Alarm Over Bitcoin Mining 5055

The amount of electricity consumed by bitcoin mining is not the global environmental crisis it is often portrayed to be. This is the professional assessment of Dr. Katrina Kelly-Pitou,  a research associate in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

‘New Technologies Are Energy Intensive’

Writing in an article penned for non-profit academic media outlet The Conversation, Kelly-Pitou criticizes the characterization of bitcoin mining’s energy consumption as some sort of fatal design flaw, stating that the general narrative around cryptocurrency as an environmental risk is a gross oversimplification that encourages the spread of factual inaccuracies as received wisdom.

Explaining why she thinks of the so-called “bitcoin energy crisis” as a red herring, she says:

“I am a researcher who studies clean energy technology, specifically the transition toward decarbonized energy systems…New technologies – such as data centers, computers and before them trains, planes and automobiles – are often energy-intensive. Over time, all of these have become more efficient, a natural progression of any technology: Saving energy equates to saving costs.”

At a time when a lot of the conversation around the future of bitcoin mining is dominated by statistics such as the fact that it currently consumes almost as much electricity as the Republic of Ireland, Kelly-Pitou believes that to restrict the conversation to the energy consumption of bitcoin mining alone is to miss a larger truth about energy and environmental concerns.

In her opinion, the use of renewable energy allows for increased power consumption for any purpose including bitcoin mining without having any negative environmental impact. The conversation should instead, she says, be centered around where the electricity used to power cryptocurrency mining comes from and how it is generated.

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Powerbridge Technologies Invests in High-Performance Crypto Mining Equipment 3347

Powerbridge Technologies, a provider of multi-industry technology solutions, has announced its recent acquisition of 1,200 units of A1346 Avalon Bitcoin Miners. The investment aligns with the Company’s long-term strategy in the crypto market.

The A1346 Avalon Bitcoin Miners with a hash rate of 104TH/s, are known for their high performance, stability, and ease of use.

Stewart Lor, CEO of Powerbridge Technologies, commented: “We believe that this investment will help us expand our presence in the crypto market. As a leading provider of technology solutions, we will continue to explore new opportunities to accelerate our growth and bring values to our shareholders.”

About Powerbridge Technologies

Powerbridge Technologies Co., Ltd. is a leading provider of multi-industry technology solutions. The Company offers software and platform applications, IoT platform services and intelligent devices, supply chain platforms and interactive media services, metaverse and digital services, and cryptocurrency asset operations and services.

How blockchain games are changing approaches to education and business 3705

Blockchain

Author: Andrey Frost Moroz, CEO of Bluelight.inc

Blockchain games first emerged in the early 2000s and have undergone several transformations. We all remember CryptoKitties, which literally exploded the crypto and gaming communities, with cartoon cats selling for millions of dollars to sophisticated collectors. They were followed by PokemonGo, Axie Infinity, and thousands of other entertainment games, whose goal was easy money and fun pastime.

The coronavirus epidemic and the prolonged crypto winter, which lasted for over a year, exposed the “narrow” areas of blockchain games. Of course, entertainment games can occupy you, but do they provide valuable and useful skills? Rather not! Today, the gaming world has turned not towards entertainment, but towards education. Dozens of simulation games are entering the market that can, if not instill, then give an idea of important skills. I believe that the pioneer of this trend was Mark Zuckerberg, who announced back in 2022 that he intends to launch about 10 virtual universities in the metaverse Meta, and education will be conducted in the form of games. So far, these statements remain on paper and in plans, but the concept of developing simulation games has proven to be in high demand on the market.Today, you can find dozens of such games. For example, the game 0xUniverse is essentially a simulator of space construction factories and plants. It’s clear that playing the game, you’re unlikely to learn how to build spaceships, but you will definitely understand how it works and what components a rocket or satellite consists of. Another example is MegaCryptoPolis, a city-building simulator where players must build buildings according to certain rules, beautify streets, and maintain order.

However, my team and I went further and decided to create our own business simulator, a digital analogue of Silicon Valley. Players don’t just play and complete tasks. They learn how to manage projects, build teams based on the knowledge and abilities of each member, maintain a warm climate within the team, and much more.

If you’re seeing the Bluelight game for the first time, you’ll definitely notice familiar graphics and interesting characters. Yes, the creators of the cult NFT cartoon Take My Muffin became our partners in developing the visual part of the game. But if you immerse yourself in the gameplay, every gamer will be able to find useful information or gain new skills. It’s like trading cryptocurrency on a demo account: you’re making real trades, but you’re not losing your money in case of failure. Demo trading allows you to acquire and consolidate basic trading skills and understand how orders work, how to read technical analysis, and what all these Japanese candles, figures, and curves mean. The same thing goes for Bluelight.

So what knowledge and skills do users gain just by playing the game:

1. The ability to plan is a skill that many people lack. Poor planning leads to wasting time on project implementation and, in some cases, losing money and clients. By playing Bluelight, you will learn to accurately plan the time needed to complete a task.

2. Delegation is another important factor in business. Not all tasks can be delegated, nor can they be assigned to every employee. You will understand this better if you assign a task to the wrong character. By studying the abilities and experience of the characters, you will learn to accurately determine the executor and delegate tasks to them.

3. Team building is a crucial component of a successful business. A strong and loyal team is half the battle. Our simulator helps you learn to identify and meet the needs of each team member, from their work environment to their salary and vacation.

Who will benefit from our game? I would say everyone, without exception, because these are skills that will definitely come in handy in life. However, I would particularly recommend playing Bluelight to novice entrepreneurs who are just taking their first steps in business. By the way, you can get exclusive access to the game here (email or contact form). Soon, we will launch an open beta version, and anyone will be able to play Bluelight.

Will Bitcoin continue to fall? 5640

Bitcoin

It’s no secret that the cryptocurrency market is quite volatile. Almost any piece of global news can affect the price of digital assets in one way or another. Take billionaire Elon Musk, for example, who was able to influence the price of Dogecoin simply by tweeting. However, this does not always happen because of a particular case and with a particular coin. In 2020, for example, the world went into lockdown for the first time in a long time. Countries’ borders were closed and the logistics of many goods began to be disrupted. People had to stay at home, fearing for their health. The Covid-19 pandemic was to blame. You would think that a virus could have an impact on digital assets. As it turns out, it was able to reach cryptocurrency as well. Because of problems in the economy, cryptocurrency has begun to lose value.

This did not last long, and a year later Bitcoin set a new historical high. The price of the first cryptocurrency was above $63,000. Those enthusiasts, who during the chaos and lockdown did not stop believing that cryptocurrency was the future and continued to invest in digital gold, were able to make good money in just one year. Bitcoin began to be prophesied to reach $100,000 in the near future. There were many explanations from analysts and financial experts that Bitcoin could do this. Today, however, the picture for the crypto industry does not look so rosy.

Since the beginning of 2022, the first cryptocurrency began to lose heavily in price, for various reasons. Today, we can observe that Bitcoin is in prolonged drawdown, just like all other digital assets. Some call it a “crypto-winter”. This has already happened to the crypto market more than once. But why is the fall so noticeable?

Experts attribute the prolonged decline in quotations to the fact that the Federal Reserve System is tightening policy in the US, which raises rates to contain inflation in the country.

As cryptocurrency is a risky asset, investors and traders are trying to get rid of it or keep it to a minimum.

Also, the recent news that one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX, has filed for bankruptcy has not had a positive impact on the value of digital assets either. The first cryptocurrency still remains in a kind of sideways position. At the time of writing, it stands at $16,993, according to CoinGecko.

What if Bitcoin keeps falling?

If the cryptocurrency drawdown continues, nothing good can come of it. As analysts say, this will entail quite serious and large changes in the global crypto market. A similar scenario was discussed this summer, in the online edition of CNews. The publication’s experts believe that continued drawdown will mean that many tokens that are not widely known will simply disappear, until there are only the top and in-demand coins that are able to survive in today’s realities.

Of course it is too early to talk about it now, things may change tomorrow if there is any positive news. But we can only wait and see what happens.

And to start trading cryptocurrencies today, you can use the RevenueBot cryptocurrency bot service.

CME Group Announces Launch of Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether Futures 6193

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today launched Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures.

“The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing U.S. dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group. “Our new Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures will provide institutional clients, both within and outside the U.S., with more precise and regulated tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.”

Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will be sized at five bitcoin and 50 ether per contract. These new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, which serve as once-a-day reference rates of the euro-denominated price of bitcoin and ether.

These new futures contracts will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.

For more information on this product, please visit https://www.cmegroup.com/cryptocurrencies#explore-our-cryptocurrency-products.

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.

OpiPets: The Rise of Blockchain in Formula 1 5011

Formula One is one of the greatest sports in the world and brings about the best automobile teams which compete for the title yearly. From the racing tracks in Spa to the roads of Monte Carlo in Monaco, Formula One has developed into a billion-dollar industry with teams and drivers boasting a cult following globally.

The relationship between Formula One and the blockchain industry has grown in recent years. In part due to the growing adoption of crypto and blockchain technology. Crypto.com made a significant splash when it was announced as a Global Partner of Formula One in 2021. They are not alone. Binance, FTX, Velas, Bybit, Tezos and memecoin project Floki have established partnerships within Formula 1.

The familiarity between Forumla 1 and blockchain companies demonstrates the acceleration of consumer adoption of blockchain and crypto related products and services. Where Shell, Hewlett Packard and Coke once stood, cryptocurrency exchanges, harware wallets and blockchain protocols now lead the way. The success of new concepts like NFTs has also inspired Formula One teams looking to increase consumer engagement through limited card collections that provide exclusive content and access for fans worldwide.

Opis Group and OpiPets took part in the Monaco NFT and Swim week conference which took place during the Grand Prix weekend. As one of the oldest and most prestigious dates on the F1 calendar Monaco played home for a hive of blockchain related activity.

OpiPets, a Free Play-to-Earn project and sister company Opis Cloud showcased their use cases and product development with other successful projects and tech investors.

Building an innovative P2E ecosystem

Although Play-to-Earn has attracted over a million users within its first two years, majorly due to its promise to reward players with crypto and NFT ownership, it is still faced with an uphill climb in terms of broader mainstream adoption.

The start-up costs for new players are a major barrier to the widespread adoption of P2E games. Participants must spend up to a thousand dollars to begin. Many people cannot afford to test it and often regard it as a risky investment. Many players are still dissatisfied after attempting to recover their initial investment.

Contrary to the original idea, many so-called P2E games have transitioned into Pay-to-Earn. This is due to their unsustainable tokenomics which invariably makes them abandon their original ideals.

OpiPets is one of the few projects that distinguishes itself from the popular model. It’s a free P2E online game in which players are rewarded with cryptocurrency and the ability to create, battle, obtain, and trade their own NFT OpiPet characters.

OpiPets uses the P2E concept and focuses on giving the community actual ownership of assets produced and digital economies and new ways to generate income.

More developments on the horizon

The OpiPets team has continued to work tirelessly to significantly reduce the adoption barriers that limit the popularity of blockchain games. It also plans to launch its game in Q3 2022. The game is expected to include exciting features and products for users to explore its ecosystem and acquire new assets.

AuroraFS DApps Development Capabilities to Be Enhanced 4924

Recent news reveals that AuroraFS has progressed in its vision and direction concerning the development of the next generation of DApps which will be deployed on the decentralized P2P cloud storage and distribution network. AuroraFS announced intentions to begin building DApps which will run on the content storage and streaming network, in addition to Web3Tube.

Web3Tube is the decentralized video storage and sharing application which has been in full test mode for over a month now. Web3Tube was the first decentralized application to display the power and ability of the decentralized cloud network known as AuroraFS. Now, with the expansion into development of more DApps, the search for DApps developers is on.

What do the New Development Plans Look Like?

The development of the next generation of DApps has triggered a search for Decentralized Application Developers to bring talent to AuroraFS in order to deliver just that. In order for the AuroraFS blockchain network to begin generating future DApps that will run on and demonstrate the power and expansiveness from the peer-provided global data resource pool, it will require fresh ideas and talent, so the network set out to find both.

The ideas are not only coming from contributors and advisors to the network, but also the AuroraFS network community has been asked to weigh-in and submit ideas for the next wave of DApps to be developed. It certainly presents as a sensible move since the community would be expected to have an instrumental part in operating those DApps on the front end. The community has been asked to play an intricate role in the development of the network in this way, as AuroraFS demonstrates by action, an evidential degree of trust in the opinions and views of its community, Web3Tube video creators, network users, AuroraFS and Web3Tube contest and campaign winners and airdropped AUFS token holders.

“We were excited to get feedback from the AuroraFS community. They’re using the network actively on Web3Tube and involved in all of the contests and upgrades that have been made to the decentralized network, so it is certainly a good idea to consider their valuable feedback for the next phase of AuroraFS DApps.” – Warwick Powell, Gauss Aurora Lab Design and Research Leader

DApps on AuroraFS up Until Now

Until now, the focus has almost exclusively been on Web3Tube, the initial DApp developed to demonstrate the vast capabilities of the AuroraFS decentralized content network. It took a great deal of time, while Web3Tube was in its conceptualization stage as AuroraFS was still deep in its development phase, just beyond theory and hypothesizing. Since that time, a downloadable version of Web3Tube went live and has been available since March, when future airdrop campaigns began.

Web3Tube is comparable to a platform such as YouTube, but innovative in that it is fully decentralized. To accomplish this, Web3Tube depends on the fully decentralized, yet fully secured AuroraFS innovation which combines state of the art technologies to create data efficiency advanced enough to deliver HD quality in a fully decentralized and secured environment. To pull this off and still maintain anonymity and integrity simultaneously, has in fact been an achievement thus far for AuroraFS, which motivates the decision and drive for the development of more DApps in this season.

Final Mentions and Next Steps for AuroraFS

With development plans for the next phase of DApps certain, AuroraFS moves closer to its expected token and mainnet launch in Q3 of this year. The exact date in Q3 has not been determined, as improvements in a strive for the utmost quality, are still regularly being made to the network and the Web3Tube application alike.

The final round of the third official future airdrop contests and campaigns also recently ended, and the Gauss Aurora Labs team of AuroraFS contributors, have made multiple appearances in blockchain and tech events. Members of the team were present at Blockchain Week in Australia at the end of March, and also FinTech21 which was held in Melbourne on May 18th and 19th. So then exposure has been a focus as the Gauss Aurora Labs team looks to educate individuals about the new blockchain development still not fully released.