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HARTi and Mitsui Sumitomo roll out NFT insurance coverage for claims
As announced on Tuesday, Japanese NFT Platform HARTi and insurance group Mitsui Sumitomo (三井住友海上) will roll out nonfungible token, or NFT, insurance for all digital artworks exhibited within the HARTi app. The insurance will attach to the NFT pieces on display by sellers free of charge, with HARTi responsible for the premium payments. Under the scheme, Mitsui Sumitomo will compensate owners of insured NFTs if their digital assets are compromised by unauthorized third-party access (such as through phishing, theft or wallet hacks) or become bugged or glitched during transfers. In such events, the policy will payout compensation to the NFT owner based on the exhibition price of each item and up to a maximum value of 500,000 yen ($3,661). The two parties expect to expand their collaborat...
Bitcoin price falls under $21K, bringing more capitulation or just consolidation?
On July 26, Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped below $21,000, giving back the majority of the gains accrued in the previous week and returning to the $23,300 to $18,500 range that Glassnode analysts describe as “the Week 30 high and Week 30 low.” A handful of analysts and traders attribute the July 26 to July 27 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and the expected Federal Reserve rate hike as the primary reasons for the current sell-off. Barring the announcement that the United States economy has entered a recession, a few traders believe that the expected 75 to 100 basis point (BPS) hike will be followed by a relief rally that could see BTC, Ether and other large-cap altcoins snack back to the top of their current range. Of course, this sentiment reflects more speculation than sou...
UPenn’s Wharton School rolls out online certificate course on business in the Metaverse
The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business announced Tuesday that its Aresty Institute of Executive Education will launch a certificate program titled “Business in the Metaverse Economy.” The six-week course will be taught online with a heavy dose of immersion. Wharton, one of the world’s leading business schools, teamed up with consulting firm Prysm Group to design the course, which will include more than 50 lectures by faculty and industry representatives, as well as six case studies. Guest speakers will come from Adobe, Animoca Brands, R/GA, RLY Network, Second Life, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other organizations. The program’s academic director, Prof. Kevin Werbach, said in a statement: “The metaverse is a significant and broad phenomenon that ...
Lollapalooza Expands to India in 2023, Marking Festival’s Asia Debut
MUMBAI — Lollapalooza is traveling to India, a price sensitive live music market where the appetite for international music of all genres has grown considerably in the streaming era. The multi-genre festival will be staged in Mumbai on Jan. 28-29, 2023, marking its debut in Asia. BookMyShow, India’s largest ticketing platform, is promoting and co-producing Lollapalooza India, along with global producers Perry Farrell, WME and C3 Presents, which is owned by Live Nation. The festival’s Mumbai installment, which will take place at an as-yet unannounced venue “in the center of the city,” will feature around 45 acts playing 20 hours of music across four stages to an audience of 60,000 fans each day. The line-up will comprise 60% international artists and 40% local acts, the promoters tell Billb...
U.S. Government Grants $2.5 Billion USD to General Motors to Build EV Battery Factories
The U.S. government has now granted a loan of $2.5 billion USD to General Motors to further its EV battery development. According to a new report from Reuters, the Energy Department has now granted the loan to GM and its joint venture with South Korean tech giant LG. It will be the first new grant from the government’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program since 2010 and will help the two companies construct more EV battery production facilities in order to further their efforts in developing and manufacturing Ultium Cells. The loan will also help contribute towards the progress to realize President Joe Biden’s goal to reach 50% electrification in automotive production in the U.S. by 2030, with Ultium saying that it’ll also create 5,000 new jobs statesid...
Aptos Labs raises $150M, more than doubling valuation
Layer-1 blockchain developer Aptos Labs has closed a $150 million funding round to further its ambitions in the Web3 space, further highlighting venture capital’s appetite for budding crypto-focused startups. The funding round was co-led by venture studios FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto, with additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo, Franklin Templeton and Circle Ventures. According to Bloomberg, the funding round more than doubled the startup’s valuation, which was over $1 billion as of March. Aptos was launched by former Meta employees Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching. The founders also had a role in advancing Mark Zuckerberg’s failed Diem project. As Cointelegraph reported, the Diem Association and its subsidiaries wound down operations in February of this year, with Meta ...
Over a quarter of Asian Pacific ‘emerging giant’ startups tied to blockchain: Report
The Asia Pacific region is seeing a major business shift with increasing numbers of new technology startups appearing, even as venture capital investment is decreasing compared to last year. A report from Big Four accountant KPMG and international banking company HSBC based on a survey of 6,472 Asian Pacific startups found that over a quarter of them are blockchain related. Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, led the way among sectors where Asian Pacific “emerging giants” were active, followed directly by decentralized finance, also known as DeFi. Electric vehicle charging infrastructure, quantum computing and robotic processing automation rounded out the top five sectors. Blockchain real estate and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) ranked 14th and 15th, respectively, on the sam...
CFTC will remodel LabCFTC, education office to increase regulatory efficiency
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulatory agency that shares the main crypto regulatory responsibility with the Securities Exchange Commission, will undergo restructuring to become more proactive and comprehensive, CFTC chair Rostin Behnam announced July 25. LabCFTC, which was described as “the focal point for the CFTC’s efforts to promote responsible fintech innovation,” will become the Office of Technology Innovation (OTI) and report directly to the chairman’s office. “We are now engaged in a more proactive and comprehensive effort across the agency to regulate these markets with the tools currently available to us,” Behnam said at a Brookings Institute webinar, adding, “Our core policy divisions are now directly addressing how the CFTC can lever...
Chipotle takes ‘buy the dip’ literally with new $200K crypto giveaway
United States-based fast casual restaurant chain Chipotle has started an online game which will give customers the chance to win more than $200,000 in crypto. In a Monday announcement, Chipotle said that, through July 31, fans would be able to play its “Buy The Dip” game using their rewards accounts. The company will give away $45,000 in Bitcoin (BTC), $10,000 in Ether (ETH), $13,750 in Solana (SOL), $14,250 in Avalanche (AVAX) and $14,250 in Dogecoin (DOGE) via the game. “We want to build the next generation of Chipotle fandom by connecting with the Web3 community,” said Chipotle chief marketing officer Chris Brandt. Free crypto giveaway? — Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) July 25, 2022 The restaurant chain gave away $100,000 in BTC in April 2021 as part of a promotion for National Burrito Day....
Why expensive gasoline is here to stay
“We are going to be operating a shrunken, old and in-need-of-repair refining system a lot harder,” said Bob McNally, head of consulting firm Rapidan Energy and former senior director for international energy on the National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration. “Future presidents and administrations are going to be absolutely bedeviled by high gasoline prices.” Republicans have pummeled the Biden administration for record high gasoline prices, blaming the jump on the president’s focus on climate change and his promises to reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels. But instead of being a modern outlier, the high prices may signal a new norm that future residents of the White House of either party will have to face down. A much-forecasted drop in demand for oil-derived tr...
zk-STARKs vs. zk-SNARKs explained
zk-STARKs are one of the two transparent and scalable privacy-enhancing methods. The public availability of the randomness utilized by the verifier negates the need for a trusted setup. But, what does zk-STARK stand for? zk-STARK stands for Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge, which is a type of cryptographic proof technology. zk-STARKs, also known as zero-knowledge proofs, allow users to communicate validated data or execute computations with a third party without the data or analysis being revealed to the other party. zk-SNARKs, which were used to build zk-proof systems before the development of zk-STARKs, solved the vulnerability of those trusted parties jeopardizing the system’s privacy because they had to set up the zk-proof system initially. zk-STARKs adva...
What is dollar-cost averaging (DCA) and how does it work?
Many crypto enthusiasts just start investing in cryptocurrencies without a strategy behind it. However, they should be aware that an investment plan is essential when you begin investing in crypto. By sticking to a strategy, you will have a clear overview and become less susceptible to the substantial price fluctuations in the crypto market. Related: A beginner’s guide to cryptocurrency trading strategies For each investor, this investment strategy can be different. After all, you invest in a way that suits your financial goals and that you feel comfortable with. For many people, the dollar cost average method (DCA) is the way to invest their wealth. This is because through this investment method, you make clear agreements that feel manageable for many people. In addition, you can adapt th...
