By Dhel Nazario  BCB Blockchain, a Singapore-based technology firm, announced on Wednesday that it will be supporting incubators and startup accelerators under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through a P15 million fund. (BCB BLOCKCHAIN) A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEETRD) - DOST was signed at the 3rd National Technology Business Incubator Summit (TBI Summit). The MOA signifies BCB Blockchain’s dedication to collaborate with the government of the Philippines in powering up the development of local startups using its fund as well as its blockchain technology protocol to create smart city projects and applications. “We are enthused to have this collaboration with BCB and eager to partake of their expertise, knowledge base, ecosystem, relationships, and experience in blockchain technology, venture building, and accelerating local startups. “We hope that this partnership will ignite the next wave of applications and innovations for the development of sustainable and smart cities,” said PCIEERD – DOST Executive Director Dr. Enrico C. Paringit. BCB Blockchain has also signed a partnership with number of universities and startup tech incubators across the country to reinforce its commitment to work closely with its academic partners in critical areas such as co-incubation of projects, research and development, seminars and trainings, promotional activities, competitions, hackathons, and collaborative endeavors for smart city or blockchain development. The project collaboration includes joint promotional activities, development of tech communities, mentorship, and funding of projects and access to global markets across a variety of sectors upon successful commercialization of the projects. The partners include Far Eastern University, De La Salle University Manila, Technological Institute of the Philippines, Adamson University, Holy Angel University, Batangas State University, Technological University of the Philippines -Visayas, University of Southeastern Philippines, Caraga State University, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Siliman University, and QBO Innovation Hub. These joint efforts aim to reach out and engage researchers, startups, and community members to use the Building Cities Beyond (BCB) Blockchain platform and its technologies to create smart city solutions. “By providing DOST, universities, and TBIs the resources and technical knowledge that BCB Blockchain has, we expect them to deepen their competencies in the area of designing and developing applications and projects for smart cities. “We will guide and provide them the access to hands-on workshops, funding, materials, events, and technical support,” said BCB Blockchain Chief Executive Officer Douglas Gan. Competitions, hackathons, and Bug Bounty programs will be launched in 2020 in several cities as part of the BCB education initiative. There will be prize money of up to US$15,000 for winners participating in these events. Selected projects will be given opportunities to participate in the incubation programs for commercialization and fundraising. BCB has also introduced its collaboration with Australian-listed firm R3D Global to push adoption of DigiCerts™ in the Philippines. DigiCerts™ is a tamper-resistant system stored on a decentralized blockchain to replace paper certificates and reduce the number of fraud cases. “The frequency of fraud cases for certificates issuance have risen in recent years. This fraud certifications happens especially in Asia (the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore). “Together with R3D, our goal is to build a secure platform to resolve the fraud certification issue and to create a secure and publicly accessible registry of academic qualifications for universities in the Philippines and in Asia,” said BCB Blockchain Chief Technology Officer Vanessa Koh.