China
Bong Bong: RZA Files $2M Lawsuit Against Bootleggers Selling Fake Wu Merchandise
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Sakura/WENN.com / WENN The RZA promotes peace and unity but he is still about his coin. He has filed suit against several parties who have been selling unauthorized Wu-Tang Clan merchandise. As spotted on Complex The Abbott is claiming different websites are profiting from his group’s logo without paying the proper licensing fees. According to documentation obtained by Complex RZA says that these merchants are guilty of “trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and false designation of origin”. Additionally the bootleggers, who are have been identified as all China based, are also passing the goods as genuine articles. “Many defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the Wu-Tang Clan Trademarks without authorization within the content, text, and/...
12 of Earth’s most remote places and communities
From eastern Greenland to northern Alaska, we explore some of the most remote places on Earth Whether it’s astronomical distances, inhospitable climates or extreme terrains that define these remote and hostile lands, there’s one thing they all have in common: they are on my bucket list. That and the fact that people live there. It’s highly unlikely I’ll actually make it to many of these far-flung realms – I certainly didn’t get to Ittoqqortoormiit on my 2019 trip to Greenland – but I salute the hardcore residents who carve out an existence in the most remote places and communities on Earth. 1. Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland Ittoqqortoormiit is located on Liverpool Land, a peninsula in eastern Greenland and one of the most remote towns in the country. It was first inhabited in 1925 b...
Chinese Nationalists Call for Boycott of The Matrix Resurrections After Keanu Reeves Joins Tibet Benefit Concert
Keanu Reeves was recently announced for this year’s Tibet House US benefit concert, drawing backlash from Chinese nationalists — some of whom have called for a boycott of his latest film, The Matrix Resurrections. Reeves’ support for the cultural organization, which was founded in 1987 at the request of Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, has struck a nerve. The People’s Republic of China annexed Tibet in 1950, which ultimately led to the exile of the Dalai Lama, and the Communist Party has cracked down on the region’s people and their culture since then. First held in 1989, the Tibet House US benefit concert is a fundraiser to support the work of the cultural embassy. It’s timed in conjunction with the Tibetan New Year, which has traditionally been marked by the Monlam Prayer Festival. Ad...
Chinese Release of Fight Club Includes Awkward Re-Cut Ending Where Police Save the Day
Fight Club ends with a battle of personalities and a series of fiery explosions, as an anarchist plot to upend consumerism brings buildings crashing to the ground. But as Vice notes, Chinese censors prefer the message that evil is always punished and the state will forever triumph over lawlessness, which is why the country’s new version of Fight Club has been burdened with an awkward re-cut where police save the day. David Fincher’s Fight Club became an instant cult classic when it dropped in 1999, following the characters Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and the Narrator (Edward Norton) as they tried to punch their way through the alienation of modern life. But the cut streaming on the Chinese site Tencent Video tries to make the case that, ...
Vibe killers: Here are the countries that moved to outlaw crypto in the past year
Last week, Pakistan’s Sindh High Court held a hearing on the legal status of digital currencies that might lead an outright ban of cryptocurrency trading combined with penalties against crypto exchanges. Several days later, the Central Bank of Russia called for a ban on both crypto trading and mining operations. Both countries could join the growing ranks of nations that moved to outlaw digital assets, which already include China, Turkey, Iran and several other jurisdictions. According to a report by the Library of Congress (LOC), there are currently nine jurisdictions that have applied an absolute ban on crypto and 42 with an implicit ban. The authors of the report highlight a worrisome trend: the number of countries banning crypto has more than doubled since 2018. Here are the ...
Chinese police unearth multi-million-dollar DeFi rug pull
Beijing’s crackdown on crypto continued with the start of the new year, with the Chinese police freezing nearly 6 million yuan ($1 million) worth of crypto and arresting eight people involved with it. As per a report published in Nikkei Asia, the public security bureau of Chizhou unearthed a crypto rug pull scam that could be worth 50 million yuan ($7.8 million). The police began an investigation after an investor lost 590,000 yuan worth of crypto in June last year. The trail of the inquiry led to eight people living in different provinces. The police also seized luxury cars, villas and other expensive items from the accused that were allegedly purchased using the stolen money. The decentralized finance (DeFi) scam lured investors with promises of high returns by swapping liquid...
NFT sales and blockchain games continue to grow despite the recent market slump: Report
January 2022 continues to be rough for crypto investors as current markets see turbulent fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Some have attributed the slump to recent federal intentions to introduce new rate hikes, and the political turmoil in Kazakhstan, which significantly lowered the hash rate of Bitcoin. On Jan. 14, the price of Bitcoin dipped below $42,000 as traders continued to hold out hope for bullish signals. Nonfungible token (NFT) trading and blockchain games, on the other hand, seem to have resisted the dip. According to reports from DappRadar, NFT transactions continued to increase amid declining crypto prices. The report stated that “the number of UAW connected to Ethereum NFT DApps grew by 43% since Q3 2021.” Numbers fr...
China is looking to adopt a crypto-free model in its NFT industry
The Asian country will model its NFT industry around the Blockchain Services Network China is setting boundaries that would define the scope of the booming NFT sector in the country. Despite having previously declared a crackdown on cryptocurrencies (primarily used in NFTs transactions), the Chinese government does not intend to be left out in the new collectibles’ wave. The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that the government-supported Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) will later this month deploy infrastructure to support NFTs. The tech will provide application programming interfaces to businesses and individuals to develop user apps & modules to manage their NFTs. The project, also referred to as the BSN-Distributed Digital Certificate (BSN-DDC), aims t...
China aims to separate NFTs from crypto via new blockchain infrastructure
China is planning to draw a clear line between cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), pretty much the same way it did with its digital currency efforts, before the crypto crackdown in the country harms the local NFT industry. The Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), a government-backed blockchain project in China, is working on infrastructure that would support businesses and individuals to build platforms and apps to manage NFTs, the South China Morning Post reported. Officially called the BSN-Distributed Digital Certificate (BSN-DDC), the project aims to support the deployment of non-crypto NFTs by offering application programming interfaces for the development of user portals and apps where fiat money would be the sole payment method. Underscoring that NFTs have no leg...
Bitcoin mining manufacturer Canaan expands footprint in Kazakhstan
Bitcoin (BTC) mining hardware manufacturer Canaan Inc is expanding its footprint in Kazakhstan after signing new strategic partnerships with multiple crypto mining firms in the country. The Nasdaq-listed company announced Tuesday that it had deployed 10,300 AvalonMiner units in Kazakhstan as of Dec. 31, 2021, finalizing phase one of its deployment in the central Asian country. Canaan is partnering with local firms as part of its business expansion plans outside of China. However, the company declined to list any of its local partners. Although Canaan is based in Hangzhou, China, the company is eyeing expansion outside of its home country following Beijing’s wholesale crackdown on crypto mining in 2021. Zhang Nangeng, Canaan’s CEO, spoke out against the mining ban during an earnings c...
China’s central bank releases pilot version of digital yuan wallet
As China’s central bank steps up its effort to create a digital currency, the country has released a pilot edition of its digital yuan wallet application on mobile phone app stores. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) digital currency research institute developed the “e-CNY (Pilot Version)” app, which was available for download on Chinese Android and Apple app stores on Tuesday in Shanghai. According to a tweet from BlockBeats, a local news source, individual users in China now can download an earlier version of the app to test opening and managing a personal wallet, as well as digital yuan transactions. The e-CNY app is now available on iOS and Android app stores. This App is the official service platform of China’s CBDC for individual users to carry out pilot trials, providing e-CNY ...
Bitcoin starts 2022 at $47.2K as fresh research pins performance on China trader exodus
Bitcoin (BTC) bears lost out at the last minute as 2021 came to an end — and consensus is building around China again being the reason for weakness. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView China “last hammer” could now provide optimism on BTC Hours before the yearly close, BTC/USD dived $2,000 to lows of $45,630 on Bitstamp before a modest recovery drew a line under 2021 at $47,200, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows. While something of an anticlimax and far below many popular projections, the lack of parabolic upside for Bitcoin has recently seen explanations shift to exchanges. Chinese users, following years of the government tightening the screws around crypto trading, had until Dec. 31 to leave the major Chinese exchanges, whi...
