Tag Archives: Sci & Tech

Mathias Ruch (foreground) explains his vision as co-founder and CEO of CVVC. A consortium of Swiss investors has launched a private equity vehicle that aims to collect up to $100 million with the long-term goal of getting 1,000 blockchain companies off the ground internationally every year. The Swiss company Crypto Valley Venture Capitalexternal link (CV VC) launched its initial “Genesis Hub” incubator in Zug, home to...

Willingness to relocate has declined worldwide, according to the Boston Consulting company. (Keystone) Switzerland has lost some of its appeal for foreign labour, according to a survey by an American multinational management consulting firm. Compared with 2014, Switzerland finished in eighth place – down three positions. The authors of the Decoding Global Talent reportexternal link say the drop is due to a loss of...

Monetas founder Johann Gevers told investors he has found a replacement buying after an earlier deal fell through. (Nik Hunger) - Click to enlarge Troubled Swiss blockchain payments firm Monetas has found a new mystery buyer to pull it out of the mire, swissinfo.ch has learned. The company has run into major problems in the last few months, including enforced bankruptcy proceedings and the acrimonious...

Renowned cryptographer Philip Zimmermann, who moved his smartphone encryption firm Silent Circle to Switzerland four years ago, has signed up to the metals-backed crypto Tiberius Coin venture as chief science and security officer. Zimmermann, who was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society in 2012, came to Switzerland to further develop his anti-snooping Blackphone away from invasive...

The 'Crypto Valley' of Zug established itself as a leading global hub for ICOs last year (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Legendary United States crypto investor Tim Draper believes Switzerland has missed the boat in establishing itself as an attractive global hub for blockchain start-ups. Draper has invested in Tezos, which ran into a damaging governance row in Switzerland shortly after its initial coin...

ETH Zurich is consistently ranked one of the top universities in Europe. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s federal technology institutes account for 100,000 jobs and CHF13 billion in added value to the economy, a new report calculates. This represents a fivefold return on investment, it claims. The institutes – notably the universities of EPFL in Lausanne and ETH in Zurich – have long been acknowledged...

One of the world’s largest bitcoin miners is setting up a hub for European operations in Switzerland, a person familiar with company has confirmed to swissinfo.ch. The Chinese firm Bitmain Technologies is setting up in Zug just as the Chinese authorities move to shut down cryptocurrency miners. Bitmain Technologies builds and supplies machines for bitcoin mining and runs its super-scale mine in China. The company set...

Swiss universities are known to be very international More than half of those doing a doctorate in Switzerland come from abroad, according to a new global education report. Foreign students are especially drawn to courses in the natural sciences. International students make up 17% of those studying at Swiss universities, said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECDexternal link) in its Education...

Chiasso is establishing itself as a rival to Zug's Crypto Valley for fintech start-ups (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland ramped up its bid to become a global hub for financial technology (fintech) and cryptocurrency start-ups with the decision by a town on the Italian border to accept tax payments in bitcoin. Chiasso announced that it would take bitcoin to settle up to CHF250 ($265) of tax bills from the...

Members of the public visit the Geneva University Hospitals during an open day in its new Gustave Julliard building (Keystone) Switzerland has been rated third in a global ranking of the access to and the quality of healthcare systems – a report that shows large gaps between the best and worst ranked countries.​​​​​​​ The survey, published online on Thursday in the medical journal The Lancetexternal link, looked at...