REFORMS OVERVIEW

STARTING A BUSINESS (more info)

At the fifteenth position, worldwide, and first in Africa, under the Starting a Business index of the 2020 Doing Business ranking, Togo sustains its reformative dynamics with more reforms.

ENFORCING CONTRACTS (more info)

Compared to some years ago when it was one of the lowest rankers under the Doing Business Enforcing Contracts indicator, Togo, leveraging many efforts to improve its business climate, was able to jump significantly on the index in the recent years... .

CONTRACT EXECUTION (more info)

Creation of special chambers of commerce for small debts Creation of chambers of commerce at the Court of Appeal Civil and commercial cases now handled by distinct clerks Establishment of commercial courts in Lom and Kara Lawyers and bailiffs now have access to the FORSETI COMMERCIAL platform A maximum period of 100 days was fixed to settle a commercial dispute .

TRADING ACROSS BORDERS (more info)

In comparison to previous years,Togo has significantly improved its ranking under theTrading across borders indicator by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

In comparison to previous years, Togo has significantly improved its ranking on the Trading across borders index by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitalization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (more info)

After moving from the 133rd to 127th place under the 2020 Doing Business construction permit index, Togo intends to reiterate this feat in the coming edition of the global ranking. To this end, it has introduced this year multiple reforms.

GETTING ELECTRICITY (more info)

Over the past two years, Togos ranking under the Doing Business Getting electricity and water indicator has increased consistently. Owing this performance to multiple reforms aimed at making it easier for businesses to access power and water, Lom plans to introduce even more reforms this year to keep up its improvements.

REGISTERING A PROPERTY (more info)

Out of all the 'Doing Business indicators, Property Registration is where Togo has improved the most since 2018. Indeed, after spending years in the lowest part of this ranking, the country now seeks to beat Rwanda which is the best performer on this index in Africa. To do so, Lom has been introducing many reforms, with the latest batch implemented this year.

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT(more info)

From professionalization to digitization, through legislative regulations, Togos public procurement framework is constantly being modernized. Several reforms have been implemented to improve the sector much to the benefit of the private sector, which is the focus of the National Development Plan.

PAYING TAXES AND DUTIES (more info)

To improve its business environment, Togo introduced some important reforms related to the payment of tax and duties. From the replacement of some taxes to the cancellation of others through exemptions, the country has only one objective: offer the most attractive tax framework to investors and economic operators. To achieve this, the authorities relied on digitization.

Originally posted here:

Decentralization: In Togo, Yoto III municipality adopts a CFA4 billion ... - Togo First

The Atlantic Journalism Award finalists were announced this morning, and the Halifax Examiner has three nominations.

It is very satisfying to see Examiner writers recognized for the good work they do. This work is made possible by your subscriptions, as the Examiner does not carry advertising of any kind. Please subscribe here.

Charles P. Allen high school will open late today, after two staff members were stabbed yesterday.

CBC reports:

Lindsey Bunin,a spokesperson for Halifax Regional Centre for Education, said earlier on Monday twostaff were taken to hospital after being injured in an incident with a student who did have a weapon.She said the third person who was injured was the student.

At the Chronicle Herald, Andrew Rankin writes:

Halifax Regional Centre for Education said later that two staff memberswere injured and taken to hospital following an incident involving a student with a weapon.

Spokesperson Lindsey Bunin said three individuals two staff members and one student were transported to hospital.

Rankin speaks with students at the school who are, of course, shocked by the events. He writes that one student said it appeared that the schools vice-principal and receptionist were being stretchered out from the school and placed in ambulances. The boy was also moved from the police car into an ambulance.

I learned about the stabbings on social media as, it seems, did many parents, some of whom were critical of HRCE communications. It seems inevitable though that word would get out first through personal networks. That said, our institutions seem to default to give the least information possible mode, which is often not helpful particularly in a crisis.

Again, from Rankins story:

The Chronicle Herald spoke to another parent who received two texts and two emails from HRCE about the incident. We obtained a copy of the texts showing that the first text was sent out at 10:07 a.m. It said: CP in hold and secure.

The second one came soon after, saying the school was closing for the day. Both texts indicated that an additional email would be sent. The woman asked not to be identified. She said the emails contained no information about what had happened at the school.

Classes at CPA are cancelled for today.

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The provincial government is finally putting some money where its mouth is by offering substantial bonuses to nurses, Jennifer Henderson reports:

Surrounded by nurses and therapists working at the Dartmouth General Hospital, Premier Tim Houston and Health Minister Michelle Thompson announced $10,000 retention bonuses aimed at stemming the rising tide of departures among burnt out front-line workers.

For 11,000 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurse practitioners working in hospitals, nursing homes, and schools the cheque should be in the mail within the next month

In addition to the $10,000 the government is offering immediately, nurses who sign an agreement next March will receive another $10,000 if they promise to stay and work two more years, until 2026.

Henderson says to expect more health care announcements today.

Click here to read Nurses to receive $10,000 bonus, offered a second $10,000 if they stay two more years.

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Yvette dEntremont has a lovely story on the new documentary Raconte-moi un souvenir(Tell me a memory), about growing up in Pubnico between 1930 and 1950. The film is based on stories told by seniors in the community. dEntremont writes:

My father was born in Pubnico in 1941. He died in 2018, and this was the Acadian childhood he wouldve experienced. I have a connection to this place and its stories, but even without it Id have been hooked

The documentarys creator and artistic director, Yvette dEntremont, said the screening felt like a huge family picnic or reunion where everyone was watching family videos.

Lots of people from not even from that generation but maybe 10 or 20 years younger were nodding their heads in the theatre, recognizing themselves in some of their stories even though they werent that old, dEntremont said in an interview.

Its (the documentary) for generations to come. Its a legacy, and that is so important for our young people.

For the record, dEntremont is the second person with my name that Ive interviewed in my career, and we arent related.

Reading this piece, I realized I interviewed the director of the film several years ago, just after she retired from teaching, and one of her preoccupations was the decline of French among students. That concern certainly fits in with her goals for the film. From dEntremonts story:

One thing dEntremont hopes people take away from the documentary is the importance of preserving family and community stories.

I hope it triggers curiosity so that when younger people visit their grandparents or great grandparents, they will ask about these things, what life was like, tell me stories about when you were young. I hope this encourages that, she said.

Their stories become our history forever. We learn from the past, we learn that we were all kids at one point and we all have valuable stories to tell. These seniors have wonderful stories to tell, and they have something important and valuable to share with us. We should never forget that.

Click here to read Their stories become our history forever: Pubnico seniors share memories in new film.

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In a piece published last week, Mary Campbell of the Cape Breton Spectator compares how CBRM council deals with rinks vs housing.

In a dig at secrecy surrounding councils housing discussion, Campbell writes:

They are so much happier talking about rinks, they dont even mind doing it in public. They just relate more to rinks: they love the volunteer boards that oversee them, they respect the hard work of the people who operate them and they freely acknowledge the needs of the people who use them.

They get to talk about volunteers who put their heart and soul into rinks and reminisce about their own time coaching Major Bantam hockey. They get to shudder imagining what would happen if the community rink closed. And then they get to vote to take the rink over, at a cost of $250,000 annually.

How does spending a quarter of a million dollars on the rink compare to spending a quarter of a million in a couple of other areas? Campbell writes:

District 5 Councilor Eldon MacDonald, who expressed something akin to horror at the mere possibility the CBRM might be on the hook for cost over-runs or operational expenses associated with a supportive housing project proposed by New Dawn and the Ally Centre, agreed to take on the quarter million dollar subsidy for a rink without batting an eye. (Not to mention the general consternation caused by the estimated operating costs for a new central library which, at up to $240,000 would belessthan the rink subsidy.)

Campbell discusses the history of the rink, and how it got into financial trouble, and she makes clear shes not against rinks! I think the end of her piece nicely sums up the issues, though:

Council will probably argue that the difference between this debate and the debate over supportive housing is that recreation is clearly a municipal responsibility and housing is not, but I have two things to say about that.

First, recreation may be a municipal responsibility, but the Emera Centre was not a CBRM facility, so taking it over involved going above and beyond the municipalitys responsibilities.

And second, when the federal government gives you $5 million for housing, housing becomes your responsibility, and if you are not capable of accepting that responsibility, if you cannot rise to that challenge, then you should not be in government.

I dont actually begrudge the Emera Centre this lifeline and I do understand the value of rinks to communities but if you can see the value in a rink, then you should also be able to see the value in housing for your most vulnerable citizens. How can the Emera Centre be a gift to the CBRM and $5 million from the federal government a burden?

Recreation and access to recreation are core municipal services and they should be run that way.

Like the Halifax Examiner, the Cape Breton Spectator is supported by readers like you and me. You can subscribe here.

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At CBC, Paul Palmeter reports that Sustainable Marine Energy Canada has given up on its Minas Passage tidal generation project.

The companys project would have used floating turbines. Previous projects involving turbines on the ocean floor have failed.

Sustainable Marine Energy Canada CEO Jason Hayman tells Palmeter the company is withdrawing because it hasnt been able to get regulatory approval from DFO:

We have been working for about three years to get an authorization from DFO to deliver our project, but we are basically coming up against a brick wall.

DFO did not get back to Palmeter, but others he interviews use the term clear path in terms of whats lacking for regulatory approval of tidal power projects.

I have no idea if DFO is being obstructionist, cautious, incompetent, short-sighted, or rightly concerned about impacts. I do know that whenever I see businesses complain about red tape at least some scepticism is warranted.

Palmeter also published a story earlier this month on the BigMoon Power tidal project, which is still in its early stages.

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Last week, Tim Bousquet wrote about media running pieces for rage clicks:

The rage-inducing is intentional: it gets the article shared on social media, with people saying stuff like can you believe these assholes? and thousands more people click on the article, upping the all-important CPMs, the cost per million impressions on which advertising revenue is based

Anyway, just something else to be aware of: if an article pisses you off, its probably doing so intentionally.

This is the world we live in. Everything, even our anger, is commodified.

You can find examples of this pretty much any day of the week. The middle manager at Meta (which owns Facebook) pissed off that they may not be making $1 million/year soon, as they had planned. Or the NYU student who spent a year in Florence and hated it, for incoherent reasons, including that the locals didnt fit her stereotypes, her house was too crowded, and when her roommates went away for the weekend her house was too empty.

The NYU student story was terrible and painful to read, and it followed a typical trajectory: publication posts story, story gets shared around by people hating on it, other media pick it up and write about how people online are mad about this story. The NYU students story got an extra bump because Amanda Knox (who was convicted of murdering her roommate while on a student exchange in Italy, before being exonerated) retweeted a link to the story.

There was a time when I would have gleefully piled on too, but Ive seen so many of these by now that I mostly feel anger at the editors who are willing to let young writers hang themselves out to dry for the benefit of a days notoriety and bunch of clicks.

I became aware of the NYU student story because a Greek sociologist I follow on Mastodon shared a link to it. (He seems to have since deleted the post.) I was tempted to share it and say something snarky thereby helping to perpetuate the rage-click economy but Mastodon disincentivizes this, because there is no equivalent to the quote-tweet feature, making it harder to just dunk on people. Curious, I logged in to Twitter, where, of course, the NYU student was the main character of the day (and, subsequently, had locked her account.)

Over the weekend, Mastodon passed 10 million users. Last November, it seemed like a big deal when it broke one million. (These numbers are the source of some debate, but whats undeniable is that the network is growing rapidly.)

This is interesting, insofar as Mastodon is expressly designed to suppress features that drive other social networks. It deliberately makes searching posts difficult, shows you a purely chronological timeline (meaning the most rage-inducing content isnt pushed to you) and it limits the number of times you see boosted posts. So if people are sharing the same link say, to a story by an NYU student over how she hated Florence over and over and over, you only see a small fraction of those boosts.

Mastodon is part of what is called the Fediverse: a collection of decentralized, non-commercial services that can connect to each other (also known as federating). Some have analogues to the world of commercial social media. Pixelfed allows you to share photos, BookWyrm is the non-commercial Goodreads, Friendica is designed to fulfill some of the same functions as that other behemoth whose name starts with F, and so on.

During my time in the Fediverse (basically, since last November), Ive been struck by how difficult it is for people to wrap their heads around the idea of a non-commercial, decentralized internet even though this is exactly how the internet started out. Ive seen Mastodon referred to as a website, and its creator, Eugen Rochko, referred to as its owner. One notorious article said Twitter had blocked links to John Mastodon, the founder of a competing social media company named after himself. Needless to say, there is no John Mastodon.

But Mastodon, by its nature, cant be owned by anyone. The best simple explanation Ive seen of the Fediverse (of which Mastodon is a part) is by Matthew S. Smith, writing in the IEEE Spectrum. (IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.)

Smith writes:

The Fediverse, unlike the social networks that rose to dominance over the last two decades, is a decentralized collection of servers that communicate over an open protocol

Mastodon, unlike Twitter, is not hosted as a singular service but instead a collection of independent servers that communicate through [the] ActivityPub [protocol]. Joining Mastodon means joining a server with its own community and code of conduct. Users can interact with users on other servers, but their account is hosted on the server they choose

The Fediverses connected but independent servers give users more control. Everyone has the option to join the server they think best, and moving to a new server is relatively simple. Servers can also block other servers, providing more power to respond against harassment or objectionable content.

Ive seen a few good examples of how this setup disincentivizes going for outrage. Last year, Raspberry Pi created its own Mastodon server and soon after began essentially trolling people who were upset that one of its employees had bragged about being a former cop and using Raspberry Pi devices for surveillance. On Twitter, this trolling strategy would probably have worked, because people would have shared the tweets in outrage. On Mastodon, by contrast, the organizations server simply wound up being de-federated, or blocked, by many users, meaning hardly anyone saw their posts.

When I described Mastodon to someone I know a few months ago, he quickly replied with, If youre not a paying customer, youre the product. Ive used this adage myself, many times, but the fact is it is simply not true. We can actually create relationships and networks in which we are neither customer nor product. Worse, with many services we are now both the customer and the product. You can provide a whole bunch of content to Facebook for free, and it will want to charge you 15 bucks a month to verify you.

The internet was built on decentralization the reason the US military funded its development was so that a nuclear attack couldnt knock out a centralized system but over the past couple of decades weve come to see a venture capital backed ecosystem, centralization, and scale as the primary ways to approach it and to measure success.

Back in 1999, science fiction writer Neal Stephenson (who coined the term metaverse) wrote an essay called In the beginning was the command line. Stephenson draws an analogy between the makers of operating systems and car dealerships:

One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke you could easily fix them.

There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one day began selling motorized vehicles expensive but attractively styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they worked was something of a mystery

Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and it was an enormous success.

Across the road are two other dealerships, the now-defunct BeOS, and Linux:

Linux is not a business at all. Its a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away for free.

Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.

Stephenson later became a fan of Macs, but I still like this analogy as a way to look at not just operating systems, but also the organization of the internet.

Many of the complaints about Mastodon its hard for businesses to reach an audience because you cant advertise, its too easy to block users and whole servers, its hard to go viral seem like advantages to me.

Sure, Mastodon is far from perfect. And it is only one of many Fediverse services. But I think the most important thing is that it, and the rest of the Fediverse, represents a new approach at a time when we desperately need new approaches.

As Molly White (best known as a cryptocurrency sceptic) wrote after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank:

We are coming to a point, I think, where the shine is wearing off. People are realizing that despite the hundreds of billions of dollars being deployed each year by venture capital firms in pursuit of innovation, the world doesnt really feel hundreds of billions of dollars better off for it. For all the talk of unbridled innovation, venture capital services only very specifictypesof innovation: those that stand to produce large exits for investors, and with relatively low risk, regardless of whether the business itself holds much promise or provides any societal benefit. As Edward Ongweso Jr.writesforSlate:

For the past 10 years venture capitalists have had near-perfect laboratory conditions to create a lot of money and make the world a much better place. And yet, some of their proudest accomplishments that have attracted some of the most eye-watering sums have been: 1) chasing the dream of zeroing out labor costs while monopolizing a sector to charge the highest price possible (A.I. and the gig economy); 2) creating infrastructure for speculating on digital assets that will be used to commodify more and more of our daily lives (cryptocurrency and the metaverse); and 3) militarizing public space, or helping bolster police and military operations.

We are overdue as a society for seriously questioning what has become, but what has not always been, the dominant model of innovation. Recent weeks have drawn a bold underline beneath what has been clear to many for a long time: that those controlling massive amounts of capital and power in our society are not the smartest, or most level-headed, or most altruistic among us. Venture capital may be the best way to serve the interests of capital, but we need to consider alternative models that prioritize the interests ofpeople.

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Everyday items encode and embody all kinds of assumptions, ranging from the personal to the broadly cultural. And they can carry meanings for some to which others are completely oblivious.

Take pinball machines, for example. From the representation of women in backglass and playfield art, to the Winners dont use drugs messages scrolling across the screens of 1980s and 1990s machines, the machines tell us a lot about the cultures from which they emerged, and about assumptions about their target markets.

The Dolly Parton pinball machine is interesting in this regard. I was at the Propeller Arcade on Gottingen twice recently, and noticed they had a Dolly Parton pinball machine. I last saw one of these four years ago in Athens, and I was intrigued enough to look up its history.

Wouldnt you know it, the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College in Kentucky has an interesting virtual exhibit on this pinball machine. Its called Dolly Parton Pinball Machine in the Appalachian Collections: A virtual exhibit about the 1979 Dolly Parton pinball machine and its backstory one Appalachian womans wrestling with fame, her image, and her mountain identity.

In 1977, pinball manufacturer Bally decided it wanted to feature Dolly Parton on a pinball machine. Parton was very much a country singer at the time, and had not crossed over to become a bigger phenomenon yet. The original design of the backglass art reflected this down-home country image.

But this image would not wind up on the backglass. Parton was leaving her country roots behind and going more mainstream. In 2013, the Appalachian Centers curator wrote to artist Dave Christensen and asked about the changes to the art requested by Partons team. Christensen replied:

The initial finished prototype showed Dolly in a typical Blue Ridge country setting. She was wearing a sexy, low cut plaid gingham blouse, cut-off blue jean shorts, a big fancy hair-do, playing a country guitar. It was approved by Dolly herself. Just as it was scheduled for production hernewHollywood Ca. MGR. . . . wanted her to be portrayed more cosmopolitan, a crossover artist

But it wasnt just the manager. Parton herself very much wanted to change her image. The exhibit quotes her from a 1977 interview with Barbara Walters:

See the rest here:

Mastodon hits 10 million users: Is decentralization the future? - Halifax Examiner

The blockchain trilemma: optimizing for security, scalability, and decentralization, has been raging for years. Its kept the industrys brightest minds awake at night, inspired an array of new chains sporting novel consensus mechanisms, and spawned a thriving multi-chain universe.

Today, developers are blessed with a plethora of chains to choose from, most boasting greater security, scalability, and decentralization than their predecessors. With varying levels of throughput, speed, and interoperability, each new network offers differing features, benefits, and trade-offs.

DeFiChain is one such offering, providing an ecosystem for flourishing decentralized finance applications. Developers seeking a playground for deploying their dApps have a wealth of options on DeFiChain, combining Bitcoins security with the speed and scalability of a next-generation blockchain. Furthermore, with the upcoming DeFi Meta Chain (DMC), they will have all the tooling they need to easily build EVM-compatible dApps.

DeFiChain is a blockchain network thats designed for decentralized finance. It combines a highly scalable and high-speed protocol with a high degree of decentralization, making it suitable for routing high-value transactions and holding significant TVL. Use cases envisioned for DeFiChain include lending, trading, non-collateralized debt, and asset tokenization.

Keep Reading

Features include:

DeFiChains decision to anchor its blockchain to Bitcoin is unusual but not without precedent, RSK pioneered this move. DeFi on Bitcoin is an untapped market with massive potential if implemented properly. DeFiChain saves its most recent Merkle tree to the Bitcoin blockchain every few minutes, providing an immutable transaction record.

DeFiChain is not a general-purpose blockchain. This means that commands outside the basic set of functions are not allowed. This reduces the attack surface for smart contracts, creating a safer run-time environment.

Further information on DeFiChains architecture can be found in its technical whitepaper. As for the benefits of building on DeFiChain, take your pick from any of the following:

Developers interested in getting started on DeFiChain can find all the needed resources here.

Reasoning that two chains are better than one, DeFiChain is preparing to launch a second blockchain this year to push the limits of whats possible in DeFi. DeFi Meta Chain (DMC) is an upcoming layer-2 EVM blockchain with Proof of Anchor consensus built as an extension to the native non-Turing complete DeFiChain.

DeFi Meta Chain will allow for the expansion of use cases for the native DeFiChain while maintaining its core principles of fast, secure, intelligent, transparent, and decentralized financial services. It allows for the stability of the native DeFiChain while gaining the flexibility to achieve true Web3 compatibility. The DeFi Meta Chain is what makes building advanced dApps and smart contracts possible without limitations.

DMC will allow developers to access tools, infrastructure, smart contracts, and support from other ecosystems via the EVM environment. Whereas DeFiChain is non-Turing complete, DMC is a Turing complete L2. As a result, any code bases that have already been deployed within web3 can be used on the DeFi Meta Chain. A full stack of web3 services and projects will be integrated with DMC, including wallets, NFT projects, metaverses, and existing dApps.

As an L2, DeFi Meta Chain will support ultra-low cost transactions, ideal for high volume dApps, and will connect to the thriving layer-2 ecosystem. This year will see its constituent parts slotted into place, including a testnet, hackathon, launchpad, and, crucially, a $100M incubator program.

2023 is shaping up to be a big year for DeFi, whose developers have been significantly stung by accusations of failure to innovate over the last two years. Expectations are high that new use cases will emerge this year, including smarter liquidity protocols, better interoperability, safer bridges, and the return of yield farming, albeit in a more sustainable form.

Its also shaping up to be a big year for DefiChain, which will soon boast two interconnected networks where developers can put its capabilities to the test. In addition, the launch of DeFi Meta Chain, with its web3-ready credentials, will add yet another contender to the burgeoning L2 sector. With the promise of hackathons and incentivized developer programs, there will be plenty of reasons to consider building on DeFi Chain this year.

The blockchain trilemma: optimizing for security, scalability, and decentralization, has been raging for years. Its kept the industrys brightest minds awake at night, inspired an array of new chains sporting novel consensus mechanisms, and spawned a thriving multi-chain universe.

Today, developers are blessed with a plethora of chains to choose from, most boasting greater security, scalability, and decentralization than their predecessors. With varying levels of throughput, speed, and interoperability, each new network offers differing features, benefits, and trade-offs.

DeFiChain is one such offering, providing an ecosystem for flourishing decentralized finance applications. Developers seeking a playground for deploying their dApps have a wealth of options on DeFiChain, combining Bitcoins security with the speed and scalability of a next-generation blockchain. Furthermore, with the upcoming DeFi Meta Chain (DMC), they will have all the tooling they need to easily build EVM-compatible dApps.

DeFiChain is a blockchain network thats designed for decentralized finance. It combines a highly scalable and high-speed protocol with a high degree of decentralization, making it suitable for routing high-value transactions and holding significant TVL. Use cases envisioned for DeFiChain include lending, trading, non-collateralized debt, and asset tokenization.

Keep Reading

Features include:

DeFiChains decision to anchor its blockchain to Bitcoin is unusual but not without precedent, RSK pioneered this move. DeFi on Bitcoin is an untapped market with massive potential if implemented properly. DeFiChain saves its most recent Merkle tree to the Bitcoin blockchain every few minutes, providing an immutable transaction record.

DeFiChain is not a general-purpose blockchain. This means that commands outside the basic set of functions are not allowed. This reduces the attack surface for smart contracts, creating a safer run-time environment.

Further information on DeFiChains architecture can be found in its technical whitepaper. As for the benefits of building on DeFiChain, take your pick from any of the following:

Developers interested in getting started on DeFiChain can find all the needed resources here.

Reasoning that two chains are better than one, DeFiChain is preparing to launch a second blockchain this year to push the limits of whats possible in DeFi. DeFi Meta Chain (DMC) is an upcoming layer-2 EVM blockchain with Proof of Anchor consensus built as an extension to the native non-Turing complete DeFiChain.

DeFi Meta Chain will allow for the expansion of use cases for the native DeFiChain while maintaining its core principles of fast, secure, intelligent, transparent, and decentralized financial services. It allows for the stability of the native DeFiChain while gaining the flexibility to achieve true Web3 compatibility. The DeFi Meta Chain is what makes building advanced dApps and smart contracts possible without limitations.

DMC will allow developers to access tools, infrastructure, smart contracts, and support from other ecosystems via the EVM environment. Whereas DeFiChain is non-Turing complete, DMC is a Turing complete L2. As a result, any code bases that have already been deployed within web3 can be used on the DeFi Meta Chain. A full stack of web3 services and projects will be integrated with DMC, including wallets, NFT projects, metaverses, and existing dApps.

As an L2, DeFi Meta Chain will support ultra-low cost transactions, ideal for high volume dApps, and will connect to the thriving layer-2 ecosystem. This year will see its constituent parts slotted into place, including a testnet, hackathon, launchpad, and, crucially, a $100M incubator program.

2023 is shaping up to be a big year for DeFi, whose developers have been significantly stung by accusations of failure to innovate over the last two years. Expectations are high that new use cases will emerge this year, including smarter liquidity protocols, better interoperability, safer bridges, and the return of yield farming, albeit in a more sustainable form.

Its also shaping up to be a big year for DefiChain, which will soon boast two interconnected networks where developers can put its capabilities to the test. In addition, the launch of DeFi Meta Chain, with its web3-ready credentials, will add yet another contender to the burgeoning L2 sector. With the promise of hackathons and incentivized developer programs, there will be plenty of reasons to consider building on DeFi Chain this year.

Read the rest here:

DeFiChain Aims to Woo Developers with the Upcoming Meta Chain - Finance Magnates

Centralized crypto finance took a beating over the last year.

But the people and investors who relied on centralized structures like FTX also took a beating, mostly because they put their trust in these flawed organizations.

Our experience in the crypto space over the last 12 months reveals the need for more and better decentralization in crypto finance. We need more decentralized finance (DeFi), and the centerpiece for meaningful, widespread decentralization will be the rise of decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs.

Obstacles remain for DAOs, but the overall value proposition and world-changing potential remain exciting. The current crypto market provides an ideal landscape in which to nurture, prune and refocus DAOs so that they remain an important part of the future and find an edge over their predecessor, the traditional organization.

DAOs face some challenges that continue to prevent them from becoming a premier form of organization.

One is scaling. Democratic organizations work well up to a certain size, but at a larger scale, they can become slow and inefficient. This is usually solved through some kind of specialization, hierarchy or permissions in traditional organizations, and we dont know yet if, or how, DAOs can grow massively across borders, languages and cultures in a way that can be efficient, focused, functional and fair.

Another challenge is voting distribution. The jury is still out on how to distribute voting (or governance) tokens among DAO participants in a way to maximize the health and growth of these organizations over the long run.

Treasury management is also a sticky matter for DAOs. Our collective experience with DeFi over the past couple of years has shown that our reliance on multi-sig treasury deployment is both a security risk and can blunt efficiency. In that same basket is the issue of stable, predictable compensation for those who produce in a DAO. Most people dont want to be paid in a volatile, risky asset and this is usually the case with native project tokens.

Story continues

Its likely that, to attract talent from outside the existing DeFi-degen echo chamber, DAOs will have to start using reliable compensation and governance programs without devaluing project tokens.

But despite these challenges, there remains plenty of potential for DAOs.

In traditional structures like FTX, directors and board members tend to make all the key decisions and the rest of the employees are expected to do whats asked of them regardless of whether they agree or not.

DAOs create a structure in which the governance of an organization is democratized because participants, or token holders, have the right to submit and vote on proposals that determine the future of the DAO. In other words, DAO participants, for better or worse, decide on the future of the DAO as the majority vote prevails.

With greater transparency and democracy comes the potential for inefficiency. We have seen this with MakerDAO where members submitted a proposal suggesting that the DAO take temporary measures to increase centralization in order to increase efficiency. (The DAO voted against this.) Furthermore, the voting systems within DAOs are far from equal as participants with larger stakes in a DAOs token typically have greater voting rights. Unequal voting rights coupled with poor voting turnouts have led to 1% of token holders having 90% of voting power within a selection of certain DAOs, according to Chainalysis.

It is true that DAOs still have some ways to go to achieve democratic realities that are ideal. However, as a young innovation, there is plenty of room to improve as DAO participation grows.

By creating a structure in which all participants own the DAOs token, participants are invested in their own organization. In traditional organizations, growth matters most to VCs, shareholders and the people at the top of the pile. This can be demotivating for those lower down in the hierarchy who might work incredibly hard but not fully reap the rewards.

In DAOs, everyone is literally invested in the organization. It is thus in everyones interest to see the organization grow. Furthermore, as DAOs become more successful, their native tokens can increase in value, which inevitably motivates holders of the token to be more productive as individuals will be better off as their organization develops. This remains an exciting feature of DAOs.

Every organization requires some sort of capital to set up. However, fundraising can prove to be a roadblock no matter how innovative ideas may be. Typically, entrepreneurs depend on VCs who have the capital power to support these organizations. But there are drawbacks to this model including the lack of access to VCs, the expectation of an exit within a short time horizon, and funding with no strategic input.

DAOs show us that funding no longer has to come exclusively from VCs. Gathering sources from those who believe in a single mission could be more strategic as they do not have the same exit ambitions as VCs, and opens up participation to anyone who has access to the internet.

Were seeing a major leveling-up of on-chain DAO tools and services that could help.

Organizations of the future will be even more nation-agnostic than they already are. That means we need structures that can bring organizations to the global stage seamlessly. In a world where legal systems are still localized, start-ups face obstacles including having to identify presence within specific legal structures in every new country.

On the other hand, DAOs benefit from the blockchain that puts them on the global stage by default. With the correct tooling, DAOs can have a head start over traditional organizations by cutting out the legal and regulatory wranglings that most start-ups have to overcome. We have seen many DAOs and projects flourish as a consequence of their global nature, for example, Uniswap which has facilitated over 119 million trades worldwide.

When agreements are not honored by parties, instead of using courts for legal recourse, DAOs benefit from smart contracts, a more modern and potentially efficient form of enforcement. While currently imperfect, in the near future, oracles that provide blockchains with real-world data will help facilitate this.

This ecosystem will continue to require growth and maturity in the oracle space. That means developing and partnering with projects that make it easier, more efficient and more secure to get real-world data on-chain in a way that allows crypto developers to focus on their novel mechanisms and designs instead of belaboring data verification. We need our oracles to be flexible enough to handle ambiguity.

As oracle infrastructure matures, DAOs will become trustless and truly decentralized a system not possible with traditional organizations.

DAOs have already blown up within the Web3 space with more than 11,500 currently operating. We are seeing a shift in the Web3 space as DAOs are proving to be an alternative to traditional organizational structures.

DAOs are far from perfect as it remains to be seen how they will evolve and address their problems with inefficiency and unequal voting power. However, the use of appropriate tooling will allow these organizations to solve some of their issues.

As we peer into the future, it will be fascinating to watch which DAOs emerge and how they will disrupt the future of organizational structures.

See the rest here:

How DAOs can be remade to be more efficient and successful - Yahoo Finance

American venture capital investor and entrepreneur Tim Draper took the master stage at Paris Blockchain Week 2023 to give his keynote speech on The Decentralization of Everything, which he ended with a self-composed Bitcoin song.

The speech opened by touching on the general distrust of cryptocurrencies primarily Bitcoin (BTC) from centralized governments. I think they are absolutely panicking right now, he said.

Draper particularly angled his thoughts through the lens of the recent Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) crisis, which he called a crisis of trust.

However, according to the investor, a smooth transition out of these latest bank failures will not be likely under the current leadership in the United States. He signaled the recent remarks against cryptocurrencies stemming from the White House.

His whole speech boiled down to his belief that an inevitable change is coming stemming from decentralized financial tools like Bitcoin, calling it a drumbeat that keeps coming and coming.

He continued by saying that weak leaders will be revealed by those who resist it. Whereas strong leaders embrace it and are looking for this change. He concluded his speech with a three-minute song, which he wrote and performed.

According to Draper, the song was written four years ago but is more relevant than ever today. It touched on Satoshi, Bitcoin, banks, governments and the want for a new world order.

Related:Paris Blockchain Week 2023: First day of the Summit kicks off

Before he began, he dedicated the song to SVB and all the banks that have failed and will fail.

The song got a round of applause from the audience, as well as the panelists who followed Draper on the master stage.

He concluded his time by saying blockchain, Bitcoin and smart contracts are making up one of the greatest transitions in the history of the world, and it should be embraced.

The rest is here:

Tim Draper sings a Bitcoin song dedicated to SVB and world governments: PBW 2023 - Cointelegraph

The United States commodities regulator received a crash course on decentralized finance (DeFi) on March 22. Crypto executives briefed the regulator on key issues affecting the space, including exploits, decentralization and digital identities.

As part of a scheduled first meeting of the CFTCs Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) in Washington D.C., members from the crypto space gave presentations to the regular intending to cover critical issues currently impacting DeFi.

CFTC commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero opened the meeting with prepared remarks, saying understanding how DeFi works is important as policy decisions related to DeFi are currently being made by regulators and lawmakers.

The panel began with an explainer on DeFi and blockchain technology by Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.

He outlined the claimed benefits of blockchains, namely transparency, immutability and privacy, saying it could allow regulators to balance the right to privacy with the need for security.

Redbord and Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos, the founder of analytics firm Metrika, jointly outlined the benefits and issues currently facing decentralization, concluding that the benefits far outweigh the challenges, which they believe will self-resolve.

Weve reached a point in time where we can no longer ignore decentralization, Andrikogiannopoulos said. Not only do we have to embrace it, but I think its our duty to lead it in the right direction.

Redbord highlighted the total value that entered DeFi in the last two years, saying it was stress tested during FTX [...] and did not fail. DeFi is absolutely here to stay.

DeFis total value locked is around $49.1 billion, according to DefiLlama, rising from around $15 billion at the beginning of January 2021.

Carole House, executive in residence of venture firm Terranet Ventures, and Jill Gunter, chief strategy officer of blockchain infrastructure company Espresso Systems, then provided an overview of the current solutions for digital identity and noncustodial wallets, using the examples of the Ethereum Name Service and MetaMask wallet.

Related: CFTC continues to explore digital asset policy considerations in MRAC meeting

Fireblocks founder Michael Shaulov and Trail of Bits founder Dan Guido then presented the exploits and vulnerabilities that have, and continue to, take place in the market.

All the hacks, they are extraordinarily public, and its usually your users and other outside firms that find out about them before you do, Guido remarked, which he said instills a need for perfection in crypto firms.

Throughout 2022, the top 10 exploits in crypto alonesaw over $2 billion lost, with DeFi on the receiving end of 113 exploits out of the 167 carried out across the year.

Shaulov then briefly explained the exploits carried out against the Ronin Bridge, BadgerDAO and the recent Euler Finance exploit.

The DeFi portion of the meeting ended with members unanimously voting for creating a Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology Subcommittee.

The subcommittee will focus on the why of DeFi, what problems it solves, use cases, vulnerabilities, and proposed legal and policy frameworks.

Magazine: Best and worst countries for crypto taxes Plus crypto tax tips

Go here to see the original:

CFTC's tech committee gathered in DC to talk DeFi Here's what ... - Cointelegraph

There was a period, back in the euphoria of cryptos 2021 bull market period, when Solana was the blockchain name of the moment, spoken about as the next big thing, and with, according to its advocates, the potential even to outdo Ethereum in the race to become the foundational network of choice for web3 developers.

There were multiple reasons for this optimism, not least the fact that it had backing from VCs keen to promote its virtues. And, on balance, it should be noted that Solana does have significant characteristics in its favor. Most advantageously, its fast and cheap, two critical factors in attracting developers, who should in turn attract further users.

Remember that this was prior to the Ethereum Merge, a time when there were significant doubts as to whether Ethereum would ever make its long-promised transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Constant delays in the execution of Ethereums protocol change were beginning to foster a sense that scaling would, in turn, be delayed, and that sky-high fees and network congestion would never be resolved.

Additionally, Ethereum Layer 2s were not as prominent as they are now, and, although it was known that The Merge would not solve scaling issues on its own (such issues still exist), execution would at least indicate that development was proceeding in the right direction.

Keep Reading

Against this backdrop, alternative Layer 1 blockchains, including not only Solana, but also Cardano, Avalanche and others, provided a compelling alternative. From here, Solana picked up in activity, thanks to its simplicity (no friction-adding Layer 2s required) and, at a time when blockchain-based digital art was making headlines for some huge sales, its NFTs. In fact, Solana would quickly become the second most-well known network for NFTs (after Ethereum) and evolved into an active community of NFT creators, traders and collectors, who were optimistic about the future of the network.

Amidst the bullishness around Solana, the blockchain also ran into some problems, which would, over time, become increasingly conspicuous.

A recurring fault was the issue of network outages when the entire blockchain would effectively stop working. The most recent of these occurred last month and lasted for almost twenty hours, and after that came a total of fourteen outages throughout 2022. The first breakdown in Solanas history was in December 2020, the same year as its launch, and when the blockchain was still serving only a relatively small number of users.

Solana has also been criticized for a perceived lack of decentralization, a factor which is vitally important in the crypto world. One reason for this is the networks initial token allocation when, according to data from research platform Messari, almost 50% percent of the blockchains native token, SOL, went to project insiders, with very little allocated to a public presale. Since staked SOL enables the operation of network validators, we can infer that a small number of holders exercise outsized control over the validation of transactions.

Criticism of Solana as a VC-centered project became even more of an issue towards the end of 2022 when FTX collapsed. The wreckage around this catastrophe was of particular relevance to Solana due to the networks links with Sam Bankman-Fried. The disgraced CEO of FTX had invested $314.2 million in Solana Labs, through the FTX-linked Alameda Research, and had lauded Solana in interviews, creating a perception, once the post-downfall reality about FTX had come to public light, of a disreputable connection.

Solana was certainly looking worse for wear towards the end of last year, but 2023 has, lately, seen hints that a comeback may be in the works. Notably, there has been recent news about the Worldline payment services provider entering into a partnership with Solana.

This integration means web3 projects operating on Solana will gain access to the Payment Orchestration platform run by Worldline, which removes the need for projects to create multiple payment integrations since Worldlines platform directly connects with over 300 payment providers and methods, including fiat on/off ramps.

This development follows Worldline announced plans to provide services within the Decentraland metaverse project, indicating that web3 and crypto-oriented development are on its radar as areas to expand into.

There has also been growing anticipation about the in-development Solana phone, called the Solana Saga. This product was announced back in the summer of 2022 and has been expected to ship in early 2023. Its an Android device augmented for web3 applications and payments, and, if it arrives soon, will come at a time when crypto urgently needs to go mobile in order to demonstrate that practical integration and daily use cases are a reality.

Additionally, there is speculation about Render Network migrating to Solana. Render is specialized in decentralized hardware solutions (specifically, GPU rendering), and in a proposal about the potential move, its Founder, Jules Urbach, stated that: Solana has the right mix of speed without compromising security (vs side-chain approaches). No decision has yet been made, and there is a 21 day community feedback period, which began on March 20th.

The Foundation released a primer on RNP-002 today.

The post details RNP-002: Layer 1 Network Expansion.

In accordance with RNP-000 there is up to a 21 day community feedback period that begins today! We would love your feedback. https://t.co/90j0gmhCOw

As with much of web3 and crypto, Solanas future is unclear, but, while issues around network reliability are ongoing, and there may continue to be criticism about a perceived lack of decentralization, it appears that there are some potentially constructive developments lining up.

There was a period, back in the euphoria of cryptos 2021 bull market period, when Solana was the blockchain name of the moment, spoken about as the next big thing, and with, according to its advocates, the potential even to outdo Ethereum in the race to become the foundational network of choice for web3 developers.

There were multiple reasons for this optimism, not least the fact that it had backing from VCs keen to promote its virtues. And, on balance, it should be noted that Solana does have significant characteristics in its favor. Most advantageously, its fast and cheap, two critical factors in attracting developers, who should in turn attract further users.

Remember that this was prior to the Ethereum Merge, a time when there were significant doubts as to whether Ethereum would ever make its long-promised transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Constant delays in the execution of Ethereums protocol change were beginning to foster a sense that scaling would, in turn, be delayed, and that sky-high fees and network congestion would never be resolved.

Additionally, Ethereum Layer 2s were not as prominent as they are now, and, although it was known that The Merge would not solve scaling issues on its own (such issues still exist), execution would at least indicate that development was proceeding in the right direction.

Keep Reading

Against this backdrop, alternative Layer 1 blockchains, including not only Solana, but also Cardano, Avalanche and others, provided a compelling alternative. From here, Solana picked up in activity, thanks to its simplicity (no friction-adding Layer 2s required) and, at a time when blockchain-based digital art was making headlines for some huge sales, its NFTs. In fact, Solana would quickly become the second most-well known network for NFTs (after Ethereum) and evolved into an active community of NFT creators, traders and collectors, who were optimistic about the future of the network.

Amidst the bullishness around Solana, the blockchain also ran into some problems, which would, over time, become increasingly conspicuous.

A recurring fault was the issue of network outages when the entire blockchain would effectively stop working. The most recent of these occurred last month and lasted for almost twenty hours, and after that came a total of fourteen outages throughout 2022. The first breakdown in Solanas history was in December 2020, the same year as its launch, and when the blockchain was still serving only a relatively small number of users.

Solana has also been criticized for a perceived lack of decentralization, a factor which is vitally important in the crypto world. One reason for this is the networks initial token allocation when, according to data from research platform Messari, almost 50% percent of the blockchains native token, SOL, went to project insiders, with very little allocated to a public presale. Since staked SOL enables the operation of network validators, we can infer that a small number of holders exercise outsized control over the validation of transactions.

Criticism of Solana as a VC-centered project became even more of an issue towards the end of 2022 when FTX collapsed. The wreckage around this catastrophe was of particular relevance to Solana due to the networks links with Sam Bankman-Fried. The disgraced CEO of FTX had invested $314.2 million in Solana Labs, through the FTX-linked Alameda Research, and had lauded Solana in interviews, creating a perception, once the post-downfall reality about FTX had come to public light, of a disreputable connection.

Solana was certainly looking worse for wear towards the end of last year, but 2023 has, lately, seen hints that a comeback may be in the works. Notably, there has been recent news about the Worldline payment services provider entering into a partnership with Solana.

This integration means web3 projects operating on Solana will gain access to the Payment Orchestration platform run by Worldline, which removes the need for projects to create multiple payment integrations since Worldlines platform directly connects with over 300 payment providers and methods, including fiat on/off ramps.

This development follows Worldline announced plans to provide services within the Decentraland metaverse project, indicating that web3 and crypto-oriented development are on its radar as areas to expand into.

There has also been growing anticipation about the in-development Solana phone, called the Solana Saga. This product was announced back in the summer of 2022 and has been expected to ship in early 2023. Its an Android device augmented for web3 applications and payments, and, if it arrives soon, will come at a time when crypto urgently needs to go mobile in order to demonstrate that practical integration and daily use cases are a reality.

Additionally, there is speculation about Render Network migrating to Solana. Render is specialized in decentralized hardware solutions (specifically, GPU rendering), and in a proposal about the potential move, its Founder, Jules Urbach, stated that: Solana has the right mix of speed without compromising security (vs side-chain approaches). No decision has yet been made, and there is a 21 day community feedback period, which began on March 20th.

The Foundation released a primer on RNP-002 today.

The post details RNP-002: Layer 1 Network Expansion.

In accordance with RNP-000 there is up to a 21 day community feedback period that begins today! We would love your feedback. https://t.co/90j0gmhCOw

As with much of web3 and crypto, Solanas future is unclear, but, while issues around network reliability are ongoing, and there may continue to be criticism about a perceived lack of decentralization, it appears that there are some potentially constructive developments lining up.

See original here:

Is There a Sunny Outlook for Solana? - Finance Magnates

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for consensus with Saudi Arabia over the presidential choice, as he reiterated that the problem is Maronite in the presidential file.

In an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper, Berri said that he is awaiting the outcome of the upcoming Christian gathering in Bkirki, when asked about who can break the presidential deadlock.

When we said yesterday that the problem is Maronite, they got dismayed. And if we say it today, they will also get dismayed, but this is the main problem, the Speaker added.

When I say that the problem is inter-Maronite, they accuse me of launching unjust accusations. Any observer can draw one conclusion: they went federalism or confederalism under the label of financial decentralization, which we reject because it was not mentioned in the Taif Accord, Berri said, in an interview with al-Liwaa newspaper.

We support broad administrative decentralization, because it involves facilitating peoples affairs and preserves the central state, the Speaker added.

Whats notable in this regard is the Free Patriotic Movements melting in the stances of the Lebanese Forces to the extent of not finding any differentiation between them, despite Dr. (Samir) Geageas rejection of meeting MP (Jebran) Bassil, Berri went on to say.

Despite competition inside the same community, Geagea has succeeded in leading the Maronite scene, and whenever he takes a stance Bassil would endorse it and try to go further, the Speaker added.

As for his recent meeting with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari, Berri said the atmosphere was positive.

We did not agree, but we did not disagree, and accordingly consensus with the kingdom over the presidential choice is necessary, Berri added.

Here is the original post:

Berri urges 'consensus with KSA', reiterates that 'the problem is ... - Naharnet

GRAND RAPIDS A startup company backed by West Michigan investors wants to reduce costs at hospitals and outpatient surgical centers by centralizing and managing their sterile processing for surgical instruments.

Sterile Processing Express, or SPDx, opens its first sterile processing center next month in Phoenix, Ariz. The Grand Rapids-based company has been scouting for locations in Dallas, Texas, and Orlando, Fla. for the next two centers with hopes to begin construction in each market in the latter half of 2023.

SPDx aims to have six sterile processing facilities within four years and then expand it from there, CEO Julius Heil told MiBiz.

We envision a model where we have as many as 30 of these around the country in major metropolitan areas to support both the hospitals and the ASCs, Heil said.

Heil joined SPDx earlier this year after serving as president and CEO of national group purchasing organization Intalere Inc. that Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare sold to supply chain management company Vizient Inc. two years ago. Heil continued with Vizient for a transition period.

Focused primarily on orthopedics, SPDx wants to handle the sterilization process for hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and instrument manufacturers and manage their inventory. In time, SPDx also could manage sterile processing departments inside hospitals as a third-party vendor and is considering a future move into sterilizing surgical instruments for dental and veterinary practices, Heil said.

The companys value proposition is predicated on driving greater efficiency and the improving cost structure for clients through centralized sterile processing centers.

Health care is spiraling out of control from a cost perspective and were all customers, Heil said. Theres a huge shift in where the customers want to get health services performed, have access and make sure that theyre safe.

SPDx plans to pursue a $15 million Series A capital round later this year to support its expansion, Heil said. The company has garnered early interest from hospitals, surgeons who have ownership interests in ASCs, and venture capital firms and other health care industry investors, Heil said.

Grand Rapids-based Genesis Innovation Group LLC formed SPDx to play into a massive shift occurring in health care where surgical procedures are increasingly moving from hospitals to lower-cost outpatient ambulatory surgical centers, Heil said. The company will sterilize and store surgical instruments for clients and deliver them almost instantaneously when needed, whether thats the surgical center up the road or the hospital down the street, he said.

The idea for SPDx came from a limited partner at Grand Rapids-based Cultivate(MD) who has significant commercial experience in orthopedics and brought the concept to our attention, said Matt Ahearn, a director at Genesis Innovation Group.

Venture capital firm Cultivate(MD) is part of Genesis Innovation Group and invests in medical technologies.

The Cultivate(MD) limited partner noted an increasing trend within his customer base of knee and hip replacement surgeries being performed in an outpatient setting, Ahearn wrote in an email to MiBiz. He also noted that the surgeons wanted to do more knee and hip replacements in an outpatient setting, but that the surgery centers didnt have the capacity to clean and sterilize the instruments required for the surgeries

Genesis Innovation Groups due diligence validated the concept with hundreds of orthopedic surgeons and ASC owners and development groups, Ahearn said. The groups due diligence also confirmed that the market demand for services in Phoenix was incredibly high, he said.

SPDx launched in 2021 with capital from Cultivate(MD) and The 4100 Group Inc., the Lansing-based investment arm of dental insurer Delta Dental of Michigan and its Ohio counterpart.

Attracted by the operating efficiencies that SPDx can generate and the growing market for ASCs around the nation, The 4100 Group invested $2 million in SPDx, said Chief Investment Officer Scott Lancaster.

Lancaster learned about SPDx last year when he was introduced to Ahearn through a professional connection. After looking into the company, The 4100 Group concluded this was intriguing enough that we decided to participate, Lancaster said.

Partners at Genesis Innovation Group found a pretty unique segment of opportunity in SPDx with the potential to drive cost and capacity efficiencies for hospitals and ASCs that can outsource an operation that typically has been a cost center, he said.

A lot of whats going on in health care is decentralization of services away from the highest expense centers, which are typically hospitals, Lancaster said. This is a complementary service that fits nicely into that whole decentralization model.

Continued here:

Venture capital-backed SPDx eyes nationwide network of med ... - MiBiz: West Michigan Business News

The Alpha:

Web3 gaming remains one of the most prospective NFT use cases in existence. With the global gaming market size reaching over $200 billion in 2022, the industry is ripe with potential. And it seems that Nexon is hoping to capitalize on some of that potential with one of its most beloved titles.

MapleStory is a cherished and storied name in the gaming community. One of Nexons primary IP offerings, the game has generated over $4 billion in revenue and secured 180 million registered players, according to a recent earnings report.

The blockchain-based iteration, MapleStory Universe, will be built on Polygon Supernets, a blockchain development platform aimed at helping Web3 developers create their own blockchain protocols. Polygon Supernets perform a similar function to that of Avalanche Subnets, to which theyre often compared. These networks allow developers to build and utilize a blockchain sub-network for individual projects, protecting them from sluggish performance issues on the main networks theyre a part of.

Polygon Labs, which is a development and growth team for the Polygon protocol, is set to provide technical and business support for the MapleStory Universe.

We are looking forward to expanding the NFT ecosystem envisioned by MapleStory Universe by building on Polygon, the top protocol for web3 gaming. It is the perfect choice to power the ecosystem, MapleStory Universe group leader Sun-young Hwang said in the press release. We will work closely with the team at Polygon Labs to develop and market the game.

In an article explaining why Nexon decided to turn to blockchain technology, the company noted that its goal is to create an NFT-centered ecosystem that allows players to have a full view of the decision-making, participate in IP development, and have actual ownership of their assets.

While there are many benefits of blockchain technology, Nexon has focused on three in particular: (1) Transparency, with all information recorded on-chain for anyone to see. (2) An open ecosystem, where anyone can contribute to the project and earn rewards for their contributions. (3) Extended utility, through the free movement of in-game assets, they wrote.

To this end, the team noted that users will have a clearer view of the decisions and changes that are made, as the developers design and decision-making processes will now be fully visible on-chain. And since the entire process is recorded on-chain, it will be more difficult for developers to change the rules on a whim, as they are fully visible to all users. The transparent governance of the blockchain and the decentralization of power that it provides makes developers design and decision-making processes fully visible and trustworthy. In this way, users can immerse themselves more easily in the virtual world, the team explained.

Whats more, Nexon will no longer be acting as an administrator with complete control of the server. Instead, it will be a developer participating in an open ecosystem. As a result, other contributors will be on more equal footing, and it will be easier to identify these other contributors. The company explains that this allows for more proactive contributions and ensures that contributors are fairly rewarded for their work.

This increase in transparency and decentralization certainly sounds like a good thing. But unfortunately, would-be players will have to wait a bit to see exactly how this all plays out, as the game currently has no release date.

See the article here:

MapleStory's Integrating NFTs: Here's What Players Should Expect - nft now