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Cryptocurrencies latest news and history organized by date that contains 1000000+ news archives. Click here to read what world was saying about cryptocurrencies. In August 2018, a report on the state of cryptocurrency regulation across Africa came back with one obvious conclusion: most countries were undecided on what to do. In fact, 21 African countries had made no public stance on cryptocurrency regulation at the time, while only two had shared favorable stances about potential regulation. But, in … Yes, cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money in most cases. They are used in place of money, to do the same things that money can do.
Money has four fun Here at YCO Bitcoin, you can now buy crypto with your credit or debit card online instantly! Trading and dealing in cryptocurrencies is known to be one of the most secure ways to complete transactions and payments online. But the very decentralized nature of cryptocurrency also makes it an attractive lure to cybercriminals who are responding in force in 2020. Crypto scams are not new, from fake websites to Run On Bitcoin, a protocol that allows tokens to be created on Bitcoin SV (BSV), has announced that USDC will arrive on this blockchain.
- RockX launches $20 million investment program for the Polkadot ecosystem
- The Bermuda Stock Exchange approves Bitcoin ETF.
- Booming African crypto adoption drives concerns over regulation
- Bitcoin FUD and negative social sentiment typically precede a bounce
- Ripple co-founder moved nearly 500 million XRP to NYDIG
- Tokenized BTC Crosses $1B Notional: Ethereum Cements Role as Bitcoin’s Main Sidechain
- Bitcoin Indecisive Below $10,500 as Altcoins Continue to Suffer (Wednesday Market Watch)
- CryptoGroup and the different type’s bitcoin wallets that you can use
- Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC Could Extend Losses Unless It Clears $10,750
- Bitcoin World Capital: A perfect guide to becoming a successful bitcoin trader!
- Star Girl’s one million active users go with the Flow blockchain
- S&P 500 Ends Its Losing Streak on Tuesday, Stock Market Positive after Fed Chairman’s Statement
- Survey shows 40% of DeFi traders can’t understand smart contracts
- BitMart Exchange Partners with Hacken to Make Crypto Trading Safe
- Is PancakeSwap The Next Big DeFi Food Farm?
- RockX to invest in Polkadot $20 million to support DOT ecosystem
- Clavent’s Flagship Event TESTCON Goes Virtual in 2020!
- Square is hiring an attorney to lead its COPA operation
- New Trend Will Trigger 10,000% Surge in Select Group of Crypto Assets, Says Bitcoin Bull Lark Davis
- Ethereum price prediction: ETH falls 8%, next $250?
- Bitcoin Supreme: Top-rated advantages offered by bitcoin trading!
- tBTC Launches for the Second Time to Bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum
- FEW Brings Out DeFi Risks: Ethereum Proponents Caught Planning to Dump on Investors
- NKE Shares Up 13% After Hours, Nike Reports 82% Jump in Online Sales
- SBTC Plummets by 99% as Devs Announce Dissolution of Token
- Tron (TRX) Price Analysis: Bears In Control Below $0.028
- Crypto regulations a growing concern as crypto adoption soars in Africa
- China Central Bank ‘Blacklists’ Local Bitcoin OTC Merchants
- Market Analysis Report (23 Sep 2020)
- Africa reports the least illegal activities involving cryptocurrency.
- DeFi Angels, VC Firms Back $2M Round for Data Provider Dune Analytics
- Ethereum Data Firm Dune Analytics Nets $2 Million Seed Round
- Bitcoin SV, Monero, BAT Price Analysis: 23 September
- Crypto Hedge Fund Looks for $50M to Buy DeFi Tokens Amid Market Pullback
- Ethereum analytics platform Dune raises $2 million in seed funding
- Chiliz Brings Sports to DeFi With Sell-Out Fan Token Sale
- Crypto has the potential for a surge of about 10.000 percent
- MakerDAO won’t compensate Vaults affected by liquidations during the March market crash
- Gas Saving Ethereum Upgrade EIP-1559 Moving Closer
- Keep Network’s Bitcoin token ‘tBTC’ has been relaunched
- BitMart Exchange partners with top cybersecurity solutions provider
- Ripple prices down to $0.231, what next?
- Data Site DeFi Pulse Fixes Bug, Says Value Locked Actually Hit $13B Last Week
- Majority of Yield Farmers Don’t Understand Smart Contracts or Risks: Report
- Institutional Investors Plan to Raise Their Stake in Crypto, Especially in Bitcoin
- Brazilian Fund Manager Hashdex Launches World’s First Crypto ETF in Partnership with Nasdaq
- Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Iran to auction surplus energy to Bitcoin miners’
- The Evolution of Crypto Custody: A Chat with Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov
- Bitcoin 200-week moving average hints price will never go below $6.7K
- Binance USD Trades at $1.00 with Strong Support at $0.99
- Top 10 Stocks Investors and Big Money Guys Opt For
- The People’s Bank of China blacklists local bitcoin OTC merchants.
- Bitcoin Bull Anthony Pompliano Bets on Blockchain as the Future for Digital Art
- VIDYA’s Public Sale Marks the Dawn of a New Blockchain Gaming Era
- Blockchain trade association adds former White House acting chief of staff, Visa and Goldman to its ranks
- Bitcoin Cash short-term Price Analysis: 23 September
- Visa, Goldman Sachs and Mick Mulvaney join leading blockchain trade association
- Digital Chamber Adds Mulvaney to Board of Advisors; Visa, Goldman Join Executive Committee
- CIA Labs — пoдpaздeлeниe ЦPУ пo изучeнию блoкчeйнa и кpиптoвaлют
- Цифpoвoй юaнь тecтиpуeтcя в кpeдитныx плaтeжax
- Неудачная попытка прорыва $11000 повышает вероятность отката до торгового гэпа CME
- Пенсионные фонды и страховые фирмы объяснили интерес к криптовалюте
- Игpa Litebringer пoвыcилa чиcлo LTC-тpaнзaкций нa 105%
- Фиксация прибыли биткойн-майнерами едва ли станет препятствием для бычьего ралли
- The Bears to Follow the Crypto Market But Bulls to Outpower Soon
- Top Defi Gainers on 23rd September: OMG 12%, SNX 8%, COMP 4%
- Годовой объем торгов на Binance Futures составил $1 трлн
- Маскирующиеся под РБК хакеры потребовали $50 тысяч в криптовалюте
- Сервис Dune Analytics привлек $2 млн в ходе посевного раунда финансирования
- Банк Канады связал инвестиции в криптовалюты с финансовой неграмотностью
- Хакер из The Dark Overlord получил пять лет тюрьмы в США
- Отчет: за последние 30 дней DeFi-токены в среднем подешевели более чем на 40%
- Операторы биткоин-вымогателя LockBit опубликовали похищенные данные жителей США
- Square открыла вакансию юриста в криптовалютном патентном альянсе
- CEO MicroStrategy: в ближайшие месяцы на биткоин перейдут другие частные компании
- В Lightning Network обнаружена уязвимость, позволяющая выводить биткоины из обращения
- В ЕС и США задержаны 179 даркнет-продавцов
- Avalanche Coin Nedir?
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- Bitcoin (BTC) ETF’si Sonunda Piyasaya Sürülüyor
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- Milyarder İsimden Önemli Bitcoin (BTC) Açıklaması
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- Eski Ripple CEO’su 116 Milyon $ XRP Transfer Etti! Bu Ne Anlama Geliyor?
- The U.S. intelligence agency CIA will use blockchain in its research and development arm.
- Sia Tech raises $3 million to speed up the development of ‘free Internet’
- TSLA Stock Falls 4% in Pre-market amid Low Tesla Battery Day Expectations
- Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya: Bitcoin Is My Best Investment Bet
- WealthSimple Crypto Goes Live Today to Public Traders Regulated by Canadian Agencies
- Robinhood Raises Cool $660M in Extended Funding Round
- Leading Crypto Payments Platform Wirex Announces Launch of $1.2 Million Crowdfunding
- Animoca Brands Partners with Dapper Labs to Bring MotoGP and Star Girl to Flow Blockchain
- Dock’s mainnet is scheduled to go live on September 30th
- Ethereum Influencers Planning to Dump on Investors?
- Ex-White House Chief of Staff Joins Blockchain Advocacy Group
- USD Coin (USDC) Trades at $1 with No Extremities Projected
- Registration is Now Open for Finance Magnates Virtual Summit 2020
- SFIX Stock Tanked More Than 16% after Stitch Fix Reported Huge Q4 Loss
- The Product Leader of Tencent Cloud Blockchain: “Cloud+Blockchain” Helps the Ecosystem Interconnection of Industrial Chain
- Bitcoin Market Weakening After Macro-Based Sell-Off, On-Chain Data Suggests
- Uniswap Explained – A Super-Detailed Guide on Uniswap by NOWPayments
- $1 Trillion in Trading Volume Year to Date: Binance Futures with a New Milestone
- First Mover: Bitcoins Hit Exchanges as Bloomberg Touts Crypto and DeFi Hedge Fund Seeks $50M
- When You Buy Bitcoin at High Prices, How to Hedge Loss?
- Chamber of Digital Commerce Adds Visa, Goldman Sachs and Mick Malvaney to Its Board
- Europe’s central bank is concerned about possible runs on stablecoins
- Bitcoin balances on exchanges reach lowest since 2018
- The World’s First-Ever Bitcoin ETF To Be Launched By Nasdaq And Brazil-based Fund Manager
- Blockchain gaming: Team3D launches VIDYA token
- Tesla (TSLA) Stock Price Down over 5%, CEO Elon Musk Announces Cheaper Car Worth $25,000
- CoinJar Introduces ‘CoinJar Bundles’ Designed to Simplify Investing in Cryptocurrencies
- Binance Presents Flamingo Finance that Is Third Project on Its Launchpool
- Venezuelan Authorities to Govern All Bitcoin Mining, by Decree
- Bithumb Reportedly For Sale Following Numerous Police Raids
- TransferWise Reports Strong Growth and New Customer Records in Fiscal Year Ending March 2020
- The Dawn of International Bitcoin Trade
- BTC whales active across 100k wallets, Glassnode suggests
- A Massive Bitcoin Artwork Is Being Auctioned At Christie’s
- Using Bitcoin to gamble, is it a good idea?
- Ripple co-founder moves $115m worth of XRP – sparking fears of a selloff
- Christie’s to sell its first non-fungible-token as part of epic Bitcoin artwork
- Christie’s to Auction Bitcoin-Inspired Artwork, Associated Non-Fungible Token
- Robinhood cashes in on lockdown trading surge with $660M Series G funding
- Algorand (ALGO) Draws a Negative Bias After YTD High at $0.76
- Huobi crypto exchange launches crypto trading app in Russia
- P2P exchanges gain more trades from Argentina as Peso drops
- Huawei to Keep Up Deal with Qualcomm If QCOM Application for Trade License Is Approved
- Cardano short-term Price Analysis: 23 September
- Venezuela Legalizes Crypto Mining but Will Force Industry Into National Pool
- Mulvaney and banking giants are joining the Chamber of Digital Commerce
- Aion Appears Completely Bearish Over the Past 30 Days
- Footsie Rises as Boris Backs Off
- Santiment: Current High Level of FUD Suggests Bitcoin Price Rebound Is Coming
- PureStake raises $1.4 million to launch Ethereum-compatible network on Polkadot
- The central bank of Europe is concerned over possible run on stablecoins.
- Keiser Insists ‘Bitcoin Inversely Correlated To USD Not Stock Markets’ After Crypto Market Tumble
- New DeFi Platform Allows Traders to Earn Yield on Bitcoin, XRP and Five Additional Assets
- Litecoin, VeChain, Ontology Price Analysis: 23 September
- This Ethereum Startup Is Building a ‘DeFi Firewall’ for Institutional Investors
Are cryptocurrencies regulated in Africa? — Quartz Africa
In August 2018, a report on the state of cryptocurrency regulation across Africa came back with one obvious conclusion: most countries were undecided on what to do.
In fact, 21 African countries had made no public stance on cryptocurrency regulation at the time, while only two had shared favorable stances about potential regulation. But, in what represents a major shift, Nigeria and South Africa—two of the continent’s largest economies—are stepping up regulatory plans.
In April, South Africa took its first steps towards creating cryptocurrency laws by publishing a framework proposal and, more recently, Nigeria laid out plans to regulate cryptocurrencies through its Securities and Exchange Commission. This is a marked turnaround from two years ago when the Nigerian lawmakers asked the central bank to “investigate” bitcoin.
But progress remains uneven across the continent. Kenya, which has typically been at forefront of adoption of financial technology solutions in Africa, has not set out concrete plans for regulation since its central bank warned local banks against cryptocurrency dealings.
“We seem to be in limbo,” says Aly-Khan Satchu, a Nairobi-based investor and financial analyst. “The spillover of the central bank governor taking such a strong stance against [cryptocurrency] remains the overarching situation.”
There is increasing evidence of adoption due to the global pandemic as Luno reports a 122% increase in new customers across Africa in the first six months of 2020
For their part however, local users and cryptocurrency startups across the continent are not exactly waiting for regulation to catch up. In fact, cryptocurrency trading has long taken off and is partly powered by homegrown exchanges which continue to operate in regulatory gray areas. For context, the total value of retail bitcoin transfers (worth less than $10,000 per transaction) in Africa reached $316 million as of June, according to research by Chainalysis, a blockchain market intelligence firm.
The growing volumes of transactions at local exchanges also suggest pace is unlikely to slow down. Luno, one of the continent’s oldest exchanges says monthly trading volume in Nigeria and South Africa alone topped $549 million in August—a 49% increase since the start of the year. (Luno also operates in Uganda and Zambia.) Meanwhile, BuyCoins, a three-year old Lagos-based exchange, says it has already processed $110 million in transactions so far this year, compared with $28 million for all of 2019.
“The demand we see now is a result of the challenges that people experience across Africa,” says Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager for Africa. “When people find value in using a cryptocurrency and are able to fulfill their needs with that better than they’re able to do with fiat currency, then they will naturally choose cryptocurrency—that’s what we’re seeing.”
There is also evidence of increasing adoption specifically due to the global Covid-19 pandemic as Luno reports a 122% increase in new customers across Africa between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the second quarter this year.
Among several operational challenges, Africans attempting to do business beyond the continent’s shores face risks of fluctuating exchange rates and difficulty around cross-border payments. And, amid further economic challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, those underlying factors which hobble businesses have become more prominent, resulting in locals increasingly turning to cryptocurrency to facilitate international trade.
These issues are particularly stark in Nigeria’s flailing economy where the local naira currency continues to slump against the dollar, leading to shortages of foreign exchange and recurring restrictions on forex transactions by the government. As such, local adoption is being driven by “people trying to move money in and out of the country,” says Timi Ajiboye, founder of BuyCoins. “It is exacerbated because it’s so much harder to do so now,” he tells Quartz Africa.
Another key example is seen in Zimbabwe where locals now have a history of turning to bitcoin as a more stable storage of value in the wake of the country’s ongoing currency crisis. It’s a situation that resulted in Zimbabwe having the highest bitcoin prices in the world, at a point in 2017, due to surging demand.
In addition to facilitating cross-border trade and payments, anecdotal data also suggests remittances are also a practical use-case for cryptocurrencies on the continent. It’s a scenario that’s plausible particularly given the historical context of the costs of sending remittances to Africa being higher than anywhere else. It’s a situation that likely drives African immigrants to “opt for cryptocurrency to try to maximize the value they can get,” Reitz explains.
Put together, these factors serve to explain why cryptocurrency adoption is booming across Africa despite the lingering question marks over regulation and legality. In turn, it also explains why global investors are making million-dollar bets on the future of cryptocurrency in Africa and the continent’s startups.
With significant levels of growth and adoption already happening without regulation, anyone could think African cryptocurrency startups might prefer the status quo. Indeed, the prospect of being regulated by local financial authorities that have a well-established history of antagonistic rhetoric towards cryptocurrencies could very well translate into more uncertainty for players in the sub-sector.
But in fact cryptocurrency startups welcome regulation.
“It is important that the space is regulated and properly guided by the financial authorities to ensure confidence and protection of the consumer,” says Stephany Zoo, head of marketing at Bitpesa, a Kenya-based exchange. “When you do that, it feeds back into the ecosystem and encourages innovation around this specific technology which there’s always been so much grey area around.”
The theme of regulation as a building block for fostering consumer confidence is a recurring one among cryptocurrency startup founders and insiders. By setting out requirements for cryptocurrency startups to operate, the belief is regulation will ultimately make it easier for interested customers to identify credible and licensed exchanges.
Crucially, it will also offer a differentiation from unlicensed operators and outright scams. It’s a key factor given the relative anonymity of how cryptocurrencies operate also provides room for bad faith actors to thrive: fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms received just over $8 million from users in Africa in June alone, Chainalysis research shows.
With fraudulent operators currently existing alongside credible cryptocurrency businesses without regulation, it leaves prominent startups and exchanges with the vital task of educating consumers to ensure more adoption and making cryptocurrencies more synonymous with safety than they are with scams.
Another major potential benefit of regulation could come in form of formalizing relationships between banks and cryptocurrency exchanges which will then ease the process of changing fiat currencies into cryptocurrencies and vice versa. “Once governments regulate better, there’s more chance of opening up integration with traditional financial infrastructure and there would be more mass adoption as well,” Zoo says.
But as is typical with regulation, there are potential pitfalls as recent history in some of Africa’s key tech markets show. For example, capital requirements for fintech startups in Nigeria are believed to pose barriers to entry. And in Lagos, Africa’s largest city, regulators ultimately banned motorcycle-hailing startups earlier this year after controversial attempts to regulate their operations. ”What we’d like to see is a phased approach,” Reitz says. “It can be very easy for regulators to want to regulate the entire industry from the onset but it could stifle innovation.”
While the outlook of regulation across the continent broadly remains unclear, there’s a growing belief that Nigeria and South Africa’s stances could trigger similar discussions across board. And Kenya could yet prove an example of that, Satchu predicts. “Given the recent announcements and developments, it’s increasingly going to be difficult for Kenya to maintain its hardcore stance,” he tells Quartz Africa.
As it turns out, the waiting game by Kenyan authorities may be coming at a cost of being at the forefront of the industry given the scale of local adoption: Kenya is the highest ranked African nation on the 2020 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
“The challenge stakeholders will be concerned about is that the advantage is being eroded the longer Kenya does not take an appropriate stance towards this market,” Satchu tells Quartz Africa. “This is fertile ground to look to develop a leading edge cryptocurrency market on the continent—the question is if the regulators want that.”
Author: News Bureau
Can Cryptocurrencies Fulfill the Functions of Money?
Yes, cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money in most cases. They are used in place of money, to do the same things that money can do.
Money has four functions: it is a medium of exchange, it has a unit of account, can be used as a store of value, and it is a standard of deferred payment.
Cryptocurrencies fulfill them all.
Cryptocurrencies are used in the exchange of goods and services every day.
It has created a new ecosystem referred to as “the cryptospace”.
The great thing is like fiat money, cryptocurrencies are a generally accepted standard of exchange.
This quality alone makes it worth the effort for those who want to dip their toes in the cryptospace.
It is why people within the cryptospace feel comfortable spending cryptocurrencies.
They understand that cryptocurrencies are a new digital form of money.
The exchange of cryptocurrency tokens can occur without the fear of hacking or other nefarious activities. It is because of the security features that govern the workings of cryptocurrencies.
If you take the right steps, your cryptocurrency tokens will be secure.
As public blockchains improve on their security, it makes it easier for the cryptocurrency adoption rate to increase.
The existence of triple-entry accounting has allowed for the creation of distributed ledgers.
In his 1989 monograph, Professor Yuji Ijiri explained his triple-entry accounting system as a different method to the widely accepted double-entry accounting system.
The principles behind triple entry accounting are the foundational accounting concepts that drive Distributed Ledgers.
In cryptocurrencies, everyone who has access to the distributed ledger can access records of transactions (that is for those whose information is public).
It has given rise to an independently verified source of transactions that users can depend on.
The rise of the distributed ledger is what gives cryptocurrencies their wide acceptability.
It has also birthed the rise of the trustless economy. In this ecosystem, trust doesn’t exist between individuals but rather the mathematical bridge across individuals.
Cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money by relying on trustlessness.
It is what makes cryptocurrency ecosystems to thrive and succeed.
Cryptocurrency tokens serve as the units of account for distributed ledger systems. They serve as a form of measurement of activities and transactions that occur on such systems.
It has led to the rise of so many different systems within the cryptospace. Each of them has their units of accounts.
It is because of this that people can gauge the value of goods and services as opposed to the current prices of cryptocurrencies in different global currencies.
Cryptocurrencies hold values against major global cryptocurrencies.
The rise in financial technology and increased understanding of the cryptocurrency space has enabled this to occur.
So, if people know the fiat currency value of what cryptocurrency they are using in a transaction, they can compare the nominal value of what they want to purchase.
It has also created another kind of paradigm for electronic commerce. A paradigm where anyone can become someone based on the core principles behind trade and economy.
Value now moves across borders internationally without any need for intermediaries.
With the rise of regulations because of consumer safety, cryptocurrencies shall have other use-case scenarios.
It is one more scenario where cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money.
Another way that cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money is in the way that they are a store of value.
One cryptocurrency token has a value as against another store of value: money.
So much so that many people now prefer cryptocurrencies as opposed to holding other assets that have similar value.
It may not be unconnected to the fact that the cryptospace is still emerging.
There are new industries that will emerge from the existence of cryptocurrencies and their underlying technologies.
So many find a way to hold unto the promise of future value. One such example of those who are doing this rather successfully is the HODLers.
HODLers refer to those groups of individuals that keep possession of cryptocurrencies for future value.
Mathematically and economically, these people are correct. It occurs within a timeframe, of course.
As more people transact using cryptocurrencies, their values go up. Demand always rises with cryptocurrencies due to their limited supply.
As long as they can hold value against other forms of purchasing power, cryptocurrencies can also be said to have a store of value.
The reason for this is that instruments don’t hold value against themselves.
They derive their values against other instruments that have value.
Money, for instance, is always measured in terms of what it can buy.
The same thing happens with cryptocurrencies. It is why people say that cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money.
It leads us to the last function of money.
Can you use cryptocurrencies as collateral for loans? The shocking answer is a resounding Yes!
So many new services have been springing up selling lending services against cryptocurrencies.
It then means that cryptocurrencies can exist as a deferred form of payment.
When something is said to be a deferred form of payment, it means that that thing can is used to obtain credit for the purchase of goods and services.
So when a person borrows, the instrument borrowed is often referred to as a form of money.
People use cryptocurrencies to borrow fiat money or sometimes other cryptocurrencies.
The instruments borrowed can buy goods and services. It means then that cryptocurrencies have similar and equivalent values with the assets that they are borrowed against.
We now have the rise of stablecoin digital currencies where the value of a single stablecoin unit is equivalent to one unit of fiat currency units in cash.
The rise of stablecoins gives further credence to the fact that cryptocurrencies fulfill the functions of money.
They also give further insight into how cryptocurrencies could work in other use-case scenarios.
As humanity continues into the next decade, new ways, means, and methods where cryptocurrencies solve problems shall evolve.
It is how these new means function that will ultimately determine if cryptocurrencies will replace money in human economic interaction.
NetNewsLedger – Buy Cryptocurrencies Online with Credit or Debit Card in No Time
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Cyber Attacks on Cryptocurrencies Increase Amidst COVID-19 Crisis
Trading and dealing in cryptocurrencies is known to be one of the most secure ways to complete transactions and payments online. But the very decentralized nature of cryptocurrency also makes it an attractive lure to cybercriminals who are responding in force in 2020.
Crypto scams are not new, from fake websites to phishing attempts, fraudulent tweets, and imposter apps, the risks are well described. Now, traders and exchanges are dealing with a new spate of threats that have emerged amidst the ongoing novel coronavirus crisis.
As Bolster’s Q1 State of Phishing and Online Fraud Report for 2020 puts it:
“Bolster discovered multiple phishing websites peddling fake COVID-19 cryptocurrencies and crypto wallets that aim to siphon data for future phishing, targeted malware, or credential stealing. One COVID-19 cryptocurrency bills itself as ‘The World’s Fastest Spreading Crypto Currency’ and attempts to get visitors to download suspicious files off GitHub. Another site prompts visitors to register to find out more information about a COVID coin that ‘gains value as more people die and get infected.’”
The development of crypto-related COVID-19 scams is broadly in line with cybercriminal activity in other domains. Whether it is the deliberate peddling of misinformation or the rise of social engineering attacks, threat actors are responding to the pandemic with vigor and profiteering from panic.
In this threat landscape, securing your crypto investments properly is more important than ever. With that in mind, here are a few key ways to secure your bitcoin wallet and other currencies.
Following good digital hygiene practices is one of the very best ways to protect your devices and your currencies from attack. In fact, far too many breaches occur simply because of poor online practices.
For example, in 2020 some of the most common passwords include “qwerty” “123456” and “password”. And users often repeat passwords across multiple sites and accounts, or choose passwords that contain personally identifiable information, such as a birth date. These kinds of errors can lead to your accounts and currencies being compromised, and ripe for the picking from a threat actor’s perspective.
Using a VPN is an essential step in your cybersecurity protocols since these privacy solutions provide an additional layer of protection. VPNs create a private browsing network, and in the process, encrypt any data in transmission, making it next to impossible for any snoopers to find your activity or decipher any data.
Turn on your VPN whenever you’re trading, logging in to accounts, or using exchanges. You can also rely on your VPN when you absolutely have to use a public wifi network, which leads us to the next point.
Open public wifi networks represent a significant security risk, whether you’re wheeling and dealing currencies or just casually browsing. Because of the open nature of public wifi networks, there is plenty of opportunity for threat actors to snoop. Furthermore, other connected devices can harbor malware or the network itself can be malicious.
As said above, if you have absolutely no choice but to use public wifi, make sure your VPN is turned on before you connect.
Using multi-factor or two-factor authentication is an easy way to double-down when it comes to account security. Despite repeated warnings as to its importance, multi-factor isn’t used as often as it should be. In fact, one survey from Microsoft showed that around 99 percent of all compromised accounts had no two-step verification in place.
Instead of relying on your exchange’s in-built wallet for storage, move large sums of coin out and into a secure wallet. Because exchanges deal in multiple transactions every day and harbor a lot of coins, they are an attractive target to hackers.
According to Cointelegraph, 2019 set a new exchange hack record with “12 major cryptocurrency exchange hacks in 2019. In total, over $292 million and over 500,000 pieces of customer data were stolen.” Instead of leaving your investments in exchanges, move them to another wallet. Consider cold wallet storage for any significant amounts for additional protection.
Although the current threat landscape poses significant risks to crypto traders and hobbyists, taking a few extra precautions can go a long way towards keeping your coins and your data safe.
Amy Cavendish is a content strategist at the TechFools, a tech blog aiming to inform readers about the potential dangers of technology and introduce them to the best ways to protect themselves online. As an outspoken advocate for digital freedom, Amy is dedicated to empowering her readers to take control of their digital lives with her thought-leadership articles.
Author: By Amy Cavendish in Security Technology
USDC arrives on the Bitcoin SV blockchain
Run On Bitcoin, a protocol that allows tokens to be created on Bitcoin SV (BSV), analogous to the ERC20 standard, has announced that USDC will arrive on this blockchain through a close partnership with RelayX.
A USD stablecoin is key for many apps on Bitcoin. Excited for Relay and Run to partner together to bring this to BSV. Congrats @liujack. Onward! https://t.co/Kq0WkjmEUZ
— runonbitcoin (@runonbitcoin) September 22, 2020
A couple of months ago a project was launched, in alpha version, which allows creating tokens on the Bitcoin SV blockchain, following almost the same procedure for the creation of the famous ERC20.
This new asset will exploit the RUN version, v.0.6, and will take the name USDC (RUN-SV) precisely to indicate the type of token that runs on the Bitcoin SV blockchain.
This represents the first stablecoin of this blockchain, paving the way for a new trend, both for tokens and for a well-known and famous stablecoin such as USDC.
In order to receive these new assets, a dedicated token swap platform can be used to convert BSV to USDC (RUN-SV) and vice versa.
It is interesting to note that the platform already includes the possibility of creating liquidity pools.
It therefore seems that decentralized finance (DeFi) is taking its first steps on the Bitcoin SV blockchain thanks to a stablecoin, an undisputed landmark in this sector.
Other tokens will surely be added since there are so many sectors in which to operate and it is only a matter of time before we see the birth of a decentralized exchange (DEX), other stablecoins and so on.
Recently this blockchain has expanded its functions thanks to the Bico.Media service, which allows loading any type of format without any limits.
In practice, Bitcoin SV can thus serve as decentralized storage for uploading data and digital content.
In addition, at the end of August BSV landed on the Emirex exchange where the BSV/USDT and BSV/EUR pairs were added.
Author: By Alfredo de Candia
– 23 Sep 2020


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While the FDA’s proposed rules aimed at preventing foodborne illness are in their comment period, the troubling trend of food related recalls continues. Since January 1, 2013, the FDA has reported 14 food recalls for safety reasons. These recalls are based on contaminated products, undeclared ingredients and metal fragment contamination. Among the recalls:
- Annie’s Inc., is recalling frozen pizza products that contain metal fragments. According to the company, a fine metal mesh screen failed at a third-party flour mill and fragments of the metal mesh have been found in flour and pizza dough.
- Knott’s Fine Foods recalled chicken salad sandwiches due to their possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes which is especially serious in the elderly, children, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems. The sandwiches were sold in three states over 35 retail stores.
- Belmont Confections recalled numerous lots of cookie and brownie bars that contain undeclared peanuts, after becoming aware of the problem by a distributor. The bars were distributed both in the United States and internationally from March to December of 2012.
These recalls highlight the issues the FDA is tackling with food safety in the United States. In its most recent Center for Food Safety ”Constituent Update,” the FDA reported that it had “reinstated the food facility registration of Sunland Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of peanut products linked to an outbreak of Salmonella Bredeney last fall, after a federal judge entered a consent decree of permanent injunction imposing requirements on the firm.” This reinstatement came after Sunland Inc., was found to be the source of a 2012 tainted peanut butter outbreak.
Currently the FDA has no scheduled meetings regarding food safety, but a number of dockets are currently open for public comment regarding different food safety issues and proposed regulations.

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Bluechips featured in the Elektronik Praxis
03/11/2016 , 09:35 AM
In the November edition of the well-known German electronics journal “Elektronik Praxis”, an interview with Thomas Zimpfer was published.
The reputable German electronics journal “Elektronik Praxis” invited Thomas Zimpfer, founder and Managing Director of Bluechips Microhouse, to an interview which was published in the magazine’s November edition. In the Article, he talks about Bluechips’ unique standing in the current market situation and how the company is eager and well prepared to face future challenges.
Click on the button below to read the Article (in German)


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Rapid deployment of biometric technology, video surveillance, and advancements in technology such as cloud-based systems are some major factors driving market growth
Market Size – USD 4.29 Billion in 2020, Market Growth – at a CAGR of 15.7%, Market Trend –Technological advancements in facial expression detection
Vancouver, B.C., April 21, 2021 - The global facial recognition market size is expected to reach USD 13.87 Billion at a steady CAGR of 15.7% in 2028, according to latest analysis by Emergen Research. This steady market revenue growth can be attributed to rising need for physical security, increasing deployment and use of biometric devices, and rising deployment of 5G technology. Rising demand for electronic devices such as mobile phones, wearable devices, smart devices, and increase in technology adoption such as cloud-based technology and IoT is expected to continue to fuel growth of the global facial recognition market going ahead
Increasingly stringent government regulations regarding biometric identity and proof of citizenship and rising deployment of video surveillance to monitor criminal activities are factor increasing investments by governments in facial recognition solutions and systems. Continuous improvements in technology such as Artificial Intelligence and increasing deployment of drone surveillance are some other factors boosting market growth. However, high implementation costs and lack of knowledge and awareness about these solutions are some factors restrain growth of the facial recognition market to a certain extent.
Key Highlights From the Report
To get leading market solutions, visit the link below: https://www.emergenresearch.com/industry-report/facial-recognition-market
Emergen Research has segmented the global facial recognition market on the basis of component, technology, application, end use, and region:
Please contact for a detailed synopsis of the reportContact Us


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It’s true that you can enhance your beauty just by eating some foods but that’s not all there is to it. There are some foods that also perform wonders on your body, including boosting your immune system, giving your hair a glossy shine, smoothing wrinkles and strengthening flimsy nails. Here are some very good tips to have glowing skin.
“Your diet directly affects your day-to-day appearance and plays a significant role in how well you age,” said Dr. Joshua Zeichner, the Director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research in Dermatology at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.
According to Zeichner, the smart approach is to create a plan that includes what he calls “the building blocks of healthy skin and hair” – nutrients, minerals and fatty acids – as well as antioxidants to protect your body from damaging environmental stresses.
Here are 4 foods that you will need for this plan:
Omega-3 fatty acids (found in the natural oils that keep your hair hydrated) and vitamin E (which helps repair damaged follicles) are two secrets behind strong, lustrous strands—and these nuts are full of both, Lipman said. All you need is 1/4 cup a day.
What’s more, walnuts are packed with copper, which will help keep your natural color rich: Studies show that being deficient in the mineral may be a factor in going prematurely gray.
Drinking a cup of coffee every morning doesn’t just give you the bright start you need to start the day but also helps protect your skin from melanoma (the fifth most common cancer in the U.S.), according to a recent report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers found that the more coffee people downed, the less likely they were to get the disease: Those drinking four cups daily had a 20 percent lower risk of developing malignant melanoma over a 10-year period than non-coffee drinkers.
“This antioxidant compound gives watermelon and tomatoes their red color—and helps skin stave off UV damage,” said nutrition pro Keri Glassman, RD, founder of NutritiousLife.com.
Researchers believe that the melon contains as much as 40 percent more of the phytochemical than raw tomatoes; that’s the equivalent of an SPF 3, so use it to bolster (not replace) your daily dose of sunscreen.
Your fingernails (toenails, too) are made of protein, so a deficiency can turn those talons soft. Keep yours thick and ready by cracking smart: “Eggs are a good source of biotin, a B complex vitamin that metabolizes amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein,” said Dr. Frank Lipman, director of Eleven-Eleven Wellness Center in New York City.
Use of cucumber is also beneficial for your skin and health.
image couresy: naturalhealth365.com, weknowyourdreams.com, crafthubs.com, medicalnewstoday.com.


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When Microsoft executives say that they’re “all in” on the cloud, as they are wont to do, a big part of that means BPOS, the pared-down Web-based version of the popular Office productivity applications.
Known in longhand as the Business Productivity Online Suite, BPOS is a major focus for Microsoft’s enterprise sales team as it duels with Google Docs and other cloud-based software services. Now, Microsoft is looking ahead to the next phase of the offering as it moves ahead with a broader update of its enterprise apps. CIO Update has the details.
REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft’s most popular online services for businesses are in the process of a major upgrade and the company is nearing a public preview, the company said at a briefing here.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will preview an updated Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), the company’s cloud offering of enterprise applications, before the year is out, Betsy Frost Webb, general manager of online services, told a media briefing Monday.


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Today’s consumer places a huge priority on personal health. Join Adweek for Prescription for Growth: Health and Wellness Marketing on April 19 in NYC to learn how to thrive in this business sector. Sign up now.
MikMak is going global.
The U.S.-based ecommerce platform, which revolutionized retail and recently secured a patented technology enabling the use of multi-retail selection and checkout within online video marketing campaigns, announced the acquisition of Swaven, a Paris-based ecommerce enablement and analytics software company that operates across EMEA, APAC and LATAM.
“I think this acquisition for MikMak is very telling of the industry and where the industry is headed,” said Rachel Tipograph, MikMak’s founder and co-host of the Brave Commerce podcast.


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Time is money, they say.
Now the Israel-based Todacell firm is introducing “Todaself,” a self-service mobile-ad platform that lets app developers and advertisers launch ad campaigns in a matter of minutes.
According to a post at Venture Beat, “(Users) can also continuously monitor them and optimize the ads for audience and geography.”
It’s a crowded market, but Todacell execs say Todaself can help app developers and direct marketers tailor campaigns potentially viewed by more than 250 million consumers via the company’s ad network.
Mobile campaigns can be optimized by changing the targeting, bidding price, creative, or geographies instantly via Todaself. Once created, the campaigns can target app users in many different nations. App developers and direct marketers can use the Todaself ad-optimization technology to tailor campaigns based on non-mobile data sources like socio-geographic, economic, and product categories.
Amir Goldstein, CEO of Todacell, says Todaself is the “first self-service mobile ad solution to integrate advanced mobile campaign optimization technology into a self-serve solution, providing developers, advertisers and agencies control, convenience, and most important, performance.”


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Microsoft recently upset a lot of people in a group they couldn't afford to alienate, Windows Phone owners. The confirmation that Windows Phone 8, the upcoming update for the platform to beat all previous versions, would not run on any existing handsets left the entire Windows Phone installed base in the cold.
Realizing that this would not be a popular move, Microsoft quickly mentioned that an interim release, Windows Phone 7.8, would be released to bring some of the features of WP8 that otherwise won't trickle down. This interim release will bring a new home screen similar to the one that will ship with Windows Phone 8.
The new home screen in WP7.8 is being shown off by Ben Rudolph of Microsoft in a video recently published online. Here's what Microsoft is hoping will be consolation enough for those who jumped on Windows Phone early.
Yes, in Windows Phone 7.8 you can now order your tiles in small, medium, or large. Like the fries at McDonald's.
- This week at Microsoft: Throwing everybody under the bus
- Great debate: Did Microsoft throw users under the bus?
- Surface: Why Microsoft’s big mystery turns out to be a big mistake
- With Surface tablet, Microsoft breaks tradition
- Eight new platform announcements for Windows Phone 8
- Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8: There’s good news and bad news
- Microsoft Surface tablets: Obviously designed for me
- Will Microsoft Surface for Windows 8 Pro tablets be competition for Ultrabooks?
- Okay, let me get this straight. Did Microsoft just kill the Windows tablet OEM market?
- Surface: Microsoft, What the Hell is Wrong With You?


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Invista, CPI to Develop Gas-Based, Biotech Process
Invista, whose brands include Lycra, Coolmax and Stainmaster, has partnered with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) to develop new technologies to enable gas-fermentation-based processes for the production of industrial chemicals.
Invista says biotechnology can improve the cost and availability of several chemicals and raw materials that are used to produce its current products. Gas fermentation is a “key enabling technology” that will allow the company to use gas feedstocks such as waste industrial gases, says Warren Primeaux, president of Invista Intermediates.
CPI, a UK-based technology innovation center, uses applied knowledge in science and engineering to enable its clients to develop, prove, prototype and scale up next-generation products and processes.
Earlier this year Invista, one of the world’s largest integrated producers of polymers and fibers, joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.
This month the New York City Economic Development Corporation partnered with Celgene, GE Ventures and Eli Lilly to create a biotech fund called the Life Sciences Funding Initiative. The partnership will deploy a minimum of $100 million and seek to launch 15 to 20 biotech ventures by 2020.
Energy Manager News
- New Refrigerant Rules Will Have Long Term Impact
- Building Data Platform from Leviton
- Athens, OH, Nears $4.28M Retrofit Project
- ERC Price Benchmark Trends Week Ending: September 23, 2016
- Feds Asked to Reverse Montana PSC Decision on Solar Charges
- Energy Retailer Crius Acquires Assets of Verengo
- Put Safety First in LED Installations
- Microsoft: Data Centers to Use 50% Renewables by 2018


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Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is in talks with buyout firm Advent International Corp and other funds to sell a major stake in its Brazilian operations, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. Wal-Mart is being advised by Goldman Sachs & Co, according to one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Other private equity firms that are looking into the investment in the Brazilian unit are GP Investments Ltd (GPIV11.LU) and Acon Investments LLC, the source added.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is in talks with buyout firm Advent International Corp and other funds to sell a major stake in its Brazilian operations, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. Wal-Mart is being advised by Goldman Sachs & Co, according to one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Other private equity firms that are looking into the investment in the Brazilian unit are GP Investments Ltd and Acon Investments LLC, the source added.
Bigger bonuses and higher wages that companies have been handing out since the new tax law was signed in December are a small fraction of the value of tax cuts.
As retail giant Walmart seeks to one up online giant Amazon in the heated ecommerce battle, it's played a different role for a change: pitch to its fellow rival retailers.
Goldman Sachs upgraded Wal-Mart and put the retail giant on its Conviction List based after a 2018 analysis ahead showed that it would be a good year for consumers.
Several months after the blockbuster deal, business is thriving for traditional supermarket chains. Meanwhile, Whole Foods is facing its own set of challenges.
On Jan. 11, Wal-Mart announced plans to close Sam's Club locations across the country. This gives Costco a significant opportunity to gain market share.
Safe medication disposal, though a key facet of the opioid crisis, has been tough to tackle.
LUTHER, Okla. (AP) — Luther sold its youth football field to Walmart about three years ago so that the company could build one of its Express stores, using the money from the sale and the new tax revenue to pay off the roughly $200,000 in debt that resulted from an embezzlement scandal involving the former town treasurer.
A broad rally for stocks but not for the coal industry, major volatility for cryptocurrencies and advice to stop trying to beat the stock market.
U.S. consumers are headed for a breakout year of spending, Goldman Sachs predicts in a new report. The bank names Walmart a top pick, with potential to rise 12% from recent levels. Barron’s last recommended Walmart stock (WMT) this past fall, near the one-year anniversary of its Jet.com acquisition (“Wal-Mart Gets Back on the Growth Track,” Oct. 7, 2017).
The graph below shows that Walmart’s (WMT) price target is on an uptrend with multiple analysts raising their price target in recent months thanks to the company’s strong sales and improved earnings on the back of stellar e-commerce sales and increased store traffic. Walmart has rolled out several customer-friendly initiatives aimed at saving time and money, which have bolstered the company’s top-line performance and helped its earnings to return to growth. Walmart’s value pricing, fast-delivery for online orders, expansion of online grocery pickup services, supply-chain reinvention, and omnichannel offerings resonate well with customers and solidify its competitive positioning.
GNC stock has been killed recently as operations have stumbled against the backdrop of a hugely levered balance sheet, making GNC look more like a ticking time bomb than a sustainable business. GNC stock has tumbled from $60 in 2013 to under $5. GNC stock is roaring 45% higher.
Everything has gone right for Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) of late. Not that long ago, Walmart looked like it was floundering, and WMT stock was buffeted by fears it would become a potential victim of online competition. The company looks perfectly positioned for where US retail is headed.


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In Q4, McAfee Labs observed an average of 648 threats per minute, an increase of 60 threats per minute (10%) over Q3. The two quarters also saw COVID-19-related cyber-attack detections increase by...
Apr 13, 2021
While the shift to a digital-first life was brought on by the global pandemic, Indian consumers have shown an increased online footprint, with activities like online banking (68%), financial planning...
Jan 27, 2021
Cybercrime costs the world economy more than USD 1 trillion, or just more than 1% of global GDP, which is up more than 50% from a 2018 study that put global losses at close to USD 600 billion,...
Dec 07, 2020
Q2, 2020 saw an average of 419 new threats per minute as overall new malware samples grew by 11.5%, according to McAfee’s Threats Report: November 2020. The report examines cybercriminal activity...
Nov 05, 2020
There has been an average of 375 new threats per minute and a surge of cybercriminals exploiting the pandemic through COVID-19 themed malicious apps, phishing campaigns, malware, and more, according...
Jul 22, 2020
A correlation between the increased use of cloud services and collaboration tools, such as Cisco WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack during the COVID-19 pandemic exists, along with an increase in...
May 28, 2020
Data is distributed broadly across devices and the cloud, highlighting critical gaps for enterprise security, according to McAfee’s research study titled Enterprise Supernova: The Data Dispersion...
Jan 28, 2020
Data breaches are becoming more serious as cyber criminals continue to target intellectual property, putting the reputation of company brand at risk and increasing financial liability. As a result of...
May 01, 2019
The McAfee Labs 2019 Threats Predictions Report identifies rising trends and how they are predicted to change the cyberthreat landscape in 2019. McAfee researchers expect malware-as-a-service...
Nov 30, 2018
Poor visibility is one of the greatest challenges to cloud adoption in an organization, according to McAfee’s Navigating a Cloudy Sky: Practical Guidance and the State of Cloud Security report....
Apr 16, 2018
Global cybersecurity firm McAfee on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Cloud data security company Skyhigh Networks for an undisclosed sum.As part of the deal, Skyhigh CEO Rajiv Gupta will join...
Nov 28, 2017
As cyber attacks grow exponentially, meeting hackers' demands is not a guarantee that you won't be hit again, global cybersecurity firm McAfee has stressed, adding that giving in to hackers' demands...
Oct 09, 2017


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General Business General business-related stories are featured in this section. Areas of interest include: corporate financial reporting, business transactions, real estate holdings, personnel announcements, human resource concerns, new products and services, business technology, economic trends, and various domestic/international business topics.
Featured General Business News
09:13 ET PenFed Foundation Announces 'Black History Month Ignition Challenge' to Support Black Veteran and Military Spouse Entrepreneurs
TYSONS, Va., Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The PenFed Foundation, a national 501(c)3 founded by PenFed Credit Union, today announced the launch of the PenFed Foundation Black History Month Ignition Challenge. The challenge supports Black veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, and military spouse entrepreneurs by helping them to identify their business impact and goals, and providing an opportunity...
09:30 ET For the Thirteenth Year Solera Platform Named 'Best Estimating System' by the Auto Body Professionals Club of the UK
WESTLAKE, Texas, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Solera Holdings, Inc. Solera, a global leader in data, applications and services for insurance and automotive, today announced that its insurance and...
NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alloy, the identity operating system for the financial services industry, today announced Charley Ma has been appointed General Manager of Fintech, where he...
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nav, the simple and intelligent financing platform for small businesses, today launched its PPP Application Portal to help small businesses quickly apply...
Latest General Business News
Most Viewed General Business News
Nov 16, 2020, 07:30 ET Viatris Inc. Launches as a New Kind of Healthcare Company, Positioned to Meet the World's Evolving Healthcare Needs
Combination of Mylan and Pfizer's Upjohn Business Focused on Access and Improved Patient Health PITTSBURGH, Nov. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ: VTRS) launched today following the...
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#IntlRoundup: Australian Bank Trials Blockchain, Government Funds Cryptocurrency Startup
The global nature of digital currencies makes following international news beneficial for investors and interested market participants. However, due to how fast news travels through the landscape, it can be easy to miss the occasional story now and again.
As part of a regular weekly roundup, Coinsquare News compiled the week’s significant international news headlines. In this edition, we look at how a U.S. Securities and Exchange commissioner became a hero among advocates, Thailand’s largest cinema chain accepting cryptocurrencies, and more.
U.S. commissioner gains thousands of Twitter followers after supporting ETFs
Last Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally rejected the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) proposal pushed forward by Gemini cryptocurrency exchange founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
“The Commission addresses BZX’s assertion that bitcoin and bitcoin markets, including the Gemini Exchange, are uniquely resistant to manipulation and finds that the record before the Commission does not support such a conclusion,” the SEC stated.
Since then, however, SEC commissioner Hester Peirce vocalized her disagreement with the decision. Alongside her official statement, she also took to Twitter to dissent the commission’s decision.
“Apparently, bitcoin is not ripe enough, respectable enough, or regulated enough to be worthy of our markets,” she tweeted, adding to her concern that “the Commission’s approach undermines investor protection by precluding greater institutionalization of the bitcoin market.”
Apparently, bitcoin is not ripe enough, respectable enough, or regulated enough to be worthy of our markets. I dissent: https://t.co/gH5zXaKtmj
— Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) July 26, 2018
As a result of her advocacy, Peirce has been somewhat of a hero among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. On major cryptocurrency communities on Reddit, supporters rallied to show their appreciation for her statements.
As a result, Peirce’s Twitter followers rose from under 2,000 to over 16,700 (at the time of reporting), with many using the platform to agree with her sentiment.
Major Thai cinema chain adopts cryptocurrencies
According to The Nation, an English-language newspaper in Thailand, the country’s largest operator of movie theaters will adopt cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Reportedly, Major Cineplex will allow attendees at its movie theaters across the country to use digital currencies like bitcoin to make purchases.
We are featured on The Nation and Thai Media PR! Together with @MajorGroup, we will build a better digitalized payment ecosystem in Thailand. https://t.co/txpVP81KN0 & https://t.co/qZFRmlfasG#TheNation #ThaiMediaPR #Rapidz #RapidzPay #RPZ #crytocurrency #Thailand #Major
— Rapidzpay (@RapidzPay) July 26, 2018
The move is the result of a collaboration between the chain and RapidzPay; a Switzerland-based fintech startup. In this agreement, Major Cineplex will leverage RapidzPay’s digital payment framework in order to facilitate point-of-sale (PoS) transactions at participating cinemas.
“With RapidzPOS and the RapidzPay mobile app, you’ll be able to buy any services and products from us, such as movie tickets, popcorn and other different products with cryptocurrency,” said Major Cineplex Group’s director of marketing, Chanya Tamrongweenichai.
Australian bank completes global blockchain experiment
This week, one of Australia’s largest banking institutions announced the success of a global blockchain trade experiment.
In an official statement, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) announced that 17 tonnes of almonds were shipped and tracked from the state of Victoria in Australia, to the city of Hamburg in Germany.
As a result, CommBank is calling this a successful global blockchain experiment, thanks to a collaboration between the bank and five Australian and international supply chain leaders.
“Our blockchain-enabled global trade platform experiment brought to life the idea of a modern global supply chain that is agile, efficient and transparent,” said Managing Director of Industrials and Logistics in Client Coverage, Chris Scougall.
“We believe that blockchain can help our partners reduce the burden of administration on their businesses and enable them to deliver best-in-class services to their customers.”
With this experiment, CommBank stated that it demonstrated a platform facilitated by distributed ledger technology, smart contracts and the internet of things (IoT), which allowed it to track a significant shipment between Australia and Germany.
The project makes use of the Ethereum blockchain. While the bank stated that it is open to exploring other blockchains in the future if appropriate, it currently deems Ethereum to have the most active global development and praises its functionality.
It runs on a private blockchain that only allows authorised participants to access pertinent shipping information, and the bank’s representatives believe this is a concept that could “modernise global trade.”
QLD state government invests in digital currency startup
The state of Queensland (QLD) is another source of blockchain-related news from Australia this week, as it announced that it is investing in a bitcoin project in order to boost tourism.
TravelbyBit is a startup on the receiving end of a grant from the Australian government. The grant is part of a $8.3 million AUD wave from the Palaszczuk Government innovation funding announced.
According to the QLD media statement, TravelbyBit is set to drive more tourists to Central Queensland by selling travel experiences online using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
“Tourism is one of Queensland’s most important industries. TravelbyBit has devised a clever way to make it easier for visitors to our state to pay for their purchases with a growing number of local businesses accepting cryptocurrency payments,” said Innovation Minister, Kate Jones.
The government said that it invested in the cryptocurrency-focused startup in order to to help it grow its operations, hoping to create more jobs in Queensland as a result. It also hopes to drive tourism to cities like Bundaberg, which is purportedly a focus for the startup.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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NEWS: Magnum Red Velvet
Magnum Red Velvet features chocolate and cream cheese flavoured ice cream, with a cream cheese flavoured white chocolate coating.
They’re available now in supermarkets, including Coles and Woolworths, and retailing in a 388ml four pack for the retail price of $7.99.
If you’ve tried new Magnum Red Velvet, let us know what you think in the comments!
Stay tuned to Consumable.com.au for the latest news and reviews on this product.
Visit our homepage or like us on Facebook for more of the latest news and deals on chocolate, snacks and anything consumable!


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Cult-Favourite US Chain Five Guys Will Open Its First Australian Eatery in Penrith This Year
It'll launch next to Krispy Kreme and the Panthers League Club on Mulgoa Road.
With 1654 stores to its name worldwide, Five Guys' burger joints have become a common sight across America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia — and soon, they'll also be opening in Australia and New Zealand. That news was announced in 2020, but 2021 brings further details, including the fact that it'll be launching its first eatery Down Under this year.
Once the middle of 2021 rolls around, Five Guys will be serving up burgers, fries and shakes in Penrith — making Sydney the first Aussie city to taste the chain's wares. Originally, the debut store Down Under was slated for Sydney's CBD, but those plans changed due to COVID-19.
An exact mid-year opening date hasn't been revealed; however, Sydneysiders will find restaurant next to Krispy Kreme and the Panthers League Club on Mulgoa Road in the western Sydney suburb when it launches. Construction on the store is due to start in the coming weeks.
The cult-favourite chain is making the leap to Australia and New Zealand as part of a master franchise agreement with Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group, aka the folks behind The Meat & Wine Co, Hunter & Barrel, 6 Head, Ribs & Burgers, Italian Street Kitchen and Butcher and the Farmer.
Around 20 stores are due to launch in Australia alone, plus more in NZ — although exactly where else and when Five Guys will be popping up is yet to be revealed. In Sydney, additional sites are currently under consideration, including in the CBD around Circular Quay, Darling Harbour and Broadway.
Overseas, Five Guys has amassed quite the reputation — and, even given the number of big-name US burger chains with hefty followings, such as Shake Shack and In-N-Out, it stands out. Its made-to-order burgers skew in the classic rather than oversized, jam-packed direction. They come with two hand-formed patties on toasted buns with your choice of toppings (including pickles, grilled mushrooms and jalapeños), plus bacon cheeseburgers that add two strips of bacon and two slices of Kraft American cheese as well.
Five Guys also serves up hotdogs, sandwiches, hand-cut fries (with or without Cajun spices) and vanilla milkshakes. Don't go thinking the latter are boring, though — you can add bacon, bananas, peanut butter, salted caramel and even Oreo pieces to your design-your-own beverage.
The chain started back in 1986 in the Washington, DC area and, as anyone with allergies should note, only cooks its fries in peanut oil.
Five Guys will launch its first Australian store on Mulgoa Road in Penrith sometime in the middle of 2021, with stores in other Australian states — and in New Zealand — to follow. No exact opening dates have been revealed as yet — we'll update you when more information comes to hand.
Published on January 19, 2021 by Sarah Ward


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Anybody who accesses video on demand service Netflix in South Africa has to make use of some kind of work-around in order to catch up on their favourite hows.
Netflix, which offers thousands of movies and television episodes for streaming, isn’t locally available yet, but viewers can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service to access it from here. A VPN connects you to a server in, say, the US and makes it appear as if all your internet traffic is originating from there – in other words, you appear as a local customer to Netflix.
But the streaming service recently updated its Terms and Conditions – and its not going to bode well for VPN users.
Back in January Netflix denied that it was cracking down on VPN users, but the new T&Cs forbid its use. Users who log into their accounts will have to accept the new terms, or cancel their monthly subscription.
In the updated T&Cs, Article 6.C now reads “You may view a movie or TV show through the Netflix service primarily within the country in which you have established your account and only in geographic locations where we offer our service and have licensed such movie or TV show… Netflix will use technologies to verify your geographic location.”
Beside for the fact the Netflix willl use technology to test ransom users for the use of a VPN service, the part in the T&Cs that should make Netflix users concerned is that it will cancel your subscription automatcially without notice if it suspects you of violating any of the new regulations.
By last count, Netflix had about 70 million subscribers but a major chunk of those make use of a VPN service.
While the company hasn’t explained its stance against VPN use, it’s well known that film and television production companies have been putting pressure on Netflix to lock them out and preserve their ability to sell different licences for different content to different territories.
The only way that Netflix can make sure that all its subscribers stay put, is by making the same Netflix experience available to all users across the globe – which will also deter piracy if users are forced to cancel their subscription.
“The basic solution is for Netflix to get global and have its content be the same all around the world so there’s no incentive to. Then we can work on the more important part which is piracy. The key thing about piracy is that some fraction of it is because [users] couldn’t get the content. That part we can fix,” CEO Reed Hastings said last week.
In comparison, streaming service Hulu has a similar warning in its Terms and Conditions, but doesn’t state that it will perform VPN checks or cancel your subscription if you do make use of the service.
“We are a company based in the United States. Hulu’s goal is to bring you as much Content as is legally available. That said, we are limited by the rights that our content licensors grant to us. Using technologies to access the Content from territories where Hulu does not have rights or does not offer services is prohibited. Hulu Plus is not accessible through any devices from outside the United States.”
Netflix has previously tested blocking VPN services, but that’s like playing whack-a-mole. Once the VPN is identified, it simply changes its IP address and goes back under the radar. By taking action against user accounts instead it’s more likely that this new strategy will work for the firm.
There is one question, however. Most people we are aware of don’t use VPN services to access Netflix: they use a SmartDNS service like Unotelly. Technically, this is very different to a VPN as it merely scrambles the DNS request from your box to Netflix’ servers rather than directing all traffic through a VPN. As such, it doesn’t appear to be addressed directly by the new T&Cs – but good luck getting your account unblocked using that as an excuse.


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Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, approved the new phase of the agreement Dubai Metaverse Strategy aimed at promoting the digital economy and taking measures to enable the use of Metaverse And the The future’s technology.
The Dubai Government Media Office said that the new phase of the strategy was approved at the first meeting of the Supreme Committee for the Development of Future Technology and the Digital Economy, on Thursday.
Sheikh Hamdan said that Dubai is set to become one of the largest digital economies in the world and a leading platform for innovations that can shape the future.
The metaverse is the emerging space where people, represented through avatars or three-dimensional representations, can interact in virtual worlds. It is part of Web3the next evolutionary step of the Internet, with blockchain, decentralization, openness, and increased user utility among its core components.
Dubai and the other emirates have taken a number of steps to integrate the metaverse into the UAE’s economy and society. In July, the emirate’s government unveiled Dubai Metaverse StrategyWhich aims to Creating 40,000 virtual jobs and adding $4 billion to the emirate’s economy over the next five years.
Sheikh Hamdan approved four main strategies aimed at using metaverse technology to deliver government services and a comprehensive study aimed at identifying the social benefits of introducing metaverse services that will be submitted to the Executive Council for approval.
The initiatives aim to build the skills of Emiratis and create a large Metaverse community in Dubai that includes Metaverse companies, startups, investors and users. It also includes strategic projects that include partnerships with private sector players and events aimed at positioning the emirate as a hub for regional and global metaverse-related events.
During the meeting, the committee also discussed plans to implement the Dubai Metaverse strategy and the 100-day plan to coordinate the work of government agencies and facilitate their contribution to the development of the digital economy.
Through the committee, the government seeks to develop a new model for the development of future technology and science, with a special focus on digital technologies. Sheikh Hamdan said it aims to preserve the metaverse as part of its broader strategy to promote digital growth and innovation, and achieve the goals of the Dubai Metaverse strategy.
Dubai is rapidly advancing towards its opposite goals.
Earlier this month, the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy – one of the three chambers operating under the Dubai Chambers umbrella – said it had received 153 applications from 27 countries for its newly launched “The Future of Digital Economy: Business in Metaverse” academy.
Announced last month in collaboration with the Dubai-based SEE Institute, the specialized training program equips digital start-ups with the practical knowledge and tools they need to build and thrive in the metaverse.
Updated: November 24, 2022, 5:42 PM
#Sheikh #Hamdan #approves #phase #Dubai #Metaverse #strategy


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India finally has its first ice pop brand named ‘Skippy’. To bring back memories of ‘Ice Pepsis’ from school days, Hyderabad based entrepreneurs Ravi Kabra and Anuja have launched a first of its kind brand made from 100% natural ingredients like natural colours, flavours, preservatives and sweeteners.
Due to the pandemic, Ravi Kabra and Anuja Kabra also had to sit at home under compulsion like the rest. His factory, which lasted only one month, remained closed for a year and he suffered a loss of 11 lakhs.
Meanwhile, Ravi Kabra and Anuja Kabra decided to participate in the television show ‘Shark Tank India’ and from here a big change took place in their lives. So let’s know how these two started this company.
Dreamed of starting my own company
After working in many companies, he decided to start his own business. Says Anuja, “When we decided to go ahead with our career and start our own business, we already had the idea of ice popsicles in our mind. Once my sister was coming to India from Australia. He had packed a lot of ice popsicles to take with him.”
He said, “At that time I realized its lack and lack of brand in the Indian market. After a lot of research, we came to know that parents need a reliable brand to get their kids to taste the popsicles. Then we decided to launch Skippy in March 2020 without any artificial flavourings.”
Anuja says, “Initially they came to the market with about six flavors including Mango, Lemon, Orange, and Raspberry Cola. They use only natural colours, preservatives and sweeteners in their products. Flavors are extracted for this from fruits and vegetables.
Anuja says that initially they brought it to the market with six flavors including raspberry cola, mango, orange, and lemon. They use only natural colours, preservatives and sweeteners in their products. For this, its flavor is extracted from vegetables and fruits.
Why Shark Tank Investors Loved This Product
Impressing Shark Tank investors was not easy at all. Ravi and Anuja had to go through five rounds with 66,000 candidates. After this he managed to win the hearts of the investors. The first round was of telephone interview. Then the documentation and the video pitch and an audition.
Now the whole life has changed
After Shark Tank, a lot has changed in the lives of Ravi Kabra and Anuja Kabra. Ravi says, “We had to process 21,000 orders overnight just for the online platform. We are getting thousands of requests from investors and distributors. At one point I did video calls with 800 people because I didn’t have time to meet them in person.
Talking about the present, this company has reach in five states and this year their revenue has been Rs 4 crore. The company aims to achieve a revenue of 30 crores by 2023 and in the coming five years they want to take this figure to 100 crores.
If you liked this article then don’t forget to share it.


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Hemfosa Fastigheter finalizes divestment of logistics properties
As previously announced, Hemfosa Fastigheter reached a conditional agreement in December 2014 regarding the sale of logistics properties. The transaction has now been finalized and the sale of logistics properties at a value of approximately SEK 900 million will be implemented on February 2, 2015.
The sale comprises nine logistics properties in eight locations in southern, western and central Sweden encompassing a total of about 116,000 sqm of leasable area. The purchaser is Estancia Fastigheter.
Hemfosa’s strategy is to proactively optimize its property portfolio and to grow primarily in the community services property segment.
“Hemfosa pursues the ambition of implementing transactions that make good business sense, strengthen our position in community service properties and streamline complex property portfolios – and this transaction makes good business sense,” says Jens Engwall, CEO of Hemfosa Fastigheter.
For further information, please contact:
Jens Engwall, CEO, firstname.lastname@example.org, mobile phone +46 70-690 6550, office +46 8-448 04 80
This constitutes information that Hemfosa Fastigheter AB (publ) may be legally obliged to publish under the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was issued for publication on January 21, 2015 at 07:30 a.m. (CET).


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The New Honda Fireblade Is Actually Coming to America
The all-new Honda CBR1000RR…-R Fireblade SP is coming to American motorcycle showrooms as a hulked up 2021 model of the familiar Honda CBR1000RR sport bike. There were apparently not enough Rs for this speedster––so Honda added more. Honda Powersports advertises this designated factory racer as “everything but the factory contract.”
Named the Fireblade––presumably alluding to the heat with which it slices through the air(or the competition)––this sportbike is not for beginners. And it really belongs on a track. With top speeds of up to 186 miles per hour, we absolutely cannot endorse opening this beast up on public roads. It’s ridiculous. It’s far more than anyone could ever need for the commute to work and back. But let’s be honest, that’s the draw.
The all-new Fireblade
In the past, the Honda CBR1000RR-R will be America’s first Fireblade-badged MotoGP inspired bike. According to a report from Ride Apart, trickle down race tech goes a long way for the 2021 Honda CBR1000RR-R silhouette. Additionally, new equipment includes titanium connecting rods, forged aluminum pistons, fresh finger-follower rocker arms, and a block that’s more compact. All of this inspired by the Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) RC213V MotoGP race bike.
“The RR-R one-ups the RR in a number of ways, including the price. Honda announced that the new 2021 Fireblade will retail for $28,500—a $12,000 premium over the entry-level CBR1000RR. What does the additional $12k get you? Put simply: a road-legal MotoGP bike…The designers and engineers took a few pages out of HRC’s book and applied track-inspired solutions to the Fireblade’s design to improve efficiency and reduce friction.”Sabrina Giacomini | Ride Apart
How fast is the CBR1000RR?
The previous Honda CBR liter bike models were plenty fast. The Honda CBR1000RR SP motorcycle reaches top speeds of about 185 miles per hour, according to Top Speed. Keeping speed with its predecessor, the 2021 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP is an insane racing machine.
Motorcycle.com reports a horsepower increase from 169 hp on the current CBR1000 to 188 hp for the all-new Fireblade. Comparably, the 215 horsepower the European model supposedly specs, it’s a bit disappointing. Not to say that the American Honda Fireblade SP will be slow by any means––just not quite as hot and heavy as some might have hoped. Even the BMW S1000RR claims 205 hp in its NHTSA documentation, reports Motorcycle.com.
What does the extra R stand for?
As we all know, those Rs stand for ‘race replica.’ So why are there three? It seems like the new Honda sport bike might be keeping a secret. The ‘Type R’ stamp is typically not to be taken lightly.
If CBR stands for ‘city bike racing’ and 1000 is the amount of displacement, then RR-R stands for Race Replica…R? We still aren’t sure. Despite curious fans, Honda’s lips are sealed. One thing is clear: with that SP badge, it better be special.
The extra R is either a fun sticker or a game-changer. Unfortunately, the US release for the Honda Fireblade SP has been delayed from June 2020 until September. So, we will just wait and see.
Is the Fireblade SP a good bike?
If you don’t mind spending some serious cash on a brand new race-built factory sport bike, the 2021 Honda CBR is a good, fast motorcycle. The 2021 Honda Fireblade will easily compete with others like the BMW S1000RR and the Suzuki GSX R1100. Although city street motorcycle racing isn’t exactly advised, this bike will be a top contender if you choose to do so.


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Odex Philippines has teased the release of the latest Detective Conan movie, The Story of Ai Haibara: Black Iron Mystery Train, on their official Facebook page.
The film, which was released in Japan in January 2023 as a compilation of the franchise, reconstructs the Mystery Train arc from the television anime, which depicts the first meeting of Ai Haibara and Conan.
In addition, the movie will include some scenes from the upcoming Detective Conan Movie: Kurogane no Submarine, which is set to be released in Japan in April 2023. Odex Philippines has yet to announce the official release date for the movie in the Philippines, but fans are already eagerly anticipating its arrival.
As a leading distributor of Japanese anime films in the country, Odex Philippines has brought some of the biggest and most popular titles to local cinemas, and fans of the Detective Conan series are excited to see the latest installment.


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This gif was created as part of a personal project inspired by an online article titled 'The Return of the Milkman'.
The idea of having milk delivered straight to your doorstep is very much an alien concept to a lot of people these days. However studies have shown that it is now making a resurgence. As the desire to eliminate plastic waste increases, the idea of glass bottles is becoming much more appealing.
The article talks about the benefits of using a milkman and how popular it is becoming.


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Following the successful letting of a modern Warehouse at Tachbrook Park, Jump In Trampoline Arena is soon to launch a second site
A 25,000-sq. foot, 70 new jobs, party and conference facilities for up to 80 people, 150 jumper capacity, the figures all add up to make Warwick’s new Jump In Trampoline Arena a formula for business success. The team plans to open its doors to the public to a facility in Warwick in May 2016.
On the back of the successful launch of Jump In’s first Trampoline Arena in Slough, the entrepreneurs behind Jump In plan to launch at least three new sites within the next 12 months, Warwick being the first in their expansion plans.
Jump In Trampoline Arena, which is powered by Altitude Trampoline Parks (a leading international operator with multiple sites across the US, as well as Japan, UAE, South Africa and India), also operates a licensing programme, partnering with entrepreneurs to help them launch their own trampoline arenas. Their goal is to bring a Trampoline Arena to every major market in the UK and further afield in Europe. Trampoline Parks are the latest phenomenon to hit the UK, and Jump In differentiates itself by providing the highest quality equipment, innovative features and family-friendly events and pricing.
Tom Bromwich adds
‘ The building we let to Jump In is ideally located and of an ideal size for their fantastic indoor Trampoline Arena concept. We understand there is huge pent up demand within the region for this activity and cannot wait to see the facility open.’


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Based on automakers' sales reports and our estimates, we report a total of 28,386 plug-in electric vehicles were sold in the U.S. in May, compared to last year's 24,307 and last month's 21,255. While the increase is not huge, it's an increase nonetheless.
As usual, Tesla has accounted for much of the overall U.S. EV sales numbers for several months now. Meanwhile, some other EVs are seeing sales growth, while others are lackluster. In the first quarter of 2019, Tesla focused its efforts on global deliveries, though this quarter, it's clear that the focus has shifted back to domestic production and sales.
According to our researched estimates, Tesla sold 16,350 EVs in the U.S. in May 2019. Last May, that number added up to some 8,970. To put it in perspective, once again Tesla sales in May 2019 accounted for well over half of all plug-in sales (28,386) on our shores. According to our research, Tesla delivered 13,950 Model 3 sedans, 1,025 Model S vehicles, and 1,375 Model X crossovers in the U.S. this May.
Honda made notable strides in 2018 with its Clarity Plug-In Hybrid. It outsold its number one rival — the Toyota Prius Prime — in October and December. Moving into 2019, January and February brought two more wins for the Clarity PHEV. However, in March and April, based on our estimates, Prime sales finally topped Clarity sales. In May, it appears the Prime shot way ahead.
Sadly, Toyota has stopped reporting Prius model splits, so we only have an estimate of Prime plug-ins delivered. According to our research, Toyota sold an impressive 1,915 Primes in the U.S. in May. While Honda sold a very low, automaker-reported 906 total Clarity vehicles last month. Thus, we estimate that only 816 were of the PHEV variety.
The Chevrolet Bolt EV, had a hot month, eclipsing the 1,000-mark by a decent number. In fact, Bolt deliveries are at 1,396, according to our research. In addition, other chart-toppers for May include the Nissan LEAF with 1,216 copies sold, as well as the Audi e-tron (at a whopping automaker reported 856), and the BMW 5 Series plug-in at and estimated 727.
So, it appears (and we can only cross our fingers) that next month, which is the end of Q2, will be the first month this year with the potential to join our top five list. Do you think it will happen? The number to beat is 34,074. We guess it ultimately depends on Tesla's choices surrounding global deliveries versus U.S. sales, but there's much more at play here. If Audi e-tron and Kia/Hyundai sales ramp up even a bit, we could be looking at a nice increase.
Top Months for U.S. EV Sales to Date (estimated):
- December 2018 – 49,900
- September 2018 – 44,544
- November 2018 – 42,588
- August 2018 – 36,347
- October 2018 – 34,074
We'll close out the month with the usual final data points and another look at our completed sales chart. Just look at Tesla U.S. sales compared to all other OEMs. We're looking at some ridiculously crazy increases, to say the least.
Other Statistical Points of Interest from May 2019
Top Manufacturers Of Plug-In Vehicles:
- Tesla* – 16,350
- Toyota* – 1,914
- General Motors* – 1,804
- BMW Group – 1.439
- Honda – 898
Pure Electric Car Market Share vs PHEV In May*
- BEV – 20,884
- PHEV – 7,502
*Based on estimates due to the lack of U.S. monthly sales reporting by Tesla and GM, as well as Toyota Prius (Prime) and BMW i3 (BEV + REx) splits, and multiple automakers refusing to provide information related to individual EV sales.


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Generative AI and the future of the creative industry: ‘there is going to be pain’
Marketers, meet the AI models that are poised to transform your industry.
An image created by DALL·E 2 with the prompt: “An intelligent machine attaining enlightenment, cyberpunk digital art”
Excited chatter about artificial intelligence has been sweeping across adland in recent months. ‘Generative AI,’ in particular, seems to have already become the hot new marketing buzzphrase of 2023, similar to the hype surrounding ‘the metaverse’ this time last year.
And like the metaverse, generative AI is technically complex, easily misunderstood and liable to a broad array of definitions and interpretations. Some starry-eyed advocates hail it as a harbinger of a glorious AI-assisted future; others shake their heads in dismay, regarding it as a pale imitation of human creativity – or worse. (Most of us have seen enough dystopian sci-fi movies to reflexively fear AI.)
But there is one foundational point on which almost all expert voices agree: AI is here to stay, and it’s only going to improve.
The ostrich’s strategy of sticking one’s head in the sand and hoping for a trend to disappear is an old parable of folly – one that seems especially well-suited to the rapidly evolving field of AI. The time has come for brands to get acquainted with intelligent machines so that they’ll be able to face the future head-on.
What is generative AI?
Generative AI is a branch of machine learning which leverages algorithms, both unsupervised and semi-supervised, to create text, images, video, code and other content based on preexisting content.
Okay, deep breath. That’s a lot of new lingo to throw at you in one sentence. Don’t worry too much about the details – if you ever want to dive into a technical rabbit hole, we recommend checking out this AI glossary, which we’ll be updating regularly – for now, it’s enough to understand that generative AI models basically use old content to create new content.
ChatGPT is a generative AI model that’s received a substantial amount of media attention in recent weeks. Launched in November 2022 by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI, this model uses GPT-3 – a collection of large language models (LLMs) also developed by OpenAI - and text-based prompts to generate new text modeled after human conversation. ChatGPT might be new, but it’s already exhibiting some impressive abilities, including attempts at humor, as was recently demonstrated in an ad from Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile brand.
Lensa AI is another generative AI model that’s recently been making waves across the zeitgeist. Users simply need to submit some selfies, and the program will create a set of digitally rendered images that range from photorealistic to abstract. You’ve probably seen some Lensa AI portraits cycling through your Instagram and/or Twitter feed starting around December 2022. Small wonder why: most of those portraits are extremely flattering.
Then there's DALL·E 2 and Midjourney, two other much-publicized generative AI models that use text prompts to create images. Both are free to use (Midjourney requires a paid subscription after the first 25 images) and are currently in beta.
As excitement about the capabilities of generative AI has soared, so too have some ethical concerns. The case has been made, for example, that AI models like Midjourney and Lensa AI are nonconsensually using the artistic styles of human artists. Meanwhile, some claim that ChatGPT could spread dangerous misinformation, propagate harmful biases and put to a variety of other nefarious uses.
‘This is not hype’
It takes a lot of data to keep generative AI models up and running.
The human brain is ill-equipped to comprehend such enormous numbers. GPT-3, for instance, uses around 175bn parameters in order to predict the next word that should be added to a sentence. (That’s 175 followed by nine zeros.)
Google’s LaMDA, another LLM-based generative AI model, was originally created using a dataset of approximately 1.56tn words (12 zeros) according to a company blog post. LaMDA would prove to be so adept at mimicking human dialogue that one of the company’s former engineers felt obligated to publicly speak out, in July of last year, claiming that the program had become sentient. (Google fired the engineer and denies those claims.)
The scope and scale of these models underscore the human brain’s sophisticated, dynamic and often mysterious language-processing abilities. “Language is a complex thing – it’s a very high-level intuition that humans have,” says Rajkumar Venkatesan, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, whose research focuses in part on the impact of AI on the marketing industry. “It’s a big breakthrough to have a machine that can converse [and] understand the nuance of language.”
Venkatesan points specifically to the recent Mint Mobile as evidence of the breakthrough he’s describing: “Humor is a highly intuitive thing to pull off… and [ChatGPT] actually cracking a joke? That is some level of intelligence for a machine.” He adds that some of the more advanced models of generative AI also seem able to understand the more subtle aspects of human conversation, like sarcasm and double negatives.
“This is not hype,” he says. “It’s only going to get better as we keep going and giving it information.”
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Should marketers be worried?
It’d probably be a good idea at this point to pause and take another deep breath.
All this talk of trillions of data points and the rise of joke-telling machines raises some disconcerting questions about the future of humanity; these have been discussed at great length elsewhere and, again, Hollywood has for decades been making films exploring the dark side of AI, so we’re not going to rehash all of that here.
It goes without saying that concerns about intelligent machines tend to fall into one of two basic categories: one, they’re eventually going to become smarter than every living human being (a hypothetical event which computer scientist Ray Kurzweil has dubbed “the Singularity”), after which point they will be completely and irrevocably outside of our control. Or two, even if they don’t become our intellectual superiors, they will become sophisticated enough to push huge numbers of people out of the job market. (Some believe that that second outcome might not be such a bad thing because those people will be able to enjoy more leisure time, but that’s a separate issue.)
Many marketers are probably looking around at all of the creative work that’s being generated by programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney and are asking themselves: Will there be a role for me to play in five years? 10? 20?
“That’s a real worry,” says Venkatesan. “There will be a shift in the creative side … anywhere there's a restructuring in the economy and the labor force has to learn a new technology, there is going to be pain.” Meaning, brands are likely to restructure their creative strategies as the means of producing creative content continue to change in the coming years.
At the same time, Venkatesan also believes that the rise of generative AI could very well increase the demand for highly talented human employees – those whose abilities rise above those of a machine like ChatGPT, which Venkatesan says can write “a ‘B’ paper, not an ‘A’ paper.” Generative AI “is going to make some good copywriters really valuable,” he says. “Anybody who’s above-average, the premium they can command is going to be huge. That’s the bright side.”
Just as brands have had to hire social media copywriters and managers over the past ten-plus years in order to thrive in that crucial new media, brands may also need to hire generative AI specialists in the coming years. “You will need folks who are good at using it and making it do things you want it to,” says Venkatesan. “That's a new job that I think is going to come up.” One can almost imagine the LinkedIn job posting now: “ChatGPT prompt expert wanted.”
The bottom line? “There’s going to be disruption in the creative advertising industry, for sure,” says Venkatesan.
Deloitte chief marketing officer Scott Mager agrees that there will be some disruption, but he's generally optimistic about the AI-generated future of the marketing industry. “AI tools might replace a designer that doesn't know generative AI tools, but I don't think it’s going to replace designers or copywriters,” he says. “It’s a creative renaissance; it puts creativity in more people’s hands, and I think we’re going to get more interesting content that’s [currently] locked in people’s heads.”
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