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high-petroleum · 3 years ago

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Prodigal Son AU

The AU Takes Place in the novels universe, a year after The Fourth Closet

Michael Schmidt has been living a peaceful life, he’s been married for a few years now, living it up in a neighboring town. He even took up a job at a temp office, doing financial work.

Everything was going well until he received a letter, stating that his father has passed and all properties and assets, including the dying Fazbear Entertainment has been left to him.

Michael was unsure what to do, he thought his father has cut ties with him, disappeared, and was never seen again. Michael considered just selling everything but with encouragement from his wife, he decided it may be time to return home. He resigned from the Temp agency and the two started packing for Hurricane.

Michael had all the intent in the world to rebuild Fazbear Entertainment; To give him and his wife a steady income and to bring life back into his hometown.

William is not exactly dead; he’s been lurking in the shadows, now a charred husk, waiting to take back the company. he had contingencies so that he may return to a better start for his experiments on the mercury liquid that was remnant. Michael rebuilding Freddy’s was a part of one of those many contingencies. Once Michael is done, William fully has the intention to dispose of him.

The silver eyes crew still are within the boundaries of Hurricane and Washington county; they are a curious bunch, they find it strange that a guy who looks like the evil bastard who tried to kill them multiple times is trying to rebuild a train wreck of a company. Some of them jumped to conclusions thinking he is afton or one of his bastardized children, which; yeah he sort of is but he has lived a normal life unlike his sister, making him miles upon miles from being a crazed lunatic. Others are cautious of him.

Michael has read in the papers that Henry was believed to be the killer in the 85’ massacre before his suicide but Mike had his doubts, a lot of them but he never jumped to conclusions.

Michael knew Charlie, babysat her once her twice for Henry as an angsty teenager. When he started hearing from others that Charlie was a teenager and was actually somehow alive, it confused the ever living crap out of him. This might have caused him to look into stuff more.

After discovering the horrid truth that his father committed murders, Michael felt an immense amount of guilt for the people who lost their children in the 85’ incident.

Fazbear entertainment is a small company in this universe, only spreading to perhaps western New Mexico with very little locations in between. At maximum; the company only has at least 15 restaurants. 5 of them practically are abandoned.

Like the original timeline; Michael did accidentally kill his brother within this universe but unlike his original counterpart, he learned to cope and grieve for him while also reforming himself into a better person.

#five nights at freddy's #michael afton #william afton #fnaf #the fourth closet #henry emily #charlie emily #the silver eyes #new AU #fazbear entertainment

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billehrman · 4 years ago

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Putting the Pedal to the Metal

The domestic economy is recovering sooner and is more robust than we anticipated a few months ago. First-quarter corporate revenues, earnings, and cash flow reported so far are nothing short of sensational, especially for the FANG stocks, such that their comparisons will get more difficult for them as the year progresses.

In contrast, year-over-year results will continue to improve sequentially for the economically sensitive companies as we move through the year into 2022 and even 2023, supported by overly accommodative monetary and fiscal policies. We expect growth overseas, with some exceptions, to lag our recovery by several quarters as it is taking them longer to get their arms around the coronavirus. We then expect a robust synchronous expansion as we move through 2022, which could last several years as long as global monetary bodies remain accommodative. They want their economies to run hot despite expected higher near-term inflation. Putting the pandemic in the rearview mirror with all that excess liquidity, pent-up demand, and woefully low inventories out there combined with accommodative monetary and fiscal policies will lead to a supercharged global economic expansion, even in the ECB. Earnings will surprise on the upside, especially for the economically sensitive companies, as we expect record levels of operating margins along with tremendous free cash generation that will lead to much higher dividends and record share buybacks. If liquidity drives financial markets, just imagine that we had over $6 trillion in personal savings reported for March and a 27.6% savings rate compared to a norm closer to 5%. Need we say more? Yes, we can have corrections at any time, but they should be bought, as the next few years look great.

The number of vaccinations continues to increase sequentially, and over 1.1 billion doses having been administered across 174 countries so far. In the United States, approximately 237 million doses have been given, averaging now close to 2.64 million doses per day. We continue to believe that we could reach herd immunity in the United States by early summer and globally before next winter, which gives us confidence in the sustainability of the economic recovery. Pfizer and Moderna can produce several billion doses in 2021 and over 5 billion doses in 2022. Pfizer hopes to have a new at-home pill to treat Covid by year-end, which is remarkable. We are pleased to see New York fully reopen by July. All good news for sure.

The Federal Reserve met last week and left interest rates near zero and maintained the pace of asset purchases at $120 billion/month. Powell reiterated at the follow-on press conference that the Fed would wait for inflation to moderately exceed its 2% target for some time before moving to curb its expansive monetary policy. He also noted that “the economy is far away from the Fed’s goals, and it is likely to take some time for substantial further progress to be achieved.” He concluded by saying that “we expect to maintain an accommodative stance to monetary policy until these employment and inflation outcomes are achieved.” This is the same message that we hear from the Bank of England, BOJ, and the ECB. All monetary authorities are willing to let their economies run hot before even considering first tapering and, secondly, hiking rates.

President Biden addressed Congress last Wednesday and presented his American Family Plan, which includes $1.8 trillion in new spending and taxes over ten years for workers, families, and children. That’s on top of the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan that he released at the end of March. This new plan includes $225 billion towards child care; $225 billion to create a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program; $200 billion for free universal pre-school for all three and four years old’s; $109 billion toward ensuring two years of free community college; $85 billion toward Pell Grants; $62 billion grant program to increase college retention and completion rates; $39 billion for subsidized tuition; $200 billion for lowering health insurance; and making permanent some child care credits, earned income credits and other tax credits included in the Covid Relief Bill. He would pay for this by hiking the top tax rate of the “very” wealthy to 39.6%, closing a series of tax loopholes, increasing collections, and increasing the capital gains rate to 39.6% for the “very” rich.

Cutting to the chase, we do not see anywhere close to this proposal being passed by the Senate, nor do we see anywhere close to his $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill raising corporate taxes to 29%. We continue to see water-downed, more traditional infrastructure bills closer to $1.8 trillion with corporate tax rate hiked to 25%, increased collections and user fees, and some additional social programs passed in 2022 hiking the individual and death tax for the very wealthy plus closing loopholes and growing collections. We feel that Democrats run the real risk of losing the House in 2022 if they insist on pushing too hard their far-left agenda. Recent redistricting does not help their cause, too, as conservative states gained while liberal states lost. One way or another, we will gain several trillion of additional stimulus in 2021 and 2022 on top of the $6 trillion already passed that will all boost economic growth.

Recent economic data points have been off the charts; jobless claims fell to 553,000, a pandemic era low; Chicago PMI rose to 72.1; April Consumer Sentiment increased to 88.3; Current conditions rose to 97.2; index of consumer expectations increased to 82.7; personal income increased $4.2 trillion in March with a 27.6% savings rate(yep!); durable goods orders rose 0.5%; regular shipments increased 2.5% as unfilled orders rose 0.4%; home prices soared the most in 15 years; and finally first-quarter GNP gained 6.4% boosted by consumer spending, fixed residential and nonresidential spending along with more government spending. It is interesting to note that excluding the trade and inventories component of GDP, final sales accelerated to a 10.6% pace in the quarter. Don’t forget that more stimulus is coming too. If excess liquidity drives the economy and financial markets, the best days are clearly ahead. And this will be a global phenomenon too!

That’s putting the pedal to the metal.

Investment Conclusions

Our global, top-down macroeconomic view has never looked better for 2021 and 2022. Excess liquidity will continue to drive prices higher for financial assets. Interestingly, our bottom-up analysis looks outstanding, too, as corporations are managing their businesses exceptionally well. So far in this earnings season, over 88% of the company’s reporting are beating on both the top and bottom-line plus generating much more free cash flow, which is being designated for dividend hikes and buybacks as balance sheets have never been stronger. We expect to see record levels of M&A, too, as most deals are for cash and are therefore non-dilutive as cash on balance sheets earns virtually nothing.

We continue to emphasize in our portfolios companies leveraged to the upcoming surge in global economic activity as their earnings growth will be accelerating going forward while the pandemic beneficiaries, like the FANG stocks, are seeing their best days now, and incremental gains are likely to slow ahead from their current torrent pace.

Areas of concentration include global capital goods, machinery, and industrials; financials, as we expect the yield curve to continue to steepen; technology at a fair price as we certainly are in a technological revolution; industrial and agricultural commodities as we expect shortages for several years; transportation; and several unique situations.

We suggest listening to Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Meeting today to gain insight into the global economy while hearing investment advice from two of the most successful investors in our lifetime, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.

Our investment webinar will be held on Monday, May 3rd, at 8:30, am EST. You can join by entering https://zoom.us/j/9179217852 in your browser or calling +646 558 8656 and entering the password 9179217852.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect, and consider mindset changes; look at your asset mix with risk controls; turn off your cable news; listen to as many earnings calls as possible; do independent research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman

Paix et Prosperite LLC

[email protected]

917-951-4139

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un-enfant-immature · 4 years ago

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Snowflake, Unity, JFrog move towards IPOs despite public market turmoil

Editor’s note: Get this free weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7 a.m. PT). Subscribe here.

Warren Buffet is eager to invest in a money-burning SaaS unicorn that is about to IPO. Despite recent tech stock declines and growing fears of US election turbulence, this is one reason that Snowflake is on track to be one of the biggest offerings of the year. And it is not the only company defying the pandemic and newer problems in order to get out of the gate soon.

First, here’s Alex Wilhelm with more Snowflake filing details:

The $75 to $85 per-share IPO price target values the firm at between $20.9 billion and $23.7 billion, huge sums for the private company. Its IPO could raise more than $2.7 billion for the startup. Snowflake was last valued at around $12.5 billion when it raised a Series G worth $479 million earlier this year.

Built into those valuation projections are two private placements of stock in Snowflake, $250 million apiece from both Salesforce, the well-known CRM player, and Berkshire Hathaway, better known for its investment returns in the 80s and 90s, Cherry Coke and Charlie Munger’s humor. Jokes aside, the inclusion of Salesforce in the IPO is notable, but not a shock, but Berkshire taking part in the public market debut of Snowflake, a company with historic losses that are nigh-tyrannical, is.

Today, “epic growth, improving gross margins and dramatically curtailed losses” are factors that lure investors like Buffett, Alex concludes.

In other pre-IPO analysis this week, Eric Peckham takes a deeper look at Unity this week, updating a massive analysis he had done last year. Basically, the game engine creator could be more central to our online future than many seem to realize today:

Much of the press about Unity’s S-1 filing mischaracterizes the business. Unity is easily misunderstood because most people who aren’t (game) developers don’t know what a game engine actually does, because Unity has numerous revenue streams, and because Unity and the competitor it is most compared to — Epic Games — only partially overlap in their businesses….

For those in the gaming industry who are familiar with Unity, the S-1 might surprise you in a few regards. The Asset Store is a much smaller business that you might think, Unity is more of an enterprise software company than a self-service platform for indie devs and advertising solutions appear to make up the largest segment of Unity’s revenue.

In an accompanying analysis for Extra Crunch, he digs into the filing and maps out the bear and bull cases for the company. Some of the biggest issues he notes are that it is still fairly reliant on advertising (even though it wants a SaaS multiple) and it is continuing to lose lots of money on ambitious expansions. So this is probably not Warren Buffett’s type of frozen dessert, if you will. Risk-seekers and futurists, however, will want to try this free sample of the bull case:

Game engines are eating the world… A vast swath of entertainment and work activities already center on interactive content. Unity has demonstrated value and early adoption across numerous industries for a long list of use cases; it is on the precipice of entering the daily workload of millions of professionals, from engineers to industrial designers to film producers to marketers. Its Create Solutions division is on a path to becoming something of a next generation Adobe ($11 billion in 2019 revenue): A creative suite used by design, engineering, marketing and sales teams across industries.

As AR and VR technology expands into mainstream use over the decade ahead, Unity’s adoption will only expand further. The majority of AR and VR content is already made with Unity’s engine and Unity’s R&D is improving the ease of creating such content by less technical professionals (and students). This positions Unity to expand into key functions higher up in the tech/content stack of mixed reality by providing identity, app distribution, payment and other solutions across content experiences.

Elsewhere in our IPO coverage, Danny Crichton got the details about Palantir insiders accelerating their stock sales for Extra Crunch, and Alex dug into the fresh Sumo Logic and JFrog filings S-1 filings.

Image Credits: Lawrence Anareta / Getty Images

Two considerations of SPACs

Special purpose acquisition companies are a thing now for tech startups that want to go public, but are they the best thing? Here’s top seed-VC investor Josh Kopelman’s take, via an interview from this week with Connie Loizos.

On the one hand, just for fun, I made sure that we owned Lastround.com in case we ever wanted to launch our SPAC. [Laughs.] But it’s hard to know the true benefit of a SPAC. And I think that now that we’ve begun to see a market shift toward allowing direct listings with a fundraising component, you might see that as a far more viable and frequent fundraising or a liquidity device.

A fresh startup trend he’s more positive about is rolling funds (short-window raises for small very early investments, like the new offering from AngelList).

But back to SPACs. George Arison, cofounder and co-CEO of car-buying unicorn Shift, wrote a guest post for Extra Crunch this week about how he has approached taking his own company through a SPAC. Among other things, he says, private investments in public equity are not only good but essential:

There are some in Silicon Valley who think that raising a PIPE is a bad idea — quite frankly, this is patently false. A core reason why SPACs work today, and why they differ from the first generation of SPACs that often did not work, is because of the PIPE process. The PIPE period allows companies to raise more capital, to validate valuations, and it also creates a pathway to transition “special situations” investors to fundamental investors that you want as long-term shareholders.

A pause for Belarus, and PandaDoc employees

After Belarus-born PandaDoc CEO Mikita Mikado publicly supported opposition to his country’s dictatorship, state police raided the company’s large operation in the country and imprisoned four of its employees on spurious charges. As they fight for justice for their colleagues, and for the country’s political process, they’re planning to close operations in the country, and are joining with other startups to highlight the damage to the local tech scene. More about the movement in the subtitled video below:

youtube

Investor surveys: proptech’s future, Warsaw and more

We’ve been trying to understand what is really going on with real estate and proptech, given the various impacts the traditionally glacial sector has experienced lately (pandemic, remote work, retail issues etc.). On Tuesday we ran the second part of our most recent survey, focused on present and future opportunities. Here’s Clelia Warburg Peters, venture partner at Bain Capital Ventures, about making peace with real estate agents and focusing on financial and processing aspect that have not been disrupted in a very long time

Up until recently, the innovation in the residential space was all focused on disintermediating the real estate broker, and I think the most sophisticated entrepreneurs are increasingly understanding that service is a core component of a home sale… [T]he bigger opportunity is finding a way to leverage the position of the real estate agent (in whatever form) to sell affiliated products, including title, mortgage and home insurance or to innovate in those products themselves.

Elsewhere in survey work this past week, Mike Butcher checked in with investors focused on Warsaw and Poland, and is also looking for folks to talk to about the Vienna tech scene.

Around TechCrunch

Announcing the Startup Battlefield companies at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020

Meet the final round judges who will decide the winner of this year’s Disrupt Battlefield Competition

FaZe Clan’s Lee Trink, Troy Carter and Nick ‘Nickmercs’ Kolcheff are coming to Disrupt 2020

Drew Houston will talk about building a startup and digital transformation during COVID at TechCrunch Disrupt

Women exhibitors in Digital Startup Alley: Meet female-focused accelerators

Meet the TC Top Picks for Disrupt 2020

All the ways to meet someone and make connections at Disrupt 2020

Across the week

TechCrunch

How one VC firm wound up with no-code startups as part of its investing thesis

It’s time to better identify the cost of cybersecurity risks in M&A deals

Why established venture firms should court emerging managers

Apple lays out its messy vision for how xCloud and Stadia will work with its App Store rules

Viral article puts the brakes on China’s food delivery frenzy

Extra Crunch

How to respond to a data breach

Use ‘productive paranoia’ to build cybersecurity culture at your startup

What’s driving API-powered startups forward in 2020?

Slack’s earnings detail how COVID-19 is both a help and a hindrance to cloud growth

VCs pour funding into edtech startups as COVID-19 shakes up the market

#EquityPod

From Alex:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

The whole crew was back, with Natasha Mascarenhas and Danny Crichton and myself chattering, and Chris Gates behind the scenes tweaking the dials as always. This week was a real team effort as we are heading into the maw of Disrupt — more here, see you there — but there was a lot of news all the same.

So, here’s what we got to:

AngelList is doubling down on rolling funds, driving that SaaS revenue into the firm that is also investing in the rolling funds. So that’s neat. (Really!)

Edtech stayed hot this week with Byju’s raising $500 million from Silver Lake. Founded back in 2011, Byju’s is the highest-valued edtech company that we can think of, now worth $10.8 billion.

And speaking of Silver Lake, the group just poured $1 billion into a part of the Reliance empire, this time Reliance Retail. And we talked about JioMart, which is taking on both Flipkart and Amazon in the country.

Next there were two companies with names that start with “S” that raised $100 million in the last week, namely Snyk — more here — and Sprinklr — more here.

Sticking to our “S” theme, Slack’s earnings were incredibly interesting. The company’s quarter didn’t get plaudits from investors, and it did note some negative COVID impacts that could impact startups as well.

And, one more S-company to get through: Snowflake. We were all a-twitter about the company’s new valuation range and the fact that fucking Berkshire Hathaway is going to invest in it. That’s wild! What a thing!

Finally on the IPO front, we did a quick Palantir update. Danny has all the latest here.

We wrapped with whatever this is, which was at least good for a laugh. We are back next week at Disrupt, so see you all there!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PT and Thursday afternoon as fast as we can get it out, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

#TechCrunch

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tentativi-vani · 4 years ago

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Movies! They Keep Us Going!

Some of the time, there is nothing preferable to do over watch a decent film. However, did you know what amount of an effect motion pictures have on our lives? Since motion pictures join sight and sound, they fill in as an amazing outlet to associate with our internal identities, and help control us along a portion of life's more noteworthy difficulties. On the off chance that you are a friendly individual, odds are that you like watching positive films, and the other way around. Motion pictures are additionally not costly to appreciate, and it tends to be one of numerous incredible side interests to secure throughout everyday life. Not just as a result of the effect on every distinct individual, yet the effect it can have on whole social orders. A lot of the motion pictures created previously, and some of them today, can really give training on a particular subject (for example Dead Poets Society, October Sky, Glory). Motion pictures have changed the manner in which we live, and they will keep on doing as such. So observe more films, they prop us up https://putlocker-online.com/golden-collection/123movies Did you realize that films can likewise assist you with improving your general prosperity? The correct determination of motion pictures, that is. You recognize what's best for you, and you comprehend what motion pictures you like to see. So after you get done with watching one, attempt to ponder the data you simply learned, and apply it for your own advantage. Motion pictures can influence your own connections, training, enthusiastic state, wellbeing, individual life, the rundown goes on. Probably the best blessing a film can bring, is inspiration. Numerous individuals need inspiration to would what they like to accomplish, and a few motion pictures make certain to help those out of luck. Fix Adams, Seabiscuit, Rocky, Field of Dreams, Charlie Bartlett, and Peaceful Warrior are only a bunch of the a large number of films that can propel you to carry on with an additionally satisfying life. Once in a while our brains are in urgent need of unwinding, and a decent film will enable you to loosen up. On the off chance that you have an awful point of view on an issue, viewing a decent film can assist you with getting a handle on an alternate way to deal with any difficult you are having, and may even give you some incredible way to change the manner in which you live to improve things.

Presently, motion pictures can assist you with completely changing you, and they can do it while you completely inundate yourself in the diversion. In the event that watching motion pictures in an auditorium doesn't seem like some tea, an ever increasing number of shoppers are going to "home theater" frameworks; which can jump on the costly side rapidly. Try not to let that demoralize you, as motion pictures can be delighted in from a little 5″ vehicle screen, 15″ PC/lcd, a goliath 60″ HDTV, as far as possible up to and past a 120″ projection screen. As should be obvious, the interest of moviegoing has developed to another level, and any individual who appreciates motion pictures can be a moviegoer. There are numerous web assets out there, from film rental locales like Netflix, Redbox, and Blockbuster; to web audits like IMDB, Metacritic, or Rotten Tomatoes. The conceivable outcomes in investigating the side interest of film viewing are unending, you simply need to realize where to look.

On a progressively negative note, where will the film business be later on? Nobody can foresee the appropriate response, however organizations need to begin thinking. Film watchers need to leave an incredible film, and discussion about it subsequently with their companions. Of late, the film business has been easing back down, and pulling in negative consideration toward itself. What should be possible for development? Less cash spent on advancement, more cash spent on creation. This is one of the principle reasons why the business is lingering behind. Take the film Speed Racer, for example. The film was a money related failure; the organization spent almost 80 million for a promoting effort, and just earned 85 million around the world. Promoting is significant, however not close to as significant as the film itself. To dispense with this issue, film studios should set a general guideline to assign a specific level of the creation spending plan towards different costs. This could truly give a flash that the business frantically needs at the present time.

On the off chance that we keep on watching motion pictures, the certainty is that the business will improve to suit moviegoers; simply some tolerance is required. Generally, films furnish us with an amazing encounter, which we as a whole underestimate. They can haul us out of an inability to write, and propel us to dispose of a portion of the harder impediments in our lives. So whenever you feel apathetic or unmotivated, watch a film, it may very well be what you have to prop you up.

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brettzjacksonblog · 6 years ago

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Will Litecoin (LTC) Rally to $1,000 After August 2019 Halving?

Litecoin (LTC) up 6.1 percent

Charlie Lee thought LTC would rally to $1,000

In a podcast, Charlie Lee now reveals that he thought Litecoin (LTC) would surge above $1000. All the same, by profitably exiting at the height of the Great Bull Run of late 2017, he reaped huge despite all the criticism from the community. At spot rate, Litecoin (LTC) is up 6.1 percent in the last week.

Litecoin Price Analysis

Fundamentals

Year-to-date, Litecoin, and Binance Coin are perhaps the top two performing assets with triple-digit gains. However, it is the founder Charlie Lee who lights up the scene as he supports the coin. Even so, note that the co-founder did liquidate a big chunk of his LTC holding, selling at the peak of late 2017 super rally while simultaneously issuing a warning to Litecoin (LTC) investors urging them to invest if they are ready for a 90 percent plus drop. True to his words, Litecoin (LTC) and the crypto market, in general, slid, with altcoins losing more than 85 percent of Dec 2017 prices.

New episode is live w/ @SatoshiLite!

We discuss the early days of Coinbase, why he originally built Litecoin, how crypto evolved over the last decade, what the current challenges are, and where Charlie sees BTC & LTC going in the future.

Listen & learn!https://t.co/JcpLe8SXZi

— Pomp

IFTTT

#IFTTT #CryptoCracken SMFeed

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teine-mallaichte · 28 days ago

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Day 5 @ailesswhumptober - prompt : migraine

Asset 85 is working in the med wing when a migraine hits.

CW: Migrain, medical setting, stitches, oppressive environment.

AiLessWhumptober List Complex 27

The migraine had started an hour ago, a dull throb behind her eyes that had escalated into a sharp, stabbing pain. The bright fluorescent lights overhead made it worse, but she couldn’t afford to show any weakness.

Not here.

A few feet away, another medic was hunched over a table, stitching up the leg of a frontline asset who had returned with a gaping wound. Charlie barely glanced at them, keeping her hands steady as she prepared a set of needles for her next patient. The rhythmic clinking of metal against metal was oddly soothing, something she could control in a place where control was a luxury.

The Facility expected her to work through the pain, to ignore her own discomfort in favour of patching up broken assets like machines sent for repair. She had perfected that mask of indifference long ago, learned to numb herself to the suffering around her. But today, with her skull feeling like it might split open, it was harder.

“Asset 85, report to station three,” one of the facility staff called, barely looking in her direction. She sighed, steadying herself as she stood, fighting the wave of dizziness that nearly knocked her back down.

Her legs felt heavier with every step toward station three, the migraine hammering harder against her skull with each fluorescent light she passed under. She reached the station, swallowing back nausea as she grabbed her instruments. The task in front of her was routine: a minor infection to clean and a few stitches to redo. But as she leaned over the asset, her hands trembled slightly, the pain making it harder to maintain her usual steady control.

"Keep still," she muttered to the asset, though her own voice sounded far away, muffled beneath the pounding in her head. The asset said nothing - they rarely did unless told to - lying motionless under her touch.

As Charlie worked, her vision swam again, and her hand slipped just enough for the needle to jab too deep. The asset flinched, his muscles tensing, but remained silent. Charlie froze, her breath hitching. The mistake was minor, easily corrected, but it could be enough to get her noticed. The Facility didn’t tolerate imperfection. She took a deep breath, trying to steady her trembling hands. The migraine pulsed fiercely, but she couldn't let it control her. She couldn't afford to show any sign of weakness or pain. Not when so many eyes were watching, always ready to report any slip-up.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to will away the pain - a futile endeavour - before continuing the sutures. Her movements slower now. Each stitch was a small victory, a defiance against the agony in her head.

The asset beneath her remained still, his face impassive. Charlie envied him. His ability to detach from pain. To remain calm under pressure. But she knew, deep down, that it came at a cost. A heavy price.

Finally, she tied off the last suture and stepped back, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. The nausea was a constant, gnawing presence, but she couldn't let it overwhelm her. She couldn't show any sign of weakness.

"Done," she said, her voice a strained whisper. "You're good to go."

The asset sat up slowly, testing the stitches with a cautious hand. He glanced at her briefly, a flicker of something in his eyes—gratitude, perhaps?—before he slid off the table and left without a word.

The moment the asset stepped away, the weight of the room felt even heavier. Charlie leaned against the station, closing her eyes briefly against the bright lights. A breath in, then out; she could do this. She had done it before. Yet the throbbing in her skull continued, relentless and demanding her attention.

The fluorescent lights continued their relentless buzzing overhead, and the sharp scent of antiseptic mixed with sweat and blood filled her senses. It was a familiar cocktail, one she’d learned to ignore, but today it only made her head throb worse.

“Asset 85, back to work,” the facility staff member barked again, irritation lacing their voice.

“Right,” Charlie said, but her voice was hollow. She moved back to her station, every step heavier than the last, each pulse of her headache turning the world slightly out of focus. She could feel the walls closing in, the fluorescent lights buzzing louder, the antiseptic smell choking her.

It felt like a betrayal, the way her body was responding. She had trained for years to withstand this—pain, exhaustion, the endless grind of the Facility. And yet here she was, a medic crumbling under the pressure. She pressed her palms against her temples, squeezing her eyes shut, willing the pain to dissipate.

But there was no respite. Just the gnawing sense of inadequacy and the knowledge that weakness could lead to her own downfall. She wouldn’t let that happen.

“Asset 85!” the staff member barked again, and this time the impatience in their tone felt like a whip cracking across her skin.

“Coming,” Charlie said, her voice strained as she opened her eyes. She steeled herself, a mask of professionalism falling back into place. There was no time to wallow in self-pity.

She would push through.

She had to.

With a deep breath, she refocused on the task at hand. She picked up her instruments, the cool metal grounding her amidst the chaos in her mind. There would always be another asset to save, another wound to stitch, another moment to prove she could endure, even when the pain threatened to overwhelm her.

One stitch at a time.

#whump fic #ailesswhumptober2024day5 #ailesswhumptober2024 #asset 85 - Charlie #complex 27 #the facility

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joshuajacksonlyblog · 6 years ago

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Will Litecoin (LTC) Rally to $1,000 After August 2019 Halving?

Litecoin (LTC) up 6.1 percent

Charlie Lee thought LTC would rally to $1,000

Litecoin Price Analysis

Fundamentals

New episode is live w/ @SatoshiLite!

Listen & learn!https://t.co/JcpLe8SXZi

— Pomp

IFTTT

#IFTTT #Cryptocracken Tumblr

0 notes

michaelbennettcrypto · 6 years ago

Text

Will Litecoin (LTC) Rally to $1,000 After August 2019 Halving?

Litecoin (LTC) up 6.1 percent

Charlie Lee thought LTC would rally to $1,000

Litecoin Price Analysis

Fundamentals

New episode is live w/ @SatoshiLite!

Listen & learn!https://t.co/JcpLe8SXZi

— Pomp

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#IFTTT #Cryptocracken WP

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jacobhinkley · 6 years ago

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Brian Kelly: A Bitcoin ETF Could Spark A “Nice Rally”

The seemingly never-ending Bitcoin ETF saga has continued, with a recent regulatory development recently sparking discussion within the cryptosphere.

The Bitcoin ETF Debacle Continues

As reported by NewsBTC, on August 22nd, the SEC came out to issue orders of denial for nine ETF proposals from ProShares, Direxion, and GraniteShares. Elaborating on the reasoning behind the verdict, three 26-page SEC documents brought attention to the regulatory body’s fears of manipulation, noting that Bitcoin markets lack “significant size.” Following this verdict, CNBC “Fast Money,” which has become near-notorious for its coverage of the crypto markets, did its best to weigh in on the current state of crypto-backed ETFs.

With the SEC reviewing its decisions on #bitcoin ETFs, @BKBrianKelly breaks down when the #crypto funds could finally come to market. pic.twitter.com/LQtj2BQisE

— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) August 23, 2018

Opening the episode’s crypto segment, Brian Kelly, CNBC’s “crypto baller” and CEO of BKCM, outlined the ETF situation as it stands. Firstly, Kelly noted that these rejections were expected, adding that February 2019 will likely be when the SEC will first confirm an ETF application. The BKCM CEO went on to elaborate on his reasoning for this date, explaining:

“February 2019 will likely be the earliest that we can get it. Why do I say that? Bob just mentioned that the VanEck decision is going to come at the end of September, (but) they actually have until February. So I would expect in September, (that) the SEC will push it off.”

Oddly enough, the analyst’s call for an ETF by2019 has mirrored what Bitcoin proponent Charlie Shrem said at San Francisco’s MoneyShow conference. While on stage, Shrem stated:

“We’re not ready for an ETF today, (the) market is too manipulatable. But we will see one in 2019”

Taking these statements into account, it’s evident that many industry leaders have not accepted the fact that this nascent market isn’t ready to take on a fully-fledged ETF. Secondly, Kelly pointed out that prior to an eventual ETF acceptance, it will be essential for the SEC to find a way to accurately survey the market, which will help to mitigate the risk of market manipulation and trading fraud.

Last but not least, CNBC’s in-house crypto analyst added that the Bitcoin futures market will need to mature, as the SEC has yet to put its full trust into the crypto futures subindustry. While this statement sounds like futures have garnered close-to-zero support, Kelly revealed that this is far from the case, as the CME-backed Bitcoin futures have seen an 85% increase in open interest positions. And if this trend continues, the analyst expects for the Bitcoin futures market to be “robust” by the time February rolls around.

This factor, coupled with the introduction of the ICE-backed Bakkt platform and continual support from legacy market insiders, like SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, may make a Bitcoin ETF much more than a possibility.

Speaking of SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, who has been dubbed ‘CryptoMom’ by some, she recently took to Twitter to announce that the SEC would be reviewing its decision to deny the aforementioned ETF proposals. Although Kelly did not see this as an explicit sign of an immediate ETF acceptance, he noted that this is a sign of such an investment vehicle drawing ever closer.

Closing off the segment, the so-called “crypto baller” and Bitcoin permabull remained as bullish as ever, stating:

“If you look at where the demand for this product is coming from, it’s from the retail investor. Institutional investors are knocking on my door, but they haven’t pulled the trigger yet. But, the retail investor has already said that they want to buy this… and there’s about $50 trillion of assets under management (AUM)… It would only take a small portion of that to go into a Bitcoin ETF, that could spark a nice rally in Bitcoin.”

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The post Brian Kelly: A Bitcoin ETF Could Spark A “Nice Rally” appeared first on NewsBTC.

Brian Kelly: A Bitcoin ETF Could Spark A “Nice Rally” published first on https://medium.com/@smartoptions

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hedwig-dordt · 8 years ago

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Here's the thing: we are looking at an administration that is very clearly being operated on behalf of carbon extraction industries. Trump's cabinet picks are almost all climate change deniers. While there are some questionable exceptions--Tillerson has apparently conceded some human link with climate change--even those who are "soft" on climate change existing at all stand to benefit from interests in the coal and oil industries. There is a huge asset bubble tied up in uncombustable fossil fuels--the carbon bubble. In addition, there is a base of approximately $70Tn ($70,000 billion--let that sink in for a moment) of installed infrastructure for processing fossil fuels and petrochemicals (with plastic and composite manufacturing being relatively small compared to packaging, shipping, and burning the stuff for energy). Meanwhile, rival power industries are coming on stream rapidly. Solar power and electric cars could halt growth in fossil fuel demand as soon as 2020. The cost of solar has fallen by 85% in the past 7 years: by 2035 electric vehicles could make up 35% of the road transport fleet, and two-thirds by 2050. These estimates are conservative, based on the assumption that breakthrough technologies will not emerge to permit photovoltaic cells and battery capacities vastly better (or cheaper) than today. It follows logically that if you have heavily invested in fossil fuels, time is running out to realize a return on your investment. Buying a US administration tailored to maximize ROI while fighting a rear-guard action against action on climate change and roll-out of a new, rival energy infrastructure is therefore rational (in business terms).

Charlie Stross, Some notes on the worst-case scenario

This is legit the scariest thing he’s ever written I think. Honestly, it gets worse from there somehow.

#the current catastrophe #politics for the living #charlie stross

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prabs22 · 4 years ago

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Who is Tom Welling?

Tom Welling is a standard figure in news sources. Expertly, he is an entertainer, chief, maker, and model. He appeared with the film Judging Amy and is bewildering for his progression in Cheaper by the Dozen, Draft Day, The Choice, and the strategy Lucifer. Find astoundingly about this on-screen character.

Early Life

Tom Welling was envisioned in Putnam Valley, New York, the United States with the name Thomas Joseph Welling on the 26th of April, 1977. His family are Tom Welling Sr. in like manner, Bonnie Welling. He has three family, two sisters named Rebecca Welling and Jamie Welling and one reliably vivacious family named Mark Welling. Seeing his enlightening cutoff conditions, he went to Okemos High School. He is an American with Irish ethnicity. He follows the Christian religion.

Body Measurement

Tom Welling stands to 6 feet and 2.5 inches (1.9 meters) tall and weighs around 85 kilograms. He has a striking pair of green eyes with decay hair.

Affiliations

Tom Welling is hitched. His first teammate is model Jamie White, whom he wedded on July 5, 2002. In any case, the couple bound in 2015. The explanation for his division was his extramarital issue with Jessica Rose Lee. He by then connected with Jessica in 2018. The couple wedded on the 30th of November, 2019. They passed on a pre-experienced youth with the fifth of January, 2019.

All around assets

Tom's unbendable assets is concentrated to be around $14 million. He for the most part gets cash through his ruler calling.

Online life

Tom is dynamic by philosophies for online structures association media and has individual Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. His Instagram account has 955 k fans.

Movies

Welling's first film is Cheaper by the Dozen, where he expected the progression of Charlie Baker in 2003. Following two years, he saw the relationship of Nicholas "Scratch" Castle and Charlie Baker in films The Fog and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. He came back to the film business 8 years a short period of time later through the film Parkland, where he expected the advancement of Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman. In 2014, he showed up on Draft Day as Brian Drew. Tom Welling then away from progress of Dr. Ryan McCarthy in films The Choice in 2016.

TV Series

In 2001, he showed up in 6 scenes of Judging Amy as Rob Meltzer. Around an in each sensible sense faulty time, he saw the occupations of Male Victim and Tom in system Special Unit 2 and Undeclared self-rulingly. He was then the titanic cast of the structure Smallville for different occupations for 217 scenes from 2001-2011. He showed up in the show Man Fire Food in 2015 out of one scene. From 2017 to 2018 he saw the action of Cain or Lieutenant Marcus Pierce for 17 scenes. In 2019, Tom showed up in Professionals and Batwoman.

#tom welling

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csrgood · 5 years ago

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ImpactAssets Releases Ninth Annual IA 50 Impact Investment Fund Manager Showcase With New Emerging Impact Category

ImpactAssets has released its ImpactAssets 50 2020 (IA 50), a publicly available, online database for impact investors, family offices, financial advisors and institutional investors that features a diversified listing of private capital fund managers that deliver social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.

To continue to shine a light on impact fund innovation, the IA 50 added a new Emerging Impact Manager category, which spotlights newer fund managers that demonstrate potential to create meaningful impact. The inaugural list includes 16 emerging fund managers across a variety of themes and geographies.

“With record applicants and assets under management, the IA 50 continues to reflect the rapid growth and interest in impact investing,” said Jed Emerson, ImpactAssets Senior Fellow, and IA 50 Review Committee Chair. “This year’s showcase includes eleven impact funds with more than $1 billion in assets under management. And to ensure we’re capturing the best future ideas, we’ve added emerging impact managers, who have the hunger, creativity and a willingness to explore alternatives that more seasoned fund managers may not.”

The IA 50 2020 saw a record number of private debt and equity fund manager applications. Managers who met the IA 50’s in-depth review criteria manage an estimated $39.8 billion in assets devoted to creating measurable, positive impact, up from $26.9 billion in 2019. Emerging impact managers direct nearly $400 million into cutting-edge strategies and high impact investments.

This year's showcase includes:

Investment Targets and UN Sustainable Development Goals: A total of 83% of managers targeted investment in people or places that are under threat or lack access to resources and opportunity, while 64% focused on underdeveloped markets where the market is relatively new, emerging, or subject to systemic challenges. Top UN SDG categories that fund managers focused on included 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth (68%); 1 - No Poverty (63%) and 10 - Reduced Inequalities (58%).

Diversity and Inclusion: While Wall Street continues to struggle with building diverse teams, 85% of IA 50 fund managers report that 25% or more of their investment professionals are women and/or from under-represented groups, while half have teams with 50% or more women and other under-represented groups. In addition, 75% of firms have 25% or more percent management teams that are women or from under-represented groups.

Impact and Financial Return: Impact fund managers remained focused on delivering both positive impact and investment performance, with 78% targeting market rates or above market rates of return. A total of 97% of impact fund managers delivered either in line or above their initial target returns.

Emerging Impact Managers

The newly-introduced IA 50 Emerging Impact Managers category represents fund managers that are in the early stage of their life cycle, and are often taking unique approaches to impact investing. Emerging Impact Managers may have less than $25MM in Assets Under Management and/or been operating for fewer than three years.

Emerging Impact Manager firms were selected according to a set of criteria developed to ensure a diverse set of firms with commitment to impact and representing a range of approaches, asset classes and impact areas. Particular consideration was given to firms that demonstrate a unique strategy, under-represented impact theme and diversity in leadership in view of the application pool.

The emerging impact managers have an average AUM of $24.8MM. Of this year’s emerging impact managers, 75% were launched in the last three years.

A quarter (25%) of managers list clean technology, alternative energy and climate change as their investment theme, while 19% are focused on small and medium business development, and 13% list racial equity as their investment theme

A total of 69% of emerging impact managers report that 50% or more of their investment professionals are women and/or from under-represented groups and 75% report that 50% or more of their board members are women or from under-represented groups.

"As the impact investing field evolves, we can't lose sight of innovation,” said IA 50 Review Committee Member Julia W. Sze, CFA, of Julia W. Sze Consulting. "The emerging managers we selected have developed strategies in new sectors and geographies, are often led by women and people of color, and add new depth to the impact investment universe."

In addition to Emerson and Sze, the IA 50 Review Committee is comprised of an expanded group of 14 impact investment experts and leaders, including Lauren Booker Allen, Vice President, Jordan Park Group Impact Advisory; Mark Berryman, Managing Director of Impact Investing, The CAPROCK Group; Ronald A. Homer, Chief Strategist, Impact Investing, RBC Global Asset Management (US) Inc.; Karl "Charly" Kleissner, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Toniic and KL Felicitas Foundation; Kathy Leonard, Senior Vice President, Investments and Senior Portfolio Manager, UBS; Malaika Maphalala, CPWA® Private Wealth Advisor, Natural Investments, LLC; Cynthia Muller, Director of Mission Investment, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Stephanie Cohn Rupp, Managing Director and Partner, Tiedemann Wealth Management; Fran Seegull, Executive Director, U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, Ford Foundation; Liesel Pritzker Simmons and Ian Simmons, Co-Founders of Blue Haven Initiative; and Margret Trilli, President and CIO, ImpactAssets.

Sandra Osborne Kartt, CFA, Director, Investments, ImpactAssets and Jennifer Kenning, CEO and Co-Founder of Align Impact and IA 50 Senior Investment Advisor, led the ImpactAssets and Align Impact Investment teams in the application scoring and analysis process.

“The IA 50 is a proven and trusted way for investors to start exploring a subset of managers that are already working in this area and determining what interesting impact investments an investor can make today,” said Osborne Kartt. “We are excited by growing investor appetite as well as the diverse array of impact themes and strategies represented by this year’s list.”

About the ImpactAssets 50 The IA 50 is the first publicly available database that provides a gateway into the world of impact investing for investors and their financial advisors, offering an easy way to identify experienced impact investment firms and explore the landscape of potential investment options. The IA 50 is intended to illustrate the breadth of impact investment fund managers operating today, though it is not a comprehensive list. Firms have been selected to demonstrate a wide range of impact investing activities across geographies, sectors and asset classes.

The IA 50 is not an index or investable platform and does not constitute an offering or recommend specific products. It is not a replacement for due diligence. In order to be considered for the IA 50 2020, fund managers needed to have at least $25 million in assets under management, more than 3 years of experience as a firm with impact investing, documented social and/or environmental impact and be available for US investment. Additional details on the selection process are here.

The IA 50 Emerging Impact Manager list is intended to spotlight newer fund managers that may demonstrate future potential to create meaningful impact. Criteria such as minimum track record or minimum assets under management may not be applicable.

About ImpactAssets ImpactAssets is a nonprofit financial services firm that increases the flow of capital into investments delivering financial, social and environmental returns. ImpactAssets’ $1.1 billion Donor Advised Fund and field-building initiatives enable philanthropists, other asset owners and their wealth advisors to advance social or environmental change through impact investment and philanthropy.

# # #

source: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/43675-ImpactAssets-Releases-Ninth-Annual-IA-50-Impact-Investment-Fund-Manager-Showcase-With-New-Emerging-Impact-Category?tracking_source=rss

#CSR #corporate social responsibility #social good #philanthropy #employee engagement #workplace givi

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brettzjacksonblog · 6 years ago

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Crypto Bear Market Didn’t Affect Abra: What’s in the Future of the Market?

Abra has long been a household name in the crypto industry, providing consumers worldwide with financial services and investment opportunities that are centered around Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets. NewsBTC sat down with Abra’s chief executive and founder, Bill Barhydt, last month to talk about the future of this industry, his firm, and enterprise blockchain applications.

Bill Barhydt, for those unaware, has worked with the CIA, NASA, Goldman Sachs, and Netscape throughout his career. He believes that his expanse of prior stints have helped him come to the conclusion that cryptocurrencies are the future.

How’s Abra Been Faring In Crypto Winter?

NewsBTC: Charlie Lee argued that the downturn in the cryptocurrency market has allowed him and the Litecoin Foundation to build out their product and vision. But how has the so-called “crypto winter” affected Abra specifically?

Bill Barhydt: Well, it hasn’t. People that are in crypto, are in crypto. Abra tends to deal with less of the trader, and more with the investor. The trader is someone who is doing lots of transactions each and every day or week. Abra users tend to come in and out over a few week timespan. So it’s a different type of user. If you compare Abra to a trading site (exchange), our user base tends to grow reasonably steady. [The exchanges’ user base] go up and down, up and down. Not to mention that half the trades, if not more, are bullshit. Look what’s on the crypto-to-crypto sites, and you can’t trust 85% of what’s happening. With Abra, every transaction is on-chain. You can’t spoof that because I’m paying mining fees. Our business model is very different. They’re getting pennies per trade, but we’re getting percentage points per trade on reasonably steady, growing volume figure.

Related Reading: Crypto Industry Execs: This Bitcoin Bear Market Is The Best Yet

NewsBTC: How has demand been for Abra’s equities product so far?

Bill: Demand has been awesome. We’ve had tens of thousands of people sign up for early access and have been focused really on the international piece, where the value proposition is a lot stronger than in the U.S. So we have seen lots of market activity, particularly in Southeast Asia, and in places like Mexico, India, China, Korea, and etc. The deal with Abra is finding places that are hard to access, and make it easy to access. So we did that with altcoins, and now we’re doing that with equities.

NewsBTC: Is Abra looking into offering derivatives?

Bill: No, not in the way I think you mean [with your question]. I would like to enable things like shorting, but you have to be very careful with features like that for an array of reasons. In the context of your question, which I took to mean more like options and futures, I don’t see that happening for us any time soon. That’s not the end all and be all of our user base, as that’s more of the BitMEX user rather than the Abra user.

NewsBTC: For those who aren’t exactly technically-adept, like myself, can you give a thirty second to one-minute explanation about Abra’s smart contract system?

Bill: Probably not (*laughs*). In a nutshell, you are taking a position using Bitcoin when you buy anything. So if you want $1,000 worth of anything, you collateralize that with $1,000 worth of BTC. Then, when the value of what you are investing in goes up, you end up with more BTC, and when it goes down, you end up with less BTC. That happens automatically through Abra’s smart contracts based on Bitcoin scripting language. So that’s what these scripts do, they adjust the value of your investment as you are investing in those Apple shares, synthetic Monero, or what have you. But, the technology behind the scenes of all this is extremely complex. It uses P2SH, scripts with P2Pk addressing – that’s standard Bitcoin stuff, but we’re pushing the limits of what it can do.

Blockchain Going Mainstream

NewsBTC: You recently told Fortune that you believe that enterprise blockchains will fail. Yet, some insiders like CZ from Binance and BlockTower’s Ari Paul argue that JPM Coin, FBCoin, or other projects of a similar nature will be instrumental in driving adoption. Would you concede there?

Bill: So I think what they mean is people like you, a journalist, talking about it. I don’t think they want adoption of the JPM Coin, but adoption of the cryptocurrency space. They have the press talking about it. So that’s 70% of the battle when it comes to awareness — the media talking about it. Is it going to be around in five years? I would be stunned if it would be. I would be stunned if any of the enterprise blockchain projects are around. Anyhow, I don’t really care, it’s not my space. It’s great in the context of getting people talking about the future of banking in relation to crypto, which is of interest to me.

Unpopular opinion: JPM/FB coins.

In a decentralized world, anyone can do as they please (within limits, so long as they don't hurt others). The more people adopt #crypto, the better.

Adoption is #adoption. Welcome!

How well will they do? Well, let's wait and see. https://t.co/ke3wYhsexI

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 9, 2019

NewsBTC: Enterprise blockchains aside, Fidelity recently launched its Bitcoin custody and trade execution solution. So what do you think of institutions entering the space if they only stick with true, decentralized cryptocurrencies?

Bill: I think it’s great. So, if you think about what Abra is doing, we basically help retail investors get exposure to a myriad of assets all collateralized with Bitcoin. That means that if we’re successful, to the tune of like an E*trade, Charles Schwab, or Robinhood, there simply won’t be enough Bitcoin to collateralize all these contracts at scale. That’s good news for Bitcoin and institutional investors looking to get into this space. With equities and commodities, they can do technical and fundamental analysis, whether they’re investing in palladium, platinum, gold, etc. They could go talk to Apple, Samsung and find out why they need this.

But with Bitcoin, there’s no one to talk to, which is unique. You can’t come to Abra or other crypto startups about why you need Bitcoin. And I think that this is what will be interesting for institutional investors, who are looking and thinking hard about why Bitcoin is going to be hanging around in four or five years. Yes, hard money is all good, but this narrative may take thirty years or so [to play out]. I believe in it, I think we need a deflationary asset to compete with Federal Reserves across the globe, but that’s a long, long-term bet.

On the other hand, applications of using Bitcoin to collateralize exposure to a shadow/parallel banking system should be short-term appealing to institutional investors. Institutional investors don’t have a 40-year time horizon, right?

The Future Of Bitcoin And Crypto

NewsBTC: Is the Abra team worried about scalability? For example, if we were to see the number of Bitcoin transactions seen in late-2017, would Abra have an issue offering its services?

Bill: So, a couple of us at Abra are worried — we spend a bit of time on it. But having a native Ether wallet is the first step in having a multi-chain solution. Well, that’s not true exactly, having a Litecoin integration was our first multi-chain solution, but the problem is Litecoin isn’t that liquid… But having Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or even EOS if it finally gets there.

EOS is kind of in a beta stage, but if it finally goes mainstream in the sense that it’s not beta anymore — like I’d say that Ethereum is a little past beta, which is why the development team has slowed down change they wanted to make, which is a good thing and Bitcoin is well past beta in my opinion — having a multi-chain solution is the least risky way for us to deal with this issue without managing on-chain scaling issues. But make no mistake, this will require a multi-tiered solution, meaning eventually you will see Layer 2, Layer 3 solutions that Abra will need to interoperate with to scale our services to billions of people.

NewsBTC: So I know that Abra is all about being an all-in-one application for finance. Pompliano from Morgan Creek and Jeremy Allaire from Circle claim that all assets will be tokenized in the future. Do you agree with that?

Bill: I listened to Jeremy on Pomp’s podcast recently and it was really good. He’s thought about that more than I have, but I can see to some degree why, and why that is interesting, especially in terms of cross-border payments. If you think about the way the U.S. is structured— the trading rules are so arcane, and they’re actually even worse now because of Dodd-Frank. The rules are the same, whether you have a digital token or a paper asset that trades electronically. So for the rest of the world, there’s an opportunity to leapfrog the U.S., in enabling a mobile, always-on trading environment, which is extremely interesting. But the question becomes, where does digital trading interoperate with physical selling points. Ripple has that problem. When you tokenize money, and you want to do a better SWIFT, at some point, the money has to move. Settlement is still an issue when you tokenize assets because the stuff still exists in the physical world. I haven’t thought about this as much as they have, but I’m sure this is a problem that you can’t solve in the short-term. But look, tokens can enable more frictionless trading, but not in the U.S. in the short-term.

NewsBTC: What is the primary thing holding back the adoption of cryptocurrencies right now?

Bill: Applications that hide the existence of crypto. Let me explain. So look at 1993. I had friends that started this company called FTP Software, you’ve probably never heard of it. It doesn’t exist anymore. And there’s a good reason why it doesn’t exist. Their primary product was basically selling you TCP/IP software that you can install on Windows 3.11 to access the Internet. So when you bought Windows in the early 90s, there was no TCP/ IP stack, meaning that you couldn’t access the internet. So you had to know what TCP/IP was before Windows 95 to access the Internet. To you, that may sound crazy. But that’s exactly where we are at with Bitcoin today.

I understand what a private key is, as do you, but the vast majority of the seven billion people on Earth have no idea what a private key is. And maybe, they may never be interested in understanding private keys. So what we have to figure out is how to take the valuable applications that I’m pontificating about and make them so easy to use that you don’t even know you are using Bitcoin. And when we talk about buying Apple shares through Abra, I bet you that three years from now, the average user of our platform won’t even know that we are using Bitcoin. Right now, people do need to use Bitcoin. But again, the analogy is like 1992-1993, when you had to install TCP/IP. Eventually, people won’t need to know that TCP/IP is there. But yeah, unfortunately, Abra is one of the only true functioning examples of Bitcoin in the real world that I can point to right now. And that’s shocking to me, having only a few applications after ten years.

NewsBTC: So do you think that people not using Bitcoin for an application like Abra’s has something to do with how it doesn’t have a VM or Solidity?

Bill: Well, our contracts are based on Bitcoin Script. It’s a very simple programming language, but it’s not Turing Complete like Ethereum’s. But the bigger problem is that these things are complex, and people treat BTC, Ether, etc. as speculative assets, rather than programmable money. So we need a concerted industry— even academic — effort to start focusing on programmable money as an idea, through financial engineering and computer science but that will take ten years.

Bill Barhydt

To your earlier question, knowing what I did allowed me to build out Abra, which is really complex behind the scenes. So most startups likely wouldn’t be able to handle it, as there is so much up-front work. It’s so much easier to build an exchange to speculate with, hence why there are so many of them, since they are so easy to make. We need people to understand and to find out more about how programmable money works, and what it’s good for, along with how financial engineering works and how to marry the two.

NewsBTC: With that about programmable money in mind, do you expect for Bitcoin to continue to hold dominance over the broader cryptocurrency market?

Bill: As a hard money, yes. As programmable money, the opportunity is there for Ethereum to take some share, and EOS too. I see a lot of new, interesting applications and services on those platforms. Financial derivatives, commodity derivatives are really interesting. And oil and gas industries, which are basically dependent on traditional financial engineering, could begin to make their way into the Ethereum world at some point. So I think in some senses, the non-Bitcoin chains will be able to excel. But those aren’t true, hard money, but application platforms, which is fine.

NewsBTC: What are your short-term expectations for the price of Bitcoin? Do you expect the block reward reduction to play a strong positive role on the price?

Bill: I don’t think the halving will. I think it is going to be a little flat for a while, except for some short-term peaks and valleys. Now, we are in the part of that typical adoption curve where there’s the trough of disillusionment. The last model I saw of this adoption curve was location-based services. In the early-2000s, VC money was flooding into LBS before the iPhone – it was way ahead of its time. So it went up, peaked when the iPhone and Android phones started to out, and then crashed. So, we are in the trough of disillusionment with crypto, and may start to climb again when services like ours actually cause real-world adoption to happen, which requires institutional liquidity.

When they see that all our users are purchasing crypto, the prices will start to get forced up. But when speculation isn’t the only thing pushing the market, the institutions will want to come in. This could very well take, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 years though. I don’t really care, but it has to happen, as there simply isn’t enough Bitcoin to go around.

Featured Image from Shutterstock

The post Crypto Bear Market Didn’t Affect Abra: What’s in the Future of the Market? appeared first on NewsBTC.

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#IFTTT #CryptoCracken SMFeed

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teine-mallaichte · 9 days ago

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Redesign for Ash (asset 77) and Charlie (asset 85) for before their escape from complex 27.

#complex 27 characters #complex 27 #asset 77 - ash #asset 85 - Charlie #I forgot their neck tatoos...#oh well #my art

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joshuajacksonlyblog · 6 years ago

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Crypto Bear Market Didn’t Affect Abra: What’s in the Future of the Market?

How’s Abra Been Faring In Crypto Winter?

Related Reading: Crypto Industry Execs: This Bitcoin Bear Market Is The Best Yet

NewsBTC: How has demand been for Abra’s equities product so far?

NewsBTC: Is Abra looking into offering derivatives?

NewsBTC: For those who aren’t exactly technically-adept, like myself, can you give a thirty second to one-minute explanation about Abra’s smart contract system?

Blockchain Going Mainstream

Unpopular opinion: JPM/FB coins.

In a decentralized world, anyone can do as they please (within limits, so long as they don't hurt others). The more people adopt #crypto, the better.

Adoption is #adoption. Welcome!

How well will they do? Well, let's wait and see. https://t.co/ke3wYhsexI

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 9, 2019

The Future Of Bitcoin And Crypto

NewsBTC: Is the Abra team worried about scalability? For example, if we were to see the number of Bitcoin transactions seen in late-2017, would Abra have an issue offering its services?

NewsBTC: What is the primary thing holding back the adoption of cryptocurrencies right now?

NewsBTC: So do you think that people not using Bitcoin for an application like Abra’s has something to do with how it doesn’t have a VM or Solidity?

Bill Barhydt

NewsBTC: With that about programmable money in mind, do you expect for Bitcoin to continue to hold dominance over the broader cryptocurrency market?

NewsBTC: What are your short-term expectations for the price of Bitcoin? Do you expect the block reward reduction to play a strong positive role on the price?

Featured Image from Shutterstock

The post Crypto Bear Market Didn’t Affect Abra: What’s in the Future of the Market? appeared first on NewsBTC.

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#IFTTT #Cryptocracken Tumblr

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