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Ex-Googler Lina Gantar launches crowd funding agency in Manchester – Manchester Evening News

Ex-Googler Lina Gantar has launched a new crowd funding agency to help tech firms secure the money they need to scale up.

Nuuk, which has been created with partner Luka Cvikl and is based at Accelerate Spaces on Princess Street, Manchester, has already helped secure over $13m for 40 start-up businesses including Ossic X and Orbitkey.

As regular visitors to Google HQ in Dublin, Lina, 28, is a go-to market strategist, and Luka, 29, is a digital marketing expert and are set to play a major part in furthering Manchesters position as the tech innovation capital of the UK.

Both originally from Slovenia, the tech-savvy pair who first launched Nuuk in Dublin in 2015, relocated to Manchester where thet have grown their team to six members.

The company, which is aiming to target turnover of 500,000 for 2018, are also looking for new recruits.

Lina, said: Latest figures show that crowdfunding is a $34.4bn industry, which is expected to surpass venture capitalism by 1.8 this year. However, not all applicants are successful and theres a real skill to being selected - its vital to seek expert support to ensure success.

Nuuk works with companies all over the world, helping them secure the funding they need to launch and scale up. We specialise in tech, fashion and design industries but are open to using our experience to support a variety of businesses into action.

With their sights set on a 350,000 turnover for 2017, Lina and Luka are well on track to exceed their target.

Luka said: Weve purposefully formed quite a niche offering as the popularity of crowdfunding grows so too does the demand for dedicated, expert support to attain it.

Additionally, we see a big increase in the demand for go-to-market strategy, which is what crowdfunding essentially is, so we can apply our crowdfunding expertise to other industries as well.

Were meeting new clients all the time and our roster is rapidly expanding, so were feeling really positive about our future in Manchester.

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Ex-Googler Lina Gantar launches crowd funding agency in Manchester - Manchester Evening News

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Altcoin signal app CryptoPing set to conclude ICO with over $1m already raised – CryptoNinjas

Altcoin intelligence and alert application CryptoPingis just a couple days away from concluding its ICO of PING tokens conducted on the Waves platform and so far has raised over $1 million or 540 BTC from over 2750 investors, which is a pretty nice achievement.

All in all,CryptoPing has raised 65% of the initially expected funding in dollars (considering the price of BTC to USD at the time when ICO has started). Coins are to be distributed one week after the ICO ends. Unsold coins will be burned. Ping tokens can pay for trading bot subscriptions or you can trade them on an exchange.

Name: CryptoPing Ticker: PING Initial supply: 10,000,000 Platform: Waves

Over 30,000 users are now waiting for the launch of subscription-based services and social sharing of crypto market trading alerts. Accordingto the team, CryptoPing is now attracting about 500 new registrationsevery day to the open public beta.

Investors will be able to withdraw their tokens to their Waves wallet when PING is added to any of the exchanges and token-based subscription is enabled. More specific information can be found on the projects white paper.

Specific Alerts & AutoTrading

For now, users get informed on movements detected the bot or they can set up specific bot price alerts for select coins across the exchanges. Eventually, CryptoPing intends to develop an auto-trading app that will be trigger automatically based on a set of parameters set by the user.

How will participants benefit from buying and holding the tokens?

If the token price rises in BTC, the subscriber will end up paying fewer fees with your tokens over time or there will have the potential to sell tokens on exchange and profit from their investment, or both. CryptoPing intends to keep the token price high by increasing demand and decreasing the supply of tokens over time.

Breakdown: Subscription fee is set at 0.01 BTC/month in PING* * based on the token price on exchanges. Free tier users retain access to signals from all exchanges but will get signals less frequently than during open beta.

Limited by Telegram itself, see theirFAQ

Closest buy/sell walls, social media mentions, changes to trades frequency

Filter by premine, market cap threshold, exchanges, etc.

Public traders will set their own fees that have to be paid separately from general CryptoPing subscription.

Project mission: use market data, statistics, news and social media to produce more precise trading signals and forecast cryptocurrency markets. Once launched, we will be providing a demo and review of the service to see if the results and intelligence are worth paying attention to.

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Altcoin signal app CryptoPing set to conclude ICO with over $1m already raised - CryptoNinjas

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Bitcoin speculators are the new day traders – CNBC

Younger, tech-savvy people are also more likely to play the digital currency markets and the high risk involved, Sunnarborg said. He estimates that about two-thirds of investors in cryptocurrencies are under age 40.

That same age category is less likely to invest in the stock market. Just one-third of millennials, or adults currently aged 21 to 35, said they owned a stock in a Bankrate study last July. In contrast, 51 percent of Gen Xers, or those age 36 to 51, said they owned a stock, and 48 percent of baby boomers, ages 52 to 70, according to the survey of 1,000 American adults conducted for Bankrate by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

"The next generation is suffering from the same thing that the Gen Xers suffered in the dot-com bust," Winer said. "They're playing all kind of markets that they know nothing about."

He was referring to the speculative trading that ended in the stock market's plunge in 2000.

Traders and market strategists also worry that a "fear of missing out trade" has helped send U.S. stocks deep into record territory the S&P 500 has posted 24 record closes this year and is up 9 percent over that time.

The difference is this time, typical measures of overexuberance may not apply to stocks.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch's June global fund manager survey found that while a record 44 percent of managers say stocks are overvalued, their cash holdings have actually moved up to 5 percent, higher than the 10-year average of 4.5 percent. There's "no irrational exuberance" in contrast with the 1999 bubble, the note said.

However, sluggish global growth and easy central bank policy could limit investment returns, while people remain wary about stock markets after the financial crisis.

"I do believe that in a market with few attractive alternatives, speculation tends to become rampant," said Daniel Alpert, a founding managing partner at Westwood Capital. "And it almost doesn't matter what people choose to speculate in, as long as they believe there is a fool greater than they out there somewhere."

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Bitcoin speculators are the new day traders - CNBC

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Top Secret? Bitcoin Scaling Plan Segwit2x Leaves More Questions Than Answers – CoinDesk

After years of debate, the Segwit2x scaling proposallooks like it could play a role in finally taking bitcoin a step forward.

But the codersand companies involved have been doing at least someof thedevelopment behind closed doors, a way of workingthat some argue runs counter to bitcoin's value proposition as a decentralized money that no one person, or group, controls.

The project, which follows in a long line of proposals for increasing bitcoin's transaction capacity, is now supported by an all-time-high of nearly 90% of the bitcoin mining hashrate.

Since the current method of triggering majorcode changes relies on the support of mining pools, it seems likely that the first portionof the agreement, SegWit, will activate on the network by the end of July. (Although, it's hard to say what will happen with the rest of the proposal.)

But, while Segwit2x is perhaps the most widely-supported scaling agreement among companies and mining pools followingyears of debate, some have argued that key decisions are being made by an insular group of companies.

These companies, some argue, have continued pushing the proposal through even though many of the developers that are perhaps the most familiar with bitcoin's codefind fault with thetechnical implementation and disagree with thestated goals.

And those same companies have been elusive when it comes to details about the status of the proposal itself.

Segwit2xwas kick-started at an invite-only meetingcomprised of big companies and large mining pools in the space.

From the beginning, one of the main criticisms levied against Segwit2x is thatits development process isn'topen to everyone. And many argue this process doesn't jibewith bitcoin's history of open-source development.

There is certainly evidence to the contrary. Btc1, as the Segwit2x software implementation is called, is hosted on GitHub where any developer is welcome to point out bugs and suggest improvements. This open processhas indeed already led tomajor changesin the project's direction. Similarly, the mailing list is open for anyone in the community to at least peruse if not post to.

In other ways, the effort isstaying true to its secretive origin story.

There's an invite-only Slack group, where companies that originallypledged to contribute are represented, includingAbra, Bitfury, BitGo, BitPay, Blockchain, Bloq, BTCC, Ledger, RSK Labs and Xapo.

Others included in the Slack group are OB1, Purse and developers from the alternative bitcoin implementation Bitcoin XT, which aimed to increase bitcoin's block size parameter to 8MB in 2015.

Most of these companies and individuals who have committed developer resources, though, declined to provide specific information in response to CoinDesk requests to understandtheir involvement. Some companies did not respond at all.

Others confirmedthat they'reinvolved in development, but declined to be more specificabout which developers are involved and what they're working on.

"We are also contributing technical expertise to the Segwit2x code, which is in its test phase right now on a separate testnet," saidValery Vavilov, CEO of The BitFury Group.

Many company responses were similarly vague.

Yet Vavilov continued:

"We are also in the working group that is researching, building, reviewing and testing the upgrade, and will help businesses adopt the upgrade as well."

Companiesare currentlytestingthe code on the newly-deployed testnet. On Thursday, the group released a public testnet faucet, which producesfake bitcoins that developers can use.

A number of developers are tuned into the effort, as seen on the GitHub and the Segwit2x project mailing list. Those two resources make it easy to see a few of the people involved in development, including posted contributions fromBloq CEO Jeff Garzik and Purse.io CTO Christopher Jeffrey.

While Digital Currency Group (DCG) CEO Barry Silbert is often viewedas the public face and linchpin of the effort (its often calledthe "Silbert Agreement"), he noted he's "not involved on the development side at all", and so can't comment on the process any more than what's already been published.

Despite knowledge of the process, there are gaps inthe community's understanding ofwhat's being developed, such as who specifically is contributing to the effort and what they are contributing.

Those who are not contributing, according to Lightening Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark, are those who have disagreed with the proposal in some way.

Stark said her companyprovided technical feedback to Segwit2xbecause they didn't agree with the proposal for "various technical reasons". And according to Stark, they were not invited to participate further.

"This proposal has like zero developer consensus," she said, referring to Bitcoin Core developers, most of whom have outright rejectedthe project.

She added:

"Unfortunately, the [mailing] list is only for people that agree with Segwit2x."

Again, opponents said, thisphilosophy contrasts with bitcoin's open development process so far, which invites all developers to contribute their ideas. Aloose group of volunteer developers work on Bitcoin Core, for example, where development, for the most part, is done out in the open.

On the other hand, Segwit2x's closed approach to development"allows people to self-vindicate, and shields you from peer review and public commentary," wrote Blockstream CEO Adam Back inan email to the working group.

He continued:

"The forming of distinct and closed communication channels is not inviting review. Why would this project be special in needing to work in closed/controlled environments and not participate openly like the six or so other implementations and hundreds of developers across dozens of companies, institutions and individuals[?]"

Disclosure:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Abra, BitGo, BitPay, Blockstream, Bloq, BTCC, Ledger, OB1, Purse.io, RSK Labs and Xapo.

Hands behind a blue doorimage via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Interested in offering your expertise or insights to our reporting? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Top Secret? Bitcoin Scaling Plan Segwit2x Leaves More Questions Than Answers - CoinDesk

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Cryptocurrency exchange to credit traders for ethereum ‘flash crash’ – CNBC

Some traders who lost money in this week's ethereum "flash crash" are going to be credited for their losses, the GDAX cryptocurrency exchange announced on Friday.

The price of ethereum, the alternative digital currency to bitcoin, crashed as low as 10 cents from around $319 in about a second in trading on the GDAX on Wednesday. The exchange blamed the move on a "multimillion dollar market sell" order.

In a blog post on Friday, vice president Adam White said the exchange was "confident all trades this week were executed properly, however, some customers did not receive the quality of service we strive to provide and we want to do better."

Therefore, the GDAX will create a process to credit customer accounts which experienced a margin call or stop loss order as a result of that crash, he said.

Those affected customers will have their ETH-USD account restored to the equivalent of the account at the moment prior to the rapid price drop.

Some traders apparently lost a lot of money during the crash. On the social forum Reddit, users complained of losing large sums of money from $3,000 to $9,000.

Others saw it as an opportunity to make money. However, White noted that the exchange will honor all buy orders filled during that time.

"We view this as an opportunity to demonstrate our long-term commitment to our customers and belief in the future of this industry," White said.

CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

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Cryptocurrency exchange to credit traders for ethereum 'flash crash' - CNBC

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Microsoft Teams adds Dropbox, Google Drive, Box Drive, ShareFile … – OnMSFT (blog)

A couple of days ago, Microsoft Teams announced that they would be adding third party cloud storage soon. As of yesterdays update, the team collaboration software now has four more alternatives to using the default SharePoint/OneDrive setup.

Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and ShareFile integrations have all joined Microsoft Teams. Now workplaces that use one of these options are able to add the cloud storage folders easily to Teams where users with permissions can view, edit, and save in one convenient location.

While Google Drive and Dropbox are more commonly known, Box and ShareFile are a bit less so. Box itself just recently added its desktop support with Box Sync adding Teams integration just two weeks later. ShareFile is more focused towards business and client interactions, making it a perfect addition to the Teams cloud storage options.

Its possible well see more options added as Microsoft develops Teams further. The software continues to get regular updates for features, improvements, and fixes thanks to community feedback through the Feedback Hub. Even if their release notes page is just a little behind.

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Microsoft Teams adds Dropbox, Google Drive, Box Drive, ShareFile ... - OnMSFT (blog)

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End-to-end messaging encryption gives customers key controls – TechTarget

More companies are now using team chat applications, such as Atlassian HipChat, Cisco Spark, Microsoft Teams, RingCentral...

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Glip and Slack. As a result, IT leaders are moving from debating the merits of adopting such applications to practical concerns around security and information protection of corporate data stored within the apps.

Vendors in the team messaging space are increasingly differentiating themselves on the basis of security. For example, Cisco, ClearChat and Symphony tout their end-to-end messaging encryption models as superior to other vendors that only provide messaging encryption at rest or in motion.

The issue of messaging encryption has also spilled into the consumer world, with the European Union recently issuing draft legislation mandating end-to-end encryption for all messaging services.

As team chat applications gain traction in the enterprise, IT leaders should familiarize themselves with the various flavors of messaging encryption:

For IT leaders evaluating various team messaging applications, let risk be your guide.

Consumer messaging services, such as Kik, and many popular business-focused apps, such as Slack, do not yet offer end-to-end encryption, meaning messages are only encrypted at rest and in motion. Therefore, messaging providers could be compelled by court order to decrypt and turn over message data.

In a worst-case scenario, messaging systems could be hacked, resulting in the release of messaging data out into the wild.

Providers offering end-to-end messaging encryption -- with user-held keys -- offer an added layer of security by enabling customers to control access to message stores. With end-to-end encryption, even if a government agency were to show up at the provider's door with a warrant, the provider could only turn over encrypted message data to the agency. The only way of decrypting messages -- short of hacking encryption algorithms -- is by obtaining the keys from the customer of the messaging provider.

Most organizations can accept the risk of not using end-to-end encryption. But for companies in regulated industries or organizations looking for an extra level of protection, evaluate end-to-end encrypted services with a self-owned key management capability.

Take these steps to secure your messaging applications.

Team chat apps see huge growth and fierce competition.

Are business chat apps becoming the next UC platforms?

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End-to-end messaging encryption gives customers key controls - TechTarget

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Encryption and fighting terror have the UK’s Theresa May and the … – CNET

The UK and the EU are at loggerheads once again, but it's not what you might think. This isn't another Brexit debate, but a tussle over encryption.

The British government is keen to exploit flaws in tech services for intelligence-gathering and surveillance operations. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, backed by Downing Street, has persistently called for access to WhatsApp, a service used by terrorists in the March attack at Westminster.

But on Monday, a European Parliament committee proposed an amendment to incoming legislation that would prevent member states from trying to decrypt encrypted communications, as well as compelling tech companies that don't already use end-to-end encryption to do so.

The proposal would protect internet companies from national governments pressuring them to create security flaws, or backdoors, that they could use to hack into people's emails or other messages.

The different approaches are emblematic of a debate raging around the world, boiling down to whether tech companies poke security holes in their products so that governments can spy on potential terrorists, or whether they should keep communications locked up tight so as to protect the privacy and safety of internet users. You saw it in the fight that Apple put up against the FBI's efforts to compel the company to create a backdoor into a terrorist's iPhone.

While the UK wants to ensure that terrorists have no place to hide, the EU is determined to protect the privacy of law-abiding internet users.

Theresa May makes a statement outside Downing Street following the London Bridge terror attack.

With four terrorist incidents in the country over the last four months, the British government and intelligence agencies are under pressure to explain why they were unable to thwart the attacks. They blame technology.

Following the June 4 attack on London Bridge, Prime Minister Theresa May stood outside Downing Street and in her speech, pointed her finger at "the internet -- and the big companies that provide internet-based services" for providing a safe space for extremist ideologies to flourish.

"As the nature of the threat we face becomes more complex, more fragmented, more hidden, especially online, the strategy needs to keep up," she said, calling for more online regulations.

May has long been in favor of increasing the UK's surveillance powers, introducing two bills nicknamed the "Snooper's Charter." The second of these bills, the Investigatory Powers Act, passed into law under her own leadership of the country.

The Prime Minister wants the internet to be weak and penetrable, say her critics. They also claim she is using this issue right now to reinforce her own image as "strong and stable" -- her slogan during the recent election campaign.

"To push on with these extreme proposals for internet clampdowns would appear to be a distraction from the current political situation and from effective measures against terror," said Jim Killock, director of human rights nonprofit Open Rights Group.

The biggest objection to her proposals is that they will make the internet less safe for users. If governments can exploit backdoors to get to your private communications, so too could criminals or rogue states.

"Government's intrusion into private communications might look useful on paper in order to fight crime, but such legislation is usually the product of people who don't know how technology works," said Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN. "Backdoors would bring along new security holes, and could result in even more crime."

Another risk of this style of surveillance is that it could force terrorists to use alternative, less pleasant communication services, added Killock. Pushing them underground completely would only make them even harder to monitor than they are right now, he argued.

Unsurprisingly, tech companies don't like the idea of creating security holes in their products either. In 2015, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo teamed up to submit written evidence to Parliament arguing that encryption is necessary for keeping users safe. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has also been outspoken on the subject.

But when it comes to legislation, Silicon Valley companies don't have the last word.

Fortunately for them, the EU does. In this case, the EU is on their side.

The proposals tabled by members of the European Parliament this week are amendments to draft privacy legislation, and forbid member states from "decryption, reverse engineering or monitoring" of encrypted communications, or compelling tech companies to do so.

"Member states shall not impose any obligations on electronic communications service providers that would result in the weakening of the security and encryption of their networks and services," one proposal reads.

Not only could these proposals scupper the UK's plans, but they could conflict with surveillance activities allowed by the Investigatory Powers Act.

"This latest move to ban backdoors in encryption appears to be a calculated slap in the face for Theresa May and her plans for an Orwellian future," said BestVPN.com cybersecurity expert Douglas Crawford.

Because of Brexit, it's hard to know how EU rules on privacy and data will apply once the UK leaves the European Union. But without support from other countries, it's highly unlikely that the British government alone would be able to compel tech companies to create backdoors to allow them to bypass encryption.

The UK's own new surveillance plans are also not yet a done deal. The small and fragile majority the Conservative party currently holds in Parliament means greater consensus and more debate will be needed in order to pass new laws, said Killock.

"We hope that this will mean our parliamentarians will reject reactionary policymaking and look for long-term, effective solutions that directly address the complex causes of terrorism," he said.

Tech companies and government representatives didn't respond to requests for comment.

CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition.

Logging Out: Welcome to the crossroads of online life and the afterlife.

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Outloud Audio Adopts Fortium’s MediaSeal File Level Encryption to Meet Heightened Security Threats – SHOOT Online

Outloud Audio Adopts Fortium's MediaSeal File Level Encryption to Meet Heightened Security Threats
SHOOT Online
Fortium, a leading provider of digital content security solutions for media and entertainment, today announces Outloud Audio, Los Angeles and New York, as a new customer for MediaSeal, its file encryption software, which protects unaired TV and movie ...

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Outloud Audio Adopts Fortium's MediaSeal File Level Encryption to Meet Heightened Security Threats - SHOOT Online

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Crowd funding could be used to buy the long-vacant Bell Building downtown – Wyoming Tribune

CHEYENNE Steve Borin, a Cheyenne businessman and developer, is looking into using crowd funding as a way to buy a vacant building in downtown Cheyenne.

Borin informally presented his idea Tuesday to the City of Cheyennes Fight the Blight Committee.

His concept would help bring the vacant Bell Building at 1605 Central Ave. back to useful life or ultimately tear it down and use the space for other purposes.

Crowd funding is a process where people donate money online for a specific purpose.

Everybody who gives money to the crowd fund would then be interested in the downtown, Borin said. He stressed that he still is working out the kinks in his plan, but first the City of Cheyenne could use some of its grant money from the Environmental Protection Agencys brown field project to pay for cleaning up asbestos at the old building.

Once thats done, the public could buy the building through crowd funding. Anyone could contribute to the cost of the 18,869-square-foot building in downtown Cheyenne.

Developers could bid their proposals for renovation or redevelopment on the publicly owned building to the City of Cheyenne, he said. The city would select the developer and work could begin.

Personally, Borin likes the idea of creating a public meeting space there.

Thats a realistic approach. We do the crowd funding to get it to the point where somebody could bid on it and then rehab the building in a logical fashion, he said.

If the idea works, it can be used again with other vacant buildings in downtown Cheyenne.

It appears to me that its time that we cant lean on any particular public entity, he said, like the city or the Downtown Development Authority/Main Street.

Borin renovated an old building on 17th Street and turned its upper floors into five lofts.

I know it can be done, he said. It will take a lot of participating from everybody and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking.

The project would need to raise between $300,000 and $400,000.

The four-story Bell Building at 1605 Central Ave. has been vacant since 2004, according to Patrick Graham, a real estate agent who is listing the property for $425,000.

The earthen-colored building was constructed in 1913 and once was used as a car dealership, Graham said. He has seen a photograph of the building where six large floor-to-ceiling glass windows accent the second and third floors instead of the small windows located there now. Parked behind the windows are automobiles.

The building itself has huge I-beams inside, and structurally it is a pretty sound building, Graham said. But theres water damage and buckled floors, he said.

Speaking from a personal standpoint, Graham said the building can be saved, but he represents his clients first.

He said hes not sure how Borins plan would work, and that it has pros and cons.

Borin said his idea can improve downtown.

You take an unused property and make it bloom again, he said.

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Crowd funding could be used to buy the long-vacant Bell Building downtown - Wyoming Tribune

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