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USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to Host … – PR Newswire

The event will feature live demonstrations of brand new AI applications in media relations, disinformation and ESG.

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, March 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is hosting an educational forum to discuss how AI is transforming the future of PR and communications. The March 30 forum will be hosted by Fred Cook, Chairman Emeritus of Golin and Director for the USC Center for Public Relations, and will feature expert panel discussions that examine how generative and predictive AI tools will revolutionize modern communications practices, as well as how AI can be used to understand peer and competitive ESG communications footprints and benchmarks, and identify emerging threats and storylines about brands, industries, and competitors.

Featured panelists will include PRophetFounder and CEO and Stagwell Comms Tech CEO Aaron Kwittken, CometricsCEO and Founder Ed Clarke, and PeakMetricsCo-Founder and COO and USC alumnus, Bobby Lincoln. The event will also feature a tech showcase with live demonstrations of emerging AI tools including PRophet's newly launchedgenerative AI writing tool, "Taylor."

The free event will take place on Thursday, March 30, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. PT at Wallis Annenberg Hall on USC's University Park campus, 3630 Watt Way, in Los Angeles. Individualsinterested in attending can RSVP by visiting the CommPRO website.

The event was developed in partnership with Stagwell's(NASDAQ: STGW) PRophet, the first-ever generative and predictive AI SaaS platform built by and for PR professionals, and leading marketing and communications news hub CommPRO.

About the USC Center for PRBased at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Center for Public Relations (CPR)strives to connect corporations, agencies, academics and students to define the future of our industry and to develop those who will shape it. Signature initiatives include the Global Communication Report, USC Annenberg's Kenneth Owler Smith Symposium, the Polarization Index, and the Relevance Report. Follow CPR on social media @USCCenter4PR and #PRFUTURE, and tune in to the #PRFuture podcast wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

About PRophetPRophet is the first-ever generative and predictive AI SaaS platform designed by and for the PR community. The platform uses AI to help modern PR professionals become more performative, productive and predictive by generating, analyzing and testing content that predicts earned media interest and sentiment. PRophet was founded in 2020 by PR and marketing industry thought leader and entrepreneur Aaron Kwittken and is part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a suite of SaaS solutions that powers research, communications, and media activation for in-house marketers. To learn more, visit prprophet.ai.

About StagwellStagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at http://www.stagwellglobal.com

Media Contacts:Alex BirminghamKWT Global[emailprotected]

Fay ShapiroCommPRO[emailprotected]

Fred CookUSC Center for PR[emailprotected]

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.

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Owner of site that hosted Optus, Medibank data arrested – iTWire

Image by 4711018 from Pixabay

A New York resident has been arrested on charges of allegedly running the BreachForums web site which was used to provide information about data leaks to prospective buyers.

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was arrested on Wednesday [15 March], according to a report published by Bloomberg. The forum, however, is still accessible.

Data from both Australian medical insurer Medibank BreachForums and telco Singtel Optus was published on the same forum last year.

Fitzpatrick, who used the alias Pompompurin, is due to appear before a court on 24 March.

Data from Medibank was released data in a staggered manner. Data that appeared to be related to customers' mental health issues was released on 14 November.

The parties responsible for these attacks have not been found so far.

The website Engadget said one of the FBI agents involved in the arrest had signed a sworn affidavit saying that Fitzpatrick had admitted to being the owner of the forum.

Contacted for comment, security firm Emsisoft's senior threat researcher Brett Callow said: "While the forum is still online, users may not have much confidence in the integrity of the operation.

"They have no way to know how deeply the FBI infiltrated it or whether the current admin is co-operating with law enforcement."

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If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event.

The iTWire campaign will include extensive adverts on our News Site itwire.com and prominent Newsletter promotion https://itwire.com/itwire-update.html and Promotional News & Editorial. Plus a video interview of the key speaker on iTWire TV https://www.youtube.com/c/iTWireTV/videos which will be used in Promotional Posts on the iTWire Home Page.

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Owner of site that hosted Optus, Medibank data arrested - iTWire

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Vitalik Buterin Explains How He Will Choose ‘Guardians’ for Recovery Wallets – U.Today

Arman Shirinyan

Vitalik Buterin believes 'guardians' will become backbone of crypto safety

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Multisig wallets, like Gnosis Safe, are a secure way to store funds without relying on a centralized entity. They offer the benefits of self-custody, meaning that your funds are not at risk if a seemingly trustworthy entity fails. Social recovery wallets are similar, allowing funds to be recovered using keys held by others if the main key is lost. Both types of wallets rely on "guardians," which are individuals or entities holding keys that can approve transactions or recover funds.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently shared his thoughts on using multisig and social recovery wallets. He personally uses a multisig wallet to store most of his funds, as does the Ethereum Foundation. He believes that social recovery wallets, once mature, will be ideal for "hot wallets," which store small portions of funds for daily use, while multisig wallets will be best for "cold wallets," which hold long-term savings.

Guardians play a crucial role in both wallet types. To ensure security, guardians should be chosen based on their ability to keep their keys safe and on their trustworthiness. Ideally, guardians should not know each other in order to minimize the risk of collusion. Also, they should be geographically dispersed and use different wallet types and operating systems to minimize common risks.

When requesting a guardian's approval for a transaction or key reset, they should ask a security question to verify your identity. This prevents hackers from posing as you to access your funds. If you require a quick responses from guardians, it is important to choose those who can act quickly and are in different time zones.

Regularly testing guardians ensures they have not lost or forgotten their accounts. Conducting two test operations per year with half of the guardians each time is recommended.

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Vitalik Buterin Explains How He Will Choose 'Guardians' for Recovery Wallets - U.Today

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Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Recommends These Wallets for "Self … – Watcher Guru

Right after FTX collapsed, people from the space started advocating decentralization. In fact, stalwarts, time and again, kept emphasizing the importance of self-custody and managing ones own wallet keys.

The U.S. is now in the midst of a banking crisis, and the community has yet again circled back to the same. They have started re-asserting that self-custody is the way and decentralization could help build a better system. According to on-chain data tweeted by Research and Data Analyst, James Straten, around 70k Bitcoin has been taken into self-custody since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, justifying the communitys inclination.

In fact, in a recent tweet, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin also went on to talk about the said notion. He said,

Self-custody is important.

He went on to add that the social recovery and multisig paths were a great way to do so. Elaborating on the same in a Reddit post, Buterin said that he uses a multi-sig wallet personally to store the bulk of his funds. In fact, even the Ethereum Foundation treads on the same path.

Self-custody is important. And social recovery and multisig is a great way to do it.

A quick reddit post on how I think about choosing guardians for social recovery and multisig wallets:https://t.co/FY1iyJ6BFC

Buterin dubbed social recovery wallets to be a close cousin of multi-sig wallets. For these wallets, a single key can be used to sign transactions. However, if that key is lost, a group of keys held by other people can be used to recover the funds. In fact, the Ethereum founder went on to assert that social recovery wallets are much easier to use than multi-sig wallets. Putting forth his recommendation, he added,

Once social recovery wallets become mature enough, my recommendation will be to use social recovery for hot wallets that store a small portion of a person or organizations funds, and multisigs for cold wallets that store a person or organizationss savings.

Guardians are quite an integral part of the self-custody equation. In the post, Buterin chalked out the choices he personally makes with regard to guardians. First and foremost, he pointed out that it is alright for some of the guardians to be ones own devices. However, he emphasized that there shouldnt be too many and said,

It makes natural sense to have at least one guardian be a wallet on one of your own devices it doesnt reduce decentralization to do that, and after all, itisyour money.

Furthermore, he added that according to his rule of thumb, there should be enough guardians controlled by other people. So, even if one disappears, thered be enough other guardians left to recover funds.

He then highlighted the need to choose guardians who do not often talk to each other. In fact, guardians who do not know each other would be ideal because itd reduce the risk of them colluding. Elaborating on the same, he added,

Minimize correlations between your guardians as much as possible: dont choose two guardians who live in the same city (or ideally even the same country), or two guardians who use the same type of wallet, and have a balance between different operating systems.

Additionally, Buterin asserted that when a guardian is asked to approve an operation, they should not simply say yes immediately. According to the Ethereum founder, this would be a disaster for security. Highlighting a way to get around, he added,

My preferred protocol to avoid this is to instruct guardians toask a security question. That is, when you ask for a confirmation on your operation, the guardian should ask you something that only the two of you and very few other people know.

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5 Things That May Surprise You About Ethereum Creator Vitalik … – Investing.com UK

Benzinga - One of the most well-known figures in the world of cryptocurrency is Vitalik Buterin. Known as the founder and creator of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Buterin also has experience with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).

Early Days: Buterin was born in Russia in 1994. His family immigrated to Canada when he was six years old.

Buterin excelled in school and was placed in an accelerated program for gifted students while in the third grade. Buterin naturally excelled in math and programming. Its reported that Buterin could add three-digit numbers in his head twice as fast as kids his age at the time.

Worked At Bitcoin Magazines: In 2011, Buterin took a side job working for Bitcoin Weekly. As a writer, Buterin was paid 5 Bitcoin for each article written. At the time, that made each article payment less than $5 for Buterin.

Bitcoin Magazine was founded by Buterin later in 2011 where he was the lead writer.

Creation of Ethereum: Buterin launched a white paper for Ethereum in late 2013. The goal of Ethereum was to add scripting to make it easier for application development. Buterin wanted to make it possible to set up binding contracts.

Ethereum was officially launched on July 30, 2015. Buterin currently holds 333,500 ETH in his primary wallet.

Related Link: Ethereum Co-Founder Calls SEC's Gary Gensler 'Shining Knight' Of Decentralization Despite 'Securities' Stance

Donated To Charity: As the founder of a popular cryptocurrency, Buterin has built a large following of people from the community.

As a result, Buterin is often the subject of donations from new cryptocurrencies that hope Buterin will support them or others will see the coins in his public wallet.

Buterin was donated 50 trillion Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB), worth around $1.2 billion at the time. Buterin donated the Shiba Inu to the India Covid Relief Fund, along with $2 million worth of Ethereum. The announcement that Buterin was donating the Shiba Inu instead of keeping it led to a crash in the price of the cryptocurrency.

Fake Death Rumor: In 2017, it was reported that Buterin died in a car crash. The rumor came from 4Chan, a popular board to share stories and often the subject of internet trolls.

Ethereum lost around $4 billion in value on the internet rumor. Ethereums price recovered, but the impact on the price from news of his death offered up a look at how important Buterin could be to Ethereums success.

The drop in Ethereums price also led to a comparison of Bitcoins founder being anonymous and Ethereum having a public founder.

Now Read: ETH Goes Up in Flames: Vitalik's Bonfire Burns 3 Million Tokens Since London Fork

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Original publication: Sept. 5, 2021.

2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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After scalability, privacy is the next big thing in the blockchain space – Cointelegraph

Public blockchains provide decentralization and transparency, but they lack on the privacy side. The anonymity of transactions on blockchains like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) is steadily losing ground, as transactions and addresses are easily tracked. With KYC imposed on most crypto exchanges, the majority of blockchain transactions can be traced to their initiators, exposing user activity, holdings, and financial data.

Even decentralized finance (DeFi) interactions can be easily monitored by advanced on-chain analysis systems. This is why privacy is just as important as speed and scalability for crypto to reach mainstream acceptance. Average consumers expect at least bank account level privacy to freely transact and RAILGUN is a ZK (Zero-Knowledge) based solution for existing blockchains that provides such wallet-level privacy.

The utility of digital assets comes with major downsides amid a lack of privacy. What happens when a crypto user pays for a coffee in crypto? They risk revealing their holdings, income and shopping preferences to merchants, peers and anyone who wants to extract value from their data. And taking it a step further, how many people would be comfortable receiving their salaries in crypto if it meant broadcasting all their financial information to the world? The necessity for increased privacy in the crypto space is essential to mainstream adoption.

Privacy is an important goal for public blockchains, especially Ethereum, which accounts for about two-thirds of all DeFi activity. The need for privacy on Ethereum has increased after the adoption of the widespread adoption of layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum.

In January 2023, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin admitted the need for improved privacy on the blockchain. He proposed a stealth address system to increase the privacy degree of Ethereum transactions. Stealth addresses would be generated by wallets and would represent obfuscated public key addresses to receive funds in a private environment. Access to stealth addresses would require a special code referred to as a spending key. This would enable two parties to transact without being visible to the public. However, stealth addresses are an incomplete solution as they dont account for full DeFi functionality.

Its still too early to know when Ethereum will implement privacy features and to what extent, but the good news is that there are solutions that can already achieve a high degree of privacy. RAILGUN is a smart contract system that provides crypto and DeFi users with privacy through zero-knowledge proof (zk-SNARK) technology.

RAILGUN is currently among the leading complete privacy solutions for the DeFi space, as it generates zk-SNARK encryption entirely within a smart contract. That enables users to store their funds anonymously and interact with decentralized applications (DApps) in an anonymous, noncustodial manner.

Source: Railgun

RAILGUN, which is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), employs zk-SNARKs to encrypt transaction details, wallet balances and transaction history. Unlike other third-party, Layer-2 privacy solutions, RAILGUN works directly on-chain, enabling users to transfer, swap, lend, borrow and transact with all kinds of DApps anonymously.

On top of that, the RAILGUN smart contracts can be plugged into any Ethereum Virtual Machine DApp for shielded transactions using the RAILGUN Connect dev toolkit.

Recently, RAILGUN was deployed to Arbitrum a layer-2 rollup technology for Ethereum, bringing privacy combined with speed and high throughput to the second-largest decentralized network. RAILGUNs co-founder Alan Scott stated:

The Arbitrum deployment of RAILGUN is a massive accomplishment for privacy in DeFi. Arbitrums scaling and RAILGUNs zk-SNARK-based privacy together are an exciting match. Im looking forward to seeing how DeFi builders will use RAILGUNs infrastructure to create interesting and new privacy-preserving DeFi solutions on Arbitrum.

Besides working on Ethereum and Arbitrum, RAILGUN enables on-chain privacy for BSC and Polygon. Whats more, contributors are working on adding support for Solana, Near and Metis as well.

Developers and users are starting to pay more attention to privacy as blockchain adoption expands across multiple use cases. Therefore, if developers can crack the puzzle, privacy is poised to become one of the most important trends in blockchain in the coming years.

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, 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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Ripple (XRP) Price Prediction 2025-2030: Whats in store for XRP? – AMBCrypto News

Ripples native token XRP, at press time, was the sixth-largest cryptocurrency in the world. It was created in 2012 to enhance global financial transfers and the exchange of various currencies. XRP operates on the decentralized, open-source XRP ledger, and transactions are facilitated by the Ripple transaction protocol. With a pre-mined token supply of 100 billion, XRP is unique compared to other cryptocurrencies.

In 2017 and early 2018, XRP reached an all-time high of $3.40, marking a 51,709% increase from its original price at the beginning of that year. Although it has since declined, XRP remains a significant player in the cryptocurrency market and is consistently ranked among the top ten coins in terms of market capitalization. The team behind XRP and Ripple continues to work on the development of the XRP ledger and its potential use cases in the global financial system. Overall, XRP remains a significant and influential cryptocurrency in the world of finance and technology.

Read Price Prediction for XRP for 2023-24

The XRP ledger uses distributed ledger technology, which is different from the more commonly used blockchain technology. This technology allows bank and non-bank actors to incorporate the Ripple protocol into their own systems, as the protocol is completely open and accessible to anyone without prior approval from Ripple Labs.

In 2017 and early 2018, XRP reached an all-time high of $3.40, marking a 51,709% increase from its original price at the beginning of that year. Although it has since declined, XRP remains a significant player in the cryptocurrency market and is consistently ranked among the top ten coins in terms of market capitalization. The team behind XRP and Ripple continue to work on the development of the XRP ledger and its potential use cases in the global financial system. Overall, XRP remains a significant and influential cryptocurrency in the world of finance and technology.

In 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple, alleging that the company sold $1.3 billion in unregistered securities through its XRP cryptocurrency. Ripple denies the allegations, claiming that XRP is not a security and does not meet the criteria for the Howey Test.

A report by CoinShares indicated that investors are confident of Ripples victory in the landmark case against the SEC. This is based on the fact that XRP investment products have seen consistent inflows for three consecutive weeks.

On the business front, Ripple revealed key developments pertaining to its European expansion. The company shared its progress with Paris- based Lemonway and Xbaht in Sweden. Businesses in France and Sweden will now be able to leverage Ripples On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).

On 15 November, Ripple announced that it partnered with MFS Africa, a leading fintech firm with the largest mobile money footprint in the continent. This joint venture seeks to streamline mobile payments for users in 35 countries.

In other news, Ripple CTO David Schwartz took to Twitter to offer former employees of the troubled crypto exchange FTX, a place at Ripple. However, this offer only stands for employees who were not involved with compliance, finance, or business ethics.

Ripples tie-up with Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank in 2017 was a major milestone. Following the same, it became the second-largest crypto by market capitalization for a brief period. A year later, Ripple was in the news again for its partnership with international banking conglomerate Santander Group for an app focusing on cross-border transactions.

In terms of rivals, Ripple has close to none at the moment. They are the leading crypto firm catering to financial institutions around the world. As the number of partnerships grows, XRP will reap the benefits. After all, it is the medium of exchange for all cross-border transactions enabled by RippleNet.

Ripple has been capitalizing on the need for quick transactions and another untapped potential in emerging economies, given that nations in Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions are more likely to realize the value of blockchain and its tokens compared to their first-world counterparts. With the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDC), it is likely that developing countries looking to explore this option will go for Ripple since it already offers a well-established cross-border framework. Increased adoption of CBDCs will also lead to banking institutions considering integrating crypto into their services. This will work out very well for Ripple since RippleNet is already associated with a number of banks.

Blockchain solutions being offered to Ripples Central Bank partners wanting to venture into CBDCs include the option to leverage the XRP ledger using a private sidechain.

Ripple is predicted to develop rapidly over the forecast period, as it can be used for a variety of functions like accounting, investment, smart contract implementation, and decentralized programming.

XRP has an edge over its rivals due to its low cost of entry. The fact that a few dollars will buy tens of XRP seems appealing to new investors, especially those who prefer little investment.

According to a Valuates report, the cryptocurrency markets size is expected to hit $4.94 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.8%. A number of crypto-firms will benefit from this, Ripple among them.

The growth in the cryptocurrency market is spurred by an increase in the demand for operational efficiency and transparency in financial payment systems, as well as an increase in demand for remittances in developing nations.

The general idea is that RippleNets adoption by financial institutions will increase, leading to more recognition of the platform as well as its native token. This has also been factored in while calculating predictions for 2025 and beyond.

At press time, XRP was trading at $0.37740 with buy pressure exceeding the selling pressure.

XRPs press time price was a far cry from its all-time high of $3.84 in January 2018. As a matter of fact, its price was closer to its launch price than its all-time high.

Although XRP gained somewhat over the last 3 months, its recent returns have investors worried.

On 22 December 2020, the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The lawsuit alleged that Ripple had raised $1.3 billion through the sale of unregistered securities (XRP). In addition to this, the SEC also brought charges against Ripples top executives, Christian Larsen (Co-founder) and Brad Garlinghouse (CEO), citing that they had made personal gains totaling $600 million in the process.

The SEC argued that XRP should be considered security rather than a cryptocurrency and as such, should be under their purview.

A verdict in favor of the SEC will set a rather unpleasant legal precedent for the broader crypto market. This is why this case is being closely observed by stakeholders in the industry.

It is evident that developments in the lawsuit have a direct impact on XRPs price. Following the news of the lawsuit in 2020, XRP tanked by almost 25%. In April 2021, the judge handed Ripple a small victory by granting them access to SECs internal documents, which caused XRP to rise over the $1-mark A threshold that the crypto hadnt crossed in 3 years.

According to a tweet by Defense Attorney James Filan on 15 August 2022, the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York dealt yet another blow to the SEC when Judge Sarah Netburn granted Ripples motion to serve subpoenas to obtain a set of video recordings for the purpose of authentication, dismissing the regulators claim that Ripple was trying to reopen discovery. This was in response to Ripples motion filed on 3 August 2022.

In the Opinion & Order published earlier in July, Judge Sarah Netburn condemned the SEC for its hypocrisy and actions which suggested that the regulator was adopting its litigation positions to further its desired goal, and not out of a faithful allegiance to the law.

The lawsuits verdict, whatever it is, will have a lasting impact on XRPs value. It is important to note that a verdict in favor of the SEC would make XRP security only in the U.S because the regulator does not have jurisdiction across the countrys borders. This should offset some of the damage to Ripple, given that it has a substantial amount of business globally

Carol Alexander, Professor of Finance at the University of Sussex, believes that XRP is unlike any other crypto. She believes that if Ripple manages to beat the SEC lawsuit, it could start taking on the SWIFT banking system. SWIFT is a messaging network that financial institutions use to securely transmit information and instructions.

In an interview with CNBC, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse talked about the possibility of an IPO after the case with the SEC is resolved. Ripple going public will have a significant impact on XRPs price action in the following years.

In an interview with Axios at Collision 2022, Garlinghouse further stated that the current price of XRP has already factored in Ripple losing the case. If Ripple loses the case, does anything change? Its basically just status quo, he added.

As for his personal opinion on the verdict, Garlinghouse is betting that it will be in favor of Ripple. Im betting that because I think the facts are on our side. Im betting that because the law is on our side, he remarked.

Curiously, support for Ripple and XRP hasnt been universal really, with Ethereums Vitalik Buterin recently commenting,

XRP already lost their right to protection when they tried to throw us under the bus as China-controlled imo

Ripple and the SECs lawsuit is not just restricted to the courtroom. The matter is often covered by the media with both parties having been featured in multiple op-eds, often criticizing each other. Just this month, the market watchdog and the crypto firm were the subject of a heated exchange through pieces published by the Wall Street Journal.

On August 10, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler reiterated his stance on the definition of crypto assets and their oversight in his op-ed piece featured in The Wall Street Journal. Make no mistake: If a lending platform is offering securities, it . . . falls into SEC jurisdiction.

Chairman Gensler went on to cite the $100 million settlement that the regulator had reached with BlockFi, stating that the crypto markets must comply with time-tested securities laws. As per the terms of the settlement, BlockFi has to rearrange its business to comply with the U.S Investment Company Act of 1940 in addition to registering under the Securities Act of 1933 to sell its products.

In response to Chairman Genslers op-ed, Stu Alderoty published his own piece in The Wall Street Journal and did not mince his words while taking a shot at the regulator. Alderoty accused Gensler of side-lining fellow regulators (CFTC, FDIC etc.) and overreaching its jurisdiction, as opposed to the executive order by U.S President Joe Biden, which directed agencies to coordinate on regulations for crypto.

What we need is regulatory clarity for crypto, not the SEC swinging its billy club to protect its turf at the expense of the more than 40 million Americans in the crypto economy, Alderoty added.

A controversial article authored by Roslyn Layton in Forbes on 28 August pointed out that since 2017, the SECs Crypto Assets Unit has been involved in 200-odd lawsuits. According to Layton, this figure suggests that instead of coming up with clear regulations to ensure compliance, the regulator would rather engage crypto firms with lawsuits in an attempt to regulate by enforcement.

Ripple CTO David Schwartz found himself in a stand-off with Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin earlier this month, after Buterin took a dig at XRP on twitter. Schwartz hit back and responded to Buterins tweet, comparing miners in the PoW ecosystems like Ethereum to stockholders of companies like eBay.

I do think its perfectly fair to analogise miners in PoW systems to stockholders in companies. Just as eBays stockholders earn from the residual friction between buyers and sellers that eBay does not remove, so do miners in ETH and BTC, Schwartz added.

Now, putting an accurate figure on the future price of XRP is not an easy job. However, as long as there are cryptocurrencies, there will be crypto pundits offering their two cents on market movements.

Changelly has gathered an average prediction of $0.47 for XRP by the end of 2022. As for 2025, Changelly has provided a range between $1.47 to $1.76 at max for XRP.

Finders conclusion from a panel of thirty-six industry experts, is that XRP should be at $3.61 by 2025. It should be noted that not all of those experts agree on that forecast. Some of them believe that the crypto wont even cross the $1 threshold by 2025. Keegan Francis, the global cryptocurrency editor for Finder, does not agree with the panel of experts. He predicts that XRP will be worth $0.50 by the end of 2025 and, surprisingly, a mere $0.10 in 2030.

According to data published on Nasdaq, the average projection for 2025 is around $3.66.

Are your XRP holdings flashing green? Check the profit calculator

Finders experts had a rather conservative figure for XRP in 2030. They believe that the crypto could hit $4.98 by 2030. In a statement to Finder, Matthew Harry, the Head of Funds at DigitalX Asset Management, revealed that he doesnt see any utility in XRP other than the speculation element.

According to data published on Nasdaqs website, the average projection for 2030 is around $18.39.

Year-to-date (YTD) figures from Ripples Quarter 2 earnings report have made it clear that despite the drop in XRPs price, demand for their On-Demand Liquidity service not only remained undeterred but actually grew by nine times year-over-year (YoY) with ODL sales totalling $2.1 billion in Q2. The report further stated that Ripple has pledged $100 million for carbon removal activities, in line with their carbon neutral objective and sustainability goals.

Ripples Crypto Trends report claims that NFTs and CBDCs are still in their nascent stages and as their potential is gradually realized, its impact on Ripples network and on the broader blockchain space will be visible.

It should be noted that while various experts have predicted XRPs price to increase in the following years, there are some who believe that XRP will lose all value by the end of the decade.

The major factors that will influence XRPs price in the coming years are:

Predictions are not immune to changing circumstances, and they will always be updated on new developments.

With the Fear and Greed index leaning towards greed at press time, it implies that more investors were experiencing confidence regarding Ripple.

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A scalable and programmable quantum phononic processor based on trapped ions – Phys.org

by Ingrid Fadelli , Phys.org

Quantum computing systems have the potential to outperform classical computers on some tasks, helping to solve complex real-world problems in shorter times. Research teams worldwide have thus been trying to realize this quantum advantage over traditional computers, by creating and testing different quantum systems.

Researchers at Tsinghua University recently developed a new programmable quantum phononic processor with trapped ions. This processor, introduced in a paper in Nature Physics, could be easier to scale up in size than other previously proposed photonic quantum processors, which could ultimately enable better performances on complex problems.

"Originally, we were interested in the proposal of Scott Aaronson and others about Boson sampling, which might show the quantum advantages of simple linear optics and photons," Kihwan Kim, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "We were wondering if it is possible to realize it with the phonons in a trapped ion system."

The use of phonons (i.e., sound waves or elementary vibrations) to create quantum computing systems was theoretically explored for some time. In recent years, however, physicists created trapped-ion systems created the technology necessary to use phonons as a quantum information processing resource, rather than mere mediators for entangling qubits.

"It has been shown that phonons at a harmonic potential can coherently transfer to the other harmonic potential and these phonons can interfere with each other," Kihwan Kim explained. "When we learned that a modified boson sampling (Gaussian boson sampling) can also be applied to a chemical problem (i.e., vibrational sampling) we demonstrated the sampling of SO2 molecules and developed a method to create a highly entangled phononic state; yet this was limited to a single ion. In this work, we finally implemented the phononic network in a scalable way, overcoming the limits of single ions."

The system created by Kihwan Kim and his colleagues is a programmable bosonic network, a network consisting of a set of bosonic modes, connected to each other via controllable beam splitters. They realized this network using phonons, excitations of collective vibrational modes that are also bosons.

"Our system is scalable because the number of collective vibrational modes proportionally increases with the number of ions and we demonstrated how to use the additional vibrational modes and ions in a programmable way," Kihwan Kim said. "Basically, we control the vibrational mode by a properly assigned qubit. We can program the phase and ratio of each beam splitter by controlling the phase and the duration of the individually addressed laser beams."

The phononic quantum processor created by Kihwan Kim and his colleagues has several advantages over previously proposed bosonic networks. Firstly, the input and output of the phonons in the processor are deterministically prepared and detected. Furthermore, the loss of phonons over time is minimal, while in other bosonic networks based on photons losses is an issue to overcome.

"Boson sampling can be a powerful tool for certain tasks in quantum algorithms and simulations," Myungshik Kim, another researcher at Imperial College involved in the study, told Phys.org. "While boson sampling has been mostly realized by photons, there are technical difficulties in realizing scalable boson sampling because single photon generation is probabilistic and photon loss on a chip is high. In our work we use phonons of the ions in a harmonic potential instead of photons. The clear advantages of this are that we can generate quantum states of phonons deterministically and do not lose phonons during the process."

Boson sampling is a model of quantum computation that can be very advantageous for tackling some tasks using quantum algorithms or simulations. Boson sampling is typically realized using several distinct techniques.

Kihwan Kim, Myungshik Kim and their colleagues were able to implement all these techniques in a single platform, which could have notable advantages for the development of larger systems. This was achieved by reconstructing the states of phonons in their network.

In the future, the phononic network they created could be scaled up to achieve large-scale and programmable boson sampling. In addition, their work could inspire the development of other programmable quantum networks based on phonons and trapped ions.

"Now, it is important for us to scale up our system and hopefully use it to demonstrate quantum advantage over classical computing," Kim added. "At the same time, we may also try to achieve continuous-variable universal quantum computation with the qubit-controlled beam splitter."

More information: Wentao Chen et al, Scalable and programmable phononic network with trapped ions, Nature Physics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-01952-5

Journal information: Nature Physics

2023 Science X Network

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Unlocking the Mysteries of Quantum Materials: How Magnetism Sparks Unusual Electronic Order – SciTechDaily

Physicists have discovered a direct link between the magnetic and electronic orders in iron-germanium crystals, where the magnetic and electronic patterns are not only coexisting but also intertwined. This discovery was made in a study by Rice University physicists, published in Nature Physics. The researchers found that magnetism subtly changes the electron energy states in the material, promoting and preparing for the formation of the charge density wave. The findings provide new insights into the behavior of electrons in quantum materials.

Experiments reveal link between intertwined states in kagome metal.

Physicists were surprised by the 2022 discovery that electrons in magnetic iron-germanium crystals could spontaneously and collectively organize their charges into a pattern featuring a standing wave. Magnetism also arises from the collective self-organization of electron spins into ordered patterns, and those patterns rarely coexist with the patterns that produce the standing wave of electrons physicists call a charge density wave.

In a study published this week in the journal Nature Physics, Rice University physicists Ming Yi and Pengcheng Dai, and many of their collaborators from the 2022 study, present an array of experimental evidence that shows their charge density wave discovery was rarer still, a case where the magnetic and electronic orders dont simply coexist but are directly linked.

We found magnetism subtly modifies the landscape of electron energy states in the material in a way that both promotes and prepares for the formation of the charge density wave, said Yi, a co-corresponding author of the study.

(left) Kagome lattice; (middle) Fermi surface of the magnetic phase of iron-germanium before the onset of a charge density wave; (right) Fermi surface of iron-germanium after the onset of a charge density wave. Credit: Ming Yi/Rice University

The study was co-authored by more than a dozen researchers from Rice; Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); the University of Washington; the University of California, Berkeley; Israels Weizmann Institute of Science; and Chinas Southern University of Science and Technology.

The iron-germanium materials are kagome lattice crystals, a much-studied family of materials featuring 2D arrangements of atoms reminiscent of the weave pattern in traditional Japanese kagome baskets, which features equilateral triangles that touch at the corners.

Kagome materials have taken the quantum materials world by storm recently, Yi said. The cool thing about this structure is that the geometry imposes interesting quantum constraints on the way the electrons are allowed to zoom around, somewhat analogous to how traffic roundabouts affect the flow of traffic and sometimes bring it to a stop.

Ming Yi is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

By nature, electrons avoid one another. One way they do this is to order their magnetic states spins that point either up or down in the opposite direction of their neighbors spins.

Dai, a co-corresponding study author, said, When put onto kagome lattices, electrons can also appear in a state where they are stuck and cannot go anywhere due to quantum interference effects.

When electrons cannot move, the triangular arrangement produces a situation where each has three neighbors, and there is no way for electrons to collectively order all neighboring spins in opposite directions. The inherent frustration of electrons in Kagome lattice materials has long been recognized.

Yi said the lattice restricts electrons in ways that can have a direct impact on the observable properties of the material, and the team was able to use that to probe deeper into the origins of the intertwinement of the magnetism and charge density wave in iron-germanium.

Pengcheng Dai is the Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

They did so using a combination of inelastic neutron scattering experiments, which were performed at ORNL, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments that were performed at LBNLs Advanced Light Source and SLACs Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, as well in Yis lab at Rice.

These probes allowed us to look at what both the electrons and the lattice were doing as the charge density wave was taking shape, she said.

Dai said the findings confirmed the teams hypothesis that charge order and magnetic order are linked in iron-germanium. This is one of the very few, if not of the only, known example of a kagome material where magnetism forms first, preparing the way for charges to line up, he said.

Yi said the work shows how curiosity and basic research into natural phenomena can eventually lead to applied science.

As physicists, we are always excited when we find materials that spontaneously form an order of some sort, she said. This means there is a chance for us to learn about the self-organizational abilities of the fundamental particles of quantum materials. Only with that kind of understanding can we one day hope to engineer materials with novel or exotic properties that we can control at will.

Reference: Magnetism and charge density wave order in kagome FeGe by Xiaokun Teng, Ji Seop Oh, Hengxin Tan, Lebing Chen, Jianwei Huang, Bin Gao, Jia-Xin Yin, Jiun-Haw Chu, Makoto Hashimoto, Donghui Lu, Chris Jozwiak, Aaron Bostwick, Eli Rotenberg, Garrett E. Granroth, Binghai Yan, Robert J. Birgeneau, Pengcheng Dai and Ming Yi, 13 March 2023, Nature Physics.DOI: 10.1038/s41567-023-01985-w

Dai is the Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy. Dai and Yi are each members of the Rice Quantum Initiative and the Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM).

The research at Rice was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations EPiQS Initiative (GBMF9470), the Welch Foundation (C-2024, C-1839), the Department of Energy (DE-SC0021421) and the National Science Foundation (2100741, 1921847).

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Jonathan Oppenheim interview: The physicist betting against quantum space-time – New Scientist

JONATHAN OPPENHEIM likes the occasional flutter, but the object of his interest is a little more rarefied than horse racing or the one-armed bandit. A quantum physicist at University College London, Oppenheim likes to make bets on the fundamental nature of reality and his latest concerns space-time itself.

The two great theories of physics are fundamentally at odds. In one corner, you have general relativity, which says that gravity is the result of mass warping space-time, envisaged as a kind of stretchy sheet. In the other, there is quantum theory, which explains the subatomic world and holds that all matter and energy comes in tiny, discrete chunks. Put them together and you could describe much of reality. The only problem is that you cant put them together: the grainy mathematics of quantum theory and the smooth description of space-time dont mesh.

Most physicists reckon the solution is to quantise gravity, or to show how space-time comes in tiny quanta, like the three other forces of nature. In effect, that means tweaking general relativity so it fits into the quantum mould, a task that has occupied researchers for almost a century already. But Oppenheim wonders if this assumption might be mistaken, which is why he made a 5000:1 bet that space-time isnt ultimately quantum.

New Scientist caught up with him to find out what makes him think conventional wisdom might be misguided here, how the question might be resolved with experiments and why physicists love a good wager.

Joshua Howgego: Is it fair to say that most

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