Blockchain
Armin van Buuren Launches Web3 Subscriber Community, “AAA”
Armin van Buuren has revealed the future hub of his global electronic community. “Armin’s All Access,” otherwise known as AAA (Triple-A), will serve as the future channel for van Buuren’s direct contact with his fanbase. The trance music icon has consistently been on the forefront of embracing nascent technologies. Most recently, van Buuren’s campaign for his single “Computers Take Over The World” saw the veteran artist embracing the future of AI-powered productivity applications, from formulating the cover art to writing the track’s press release. “I started my journey an odd twenty years ago looking to build strong connections with people from all over the world through music,” van Buuren said in a statement shared with EDM.com. ...
What Goldman Sachs’ CEO misunderstands about private blockchains
Only one of the following news items is real, but someday, all will sound equally comical. Headline, 1896: The owner of Wagoneer & Sons, a leading horse-drawn carriage maker, has announced the adoption of a new machine called the “internal combustion engine” to improve its manufacturing process. “Gas engines are powerful but dangerous,” the owner said. “We will use them to make better wagons. Headline, 1918: The American Association of Candle Makers has announced a new initiative to electrify its wax-making process. It believes that electricity is too dangerous to use for lighting but can be utilized to make cheaper candles. Headline, 1989: The United States postal service will adopt a new technology called “the internet” to speed up the sorting and delivery of letters and postcards. H...
Data shows the Bitcoin mining bear market has a ways to go
Bitcoin (BTC) mining is the backbone of the BTC ecosystem and miners’ returns also provide insight into BTC’s price movements and the health of the wider crypto sector. It is well-documented that Bitcoin miners are struggling in the current bear market. Blockstream, a leading Bitcoin miner recently raised funds at a 70% discount. Current mining activity shares similarities to historic BTC bear markets with a few caveats. Let’s explore what this means for the current Bitcoin cycle. Analysis shows that based on previous cycles the bear market may continue Bitcoin mining profitability can be measured by taking the miner’s revenue per kilowatt hour (kWh). According to Jaran Mellerud, a Bitcoin analyst for Hashrate Index, a BTC mining bear market has a sustained period of revenue per kWh of les...
The all-in-one approach at the foundation of next gen crypto investment platforms
The ongoing FTX saga has injected more uncertainty into an already shaken market. If it was not clear already, even the biggest centralized exchanges can fail. The problem is multi-faceted. On the one hand, just like in traditional finance, centralized institutions are only as good as the people who run them. When investors use services like FTX, they are putting their trust in the people that run the service. Unfortunately, history is rife with examples of powerful people taking advantage of that trust. On the other hand, cryptocurrency is still very new. The vast majority of crypto users are not well-versed in all of the technical underpinnings of how things work. For most, digital assets are simply an alternative means of investing and therefore the most convenient solutions are often t...
Never mind FTX — Fine arts institutions should still onboard to blockchain
The reality is that blockchain technology can still deliver substantial benefits, particularly within the fine arts. And for those who have been paying attention, 2022 has been a year of incredible normalization for nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Simply put, major institutions across various sectors have dipped their toes into Web3. In November, Instagram announced that creators would soon have the functionality to make and sell NFTs. Apple similarly announced in September that NFTs could be sold in its App Store. Put together, that’s 3.5 billion people (2 billion from Instagram and 1.5 billion from the App Store). Although each of these major institutions has its own quirks and rules, most notably the fees associated with using their platforms, the reality is that they are still some of the l...
Party-to-earn: Blockchain breaking down the doors in electronic music community
Electronic music is big business. According to a report by the International Music Summit, in 2021, the electronic music sector was valued at $6 billion dollars and that sector is poised for significant further growth. That $6 billion dollar figure marks a 71% increase from the industry’s valuation in 2020, which was understandably much smaller due to the effects of the pandemic. While revenue is down from where it was in 2019, barring further massive disruptions, the industry is on pace in 2022 to surpass its pre-pandemic heights. This should be great news for artists and music lovers alike, but there is a caveat. As electronic music continues to flourish, access to festivals and concerts — the heart of the electronic music scene — has become increasingly exclusive. The price of concert t...
Blockchain-based fintech company prepares to enter $500B freight settlement market
The world is quick to blame inflation for the rising prices at grocery stores and retailers. This was the #1 political issue for recent Election Day voters in the United States. For example, media sources recently reported poll data that 85% of Americans could not afford to spend $200 on a Thanksgiving meal in November 2022, and only 25% could afford $100. However, few recognize inflation is only part of the problem. Higher costs for products and services are also directly attributable to settlement fees paid by transportation providers who are forced to take out the equivalent of payday loans against their freight invoices. Shipper payment terms in the transportation industry are known to be egregious, and most transportation carriers cannot afford to wait 30–180 days to get paid. Wh...
How blockchain technology is used in supply chain management?
To trace the activities along the supply chain more efficiently, concerned parties can access price, date, origin, quality, certification, destination and other pertinent information using blockchain. Traceability, as used in the supply chain sector, is the capacity to pinpoint the previous and current locations of inventory and a record of product custody. It involves tracking products as they move through a convoluted process, from raw materials to merchants and customers, after passing through many geographic zones. Traceability is one of the significant benefits of blockchain-driven supply chain innovations. As blockchain consists of decentralized open-source ledgers recording data, which is replicable among users, transactions happen in real-time. As a result, the blockchain can build...
Crypto awakening: Researcher explains ETH exodus from exchanges
Blockchain analytics carried out by a Nansen researcher has highlighted outflows of Ether (ETH) and stablecoins from centralized exchanges in the wake of FTX’s collapse. Nansen research analyst Sandra Leow posted a thread on Twitter unpacking the current state of decentralized finance (DeFi), with a specific focus on the movement of ETH and stablecoins from exchanges. As it stands, the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract contains over 15 million ETH, while some 4 million Wrapped Ether (wETH) is held in the wETH deposit contract. Web3 infrastructure development and investment firm Jump Trading holds over 2 million ETH tokens and is the third largest holder of ETH in the ecosystem. The current state of DeFi in @nansen_ai charts — sandra lmeow (@sandraaleow) November 22, 2022 Binance, Kraken, Bitfi...
Crypto sleuth debunks 3 biggest misconceptions about the FTX hack
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT has shared his findings on what he sees as the three most common misconceptions about the FTX hack — taking to Twitter to correct a “ton of misinformation” about the event and the possible culprits. In a lengthy Nov. 20 post on Twitter, the self-proclaimed “on-chain sleuth” debunked speculation that Bahamian officials were behind the FTX hack, that exchanges knew the hacker’s true identity, and that the culprit is trading memecoins. 1/ I have seen a ton of misinformation being spread on Twitter and in the news about the FTX event so let me debunk the three most common things I’ve seen “Bahamian officials are behind the FTX hack”“Exchanges know who the hacker is”“FTX hacker is trading meme coins” pic.twitter.com/IAtHnpJI44 — ZachXBT (@zachxbt)...
What are crypto whale trackers and how do they work?
There are dedicated solutions to track the actions of crypto whales. These solutions can provide analytics on whale actions and, in some instances, can also make investment/trading decisions for the user. Crypto traders and investors constantly track the amount of cryptocurrencies going in and out of exchanges. When a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ether (ETH) is moved in large quantities into an exchange, it is expected to see some sell action resulting in a fall in price. Conversely, if cryptocurrencies flow out of exchanges into wallets, it is considered a precursor to a rise in price. This is because when exchanges have a high net outflow of cryptocurrencies, they have reduced supply resulting in an increase in price. Oftentimes, a whale could buy cryptocurrencies on an exchange and mo...
What is Humanode human-powered blockchain?
Humanode is a project that gracefully combines different technological stacks including blockchain and biometrics. Humanode tech encompasses a bunch of layers such as a blockchain layer represented by a Substrate module: a biometric authorization module based on cryptographically secure neural networks for the private classification of three-dimensional (3D) templates of users’ faces, a private liveness detection mechanism for identifying real human beings, a Vortex decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and a monetary algorithm named Fath, where monetary supply reacts to real value growth and emission is proportional. Let’s look at them in more detail. Substrate framework Humanode is a layer-1 blockchain whose architecture lies on the Substrate open-sour...
