Why Fusion’s DCRM is The Best Option for DeFi Users | Sponsored Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

The race for blockchain interoperability was very much a trending topic during the bull market of 2017. Back then, we witnessed the birth of very promising projects like Fusion and Wanchain. Then the bear market started, and interoperability was no longer as hot as it once was, similar to every other topic related to blockchain development. However, these two projects continued to develop their respective ecosystems; they were even joined by a third project in this same niche, Ren.

However, there is still no single project that can be considered as the leader of the interoperability niche, and which links all blockchains and facilitates their communication despite the architectural differences between them. Needless to say, sooner or later, the blockchain space will need such a project!

This need arose even more during the recent DeFi boom, where the majority of the tools and applications used were limited to the Ethereum blockchain, with the involvement of only a small portion of Bitcoin (somewhat above 0.1% of the circulating BTC). At the same time, the other giant blockchains like Ripple and Litecoin are almost totally absent. Billions of dollars are locked in these blockchains and they cant be used in the DeFi space.

In this article, we will review Fusion, Wanchain and Ren, three potential projects that could solve these DeFi limitation issues, and take this space to the next level. The projects will be compared based on essential criteria and other aspects, then we will determine which project has the highest chance to become the blockchain that connects all the blockchains. But before that, lets just first explain why these three projects in particular were picked.

Why Fusion, Wanchain and Ren?

It is true that there are many projects that specialize in the interoperability niche, but having considered several factors like technology, a teams experience, a projects quality, its development, and its community; these three projects stand out as the main potential projects that could become the internet of blockchains.

Many people in the crypto space think that projects like Cosmos or Polkadot specialize in interoperability, while in fact, they use a compatibility model. The main difference between interoperability and compatibility is that the communication between parachains in the compatibility model is made possible through a central Hub which forces a certain standard, and other chains have to stick to it in order to be part of the ecosystem. It seems that the top priority of these two projects is more to replace Ethereum and attract new chains and projects to build on their platforms than it is to connect the different blockchains.

Fusion, Wanchain and Ren on the other hand, use a true interoperability model based on cryptographic concepts. These three projects aim to create ecosystems that facilitate a trustless decentralized communication between different blockchains.

These cryptographic solutions aim to use a decentralized technology for custody. The process of cross-chain communication is similar to existing models such as WBTC (minting assets with 1:1 ratio on other blockchains). However, unlike WBTC which keeps your original assets in a centralized entity (BitGo) and requires KYC, the three projects in our comparison use very advanced solutions to hold your assets in a fully trustless and decentralized way.

Fusion

Fusion is a fully decentralized smart contracts platform. The primary goals of the project are to become an ecosystem that links the different blockchains, allowing them to communicate with each other, and to connect global finance to blockchain technology. Fusion was founded by DJ Qian, one of the pioneers in blockchain research and mining in China.

The main component of Fusions technology is the DCRM Decentralized Control Rights Management. It uses the private key sharding concept to secure users assets. Fusion has also introduced the Time-Lock function. It is the first blockchain to use the concept of time in its smart contracts. This will open the door to complex financial transactions involving time such as derivatives, loans and mortgages.

The Fusion ecosystem is growing fast, with new projects joining the DCRM Alliance and decentralized applications being launched on the platform, such as WeDeFi and Anyswap.

WeDeFi: It is an easy-to-use wallet that is available on Android and iOS. It allows users to store and manage their assets. WeDeFi offers a no-loss lottery where users can deposit their FSN coins and participate in the lottery. They will get back their coins no matter if they win or lose.

Anyswap: It is currently the only swap protocol in the blockchain space that can carry out cross-chain transactions. Anyswap has its own automatic pricing and liquidity systems, and it uses Fusions DCRM as a cross-chain solution. Therefore, it will support all the coins and tokens that the DCRM technology can integrate, including: BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, ADA, ERC-20 tokens and many other coins and tokens. Anyswap introduced its governance token ANY and has recently added USDT to the platform and announced a strategic partnership with Hotbit.

Wanchain

Wanchain is another smart contracts platform project specializing in blockchain interoperability. It allows the exchange of data and value between private, consortium and public blockchains. The platform supports private transactions based on ring signatures.

Wanchain uses secure multiparty computation and Shamirs Secret Sharing concepts to ensure the safety of users assets. This cross-chain solution has already integrated Bitcoin, Ethereum and EOS blockchains into its ecosystem, with future plans to create direct bridges between these different blockchains.

Earlier this year, two projects built on Wanchain were launched:

Rivex (RVX): It is an interoperable and scalable layer-2 solution that aims to combine the strengths of public and side chains to empower the next generation of decentralized applications.

FinNexus (FNX): It is a DeFi focused project specializing in building open finance protocols. FNX has released its first product which is a decentralized options protocol powered by a single liquidity pool on both Ethereum and Wanchain.

Ren

Ren is a protocol that enables permissionless and private transfer of values between different blockchains. The core product of the project is the virtual machine RenVM, a trustless custodian that brings interoperability to DeFi on Ethereum.

Cross-chain communication is handled by RenVM. It holds the assets that users want to transfer, and mints an ERC-20 wrapped token to be used within the Ethereum blockchain. RenVM allows the minting of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Zcash on the Ethereum blockchain, with future plans to mint coins on the Polkadot blockchain.

For example, if you want to use BTC in the Ethereum blockchain: You hand it to RenVM, it holds it and mints that BTC as an ERC-20 token (RenBTC) on Ethereum with 1:1 ratio. This process is secured by youve probably guessed it Shamirs Secret Sharing and secure multiparty computation.

RenVM can be used as a plugin for decentralized applications built on Ethereum. Once integrated to a smart contract, users will be able to benefit from cross-chain liquidity provided by Ren.

Ren cryptocurrency is an ERC-20 token. It is used to run the dark nodes that are entirely governed by code.

Comparative Analysis

Fusion, Wanchain and Ren are three projects that are focused on connecting siloed blockchains using cryptographic interoperability. However, there are some fundamental differences between these projects, starting with their nature.

Fusion and Wanchain are infrastructure projects. In addition to their interoperability components, each project has its own mainnet and its own smart contract platform for dApps development and token issuance, while Ren is an interoperability protocol built on Ethereum.

In addition to its cross-chain solution based on the DCRM technology, the Fusion team developed unique concepts to create a convenient ecosystem for DeFi. For example, the Time-Lock function allows users to perform complex financial transactions that involve time by using the Multi Triggering Mechanism, which is considered as the next generation of smart contracts. Fusion offers many other DeFi-oriented features such as quantum swap and USAN swap. Currently, there are two projects that are built on the Fusion platform. WeDeFi, and Anyswap.

Wanchain is also an interoperability project, it has already integrated Bitcoin, Ethereum and EOS blockchains into its ecosystem. So far, two DeFi projects have been built on Wanchain: FinNexus and Rivex.

Interoperability and Decentralization

Now lets talk about the interoperability of these three projects!

Through DCRM, Fusion has created an ecosystem that supports the integration of blockchains that have ECDSA (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc) or EdDSA (Cardano, NANO, Stellar, WAVES, and even Facebooks Libra!) as signature algorithms. This means that almost every blockchain out there could be integrated into Fusions ecosystem.

DCRM has currently around 45 working nodes. Once a user locks-in his assets in the Fusion blockchain, these nodes will only receive shards of his private key, and will never have access to other shards, so assets are completely safe. The majority of DCRM nodes do not belong to the Fusion Foundation. Fusions cross-chain solution is therefore fully decentralized.

Wanchain is another blockchain that aims to create an ecosystem to connect all the blockchains. The process is somewhat slower, and blockchains are integrated one by one. However, according to the roadmap released recently, Wanchain started working on direct bridges between blockchains, and will launch their first two-way bridge later this year.

Wanchain interoperability uses storeman nodes (equivalent to Fusions DCRM nodes). These nodes still belong to the Wanchain foundation, but their decentralization is under testing and the full storeman nodes decentralization is planned to be finished in 2021.

Ren does not offer an ecosystem where it can connect all the blockchains. Instead it offers interoperability through its core product, RenVM. This virtual machine is used to create direct bridges between different blockchains. Currently, RenVM brings liquidity from BTC, BCH and ZEC to Ethereum applications, with possible support for ECDSA blockchains. Ren has future plans to bring liquidity to the Polkadot blockchain.

Currently in Mainnet SubZero, RenVM cross-chain technology is still centralized. The team claims to offer a semi-decentralized solution due to the fact that no KYC is required, however, Ren nodes (called Darknodes) are run by the Ren team and other partners from the Ren Alliance.

Another important point to mention is that Fusion and Wanchain code are open-source, and can easily be accessed. On the other hand, some important parts of Rens code are closed-source, and a lot of questions are being asked about the reasons behind this decision. No clear answer has been given by the team.

The use cases of a certain token are definitely an important factor to estimate its real value. Markets are not always rational, but sooner or later, tokens usually end up reaching their real value depending on the quality of the services they provide to users.

Fusion coin (FSN) has many use cases within Fusions cross-chain DeFi features and applications. FSN is used to pay network gas fees and to run DCRM nodes. It can be used in the different Time-Lock transactions: such as borrowing, lending, loans, etc. FSN holders can also stake their coins and earn passive income.

FSN coin can also be used within Fusion dApps. WeDeFi allows coin holders to use their Safebet no-loss lottery and to borrow Time-Locked FSN. The other dApp on Fusion is Anyswap, and Fusion coin was the only way to get its governance token ANY.

Wanchain coin (WAN) has similar use cases to FSN, it is used to pay gas fees for network transactions including Rivex and FinNexus transactions. It can also be used in the different dApps of Wanchain. Wan holders can stake their coins to earn passive income, or run nodes as validators. Wancoin will also be required to run the upcoming cross-chain storeman nodes.

Ren is a protocol, not a platform, therefore, Ren token has much less use cases than FSN or WAN. The main use case of the Ren token is to run a Darknode. Around 100k Ren tokens are required to run a node, this large number has been chosen to increase the amount of locked tokens, and the effect it could have on token price.

Speaking of price, lets take a look at the current prices and market caps of the three projects and determine which coin or token offers the best buying opportunity right now.

Of the three projects, Ren is the one that has been in the spotlight during the DeFi boom. Mainly because the DeFi space has been limited to Ethereum, a blockchain to which Ren provides liquidity. The current market cap of Ren is around $ 400 M, Wanchains market cap is around $ 54 M, and surprisingly, the market cap of Fusion is only around $ 26 M.

Yes, Fusion, the decentralized cross-chain platform that offers unique DeFi features such as Time-Lock, and dApps like WeDeFi and Anyswap is the one that has currently the lowest market cap. It is without a doubt the most undervalued project of the three, but even beyond our comparison, it is one of the most undervalued cryptocurrencies in the whole market. According to CoinStats, Fusion has the second highest adoption score in the crypto space. It is a score that compares the adoption of a certain project to its market cap, it helps investors to find the projects that could potentially take off at any moment.

Fusion, Wanchain and Ren are three interesting projects working on a fully decentralized cryptographic interoperability. The other solutions that are currently available in the market include centralized custodians such WBTC, or hub and zone models such as Cosmos and Polkadot that force new chains to adopt a certain standard.

The three projects in this comparison have a lot of features in common, but they are also different in some important aspects. Fusion and Wanchain are smart contracts platforms, they both have their own blockchains, and allow issuance of tokens. Ren is a protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain, with RenVM as a core product.

Fusions cross chain solution is based on the DCRM technology, it offers more integration possibilities. It is currently the only fully decentralized technology out of the three cross-chain solutions. The adoption of Fusion is increasingly growing after the launch of decentralized applications and platforms such as WeDeFi and Anyswap, and the implementation of convenient features for decentralized finance such as the Time-Lock function.

Surprisingly, Fusion has the lowest market cap out of the three projects. This can be seen as an excellent opportunity to invest in a project that offers a better technology than some of the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Go here to see the original:
Why Fusion's DCRM is The Best Option for DeFi Users | Sponsored Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Max Keiser thinks Warren Buffett will move to Bitcoin soon – Cointelegraph

According to Max Keiser, host of popular RT show the Keiser Report, it is only a matter of time before Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway will invest in Bitcoin (BTC).

Not long ago, Buffett sold most of his positions in major banks and bought shares in Barrick Gold a large gold mining company. For Keiser, this represents a U-turn in Buffetts investing strategy:

This will be the beginning of a huge transition out of financials, which he dumped recently into gold. And then, therefore, he, or whoever takes his place, will soon be moving into Bitcoin.

After years of bashing both gold and Bitcoin, Keiser says that Buffett realized these are now the go-to assets for preservation, for protection against the depreciation of the U.S. dollar. According to Keiser, people shouldnt spend time trading in the altcoin market, which he equatedto gambling.

You may make money over one month, two months. But are you going to make money over five, 10, 15 years gambing? [...]The answer is a big fat no.

Keisers rant didnt spare Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, which has come under fire recently due to allegations around itsoutstanding supply.

Its still on beta, it shouldnt even be trading!Keiser said. Instead, people should be focusing on hodling Bitcoin.

According to Keiser, one of the major causes of global inequality is caused by the uneven way money is distributed throughout the economy by central banks.

Keiser pointed out that this phenomenon has been particularly evident since the United States Federal Reserve injected a massive amount of cash into the economy to counter the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Keiser pointed out that most of the money was used to bail out large firms, while end-consumers see little benefits.

On the contrary, Bitcoin goes directly from God to the consumers,Keiser said.

To watch the full interview with Max Keiser, check it out on our YouTube channel, and dont forget to subscribe!

See original here:
Max Keiser thinks Warren Buffett will move to Bitcoin soon - Cointelegraph

3rd Bitcoin SV Hackathon Finalists Announced to Compete for USD $100,000 – AiThority

Bitcoin Association, the global industry organization which works to advance business with theBitcoin SV blockchain, has named three finalists in its 3rdBitcoin SV Hackathonto compete for a share of a USD$100,000prize pool paid in BSV. The announcement follows yesterdays release of ashortlist of ten semi-finalists, selected by a preliminary judging panel as the ten best entries from all projects submitted.

One of the premier events inBitcoin Associationsdeveloper education programme, Bitcoin SV Hackathons are global coding competitions designed to challenge developers to both learn about the technical power of Bitcoins original protocol and innovate on the fly. Organized by Bitcoin Association, run by leading blockchain research & development firmnChain, and sponsored byCoinGeek, Bitcoin SV Hackathons task entrants with developing an application or service within the parameters of a given theme that leverage the unique capabilities of the Bitcoin SV blockchain, all within a set period of time.

Recommended AI News: Asian Edutech Platform Unacademy Raises $150 Million

The theme for the 3rdBitcoin SV Hackathon was Connecting the world to one global blockchain. A distinguishing feature of the Bitcoin SV blockchain is its ability to scale unbounded, enabling greater data capacity and high volumes of low-fee transactions sent instantly across the globe. These capabilities support the rise of a single digital currency (BSV) for micropayments, break down historical industry data silos, and facilitate technical interoperability in ways never before possible. Entrants were challenged to utilise these capabilities in their project, using the Bitcoin SV blockchain to establish new efficiencies and opportunities for interconnectivity.

This edition of the Bitcoin SV Hackathon was the most competitive to date. In all, 418 people from 75 countries took part over an eight-week coding phase, with 42 final projects submitted for consideration.

The three finalists will be invited to present their projects at the upcomingCoinGeek Live 2020conference,September 30 October 2. The Hackathon Final Round presentations will be on Day 1 (September 30) of the conference, with winners announced on Day 3 (October 2). The finalists will compete for a share of a USD$100,000BSV prize pool $50,000for 1st place,$30,000for 2nd, and$20,000for 3rd.

Final placings will be determined by a combination of a Final Round judging panel and audience voting through an augmented reality experience for online attendees of CoinGeek Live.

Recommended AI News: SensiML Joins Arm AI Partner Program

KyrtKyrt integrates Bitcoin microtransactions with subscribable events available via Zapier a major platform enabling easy integration workflows across more than 2000 applications. Zapier is an incredibly powerful tool and by integrating a micropayment rail into any application interaction, the possibilities are endless.

RepZipIdentity on-chain is a fiercely discussed topic in Bitcoin SV and a key missing piece of infrastructure. RepZip not only provides a real solution to the problem, but also integrates with Paymail and existing Bitcoin data infrastructure in a way that can satisfy a plethora of use cases. Identity is powerful and is a core link between the digital and the physical world. When the solution integrates 3rdparty attestation, this will become a core and central part of day to day Bitcoin interactions.

STOTASKSTOTASK is a new entrant in the gig economy that allows owners of datasets to leverage the idle time of anyone to apply human interpretation to tag data. This is a missing link between human classification and machine learning. Classification tasks that are easy for humans but hard for machines can become machine-learned with an initial human input. Bitcoin SV is used as the payment rail for STOTASK, enabling work to be paid out in very small increments. Coupling this with Metanet data structuring in the future has huge potential.

Speaking about the finalists, nChain CTOSteve Shadders, said:

With each iteration of the Hackathon, were seeing the quality and creativity of entries continue to improve. This time around, with the extended coding phase of the competition, its clear that the additional time has been put into really developing these ideas into high-quality, well-thought-out submissions. Im excited to see each of the three finalists present their project at CoinGeek Live, but its certainly not going to be easy determining a winner!

Also commenting on todays announcement, Bitcoin Association Founding PresidentJimmy Nguyen, said:

The standard of submissions for the 3rdBitcoin SV Hackathon has raised the bar once again and reflects the continued maturing of Bitcoin SV development. What impressed me the most is the diversity of projects entered business and consumer applications that each have a unique take on our theme of Connecting the world to one global blockchain but all with the common thread of leveraging the distinguishing powers of the Bitcoin SV blockchain. Id like to thank all of the more than 400 people who took part in the competition. While we select a champion in a few weeks time, all the participants win by building on BSV.

Recommended AI News: Litmus and Oden Partner to Offer Complete IIoT Solution for Smart Manufacturing

Read more:
3rd Bitcoin SV Hackathon Finalists Announced to Compete for USD $100,000 - AiThority

Major Swiss Insurer Adds Bitcoin and Ether Payments | News – Bitcoin News

Atupri, a Swiss health insurance provider, said Monday that its 200,000 customers will now be able to make payments using bitcoin and ethereum. The 110-year old firm claims it is the first insurer in Switzerland to accept cryptocurrencies.

In a statement, Atupri said payments will be made through local regulated crypto financial firm Bitcoin Suisse, with which it has partnered. The Bern-based health company will not hold any bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH), only the converted cash it receives from Bitcoin Suisse.

As digital pioneers in the health sector, we anticipate social trends and offer insurance solutions with long-term prospects, said Caroline Meli, Atupri head of marketing and sales.

Blockchain technology and the associated use of cryptocurrencies will become increasingly important, she added.

Founded in 1910 as a company health insurance fund for the Swiss Federal Railways, Atupri has grown into one of the biggest health insurers in the central European country. In 2019, the firm reported a premium income of $885 million.

Armin Schmid, head of Bitcoin Suisse crypto payments, said: We are pleased about the partnership with Atupri and guarantee secure and uncomplicated payment options with cryptocurrencies.

Among other things, Bitcoin Suisse handles the trading of digital assets for customers. It also offers crypto custody services.

In May, the company added gold, silver, and platinum to its platform, allowing users to trade the precious metals against both BTC and ETH, as well as five other major fiat currencies. The precious metal trades are available for 24/7 trading with immediate cash settlement, it said.

Switzerland, with its crypto tax haven of Zug, has taken a progressive stance toward crypto assets by legalizing its use and formalizing crypto transactions in a range of different contexts. The country sees virtual money and blockchain technology as strategic innovations in global finance.

What do you think about Atupri accepting bitcoin payments? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Original post:
Major Swiss Insurer Adds Bitcoin and Ether Payments | News - Bitcoin News

Wasabi Wallet Patches Flaw That Could Have Thwarted Bitcoin Privacy Feature – CoinDesk – Coindesk

Wasabi Wallet users need to upgrade to the latest version if they want to continue using the CoinJoin feature to keep their Bitcoin transaction histories private.

Thats because those running older iterations of the wallet can no longer use this feature to mix their coins with users who have the newest version.

The Wasabi Wallet team hard-forked the wallet Thursday to address a vulnerability discovered by a team member at Trezor, a leading maker of hardware wallets. A hard fork is a code change that makes older versions of a software incompatible with newer ones.

The flaws discovery is another example of the open-source communitys camaraderie and cooperation. Developers are constantly tinkering to improve their peers software, and many vulnerabilities have been responsibly disclosed during these processes to patch flaws before they can be exploited by bad actors. (Sometimes, however, the disclosures by rival teams are less-than-cordial, as evidenced by the long-running tensions between Wasabi and rival Samourai Wallet.)

According to a Wasabi Wallet blog post, Trezor hardware wallet developer Ondej Vejpustek responsibly disclosed the potential denial-of-service (DoS) attack to the Wasabi team on May 10 (a DoS attack entails an attacker spamming a network or protocol with the hopes of stymying its operations, hence denial of service).

Vejpustek has been very cooperative since the beginning and left us total freedom on how to manage the disclosure, both in terms of time and communication. This demonstrates the importance of proper communication between security researchers and dev teams. This is how a responsible disclosure should be, Wasabi Wallet contributor and marketing strategist Riccardo Masutti told CoinDesk, adding that Vejpustek was paid a bitcoin bounty for his efforts.

This hypothetical DoS attack, which Wasabi Wallet assumes has never been carried out, would have interfered with the wallets implementation of CoinJoin, a privacy protocol that allows users to mix their bitcoin with others to obscure the coins transaction histories.

Wasabi WalletsCoinJoin implementation requires each participant to take out as much as they put in. If, for instance, 10 participants join a mix for 0.1 BTC, then each user must send exactly that amount (plus a miner fee) and must receive that exact amount for the mix to be successful and to retain CoinJoins privacy protections. Mixing coins makes it harder for blockchain snoops and nosy parkers to pin bitcoin transactions to known addresses and their owners identities.

The disclosed DoS vulnerability would have halted the mixing process. The attacker would register bitcoin for a mix without that bitcoin being signed (verified) by the mixs coordinator, while at the same time submitting a real, verified transaction to the mix.

The result would be an incongruity between the total value of inputs made to the CoinJoin and the value of expected outputs. As a result, the coordinator would unwittingly build a transaction that cant be valid, since the sum of all inputs is less than the sum of all outputs, according to Vejpusteks analysis.

If the attack were pulled off, it would foil the CoinJoin, though it would not have given the attacker the ability to steal any coins nor could they deanonymize any peers in the mix.

Wasabi Wallet patched the fix with the hard fork deployed Thursday. This upgrade was applied to v.1.1.12of the wallet, which was released on Aug. 5.

See the original post:
Wasabi Wallet Patches Flaw That Could Have Thwarted Bitcoin Privacy Feature - CoinDesk - Coindesk

Here Are The Key Levels To Watch In Bitcoin – Forbes

Last month, I showed how Bitcoin broke above its key $10,000 to $11,000 resistance zone, which was a sign of technical strength. Since then, Bitcoin has held onto its gains, but has been consolidating in a new zone between $11,000 to $12,500. If Bitcoin can break decisively above this zone, it would be another bullish confirmation. A break back into the $10,000 to $11,000 zone, however, would be a sign of technical weakness.

Bitcoin daily chart

In May, I showed that Bitcoin was forming a wedge pattern over the past few years that would likely result in a significant move. Bitcoins surge last month caused it to break out of this wedge pattern, which increases the probability of further upside (assuming that the breakout holds).

Bitcoin weekly chart

Safe-havens like Bitcoin and precious metals are benefiting from global central banks extremely aggressive monetary policies that have been launched to offset the harmful economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Ultra-low interest rates and quantitative easing arent going away anytime soon, which should help buoy safe-haven assets in the years to come.

Please add me onTwitterandLinkedInto follow my updates and economic commentary.

Read the original:
Here Are The Key Levels To Watch In Bitcoin - Forbes

Bitcoin Slips in Latest Crypto Ranking by Chinese Government-Backed Center | News – Bitcoin News

Chinas Center for Information and Industry Development has revised its rankings of 37 crypto projects. Bitcoin has fallen from the previous ranking.

As the Chinese government focuses on launching its central bank digital currency, the Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID), under Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, continues to evaluate and rank crypto projects.

The center released its 19th ranking update on Wednesday. The ranking and evaluation work is carried out every two months. A total of 37 crypto projects were evaluated and ranked overall as well as in three separate categories: basic technology, applicability, and creativity.

There have been some changes in the top positions of the overall ranking. While EOS remains the centers favorite, Tron dropped from the second spot to the fourth spot. Tron has been occupying the second spot for the past three updates in June, April, and February. The current ranking places Ethereum second, followed by IOST, and then Tron. Bitcoin dropped two places from the 12th position to the 14th while Bitcoin Cash rose from the 34th position to the 30th.

The center explained that the evaluation model has remained unchanged from the previous evaluation. The basic technology subindex accounts for 65% of the total score, the applicability or innovation subindex 20%, and the creativity subindex 15%.

The crypto project rankings are compiled by the CCID (Qingdao) Blockchain Research Institute, an entity established by the CCID. Several organizations help with the evaluation work, including the CCID think tank and the China Software Evaluation Center. The result of this assessment will allow the CCID group to provide better technical consulting services for government agencies, business enterprises, research institutes, and technology developers, the center previously explained.

As for Chinas digital currency backed by the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC), the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced last week that its pilot run will be expanded to include Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and Yangtze River Delta region. Furthermore, the digital yuan will also be tested during the 2022 Winter Olympics games in Beijing and expanded to other regions as appropriate. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency data analytics firm Chainalysis reported that about $50 billion in cryptocurrency was moved out of China in the past 12 months as the Chinese economy suffered from trade wars and yuan devaluation.

What do you think about this crypto project ranking? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, CCID

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

See original here:
Bitcoin Slips in Latest Crypto Ranking by Chinese Government-Backed Center | News - Bitcoin News

Joe Rogans Spotify Debut Sparks Speculation Over Missing Episodes – Forbes

Comedian Joe Rogan performs during his appearance at The Ice House Comedy Club on May 10, 2017 in ... [+] Pasadena, California. (Photo by Michael Schwartz/WireImage)

Joe Rogans Spotify debut has sparked intense speculation from fans, as several episodes appear to be missing from Spotifys new Joe Rogan Experience channel.

Scanning through the list of absent episodes, a pattern seems to emerge; Gavin McInnes, Alex Jones, Stefan Molyneux, and many other figures associated with the alt-right are currently missing. Most of the absent episodes (but not all), feature highly controversial media personalities, whose appearances on the podcast were heavily criticized.

McInnes founded a violent, neo-fascist organization known as the Proud Boys, Jones regularly regurgitates outlandish conspiracy theories, while Molyneux is a passionate believer in race science, also known as scientific racism, or simply, racism.

But not all of the missing episodes feature guests obsessed with skull shapes, IQ scores, and interdimensional illuminati - documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux, pot activist Tommy Chong and comedian Nick Kroll are also missing from Spotify.

Longtime Rogan fans, already fearing the corporatization of the podcast due to the Spotify exclusivity deal, began to speculate wildly, many suspecting that the podcast might be shifting direction, away from the controversies of the past.

Mikhaila Peterson, famous for being Jordan Petersons daughter (and promoter of a quack diet that literally consists of beef, salt and water), was initially missing from Rogans Spotify channel, but her episode was uploaded a few hours later.

Peterson took to Twitter to call out Spotify for perceived censorship, but was quickly placated by the reappearance of her episode.

Strangely enough, Alex Jones spoke up to calm the fanbase with an uncharacteristically level-headed analysis that didnt involve time-travelling child molesters, or even human-animal hybrids. Jones claims that the missing episodes are Rogans favorite one hundred episodes, and will stay on YouTube, before eventually migrating to Spotify.

That explanation doesnt make a great deal of sense - for example, it seems unlikely that a dull conversation with disgraced comedian Chris D'Elia is one of Rogans favorite episodes. While the missing episodes might find their way to Spotify at some point, its still unclear why they are being excluded in the first place.

Perhaps Rogan really is moving away from the baggage of his past, despite being a consistent, vocal critic of cancel culture and deplatforming. Rogans previous description of the Spotify deal implied that his show would remain unchanged, platforming a diverse range of voices, from the interesting, to downright unhinged:

They want me to just continue doing it the way Im doing it right now, Rogan stated. Its just a licensing deal, so Spotify wont have any creative control over the show. It will be the exact same show."

One major appeal of the podcast was Rogans willingness to listen to a broad range of opinions. However, that attitude wasnt always consistent, or admirable. Was there ever any need to broadcast a conversation with Stefan Molyneux? Pseudoscience and bigotry arent exactly in short supply, and amplifying destructive voices isnt the same as platforming quirky outsiders.

But the Joe Rogan Experience has already changed quite a bit since its inception, having attracted enough attention to turn the podcast into a valuable marketing platform.

Whether it will lean heavily into that direction, remains to be seen.

See original here:

Joe Rogans Spotify Debut Sparks Speculation Over Missing Episodes - Forbes

Three thinkers on when we should call out harmful speech – Big Think

If you've been online in the past few weeks, you've probably come across at least one person discussing free speech. The debate over if it is threatened, who has it, who needs it, what it is, and what form it should take goes back long before the days of social media and the 24-hour news cycle.

Recently, the debate over what limits are being put on public discourse is the center of attention, with a great deal of focus placed on the question of what conversations are worth having. Some, including the signers of the famous Harper's Letter, fear that free speech is threatened. Their detractors fear this is a front to keep the traditionally marginalized from expressing their concerns. Previous controversies have centered around who gets to speak at what institutions and if the withdraw of an invitation to speak, or the denial of it to begin with, is a kind of censorship.

But, are any of these concerns valid? What do experts on argumentation have to say about these issues? Today, we'll consider three experts' stances on when speech can be harmful, when people shouldn't be given a platform, and when we should grit our teeth and suffer their opinion.

Dr. Hugh Breakey of Griffith University lays out his case in the essay "'That's Unhelpful, Harmful and Offensive!' Epistemic and Ethical Concerns with Meta-argument Allegations."

Breakey argues that "meta-arguments," statements that focus on external features of an argument rather than an argument's soundness, can be used to critique arguments by pointing out the harm that an argument might cause.

As an example, imagine that somebody tells an armed mob without evidence that grocers are the cause of a crippling food shortage. Pointing out that this argument might cause harm provides an ethical good (the speaker might not make the argument now that they know harm may come of it) and an epistemic good (the argument might be improved or abandoned if the weakness of it is pointed out). While meta-arguments aren't good or bad by themselves, this example shows how they can be used positively.

However, other times critiques that seem clear to one party in an argument can seem groundless to others. In these cases, meta-arguments can derail discussion rather than clarify it. Worse, it can be impossible to get back on track after these allegations are made.

Big Think reached out to Dr. Breakey, who offered this elaboration on his position:

"When we call out what someone says in an argument as offensive, harmful or unhelpful, it can feel like we are applying an impartial standard. We're setting down sensible, objective rules within which constructive civil debate can occur. But the reality is that our judgments about such matters are likely to be as controversial and contestableand, unfortunately, influenced by emotional and cognitive biasesas our views on the original topic of the debate. Reasonable people can disagree on the risks of harm created by speech, the ethical weight that should be given to those harms, where the moral responsibility for those harms properly lies, and how these factors relate to the importance of freely discussing the original topic of the debate. These are all complicated and difficult questions, and will be answered differently by people with different political views and life experiences. As a result, we need to exercise great caution in leveling allegations of harm and offence during an argument. Otherwise, the very differences that led to the original debateand that make that debate worthwhilewill be used to foreclose it."

Given these concerns, the essay ends with a call for "argumentational tolerance" that is weary of using meta-argumentative allegations in general, but is open to using them when the speech in question is obviously harmful, such as instances of hate speech or calls to violence.

Another stance is taken by Professor Neil Levy of The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, in their essay "Why no-platforming is sometimes a justifiable position."

They agree with many others that free speech is valuable and that good-faith arguments are generally good. However, they find the idea of deplatforming for meta-argumentative reasons more compelling than others might.

In Dr. Levy's essay, they ask you to imagine that a university has invited a speaker who rejects climate change's existence to speak on that topic. While that position is bunk, the very act of being invited to speak by a prestigious university grants credence to what the speaker has to say, which cannot easily be refuted by other, better arguments.

Things like being invited to speak by a prestigious school or having seemingly valid credentials can be "higher-order" evidence in favor of their position. Higher-order evidence, Dr. Levy explains, influences how we evaluate arguments. Higher-order evidence in favor of our position can make us more confident in it, while opposing evidence can lead us to moderate our stances.

However, Dr. Levy points out the difficulty of countering higher-order evidence, or the legitimacy it confers, by rational argument alone. They further out the usefulness of attacking the credibility of the speaker's bunk arguments by focusing not on the argument but on the higher-order evidence's validity. Here, ad-hominem attacks and meta- argumentative critiques of their speaking at all can remove the higher-order evidence. Deplatforming, often critiqued as the suppression of speech, can also be useful, as it prevents a person from being granted the legitimacy that a speaking invitation can bring.

There is a difference between this position and that of Dr. Breakey. Dr. Levy is more concerned with matters of fact rather than debates over what constitutes acceptable discourse. However, this stance is clearly more open to the idea of using meta-argumental allegations to keep speech non-harmful and productive than other common positions are.

Lastly, we have the stance described by the University of Illinois Professor Nicholas Grossman in an essay titled "Free Speech Defenders Don't Understand the Critique Against Them."

Professor Grossman considers the current debate around "free speech" and suggests that the debate is really over what we consider socially acceptable these daysa discussion which we've had before and will have again.

As he points out, most people would agree that there is nothing wrong with deciding that Holocaust denial is odious. Furthermore, they would likely also agree that private actors can (and should) use their capacities to limit the space available for a Holocaust denier to speak in. Most people would also hardly shed a tear if the denier faced social consequences for their speech. However, not everybody agrees on giving the same treatment to J.K. Rowling in light of her statements concerning transgender individuals.

Professor Grossman argues that our current discussions are really about where the line of "acceptability" is. Are people, like Rowling, crossing that line when they imply transgender women are not women? If so, what social consequences should they face, if any? What else might be on the other side of that line now? How do we know? The line has moved before, consider how common the public use of racial slurs was in the past, is the idea of moving the line now any different?

They agree with Dr. Breakey in thinking that these are big questions without easy answers. However, Professor Grossman suggests that, in determining what speech is socially acceptable, these discussions can, and must, take place for debate to move forward. In contrast, Dr. Breakey suggests that these concerns can derail other debates if not used properly.

Perhaps the most obvious take away is that all three of these thinkers agree that certain speakers, notably those inciting violence or those deliberately trying to cause harm using racial slurs, can (and perhaps should) be challenged. It suggests a semblance of agreement exists around the idea that some speech does harm and that this legitimizes certain follow up actions to prevent the speech.

This idea is nothing new; even John Stuart Mill agreed with the idea of censoring speech that could cause immediate violence.

The three thinkers considered here also all agree on the importance of open debate in general. None of them are suggesting that you should be arrested for giving an unpopular opinion. They all argue in favor of using reasoned, respectful debate to advance our understanding of various issues.

However, they disagree on how easy it is to know what is respectful debate and what is speech worthy of critique, deplatforming, and social consequence, and what to do when that line is crossed. While the three do seem to be concerned with slightly different scales, Professor Grossman focuses on societal debates while Dr. Levy focuses on institutional level problems, the differences endure, and each stance can be applied at various scales.

Despite this lack of agreement, they all provide strong arguments for their position and a launchpad for further debate. Though, we might need to already agree on a few points before that debate can even happen.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

See more here:

Three thinkers on when we should call out harmful speech - Big Think

Roaming Charges: Great Balls of Ire at the RNC – CounterPunch

Day One

+ The Republican convention began, as all conventions should from now on, by deplatforming its platform. The stale ideologies of the pre-Trump party were replaced over the course of four days by a parade of the ridiculous and the repugnant, gun-slingers and fetus-worshippers, conspiracies and histrionics, white grievance, fake piety and unabashed money-grubbing. The convention itself unfolded like a mockumentary of the last four yearspolitics as sophomoric trolling, all wrapped in an obsequious salute, not to the flag-spiked stages, but to Trump himself. The party doesnt a platform, a policy map, a daily briefing. The platform is whatever Trump says it is and that is subject to change, week to week, day to day, hour to hour. Consistency is for losers. Ideologies are for the weak. And the new GOP, Trumps GOP, dominated by his own bloodline, is all about winning the moment.

+ With Trumps speaking every night, the big question on Monday was: will Donald, like some enfeebled Plantagenet monarch, announce the line of succession?

+ Law and Order week kicked off with Trump and Pence vowing to defend cops no matter what. They soon got the chance to prove they meant it.

+ Does Mike Pence realize that the thin blue line refers to the police omert code of law enforcement officials not enforcing the law against dirty, and even killer, cops?

+ As Pence yowls about the thin blue line (cops who refuse to rat out dirty cops), Jacob Blake fights for his life after being shot in the back 7 times by Kenosha cop in front of his family after breaking up a fight between two women..

+ It happens multiple times a day, day after day

+ Mini-Trump tyro Charlie Kirk kicked the day off by proclaiming: Trump is the bodyguard of Western CivilizationI can see it, as long as by civilization you dont include literature, art, drama, music, dance, science, medicine, ethics, moral philosophy or spelling.

+ Heres a nice Christian-looking couple gazing admiringly at a segment of Trumps border wall, declaring: We want this nation to continue to be the beacon of hope for the world.

+ Its refreshing to see Andrew Cuomo get hoisted by his own fat mouth

+ In his rant, gun-pointing, St. Louis trial lawyer Mark McCloskey called activist, nurse and pastor Cori Bush the Democratic nominee for Missouris 1st congressional district that Marxist revolutionary. Heres how Bush responded

+ A pro gun school shooting dad says, Thank god Mike Pence was vice president the day my daughter was killed. Thats weird, isnt it? Did he check with Alex Jones that the Parkland shooting really took place?

+ During the GOP roll call, of 55 people speaking:

42 were men, 13 women.

5 of the 55 were people of color, 4 Latinx and 1 Asian-Pacific Islander.

+ Kimberly Guilfolye: If you want to see the socialist Biden-Harris future for our country, just take a look at Californiaa place of immense wealth, immeasurable innovation [and] an immaculate environment that has been transformed into a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes.

+ Guilfoyles attack on California was a kind of revenge porn blasted at her ex

+ Kimberly makes Pat Buchanan seem like a wimp.

+ Are they cosmopolitan elites or Marxist revolutionaries, Kimberly?

+ Did anyone check Guilfoyles decibel level, close to The Who after the Ox died?

+ I am Trump woman, hear me roar!

+ Guilfoyles speech was on tape and they didnt reshoot it?

+ Back to the permission mechanism trope, tonight youve got permission to be a fascist, America.

+ Does the Cuban exile oil executive, who fled Cuba with his family at the age of 13, understand that under Trumps policies, he would have been jailed and sent, not back to Cuba, but Honduras?

+ Eagerly awaitingBidens revelation of his inner Castro

+ Wheres ASAP Rocky?

+ TimScott pretty thoroughly skewers Biden for reactionary views on race, but then claims two minutes later that Biden and Harris are promising a socialist utopia.

+ Didnt Scott get the memo that hes got to mention Trump at least every 30 seconds?

+ How Chick-fil-A saved Tim Scott

+ Two South Carolina politicians speaking at GOP convention, neither of them Lady G

+ Kevin Alexander Gray: The only sympathetic outrage a black man gets from US public opinion is after being shot & most likely killed by a police until the case against cop is dropped or he/she is acquitted in court. Black women, shot & killed under similar circumstance are still not even given that.

+ Cancel Student Debt Culture!

+ Imagine the life you want to have. You can have it: with Trump steaks and ZPak.

+ Do all Trump men suffer from nasal drip?

+ Dont worry, Jr. Papas got a brand new bag

+ Not sure I really want to be part of the radical left, if Joe Bidens also a card-carrying member

+ This was the antithesis of Empathy Night, call it Great Balls of Ire.

Day Two

+ Peter Navarro says that Melania is the Jackie Kennedy of the Trump White House. Does he know something we dont about Trumps future?

+ Overnight ratings for night one of the conventions. Six networks combined,10-11p ET: Democratic 14.6 Republican 11.6. The solution for these soft ratings is pretty clear: Dr. Phil interviews the Falwells on family values

+ If only the CDC would issue a warning about violent cops

+ Maine lobsterman Jason Joyce: 4 years ago, the Obama-Biden Admin. used the Antiquities Act to order thousands of square miles of ocean off-limits to commercial fishermen. Although Maines lobsterman dont fish there, President Obamas executive order offended us greatly.

+ By the time he was done, the Maine lobsterman seemed more enthused about Trumps attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade and move the US embassy to Jerusalem than the lobster haul over the last four years

+ Anti-immigrant activistMary Ann Mendoza waspulled from RNC schedule of speakers tonight hours after she tweeted an anti-Semitic conspiracy thread referring to QAnon. Ok, but what was the real reason they cancel her? Did she stutter?

+ David Bernstein: The one useful thing we did get tonight was a delineation of exactly how blatant the anti-Semitism you promote must be to get excluded from official Trump/GOP company. That is, you can promote a theory that places rich Jews such as Soros and the Rothschilds behind vast global conspiracies, including one to obtain the blood of Christian children but not if it actually mentions the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by name.

+ As the nation celebrates the centennial of womens suffrage, RNC is featuring Abby Johnson, an antiabortion zealot who has supported policies that would bar women from voting. This is the very same woman who said she understands why the police might want to profile her adopted Latinx son: Statistically, my brown son is more likely to commit a violent offense over my white sons.

+ Trump himself once supported late-term abortions.

+ Imagine the adjectives this anti-abortion woman would use to describe a botched execution in Oklahoma or Alabama

+ Speaking of cocaine, its Larry (hey, leave me some kids) Kudlow, to let us know Covid is a thing of the past and, once freed from Draconian banking regulations, the economy will lift off into the stratosphere

+ Fred Kaplan: Kudlow keeps up his spotless record of being wrong about everything. This time hes wrong about not just the future but the present and past too.

+ At this point is it really possible to sully the grounds of the White House?

+ Oh, no, theres another generation of the Billy Graham clan!

+ In America we have not yet experienced physical persecution, warned Jane Graham Lynch. Whos she mean by we?

+Save a fetus, kill your granny.

+ Its Margaret Sangers time in the barrel (deserved)

+ In the words of my grandfather Billy Graham, Dick, you should bomb the dikes outside of Hanoi.

+ Last night Tim Scott said Trumps GOP was a safe space for the LGBT community. But after hearing Ms. Graham, I think thats a trap to lure them in. Get out!!!!

+ Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron slams Joe Bide for his long history of specious remarks on race: Mr. Vice President, look at me. I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you cant tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin. Good for you, Cameron. Now arrest the killers of Breona Taylor

+ I prefer to listen to LeBron James, I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as Black people in America. Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified.

+ Beware the Chinese Communist bankers!

+ Tiffany Trump, who only saw her father a couple of times a year after his divorce from Marla Maples, is making her bid tonight for a bigger slice of the Trump estate (debt)

+ Tiffany:A country founded on ideas not identity? I mean, identity is inscribed into the Constitution, in the most appalling ways

+ During her time at Georgetown Law,Tiffany seems to have gone full Qanon

+ This evenings festivities are weird and unsettling, but also boring and dull. Why didnt they bring Joni Ernst out to castrate a hog

+ The word narrative is getting canceled tonight. About time. Alex and I sent it to the tumbrils 10 years ago

+ Trump wants you to try unapproved drugs, but still wants to jail you for smoking pot.

+ Heres Pence in a video shot outside the Lincoln Boyhood Home in southern Indiana. Theres a reason Lincoln fled Indiana for Illinois: people like Pence.

+ It may come as a shock to Mike Pence, but the party of Lincoln was the party of Marx, at the time

+ As governor,Pence oversaw the rise of the opioid crisis in Indiana and a spike in new AIDS cases.

+ This patriotic music is nauseating. Come on Neil, let him use some of yours again

+ Unborn babies are getting much more airtime than the babies in cages.

+ Some immigrants are more equal than others. And Cuban exiles are more equal than all others. Floridas Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nez swayed before the microphone, rhapsodizing how great her family had it under the Batista regimen and warning how the US crumble into a Cuban-style socialist utopia under Biden and Harris. The whole presentation was farcical, especially her depiction of Colombia as a model ally of democracy in Latin America, a regime where police, the army and paramilitaries have conspired to murder thousands of indigenous people and labor activists.

+ Fidels been dead for four years and still scares the hell out of them

+ They must be desperate for the Cuban exile vote and money. Otherwise, why would they invite Nez to speak, given that during the 2016 Republican primary, when she was backing Marco Rubio, she called Trump the biggest con man there is and implied that he supported the Ku Klux Klan

+ How many times are they going to trot out that threadbare Reagan adage about If we lose freedom here in America, theres no place left to go? Ive counted four tonight and Ive scarcely been listening.

+ Enter Sandmann, the teenage MAGA-hat wearing, abortion-hating, tomahawk-chopping Catholic high schooler, who became a cause celebre on the FoxNews right after a confrontation with Native American activists in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

+ Sandmann denounced his nemesis,Nathan Phillips, Lakota, as a professional protester.

+ Chad Wolf, the person giving the citizenship oath, demanding that the new citizens abide by the law is violating at least two federal laws while presenting the oath

+ At least two of the immigrants who participated in the naturalization ceremony at the White House that was later aired during the GOP convention said they were not told they would be used as props during the convention.

+ Is the new price of citizenship under Trump being forced to take your oath without wearing a mask and with no social distancing?

+ Of course, if theyd raised any objections, ICE was there to jail them

+ No matter how hard he tries, Eric will never win hes dads affection

+ Still Eric Trump delivered some stunning news: Peace in the Middle East! Never-ending wars ended!!

+ Every day my father fights for the American people, especially in the sand traps.

+ Eric Trump going poetic is not a pretty sight.

+ Eric Trump: In closing Id like to speak directly to my father

+ Couldnt he just text?

+ Calling Dr. Freud

+ Whens Bari Weiss speaking?

+ Anarchists seem to have eclipsed Antifa as the GOP bogeymen of the week

+ The camera must have been shooting north when Pompeo Maximus gave his belligerent, China-bashing speech atop the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, otherwise wed have been seeing the ongoing Israeli air strikes on Gaza in the background

+ In a weak attempt to evade the restrictions of the Hatch Act, Pompeo Maximus claims to have traveled to Jerusalem as a private citizen. Yet under Israels COVID restrictions, foreigners, including U.S. citizens, who are not Israeli citizens or permanent resident,s are banned from entering Israel.

+ When violating federal law is described as destroying a norm

+ Pompeo Maximus is clearly one of the most blood-thirsty secretaries of state since, well, HRC

+ Has anyone ever told Trump the eschatological reasonsbehind the evangelicals desire to have the US embassy moved to Jerusalem?

+ Too bad Gore Vidal isnt around to write a sequel to Live from Golgotha

+ In Pennsylvania earlier in the day, civil rights marchers were shot at with a rifle by a white man, who fired into the crowd, put his rifle down and then started talking about Jesus

+ Mark Meadows today: Nobody outside of the Beltway really cares about Hatch Act.

Mark Meadows in 2014 onApril Sands, a former attorney for the Federal Election Committee, who had posted Tweets in favor of Obamas reelection. She actually violated the Hatch Act its troubling.

+ Trump getting a wave of applause for successfully walking down the new sidewalk in the Rose Garden without stumbling or need to take the arm of a US Marine

Read more here:

Roaming Charges: Great Balls of Ire at the RNC - CounterPunch