians (members) dedicate thousands of volunteer hours to help families impacted by natural disasters. The program will continue to focus the Society’s efforts on the long-term case management needs of affected people after all of the first-responder agencies have departed. https://www.svdpdisaster.org/

About Algorand Foundation

The Algorand blockchain — designed by MIT professor and Turing Award winning cryptographer Silvio Micali — is uniquely capable of delivering on the promise of a borderless global economy. It achieves transaction throughputs at the speed of traditional finance, but with immediate finality, near zero transaction costs, and on a 24/7 basis. Its carbon-neutral platform and unique pure proof-of-stake consensus mechanism solves for the “blockchain trilemma” by achieving both security and scalability on a decentralized protocol, and without a second of downtime since it went live in 2019.

The Algorand Foundation is dedicated to helping fulfill the global promise of the Algorand blockchain by taking responsibility for its sound monetary supply economics, decentralized governance, and healthy and prosperous open-source ecosystem. For more information, visit https://algorand.foundation

About AID:Tech

AID:Tech is merging digital identity with payments and building an identity onramp from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. AID:Tech focuses on real world use cases like disaster relief disbursements to bring the benefits of decentralisation and self-sovereign identity to non-crypto natives. AID:Tech’s Onchain Reputation & Rewards infrastructure enables people to build a reputation score and get rewarded for their time, effort and energy when contributing to society both physically and virtually. Learn more at https://aid.technology

Media Contact
alexa@algorand.foundation.com

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SOURCE Algorand

Technology

Bloomberg Introduces Spread-to-Benchmark Quoting for EUR and GBP Portfolio Trading Baskets

Published

13 hours ago

June 2, 2026

LONDON, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bloomberg today announced the launch of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting and trading for Euro (EUR) and Sterling (GBP) denominated portfolio trades through its Portfolio Trading Basket Builder (PTBB). The new functionality expands the range of quoting protocols available for European credit portfolio trading and reflects growing client demand for spread-based execution workflows, alongside increased dealer support for the convention across EUR and GBP markets.

Spread-to-Benchmark quoting is a well-established protocol for USD credit portfolio trades and is used by market participants to evaluate and execute portfolio trades. By extending this workflow to EUR and GBP portfolio trades, Bloomberg enables clients and dealers to transact using a familiar spread-based methodology across additional credit markets.

The introduction of Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets reflects increased client interest in evaluating portfolio trades through a spread-based lens and the growing adoption of spread-based execution workflows in European credit markets. The workflow provides market participants with an additional framework for assessing the relationship between credit spread risk and underlying government bond yields when pricing and executing portfolio trades.

Additional Workflow Flexibility 
The workflow complements Bloomberg’s existing portfolio trading capabilities, which support the full range of market-standard quoting conventions, including Price, Yield, Spread-to-Benchmark and Spread based workflows that reference Bloomberg’s evaluated pricing service (BVAL). This gives clients flexibility to compare and execute portfolio trades using the quoting methodology that best aligns with their investment objectives, execution preferences and internal risk management processes.

“European credit clients continue to look for execution workflows that reflect how they evaluate risk and monitor portfolio trading outcomes,” said Harry Street, Global Head of Credit and Equities Trading Product at Bloomberg. “By expanding dealer support for Spread-to-Benchmark quoting for EUR and GBP baskets, Bloomberg is broadening the range of workflow options available to clients trading European credit portfolios.”

“Portfolio trading workflows in fixed income continue to become more sophisticated as institutional investors look for ways to evaluate execution quality in changing market conditions,” said Kevin McPartland, Head of Market Structure & Technology Research at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “Spread-based quoting helps market participants more clearly distinguish between the impacts of credit spread and underlying rates movements when determining how best to execute a portfolio trade.”

Bloomberg’s Electronic Markets solutions are used by leading financial institutions to trade efficiently in over 175 markets around the world. More than 9,000 client firms use Bloomberg Electronic Markets to access industry-leading depth and breadth of liquidity across asset classes from over 800 dealers globally. Bloomberg Electronic Markets provides market participants with comprehensive solutions across the trading lifecycle, including robust price transparency, analytics, automation and execution, powered by Bloomberg’s high-quality, multi-asset class data and tools.

About Bloomberg
Bloomberg is a global leader in business and financial information, delivering trusted data, news, and insights that bring transparency, efficiency, and fairness to markets. The company helps connect influential communities across the global financial ecosystem via reliable technology solutions that enable our customers to make more informed decisions and foster better collaboration. For more information, visit Bloomberg.com/company or request a demo.

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SOURCE Bloomberg L.P.

Technology

Dr. Sunho Kang, a senior battery-technology executive with leadership experience at major global battery and EV manufacturers, joins TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology

Published

13 hours ago

June 2, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TeraWatt Technology Inc. (Headquartered in California, USA) is pleased to announce that Dr. Sunho Kang has joined the company as Head of Product and Technology.

Dr. Kang is a globally recognized battery-technology executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience spanning the United States, Asia, and Europe, and a distinguished track record of advancing innovations from laboratory research through gigafactory-scale production. He has held senior executive positions at world-leading organizations including Samsung SDI, Apple, and Volkswagen Group of America, and brings deep expertise in lithium-ion battery materials, cell engineering, and product industrialization across a broad range of applications, including electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

At TeraWatt, Dr. Kang will lead global product development and the commercialization of TeraWatt’s battery technology platform, aiming to accelerate the delivery of TeraWatt’s competitive products as well as the technology and commercialization roadmap including manufacturing scale-up.

Dr. Kang commented:

“I am thrilled to join TeraWatt Technology as Head of Product and Technology. TeraWatt’s innovative battery platform presents a tremendous opportunity to push the boundaries of lithium-ion technology, and I look forward to working with the team to accelerate product development and commercialization to deliver meaningful impact.”

TeraWatt Technology founder CEO Ken Ogata, Ph.D. commented:

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Kang as our Head of Product and Technology. His deep expertise in battery materials, cell engineering, and productization will be instrumental in accelerating TeraWatt’s product roadmap and technology leadership. Together with Dr. Kang, we will continue to drive our mission forward.”

About TeraWatt Technology Inc.
TeraWatt Technology Inc. is a California-based company that produces lightweight, high-power, and safe next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Company Overview
Name: TeraWatt Technology Inc.
Representative: Co-founder and CEO Ken Ogata
Headquarters: 28 Geary St, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94108, United States
Founded: January 2020
Established: December 2019
URL: https://www.terawatt-technology.com/

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SOURCE TeraWatt Technology Inc.

Technology

Tencent Cloud and Soniox Announce Strategic Partnership: Combining Advanced Speech-to-Text (STT) Technology with Global Real-Time Infrastructure

Published

13 hours ago

June 2, 2026

HONG KONG, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of global technology company Tencent, today announced a strategic partnership with Soniox, a San Francisco-based speech AI company that specializes in developing high-accuracy, low-latency speech AI solutions. The collaboration integrates Soniox’s speech-to-text (STT) technology with Tencent Cloud’s Real-Time Communication (TRTC) enterprise-grade global infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build and deploy multilingual voice AI applications across 200+ countries and regions.

Elevating Enterprise Voice AI at a Global Scale

In enterprise voice AI deployments, latency directly affects user experience and application reliability. The integration of Soniox’s high-accuracy, low-latency STT with TRTC’s global transmission infrastructure reduces latency across the entire pipeline, creating a comprehensive end-to-end solution for enterprises deploying conversational AI applications worldwide.

Soniox is the voice platform for every language. Unlike legacy speech AI, which was built primarily for English-speakers, Soniox delivers native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages. Its technology can handle mid-sentence language switching — a user can switch between English and Chinese in a single utterance, and Soniox will capture every word with complete accuracy. All of this works through a single API that works for both speech-to-text and text-to-speech.

By integrating TRTC, the partnership leverages an enterprise-grade real-time communication backbone featuring more than 3,200 global nodes, sub-300 ms worldwide latency, and advanced capabilities such as AI noise suppression and weak-network resilience. These capabilities enable conversational AI applications to operate reliably across diverse network environments, including regions such as Southeast Asia and Africa.

With the roll out of this partnership, developers can integrate the Soniox STT API directly within the Tencent Cloud console. Whether targeting English-speaking markets or supporting languages such as Arabic, Hindi, and Malay, enterprises can build global voice applications — including intelligent customer service, voice assistants, real-time translation, and meeting transcription — to address the demands of expansion into emerging markets and multilingual scenarios.

Wison Xie, Head of Product at Tencent RTC, stated: “Tencent RTC has always been committed to providing reliable real-time communication infrastructure for global enterprises. Our partnership with Soniox brings together our strengths in enterprise-grade audio transmission and Soniox’s advanced speech recognition technology. Together, we are making it easier for businesses to deploy accurate, low-latency voice AI applications across any language and any market.”

Klemen Simonic, CEO at Soniox Inc., stated “At Soniox, our mission is to help businesses understand every word, in any language, with native speaker accuracy and exceptional speed. Partnering with Tencent Cloud combines our speech AI with world-class real-time infrastructure, enabling enterprises to build voice AI experiences that scale globally with low latency and reliability.”

About Tencent Cloud:

Tencent Cloud, one of the world’s leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.

About Tencent RTC:

Tencent RTC provides real-time communication solutions, including audio/video calling, live streaming, and in-game voice. With enterprise-grade security, AI-powered enhancements, and a global network of over 3,200 nodes, Tencent RTC powers mission-critical communication for customers worldwide.

About Soniox:

Soniox is a next-generation voice AI company bringing about the end of English-first speech AI. Most people on the planet did not grow up speaking English and often mix languages mid-sentence; and yet legacy speech AI was built for just English. Soniox is different: native-speaker accuracy across 60+ languages, true mid-sentence language switching, and flawless alphanumeric recognition that legacy providers still can’t match. For developers building global apps, Soniox is the only option. Try it for yourself at soniox.com.

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SOURCE Tencent Cloud