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As Bitcoin Scales, We Need Better Custodial Solutions – CoinDesk

Crypto unintelligentsia discourse has been set aflame by this weeks Big Crisis in Bitcoin.

Until recently you could have sent a bitcoin transaction rather cheaply, probably at a fee rate of 1 satoshi per vByte (equivalent to a fraction of a cent). Now, with the rise of the use of non-fungible token-like inscriptions and the BRC-20 token standard on Bitcoin, normal fee rates are comparatively absurd. At time of writing, getting a bitcoin transaction sent in a reasonable time period would cost something like 100 satoshis per vByte.

All things considered, its actually still pretty cheap but its way more expensive than bitcoiners are used to. And so, people are upset. The thing is, they are upset not because fee rates are high, but because of why fee rates are high.

See, the Bitcoin blockchain has always had scarce blockspace. When billions and billions of people want to use bitcoin will it become too expensive to use? has always been an open question about Bitcoin. It was even a central point of contention during the Blocksize Wars in 2015 to 2017 which led to the introduction of Segregated Witness (SegWit) to Bitcoin and the Bitcoin Cash hard fork.

(Of note: SegWit solved for transaction malleability and opened the door to our most recent reason for fees going up; funny how that works).

This time around, bitcoin fees have skyrocketed because a lot more people want to use bitcoin. And not to send permissionless, sound money to others or because they want to store wealth, but instead to put monkey pictures on the Bitcoin blockchain and speculate on tokens.

Blasphemous. Bitcoin should be used for financial transactions, hence the hullabaloo.

Putting aside the moralistic argument of what Bitcoin should be used for, bitcoiners have never really had a good response to how the network should handle periods of time when transaction fees spike. Canned answers that people will just pay for the blockspace or the free market will figure it out are setting up a world where the only people who are able to afford to transact on the network are the Bitcoin Rich.

Yuck. So much for unseating the rent-seekers.

Of course, high bitcoin fees have some potential solutions. The most commonly cited solution is Bitcoins Lightning Network, which has been pinpointed as a serviceable means to send bitcoin quickly and cheaply. When youre already on-boarded and using the Lightning Network (and you know what youre doing), its absolutely great. Transactions feel magic. Theyre fast and cheap (when they dont fail).

But the problem is you cant get to layer 2 without sending initial transactions on layer 1, in this case the currently comparatively expensive Bitcoin blockchain. Its just like you cant get to the second story of most buildings without first stepping into the first story. In both cases, you can just wait until fees go down or until the elevator banks free up (or take the stairs, I guess?). But what if fees dont go down? What if people keep piling into the building youre in?

One way to solve this could be through third-party custody. Thats like your friend setting up a zipline from another building to the second floor through a window they opened for you so that you can get to the second floor without ever touching the first floor.

Doesn't it feel dirty though?

Unfortunately, the current design of Bitcoin probably doesn't allow for the entirety of the world to efficiently onboard through layer 1. Maybe the big philosophical discussion around being financially self-sovereign ends for most because it really is difficult to be fully self-sovereign, even with bitcoin.

Our future conversations around bitcoin should then probably focus on one thing: trade-offs.

Maybe it's fine that I use my bitcoin in a custodial way because it's easier for me, and you use it non-custodially. Fine. Maybe Im wrong and youre right. Maybe it's none of your business how I use my own (or, rather, my custodians) money.

The point is: we should be more open to discussing custodial solutions to our problems no matter how dirty it might make us feel. And to that end, applying some custodial products in your financial or bitcoin life need not bar you from using non-custodial products.

You can use both. We just deserve more clarity and options when it comes to these particular trade-offs.

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As Bitcoin Scales, We Need Better Custodial Solutions - CoinDesk

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Exploring the Possibilities of Web3: A New Era of Decentralization – Asia Business Outlook

In a conversation with Prisila, Correspondent, Asia Business Outlook, Harry shares his views on the biggest challenges facing the adoption and growth of Web3 now. During the conversation he also discussed how to develop a strategic revenue strategy.

What do you believe will be the biggest use cases for Web3 in the next 5-10 years?

When block chain technology was first introduced, many people were skeptical and did not fully understand its potential. However, as the number of successful block chain projects grew, people began to recognize its value and potential impact. Similarly, Web3 is currently a rising trend, but I believe it will quickly become more widespread in the near future.

In the next 5-10 years, we can expect Web3 to be widely adopted for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, DeFi social networks, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). These applications have the potential to transform traditional financial systems, enhance user privacy and security, and provide greater access to financial services. However, as with any emerging technology, we can also expect to see new and innovative Web3 use cases in the near future.

What advice would you give to businesses looking to adopt Web3 technologies?

My advice to businesses looking to adopt Web3 technologies would be to first gain a thorough understanding of the technology and its potential use cases. They should also carefully evaluate their business needs and determine how Web3 technologies can enhance their operations and improve competitive advantages. And the other piece of advice is to start small. Instead of trying to implement Web3 technologies on a large scale, businesses should start with smaller, pilot projects to test the technology and identify any potential challenges or issues.

Building a strong network of peers, mentors, and advisors is crucial. This can keep you informed of new opportunities in the industry, and help you connect with potential partners and customers.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges facing the adoption and growth of Web3 now?

From my perspective, I believe the main challenges hindering the adoption and growth of Web3 are the lack of awareness and understanding among businesses, as well as the complexity of the technology itself. Many businesses may not see the immediate benefits of adopting Web3 technologies and may be hesitant to invest in something they don't fully understand. Additionally, the technology is still in its early stages and requires specialized knowledge and expertise to implement and manage effectively. As such, it is important for businesses to educate themselves on Web3 and work with experienced partners to navigate the complex landscape of this emerging technology.

Do you feel there is an approach or technique to success in this role? What advice do you have for aspiring leaders in this position who are looking to take advantage of new opportunities?

As a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of an IT/Blockchain company, I have some advice for leaders and managers in similar positions. Firstly, even if you are not a technical expert, it's important to keep up with tech trends and develop your technical skills. Having a basic understanding of the tools and platforms used in the industry will help you effectively communicate with your team and make informed decisions about technology investments.

Secondly, focus on developing strong leadership skills, such as communication, delegation, and problem-solving. Knowing how to select suitable team members for different positions will help them to develop optimally.

Finally, building a strong network of peers, mentors, and advisors is crucial. This can keep you informed of new opportunities in the industry, and help you connect with potential partners and customers. Networking is vital in the technology industry and can help you to stay ahead of the curve.

"Having a basic understanding of the tools and platforms used in the industry will help you effectively communicate with your team and make informed decisions about technology investments."

Tell me about how you utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics to assess and improve performance in your job, as well as how you develop a strategic revenue strategy. Please describe your procedure.

For me, a highly effective way to track and manage a company's growth is through regular market research and setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on quarterly market growth. For instance, at SotaTek, the marketing department conducts research quarterly to identify potential markets for development such as Asia, the US, Europe, etc. Based on the level of demand and growth of each region, the sales director then sets KPIs such as the number of leads per month for sales and decides which services to prioritize. This enables us to track our progress and make data-driven decisions in developing a strategic revenue strategy.

Additionally, we develop a strategic revenue strategy by aligning our business objectives with market trends & customer needs and regularly reviewing & adjusting our strategy based on performance metrics and feedback from our customers and stakeholders.

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Exploring the Possibilities of Web3: A New Era of Decentralization - Asia Business Outlook

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If Bitcoin Cant Handle a Few JPEGs, How Can It Handle the World? – Yahoo Finance

Many bitcoiners have been up in arms about high fees amidst a surge in new activity on the original blockchain. Fees, which are set dynamically by a competitive bidding process, spiked to a staggering $30.19 for a simple bitcoin transaction on May 8, after hovering around $2 since July of 2021 nearly two years.

The situation is dire enough that some bitcoiners, particularly so-called maximalists, have gone so far as proposing censorship of BRC-20 tokens and other assets based on the ordinals issuance method. Those assets use new features to inscribe data in bitcoin transactions, and appear to be driving the price spike. Theres an immense amount to be said about the moralistic debate around BRC-20 issuance, but in one surprising development, maximalist figurehead Michael Saylor (the former chief executive of MicroStrategy) has now declared their emergence bullish.

This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

Leaving aside the question of what Bitcoin is for, theres a much more straightforward takeaway here: Bitcoin isnt scaling, and blaming ordinals doesnt change that fact.

The chain would be facing the same scaling issues if only a slightly larger fraction of the world were using it for monetary transactions. That means the BRC-20 kerfuffle, ironically, is ultimately a blow to the very maximalist vision held by those currently railing against non-monetary uses of bitcoin.

The explosion of interest in BRC-20 tokens on Bitcoin has driven a huge spike in transaction volume on the base layer network, and in turn driven up transaction prices. There are many different ways to put this congestion in context, but one very good metric is congestion in the Bitcoin mempool. The mempool is where transactions wait to be validated, and are ordered according to the fee bid attached to them. A fuller mempool means more competition to get your transaction into the next block.

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Reviewing the data is eye-opening in numerous ways. (I used this straightforward but stellar mempool visualization tool by Jochen Hoenicke, a researcher at smart contract security firm Certora.)

First, by sheer transaction volume, Bitcoins mempool has seemingly never been this full not by a longshot. The last major peak in April of 2021 saw 200,000 transactions waiting in line, but yesterday that number peaked at 450,000. (Hoenickes node only tracks back to 2017, but prior to that bull market, Bitcoin congestion and fees were negligible.)

Just as notable, these transactions are often tiny. You can also see, courtesy of bitinfocharts, that the average bitcoin transaction size has plummeted in recent days.

Average Transaction Fee on Bitcoin (Glassnode)

That exploding volume of small transactions seems to confirm that the demand spike has been driven by speculators (and/or future rug-pullers) frantically issuing and minting tokens using the experimental BRC-20 standard. Theres hype around the tokens right now, and degens seemingly want their $pepes and other casino tokens right now, not in 12 or 14 blocks. Coinmarketcap claims that a staggering 8,500 tokens have been issued on Bitcoin in the mere weeks since the BRC-20 standard was first floated.

Given that these are largely memecoins that amount to little more than gambling, the bidding war seems likely to be short-lived. And in fact, fees by May 10 had already declined a bit from their May 8 peak.

But heres the thing: if even a few million people wanted to actually use Bitcoin to send money peer-to-peer on a regular basis, wed be in exactly the same position. And it would be permanent, rather than transitory. The calls for Bitcoin censorship from maximalists are arguably incoherent for a number of philosophical reasons, but this practical incoherence is most striking. Bitcoiners upset at a temporary fee spike driven by degens may be better off focusing their energy on solutions to the imminent problem of sustained higher fees driven by everyday users.

See also: The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin Maximalism | Opinion

Most fundamentally, as Castle Island Ventures co-founder Nic Carter pointed out in these pages yesterday, high prices are the cure for high prices. We are seeing this in real time, particularly with Binance integrating the layer 2 Lightning network into its bitcoin withdrawal flow. Lightning is purpose-built for removing the load of smaller transactions from the base chain, but it does require a fairly arcane setup for peer-to-peer use. At the same time, Lightning service firms, such as David Marcus Lightspark, have a suddenly target-rich environment for making Lightning easier for average Joes.

In this respect, the BRC-20 fee spike seems likely to be a blessing in disguise: A warning shot that should trigger a frenzy of preparation for a sustained barrage.

There is a final, hypothetical irony here. The actual viability of both ordinals and fungible tokens on Bitcoin is still extremely unclear a significant bug in inscriptions was identified just last week, for instance. But if you squint, its not impossible to envision some form of ordinal technology enabling entirely new approaches to scaling Bitcoin, perhaps including layer 2 technology closer to what Ethereum can accomplish.

That may prove even more distasteful to the maximalist crowd than sharing their mempool with JPEGs and degens. But if youre actually committed to scaling Bitcoin, it may be time to think bigger.

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If Bitcoin Cant Handle a Few JPEGs, How Can It Handle the World? - Yahoo Finance

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MetaCannes Ushers in Film3’s Next Wave of Cinema at Cannes Film Festival – Decrypt

The promise of Web3s manifesto of decentralization is to shake up industries that have been ossified by centralizationand now Web3 has Hollywood in its sights.

Few industries are more ripe for decentralized disruption than film, with its high barriers to entry, gatekeepers, and rent-seeking middlemen carving off a share of the profits.

Leading the charge is MetaCannes, which is bringing the message of decentralization to one of the biggest events in the film industrys calendar: the Cannes Film Festival.

On the eve of the festival, First Flights and Web3-native studio The Squad are partnering up withDecrypt to host MetaCannes, an event exploring how the Web3-powered Film3 movement is reshaping the way films are crafted, marketed, and distributed.

The virtual festival, which will run from May 16th to May 29th, aims to introduce industry leaders and financiers to the Film3 movement via livestream; the events online component will be handled by Theta Network, a video and entertainment blockchain.

With Cannes March du Film naming Spain its Country of Honor for the 2023 edition, MetaCannes will play host to Spanish director Miguel Faus for a fireside chat at an invite-only cocktail party on May 21st. The directors upcoming feature film Calladita was funded by an NFT crowdraise with backers including NounsDAO, together with completion funding awarded by Web3 film fund Decentralized Pictures.

For MetaCannes co-founder Jordan Bayne, the Film3 movement is a transformative force. "Creator-led communities can be mini-studios, she told Decrypt. We believe that community is the utility, and Film3 is a product that offers a truly innovative way to move the needle towards a better future for all filmmakers.

As well as launching the crypto-powered crowdfunding platform FF3, event co-producers First Flights have a knack for spotting and fostering emerging talent; they executive produced "An Irish Goodbye," from directors Tom Berkeley and Ross White, which won both the BAFTA and Academy Award for live-action short film.

Film3 offers a chance to leverage technology for a more decentralized, democratized, and empowering way to create and distribute content, said First Flights co-founder Phil McKenzie. "We aim to spotlight these forward-thinking projects and companies."

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Bitcoin briefly falls below $26,000, posts worst week since November – CNBC

Bitcoin is facing a number of headwinds including low liquidity which is contributing to volatility. U.S. regulators are also heavily scrutinizing the crypto industry.

Nurphoto | Getty Images

Bitcoin traded at its lowest level since mid-March on Friday as volatility, driven by low liquidity, continued to hit cryptocurrency markets.

Bitcoin ended the day lower by 2.58% at 26,181.46 after briefly hitting a low of 25,833.34 the lowest level since March 17, according to Coin Metrics. The biggest crypto asset by market cap posted a weekly loss of 11.25%, making it its worst week since Nov. 11.

There are a number of issues facing crypto markets right now including low liquidity, a crackdown on the industry from regulators in the U.S. and macroeconomic worries.

Bitcoin is up around 59% this year but prices have remained volatile, with low liquidity exacerbating moves higher and lower.

ClaraMedalie, director of research atKaiko, said there has been a "notable drop in market depth" for bitcoin.

Market depth refers to a market's ability to absorb relatively large buy and sell orders. When market depth is low, then relatively small orders can cause the price of an asset to move up or down in a substantial way.

And the liquidity situation could be set to get worse after Bloomberg reportedthat Jane Street and Jump Crypto, two of the biggest crypto market makers, will take a step back from crypto trading in the U.S. as the country's regulators continue their crackdown on the nascent industry.

"While it is yet unclear the catalyst for today's sharp drop, the volatility is to be expected given the current state of liquidity, especially after larger market maker Jane Street and Jump Crypto revealed they were winding down their crypto exposure," Medalie said.

Liquidity has been a big issue for crypto markets since the closureof Silvergate and Signature Bank two key platforms that people used to buy into the crypto market.

Scrutiny from U.S. regulators on the digital currency industry has ramped up since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX last year.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned American crypto exchange Coinbase in March over potential securities law violations. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the company is preparing for a years-long court battlewith the SEC.

Meanwhile, the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission alleged in March that crypto exchange Binance violated trading rules.

The crypto industry is in a battle with U.S. regulators, accusing the SEC and the U.S. government of not laying out clear rules.

Meanwhile, the bitcoin network itself has faced congestion in recent days with Binance last week forced to temporarily halt bitcoin withdrawals. Bitcoin transaction fees spiked this week and while they are coming down, they still remain at elevated levels. The original bitcoin network was not designed to handle high-volume transactions.

"Bitcoin's attempts to break through $30,000 have come undone amidst a triple whammy of congestion issues on the blockchain, liquidity constraints caused by the scaling back of top market-makers Jane Street and Jump Crypto, and ever-circling regulators," Antoni Trenchev, co-founder at Nexo, told CNBC via email on Friday.

CNBC's Tanaya Macheel and Gina Francolla contributed to this report.

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Kerala to hive off KSRTC into three distinct entities in big decentralization push – Onmanorama

Thiruvananthapuram: The Transport Department has decided to divide the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) into three independent corporations in a bid to make the services more efficient, profitable, and reliable.

As per the trifurcation plan to be implemented in June, four or five districts will form the jurisdictional area of each corporation with each of them getting a new name. The state has altogether 14 districts.

The administrative responsibilities of the three corporations will be entrusted to Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) officers who will join the service in June. They will have the liberty to introduce reforms to turn the corporation profitable.

The individual corporations will decide all the matters, including the transfer and salary of the employees. Transfers will be given only within the jurisdictional area of each corporation. Assets like buses and depots will be divided up among the three corporations.

It is not easy to decide the services from the Chief Office in Thiruvananthapuram by taking into account the exact needs of the local areas in each district. People should not be made to wait for getting a response to their grievances from Thiruvananthapuram. The planned decentralisation will help in making the services more efficient and ensure better travel facilities. The process of dividing the KSRTC into three corporations will be completed soon," stated Transport Minister Antony Raju.

Even though the KSRTC was divided into four zones earlier to ensure better operation of the services, they will cease to exist once the corporations are formed.

Long-distance services will not function under the new corporations but will continue to be run by the 2021-founded K-SWIFT transport company.

TN modelThe corporations will be formed on the lines of the model in Tamil Nadu which has eight road transport corporations. A team under the Transport Secretary had visited Chennai twice to study the functioning of the public transport system in Tamil Nadu.

Likely to impact unionsWith the division of the KSRTC, the strength of the employees organisations is expected to weaken. Recognised trade unions will be formed in each of the corporations by conducting a referendum.

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The promise of DeFi: Underdelivered or an ongoing journey? – Cointelegraph

Its 2023, and decentralized finance (DeFi) has emerged as a major trend in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, with the emergence of protocols and the promise of building a financial system free from the control of central authorities. However, despite its potential benefits, DeFi has faced its fair share of criticism for its lack of true decentralization.

Undermining the fundamental principles of decentralization, many DeFi protocols are still subject to centralized control and oversight by a select few. DeFi is not decentralized at all, said Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer at Blockstream, in a discussion with Cointelegraph about how DeFi projects are governed by entities that can change the protocols at will.

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are touted as the future of decentralized corporate governance, functioning without a centralized hierarchy. However, DAOs have failed to achieve their intended level of decentralization. A study by Chainalysis revealed that less than 1% of all holders have 90% of the voting power, indicating a significant concentration of decision-making power in the hands of a select few. This finding highlights a critical problem, as DAOs were created to address the issue of centralized power.

Source: Chainalysis

This was exemplified in July 2022, when popular DeFi lending protocol MakerDAO was scrutinized for its centralized decision-making process. A new proposal was put forth to the MakerDAO community for the implemention of a new governance structure that would centralize power in the hands of a smaller group of stakeholders, including the projects largest investor, Andreessen Horowitz.

However, there was significant pushback from the community on the grounds that it would undermine the decentralized and democratic nature of the project. This controversy also highlighted the ongoing debate in the DeFi space about the balance between decentralization and efficiency, and the challenges of maintaining a truly decentralized system.

While there is concern as to the state of decentralization, there is also promise slowly emerging in the DeFi space.

A good example is Canto, a relatively new and fast-growing layer-1 blockchain solution in the Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem. The project has recently made waves in the market with its goal to truly deliver on the promise of decentralized finance by providing a secure and scalable infrastructure for building decentralized applications.

Canto is still in its early stages and faces significant competition from established DeFi protocols such as Aave or Yearn.Finance (YFI). However, Cantos unique architecture and focus on true decentralization have caught the attention of many in the cryptocurrency community. The project has been successfully launched without a token presale, official foundation, vesting rounds or venture capital funding. Moreover, Cantos goal is to build a free public infrastructure, which means that its decentralized exchange (DEX) cannot issue its own tokens in the ecosystem, unlike Uniswap (UNI) and SushiSwap (SUSHI).

Due to the projects promise to build an accessible, transparent and fully decentralized ecosystem, many crypto and financial platforms such as XGo are listing Cantos very own native token, CANTO.

Of course, projects can have strong missions, but the crux of a protocol lies in its foundation and the confidence the community has in it. For example, in 2020, Uniswap, the highly reputable Ethereum-based DEX with a strong mission to promote financial freedom and inclusivity, faced heavy scrutiny when its first governance vote on the platform failed despite receiving 98% support from voters.

This failure raised questions about the strength of Uniswaps foundation and governance structure. Despite having a strong mission, a failed governance vote highlights the importance of a solid foundation and governance structure to ensure the success and sustainability of a project.

Emerging projects like Canto once again boast an impressive lineup of developers and have the confidence of the DeFi community to back its talent. According to the pseudonymous Spector, lead developer at Alto, a free public NFT marketplace on Canto, it would be interesting to try a feeless marketplace that is monetized via Cantos CSR (contract-secured revenue) while respecting the royalties set by the creators.

Spector also praised Cantos core contributor Zak Cole, with whom he has worked, touting Canto as an ideal sandbox for new ideas, with the expertise of Zak and other core contributors driving innovation in the blockchain space.

As DeFi continues to gain popularity, the debate around true decentralization will remain ongoing. However, as projects begin to pivot focus toward creating a truly decentralized platform that is accessible and transparent, the promise of DeFi is getting closer.

This shift toward decentralization will help create a more equitable and decentralized financial system, paving the way for a future where DeFi is a viable alternative to traditional finance. As the DeFi space gains recognition and traction, it will be interesting to see where the ideal sandbox will or rather can go.

Digi516 has been a crypto researcher and NFT enthusiast for almost a decade, with experience in educating and managing several crypto communities. Now, as head of community lead at XGo, Digi516 is on a mission to onboard the next 100 million users to Web3 and empower sovereign financial freedom.

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you with all important information that we could obtain in this sponsored article, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.

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Bitcoin Keeps Falling, Hitting Two-Month Lows Amid Little Reason for Optimism – Barron’s

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continued to decline Friday, sliding further from key levels as analysts eyed a gloomy technical backdrop for digital assets with few immediate catalysts for a rebound.

The price of Bitcoin has fallen 4% over the past 24 hours to $26,400, its lowest level in almost two months. The largest digital asset continues to languish well below the technically and psychologically important zone around $30,000, which prices topped in April for the first time since June 2022, when the crypto crash accelerated into a brutal bear market. Bitcoin has failed to consolidate these gains and has accelerated lower in recent days despite catalysts that could be read as positive.

Bitcoin is trading at its lowest level since March 17, losing over 15% from its peak last month, said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. Bitcoins return to $25,000 looks like a real prospect in the coming days.

While macroeconomic data have provided catalysts in recent days, Bitcoin has failed to capitalize on trends indicating an improving backdrop for the most risk-sensitive assets, like cryptos and high-growth stocks like those in the tech sector.

In the stock market, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite which tends to trade more like Bitcoin than do the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 has marched higher amid signs of cooling inflation. Disinflation should allow the Federal Reservewhose campaign of dramatic interest-rate hikes over the past year have wreaked havoc on Bitcoin and tech stocks aliketo pause, supporting high-growth assets.

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But it has done little to buoy Bitcoin, adding to worrying technical signs of cryptos weakening. Sentiment over digital assets also has taken a hit, with the Crypto Fear and Greed Index falling to 49 on Friday, indicating neutral sentiment but sitting at the lowest levels since early March, when a selloff pushed Bitcoin close to $20,000.

The local technical pattern offers little reason for optimism, added Kuptsikevich, citing Bitcoins plunge through its 50-day moving average earlier this week and stagnation below another support line at $27,500. In other words, we see more than just a correction of this latest growth impulse, said the analyst.

Beyond Bitcoin, Ether the second-largest cryptofell 3% to below $1,775. Smaller cryptos or altcoins were more mixed, with Cardano up 2% and Polygon down 1%. Memecoins were also mixed, with Dogecoin hovering around flat and Shiba Inu shedding 2%.

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Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com

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Organizing decision-making in pharma: centralized versus decentralized? – Consultancy.eu

As pharmaceutical companies navigate a rapidly changing and challenging landscape, leaders make continuous trade-offs as to what decisions and activities are driven from the headquarters, and what is left to the autonomy of local organisations. Eelco Rustenburg, Florian van Santen and Koen Harbers from BlinkLane Consulting outline how adopting cross-industry best practices can help pharma companies strike the right balance.

Historically, pharma companies provide relatively much autonomy to their organizational units in respective countries. In part, this follows from a strong growth-through-acquisition strategy. But it is also by design: decentralization allows for a better understanding of local markets, including specific rules and regulations for commercial engagement.

However, in recent years the downside of the decentralization model has also received much attention. As the need for innovation in all aspects of business increases from R&D to marketing investments grow substantially. The notion is that smaller markets are less able to keep up with the pace of change without the explicit support from global functions.

This is true for complex drug development naturally, but equally so for digital technology. Digital tech trends include the application of data-driven drug development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and an increasingly complex marketing tool stack to personalize the message to customers and patients. Against this backdrop, many pharma companies are opting to increasingly centralize their organizations.

Yet as the level of centralization increases, so too does the risk of increasing decision-making latency the time it takes to reach a decision in response to a business change. Which in turn substantially hampers agility.

Therefore, pharma companies need to face the challenge: how to align all the individual stakes and priorities of local and regional affiliates? Or put differently: how to leverage the benefits of scale that central organizations bring whilst avoiding the risk of inertia from being pulled in every direction?

This challenge is not new pharma companies can learn from enterprises in other sectors that have taken on this challenge before. A large part of the answer can be found in three pillars: optimizing development speed, embracing agility across, and creating goal transparency and alignment.

While this might seem like an obvious pillar, in practice we see that organizations typically only give focus to an individual element: IT. True speed requires the whole organization to think and act differently.

A Swiss-based media company realized it had no shortage of ideas, but only a fraction made it to implementation and even these happy few suffered from long lead times. Rethinking the collaboration structure and process led to cross-functional teams, combining profiles from marketing, communication, web development and more.

Within three months of adopting the new way of working, project delivery (a campaign, a promotional article, a landing page) went up significantly.

Market circumstances change. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies serve multiple markets globally, and have to deal with an equal number of regulatory bodies. The result: complex governance and decision-making.

No amount of development capacity operating at maximum conceivable speed will ever be able to satisfy all affiliate needs all the time all at once. Enter the challenge of prioritization for global capabilities. Many multinationals that have grown from a central hub (e.g. airlines), have followed a productization strategy. Product [Management / Marketing / Strategy] has the authority and capabilities to make reasoned decisions in relative isolation.

In pharma companies, due to the nature of their products and market segments they serve, local knowledge is vital for the success of any new product or campaign launch. And that only supports the decentralized nature pharma companies already enjoy due to a history of acquisitions. But the dynamics in large, decentralized conglomerates is very different. As a result, decision making is a far more delicate matter.

Again, pharma can draw lessons from other conglomerates. Take a French-based multinational as an example. With 9 acquisitions in the last 5 years to a total of 20 in its history, it faces similar challenges of product, data and technology-portfolio alignment. They recently realized their project-portfolio governance did little to create a realistic and holistic view of priorities.

Their journey now emphasizes transparency at the global portfolio level and continuous prioritization over smaller pieces Minimum Viable Products of the initiative roadmap. It will allow them to shorten the feedback loop to all regional participants, earn their trust and remain agile.

Amplifying this agile portfolio governance for global capabilities is the emergence of local portfolio governance offshoots. Supported by a central team of experts, local and regional offices are adopting the same decision-making framework. From a local perspective, this strengthens their argumentation to the global team. But it also allows them to safely separate initiatives that do not need global support from the ones that do creating a two-track portfolio at the local or region level.

The role of the global team does not need to stop there. A parallel can be made with B2B tech companies. A European technology provider has a dominant position in travel tech, counting many of the major airlines as their customers. To serve their customers they rely for a large part on central product teams. But from a customers point of view, this is only a part of their total development capacity.

Often, they have their own teams that need to integrate with the companys products. They are not only interested in prioritizing all different customer requests for their own backlog in a manner that is explainable. They also promote and facilitate in-depth knowledge sharing across their customer base on topics that does not directly concern them yet.

They know that such conversations will lead to more uniform airline technology roadmaps which supports the reuse of their capabilities. Providing such a knowledge platform also makes them aware of what is happening, and where future global demand will be. Though different in context, similar principles in dynamics apply to global and regional teams in decentralized organizations.

A well-functioning portfolio management system allows for relatively quick comparison of a set of initiatives against a known set of value indicators. But that presumes we all have the same goal in mind. Which for large organization is rarely the case. To really reap the benefits of a central resource hub unhindered by the inherent increase in decision-making complexity, pillars 1 and 2 need to be accompanied by pillar 3.

A German tech conglomerate builds, markets and sells amongst others energy grid software globally. For all organizational functions and sites to work together and prioritize ideas effectively, they make sure each of them has the same set of objectives in mind. Top-level objectives are shared and form the basis for department goals.

Key results a system of outcome-oriented measurements provide the necessary clarity and focus: without these strategies risk becoming a container for everything, hollow words, or both. Conversations around these OKRs ensure high-level alignment and allow management teams to examine the inherent trade-offs between them. As such they also serve as a cheap litmus test: little acceptance signals the organization hasnt bought into such plans just yet.

Regular review cycles typically the quarter between leadership ensures also these objectives move along with reality. With an outcome-based objectives mechanism in place, global functions can always bring tense conversations back to the impact initiatives have on them. And working from a shared context is also the best guarantee that the discussions you do have, are really the ones in pursuit of selecting the best ideas to fit a shared agenda.

The global functions in pharma companies can benefit a lot from this level of alignment with their affiliates.

In the decentralized organizational setup common among pharma companies, strongly centralized change programs are highly scrutinized. The prevailing thought appears to be that the benefits of decentralization (local accountability, customization to context) also apply to organizational change. We would argue this to be a fallacy in the highly connected areas of technology-supported business functions.

Indeed, adaptation to local context is necessary. But where alignment between organizations is expected, working from common principles, a common heartbeat and a common language is a must.

Second, bottom-up changes in the way of working, however promising, just dont scale to its full potential without strong leadership support. Such support goes beyond sponsorship. In all cases outlined, leaders have actively encouraged their units, aligned with their peers, and convinced their superiors to offer the means as well as the freedom to experiment. They managed to build a coalition and sought the necessary expertise internal and external.

A Dutch public transport organization sought to radically transform their organization, merging Commercial with IT for all related business functions. A complex transformation breaking through silos and hierarchy, the transformation itself is set up as a program. The Director Commercial and IT was directly responsible for the success of the transformation.

The program worked with a smaller dedicated transformation team augmented with part-time change leads and ambassadors spread out over the Commercial and IT organizations functions. In this way, the organization kept track of the success of and lessons learned from the transformation to cross-functional teams in all areas whilst giving them autonomy to fit the changes to purpose as needed.

Over the past years, BlinkLane Consulting has applied the discussed transformation approach at many other clients like Air France KLM, Amadeus IT Group, and high-tech giant ASML.

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Although cryptos are risky assets, they are profitable investments if the right ones are chosen. Despite their volatility, they can gain investors and users high returns in the short and long term.

With the constant launch of new tokens, diversifying ones crypto portfolio with profitable tokens has become an uphill task. However, tokens such as Uwerx, REN (REN), and TRON (TRX) have been tipped to benefit holders, and here is why.

REN (REN) is a decentralized, open-source protocol that enables blockchains interoperability. REN (REN) aims to bring assets and cryptos like Zcash and Bitcoin (BTC) to blockchains like Ethereum. This will facilitate their participation in a multi-DeFi ecosystem.

Also, REN (REN) aims to build an ecosystem that preserves users and data privacy. To achieve this, the protocol integrates the interoperability, dark pool, and zero-knowledge layers.

RENs (REN) core component is the RenVM which brings Bitcoin (BTC) to DeFi and enables the creation of ERC-20 tokens. The tokens are used to represent cryptos in a ratio of 1:1. Through this tokenized representation, RenVM paves the way for liquidity from these assets.

REN (REN) has piqued investors interest due to its multichain structure, and the protocol has made advancements to ensure a secure ecosystem. Last year, REN (REN) announced its upgrade to REN 2.0. This follows the collapse of Alameda Research, which acquired REN in 2021.

TRON (TRX) is a decentralized platform that aims to further decentralization on the internet by integrating blockchain technology and dApps. TRON (TRX) integrates the algorithm called Proof-of-Stake (PoS). This allows users to stake their tokens and earn rewards. They also become part of its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

TRONs (TRX) high throughput, scalability, and reliability have made it one of the fastest-growing blockchains. These features also enable speedy transactions within seconds.

TRON (TRX) also benefits content creators by paying them for creating content and entertaining their audience and followers.

More recently, Telegram activated the wallet function for USDT-TRON, also called TRC20. This enables users to send and receive Tether stablecoin, which will only be supported on the TRON (TRX) network.

The tremendous growth of the gig economy over the past few years indicates that freelancing has come to stay. However, innovative technologies are needed to improve the industry; this is where we believe Uwerx will come in.

Uwerx will be a global freelancing platform transforming the gig economy by integrating blockchain technology. This will bring about secure and transparent transactions, protection of intellectual property rights, and decentralization.

Uwerx intends to reduce service fees. It will charge a 1% transaction fee, an amount that is four times less than the 20% charged by other platforms like Fiverr and 10% at Upwork. Also, Uwerx will incorporate other unique features such as incentivization, built-in resolution tools, and personalized matching.

Uwerxs token, WERX, will be utility-driven and used not only as a payment token but as an added security. With the ongoing presale, Uwerx will release 300,000,000 WERX tokens trading at $0.005. We are convinced this price will quickly increase due to the WERX value, and crypto experts believe the token will be trading at $3 in 2024.

Due to market volatility and an increase in rug pull, the team behind Uwerx decided to renounce smart contract ownership of the project when taxes reduce to zero. They will also lock their liquidity for 25 years immediately after the presale. This is to assure investors that their funds are safe. The team further tightened security measures by undergoing two audits from InterFi Network and SolidProof.

This shows that Uwerx has a clear vision of revolutionizing the gig economy. Its unique features will attract investors who will greatly benefit from this project.

The presale is the ideal scope to leverage the opportunities Uwerx offers by purchasing the WERX token at a lower price. To learn more about Uwerx and the presale, follow the links below:

Website: https://www.uwerx.network

Presale: http://invest.uwerx.network

Telegram: https://t.me/uwerx_network

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uwerx_network

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