The former chief technology officer at 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hanno Basse, has joined Live Planet as the president of its Decentralized Media Solutions division, according to a press release on June 11.

According to the report, Basse is expected to work on the division’s blockchain-based video infrastructure platform, the VideoCoin Network, as well as its virtual reality (VR) streaming and publishing services.

Basse has contributed to a number of tech innovations that are now standard in modern media, such as HD, 3D, 4K-UHD Blu-ray Disc format, High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology for consumers and on-demand services, per the report.

Recently, a government-backed bank in Brazil was reported to be financing a documentary film using its own ether (ETH)-based stablecoin, BNDES token. The production of the documentary reportedly involves local cinema producer Elo Company, whose movie  “The Boy and the World” by Alê Abreu was nominated for an Oscar in 2016.

In April, the most-subscribed YouTuber, PewDiePie, confirmed his plans to start streaming on blockchain video platform DLive. Based on decentralized blockchain protocol Lino, DLive intends to grant rewards to content makers and viewers for their participation in content creation and consumption in the form of Lino tokens, which is the native crypto of the Lino blockchain.

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In less than three days (quicker than the son of God himself) crypto website CCN came back from the dead saying that ‘CryptoCoinsNews.com’, their previous domain – is reappearing in Google searches.

Just when we thought we’ll all gonna “Woodstock” against Google and march for journalist freedom in the name of the CCN – they surprised us again – or not.

This week began sadly for the crypto media community. One of the prominent members and websites CCN.com decided to shut their door and stop working thanks to Google Update.

What actually happened is that Google’s June 2019 broad core algorithm update was officially implemented on the 3rd of June. The update is part of a yearly routine by the SEO giants towards ensuring a flawless search engine optimization on their platform. With a major benefit of boosting traffic for already in-demand webpages and diminishing visitors’ influx on their “clickbait” pairs. Google had earlier stated, that it informs its clients about these changes beforehand as the process involves nothing but ’simple fixes’.

However, it seems that Google didn’t inform any of member of crypto community since we had CoinDesk dropping by 34.6%, CoinTelegraph by 21.1% and CCN by enormous 71%.

Its Founder, Jonas Borchgrevink said that while he doesn’t want to speculate whether or not this might have affected their site, he certainly hopes Google isn’t actively suppressing journalism.

He has also said that they haven’t been warned in any case:

”Give a three month’s notice to all webmasters, let alone news organizations, of any major Google Core Update and elaborate what it might affect.”

However, it seems that his tears fell on fertile ground because, in less than three days (may we remind you, that’s quicker than Jesus) they came back from the dead saying that ‘CryptoCoinsNews.com’, their previous domain- is reappearing in Google searches.

Borchgrevink said:

“That was a massive surprise for us as I personally requested a domain name change in 2017 from CryptoCoinsNews.com to CCN.com. Since that change, ‘Cryptocoinsnews.com’ was effectively absent on Google. Now it’s back and is inexplicably using recent 2019 articles from CCN.com. This is abrupt and confusing.”

He also added that whether or not the Google June 2019 Core Update is to blame, that they are fixing it.

“We’re receiving help from multiple SEO teams to understand what has transpired. There’s still a good chance that this won’t correct our visibility on Google overnight, but I’m hopeful we are on the right path to figuring it out.”

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Developers behind the cryptocurrency monero are ramping up efforts to keep specialized mining hardware from dominating its race for rewards.

Of the coins that have a strong privacy focus, monero – launched in 2014 – possesses the largest market capitalization by far with an estimated $1.5 billion valuation. The annual mining rewards generated by the now 5-year-old blockchain total roughly $62 million, according to data site Messari.

But such rewards appear to be increasingly falling into the hands of ASIC operators, nudging out smaller, independent or hobbyist participants. To keep an even playing field, monero developers have conducted regular hard forks to stave off ASICs – but analysis suggests that this approach has proven ineffective as of late and that ASICs are keeping ahead of such efforts.

“ASIC manufacturers can make equipment far faster than we expected,” said monero contributor Justin Ehrenhofer. “It takes maybe a month for them to have chips designed and in production so they generally can still make a return on investment even within a six month period.”

Diego Salazar, another monero contributor, told CoinDesk:

“We [also] saw that this was very unsustainable. … It takes a lot to keep [hard forking] again and again for one. For two, it may decentralize mining but it centralizes in another area. It centralizes on the developers because now there’s a lot of trust in developers to keep hard forking.”

As such, monero developers are moving forward with activation of a new mining algorithm known as RandomX, designed to render ASICs non-competitive.

The new code is based off the work of Howard Chu – CTO and founder of computer software firm Symas Corporation – who also developed the database type the monero blockchain presently runs on. Four different audits of the RandomX code are now being completed for an expected code freeze date by July.

As it stands, the algorithm could go live in October.

“We’ve ultimately come to consensus in general that RandomX is what will be implemented. It’s our best shot to preserve monero as it was founded,”  said Ehrenhofer. “If this fails then monero will probably move to an ASIC-friendly algorithm.”

According to Salazar, RandomX is monero’s “last ditch effort to keep ASIC’s out.”

Putting CPUs at the fore

RandomX according to Chu is designed to be “CPU-centric.”

As opposed to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), central processing units (CPUs) are a type of computer hardware designed for multi-purpose use.

Calling it a “spectrum of computing power,” Salazar explained:

“On one end, where computers are a jack of all trades are the CPUs… On the other end, computers which does only one thing but extremely well are ASICs.”

CPU’s are the most widely distributed computing resource in the world, according to Chu.

“Practically everyone in the world now has a smart phone in their pocket with a CPU and memory that’s capable of mining RandomX,” highlighted Chu.

With maximum miner decentralization as the goal, Chu predicts that RandomX will preserve an advantageous lead favoring CPU miners over ASICs for at least the next three to five years.

Leaving GPUs behind

At the same time, estimates suggest the RandomX algorithm favors CPU miners over not only ASIC miners but GPU miners as well.

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are optimized for what Chu calls a “graphics workload which tends to be very sequential.”

“Data goes in at the head of the pipeline and you do some munching on it and it all spits out at the end of the pipeline,” Chu said. “The main emphasis there is fast transfers of data from the input to the output, pretty much in a straight line.”

For monero’s current mining algorithm, called CryptoNight, GPU miners take the lead over CPUs in terms of computation and energy efficiency. Originally, however, even CryptoNight was intended to boost CPU performance over other types of hardware.

“It’s really again kind of an accident of fate that [CryptoNight] turned out to work fairly well on GPUs. Nobody expected CryptoNight to be good on GPUs and it was anyways,” explained Chu. “The fact is today GPUs have so much memory and so much massive memory bandwidth that it’s not very much of an obstacle when it comes to CryptoNight, which was designed back in 2013 or so.”

Soon, with the activation of RandomX, Chu predicts CPUs to be “at least three times better than GPUs” at mining on the monero blockchain.

And while this has disgruntled “a very vocal but extremely small minority” of GPU miners, Ehrenhofer maintains that “people with GPUs can always either resell or repurpose their hardware.”

“If I have a monero ASIC, I don’t have that same economic option available,” said Ehrenhofer.

As such, despite the impact RandomX will have on not only ASIC miners but also GPU miners on the monero network, Ehrenhofer maintains:

“I’m not concerned about a community split here because RandomX is the closest algorithm that we can pick that retains a vast majority of monero’s ideals.”

Lingering concerns

Perhaps a more realistic concern in the mind of Ehrenhofer and others is the proliferation of botnets on the monero network as a result of a CPU-friendly mining algorithm like RandomX.

“The basic concern is there’s millions or hundreds of millions of computers that are out there that are poorly secured,” explained Chu. “It’s very easy for malware to invade these computers and take them over to do whatever a particular network operator wants to do.”

Such botnets, infected by malware, have always been somewhat of an issue on monero, according to Ehrenhofer.

“Monero is by far the most illicitly mined cryptocurrency at the moment and it has been for several years,” Ehrenhofer said. “RandomX does not prevent people from crypto-jacking and other nefarious versions of malware.”

Indeed, given that monero’s present mining algorithm – CryptoNight – has always favored CPU and GPU mining, Ehrenhofer notes that there are resources in place on the monero website and other related forums to help users who’s devices are impacted.

New partnerships

Even still, efforts to bootstrap RandomX have seen support from those outside of the community, particularly by other crypto projects that might make use of CPU-friendly mining algorithm.

Arweave, which raised a reported $8.7 million in an initial coin offering (ICO), is testing RandomX.

“An ASIC-resistant proof-of-work algorithm like RandomX will further enhance our permanent, low-cost, tamper-resistant storage network,” said Sam Williams, founder and CEO at Arweave, in a press release from earlier this month. “RandomX helps us ensure that power over the decentralized content policies in the Arweave network remains well distributed across many globally distributed parties.”

To this, Arweave has funded one of the four audits over the RandomX code.

Completed officially on Friday, the audit was estimated in public documents to cost roughly $80,000. CEO and co-founder Dan Guido later affirmed to CoinDesk the final cost for Arweave was actually $28,000.

Speaking to CoinDesk in an interview, Williams explained:

“It was one of our hopes going into the audit process that by helping to fund it we could do a small public service by making sure other [crypto] projects can see there is a programmatic proof-of-work algorithm that is likely ASIC-resistant in practice without fear of security.”

The other three audits totaling $130,000 that are still to be finalized by security firms Kudelski Security, X41 D-Sec, and QuarksLab were funded through crowd-sourced donations from the monero community. They are expected to wrap up by July, according to Chu.

The next step after that is an eventual launch of the algorithm on a public monero test network before a tentatively scheduled mainnet activation this October.

Risky business

For all the discussion that has gone into preparing RandomX for a mainnet implementation, Ehrenhofer maintains that the true benefits of RandomX won’t be certain until it’s live on the network.

“We don’t know if RandomX will work yet even if all the audits come back and they say your cryptography is pretty good. We don’t know in practice how things will actually turnout,” warned Ehrenhofer.

But the worst-case scenario in Ehrenhofer’s mind if the algorithm proves to be unsuccessful is a switch to an ASIC-friendly mining algorithm similar to the one currently utilized by bitcoin.

“I think if RandomX does fail and monero switches to something more ASIC-friendly, many in the bitcoin community will tell us, ‘I told you so.'” Ehrenhofer joked.

Even so, Salazar maintains that monero should have the runway to try new things and fail at them.

“Isn’t the idea to see what’s going to work best so that one day we can have a good digital, private, fungible cryptocurrency?” Salazar asked. “If monero is not but a stepping stone to get to that good currency then by all means let monero be the lost leader.”

Salazar concluded:

“The monero people are nothing if not resilient nerds that decide to take on the man. So we said, ‘You know what? Let’s give this a go, one last ditch effort.'”

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Fast-growing cryptocurrency exchange BiKi.com has recently attracted yet another slew of investments, this time from influential blockchain investment institutions Genesis Capital and FBG Capital.

Crypto fund Genesis Capital’s purported mission of discovering and supporting early-stage projects with the most potential is particularly apt in the case of BiKi.com. In under a year, the infant exchange has managed to accumulate more than 1.2 million registered users and more than 100K daily active users, not to mention its impressive climb to top 15 rankings on the rungs of the global crypto exchange ladder.

Genesis’ current investment portfolio includes esteemed projects the likes of Tron, Quarkchain, Egretia, and Arcblock, to name a few. In total, Genesis has invested 2 million in BiKi.com, the first million on 27th May followed by another million on 29th May.

Previously backed by Silicon Valley VC Sequoia, digital asset management firm FBG Capital, whose past investment projects have increased 10 to 100 times, has also set its sights on BiKi. FBG has long gained industry respect for discovering and investing in projects such as 0x, Zilliqa, OmiseGO, IOST and Aelf, years before they became successful.

FBG’s strategic investment in BiKi will see multi-level co-operation between the two parties which includes FBG providing professional and market resources that will aid BiKi in increasing its market share and implementing trading platform improvements. The enthusiasm of FBG CEO Zhou Shouji, who has been featured on the cover of Forbes, has certainly improved branding for the young exchange, with his friendly recommendations of BiKi skyrocketing the value of its token by 300% in one week.

Ethan Ng, CEO of BiKi.com SEA, said:

“We are extremely honored that FBG has such great faith in Biki. FBG has continually shown amazing foresight in their investments and this partnership is a clear signal that FBG believes BiKi is going places; especially now, with their support, we will no doubt achieve even better project quality, services and branding.”

Not Just Another Exchange

Notably, BiKi.com‘s strategy of listing not only the top 100 most popular tokens but also emerging high-quality projects on the exchange has stood it in good stead. With the tendency of investors to flock to trending projects, using users to attract other users is a core competitive advantage for exchanges.

Its focus on conversion marketing during a bear market in late 2018 and early 2019 using unconventional user-growth tactics has also proven to be effective. By converting a non-crypto audience into new exchange users through Chinese e-commerce platforms, BiKi was able to generate daily real transaction volumes of 20 to 100 million USDT, with its net profit in May reaching RMB 10 million, approximately USD 1.5 million.

Targeting foreign market expansion within a competitive timeline, building community partners worldwide as well as providing substantial support for listed projects also sets BiKi apart from its peers.

With corporate giants like Facebook, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan coming out with digital currencies, coupled with mainstream media’s constant coverage, cryptocurrencies have finally gained mass acceptance. Should market conditions continue to improve, a high influx of new investors entering the market can be expected, with exchanges being the greatest benefactors of this new wave of users.

Huobi co-founder and BiKi.com’s largest investor Jun Du said:

“This year’s ‘miracle’ should belong to BiKi. With quality digital assets and strong consumer demand going hand-in-hand, BiKi will likely emerge a dark horse when the bull market breaks out again.”

Fast-Growing BiKi.com Secures Investments from Genesis and FBG Capital

About BiKi.com

Headquartered in Singapore, BiKi.com is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a digital assets platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies and 127 trading pairs. Since beginning operations in Aug 2018, BiKi.com is considered one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with an accumulated 1.2 million registered users and 100,000 daily active users, ranking within the top 15 exchanges globally.

Company Contact:

Chang Jie Lin, BiKi.com

Mail to +65-94556702

Media Contact:

Cecilia Wong, yourPRstrategist

Mail to +65-91826605

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Online retail giant Amazon has partnered with United Kingdom-based insurance agency Legal & General to create a blockchain system for managing corporate pension deals, according to a report by Reuters on June 11.

Legal & General will reportedly make use of the Amazon Managed Blockchain for its bulk annuity transactions, which happen when companies transfer their pension schemes to Legal & General for insurance.

According to an article by the Financial Times, companies make bulk annuity transactions to insurers like this so that they are not ultimately responsible for personally paying their employees’ pensions.

CEO of Legal & General Reinsurance Thomas Olunloyo commented on how a blockchain solution is fitting given the longevity of annuities:

“... it allows data and transactions to be signed, recorded and maintained in a permanent and secure nature over the lifetime of these contracts, which can span over 50 years.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Amazon released its managed blockchain service in April through its subsidiary Amazon Web Services. This blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) allows users to more easily create and maintain blockchains on the Ethereum and Hyperledger networks by automating certain aspects of blockchain management.

According to Rahul Pathak, the general manager of Amazon Managed Blockchain, the service “... takes care of provisioning nodes, setting up the network, managing certificates and security, and scaling the network.”

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Next Bitcoin Boon

As more news has been published in regards to Facebook’s crypto venture, experts of Bitcoin (BTC) have begun to speculate as to what effect the social media giant will have on cryptocurrency. Some are taking this discussion cynically, screaming that the Silicon Valley firm’s foray into the industry is a “Trojan horse” for governments to establish a 1984-esque state.

However, more and more are coming to the conclusion that the launch of Globalcoin or Libra, as Facebook’s cryptocurrency is known as, will be a massive boon for BTC. In fact, some have ventured that it will be the largest catalyst for Bitcoin adoption — and thus price — in this industry’s history.

Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart broke down his thoughts on the matter in an extensive Twitter thread. First off, he simply explained that Facebook’s cryptocurrency, expected to be a stablecoin, is “among the most bullish external tailwinds for Bitcoin in 2019/2020”. Bogart adds that the only bigger catalyst for BTC growth will be quantitative easing (an inflationary fiscal policy), which he calls a “reinvigorated push among central banks for easy-money globally”.

For better or worse, Facebook’s crypto effort is among the most bullish external tailwinds for Bitcoin in 2019/2020 (topped only by reinvigorated push among central banks for easy-money globally)

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— Spencer Bogart (@CremeDeLaCrypto) June 11, 2019

Explaining the importance of Facebook’s Globalcoin, Bogart explains that the corporate cryptocurrency “eases the biggest friction in acquiring digital assets”, in that it makes getting fiat into this ecosystem extremely easily. Once fiat is allocated towards Globalcoin, the investor assumes that value can flow easily between the Facebook ecosystem and something like, let’s say, Bitcoin or Ethereum. He writes:

“Facebook making a concerted push for digital asset adoption and creating a circular economy is great because it solves that friction point. Once people are holding/earning a digital asset, it’s relatively trivial to go from, for example, USDC to BTC.”

What’s also important is that Globalcoin will spark growth in cryptocurrency infrastructure, from everything from custody and wallet services to compliance and exchanges. Bogart speculates that once Facebook releases its cryptocurrency, “large financial institutions” and “payment providers” will be enticed to actually make a meaningful entree into this market.

And to put a cherry on the proverbial Facebook cake, Globalcoin “legitimizes the concept of public blockchain and digital assets”. Indeed, according to Caitlin Long, a former Wall Street executive, the launch of cryptocurrencies by corporations and governments sparks interest for the broader industry.

Long, who covered a similar topic in a Forbes op-ed, explained that when there were education efforts about Venezuela’s Petro (an ‘oil-backed’ digital asset meant to save the nation’s hyperinflating economy, a correlated spike in Bitcoin use in the nation was seen. The same could easily occur this time around, but with billions instead of millions.

Don’t Forget The Caveats

This is all well and good, but there are some caveats that come with Facebook’s latest attempt to dive into the fintech sector. In the aforementioned Forbes post, Long explained that “Governments everywhere will view Facebook’s cryptocurrency as a huge honeypot of data about how users spend money—with all the privacy and tax reporting implications that data honeypot entails, because every transaction would be traceable by governments.”

It isn’t known how exactly governments will address this, but we’re sure that they’re looking into how they control this.

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In a market as volatile as cryptocurrency, experienced traders often lose grip following the multitude of its price fluctuations. As a result, various crypto-leaders are building specialized tools to provide a moderate level of guidance to the rising number of investors. Leading this space is Bitfinex, which has taken upon itself to ease crypto-trading through numerous platform releases, mobile app updates and token launches.

In their latest report, Bitfinex shared the launch of a new reporting tool for optimized trading. Available openly on GitHub, the latest tool hosts a key feature that displays USD equivalent values across all their users’ assets. The report mentions that the calculation takes into consideration the daily closing price on the trading pair/USD.

Source: Medium

Additionally, the above screenshot shows a new section labeled Average Win/Loss that displays the daily, weekly and monthly portfolio gains in USD or fiat currency. Moreover, the tool not only displays the total account balance, but also features the official release of its wallet, which was previously launched as a beta version.

Source: Medium

Although crypto-enthusiasts have exhibited their excitement towards the much-anticipated update from Bitfinex, the feature that’s making the most buzz is the Concentration Risk section, which displays the currency breakdown of the user’s portfolio.

While this development has reignited the comparison between Bitfinex and Binance, the healthy competition within the crypto-ecosystem is resulting in constant innovation.

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