Brian Kelly: ICOs Here to Stay 4984

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Brian Kelly, the founder and CEO of digital currency investment firm BKCM LLC, said that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are around to stay, but with some changes. Kelly, who is also a crypto analyst and regular contributor to CNBC, sat down with Cointelegraph to discuss various aspects of the crypto industry. Kelly stated that he sees blockchain and cryptocurrencies as “early stage technology,” saying as example that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos probably could not imagine his online bookstore turning into a major video streaming platform. He added:

“We have a new technology that disintermediates a lot of industries. That’s important, and that’s going to be something that’s here for the rest of my career at least and likely a lot longer than that.”

Speaking on whether ICOs as a form of fundraising will end soon, Kelly suggested that “it will stay, but with a little change.” He said that ICOs proved to be an effective tool for funding projects using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. However, he added that “the days of a whitepaper and a dream and $30 million are probably over.”

Kelly said that when choosing which digital currencies to invest in, there is a combination of positive indicators, such as activities that will increase the network, as well as catalysts like conferences or potential software updates.

Last month, Thomas Zeeb, CEO of securities services at Switzerland’s top stock exchange SIX, also said that ICOs are “here to stay.” Zeeb predicted that mass adoption would come in around five years.

The ICO market has seen positive growth this year, more than doubling since 2017, according to ICORating’s ICO market report for the the second quarter of 2018. Per the report, in Q2 2018, 827 projects raised over $8 billion in funding, compared to $3.3 billion in Q1 2018, representing a 151 percent increase. The report notes a “continued decline in the number of retail investors,” while institutional capital in ICO markets has increased.

Mr. Kelly will be speaking at the Crypto Finance Conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA, which runs from September 5-7.

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Bitt Develops Africa’s First CBDC 4215

eNaira, the Bitt-developed central bank digital currency (CBDC), has officially rolled out in Nigeria. Citizens and residents of Nigeria are now the first on the continent of Africa to use a legal tender digital currency for their daily financial transactions.

Bitt is very excited to be entering the African CBDC market as the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Technology Partner. Bitt’s market-proven Digital Currency Management System (DCMS) is currently licensed by national financial institutions in six countries across Central America and the Caribbean. Nigeria is a sophisticated economy which operates on a modern infrastructure. Bitt’s DCMS fulfilled CBN’s criteria for technological competence, efficiency, platform security, interoperability, and implementation experience.

CEO of Bitt, Brian Popelka, “We are elated to have developed, tested and deployed the eNaira monetary infrastructure in record time. Today’s launch is an exceptional achievement for both the CBN and Bitt teams. We look forward to continued partnership on this CBDC deployment journey and to provide additional features to expand eNaira’s value to all Nigerians.”

Bitt is driven by the empowerment of people through providing accessible, low-cost, and real-time payments; and supporting the digitization of economies. Bitt’s DCMS could lower infrastructure cost and improve the access and user experience of receiving and sending money, thereby promoting financial inclusion throughout Nigeria. Furthermore, the eNaira has been designed to promote local innovation, leveraging Nigeria’s world-class FinTech talent.

Bitt’s DCMS is a production-ready digital currency infrastructure that enables central banks and financial institutions to efficiently deploy their own digital currency. Bitt’s DCMS plugs into the underlying transaction network of choice, such as Hyperledger Fabric (used in the implementations of DCash in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and the eNaira in Nigeria), and Stellar (to be presented at the 2021 Singapore Fintech Festival).

About Bitt
With a staff of over 60 highly skilled professionals from around the world, Bitt is a global financial technology company that provides digital currency and stablecoin solutions to central banks, financial institutions and ecosystem participants worldwide. Bitt is at the forefront of financial innovation, with a specialization in central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and stablecoins. The company’s Digital Currency Management System (DCMS) leverages blockchain-based distributed ledger technology to introduce the benefits of the most efficient financial ecosystem to date.

Brock Pierce, Crypto Pioneer, Purchases NFT By Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell — Original Space Game NFT 5081

Brock Pierce, a household name in the digital currency and blockchain space saw the future of NFT’s (Non Fungible Tokens) before the frenzy began. Pierce invested in nft.com and purchased Mick Jagger’s first NFT earlier this year. But what makes the Nolan Bushnell “ARCADE OG SERIES” NFT special, is their relationship dating back to the days when Pierce was himself an avid video game player at the height of Atari’s popularity. So much so, that he gave Bushnell his first Bitcoin back in 2015.

Nolan Bushnell is known as the Godfather of Video. In 1972, he launched Atari, one of the world’s most iconic gaming companies. He is also the man behind the Chucky Cheese Burger empire. It is a known fact in the industry that Bushnell gave Steve Jobs his first job, and according to Jobs’ partner Stephen Wozniak, Bushnell was Jobs’ inspiration to start Apple.

Over a dinner in Puerto Rico last week, where several NFTs were being auctioned, Pierce jumped at the chance to purchase not only a piece of history, but for him, a trip down memory lane. Pierce, born in the 80’s, is a byproduct of the computer industry. Only now, this NFT series offers immersive videos and AR (augmented reality) which was inspired by two of Bushnell’s earlier and most iconic creations “Computers and Space Pong”

Pierce states, “Why I’m so excited about this is because our industry is desperately in need of killer apps, and practical and scalable options for blockchain. I’m all in on NFTs.”

“NFT’s are pushing the evolution of atoms to bits, from physical to digital. People have collected atoms in the form of playing cards, collectibles, and art for many years, and now, as the world becomes increasingly digital, NFTs allow us to collect bits. I am honored to work with MakersPlace to share some of my initial works” – Nolan Bushnell.

About Brock Pierce:

Brock Pierce is an entrepreneur, artist, venture capitalist, and philanthropist with an extensive track record of founding, advising and investing in disruptive businesses. He’s credited with pioneering the market for digital assets and has raised more than $5B for companies he has founded. Pierce is Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and the co-founder of EOS Alliance, Block.one, Blockchain Capital, Tether, and Mastercoin (first ICO). Pierce has lectured and spoken at some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions including the Milken Institute Global Conference, International World Congress, and has been featured by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Forbes, Fortune and many others. Pierce was on the first-ever Forbes List for the “Richest People in Cryptocurrency” and was an Independent Party candidate for President of the United States in 2020.

About Nolan Bushnell:

As the founder of legendary video game company Atari, Bushnell has been prolific in helping bring arcade gaming to the masses. Now, with the advent of NFT’s, he plans to brng some of those iconic early machines into homes as digital augmented reality collectibles. The Arcade OG Series, a set of Ethereum-based collectibles encompasses NFT tokens that can be used to prove ownership of verifiably scarce digital items, which in this case, includes a video clip displaying a 3D rendering of an Atari “Pong” or Syzygy (Bushnell’s Atari precursor) “Computer Space arcade game cabinet. Owners of this NFT will be able to drop the digital cabinet into place, and then walk around it, viewing it up close from all angles.

BtLux Exchange 2.0 upgrade officially launched by one of the world’s leading exchange system 5070

On July 6, 2021, after working hard day and night, a team of top blockchain technology and research experts in the financial field around the world, officially launched the upgraded version of BtLux Exchange 2.0 to provide users with a better experience and help enterprises quickly get on the “chain”. The 2.0 upgrade version has been comprehensively strengthened and upgraded its brand, products, and risk control, which indicates that BtLux is fully armed to welcome the establishment of the global regulatory system with a solid posture. Safety is longitude, compliance is latitude.

As one of the world’s leading exchange system, BtLux2.0 is based on a powerful distributed architecture design and adopts a high-performance memory matching mode to comprehensively enhance system access performance and stability. In terms of digital asset security, the wallets separate cold and hot storage, multi-layer encryption, offline cold storage, and bank-level guarantees for fund security. At the same time, the top-level security system with face intelligent recognition technology is enabled to deeply integrate KYC, identity authentication, and coin withdrawal services to improve security; top-level risk control and 7*24 hours real-time monitoring, to maximize the safety of user assets.

Anticipate the situation, the new version 2.0 upgrade

The finance is close related to economic development and national security. With the rapid development of the crypto industry in recent years, exchanges have become a mirror of compliance and security. You can smell a trace of the “wind direction” of policies and market conditions according to the attitudes of regulators to the exchanges. For example, the United States, the global financial center, has been managing licenses for crypto assets very early. In 2017, Washington passed Act 5031, which stipulates the licenses that cryptocurrency exchanges need to apply for. Contrary to the United States, China strictly prohibits exchanges that cryptocurrency-related business activities in China are all illegal, by recent announcement.

BtLux, which has gained insight into the regulatory situation for a lone time, has focused its newly launched version 2.0 on the application of blockchain technology and empowered entities in order to comply with the regulatory policies of different countries and regions. The highlight is the F10 function, which reflects the fundamentals of the project. The entity enterprise first realizes digital transformation through the SEA public chain, which is also one of the double-star sub-projects (the other one is BtLux), and then takes use of BtLux F10 function to change the traditional production relationship, allowing its consumers or investors to grasp the “dynamic value” data of the enterprise in real time through the fundamentals of the project, such as development situation, change curve, and distributable benefits per share. Through a digital trading platform that supports real-time perception of changes, real-time analysis of changes, and real-time optimal decision-making, users and investors can enter the traditional financial market with a lower threshold standard.

After the comprehensive upgrade, BtLux Exchange will maximize the value-carrying and value-transmitting functions of the blockchain, and maximize the concept of equality and openness of the blockchain, effectively reducing the operating cost of the physical industrial chain and improving industrial circulation efficiency, realize the value sharing between nodes, break away from the virtual to the real, let technology truly empower the real economy, provide an innovative compliance route for cryptocurrency exchanges, and create the next “miracle” of blockchain-enabled entities.

Safety compliance, accelerating global deployment

Since the establishment of BtLux, it has always adhered to the safety and compliance route. BtLux, has successively obtained the authoritative certification of the three major institutions of Australia AUSTRAC, US FinCEN, and Canadian FINTRAC, could provide digital currency transaction services. The Singapore MAS has also accepted BtLux’s application for MPI license. BtLux knows that the biggest enemy in the cryptocurrency trading battlefield is actually itself, and its own operational strength and safety and compliance are the fundamentals for its survival.

Therefore, BtLux has never stopped exploring, focusing on the global real economy with a strategic vision, adhering to the operating philosophy of security, specialization, innovation and globalization, seizing the international market, and striving to provide global users with professional, safe and reliable and credible physical digital economy token trading services to help the global node economy to rejuvenate and vitalize.

No matter its business philosophy or actual actions, BtLux is constantly improving the security and compliance level of the platform, and actively cooperating with local government regulatory policies. The executives of BtLux said that it is a guarantee to customers and a commitment to itself by looking at the world but not aggressively expanding. BtLux believes that more crypto exchanges like BtLux who gradually explores the “compliance way” will become a model trading platform in the industry, it is bound to break through in this regulatory environment and promote the prosperity of the entire crypto industry.

Centric Software Celebrates 500 PLM Projects 6334

Centric Software, cementing its position as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) market leader, is celebrating partnerships with 500 customers, over 150 of whom have chosen Centric PLMTM since the pandemic began. This massive, worldwide adoption underscores the market’s confidence in Centric’s innovative digital solutions and unparalleled industry expertise. To bring products to market, consumer goods companies have a fundamental need to enable remote, yet agile teamwork in addition to increasing cost savings, operational efficiency, business agility and supply chain collaboration while also complying with sustainable and regulatory requirements.

Based in Silicon Valley, Centric Software is the pioneer of PLM solutions for planning, designing, developing, sourcing and selling consumer products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, cosmetics & personal care, food & beverage, luxury, consumer electronics, private label goods and more.

Retailers, brands and manufacturers with operations in over 40 countries, ranging from iconic luxury labels to emerging market disruptors, rely on Centric to bring approximately $1.3 trillion worth of goods to market per year via 1 million+ points of sale. Centric PLM empowers companies of all sizes to superspeed time to market and improve supply chain efficiency by up to 50%, enabling more sustainable product development with reduced costs and improved product margins. With a 99% retention rate, Centric PLM users are the happiest worldwide; 40% of companies using Centric today replaced a previously purchased PLM system with Centric’s market-driven innovations.

Centric is redefining the concept of PLM with many industry firsts such as mobile apps, interactive digital boards, Social PLM integrating team communication tools like Slack, Quick Start and fully remote deployment, integrations with dozens of ERP and e-com solutions and a groundbreaking CAD agnostic approach with fluid workflows connecting to dozens of 3D CAD systems. The net effect is true, end-to-end internal and extended team collaboration using one actionable source of truth for all.

A sincere thank you to our long-time customer partners as well as the most recent additions to the Centric family, including our 500th customer, the global golf industry giant, Callaway Golf.

“Centric PLM will drive increased efficiency into our product development process. We create a wide variety of products in diverse categories, and this is going to enable greater efficiencies across our multi-branded apparel, footwear, and accessory categories. These products require distinctly different workflows and Centric provides an exceptional technology solution to handle the vastness and complexity of our global business,” affirms Jeff Cross VP of Global Operations and Development, Apparel & Soft Goods at Callaway Golf.

“We are very proud to celebrate 500 PLM projects and growing,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “We sincerely thank each and every customer, from those who chose to work with and inspire us over a decade ago to our more recent partners like Callaway. The trust that our customers place in us drives us to continue to push the boundaries of innovation, industry expertise and best practices.”

Dreams Quest To Launch IDO 6799

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DREAMS IDO launches on Red Kite and GameFi, DuckStarter

Singapore, 9th OCT – Dreams Quest, a blockchain-based NFT gaming platform, announces the launch of their anticipated IDO campaign scheduled on Red Kite (Polka Foundry), GameFi, and DuckStarter. The launch gives an opportunity to access the Dreams Quest ecosystem by purchasing $DREAMS tokens. The ecosystem will be gradually unveiled with a variety of mini-games, leading up to the launch set for 2022.

The IDO campaign:

https://duckstarter.io/ – 14th October 2021
https://gamefi.org/ – 15th October 2021
https://redkite.polkafoundry.com/ – 15th October 2021

NFT mania has hit a peak right now and it has come a long way from the early frenzy as several new use cases have emerged over time.  Play to Earn (P2E) is currently one of the most popular forms of NFT projects as it combines the best of gaming with digital collectibles. In fact, in 2017 when NFTs were first created and used, in-game memorials and game prizes were the first use cases of the non-fungible ecosystem, and Dreams Quest is only taking the ecosystem further with its platform.

Dreams Quest Aims to Take P2E Ecosystem to Next Level

Dreams Quest is a play-to-earn RPG card game that incorporates dynamic NFTs. Players are invited to explore the dream realms and go on adventures by participating in quests, events, and tournaments. The NFT game cards are dynamic which are impacted by unknown factors like weather conditions, temperature, and storms. At the conclusion of every game, card attributes are written on-chain, storing the permanent history of card changes over time as well as how cards have evolved or changed.

Players are presented with a free deck to get started and are then given a variety of gaming style options to make the game even more engaging. These include completing quests, competing in battles or tournaments, or setting up a shop in the marketplace to become a local trader. The goal is to create both an in-game economy and a variety of fun and interesting ways to earn while playing. The key features of the platform include,

  • Play to Earn — Dreams Quest integrates several factors such as quest-based earnings, renting NFT cards, a marketplace, and more for players to earn by participating in the game.
  • Free-to-play — To create an inclusive and permissionless gateway for everyone to experience a unique gaming experience at its finest, the DQ metaverse is designed as free-to-play for everyone to easily get started.
  • Dynamic NFTs — The dynamic NFTs (game cards) will be impacted by unknown factors such as weather, temperature, storms, and more that will completely alter card attributes. The changes to card attributes will be permanently recorded and stored on-chain.
  • On-Chain — Dreams Quests uses Chainlink to bring in data off-chain which we can use in-game. For example, every card that gets minted will have a unique random “key” that will enable that card or item to unlock other powers, abilities, vaults, or chests both in-game, but also within our discord channel.

The blockchain NFT platform combines the best of two worlds to bring a unique user experience where they can earn valuable digital collectibles that can later be used for trading or selling for profit. In-game, there are a huge variety of things that players can do from forging, creating new items, participating in events and tournaments, battling other opponents. The tokens can be used in-game to upgrade and forge but also can be earned from the quests and battles they participate in.

“After over a year of hard work we are excited to finally be bringing this project to the market and to finally see our community coming to life. Our goal is to build a democratised economy where everyone can earn from playing while also having an opportunity to explore the realms that we dreamed up long ago.”  Paulii Good Co-Founder

About Dreams Quest:

Dreams Quest is a decentralized play-to-earn RPG game using dynamic NFTs to create unknown factors that will affect character attributes in-game, and post-game outcomes will dynamically change the NFT card attributes and write them on the blockchain (the ethereal scribes) to show game history for each card.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DreamsQuestNFT
Discord: https://discord.gg/dreamsquest
Main website:  www.dreams.quest

Aves Lair presents Demo Day, showcasing winter 2020 accelerator cohort 28907

Aves Lair, a New York-based startup accelerator and VC with a focus on deep tech, including AI, blockchain, cloud and data, will host a Demo Day event on April 9, 2021 at 11:00 AM ET. The event will highlight the innovative solutions developed by the members of Aves Lair’s Winter 2020 cohort, and will feature the following startups:

Blocksport is a Switzerland-based sports technology company whose white-label digital solutions provide traditional sports and esports teams with new, durable revenue streams and fan engagement channels.

DLCC is a fintech company that offers institutional-grade prime brokerage tools and services for digital assets. The company built a solution that enables traditional asset managers and allocators, like family offices, global macro hedge funds and endowments, to participate in the digital asset space.

SubStrata is an Israel-based B2B sales technology company whose AI-powered social signal processing platform helps professional dealmakers attain better outcomes. SubStrata’s technology analyzes the subtextual information contained in communications to provide dealmakers with a rich array of insight.

iLoto – is a Singapore-based Edtech solution powered by AI that generates automated video transcription and translation in 30+ languages.

Storkcard is a London-based budgeting tool that takes the guesswork out of financial planning for new parents by allowing users to keep track of their spending and budget for the future.

Kotani Pay is a payment solution enabling blockchain protocols, dapps and blockchain fintech companies to reach a wider audience.

OmniEyes is a Taiwan-based computer vision company whose AI-based solution enables effective fleet management, driver safety and smart city management features.