Category: Articles

Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — (via Blockchain Wire)  If you’ve been looking into the Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Decentralized Finance (DeFI) movement for more than five minutes, you’ve probably run into the name Damon Nam. Damon is a 20 year IT professional, Microsoft alumnus, entrepreneur, and currently the Founder and CEO of Coin; an emerging financial services and technology company.

During his 17-year tenure at Microsoft, he assumed a number of different roles within the Microsoft Services organization. In his last role at Microsoft as a US Services Program Director, he was responsible for driving and managing Microsoft’s entire partner program for the US subsidiary; a program with approximately seventy-five partner organizations and a total book of business of over $90 million in revenue. With a great deal of business and information technology services experience under his belt, Damon, who has had years of interest in blockchain technology, decided it was time to put his particular talents to the task of tackling the problems in the traditional financial services industry. To that end, he founded Coin, a US-based FinTech startup.

Today’s financial solutions, centralized banking entities, and devaluing dollars from continuous money printing by governments across the world, have sparked a renewed interest in sovereign wealth management for consumers. This has resulted in a large demand for an open financial system driven by blockchain technology and
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Researchers from the Department of Computer Science at the University of York have presented the first ever analysis of gambling transactions taking place in cryptocurrency casinos on the Ethereum blockchain.

In uncovering extreme behaviours, the study could assist in identifying the potential for financial harm via unsustainable spending among players, ultimately leading to better consumer protection tools.

The study unlocks blockchain transaction data to provide a detailed summary of spending behaviours, revealing how people are affected by this new form of online gambling.

Decentralised gambling applications differ from traditional online casinos in that players use cryptocurrency as a stake. The codes running the casino games are also stored on public ledgers, known as blockchains and cryptocurrency platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum use the technology to process payments and calculate game outcomes.

When players place wagers, their transactions are recorded on a blockchain in an anonymised form. Whilst this data has always been publically available, the technologically advanced nature of the applications has presented barriers to research and regulation.

As part of the study, researchers developed an algorithm to extract and decode transaction data from the Ethereum blockchain. The work examined more than 2.2m transactions from 24,000 unique addresses on three applications operating on the Ethereum cryptocurrency network (dice2.win, etheroll.com and fck.com).
Focussing on simple casino type games of chance, like dice rolls and coin flips, researchers found that the average decentralised gambling application player spends less than in other online casinos overall, but
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Billionaire rap mogul-turned U.S. presidential hopeful Kanye West has made waves with his controversial bid for the White House.

West, who announced he was planning to run for office back in 2015, has built his Birthday Party campaign around his relationship with God and religion—advocating conservative Christian values.

Now, appearing on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, West has said he thinks “geniuses” in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community “have a perspective” on the “true liberation of America and humanity.”

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“These guys really have a
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Not content with being labelled “the most advanced blockchain application platform in the world,” Skycoin is launching a VPN app to deliver privacy, security and anonymity to users. The app has launched in beta mode as part of a broader upgrade to the Skywire network,

Skycoin operates as a virtually free currency, while also serving as a blockchain application platform. When an individual holds Skycoin, they generate Coin Hours, which can be used to purchase Skywire services or exchanged for more Skycoin.

Skywire, meanwhile, aims to provide the next stage in the internet’s development by leaving ISPs behind. It is a community-driven mesh network running on user-owned nodes. It promises reliability without tracking, storing or selling browser data.

Upgraded features

One of the key features of the Skywire network is the anonymity it promises users. The new update builds upon this by providing users with an option to connect to a VPN and proxy server based on their location.

“The Skywire dev team is excited to release the Skywire VPN client in beta,” the Skycoin blog read. “This greatly anticipated feature will simplify the ability to make use of the privacy, security, and end-to-end encryption of Skywire. Users will connect to Skyminer operators and select from VPN servers all over the globe. Skyminer operators can decide to advertise their own VPN server to other participants in the network to make the VPN service even stronger.”

Other upgrades that are coming to the Skywire network include the
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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is funding a major decentralized audio streaming service through its investment and incubation arm.

According to an Oct. 23 announcement, Binance Labs led a $1.25 million extension round for Audius, a blockchain-enabled streaming service that connects music fans with artists.

The latest investment round follows a $3.1 million round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Blockchange Ventures in July 2020. Major industry players like Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures also participated in the round, as previously announced.

According to Audius Co-founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg, the latest rounds brings the platform’s total investment up to $9.8 million. Rumburg told Cointelegraph that it will use the funds to help artists grow and expand their listener base within the system. 

Launched in 2018, Audius is a decentralized music-sharing and streaming protocol designed to facilitate direct transactions between listeners and artists. Some prominent creators signed up for Audius include Portland-based Portuguese-American musician RAC, Canadian electronic music producer deadmau5, and American DJ Justin David Blau, better known as 3LAU.

According to the protocol’s white paper, the Audius content ledger is the “amalgamation” of smart contracts on the Ethereum network, while different parts of the protocol are set to be running on different blockchain-based platforms.

On Oct. 8, the startup launched the platform’s native Audius token (AUDIO). The token’s functionality includes security, feature access and governance. AUDIO can be earned by users to impact
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The Deutsche Energie-Agentur, also known as DENA — the main governmental group responsible for energy innovation in Germany — is looking to move its energy ecosystem to a decentralized database.

“When infrastructure can’t go down – when the lights need to stay on – the systems you use need to be resilient, and decentralized technologies deliver that,” Parity Technologies head of public affairs, Peter Mauric, told Cointelegraph. Parity Technologies stands as one of the companies involved in DENA’s project. Mauric added:

“The concept of microgrids — smaller, decentralized energy grids to improve resiliency energy generation, storage and distribution — have been a focus for the energy industry for years, so we should not be surprised that similar decentralized approaches are being explored across the entire energy market.”

Working with over 20 other crypto and blockchain entities, Energy Web will build a distributed energy resource database for Germany at the request of DENA, an Oct. 13 blog post from Energy Web detailed, adding:

“The project will enable energy assets in Germany, such as thermostats, solar PV systems, batteries, and electric vehicle charging stations to undertake automatic registration with a decentralized ledger of identities, allowing their utilisation by the German grid for a range of services such as virtual power plants and frequency regulation.”

Germany’s energy innovation wing, combined with Energy Web and numerous blockchain and crypto companies, essentially want to digitize the country’s energy system by storing necessary components on a
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