Autor Cointelegraph By Shiraz Jagati

Technicals suggest Bitcoin is still far from ideal for daily payments

Technicals suggest Bitcoin is still far from ideal for daily payments

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 19, 2022 |

It is no secret that a vast majority of investors, both from the realm of traditional as well as crypto finance, view Bitcoin (BTC) as a long-term store of value akin to “digital gold.” And, while that may be the dominant narrative surrounding the asset, it is worth noting that in recent years the flagship crypto’s use as a medium of exchange has been on the rise.To this point, recently, the central bank of El Salvador revealed that its citizens living abroad have sent over $50 million in remittances to their friends and family. To elaborate, Douglas Rodríguez, president of El Salvador’s Central Reserve Bank, announced that $52 million worth of BTC remittances had been processed via the country’s national digital wallet service Chivo through the first five months of the year alone, marking a 3.9%, $118 million increase in value when compared to the same period in 2021.Bitcoin as a payment medium has been on the rise, as is made evident by the noticeable increase in the adoption of layer-2 payment protocols such as the Lightning Network. To this point, BTC transaction volumes are currently up by a whopping 400% over the last twelve months. Therefore, it is worth delving into the question of whether Bitcoin’s utility as a daily transaction medium is actually feasible, especially from a long-term perspective, as when compared to other networks like Ethereum, Solana or Cardano, Bitcoin still lags behind in key areas including scalability and transaction throughput.Is Bitcoin’s utility as a payment method overrated?According to Corbin Fraser, head of financial services for Bitcoin exchange and cryptocurrency wallet developer Bitcoin.com, Bitcoin has lost its first mover advantage as peer-to-peer (P2P) cash. This is due to the fact that, since 2016, the Bitcoin community has done everything possible to explain to its users that they should absolutely not use Bitcoin for payments or remittance-related purposes. He added:“Use cases of remittance and P2P cash payments have moved to other blockchains with higher throughput, lower fees. Bitcoin will be hard pressed to re-introduce the concept of daily payments to its users and other communities focused on these use cases which have found a home under various other banners.”Fraser stated that when one takes into consideration the difficulty side of things, such as the hassles involved with ordinary crypto users deploying layer-2 solutions like the Lightning Network to process payments, the situation becomes all the more complex. “Competition in low fee, high throughput chains has increased considerably in the past two years. Bitcoin is on its heels when it comes to shifting focus back to using it for daily payments,” he added.Recent: Will intellectual property issues sidetrack NFT adoption?On a technical note, he highlighted that Bitcoin’s limited throughput of five transactions per second means that as people start to flock to the blockchain for daily transactions, its memory pool will fill up, causing the fee market to expand, pricing out more and more users and creating a negative experience for users intending on using it for daily payments. He said:“Even in the event of a mass exodus from layer-1 BTC to layer-2 BTC protocols, the system will struggle both due to deposits and withdrawals to and from the Lightning Network. That said, Bitcoin’s core devs could make some changes to further enhance utility for payments. If the BTC community can rally behind the payments use case, it is possible consensus could be reached.”A somewhat similar opinion is shared by Toya Zhang, chief marketing officer for cryptocurrency exchange Bit.com, who told Cointelegraph that even though Bitcoin was initially designed as a payment currency, the development of different protocols and stablecoins has made it highly unlikely that it will ever be used as a payment token anytime soon, even with the implementation of layer-2 solutions. She further explained:“In the long run, limitations related to confirmation times or price volatility are not an issue. The reason for Bitcoin to not be able to fulfill its role as a remittance medium is very simple, Bitcoin is too pure of an asset. It will only fulfill its original mission if all payment-centric cryptocurrencies fail, the possibility of which has most likely sailed.”BTC transaction numbers appear shakyAndrew Weiner, vice president of VIP services for cryptocurrency exchange MEXC Global, told Cointelegraph that while BTC does tend to be used for large payments, technically and philosophically, it is difficult to make micropayments using Bitcoin’s layer-1 blocks, which is the very reason why so many developers are pushing micropayments on Bitcoin’s layer-2 network. To this point, he noted that from 2018–2021, Bitcoin’s micropayments remained absolutely flat, with a public capacity of less than $5,000. However, things went to a whole new level last year, when the network went from 10 million users to approximately 80 million from October 2021 to March 2022. In this regard, Weiner highlighted:“The main reasons for this are the reduction in the complexity of layer-2 networks (such as the Lightning Network) and the gradual maturity of infrastructure for setting up nodes and utilizing networks. More and more wallets and payment processors continue to grow. Node cloud hosting and node management software companies support BTC’s Lightning payments, enabling enterprises to integrate more into these products and services.”That said, he conceded that BTC becoming a means of daily payment depends on the asset fulfilling three core conditions: whether its infrastructure is mature enough to achieve low cost and convenient use, whether there is enough use such that large enterprises, institutions and national governments are willing to use the asset and lastly, whether it can deliver a good enough level of security and privacy. A pawn shop in the Philippines, a common location for sending and receiving remittances.Yohannes Christian, research analyst for digital asset exchange Bitrue, noted that despite being one of the most secure networks in existence today, Bitcoin’s remittance capabilities are one of the worst in terms of speed and fees. He pointed out that the asset can only process 5-7 transactions per second (which works out to 3,500 to 4,000 transactions in a 10-minute block). Furthermore, when this transaction number peaked, Christian noted that it could take up to an hour to settle a payment, adding:“In terms of fees, the Bitcoin network follows the Supply and Demand Law, with a low of $0.20 per transaction and as high as $50 per transaction during the height of the 2017 bull run. This congestion issue can create a systematic problem for day-to-day Bitcoin payments.”And, while the development of layer-2 solutions may help solve some of the scalability problems in question, he believes the network still needs some time before it can become ready to be used for daily transactions. To put things into perspective, the Bitcoin network currently has a 10-minute block transaction with only a 1MB block size. In comparison, its close alternative, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), has a 2.5-minute block transaction and 32MB block size, which is 128 times faster than BTC.The future of Bitcoin lies within a layered approachMuneeb Ali, CEO and co-founder of Trust Machines — an ecosystem of Bitcoin-centric applications and platform technologies — told Cointelegraph that once you have a decentralized base as good as Bitcoin, it is easy to build additional utility and scalability on top, adding:“That’s what we’re seeing in other blockchain ecosystems and what we can expect for Bitcoin as well. When it comes to global remittance capabilities Bitcoin presents the strongest capability given its decentralization, long term durability, uptime and accessibility. The remittance can be in BTC, or through stablecoins built on Bitcoin layers.”Ali said that despite there being a decade worth of Bitcoin development, we’re still in the early innings of the growing ecosystem. This is because building on the Bitcoin ecosystem has traditionally been hard given the base layer was very simple and lacked advanced programming features. Recent: Burdensome but not a threat: How new EU law can affect stablecoinsHowever, now with various Bitcoin layers like the Lightning Network, Stacks and RSK, developers can build more complex applications with relative ease. “Developer traction is an early indicator of increased app development and usage by mainstream users and we’re beginning to see this now starting 2021 or so,” he concluded.Therefore, as we head into the decentralized future of digital finance, a growing number of countries, institutions and businesses appear to be willing to use Bitcoin as a settlement currency due to a variety of different factors. However, owing to the fact that BTC still experiences great volatility in its day-to-day price action, it is still limited in its overall scope of usability, especially as a payment medium. Thus, it will be interesting to see how the future of the digital asset plays out from here on end.

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How the Metaverse can revolutionize the fashion industry

How the Metaverse can revolutionize the fashion industry

Uverejnil používateľ | júl 7, 2022 |

The idea underlying digital fashion can be difficult for many to grasp since buying/trying out clothes that only exist in a virtual world can seem quite strange at first. However, with this niche market continuing to gain a lot of traction recently, many experts are beginning to view the idea of the Metaverse reshaping the future of fashion a lot more seriously.For example, as per a recent study, clothing existing solely in the digital world was found to be way more environmentally friendly than its physical counterpart, with the former emitting 97% less CO2 and consuming approximately 3,300 liters of water less per item. Not only that, but there is also data to suggest that by replacing physical samples with digital ones during a company’s design and development phases, it is possible to reduce a brand’s carbon footprint by a whopping 30%.Furthermore, the use of digital clothing can be highly useful during the various steps preceding the actual physical production of a garment. For example, these virtual items can be used for modeling, sampling and marketing before their physical iterations are sent into production, thus greatly minimizing the overall environmental impact of the entire lifecycle of a fashion item.Lastly, when it comes to the sales side of things, digital models of clothes can help alleviate problems associated with overproduction, something that is widely considered to be a major roadblock within today’s fashion industry. The appeal of digital fashionTo gain a better idea of whether the idea of digital fashion is just another passing fad or a phenomenon that’s here to stay, Cointelegraph reached out to Lokesh Rao, CEO of Trace Network Labs, a project enabling brands to explore Web3 products and services. In his view, as the Metaverse continues to evolve, it will indeed influence and revolutionize the fashion industry, adding:“The industry has realized that the virtual world, despite being based on imaginary creations, actually has profound utility when it comes to garments. The evolution of design technologies allows creative freedom for all designers, but some clothes they design can never be worn in the real world. The Metaverse removes this hurdle — a digital avatar can wear any garment without any constraints of type, design, fabric and use.”He further added that the intangibility aspect of fashion when it comes to the Metaverse, such as no need for physical clothes, makes it easier for users to experiment and create lavish wardrobes for themselves, way grander than what would be possible in the real world. Furthermore, since the clothes are in the form of digital collectibles or nonfungible tokens (NFTs), they can be freely traded across open NFT marketplaces, adding to their long-term value which many physical or second-hand clothing items do not possess.However, Rao believes that the most important utility of the Metaverse in relation to the fashion industry is that in a digital world, users can deploy their avatars to visit different stores and try different clothes before making a purchase decision. “This is far better than having a brick and mortar store in multiple areas, which is an expensive proposition,” he noted. From the outside looking in, the Metaverse enables companies, labels and fashion houses to reap a host of advantages such as having a borderless presence that transcends physical limitations, creating brand awareness globally using digital means and retailing “phygital” clothes while delivering convenience to their customers.Related: Web3 will unite users from social media platforms, says Aave execOn the other hand, consumers are afforded many benefits as well. For example, they can try on clothes at their own convenience, time and place, order garments from a virtual store either in physical format or as an NFT, get physical deliveries processed from anywhere in the globe and maintain their ownership on the blockchain forever.The future of fashion could be redefined Frank Fitzgerald, founder of Pax.World — a platform that allows users to create their own metaverse — thinks that the merging of these two world’s could have a massive impact on the fashion industry. He told Cointelegraph: “From new revenue generation streams to shaping what fashion looks like in the real world based on what is happening in the Metaverse, it will be a cultural revolution not only in fashion but also within the art industry as well.”Fitzgerald noted that the younger generation is the key demographic for digital fashion, especially those individuals who see their digital representation as being an integral part of their social identities. He said that while older generations (30+) may find these ideas hard to digest, there is reason to believe that, over time, more people will come aboard. “Over the next decade, I can see a whole generation of 20 and 30 year olds being very conscious of their digital representation and what that expresses to their colleagues and friends,” he stated.Not everyone is sold on the ideaStepan Sergeev, founder of OneWayBlock — the company behind blockchain-based game Clash of Coins — does not buy into the idea of digital fashion taking over the world anytime soon. He told Cointelegraph that as things stand, most people indulging in fashion — high street or otherwise — aren’t really hanging out in the Metaverse yet, adding:“The point of buying a designer dress, for example, is to have people see you wearing it. If the Metaverse doesn’t yet have enough people in there to see it, its social value is lost. So, unless there is a mass migration of people to the Metaverse, I don’t see that happening. We can maybe see it changing fashion in that people can see more detailed designs of real-life pieces but I don’t think we’ll all be buying NFT dresses the way we do regular ones.”He likened the current state of the digital fashion industry to gamers buying custom skins in video games, making the items relevant only within specific environments. “If things really pick up for the fashion sector and the average person is rushing to buy fashion NFTs the way they are to buy the latest sneaker or handbag, then it might be possible.”Sergeev believes that the metaverse fashion phenomenon is most likely a passing fad that major clothing houses and brands have adopted in order to keep up with the times and stay up to date with the latest digital developments.Sasha Tityanko, deputy CEO and art director for social VR platform Sensorium Galaxy, told Cointelegraph that while the Metaverse may be able to add to the fashion industry’s existing experiences, it will not come close to revolutionizing it. In her view, fashion brands thrive on change and making bold moves, and setting new standards is just the essence of their business. She noted:“Virtual worlds offer creative opportunities — a white canvas free from stereotypes and social limitations. At its core, the Metaverse is an environment that encourages people to experiment and be creative in their endeavors.”Fashion labels enter the Metaverse at a rapid paceOver the course of 2022, a number of major brands such as Adidas, Nike and Gucci have reportedly been able to generate $137.5 million in NFT sales alone. Dolce & Gabbana bagged the record for the most expensive suit ever sold, a digital Glass Suit, which fetched the fashion giant a cool $1 million late last year.Furthermore, D&G’s NFT collection was able to accrue $6 million while Gucci’s Queen Bee Dionysus virtual bag recently sold for 350,000 Robux (a popular in-game currency used to buy skins and accessories) or $4,000 — more than the bag’s real-life valuation.During Q4 2021, Louis Vuitton released a video game allowing players to hunt for 30 NFTs hidden within its metaverse. Once collected, these items granted their owners access to various exclusive events and private parties. Similarly, Balenciaga recently joined forces with Fortnite — a video game with more than 300 million users — to sell high-fashion skins to players. Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren partnered with South Korean social network app Zepeto to release a virtual fashion collection for players.Tityanko believes that as the gap between real and virtual continues to narrow and Web3 brings along new technological advancements, average consumers will increasingly have more choices to express themselves.”While not everyone can afford to buy a Balenciaga dress in real life, you might pick one for yourself in the digital world,” she added.Recent: Hardware crypto wallet sales increase as centralized exchanges scrambleShe further noted that many fashion houses like Gucci, Burberry and Louis Vuitton already have sizable teams in place dedicated to exploring and testing the Web3 space as many brands realize the potential of the digital market. “According to research by Vice Media Group, Gen Z spends 2X as much time on socialization in digital spaces than in real life,” Tityanko stated.Thus, as we head into a future dominated by decentralized technologies, it will be interesting to see how the future of the fashion industry continues to play out, especially as more and more brands continue to enter the Metaverse with each passing day.

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Bitcoin payments make a lot of sense for SMEs but the risks still remain

Bitcoin payments make a lot of sense for SMEs but the risks still remain

Uverejnil používateľ | jún 24, 2022 |

The last six odd months has seen the cryptocurrency market witness an unparalleled amount of financial volatility, so much so that the total capitalization of this fast-maturing space has dropped from $3 trillion to approximately $1 trillion. This comes after the industry hit all-time highs across the board last November, with Bitcoin (BTC) reaching a price point of $69,000.Despite the previously stated volatility, a recent report shows that small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across nine separate countries, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Russia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and the United States, are extremely open to the idea of accepting cryptocurrency payments — especially Bitcoin. Within the study — which surveyed a total of 2,250 market entities — 24% of the respondents said that they plan on accepting Bitcoin alongside other digital assets in the near term, while a whopping 59% of participants revealed that they plan on transitioning exclusively to the use of digital payments by the start of 2025.From the outside looking in, crypto payments offer a range of benefits. For example, the issue of chargebacks or compliance with payment card industry standards are completely mitigated when it comes to digital assets. Not only that, acceptance of Bitcoin and other digital currencies can help attract additional business from crypto enthusiasts as well as potentially multiply one’s profits (since many of these currencies stand to become more valuable over time).Does accepting crypto really make sense for SMEs?According to Igneus Terrenus, policy advocate for cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, Bitcoin makes absolute sense as a day-to-day medium of exchange for SMEs. He told Cointelegraph that as a payment network, Bitcoin (when used in conjunction with the Lightning Network) is unequivocally superior to the seven-plus-decade-old system that underlies credit cards, adding:“Bitcoin on Lightning is disintermediated, has finality built into it, faster, more secure and is many magnitudes cheaper in transaction cost than credit card’s ~3% fee. The payment does not necessarily need to be settled in BTC since the Bitcoin network can take dollars, convert them to BTC and transfer it across the network and convert it back to dollars upon arrival.”When asked about the volatility side of things, Terrenus explained that if viewed with a shorter time frame, BTC is no doubt a risk-on volatile asset. However, if looked at with a more panoramic view or denominated in relation to inflationary currencies like the Turkish lira and the Argentine peso — that have exhibited respective increases of 73.5% and 58% in their May consumer price index levels — it may very well still be better at preserving purchasing power than most fiats during times of intense volatility/bear markets.Ben Caselin, head of research and strategy at cryptocurrency trading platform AAX, agrees with this assessment, telling Cointelegraph that accepting Bitcoin as well as other more established cryptocurrencies is still the right course of action for most SMEs since there is now a plethora of mechanisms for them to tap into large liquidity pools and new demographics without being over-exposed to excessive market volatility, adding:“Current market conditions may be bearish but the overall adoption of Bitcoin and key crypto infrastructure including the development of the Metaverse as well as the integration with traditional financial markets continue to advance. For any businesses looking to plug into the crypto ecosystem and economy, this is a good time to pursue such endeavours in anticipation of the next phase of the adoption curve.”The answer may be quite simpleLior Yaffe, co-founder and director for blockchain software firm Jelurida, noted that business owners who want to accept Bitcoin but are afraid of a serious price decline should simply “convert their BTC to fiat as soon as they receive it.” In Yaffe’s view, a business’s decision to accept Bitcoin should not be based on short-term price fluctuations, adding:“Even with all the volatility, there are compelling reasons for SMEs to accept Bitcoin, such as the ability to control funds directly without relying on the good will of a third party. Businesses selling goods and services over the internet and having problems using the existing credit card system, businesses based in countries where the local currency is extreme, businesses who cannot work with their local banking system can all benefit from the use of BTC.”Recent: How blockchain can open up energy markets: EU DLT expert explainsThat said, he did concede that there is no shortage of problems for entities accepting crypto payment these days since tax payments and business expenses are required to be paid in local fiat currencies. As a result, accounting becomes more difficult and expensive while elevated cybersecurity risks also enter the fray. Kene Ezeji-Okoye, co-founder and president of Millicent, pointed out the exact same thing adding that most crypto payment gateways automatically convert crypto to fiat before settling with merchants, thus making prevailing market conditions of little to no consequence. He told Cointelegraph:“Goods and services are generally priced in fiat, and when accepting crypto, merchants simply end up with the fiat value of the crypto at the exact time of purchase less the gateway’s fees. This can be a better deal than the fees charged by card networks or PayPal, so it makes sense for some merchants to add this option.”Regarding the problems associated with receiving direct crypto payments, Ezeji-Okoye believes that the most prominent issue affecting digital asset payments is that of exchange rate volatility. He highlighted that this holds true for SMEs as it does for nation-states like El Salvador, a country that has seen the value of its Bitcoin holdings drop by half against the United States dollar. “In most cases, merchants will need to pay for their cost of goods in fiat currency, so indiscriminate exposure to a volatile asset is an extremely risky practice,” he added.A look at the downsidesVanina Ivanova, chief marketing officer for noncustodial decentralized finance wallet solution Ambire, told Cointelegraph that accepting highly volatile assets like Bitcoin as payment can be rather harmful to a small or medium business since such establishments usually hold tiny cash buffers and are, therefore, vulnerable to market instability and fluctuations. Allowing customers to pay in a volatile currency can add to this risk and leave a business exposed to higher risk, in her view. She said:“There are multiple issues that must be solved before crypto is accepted as a mainstream payment option by SMEs – the most important one being, in my opinion, the lack of infrastructure. Integrating a crypto payment gateway is not a straightforward process, and there are limited vendors that offer it as a service.”In this regard, she noted that Shopify’s recent coming together with prominent cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com was a big step in the right direction, however, owing to the fact that most jurisdictions around the world still do not recognize crypto as legal tender, bank account maintenance for SMEs can be a real nightmare.Other obstacles in the way of adoption include scalability since even though there might be sufficient layer-2 solutions that can make accepting crypto payments fast enough, on a larger scale the problem continues to remain quite apparent. Ivanova highlighted:“Unpredictable transaction costs are also a factor that needs to be considered. While traditional systems charge SMEs significant fees for payments processing, these fees do not vary and can be factored in in pricing. Given that gas fees are absorbed by the customer in the case of crypto, businesses may lose sales because of this.”Ezeji-Okoye believes that if a business owner is simply accepting BTC in order to “buy the dip,” they’re better off setting up calculated trades on an exchange rather than accepting exposure from random volumes of purchases at random price levels with money they need to buy supplies. Additionally, setting up a new payment gateway is also not a feasible option for merchants because, given the existing macro environment, it will be hard for many SMEs to justify their initial investment. He added:Recent: Crisis in crypto lending shines light on industry vulnerabilities“Accepting crypto payments directly without using an intermediary like a gateway is possible, but runs the risk of falling afoul of regulators, even in countries where crypto payments aren’t prohibited. One of the reasons payment providers charge so much is because they take care of Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering checks.”Is there a middle ground to be found?While Bitcoin is no doubt a great option for SMEs, an interim solution for businesses — till all the creases get ironed out — would be to accept stablecoins. This type of asset allows business owners to reap all of the benefits put forth by blockchain technology while offering none of the risks of day-to-day volatility.In fact, folks like Ivanova believe stablecoins can help speed up cryptocurrency adoption, which in turn can alleviate various technological and legal hurdles for crypto. To this point, it is worth noting that the government of the United Kingdom recently announced that it plans to introduce stablecoins into its regulated payment system, which comes as good news for SMEs since it provides them with a new low-fee, regulatory compliant and stable method of accepting crypto payments.Therefore, with the global economy quickly gravitating toward the use of digital currencies for daily transactions, it will be interesting to see how the future of this space plays out, especially as more and more businesses become more adept at handling cryptocurrencies.

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Blockchain's potential: How AI can change the decentralized ledger

Blockchain's potential: How AI can change the decentralized ledger

Uverejnil používateľ | jún 16, 2022 |

One reason is that blockchain’s use of a decentralized ledger offers insight into the workings of AI systems and the provenance of the data these platforms may be using. As a result, transactions can be facilitated with a high level of trust while maintaining solid data integrity. Not only that, but the use of blockchain systems to store and distribute AI-centric operational models can help in the creation of an audit trail, which in turn allows for enhanced data security.Furthermore, the combination of AI and blockchain, at least on paper, seems to be extremely potent, one that is capable of improving virtually every industry within which it is implemented. For example, the combination has the potential to enhance today’s existing food supply chain logistics, healthcare record-sharing ecosystems, media royalty distribution platforms and financial security systems.That said, while there are a lot of projects out there touting the use of these technologies, what benefits do they realistically offer, especially since many AI experts believe that the technology is still in its relative infancy? There are many firms that are marketing the use of AI as part of their current offerings, giving rise to the blatant question: What exactly is going on here?With the cryptocurrency market continuing to grow from strength to strength over the last couple of years, the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) making its way into the realm of crypto/blockchain technology has continued to garner an increasing amount of mainstream interest across the globe. Are AI and blockchain a good match?To gain a broader and deeper understanding of the subject, Cointelegraph spoke with Arunkumar Krishnakumar, chief growth officer at Bullieverse — an open-world 3D metaverse gaming platform that utilizes aspects of AI tech. In his opinion, both blockchain and AI address different aspects of a dataset’s overall lifecycle.Kismet, a robot experiment in affective computing and AI. While blockchain primarily deals with things like data integrity and immutability — making sure that information data that sits on a blockchain is of high quality — AI uses data that is stored efficiently to provide meaningful and timely insights that researchers, analysts and developers can act on. Krishnakumar added:“AI can help us to not just make the right decisions through a specific situation, but it can also provide predictive heads-up as it gets more trained and intelligent. However, blockchain as a framework is quite capable of being an information highway, provided scalability and throughput aspects are addressed as this technology matures.”When asked whether AI is too nascent a technology to have any sort of impact on the real world, he stated that like most tech paradigms including AI, quantum computing and even blockchain, these ideas are still in their early stages of adoption. He likened the situation to the Web2 boom of the 90s, where people are only now beginning to realize the need for high-quality data to train an engine. Recent: The crypto industry must do more to promote encryption, says Meltem DemirorsFurthermore, he highlighted that there are already several everyday use cases for AI that most people take for granted in their everyday lives. “We have AI algorithms that talk to us on our phones and home automation systems that track social sentiment, predict cyberattacks, etc.,” Krishnakumar stated. Ahmed Ismail, CEO and president of Fluid — an AI quant-based financial platform — pointed out that there are many instances of AI benefitting blockchain. A perfect example of this combination, per Ismail, are crypto liquidity aggregators that use a subset of AI and machine learning to conduct deep data analysis, provide price predictions and offer optimized trading strategies to identify current/future market phenomena, adding:“The combination can help users capitalize on the best opportunities. What this really translates into is an ultra-low latency and ultra-low-cost solution to fragmented liquidity — a multitrillion-dollar problem that plagues the virtual assets market today.”On a more holistic note, Ismail pointed out that every technology has to go through a cycle of evolution and maturity. To this point, he highlighted that even when the banking and finance sectors began adopting digital assets, there were major concerns across the board about whether these assets had progressed enough to be successfully implemented. “AI and its subsets bring tremendous advantages to the crypto industry but should be ethically promoted with a long-term vision at its core,” he closed out by saying.More work may be needed According to Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai — a blockchain project aimed at introducing AI to the cryptocurrency economy — as Web3 and blockchain technologies move forward, AI will be a crucial element required to bring new value to businesses, adding:“Decentralized AI can remove intermediaries in today’s digital economy and connect businesses to consumers directly. It can also provide access to large volumes of data from within and outside of the organization, which when analyzed using AI scale can provide more actionable insights, manage data usage and model sharing, and create a trustworthy and transparent data economy.”In terms of the gap that exists between AI and its apparent lack of use cases, Sheikh believes that the dichotomy does not hold true since there are already many use cases for everyone to see. Fetch.ai, for example, has been building systems for deploying AI and blockchain within supply chain ecosystems, parking automation frameworks, decentralized finance (DeFi) and more. Fetch is also planning on releasing consumer-friendly AI applications starting in the United States in the near term.However, Krishnakumar believes that more needs to be done when it comes to making AI more data efficient so as to really serve the world at scale. To this point, he noted that with the advent of quantum computing, AI could scale heights like never seen before, adding:Recent: Consensus 2022: Web3, unpacking regulations, and optimism for crypto’s future“This can, for instance, bring down the time taken for drug discovery from 12 years to a couple of years could be on the cards. Modeling nitrogen fixation and industrializing it to reduce carbon emissions in fertilizer factories is another example. Modeling protein folding and providing customized medication for cancer is another use case that could be achieved.”Does blockchain need AI to succeed? Chung Dao, CEO and co-founder of Oraichain — a smart contract and decentralized app platform — believes that blockchain technology is more than what most people like to believe it is, which is a closed world of financial transactions without any connection to real-world assets and events. He told Cointelegraph:“AI must come to help blockchain recognize real world utility, expand its applicability and enable intelligent decision-making. Both technologies are in their early stages, but not ‘very early.’ There are many successful AI solutions that recognize patterns better than humans, and there are no doubt many advantages of automation in a wide range of businesses.”Dao noted that there’s already a robust infrastructure for AI ready to be implemented atop existing blockchain technologies, one that can enhance “trust, identification and decentralization” across the space. In this regard, Oraichain has a whole ecosystem dedicated to this: The project utilizes an oracle mechanism that integrates AI into smart contracts as well as harnessing the power of an AI-centric data management system and marketplace.Therefore, as we move into a future driven by the principles of decentralization, it stands to reason that futuristic technologies such as artificial intelligence will continue to gain more ground within the global crypto landscape over the coming months and years.

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Bear market: Some crypto firms cut jobs while others aim for sustainable growth

Bear market: Some crypto firms cut jobs while others aim for sustainable growth

Uverejnil používateľ | jún 10, 2022 |

To put things into perspective, since November 2021, the total market capitalization of the digital asset industry has plummeted from it’s all-time high of $3 trillion to its current levels of approx. $1.27 trillion, thus showcasing a loss ratio of over 55%.While this massive monetary downturn can be attributed to a range of factors, including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, rising inflation figures and worsening macroeconomic conditions have had a major impact on the crypto job landscape. For example, earlier this month, Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange helmed by the Winklevoss twins, announced that the bear market had forced them to lay off nearly 10% of its employees. The brothers noted that as part of their first major headcount cut, Gemini had to shift its focus on products that are “critical” to the firm’s long-term vision and goals. In fact, the brothers conceded that the existing turbulence was likely to persist for a few months at the very least, adding:There is no denying the fact that the crypto industry has grown from strength to strength over the last couple of years. However, the last six odd months have been anything but pleasant for the market. “This is where we are now, in the contraction phase that is settling into a period of stasis — what our industry refers to as ‘crypto winter.’ […] This has all been further compounded by the current macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil. We are not alone.”How bad is the situation really?In addition to Gemini, a number of other big-name firms have had to make serious cutbacks in recent months. For example, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America, Bitso, announced late last month that it was letting go of 80 of its employees due to worsening global economic conditions. At the time of the announcement, Bitso had over 700 full-time workers. The firm’s staff overhaul is not only a means of tightening its purse strings but also as a way of restructuring Bitso’s day-to-day activities. That said, a representative for the exchange recently revealed that they still have few vacancies across niche strategic domains such as accounting, tax, fraud detection and others.Buenbit, one of Argentina’s leading cryptocurrency investment platforms, had to take more drastic measures to put a stop to its financial bleeding. During the last week of May, the company laid off approximately 45% of its workforce, shrinking its active employee pool from about 180 to just 100 workers. Recent: MimbleWimble adds new features for Litecoin, but some exchanges balk2TM, the parent company behind Mercado Bitcoin, also revealed that it was going to be laying off 12% of its 750-strong team as a result of “changes in the global financial landscape.” At press time, Mercado Bitcoin is by far the biggest crypto exchange in Latin America in terms of the total trading volume. As part of a statement regarding the move, a spokesperson for 2TM noted:”The scenario requires adjustments that go beyond the reduction of operating expenses, making it necessary also to lay off part of our employees.”Coinbase announced recently that it would slow down its rate of hiring and reassess its financial strategies so as to ensure the company’s continued success. The firm even rescinded a lot of job offers that it had already issued, putting the visas of many international candidates in jeopardy. Not addressing the visa issue directly, Coinbase’s chief people officer L.J. Brock wrote in a blog recently:“As these discussions have evolved, it’s become evident that we need to take more stringent measures to slow our headcount growth. Adapting quickly and acting now will help us to successfully navigate this macro environment and emerge even stronger, enabling further healthy growth and innovation.”Crypto-friendly trading platform Robinhood fired 9% of its workforce in April, a decision that came at a time when the company’s stock offering had touched an all-time low. Lastly, one of the Middle East’s most prominent crypto trading ecosystems, Rain Financial, laid off over 12 employees earlier this month, citing the global financial downturn as a reason for the same. A repeat of 2018The aforementioned job turmoil seems to have an eerie feel to it, one that mirrors the events of 2018 when the market was faced with widespread layoffs across the board. At the time, crypto mining giant Bitmain got rid of a massive chunk of its employee base, with reports then suggesting that the company let go 1,700 of its 3,200 employees — including its entire Bitcoin Cash (BCH) development team, several engineers, media managers and more.Migrant Mother, photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1936. The photograph was emblematic of employment struggles during the Great Depression. Prominent cryptocurrency exchange Huobi also carried out massive layoffs in 2018, with the company letting go of its “underachieving employees” while stressing that the remedial measures were necessary for “its core business” to sustain itself. At the time, the company reportedly had a workforce of over a thousand employees.Lastly, blockchain software technology firm ConsenSys was also forced to make significant cuts in 2018, with the company’s CEO Joseph Lubin penning a letter to his employees revealing that he would have to let go of some 600 employees in an effort to help the business stay afloat. Not all is lostAmid these unfavorable market conditions, there are still firms that have decided not to lay off their employees. For example, crypto exchange platform FTX announced that not only will it be retaining its existing employees but will also be hiring new personnel as the crypto winter marches on.As part of a recent Twitter exchange, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried explained that his firm will continue to expand its operations because its growth blueprint has been well structured, unlike some other firms that experienced unfounded, unsustainable “hyper-growth” during last year’s bull run. 1) Zig Zag and hiring:why FTX is going to keep growing as others cut jobs— SBF (@SBF_FTX) June 6, 2022Criticizing “hyper-growth companies,” Bankman-Fried said that hiring more staff quickly doesn’t necessarily lead to a substantial increase in productivity since rapid expansion, more often than not, makes it more difficult for everyone to stay on the same page. “Sometimes, the more you hire, the less you get done,” he said.Even though FTX had slowed down its hiring earlier on in the year, the move, he noted, was not due to a lack of funds but rather a means of ensuring that new team members had enough time to adjust to their new roles and professional surroundings.Some crypto recruiters noted that while the digital asset industry has indeed witnessed layoffs, its rate of hiring has remained spectacularly high, especially when compared to the traditional tech space. To this point, a number of Silicon Valley giants including Twitter, Uber and Amazon have announced major job cuts recently. Netflix also terminated the roles of 150 employees after posting historically poor growth figures, while Facebook’s parent company Meta noted that it was instating a hiring freeze for any mid-to-senior-level positions after failing to meet revenue targets.Recent: Self-regulatory orgs for crypto keep ecosystem afloat pending clear regulationsNeil Dundon, founder of employment agency Crypto Recruit, said that things have not slowed down when it comes to hiring within the digital asset industry. “We have a team based globally across the U.S., Asia/Pacific and European regions and demand is equally as high across the region,” he pointed out in a recent interview with Cointelegraph.Similarly, Kevin Gibson, founder of Proof of Search, told Cointelegraph that the lay-offs taking place across the tech sector have had little to no impact on his crypto industry clients so far, adding:“I’ve only heard of two companies letting people go. This may change in the next month, but any slack will immediately be taken up by well-funded quality projects. As a candidate, you won’t notice any difference. if you do lose your job, you will also have multiple offers pretty quickly.”Therefore, as the ongoing downturn continues to affect the global economy in a big way, it will be interesting to see how companies operating within this space are able to stave off bearish pressure and survive the ongoing financial onslaught.

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