WE’RE IN YOUR HOUSE, SAYS BIG TECH CALL CENTER TO EMPLOYEES. According to an NBC News investigation, Colombian contact center employees who offer outsourced customer care to some of the country’s biggest businesses are being pushed to sign a contract that allows their employer to place cameras in their homes to monitor job performance. Teleperformance,...
Tag: aug 10 2021
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WEALTH MANAGERS READYING CRYPTO FUNDS FOR CLIENTS
JPMorgan Private Bank is offering clients a managed Bitcoin investment fund in partnership with NYDIG, an online platform offering secure transactions and custody, online crypto data firm Coindesk reported. The bank is pitching its fund as a safe, cheap way to bet on Bitcoin, Coindesk said. JPMorgan Chase took on Coindesk and crypto exchange Gemini...
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SEC CHIEF SETS REGULATORY SIGHTS ON CRYPTO CURRENCIES
Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), again promised a regulatory offensive against fraud, market manipulation, and other misconduct in cryptocurrency markets in 3 August comments to the Aspen Security Forum. (See “Cryptocurrency: Special Report,” Trends Journal, 25 May, 2021.) Stablecoins and decentralized finance are two priority areas, he said, because...
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BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGES SAW VOLUME DROP IN JULY. Overall crypto action in August so far might well spell a different story, but July action on DEXs (decentralized crypto exchanges) was muted. According to The Block, During the month of July, decentralized exchanges witnessed $56.47 billion in volume, a monthly decrease. Uniswap accounted for 65 percent of...
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ONE OF A KIND: THE WORLD OF NFTs
One area of blockchain innovation that traditional investors may find harder to grasp is the world of NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens. What purposes and uses do they have? Fungible tokens such as Ethereum and Bitcoin are the rewards for participants in those blockchain networks. People who fire up their computers and run software to provide...
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WILL BIDEN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL CRASH CRYPTOS?
[Press Time Update: In this fast changing story, TJ can report that the U.S. Senate turned down a crypto-tax amendment to a $1 trillion infrastructure package. The proposed amendment had been offered at the last minute by legislators arguing over which crypto brokers should be subject to new tax reporting requirements. Late Monday, the compromise...
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DEX OR CEX? INVESTORS HAVE EXCHANGE OPTIONS
Centralized Exchanges like Coinbase are seeing more competition from so-called decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. Each option carries certain advantages and disadvantages. But with U.S. politicians and regulators making moves to require more reporting from centralized exchanges, there has been a discernable growth in decentralized alternatives for crypto investing. The main benefit of decentralized exchanges is...
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DISSOLVING DISCARDED ELECTRONICS IN WATER
The electronics in every outdated smartphone, discarded computer, or broken-down toaster oven are a hodgepodge of pollution and toxins: cadmium, lead, mercury, polyvinyl chloride, and others. Recycling electronics can be a laborious process of breaking open the cases, often by hand, and then melting components or using harsh chemicals to reclaim the valuable minerals and...
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TURNING HEAT INTO ELECTRICITY FOR CHEAP
Thermoelectric devices can turn heat wafting off of engines, industrial boilers, and similar sources into electricity. However, they’re too expensive to install under the hood of your car or next to your kitchen oven. At least, they have been. Now scientists at Northwestern University have figured out how to make a thermoelectric compound from abundant...
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POSSIBLE CURE FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE
Parkinson’s Disease, a brain condition affecting 10 million people worldwide that degrades mental function and causes tremors and rigid muscles, normally affects people aged 60 or older, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation. However, over the last five years, the rate of increase among people aged 30 to 64 has risen by 50 percent, a spike...