Blockchain Will Be “Meaningless” Unless It Helps Build Greener Future 1900

Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has said that blockchain and other advanced technologies still need to prove they can help evolve society in a “greener and more inclusive” direction. His remarks came as part of a keynote delivered at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in China September 17, as local outlet cnBeta reports.

While Ma’s keynote focused on the challenges and common (mis)perceptions surrounding the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in particular, he reserved a place for blockchain and internet of things (IoT) technology as technological watersheds in the new “data age,” arguing that:

“The data age is major opportunity for manufacturers to reform the industry. But blockchain and IoT will be meaningless tech unless they can promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry, and the evolution of the society towards a greener and more inclusive direction.”

Jack Ma, who now plans to go into retirement, has a net worth of $36.9 billion, according to Forbes. The overwhelmingly popular mobile payment app Alipay, run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, is said to have 450 million users.

Blockchain is no new topic for the e-commerce titan, as Ma has previously this year rebutted claims that the technology is merely a “bubble,” emphasizing that he has been researching blockchain for years and believes strongly in its potential to address issues of data privacy and security for society at all levels.

Indeed as early as summer 2016, Ant Financial, introduced blockchain technology to improve accountability in its work with the Chinese charity industry, going on to recruit blockchain experts in the company at large the following year.

Fresh data published late August revealed that Alibaba had sealed the top first globally on a new list that ranked entities by the number of blockchain-related patents filed to date; the e-commerce conglomerate has filed a staggering 90 such patents, outflanking even IBM.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Leave a Reply

Concordium Enables a New Standard of Age Verification Amidst Growing Privacy Concerns 4693

Concordium, the Layer 1, science-backed blockchain creating a safer digital world, proudly unveils Web3 ID: a cutting-edge identification platform offering age-verification capacities designed to prioritize user privacy for both individuals and businesses. Concordium’s age verification tooling works to protect minors online amidst growing global privacy concerns and explicit data-harvesting from technology organisations.

Web3 ID harnesses Concordium’s Zero-Knowledge Proof technology to offer a novel approach to age verification – without ever compromising user data or privacy. By uploading a government-issued form of identification to their wallet, Web3 ID users can drastically reduce the amount of data they disclose during online identity verification, regaining control over any sensitive information.

Mikael Breinholst, Head of Product at Concordium, spoke to the widespread concern surrounding existing online age-verification tools, stating: “Current age verification tools online are a grave area of concern for many. Age-restricted sites have little to no barrier to entry, exposing underage consumers to a universe of adult themed content. Blockchain technology, and Web3 ID specifically, enable businesses to request proof of an individual’s age, without storing their data or selling it to advertisers. With Web3 ID, users maintain autonomy and safety over their personal information while benefiting from blockchain technology’s inherent security.”

Concordium´s built-in ID layer and Zero-Knowledge-Proof technology ensures a user’s online identity is verified in a secure and decentralized manner, all while maintaining privacy. Only strictly relevant information is requested of users when transacting on the Web3 ID platform, while unrelated details are held on a decentralized wallet. Web3 ID users are also granted an increase in transactional security through Concordium’s compliance-friendly technology. In result, individuals and businesses are empowered with complete control over their information, effectively countering the data ownership issues associated with centralized legacy systems.

Kåre Kjelstrøm, CTO & CPO at Concordium, commented: “Concordium’s Web3 ID is intuitive and easy to build upon, offering seamless usability while being cost-effective, shrinking online identification processes. Further to preventing children from accessing age-restricted sites, Web3 ID is capable of sharing specific medical information without the recipient having access to the entirety of an individual’s medical history, proving a user’s driving credentials, or simply ensuring user data is genuine and not the result of bots. This model addresses many of the shortcomings surrounding ID safety caused by big tech’s data monopoly.”

The creation of a new standard of age verification promotes Concordium’s mission of supporting a regulated future for new and existing organisations building on blockchain technology. This achievement follows recent partnerships such as AI service provider 2021.ai, and carbon offset management platform Aqualibre.

For more information on Concordium’s Web3 ID platform, please visit: Concordium.com

About Concordium

Concordium is a permissionless green layer 1, a science-backed blockchain that balances privacy with accountability through its ID layer and Zero-Knowledge-Proofs. Creating trust with ID is key to scaling businesses. Concordium provides a fast, secure, and high-scale blockchain platform that makes building use cases and using dApps easy. Concordium differs by having verified ID and instant finality with high throughput and low transaction fees pegged to FIAT. With leadership from Fortune 500 companies, Volvo, IKEA, Credit Suisse, Uber, and successful Fintech platforms, the team is scaling the chain to its extensive network of the world’s biggest enterprises. For more information: concordium.com

Bitcoin Price at 2011 Levels Returns as Bitcoin BSC Launch Provides Chance to Earn Free Bitcoin Clone Tokens 6391

Back in 2011, the Bitcoin price was $1, but today, following the launch of the Bitcoin BSC coin crypto presale on the BNB Smart Chain, buyers can acquire the token at a similarly low price and earn free Bitcoin clone tokens too.

Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, is struggling right now after bulls were trapped as enthusiasm at the prospect of the SEC spot bitcoin ETFs getting speedy approval receded. The price retraced below the $26k level, but it has been a different story for Bitcoin clone derivative coins.

During the past three months, for example, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork from Bitcoin is up 73%, while Bitcoin has fallen -2.3% in the same time period.

Meanwhile, a similar staking-based bitcoin derivative coin to Bitcoin BSC, BTC20, which launched a month ago, is up 52%.

In fact, BTC20 hit an all-time (ATH) intraday high of $6, equating to a 688% 7x gain on its $1 presale and listing price.

Yet another bitcoin clone derivative, this time BTC2.0, rose to an ATH of $1.06 to register a return of 538x, although the price has retraced markedly from its peak.

Earn free Bitcoin clone tokens with stake-to-earn Bitcoin BSC coin

Bitcoin BSC aims to match, or beat, the success of all of these Bitcoin clone coins, and to achieve that end it has a not-so-secret weapon – staking.

While the performance of BTC2.0, not to be confused with BTC20, since its heights has been somewhat underwhelming, there has been more of a steady-as-she-goes approach by the likes of BTC20.

That’s probably largely down to the ballast effect of staking, which bears down on any selling pressure that may emerge at listing.

In this way, Bitcoin BSC seeks to emulate BTC20 by adopting a similar design and strategy, providing the price with a stable platform for takeoff.

Like BTC20, Bitcoin BSC has staking utility built into its design from the outset.

However, it should be noted that there is one important difference between Bitcoin BSC and BTC20 – Bitcoin BSC is a BEP-20 BNB Smart Chain-compliant token, and BTC20 is an ERC-20 Ethereum-compliant token – hence the BSC in the name.

Staking has been popular in the crypto DeFi space, but enthusiasm waned in the aftermath of high-profile implosions of staking ecosystems such as Terra Luna.

However, the attractiveness of transparent staking that has a clearly defined source of yield, unlike the opaque algorithms in use on Terra Luna, has not gone away.

With $BTCBSC, which runs on the BNB Smart Chain, the yield is paid out over a 120-year period, in line with Bitcoin block confirmations. Altogether, 69% of the total token supply is allocated to distribute as rewards.

Staking provides token holders with a way of earning token rewards in proportion to how many coins of the total pool they deposit into a staking smart contract and the time they choose to stake for.

It is this staking feature that will deliver price support while offering both positive capital returns and income yield to network participants.

Bitcoin BSC staking is operative now, even before the coin lists on the decentralized exchange PancakeSwap.

You can keep an eye on how many token holders are staking by visiting the real-time Bitcoin BSC staking dashboard.

You can snap up Bitcoin BSC at the low Bitcoin 2011 price of $0.99

$BTCBSC can be bought today for $ 0.99 – the same price the Bitcoin was at back in its 2011 early days, and a far cry from the $25,7000 it will cost you to purchase Bitcoin at today’s prices.

Bitcoin BSC’s comparatively low price means contributors to the presale could be sitting on substantial upside potential when the Bitcoin halving bull run takes off.

The four-yearly event that sees block rewards halved on the original Bitcoin network has previously ushered in mind-melting bull runs.

This halving is expected to have the effect of lifting all boats – especially the prices of quality Bitcoin clone derivative coins such as $BTCBSC.

Bitcoin BSC has the same total token supply as Bitcoin – 21 million. Of that total supply, 29% is up for grabs through the presale of 6,125,000 tokens, meaning BTCBSC has an initial market cap of $6,063,750.

Two percent of the supply is reserved for DEX liquidity provision to guarantee smooth trading at launch and beyond.

The remaining 14,455,000 BTCBSC tokens (69% of supply) is reserved for staking rewards, which are paid out every 10 minutes as new blocks are added to the chain.

At that token emission rate, the maximum supply will be reached in about 120 years – the same time frame as Bitcoin.

Presale and post-presale investors can buy and stake tokens at any time with a 7-day lock on withdrawals.

Bear in mind that because BTCBSC runs on the BNB Smart Chain, to buy and stake in the presale, you will need to use BNB for your purchase. However, those buying with ETH today can start staking after the presale ends.

Faster, cheaper, more powerful and expandable than other Bitcoin clones

Still, staking is not the only advantage BTCBSC has over Bitcoin and the larger-cap clone coins such as Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV.

For one thing, $BTCBSC uses a proof-of-stake protocol, which means it runs on a much more scalable blockchain that is also cheaper and more efficient to transact on.

Because BTCBSC is built on the BNB Smart Chain, transaction fees are less than $0.10, compared to around $10 on Bitcoin and approximately $20 on Ethereum, depending on network conditions.

Another advantage BTCBSC has is its fast transaction speeds, which are typically less than 5 seconds compared to 10 minutes for Bitcoin, BCH, and BSV.

BNB Smart Chain is capable of running applications, too, so there’s no limit to future development possibilities for Bitcoin BSC.

Bitcoin BSC has a lot going for it, and with only $3,960,000 being raised in the presale, demand is sure to be robust.

Crypto market prices are generally becalmed, but there are waters where the current is much healthier. In the Bitcoin derivative clone sector, there’s all to play for as far as bagging out 10x gains goes.

Get in early, and the rewards will not just accrue to long-term stakers earning a generous APY, but also to those who want the chance to access life-changing returns.

zkPass pre-alpha testnet opens for public testing 6277

In a significant stride towards revolutionizing data privacy and verification, zkPass, the innovative privacy-preserving protocol for private data verification, announces that its Pre-alpha Testnet is open for public testing.

A Glimpse into the Future: zkPass Pre-alpha Testnet

The zkPass Pre-alpha Testnet presents a transformative approach to private data verification. Built on the bedrock of Multi-Party Computation (MPC), Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), and Three-party Transport Layer Security (3P-TLS), zkPass introduces TransGate—a gateway empowering users to selectively and privately validate their data from any HTTPS website. This encompasses diverse data types, including legal identity, financial records, healthcare information, social interactions, work history, education, and skill certifications. zkPass achieves these verifications securely and privately, obviating the necessity to reveal or upload sensitive personal data to third parties.

The Power of Scalability

zkPass can be readily incorporated into multiple application scenarios, including composable decentralized identity passes, DeFi lending protocols based on off-chain credit, privacy-ensured healthcare data marketplaces, and dating apps featuring verifiable zkSBTs, etc. Wherever there is a need for trust and privacy, zkPass can provide a solution.

By employing cryptographic technologies like MPC, ZKP, and others, zkPass enables users to validate their private data through the verification of their HTTPS-based web session—eliminating the need for file uploads or the exposure of sensitive details.

For example, through zkPass, Alice can prove:

  • Based on her server response to the Steam/GOG website, she has purchased 10+ games with 100+ hours of gameplay and is not required to disclose any other private information about her account to a third party.
  • Based on her server response with the Harvard Alumni website, she has a Bachelor’s degree and is an alumnus of Harvard University, but does not disclose any of her other superfluous personal data.
  • Based on her server response with the Porsche website, she owns a Porsche, but does not disclose her frame number, purchase order, or other private data.
  • Based on her server response with the bank’s website, she owns assets greater than $100K, but does not disclose any of her specific account assets, transfer records, or other private data.

zkPass can be applied in various scenarios to enhance user experience, trust, and privacy:

  • The Metaverse/GameFi program is looking for gaming ambassadors to participate in a test and offer a reward, and they can easily verify that Alice is their target user.
  • Alice can seamlessly access the Alumni DAO via her zkPass zkSBT while ensuring privacy and trustworthiness.
  • Alice leveraged her RWA ZKPs to establish a reputation for high ratings, which allowed her to access a DeFi lending platform and secure lower mortgage and borrowing rates, ultimately boosting her capital efficiency.

By redesigning the TLS protocol to Three-party TLS, zkPass makes it seamless for any HTTPS-based website to be used as a trusted data source for provenance of zero-knowledge metadata without having to authorize any APIs.

Open Invitation to Shape the Future

zkPass launched its Pre-alpha Testnet in July, receiving an overwhelming response with over 200,000 waitlist signups. Currently, tens of thousands of whitelisted users have already generated more than 100,000 zero-knowledge proofs, each representing their respective private data, identity, or ownership.

User feedback holds immense importance as it helps refine and enhance their solution. The public release of the Pre-alpha Testnet extends a warm invitation to technology enthusiasts, privacy advocates, and individuals who deeply value secure data practices. This invitation aims to shape the future landscape of data privacy alongside zkPass collectively.

Participating in the Pre-alpha Testnet not only grants users early access to an advanced solution but also empowers them to actively contribute towards its improvement. This collaborative effort is a key driver in tailoring zkPass into a privacy-focused protocol that empowers users in an increasingly data-centric world.

How to Get Involved

Getting involved in zkPass’s Pre-alpha Testnet is simple:

  1. Users can Install the TransGate Extension from Google Chrome Web Store.
  2. Interested users join pre.zkpass.org to be a part of the Pre-alpha Testnet and experience firsthand the power of private data validation.

More tutorial details can be found on the doc wiki and engage with the zkPass community. Users are invited share their insights, and become an integral part of shaping this groundbreaking technology.

About ZkPass

zkPass is an advanced privacy-preserving protocol for private data verification. It allows users to securely and selectively validate their data from any HTTPS website, making it highly versatile for various applications, including banking and DeFi lending protocols. zkPass is the ideal solution whenever trust and privacy are essential.

Yield IQ Announces Launch on Arbitrum 6519

27867827 787878 7

Maximizing earnings from liquidity provision and strengthening the Arbitrum ecosystem

August 31, 2023 — Yield IQ, the revolutionary liquidity provision tool that seeks to unlock new revenue streams for cryptocurrency token holders, is now live on the Arbitrum chain. Developed by a team of visionary developers and innovators in the DeFi space, Yield IQ limits impermanent loss and opens up new possibilities for individuals to effortlessly earn through liquidity provision.The launch presents an unprecedented opportunity for token holders, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and other DeFi projects to maximize their earnings through Yield IQ’s innovative strategies of yield optimization and liquidity management—while actively contributing to the growth and resilience of the broader Arbitrum ecosystem.

Arbitrum was chosen for this latest launch due to its scalability and efficiency, which will allow Yield IQ to maximize performance and better empower liquidity providers to generate substantial returns with improved liquidity, reduced costs, and enhanced trading opportunities. Yield IQ Vaults are also available on the Ethereum and Polygon networks.

Among the myriad benefits, Yield IQ’s introduction to the Arbitrum chain offers liquidity providers:

  • Improved Liquidity: Pairing Arbitrum tokens (ARB) with another token of choice can both enhance liquidity and foster a healthier, more vibrant ecosystem.
  • Additional Earnings for DAOs: When a Yield IQ deposit widget is integrated to a partner’s frontend paired with Chainlink Automation, projects become eligible for an additional 5% of the trading fees generated by the token’s pool. These earnings flow directly into the users’ DAO treasury, strengthening their financial position.
  • Lucrative Returns: To ensure a promising investment opportunity for DAOs seeking stable and reliable returns, Yield IQ offers a 25% Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for ARB deposits paired with ICHI over the next 12 months, backed up with up to 50k ICHI tokens.

“Right now, arbitrage traders are winning the battle over liquidity,” said Coburn Murray, CEO of values-driven investment firm Ethos Capital. “For most providers, it is not profitable or practical to ensure liquidity. Yield IQ, however, empowers providers to earn the most from their deposits, and we are excited to partner with the Arbitrum community to deliver optimal results and trading opportunities.”

Developed and launched by Offchain Labs in August 2021, Arbitrum was designed to improve transaction speeds, enable scalability and ensure increased network privacy. The ecosystem sparked industry conversations earlier this year by airdropping $120 million worth of tokens to projects built on its network—and, in the process, both highlighting the potential for blockchain projects to utilize incentives and rewards for participation.

Since inception, Yield IQ has achieved remarkable success—boasting a median 30% annualized return on Polygon and partnering with Retro—a leading ve(3,3) DEX and a new automated liquidity management marketplace. By accessing Yield IQ via Retro’s front end, users are able to lock their tokens for voting and gain influence over emission destinations, earning fees and rewards from the pools they support. This incentivizes users to thoughtfully consider their votes and helps steer the DEX in the right direction, promoting a community-driven ecosystem.

Yield IQ efficiently deploys liquidity to Uniswap V3 concentrated liquidity pools. With a single token deposit, projects can passively earn returns while the algorithm actively manages their preferred token and generates trading fees from liquidity pools. By leveraging a fully automated, on-chain liquidity provision strategy, Yield IQ enables liquidity providers to mitigate common challenges in generating consistent profits, capital inefficiencies, and a lack of expertise in liquidity provision strategies.

The launch on Arbitrum further strengthens Yield IQ’s commitment to empowering users and contributing to the growth and resilience of the broader DeFi ecosystem. When ARB tokens are deposited into Yield IQ Vaults, token holders contribute to the strength and growth of the entire Arbitrum ecosystem. This means more stable prices, more efficient trades, and a wealth of opportunities for projects to flourish.

Learn more by visiting the ICHI Website, Medium, Twitter, Telegram, or Discord.

###

About Yield IQ

Yield IQ is a fully automated, single sided concentrated liquidity provision strategy. By making rebalancing decisions based on token composition instead of token price, Yield IQ limits impermanent loss and generates industry leading results. True to the spirit of DeFi, Yield IQ is governed by a self-executing smart contract, ensuring impartiality and decentralization. This ensures unrestricted, permissionless access and unalterable protocol behavior, serving as a truly decentralized financial tool.

AltLayer’s Rollups Suite Extends Support to OP Stack 6100

AltLayer has announced extended support for the OP stack, the Optimism Collective’s open-source, modular codebase, within its rollups suite. This means that dApps can spin up a customized OP Stack through AltLayer’s no-code rollup platform in just a few clicks, enjoying a hassle-free deployment experience. AltLayer will manage all node infrastructure for projects so that developers can focus on their core business and technical operations.

The OP Stack is the standardized, shared, and open-source development stack that powers Optimism, including OP Mainnet. It helps define a specific layer within the Optimism ecosystem. Alternatively, it can be used as a modular component within another layer, say for example, as infrastructure for a Layer 2 blockchain.

Dr. Amrit Kumar, COO, AltLayer said: “The Layer 2 space is very fragmented at present. With the emergence of scaling solutions on Ethereum came ecosystems that were built differently, with varied infrastructure. This created barriers for users who needed a cohesive and accessible network. The OP Stack will unlock new possibilities within Ethereum and beyond. We’re excited to streamline access to this stack and its benefits for anyone deploying rollups with AltLayer’s RaaS products, and look forward to collaborating further with the Optimism Collective.”

“With more and more OP Chains and OP Stack forks in the Optimism ecosystem, more developers than ever have the opportunity to experiment and build with the OP Stack codebase,” said Smit Vachhani, Head of DeFi Partnerships at OP Labs. “With their rollup suite now supporting the OP Stack, AltLayer is providing an even broader set of builders with access to a modular, easy-to-use codebase.”

For a detailed understanding of the OP Stack’s architecture and vision, check out this official, handy resource.

About AltLayer

AltLayer is an open and decentralized protocol for developers to launch highly elastic application-tailored rollups. The AltLayer protocol consists of a core network called the Beacon Layer that serves as a common sequencing, execution, and verification network for all rollups enshrined to it. Built on top of this protocol, AltLayer offers a no-code Rollups-as-a-Service dashboard that allows not only developers but also those with little to no coding experience to spin up a customized rollup within 2 minutes with only a few simple clicks.

Vechain and SingularityNet Combine Blockchain + AI To Drive Sustainability and Build Advanced Enterprise-Grade Tools 7086

Vechain and SingularityNET, industry leaders in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) respectively, are thrilled to announce their strategic collaboration. This partnering of technical giants unites powerful emerging technologies with the potential to radically change how the global economy operates, offering powerful enterprise-grade tools to tackle challenges in the field of sustainability and traditional businesses.

In particular, the alliance holds great promise for vechain’s ambitions with Boston Consulting Group, partners, collaborating on building ‘ecosystems’ wherein individuals and businesses are incentivised to act sustainably. SingularityNet’s AI capabilities offer immense potential to enhance and improve these ecosystems, utilising AI technology to pore over data, and improve their efficacy.

Vechain and SingularityNET intend to launch joint research initiatives to fortify the efficacy of each respective platform and ingrain the pair at the heart of future digital development. The combination of these technologies can equip businesses with intelligent tools, signalling the onset of a new phase in the era of digitisation.

Dr. Ben Goertzel, the visionary CEO of SingularityNET, expressed his excitement for the massive potential of this partnership:

“The last few years have taught the world that when the right AI algorithms meet the right data on sufficient processing power, magic can happen.

What’s even better is when the algorithms, data and processing are decentralized in deployment, ownership and control — which is exactly the sort of magic that’s going to happen putting the SingularityNET ecosystem’s AI algorithms together with vechain’s deep and diverse enterprise data, on the joint, secure distributed processing power of the two networks.

This combined power will be applicable to sustainability as one of our initial focus areas, but in the end extends across essentially all vertical markets. It’s hard to overestimate the potential here.”

Vechain’s CTO Antonio Senatore commented:

“We’re excited to be collaborating with leading Web3 AI platform, SingularityNET, combining our rich streams of enterprise data with SingularityNET’s powerful and versatile platform.”

“Blockchain and AI offer game-changing capabilities for industries and enterprises and are opening new avenues of operation. We look forward to working closely with the SingularityNET team to build out new services and continue to advance the fore of possibility in web3 and sustainability.”

Vechain and SingularityNET are enabling a new, more interconnected and automated world, driving new capabilities in the fields of industry and in particular, for action around sustainability.