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Thanks everyone for joining for our Community AMA. In attendance we have: Humayun Sheikh β Founder+CEO Toby Simpson β Founder+COO Jonathan Ward β Chief Technology Officer Weβre going to do a short update on some stuff weβve been working on, then weβll do a couple of rounds of those, so that we can cover as […]
The post Fetch.ai Community AMA Recap (6th November 2020) | by Fetch.ai | Fetch.ai | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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Thanks everyone for joining for our Community AMA. In attendance we have:
- Humayun Sheikh β Founder+CEO
- Toby Simpson β Founder+COO
- Jonathan Ward β Chief Technology Officer
Weβre going to do a short update on some stuff weβve been working on, then weβll do a couple of rounds of those, so that we can cover as much as we can.
Please note we are focusing here on community, ecosystem and tech development. We cannot discuss any price activity, but you already know that.
Q: So first off β a quick warm up. What are you working on a the moment, to whet everyoneβs appetite and to spin off some questions?
A: Oh my, where do I start. Agents, agents, everywhere, doing tons of stuff! Weβre entering a really exciting phase right now with our DDN (decentralised delivery network) and hospitality work: agents representing these parts of the economy are running 24/7, and you can see them yourself on the OEF if you connect your own agents there. Weβre about to transition into field trials for both these projects. Weβll be (lockdowns permitting) using real cars and real people to deliver people, then packages, then food in the coming weeks and months and weβll see agents booking hotels and representing hotelsβ¦ (Toby)
A: We have been very busy on Mettalex as you know. The past weeks we have been navigating some regulatory work, following the UK FCA crypto derivatives ruling, but weβre getting to a good place. The good news is we are gearing up to launch an Early Access Program is starting in the next couple of days. The aim here is to recruit active crypto and commodities traders to join the platform in waves over the coming weeks. Stay tuned for that very soon (Humayun)
A: β¦ itβs the really, really cool time when these agents are out there, doing real things, delivering real utility, using FET tokens, the Fetch network, our OEF and our agent framework (Toby)
A: Also MTLX liquidity rewards program is still live til Nov 13th: https://medium.com/mettalex/launching-the-mtlx-liquidity-rewards-program-a1a9046b523f (Matt)
A: Oh, and weβre releasing another version of the Agent Framework today (v0.7.1) which is coupled to yesterdayβs release of the OEF 0.2.7. A stack of new features, lots relating to incentivised testnets, and some other fantastic new features for agent discovery (Toby)
A: Iβm working on a few things; planning for the next six months and the launch of our v2.0 main-net, plans for incentivized test-nets and the different themes of governance, random beacons, consensus, agent networks, collective learning. Some discussions with potential commercial partners (Jonathan)
Q: Looking for any plans to include mtlx under fet staking in the future?
A: Any staking of FET for MTLX or Atomix rewards will come from the current staking process (Jonathan)
Q: When metallex launch and listed to other exchanges?
A: The Early Access Program is launching very soon. We will be selecting a few waves of users to join. Initially weβre focused on professional / experienced traders in the crypto/commodities space. But anyone interested can register. The first wave will be small β 5β10 people β then more from there over November (Matt)
Q: When will the app for fetch launch?
A: Presumably you mean a mobile wallet? Weβre working on this at the moment β we have a browser extension and block explorer wallet for interacting through the browser that weβre due to release in the near future (Jonathan)
A: Thanks Josh, we are really interested in this kind of stuff. We have done temperature agents before and we have a how-to for that. And as we continue with the testnet program weβre going to be increasing the amount of documentation for our target use cases (Matt)
Q: Where can I find the instructions to set up the agent for AW2? the developer page still says βdetails comingβ?
A: Yup, those details are coming partially today and then up until it starts on Monday. Our 0.7.1 release today of the agent framework and docs provides a whole pile of the information that you need to get started. Weβre super-looking foward to AW2 because itβs not just procedural, itβs real, your agents will do real things, in real places, and can be traded with by others (Toby)
A: Also the OEF stuff is great today, too, it adds positionless searching, more detailed service key searching and some other preparation work for decentralisation. Agent Framework wise, our docker images are updated for all platforms to get people going faster, weβve reduced memory use by the messaging system by more than an order of magnitude and lots of other great stuff (Toby)
Q: How do potential partners of fetch see it adding value to their current business models, is there a theme? Csr, efficiencies, cost reductionsβ¦. which is the strongest theme?
A: Great question. Most things boil down to making things more efficient and cost-effective. This applies to the agent framework in areas like supply chain and collective learning as well. Iβm most excited about creating entirely new business models with these different technologies, which is also often what our commercial partners are looking for as well (Jonathan)
Q: How are things going with the 20 hospitals fetch is working with globally? Can you update us on those trials?
A: We are working on a collective learning project focused on healthcare weβre hoping to release a case study on soon. You may have seen Emmaβs demo in the summer. This is a research project at this stage, but weβre confident we can produce some value in healthcare setting. Achieving consistent data format to enable ML is a key thing, and where most of the complexity in decentralised learning comes from (Matt)
Q: Looking for any plans to include mtlx under fet staking in the future?
A: We addressed the plan with staking in this blog: https://medium.com/fetch-ai/staking-and-node-operation-the-path-forward-5ecfc10941db. The plan is future FET network token staking events will be integrated with staking v2 (Matt)
Q: I see you are talking about the use of this tech in transportation specially in self runs. have you thought about partnering with online taxi services? They can make a good use of it.
A: Itβs not straightforward of course, but thereβs no reason why a decentralized alternative to Uber couldnβt be built on the Fetch network. Weβre very keen to encourage our community to start building these types of applications on our network. The incentivized test-nets are a great place to start (Jonathan)
A: We are working on a mobility demo, and documentation release for December. There is also a field trial planned for around the same time where we will embed Fetch.ai solution in vehicles. The vision is to create reference implementations, and then the tools so anyone can build with the tech stack (Matt)
Q: How engaged are fetch with MoBi? How often do you collaborate?
A: MoBi has not had a lot of activity recently but there are some great companies in the consortium who we got to know through the work we did there (Jonathan)
Q: How are things going in the Mobility Sector if one is able to elaborate?
A: Oh yes, so we are doing real-world trials in the coming few weeks with the DDN. Itβs up, itβs running 24/7 and itβs getting better each and every day. Weβre going to be out in cars exercising the apps we have to talk to the agents and giving it a good work-through (Covid lockdown permitting, of course). Weβre going to turn all this into a video you can all see, then weβre going to start releasing documentation so that you can see how the protocols work, how you could build for the DDN, and some real code you can use in building your own agents. Plus of course, this is all in the open: build an agent of your own, connect to the OEF, search for DDN agents, and see whatβs going on (Toby)
Q: Question on commercial partners, appreciate canβt name them under nda, any industry specific partners, also their size? Enterprise / large corporates?
A: We are looking at a number of areas, but one thing that came up in our Community Crowdcast yesterday, is that itβs important to remember that Fetch.ai feels futuristic and there is a world (some way off) which is automated by multi-agent systems transacting, but there is also a lot of βlow hanging fruitβ which can be improved TODAY. We are working with some fintech and DeFi teams on automated market making, trading bots and the like in the digital economy. We are also working with hotel booking using common web APIs and the big brokers, as well as building and smart city infrastructure β using quite simple agents to do things like optimising parking allocations. So some big companies, some small. All in this area.(Matt)
Q: Can you specify some companies which have already started using your services?
A: Weβre working with several different companies but we can disclose any information at the moment. As a general rule of thumb, the larger the company, the longer it takes to make a public announcement but there is a lot of interest in what weβre doing in many different sectors (Jonathan)
Weβre working with a few now on mobility related things, i.e., itβs not just us who are building these agents, and thatβs one of the things that excites me most: the Fetch technology is now mature enough for everyone to build and get things going, which is a big reason why weβre so looking forward to AW2 and AW3 β everyone can build agents, be rewarded for it, but also see your agent in the wild in the digital world talking to others.
Itβs a powerful technology stack:
- The OEF for search and discovery
- The agent framework for building your agents
- The agent frameworkβs peer-to-peer network for negotiations and communications
- The Fetch V2 ledger testnets for transactions, smart contracts, and more (Toby)
Q: Regards to commercial partners, how many partners sought out or approached the Fetch teamβ¦and do said partners extend globally or just UK?
A: There are several, including those on Matts chart, and several others. The majority are either multi-national or located outside the UK (Jonathan)
Q: As a Fetch supporter, it felt great to learn about GLOW-DRBβs use in the Binance Smart Chain. Have you guys planned to expand it to other dexes and chains?
A: We have projects we are working with across BSC who are looking for random number service, so that is good and we will update when ready. Also, DRB will be a feature of validator activity on Mainnet v2 (H1 2021) and that will provide DRB as a cross-chain service (Matt)
A: Thanks! Weβre also very proud of that piece of technology. Weβve only just scratched the surface of what is possible so far. I would expect it to be used on many other chains and DeFi applications. It also fits very well with our strategy of providing agent and AI-based services to many different chains. The interoperability we get from Cosmosβ IBC protocol also enables us to use Fetch tokens wherever we deploy those services (Jonathan)
Q: Any staking of FET for MTLX or Atomix rewards will come from the current staking process.
A: @HumayunSheikh has had to drop out, but he asked me to post this: also β we recently released our white paper on Atomix β https://atomix.ai/ β and we will be launching a similar stake-drop mechanic for ATMX governance tokens before the end of the year. The vision is that future FET network tokens will be accessed via the main staking interface
Q: Who can do the testnet?
A: And I think Matt mentioned above, we talked about the flow of the incentivised testnet in yesterdayβs crowdcast. We really are making sure there is something for everyone in this: developers, non-developers, node-operators, service providers and more. With the first ones weβre doing lots relating to agents, so it may seem very developer focussed, but AW3 in particular is all about taking another agent and modifying it to do something different. And as many programmers will say, they got started by poking other peopleβs code to make minor changes. Itβs addictive (Toby)
Q: Do you have any commercial partners or partnerships in the United states? Is there a plan on marketing i.e The U.S. market anytime soon?
A: I still like to think of the UK as a English-speaking bridge between the US, Europe and the commonwealth countries so I think we have a great opportunity to expand into the US. Weβll be making a concerted effort in that direction in 2021 (Jonathan)
Q: What do you guys think about the privacy concerns with AI? Having agents all over the place? Would that be an issue?
A: Thatβs another great question! Actually, thereβs a field of research known as differential privacy (DP) that can be used to overcome that problem. Weβll be releasing more information on how weβre planning on using DP in the near future (Jonathan)
A: Good question, and I see that Jon has posted an answer whilst I was typing one, so some extra stuff: remember that agents hold their own data, so your agents hold thier data on your devices and computing resources. They are able to communicate, trade, etc., using public key cryptography so only the intended party can see what is sent. Likewise, communications with search and discovery will be encrypted and require signatures, so thereβs a lot there that maintains privacy. It is a vital part of whatβs going on: we live in a GDPR world and itβs right that people control who can and canβt see their stuff. Things like collective learning, incidentally, are an awesome demonstration of how all this technology can do amazing things: many can contribute to a model, but without having to disclose confidential or private data (toby)
Q: Possibility of using Akash Network for more decentralization when it comes to node validators?
A: We are actively recruiting validators now β if youβd like to hear moreβ¦ developers@fetch.ai. Also bear in mind phase 2 of the testnet program is all about network validation and we can onboard you with rewards as well. Weβre looking to attract the staking companies, as well as individuals/ community members to create a proper decentralised network (Matt)
Q: Have you guys decided on the type of collateral in the main Mettalex pool? I couldnβt find info on this point
A: Initially Stable Coins and at stage 1.5, FET tokens too (Humayun)
A: Liquidity Providers in Mettalex will initially be limited to stablecoins, but we aim to extend that over time (Matt)
Q: Ideally, how many FET tokens would the Fetch team like in issue (max supply)β¦after mentioned buy-backs?
A: Mettalex will algorithmically buy-back FET tokens from trading fees on the platform. The level of that will depend on mettalex trading activity, and the policies set by the network governers (MTLX token holders) (Matt)
Q: Will agents have a monetary valueβ¦meaning can they be bought, sold, traded or hired?
A: There is the AEA registry where components are being distributed free of charge. But yes you are right, there is no reason why someone couldnβt create an app or agent and sell it for profit (Matt)
A: Short answer: Yes
Longer answer: Still yes π If youβre creating agents that can attach to APIs out there, then there is a business in delivering those. Even better, thereβs one in operating them: people may want agents, but not the pain of hosting them. And, of course, any agent out there that delivers value is paid in FET tokens for delivering that value, so itβs a multi-level economy. And as Matt pointed out, there is a registry for public, free agent components out there which we will see fill out a lot in the coming weeks with AW2/3 in particular as well as our own developments and others. So there are free markets, paid markets and more (Toby)
A: (and longer answer extension: agents that tap into ML/AI in order to be more effective at delivering their value are also attractive to others, so thereβs those services behind the scenes powering agents as well as the agents themselves. Plus there are some very interesting strategies for navigating the OEFβs digital world, too, some of which will be more effective than others) (Toby)
Q: The Social Dilemma managed to give a bit of awareness to the people but a one-sided story. Stating everything clearly will definitely boost the trust of the users.
A: Weβre very keen to provide a solution to the issues raised by the βSocial dilemmaβ β the openness and transparency of blockchain tech is a great way of avoiding a single entity having control over our lives (Jonathan)
Q: Phase 2 of Testnet is for validator / node operators what I do not intend to become. Will participation in Phase 2 be required for Phase 3 ?
A: You can dip in and out of the testnet challenges. Itβs not a linear flow (Matt)
Q: How are the future implementations with interoperability going? I know so far fetch has: ETH, Waves , BNB, Cosmos and few others.. have other major crypto firms reached out to use the fetch interoperability stack so they can also build agents seemlessly?
A: Weβre focused around testnet > mainnet, and a big part of that is pushing increased cross chain compatibility to the mainnet so FET and Fetch.ai services can be delivered across web 3 platforms.
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The post Fetch.ai Community AMA Recap (6th November 2020) | by Fetch.ai | Fetch.ai | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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At AdEx Network, weβre committed to building the future of advertising: over the last couple of years, weβve gone to market with the first ad network where payments are decentralized, running on Ethereum payment channels. Today, weβve reached a new milestone in our development β officially unveiling our decentralized governance system, which enables our community […]
The post Launching AdEx Governance: The First Proposal Is Now Live | by AdEx | The AdEx Blog | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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At AdEx Network, weβre committed to building the future of advertising: over the last couple of years, weβve gone to market with the first ad network where payments are decentralized, running on Ethereum payment channels.
Today, weβve reached a new milestone in our development β officially unveiling our decentralized governance system, which enables our community and ADX token holders to participate in important decisions for our future.
Itβs based on Snapshot, a novel off-chain gasless governance portal, and itβs using our new governance token, ADX-LOYALTY, which is minted by participating in the loyalty pool.
The first proposal is about the ADX incentives for the Tom pool β and more specifically the amount of ADX to be distributed to stakers during 2021.
Back in August, we announced new ADX incentives for the Tom pool; these have massively improved ADX tokenomics. To date, nearly 4 million ADX rewards have been distributed and close to 29 million ADX have been staked, resulting in around 25 million ADX being removed from the market.
Weβve also been able to sustain a ~50% APY despite the end of the farming craze.
Given the success of these incentives, itβs only logical to continue in 2021. Weβve created a proposal to determine the exact amount, given the tradeoffs.
The proposal can be found here: π³ Tom pool: what should the ADX incentive be in 2021.
Our governance mechanism can be used for various things. For example, to change the staking pool parameters, such as loyalty pool price-issuance steps, Validator-Tom pool staking incentives, publisher and advertiser incentives, etc.. Another example is changing protocol parameters: minimum validator fees, maximum earners from a payment channel (campaign), and so on.
Furthermore, proposals may be submitted for development grants or other ecosystem grants β keep in mind, anyone can submit a proposal, so feel free to do so for any significant improvement suggestion you may have!
As we mentioned, you can only vote if you hold ADX-LOYALTY tokens. The loyalty pool is limited to 25 million ADX staked and works on a first-come, first-served basis. Currently, over 16 million tokens are already staked in that pool already.
You get ADX-LOYALTY by staking ADX in the loyalty pool on our portal. To obtain ADX, you can use multiple exchanges such as Binance, Upbit, Uniswap, Balancer and others.
To verify if you have ADX-LOYALTY, go to Etherscan and check your address, it should show under your token balances. You can also make it show in Metamask by using βAdd custom tokenβ. The token contract address is 0xd9A4cB9dc9296e111c66dFACAb8Be034EE2E1c2C.
After youβre done, you can simply go to snapshot.page and vote on any of the proposals or submit your own.
Yes! Just by holding ADX-LOYALTY, you incur an interest in ADX based on the current price, as specified by a Chainlink oracle β a concept weβve dubbed βelastic issuanceβ β you can read more about it in the original announcement.
Keep in mind that for your vote to count, you have to keep your ADX-LOYALTY in your wallet until the snapshot block of the given proposal.
At this stage, proposals are not binding unless specified otherwise, but we intend to stick by the outcomes of the proposals submitted by us unless there are unforeseen reasons not do so.
In the future, weβll transition towards binding proposals, using Aragonβs optimistic DAOs that will work seamlessly with Snapshot.
Read the original article here
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Developers of the Sharktron Defi have exit scammed with reports suggesting that TRX tokens worth up to $10 million are missing. The Tron Foundation has confirmed the theft but is quick to inform Sharktron token holders that a portion of the missing funds has been frozen. The exit scam comes a few weeks after the […]
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Developers of the Sharktron Defi have exit scammed with reports suggesting that TRX tokens worth up to $10 million are missing. The Tron Foundation has confirmed the theft but is quick to inform Sharktron token holders that a portion of the missing funds has been frozen. The exit scam comes a few weeks after the Sharktron devs issued a press release inviting investors to buy the token.
Binance Freezes Part of Stolen Funds
However, Justin Sunβs Tron Foundation, seemingly too eager to get past this event, has issued a response on Twitter. The statement, which does not state the value of funds stolen, says:
Regarding the shark incident, we have contacted Binance and worked together on chasing down the funds and people behind this. A portion of the funds has been frozen on Binance. If you were a victim in this case, please file a police report and work with law enforcement to seek recovery. We will be also working with all exchanges to track the rest of the funds and protect the interest of the Tron communities.
Sharktron, which issued a press release about the Defi project in October, claims the projectβs βmain task is to create a complete platform autonomy with a gradual transition to self-management by community members.β
However, shortly after the press statement, users on Twitter began querying the Defi projectβs claims of high returns in a very short space of time. Some began making the scam allegations after token holders reported problems accessing the Sharktron website.
Red Flags Ignored
According to one report, Twitter users repeatedly warned Sun about the fraudulent nature of the Sharktron project. However, the report says Sun βignored the red flags.β The Sharktron protocol is listed on another Sun creation, the Justswap decentralized exchange (DEXs).
In addition, the report states that despite the mounting concerns and complaints, the Justswap platform still gave its seal of approval to the Sharktron project by whitelisting it.
Meanwhile, some Twitter users reacted to the Tron Foundationβs tweet by asking for a fair reimbursement process. A Twitter user named Brindan SC writes:
I lose 357500 TRX β¦Please allocate frozen funds to all investors as a percentage of their investment..
In October, the Tron Foundation announced it will be reimbursing TRX holders that cannot access their tokens on the Okex crypto exchange. It remains to be seen if the foundation is going to repeat the same compensation plan following the Sharktron exit scam.
In the meantime, other Twitter users believe that Sun and his Tron Foundation may be complicit in this scam just as he has been with other scams.
What should be the formula when reimbursing recovered stolen funds? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
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Bitcoin (BTC) has chalked up a stellar price rally in the past two months, reaching 33-month highs close to $16,000. The uptrend began in early September after buyers bought a dip below $10,000, and gathered pace in the second half of October. Last week, prices reached a high of $15,971, a level last seen in […]
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Bitcoin (BTC) has chalked up a stellar price rally in the past two months, reaching 33-month highs close to $16,000.
The uptrend began in early September after buyers bought a dip below $10,000, and gathered pace in the second half of October.
Last week, prices reached a high of $15,971, a level last seen in January 2018. Thatβs a 63% price gain in eight weeks, according to CoinDeskβs Bitcoin Price Index.
Over 2018 and 2019, bitcoin often languished below $10,000, struggling to recover from a crash that followed the late 2017 surge to record highs near $20,000.
So, whatβs behind the rapid gains in recent weeks? Here are three of the primary factors driving the bull market:
1. Increased institutional participation
βOver the past eight weeks, we have seen various notable public companies and hedge funds enter the cryptocurrency market with sizable deployment of capital,β Matthew Dibb, co-founder, and COO of Singapore-based Stack Funds said.
On Sept. 15, listed business intelligence firm Microstrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) announced the purchase of $250 million worth of bitcoins, and three weeks later payments company Square (NYSE: SQ) also disclosed its investment in the bitcoin market.
In October, leverage in the derivatives market was also skewed bullish, with institutions holding record long positions in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Also read: Institutions Take Record Bullish Bets in Bitcoin Futures, Shrugging Off Exchange Missteps
The increased institutional participation likely created upward pressure on prices. Further, it buoyed broader market sentiment and likely prompted more buyers to join the market.
The number of bitcoin whale entities β clusters of addresses held by a single network participant holding at least 1,000 BTC β rose to four-year highs at the end of October. Retail participation increased, too, as suggested by the βaccumulation addressesβ metric rising to record highs.
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit, expectations for additional U.S. fiscal stimulus alongside the Federal Reserveβs ongoing inflation-boosting bond purchase programs have triggered fears of a dollar sell-off, and motivated both institutions and retailers to put at least some money into bitcoin.
βThe talks of further stimulus efforts has put bitcoin on the map as a quasi-safe haven, possessing many of the store-of-value qualities of gold, despite its relatively [brief] existence,β Dibb said.
Also read: Worldβs Growing Stockpile of Negative-Yielding Debt a Positive for Bitcoin, Say Analysts
2. Supply crunch
Large spot buyers, mostly institutions, have created a shortfall in bitcoin liquidity, pressuring prices to the higher side.
βBetween Grayscaleβs GBTC trust, Microstrategy and the influx of other large spot buyers, the supply of bitcoin is beginning to look more scarce,β Dibb said. Grayscale is owned by CoinDeskβs parent firm, Digital Currency Group.
Further, retail investors took direct custody of their coins by moving them from exchanges to their own wallets, adding to the drying up of sell-side liquidity. The total number of bitcoins held on cryptocurrency exchanges has fallen 9% to 2,404,788 BTC in the past two months, according to Glassnode data.
The decline in exchange balances is indicative of strong holding sentiment in the market.
3. Technical breakout
Bitcoinβs bullish bias strengthened following the cryptocurrencyβs convincing break above $12,500 in the third week of October.
Back then, many analysts had pointed to $12,500 as the level to beat for the bulls. Thatβs because the cryptocurrency had declined sharply following a rejection near $12,500 in August.
βThe real resistance level is around $12,500-ish, so, until a meaningful breakout above that level, nothing is done,β Β David Lifchitz, chief investment officer at ExoAlpha, told CoinDesk on Oct. 20.
Indeed, the eventual breakout above $12,500 looks to have invited stronger chart-driven buying pressure.
Bitcoin ended the third week of October above the key hurdle and remained bid in the following two weeks. Now support, at $12,500, hasnβt been tested since.
Also read: Billionaire Hedge Fund Investor Druckenmiller Says He Owns Bitcoin in CNBC Interview
At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $15,390, representing a 113% year-to-date gain.
Disclosure: The author holds small positions in bitcoin and litecoin.
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Share this post: Blockchain struck society like a lightning storm on the plains. Fast and sudden. Over 10 years ago, a whitepaper was produced unveiling the technology and within seven years, families were discussing the topic over dinner, state legislators were passing bills, and CEOs were being asked for a βblockchain planβ by their Board. […]
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Blockchain struck society like a lightning storm on the plains. Fast and sudden. Over 10 years ago, a whitepaper was produced unveiling the technology and within seven years, families were discussing the topic over dinner, state legislators were passing bills, and CEOs were being asked for a βblockchain planβ by their Board. Some industries moved quickly to apply the capability, realize benefits, and progress networks from concept to production. Others continue to weigh the pros of transparency, digital contracts, and near real-time processing against the shift of working more closely with the value chain, applying new technology, and the integration with existing systems and data.
Fortunately, the toy industry has the opportunity to define how the collaboration, trust, and validation principles of blockchain will be applied at the asset, information and financial levels. The work done in other industries makes the path to benefits easier and offers lessons learned in building and presents the chance to leverage existing networks.
βBlockchain presents a unique framework to bring together suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, transporters, retailers and customers to deliver authentic products in a more efficient manner. The real question is will we see a full industry effort, or will we see smaller groups get together and collaborate?β β Paul Vitale, The Toy Association, Inc
Learn how industries are revolutionizing business with IBM Blockchain
Playing well together with blockchain
To illustrate some of the most likely industry applications of blockchain in the toy industry, letβs look through the lens of a fictitious toy manufacturer, ToyTime. ToyTime operates three divisions: child development, collectibles in The Artisanβs Line by ToyTime, and characters for electronic games. Distribution is primarily in the United States with international sourcing for raw materials. They distribute to national and local retailers, sell directly through a growing ecommerce channel, and contract with several independent distributors. End consumers and distributors praise ToyTime for their great customer service, especially the way they personally handle ordering and delivery challenges.
While ecommerce and retail sales have exceeded plan and ToyTime continues to invest in the channels, many opportunities to improve the entire business remain. Specific needs include:
- Improving settlement time, effort and amount
- Meeting the desire of their consumers to know a product is authentic and made in a socially responsible manner
- Providing more visibility into the availability of a product
While further understanding needs and determining the best approach, ToyTime has uncovered other companies that have been addressing similar situations and already started looking at how blockchain can be a catalyst for change. Letβs explore a few scenarios and identify what is being done in similar industries using blockchain.
Faster and more accurate settlement
Settlement for ToyTime officially begins upon receipt from a supplier and upon receipt by a customer. However, settlement starts much sooner than when it is time to send or receive funds. Most of the incoming and fulfilment orders are governed by a contract. Each contract can be unique and as a result, many people are involved in disputes on over/short/damaged/time delayed orders. Sometimes the disputes remain open for months which can leave a large amount of accounts open requiring a significant amount of time by the finance department to determine the correct amount due.
Blockchain moment #1: Can ToyTime encode the terms of the contract into a digital smart contract and based upon receipt and tolerance of over/short/damaged, pay and be paid at the agreed time and amount while providing the facts of the product movement onto a shared ledger for faster resolution?
Parallel situation: Today, major appliance providers have been working with a notable national chain order-to-cash process to drive down the number of disputes, resolution time, and dollars in question. Separately, ToyTime, like other major companies, could expedite their supplier onboarding process, lower their cost to maintain supplier information, and reduce supplier data errors with the use of the Trust Your Supplier solution. In fact, some companies are moving every one of their suppliers into a blockchain solution with support from SAP Ariba.
Spotlight fraud, recall with confidence
ToyTimeβs customers and consumers want to know the authenticity of the product. ToyTime wants to protect their intellectual property and take swift irrefutable action against illegal reproductions. Also, should a situation arise where they must do a recall due to a faulty part, raw material, packaging, or any other reason, ToyTime and the ecosystem want to move quickly and efficiently to minimize any risk of harm.
Blockchain moment #2: Can ToyTime digitize and share the journey from raw material to customerβs hands and, when necessary, provide a rapid way to determine where products are located for recall?
Parallel situations: The mining industry has been working on conflict mineral blockchain efforts for a couple years. The ability now exists to track resources through the supply chain capturing each event and the critical data to validate and verify authenticity. The items not identified in the network are then known as not authentic allowing downstream buyers to make informed decisions. The emergence of digital twins and QR code use have helped to tell a productβs story, authenticity, and journey to the consumer. For recalls, Walmartβs blockchain learnings can be shared across industries. When conducting a trace on leafy green vegetables, identification of the productβs origin dropped from nearly seven days down to 2.2 seconds with blockchain. This allows for faster recall execution and consumer notification in the event of a foodborne illness threat.
Improve inventory levels
In recent corporate earnings reports, the word conservative has been used to describe inventory levels. What is conservative in a period where supply chains have been greatly disrupted due to demand swings? ToyTime has had difficulty ensuring supply and therefore is pushing out delivery dates and reallocating product using their best analytics tools with the data they have in-house.
Blockchain moment #3: How can ToyTime understand material and finished goods inventories up and downstream while also seeing sales information to best match demand and supply?
Parallel situations: Today large consumer products companies are tracking the ocean journey of their materials and finished goods using blockchain. A large distributor has also used blockchain and sensors in moving inventory downstream and adjusting transportation and ordering levels based on up to the minute inventory levels. Over time, the analytics on blockchain data unveiled an opportunity to reduce one shipment per week while maintaining stock levels.
Sharing your toys
Companies like ToyTime see the value that blockchain can play as they look for next generationβs solutions. Getting started involves making sure the return on investment is clear for all participants, the identification of the critical data can be shared, and a methodology can be followed to bring the formation and expansion of the network.
As the toy industry looks ahead, how will large and small retailers, suppliers, regulatory agencies, associations, testing agencies, financial institutions come together to improve customer experience, lower costs and risks? Toy industry leaders working together can unlock the benefits of blockchain for the entire industry.
How to get started with IBM Blockchain now
Read orginal here
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The game-changing Ethereum 2.0 release is finally around the corner, and we at Stkr continue to make sure that our users are fully prepared for ETH staking! Today, we have released the website of our decentralized protocol and platform, and the very first version of the mainnet deposit contract. Head over to the brand new […]
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The game-changing Ethereum 2.0 release is finally around the corner, and we at Stkr continue to make sure that our users are fully prepared for ETH staking!
Today, we have released the website of our decentralized protocol and platform, and the very first version of the mainnet deposit contract.
Head over to the brand new Stkr website to learn why Stkr is the best choice for ETH 2.0 staking. Here you will find information about the three core roles in the Stkr ecosystem β Node provider, Requester (or staker) and Governor β a staking rewards calculator, and an FAQ section that should answer any remaining questions about Stkr.
From the website you can also connect your wallet to start using the Stkr platform. The initial version of Stkr supports MetaMask, TrustWallet and WalletConnect.
Stkr mainnet deposit contract and roadmap
Today, the Stkr mainnet deposit contract has launched! For now, though, there are some major limitations that will be lifted as the Ethereum network gets upgraded: users wonβt get rewards for staking yet, and the staked ETH will be locked on the Stkr network!
Let us specify the details of this first release:
- Users can deposit ETH on the Stkr platform now.
- We will not send the ETH to the official Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract right away. Instead, we will keep the ETH parked in our smart contracts for one week.
- During this week we will continue testing and complete external audits of the smart contracts in the master branch. The first contract audit has already started and is expected to complete before November 20th.
- Stakers are free to deposit and withdraw ETH to/from Stkr through their wallets.
On November 16th we will officially send the ETH from the Stkr contract to the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. Beyond this point, stakers will not be able to withdraw their staked ETH.
We will announce when aETH can be claimed from the Stkr platform for ETH stakers.
The Stkr full mainnet launch date will depend on ETH 2.0 development progress.
Deposit bonus campaign announcement
To kickstart ETH deposits on the platform we are allocating 1,000 ANKR per ETH deposited before November 16th, 2020.
Campaign rules
- Deposit ETH to the Stkr platform before the first deposit to the official ETH 2.0 deposit contract on November 16th
- The snapshot will be taken on November 16th right after we sent the first batch of ETH to the official ETH2.0 deposit contract
- We will airdrop 1,000 ANKR per ETH to each wallet which owned ETH at the time of the snapshot
- The airdrop will take place once ANKR staking is activated on the Stkr platform. The exact date of the launch of ANKR staking is not set yet.
Stkr interest form
If you want to be the first to know our next steps, donβt hesitate to complete the early interest form to hear back from us with more details.
Useful Stkr links
Follow Ankr on social media
Read the original article here
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Cryptocurrency exchange Zebpay, which claims to have a user base of over 3 million users in India, is now exploring broader crypto market opportunities, such as digital collectibles. With its launch of a new marketplace called Dazzle, Zebpay has chosen to expand into theΒ non-fungible tokenΒ space.Β NFTs are unique but tradeable blockchain assets, which can be used […]
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Cryptocurrency exchange Zebpay, which claims to have a user base of over 3 million users in India, is now exploring broader crypto market opportunities, such as digital collectibles.
With its launch of a new marketplace called Dazzle, Zebpay has chosen to expand into theΒ non-fungible tokenΒ space.Β NFTs are unique but tradeable blockchain assets, which can be used to represent all manner of virtual and real-world goods.
NFTs are unlike cryptocurrencies in that they can carry unique metadata and vary in their degree of rarity. They are increasingly becoming popular for tokenizing markets as diverse as video game items, digital art and fantasy sports.
A Zebpay representative told Cointelegraph that the exchange is seeking to promote blockchain engagement beyond cryptocurrenciesΒ among India’s 5 million active crypto investors. In areas such as the digital art market, the exchange believes NFTs could offer Indian artists new opportunities to protect their digital copyrights and monetize their work. The representative further noted that the NFT global market has now hit $100 million in total value, and growing, making it a promising sector.Β Β
For now, the marketplace is launching with Zebpay’s native NFT, called Dazzle. Zebpay’s representative said that the exchange plans to distribute tokens to members through various programs:
βWe’ll start with reward tokens offering zero membership or trading fees: some to our most loyal and active members, some as random airdrops, and some through fun contests. We probably will never sell them. We want to seed the ecosystem and let our members grow it organically. If they want to trade their NFTs, they can.βΒ
As reported, a wide range of franchises β from top soccer clubs to Formula 1 β are increasingly recognizing branded digital collectibles, NFT auctions, and other blockchain-based ecosystems as efficient means to monetize fan engagement and construct markets for online viral phenomena and trends.
Blockchain developers such as Vitalik Buterin have long identified these diverse applications as a potential route for the technology to gain traction among more varied markets, beyond retail and professional digital asset trading.
First published here
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PRESS RELEASE. Cloudbet, the pioneering crypto casino and sportsbook, has officially launched an Argentina-focused service in response to the countryβs surging interest in bitcoin and crypto gaming. The platform has unveiled a country-specific site and blog to help Argentinians learn more about the benefits of betting with cryptocurrency, as well as the features that make […]
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PRESS RELEASE. Cloudbet, the pioneering crypto casino and sportsbook, has officially launched an Argentina-focused service in response to the countryβs surging interest in bitcoin and crypto gaming.
The platform has unveiled a country-specific site and blog to help Argentinians learn more about the benefits of betting with cryptocurrency, as well as the features that make Cloudbet a trusted leader in the world of crypto gaming: the best sports odds, the highest betting limits, a state-of-the-art bitcoin casino and a welcome bonus worth up to 5 BTC. Adding to that are Cloudbetβs world-class 24/7 live chat customer support services β in Spanish β to better manage Argentine playersβ inquiries.
The operator chose Argentina as the first South American locale in which to launch a local language service based on its analysis of search interest in crypto gaming and bitcoin purchases in five countries on the continent. Curiosity in crypto gaming has increased along with surging cryptocurrency ownership, as Argentinians seek a hedge against the devaluation of the peso amid stringent government capital controls.
βGiven the intense interest, we think that now is the perfect time to dedicate more resources to help Argentinians realise the benefits of betting with crypto,β a Cloudbet spokesperson said. βWe intend to give Argentinian players more support and more bonuses to utilise on upcoming events within our casino. Crypto enables us to offer features that traditional operators canβt.β
Founded in 2013, Cloudbet is one of the worldβs longest established bitcoin betting operators, with a trusted legacy in safely storing player deposits and processing withdrawals seamlessly on an intuitive user interface. The site also accepts ethereum, bitcoin cash, and added three stable coins β USD Tether, USD Coin and Pax Gold β in recent months.
βWeβve noted that stablecoins are increasingly relevant in Argentina, where individuals are looking to protect the value of their assets from the pesoβs devaluation,β Cloudbetβs spokesperson said. βWe intend to add more coins that are specifically appropriate for this market.β
The operator relaunched its site in April to attract a more diverse audience and has introduced a swathe of bold new features including esports, politics betting, virtual sports and easy credit-card coin purchases.
Cloudbet grabbed the attention of industry observers in June with an ambitious English Premier League campaign, under which its sportsbook charged no margin on pre-match bets for all games left in the season. That allowed customers to access the fairest prices β and therefore the highest returns β in the market.
The βzero marginβ campaign was an extension of Cloudbetβs long-standing βbest oddsβ campaigns on sports including soccer, basketball and tennis.
βArgentine sports fans can be assured that best prices will be offered on the competitions that they care about,β the spokesperson said. βWeβre talking about the best odds on match-ups in the Champions League, the Copa Libertadores, and in next yearβs Copa America.β
The Cloudbet Story
Cloudbet is a proud pioneer of crypto betting. Born in 2013 with a trailblazing spirit, Cloudbet embraced blockchain technology to give players privacy and financial freedom like never before. Since then, we have taken over 10 million bets, earning a reputation as the most trusted and secure name in the crypto-gaming space.
We wrote our own rules and audaciously created an industry we are highly respected in. But thatβs just the beginning. As always, itβs what comes next that really excites us. We keep innovating, delivering world firsts time and time again.
Opportunities are boundless, and with the same passion and ambition that has taken us to the top, Cloudbet will keep enhancing the entertainment experience for players around the world.
Weβre here to raise the game.
Press Contact Email Address
media@cloudbet.com
Supporting Link
https://www.cloudbet.com
This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
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Dear Ambrosus community, Hereβs what the technical team has been working on in the past week. Starting today, after the release of this post, the Ambrosus Explorer will be updated to have the following features included. With this, information should be a little clearer, and we believe it is simpler than before. Find out what […]
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Dear Ambrosus community,
Hereβs what the technical team has been working on in the past week. Starting today, after the release of this post, the Ambrosus Explorer will be updated to have the following features included. With this, information should be a little clearer, and we believe it is simpler than before. Find out what was added in the little summary below and donβt hesitate to let us know what you think.
Explorer 4.0.15
In our previous update the technical team implemented new features including transaction filtering, and the display of total bundles on the Atlas node page. Today, 4.0.15 will include a bundle list per Atlas masternode API on the backend, while on the frontend a bundle list per Atlas masternode page will be included. This feature provides Atlas masternode operators with more elaborate masternode details.
Find Ambrosus on:
Twitter | Telegram | GitHub
Read the original article here
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Atomix is a groundbreaking Fetch.ai powered decentralized finance lending platform. Atomix creates liquidity through the introduction of tokens evidencing security taken over real world assets, enabling efficient and flexible collateralized lending for Borrowers, whilst delivering returns for Lenders. Atomix is redefining liquidity. The system is made up of a real-world asset tokenisation system, Atomix lending […]
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Atomix is a groundbreaking Fetch.ai powered decentralized finance lending platform. Atomix creates liquidity through the introduction of tokens evidencing security taken over real world assets, enabling efficient and flexible collateralized lending for Borrowers, whilst delivering returns for Lenders.
Atomix is redefining liquidity. The system is made up of a real-world asset tokenisation system, Atomix lending protocol and governance system. The diagram below details the main components.
Atomix will acts as a bridge between collateralized lending against security over real world assets and tokenization. It will take security over real world assets for use as collateral and use tokenization to evidence that security. All whilst delivering liquidity to Borrowers and Lenders
Security over real-world assets used as collateral
Stablecoin loans are made and simultaneously collateralized upon the deposit of tokens evidencing first ranking security taken over real-world assets, including any income produced by those assets. The secured assets can be sold to recover capital which is returned to the protocol. The loans are over collateralized providing greater security. The collateral is stable with low volatility.
Income generation, liquidity and flexibility
Borrowers pay interest on their loans and this provides returns for lenders.
Borrowers can drawdown and repay some or all of their loan without notice.
Lenders can redeem instantly by withdrawing their deposit.
Transparency and trust
The smart contracts including the underlying asset values and loan details are readily available and verifiable. The protocol brings trust by ensuring at all times that the lending is secured against sufficient collateral.
The Atomix team has created a DeFi lending platform for tokenizing security over real world assets for use as collateral, enabling market participants to access liquidity through tokenization, whilst delivering efficient and flexible collateralized lending for Borrowers and returns for Lenders.
Atomix unlocks liquidity to traditionally illiquid assets reducing cost and friction. The diagram below details the process.
This document is a high level Litepaper describing the goals and system components.
xTokens
xTokens (such as xUSDT) are minted by the Atomix Lending Protocol and represent a lenderβs deposit of stablecoins. xTokens are deflationary tokens that monotonically increase in value. When a lender deposits USDT, the system mints and transfers xUSDT to the lender in return. This xUSDT gradually increases in value over time so when the Lender returns the xUSDT to the system the Lender receives more USDT than they put in.
Atomix Collateral Tokens (ACT)
These tokens are minted by the Atomix Lending Protocol (ALP); 1 ACT will be minted to evidence all of the security taken over a borrowerβs asset. This 1 ACT is infinitely divisible allowing borrowers to transfer all or part of the ACT token. The set of fractions of an ACT tokens minted in respect of a borrowerβs asset are fungible with respect to each other. However, ACT minted in respect of one asset are not interchangeable with ACT minted in respect of a different assets.
Governance Tokens (ATMX)
These tokens are distributed to lenders who deposit USDT in the system. Confers on the holder the right to vote to govern the changes in the core protocol, product or feature roadmap, staffing and changes to protocol parameters.
Traditional lending platform currently have limited supply, limited access to credit markets and poor market liquidity (i.e.. limited secondary markets). Alongside this, they are cumbersome, inflexible and restrictive terms and the markets lack expediency and efficiency due to legacy technology
Atomix solves these problems by combining the positives of tokenization and collateralized lending over real-world assets. Atomix can thus deliver the positives of Defi lending and eliminates the negatives present in todayβs traditional lending marketplace.
Join the conversation on our discord server
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Introducing Guto, our new Marketing Member for Hathor Network Hathor Labs is pleased to announce that our team has grown and we are adding Guto Martino as our Marketing Manager. As we get ready for 2021 with some big plans on our pipeline, Hathor believes that this is the right time to bring someone to […]
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Hathor Labs is pleased to announce that our team has grown and we are adding Guto Martino as our Marketing Manager.
As we get ready for 2021 with some big plans on our pipeline, Hathor believes that this is the right time to bring someone to guide our communication and our marketing strategy.
Guto will be responsible for leading the Hathor team on marketing decisions but also to deep dive into our communication strategy, marketing efforts, participations on AMAs and interviews.
Some of his duties as our Marketing Manager:
- Setting a βTone of Voiceβ and a strategic pathway for the Hathor team to develop a consistent communication plan.
- Ensuring that our brand shines in and out of the blockchain/crypto space following our identity guidelines.
- Managing our communications channels, such as our institutional mailing list and social media channels.
- Running promotions and campaigns to help with brand awareness.
- Conduct internal and external research to understand how the Hathor team and our community could engage with other projects in the blockchain space.
- Working side by side with BlockUnify on a Community Strategy to combine our marketing and communications goals.
- Setting up a content creation team for Hathor and helping to establish our Community Rewards Program.
- Taking care of events be conducted by Hathor, such as conferences, monthly calls, hackathons and much more.
- Bringing potential partners to build and develop together on Hathor Network.
- Ensuring our company vision is aligned with our stakeholders, investors, advisors and especially with our community.
Having a linear relationship with our community is a primary goal for Hathor since the beginning, and Guto is here to ensure that we are bringing awareness to our milestones.
Hathor definitely had an exciting year in 2020. Our Mainnet went live in January together with fully-developed mobile and desktop wallets. At the same time, our community has grown more than 1000%, and we experienced a substantial hashrate increase on our blockchain.
For 2021, we intend to expand our team and to showcase what is being built using Hathor Network.
Some of our central focuses for next year are:
- Release of Nano Contracts tools,
- Interoperability by Side-DAGs,
- Large increase in the number of use cases and projects built on top of our network.
We believe that a strategic communication framework is essential to showcase to larger audiences what is happening on our network.
Guto is a Marketing Strategist and Creative Project Manager born in Brazil and since 2013 based in Berlin.
Since mid-2016 he has worked as a freelance Marketing Strategist for several companies, projects and organizations in the blockchain space, but also with startups and tech companies such as Soundcloud, betahaus and many others in the Berlin ecosystem.
Previously, his primary focus was on events and conferences as Dezentral (1Kx) and Data Natives and as a member of Berlin Blockchain Week communication team. He was also part of the Department of Decentralization (formerly known as ETHBerlin), where he took part in the production of the GΓΆrliCon and EthBerlinZwei.
Guto is also part of the NEAR Protocol Marketing Guild and is an active member of KarmaDAO. He is a longtime enthusiast of DAOs, decentralization, NFTs and, more than anything, crypto adoption.
Twitter β https://twitter.com/gutomartino
LinkedIn β https://www.linkedin.com/in/gutomartino/
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4 min readΒ This year the US presidential election was fraught with a lot of anxiety and it is clearly reflected on the market. A raging pandemic caused a massive increase in mail voting numbers and for many Americans the election day came much earlier. Early voting was available weeks before the election day, depending […]
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4 min readΒ
This year the US presidential election was fraught with a lot of anxiety and it is clearly reflected on the market. A raging pandemic caused a massive increase in mail voting numbers and for many Americans the election day came much earlier. Early voting was available weeks before the election day, depending on the state. The counting of all ballots held the election results unknown for several days after the official voting day, November 3, up until last weekend.Β
The outcome
According to the US election rules, the candidate has to receive 270 votes to win the election. As a preliminary result of the election race, Joe Biden won with a result of 290 votes. However, the final results will be announced on December 14, once the presidential electors of the Electoral College will turn in their votes. Moreover, Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, has not agreed with the election results and filed legal challenges disputing the election results and calling for votes recount.Β
The market
Though the final decision has not been settled yet, the markets have already reacted to Bidenβs preliminary victory. The US dollar sharply decreased in price, while global stocks hit new highs on expectations for the US foreign policy reset: the trade policy under the new administration is expected to be less confrontational as Joe Biden seems to wish to repair ties with Europe and China. European stocks remain mostly on the rise also due to the news about the efficiency of the coronavirus vaccine that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer released on Monday.Β
Crude Oil also seems to be climbing higher and the market volatility may continue since the election results are not finalized yet.
How to trade?
Times of uncertainty bring higher volatility to the markets and it creates more opportunity for traders, which both short-term and long-term traders may benefit from. However, it also increases the risks associated with trading, as the markets become more unpredictable. Stock and Forex traders may keep an eye on the market news in order to quickly adapt their strategy if the asset shows unfavorable performance. Traders may also utilize technical indicators to evaluate the asset performance.Β
The most important thing to remember is to utilize risk management strategies at all times. Setting investment limits and keeping a tight stop loss may help traders manage their capital and minimize risks.Β
Trade now
NOTE: This article is not an investment advice. Any references to historical price movements or levels is informational and based on external analysis and we do not warranty that any such movements or levels are likely to reoccur in the future.
In accordance with European Securities and Markets Authorityβs (ESMA) requirements, binary and digital options trading is only available to clients categorized as professional clients.
GENERAL RISK WARNING
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
85% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
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According to a new report, the depreciation of some currencies against the U.S. dollar is contributing to the declining international remittances. After touching an all-time high of $548 billion in 2019, the World Bank report now projects remittances to drop 7.2% in 2020 to $508 billion and a further decline of 7.5% to $470 billion […]
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According to a new report, the depreciation of some currencies against the U.S. dollar is contributing to the declining international remittances. After touching an all-time high of $548 billion in 2019, the World Bank report now projects remittances to drop 7.2% in 2020 to $508 billion and a further decline of 7.5% to $470 billion in 2021.
Volatile Currencies
In its Migration and Development Brief 33, the World Bank details how the Covid-19 induced currency depreciation has affected the flow of global remittances. In the brief, the authors point to the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the source currencies for remittances. Detailing how this has affected the flow of remittances from Russia, the report says:
The weakening of the ruble against the U.S. dollar, by over 26% since the beginning of 2020, has reduced remittances from Russia in U.S. dollar terms. Remittances to Central Asia have therefore declined significantly.
The World Bank data indeed projects that remittances sent from Europe and Central Asia will register the sharpest decline (globally) of 16% in 2020. On the other hand, remittance flows to Latin America, and the Caribbean are expected to decline by just 0.2% in 2020.
Still, the report identifies the other βforemost factorsβ driving this decline as the βweak economic growth and uncertainties around jobsβ particularly in the case of the United States and European countries. For oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia however, it is the weak prices for the commodity that are driving down the flow of remittances.
Impact of Digital Remittances
Meanwhile, after detailing the impact of Covid-19 and the associated mobility restrictions, the World Bank report goes on to assert that formal recognition of βdigital remittancesβ will help to keep funds flowing even in tough times. The report continues:
βGovernments must support remittance infrastructure, including by recognizing remittance services as essential, reducing the burden of remittance fees on migrants, incentivizing digital money transfers, and mitigating factors that prevent customers or service providers of digital remittances from accessing banking services.β
Although the World Bank report fails to specifically identify cryptocurrencies as one of the digital remittances it is touting, studies and reports already show the increasing use of crypto assets when remitting by some migrant groups.
For instance, a news.Bitcoin.com report suggests that there is a growing use of cryptocurrencies as rails for remitting funds across borders. A different report also shows a marked growth in peer-to-peer trade volumes after countries imposed lockdown restrictions.
Covid-19 restrictions may have inadvertently increased the appeal of cryptocurrencies. The second wave of growing infections and the resultant restrictions will only reinforce their place in this new normal. As the World Bank has advised, countries can reduce the impact of such restrictions by embracing digital remittances.
Do you agree that digital remittances can halt the declining flow of funds? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
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German soccer club FC Bayern Munich, which plays in the countryβs Bundesliga, isΒ entering the world of blockchain-based fantasy soccer. The EthereumΒ blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, which Bayern joined this week, already counts over 100 participant clubs, including high-profile names such as Paris Saint-German,Β Juventus, PSG, and Atletico Madrid. FC Bayern Munich is itself no stranger to […]
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German soccer club FC Bayern Munich, which plays in the countryβs Bundesliga, isΒ entering the world of blockchain-based fantasy soccer.
The EthereumΒ blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, which Bayern joined this week, already counts over 100 participant clubs, including high-profile names such as Paris Saint-German,Β Juventus, PSG, and Atletico Madrid.
FC Bayern Munich is itself no stranger to collaborations with blockchain projects, having partnered last fall with Stryking Entertainment to produce digital collectibles of its players. These cards are both collectible and playable as part of a fantasy-league style challenge.Β
In announcing its Sorare deal to fans, FC Bayern Munich noted that the top 20 leagues in the world are now available on the gaming platform, which has become truly global.Β
Sorare works as a five-a-side soccer game. New players pick an initial squad of 10 blockchain-based player cards from which they create their tournament team.Β
As reported, Sorare also offers players the chance to buy and trade limited edition cards, whose higher score and value is determined by playersβ real-life performance in soccer league tables and their rarity as digital collectibles.
According toΒ Nonfungible, a ranking site for blockchain games and issuers of collectible, non-fungible tokens, Sorare is inching up the league tables and has been gaining popularity with the global gaming community.Β
As of press time, the platform is ranked third, with a weekly trading volume of roughly $243,000. However, in terms of all-time-sales, Sorare significantly trails behind Axie Infinity, which reports roughly triple the sales of the fantasy soccer market.
Sorare has recently launched in the United States, where the platform hopes to attract some of the 60 million American fantasy sports players.
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Altcoin traders continue to feel the pain as Bitcoin (BTC) gains, with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hitting new all-time lows.Β Data from Cointelegraph Markets and other sources shows that as of Nov. 10, BCH is worth less in BTC terms than ever before. Bitcoin Cash plunges to new BTC lows At press time, BCH/BTC traded at […]
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Altcoin traders continue to feel the pain as Bitcoin (BTC) gains, with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hitting new all-time lows.Β
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and other sources shows that as of Nov. 10, BCH is worth less in BTC terms than ever before.
Bitcoin Cash plunges to new BTC lows
At press time, BCH/BTC traded at 0.017 BTC, comfortably beating its previous record low of 0.0245 BTC seen in December 2018.
The hard fork of Bitcoin has seen little attention this year, as investors focused on Bitcoin and then the decentralized finance (DeFi) phenomenon. The announcement of another hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash network, set for Nov. 15, has done little to buoy the coinβs prospects, data shows.
In USD terms, Bitcoin Cash has spent the past three months fluctuating in a corridor between $230 and $280, while Bitcoin itself has increased by a third in value.
Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin proponents took a dim view of the upcoming hard fork, something which has sparked a familiar tussle between businesses opting to support or reject the resulting new coins.
βHopefully this election drama will clear up before the next scheduled shitcoin drama: T minus 10 days to the next bcash fracture!β CasaHODL co-founder Jameson Lopp summarized on Twitter last week as the hard fork was confirmed.
Litecoin sees lowest ever weekly close
For Litecoin (LTC), price data shows a similar story. LTC/USD traded at 0.0038 BTC on Nov. 10, increasingly close to its extant bottom of 0.003 BTC from March 2017.
On the weekly chart, the pair printed its lowest close in history this month.
Noting the lack of performance by both Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash since PayPal confirmed that it would support both assets along with Bitcoin from 2021, one popular Twitter account summed up the mood among those who favor BTC.
βWe think it’s a bad business decision and also morally and ethically bankrupt for @PayPal to allow retail customers to purchase BCH and LTC,β it wrote on Nov. 5.
βMany retail investors will be tricked with misleading copy like below into purchasing assets that are completely worthless. It’s not right.β
While some traders continue to forecast the return of βalt seasonβ next year, prospects remain bleak for the near term, as Bitcoinβs market cap dominance has reached 64%, its highest since June.
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Following two years of pilot testing, a blockchain trade and financing platform for global agricultural trading has seen its commercial rollout from Swiss developer Cerealia SA. The launch follows extensive pre-launch trial implementation with firms from Algeria, Brazil, Dubai, Japan and Ukraine. In November 2018, Cointelegraph reported on the platform’s early use to conduct a […]
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Following two years of pilot testing, a blockchain trade and financing platform for global agricultural trading has seen its commercial rollout from Swiss developer Cerealia SA.
The launch follows extensive pre-launch trial implementation with firms from Algeria, Brazil, Dubai, Japan and Ukraine. In November 2018, Cointelegraph reported on the platform’s early use to conduct a pilot transaction of Black Sea wheatΒ from the Russian port city of Novorossiysk.Β
Cerealia has told reporters that it has sought to address the need for a fast trading platform in the global Russian wheat market and to combine this with a more reliable, transparent and technologically sophisticated execution program. CEO Andrei Grigorov said:
βTraders can now be 100% certain they really did the trade, versus traditional over-the-phone brokerage. Instantly, they have digitally signed contracts and blockchain-registered records βforever.ββ
As the world’s top wheat producer, transactions in the Russian market also include corn, barley, and other grains and vegetable oil trades. According to Cerealia, transaction volumes in the first week of launch are reaching up to 20,000 metric tons of grain.
Earlier this fall, world-leading agribusiness firms from the United States, France, China and the NetherlandsΒ launched a joint venture thatΒ will use blockchain technology to streamline logistics processes in the agricultural sectorΒ in Brazil. Between them, the commercial partners involved move around 550 million tons of grains and oilseeds per year.
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Not too long ago, the author of the controversial bitcoin stock-to-flow (S2FX) price model said that the model was βperfectly on track.β On Sunday, November 8, the S2FX creator known as βPlan Bβ reiterated his belief in the model and told his Twitter followers that he has βno doubt whatsoeverβ that the S2FX trend is […]
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Not too long ago, the author of the controversial bitcoin stock-to-flow (S2FX) price model said that the model was βperfectly on track.β On Sunday, November 8, the S2FX creator known as βPlan Bβ reiterated his belief in the model and told his Twitter followers that he has βno doubt whatsoeverβ that the S2FX trend is correct.
This weekend the stock-to-flow (S2FX) author dubbed βPlan Bβ tweeted about his model and how he still believes in the S2FX trend. Plan Bβs popular editorial called βModeling Bitcoinβs Value with Scarcityβ has caught the attention of the community for quite some time. The current trend suggests that if BTCβs price follows the S2FX model it could be around $100k by December 2021.
Stock-to-flow, also known as S2F or S2FX for the most recent model, is a cryptocurrency technical analysis (TA) that leverages BTCβs βstockβ and βflow.β βThe βStock-to-flowβ is a number that shows how many years, at the current production rate, are required to achieve the current stock. The higher the number, the higher the price,β explains the live chart tracking website with the stock-to-flow model applied to BTCβs current price.
During the first week of August, Plan B told his 148,000 Twitter followers that his model was βperfectly on track.β This past Sunday, Plan B doubled down on his words and told the crypto community that he has zero doubts about his model and he wholeheartedly believes in S2FX.
βPeople ask if I still believe in my model,β Plan B tweeted. βTo be clear: I have no doubt whatsoever that bitcoin S2FX is correct and bitcoin will tap $100K-288K before [December] 2021. In fact, I have new data that confirms the supply shortage is real. IMO 2021 will be spectacular,β the analyst added.
Following Plan Bβs statements, a person replied to his tweet and said: βWhat is your skin in the game? Youβre anonymous. If your model fails you can just delete Twitter and disappear.β The anonymous analyst responded and said that his anonymity makes S2FX more appealing.
βYou donβt seem to understand,β the S2FX author replied. βOne of the reasons for me to be anonymous is that I do not want you to trust me (based on my credentials), I want you to verify everything I say, and make your own conclusion. Also, I might go dark when my model succeeds, not fails. Few understand.β
A few other Twitter users said that they loved Plan Bβs confidence and thanked him for his contributions. Despite the fact that thereβs a number of cryptocurrency proponents and analysts who donβt believe in the S2FX model, a great number of enthusiasts think it will come to fruition.
βIf the history of Bitcoin repeats itself,β one fan tweeted. βBitcoin [will] overshoot and top at around $335k. β in this perfect parallel channel. Hello FOMO. [Four] year period between tops. βTake profit at $335k/2 = $165k which is the target according to βstock to flow model,ββ the individual added.
What do you think about Plan Bβs confidence in the S2FX model? Do you think it could align? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Plan B, digitalik.net/btc/, Twitter,
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
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One of yearn.financeβs core tenets is downside mitigated savings accounts. Thus far we have focused on lossless strategies, while the upside is potentially less, the downside is mitigated. This however leaves a lot of desirable opportunities unavailable to vaults. Lets go through an example; lets assume the current best opportunity for DAI is at 10%, […]
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One of yearn.financeβs core tenets is downside mitigated savings accounts. Thus far we have focused on lossless strategies, while the upside is potentially less, the downside is mitigated. This however leaves a lot of desirable opportunities unavailable to vaults.
Lets go through an example; lets assume the current best opportunity for DAI is at 10%, however if we did DAI:ETH we could be earning 20%. This is not a strategy yearn would have considered, since it adds a variable to DAI, namely ETHβs price volatility. If we take 1,000 DAI and convert it to 500 DAI : 500 ETH, and ETH price decreases by 10%, we would have < 1,000 DAI.
What if we could offset any potential price decline in ETH? Our goal would be to mitigate our ETH exposure, while the increased interest minus cost of mitigating such exposure is still greater than the original opportunity. Using the example above 20%-<hedge cost> greater than 10%.
This offset of losses is called hedging your risk. Lets first look at how we would do this with a futures contract, in the example above we bought 500 DAI worth of ETH, for simplicity sake, lets say thatβs 1 ETH. We would like to earn yield with the ETH for 4 weeks. We agree with Alice that we will give her 1 ETH in 4 weeks if she gives us 500 DAI. Alice believes the price will go up, so being able to buy ETH for cheaper than market price in 4 weeks is a good deal for Alice. After 4 weeks, the futures contract is settled, 1 ETH is given to Alice, and Alice gives us 500 DAI. We have our 1,000 DAI and Alice has 1 ETH.
A futures market settles the underlying asset (ETH in the above example) at a future determined date. This is one mechanism we could use.
Using the above example, lets say ETH increased to 1,000 DAI. Alice is happy, she made 500 DAI profit, however, if we did not do a futures contract, we could give that 500 DAI profit to our LPs, further increasing their yield. So what if we wanted the option to be able to sell it to Alice in 4 weeks, but we didnβt necessarily want to do it after 4 weeks passed?
For this, we can purchase an βoptionβ, just as the word says, it is the option to execute a contract (like a future). This would work exactly the same as above, however this exposes Alice to a potential downside (since what rational actor would only buy something if it would not make them profit?), so Alice charges a premium, she charges us 10 DAI for the option (right) to be able to sell her 1 ETH in 4 weeks for 500 DAI. If however in 4 weeks the price of DAI is greater than 500, we can simply not execute the contract.
Assuming the price went up, the LPs made more profit, assuming the price stayed the same, LPs made 20%-10 DAI, assuming the price was less then we could execute the option and have 500 DAI.
In the above examples, there is a lot of βmicro managementβ, prices need to be compares continuously and checks on when to execute specific options/futures. What if we could simplify this a bit more? To do so, we can use Options settled/denominated in DAI
Options allow us to offset the βlossβ part. So looking at our above example again, lets say the price of ETH decreased to 400 DAI. If our agreement with Alice was a Binary Option settled in DAI, then instead of us giving her the 1 ETH, and she giving us 500 DAI, Alice gives us 100 DAI (that is what her loss would have been). This means the underlying asset is not settled, but instead the profit portion is. So at this point, the pool is 600 DAI : 1 ETH (400 DAI). While the net result is the same, this required a lot less steps. Lets consider that the binary option cost us 10 DAI, if ETH increased, we would have 500 DAI : 1 ETH (600 DAI) = 500+600β10, if the price of ETH decreased and we executed our option, we would have 500 DAI : 1 ETH (400 DAI) + 100 DAI (Alice) = 500 + 400 + 100β10.
This allows us to keep our position neutral, while being able to enjoy optimized yields. An important note here is options pricing. Lets say the option costs 10 DAI for every 1 ETH. Thatβs 10 DAI over 500, or 7.3% every 4 weeks, so the option pricing here becomes incredibly important.
Next we need to understand option pricing, open interest, and strike variance, but I will cover those in a next post when we discuss the changes/modifications we have been proposing.
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Bitcoin (BTC) is continuing to show strong momentum even after a major rally. Key data points show that the uptrend has likely been fueled by smart money in recent months. This means retail or mainstream investors have been largely on the sidelines as BTC price surpassed $15,000 this month. In 2017, when the price of […]
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Bitcoin (BTC) is continuing to show strong momentum even after a major rally. Key data points show that the uptrend has likely been fueled by smart money in recent months. This means retail or mainstream investors have been largely on the sidelines as BTC price surpassed $15,000 this month.
In 2017, when the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high at $20,000, the retail demand was at its peak. Google Trends data soared, mainstream media coverage noticeably increased, and spot exchange volumes exploded across major markets, especially in South Korea and Japan.
This time, the Google Trends interest is relatively low for the keyword βBitcoinβ while on-chain data shows smart money is accumulating BTC.
High-net-worth investors are buying Bitcoin
Moreover, according to on-chain analyst Willy Woo, it has been mostly high-net-worth investors who have been purchasing Bitcoin.
When whales buy Bitcoin, they mostly facilitate the deals through the over-the-counter (OTC) market. Over time, spot and derivatives markets trail the OTC market as whales lead the upsurge. Woo said:
βWho has been buying this rally? It’s smart money… High Net Worth Individuals. You can see the average transaction value between investors taking a big jump upwards. OTC desks are seeing this too. Bitcoin is still in it’s stealth phase of its bull run.β
The trend of whales frontrunning retail investors is optimistic because it shows Bitcoin is still in its nascent bull phase. Large capital from new retail and mainstream investors is yet to enter the cryptocurrency market.
Another Glassnode metrics paints a similar trend. The number of Bitcoin addresses holding more than 100 BTC hit a seven-month high at 16,271.
New money is pouring in
Whales consistently buying Bitcoin over the past few months is optimistic in itself. But, Woo emphasized that the number of new whales has also increased.
If the number of addresses containing large amounts of Bitcoin increases, analysts consider it as an overall spike in new whales.
The rise in more high-net-worth individuals accumulating Bitcoin coincides with the start of the recent institutional frenzy around BTC.
Following Squareβs BTC purchase worth $50 million, the number of high-net-worth investors in the Bitcoin market noticeably increased. Woo explained:
βBest of all we are not just seeing smart money flow in, it’s NEW smart money. Orange line is the rate of new investors coming in per hour previously unseen before on the blockchain. It’s seriously bullish.β
Google Trends data shows relatively low retail interest
Google Trends data is indicating a similar narrative as on-chain data points. The search volume for the keyword βBitcoinβ is currently less than 10% compared to the 2017 top.
Nevertheless, while the search volume for Bitcoin remains low, there is a particularly high interest coming from states like Hawaii, California, Nevada and Washington.
Interestingly, California and Hawaii rank as the third and fourth highest in per capita income by state in 2020.
Moreover, San Jose/San Francisco in California i.e. Silicon Valley is ranked as the top metro region for Bitcoin interest. Silicon Valley is, of course, home to many high-net-worth investors and entrepreneurs.
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The hash power of the Bitcoin (BTC) network has jumped by roughly 30% over the past 24 hours, which if sustained, suggestsg a major difficulty adjustment may soon be incoming. According to Coinwarz, Bitcoin’s hash rate currently sits at 157.5 exahashes per second (EX/s) after briefly pushing above 160 EH/s. As of this writing, BTC […]
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The hash power of the Bitcoin (BTC) network has jumped by roughly 30% over the past 24 hours, which if sustained, suggestsg a major difficulty adjustment may soon be incoming.
According to Coinwarz, Bitcoin’s hash rate currently sits at 157.5 exahashes per second (EX/s) after briefly pushing above 160 EH/s. As of this writing, BTC hash power has increased by 42% in two days.
The spike follows a sharp decline in hash power in late October, which many analysts attributed to the end of the rainy season in the Chinese mining hub of Sichuan.Β
The provinceβs abundant and cheap hydroelectric power is estimated to attract around 80% of Chinese miners during the wet season. In December, CoinShares estimated that Sichuan accounted for 54% of global mining activity.
Quantum Economics analyst Jason Deane speculated that the sudden increase in Bitcoin hash power could be a sign that many Chinese miners have completed their migration from Sichuan and restored operations in other local mining hubs such as Xinjian and Inner Mongolia.
Whoa! big jump in #bitcoin hash rate over last 10 hours (+29.7% trough to peak) Large number of machines just came online somewhere, relocated Sichuan region miners possibly? pic.twitter.com/UKahgQ37Tm
β Jason Deane (@JasonADeane) November 9, 2020
The sudden spike in mining activity suggests the network is likely to produce another significant difficulty adjustment.Β
A major upward adjustment would come at the chagrin of non-Chinese miners who have been enjoying boosted profits after October’s apparent migration from Sichuan resulted in a 16% negative difficulty adjustment β the second-largest downwards adjustment in Bitcoinβs history.
Earlier this week, the worldβs largest generator of hydroelectric power for the private-sector, Russian firm En+ Group, announced it would be launching a cryptocurrency mining venture in partnership with local company, BitRiver.
First published here
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The privacy-centric cryptocurrency network Grin (GRIN) has been the victim of a 51% attack according to a number of reports. Allegedly an unknown entity gained control of over 57% of the network hashrate on Saturday. According to the Grin website, the team is recommending people wait for βextra confirmations on transactions for payment finality.β On […]
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The privacy-centric cryptocurrency network Grin (GRIN) has been the victim of a 51% attack according to a number of reports. Allegedly an unknown entity gained control of over 57% of the network hashrate on Saturday. According to the Grin website, the team is recommending people wait for βextra confirmations on transactions for payment finality.β
On November 7, 2020, a mining pool dedicated to the Grin (GRIN) network informed the cryptocurrency community that the blockchain was under attack. βGrin network is under [a] 51% attack,β the mining pool called β2minersβ tweeted. βPayouts are stopped. Please mine at your own risk only because the new blocks could be rejected,β the pool operator added.
According to the official website at grin.mw, the development team has a warning at the bottom of the site that is still up on Monday, November 9.
βImportant notice,β the web portalβs warning reads. βThe Grin network hashrate has increased considerably over a short period of time. Notably, this coincides with the Nicehash rate doubling in this time with well over 50% of the network hashrate currently outside of known pools. Considering these circumstances it is wise to wait for extra confirmations on transactions for payment finality.β
Grin Network Is Under the 51% Attack!
Payouts are stopped. Please mine at your own risk only because the new blocks could be rejected.@grincouncil @grin_hub @Hotbit_news @Poloniex @kucoincom @gateio_info @CoinBene pic.twitter.com/6seDSRe8Qw
β 2Miners (@pool2miners) November 8, 2020
At the time of publication, an unknown miner controls 58.1% of the Grin networkβs hashrate. Statistics also show that at approximately 6:17 p.m. (EST) the unknown entity reorganized a single block at height 0000ada4. The mining pool 2miners who tweeted about the incident have around 24.5% of the global Grin hashrate today.
This is followed by Sparkpool, F2pool, Grinmint, and other small miners pointing hash at the network. If a mining entity controls more than 51% of a cryptocurrency network, the attacker can potentially reorganize blocks and invalidate transactions.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) has been notorious for getting 51% attacked on various occasions, alongside this the blockchain Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has also been 51% a few times. Much of the blame on all of these attacks have been cast at the Nicehash firm, a cloud mining operation that allows users to rent hashrate.
Currently, the price of grin is trading for $0.233 per coin, and thereβs $3.4 million in global trade volume. The price of grin (GRIN) has lost 2.9% during the last 24 hours of trading. Most of the slide is due to the entire market downturn, as the 51% attack threat hasnβt really affected the price much at all this past weekend.
What do you think about the Grin network getting 51% attacked and the unknown miner that controls 58% of the network today? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
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A former Microsoft engineer has been sentenced to nine years for stealing more than $10 million in digital value from his past employer in the form of βcurrency stored value” (CSV) including gift cards. Volodymyr Kvashuk, a 26-year-old Ukrainian citizen residing in Washington, used the accounts and identities of his fellow employees to steal and […]
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A former Microsoft engineer has been sentenced to nine years for stealing more than $10 million in digital value from his past employer in the form of βcurrency stored value” (CSV) including gift cards.
Volodymyr Kvashuk, a 26-year-old Ukrainian citizen residing in Washington, used the accounts and identities of his fellow employees to steal and then sell the CSV β making it appear as though his co-workers were responsible for the fraud.Β
Kvashuk also used a Bitcoin (BTC) mixing service to further obfuscate the paper trail, telling the Internal Revenue Service that the $2.8 million worth of crypto that passed through his accounts gifts had been sent from a relative. According to the United States Departent of Justice:
βOver the seven months of KVASHUKβs illegal activity, approximately $2.8 million in Bitcoin were transferred to his bank and investment accounts. KVASHUK then filed fake tax return forms, claiming the Bitcoin had been a gift from a relative.β
Kvashuk worked at Microsoft from August 2016 until being fired in June 2018.
According to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) special agent Ryan Korner, the sentencing is βthe nationβs first Bitcoin case that has a tax component to it.β Korner asserted the sentencing highlights the increasing sophistication of the agencyβs criminal division in identifying unreported crypto asset transactions:
βSimply put, todayβs sentencing proves you cannot steal money via the Internet and think that Bitcoin is going to hide your criminal behaviors.β
Brian Moran of the U.S. Attorneyβs Office said: βStealing from your employer is bad enough, but stealing and making it appear that your colleagues are to blame widens the damage beyond dollars and cents.β
Kvushuk has been found guilty of 18 federal felonies including six counts of money laundering and two counts of filing false tax returns. The Ukrainian used the stolen funds to purchase a $1.6 million lake-front home and $160,000 Tesla vehicle.
Tax evasion charges have been leveled at numerous criminal schemes throughout U.S. history. Prohibition-era gangster boss Al Capone famously spent seven years in federal prison from 1931 after being found guilty of evading taxes.
First published here
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The Index Coop was launched on October 6th by DeFi Pulse and Set Protocol, two of the top teams in the Ethereum ecosystem. The Index Coop is a collective aimed at creating and maintaining the best crypto indices on the market. The coop creates crypto ETPs (exchange traded products) that help users get broad exposure […]
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The Index Coop was launched on October 6th by DeFi Pulse and Set Protocol, two of the top teams in the Ethereum ecosystem. The Index Coop is a collective aimed at creating and maintaining the best crypto indices on the market. The coop creates crypto ETPs (exchange traded products) that help users get broad exposure to different sectors or themes across crypto. As the first flagship product, Index has created the DeFi Pulse Index that provides broad DeFi exposure for its users by holding one token.
In our first month since launch, we have had amazing growth across the whole Ethereum ecosystem and cultivated an awesome community of passionate Coop members. We are excited to share all the progress we have made since we started just a month ago.
- The Secret Master Plan for the Index Coop was proposed by Set Protocol CEO Felix Feng with an additional update to the strategy from Coop member OverAnalyser.
- 1% of the INDEX token total supply was airdropped to previous DPI holders
- Yam.Finance bought $250,000 worth of DPI to hold in its treasury in one of the first DAO OTC deals. Then, they elected to use their DPI to farm INDEX to become Index Coop members
- Opyn launched calls and puts for DPI making it the first derivatives for an Index Coop product
- At a $15M market cap, DPI index controls ~0.5% of all DeFi governance tokens in circulation for our index ($3B combined market cap). This makes Index Coop the top holder of DeFiβs biggest tokens and the #4 largest holder of YFI excluding exchanges
- $24M of DPI/ETH liquidity staked to earn 9% of INDEXsupply over two months
- The first trustless rebalance occurred for the November rebalance. All trades for updating index composition are now handled by smart contracts
- A DPI product info page was launched at indexcoop.com/dpi.
- CoinGecko lists DPI in the top 100 DeFi tokens (#55 at time of writing)
- Bankless has started using DPI as a market indicator in their newsletter
Even at only one month old, the Index Coop community has grown and evolved towards a collective vision and ethos of working together to achieve common goals. Weβve created codes of conduct to create a safe environment for people to contribute, given each other the space to grow in new ways, discussed values as well as business, and had great debates on strategy for the Index Coop platform and our flagship product β the DeFi Pulse Index. Above all else weβve made some really good memes!
- Over 800 members joined our discord during the first month of Index Coop. They are extremely active and discussions about governance, tokenomics, product strategy, and growth for the DPI and Index Coop happen daily
- We transformed from Owls π¦ into Druids π¦ π¦ π¦ π¦ π
- Working groups organically organized for Growth, Development, and Design. They each held several meetings over the month and made all the product updates listed above possible. Thanks you everyone β€οΈ
- We hosted two community calls for introductions and in-depth discussions
- A Code of Conduct was proposed by Coop member DarkForestCapital and approved with supermajority vote
- The first round of community grants was approved and distributed for a total of 7,460 INDEX (~47 ETH) to 23 members
- A community handbook of Index Coop was created and acts an entrypoint for new members to get involved that has been under constant update as we develop
- Over 50 discussion threads on our governance platform with input from a variety of Coop members
- DarkForestCapital analysed common community/governance problems and how Index Coop is managing them
- Coop members started writing vision and mission statements as well as a manifesto
We are just beginning and there is still so much farther left to go! If youβre curious to learn more about Index Coop or even what to become a Druid come join us on our Discord, Forum, Twitter, or Subreddit.
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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse thinks corporations converting cash to Bitcoin (BTC) could be making a costly mistake as a more environmentally-conscious Biden administration takes the White House in January. Garlinghouse tweeted Monday that the incoming president will be much tougher on climate change, requiring that all publicly-traded companies disclose their greenhouse-gas producing activities. He singled […]
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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse thinks corporations converting cash to Bitcoin (BTC) could be making a costly mistake as a more environmentally-conscious Biden administration takes the White House in January.
Garlinghouse tweeted Monday that the incoming president will be much tougher on climate change, requiring that all publicly-traded companies disclose their greenhouse-gas producing activities. He singled out Square as one company that βmay want to pay attentionβ to new federal guidelines that could get rolled out as soon as Biden takes office.Β
Garlinghouseβs comments piggyback off an earlier tweet from NYT Politics, which outlined some of Bidenβs proposed measures on climate change, including rejoining the Paris Agreement and signing executive orders to curb emissions. President Trump withdrew from the Paris accord in 2017 over allegations that the pact would harm the U.S. economy.Β
Square made headlines last month by adding 4,709 bitcoin to its balance sheet. At the time of the purchase, the newly acquired Bitcoin accounted for roughly 1% of the payment companyβs available cash on hand.Β
In August, mid-cap technology company Microstrategy said it had made bitcoin its new reserve currency by purchasing $250 million of the digital asset. The business intelligence firm has since increased its holdings to 38,250 BTC — worth roughly $590 million at the time of writing.Β
Garlinghouse lauded Microstrategyβs crypto play in August but appears to have shifted his stance following the presidential election. Rippleβs βsustainability of moneyβ narrative appears to gel with the concerns of the incoming Biden administration. Itβs also used to showcase XRPβs supposed superiority over Bitcoinβs resource-draining proof-of-work consensus.
Ripple claims that, for every 1 million transactions, its XRP token could power 79,000 lightbulb hours compared with Bitcoinβs 4.51 billion lightbulb hours. The company claims XRP is 57,000 times more efficient than Bitcoin.Β
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Bitcoinβs long-waited bull run and the recent wave of corporate and institutional investors allocating significant portions of their reserves to Bitcoin (BTC) are all signs that the pace of cryptoβs mainstreaming is rapidly accelerating: But has the path to mass adoption come at the cost of privacy and decentralization?Β Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering […]
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Bitcoinβs long-waited bull run and the recent wave of corporate and institutional investors allocating significant portions of their reserves to Bitcoin (BTC) are all signs that the pace of cryptoβs mainstreaming is rapidly accelerating: But has the path to mass adoption come at the cost of privacy and decentralization?Β
Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering laws have forced the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges to become more transparent about who their users are, and those who refused have had to limit the jurisdictions in which they can offer services.
In order to operate legally in many countries, many exchanges have had no choice other than to abide by strict AML procedures, and aside from Monero (XMR), swathes of privacy coins have been delisted from most major exchanges.
Recently, regulators have begun to crack the whip and jurisdictions around the world continue to propagate further measures to ensure investors disclose their crypto holdings and pay taxes on their profits.
And this is all happening as the United States Department of Justice arrested the co-founder of BitMEX and the CFTC charged its owners with running an illegal crypto derivatives exchange.
Roughly a week later, the Financial Conduct Authority, the United Kingdomβs top regulatory watchdog, went as far as to ban investors from derivatives trading at all crypto exchanges.
All of these maneuvers are designed to force compliance on crypto service providers, and while they may eventually assist with furthering mass adoption, many crypto ideologues are looking for alternatives to press their case for financial self-sovereignty.
Decentralized exchanges may be the solution
A growing number of investors feel that centralized crypto exchanges essentially operate in the same manner as traditional banks. As a response to this, decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap, 1inch, Curve Finance and Balancer grew in popularity throughout 2020.
For more sophisticated investors, decentralized exchanges offering derivatives trading have also become available. Similar to traditional derivatives, crypto exchanges offering the service essentially act as the broker, but the process is marginally different on decentralized exchanges. This is because they utilize smart contracts in place of a broker, and the derivatives contracts are settled when the contract terms have been met.
At the moment, Synthetix is one of the most popular decentralized derivatives exchanges, and in 2020, it saw its total value locked rise to $1 billion before a sharp sector-wide correction led to a drop in TVL and daily active users at the majority of DEXs.
The exchange allows users to create an instrument called a synthetic asset βSynthβ that can track gold, fiat and cryptocurrencies. It also allows the creation of assets that track the price of assets inversely.
Platform users can also stake the native SNX token as collateral in order to mint new synths, and similar to Uniswap, those who provide liquidity are rewarded by earning a portion of the exchangeβs transaction fees.
Those familiar with DEXs like Uniswap will know that literally, anyone can list a new asset, which, in the case of derivatives, means any underlying asset can be transformed into a derivatives instrument.
These platforms allow users to trade derivatives without the need to deposit funds in any centralized platform, and they are not required to complete any KYC procedures.
While some investors shun KYC and tax compliance, this is a serious matter for crypto service providers. According to Molly Wintermute, an anonymous developer credited with founding Hegic DEX, compliance is more of an issue for centralized crypto service providers, not DEXs.
When asked how DEXs can remain compliant with financial regulators, Wintermute bluntly explained in a unique vernacular that:
βThey canβt. this is a new layer of financial infrastructure, not an addition 2 z current financial system. itβs like TCP/IP or FTP, not jst a decentralized crypto exchange. U canβt stop z code or ban internet. unless public blockchain is open & permission-less itβs almost impossible 2 ban decentralized derivatives protocols.β
Wintermute further explained that decentralized derivatives are alluring to a particular subset of investors because:
βNon-custodial trading (protocol/people donβt hold funds as funds r allocated on smart contracts). Verified on-chain settlement (thereβs no ability 2 cheaply manipul8 z derivatives & no close source trading algorithms that only exchange owners knows how 2 work/manipul8 with). deeper liquidity (new peer-to-pool/peer-to-contract model might offers lower spreads & better terms 4 users).β
According to Wintermute, the number of investors actually using DEXs is quite small, compared to the total number of crypto investors. To Wintermute, this means the FCA derivatives ban and the recent legal actions taken against BitMEX are completely irrelevant and non-applicable to decentralized finance protocols.
Wintermute said:
βDecentralized derivative is a part of small crypto world. there r 100M+ of crypto holders globally. around 5-10 of them might b actively trading crypto derivatives (globally). i donβt think that FCA ban has opened any new interesting opportunities. nothing has changed.β
After being pressed to elaborate on the chance that the SEC, FCA or other regulators might not attempt to shut down a platform such as Uniswap and arrest its founders, Wintermute said:
βThey could probably arrest 1 or 2 CEOs like bitmex founders who have some shady things goinβ on internally but only 2 make everyone else feel fear. they canβt arrest everyone. also compare decentralized derivatives with crypto used 4 dealinβ drugs. these two things r 4from different sides of a spectrum. a toy in case of decentralized derivs & a gun in case of drugs dealers who r usinβ crypto. decentralized derivatives r not a crime.β
Wintermute also appeared to shake off the recent BitMEX scandal, sharply replying that:
βI donβt think that somebody gives a f— abt DeFi or DEXes. bitmex guys have so many shady things inside that this might b a great target 2 attack while DeFi / DEX protocols have 100% transparency & u canβt take a person 2 jail 4 buidlinβ a website that jst has numbers on it which r transparent 4 everyone else in z world.β
Ultimately, Wintermute believes that βBakkt/CME & other wall s— guys r so angry that no one uses their s—– products that they now takinβ crypto entrepreneurs & tryinβ 2 send them 2 jail.β
The anonymous developer then explained that in her view, the βmeta game is 2 ban every cool crypto products & try 2 cannibalize on their user base but with compliant s—– products.β
While there may be merit to some of Wintermuteβs bold assertions, the arm of the law is quite long, and as we have seen with the now-defunct ICO era, bringing those who violate securities laws takes time.
In 2020, the total value locked in DeFi platforms has risen to $12.6 billion, and data from Dune Analytics shows that Uniswap processed $11.2 billion in volume in October. These massive figures are sure to catch the eye of U.S. and international regulators so it may only be a matter of time before legal action is taken against DEXs.
Decentralized exchanges are a testing ground for layer-two solutions
In addition to addressing privacy concerns and restoring decentralization to the crypto sector, DEXs also provide a sandbox for layer-two developers to play in. As has been thoroughly reported by Cointelegraph, scaling within the Ethereum network has been a persistent challenge.
When the network becomes congested during high demand periods, gas fees increase exponentially, and transaction speeds grind to a halt. With Ethereum 2.0 in perceptual βdevelopment,β a number of DEXs have begun to experiment with integrating layer-two solutions to provide users who are willing to forgo the Ethereum network with cheaper, faster options.
Project Serum is probably one of the better-known success stories for a non-Ethereum based DEX.
The decentralized derivatives-based project is built on the Solana blockchain instead of the default Ethereum network that most DEXs operate on, but it is also fully interoperable with ERC-20-based assets and Bitcoin.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and his team are the brains behind Project Serum, and according to Bankman-Fried, the project is designed to circumvent the privacy and safety concerns of centralized exchanges by giving users a permissionless method to invest with leverage and swap assets.
The project also provides a cheaper alternative to the high gas fees and slow transaction speeds that frequently plague the Ethereum network during periods of high traffic.
Bankman-Fried said:
βIn order to build a product capable of offering fast, cheap order matching, you need a chain with high throughput. This demand increases further for trading nonstandard markets and handling risk or liquidations. Serum chose to build on Solana because the chain has focused on a unique and powerful vision for scaling.β
According to Bankman-Fried, technical issues such as congestion and high fees can make or break an investor. Regarding high fees, he said:
βTheyβre fatal: You basically cannot have derivatives on Ethereum because of the scaling problems. To the extent that decentralized derivatives have growth opportunities, theyβll either be on a new L1, or on an L2.β
Bankman-Fried also agreed with Wintermuteβs claim that hardly anyone is using DEXs, as βthe vast majority of derivatives volume is on centralized exchanges,β but he suggested that in theory, βcomposability and self-custodyβ should be incentives for more users to join the movement.
One DEX to rule them all
Currently, investors have shifted their attention back to Bitcoin as the digital asset pursues a new all-time high, and data from Cointelegraph and Digital Assets Data indicate that DEX trading volume and daily active users continue to decline.
While this is likely disappointing to investors, it at least provides developers some quiet time to focus on properly integrating layer-two solutions to DeFi protocols.
The trend of major cryptocurrency exchanges becoming more centralized is unlikely to change anytime soon. This means that the first DEX to successfully provide a platform with low fees, privacy protections and a fast user-friendly interface will rule supreme once investors make the choice to invest in decentralized finance and decentralized derivatives again.
Read orginal here
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In the off-chain world, βDigital Identityβ (D-ID) refers to the aggregated information that is collected by various parties and platforms when a user spends time and conducts activities online. Data such as a userβs search history, social media activity, transaction history, usernames and passwords, call records, SSN, date of birth, credit history, medical history, and […]
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In the off-chain world, βDigital Identityβ (D-ID) refers to the aggregated information that is collected by various parties and platforms when a user spends time and conducts activities online. Data such as a userβs search history, social media activity, transaction history, usernames and passwords, call records, SSN, date of birth, credit history, medical history, and other important information routinely finds its way and is stored online, ultimately building a unique profile spread across multiple databasesβeach userβs Digital Identity.
Users have at their disposal a range of authentication and security tools to protect their data, but even the most secure online platforms can be hacked, leading to exposure of sensitive aspects of a userβs D-ID and putting them and the platforms at risk of identity theft and fraud. In fact, multiple studies have shown that hacked or leaked personal information is among the most frequently traded products on the dark web.
The way D-ID functions on a blockchain, by contrast, is at once more public and more private. Blockchains are decentralized, immutable ledgers (or databases), allowing for individuals to transact peer-to-peer while maintaining consensus concerning the ledger/data, ultimately creating a source of shared truth. Blockchains are public in the sense that any participant or even outsider can audit every transaction and address, and theyβre private in the sense that, unless theyβre explicitly permissioned, blockchains require no KYC (Know Your Customer) and users can participate anonymously with their blockchain addresses possessing little or no link to their off-chain identities.
One especially promising use case for blockchain technology is to improve the D-ID experience by applying the best features of blockchain technology to legacy D-ID systems. Though the architectural details vary, a blockchain-based D-ID solution would ideally allow users to selectively choose with whom and when they share their information, keep user information off of databases vulnerable to attack, allow users to better monetize their data, and better preserve user privacy. While this use case might seem trifling at first blush, it offers more than convenience and data securityβby some estimates, digital identity and related industries could reach 3% of GDP by 2030.
This article will examine the risks and challenges associated with legacy D-ID implementations, break down how blockchain D-ID might solve them, and analyze four specific implementations relying on Chainlink oracles to connect personal information with the blockchain.
Current Flaws in D-ID
Though they can often go unnoticed to users who have come to accept them, the flaws of legacy D-ID systems are both systemic and pernicious. D-ID is a crucial element to making many of the online systems people rely on for everyday life work, but at nearly every stepβfrom the collection, storage, and sale of dataβD-ID is rife with security, privacy, and even ethical concerns. Ultimately, these problems can roughly be grouped into three categories: data monetization, data access, and data storage.
Data Monetization
An important part of D-ID is the data surreptitiously gathered by major internet platforms on a userβs behavior, habits, and biographical information. A search engine, for instance, might gather data about a userβs interests to tailor ads for them, or a social media site might sell information natively created by users to interested parties such as political campaigns. Because the details of these activities are often buried in terms-of-use agreements, users of these platforms ubiquitously and unwittingly enrich platforms with time spent ostensibly in leisure.
This process where users, by engaging in normal habits, unknowingly provide platforms with information that is then subsequently monetized is frequently referred to βfree labor.β Proponents of free labor argue that this data monetization is a natural trade-off for access to what are often free services/platforms, and that they eventually benefit the user by allowing the platforms to grow faster and provide better user experiences.
However, free labor presents a host of ethical and privacy issues, often revolving around users being unclear about what data is being gathered, to whom itβs being sold, or where itβs being stored. Though some countries have attempted to place regulations on the data that can be collected by major platforms, free labor remains a rampant issue, with users all across the Internet unsure of what data is being gathered and whatβs being done with it.
Data Access
Certain Internet platforms and services require a more complete D-ID profile to access than others. Social media sites may require just an email address (though theyβll subsequently build a profile on a user), while a lending service or a government agency might want a full financial or personal history before providing access and services through their portal. As a result, users are often forced to provide the same information about themselves over and over across different platforms. While the separation of databases may prevent a more catastrophic breach by isolating an attack, each database storing important user information ultimately increases the attack surface of a userβs data.
This puts users in a difficult position, having to choose between time-consuming processes and bureaucracy or storing their information for repeated use on databases that might potentially be vulnerable to attack. Additionally, this system also creates headaches for the platforms as well: government agencies might store redundant information across multiple servers, which leads to cost inefficiency, and other platforms might become more vulnerable to scams or theft as a result of user data leaks. In many instances, the platforms are ultimately the responsible parties for any financial losses associated with identity theft.
Data Security
As mentioned above, users frequently propagate information about themselves online, including financial information in order to make purchases or gain access to services. Access and security rarely go hand-in-hand, and the same holds true for D-IDβeach website that stores information about a user presents a new attack vector through which their information might be stolen.
Given the level of the threat, one would expect that platforms would invest in superior security and privacy infrastructure. However, in spite of security efforts statistics indicate that data protection problems are getting worse, not better: upwards of 10% of the population is affected by identity theft every year, and that number is on the rise during the pandemic.
Blockchain-Based D-ID Solutions
Because of these flaws, D-ID is a space ripe for disruption from blockchain technology. By using blockchains to architect superior D-ID systems, many of the most glaring problems with D-ID can be solved and whole new use cases can be enabled. Β
The key features of a blockchain-based D-ID system would include: the ability for users to monetize the information they natively create and track how their information is being used; the ability to readily and easily share D-ID information; and the ability to keep that data secure. There are a range of unique approaches towards achieving these goalsβincluding the potential of doing away with off-chain identities entirelyβand each leverage blockchain in different ways.
DECO
One blockchain-based D-ID system is Chainlink’s privacy preserving oracle technology DECOβdeveloped by Chainlink Labs Chief Scientist Ari Juels, researcher Fan Zhang, and others. While new D-ID storage solutions may alter how data is stored, the reality is that a lot of data is still stored in trusted databases. Many users/institutions may prefer the security of entrusting a high-security custodian to protect that data, especially governments and large enterprises.
DECO allows oracles to attest to the validity of information in trusted databases/systems without exposing it to the public or even the oracle itself using a cryptographic technique known as Zero Knowledge Proofs. Essentially, the oracle can join a user-initiated web session to attest to some requested informationβ possibly to verify someone’s identity, approve their financial information, or check key government records. Importantly, that data never leaves the secure, user-selected database, allowing a user to store their D-ID information in certain locations they trust and set up selective access, as opposed to propagating it to a variety of systems with weak guarantees on access control. This allows for a privacy-preserving plug-and-play option that combines the usability of legacy systems with the security of blockchain.
DECOβs privacy-preserving technology also allows for use cases that would otherwise have been impossible, such as big data medical studies. For years researchers have been excited about the potential of applying machine learning and computational analysis to large medical datasets, hoping to use these tools to make discoveries and breakthroughs that human analysis wouldnβt be able to find. However, the privacy and security concerns of patient data have long been a roadblock. DECO would allow researchers selective access to the data they need while complying with HIPA regulations and without putting that data at risk, potentially enabling a new era of medical research.
Bloom
Another example of a project using blockchain technology to enhance D-ID is Bloom, a decentralized identity protocol that allows users to claim, control, and selectively share their financial data while retaining full ownership via a decentralized architecture.
Bloom works by taking user-provided data and verifying each userβs identity, and then subsequently writing that data to the blockchain as an encrypted hash. This allows user information to be stored on a public ledger/source of truth while simultaneously maintaining privacy of it. It’s especially useful for financial information, which is one of Bloomβs core areas of focusβa recent blog post from Bloom laid out how Chainlink oracles help connect credit scores to DeFi protocols.
βBloom started as a protocol using smart contracts and Ethereum addresses to uniquely identify individuals and enable them to claim, store, and share verified identity attributes, with the goal of decentralizing the credit bureau model,β says Isaac Patka, CTO of Bloom. βAs the technology evolved we joined forces with the larger decentralized/self-sovereign identity community to develop open and interoperable standards for identifying users, issuing credentials, and exchanging information. The identity standards have now matured to the point that we can take this technology to market and drive global impact. We are excited to realize our original vision of extending financial inclusion, and using platforms like Chainlink to bridge the gap between the traditional and decentralized worlds.β
Unstoppable Domains
Unstoppable Domains is decentralized blockchain-based protocol for registering and hosting Internet domain names as non-fungible ERC721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Unstoppable Domains recently announced a new feature that uses Chainlink oracles to link Twitter users to specific domains, making it easy to identify and confirm a user’s public address based on their social media account. Additionally, users can send payments directly to the domains, bypassing often confusing Ethereum addresses for a superior UI/UX experience.
What makes this solution unique is that it can potentially bypass real-world information entirely. Twitter users can remain anonymous, but still have a named Internet domain linked to them that can send and receive blockchain-based payments. This allows for secure, highly intuitive transfer of value between parties whose identities are potentially entirely digital and don’t have to be stored in any centralized database.
Decentr
Decentr is a project that aims to provide a Web3 version of credit scoresβwhat they call a βPersonal Data Value” (PDV). Each userβs PDV would be sourced from a potential combination of social media activity, on-chain activity such as their total owned assets and history of repaying loans, and real-world data such as KYC/AML information. As discussed Decentr’s blog post, Chainlink oracles can supply this data to DeFi protocols across any blockchain, and users with high PDV values could potentially receive less collateralized or even collateral-free loans.
Like Unstoppable Domains, this approach not only finds a way to securely connect off-chain data to D-ID using blockchain, but also bolsters the blockchain identity experience by taking valuable on-chain data and using it to create a D-ID profile of users. Privacy-focused users could potentially bypass using real-world information all together, and instead build their PDV value solely from their on-chain metrics.
Conclusion
Current flaws with D-ID systems consistently and pervasively put usersβ privacy and security at risk. However, these risks are currently perceived as a necessary tradeoff for accessing key day-to-day services and platforms. With the use of blockchain technology and Chainlink oracles, these risks can be mitigated by securely allowing platforms as-needed access to off-chain data, or by doing away with off-chain identity entirely in lieu of on-chain data verified by Chainlink oracle networks.
These developments will not just help secure usersβ privacy and data security, but also has the potential to enable new use cases for private data that would otherwise have been impossible due to security and privacy concerns. Through using Chainlink oracles to connect on- and off-chain data to protocols and Web3 platforms, a new era for Digital Identity might just be beginning.
Learn More
If you want to learn more about the blockchain space, explore the Chainlink Blog for more content, including articles about Data Quality for DeFi, Dynamic NFTs, the Oracle Problem, Economic Rewards in Gaming, DeFi Composability, and much more.
If youβre a developer and want to connect your smart contract based application to off-chain data and infrastructure outside the blockchain, please reach out to us here or visit the developer documentation.
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If you are a web developer, you might have asked yourself those questions already. There is a number of services that would help you out with that, for example github pages, netlify, or vercel but with Skynet and thanks to the recent release of the registry API, you can achieve the same goal and at […]
The post Automated deployments on Skynet. Automate build and deployment of yourβ¦ | by Karol WypchΕo | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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If you are a web developer, you might have asked yourself those questions already. There is a number of services that would help you out with that, for example github pages, netlify, or vercel but with Skynet and thanks to the recent release of the registry API, you can achieve the same goal and at the same time keep your web app decentralized and accessible from any Skynet portal.
This article, in the form of a step by step tutorial, will show you how to:
- automatically build and deploy your web application to a unique URL on every pull request change
- automatically build and deploy your web application on any change to the production branch and update your application public URL
After reading this post, you will be able to accomplish these things with just a single configuration file and some Handshake (HNS) domain setup.
You will find a live usage example in the final section of this article.
This article assumes you already have a web application that has its source code hosted on Github. In this example, we will be using a demo web app created with Create React App. You can do the same or use your existing web app.
Weβll use Github actions to set up our automation. Just to give you some background, Github actions is a way to compose a continuous integration workflow that executes on free Github runners.
As a first step, we will set up a most basic workflow that will run every time a pull request is opened or updated.
Please create a file in your code source β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ and add the following:
name: Deploy to Skyneton:
pull_request:jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-lateststeps:
β uses: actions/checkout@v2
β name: Use Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v1
with:
node-version: 14.x - name: Install dependencies
run: npm install - name: Run unit tests
run: npm test - name: Build
run: npm run build
This workflow contains 4 steps:
- it will set up Node 14 environment
- it will install project dependencies with
npm install - it will run unit tests with
npm test(optional, only if you have tests β if not you can delete this step) - it will build a project with
npm run build(depending on your configuration you might want to configure this accordingly)
Right now this is all that this action will do.
Testing time!
Create a new branch (please do not commit directly to your production branch, we want to open a pull request), commit and push code changes, and open a pull request on Github.
git checkout -b pull-request-workflow
git add .github/workflows/deploy.yml
git commit -m βinitial version of the workflowβ
git push β set-upstream origin pull-request-workflow
Once you open a pull request you will see that the βDeploy to Skynetβ workflow has been started (you might need to refresh the page if it doesnβt show up immediately after creating the pull request). After some time, the orange indicator should change into a green checkmark β this is how we know the workflow has finished successfully.
Now itβs time to add a Deploy to Skynet Github action that will use the artifacts that were built with npm build in the last step of our workflow and deploy to Skynet.
Please edit β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ and append a new step to our setup:
β name: Deploy to Skynet
uses: kwypchlo/deploy-to-skynet-action@main
with:
upload-dir: build
github-token: $}
The upload-dir argument points to the directory that npm build populates with the production application build. Depending on your web application framework, you will need to configure the argument accordingly. This example uses Create React App and by default, the production build directory is build.
The github-token argument is populated with a secret GITHUB_TOKEN that Github creates automatically. It is needed for the action to access the Github API so it can create a comment on the pull request with the deployment details on success.
Now, your full β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ will look like this:
name: Deploy to Skyneton:
pull_request:jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-lateststeps:
β uses: actions/checkout@v2
β name: Use Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v1
with:
node-version: 14.x - name: Install dependencies
run: npm install - name: Run unit tests
run: npm test - name: Build
run: npm run buildβ name: Deploy to Skynet
uses: kwypchlo/deploy-to-skynet-action@main
with:
upload-dir: build
github-token: $}
Testing time!
Commit those changes and push the branch.
git add .github/workflows/deploy.yml
git commit -m βconfigure deploy to skynet actionβ
git push
This will trigger a new workflow job. After it is finished, you should receive a comment on your pull request that looks like this:
π Congratulations! You have successfully deployed your application to Skynet. It has been built from the specific commit and you can verify that it works by visiting the URL from the comment.
In case something went wrong
If you have not received a comment on your pull request or the link is not working, there are a couple of possible reasons:
- your workflow failed for some reason before reaching the Deploy to Skynet action β please consult the job logs, maybe your unit tests failed or have not been set up correctly (you can delete that step from the workflow if you donβt have any tests)
- your `upload-dir` might be misconfigured β please make sure that the directory name you put in there is the directory that gets populated after running
npm build, you can check that by running this locally - you created a pull request from a fork of the repo to a forked repo β due to Github actions limitations, Github action run on pull requests from forks have read-only access to the Github API and are not allowed to create comments (you should have information about it in job logs if this is the case)
- siasky.net might be acting up, please visit the website and try to upload any file using the web interface β if you experience problems with that, then please report them to us on discord
In any case, you should start by checking the job logs for additional info.
By now you should have a workflow set up that will run on each new and updated pull request.
What it means is that every time you make some changes and open a pull request, you will be able to verify them straight from the link from a pull request comment. Every time it runs, it will create a new link to the deployment so you will also have access to the previous iterations.
This is very handy for specific purposes, for example, if you want to let the code reviewer verify your changes βliveβ. You might want to share the link with your project manager to make sure that the changes in the code reflect the requirements.
Up until now, we were building and deploying only within pull requests. You can however configure Github action workflow to also run every time you push anything to the βmainβ branch (that includes merging pull requests). This way, every time you make a production-ready change in your repository, the workflow will deploy a new version of the app based on the βmainβ branch.
The only thing we need to change in β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ is the βonβ directive that should be extended with:
on:
pull_request:
push:
branches: [main]
Your full β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ file should look like this now:
name: Deploy to Skyneton:
pull_request:
push:
branches: [main]jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-lateststeps:
β uses: actions/checkout@v2
β name: Use Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v1
with:
node-version: 14.x - name: Install dependencies
run: npm install - name: Run unit tests
run: npm test - name: Build
run: npm run buildβ name: Deploy to Skynet
uses: kwypchlo/deploy-to-skynet-action@main
with:
upload-dir: build
github-token: $}
Testing time!
Commit those changes and push the branch.
git add .github/workflows/deploy.yml
git commit -m βrun workflow on every push to main branchβ
git push
We are not expecting anything new in particular right now yet because we are still on a custom branch, within a pull request. We are now ready though to merge the pull request. You can do so from the pull request interface on Github.
Merging a pull request should trigger a new workflow job. Unfortunately, since there is no pull request context anymore, our Github workflow will not be able to create a comment on the pull request with the deployment details after the job is finished. You will need to go to the βactionsβ tab manually to see your workflow running.
Once the workflow is finished, click the workflow name and drill down the logs to manually grab the deployment URL.
Since that deployment has been created from a βmainβ branch, we can assume that this is in fact a production, stable release and you can share that link with anyone as such.
Now, every time you push something to the βmainβ branch, it will build and deploy a new release with a new link. This is far from perfect if you want to update your application often. There is a way to remedy that though, please follow along with the next section.
In the Skynet π€ Handshake article, we described how to purchase and use a handshake domain to serve Skynet hosted content.
The main idea is, once you own a handshake domain like βmy-example-webappβ, every time you deploy a new release, you can manually copy the new deployed release Skylink and update the handshake domain record with the new Skylink. This way, you could share a handshake domain Skynet link like https://my-example-webapp.hns.siasky.net and it would always point your users to the Skylink you have in the record.
This is great if you want to manually choose when you update your production website. If you however want to automate this process further, there is a way to do so!
Learning about Skynet registry
Before we dive into the code, please take a minute to read about the Skynet registry from the section below.
A couple of days ago, Sia released a new decentralized database called SkyDB built on top of a Skynet new registry API.
Skynet registry API allows users to store small pieces of information (like Skylinks) on hosts, secured with a private/public key pair. Only a person owning the private key can modify the corresponding registry entry but everyone who has the public key can access it and it is safe to share the public key since it comes with read-only access. Skynet registry API also requires a βdatakeyβ which is something of an id of the entry β you can read more about the βdatakeyβ in Skynet registry docs.
An example link that reads from the registry could be:
https://siasky.net/skynet/registry?publickey=ed25519%3A6eb6cb0f87776e40a8c2973da0bee060f9169c946be7f5ef9b94773e9bd2a0fc&datakey=79c05b4b67764ad99a7976a7d2fb1cfce4f196ea217ef0356af042cb5492bd5d
You can clearly distinguish the βpublickeyβ and βdatakeyβ parts in that URL:
- publickey:
ed25519%3A6eb6cb0f87776e40a8c2973da0bee060f9169c946be7f5ef9b94773e9bd2a0fc
datakey:
79c05b4b67764ad99a7976a7d2fb1cfce4f196ea217ef0356af042cb5492bd5d
Now, that we learned about βpublickeyβ and βdatakeyβ, we can form a skyns:// URI that we will need later. Just like a Skylink could be represented as sia://<skylink>, a registry entry can be represented as skyns://<publickey>/<datakey>. So the above example would look like:
skyns://ed25519%3A6eb6cb0f87776e40a8c2973da0bee060f9169c946be7f5ef9b94773e9bd2a0fc/79c05b4b67764ad99a7976a7d2fb1cfce4f196ea217ef0356af042cb5492bd5d
This notation of a registry entry will come in handy in just a moment.
Automating production release deployments with Handshake domains
Now that youβve learned some basics about Skynet registry, we can proceed with the final step of our setup.
We can configure Deploy to Skynet action to update a registry entry with a new Skylink after each successful βmainβ branch deployment.
First, make sure that you are on a βmainβ branch and itβs up to date.
git checkout main
git pull
For the last time, we will edit β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ and configure a secret seed in Deploy to Skynet action:
β name: Deploy to Skynet
uses: kwypchlo/deploy-to-skynet-action@main
with:
upload-dir: build
github-token: $}
registry-seed: $}
Just to explain the expression used for βregistry-seedβ β it first makes sure that the event that triggered the job is βpushβ and the branch that itβs running against is βmainβ, only then it should assign the value of REGISTRY_SEED secret as βregistry-seedβ.
Your full β.github/workflows/deploy.ymlβ file should look like this now:
name: Deploy to Skyneton:
pull_request:
push:
branches: [main]jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-lateststeps:
β uses: actions/checkout@v2
β name: Use Node.js
uses: actions/setup-node@v1
with:
node-version: 14.x - name: Install dependencies
run: npm install - name: Run unit tests
run: npm test - name: Build
run: npm run buildβ name: Deploy to Skynet
uses: kwypchlo/deploy-to-skynet-action@main
with:
upload-dir: build
github-token: $}
registry-seed: $}
You will now need to go to your Github project settings and add a new secret called REGISTRY_SEED in the Secrets section. It has to be very secure and globally unique. You can use for example this website and pick one of the safe keys like β256-bit WEP Keysβ.
Testing time!
Please commit and push your changes to the βmainβ branch.
git add .github/workflows/deploy.yml
git commit -m βassign registry-seed to update registry entryβ
git push
A new workflow job will be triggered, please check the logs of Deploy to Skynet action once it succeeds. You should see a registry link in addition to the logs we were used to. This means that the registry entry has been created or updated and you can use this registry link to retrieve it.
This is my specific registry link that we can use to retrieve the registry entry. You can open it up to get an idea of what it contains.
https://siasky.net/skynet/registry?publickey=ed25519%3A8dba0c99a33e349bd8d85536171ef6f1f68a7f6c57ce7db9acfa9e2126463091&datakey=0f2381dca89efcc3d4d1d1b7efd663a0515be538e2a7c3bff01469961fc916be
The βdataβ key contains a hex-encoded Skylink that was just deployed. You can paste the βdataβ key-value into an online hex decoder to verify that.
What we can do now is form a skyns:// URI just like the one mentioned in the section above by extracting public key and datakey and putting them together as skyns://<publickey>/<datakey>.
Final URI should look like this:
skyns://ed25519%3A8dba0c99a33e349bd8d85536171ef6f1f68a7f6c57ce7db9acfa9e2126463091/0f2381dca89efcc3d4d1d1b7efd663a0515be538e2a7c3bff01469961fc916be
Now for the final part, you can go to your handshake domain configuration and replace what has been a static Skylink in the text entry, with our new skyns://<publickey>/<datakey> URI. After you submit your changes and the Handshake domain is synced (this can take a while), you will be able to access the recent βmainβ branch deployment from your handshake Skynet URL that looks like https://my-example-webapp.hns.siasky.net.
Once you verify that the domain has been synced, go ahead and change background color in your app and commit those changes to the βmainβ branch, push them and wait until the workflow succeeds. You should see the changes on https://my-example-webapp.hns.siasky.net immediately after! Now you can share that link with anyone and every time you push new changes, Deploy to Skynet action will take care of updating the registry for you and you will be able to enjoy almost instant updates to your app!
You can check a live implementation of the above workflow in the Note to Self appβs Github repository. The repository is configured to:
Complete Github workflow is available in build.yml.
Source link
The post Automated deployments on Skynet. Automate build and deployment of yourβ¦ | by Karol WypchΕo | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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Call for Proposals in DeFi, Digital Sovereignty, or Financial Inclusion Weβre looking to collaborate with innovative blockchain projects that address universal technical challenges, increase adoption, and develop public goods. The Call for Proposals builds upon our recent announcement of the DAI-ETC bridge to advance financial inclusion. It also advances the mission of ETC Labs to […]
The post Ethereum Classic Labs Announces. Call for Proposals in DeFi, Digital⦠| by Ethereum Classic Labs | Ethereum Classic Labs | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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Call for Proposals in DeFi, Digital Sovereignty, or Financial Inclusion
Weβre looking to collaborate with innovative blockchain projects that address universal technical challenges, increase adoption, and develop public goods.
The Call for Proposals builds upon our recent announcement of the DAI-ETC bridge to advance financial inclusion. It also advances the mission of ETC Labs to build relevant, accessible, and high-quality technology; and to fulfill the promise of blockchain to improve peopleβs lives using Ethereum Classic and other public blockchains.
Projects must be open-source, early-stage or pre-launch, and committed to building on a public blockchain.
In this round of grants, we are particularly interested in:
- DeFi: platforms and solutions that increase access, security, liquidity, interoperability, including insurance, derivatives, and bridges.
- Digital Sovereignty: tools and solutions that enable user-controlled data and assets on the internet.
- Financial Inclusion: platforms, tools, and products that increase financial inclusion and adoption beyond existing communities with an emphasis on emerging and informal markets.
All funding will be granted on a rolling basis. To apply, click here. Make sure to fill out each field on the form with the most up to date and accurate information including a brief project summary, technical description, team bios, implementation and growth plan, risk analysis, and a link to your GitHub, code, or whitepaper.
For questions regarding the application process, qualifications, etc. please contact, jessica.s@etclabs.org. For press inquiries regarding ETC Labs grants program contact, kelsey.r@etclabs.org.
About Ethereum Classic Labs (ETC Labs):
The mission of ETC Labs is to build relevant, accessible, and high-quality technology, and to use that technology to create communities of value in a mature and regulated ecosystem. The ultimate goal is to fulfill the promise of blockchain to improve peopleβs lives using Ethereum Classic, one of the worldβs major public blockchains. The ETC Labs team of experts also fosters partnerships with organizations and institutions to address fundamental challenges in developing and deploying this innovative technology. We fulfill the mission in three ways: the ETC Labs Accelerator, which invests in up to 25 blockchain projects annually that contribute to sustaining a robust ecosystem; strategic investments in innovative projects focused on economic and social development; and the Core Team, a team of experts and developers who maintain the Ethereum Classic blockchain and build key applications, solutions, and tools. For more information, visit etclabs.org.
Source link
The post Ethereum Classic Labs Announces. Call for Proposals in DeFi, Digital⦠| by Ethereum Classic Labs | Ethereum Classic Labs | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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American billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller has changed course on Bitcoin, saying it has the potential to store value for future generations. Speaking on CNBC today, Druckenmiller said that, although he was still more heavily invested in gold than crypto, he had purchased at least some Bitcoin (BTC). He did not specify how much. “Bitcoin could be […]
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American billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller has changed course on Bitcoin, saying it has the potential to store value for future generations.
Speaking on CNBC today, Druckenmiller said that, although he was still more heavily invested in gold than crypto, he had purchased at least some Bitcoin (BTC). He did not specify how much.
“Bitcoin could be an asset class that has a lot of attraction as a store of value to both millennials and the new West Coast money β and, as you know, they got a lot of it,β said the billionaire. βItβs been around for 13 years and with each passing day it picks up more of its stabilization as a brand.β
To be fair, Bitcoin’s white paper came out on Halloween, 2018, and the genesis block was mined at the beginning of 2009. But Druckenmiller is new to all of this, so no need to attack him for his math. He continued to say he is more invested in gold than BTC:
βI own many many more times gold than I own Bitcoin. But frankly if the gold bet works, the Bitcoin bet will probably work better because it’s thinner, more illiquid and has a lot more beta to it.”
The former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital, Druckenmiller has a net worth of roughly $4.4 billion. His recent comments represent a change in the billionaireβs position on crypto. Though he invested in stablecoin project Basis in 2018, the investor claimed last year thatΒ BTC could never be a medium of exchange, given its volatility.
βI donβt think Iβm a neanderthal, which is what Iβve been called when Iβve said I didnβt want to own Bitcoin,β he said at the time.
Druckenmiller has previously put forward gold as a safe haven asset to protect investors from fiat exposure, with countries like China seemingly eager to challenge the hegemony of the U.S. dollar.
First published here
The post Bitcoin may pay out more than gold, says billionaire investor appeared first on Bitcointe.
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HackAtom V has come to an end. What an exciting journey we had! HackAtom V was the fifth edition of the Cosmos HackAtom series that we started back in 2017, right after the Cosmos public fundraiser. Unlike all the other in-person events, this hackathon was our first exclusively virtual event of its kind. Over 340 […]
The post Congratulations to the Winners of HackAtom V | by Brian Luk | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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HackAtom V has come to an end. What an exciting journey we had!
HackAtom V was the fifth edition of the Cosmos HackAtom series that we started back in 2017, right after the Cosmos public fundraiser. Unlike all the other in-person events, this hackathon was our first exclusively virtual event of its kind. Over 340 participants from across the globe hacked remotely for two weeks. Teams utilized bleeding-edge technology such as the Cosmos SDK, IBC, Starport, Ethermint, CosmWasm, Agoric, and more from the Cosmos ecosystem, and have succeeded in building some amazing projects.
We want to thank the participating teams for taking the time to work on great projects and the judges, mentors, and the organizing team at Tendermint for putting together such an exciting and amazing event.
Time to meet the winners! π₯³
1st Place: π₯ Osmosis π₯
Osmosis is an on-chain generalized multi-token automated market maker and a self-balancing weighted portfolio built on the Cosmos SDK.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/osmosis-itn5vr
Github: https://github.com/c-osmosis
Demo: https://c-osmosis.com
2nd Place: π₯ Quasar π₯
Quasar is a lending/borrowing protocol in the form of CosmWasm contracts.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/quasar-q2wj7c
Github: https://github.com/quasar-protocol/quasar-cosmwasm
3rd Place: π₯ NFT Marketplace π₯
An NFT Marketplace on the blockchain for fungible and non-fungible tokens.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/nft-marketplace
Github:
Website: https://hackatom.blockscape.network/home
1st Place: π₯ NFT Marketplace π₯
An NFT Marketplace on the blockchain for fungible and non-fungible tokens.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/nft-marketplace
Github:
Website: https://hackatom.blockscape.network/home
2nd Place: π₯ Flares π₯
A payment network that supports multiple assets and multiple payment scenarios, such as games, dapps, DEX, DeFi, etc.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/flares
Github: https://github.com/wangfeiping/flares
3rd Place: π₯ API Kit π₯
A module that allows interactions with arbitrary APIs from your Cosmos app using a prebuilt Cosmos Hub module.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/cosmos20
Github: https://github.com/cbonoz/cosmos20
1st Place: π₯ Clawback Account π₯
Clawback Account with DeFi use cases such as wallet management and cashback reward adjustments.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/clawback-account-in-cosmwasm
Github: https://github.com/tomtau/hackatom
2nd Place: π₯ Cosmos-DID π₯
Decentralized Identifiers (DID) spec built on the Cosmos SDK using Starport.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/cosmos-did
Github: https://github.com/mingderwang/did
3rd Place: π₯ Sophon π₯
Smart contract built on CosmWasm that optimizes staking operations.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/sophon
Github: https://github.com/Ninja-Chain/sophon
1st Place: π₯ Sampark π₯
Sampark is a platform where users can endorse connections using images to showcase their work, memes, anger, or other cool images.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/sampark-32za4h
Github: https://github.com/3scava1i3r/HackAtom-V
2nd Place: π₯ Affondra π₯
Affondra is a blockchain application where users can sell their NFTs and earn affiliate rewards on a peer to peer marketplace.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/affondra
Github: https://github.com/EG-easy/affondra
Website: https://affondra.web.app/
In addition to having judges assess and select winners, we have also opened voting to the community for the Community Choice Award.
π King of Cardsπ
King of Cards is a card game on the blockchain where users can design and sell cards.
Devpost: https://devpost.com/software/king-of-cards
Github: https://github.com/pallavi192k/King-of-Cards
HackAtom V would not have been possible without the help from numerous people and teams in our ecosystem.
A huge shoutout goes to the workshop creators, from teams like Regen Network, Tendermint, Agoric, Confio, IrisNet, Commercio, Persistence, and Interchain GmBH that have worked hard to demo and introduce Cosmos to a live, worldwide audience via workshops during HackAtom V.
Check out the workshops and demos from #HackAtomV on YouTube.
Our amazing team of mentors worked around the clock to assist everyone in developing and polishing their projects. They were present day-in-day-out on our #HackAtomV Discord channel, which made it feel like a live, in-person event. Mentors came from teams such as Chainsafe, Dokia Capital, Interchain Foundation, Tendermint, Paradigm, Informal, ShapeShift, 1confirmation, Interchain GmbH, Forbole, FreeFlix & CoCo, Persistence, Figment, Akash, Iqlusion, Confio, Regen Network, Commercio, IrisNet, Persistence, and Agoric.
We want to thank our judges, who took the time to carefully examine each submission, review the code, and assess the category in which these projects would fit best:
- Nick Tomaino, Founder/GP of 1Confirmation
- Erik Voorhees, a top serial Bitcoin advocate/entrepreneur, Founder of ShapeShift
- Billy Rennekamp, Grants Manager at Interchain Foundation
- Aurel Iancu, CEO at Dokia Capital
- Charlie Noyes, Partner at Paradigm Fund
- Brent Xu, Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Tendermint
- Aidan Hyman, Co-founder & CEO at ChainSafe Systems
- Ethan Buchman, CEO at Informal Systems, Co-founder of Cosmos & Tendermint & VP at Interchain Foundation
There were also internal teams at Tendermint who worked hard behind the scenes to make this event possible, which consisted of efforts from the Engineering, Operations, Marketing, and Design teams. Tendermint was responsible for deploying the hubs, building the tools and infrastructure, designing the website, promoting HackAtom, and organizing the event by coordinating with each of the stakeholders.
Last but not least, a big thank you goes out to the Interchain Foundation for generously sponsoring the prizes of HackAtom V.
We hope that the participating teams will continue working on the projects that they have started during this HackAtom event, and that weβll meet again in Cosmos! Stay tuned for more HackAtom V news, including a Winnersβ Spotlight blog post.
Thereβs only one destination! To the Cosmos! π
Read the original article here
The post Congratulations to the Winners of HackAtom V | by Brian Luk | Nov, 2020 appeared first on Bitcointe.
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