Journeys
Socios boss’ goal? To knock crypto out of the park
What is a sports fan’s dream come true? To be the announcer at an AC Milan home game, in front of 75,000 roaring Rossoneri fans? To play a football match on the hallowed turf of your beloved FC Barcelona? To tour the garage of an F1 team pre-race, then watch the Monza Grand Prix from a VIP box? These are some of the biggest rewards handed out as incentives to join Chiliz, or CHZ-based, fan token schemes on Socios.com. There are also lesser, but still desirable prizes, like meeting your sports idols, choosing the music to be played when your team scores a goal, or voting on the design of next year’s team strip. Socios.com has now partnered with over 170 sporting clubs across 25 countries and 10 sports, including American football, soccer, basketball, cricket, esports, ice hockey, mixed mart...
The ‘godfather of crypto’ risked lifetime in jail, laying foundation for Bitcoin
Widely credited as the inventor of digital cash, David Chaum is sometimes known as the “father of online anonymity” or the “godfather of cryptocurrency,” whose work inspired the near-mythical group called the Cypherpunks from which Bitcoin emerged. Beginning his studies in computer science in the late 1970s, when encryption was classified at the same level as nuclear technology, Chaum quickly realized that the technology would be crucial to ensure the continuation of privacy and democracy in the digital age. More recently, he founded xx Network, a privacy-focused blockchain whose connected xx Messenger Chaum hopes will withstand attacks even by quantum computers of the future. “The National Security Agency was taking the position that cryptography was born classified, even if you cre...
You can transform the world with blockchain: Dr. Jane Thomason
Jane Thomason is an Australian academic who spent 15 years running hospitals and doing development work abroad followed by a 20-year stint building a $250-million revenue company. Thomason — now a blockchain adviser to the World Health Organization — says she “had an epiphany” while thinking about the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, in which the lives of over 200,000 people were washed away. “No one knew the identities of the people coming to the hospitals — all the identity documents were gone, all the bank records were gone, all the health records were gone. People wanted to send money to the people who were alive, but no one could send money directly.” Dr Jane Thomason believes in the power of blockchain to help make the world a better place. Thomason believes that if this data had bee...
Better than Axie Infinity: Kieran Warwick’s 2032 plan for Illuvium
Kieran Warwick created the play-to-earn game Illuvium with his brothers Aaron and Grant — all siblings of DeFi maverick Kain, the founder of Synthetix. He shares his alpha on how NFT game mechanics can be designed in such a way that playing them can be fun and profitable in the long term. Warwick entered the retail world right out of high school, eventually becoming an online shopping entrepreneur. He got his start in the crypto world at brother Kain’s company BlueShyft, which first made Bitcoin and crypto exchange payments available over-the-counter at more than one thousand physical retailers around Australia in 2015. Kieran Warwick is riding Illuvium until 2032. Years later, with a number of business projects under his belt, Kain encouraged him to reenter the space, which led to the cre...
What really goes on at a crypto OTC desk?
Over-the-counter, or OTC, trading refers to any trading that is not done via an automated exchange. What exactly is OTC trading? Who does it, and why? To learn more about what an OTC desk is and how these “under the radar” exchanges operate, Magazine spoke to a few insiders to get the scoop. The most popular conception of OTC trading revolves around massive off-market deals, like when companies such as MicroStrategy make multimillion-dollar purchases using OTC desks run by the likes of Coinbase or Kraken. OTC trading is, however, not the exclusive domain of the rich, as it can also refer to peer-to-peer platforms like LocalBitcoins, which has been helping individuals trade BTC both in-person and via bank transfer since 2013. Even some crypto ATMs can be categorized as OTC trading, as these...
Astrology charts beat technical analysis: Maren Altman is a star
Are future prices written in the stars? Meet Maren Altman, presciently named for cryptocurrency, who combines astrology and day trading crypto into a winning blend. In 1973, Princeton University professor Burton Malkiel published his book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, in which he famously states that a “blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper’s financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts.” Fast forward to 2013, and Rob Arnott, CEO of Research Affiliates, conducted research mimicking monkeys using AI and actually discovered the monkeys had done a much better job than both the experts and the stock market. Closer examination proved the success was a result of the random selection of companies by the “monkey approach,” op...
Concerts in the Metaverse could lead to a new wave of adoption
Colin Fitzpatrick is a Dubliner based in Dubai who turned a bad time during quarantine into a business that promises to bring your favorite artists to a metaverse near you. His company Animal Concerts, which launches in January, is in the process of signing world-class artists to perform in the decentralized worlds of the Metaverse. Among the first to get the Animal Concerts treatment was Grammy-winning rapper Future, who performed at an in-person Animal Concerts-themed Halloween party in Miami, which was filmed in such a way that it can later be broadcast in the Metaverse. In this startling new land, there are no COVID restrictions nor travel bans, and artists can sell NFT memorabilia to fans with little overhead, investment or middlemen. Virtual concerts have already begun to appea...
Traffic in Suez Canal resumes after stranded ship refloated
Shipping traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal resumed on Monday after a giant container ship which had been blocking the busy waterway for almost a week was refloated, the canal authority said. The 400-metre (430-yard) long Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early last Tuesday, halting traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia. Live footage on a local television station showed the ship surrounded by tug boats moving slowly in the centre of the canal on Monday afternoon. The station, ExtraNews, said the ship was moving at a speed of 1.5 knots. “Admiral Osama Rabie, the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), announces the resumption of maritime traffic in the Suez Canal after the Authority successfully rescues and ...
Suez Canal Authority says stranded ship partially refloated
The stranded container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week was almost fully re-floated on Monday and has restarted its engines, a shipping source with knowledge of the matter said, raising hopes the busy waterway will soon be reopened. The 400-metre (430-yard) long Ever Given has been straightened in the canal and will undergo initial inspections before being moved, two sources said. Video posted on social media appeared to show the ship’s stern had swung around, opening space in the canal. Other footage, which could not be immediately verified by Reuters, included cheering and ships’ horns sounding in celebration. Ship-tracking service VesselFinder has changed the ship’s status to under way on its website. The Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of...
Saudi fines large gatherings as coronavirus cases increase
Agence France-Presse Saudi Arabia has imposed fines between 5,000 riyals (1,333 dollars) and 100,000 riyals for large gatherings, in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus inside the kingdom. In March, the kingdom banned gatherings in public of more than five people as it loosened a nationwide curfew several weeks after it was imposed, allowing some businesses to reopen, including shops, construction companies and factories. However, COVID-19 infections have been steadily increasing, prompting the Interior Ministry to introduce the fines. The oil-rich monarchy reported 1,793 new confirmed cases on Thursday, a new daily record that brings the total number of infections in the kingdom to 33,731, including 219 deaths. The Interior Ministry said gatherings of more than five people insi...
