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Blockchain Startup StrongBlock Appoints Enterprise Veterans Jeff Huber, George Kadifa and Keith Ferrazzi to Advisory Board

StrongBlock, a startup bringing innovative Enterprise-grade blockchain solutions to global industry, has appointed three prominent enterprise veterans to their newly formed Advisory Board.

The rapid growth of blockchain is driving enterprises to explore how the technology can be leveraged to increase competitiveness. Blockchain allows a radical shift in the way enterprises approach data and business models. By leveraging cryptographic proofs and multiple copies of verified data sets distributed globally, firms who would otherwise not be able to trust each other can nevertheless rely on mutually managed data sets free of fear of data corruption or manipulation. StrongBlock is developing the resources, solutions, and techniques enterprises need to navigate this new standard. StrongBlock is preparing for major blockchain technology announcements in January 2019 by welcoming Jeff Huber, George Kadifa, and Keith Ferrazzi to their newly formed Advisory Board. These industry veterans hold extraordinary reputations in the enterprise space and are known for their work at tech giants including HP, Google, Oracle and Deloitte. Jeff Huber is founding CEO and Chairman of Grail, whose mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured. Prior to GRAIL, Mr. Huber was Senior Vice President at Google, leading the development of Google Apps, Google Ads, Google Maps and Google X. George Kadifa is Managing Director of Sumeru Equity Partners and former Executive Vice President of Hewlett Packard. Mr. Kadifa is also a member of the board of various companies including Perfecto, Velocity Technology Solutions, FADEL, MSDL, and Snow Software. Mr. Kadifa is a Trustee of The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Keith Ferrazzi is Chairman and Founder of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a research institute founded on the pillars of behavioral science and its effects on business. Mr. Ferrazzi is also the author of the NY Times Bestseller, "Never Eat Alone". Mr. Ferrazzi was formerly the Chief Marketing Officer at Deloitte, and is also known for his work with World Bank, General Motors, Verizon and XPRIZE. “StrongBlock’s Advisors individually and collectively bring deep industry knowledge and experience to our mission of being the premiere Enterprise Blockchain technology provider,” says David Moss, Founder and CEO of StrongBlock. StrongBlock believes the vast potential of blockchain has yet to be revealed, and has tremendous potential for the global transformation of business, government, and society. The firm was formed by blockchain visionaries David Moss, Thomas Cox, Corey Lederer, and Brian Abramson, who as technology executives at Block.one LLC led the development of EOS. StrongBlock currently views EOS MIT Open Source software as the only blockchain protocol capable of handling the performance and governance requirements of today’s global businesses. More information can be found at: https://strongblock.io Media Contact Information: Name: Branden Espinoza Email: contact@strongblock.io Phone: 1-323-457-0521 Read the full article

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Money Laundering Problems Challenge The Growing Popularity Of Security Token Offerings (STOs)

The Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) which have funded start-ups with more than $5.6 billion so far has been facing stringent regulation by major financial regulatory authorities such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure its legality, especially fraudulent acts. In an answer to this, the crypto-world responded with Security Token Offerings (STOs) which allows investors to purchase tokens during an offering. The purchased tokens can be traded, sell or hold depending on the investor’s choice, making it look like actual stock shares issued in an IPO. Unlike ICOs, STOs are registered with relevant financial regulations. Since the invention of this notable crowdfunding strategy by pioneer platforms like the PolyMath team, crypto investors, businesses and communities have been assured STOs will bridge the gap between crowdfunding and legality. According to PolyMath, security tokens are expected to explode to a value of $2 trillion in 2018 alone and $10 trillion by 2020. The STOs initiative will allow any investor to be eligible to participate in a Tier 1 security token offering with a $20 million investment limit while retail investors are limited to 10% of their annual income in a Tier 2 investment with a limit of $50 million. And the investment does not come with any restriction on how long an investor must hold the new security. This compliance is assumed by investors and other related parties to help make STOs fraud-proof and meet financial regulatory bodies criteria to prevent similar legal troubles faced by ICOs. “STOs are seen as more stable and legitimate than ICOs, as they can provide investors reassurance from the get-go that they won’t run into problems down the line.” The Merkle argued. As much as the STO is trying to curb the vulnerability of using the crypto decentralized system for illicit acts, its good intention does not guarantee total security. “Security tokens need to be registered with the relevant financial authority (i.e. SEC in the USA). This has the main advantage of providing extra safety for the investors. However, it does drastically increase the legal cost in order to comply with financial regulations.” finds Espeo Blockchain. The act of money laundering can still be executed by perpetrators without the strict regulators noticing. Aside from this, the enforced policy brings with it, a complex compliance according to tokeny while Espeo Blockchain also voiced its concern of the administrative burden and listing exchanges. The fear of fraud and money laundering which gives rise to most ― if not all challenges of Security Token Offerings ― can be solved by the incorporation of InnoDT’s products such as Safeguard.money. In a press release by Digital Journal Inc, the Safeguard.money is described as “a reputation management system that helps merchant reduce regulatory and compliance risk by providing strong anti-fraud and anti-money laundering measures.” Administrative cost and required technicality of managing generated security tokens can also be drastically reduced using InnoDT’s innovative platform because any mistake at this stage can get crypto businesses in serious financial and legal trouble. According to David Zhao, the co-founder of InnoDT, the application communicates through an API or WebSocket to help customers create study layers to trace transaction behaviors and alert of any micro-behaviors and irregularities by profiles of digital identities. About InnoDT InnoDT (pronounced “in-no-dee-tee”) is building a real-time transaction study software to analyze crypto transactions and associate digital identities across various blockchains. The purpose of InnoDT is to help regulators, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency exchanges fight against illegal digital activities by providing visibility into transaction patterns. Their MVP is complete and the platform’s beta version will be releasing early next year. More details can be found at www.innodt.com Read the full article

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HyperBlocks Pro To Let Digital Investors Benefit From Blockchain By Leveraging On Proof of Stake

HyperBlocks Pro, the platform created by HyperChain team enables blockchain projects and investors around the globe to take advantage of Proof of Stake; helping to step further towards the vision of an entirely decentralized world.

Proof of Stake (PoS) is an efficient and better alternative than Proof of Work (PoW). In PoW, although miners are rewarded for their work done, the system has been showing consistent vulnerabilities. Especially its inability to curb market monopoly and centralized mining. This makes the HyperBlocks platform relevant and an ideal strategy for the overall growth of the industry. The PoS system is more efficient in protecting against market monopoly. It ensures nodes/validators are entitled to decrypt transactions up to the equivalent of their stake in the market i.e. the worth of the cryptocurrency they have. For anyone trying to achieve a monopoly, more funds will be needed so the perpetrator will also be heavily affected by the consequences of the act. About HyperBlocks Pro HyperChain was founded by Stelian Balta. At the age of 30, he has been active as an innovator, entrepreneur and investor in the blockchain industry since 2013. He is one of the first investors in block.one, the maker of EOS.io software and has so far helped raising more than $150 millions for projects he has participated in. With a vision and passion for the blockchain technology, Stelian is heading the development of HyperBlocks Pro, to make it one of the most reliable platforms to help individuals and projects in the industry to take advantage of the PoS systems. According to him, the mission is to help people contribute to the vision of advancing blockchain to the next level which is to achieve a fully decentralized world. The platform is expected to serve in a professional manner and create safe, reliable and very simple solutions for token holders in the digital assets market. Tezos delegation services are the first services offered by HyperBlocks. The technology created by HyperBlocks was reported to be safer, easier and inexpensive to use for staking as no infrastructure is needed to set-up for regular users or crypto funds. The platform will also allow Cosmos tokens(atoms) and many more tokens to be staked with HyperBlocks. The team is working towards their goal to launch one of the first and largest in the world Wax.io guilds/nodes (Wax is 2nd most used blockchain in the world, reported by blocktivity.info) and it’s expected to launch their staking services by early next year. HyperChain is well reputed in the industry for its innovative and continuous efforts to support blockchain projects and investors alike during a bearish cryptocurrency market. Media Contact: Website: https://hyperblocks.pro Email: mayan@bloqwire.com Read the full article

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BitTorrent Products Can Now Be Purchased With TRX, BNB and BTC

BitTorrent to accepts TRON, Binance Coin BNB and Bitcoin cryptocurrencies for its pro and ads free products. In a statement released by Tron's Justin Sun, he confirms that customers can now use TRX, BNB or BTC to make purchases on both BitTorrent.com and uTorrent.com.

BitTorrent, Inc., the company behind the world’s most popular P2P communications protocol and products, namely BitTorrent and µTorrent, today announced that customers can pay for its popular Pro and Ads Free products in TRX, BNB, and BTC. With the help of CoinPayments.net, a leading integrated payment gateway provider for cryptocurrencies, BitTorrent introduces decentralized currencies into one of the world’s largest decentralized applications. “BitTorrent joins a growing list of online companies whose products and services accept TRX as payment,” said Justin Sun, Founder of TRON and CEO of BitTorrent. “With BitTorrent’s over 100 million users, the move helps increase the use of TRX in online marketplaces while giving consumers more options to unlock value from BitTorrent’s premium products.” Holders of the leading cryptocurrencies can purchase one-year subscriptions of BitTorrent or µTorrent products, including Ads Free and Pro for Windows. Pro includes anti-virus and anti-malware screening, file converting and playability in HD. Users can visit bittorrent.com or utorrent.com to learn more. Founded with a leading peer-to-peer sharing technology standard in 2004, BitTorrent, Inc. is a consumer software company based in San Francisco. Through a suite of distributed technologies that scale efficiently, BitTorrent enables users to send large files over the internet through its popular peer-to-peer sharing protocol, enabling legitimate third party content providers to connect with users. BitTorrent’s desktop and mobile products are installed on hundreds of millions of new devices each year across 138 countries worldwide. TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the Internet through blockchain technology and decentralized applications. The company is one of the world’s leading public chains and following the acquisition of BitTorrent in July 2018, the world’s largest decentralized network. Founded in September 2017 by Justin Sun, the company has delivered a series of achievements, including Mainnet launch on May 2018, network independence on June 2018, and TRON Virtual Machine launch on August 2018. Read the full article

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Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance Adds Combined Stablecoin Market (USDⓈ)

Major cryptocurrency trading platform Binance has announced their plan to update the current USDT market to a combined stablecoin market (USDⓈ). In an official statement published on the exchange's support website, the team states that this is to offer more trading pairs as base currencies on the platform. The exchange has also clarified that the new symbol, USDⓈ, does not represent a new crypto token, but a symbol of their new stablecoin market. It also signals their plan to include more stablecoin trading pairs for popular cryptocurrencies to the platform. "We will make a further announcement soon on the exact pairs to be initially moved or added to this market." says the team. Read the full article

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Crypto Lending Platform Nexo Gains Momentum Amidst Market Crash

Even though the cryptocurrency market is experiencing a sharp plunge, major lending platform, Nexo, has almost doubled its value and about to announce its first dividend payout, about 30 percent of net profits, by December 15. Following the overnight boom between 2016 and 2017, crypto has been experiencing a rapid decline. Within the last three months (September to November) alone, leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, value has decreased by about 13 percent. In September 4, it traded at $7,379.42 and in November 4, traded at $6,395.62. This same downward trend is experienced by almost all altcoins too. However, in spite of the shake-ups in the cryptocurrency world, Nexo, a Switzerland based cryptocurrency lending platform where crypto-investors use their cryptocurrency worth as a collateral, has been increasing in value daily. A subsidiary of Credissimo, a major European FinTech Group, serving millions of people across Europe for over 10 years, Nexo has almost doubled price in USD within the last 90 days. It traded at $0.051 in September 24 and $0.090 in November 24. If the BTC value of the token is analysed, it’s almost tripled in the last 90 days period. In October, the company added Ripple (XRP) to its collateral options along with BTC, ETH, NEXO and BNB tokens. The company announced the decision through its Twitter page @NexoFinance; “XRP-backed loans are now available on the Nexo platform, making us the first and only crypto lender to onboard #XRP as collateral.” With the inclusion of Ripple as a collateral option, the team is expecting NEXO to attract hundreds of thousands of new traders in coming months. The popularity of the platform, and the growth of NEXO token can be attributed to its vision of letting more people gain access to capital with less stress in countries that restricts cash movement like Turkey. In an official statement, the company said; “Servicing the Turkish lira along with 40+ currencies allows us to help millions of crypto fans in countries that restrict the movement of capital to structure their finances as they see fit. This is a prime use case for Nexo's instant loans and crypto in general”. The company is about to announce their plan to commence payout of first divided to its token holders by December 15. The dividend is expected to be 30 percent of the company’s net profits. In an industry first, NEXO will share 30% of current profits with the holders of the asset-backed token. More information can be found at: https://nexo.io Media contact info: Antoni Trenchev, co-founder, Nexo. Email:antoni@nexo.io Read the full article

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Bloomberg Report Suggests Bitcoin Could Crash Further Towards $1500

The king of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has already lost more than 70% of its value so far this year and Bloomberg reports that analysts suggest BTC could further gravitate toward $1,500 level, in a report published by Vildana Hajric and Olga Kharif.

After months of tranquility that became the envy of equity investors, The biggest cryptocurrency roared back into the public consciousness this week with the biggest sell-off since August, another fork and a cameo in a major semiconductor earnings report. Some digital asset industry pundits have already begun referring to it as the crypto winter. Bloomberg Intelligence says the drama’s just starting. Analysts predict the price could fall to $1,500, which would indicate another drop of more than 70 percent from current levels. The digital token tumbled 12 percent on Wednesday alone to its lowest level in over a year, and has lost more than 60 percent of its value so far this year. Many of Bitcoin’s closest peers, including XRP, the cryptocurrency also known as Ripple, fell in tandem. "I didn’t sleep well last night," Travis Kling, founder of the hedge fund Ikigai, said on Thursday as he tracked the Bitcoin Cash split. “There’s a small chance that, it’s difficult to estimate, that something really bad could happen related to Bitcoin Cash that could then impact the entire crypto market." Some investors believe that two versions of Bitcoin Cash, which had broken off the original Bitcoin in 2017, could be sucking investment and miners away from the largest cryptocurrency. That rang true to Mike McGlone, the Bloomberg Intelligence analyst who warned that the slide could get much worse. The slump “was sparked by the pump for the Bitcoin Cash hard fork," said McGlone. "That pump that began a few weeks ago, got the market a bit too offsides with speculative longs playing for the good-old days. But this is an enduring bear market." The bad news didn’t stop there. Chipmakers were also hammered today as Nvidia Corp. issued weak sales forecasts for the current quarter, saying that it saw lingering loss of demand from the collapse of cryptocurrency mining. The mining of digital tokens, computer code that carries value in online transactions, had helped stoke demand for the company’s graphics chips. Shortages related to a spike in demand from miners led to an oversupply of parts when the crypto market crashed. “The drop in the stock price of Nvidia is reflective of a future where cryptocurrency fueled demand has cratered,” said Peter Mallouk, president and co-chief investment officer of Creative Planning, in an email. “While this is, of course, bad news for Nvidia, it is really the canary in the coal mine for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.” Nelson Saiers, a former hedge fund manager turned artist, is hoping the renewed focus will help raise the profile of his work -- he’s installing inflatable Bitcoin rats in London and Washington to showcase the token’s influence on society. “They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted," he said about rats, which serve as a proxy for Bitcoin in his art. "And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilizations to their knees.” Or maybe just those who bet big on cryptocurrencies. News source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-16/crypto-winter-comes-early-as-bitcoin-slide-spurs-viability-fears Read the full article

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BCH Falls And Another $4 Billion Wiped Off The Crypto Market

The total valuation of the crypto market has fallen from $185 billion to $181 billion, by around $4 billion being wiped off as BCH falls. Bitcoin Cash, even with the combined value of Bitcoin Cash SV (BCHSV) and Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC), has fallen by more than seven percent. Subsequent to the fork, the price of BCHABC, the original Bitcoin Cash chain with the roadmap set forth by bitcoincash.org, dropped by more than 15 percent to $250. While both major cryptocurrencies and small tokens have started to demonstrate independent price movements by breaking its correlation with BTC, a further 12 percent drop from $5,500 to $4,800 could result in intensified downward movements for cryptocurrencies with lower daily volumes. The sentiment around cryptocurrencies has generally been negative this week, due to the sheer intensity of the crash of the market over the past several days. For tokens and small market cryptocurrencies, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s accelerated investigations into token sales and initial coin offerings (ICOs) could lead to a large short-term drop in confidence from investors in the public market. With Paragon and AirFox already ordered by the U.S. SEC to refund investors and pay a $350,000 additional fine, investors will likely avoid investing in tokens until regulatory frameworks around the space are properly established. Read the full article

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This Years Most Notable Kickstarter Campaign, Pivo, is Fully Funded in Less Than 15 Hours

Pivo is an interactive smart pod that empowers content creators everywhere to create truly dynamic and engaging contents quickly and with ease. The first 15 hours of it’s Kickstarter campaign saw Pivos funding goal fulfilled 100% with over 200 backers.

Participated In London Design Fair 2018 Mobile World Congress 2018 TechCrunch Disrupt 2018 "Amazing compact tool for my broadcasting sessions. I was lucky to test Pivo at London Design Fair 2018." -Milen Petkov   “What need are gadgets that can make mobile media productions more interactive and dynamic because it isn’t with the phones now...and this is really cool.” -Sarah Jennings   "I love Pivo because the hardware integrates very well with the software...Pivo completely changes the way to look at creating images." -Ian Cockburn   San Jose, California - Born out of the need for greater creative freedom and flexibility, Pivo officially launched exclusively on Kickstarter on November 13th, 2018 and within the first 15 hours broke past it’s Kickstarter funding goal to become one of the most notable kickstarter campaigns at the moment. With over 385 backers (at the time of writing) pledging over $40,000, Pivo has now officially become a reality. With 57 days still left in the campaign, this is great news for anyone looking to get insanely creative with their mobile photography and videography. The founding team behind Pivo were motivated by one mission: to build a smart pod that can enable anyone with a smartphone to create highly dynamic interactive videos, images and GIFs in an easy and affordable way. Professional photography budgets were out of the question for everyday content creators but Pivo believed that everybody deserved access to create professional quality contents. Unlocking the Full Potential of Smartphone Cameras is what Pivo is all about. It’s no question that the smartphone industry has completely changed the digital camera landscape. Companies like Apple and Samsung pour millions of dollars each year into their smartphone hardware and software but the modes by which users interact with their phones have largely remained the same. Pivo seeks to change that in a big way. “What need are gadgets that can make mobile media productions more interactive and dynamic because it isn’t with the phones now...and this is really cool” said Sarah Jennings at this years Mobile World Congress Expo. The team behind Pivo are creatives themselves who understand the needs of social media content creators  and the need for truly emotional content in order to stand out in today's digital media landscape. Smartphone Photography Superpowers is what Pivo does. To say that Pivo is just a smartphone accessory would be a huge understatement. That’s because Pivo has over 13 features integrated into its hardware and software to help unlock truly creative content creation that is dynamic, engaging and emotional. So What Can You Actually Do With Pivo’s Capturing Modes? Versus mode automatically pans back and forth between two subjects to easily create a rap-battle like video or gif. 50/50 is half video and half photo. First take a photo, then pivo will pivot just enough to give you room for a seamless video. Essentially a super easy cinemagraph! DoubleTake is an easy way to generate meme-ready gifs or video to tell a story in seconds. ManyMe lets users be a part of the panorama over and over again. Take a panoramic photo all around pivo then let Pivo clone you and your friends into one image. Capture mode packs smart features like “Smartcapture” to interact with Pivo with your voice or gesture. Motion Timelapse makes the most dynamic timelapse possible from a mobile. Let Pivo capture a video in 360, 180 or 120 degrees and create a timelapse to show the world passing across a panorama. Panorama is a feature that Pivo was originally designed to create. Automated capturing and rotation means professional quality panoramas taken easily from a mobile. No more unnatural photo stitching with duplicate heads or missing arms. Flash can blur two videos together. Play catch with yourself or become a superhero with Pivo. TinyPlanet on a mobile device has never been so simple. No need for expensive hardware or software like photoshop to create tiny planet images. Facefollow can detect your face and follow users around like your personal cameraman. Object Tracking can help users create even more dynamic contents flexibly by tracking things like vehicles.  Restream and Pivo have partnered up to give users access to over 30 of the top live streaming platforms. Not only this but users can multistream across these platforms while using pivo’s interactive features like Facefollow. Pivo also comes with an alternate rotating head which allows any smartphone to not only rotate, but tilt angles. An included remote control also gives users greater control with Pivo. For serious flexibility, the team behind Pivo have developed their mobile app to be open source so users can decide how they want Pivo to work for them. Kickstarter Rewards Pivo has officially launched on Kickstarter on November 13th with an exclusive rate for the first 48 hours of the campaign. Rewards range from $79 to $110 depending on the number of add-ons. Pivo is expected to retail for $138 which includes the Pivo body, the app, an adjustment head, a remote and a travel case. Pivos kickstarter campaign can be found HERE About Pivo Pivo is an interactive smart pod with an open source SDK for app development on both android and iOS. We are an international team that likes to do things differently. There’s no corporate nonsense, and no old-fashioned hierarchy. We are a company born out of the need to create, and work to unlock the full creative potential for all smartphone photography and videography. Learn more at www.getpivo.com Contact us at pr@getpivo.com Read the full article

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South Korean Startup MoFAS Brings a Blockchain Without the Security Vulnerabilities of Ethereum or EOS

MoFAS brings an innovative smart contract and decentralized application ecosystem; that's more reliable, user-friendly, fast and above all, a blockchain that is free from the security vulnerabilities its predecessors have.

Though the usage of blockchain technologies can provide the highest degree of security, the number of applications, exchanges, dapps and other services that are getting hacked is increasing at a scary level. Clearly showing the structural problems in the security of the existing blockchains such as ethereum, eos etc. By introducing a new blockchain, South Korean startup MoFAS is trying to provide a platform that is free from the technology vulnerabilities of earlier ones by integrating security technologies that protect the platform and S-Dapp from various cyber attacks. To overcome the security loopholes in solidity, the programming language for Ethereum smart contracts, MoFAS uses 5GL and MSBL (Mofas smart contract block language) to make their platform more robust and user-friendly. The project also takes good measures to solve issues its predecessors have, like transaction speed, inefficient management due to decentralization, delay in consensus and limit of scalability. “We aim to become the world's first blockchain technology with the best security solution and do our part to fuel the global crypto adoption. Blockchain technologies help individuals and businesses alike, it just needs to be more secure and user-friendly to provide meaningful solutions to citizens around the world. That’s exactly why we are doing this” explains CMO Jay Ryu in an official statement published on BloqWire crypto news network. The global digital industry as a whole is rapidly adopting web 3.0 applications and the underlying blockchain technology. The number of startups and big firms getting into this new era to make good use of the efficiency of this emerging technology in the fastest and most disruptive way possible is increasing every day, making security the most critical thing. MoFAS aims to achieve the level of transaction speed no other platforms could have done by utilizing hardware technology as well as DPOS consensus protocol, which the team refers to as Hyper DPOS. Detailed information about the project and its technology can be found at: https://mofas.io About The Company Hackers Lab, the parent company of MoFAS has been providing information technology and cyber safety services to big corporations for more than 20 years. The team is putting together this great expertise in the security industry to build MoFAS. Prominent supporter of bitcoin adoption, Roger Ver is an external advisor to the project. The team is planning to announce exchange listings by next month and the platform’s testnet will be released at the end of December. Media Contact Information: Name: Jay Ryu, CMO Company: MoFAS Address: 19F, 398, Seocho-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea Email: jryu82@mofas.io Phone: +82 2 701 7997 Read the full article

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Credissimo Backed 'Nexo' Becomes The First Crypto Lending Platform To Accept XRP

Switzerland-based Nexo, the first platform that provides instant crypto backed loans now accepts ripple XRP as collateral option for their instant crypto loans.

The idea of crypto lending is one of the most revolutionary thing happened because of the wide adoption and popularity of cryptocurrencies. Blockchain based lending is the future when it comes to short term loans for personal use or margin trading. Switzerland-based Nexo, which is considered to be the first platform to provide instant crypto backed loans is adding XRP as the newest collateral option on their platform. XRP, that aims to enable real time global payments anywhere in the world, is now the 3rd largest cryptocurrency by market valuation and is one of the fastest and most scalable digital assets. By accepting XRP as collateral for crypto loans, Nexo is providing an incredibly powerful utility feature to the cryptocurrency. By their continuous efforts to enable mass adoption of crypto, the innovative blockchain project backed by Credissimo is driving the growth of the global crypto economy, opening new doors to the financial sector that has been monopolized by banks for ages. Nexo’s platform has been lauded by millions of people, for their diligent and prompt services. Today, it is regarded as the only company to process more than 200 jurisdictions in over 40 legal tenders or currencies. Conceivably Nexo is the only organization providing instantaneous credits with a great deal of flexibility. In a period of about 24 hours after the program was launched, Nexo received over USD 2,000,000 in XRP crypto-backed credit/loans requests. Due to oversubscription in the pre-sales, Nexo called off public sales in real time. According to statistics, the subscription went up by up to 11 times, which was the highest figure ever recorded. “With the aforesaid features coming in handy, Nexo has soared high to be among one of the best crypto services. This trend is attributed to Nexo’s classy platform and the incredible user interface. This is a team that has a successful track record for over 10 years extending over $120 million in credit,” says co-founder Antoni Trenchev. In the blockchain industry, the company has set the pace in which things should be done in the 21st century by coming up with well-timed idea- crypto backed credits to all users in spite of infrastructural and physical challenges. What makes Nexo stand out is that it offers an inclusive service to all no matter their geographical location and makes sure that customers receive their loans on the same business day without any hassle. More information can be found at: https://nexo.io Media contact info: Abdo Saeed, AZB Consultancy Email: Phone: Read the full article

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YouVR Officially Launches Globally at NAR Conference & Expo 2018

The YouVR system brings the perfect VR solution for real estate- empowering agents, brokers and associations to easily capture and share their listings and market through a free personalized lead generating website and VR portal.

Boston, Massachusetts // NAR Conference & Expo // At the annual National Association of Realtors conference, YouVR has officially launched the first VR solution package for real estate professionals- offering agents, brokers and associations with a personalized and comprehensive solution to capture and market within existing platforms like MLA listings. With over 20,000 attendees coming together to meet industry leaders offering the latest technology and practices, this years NAR Conference & Expo was the perfect venue for YouVR’s official global launch. “The team at YouVR has been preparing for this launch for months, and we’ve worked with key real estate players to design a holistic VR solution for their segment of the industry. Needless to say, we are really excited to finally be here” said Ken, CEO and founder of YouVR Inc. adding that “there are gaps in the current VR solutions available for industry, specifically when it comes to marketing and utilizing the data and we’ve designed a solution to fill those gaps.” With VR tours attracting nearly 10x the engagement online and resulting to an average offline conversions rate (requests for on site visits) by 85%, YouVR’s solution adds MLS compatibility, a VR listing portal and a personalized branding page as a customized marketing solution along with the patented VR technology. YouVR for real estate agents has been redesigned to focus on helping agents get more listings and buy leads in less time with fewer resources. All tours created by the agent is directly linked to a personal website which can be shared across various platforms and services. YouVR for brokers is about helping the team grow and equipping their members with a simple and effective technology for the entire lifecycle of a sale- from capturing and marketing to listing and closing. Finally, YouVR for Associations is designed to help the organization and its members become industry leaders by providing industry trend reports and certification courses. Andrea Tyler, a real estate agent from New Orleans, thanked YouVR and added that “the YouVR solution makes the entire listing and selling process much easier.” The official launch of YouVR in the American real estate industry adds to the global momentum YouVR Inc. has experienced this year. Last week at the Innovation Leaders Summit in Japan, YouVR was selected as one of the most innovative startups and gained the attention of international companies such as Daikin Engineering, Softbank, and Nikon. In the following weeks, YouVR Inc. has been invited to present its technology and solution to various real estate associations and brokerage firms across the United States. The annual National Association of Realtors conference is the largest event for the most successful real estate professionals in America. REALTORS® who attend the REALTORS® Conference & Expo consistently report to making twice as much income from real estate as the typical NAR member. Find out more at www.youvr.io YouVR Inc. is an industry leader in spatial digitalization and provides VR solution and platform for real estate, E&C, architecture and interior design as well as for vehicles. Established in 2017, YouVR Inc. aims to democratize VR and empower everyone to create and share professional VR tours easily and affordably. VR solutions include VR tour, Lead Generating Website, 2D floor plan, AR Furniture, object VR and 3D dollhouse creation from 360-degree images. Contact Info: YouVR Inc. Address: 3003 North 1st Street Suite 221, San Jose CA 95134 Email: pr@youvr.io Phone: +1 669 234 8593 Read the full article

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Laocon To Bring A Web 3.0 Platform To Provide Enhanced Cyber Security

As the use of multiple devices and web 3.0 technologies grow, so does the need for innovative security solutions. Japanese start-up Laocon, aims to fill the need by bringing robust cyber safety solutions.

Safety on the cyberspace has always been associated with complexities. The type and nature of security threats that are popping up on an everyday basis, and the technology costs and knowledge required to be in the safe zone is growing unprecedentedly. The boom of blockchain technology and crypto currencies comes with tons of new security issues and Laocon, a Japanese tech startup is bringing a platform to provide enhanced cybersecurity; a service that allows users around the world to perform bug bounties for blockchain projects. The number of interconnected devices people use on their daily life is growing rapidly, so as the increase in cyberattack-tactics employed by blockchain and crypto hackers. This makes the blockchain based security platform being constructed by Laocon extremely important and timely. The platform of Laocon will help individuals such as ethical hackers, engineers and other technology enthusiasts and blockchain projects & companies from around the world to eliminate security loopholes and other bugs by conducting bug bounties. Having a reliable platform to help with vulnerability diagnosis and load verification will enhance safety. It also eliminates time and workload by remitting domestic and overseas rewards with tokens. The ever-changing blockchain security landscape has people and businesses on their toes in identifying risks and vulnerabilities in their resources, smart contracts and systems. Threats as earlier mentioned have been on the rise due to the rapid expansion of blockchain networks. WIth the new platform Laocon aims to provide three concrete solutions to enhance security: 1. Acquisition of the latest cyber security and cost reduction 2. Provide security personnel (Supply and demand matching security personnel). 3. Global supply of updated knowledge The team has announced an initial coin release period from the end of September 2018 to February 2019 to raise funds for the project development. PR Contact Information: Read the full article

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The Penguin™ Blockchain Protocol and The Project’s Achievements Report

The invention of the blockchain technology has helped in improving and transforming cash/payment movements between people all over the world. This is due to the convenience, safety, speed, non-border restrictions, amongst others, which are the fundamental benefits of the technology. Today it has become very much easier for projects to source for startup or development funds, by leveraging on the advantages of decentralized applications and smart contracts on the blockchain. These and many more ingrained elements of the blockchain technology, are the things that have opened doors of high value opportunities for once intending projects and visionaries, in accomplishing useful set goals. However, while it is common to find ICO events created for firms in such industries as aviation and transport, law, music and entertainment, finance, real estate etcetera, there had been relatively insignificant efforts in terms of creating top notch decentralized blockchain platforms that could aptly see to the progress of world charity and humanitarian causes. Most of the activities of the charity organizations had continued to dwindle at the mercy of crude centralized operation systems, that is drastically reducing their effectiveness and productivity. This brings even more concern, considering the untapped prospective relevance of the decentralized technology protocol to revamping and repositioning this germane aspect of human interaction. Now, the pattern is changing and there is an obvious solution that has been brought to the table. The Penguin™ protocol comes with an ingenious framework aimed at revitalizing overall humanitarian activities- both for needy persons located in various places of the world, as well as for endangered animals facing risks of extinction everywhere. The basic goal framework of the Penguin protocol Considering the many use applications and merits of the decentralized blockchain technology, the Penguin™ development team has decided to come up with a carefully mapped out project framework. The objective of the organization is to bring global charity organizations and their activities to peak levels in terms of effectiveness, transparency, sustainability, efficiency, amongst others. These are the very things that have been strategically worked upon, and which would show forth from the Penguin blockchain. Consequently, the team has already set out to work in meeting its objectives and fulfilling its mandate. The Penguin charity project aims at uniting charity and humanitarian activities via the use of its decentralized platform. This move is expected to remove restrictions experienced by intending donors, as well as the inaccessibility to funds experienced by facilitating organizations. The protocol’s activities would also indirectly see to it that humanitarian funds are rightly spent, since the blockchain would always show all the transaction processing records. This is a reason why all participating entities in the project are basically bound in transaction, by the Penguin blockchain’s indigenous Penguin coin (PENG). Other strategic objectives of the protocol includes a systematic way of cutting down on monies lost to huge transaction processing fees. By this, there would be an essentially reasonable reduction in required fees for sending money to their locations of need. This is why the platform is building partnership relations with the big names in human and animal charity activities. The partnerships would facilitate proper implementation of the Penguin’s operation roadmap. These partnering organizations would subsequently encourage PENG token use on their individual platforms, such that donations are also being made in the cryptocurrency. Furthermore, the need to boost up PENG popularity and adoption on the cryptocurrency market is essential, and cannot be overemphasized. The project has adequately set down modalities that would publicize the token, and increase its credibility value on the digital currency space. All proceeds generated on the Penguin network, would be deposited in a publicly visible wallet where the funds can be monitored. Other operation features on the Penguin protocol The Penguin protocol allows the use of a proof of stake (PoS) model in its operation framework. This means, participants on the platform would be rewarded based on the amount of tokens they acquired and staked in the network. The proof of stake consensus algorithm ensures profitability for Penguin users, while also consolidating the security system of the blockchain. In addition, the Penguin PoS is specially designed to allow an incorporation of future updates and upgrades on the platform’s basic operation methods. This is beneficial since the possibilities and innovations of the blockchain technology are ever increasing. Another way of earning the PENG token is by participating in the protocol’s masternode service provision. The services of the masternode user allows proper functioning of the protocol in some respect, as they perform their responsibilities. For instance, since Penguin is built on a privacy underlying code (PIVX), masternodes increases network decentralization while providing increased privacy on every transaction. This means payment donors are ensured of as much privacy as they require, while being able to effect their transactions seamlessly. The masternode feature would also enable transactions that are almost instantaneous, hence jerking up the effectiveness of the platform. Achievements of the Penguin™ blockchain protocol As it stands, the Penguin team has been able to achieve a number of goals, which are in line with what is listed on its project implementation schedule. The highlights below show a list of achievements and events made within the last few months. Achievements for the month of June Project implementation kicked off fully in June, and the platform was able to effectively commence with the expected preliminary activities. Firstly, there was a coin takeover program that was put in place, after which there was an important update carried out on the initial old wallet type, that was in use. Penguin also successfully launched its first functional website, open to members of the public, as well as the Penguin logo design for the project. Achievements for the month of July Activities were pushed a lot more higher in the month, as the project was able to issue out its future plan statements according to the implementation roadmap. The Penguin™ protocol team was able to conclude on major decisions such as the stipulated block reward allocations, as well as an announcement for the masternode collateral requirements for interested participants. The project then commenced on a social media publicity program, where five free masternodes were given out during the project’s Twitter marketing campaign. Penguin released its detailed project roadmap and whitepaper on July 10 and 16, respectively. Both documents contained well detailed information on the objectives of the project, and the implementation plan for it. In the same month of July, there were two organized sponsorship events organized by the Penguin project. Both sponsorship events were geared towards animal preservation and improvements. The events are the Quantaya gaming sponsorship on the 18th, and the donation made to the African penguin and seabird sanctuary. There was a new website designed and released on the 19th, while the masternode pre-sale event commenced the next day after it. The proposed coin swap date was also mentioned on the day, which was slated to hold in August. By this time, work had already been in progress for the listing of the Penguin coin (PENG) on the StakeUnited stake pool. Achievements for the month of August Project implementation progressed steadily in August, as the platform was firstly able to list its activities on Coinmarketcal.com. Subsequently on August 5, the proposed coin swap procedures were released, where it was stated that there would be a 10:1 coin swap deal. On August 8, the Penguin protocol once again made donation to another animal conservation organization Seabird and Penguin Rehabilitation Center (SAPREC). The masternode setup guide was released on August 11, while cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia announced its support for the Penguin token swap on the 16th. Other events for the month, were the donation made to Magda’s soup kitchen, PENG’s listing on www.bleutrade.com, and www.biteBTC.com. The Penguin also entered into partnership with the Whooper Crypto cold storage card company. Achievements for the month of September The month of September has been characterized by a good number of PENG token listings on various crypto exchange and information platforms. The coin got its information listed on www.masternodes.online, www.livecoinwatch.com, www.coinmarketcap.com, www.coincodex.com, www.coinexchange.io, www.coingecko.com amongst others. Also as it stands, Cryptopia has successfully completed coin swap, and has subsequently opened market for PENG. So far, there have been two separate donations to the Magda’s soup kitchen this month alone. Work is ongoing and the project has a lot more listed on its program schedule. What the future holds for charity and humanitarian cause Charity and humanitarian activities are one of the biggest funded sectors on the overall, and this would most likely continue to be. Last year alone, there was over $200 billion directed towards its activities (although several factors did not allow its optimum utilization). The birthing of the Penguin blockchain protocol brings the new approach to charity giving and philanthropic gestures. With this type of framework in place, there would be lesser instances of fund delays, and mismanagement tendencies would be reduced. Since the activities on the Penguin network has been well balanced to include use benefits for participants, there are surging prospects as to how successful this protocol would turn out. With an increasing popularity and user awareness, the platform is expected to experience remarkable growth in the days to come. Media Contact Information: Contact Person: Tales Augusto Address : Rua Antônio de Albuquerque - de 541 Savassi 30112-011, MG- Brazil. Email : talesmab@penguincoin.io Read the full article

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Cryptocurrency Exchange OKEx To Delist Trading Pairs Of 42 Weak Performing Crypto Tokens

Leading crypto exchange OKEX announced their plan to delist 58 trading pairs linked to 42 digital assets/tokens, due to weak liquidity, in a post published on their website. The trading volume of these trading pairs said to be too low to continue supporting them on the platform. The list of coins that are getting delisted: Ticker Token Name Trading Pair to Be Delisted READ READ BTC NGC NAGA ETH, USDT PRA ProChain BTC IPC IPChain ETH, BTC MAG Maggie ETH , BTC TRA Travel BTC VEE BLOCKv USDT RCT RealChain BTC, USDT CBT CommerceBlock ETH, USDT DNA EncrypGen BTC, ETH VIU Viuly ETH, BTC RCN Ripio Credit Network ETH MTH Monetha BTC, USDT AVT Aventus ETH, USDT CAG Change BTC, ETH REF RefToken USDT UKG Unikoin Gold USDT BRD Bread USDT ATL ATLANT USDT CAN Content and AD Network BTC CHAT ChatCoin ETH AUTO CUBE USDT, BTC MTL Metal USDT SUB SubStratum USDT EVX Everex BTC ICN Iconomi BTC, ETH OAX OAX BTC 1ST FirstBlood BTC, ETH SDA SixDomainChain BTC XAS Asch ETH AST AirSwap BTC, ETH GSC Global Social Chain BTC MOT Olympus Labs BTC, ETH UCT UCOT BTC AIDOC AI Doctor BTC TOPC TopChain BTC SPF Sportyco ETH ACE ACE ETH AMM Micromoney BTC, ETH FAIR FairGame BTC STC Starchain ETH XUC Exchange Union BTC Execution time: The platform will delist the above trading pairs at 06:00 Oct 31, 2018 (Central European TIme). OKEx informed their users to cancel their orders of the affected pairs from their platform. Orders that aren't canceled in time will be canceled by the system and assets will be credited to the respective user accounts. "Please note that only the TRADING PAIRS with weak liquidity and trading volume, but NOT THE TOKENS themselves, will be delisted. Other satisfactory trading pairs can still be traded normally. We will strictly monitor all listed projects and implement the delisting / hiding mechanism for substandard projects when necessary. Protecting the interest of our users is always the essence of our service. We appreciate your understanding, support, and cooperation in this case." quotes the announcement. Read the full article

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Former Microsoft Engineer Brings A Hong Kong Based Education Start-up To Empower Children To Become Future Ready

In the digital economy where almost every company is a software company, coding is the new language of technology every child should master. Early exposure to coding develops children’s logical problem-solving skills and empowers them to freely express themselves. Harris Chan, a former Microsoft Engineer, is committed to make a difference with his Hong Kong based education start-up.

Digital transformation is upon us. Self-driving cars, Siri and AlphaGo are just a few examples of how AI and machine learning is transforming our lives. Software and robots are increasingly more capable of handling tasks previously carried out by humans, and this is just the beginning! Bill Gates has predicted that by 2030, millions of jobs will be taken over by robots. However, this also opens up a lot of new and exciting opportunities, especially around the use of technology. As a former Microsoft engineer, tech veteran and father of two, Harris is fascinated by how technology is transforming our world and what it means to the future generation. He has a vision is to empower young innovators by giving them early exposure to coding and robotics, which led to his founding of Cobo Academy. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Harris graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a degree in Computer Science. "Witnessing my own children grow and acquire new skills gives me joy and satisfaction beyond words. Cobo Academy is a pursuit of my vision to inspire our future generation to unleash their potential and creativity." Harris started his career as a software engineer at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. He also held senior leadership roles at Yahoo! Hong Kong as Head of Business Development and Director of eCommerce. Prior to founding Cobo Academy, Harris was the Director of Central Marketing Organization at Microsoft, in charge of commercial and consumer marketing in Hong Kong. Cobo Academy prides itself in offering highly structured and comprehensive coding courses designed for tech enthusiasts ages 4-16. Cobo’s cutting-edge curriculum has been created to augment formal education and is the collective brainchild of experienced coders and educators – many of whom happen to be parents. Through problem-based and project-based learning, children will work on fun and exciting projects that challenge them to unleash their full potential, creativity and inner curiosity. Designed for students at all skill levels, Cobo Academy goes beyond coding to develop their critical thinking, collaboration, communication skills. The academy offers weekly coding courses, private sessions, and holiday camps. Some of Cobo’s most popular coding and robotics courses include Scratch, Minecraft, Micro:bit, AppInventor, mBot and Python. Student-to-teacher ratio is typically between 4:1 to 8:1. Having small classes optimizes student learning to their individual pace. But, most importantly, children can remain childlike and are encouraged to express themselves freely through the use of technology. Media Contact Info: Harris Chan, Cobo Academy Hong Kong Address: 6/F Yam Tze Commercial Building, 23 Thomson Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Phone: +852 3905 1111 Email: hi@coboacademy.com Website: http://www.coboacademy.com Read the full article

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trade.io Updates on Unauthorized Access of Third-Party Hardware Wallet

Value of misappropriated TIO stands at maximum potential value of 230K USD, but could be substantially lower. No customer wallets or the trade.io exchange were breached.

In the latest response to the recent unauthorized access of 50M TIO from a single trade.io cold storage third party hardware unit, trade.io has clarified public information surrounding the attempt, the potential value of TIO taken, and the effect on TIO holders. Value of TIO Taken Stands at 230,000 USD Although the 50M TIO tokens that were taken had a potential value of approximately 11.5M USD, only around 1M TIO were completely accessed before action taken by trade.io and its partners thwarted any further attempted trading of the misappropriated tokens, thereby limiting the loss to an absolute maximum of 1M TIO, with an estimated potential maximum value of around 230,000 USD, before all associated parties could fully lock down the activity. The final value once the full effect of measures taken by trade.io have been assessed is likely to be significantly lower. No Hack On trade.io Security Systems or Client Wallets trade.io’s CEO Jim Preissler explains, “the unauthorized access had no bearing on client accounts, the trade.io exchange or liquidity pool, and all remain operational. “Thanks to the fast action by management and partners, it’s important to note that although the theft of TIO from a cold storage wallet is a major crime and inconvenience, at no point were client assets under threat. Technical security on the exchange and client funds were never compromised and have not been affected. The TIO that was taken was owned by trade.io and reserved for our lending facility, the liquidity pool, which has been operating smoothly and also remains unaffected. Protocol was followed to a T, and thanks to the good work of our team and partners, we’re now very close to a complete and swift resolution for more than 95% of TIO holders. All remaining cases will be dealt with on an urgent, case-by-case basis.” trade.io’s COO Roy Gutshall also adds, “Investigations are ongoing, but have so far concluded that there was no technical hack on the third party cold storage unit, and trade.io systems remain secure and unbreached. All exchanges listing TIO were immediately alerted to disable deposits, withdrawals and trading of TIO, and our security team began its investigation. The responsiveness by the various teams within trade.io prevented the situation from deteriorating and helped quarantine the issue. We are providing regular updates to media and our community, and have announced a detailed plan of action to fork TIO.” Resolution for TIO Holders In order to protect all TIO holders, trade.io management has decided to fork TIO. The name of the forked token will be Trade Token X with the ticker TIOx. The fork will occur on 24 October 2018 by end of day New York time. TIOx will begin trading on 31 October 2018 exclusively on trade.io exchange, with the exact time to be announced. Given the fact that TIO was traded on multiple exchanges outside of trade.io, and some have been helpful in assisting trade.io, while others have not with respect to containing the breach, trade.io has devised a customized approach to reduce the impact as much as possible on TIO holders and make sure everyone is treated fairly. Full details on TIO/TIOx fork have been released to TIO holders: https://medium.com/@trade.io/important-update-tio-tiox-fork-1be3df8f0394 trade.io Offering $250,000 Bounty trade.io is offering a $250,000 USD equivalent bounty to anyone who supplies information that leads to the legal arrest of the bad actors involved in the attempted breach on trade.io on Saturday October 20th, 2018. About trade.io trade.io is a next-generation financial institution based on blockchain technology, comprised of its Exchange, Consulting Services, Incubator and Liquidity Pool which allows holders of its utility token “TIOx” the ability to participate in the growth of the company. By leveraging decades of experience in the investment banking, trading, fintech and compliance and combining them with the power and transparency of the distributed ledger, trade.io has created a truly unique platform built to grow and adapt as the blockchain industry continues to mature. Read the full article