San Francisco-based Volt Capital, a venture capital firm devoted to the world of digital assets, has raised a second fund, this one holding $50 million to be deployed as seed money for early-stage crypto enterprises. The new fund is five times larger than the company’s initial pool. Investors in the new fund include private equity...
Tag: may 31 2022
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DIGITAL DOLLAR COULD PROTECT CONSUMERS, BRAINARD SAYS
A digital dollar issued by the U.S. Federal Reserve eventually could co-exist with and complement privately issued stablecoins and other digital assets, protecting consumers from the market whims that jolt unanchored digital assets and offering consumers a government-backed way to make digital payments, Fed vice-chair Lael Brainard said in 26 May Congressional testimony. “It could...
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EU COUNTRIES CAN’T SURVIVE WITHOUT RUSSIAN OIL, FISSURES EMERGE
The head of the International Energy Agency warned Europe last Tuesday that he cannot guarantee that countries will not have to ration gas during the winter months without Russia’s gas supply. “I’m advising several European governments to prepare a contingency plan,” Fatih Birol, the executive director of the agency, said, according to The New York...
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EVEN A PARANOID CAN HAVE ENEMIES
By Bradley J. Steiner “Even a paranoid can have enemies”—Henry Kissinger No, I do not like or respect Henry Kissinger. Still, the old power-lusting political monster does have a point (at least insofar as the above quotation goes, anyway). Many people wonder why they’d ever have any need for self-defense or close combat training. After...
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THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE
ENCRYPTION RIGHTS AN IMPORTANT PART OF INTERNET FREEDOM, SAYS HUMAN RIGHT ADVOCATE. A free and open internet depends on people being able to communicate via encrypted apps free from government surveillance. That was the assessment of Alexandra Givens of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), in remarks delivered at the Canadian Embassy in early...
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BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
EYES ON THE WEB3 BALL. Get rich quick speculation has led to enormous pain for many late to the crypto party, who got in on the 2020-21 boom, only to see it turn on a token into one of the biggest busts during the current general economic hard times. But despite the current down times, ...
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BRAVE WEB BROWSER MOVING TO WEB3 TECH WITH SOLANA INTEGRATIONS
With recent news that DuckDuckGo has been secretly allowing Microsoft to track users of its “privacy” focused browser search engine (see related article in the the Technocracy section of this issue), a lot of people may be searching for search engine alternatives. Brave search engine and web browser claims to truly provide tracking-free web browsing,...
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BEYOND MEAT: LAB-GROWN WOOD IS NEXT
Humanity is cutting down trees—and we and nature burn them—faster than we’re replacing them and we’re going to need those trees more than ever to make oxygen for the growing number of people on the planet. Still, we’re going to want wood to frame houses, make elegant cutting boards, and all those other things we...
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BATTERY CHARGES ITSELF FROM MOISTURE IN THE AIR
According to studies, half the sun’s energy that lands on Planet Earth is used to evaporate water. Australian start-up Strategic Elements is working with the University of New South Wales and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization to lasso some of that energy and put it back to work. The researchers have crafted a...
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WHO NEEDS THE SUN WHEN YOU HAVE THIS TOMATO?
Vitamin D3 may be the “sunshine vitamin,” but what do you do when you can’t get outside much or if you live in the far north, where the sun can disappear for months? Answer: you can drink gallons of milk—or you can eat a tomato genetically engineered by scientists at the John Innes Center, an...