Posts tagged: CoWorking

Tokenized asset issuer Backed has partnered with Latin American exchange eNor Securities to offer tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to retail investors in that region, Backed said on Tuesday.

Through the partnership, Backed will offer its bTokens on the platform of eNor Securities, a fully regulated exchange based in El Salvador. In this country, the company has already worked on a $100 million public offering of a soybean-backed digital token created by e-Grains, a digital assets issuer for agricultural commodities.

“This collaboration signifies a major step forward in making tokenized securities accessible to a wider audience,” said Bernardo Quintao, Head of Business Development at Backed, in a statement.

Backed is based and regulated in Switzerland. According to its website, it offers tokenization services and has issued tokenized RWAs, including ERC-20 compatible token versions of exchange-traded funds (ETF) and individual stocks such as Coinbase (COIN) and Tesla (TSLA).

In April, Backed raised $9.5 million in a funding round to speed up its private tokenization offering and onboard asset managers to blockchain rails, the company said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has claimed that cryptocurrency company NovaTech and its co-founders on Monday (12 August) have fraudulently raised more than $650m from over 200,000 investors.

NovaTech and its co-founders, Cynthia and Eddy Petion, allegedly assured investors that their money would be secure with the company.

The SEC said the married co-founders used investors’ money to pay commissions to promoters and repay earlier investors. The couple also took millions of dollars for themselves, according to the commission.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami federal court, follows a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General Letitia James two months ago, which found the fraud totalled over $1bn.

Many of the investors were Haitian-Americans who were lured into the investment in the Haitian Creole language, and by talks of religious faith over social media, according to the commission.

Cynthia Petion allegedly referred to NovaTech as “God’s vision” and called herself “Reverend CEO”.

The two lawsuits said NovaTech and its co-founders were running a pyramid scheme, where companies pay commissions in order to recruit new investors.

Six NovaTech promoters have also been charged with fraud by the SEC, after claiming they were recruiting investors despite clear “red flags”.

Some of the signs that NovaTech’s legitimacy was in question were regulatory actions by the US and Canada, as well as delayed withdrawals.

According to research and analysis company GlobalData’s “Thematic Intelligence: Cryptocurrencies (2023)” report, the revenue generated by centralised cryptocurrency companies will accelerate as regulatory and security concerns are addressed.

The metaverse – which encompasses a multitude of virtual worlds where cryptocurrencies are used for shopping and trading – will become a $627bn market, GlobalData analysts predict.

Global cryptocurrency revenues will be worth $1.1trn by 2030, up from $33bn in 2022, according to GlobalData.

“SEC charges NovaTech in connection with $650m crypto ‘pyramid scheme’” was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.

Grayscale is rolling out a new single-asset fund for MakerDAO’s governance token.

The new closed-end fund will be accessible to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.

Grayscale, the asset manager company behind bitcoin {{BTC}} and ether {{ETH}} exchange traded-funds (ETFs) and other crypto investment funds, introduced Tuesday a new fund that invests in the governance token of decentralized lending platform MakerDAO {{MKR}}.

MKR advanced over 5% in an hour following the news, hitting $2,100. The token is up nearly 8% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the mostly flat broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index.

The Grayscale MakerDAO Trust is accessible to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors, and has the same structure as the firm’s other single-asset trusts, according to a press release. This means that it’s a closed-end fund where direct withdrawals are not possible, which could lead to price deviations between the fund’s share on secondary markets and the underlying asset.

Read more: The GBTC Discount Is Narrowing; Here’s Why It Matters

Maker is one of the largest protocols in the decentralized finance (DeFi) led by a community of token holders, or decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Those who hold MKR tokens can participate in decision-making and vote on proposals. The protocol manages over $7 billion of crypto and real-world assets (RWA) including U.S. Treasuries and issues the third largest stablecoin on the market, the $5 billion DAI.

The protocol is currently undergoing a major revamp called “End Game” coined by founder Rune Christensen, which includes the issuance of upgraded versions of MKR and DAI.

Read more: Rune Christensen Explains Why He Wants to Remake Maker and Kill DAI

The offering follows Grayscale’s newly launched single-asset funds for decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) project Bittensor’s {{TAO}} token and layer-1 blockchain Sui {{SUI}} last week. The company also opened a decentralized AI-focused fund that invests in a basket of cryptocurrencies including near {{NEAR}}, render {{RNDR}} and filecoin {{FIL}}, nearly a month ago.

Cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, has significantly impacted the energy market and the environment. The process of mining, which validates transactions and secures the blockchain, consumes vast amounts of electricity. In 2021, Bitcoin’s energy usage was comparable to that of entire nations like Argentina, raising concerns about its environmental footprint. This energy-intensive process primarily relies on fossil fuels, thereby increasing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to climate change.

Environmental Concerns

The environmental ramifications of cryptocurrency mining go beyond mere energy consumption. Mining hardware, such as ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) devices, has a limited lifespan, which contributes to electronic waste. Additionally, the mining process generates substantial heat, necessitating cooling systems that further escalate energy use.

Improvements in Cryptocurrency Mining

The cryptocurrency community and industry stakeholders have made several improvements over the years:

Transition to Renewable Energy: A growing number of mining operations are now powered by renewable energy sources such as hydro, solar, and wind. This shift is partly driven by economic incentives, as renewable energy can be cheaper and more sustainable in the long term. Initiatives like the Crypto Climate Accord aim to make blockchains run on 100% renewable energy by 2025 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

More Efficient Mining Hardware: Advances in mining technology have led to more energy-efficient hardware. Modern ASIC miners consume less power per hash, reducing the overall energy consumption for the same amount of computational work.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Mechanism: Some cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, are transitioning from the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). PoS significantly reduces energy consumption by selecting validators based on the number of coins they hold and are willing to “stake” as collateral, rather than through computational work. Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) in 2022 reduced its energy consumption by approximately 99.95%​​.

Second-Layer Solutions: Technologies like the Lightning Network for Bitcoin aim to reduce the number of on-chain transactions by enabling faster and cheaper transactions off-chain, thus lowering the overall energy consumption associated with the network.

Future Outlook

The future of cryptocurrency in relation to energy and the environment appears promising, thanks to ongoing innovations and heightened sustainability awareness. As more mining operations transition to renewable energy, the carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies is expected to decrease. The broader adoption of PoS and other less energy-intensive consensus mechanisms will continue to mitigate environmental concerns.

Furthermore, regulatory frameworks are set to play a crucial role in shaping the industry. Governments and international bodies are increasingly acknowledging the need for sustainable practices within the crypto sector and may introduce regulations that encourage or mandate the use of green energy and efficient technologies.

In conclusion, although cryptocurrency has presented significant challenges to the energy market and the environment, concerted efforts to adopt sustainable practices and technological advancements are paving the way for a greener future. The ongoing evolution of the industry suggests a more balanced and environmentally conscious approach to digital currencies in the years ahead.

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure ra obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain.

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain.

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain.

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure