“Audius, a music streaming platform based on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, is partnering with TikTok on the video-sharing app’s new “TikTok Sounds” library. The partnership is the first of its kind for TikTok, and aims to streamline TikTok’s current music upload and selection process. Audius users are now able to simply upload tracks and share them to TikTok.
We’re proud to be one of the earliest launch partners for TikTok Sounds and to give the artists on Audius a chance to increase their exposure even more.
Audius, which was founded in 2018, is now the largest decentralized consumer blockchain application, by some metrics. The platform boasts a roster of over 100,000 musicians including Skrillex and deadmau5. TikTok, which now has over 1 billion monthly users, reported that 75% of its U.S. users find new artists via TikTok videos.”
“Ledger announced a new partnership with Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) staking solution Lido Finance in a move that claims greater accessibility and liquidity for independent stakers in the market.
By eliminating the high barrier-to-entry for staking ETH, this partnership has set a precedent, allowing users to stake a nominal amount of ETH.
Users attempting to stake their Ether (ETH) in the past have been met with daunting economic hurdles. The current cost to become an Eth2 network validator stands at around $100,000. Centralized ETH staking options are available on exchanges such as Coinbase or Kraken, but these carry a hefty entry fee and obvious trust concerns — not ideal for investors who maintain the core industry value of free asset autonomy.
For each Ether you’ll stake through LIDO you’ll receive stETH in exchange. These can be exchanged, sent, or sold using services such as Paraswap.”
“Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) said Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s recent comments on increasing crypto regulation, and a letter Gensler sent Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that the SEC needs more authority to regulate cryptocurrency, provide a “concerning roadmap for regulatory actions that will have long-term implications.”
Rather than regulate innovation and job creation out of this country, we should promote an active dialogue between regulators and market participants.
The two said that lawmakers and regulators should work together to balance protecting innovation with any new regulations to “ensure the digital asset marketplace flourishes in the United States.” They called on Gensler, Behnam and their fellow commissioners to provide details on how the SEC and CFTC plan to work together on these issues.”
“While an announcement might be weeks away, the White House’s selection is a continuation of Behnam’s role as acting chairman, which began in January.
Behnam has spoken favorably on the use of blockchain technology in financial markets and previously called for an “open mind” on regulation in the fintech space.“
“Argus enables backtracing of pirated content to the source with a corresponding watermark algorithm. Also named “proof of leakage,” each report of leaked content involves an information-hiding procedure. This way, no one but the informer can report the same watermarked copy without actually owning it.
In the implementation, we overcome a set of unavoidable obstacles to ensure security despite full transparency.
With the security and practicality of Argus, we hope real-world antipiracy campaigns will be truly effective by shifting to a fully transparent incentive mechanism.”
“This Sunday, Aug. 15, will be the 50th anniversary of the end of the Bretton Woods currency system. After World War II, major nations essentially agreed to peg their currencies to a gold-backed dollar. But by 1971, faith in the U.S. dollar was eroding, forcing President Richard Nixon to end the dollar’s convertibility to gold. This ushered in the current status quo of relatively free-floating “fiat” currencies.
Over the past few months, massive coronavirus pandemic relief spending in the U.S. has triggered worries that faith in the dollar’s soundness could be shaken again as it was 50 years ago. The dollar’s share of central bank balance sheets is still a dominant 59%, but has been slowly declining – threatening to take with it a number of economic and political advantages.
Despite high anxiety about the yuan’s rising influence, China faces a deep, possibly unsolvable conflict between its global currency ambitions and its domestic economic agenda: The Chinese Communist Party maintains tight currency controls to encourage domestic investment, but a reserve currency must be freely tradable.
Between that conundrum and the inconsistency of Chinese regulation, experts are generally skeptical that the yuan can climb much in the global reserve rankings anytime soon. Japan, meanwhile, doesn’t sell enough debt abroad for its bonds to take up a large share of global reserves.
Among current options, the euro seems to be the most serious competitor to the dollar, thanks to the large eurozone economy behind it and the relatively open and responsible management of the European Central Bank.
This, I think, is where to watch for the next major wave of bitcoin adoption: smaller nations with troubled currencies or histories of monetary mismanagement. For them, bitcoin is something entirely novel: a store of value that’s not dependent either on their own central bank, or a potentially hostile third nation. It’s clear they’re paying attention to the possibilities.“
“World Mobile, the U.K.-headquartered telecommunications group that is building the mobile network, is working to bring internet connectivity to nearly half of the population of the world still not connected to the Internet, starting in Africa.
The company’s blockchain-powered wireless mesh network – a set of devices or nodes that work together to share data and information without a centralized point of failure – aims to provide affordable internet access to communities typically ignored by traditional telecommunication service providers.
Meanwhile, the public sale of WMT is expected to kick-start the network’s sharing economy, and incentivize node operators and other WMT owners to improve services and grow the network.
World Mobile is currently deploying equipment to 25 sites in the Tanzanian archipelago Zanzibar to give an estimated 100,000 people or more affordable access to the internet.”
“The Poly Network cyberattack saga has dragged into its second week with the hacker or hackers yet to provide the key for the multi-signature wallet needed to complete the full return of the roughly $600 million that was stolen.
I WILL PROVIDE THE FINAL KEY WHEN EVERYONE IS READY. MY IDEA IS NOT CHANGED, BUT I DO WORRY IT MIGHT BE AN ENDLESS WAR.
The attacker now says they are considering accepting the $500,000 bounty offered by Poly Network as a reward for returning the funds, and using it to pay anyone else who can hack the DeFi site.”
The Disrupt 